Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

The capitalist class or bourgeoisie is that class whose members own the means of production and obtain their income by means of the exploitation of those they employ. The working class is that class whose members do not own any means of production, but whose subsistence comes from the sale of their labour-power.

The working class is essential for far-reaching social change to put an end to the political, economic and social power of the capitalist class. The  Government is in its social and historical character an instrument for the crushing down and exploitation of the labouring classes; at home and abroad it serves the interests of capitalism. Resistance to capitalism is growing among working people albeit in an unorganised manner. Yet too many workers view the present capitalist system and its government as the way to provide reforms to better the lives of working people. There is no solution for the working class under capitalism–only wage-slavery and oppression. There is only one road to socialism and it is the road of the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Through education and study, we are aiming to reinforce and consolidate the working class’s revolutionary core.

 

We gain nothing from changing the government in power, from throwing out one old set of bandits and voting in a new set of robbers. It’s not the government, the Prime Minister or the Cabinet that we must change but the capitalist system itself. This means not defeating one or two of the bourgeois parties but overcoming the whole capitalist apparatus. According to the media moguls, the ideas of the socialist movement are outdated and obsolete because we now live in a Welfare State but facts speak louder than words. Marx’s description in Capital remains valid:

“In proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse... Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole.”

That is the real conditions in capitalist society everywhere today. That is why we need an ever stronger socialist movement with a clearly defined goal, to end the system of exploitation by capitalism, with its wars and economic crises, its enslavement of the wage-workers, and to replace it with the socialist society.

 

Scottish or Welsh independence would not bring us any closer to getting rid of capitalist oppression and exploitation. Instead, it would divide the working class against its main enemy, the British bourgeoisie and it would weaken the struggle for socialism all across the world. Nationalism would hold back and retard our struggle. A divided working class makes for much easier prey for the capitalist hyenas. This is why we say that independence movements are not in the best interests of the working class. We say that the struggle we must take up is not for national sovereignty but the struggle for the socialist revolution to liberate us from the chains of capitalist exploitation. We seek to build a socialist society.