Joseph Dietzgen, in his philosophical works, has demonstrated the fact that all of man’s ideas come from the outside—that no thought ever sprang spontaneous in the human brain. In other words—human thoughts, human ideas, spring from human contacts and experiences with the physical universe about us. Man’s ability to think—his consciousness—the thing we call the "Ego"—the mind—is a natural development. According to Dietzgen, "human thoughts and ideas spring from human experiences." Similar experiences produce similar ideas. History furnishes us with many instances of great popular and class movements which concertedly move towards some definite goal, having discovered those similarities of experience and their common ground. Mankind is a product of its environment; and that its collective thoughts and ideas are generated by contacts and experiences with the world around it.
The wages system is, in essence, another form of servitude. Free trade—free competition in buying and selling commodities—is the basic principle of the Capitalist system of exchange of private property, and it is but natural that the labor-power of the working class should also be regarded as a commodity. In fact, it is inevitable that, under a system of production for profit, labour-power should take on such a character and that it should be bought and sold in the open market according to the law of supply and demand of commodities. Nor is it surprising that in a competitive market, where the seller with the greatest necessity for cash fixes the market price, the price of labour-power should always tend to sink to the level of a bare subsistence for the workers; and that those workers with the ability to exist at the lowest standard of living should dictate the terms on which the others may also continue to exist. The whole tendency of the wage system has been to drag all the workers down to the same poverty.
The associated producers collectively organise and manages production and is itself responsible for overseeing the labour process. This is self-organisation, This is self-management.
“… by far the most important decree of the Commune instituted an organization of large-scale industry and even of manufacture which was to not only be based on the association of the workers in each factory, but also to combine all these associations in one great union; in short, an organization which, as Marx quite rightly says in The Civil War, must necessarily have led in the end to communism.” (Engels, Preface to The Civil War in France).
We, the workers, who operate the productive apparatus that has been bequeathed to us by capitalism will strip away all State power. We shall reduce the role of public officials and civil servants to that of mere executors of our directions, responsible to recallable by the workplace or community. We want every person engaged in industry to have a voice in making the rules under which they must work. In socialism the workers would elect their own administrators, regulate their hours of work and determine the conditions under which work would be carried on. We may be sure that when this power is arrived at, the work-places will be arranged according to wishes of the workers and all disagreeable pollution and noise eliminated, and with every precaution taken against accidents. In other words, under Socialism the workers would have absolute freedom in the economic sphere in place of the present absolute servitude.
The economic emancipation of the working class requires a political revolution, the conquering of state power. Workers have not yet awakened to independent political activity. The pro-capitalist parties simply want the workers to be voting fodder in elections and servile camp-followers. They seek to keep the workers politically subservient.
The Socialist Party emphasises the need of economic freedom, for it is the basis of all freedoms. There can be no liberty in economic dependence. Freedom will become the heritage of all as soon as socialism is realised. True liberty and freedom can only be attained in the cooperative commonwealth.
So long as the worker is deprived of ownership in the means of production, so long as labour-power is a commodity which he or she is obliged to sell to another, a person is not free but simply a slave to a master. The worker today, then, is a slave, bound by the pressure of economic need to compulsory servitude under capitalist masters, obliged to sell one’s liberties in exchange for the means of subsistence. We live under the greatest tyranny of all — the tyranny of want. By this lash men and women are driven to work long hours and in despicable occupations and to live in slums.
With new technology and the scientific organisation of industry, eliminating all the wastes of the present system, two or three hours a day would suffice to supply all the comforts and even luxuries of life. This would secure to the worker the leisure necessary to to develop skills and talents.
"If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself." - Joseph Dietzgen
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