"Daddy, what did you do in the class war?"

The technical basis of modern society is large-scale, mass-producing industry which can only be operated by co-operative labour. By its nature, it draws into the work of producing things millions of people the world over. These millions work not on their own; they work together. No person makes anything by him or herself; he or she only plays a part in the co-operative labour through which things are today produced. Farms, factories, mines, mills and docks are only geographically separate. Technically they depend on each other as links in a chain. They are only parts of a world-wide productive system. In other words, the world is one productive unit.

Common sense would suggest that, to take full advantage of this world-wide productive system, it should be owned and controlled as a unit. That it should belong in common to all mankind and be controlled by them for their own benefit. But of course, this is not so. The means and instruments for producing wealth are not owned in common by us all. They are the property of a few. Nor are they used to make what we need. They are used to make things to be sold. Instead of talking about social transformation our critics say the Socialists Party should be advocating more modest changes such as establishing workers' co-operatives and better welfare provision.

It is self-evident that to maintain an effective modern society, one in which we continue to eat, have clothes to wear, somewhere fit to live and so on that a certain amount of work is necessary. Jobs need doing. We have never heard of a house that built itself or of a cabbage that was self-planting, self-cultivating and self-harvesting that somehow manages to get itself to a greengrocer's shelf. Society has evolved to a point where we can produce an abundance of what we need. Technology gives us the possibility of having less work and more possible leisure. But only if we concentrate on what needs doing and discard that which simply preserves and maintains the status quo. John Lennon summed it up beautifully in his song Imagine. Humanity possesses not only the imagination but also the physical ability to make such a society possible. A society that only produces goods and services if they can be sold for a profit is an anachronism for it creates injustice and suffering on a scale that beggars belief. Wages are not a reward for a job well done, nor are they a share of the wealth a worker has produced, nor a cut out of his employer’s profits. They are the price of a person’s working ability; at any one particular time, the size of the wage represents what can be got for that ability on the labour market.

Many people mistakenly believe that money has always existed and that it therefore always will. The Socialist Party explains why money is out of date. Capitalism as a market system means that the normal method of getting what you need is to pay for it. The normal way for members of the capitalist class to get money is to invest their capital to produce rent, interest, dividends or profit. The usual way for workers to get money is to sell their labour power for wages. Imagine that all the things you need are owned and held in common. There is no need to buy food from anyone—it is common property. There are no rent or mortgages to pay because land and buildings belong to all of us. There is no need to buy anything from any other person because society has done away with the absurd division between the owning minority (the capitalists) and the non-owning majority (the workers). In a socialist world monetary calculation won't be necessary. The alternative to monetary calculation based on exchange-value is calculation based on use values. Decisions apart from purely personal ones of preference or interest will be made after weighing the real advantages and disadvantages and real costs of alternatives in particular circumstances. The ending of the money system will mean at the same time the ending of war, economic crises, unemployment, poverty and persecution—all of which are consequences of that system.

The revolutionary change that is needed is not possible unless a majority of people understand and want it. We do not imagine all humankind's problems can be solved at a stroke. Reforms of the present system fail because the problems multiply and recur. It will take time to eliminate hunger, malnutrition, disease and ignorance from the world. But the enormous liberation of mental and physical energies from the shackles of the money system will ensure that real human progress is made.


 Fellow-worker—the future is yours to shape. Are you going to go on in the same old way as your fathers did, or are you going to make an effort to understand the world in which you live? Until you do, you are doomed. You are going to feel the cold, clammy hand of poverty. It is quite simple to understand the fundamentals of Socialism. One doesn’t require an awful lot of study to realise there are two classes in society. You, fellow-worker, belong to the working class, the useful section of society— makes all the wealth. You build the palaces, the mansions.  But you have nothing to sell but your labour-power, which you try to sell to the highest bidder, the amount received in return is only enough to replace your depleted energy and permit you to reproduce the species, so that there may be another slave to replace you when you are thrown on the scrap-heap, no longer fit to be a beast of burden, any more.
The other class—only a small fraction of the population—own and control all the means of living. Only when this tiny section of employers and owners can find a market for their goods is the machinery of production set in motion. Only when this section can find a market for their goods do the working class find employment. When goods are piled high and no market is to be found, the workers are unemployed and go hungry. Goods are produced for profit, not for use.
  Fellow-worker, you have a duty to your children. Your job is to seek knowledge and organise for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. In years to come, when your children ask you, "What did you do the class war. Daddy?” don’t let it be said you hung your head in shame and said, "Nothing” Rather let it be said. "I fought along with my comrades to establish socialism.” The world can be yours to share.