“All I want is freedom for my country, happiness, peace and prosperity."
A refrain, with variations, that we have heard unceasingly over the centuries. The Socialist Party has not been duped by such sentiments of national independence
Freedom: In capitalist society means the right of the vast majority to be propertyless wage workers producing wealth to be sold on a market with a view to profit.
My country: The countries of the world are owned by a privileged minority. The working class has problems and interests that are produced by capitalism and not by the existence of national barriers.
Prosperity: All workers are poor, and some are destitute. A prosperous working class is a contradiction in terms. Capitalism is as incapable of producing a working class that is prosperous as it is of producing a government that is popular.
Peace: Even if the shooting stopped the class war would remain, that is the struggle which goes on all the time over the ownership of the wealth of society, whether it be in a so-called “United" Ireland, the “United" States, the “United" Kingdom, the “United” Arab Republic. Russia, Africa, in fact wherever capitalism is the predominating form of society.
To appeal to any national group of capitalists for disarmament, to give up their only defence against their like-minded predatory neighbours and against the workers from whose robbery the privileged position of the capitalist class arises, is to ask them to commit suicide, and will naturally be given the amount of consideration such a proposal would deserve. Is it to be expected that our capitalist rulers, armed to the teeth to defend their private property, will scrap their armaments and voluntarily sacrifice their hold on the world's wealth merely in response to muddle-headed reformers?
Only when all the resources of the earth, natural and man-made, are owned in common by all the people of the world can they be used in a rational way – to provide an abundance of goods and services which people can take and use freely as and when they need to.
The Socialist Party has always contended that capitalism should be abolished because it mismanaged the means of production so that a very few – those who own the means of production – reaped great profits while the masses of the people were deprived of a secure standard of living. Also, we would often prove this assertion by demonstrating the tremendous capacities which modern technology has; how it could satisfy the needs of everyone if it were run for that purpose; and how capitalism, instead, ran the industrial machine for profits.
Look, the Socialist Party would say, if only the people could run these industries themselves, they could produce enough to satisfy everyone’s needs. It remains the great and tragic paradox of our age – poverty in the midst of plenty. The primary interest of the capitalist, we have said, is profit. Capitalism is a wasteful and inefficient system. Socialism could plan better, and provide the people with all necessities. Socialism could take the vast resources which are available and use them for constructive purposes. In place of capitalism could arise a new society of peace and plenty. That is why socialism is the burning need of the hour. Capitalists are interested in production for profit, and socialists in production for use. Capitalism is based upon a constantly increasing exploitation of labour, in order to maintain its profit; workers constantly resist this exploitation. There is and can be no such thing as a “fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” inasmuch as wages are the payment for only one part of the day’s work, the other part of which the worker is compelled to contribute to the employer in the form of surplus-value, or profit. Capital always seeks to increase its profits, which can be done only by exploiting labour; labour always seeks to resist exploitation, which can be done only at the expense of profits. These are fundamental economic facts. Under capitalism, nothing that all the capitalists or the whole government will ever do can succeed in wiping out these facts.
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