"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies
for it.” - Oscar Wilde
We are in tempestuous times, where the chronic problems thrown
up by the capitalist system have caused so much pain are, at last, coming to be
seen as urgent and in need of attention by an increasing number of people. We also
live in a divisive time. There are some
who seek to divide us. It is now important that we develop a movement of social
change. The timeline now requires fairly massive, fairly quick moves toward
socialism. we want to make real progress in fighting capitalism which destroying
our lives and the planet, we need to find ways to support each other and
express solidarity with one another by learning how to organize together for revolutionary
change. Challenging the Establishment, believing that one can make a
difference, and committing time to confronting those in power is not easy. In the
capitalist world, our relationships with one another are structured by political
disconnection. Effective action involves coordination and strategy to achieve
our aspirations. Socialists are, of course, anathema to the political elite
who, with all their might, resist such revolutionary efforts to transform
society.
To-day, the worker is driven to wage slavery through the
private ownership of the natural resources from which all mankind must get the
means of life. Under capitalism the propertied class exploits the working
class. Receivers of rent, interest and profit are living on the unpaid labour
of the workers. They are able to do this because they own and control the means
of production and distribution, including the land. At the back of their
ownership stands their control of the political machinery, including the armed
forces. The choice is between capitalism and Socialism, between a continuance
of exploitation and its abolition. Any attempt to reform the relationship of
the different sections of the propertied class while continuing to prevent the
working-class majority from ending exploitation, can rightly be described as an
attempt to perpetuate a half-strangled capitalism.
No Socialist Party member could take exception to the
struggle of the workers to preserve a democratic platform. On the other hand,
we cannot support any movement which encourages workers to sacrifice themselves
in defence of capitalist wealth. If working class history has any meaning for
those who wage the struggle to-day, it is that the association of workers with
capitalist movements has led only to their division and confusion. The clearest
presentation of the class struggle leads to another conclusion; that every
movement of the workers must be waged on the basis of unity with their fellows
and of fundamental opposition to the capitalist class.
Socialism, is the taking in the name of humanity all the
wealth that exists on the globe. In the society of the future, socialism will
be the enjoyment of all existing wealth, by all men and women according to the
principle: From each according to abilities, to each according to needs, that
is to say: from each to each according to his or her will. The taking of
possession and the enjoyment of all existing wealth must be the doing of the
people themselves, no intermediaries, no go-betweens, no brokers, no new
government, no new state, whether it calls itself popular or democratic,
revolutionary or provisional. The common wealth belongs to the entirety of
humanity, who find themselves in a position to use it will use it in common. We
want the control of all the world’s resources to be in the hands of the people
themselves and to be kept by their powerful hands, and that the people
themselves decide the best way to enjoy it, be it for production or
consumption. People will use the planet, the machines, the workshops, the
houses, etc., of the land and will serve everyone in common of them. If a person
from another region comes to this land, he or she will have the same rights in
the same way that he or she enjoyed in their land. Some ask us is socialism
possible? Will there be enough to let everyone have the right to take as they
wished, without demanding from individuals more labour than they are willing to
give? We answef: yes and that we can apply this principle: from each according
to their ability, to each according to their need, because, in future society,
production will be so abundant that there will be no need to limit consumption,
or to demand from people more work than they are willing or able to give. We
can imagine this immense growth in production, which will come about from:
1. Harmony of cooperation in the different branches of human
activity will replace today’s competition
2. Large-scale introduction of all kinds of new technology
3. The considerable conservation of the forces of labour and
of raw materials, facilitated by the abolition of harmful or useless
production.
Socialists have made great contributions to
political-economic thought. Probably the greatest contribution has been to work
toward a class-free, non-authoritarian, co-cooperatively based society. It is a
society where individuals care for the needs of all members, and that
individual also benefits from the protective net, avoiding the consequences of future
ill-health or natural disaster. What kind of world is it that most people want?
Dog-eat-dog capitalism or everybody looking out for and caring about one another,
replace the inefficient capitalist market with a solidarity economy where workers
are not dictated to by a board of directors for the profit of shareholders?
Sadly, no socialist revolution is imminent, violent now or in the near future.
Capitalist production follows the dictum “Mors tua vita mea”, your death is my
life. Conflict is relentless and happens from nation to nation, from region to
region, from individual to individual, between workers, between capitalists. A
worker finds work where another has lost it; one industry or many industries
prosper where other industries decline. In the socialist society of the future,
this individualistic principle of capitalist production, every man for himself
against all others, and everyone against everyone, will be replaced by the true
principle of human society: all for one and one for all. Imagine how great will
be the growth of production, when each person, far from needing to fight
against all the others, will be helped by them, when we will have them not as
enemies and rivals but as cooperators. If the collective work of ten attains
results absolutely impossible for one person alone, how grand will be the
results obtained by the large-scale cooperation of all mankind who, today, work
in hostility against each other?
Today, innovative technology often has the ignorance of the
capitalist against it, but more often still his interest. How many inventions are
going unapplied only because they do not bring an immediate benefit to the
capitalist? So many discoveries, so many applications of science go unheeded,
only because they do not bring enough to the capitalist. The worker today finds
an enemy in automation, and rightfully so, because they are the monster that
comes to threaten unemployment, to starve and to degrade him, to torture and to
dehumanise. But what an immense difference it would beif , on the contrary, it
augmented the work process we will no longer be the slave to the machines but
instead they would be at our service, assisting us and and working for our well-being.
How much resources are horribly wasted today, because they
are used for the production of absolutely useless things, when they are not
harmful to humanity. How many workers, how much material, and how many
factories are used today by the military to provide it with is armaments How much is wasted to produce luxury objects
and consumer goods that serve nothing but the needs of vanity and corruption?
And when all this is used, for the production of useful objects what a
prodigious growth in production we will see.
Yes, socialism is viable where we let everyone take
according to their will, since there will be enough for everyone. We will no
longer need to demand more work than anyone wants to give, because there will
always be enough products for tomorrow.
And it’s thanks to this abundance that work will lose the dreadful
character of wage slavery, leaving people to of live in harmony with nature. Not
only is socialism feasible, we affirm that it is necessary.
A large proportion of working people are may indeed be dissatisfied,
even angry, but few contemplate any such revolution. Many activists believe the
time is not ripe and are content upon placing demands upon the ruling class
that in no way disturbs the status quo. However, socialists recall the words of
Karl Liebknecht’s posthumous article from a hundred years ago.
“Those defeated today
will be the victors tomorrow…whether or not we live to experience it, our
program will remain alive; it will prevail in a world of a rescued humanity –
In spite of everything!”
It is our warning to the capitalists of the world and our
battle cry to our fellow-workers.
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