Can Humanity Survive?

There is nothing to do with capitalism except to abolish it. The stupid callousness of capitalism and the futility of trying to reform it are brought home over an over again at every turn. That is capitalism, and while it endures all reform measures will be wrecked against the hard rocks of the capitalist basis of society. The chief defence of capitalism is the State, with its armed forces, controlled by the capitalist class, their hold on it being backed up by the concentrated activities of capitalist politicians, parties, Press, and propaganda instruments. So long as they retain the confidence of the mass of workers, capitalism is impregnable. What is the remedy? It will come through changing the face of the struggle. When the Socialist Party can force forward the issue socialism versus capitalism so that it becomes the issue at elections and between elections, the workers will be on the high road to greater unity than has ever been known before.  The Socialist Party perceives that the task before them is a huge one, but time and circumstances are on our side. Socialism cannot be brought into being by piecemeal methods any more than capitalism can be reformed out of its existence. Until Socialism is accomplished, all the half-loaves are capitalist bread, given by capitalists for capitalist purposes, to permit their dominance to persist. To the workers, the supreme task of their liberation from capitalist control will exist despite all the half-loaves of the social reformers.

It is an old story, told and re-told by Socialists, that rent, interest, and profit are but different names given to express the various modes of capital’s operations. To the working class, it is mainly a matter of academic interest only as to what becomes of the spoils of their exploitation; the important thing is the fact of exploitation.

For the benefit of those who have neither the time nor the inclination to refer to his larger and more technical analysis in “Capital," we shall draw their attention to his smaller work entitled “Value, Price and Profit.” Here we find the following statements set out to indicate to the workers that the holy trinity of capital may divide and sub-divide the swag stolen from the workers as they will, but the position is their business, not ours.

Says Marx: 

“Rent, Interest and Industrial profit are only different names for different parts of the surplus value of the commodity. . . For the labourer himself it is a matter of subordinate importance whether that surplus value, the result of his surplus labour, or unpaid labour, is altogether pocketed by the employing capitalist or whether the latter is obliged to pay portions of it under the name of rent and interest to third parties. Suppose the employing capitalist to use only his own capital and to be his own landlord, then the whole surplus value would go into his pocket."

So much, therefore, about our finance capitalists. Socialists want to remove these as part of the entire capitalist system, and nothing is to be gained by our merely concentrating our attention on one aspect of capitalism alone. Capitalism will continue whichever of the political parties comes to power. What we see today is a wholesale embrace of the reformist proposals, along with attempts to create whole new reformist institutions to replace the discredited ones yet this system is once again proving itself to be unreformable. Reformism is a proven failure and the Left’s rehashed reformism has even less viability. Its programmes are worse than illusory: it is dangerously misleading. They are cheerleading the few left-leaning reformist politicians who still remain, Corbyn and Sanders, who openly advocate class collaboration. Working class power is the essential condition for far-reaching social change. The Socialist Party is laying the base for a future mass socialist organisation capable of challenging and defeating capitalism.

The class struggle disappears with socialism. There being no class struggles, there is now no need for a State, and the State withers away. The army and navy are not necessary. Police disappear. The basis for crime is gone since labour is so productive that all the wants of life can easily be obtained. Such criminals as may remain are treated as sick individuals to be pitied, hospitalised and rehabilitated until they again can return to society. socialism there is laid the basis for a new type of family life, the ending of the misery and despotism that mark familial relations. A complete emancipation of women and children occurs with an entirely new upbringing for the younger generation. As in politics, in the home, government over persons is transformed into administration of things. In socialism, the policy will be “from each according to ability and to each according to needs.” Thus the weak and the vulnerable will be given more. The gap between theory and practice, between the unskilled labourer and the professional scientist, becomes entirely closed. Education will have enabled all to be scientists, at the same time encouraging scientists to use their hands in manual worker.  Elimination of all toil in work will enable the worker to become an artist, to fuse into one both work and recreation, and to combine the relationship with nature.

Capitalism has failed miserably to provide the basic necessities of life for hundreds of millions of workers around the world. We want a society whose workers run everything in the interests of the world's workers. We want a system that encourages every worker to become involved in running society; that trains everyone to act for the common good and does not indoctrinate people to "look out for number one."

Despite capitalist denials, socialism thrives today in the Socialist Party.