What socialism must be

Socialism does not mean everybody will receive an exactly equal share of the social wealth. Socialism is not crude equalitarianism, denounced by Marx and others in the last century. Socialism abolishes exchange by free distribution. Everybody will own everything in socialism - ALL commonly OWN

Socialism does not mean the abolition of personal divergences of individual taste—it means free distribution according to the single test of NEED. Actually, individual taste will secure real recognition for the first time in history.

The question of the ownership of the means of production has been and continues to be, the most vital factor in any discussion of major social problems. Since capitalism rests upon a foundation of class ownership of the means of production, then the obvious solution to those problems (such as war, poverty, and insecurity) inherent in the capitalist system is the establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership of the means of production, namely socialism.

Whenever working class conditions under capitalism are aggravated by particular crises within the system, such as wars and depressions, then the master class or their representatives bring the full force of their propaganda machine into play to befog the minds of workers and to distract them from the real causes of their problems.

Socialism is a system in the interest of the entire community. Socialism is a world community without frontiers, where wealth will be produced solely for use. Buying and selling, and with it, prices, wages, money, profits, and banks will disappear. Instead, everybody will have free access from the common store according to their needs. Socialism is a fully democratic society. The coercive state machine of class society will be replaced by the simple democratic administration of society’s affairs. Where there is socialism there is no state; where there is a state there is no socialism. The idea of a general strike as a means of overthrowing capitalist rule is obviously impractical since it leaves the means to crush any such strike, the state machine, in the hands of the capitalists. Much the same can be said of the use of workers’ councils as an alternative to parliament. In developed political conditions, this would have been unnecessary since such institutions, in trade unions, political parties and local councils would already have been in existence.

The task facing our fellow-workers all over the world is the same: organisation along class lines for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a world socialism. The task of the Socialist Party is clear. Since socialism is a democratic society based on voluntary work and co-operation, then its establishment and survival depend upon the conscious, organised action of the majority of the working class. On the economic front, socialists must do all in their power to encourage the development of democratic organisation and processes for the defence of workers wages and conditions. But more than this is needed: the organisation of a revolutionary socialist party seeking understanding on the single issue of capitalism or socialism, and reflecting the society it seeks to establish, by being completely under the control of the whole of its membership. A new world cannot be made by governments. A government’s purpose is the safeguarding of the private property institution and the maintenance of the master class as the dominating class in modern society; and this domination and privilege of the master class can only be maintained by the exploitation and oppression of the only useful section in society, the working class. To establish socialism, the working class must first win control of political power and to do this they must organise as a political party. That the majority must want and understand socialism has been a principle which has distinguished us from all other parties who have claimed to be socialists. Socialism can only be established by the majority political action of a working class that wants and understands it.

Socialism is a free society based on voluntary work and free access to all the fruits of that work, is grasped, that it can only be set up by conscious majority action should be obvious. The voluntary cooperation and social responsibility that socialism demands cannot be imposed by a minority of leaders; the people must cooperate to make it work because they want to. This is why leadership is an anti-socialist principle. There must be a majority of convinced socialists, for, with majority socialist understanding, violence is unnecessary, unless the pro-capitalists resort to it. The socialist majority can use universal suffrage both to show that it is a majority and to send its delegates to parliament and local councils, thus gaining control of the state machine.  In modern political conditions — the overwhelming numerical superiority of the working class, universal suffrage, political democracy, an army and civil service recruited from the workers — the working class can, and should, use elections and parliament as the way to winning power for Socialism. A socialist party should contest elections whenever it can, but only on a socialist programme. Where there are no socialist candidates, the party should advocate the casting of blank or spoiled voting papers and never engage in anarchist-type anti-election propaganda.

At some stage in the development of the socialist movement in each country socialists must organise as a party, with its own rules and democratic discipline, in place of the discussion groups and journals or educational societies they may at first find convenient. The party which the working class will use as an instrument for winning political control must be organised on a democratic basis. Control of policy and administration must be entirely in the hands of its members; there must be no leaders and those chosen to carry out various functions must be answerable to the membership. There must be the fullest opportunity for free discussion of party policy. Such is the basis of the Socialist Party. Since a political party can only be what its members are, if a socialist party is to remain such it must recruit only socialists to its ranks. This is especially necessary for a democratic party where all members have an equal say in forming policy. Passing a test of basic socialist knowledge should be a condition for joining the party. in order to remain socialist, the party must only seek support on a socialist programme. Inevitably, in present circumstances, this will result in the party being comparatively small, but there is no other sound way to build a genuinely socialist party. In order to retain their non-socialist support, they themselves were forced to drop their talk of socialism and to become ever more openly reformist.

Today the Social Democratic parties are as firmly committed to capitalism, in theory as well as in practice, as those who have never pretended otherwise. We say this was the inevitable result of admitting non-socialists and of advocating reforms of capitalism. This is why we have always advocated socialism alone and never reforms of capitalism. We are not saying that all reforms are anti-working class, but that for a socialist party to advocate reforms would be its first step towards becoming a reformist party.

