Abolish the wages system

The Socialist Party has something to say to our fellow-workers because we are part of an international movement (albeit small) which is working to establish world socialism. There some men and women with a sincere wish to go forward to a better world. It is to these we are talking.

Socialism (or as others call it, communism) is: a world society based on common ownership with no production for sale, money, buying and selling, prices, wages, or profit. The Socialist Party declines to advocate reforms or join others in doing so. arguing that on the political field socialists should be aiming solely at the capture of power for socialism. This does not apply to the immediate and specific demands which arise from the concrete antagonism of interests between wage-earners and employers in the economic sphere. So, the Socialist Party has drawn a distinction between ’reforms’ and the day-to-day economic demands of the workers.

We think that democracy is of vital importance to the working class and that only a democratic organisation can be used to establish socialism. That is why our party is organised without leaders or hierarchy. But we also say that political democracy as it exists in Britain and elsewhere is not enough, since it is constantly threatened by the encroachments of the capitalist state and is maintained only by working class pressure. We want to see a social democracy—and this will be achieved only when society owns the means of production and operates them democratically. In other words, only socialism can be a thoroughly democratic society.

Since we are working for world socialism we do not have a reform programme, unlike your parties. This is not because we are opposed to all reforms but because we say that the job of a socialist party is to get rid of capitalism and that it can do this only by recruiting members and seeking support for a socialist programme. This means that we advance slogans such as 'Abolition of the Wages System’ as our immediate demands. We also think that socialism must be world wide and that it can be set up only when a majority of working men and women (at least in the advanced industrial parts of the world) understand what is entailed, and are prepared to take conscious action, first to establish it and then to run it from top to bottom.

What stands in the way of the advent of socialism? It is also the ignorance of the majority of the exploited as to what socialism, and even what capitalism, is. We must understand the cause of this ignorance and remedy it. We must repeat that the economic system of production for profit is capitalism; that this system is inconceivable without the exploitation of man by man, without competition between individuals and between groups, without the robbery of; human labour by rich parasites. We must also admit that capitalism will continue to reign over the planet until it has been replaced by a more evolved, more human, economic system. The future system which Marx and Engels interchangeably called ‘socialism' and ’communism’ cannot be imposed by a group with any chance of success. It is essential that first it is wanted by the workers of the entire world and thus universally understood. This system in which there will be production to satisfy human needs is called Socialism.

If you agree with these ideas we want to hear from you — so that we can help each other to strengthen the world movement for socialism. But if you are a careerist or if you believe that capitalism can be made to work in the interests of the working class then perhaps you would be better off sticking with the status quo. There is no need for a minority to lead the working class. Revolution by an élite inevitably leads to government by an élite. The change from private capitalism to state capitalism does not free the working class. Those who produce continue not to own the means of production. Property changes hands and the exploited remain exploited. To put an end to private property is to end the very existence of the State, whether it is capitalist or alleged socialist. It is to organise society to provide for the satisfaction of the needs of mankind. It is to establish socialism.