The time has come for a new beginning

It has been said often enough that there can be no blueprints for the future because the people themselves will decide how to build the new society as they are building it. Fundamentally, the Socialist Party accepts that, and therefore refrains from attempting to present any detailed blueprints. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to put forward ideas for discussion about what a revolutionary government might do to start building socialism. Consistent refusal to do so suggests no blueprints as a cop-out and an excuse for no ideas. We need to develop a clear statement of the measures a revolutionary movement would aim to take, so people can decide whether or not they want to fight for a revolution. Too many “parties” talk about “revolution” in the abstract, and none at all seem to be serious about it concretely. “Revolution” does not mean that we would “demand” that the corporations do this or that. It means that we, the working class, take over the running of industry and make the decisions ourselves.

There is war. It is class war. It is waged by the representatives of one class, the oppressors, against the mass of another class, the oppressed. In this war, the State is always and invariably on the side of the oppressors. Some of its representatives may try to achieve the ends of capital by cajoling and wheedling. But they always keep the big stick ready. The State — that is the big stick of the owners of wealth, the big stick of the big corporations. The wish of the capitalist is to press sweat and blood out of the workers, and there is the desire of the workers to fight their class enemy, who feeds upon them. Every one who tries to persuade you that the State is your friend, your defender, that the State is impartial and only “regulatory,” is misleading you. Under capitalism you cannot protect both “industry” (meaning the capitalists) and labour (meaning the workers)! When you protect “industry” you give it freedom to exploit “labour”. When you protect labour you make it possible for labour to get more out of industry. The essence of the capitalist State is service in the employ of capitalism for the preservation of capitalism. The capitalist State is a glaring fact. It is flesh and blood of the capitalist system. It stands in the way of the workers’ progress towards a new, free life. You cannot reconcile oil and water .

Abolish capitalism with all its misery and replace it with a system of production for use and not for profit all over the world. The Socialist Party calls for a radical cure and not a reformist salve to heal the ulcer and retain the body of capitalism. Capitalism has become an obsolete oppressive system that ought to be lopped off like a gangrenous limb. The injustices of slavery and serfdom were eliminated by abolishing the social institutions of slavery and serfdom themselves, not by prohibitions against maltreatment of slaves and serfs. The injustices of wage labour, including unemployment, will be eliminated by abolishing the social institution of wage labour itself, not by directions to employers to treat their workers better.

Socialism means that political power should pass from the hands of the capitalist class into the hands of the working people. The means of production and distribution, the land, the factories, workshops and mines, the means of communication, should pass into the possession of the working people. That production should be developed not by the competition of the various capitalist enterprises for profit, but on the basis of a planned economic system, whose aim was to raise the material and cultural level of the people, in such a way as to raise the standards of the working people and to enlarge the productive power of the socialist industries, and not, as it is under capitalism, to enrich a powerful class of capitalists and their hangers-on. In other words, the working people would own the industries, plan the industries and work for themselves and their communities not for the capitalist class. There is nothing in common between Socialism and nationalisation, exemplified in pre-privatisation days of the Post Office, the BBC, British Rail and the Coal, Electricity and Gas Boards . The object of capitalist nationalisation is not to lay the foundations of a new society. It is to provide an efficient state service for the industries which remain in private hands. 

The Socialist Party has always criticised the capitalist system because it gave rise not only to recurring economic crises, but to ever more devastating wars. Pro-capitalist leaders challenge socialist principles on two main points. They are denying that it is necessary for society to take over all the main industries in order to plan for the welfare of the people They say that all that is necessary is the existing nationalisation plus some State control. and they are denying that capitalism in its struggle for markets and sources of raw materials, in its struggle to oppress the workers and in order to obtain maximum profits, is really the cause of war. 

The social revolution required to transform capitalist enterprises into communist collectives obviously involves far more than government decrees transferring ownership. The revolution itself would have produced workers’ councils in many establishments, which would have taken over responsibility for management from the previous authorities. Revolution occurs when those who presently hold power are unable to do what has to be done, and when the only way it can be done is for their opponents to take the power to do it. Under slavery, public officials were necessarily slave owners. Under feudalism magistrates were necessarily landowners and under capitalism captains of industry were necessarily capitalists. But social relations change. All it needs is revolution to change them.