Organise for a Better Life

What is needed is a complete change in the way society is organised.We need a transformational change in our relationship with one another and with nature to ensure the sustainable future we want for ourselves and our children. Not one of the major social problems facing the majority today has a practical chance of being solved within the present social framework. As long as a minority own or control the productive resources of the world, the bulk of humanity will suffer relative poverty. As long as food, clothing, housing and all other goods and services are produced to be sold for a profit in the market, those needs which cannot be paid for will remain invisible. Until these productive resources are owned in common and controlled democratically by all, the millionaires will continue to hold the rest of society to ransom. And until production is geared purely to satisfying human needs without the obstacle of finance, the scale, and quality of production will be compressed into what is profitable only.

 All but a small minority of capital-owners suffer lives of insecurity and economic frustration. And yet this same majority gives support, actively or passively, to the system which robs us of our dignity as well as of the wealth we create. That is the key to the change we seek. No system could stagger on forever without getting some acceptance from the millions of human beings involved in it. When a majority of workers withdraw their support for the present system and organise themselves to introduce and run the alternative to this, then and only then can real change come. This is what revolution must mean.

 Socialism means a complete breakaway from all systems of property. It means, for the first time in human history, a consciously organised and planned end to all property relations. It must be carried out by and in the interests of the overwhelming majority across the world. So, at this point, there would be a real leap in the development of world history, a point in time when a common control of the Earth would truly begin for the first time. And the way in which such an inspiring step can happen is by the democratic acceptance of this by a majority—the force of numbers. This would, of course, express itself in different ways in different parts of the world. One common thread in the World Socialist Movement, however, will be its understanding that means must harmonise with ends. A democratic society can only be established democratically. The socialist movement, therefore, has no leaders. It is a movement of equals. Neither does it court popularity by adopting or patronising the latest fashionable cause, seeking in vain to ease capitalism's problems one by one. We pose a clear choice for the working class throughout the world. Either continue to give your political support to the present, capitalist system, with all of its obscene contradictions. Or build a strong and conscious political movement for the socialist alternative of common ownership, democratic control and production for use, not profit.

Must the workers of the world always have feelings of suspicion, hatred and contempt towards each other? We, in the Socialist Party, do not think so. We are normal human beings, but we do not blame the strangers in our midst for all the minor and major evils of capitalism. Workers must learn to think with their heads and not be guided by their feelings. They must understand, and they will do when they become socialists, that there is a bond that unites them with their fellow workers, whether they are “enemies'' or “friends". This bond is not the superficial one of the same language, the same colour of skin, the same shape of nose, the same habits or allegiance to the same capitalist state, but the fundamental one of class interest. The workers of the world have one great task: to overthrow the system of their respective capitalistic masters and establish a world socialist cooperative commonwealth, where the word “foreigner” will have no meaning.

The Socialist Party takes the same principled position that we have always taken. We are opposed to capitalism and all who seek to run it. We do not want reformed capitalism or the profit system better managed. We are not looking for “nice” leaders or any kind of leaders for the workers to follow. The wages system is against the interest of the workers and only workers’ self-emancipation will solve the problems that we face. We are told not to waste our time upon such revolutionary ambitions. 

The Socialist Party supports the efforts of workers to improve their conditions under capitalism. But socialists also point out that there is no solution to their problems inside capitalism, and even if the agitation of those who support improvements succeeds for the families they are now trying to help, future generations will still face the same misery and hardship. Only in a society in which production is carried on solely to satisfy human wants, without anyone having to worry about where next week's rent or next month's mortgage repayment is coming from, will the social problems we endure find a solution?

Once this socialist majority exists, it will be necessary for us to do two things before socialism can operate as a social system. First, it is necessary to establish beyond all doubt that this is the will of the majority at that time. Second, the ruling class of today must be stripped of the political power which they have so far been allowed to hold. The state machine, with its coercive forces, must be taken over openly and democratically by that majority and dismantled; the owning class must be disarmed, by removing their control over the forces of the state. It is for these two reasons that the Socialist Party contests elections. That, then, is what socialist revolution means. And the transformation of society, from serving the profit of the minority to meeting the needs of all, has never been more urgent than it is today. The choices humanity makes now will profoundly affect the world which in turn will impact the future economies, livelihoods, food security and quality of life of people everywhere. We must get them right. The choice is yours.

"The Observer” and the SPGB (1964)

From the December 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

The following is an extract from The Observer (Oct. 9) to which the Party wrote in protest at the reference to the SP.G.B.

Everywhere around Glasgow, the contrast in political styles is striking. On the Left, they speak with tongues of the old Clydeside fire, preaching a new society, teaching their audiences a total view of socialist justice and democracy. All have something of the Trotskyite poster in Woodside which snarls at the citizen “Don’t vote for the S.P.G.B. (Socialist Party of Great Britain) candidate unless you understand and want Socialism.”

We publish, without comment, the Observer’s reply:

The Observer, 29th October, 1964.
Dear Sir, 

I have now heard from Neal Ascherson, to whom I referred your letter of October 11. After helping us in covering the election campaign he returned to his post as our resident Correspondent in Germany; hence there was some delay in reaching him. He writes:

“I think I should apologise without reserve to the members of the S.P.G.B. for calling them Trotskyite, I was mixing them up in my hurried head with the Socialist Labour League, and there is no excuse for that. I still think that “snarl” expressed the shock of hostility experienced by a reader of the S.P.G.B.’s fiercely honest and uncompromising poster."

