Capitalism V. Socialism

“My friends, things cannot go well in England, nor ever, until everything shall be held in common, when there shall be neither vassal nor lord and all distinctions levelled, when lords shall be no more masters than ourselves.” John Ball, 1381

The Socialist Party sees itself as building a better world for all. In place of a world driven by competition and conflict, there is the prospect of a united humanity.  Instead of being driven by the economic laws of an exploitative system there lies the potential for a society that would work democratically in the interests of all people. This is the prospect of a new society based on common ownership, democratic control and production solely for needs

Capitalism is not essentially a system of production but a system of capital accumulation. Every capitalist hope is production, profit, capital accumulation, but because all these hinges on market capacity, which is limited, a good deal of the time it is no profit, no capital accumulation, no production; and this is an obvious fetter on the development of the productive forces. Another factor which prevents the full use of the world as a single productive unit results from national economic divisions. Each national capitalist class has to attempt to balance its books as a national enterprise, so the pattern of trade, imports, exports and therefore the order of world production is constrained by the problem that governments face about the balance of payments. With socialism, humanity will enjoy unlimited options about what it might choose to do. At any point in history, the options open to society are given by the actual circumstances of development, and this social framework of options will also exist with socialism. However socialism, by sweeping aside the economic shackles of capitalism, will widen the possibilities of social action with the objective of satisfying human need. It is also self-evident that since we now suffer a shortage of wealth in relation to human need, production for use will be required by necessity to increase production as quickly as possible. The first task of socialism will be to solve the great social problems of capitalist society. This will be co-operation to produce more food, to provide housing, sanitation and clean water for the hundreds of millions who endure sub-standard conditions or who live in squalor; to provide health services; to construct a safe world energy system, to stop the despoliation of the planet and the pollution of its atmosphere, seas, forests and lands; to provide for education, enjoyment and world contact. These are the great projects for which world socialism would release the immense resources of useful labour that are now exploited, misused or wasted by the insanities of the profit system.

It has been suggested that a business can be run in a “socialistic” way, as for example with workers co-operatives. Certainly, a unit may be organised along more egalitarian lines but this cannot escape the economic pressures that determine whether or not it can survive. whatever way they are structured, authoritarian or democratic, and in whichever scale they may operate, as a part of social production they are a link in the economic circuits of capitalism and can only continue to operate within the pattern of buying, selling and profitability. The irresistible mechanisms which only allow production units to operate on a capitalist basis rule out any possibility of combining the productive relations of capitalism and socialism. It is impossible to combine the class ownership of the means of production with common ownership by the whole community: it is impossible to combine a worldwide division of wage labour with the work of free men and women co-operating without wages in their mutual interests: it is impossible to combine the production of goods for sale on the markets with the free distribution of goods solely for needs. It is impossible to combine profit and the accumulation of capital as the motive of production with the democratic choices of communities about how to deploy their resources. All these things which clearly distinguish capitalism and socialism are mutually exclusive. The commodity, the article for sale, is invested with all the anti-social features of the class society that has created it. We can only gain access to it by paying money; it serves our need only on condition that it first serves the profits of those who market it; it has been produced by wage workers whose economic function has been to generate more wealth for the company which exploits them. 

Contrast this with a simple object of use which could be produced by free people in democratically run communities. Such an article of use would express all the life-enhancing qualities of work carried out voluntarily by people co-operating in each other’s interests. It would not carry a price tag, it would not be sold, it would be freely available for consumption. By co-operation, we do not mean relationships in which people sacrifice their self-interest for the good of others. Co-operation is in the interests of both the individual and the community and is the natural expression of our social being. It is through co-operation that we best express and develop our individuality.  Across the entire world, the vast majority of people have a great need to live by the creative values of social co-operation, to share in the work of running their communities and providing for each other.

 Capitalism and socialism are fundamentally different systems that cannot operate together. A society to be run democratically in the interests of all its members can only be established by conscious, democratic methods. For modern socialists, the key to the question of the change from capitalism to socialism lies in the work of building the socialist movement to the point where there exists a majority of socialists. With this level of understanding and commitment, there would be no difficulty in enacting the common ownership of all land and means of production and distribution. On this basis communities would them commence the work of co-operating to organise the new society. This policy is the only practical way to establish socialism and it makes redundant the whole question of how a so-called “working class government” could convert capitalism into socialism over time through a programme of nationalisation.