Sylvia Pankhurst's Socialism

So-called “socialists” hold that the idea of socialism consists in various reforms of the capitalist system: Parliamentary legislation to secure such things as more social services for the poor, higher taxation or taxation to pay for the upkeep of the State, subsidies to various businesses. Such policies amount to what is termed “state-capitalism.” Such aims from the Left differ little if any from those of the most confused and vague of the reformists. Programmes and policies are proposed in numerous platforms and soon become Holy Writ, as the accepted formula for social progress. Yet without discovering for ourselves what our aims really are, without defining them so that they may be understood by others, how shall we work for them, how shall we sow the seed that shall create a movement to achieve them? There is no hopeful vision of the new life socialism is meant to usher in.

Our goal is socialism and it is not a Party affair. It is a theory of social organisation. It is where property is held in common; in which the community produces, by conscious aim, sufficient to supply the needs of all its members; in which there is no trading, money, wages, or any direct reward for services rendered. It aims at the abolition of the State. It emphasises the interdependence of all members of the community and the need that the common storehouse and services to provide an insurance against want for every individual. We aim at the common storehouse, not the individual hoard. We desire that the common storehouse shall bulge with plenty, and whilst the common storehouse is supplied we insist that none shall go without. Let us produce in abundance; let us secure plenty for all; let us find pleasure in producing in lavish measure, plenty for all - in material comfort, in art, in learning, in leisure. In the socialist society at which we aim, all will share the productive work of the community and all will take a part in organising that work. Under capitalism the masses are as a flock of sheep driven by their owners. Socialism, on the contrary, there will be free co-operators, producing, inventing, studying, not under the compulsion of law, or poverty, or the incentive of individual gain, but from deliberate choice and with an eager zest for achievement. Socialism will provide the material and spiritual conditions which will make voluntary co-operative labour possible. Only by willing service and intelligent initiative can a true socialist society develop.

With socialism, all shall satisfy their material needs without stint or measure from the common storehouse, according to their desires. Everyone will be able to have what he or she desires in food, in clothing, books, music, education and travel facilities. The abundant production now possible, and which invention will constantly facilitate, will remove any need for rationing or limiting of consumption. Every person, relying on the great common production, will be secure from material want and anxiety. There will be no class distinctions for all such distinctions will be swept away. The desire for freedom will be tempered by the sense of responsibility towards the commonweal, which will provide security for all. Co-operation for the common good is necessary, but freedom, not domination, is the goal. 

There will be neither rich nor poor. Money will no longer exist, and none will desire to hoard commodities not in use, since a fresh supply may be obtained at will. There will be no selling, because there will be no buyers, since everyone will be able to obtain everything at will, without payment. The possession of private property, beyond that which is in actual personal use, will disappear. 

There will be neither masters nor servants, all being in a position of economic equality -- no individual will be able to become the employer of another. Stealing, forgery, burglary, and all economic crimes will disappear, with all the objectionable apparatus for preventing, detecting and punishing them. 

Compulsion of any kind is repugnant to the socialist ideal. No-one may make a wage-slave of another; no-one may hoard up goods for him or herself that he or she does not require and cannot use; but the only way to prevent such practices is not by making them punishable; it is by creating a society in which no-one needs to become a wage slave, and no-one cares to be cumbered with a private hoard of goods when all that needs is readily supplied as required from the common storehouse. 

Prostitution will become extinct; it is a commercial transaction, dependent upon the economic need of the prostitute and the customer's power to pay. Sexual partnerships will no longer be based upon material conditions, but will be freely contracted on the basis of affection and mutual attraction. 

With the disappearance of the desperate struggle for mere existence, which saps the energy and cripples initiative, a new vigour, a new independence will develop. People will have more courage to desire freedom, greater determination to possess it. They will be more exacting in their demands upon life, more fastidious as to their choice of a vocation. They will wish to work at what they enjoy, to order their lives as they desire. Work will be generally enjoyed as never before in the history of mankind. 

In these days of great populations with varied needs and desires, people should not be willing to return to an earlier stage of evolution at which every individual or family made its own house, clothing, tools, and cultivated its own small-holding. By discarding useless toil, we desire and expect to see, many workers co-operating in coordinated endeavours. The complicated and complex network of manufacturing and transport are dependent on the worldwide cooperative efforts of incalculable numbers of people. It is probable that developments in new technology and future inventions, will render less the requirement for resources and labour. Moreover, the influence of profit-making being eliminated, the unhealthy urbanisation of people will be checked. Nevertheless for at least a very long time, the large-scale production by many inter-linked workers, will remain a necessary condition of maintaining both plenty and leisure for all.

In order to promote initiative of the individual, as well as for the welfare of the collectivity we emphasise the need for the autonomous workers and neighbourhood councils, co-ordinated along the lines of production, distribution and transport. Everything has to be reorganised and built up on a new basis; production for use, not for profit.

Collated and adapted from various writings of Sylvia Pankhurst