I’m very sorry we can’t clarify this point now in our correspondence columns —it would be rather out of date and there is room for so few of all the letters— but we will take care not to make any such mistake again. 

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) Charles Davey, 

Assistant Editor.

We Need Socialism

We desperately need an economy that can meet humanity’s needs without undermining the basis for civilisation. When we talk about the inevitability of socialism we assume that the workers will continue to struggle against the capitalist system. Were they to sit down tamely and wait till socialism came to them, they would soon lose all that they have now and become mere slaves. What we understand by social revolution is when the workers, both politically and economically,  are so class-conscious and so well organised as to make their exploitation impossible that capitalism would have reached the end of its tether. The task of the Socialist Party is to show how inadequate reforms are in eliminating the evils from which the workers were suffering. Our tactics are to demonstrate that only with the abolition of production for profit, and the competition between the capitalists for sources of profitable investment which is an inevitable result of the capitalist system, can we end nationalism and rid ourselves of the danger of war. Who will assist the workers to formulate their own battle plan in their own interests?  We propose to plant the seed of socialism in the minds of our fellow-workers, to germinate and to bear fruit until the time comes to harvest it. It will take a little time and a great deal of education, but it will succeed.

Socialism aims at giving meaning to people's life and work; enabling freedom and creativity to flourish. Socialist society implies people's self-organization of every aspect of their social activities. These are not aspirations about some far and distant future but rather demands for today. With socialism, people will dominate the workings and institutions of society, instead of being dominated by them. Socialism will, therefore, have to realise democracy for the first time in human history.  Real democracy lies in one's being able to decide for oneself on all essential questions in full knowledge of the relevant facts. To grasp this is to perceive that socialism is not "nationalisation" or "cooperatives" to increase the standard of living" but to understand that the real crisis of capitalism is the anarchy of the market.  

 The Socialist Party has continuously pointed out that increased production, whether as a result of greater efficiency or labour-saving machinery, can have but one result: an increase in unemployment. Unemployment is proof of the rottenness of the capitalist system. Men and women lack the necessaries of life; they are forced to be idle by the capitalist class; yet, given access to the means of wealth production, they could produce the things they require in abundance. Capitalism compels the workers to produce for profits. The workers can only satisfy all their requirements when they make the means of wealth-production common property and produce for use.

Some Marxists may, and do, exaggerate the personal importance of Marx as an authority owing to their admiration for his genius but it is quite untrue to suggest that they as a body “slavishly" accept his intellectual authority. Marx and Engels made wrong judgments, like other people. In 1848 and even later they under-estimated very considerably the longevity of Capitalism. Engels, especially in his later years, had an exaggerated idea of the strength and soundness of the Second International, and particularly of the German S.D.P.

Marx described as the proletariat in modern society the property-less wage worker. The mass of men and women, rapidly in process of becoming the most powerful numerically in every country in the world, who own nothing but their power to labour and who by reason of their being compelled to sell that power in order to live, stand face to face in an antagonistic relation to the buyers, the capitalist class.

 A footnote to the 1888 edition of the Communist Manifesto by Engels gives: “the class of modern wage-labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour-power in order to live.” Marx taught that the development of the system would produce in the workers that outlook, that class-consciousness, which would precede their organising to overthrow capitalist domination, but he expected the workers to emancipate themselves; he certainly did not teach them to rely on self-styled intelligent minorities.

Marx was quite clear in his writings that not only has the establishment of socialism to result from the political action of the working class itself ("the proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority", as the Communist Manifesto puts it), but that this involves the abolition of commodity production and wage-exploitation (the workers, says Value, Price, and Profit, "ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword 'Abolition of the Wages System'”) and their replacement by a democratically-organised society where the principle ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs' would apply (Critique of the Gotha programme). One central feature of socialism, clearly stated by Marx, is that it would be a class-free society in which the means to life would be the common ownership of all society ("In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have", says the Communist Manifesto again, “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all").

Hungry Scots

Many working people are struggling to afford food.

More than a fifth of people in Scotland have gone a day without eating because they are too poor to buy food, according to a Citizens Advice Scotland survey.

The survey of more than 2,600 people found 21% had not eaten for a day due to lack of money. Just under half (45%) of respondents were employed and of these, one in three (29%) reported having to reduce or skip meals because they lacked money for food. A total of 40% of working respondents worried about running out of food before having money to buy more and 35% said they are struggling to afford to eat balanced meals.

This rose to 45% of all those who completed the survey, employed and unemployed, worrying about running out of food before having funds to replace it.

Researchers found 23% of people had had to skip meals so that their children could eat.

More than a fifth (21%) of people considered fresh fruit to be unaffordable.

