When Labour Calls (music)

 

Production without profit

 

The World Socialist Movement is loath to draw up blueprints of the future. It would be undemocratic for a handful of us now without access to the exact details of available resources and conditions to try and draw up rigid plans. We also recognise that there may not be one single way of doing things, and precise details and ways of doing things might vary from one part of the world to another, even between neighbouring communities. Of course, we can reach logical conclusions based on basic premises and can outline broad principles or options that could be applied. That is, we do not have to draw up a detailed plan for socialism, but broadly demonstrate that it is possible.

The working class will be able to make use of some of the existing institutions of capitalism in order to indicate the democratic decision to set up socialism. The WSM urges workers to elect socialist delegates in local and national elections, not simply as a propaganda exercise, but in order to gain democratic control over the machinery of the state. The growth of the desire for socialism can practically and effectively be demonstrated via the ballot box. In most capitalist countries this “democratic machinery” does exist, at least in constitutional theory. What is lacking is a working class which has decided to use constitutional democracy for the purpose of creating socialism. Where democratic facilities do not exist, it is the message of the WSM is that workers must combine their struggles for such rights with a political struggle for socialism.

What distinguishes the World Socialist Movement is that when we talk of common ownership we do not just include the means of production, but also, specifically, call for the common and democratic control of the means of distribution. Equal access to the common store without the requirement of exchange or payment is one of the things we consider to be the hallmark of genuine socialism. How would common ownership and democratic control work in practice? Without a price mechanism, some critics do not understand how signals can pass from the user to the producer or how decisions about production can be made. Yet such non-market systems already exist even within capitalism and a study of these can give useful insights into the practical operation of a socialist production and distribution system.

Socialism will have a number of advantages.

Firstly, the really great difference will be that instead of functioning in a dehumanised way as objects of exploitation within the wages system generating profit and capital accumulation for their exploiters, people will be freely cooperating with each other to do what was necessary for the community. The whole method of organisation would be through democratic control. People will decide what must be done and they will be free to get on with it solely for the benefit of everyone.

Secondly, socialism will remove vast amounts of waste. That capitalism is a society of fantastic waste was put very well by Marx:

“The capitalist mode of production, while on the one hand enforcing economy in each individual business, begets by its anarchical system of competition, the most outrageous squandering of labour power and of the social means of production. not to mention the creation of a vast number of employments, at present indispensable. but in themselves superfluous.” (Capital,Volume I. chapter 17. section 4).

The precise amount of labour that would become available for useful production in socialism is very difficult to judge but, at a rough estimate, it is likely that socialism could double the number of people available for this. The waste in terms of mining, manufacture, transport and energy supply that goes into the war machine and to servicing activities like insurance, finance and banking could be diverted into useful production, reducing the amount by which total production would need to be increased.

A third important advantage that socialism would enjoy would be the freedom to select and use production methods strictly on their merits. It would not matter that a desirable method might use more labour than an undesirable one. The selection and use of production methods will be free to take into account a broad range of needs, including the enjoyment of work itself, care of the environment, conservation of materials, social safety and animal welfare.

The fourth advantage that socialism would enjoy is that it will be free to use the planet as a single productive unit. This will follow from the establishment of a common interest amongst all peoples, and it will tend to make for a safer and more rational use of the Earth’s resources.

The socialist goal is a steady-state system, a society of zero growth with a fixed structure of means of production producing stable levels of goods for stable numbers of people; a conservation society which could work with a minimum loss of natural materials through things like recycling: a society where, because people will live in cooperation with each other, they will also be able to work in cooperation and harmony with the natural systems of the planet, and where the focus of social life will be mainly with the local community.

O Slaves of Toil (music)

 

On with the Revolution

 

Poverty is not a disease imposed by nature; it is not due to a shortage of wealth but to the way in which wealth is distributed. It is born out of particular social conditions and its existence to-day is due immediately to the way in which wealth is distributed. The way in which wealth is distributed depends upon the method of production, so this is the fundamental cause of poverty. To-day wealth is produced by means of privately owned means of production (land, machinery, and so on), consequently, the wealth produced belongs to those who own the means of production. The workers work upon and operate the means of production but they do not own a fraction of the wealth produced. The economic evils that exist are caused solely by the fact that the means of production belong to private individuals and not to the whole people. The only solution of these evils is to change the basis of society; transfer the means of production from the hands of private individuals to the whole of society—change private ownership of these things into social ownership. That is socialism.

