Wednesday, July 31, 2019

We will change this world because we must

Future society will be a society without bosses. The ways of the men and women of the co-operative commonwealth of the future will not be our ways, nor their thoughts our thoughts. The fact is that the current social system is evil, and the proof that it is, is that everyone suffers from it. All of humanity lives in a state of anxiety. Those who seek to find a blueprint of the future society in Marx search in vain for a document that Marx did not produce.

Just as the capitalists have a coalition against the workers, so must we have an international solidarity of labour. We think that workers should be united, too. This is an age of revolutionary change. New technology is replacing human labour with automation and robots. Millions face two choices – either accept misery or overturn this system. Technology is powerful enough to end hunger, homelessness and all want – but only if it is seized from the exploiters and organised in the interests of those this system has discarded. We call on you to join us to wage war on the capitalist system. We will educate and organise fellow-workers on how society can be reorganised to put an end to poverty and injustice once and for all. The Socialist Party doesn’t claim to have a crystal ball in which the socialist world of the future can be seen like the map of the Underground in every detail. All we claim is that our study of the past can be used as a guide to the future. Without a clear understanding of basic questions we will hesitate and flounder in confusion and the capitalist class will keep the initiative. We want to make sure that on the day of the class struggle boils over into revolution our fellow workers will know what to do. We are fighting for socialist freedom. There’s a big class struggle going on. And the question is, what side are you on?

By capitalism, we mean the system that exists on the basis of unpaid labour. You as a worker produce commodities to be exchanged on the market. You produce not only enough to pay your own wage, but also an added value, a surplus value, over and above the cost of your maintenance. Surplus labour is your unpaid wage. In polite circles it is called “profit. ” As capitalism develops, the bourgeoisie, owning the means of production, constantly strives to increase its profits, resulting in the development and increased impoverishment of the working class, the class that owns no means of production and must sell its labour power to the bourgeoisie. An irreconcilable contradiction develops between the exploiting bourgeoisie and the exploited working class–the social character of production which the bourgeoisie develops contradicts the private ownership of the means of production and demands the social ownership of the means of production.

And that’s what capitalism is all about. Capitalism is the core of all of our problems. Some people try to escape the system. Some try to ignore it and pretend it doesn’t effect them. Or whitewash it. The system won’t escape you. The system won’t ignore you. All branches of capitalism are so interlocked it cannot be divided into good and bad. Sooner or later you’re going to find yourselves in a battle with the system. And you’ll need help and solidarity. When people realise the system has turned against them, they will go through a rapid deep politicisation. A very quick class consciousness raising.

Socialism is not production for profit. It is production for use. It is not production for private ownership and the private ownership of resources. It is common ownership of the wealth. It is not inequality and misery and persecution and discrimination; it is equality and fairness. It is not poverty and want; it is freedom from want. It is freedom from war. It is freedom from ugliness and squalor. It is just the opposite of what exists today and it expresses what people need and want and would dearly love to see. Socialism is a celebration of life. The bourgeoisie is destined to join all the other previous exploiting classes in the shadows of history.


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