Capitalism: Betraying our future

The present and future outlook of the working class is extremely gloomy. There is a hell on earth reserved for those with no money. These are the “socially excluded”. These dwell in the darkness of inescapable poverty, ever wrestling with the torment of survival in a world dominated by the fast buck. If you have no money to feed to the profit-hunger of the owning élite you must starve or eat rotten food; you must sleep on the pavement or in slums designed to accommodate the economically imprisoned; you must freeze when it gets cold and sweat in the urban heat; you must watch the ceaseless propaganda serenades of the ad-men who are not talking to those without money to buy, but merely teasing your expectations; you must eat the crap which is poisoned by its cheapness; you must learn to go without and watch your children go without. The deprivations of extreme poverty are still here. They are built into the very fabric of the profit system.

Capitalism we know only too well and have long endured. Socialism we could have and will have when a majority understands the need for it. But is there a half-way house, something that has ceased to be capitalism but is not socialism? The Socialist Party know that there can be no such thing, but many people have thought that possible and desirable and have sought various ways to keep capitalism but rid it of its chaotic features and subject it to planning and regulatory controls.  Contrary to the claims of politicians, governments cannot control the levels of production, employment, and consumption, These are the result of the blind workings of the profit-driven market system and go up and down according to whether the rate of profit is rising or falling. Governments can't make the economy work in accordance with their desires but have to adapt their policies to what the economy requires, and the profit system requires that priority is given to making profits over everything else and in particular overspending to meet the needs of the majority of the population. Which is why all governments end in tears. In short, the government does not control the economy, the economy controls the government. What is required is not a change of government but a change of economic system. A change of bums on the ministerial benches in the House of Commons is an utter irrelevancy for almost everybody.

The profit system can be abolished and replaced by one geared directly to meeting people’s needs instead of to making profits for a privileged few. But this will only come about if we make it come about. This is why those of us who want this change have organised ourselves into a Socialist Party, not with the purpose of rivalling the other parties in their bid to form the government—a government formed by us would also end in failure—but with the aim of publicising the fact that there is an alternative to the profit system: a socialist system of society based on common ownership, democratic control and production for use, not profit. Such a system can only come about when a majority of people want it and organise themselves to get it. So the sort of politics we are talking about is not that of trusting in professional politicians to do things for you but is a do-it-yourself politics, with people themselves organising at work and where they live to take control of their own lives by working to change the economic basis of society. Voting has a part to play in bringing about this change. Although governments don't control the economy they do control the forces of political repression so it would be stupid to leave the machinery of government in the hands of supporters of the privileged few who benefit from the profit system. At some stage, those who want socialism will have to mount an electoral challenge to the parties of the profit system and defeat them at the polls. This means that voting isn’t in itself useless. It doesn’t serve much use today when there’s no real choice but it can in the future. When there is a socialist majority it can be used to remove from power those who support class privilege and the profit motive, so opening the way for ordinary people to carry out by their own efforts the socialist transformation of society. The number of us who want socialism is relatively small at the moment but we are still strong enough to put up socialist candidates in a number of constituencies. These socialist candidates are not offered as leaders. They will make no promises to do things for people. They are merely names on the ballot paper to allow those who reject the profit system and want socialism to register the fact. In the extremely unlikely event of them being elected, they would just be the messengers of those who voted for them, delegates mandated to go to the House of Commons to use it as a megaphone to broadcast the case for socialism more widely.

 The word "democracy” is as hollow and meaningless to the exploited as the word “commonwealth". The Socialist Party held a vision of a real "commonwealth”. It means a global system of society where all wealth is held in common and is democratically controlled by all people. It is a society from which borders and frontiers, social classes and leaders, states and governments have disappeared, in which production is geared to meeting needs, not profit, and in which people give of their abilities and have free access to the benefits of civilisation. This is the real "commonwealth" socialists look forward to.