If the means of production and distribution are owned in common by the whole of society and used to meet the needs of the whole of society the necessary measures to be taken to allocate resources would be comparatively simple.The working class will be able to make use of some of the existing institutions of capitalism in order to indicate the democratic decision to set up socialism. In this country, it will make use of the elaborate parliamentary machine, together with the various forces of the state that it controls.

Assume that the majority of society has elected to make revolutionary change. What would happen?

First, it would be necessary to —

1. Ascertain the needs of the population.

2. The means available to satisfy these needs.

3. The labour required to do the necessary work.

1. It would be necessary to divide the country up into areas according to the distribution of the population, and to find out the kind and amount of goods required for different areas. The skeleton of such an organisation already exists to-day in the form of city and county councils.

It would only be a question of compiling different kinds of statistics from those which are compiled to-day. The main things we require are food, housing, health and education.

2. The means available to satisfy the above needs would be again a question of compiling statistics.

3. It would be necessary to find out the number of workers, the various kinds of skill and the distribution of the workers over the country.

 The vast amount of statistical work that is done at present and its nature show that the organisation for doing such work is already in existence and would be available.

Once having compiled and collected the statistics (a relatively simple matter) it would be necessary to distribute the work according to workers and resources and spread the work approximately equally over all so that more work would not be demanded from one than from another.

Individual countries are not a self-supporting country and that once dealings are entered into with people abroad complications would arise. Here it must be borne in mind that all over the world the degree of development in the important countries (those that would really matter) is roughly about the same. By the time the majority of the people in one particular country had arrived at the idea that socialism was desirable, the people in other countries would beshare the same view. While each country must settle its own social problem, yet each cannot do so without involving the world in its operations. Hence the international character of socialism.

Union Maids (video)

 

A Message of Hope

 

The socialist transformation of society entails the dispossession of the minority capitalist class of their ownership and control of the means of wealth production and distribution. All of their lands and factories, mines, media and transport will be taken away from them. The machinery of production will become the common property of society. In order for the capitalists to be dispossessed — or "the expropriators to be expropriated", as Marx put it — there is one prerequisite. The working class, who produce all the wealth and constitute a majority of society, must be conscious of what they are doing. The dispossession of the capitalists cannot be carried out by politically ignorant workers, and nor can the task be performed for them by enlightened leaders. As the World Socialist Movement makes clear, the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves. 

Socialists will enter the state bodies as delegates, not representatives or political leaders. They will be accountable for every move to the socialist movement and their sole purpose in entering the state bodies will be to abolish ruling class power. They will formally enact the abolition of class ownership, and in doing so will express the wishes of millions who have voted for socialism and nothing less. 

It is crucial that the state, which controls the means of coercion including the police and armed forces, is not left in the hands of the capitalists it represents. But unlike previous contestants for state power, the working class will not seek to establish its own state: a workers' state or a socialist state.

 As Engels pointed out, the workers' conquest of state power will be the last act of the state. The state will be dismantled. Government over people will be replaced by the administration of things. A class-free society, which will exist the moment that the capitalists are dispossessed and the means of wealth production and distribution are commonly owned and democratically controlled must be a society without a state. The State, like other social institutions, has not existed for all eternity, the long era of primitive man’s existence knew it not, only the advent of property with consequent class subjections makes the State a necessity.

“The modern State is but an executive committee for administering the affairs of the whole bourgeois class.”— (Communist Manifesto.)

With the establishment of Socialism and the consequent abolition of classes and class oppression, the function of the State ceases, and its need is ended. Socialism and the State are therefore incompatible. 

