Free Ourselves From Capitalism

Money makes money only because labour-power, bought and sold for money, creates a value greater than its own. It does this by transforming the raw materials, by means of the machinery provided, into articles of consumption; thus preserving their value and adding further value to them at the same time. The process does not end with the bare re-production of their wages by the workers. It goes on in order that they may produce profit. Hence, the struggle between the workers (who are not interested in the production of profit) and their masters (who are) arises from the conditions of production under Capitalism.

When the means of production have been converted into the common property of society they will have lost their capitalistic character. They will be used for the common good instead of being instruments of exploitation.

Capitalism has made possible an abundant production of the things we need, but its insatiable greed for profit has converted the producers into little more than beasts of burden, disease ridden and with twisted minds and bodies. It is rotten at the root and has soiled, the lives of people wherever it has raised its ugly head. But it has one merit. By bringing each section of the earth into a unified system, producing a wealth of articles for the world at large, it has prepared the ground for a new social system — Socialism— under which the means of production will be owned in common. The future is promising for the spread of socialist ideas. The restrictions that at present hamper propaganda will have to be lifted, whatever may be the desires or intentions of our social rulers, because a pot that is left on the fire indefinitely will inevitably burst. The new year which we hare just entered should witness considerable progress towards our socialist objective, and it behoves all who sympathise with our outlook to do what they can to “shorten and lessen the birth pangs" of the new social system.

Working people are the foundation of society. Our labour makes social life possible. Without our labour there would not be any social life. We are the producers of all values. All the wealth you see around you on this planet is the result of labour. Do you own the wealth which you produce? No, you do not. You have built up an aristocracy of wealth consisting of parasites of society, and you, the wealth-producers live under wage slavery, in poverty and misery. We are the fundamental power of society, and we don’t seem to know it. We imagine that we are free, while in fact we are enslaved. The man who owns the means of production, controls our life. We are dependent on our employer for a job, and for you the job means a chance at life. Consequently, the class of men who own the means of production own our very existence.

We have been asleep while the 1% have accumulated billions of dollars of wealth, which represents the stolen products of the working class. We elect the same political parties into power whose mission it is today to protect and advance the class interests of capitalism. The politicians flatter us right up to election day and after the election they despise us and our unions. Every true unionist must admit the justice and truth and necessity of socialism, and consequently also the necessity of the Socialist Party. It can no longer be a simple fight for a pay increase; it has become a question whether or not the workers shall take possession of all the wealth created by labour or whether this wealth shall remain the privileged monopoly of the class of social parasites who never do an honest day’s work.

 Be men and women who do their own thinking. Under the present system of society you are being robbed whether you receive higher or lower wages, because the wage system is based on legalised robbery. Fight for the freedom of your own class and join the working class party, which is the Socialist Party. Every person should remember that by voting for the parties of capitalism we help to perpetuate wage slavery, we strengthen the fetters of hard toil and misery. The political powers of capitalism are organised against you. It is for you to organise under the banner of socialism and the Socialist Party and fight the battles of your own emancipation.