As a system of society which predominates throughout the world, capitalism is based on the extraction of surplus value through the wages system. Even if there has been some separation of ownership and control in capitalist enterprises, this does not affect the inherent class antagonism between those who own and those who produce. Ultimately, those who benefit are still those who don't need to work because they enjoy an unearned income derived from the exploitation of those who do.
There are three things that you must know before you can become class-conscious. First, you must know what constitutes a class; secondly, you must know to which class you belong, and thirdly, you must know what are your class interests. Having acquired that amount of knowledge you can claim to be a fully fledged class-conscious member of society A Socialist Party member is simply the worker who has become class-conscious, and who organises with his or her fellow-workers who are like-minded. Elements of class-consciousness are present in the minds of large numbers of workers who although still unclear. There are vague sentiments of solidarity with the “poor" against the "rich," and feelings of injustice. Labour "leaders" try to capture and direct this discontent to their own ends. The function of the class-conscious Socialist Party member is to fertilise the discontent of fellow workers with knowledge, which alone has the power to make the capitalist class tremble.
Workers still tend to differentiate themselves by occupation, by slight differences in dress, or accent or education, unable to recognise themselves sharing that the working-class identity because they have not thoroughly grasped the common economic bondage of all who have to sell their energies for bread, that unemployed labourer, the blue-collared skilled worker or white-collared office worker are alike under the necessity to beg for a job from a master. People talk about lower classes, upper classes and middle classes. They even talk about upper middle and lower middle classes and of the working classes. These social divisions are income groups, not classes. A person’s class is not determined by the amount of money that he can get hold of, but by the manner in which he gets it. There is no limit to the number of groups that can be included in these income classifications. Every income variation of a few coppers could qualify for a new group, which, of course, accounts for such foolish phrases as. “ the working classes,” as though there are a number of them.
The employer is anxious to impress upon his staff that they have a common interest in the success of the business and the running of the nation. This “community of interests" lasts only so long as the workers are content to accept the economic status of wage-slaves, and to maintain the master class in their privileged position as owners of the means of living. It's the natural conviction of a dominant ruling class that existing conditions are the best in contrast with the discontent of a subject class. Workers are forced to question the benevolence of the existing order, and the need for its continuance, by the pressure of unrelieved want and anxiety which the defenders of capitalism can neither remedy nor explain.
Capitalists are wealthy and workers are poor, but wealth, or lack of it, does not make capitalist and worker. It is the source of their wealth or the cause of their poverty that places men in one or other of these social classes. A worker has nothing else but his or her ability to work and they sell that in order to get the necessities of life. They constitute a class—the working class.
The workers are not yet organised on the basis of their class; they have a very imperfect knowledge of their position, and their political activity is restricted to supporting different groups of leaders. The steady deterioration of their conditions of life is ample evidence of the futility of this policy, and clear proof of the need for socialist knowledge, organisation and action. The Socialist Party exists for the purpose of replacing that weakness with strength; it seeks to substitute knowledge for ignorance, organisation for chaos, a steady class advance for a sectional rout.
The profit-grinding system is maintained by competition, or veiled war, not only between the conflicting classes, but also within the classes themselves: there is always war among the workers for bare subsistence, and among their masters, the employers and middle-men, for the share of the profit wrung out of the workers; lastly, there is competition always, and sometimes open war, among the nations of the civilised world for their share of the world-market. For now, indeed, all the rivalries of nations have been reduced to this one - a degraded struggle for their share of the spoils of barbarous countries to be used at home for the purpose of increasing the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor.
So long as the wages and profits system lasts no section of the workers can afford to abandon the strike, but it is equally true that the strike holds out no possibility of solving the problem of working-class servitude. So long as the workers are content to struggle for a subsistence wage only, that is the most they will obtain, with their security growing ever less. The Socialist Party summons them to struggle for possession of the means of life.
The Socialist Party seeks a change in the basis of Society - a change which would end the distinctions of classes and nationalities. In every capitalist country, there are organisations that call themselves Socialist and claim to stand for the interests of the working class, while their activity consists in misrepresenting Socialist teachings, distorting Marxism, and generally seeking to keep the workers’ attention focussed on any or everything but their real interest, the attainment of Socialism. The Labour Party in England is an example. The Socialist Party declares that the emancipation of the working class 'must be the work of the working class itself.'
Freed from the restrictions of profit-making, modern productive techniques could provide the abundance that would allow a socialist world community to introduce free access, according to need so that no man, woman or child anywhere on the planet need to go without adequate food, clothing, shelter, healthcare or education. What does it take to produce all of the things we need in order to live? Human labour applied to nature given raw materials. Money enters the equation only because the means to life are owned by a privileged minority - the capitalist class. Think of a different world. One in which the means of production, indeed all of the world's resources are owned in common, and democratically controlled, by all of its people. Where, therefore, goods and services are produced solely to be used and not for sale and profit: money no longer has any role to play. Where for example food is grown and processed simply because we need to eat, and everyone has free access according to need - so no one goes hungry! In this different world just imagine how human affairs will be organised and the possibilities for everyday life.
The Socialist Party is not suggesting that we should do away with money and revert to barter? Both money and barter are forms of exchange. Exchange is only possible when there is private property. In a society in which all wealth is owned in common, there will be no property to exchange and there will, therefore, be no need for money or barter. When you get dressed in the morning you do not sell your clothes to yourself, nor do you barter them for some other possession, for you cannot exchange that which is already yours. In socialist society, there will be free access to all social wealth because men and women will commonly own the means of production and distribution. As long as there is enough wealth to provide for everyone (and the potentiality already exists), people in socialist society will take freely to satisfy their self-determined needs. There will be no need to take more than you want because tomorrow you will be able to go back and take more. Socialism will not come into being without conscious socialists and such people will appreciate the importance of reasonable co-operation. If for example, there is a shortage of a particular resource in socialism, they will have to co-operatively and democratically ration that which is available. The so-called greedy person is an invention of capitalist anthropology: a worker is said to be greedy if he or she wants more than his or her wage packet can buy.
The world is abundant in resources, yet poverty is the lot of the majority. The buying and selling system, based on production for profit, is economically inefficient from the point of view of those who produce the wealth. Socialism means free access to all wealth and production solely for need. This will mean that in a socialist society bread will be produced simply so that people may eat it, and not for sale on the market with a view to profit. In a society which can land men on the moon and fire missiles across the face of the earth to within inches of a target, the technology certainly exists to do away with much of the unpleasant labour of society. Instead of research into more and more sophisticated killing machines socialism will devote resources to improving productive efficiency from the point of view of both the wealth producer and the wealth consumer. Work in socialism will be based on voluntary co-operation and not the coercion of the wages system. The division between work (enforced drudgery) and leisure (when your time is your own) will be ended by socialism.
To expect "fairness" from an inherently unequal economic system is a form of utopianism which has diverted the working class movement for far too long. Under capitalism, wealth ownership is concentrated into the hands of a small minority of the world's population. These are the people who have plenty of money. Most people can only obtain money by selling their mental and physical energies to an employer for a price called a wage or salary. You will never get rich by working for money. The only way for the working class to get rich is by getting rid of the money system.
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