Capitalist Wage Slavery V Socialist Freedom

 “All I want is freedom for my country, happiness, peace and prosperity."

A refrain, with variations, that we have heard unceasingly over the centuries. The Socialist Party has not been duped by such sentiments of national independence 

Freedom: In capitalist society means the right of the vast majority to be propertyless wage workers producing wealth to be sold on a market with a view to profit.

My country: The countries of the world are owned by a privileged minority. The working class has problems and interests that are produced by capitalism and not by the existence of national barriers. 

Prosperity: All workers are poor, and some are destitute. A prosperous working class is a contradiction in terms. Capitalism is as incapable of producing a working class that is prosperous as it is of producing a government that is popular.

Peace: Even if the shooting stopped the class war would remain, that is the struggle which goes on all the time over the ownership of the wealth of society, whether it be in a so-called “United" Ireland, the “United" States, the “United" Kingdom, the “United” Arab Republic. Russia, Africa, in fact wherever capitalism is the predominating form of society.

 To appeal to any national group of capitalists for disarmament, to give up their only defence against their like-minded predatory neighbours and against the workers from whose robbery the privileged position of the capitalist class arises, is to ask them to commit suicide, and will naturally be given the amount of consideration such a proposal would deserve. Is it to be expected that our capitalist rulers, armed to the teeth to defend their private property, will scrap their armaments and voluntarily sacrifice their hold on the world's wealth merely in response to muddle-headed reformers?

Only when all the resources of the earth, natural and man-made, are owned in common by all the people of the world can they be used in a rational way – to provide an abundance of goods and services which people can take and use freely as and when they need to.

The Socialist Party has always contended that capitalism should be abolished because it mismanaged the means of production so that a very few – those who own the means of production – reaped great profits while the masses of the people were deprived of a secure standard of living. Also, we would often prove this assertion by demonstrating the tremendous capacities which modern technology has; how it could satisfy the needs of everyone if it were run for that purpose; and how capitalism, instead, ran the industrial machine for profits. 

Look, the Socialist Party would say, if only the people could run these industries themselves, they could produce enough to satisfy everyone’s needs.  It remains the great and tragic paradox of our age – poverty in the midst of plenty.  The primary interest of the capitalist, we have said, is profit. Capitalism is a wasteful and inefficient system. Socialism could plan better, and provide the people with all necessities. Socialism could take the vast resources which are available and use them for constructive purposes. In place of capitalism could arise a new society of peace and plenty. That is why socialism is the burning need of the hour. Capitalists are interested in production for profit, and socialists in production for use. Capitalism is based upon a constantly increasing exploitation of labour, in order to maintain its profit; workers constantly resist this exploitation. There is and can be no such thing as a “fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” inasmuch as wages are the payment for only one part of the day’s work, the other part of which the worker is compelled to contribute to the employer in the form of surplus-value, or profit. Capital always seeks to increase its profits, which can be done only by exploiting labour; labour always seeks to resist exploitation, which can be done only at the expense of profits. These are fundamental economic facts. Under capitalism, nothing that all the capitalists or the whole government will ever do can succeed in wiping out these facts.

Talkin' Bout A Revolution (music)

 

Capitalism, a systems failure

 

A plethora of articles have advised that the solution to the crises of capitalism is reforms, regulations and legislation. However, one way or the other, under capitalism, workers are going to pay the price  so as not to cut into the bosses’ profits. The capitalist mode of production is based upon the need for a constantly increasing accumulation of  profits by any means necessary. To the bosses profit comes before human life—before progress, before the fulfillment of human needs and wants, and before the well-being of our planet. Capitalism is an irrational system designed to increase the rate of profits for the wealthy by any means necessary—including robbing us of our basic human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The capitalist class is a tiny  minority of humanity and the working class makes up the vast majority. Included in this mass are workers, farmers, and our allies whose interests are in line with ours—and any capitalist who is willing to cross the class line and stand on the side of the majority of humanity, for a system based upon production for universal human need and want, and not profit.  Therinterest of the capitalist class is to secure their own happiness through profit, at the expense of the rest of us—even at the expense of the planet itself. Capitalism is a world built upon the enslavement of the working class for the benefit of the capitalist class.The fact is, capitalism is totally chaotic and wasteful, both in human terms and the environment. Nothing is planned rationally according to what people and the planet need to thrive. Its only plan is to increase the rate of profit for the rich. All social needs under capitalism are an impediment to that goal. It is the system that must go. 

