Social Waste

 

We are only too well aware that progress towards the establishment of socialism is slow. Nevertheless, progress is being made. We know of no short-cut around the necessary task of agitation and education for socialism. Capitalist propaganda cannot remove or whitewash the problems suffered by the working class; neither can it solve the basic contradictions within society. In their efforts to solve the problems and contradictions the workers must eventually turn to socialism as the only solution. Since the Socialist Party was formed we have seen a seemingly endless array of attempts at alleviating the problems thrown up by capitalism, and we have seen them fail as they must. If all those who in the past said that they admire our objectives had joined with us in our task of making socialists that task would have been made easier. Unfortunately such workers still persist in futile reformism, or in advocating minority action by “enlightened” leaders.

 

Despite years of hard effort by the Socialist Party, two myths remain. The first is that state capitalism or some form of nationalisation is of benefit to the workers. The second is that those countries that have a high degree of state control have in fact introduced socialism or are at least in the process of doing so. Both these delusions are held by various sections of the political "left” despite the mass of evidence against them.

There are two fundamental conditions for the establishment of socialism (which must be a world-wide event). The first is the technology capable of production in abundance. This patently was not possible in Russia in 1917 or in China in 1949. The second is the desire of the working class, based on knowledge and understanding, to establish and run a social system where all wealth is owned in common by the whole of mankind, where production takes place for use, and where all that is made by man, is freely available to man. This condition never existed in Russia or China and as yet exists nowhere in the world. But the measure of the political awareness of the working class, is their level of understanding of socialism. Without socialist knowledge, socialism is no more possible than walking on water. Those that claim they are introducing socialism for the working class (or have introduced it) are hoodwinking humanity.

Without the development of potential for adequately meeting the needs of a world community Socialism could not be possible. This might be called the economic factor, and is, in our opinion, already here. What has not yet developed is the socialist majority, understanding their class position under capitalism, and ready and willing to undertake the transformation of society from capitalism to socialism. This is the political factor. In its absence capitalism will continue to exist because workers, lacking the necessary socialist knowledge, will continue to support political parties dedicated to the continuance of present day society. Both factors are equally important for in the absence of either socialism is not possible.

 

The outcome of minority-led revolutions, even if ostensibly to establish socialism, must inevitably lead to some form of capitalism. In the absence of a socialist majority consciously understanding the implications involved in the establishment of Socialism, there is nothing the leadership (no matter how enlightened) can do other than administer capitalism. The Russian and other state-capitalist revolutions (e.g. China, Cuba etc.) have set back the World Socialist Movement by side-tracking workers. Only now is the realisation that they have nothing to do with socialism—something we said at the time.

 

The existence of wages is the hallmark of capitalism. Capitalism implies a certain relationship between people, depending on whether they own capital or merely the ability to work. The workers in selling themselves day after day to the capitalist enrich not themselves but the owners of capital whose wealth their work increases.

Socialism cannot be established in one country at a time. As capitalism is the dominant form of society today, the problem created by it are also apparent throughout the world. Members of the working class internationally are therefore having similar problems to one another. However, they are constantly misled by non-revolutionary political organisations that capitalism will, at some time, begin to work in their interests.

We can see no fundamental differences in the problems facing the working class in, say, the United States, Russia or Australia, but assuming that large numbers of workers in one part of the globe began to reject the false arguments of the capitalist parties and recognised the need for socialism ahead of other workers, there is every reason to believe that interest in their ideas would be generated in a very short space of time among members of the working class in different parts of the globe.

One of the techniques which capitalism has developed to a tremendous degree is the facility of high-speed global communications. Socialist-conscious workers would use such facilities to the full in order to propagate their ideas to workers in other countries. They will do so by recognising that socialism can only be introduced by a united international working class. They will also do so in the knowledge that the solution to capitalism’s problems is the same for themselves as for fellow workers throughout the world. The only escape from exploitation and subjugation remains socialism.

Common Ownership or Capitalism.

 

We in the World Socialist Movement base our political and economic ideas on the writings and teachings of Marx and the implications of those teachings in twentieth-century capitalism. Marx discovered the laws of motion of human society and formalised these in the Materialist Conception of History; he showed the beginnings and development of class conflict and the role it would play in the future development of society; he dissected the nature of commodity production and demonstrated that, as long as the wages/money system continues to exist, there will be an enslaved class condemned to want, or dire misery.

Marx amply demonstrated that among the hallmarks of capitalism is the existence of a working class divorced from ownership of, and control over, their means of life; a class obliged to sell their mental or physical abilities for a wage or salary. The amount of wages, existing or achievable, were not his direct concern: he was concerned with the fact of wage slavery and not the temporary condition of the slave—thus, his advice to workers, in opposition to the ignorance conjured up in the slogan ‘A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ was to inscribe on their banner ‘Abolition of the wages system!’

