The modern nation is exclusively a product of capitalism. Nations began to emerge with the growth of trade and formed the framework for the production and distribution of commodities on a capitalist basis. The left-nationalists propose to achieve independence and socialism simultaneously. However, fewer and fewer people still believe that Scottish independence is a step forward in the struggle for socialism. Independence is not the interests of the working class. Workers must unite with the only class whose interests lie unreservedly in eliminating capitalism – the international working class across the world. Class consciousness and national chauvinism do not mix. Socialism, which means the replacement of the present social order by one based upon free and democratic access to the means of living, has been identified with theories of nationalisation, the welfare state and the command economy of state-capitalism. Our political foes have thus been able to attach to the term socialism unfavourable words like bureaucracy, officialdom, red tape. Propaganda and word magic have combined to convert the coinage of political terms into a debased and worthless currency. Now as always, the Socialist Party carry on their work of explaining and clarifying. They must especially denounce the falsity and the hypocrisy of all the nationalist groups. Socialist transformation is not possible without a continuous battle against those who misdirect the working class.
All the politicians will tell you that they have the answers. But their answers fail to solve the problems which face society. After decades of politicians' clever answers, the society we live in is still in a mess, with mass poverty, social insecurity, and environmental destruction getting worse, not better. Politicians tell us that they're running things for our benefit, but capitalism can only be run in the interest of the small minority who own and control the means of producing and distributing goods and services. Capitalism can only be run by treating the working-class as second-class citizens. The Socialist Party says that there is a real alternative. The establishment of world socialism remains the only secure future for humanity. We are not blaming people for capitalism. The system and not individuals within it is responsible for what is happening. This system is part of a long, historical process; the socialist argument is that it is now time to move on to a new social system which will be in line with the productive potentialities of our modern world. Some philanthropic capitalists do indulge in gestures of benevolence towards the class which they legally rob. So what? The essential point is that the capitalist's power and affluence are based on exploiting the working class. Within capitalism, the capitalist cannot act as anything but an exploiter and the worker cannot act as anything but a wage slave.
The capitalist market not only encourages but guarantees inequality and exploitation. Capitalist societies are by definition class societies, and those deprived of the basic necessities of life are more than simply the “less fortunate.” They are the victims of a materially unequal society in which the ownership of wealth, and the social and political power that comes with it, remains heavily concentrated. To the socialist, then, there is no distinction between the “deserving” or “undeserving” poor, just a deprived class of people whose needs have yet to be met.
Under capitalist production, the toiler is, indeed, just a piece of machinery, necessary to the progress of trade and commerce, and we have been taught to believe that such is all we are fitted to be.
Today we live to work, and the proposal of the Socialist Party—undoubtedly a revolutionary one—to reverse the sequence, to produce wealth in order to live, seems to be beyond the comprehension of our fellow wage-slaves who cannot get away from the notions connected with capitalist methods of production and exchange, hence the information that under a socialist system no wages would be paid comes to him as a shock. This, then, is our job. To explain to thoughtful and involved individuals that only socialism will liberate mankind's ability to produce a world of abundance.
Socialism is not a fantasy any more than any other untried idea is a fantasy. Socialism has to be brought about by workers. A slave who has become conscious of his or her slavery, and who has risen to the height of fighting for emancipation, has half-ceased to be a slave. The class-conscious worker of to-day fights for a better life for him or herself, here on earth, rallying fellow-workers to the present-day struggle for a better life here upon earth. Socialism is an idea which implies certain political principles and one of these is an unshakeable refusal to compromise with the enemies of the working class—with any political party, whatever it calls itself, which stands for capitalism. When a worker goes into a voting booth and, where there is no socialist candidate, writes socialism across the paper we are doing several things. We are saying that he hates capitalism, is declaring for a social revolution to replace it. We are standing up as the enemy of all the capitalist parties. Under capitalism, there are many kinds of working-class organisations: trade unions, political parties, tenants associations, friendly societies and so on—formed for a variety of different purposes. A working-class organisation can only be considered revolutionary when it consciously aims to replace capitalism. Our principles are based on the logic of our socialist theory; on the knowledge that human society has developed to the point where the potential exists to provide for the material needs of every human being on the planet; on the assumption that, faced with the ultimate reality of capitalism’s failure to solve the ghastly problems that it creates, human beings will take into their common ownership the means of life; that common ownership, and the abolition of all the wasteful activities that capitalism makes necessary, will permit society to function on the basis of free labour in the production of goods and services and free access to the fruits of that production. That is the socialist proposition, the root of our socialist principles and the Socialist Party does not seek power for itself to enthrone those principles. We seek to promote and spread a knowledge of socialism and whether the majority that ultimately takes the required political action to bring about socialism uses the Socialist Party or some other political vehicle to take power from the political agents of capitalism and establish Socialism is of no consequence to us.
Our task will be completed with the achievement of socialism; politics will disappear as government over people gives way to a straightforward democratic administration of social production and distribution. Capitalism cannot be made to function in the interests of the great majority of people, the working class, who are the real wealth producers. However long it takes for that truth to percolate the consciousness of the working class, for that period we will suffer the social problems that have been the identification marks of capitalism since its inception. Conversely, until that consciousness begins to take root, the Socialist Party will retain its principles and seek its purpose in the dissemination of those principles.
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