Citizen's Advice Scotland Chief Executive Derek Mitchell said "For some people going hungry is the norm - that's just not right," he said. "This study shows that many working people in Scotland are struggling to afford to buy food, and in 2018 this is simply unacceptable."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/more-one-five-scots-starving-13699483

Socialism and Humanity's Heritage

 The aim of the Socialist Party is to build a new society. We differ from other political parties in that we want to completely change the society’s economic organisation for the social emancipation of the working class. This can only happen through abolishing the private capitalists’ monopoly on the means of production and transforming those to common ownership, all society own collectively social property, and the replacement of the unplanned production of goods with a socialist society’s satisfying real needs. The interests of the working class are the same in every country. With world trade and the production for the world market, the position of the working class in one country become dependent on the positions in all other countries. The emancipation of the working class is thus an achievement, in which every people of all lands must take part.

The socialist revolution is to end poverty once and for all. A revolution arises not simply from discontent about injustice, but from deep changes in the economy. New ideas of reorganising society based on the new means of production have to be put forth to challenge the employers. We must rally together to put forth a vision for the future and end compromise with the billionaires and corporations who are robbing the people. 

The new technology of robotics and automation is threatening to replace workers and impoverish masses of people. Whether we work or not, the people still must live. The coming social revolution must place the robots in the hands of the people. Cybernetics and other forms of IT should be the foundation for a whole new world. Abundance, created by robotics and people working for the common good rather than the profit of the few, will forever end poverty, exploitation, oppression, and war. The Socialist Party calls for our fellow-workers to organise for this new vision. Our goal is no daydream but a demand full of tremendous enthusiasm, fighting spirit, and unity, arising from the new social relationships forming in the economy. This is an era of revolutionary change. For the first time in history, humankind can produce such abundance that society can be free from hunger, homelessness and backbreaking labor. The only thing standing in the way is this system of exploitation and injustice. This is the beginning of a revolution for a better world, economically and culturally. The Socialist Party takes as its mission the political awakening of our fellow-workers. We invite all who recognise the problem with capitalism and are ready to do something about it to join with us. With our organised strength, we will liberate the thinking of the working people and unleash their energy. We will win them to the cause for which they are already unconsciously fighting. We will excite the people with a vision of a world of plenty. New technology provides better and more products with less and less labour. Society now has the capacity to devote the energies and talents of its people to satisfying the material, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs of all. We will educate the people about the economic revolution that’s disrupting society. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organised. We seek to inspire fellow workers with the alternative to the capitalist state: a society organised for the benefit of all, a world built on cooperation that puts the physical, environmental, cultural and spiritual well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. When the working class assumes control of all productive property and transforms it into common property, it can reorganise society so that the abundance is distributed according to need. For the first time in history, we have the technological ability to put into effect the principle ’from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’

The key thing is to keep educating oneself, organising around a movement which fosters a commitment that to ensure the successful revolutionary transformation of the world. It is up to us as socialists to realize that we do have the vision to offer and that society is waiting for a party to give an understanding and offer a solution to the conflicts we are all up against. Far from being proponents of some all-engulfing Big Brother government control the Socialist Party view the state, as withering away — being transformed as an instrument to preserve class rule into an administrative tool. While in the present day world the underlying purpose of production is the amassing of profits for capital; in the new, free society its sole purpose will be to meet the needs of humankind. In the place of the present chaos, waste, and inefficiency, production will be planned. This planning, contrary to the type now envisaged by would-be-advisors of capital, requires the common ownership of the means of production and distribution.

Not only will the revolution itself be profoundly democratic, but with its victory will come almost instantaneous benefits for all. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created across this land, we will be quickly able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman to supervise who gets what and no bureaucrats with the possibility of providing special favors that would allow them to gather up connections that would frustrate the democratic process. One of the first acts of the general assemblies and popular councils would be to place the factories into the hands of those who operate them. For the first time, they would know that their specialized knowledge would be applied entirely for the benefit of mankind. We would see our wealth as part of mankind’s common heritage.

Why are we socialists

Capitalism has bled the people white. People there are many, their needs are vast. The capitalists run the factories in the interest of earning profit. They do not do so to provide a livelihood for the people. They run industries with a view to earning profit. If they find that the introduction of some machines lowers the cost and helps them earn more, they will employ fewer workers, resulting in further unemployment. Technology and science are being used in the class interest of the capitalists, in the interest of profit and exploitation of the working class. The socialist revolution and the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist state machine that we advocate means emancipation — the emancipation of the workers from the exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class but also the emancipation of science from the tentacles of capitalist profit motive. We need emancipation for all from all bondage and exploitation. The struggle for establishing socialism is also a struggle to free science from the bondage of capitalism and to use it for the benefit of mankind. 

 We witness today that people against capitalism are growing so as to free science and the productive system from the motive of exploitation; that is, from profit motive and instead use it for the satisfaction of the social needs. The workers are engaged in the struggle to oust private ownership over the production system and establish social ownership in its place. Although workers want to free from the chains of capitalism, all the falsehood and myths, the web of confusions and conspiracies laid by the capitalist class in the society can only be disentangled with the help of political knowledge.

The function of the Socialist Party is to educate the people by criticising all attempts at so-called reforms, whose aim is not the realisation of a new society, but the hindering of it. The world today is full of bewildering contradictions. Despite great industrial and agricultural power it cannot feed, clothe and provide a decent livelihood for people on this planet who toil away their lives to survive, while billionaires squander fortunes on mansions and fly around the world in private jets. Poverty and economic insecurity exist alongside abundance and extravagance. We fed promises of promises of liberty, justice and equality yet we have a system of exploitation, violence, racism, and war strangles our lives, where people cry out for the welfare of humanity.

