The wages system is capitalism

The alternative systems advocated by many who describe themselves as anti-capitalists all have the characteristics of capitalism and will, in consequence, be but a form of capitalism. To build a sound socialist movement, it is useless to rely on the support of people who do not understand socialism.

Wage-labour and capital can only exist together: the one is the complement of the other. If you wish to abolish profit-making—and capital is wealth used to make a profit by the exploitation of wage-labour—it can be done only by the abolition of capital and wage-labour. By this we are not suggesting that socialism will destroy factories, mines, machines, etc., any more than we are suggesting that socialism will destroy the workers. What we are saying is that socialism will strip the means of production of their capitalist function (i.e. the making of profit) and will put an end to the necessity of workers selling their labour-power for m wage. In other words, socialism will abolish the capitalist class and the working class when it abolishes capitalist production. Socialist production will be carried on by all capable members of society solely to satisfy the needs of society.

And to do that there will be no need for banks, money, prices, and wages. Capitalism needs those things because it is, par excellence, the system of commodity production. In other words, Capitalism is, above all others, the system which produces for exchange. But exchange presupposes private owners and because of exchange money arose. Socialism brings common ownership of the means of life, production solely for use. Hence there will be no exchange of goods and so no prices. Wages, too—the price of the workers’ commodity labour-power—will disappear. In place of all this, society will produce what is needed, will own what is produced and each member of society will have free access to the means of life. Workers who still believe that the reformists, no matter how radical they seem, can do better than the avowed supporters of capitalism at running their system should not be misled by that red herring, but should wake up to the fact that there is no humane version of capitalism. The workers of the world will not find any solutions by giving their allegiance to those who seek to mitigate the failures of capitalism rather than overthrow it at the roots.

To retain capitalism is a practicable policy, although an unsatisfactory one from a working-class standpoint. To abolish capitalism and establish socialism will be practicable as soon as the working class has been won over to socialism.  Many so-called anti-capitalists seek to justify their policies, which is that of trying to abolish the evils of capitalism while keeping the system itself. They have ridiculed the Socialist Party policy of working directly for socialism as utopian, as "impossiblism.” But events have proved that their way is the impossible one.

Our class needs a political party to spread the idea of social ownership, and to gain the support of the majority at the polls. When this is achieved, the workers will assume control of their workplaces, and manage them democratically. Real socialism is not state control from the top down. It's a state-free democracy from the bottom up. The Socialist Party will educate and rally the majority for a revolution at the ballot box, the people's mandate for economic democracy. Socialism means the end of the capitalist market, whose only goal is to realise the highest profit through the maximum exploitation of the working class. Labour power will no longer be a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace. Workers will no longer be exploited. Workers will collectively own and run the workplaces. Workers will

democratically control all of society. Production will be based on the needs and wants of all working people, taking into account environmental protection, conservation of resources and the needs of workers of other countries. Goods and services will be distributed on the basis of the number of hours an individual works for the number of hours it takes to produce the product desired. This way the worker receives back in goods and services what he or she gives in labour, after necessary and fair deductions to provide for the young, the retired, the disabled and others who at one time or another will not be working. Because we will be working and producing to meet our own needs and not for the profit of others, and because we will own and control the technology and use it to meet real human needs, we will be able to provide everyone a comfortable and secure livelihood working far less than we do now. The work-week will be reduced and leisure time increased for all workers.