“Our demands most moderate are – We only want the earth!” ―
In the last few months, vast sections of the working class
have struggled against and struck blows against the capitalist class. The
history of the working class has been a history of unremitting struggle against
exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. The working class come
into existence by the forcible driving of the peasants from the land. The
landless peasants were then forced to work at starvation wages in the factories.
The ruling class, while in the main using lies and deception to exploit and
oppress the workers of our countries as well as working people all over the
world, has never shrunk from brutalising workers. But where there is oppression
there is always resistance and the working class has never been cowed. The
spirit of the workers has always been never to capitulate. The working class
has time and time again supported the struggles of its class brothers and
sisters around the world. Why then has the mighty force of the working class so
filled with the spirit of rebellion and international brotherhood, never
overthrown their oppressors and exploiters.
Working men and women, do not forget for an instant that the
great struggle in which you are engaged is a class conflict, and that the lines
must be sharply drawn in every battle, whether on the economic or the political
field. The slavery of your class is responsible for your chains and never until
your entire class is emancipated can you escape from the iron grasp of your
capitalist masters. As far the class struggle is concerned, there is no good
capitalist and no bad worker. Every capitalist is your enemy and every worker,
your friend. You have got to stand and act as one. Solidarity is our strategy,
and socialism points unerringly the way. Day by day the class-conscious
socialist movement increases in power. It scorns all compromise. It firmly
holds every inch it conquers. It cannot be intimidated nor frightened by
threats. It is pursuing its historic course and come what may, it will press on
and on until the goal is reached and labour rules the world.
Under chattel-slavery the slave was bought and sold and
became the property of the buyer. Under the system of wage-slavery, to which
workers of all races in all capitalist countries are subjected at present, the
LABOUR or LABOUR POWER of the individual worker is bought, a wage is paid to
the worker by the employer, and the employer only takes an interest in the
welfare of his workers in so far as it helps him to make profits out of them.
Under chattel-slavery the slave was oppressed and exploited
by the slave master and slave rebellions took place time and again led by the
instinctive surge to freedom. The wage-slaves — workers of today — are
exploited and oppressed by the capitalist employers. As under the system of
wage-slavery, so under capitalist slavery, workers are constantly struggling
for better conditions and for the ABOLITION OF CAPITALIST SLAVERY in all
countries. The struggles of the industrial workers and oppressed colonial peoples
take on more and more a bitterly conscious fight against exploitation and
imperialist slavery, for that OVERTHROW of this FINAL slave system of the
government and for the establishment of a society controlled by the workers and
all toilers. The emancipation of humanity from all forms of slavery and
oppression is the historical TASK OF THE WORKING CLASS AND CAN ONLY BE REALISED
BY THIS CLASS. The capitalists freed the chattel-slaves in order to transform
them into wage-slaves; the WAGE-SLAVES WILL FREE THEMSELVES, IN ORDER TO FREE
HUMANITY. Working people have shown that their revolutionary spirit of
rebellion cannot be crushed. The capitalist class have NOT succeeded in
quelling the revolutionary spirit of the working people. It is necessary to
take the struggle forwards, to fight for the complete overthrow of the
capitalist system of exploitation, and for the establishment of the working
class as the ruling class. There are no solutions within the capitalist system.
The spirit of our time is revolutionary and growing more so every day. A new
social order is struggling into existence. The old economic foundation of
society is breaking up and the social fabric is beginning to totter. The
capitalist system is doomed. The signs of change confront us upon every hand.
The Socialist Party is the only party that stands against
the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly
avows itself the party of the working class and its purpose the overthrow of
wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few
are allowed to own the world’s industries, the toiling masses will be
struggling in poverty. Private ownership and competition have had their day.
The Socialist Party stands for common ownership and co-operation. The one is
Capitalism; the other Socialism. The one industrial despotism, the other
industrial democracy. The workers who have made the world and who support the
world, are preparing to take possession of the world. This is the meaning of socialism
and is what the Socialist Party stands for. We demand the machinery of
production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of
the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the
surrender of the capitalist class. We demand all children born into the world
shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies
and minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in
mental and physical achievement. We demand complete control of industry by the
workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we
demand the Earth for all the people.
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| “A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.” Jimmy Reid |
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