The World Socialist Movement seeks through the self-interest of the workers to change the system because that system is run in the interest of those who are parasites in society. It urges the producers of wealth to gain comfort for themselves. Within the capitalist system, there are countless intellectuals laying claim to being the teachers of the working class. every library and bookshop is filled with their voluminous works, professing their deepest sympathy with the sufferings of that class. Our advice to our fellow workers in this age of political chicanery and academic charlatans is to trust none. The main force generated within that system and the human factor that must bring that change is the growing conscious discontent of the working class, who in order to achieve their emancipation must realise that the barrier of freedom and comfort for all stands in the present socially operated, but privately-owned means of life. The only possible alternative is social ownership, by which the evils of to-day will be removed and the communal form of society in which the human family was cradled for so many thousands of years restored.

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, working people learned that it was difficult to improve their condition by individual appeals to their employers. They also discovered that appeals to elected representatives went unheard. And so the men and women organised into trade unions to exercise their economic power in forcing the employers of labour to concede better working conditions, shorter hours or higher wages. The trade unions are organised for the expressed purpose of exercising the economic power possessed by the workers through the use of their hands or brains in operating and running industry.  Without the working class not one wheel would turn. There is no power in the world strong enough to oppose successfully the will of the organised, useful, productive working class when it is conscious of its class interests and determined to serve them. For it is only the people who work who carry folks around and feed them, and shelter to warm and clothe them, and take things to them. In spite of the innumerable battles between the employers and the workers and in spite of the steady gains made by labour, the workers have lost as many battles as they have won. In spite of increased wages and in spite of improved conditions, workers are still exploited. The workers have to be forever fighting to keep pace with the rising cost of living. The workers have to fight on the industrial field, with their fellow workers or sink lower and lower into utter degradation and despair. There is absolutely no way to avoid this fight. The only real hope for the working class is in the abolition of the wages system.

The Limerick Soviet (song)

 There was much more to the workers' history of Ireland than nationalism.

CAPITALISM – THE ENEMY OF HUMANITY

 

The highest aspiration of the Socialist Party is for the triumph of its cause. Our members' hopes are bright with the possibilities of the future commonwealth. Their ambitions are no longer individual, nor are their joys and sorrows. They are glad and downcast with the flow and ebb of the movement. We view events in their relation to the revolution; we ask of institutions whether they can assist or only obstruct it. The revolution is no one’s business but the workers'.

 In the perennial class struggle around conditions of livelihood, workers suffer defeat on defeat; worse, we combat one another. We allow ourselves to be divided on all manner of pretexts. We have not learned to unite even in defence of the meagre things we have. As to completely re-organising social life, we should end our masters' packing to produce and distribute by democratic arrangement—but it is never done. Claim and receive what we need from the common store lies outside our fellow-workers imagination. Such is the present state of mind of the working class whose mission it is to overthrow capitalism.

The Socialist Party may do one of two things: lead the workers or teach them. 

A political party by zeal and devotion may aim at acquiring a strong influence over the working class, so that when decisions are to be taken their advice will be asked and followed, relying for support on people who better understand socialism. In other words, activists may either act for their fellow-workers, making all efforts meanwhile to bring them into the party line. This method of leadership recommends itself to some because it appears at first sight to be the quicker.

On the other hand, the socialists may devote all their energies to education, assisting no reformist activity, but rather making clear the worthlessness of such endeavours, and the true remedy for the distress which gave rise to them. In this case, the minimum prerequisite for a seizure of political power would be a majority of socialists. That is not to say that the majority need be profound Marxian scholars, but they must:

(1) understand well the basic principles of capitalist and socialist society respectively;

(2) have freely decided to destroy the one and set up the other, and consequently be able

(3) intelligently to exercise the right of recall, if any of those whom they depute to give effect to their will shall seek to play them false; or

(4) to appoint suitable successors if chance should remove some of their delegates so that the direction of the revolution is in no wise accidental.

(5) Socialists concentrate on making working people capable of acting for themselves.

To count on the support of people who do not understand your purpose is to build on foundations of sand. At most,  they may desert you. If they can be influenced by you, they can also be swayed by your enemies too; and, become in the hardships and uncertainties of the transition period, the seeds of counter-revolution? Moreover, if accustomed to leaders, how shall they show the qualities necessary for democratic control—independence, and the responsibility to run a socialist society? Not understanding how the system should develop, where is the safeguard against their wrecking it by unsound decisions? And to prevent that you must govern over your fellow-workers after all.  Not a co-operative commonwealth, but a bureaucratic state —a sorry achievement of leadership, which leaves the task of education still before you.

