Knowledge is Power

 Visitors to this blog will have understood that we attach great importance to fellow workers having a knowledge of some basic socialist principles and being able to apply them to the questions of the day. We hold that is how socialists are made, education, and is the only way.  This requires a certain amount of study, but it is well within the reach of our fellow workers.

The examination of economics and politics from the working-class viewpoint is not only interesting in itself but it touches at every point on the actual conditions of the life of the working class. That is to say, it is a study that, so far from being divorced from action, leads directly to the adoption of policies in line with our own economic interests. Knowledge of socialism influences the everyday thoughts and actions of the socialist, enables him or her to understand and appreciate at the true value of the social forces and gives confidence which is indispensable for the organisation of the working class, the conquest of the powers of government, and the building up of socialism.

 

Through this blog, socialist principles have been applied to current problems, every aspect of capitalism has been explained, every policy presented to the workers has been criticised and its value assessed, every anti-working-class party has been exposed. Hundreds of well-informed articles have made accessible useful knowledge from almost every field of study, and hundreds of questions have been answered. The blog carries a record of the past history of working-class movements, packed with invaluable information on their failures and on the false theories and policies which made failure inevitable.   It is no exaggeration to say that there is no other comparable source to which the worker with limited leisure and means can go for reliable guidance in the study of social problems.

Socialists argue that human behaviour arises from the way society is organised. People’s attitudes and actions reflect the social relationships they form to produce wealth. Thus, for instance, from the Marxist standpoint, war arises from the struggle for profits and can be abolished when capitalism (the system of profits) is removed.

The capitalist class and their story-tellers cannot accept such a proposition. War for them is something apart from society, which arises from the brutal and selfish nature of man. In order to give their system an air of permanence, they have to concoct myths about men being naturally greedy and war-like so that all the violence and inhumanity can be accepted without endangering capitalism.

Modern capitalism with its hideous means of mass destruction and its ever-increasing contradiction between wealth and want can only be understood when seen as a period of history, a phase which because of its own internal contradictions, will be superseded by socialism. Here it is important to understand that Marxism does not envisage blind or abstract “contradictions” changing society by themselves. We are talking of men in society and the consciousness they develop of and in society. It is the working class whose worldwide majority consciousness and democratic political action will abolish capitalism.

Marxian economics shows that the whole structure of capitalism rests upon the exploitation of wage-labour, not the quest to “allocate scarce resources” as taught to unwary students today. The further economists get away from this fact and concentrate exclusively on “inflationary spirals”, share-price movements, and the like, the more mysterious capitalism seems to become.

Economics then appears as a subject for academic study in order to try to manipulate and stabilise the trends in this crisis-ridden system. The actual mechanics of the wage-labour and capital basis, are taken as natural. It all becomes a question of adjustments and regulation. The idea of getting rid of this base is not even considered.

 

Profits are the mainspring of capitalism. When profits clash with human interest, it is profits that come out best. It might be thought that sometimes profits retreat and human interest prevails. But the class which lives from profits knows that it can be damaging to its long-term interests if the profit motive falls into disrepute and that it is wise to appear to concede a point and survive for greater plunder another day.

The capitalist class and its political servants are well aware of the public relations aspects of their system. A gloss has to be applied, and the myth has to be maintained, that the big business edifice of modern capitalism is there to supply and serve us. The consumer is supreme. This is the blatant humbug dished up in the name of economic theory by the “learned” pundits whose unsavoury task is to justify capitalism.

 

The fact that most consumers are members of the working class, who spend their lives ekeing out their wages, is played down. Where are the modern capitalist economists who regard the wages system as a barrier, restricting the distribution of wealth to what it takes on average to maintain the wage earner in working order and provide replacements? They are so buried in a morass of market trends, charts and diagrams, and so bewildered by their own complex terminology, that they spare hardly a thought for the quality of life in terms of what is consumed.

The economists would have us believe that what is good for capitalism and its profits, is good enough for all of us. Another of their myths is that there is a ‘national interest’ and we are all in it together. Unfortunately for them, capitalism the world over abounds with examples of the antagonism between wage-labour and capitalism, and of profits having priority over human beings.

 

No wonder the politicians use glib phrases. To sound lofty is the best they can hope for. If the intricate workings of capitalism bamboozle the “experts”, what can ordinary workers do except abandon themselves to their fate? This is another subtle ploy of the ruling class. The workers must always be discouraged from thinking that they themselves can affect a solution. No matter how rife the chaos and the turmoil, our lives are in the safe hands of those who know what is best for us —even if they do disagree among themselves and constantly contradict each other.