The Socialist Party Condemns Capitalism

“The monopoly of land drives the worker from the farm into the factory, and the monopoly of machinery drives him from the factory into the street, and thus crucified between the two thieves of land and capital, the Christ of Labour hangs in silent agony.” Ernest Jones (Chartist)

Socialism has come to be applied to any activity of the state or municipality in an economic direction, irrespective of what the nature of the activity or the state concerned is. Hence any industrial or commercial enterprise undertaken by a governmental body is labelled Socialism nowadays. It does not mean socialism. The State is an agent of the possessing class and industrial or commercial undertakings run by governmental bodies are run in the interests of the ruling class. Their aim in all cases is to show a profit, in the same way as any other ordinary capitalist enterprises. This profit accrues to the possessing class in the form of relief from taxation, interest on loans, etc. In other words, these industrial undertakings are run for profit and not for use and their employees are little, if at all, better off than those of private employers. For socialists, poverty and squalor are unmitigated evils. Socialism involves a complete revolution in all spheres of human life. After workers have overthrown the capitalists we will establish socialism. The capitalists use their state to protect their interests. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished.

The “lesser of two evils” line is exactly what the name implies – choosing the lesser evil within the existing social system. The type of person who pursues this line are people who don’t understand that the real alternative is socialism. For them to pick the lesser evil is progressive, that is, to the extent that they think it is anti-capitalist, and pro-working class. For socialists to pursue this policy by not pointing out the true alternative to capitalism is mistaken. They betray their duty to the working class.

Workers are wage slaves who survive only by selling their labour power to the capitalists. Capitalists own the means of production and pay workers for their labour power. But the working class produces far more wealth than it receives in income. The difference is the source of capitalist profits. The worker is employed only as long as he or she helps create profit for the employers. The capitalist class owns and controls the means of production, distribution and communication. The working class owns none of these, and therefore workers must sell their labour power to the capitalist for wages in order to live. The worker creates a product of value, part of which is returned to him as wage, and the rest of which is taken from him by the capitalists as profit. Thus, is created the basic antagonistic contradiction between worker and capitalist, since the interest of one is, and has to be, directly opposed to the interest of the other. This most fundamental of contradictions will not end until capitalism with its private ownership and/or control of the means of production is itself ended, and replaced with socialism. The only way to abolish the capitalist exploitation of labour and the decadent society built on this foundation is to destroy the state power of the exploiting class

Without the trade unions the workers would be a mere rabble of broken-spirited and utterly degraded slaves, and there would be little hope of their redemption. Trade unions did almost magical work in giving them solidarity, strength, and political effectiveness.  Strikes have slightly increased wages, slightly reduced the hours, and slightly improved the general condition of the toilers, and may continue to do so in the future, but almost certainly to a lesser extent than formerly. But the Socialist Party always wishes to make very clear and convincing is, that no strike in the past has dealt any effective blow at the system that persistently crushes workers down; and no strike can emancipate themselves.

The Socialist Party stands for the overthrow of capitalism. It demands a new form of society run by the working people. In socialist society, all means of production will be common property. There will be no classes and no class struggle. The consequences of class divided society – racism, national chauvinism, sexism, will all have disappeared. There will be no wars, no armies, and no need for weapons of war, which will become historical curiosities. There will be no distinction between mental and manual work. Socialism will be a life of material abundance. We appeal to you then, fellow-workers, to rally around the only banner that symbolises hope for you– the crimson banner of socialism. Cast off all your old political affiliations, and organise and vote to reconquer society in the interests of its only useful class – the workers. Let your slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, your weapons the industrial and political organisation of the wage slaves to conquer their own emancipation. Freedom lies within the grasp of the wage slave, we need but the mind and knowledge to seize it.