Production for need and want instead of profits is in the best collective interests of all. Socialism is a system that is owned and controlled by the working class and run in our own collective interests. Its ultimate goal is the development of each individual to his or her fullest. It is a system that can run society in the most efficient manner. Eventually there is a withering away of any connection between a person’s contributions to society, i.e., his or her work, and the reward for work performed. That’s what Marx meant by the phrase, “from each according to ability and to each according to need.” In this simple phrase, the connection between human labor and material reward is severed forever. It is a profound emancipation of all humanity! What we workers need to realize is that this world is at our fingertips if we just reach for it in unity and solidarity with each other. If we fight for our collective common interests and goals, through unified, democratic and well-organised opposition to the despotic system of capitalism, its wars, its pollution, its racism and inequality—we can overthrow it and finally bring an end to the domination of the wealthy over the poor.

The capitalists promote  racial, religious, ethnic, gender differences to  divides us and to keep us fighting amongst ourselves,  blind ing us all to our  common needs and interests. This is how they preserve their power and control over the profits we working people create with our labour. A real democracy is when working people get to decide the issues that affect our lives.  the so-called “democratic electoral process” have become the epitome of lesser-evil politics and the opposite of democracy. The capitalist class and their money dictate our electoral choices—insuring that we have no say in the decision-making that will actually control our lives. Under capitalism, workers are only entitled to what we can pay for. Our earnings are dictated only by how hard we fight for them. Nothing is given to us that we haven’t had to fight for.

An socialist party can never align itself with the parties of the capitalist class. That is an oxymoron. We need to form a mass working class party that has the power to challenge the rule of the “one percent” across the globe. We need a party that is based on solidarity and unity among workers in our fight for economic and social equality and justice—a party powerful enough to overthrow capitalism, and actually establish socialism—a party that understands that an injury to one is an injury to all. It is up to us to turn all this around because it is in the interests of the vast majority of humanity.

Socialism is a real democratic alternative. Only through the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism can we finally achieve democracy, true freedom, economic and social equality, and justice for all.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD- UNITE (music video)

 

Towards Sustainable Socialism

 Freedom, true freedom, is freedom from hunger, ignorance, violence and oppression. A united worldwide working class can bring about true freedom—freedom from capitalism—and the establishment of socialism.  Socialism would give us the freedom to live fulfilling lives. It’s feasible in the here and now and it’s humanity’s only hope. This is the only way human society can cease to be based on endless production, and instead become a society based on production for need. This system cannot be stopped by force. It is violent and ruthless beyond the capacity of any people’s resistance movement. The only way I can even imagine stopping it is through non-cooperation, denying our consent and refusing our compliance with it

In a sustainable society, the economy would be democratically controlled and organised to provide the greatest possible well-being for everyone.  The Capitalist’s profit is extracted from workers’ labour when the capitalists pay them less than the value of what they produce. The portion of the value of the product that the capitalist keeps is called surplus value. The amount of surplus value that the capitalist can keep varies with the level of organization of the workers, and with their level of privilege within the world labour pool. But the working class can never be paid the full value of their labour under capitalism because the capitalist class exists by extracting surplus value from their labour. This system cannot be reformed. It is based on the destruction of the earth and the exploitation of the people. There is no such thing as green capitalism.

 Capitalism by its very structure is designed to protect the privileges of the wealthy by any means necessary. Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It destroys the world in order to increase profits for the wealthy. The gap between the rich and the poor has grown astronomically in the last few decades. Natural resources wherever they are found, are taken for the benefit of corporations.

Socialism turns capitalism—the private ownership of the means of production—upside-down. Socialism is an economic system that democratises production in order to fulfil the needs and wants of all on an equal basis, instead of on the accumulation of private profits for the few.

Production for need and want instead of private profit will free up resources to ensure the health and safety of workers and the preservation of our environment. It will eliminate the waste of producing inferior products designed to break down so that they have to constantly be replaced—a standard practice of capitalist production to increase profits. Instead, we can concentrate on the production of durable products that can be upgraded as technology evolves. Capitalist production pollutes and destroys the environment because protecting the planet cuts into profits. That’s why factories spew their filth into the air and poison the land, the rivers and the sea.