What is the reason for these contradictions between the promises, the potential of this society, and its stark reality? Why is there such an agonizing gap between what is and what could be!

The answers to these questions cannot be found in cynical condemnations of “human nature” or apologies about the “way things are.” No! capitalism, the social system under which we live, is responsible for the contradictions of society. Capitalism thrives on the private control of society’s wealth and production – production involving the interconnected efforts of millions of working people. The rich have one basic goal in life: to make more and more profits, and they accomplish this by dominating the economics, politics, and cultural life of the country. The employing class will throw workers out into the streets to starve, promote racism and bigotry, and build a military arsenal that can destroy the world several times over – anything for profits! This is an irrational and unjust system. But life does not have to be this way. We can improve our lives and society, and eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern; where working people become the rightful masters of society. Such an economic and political transformation will be radical, but a radical solution is what it will take to bury the miseries of capitalism. The socialist revolution has become a historical necessity and possibility. There is no other choice today but for the working people to organise to struggle and win socialism.  Today we must look ahead to the future where socialism, as a more advanced social system, will be built on the powerful productive capacities now stifled by capitalism. Each person is faced with the choice of either enduring the suffering of unemployment, recessions, brutalisation and war; or joining with others who are dissatisfied and know that a better society is possible. If working people, and not the capitalists, controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. We could have happy, safe places of work, and guarantee a decent standard of living for all. We could end pollution and the destruction of the environment. We could could wipe out racism and xenophobic nationalism. We could live in a society that is not preparing constantly for war and self-extinction. These are the things that urge us forward.

Socialism - An Association of Equals

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what is it that we are trying to achieve? This question, long a subject of debate, is receiving increased attention today because of the changes taking place in the United States where “Democratic Socialists” are apparently losing their stigma and are on the rise and some are rethinking their conceptions of socialism. Some say socialism is simply public ownership of the means of production by the government, and other criteria are irrelevant. These advocates for what was once described as “state socialism” say the government is to defend working people’s rights to a decent standard of living and a life free from exploitation, that the “socialist” government would end oppression and working people will rule society in their own interests. The Socialist Party says “Not so.” The first question to be put is how far that program really breaks with the existing capitalist order of society. The Socialist Party understands socialism means getting rid of money and markets entirely as a necessary condition for getting rid of capitalism. We imagine a world without money and reject all programmes that propose to transcend capitalism but retain money and markets as supposedly efficient methods of allocating resources in a new and better society.

The new society will be based not on exchange but on natural self-sustaining economy, there will not be the market, buying and selling, but consciously and systematically organised distribution. It will be different from the old primitive communism, in that it will embrace not a large or a small community, but the whole of society, the whole of humanity. The Socialist Party envisages that by way of change, we will be a community of free individuals, carrying on our work with the means of production in common, in which the labour power of all the different individuals is consciously applied as the combined labour power of the community.  The total product of our community is a social product. One portion serves as fresh means of production and remains social, another portion is consumed by the members as means of subsistence. Socialism is when freely-associated people decide what they want to do during their working hours (within the constraints of what is possible) and how they will organise themselves to do it.  we will take over workplaces and neighborhoods and create a society based on freely associated labour. That means that at that time we will decide through discussions, debates, and perhaps struggles how we will organise our working time and what products we will produce how.

The Socialist Party asks why so many movements have stopped short of challenging capitalism itself, in favour of instead advocating relatively restricted social reforms and self-limiting revolutions? We face a world in which we have been brought up to obey those with money and power, and where it seems natural to be bossed around while doing labour that others have defined as necessary for profits. We face a world of inequality in where large proportions of people think that some men should be more privileged than others. The Socialist Party thinks that most of the problems of the world can be solved, but it will be the working people of the world who will have to develop ways to make decisions, ways to work together, and ways to protect ourselves. If successful, we will create a world of freely associated labour where we decide what use-values need to be produced, make them available to those who need or want them, and do this in an environmentally sustainable way in which we find ways to enjoy our lives and fulfill our potentials through actions that are sociable and helpful to ourselves and others as well.

The victory of socialism is desirable because only socialism can put an end to the exploitation of man by man and of women by men. Because only socialism can put an end to the struggle for the re-division of the world, for national possessions, which takes place between the different continents, nations, and races. Only socialism can put an end to war and poverty and the innumerable injustices which are an everyday feature of our lives. There is no progress possible to civilisation save in the direction of socialism. Socialism means the freeing of the individual from the fetters which weigh upon him or her under the capitalist system. And this is not to be understood as meaning that while the old fetters are removed new ones will be shackled. Foremost among the fallacies is that socialism implies coercion. On the contrary, the primary aim of the industrial and political organisation supposed by socialism is the guaranteeing of the freedom of the individual.

