What we are about

Even in its normal state, capitalism is an obsolete oppressive system that ought to be got rid off. At the moment only a relatively small minority recognise this and are consciously anti-capitalist. The rest of our fellow-workers continue to try to satisfy their needs within the system rather than by overthrowing it. The socialist movement requires consciousness and organisation. We must mobilise to transform the existing capitalist society. It is our duty to understand and change the world. The socialist Revolution does not mean that we demand that the multinational corporations do this or that. It means that we, the working class take over the running of industry and make the decisions ourselves, abolishing the market economy. The injustices of slavery and serfdom were eliminated by abolishing the social institutions of slavery and serfdom themselves, not by prohibitions against maltreatment of slaves and serfs. The injustices of wage-slavery will be eliminated by abolishing the social institution of wage labour itself, not by directions to employers to treat their workers better.  

The social revolution required to transform capitalist enterprises into socialist collectives obviously involves far more than creating a workers' state and passing government decrees. We recognise that the revolution itself would have produced workers’ councils in many establishments, which would have taken over responsibility for management from the previous owners. But that doesn't actually solve the problem itself. It seems natural to assume that all problems of control should be resolved by “decentralisation of authority”. After all, the more room there is for lower level units to determine their own affairs, the more chance there is to adopt more progressive policies but a focus on “local” or “community” issues seems to reflect an acceptance that there is really nothing we can do about global issues.

Anarcho-syndicalists seem to imagine that if everybody democratically discusses everything, production units will be able to exchange their products to supply each other’s needs, and to supply consumer goods for the workers, with no more than ’co-ordination” by higher-level councils of delegates from the lower level establishments. Actually things are not so simple, and any attempt to realise that vision would only mean preserving market relations between independent enterprises, still not working to a common social plan, even though anarchists and syndicalists are generally well aware that the right to vote cannot in itself transform capitalist social relations into co-operative ones.  Electing new bosses does not abolish the boss system. It was small-scale production that was suitable for capitalism, while the development of huge transnational corporations with a network management for entire sectors of the world economy, proves that the socialisation of production makes private ownership an anachronism. Capitalism is already transferring more and more authority on the shop floor to workers themselves rather than supervisors or lower level line management. This only highlights the fact that questions like unemployment are imposed by market forces outside the control of “shop floor” management, or higher management for that matter. Workers are paid to think much more than slaves, serfs or peasants would think in their work, and they get sacked if they do not think. It is just that they are not supposed to think too much. Elected workers’ councils would be in exactly the same position of having to lay off staff if there is no market for the goods they produce. Socialism unleashes workers’ intelligence in production, so that “management”, “engineering”, “research”, “science” and so forth would cease to be restricted to an elite, excluding the contributions of the vast majority. Research and development would become much more widespread, be much closer to production, and require much less “management”. Likewise personnel management, “human resources”, is an essentially routine function that will be made much easier by the elimination of “industrial relations” between hostile employers and employees. There should be no problem organising the recruitment, training and allocation of labour. Under slavery, public officials were necessarily slave owners. Under feudalism, magistrates were necessarily landowners and under capitalism captains of industry were necessarily capitalists. But social relations change. All it needs is revolution to change them.