How to Save the Planet

It is often suggested that a change of leader and/or party might make a real difference in our everyday life. Members of the Socialist Party know that it would not. We live under capitalism which operates according to its own economic laws, irrespective of changes of government, whether it be Conservative, Labour or Nationalist. The economic law of capitalism is that all enterprises, whether private or nationalized, are operated for profit. If their products cannot be sold at a profit, production is curtailed or brought to a stop. All governments administering capitalism, no matter what principles the individuals profess, have as a clause of their economic policy one which enables profits to flow. For instance, people often talk of there being a housing problem, but there is no such problem. There is no reason why enough good houses for all should not be built. The materials exist, so do the building workers and architects. What then stands in the way? The simple fact is that there is not a market for good houses since most people cannot afford to pay for them, and never will be because of the restrictions of the wages system. The economic system under which we live is man-made and can be altered by man’s action. You can go on frittering away the years in the sterile dispute whether the Conservatives, the Labour Party or whoever makes a better job of running capitalism or you can consider the alternative of ending capitalism and putting socialism in its place. The economic system under which we live is man-made and can be altered by mankinds’s action  but it demands self-reliance and bold thinking on the part of everyone.   Rely on your own experience and recognise that capitalism has never been and cannot be made to work in the interest of the working class. Either you take action to get socialism or you have to put up with the consequences of capitalism. There is no third choice! Socialism demands understanding, organisation and democratic action by a conscious working class. It calls for international co-operation of the world’s workers.

Your masters are not concerned with increasing the total quantity of wealth; their desire is for more surplus value i.e., the difference between the wealth you produce and the wages you receive. What they ask from you is more work from the individual worker, in order that the total wages bill can be reduced, the very conditions that have always made for increased unemployment.

It is in the nature of governments to promise to eradicate evils and make things better for the voters who elected them. It is also in the nature of capitalism to go on being an exploiting system and to be subject to periodical crises and depressions.  If you rely on the government’s schemes of reforms and in your simplicity believe their promises, they will strengthen the position of their own class, and correspondingly weaken the position of our class. If you support the Labour Party, they will sell your support for fat jobs. If you dream that nationalisation will save you, you will, when you awaken, find yourselves under the rule of the bureaucrat and technocrat—still wage slaves, exploited in the interest of all capitalists instead of that of a firm or corporation. The politicians who masterminded failed policies and the economists who advised them all look round for an excuse—the workers who didn’t work hard enough, the strikers who didn’t work at all, (even occasionally the workers who worked too hard and produced unsaleable surpluses), the speculators, the greedy bankers who pushed up interest rates, or the capitalists who didn’t invest enough. The non-Marxist economists have learned nothing and forgotten everything. 

As the Socialist Party keeps pointing out governments, of whatever political persuasion, exist to protect the interests of the capitalist class (i.e. the owners of the means of life). This they do in a number of ways—tariff barriers and subsidies to producers for example — always bearing in mind that by such measures they expect a healthier national capitalism to be the outcome.

The concern of many people about the effects of globalisation is justified. Globalisation enables international companies to manipulate their worldwide use of the cheapest and most defenceless labour to plunder natural resources, to buy off local power groups and by-pass or corrupt governments. The clear object is to maximise exploitation and profits. But this is globalisation in its corporate form, operating within a world capitalist system. It does not mean that, in itself, globalisation is a bad thing. It does bring its good things. For example, instant world communications means we can be aware of events in every country and this heightens the way we think globally.

In any case, global society is here to stay. There is no going back on a production system that is linked across the world. But the exploitative nature of this system in the hands of multinational corporations means that workers share a common interest which also goes beyond national boundaries. The problems of the great majority can only be solved by united world action.

The Socialist Party believes in the common humanity of all people. To the average person a Socialist Party member appears full of discontent who keeps complaining, is always grumbling yet she or he is working for the only thing worthwhile; i.e., the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of socialism. The Socialist Party member claims that socialism is the only hope of the workers and that all else is an illusion. The Socialist Party sets out in its Declaration of Principles that the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself. Special stress is laid on this because one of the greatest obstacles with which the workers are confronted is the idea, fostered by parties claiming to champion the cause of the working class, that leaders are necessary. So deep-rooted is this notion that we are called upon at our public meetings when stating our claim to be the only socialist party, to name our leaders. Our reply that we have no leaders is met with the incredulous retort: “But you must have leaders!" The word “leaders" implies not only those who lead but those, who are led. Now only those require, or suffer themselves to be, led who cannot see the way for themselves, and naturally, those who cannot see the way for themselves will not be able to see whether they are being led in the right direction or the wrong. Labour leaders, therefore, are able to render to the capitalists the very valuable service of misleading the workers. This is why the ruling class bestow praises and titles upon union leaders, and entreat the workers to follow their 'wise' leadership. The first work of the Socialist Party, therefore, is to spread abroad among the workers that political knowledge which alone can put them beyond the lure and treachery of leaders by showing them clearly the object they have to attain and the road they have to travel to attain it.

We have reached a critical moment in human history. Many of the most prominent scientists throughout the world are warning us that if we continue to think the way we think and live the way we live, there is a high probability we will be facing extinction.  Today dysfunction societally within and between nations makes it obvious to the observer. On the horizon is an even more ominous sign as the result of the ecological dysfunctionality of our world-wide economic system. This capitalist system is destroying our planet and is a threat to many forms of life on it, including our own.