Since 1904, when the Socialist Party started out on its task of pointing out to the workers that there is no solution of their problems except socialism, and that there is no way of achieving socialism except through independent organisation in a purely socialist party for the conquest of the powers of the State. The Socialist Party has proclaimed that it makes no essential difference what is the label or programme of the political group which takes on the administration of capitalism. Too many times the workers have placed their trust in one or other of the non-socialist parties, and every time their trust has been repaid with poverty and distress instead of the promised prosperity, with the blood and tears of world conflicts instead of peace, with disillusion and despair instead of hope and progress. The history of general elections is the history of new and ever more cunning methods of catching the votes of the worker by promises of reforms. It is a history of pledges made only to be broken. The only political party which has never promised to solve the problems of the workers for them is the Socialist Party which does not promise to do something for you in return for your trust in us but only assures you that your problems can be solved by you, and by you alone, just as soon as you have the knowledge, the will, and the political organisation to make your will effective. It is your task to understand socialism, and then to join us in the Socialist Party to bring it about. The truth is that capitalism is triumphant everywhere because the working class are blind to their own class position, and are still persuaded that they have an interest in leaving power in capitalist hands. It is the duty of each national section of the working class to struggle against their own capitalist masters, aided to the extent that is possible by the international movement.
There are so many people who do not understand what is the nature of the class-struggle of which socialists speak and so many others who choose to misrepresent it, that the essential facts cannot be repeated too often. The class-struggle is something which exists owing to capitalism. It is not an idea invented by socialists. It existed before there was any World Socialist Movement. The existing class-struggle is a fact arising from the division of human beings into two social classes. They are not divided into classes by socialists, or by their own ideas and outlook, but by their possession or non-possession of property. The capitalist class is those who own sufficient property to be able to live on the income which flows to them through their ownership. They are the receivers of rent, interest or profit. The working class is those who, because they do not own sufficient property to be able to live on property income, must work for their living. They must sell their physical and mental energies, their labour-power, to the capitalist class and the agents of the capitalist class. In return, they receive wages or salary. The working class includes those who perform practically all of the work necessary for the production and distribution of wealth, from the making of bricks to the task of organising and directing. They are all workers, working to order, producing wealth for the capitalists to own. These are facts, and it is remarkable how rarely the defenders of capitalism even attempt to dispute them. Given this private ownership of the world’s means of producing and distributing wealth, a class struggle is a necessary consequence, expressing itself as a struggle by the propertyless to gain control of the property, or as a struggle over the division of the product of industry—strikes, lockouts, etc. The capitalists assert they are too poor to pay workers a wage that will ensure a comfortable existence. Now surely this seems strange when wealth to the value of thousands of millions of pounds is used up providing battleships, tanks, 'planes, guns and the men to man and use them, and the people to minister to these armies of men. And more extraordinary still, all this wealth is simply wasted because of none of the powers that be have warlike intentions.
The part played by the Socialist Party is not that we have created this struggle, but that we explain it and show how it can be abolished by the abolition of all classes. The part played by some of the defenders of capitalism is to pretend that the struggle has no basis in material conditions but exists only because certain people hold and preach views regarding it. Many working men and women believed that it provided the solution to their economic problems. With all its faults and limitations the early Labour Party was of a distinctly working-class character. It was quite probable in its early days that many of its leaders believed it to be the only party which the worker, in his or her own interests, could support. Time has brought changes. Today, however, after holding the reins of office, the appearance of the Labour Party to its members has changed considerably. The Labour Party has reached the stage at which it is unwilling to be associated with ideas of destroying the private property rights of the capitalist class. Its chief business more than ever now is to get itself elected. It chooses its programme of social reforms solely with an eye to getting votes. Is this little different from the openly capitalist parties?
The possession of huge funds will not alone create a movement nor will lack of funds destroy one. Outside the ranks of our Party, there are thousands and thousands of workers who feel the pressure of servile conditions and bitterly complain, yet they are deaf to our message. To such our view is the “long view,” but they want “something now." For over a century workers have been struggling for “something now," and how has it left them? Bound tightly to the wheel of capital, faced with the poverty and insecurity, that is their common lot to-day. As we have so often pointed out the problem is a simple one. The insecurity and bondage that is the lot of the working class arise from the private ownership of the means of living. The conversion of these means of living into the common property of society will enable the product of industry to flow wherever needed, instead of only to those who have the money to buy. As the working class performs the work of producing and distributing the wealth to-day nothing can be lost by the changeover, except the privileges of an idle and parasitic class. The simplicity of the Socialist Party position is a guarantee that if it is sufficiently pressed to the attention of workers it must ultimately convince them, and gain their support. The little leisure available to those who are advocating socialist ideas makes the spreading of our views a long job until our membership has reached dimensions which will enable our view to be put everywhere and at all times. There is always the central fact that is both a spur to our efforts is that the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and the establishment of socialism is the only solution to the economic evils of today, and further, that this can be accomplished when the workers understand it and want it. By joining us and helping with voice, pen, funds, and keyboard will speed the birth of a new and much-needed social revolution. That is our message to all our fellow-workers.
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