This entails the conscious and democratic establishment of a world-wide system of common ownership and production for use. in which all humankind would have free and equal access to the bountiful potential of the earth. It entails a world free from capitalism’s wages/money system; a world where the material basis for conflict and violence could not exist; an emancipated, frontier-free world where the complex and despotic government of people will give way to the simple administration of things.

Abolition of the wages system. That’s what Marxism is about! That simple, straightforward statement of aims, exposes political  liars, or fools.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY has only one object — Socialism, which briefly means the common ownership of the means of wealth production and distribution, democratically administered for the common good. The Earth, with its untold riches would be harnessed and utilised for the benefit of all mankind. This means that human needs take priority and production centres around these. From each according to ability — to each according to need would be the guiding principle. Simply put, it means that all those sinews of life previously mentioned, and the thousand and one other things that mankind needs, would be produced to meet human satisfaction.

Socialism cannot operate in one country or on one continent. It is a world-wide concept to deal with world-wide problems. It cannot be established by any leader or so-called intellectual Left Wing group. Its very democratic nature demands that people will have to understand both the capitalist and the new society so that they play a full and responsible role in its administration. Its establishment will result from political action based upon understanding: a class-conscious act to take control of the reins of Government; then strip the capitalists of their power, their wealth, and found a new way of life.

While we claim that socialism alone can solve the basic economic problems that confront mankind, it is not a society just concerned with “belly problems”. Its new economic basis will give rise to a new set of social relationships. Mankind, no longer a wage slave or an appendage to a productive machine, will be able to utilise all his potential, to blossom as a full human being.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY offers itself as your instrument for the establishment of socialism. We offer an understanding of capitalism and some concrete ideas on how socialism will work. But we are not leaders. You join our Party on the basis of your socialist knowledge. We would welcome you and what you have to contribute to the only question worthy of consideration—common ownership or capitalism.

Away with all the trappings of capitalism — tariffs, customs duties, monetary union, competition, buying, selling etc.

 

Our future is your future

 

The Socialist Party has long argued that an appreciation of history is a key to understanding the present and making the future. Marx pointed out that when studying history you should not analyse social and political movements by what they said they were doing but by the material results of what they did. The materialist conception of history is the essential tool for explaining social development, on the basis of society’s economic foundations.

Under capitalism you do not have free access to bread, or to motor cars, or to anything else simply by taking them without price and without having to get somebody’s permission. Free access would be the condition under socialism; it is not the condition under capitalism. We are always being told of the wonderful technical developments of the age we live in. The politicians who oppose socialism give the theme a propaganda twist by arguing that it is capitalism that gives us these things and we would be foolish to give up the social system that does so much for us. The worker of a century ago, they say, did not have the benefit of all the marvels that the worker today is free to enjoy. But this is the heart of the matter: is the worker free to enjoy them?

 

Under capitalism, you can only have what you can afford to pay for. The other is that the savage class struggles and international conflicts that capitalism incites prevent most of these freedoms from being used for the good of mankind. With socialism, the use of all these technical developments would be freely available to all. This is how capitalism works in all fields. Under capitalism the working class have invented, discovered, and produced, all the technical marvels, but capitalism fetters and distorts them all for the profit-making and military needs of the capitalist groups of the world.

We don’t deny that workers pay, in the sense of themselves handing over the money, some taxes. Our argument is that the burden of taxation does not fall in the end on the working class but on the propertied class and profits.

This is based on the assumption that in the medium-term workers sell their ability to work at its cost of production (or what Marx called its value), i.e. at the cost of what they must buy to keep their skills up to scratch and also to raise a family to take their place on the labour market when they retire. It follows from this that any permanent increase in the workers’ cost of living, whether from taxes or from higher prices will be passed on to employers as higher money wages and salaries (On the other hand, any permanent decrease in their cost of living, as from rent control or from subsidies to food or transport, will end up being a subsidy to employers in the form of lower than otherwise money wages.)

Having said this, most taxes in Britain are not even paid by workers but are collected and paid by businesses. Obviously, this is the case with corporation tax. It is also the case with income tax on wages and salaries, which is deducted by employers from nominal wages under the PAYE system and never even get into the hands of bank accounts of employees (income tax, in fact, is mainly a means of ensuring that workers without families don’t get that part of wages meant for raising a family)

Perhaps less obviously, this also applies to VAT. It too falls on and is collected by businesses. As its name implies it is a tax on “value added” which, in capitalist economics, translates into a business’s wages bill plus its profits. As we have just seen, wages in the medium term represent the cost of production of labour power, so though the amount of VAT payable is calculated on the amount of “value added” in fact just like corporation tax it only comes out of profits. Firms can’t automatically increase their prices by the amount of the tax; they reduce their profits by it.

