Those of us who believe in socialism must get revolution back on the world agenda. The class struggle has to be resolved by the overthrow of the global class of capitalists by the global working class, to bring about a society where each person contributes to the commonwealth according to his or her ability, and takes from it according to his or her self-determined needs. Our aim is to help create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society based on common ownership and democratic control.
Socialism will be a world without classes, without nations, and without money. It will be without classes because the proletariat cannot free itself by becoming a new exploiting class: the reappearance of an exploiting class after the revolution would, in reality, mean the defeat of the revolution and the survival of exploitation. It will be without nations because the productive process has already gone well beyond the framework of the nation, and in doing so has rendered the nation obsolete as an organisational framework for human society. The socialist revolution will put an end to the division of humanity into nations. It will be without money because the notion of exchange will no longer have any meaning in socialism, where abundance will allow the satisfaction of the needs of every member of society. Buying and selling and therefore the exchange economy will disappear.
The Socialist Party doesn't promote the abolition of money but rather the establishment of socialism in a move to a totally differently structured system/world society which will have overcome the need for money. Simply calling for the abolition of money is a bit like placing the cart before the horse. The many social problems we suffer are the result of private ownership of the means of production and production for profit. Money is the RESULT of the exchange economy and likewise, the rendering obsolete of money will be the RESULT of common ownership and production for use. The solution is not to 'remove money from the system' but to transform the basis of the system itself, one of the effects of which will be the end of exchange value and money.
The working class gives their votes for the continuance of capitalism. They have yet to learn where their class interests really lie, and the coming years will show once again that capitalism offers no way out, not even any worthwhile alleviation, no matter what the complexion of the government by which it is administered. The Socialist Party does not waste its time and space on issues such as humanising the sweat-shops, that is to say, whether such sweat-shops shall be bigger or better, whether there shall be central heating or air-conditioning or not. Instead, we explain at length the REAL causes of their poverty, squalor, and war. We take great pains to explain why they must continue to live for the best part of their lives in slum housing or shoebox-sized estates. We don’t just leave it at that. We always tell them that the remedy for those horrors lies entirely in their own hands. In short, they will have to do some hard thinking. They will have to acquire that revolutionary knowledge and understanding to organise politically and consciously to obtain control of that piece of machinery known as the Powers of the State. They will have to use it for their own advantage, namely, to dispossess the ruling class of their ownership of the whole earth and the fullness thereof. That includes the factories, railways, airways, etc. They, the working class of the world, will have the task of emancipating the whole of society themselves. No leaders can do it for them, and certainly no Messiah or Saviour. No other political party can tell that. Indeed they dare not tell them that.
If we want a problem to be solved, we must not leave it to leaders to put things right. The workers of the world are the most powerful class. The time is long overdue for this class to democratically take control of the world's resources, and to use them for everyone's benefit.
When the working class arrives at that stage of revolutionary knowledge and understanding, cries will be heard from many lands. “What are we waiting for? ” They won’t wait very long. Startling things will happen. They will take possession of all the wheat-fields, the flour mills and the bakeries of the world. What will be done with that nutritious bread and tasty cakes that will be produced without money or price? Even children will reply, “You will eat them, of course.”
The working class will not be content with this alone.
They will take possession of all the textile machines and all the luxuriant cloth and produce beautiful clothing. What will be done with those beautiful clothes? Again even children will reply, “You will wear them, of course.” This will be done without money or price.
Still the working class won’t be content.
They will take possession of the whole planet and the wealth thereof. They will take possession of all the stone, clay, concrete and the steel. They will then produce sturdy spacious houses. Again without money or price. What will be done with those houses? Again children will reply, “You will go and live in them.” They will do so without let or hindrance. There will be nobody to stop them now. In a very short time, it will be obvious to everybody there won’t be required such things as rent books, estate agents, no mortgage or building society.
Then as private property has been abolished, and the causes of war removed, there won’t be required such institutions as armed forces, etc. There won’t be necessary such things as Secret Police, such as F.B.l or M.I.5, KGB or the Gestapo. There won’t be needed such people as a Prime Minister or any other Cabinet Minister. There won’t be any JobCentres or a Stock Exchange or banks of any description, and many other institutions of a slave order of society.
Finally, when the working class almost throughout the world proceed to act on those lines, they will then cease to be a working class. At the same time, there will cease to be what is known as a ruling, privileged class. It will then be the end of what is known to-day as the capitalist society. A new social order will be born, and it will operate throughout the whole world. It will be known as socialism. The task of spreading this knowledge is left to the Socialist Party. With our scant means, and all the wide channels of propaganda closed against us, it is indeed a heavy task. There is only one ally for opening the workers’ eyes and driving home the lesson that nothing but a fundamental change as proposed by socialists, can help. That ally is the constant deterioration of conditions and the glaring failure and futility of all efforts and measures to cope with it. With all the long and painful experience before them, the workers should certainly no longer be as ready as they have been in the past, to swallow the rubbish that capitalism is the only possible system and that common ownership and democratic control of the means of life by society as a whole is supposed to be a Utopia. There is the task, a hard task admittedly, but well worth doing. Life to the socialist means unremitting struggle in the cause of socialism, perseverance in spite of all discouragement, the marching onward in the face of all doubts and difficulties. Even if we of this generation do not see and taste the fruits of our sowing, yet even then we shall have our reward—in the knowledge that we have fought on the side of energy against apathy, of youth against the decrepit, of life itself against death. The Socialist Party pursues its course as steadily and uncompromisingly as ever. The first and only Socialist party established in these isles, it has consistently held aloft the banner of socialism. It throws a welcome light on the world of political and economic darkness and illuminates with an undeniably working-class view-point.
No comments:
Post a Comment