The task of the Socialist Party business is the making of socialists, convincing fellow-workers that socialism is beneficial for them and is possible. When we have enough people of that way of thinking, they will find out what action is necessary for putting their principles in practice. Until we have that mass of opinion, action for a general change that will benefit the whole people is impossible. Inequality did not grow out of greed; a society based on inequality gave birth to greed. In all capitalist countries the object of production is not to provide employment to people, nor bring comfort to their life with better technology, but to lower the cost of production and thereby earn maximum profit for the capitalists. Simply because in all capitalist countries production is run from this motive the workers must understand that such a situation would not have arisen had production been run with the object of fulfilling the people's necessities and not for earning maximum profit by the capitalists. So the use of machines — to be more precise, use of science and technology — must be freed from capitalist exploitation,  from the motive of earning maximum profit or, in other words, from the clutches of the capitalist class. If we, the workers, can achieve this, then automation and robotics will bring comfort and happiness to our lives and with the aid of new technology we can produce more with much less effort and in less time. We will get more comfort, greater satisfaction and more happiness from the work. So technological progress is not our enemy. Our enemy is capitalism, which is at the root of all the problems of society.

The end of utopia?

NO MORE UTOPIAS—this was the bold headline above an article in the European section of the Guardian on 27 September written by Norberto Bobbio and which had originally appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Bobbio thinks that the collapse of what he calls "the communist regimes" in eastern Europe and, particularly Russia, means the end of communism as an idea which has persisted in one form or another for 2000 years.

And he seems to know what communism (we also call it socialism—the two words mean the same) means:

    "The communist ideal is about forming a society which is radically different from any that has gone before, a society based on the elimination of private property. The latter is condemned as being the cause of all the ills afflicting mankind, from minor disputes over boundaries to the great wars that have turned the whole world upside down. It is also about setting up a regime based on common ownership, if not of all goods, at least of those that form the major source of wealth and of man's dominion over man. Right or wrong this is communism".

That is sound enough but he then spoils it by claiming that the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia in 1917 was "the first major attempt to achieve a communist society in the genuine sense of the term, a society in which private property would be abolished and replaced by the almost total collectivisation of a country with a population of millions".

This is nonsense because even Lenin recognised that socialism was impossible in such a backward country as Russia. All the Bolsheviks could do was to hope that revolutions in the developed European countries would come to their aid and, in the meantime, they would begin to modernise Russia by introducing state capitalism. They certainly didn't think that socialism could be established in one country. That idea came later.

So there was no attempt by the Bolsheviks to abolish private property. Even their promise of equal wages, which has nothing to do with socialism anyway, was quickly dropped and large differentials in income were encouraged instead, while the Bolsheviks (who became the Communist Party) made sure that all property came under their direct control and, in effect, ownership.

Bobbio's unhistorical approach is clearly shown when he compares Thomas More's Utopia with state capitalist Russia. He recounts how in Utopia the traveller who has discovered "the happy island where common ownership is rigorously observed" defends it from sceptics who argue that it cannot work because of human nature—greed, laziness, etc—by telling them "you talk like that because you haven't seen what I have seen". It is impossible now, says Bobbio, to give such a reply any more because "no one who has visited a communist country can now say come and see, then you can talk". What connection can there possibly be between Thomas More's 16th century ideal society and 20th century Russian state capitalism?

To those who insist that there has never been communism in Russia Bobbio replies that it is not enough to say this:

    "You have to say why it is so, and suggest which other paths you can follow in order to avoid past mistakes. I don't know of there is anyone around today who can provide answers to these uncertainties".

Yes, signor Bobbio, there are and we will! The Socialist Party and its companion parties overseas have always insisted that communism/socialism can only be established when the essential conditions for it are present. For one thing, the productive forces of society must be developed to the point where they can provide plenty for all. Capitalism itself has long ago solved that problem for us. For another, the majority of the world's workers—all the people who have to work for a wage or salary and in whose interests socialism will be—must agree that it is both possible and desirable. Socialism could not possibly have come about in such an economically undeveloped country as Russia where the vast majority of the population neither understood nor desired it.

The Socialist Party welcomes the collapse of Russian-style "communism" as a significant step in clearing the way for genuine communism to which it has been a serious obstacle for over 70 years. And the idea of a classless, moneyless, worldwide society of production for use will not go away because something entirely different has failed. The proof of this is—and will be—the existence of its advocates in many parts of the world.

Vic Vanni



From  December 1991 Issue No. 1048 Socialist Standard

Italy, 1920

From the December 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard

For nearly a month in September 1920, over 400,000 Italian metalworkers occupied the factories, particularly in the industrial centres of the north, Turin, Milan, and Genoa.

Like many other events in working-class history, this has become something of a myth, and generations of left-wingers have been convinced that this was a “revolutionary situation” in which the workers were on the brink of overthrowing capitalism but were “betrayed” by their leaders. An examination of the facts shows that this certainly was not the case.

In August 1920 the Italian metalworkers union (FIOM), faced with a rising cost of living, put in a claim for a wage increase. The employers, badly hit by the slackened demand for iron and steel caused by the end of the war, categorically refused. The union then declared a go-slow. The employers responded with a lock-out and the workers, backed by the union, occupied the factories.

There they stayed for three weeks until the government and others brought pressure to bear on the employers to give in. The workers got their wage increase (plus a vague and useless promise of “union control”) and voted at a conference—later confirmed in a referendum—to resume normal working.