Excise duties on beer, spirits and tobacco are also paid out of their profits by the firms involved. Only in this case prices are raised. The government in effect creates an artificial monopoly position allowing monopoly prices to be charged – and then taxes away the monopoly profits for its own benefit. lnsofar as these goods, selling at their monopoly prices, enter into the general cost of living of the working class they are reflected in higher wage levels.

owner-occupiers

The taxes workers actually pay out of their own pockets are such things as car licences, TV licences and, if they are owner-occupiers, council tax – but, once again, in so far as these enter into the general cost of living they are reflected in wage levels.

 

We want socialism because it will improve our lives. We are not idealist do-gooders but have made the hard-nosed assessment that only through co-operation with other fellow humans can a better world be built.

What We Need to Do

 

Workers owe it to themselves, their children and future generations to remove the profit motive, the property tag and all the rivalries and suspicions which are inherent in competitive societies. Capitalism distorts relationships. Putting a price on everything and subordinating all activities to the need to make a profit has made us all rivals. 

 The capitalist market that rules the world. Acting like a natural force beyond human control, it has much more power than any national government and forces governments to comply with its economic laws, whether they want to or not. The market creates an artificial scarcity and organised waste that is responsible for poverty and hunger in the world today. The law which governs production everywhere is “no profit, no production”. Global hunger and malnutrition are not natural but social problems. Its cause must be sought not in any lack of natural resources but in the way society is organised.

Capitalism, whether in its private or its state form, can never solve the problems that confront wage workers as these arise out of the very nature of capitalism as a system that exploits wage-labour for profit.  We are told that if we get a pay rise, the goods we make will not sell, because China will make them more cheaply, and we shall be worse off. So if we want to keep our standard of living up, we have got to keep it down. If we work for less than our Chinese counterparts, we shall be better off. Then they will want to work for even less, so that they can be better off than we are. Finally, we shall all work for nothing and live like Lords. So their logic inevitably goes.  We live in a society wherein a comparatively small section, by virtue of its ownership of the mines, mills, factories, railways, warehouses, etc., is able to acquire a mass of commodities by exploiting the larger non-possessing section of society—i.e., the working class. But unless each competing section of the capitalist class can ensure a large and ready sale of their commodities by keeping down, and even lowering, their commodity prices, they will find themselves ousted by other competitors. Capitalists, therefore, to keep up the sales that will ensure large profits, must undercut their rivals.

 

 The acceptance of the socialist concept involves a critical examination of the whole of one’s ideas and beliefs. Now, most people we meet are not highly critical, not very imaginative, and not even interested. Their view of a better world is limited to the possibility of another few pounds a week in wages. Sport and showbiz gossip give them all the interest they want. And yet it is just these average working people who must be convinced that socialism is both practicable and necessary. It is not a lack of intelligence that is the stumbling block, it is something else. The case for socialism can be put and has been put in language easily comprehensible by a child. 

It should be the task of our movement to provide socialist knowledge, not in the form of a small monthly journal and via low-traffic blogs and social media, but in every form, the genius of men and women can devise. Capitalists who sell wares have discovered that people are lazy, who move when prodded sufficiently, who are most responsive to repetition, and the continuous reiteration of the same story. They have found that the mere appearance of one word, like “Bovril,” on every railway station, every hoarding, and in every important media outlet, has a powerful psychological effect It becomes by sheer familiarity and persistence, part of the “acquired knowledge” encountered by the questing human mind. When we see ever every hoarding plastered with the word “Socialism"; when every bookshop is full of socialist books and pamphlets; when socialism is mentioned by every newspaper social media post every day, every week, every month, when the average person has socialism thrust upon him or her insistently and persistently, in season and out of season, things will begin to move and change. To take the socialist course lays a heavy burden upon the pioneers of a movement such as ours. That is the essential problem of the immediate present. How can the handful of enthusiasts who initiate the movement, get together sufficient funds to drench the working-class with its literature, to make its presence not only felt, but inescapable, to so familiarise them with its propaganda that misrepresentation becomes ludicrous? How can they, out of their poverty, engender this avalanche of publicity that is to overcome the workers' normal and natural inertia, and get them definitely on the move? Let every intelligent person, who has acquired knowledge by reading this blog, answer for him or herself. Every website visitor,  a member, and every member a party worker, that is our object. We shall move in proportion to our effort.

Solidarity

 

The first of three 24-hour rail strikes by RMT begins Tuesday in Scotland.

Mick Lynch, the union's general secretary, blamed the "dead hand" of government, saying ministers did not allow employers to negotiate freely. This dispute between the RMT union and the companies which run Britain's railway centres on pay, job losses and changes to workers' terms and conditions.

Network Rail's plans to cut 2,500 jobs would put safety at risk.

Gordon Martin, RMT organiser explained they had been "forced" to take strike action.

"This is of the UK government's making," he said. "We have been forced into this as a defensive measure. Our members' jobs and livelihoods are at risk here. More importantly, the safety of the rail infrastructure is at risk and safety in railway stations and on trains is at risk."

The Network Rail industrial action is not related to a separate dispute between ScotRail and train drivers' union Aslef which led to a temporary timetable with 700 fewer services introduced last month.