We Have the Power

The unity of labour upon the basis of the class struggle. is at this time the supreme need of the working class. We are engaged today in a class war for the simple reason that in the capitalist system in which we live, society has been divided into two economic classes – a small class of capitalists who own the tools with which work is done and wealth is produced. and a great mass of workers who are compelled to sell themselves on the labour market as they are property-less. Between these two classes there is an irreconcilable economic conflict. No master ever had any respect for his slave, and no slave ever had any love for the master. The capitalist who never works comes to despise work and the workers. The worker naturally hates the capitalist who is taking such huge profits and paying such low wages. But at first, the worker's opinions are not clear in his own mind. In fact, few workers even now understand the real problem which confronts them. Capitalists cannot live without wage-workers. Where one class exists there the other will be found. Furthermore, there is sure to be trouble between the two. The master is always scheming to get more profits out of the worker. The worker fights for more wages from his boss. The less one gets the more there is for the other. Hence we have, between the capitalist and his worker, what is known as the class struggle. Unfortunately the workers do not yet understand the nature of this struggle, and for this reason, has hitherto failed to accomplish any effective unity of their class.

Socialism is the future system of modern society. Under capitalism, today machinery and other means of wealth production are privately owned. Under Socialism tomorrow they will be owned in common. Under capitalism constitutional government's main purpose is the protection of private property, Industry is at present governed by a few tyrants. Its purpose is to take from the workers as much wealth as possible. With socialism will be fully democratic, an industrial democracy. Its purpose will be to manage production and to establish and conduct the great social institutions required by humanity. Political government will then, of course, have ceased to exist. Socialism will save the working class, or rather, show the working class how to save itself. The world does not need to be cursed by long hours, by low wages, by starvation, by worry, and by disease.  When enough of the workers understand Socialism, believe in it, and are firmly resolved to have it, the time will be ripe for the change. That change is coming. It is coming soon. The working class is today enslaved chiefly because it does not understand the conditions of its life. A few rich people own the land and machines. The many who toil have nothing. This every worker knows.  

Only when they fully understand will the first great step toward a better condition have been taken. New technology and robotics have come to free the working class. Until the invention of machines people were enslaved by small tools to the soil. For them, it was work or starve. Work or starve it is still, not because nature forces us to do so, but because we have not yet seen our way out of it. We are enslaved not to the soil but to the people who own the factories. The world socialist movement has come to place technology, the shops, the transport networks, the land and the mines in the possession of the workers. That will mean freedom, security, and opportunity for all who live. The worker cannot rise as a worker without joining in unity with other workers and helping all. This mutual dependence of worker upon worker taught them by their everyday experiences in the shop, is the best and finest thing in modern life. It leads to brotherhood. It develops the mind of the worker. It raises us out of a state of individual selfishness and points to the goal of cooperation - Socialism.

When the World Socialist Movement was first started, socialists aimed to do two things. First, they wished to abolish competition and establish cooperation. Second, they wished to have the working class so organised that they could control the machinery of production and share in the whole product. Competition was known to be a very great evil. It immensely increased the whole amount of work to be done. For instance, instead of having one fine large department store in a city of 25,000 people, the socialists saw a hundred small stores. The socialists saw the competing businessmen cheat one another and the consumers. They saw ten doing work which one could do. Surely this, said the socialists, is a most foolish and wasteful way of doing business. Socialism would make an end of it. Socialism would bring about co-operation instead of competition. It would end competition not only in the store, but also in the work-shop.

The capitalists rule the world today because they have control over the State. In their war upon the working class, one of the most effective weapons of the capitalists has been the physical force wielded by their political government. Everywhere the workers have been fooled into supporting this government.  The Republican and Democratic parties, the Tories or the Labour Party and all the other various reform parties are maintained to keep the workers divided. Whichever of these capitalist parties is victorious, the workers are always defeated. Pro-capitalist politicians alike use the powers of government in the interests of the master class. Fortunately, workers have the vote. At first they foolishly try to defend themselves by defeating this or that obnoxious politician of the old parties. They vote for such politicians as call themselves "the friends of labour." But they soon find out again that "the friends of labour" out of office, become the enemies of labour when in office. So finally, in every country under the sun, the workers are obliged to organise a party of their own - a socialist party. 

The Socialist Party stands for the POLITICAL supremacy of labour. Its purpose is not to secure old age pensions and free meals for school children. Its mission is to help overthrow capitalism and establish socialism. The object of the Socialist Party is to capture the powers of the State and thus prevent them from being used by the capitalists against the workers. The Socialist Party is not a political party in the same sense as other parties. The success of socialism would abolish practically every office existing under the present form of government.