In other words, this was a simple—and successful— trade-union action aimed at getting a wage increase. It was not an attempt to overthrow capitalism. If it had been, then the government would not have maintained the neutrality it did and certainly would not have brought pressure on the employers to settle.

The fact that the government did not intervene or behalf of the employers is to be explained by a conflict of sectional interests within the Italian capitalist class. Before the war, Italy had been ruled by politicians representing the bourgeoisie in the strict sense of the term: the “middle class” (merchants, small traders, etc.) of the towns. They tended to be liberal and anti-clerical in their politics and were led on the political field by Giovanni Giolitti.

Around the turn of the century, however, in the northern cities of Turin, Milan and Genoa a more modern type of capitalist appeared: the big industrialists, who tended to favour expansionist nationalism This conflict came to a head over the attitude Italy should adopt during the first world war. The traditional bourgeoisie favoured keeping out, and even tended to be pro the Central Powers, Germany, and Austro-Hungary. Indeed their bank, the Banca Commerciale Italiana, was partly financed by German capital. Their view did not prevail. Italy entered the war on the British and French side, and Giolitti resigned as prime minister. During the war, the northern industrialists made huge profits which they used to try to take over the Banca Commerciale. The attempt failed but it showed that the conflict existed.

It was Giolitti who was again prime minister in September 1920, and it is because the interests of the section of the Italian capitalist class he represented were not the same as those of the northern engineering employers and steel magnates, that the State was neutral during the factory occupation. It was even alleged that the Banca Commerciale helped to finance the metalworkers in this struggle and had threatened to withdraw credit to the employers if they didn’t submit to the union’s conditions.

All this was known at the time. For instance, the article “Socialism and the Fascisti” in the Socialist Standard for April 1923 dealt with the subject and quoted from other sources, the Nation (New York) and the Western Clarion (Vancouver), and these supported the conclusion that the Italian metalworkers won their economic struggle because of a conflict of interests within the Italian capitalist class.

So there was no revolutionary situation. Of course there was such loud and empty talk of “revolution” and the executive of the reformist Italian Socialist Party (PSI) even met to consider whether or not to launch the revolution (as if it were up to them!) but finally decided, under pressure from its trade-union wing (CGL), not to.

This decision was attacked by various leftists of the day as a “sell-out”, but the evidence shows that it was the only sane thing to do. Any attempt by the workers to transform the economic struggle into an insurrection, even if they had wanted to, would have been easily crushed. After all, workers armed mainly with revolvers, muskets and pikes (yes, pikes!) could stand no chance against the forces of the State.

Indeed when the CGL met to consider the possibility of armed insurrection they were told by the Turin delegation that

Fiat-Centro which seems to be one of the best supplied (with arms) has only 5,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition . . .

(Quoted in The Occupation of the Factories: Italy 1920 by Paolo Spriano, page 86).

and although Antonio Gramsci, later leader of the Italian Communist Party, repeatedly denounced the leaders of the PSI and CGL he admitted privately that

. . . with a working class which mostly saw everything rosy and loved bands and ballads more than sacrifice, a counter-revolution would have inexorably swept us away. (Spriano, page 134.)

Mere working-class discontent or mass action does not constitute a revolutionary situation. The social and political situation will only become revolutionary when the immense majority of the working class, having come to understand and want Socialism, become revolutionary-minded. That was not the case in Italy in 1920 and unfortunately has never yet been the case anywhere else.

Vic Vanni

To Live is to Thrive, Not just to Survive

Working class power is the essential condition for far-reaching social change by their own hands. To change the world and to create a better one is the aspiration of the Socialist Party, its hope is that tomorrow's world can be free of today's inequalities, hardships, and deprivations, a belief that people can, individually and collectively, influence the shape of the world to come. It is this outlook of society that guides the actions of the Socialist Party. Socialism is a movement for changing the world and setting up a free, equal, human and prosperous society. However, the Socialist Party is not a bunch of utopian reformers nor heroic saviours of humanity.  Socialism is a movement that reflects the vision, ideals, and protest of the working class.  Socialism emerges out of class struggle. This class struggle is the chief source of social change and transformation.  Our goal is one of abolishing classes and exploitation. The capitalist system is behind all the ills that burden humanity today. Poverty, deprivation, discrimination, inequality, political repression, ignorance, bigotry, unemployment, homelessness, economic and political insecurity, corruption and crime are all inevitable products of this system. No doubt apologists would tell us that these have not been invented by capitalism but existed before capitalism, that exploitation, repression, discrimination, women's oppression, ignorance and prejudice, religion and prostitution are more or less as old as human society itself. What is not told is the fact that, firstly, all these problems have found a new meaning in this society, corresponding to the needs of capitalism. These are being constantly reproduced as integral parts of the modern capitalist system. The source of poverty, starvation, unemployment, homelessness and economic insecurity is the economic system in place at the end of the 20th century. The dictatorships, wars, genocides and repressions that define the life of hundreds of millions of people today draw their rationale from the needs of the system that rules the world and a product of the present society's economic and social system and moral values. The capitalist system continually and relentlessly resists people's effort to eradicate and overcome these ills.  The capitalist system and the primacy of profit have exposed the environment to serious dangers and irreparable damages. Academics and intellectuals do not even claim to have an answer to these problems. This is the reality of capitalism today, boding a horrifying future for the entire people of the world.

