There can be no peace in the global capitalist system that feeds on wars of acquisition. Earth has a limited amount of territory, forcing capitalists to war over who will dominate what patch of it. The stakes are high. Domination means profit, and profit becomes the power to dominate and acquire even more profit. The wealthy rarely die in wars. Working people in all nations pay the price. They suffer and die as combatants, as bystanders, as refugees, and as victims of the economic disruption and environmental destruction caused by war. They suffer and die as wealth that could be used to end poverty, prevent disease, restore the environment, and address climate change is lavished on the military instead. It is dishonest and hypocritical to call for an end to war while taking sides in that war, especially the side of your own rulers. War insanity has taken hold, turning normally peace-loving people into war-mongers. War is a horrible thing that always harms citizens. No matter who wins wars, workers always lose.
Class inequality increases over time because employers pay workers less than the value of what they produce. However, this exploitative relationship is hidden by the lies that a) employers create jobs and b) workers are lucky to have them. In fact, labour creates all wealth, and capitalists are lucky that workers keep producing it for them. Only employers benefit when workers are divided. The differences in wages and benefits between various sections of the working class go to the employers. When workers unite, they raise the living standards of all workers.
The purpose of pitting workers against one another is to prevent that unity. Lies are also used to divide workers. We are taught that workers who are better off have benefited at the expense of workers who are worse off — that men benefit from the oppression of women, that Whites benefit from the oppression of Blacks, that straights benefit from the oppression of gays, that workers in richer nations benefit from the exploitation of workers in poorer nations, and so on. If this were true, then class solidarity would be impossible. Fortunately, it is not true at all. Workers join unions to put more bread on the table.
The power of every union lies in the collective strength of its members. Workers need unions. Unionised workers are more likely to have medical coverage, pension benefits, and protection from sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal. Unions also raise living standards. Areas with more unions offer higher wages, higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, better education, and less poverty.
The Socialist Party approach every problem from the perspective that there are two social classes, and what benefits the one harms the other. For capitalists to accumulate capital, they must deny ordinary people any meaningful control over their work, their lives, or the direction of society. It’s a huge challenge to trap a highly social species in such a dehumanising social arrangement. Capitalists must block workers from taking collective control, insist that their suffering is their own fault, promote ineffective solutions, and treat all protest as criminal or pathological. Force alone is insufficient. Workers vastly outnumber capitalists, are intelligent problem-solvers, and run the machinery of society. They must be systematically bamboozled into resigning themselves to capitalist rule.
Psychology serves to solicit and police this resignation with the message, “Accept what is, and we will help you build a bubble in which you can function.” Socialism examines society from a class-struggle perspective. Psychology examines society from an individual perspective. Socialism aims to transform human experience through social revolution. Psychology strives to adapt individuals to capitalism as an alternative to social revolution.
Capitalists understand reality. They know there are two classes, and what benefits the one hurts the other. If they allowed the majority to share that understanding, then workers would have no reason to tolerate capitalist rule and every reason to replace it with international cooperation.
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