Saturday, April 20, 2019

It rests with us to make an end of this.


The bosses are all one – for profits – against labour. The capitalist class are beginning to step up the pressure. Their struggles for trade, territory, resources, can be summed up in one word – PROFIT! The capitalist class does not change its greed for profits any more than the leopard changes its spots. The workers, remember, are the guys without whose labour there could be no profits at all for the capitalists. To protect their profits, the bosses are at our throats more fiercely than ever before. One can gauge the rottenness of the capitalist system in the present struggle of workers for a decent living wage. Working people are being driven into debt. The system can’t be salvaged by reforms– and isn’t worth saving anyhow. They use the recession to eliminate job security for everyone. ALL THIS IS HAPPENING WHILE THE PROFITS KEEP ON ROLLING IN. This onslaught on the workers takes place at the moment when stock-market share prices have never been so high. We have only one choice – we’ve got to fight back. World-wide, workers have always answered the boss attacks. Time and again, workers have won, through solidarity and militancy. An increase in wages does not bring about increased prices. It does mean, however, a direct and immediate reduction in the capitalists’ profit. That is why employers at all times stubbornly resist the wage demands of their workers. That is why capitalists always seek to reduce wages. The lower the wages paid, the higher the profits made. The more intensely the worker labours, the more value he creates; therefore, the more surplus-value; therefore, the more profit. The greed for profits knows no limit. The capitalists produce goods for profit and not for any other reason. No crocodile tears here about the burning need of people to be re-housed, the lower paid workers condemned to live in terrible conditions in the slums, the painful dilemma and unhappiness of newly-married young couples, at what should be one of the happiest periods in their lives, compelled to live with their in-laws under crowded conditions, suited almost perfectly to produce the maximum friction and conflict. The purpose of producing cement and bricks is not for housing but for profit. Business is business!

Capitalists attack you with every weapon at their command. They have battered down your wages and benefits to starvation levels. They have cast many on the scrap-heap of unemployment. They have gagged your every protest at your misery and your indignation. Working men and women! To hell with their capitalist politics! We want an end of class tyranny and oppression. We must stand together against them. The only struggle for us is the struggle of the workers against their exploiters. To demonstrate our strength and our unity we must stand together. Let us mass our forces in unity in the present struggle and be prepared for the struggles of the future. Show that you back a fight. Attempting to compromise with the capitalist class only ends in compromising the labour movement. It demoralises the workers. We are convinced that by the struggle against capitalism our fellow-workers will be compelled to adopt the ideas of socialism sooner or later. Big Business is moaning about “socialism”. Give them something genuine to moan about! Where capitalists rule, there are increasing unhappiness for humanity and mounting degradation of the environment. The Socialist Party must show the cause of the present difficulties and advance the solution to our fellow-workers and counter our enemies who endeavour to attempt to put the burdens of the crises on the working class and persuade people that everything under the sun is responsible for these crises except the capitalist system itself. It must be clear that there is only one way to solve all the present social problems is to abolish capitalism and the exploitation and proceed to the building of a socialist society. The working class must be won over in the immediate future for the most energetic fight against capitalism and for the survival of civilisation. We must place the blame on the shoulders of those who are responsible for the present position—the capitalists. Supporting the Socialist Party gives the capitalist class an indication of the determination of the workers in the class struggle. We have to develop only class solidarity. Reforms are powerless to solve the problems which arise from the capitalist system so long as the exploitation of man by man, production for profit, and the struggle for markets remain. For generations workers have been fooled by reformist propaganda. It must be clear that the only way to solve the many crises we face is to abolish capitalism and all that it involves and proceed to the building of a socialist society. For the revolutionary way out of capitalism we must win the support of every man and woman who desires to see the anxieties, frustrations and fears caused by capitalism.

We are well aware of the many times our fellow-workers comment on the lack of growth in our Party. We are fighting against the oldest and most experienced and the most treacherous and cunning capitalist class in the world. Our role as a revolutionary political party, fighting for political power in order to build socialism, is primarily to create a strong enough class understanding that the capitalist robs the workers of the surplus value produced by them. Here the antagonism between the working class and its exploiters is most sharply expressed and so often reflected in open clashes around demands on wages, hours and conditions. For this reason and because the only weapon possessed by the working class in its fight to overthrow capitalism is the weapon of organisation. We have so far failed to explain with sufficient clarity each issue from the standpoint of our class as a whole. We should find the best way to use every one of these sectional issues to clarify the workers’ political understanding and bring them further along the road, whose goal is the achievement of power by our class. We stand at the threshold of great class battles. Ours is the responsibility to future generations.


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