Politics is about power. In capitalism most of the power is in the hands of Big Business. To educate, agitate and organise for workers’ power for that’s what socialism intends. We acknowledge that the bosses are richer and more powerful than ever and we are no nearer a democratic, humane, class-free society. One reason is the prevalence of the lesser evil argument, that better half a loaf than no bread. Nothing fundamental can be disturbed.
Socialism is not some Utopia. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism which will bring social ownership of social production. Under capitalism, the capitalists own the means of production. Workers are forced to sell their labour power and the capitalist exploits and oppresses them. With socialism, the means of production are owned in common by society as a whole.
The present system is a capitalist system. This means that the world is divided up into two opposing camps, the camp of a small handful of capitalists and the camp of the majority—the workers who work day and night, nevertheless they remain poor. The capitalists need not work to be rich. This takes place not because working people are unintelligent and the capitalists are geniuses, but because the capitalists appropriate the fruits of the labour of the working class, because the capitalists exploit them.
The capitalist system is based on commodity production: here everything assumes the form of a commodity, everywhere the principle of buying and selling prevails. Here you can buy not only articles of consumption, not only food products, but also the labour power of men, their blood and their consciences. The capitalists know all this and purchase the labour power of workers, they hire them. This means that the capitalists become the owners of the labour power they buy. Working people, however, lose their right to the labour power which they have sold. That is to say, what is produced by that labour power no longer belongs to the proletarians, it belongs only to the capitalists and goes into their pockets. The labour power which you have sold may produce in the course of a day goods to the value of 100 pounds, but that is not your business, those goods do not belong to you, it is the business only of the capitalists, and the goods belong to them—all that you are due to receive is your daily wage which, perhaps, may be sufficient to satisfy your essential needs if, of course, you live frugally. Briefly: the capitalists buy the labour power of the proletarians, they hire the proletarians, and this is precisely why the capitalists appropriate the fruits of the labour of the proletarians, this is precisely why the capitalists exploit the proletarians and not vice versa. The principal basis of the capitalist system is the private ownership of the instruments and means of production. Because the factories, mills, the land and minerals, the forests, the railways, machines and other means of production have become the private property of a small handful of capitalists. Because the workers lack all this. That is why the capitalists hire employees to keep the factories and mills going—if they did not do that their instruments and means of production would yield no profit. That is why the working class sell their labour power to the capitalists—if they did not, they would suffer poverty.
Socialists deny that government can be equally sensitive and receptive to the interests and needs of all classes. The more the wealth of society as state property increases, the greater is the exploitation of the wage-workers, and the more powerless they are. With the wealth of society as state property, there increases also the impoverishment of the wage-workers; its necessary consequence is the class struggle between wage-workers and state bureaucracy. The richer the State, the greater the poverty of the workers and the sharper the class struggle. The workers are dispossessed, each day anew, when they perform labour; and, in fact, by way of the State, the general proprietor, which appropriates the products of labour. The state is the proprietor, the administrator of the social wealth. The State as the single entrepreneur is nothing other than such a conglomeration of all administrative organs of private ownership.
Future society will be built on an entirely different basis. Future society will be socialist society. This means primarily, that there will be no classes in that society; there will be neither capitalists nor proletarians and, consequently, there will be no exploitation. In that society there will be only workers engaged in collective labour. Future society will be socialist society. This means also that, with the abolition of exploitation commodity production and buying and selling will also be abolished and, therefore, there will be no room for buyers and sellers of labour power, for employers and employed— there will be only free workers. Future society will be socialist society. This means, lastly, that in that society the abolition of wage-labour will be accompanied by the complete abolition of the private ownership of the instruments and means of production; there will be neither poor proletarians nor rich capitalists—there will be only workers who collectively own all the land and minerals, all the forests, all the factories and mills, all the railways, etc.
As you see, the main purpose of production in the future will be to satisfy the needs of society and not to produce goods for sale in order to increase the profits of the capitalists. Where there will be no room for commodity production, struggle for profits, etc. It is also clear that future production will be socially organised, highly developed production, which will take into account the needs of society and will produce as much as society needs. Here there will be no room whether for scattered production, competition, crises, or unemployment.
Where there are no classes, where there are neither rich nor poor, there is no need for a State, there is no need either for political power, which oppresses the poor and protects the rich. Consequently, in socialist society there will be no need for the existence of political power. Free and voluntary labour should result in an equally comradely, and complete, satisfaction of all needs in the future socialist society. This means that if future society demands from each of its members as much labour as he can perform, it, in its turn, must provide each member with all the products he needs. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!—such is the basis upon which the future collectivist system must be created. It goes without saying that in the first stage of socialism, when elements who have not yet grown accustomed to work are being drawn into the new way of life, when the productive forces also will not yet have been sufficiently developed and there will still be "dirty" and "clean" work to do, the application of the principle: "to each according to his needs," will undoubtedly be greatly hindered and, as a consequence, society will be obliged temporarily to take some other path, a middle path. But it is also clear that when future society runs into its groove, when the survivals of capitalism will have been eradicated, the only principle that will conform to socialist society will be the one pointed out above. It is self-evident that for the purpose of administering public affairs there will have to be in socialist society, in addition to local offices which will collect all sorts of information, a central statistical bureau, which will collect information about the needs of the whole of society, and then distribute the various kinds of work among the working people accordingly. It will also be necessary to hold conferences, the decisions of which will certainly be binding upon the comrades in the minority until the next congress is held.
Socialist society presupposes an adequate development of productive forces and socialist consciousness. At the present time the development of productive forces is hindered by the existence of capitalist property, but if we bear in mind that this capitalist property will not exist in future society, it is self-evident that the productive forces will increase tenfold. Nor must it be forgotten that in future society the current-day parasites, and also the unemployed, will go to work and augment the work-force; and this will greatly stimulate the development of the productive forces. As regards mankind's supposed aggressive sentiments, these are not as eternal as some people imagine; there was a time when mankind did not recognise private property; there came a time, the time of individualistic production, when private property dominated the hearts and minds of men; a new time is coming, the time of socialist production—will it be surprising if the hearts and minds of men become imbued with socialist strivings?
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