No genuine and enduring transformation of society is possible until the majority of the workers have embraced socialist principles, the Socialist Party directs all its actions towards organising an ever-growing body of socialist conviction. It takes no part in reformist agitation but calls on the workers to come together for the one action that can help them. We avoid confusing our message by advocating socialist principles with our slogans and supporting reformist programmes through our actions. We seek to ensure that new comrades join us with their eyes wide open— knowing the road without the need for a leader. Say in a time of revolution a leader is entrusted with a great task. He or she fails or dies; it is but to supply a replacement with another. The revolution will not fail or die with one person. All are not equally gifted, but the field of selection is as wide as the party, not limited to a small elite vanguard. Leaders, regardless of how strong and courageous, cannot guarantee victory, and a defeated insurrection would sow despair and defer what it sought to hasten. But a resolute majority, equipped with knowledge, is invincible.

“Intelligence enough to conceive, courage enough to will, power enough to compel. If our ideas of a new society are anything more than a dream, these three qualities must animate the due effective majority of the working people: and then I say the thing will be done.” William Morris

For Burn's Night (music)

 

Our Answer is Socialism

 

 If socialism is assumed to be no more than social reforms or government regulations shows that the worker is not yet ready for socialism.

Socialism is not around the corner. To pretend that it is or to ignore the immense tasks that yet lie before socialists and the working class would be a disservice to socialism,

We scorn the easy road that might lead to large support and popularity. We have been in the business of making socialists for no other reason than that a majority wanting socialism is the first condition for its establishment. 

Over years events have provided innumerable tests of the soundness of our Object and Declaration of Principles. Nothing has deflected us from our purpose and path or diverted us to the pursuit of any secondary purpose or of any other object than socialism.

 

We have tenaciously ploughed our way unshaken by revolutions, civil wars and world wars. More than ever to-day we take our stand on the position that the economic and social problems of the world can be solved only by socialism; that workers everywhere have a common interest with each other that overrides all other interests.

There can be but one answer to these problems for the workers. There is no solution to any of them separately. The solution to any one of them is the solution which will sweep all of them away together. That solution is the one we have proffered at all times throughout our history as the remedy for the social and economic problems which confront the workers. That solution is not a new discovery. At all moments throughout our history, it has been our answer. It still is and will continue to be: It is SOCIALISM NOW

The reality of capitalism is that such problems are endemic to the system. They flow directly from its basis and in one form or another, they will endure for as long as capitalism lasts. The reformist case is that capitalism need not be abolished (although some reformists profess this to be their eventual, distant, objective) just yet because it can be modified so as to be acceptable to people. All the evidence destroys this myth and points to the conclusion that socialism cannot be delayed. It points to the conclusion that reformism is not only futile but reactionary, since it aims to postpone socialism when this, in fact, means the abandonment of the aim of social revolution and therefore the continuation of capitalism with all the problems which so concern the reformists.

The Socialist Party will not barter its support for any promise of reform. For, no matter whether these promises are made sincerely or not, we know that the immediate need of our class is emancipation, which can only be achieved through the establishment of socialism. Our interests are opposed to the interests of all sections of the master-class without distinction; whether bankers or industrialists, landlords or commercial magnates, all participate in the fruits of our enslavement. All will unite, in the last resort, in defence of the system by which they live.

For the party of the working class, one course alone is open, and that involves unceasing hostility to all parties, no matter what their plea, who lend their aid to the administration of the existing social order and thus contribute, consciously or otherwise, to its maintenance. Our object is its overthrow, and to us, political power is useless for any other purpose. With these facts clearly in mind, and conscious that economic development is our unshakable and inseparable ally, we call upon the workers of this country to muster under our banner.

Our case has stood the test of time and has been kept clear and forceful for all these years. But we are aware that progress towards socialism is desperately needed; we are not satisfied that the workers remain so wedded to capitalism, so susceptible to the specious propaganda for the social system which exploits and degrades them. If we look back, then, it is only to draw the lessons of the past and to apply them in the future. The years since 1904 have taught us of the need to refuse compromise, to stand for socialism and for that alone and to insist that the revolution is an immediate possibility; the working class can and must understand socialism and opt for it. That is the continuing task of socialists everywhere.