Capitalism is based on the exploitation of direct producers — the appropriation of a part of the product of their labour by the ruling classes. Without living human labour power that sets instruments of labour to work and creates new products, the existence of human society, the very survival of human beings and satisfaction of their needs, is inconceivable. The more the working class works, the more power capital acquires. Exploitation in capitalist society takes place without yokes on the shoulders or chains around the ankles of the producers- through the medium of the market and "free and equal" exchange of commodities. The surplus value obtained from the exploitation of the working class is divided out among the various sections of the capitalist class essentially through the market mechanism. Profit, interest and rent are the major forms in which the different capitals share in the fruits of this class exploitation. The competition of capitals in the market determines the share of each capitalist section. This surplus also pays the whole cost of the capitalists' state machinery, army and administration, of its ideological and cultural institutions, and the upkeep of all those who, through these institutions, uphold the power of the capitalist class.

With the accumulation of capital, the mass of commodities which make up the wealth of bourgeois society grows, the inevitable result of the accumulation process is the continual and accelerating technological progress and rise in the mass and capacity of the means of production which the working class sets in motion in every new cycle of the production process. But compared to the growth in society's wealth and productive powers, the working class continually gets relatively poorer. Despite the gradual and limited increase, in absolute terms, in the workers' standard of living, the share of the working class from the social wealth declines rapidly, and the gap between the living conditions of the working class and the higher living standards that is already made possible by its own work widens. The richer the society becomes, the more impoverished a section the worker forms in it.

Technological progress and rise in labour productivity mean that living human labour power is increasingly replaced by machines and automatic systems. In a free and human society, this should mean more free time and leisure for all. But in the capitalist society, where labour power and means of production are merely so many commodities which capital employs to make profits, the substitution of humans by machines manifests itself as a permanent unemployment of a section of the working class which is now denied the possibility of making a living. The appearance of a reserve army of workers who do not even have the possibility of selling their labour power is an inevitable result of the process of accumulation of capital, and at the same time a condition of capitalist production. The existence of this reserve army of unemployed, supported essentially by the employed section of the working class itself, heightens the competition in the ranks of the working class and keeps wages at their lowest socially possible level. This reserve army also allows capital to more easily modify the size of its employed work force in proportion to the needs of the market. Massive unemployment is not a side-effect of the market, or a result of the bad policies of some government. It is an inherent part of the workings of capitalism and the process of accumulation of capital.

A majority seeking to replace capitalism by socialism only requires one thing of an electoral system under capitalism—that it should allow a majority opinion to reflect itself as a majority of seats in parliament. We are not interested in whether the system ensures a strong and stable government of capitalism nor in whether it ensures a fair representation of capitalist political parties. As the existing electoral system in Britain does allow a majority viewpoint to be translated into a majority of seats, we see no point in diverting our energies from our task of working towards the emergence of a socialist majority towards working for electoral reform within capitalism.

Must people go without the basic essentials of life at a time when productivity has increased to heights never known before? When mankind was the slave of nature, shortage and want could be explained in something like intelligent terms, but to-day, when his productive capacities are virtually unlimited, he must find some other answer. We live in a society which has the paradox of want in the midst of plenty. There is no difficulty about producing food for the present population of the world, or even twice that number, but the problem is, could politics and economics arrange that the food that was produced was dispersed in the countries that needed it? If European agricultural standards were to be practised on the available cultivable land, there would be enough food produced to give an excellent diet to probably seven times the world’s present.

What many NGOs fail to recognise is the fact that however capable man may be of producing wealth, it is ultimately the question of ownership which decides whether or not he will partake of that wealth. Food, like every other commodity in our modern world, is produced primarily for profit, and the fact that it eventually may satisfy hungry children around the world is incidental and of secondary importance.

When we in the Socialist Party see or read about the atrocities of war, we do not condemn the nation to which the perpetrators belong. Nor do we become enraged at the soldiers of that nation. War itself is the supreme crime from which all atrocities flow. War is the product of capitalism. The real criminals in each country are the ruling capitalists, a tiny minority of the population which sets nation against nation in a mad scramble for markets and profits. The soldiers in each camp are trained and commanded to kill. They are the instruments but not the real authors of war’s barbarism. The truth which the hired propagandists of capitalism try to hide is that workers are forced into war very much against their will. The enemy is by nature just as peaceable, just as kindly, just as fun-loving as any other people. Barbarism and brutality have spread over the entire earth, not because some are inhuman animals while others are civilised human beings, but because nations are pitted against one another in bloody combat by the rulers of the capitalist system. All peoples want peace. But unless the victims of war, the toiling people of every country, put an end to this system, there will be more terrible wars, ferocious, cruel, and devastating. By promoting race hatred, the capitalist rulers keep the working people of different lands divided and hostile to one another. In that way, the capitalists can continue to rule the world and plunge humanity into horrible wars for resources and market share. That is why it is necessary to expose the lies of race hatred, so that workers in every land may unite against capitalism and struggle together for a better socialist world.