 Socialism will end all that. Without the profit-driven capitalist motive of production, we will be free to revolutionize production methods without sacrificing the well-being of people or the planet.

The goal will be to produce durable goods more efficiently—maximising automation while gradually shortening the working week and increasing living standards for all—so that everyone can have, not only all the necessities and wants of life, but more free time to pursue personal interests, the arts, scientific advancements.

We will be free to preserve our environment It will be a world without racism, sexism, war, crime, poverty, starvation, homelessness, ignorance, despair, abuse addiction, and pestilence. In a democratic and cooperative socialist society, the free and equal development of each individual’s talents and abilities will finally become the condition for the free and equal development of all of us.

There is only one thing that stands in the way of our road to a socialist utopia—and that is capitalism—the ownership of the means of production by a tiny, despotic, divisive, parasitic capitalist class that can only survive by oppression and coercion. Capitalism has to go!

A socialist society will be a society designed to encourage human development to its fullest while preserving and safeguarding the health and welfare of our planet for the benefit of all.

 

Ending capitalism is essential to solving the current world environmental crisis.  An alternative economy which serves the interests of the majority is necessary. Capitalist society robs us of community with each other and harmony with the planet. If workers had control of society, they would find a more humane way to decide what we need and how to produce it. The Socialist Party’s credo is "production for use, not for profit, production for need, not for greed."

Which Side Are You On (music)

 

What socialism will be like

 

Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers. Under capitalism, the fundamental contradiction in society is between the social character of production and the private ownership of the means of production. More and more workers come to work together in modern industry, which is capable of providing for the needs of all the people. But the means of production are in the hands of an ever-smaller number of billionaires whose only goal is to maximise profits.

 In Marxist class terms, this contradiction translates into the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker. The working class cannot end exploitation and poverty unless it overthrows the capitalist system. It must sweep away the nightmare of capitalism. Only socialism can respond to the just aspirations of the working class.

It is from the labour of working people that the capitalists have grown rich. The workers own no means of production and are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists in order to live. The workers receive a wage that corresponds roughly to the value of labour power. Their surplus labour increases or helps increase capital. The working class has no role of direction in the division of labour and is subject to the rigid discipline of capitalist production. The workers produce the riches of society. It is their labour that turns the wheels of modern industry.

Capitalism cannot be fixed. It must be replaced by an economic system that replaces a worldwide system of production for need and wants and not profits. A world shared by all. Reorganizing our economic system into one that produces the things people need and want instead of production for profit will free the world.

Workers would contribute our labour to society and society would distribute the wealth that our labour produces equally among all people according to need and want. We could produce things that are designed to last ending “built-in obsolescence”—i.e., products designed to break down forcing us to continually replace them and creating enormous amounts of waste. We could take all the necessary measures to make sure that all production is safe for human beings and the environment because the cost of safe production would no longer be an issue. We would be able to automate industry to the fullest degree freeing up workers’ time for personal development and leisure. All borders would be torn down, and all the wealth produced by labour would belong to all, equally everywhere.

 Our first concern would become the well-being of all life on Earth and the health of our planet. We have the modern-day wherewithal to carry this out. We have the ability with the world-wide-web to calculate all the things that are needed by people and design our products to fulfil those needs free of the profit motive. Instead of a tiny minority of capitalists stealing the wealth we workers produce, all that wealth could be put back into schools, housing, hospitals, clean water supplies, and cleaning up the oceans, air and land. We could restore our environment.

Socialism will put an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for working people. Gone will be the anarchy of capitalist production. The vast riches of our planet, its lands, forests, mineral resources, lakes and rivers as well as the means of production, for the common benefit of all. There will be an end to all exploitation. The wealth will be the property of the people and not of individual capitalists. Socialism will guarantee the well-being of all the people who will run society and the economy from top to bottom. The resources of society will be distributed according to the needs of the people, not to satisfy a few capitalists’ hungers for profits as is the case today. The quality of everyday life will improve. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. There will be no more needless destruction of our environment. 

This is not a Utopian fantasy.  The real fantasy is believing that the capitalist class will become more benevolent and that their wealth will trickle down to us.  That’s the pipe dream!

Dave Rovics - The Commons (music)