The Socialist Party attitude to Marx is that he was a pioneer socialist, who placed socialist theory onto a scientific footing. We accept his labour theory of value, his materialist conception of history, and his view that socialism must be the outcome of the political struggle of the working class to free itself from capitalist exploitation so call us "Marxists" (despite the shortcomings of this term) but we do not regard Marx as some infallible source of wisdom who never made a mistake.
We are not committed to applying socialist principles in precisely the same way as Marx did a hundred years ago. This is because conditions have changed considerably. When Marx in his day was politically active, the workers were only just beginning to organise politically and industrially. He considered it his task to encourage this, even if the organisations the workers first formed were not explicitly socialist in character. He expected, somewhat over-optimistically as it has unfortunately turned out, that the workers would soon move on to become conscious socialists. In Marx's time, the world political scene too was different. In the capitalist European countries where the bourgeois revolution against the landed nobility had taken place reactionary feudal powers, especially Tsarist Russia threatened. Opposition to Tsarist Russia became something of an obsession with Marx and led him to take up positions, such as supporting the British-French-Turkish side in the Crimean War, and Poland's independence which we have no hesitation in saying was wrong. What Marx favoured was the further development of capitalism since he knew that this would ultimately remove the threat the reactionary feudal powers posed. Developments since Marx have made his tactics (but not his principles) outdated. developments have also made it possible to establish a society of abundance, with from each according to his ability to each according to his needs, now without any transition period while "the forces of production are raised". Production has already been raised immensely since Marx who lived in an era of the horse and carriage and steam-power. The material conditions for socialism have now long been in existence. All that is needed is for the majority of the working class to realise their common interest in abolishing capitalism. This great and final act as members of the working class will free them from the chains of the wage-labour and capital relationship which now holds them in its grip. Then they will emerge as men and women in a class-free society. The rat-race, the poverty and all the other evils which arise from property society would then have gone from the scene of a truly human society. Men, women and children would then be free to develop their potential and their relations with each other as human beings.
the Socialist Party has been saying for a long time that sufficient for all could be produced but isn’t being produced. The fertile fields and rich mineral deposits are there in abundance, so are the highly developed and productive machines, the railways, roads, ships and aeroplanes, and everything else needed for production. So are the human beings who could do the work needed to put everyone far beyond the fear of poverty and deprivation. The Socialist Party is well aware that enough is not being produced at present, and this in spite of the curious thing that there are numerous instances of production being deliberately restricted and goods destroyed. It is because the people who want these things have not money enough to buy them, and the people who have money do not want to buy any more of them. So destruction and restriction go on in spite of the well-established fact that if the hundreds of millions of poor people in the world were suddenly told that they could satisfy their needs free of charge there would be an immediate and immense shortage of the necessities of life. End capitalism and have the means of production owned by the whole community, then goods will be produced for use alone, and the supply of them will not be hindered by artificial barriers of profit and private interest.
Free distribution of wealth is now possible because modern industry and agriculture can turn out an abundance of the things people need. A world of plenty is now possible. There is no need for any man, woman or child in any part of the world to go hungry, be badly clothed or live in slums. The technical problem of producing plenty for all has been solved for a long time. The problem now is that the present social system, capitalism, which exists all over the world places a fetter on production because it operates, and must operate, according to the rule of “no profit, no production.” What the world suffers from today is not overpopulation, but the chronic underproduction that is built into capitalism. Not only does world capitalism hold back production, but it also misuses and wastes the resources of the world. Think of the waste involved in training and equipping armed forces and of the destruction of wars. Think of the waste of commerce and finance — of banks, insurance companies, salesmen, ticket collectors, accountants, economists, cashiers. Indeed, it is probably true to say that only a minority of the world’s population is actually engaged in producing useful things. Once you take account of this artificial scarcity and organised waste of capitalism, you realise that socialism (where people will cooperate freely to produce an abundance of wealth from which they can take freely according to their needs) is not only possible but is also the only solution to humanity’s current problems.
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