Revolution – Our Only Future

The social outlook or philosophy of the capitalist group is the ownership and control of the resources of the means of life, guaranteeing them huge profits and income at all times. The working class must make its stand against the capitalist system – whose lust for profits and interest, for investments, markets and expanded capital, for raw materials and cheap exploitable labour, can mean only exploitation and abject slavery. Capital is simply money and commodities assigned to create a profit and be reinvested.

 Profit is made by the "magical" addition of surplus value to the value inherent in the product. The "added value," the profit, is produced by workers.

And this capital is born to expand or die. The value of a commodity comes from the labour invested in it, including the labour that manufactured the machinery and extracted the raw materials used to create the item. And the boss' profits do not come from his smarts or his capital investment or his mark-up, but from the value created by labour - specifically, surplus-value.

Surplus value derives from unpaid wages. The worker is never paid for the value of the product, only for the value of her or his labour time, which is considerably less, and which meanders widely depending upon the historical, cultural and social conditions of a country.

Labour-power is miraculous, like the Virgin Birth. You get more out of it than you put in. Workers produce a commodity which has more value than what they get in wages to keep them functioning. This differential is surplus value, which is the source of capital. The secret of value, the labour theory of value, that was unearthed by the classical economists and by Marx is what the money barons fear and hate. It is the secret that will set the world free.

Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all. That's a fact. We can’t move forward step by step by winning better wages. There’s only one way and that’s by getting rid of the whole source of these problems, the system of capitalism, that we can build a new society run by and for the working people. The insane profit system of production for profit can no more guarantee the end of exploitation and misery than water can run uphill.

That wealth exists in abundance in this world is well known. But the distribution of this wealth proceeds according to the social relations of society. These are capitalist relations, resting upon the capitalist ownership and control of the means of production. In the plans of Corbyn or Sanders these relations would remain, only the wealth would be redistributed by cutting down on the big fortunes and adding to the small ones or giving to those that have none. But this is impossible under capitalism since the ownership and control of the means of production determines the form of distribution of all wealth. So far this has meant and can only mean ever greater riches for the parasites and ever greater impoverishment for those who toil, who have nothing but their labour power to sell – and to sell only when the bosses see fit to buy. What is the cause of this condition; what is the cause of this unequal distribution of wealth? The cause is to be found in the ownership and control of the means of production. This system secures the right to exploit labour by leaving in the hands of the capitalist class also the ownership of the surplus value produced by the labourer over and above what he receives as wages. This is how profits are acquired. Moreover, under the conditions of mass production, and in order to continue the process of production. In other words, sufficient only for their bare upkeep when they have jobs. Of course, the abundance of wealth available could easily guarantee to each family, as progressives proposes. But this is equally impossible under the profit system and it can be obtained only when the profit system is abolished. Corbyn and Sanders proclaim the redistribution of wealth; but they are equally vociferous in defending the maintenance of the present social relationship. Both assume the continuation of the right to exploitation, however, with an increase of the purchasing power of the masses so that returns to shareholders in the form of unearned incomes may continue; so that dividends on stocks may be paid and the now of profits taken out of the exploitation of labour may proceed uninterrupted. There are no other sources for profits to come from. What is this but the stabilisation of the system of exploitation? To stabilise the system of exploitation means to stabilise the economic power of the class that owns and controls the means of production.

 Furthermore, it is well to remember that political relations are governed by this economic power which is another way of saying that those who own are also those who rule. They use their economic power to build up their political state, to build up their government and to reinforce it by courts, by police and by military forces, always ready to be used against the workers when on strike or in other forms of struggle and on a whole serving for the purpose of keeping the masses in subjection. This government, Corbyn and Sanders proposes to entrust with the redistribution of wealth. They will not even permit the workers to organise into unions so as to obtain a living wage without the most stubborn resistance. They will not yield their economic power, as represented by their accumulated wealth, or give up their privilege to exploit labour without a life and death struggle. Nay, more, they use this economic power to determine who can be elected to the public offices and to dictate the policies of the government elected and the implementation of policies. A real redistribution of wealth can be carried out in no other way than by the overthrow of the system of capitalism. Only the working class revolution can accomplish that.