When that happens, the role of the Socialist Party is at an end. A class-free, united society will have no need for any expression of class-divided society; there will be no privileges, no coercive machinery, no medium through which ownership on the one hand, and denial of access on the other, are expressed. Neither will there be political parties, which exist as proponents of class interests. The socialist parties alone represent the interests of the working class; when that class is abolished with the establishment of socialism the socialist parties, along with all others, will cease to exist.

Resource Based Economics (video)

 

A Party of Principle

 The Socialist Party stands for the revolutionary transformation of society. Because history has proved that a party for revolution cannot be built up on reform programmes, the Socialist Part does not seek to win support by advocating reforms. We do not expect, therefore, to gain the support of people still unconvinced of the need for socialism—nor do we desire to be supported by non-socialists. Until the majority desire and are prepared to organise for the specific job of establishing socialism, the achievement of the new society is an impossibility. Our task now then is, to propagate socialist principles, to make socialists. Non-socialists, people interested in the reform of capitalism, would hamper us in that job.

 Once a revolutionary party begins to compromise with capitalism and is willing to help in its administration and reform, such a party is doomed as a weapon for socialism. It ceases to be revolutionary. Once a party adopts reform programmes, it appeals to many kinds of people who are anything but socialist. The result is that the socialists are swamped, and socialism is pushed further and further into the background on the party programme until socialism ceases to be the object of the party.

Workers should refuse to give their support to any party which, while claiming to be socialist, fights elections on a reformist programme. Such parties could not introduce socialism even if they won power. Their mandate would be for the reform of capitalism, not for socialism. Such parties which use plenty of revolutionary jargon but which have reform programmes cannot bring to an end the workers’ wage-slavery. Socialism alone will do that, and such parties are merely reformist. Let the workers, then, reject reformism, and embrace revolution. Let them cease to spend their forces on reformist futilities. 

A further objection is that no matter what reforms are introduced capitalism will still remain. It will frequently nullify the temporary improvement brought about by each reform and at the same time produce other evils which in their turn demand still more reforms. The only solution of the workers’ problem is the introduction of socialism, and this can be brought about only when a majority have been won over to an understanding of socialism and have organised to achieve it. All the time and effort spent on reforms is time and effort lost to the propagation of socialism.

Better far to have a party, no matter how small, with common principles and a common end, than a party, however large, which is bound by no tie save party interest. We, therefore, who differ from these other parties in essential principles—inasmuch as we accept the principle of the class struggle while they do not—cannot consent to unite our forces with theirs. It would weaken both parties—and the weakening would he more disastrous to the uncompromising section than to the revisionist. We are all for unity, but it is for a unity firmly established on a common aim, and a common method. Any other unity is but a delusion.

Let us restate a few basic essentials of the Socialist Party case.

Socialism involves the abolition of private and class ownership in the means and instruments of production, and the establishing of an order of things wherein they will be owned by society. For the first time in modern times, mankind will  have the possibility of organising production for society without an owning class. Things will be produced solely for use and because people need them. They will not be produced to sell and to provide profit for the owners of the means and instruments of production as they are under capitalism. There will be no profit. There will be no wages because men and women will not need to sell their energies in order to live. The function of money to circulate goods will disappear because it will not be needed. The function of wages to ensure that the worker receives only part of the wealth he or she produces will disappear because the worker in socialist society will enjoy the full fruits of his production, after meeting the necessary replacements and enlargements of the means of production and distribution. Wages are an indication of working-class poverty. The continuance of the wages system under any government or with whatever modifications is still capitalism.

The revolutionary change in the economic basis of society from private to common ownership will produce corresponding changes in the whole organisation of social life. Culture and leisure will be free to all instead of to a minority. Social, moral and family habits and customs which rest upon the private property basis of capitalism will adjust themselves to fit into the new order. Capitalist ideas will dissolve into history’s melting pot. Freed from the poverty and servitude of class-society men and women will face each and the other as free and equal social beings. All social values will undergo revolutionary changes. Reflection upon the potentialities of society organised on a socialist basis humbles the imagination. Anything short of this is not socialism: it is capitalism by whatever name it is called.