Something is wrong with the world

 

We in the Socialist Party are not nationalists but world socialists as our name indicate.  We had better define our terms. Most will probably think they know what a socialist is but are sadly mistaken.  Socialists are people who want political power for one purpose only, to revolutionise the world we live in, and change it from a capitalist system to a socialist one, where the means of life are owned by society as a whole. “From each according to his ability" is the first half of the socialist's golden rule for the kind of society we want to create.  “To each according to his need" is in this second half of our motto. 

We hold to a vision of a united world  a planet where national boundaries shall be unknown. Socialists know that a new world of unity and cooperation can exist in the future by observing certain features in society now, such as widespread cooperation despite tremendous pressures to divide and compete, and examples of generosity and self-sacrifice that are always evident in times of crisis. 

One day there is an announcement that goes something like this: We, the workers of the world, declare all the raw-materials of the planet, the means of production and distribution, the means to a good life, to be ours. The world is no longer owned by the non-producing class. The Earth no longer belongs to the privileged minority. Today the world belongs to all of humanity . The fruits of the labours we ,the producers of goods, produce are ours.

We, the working people, understand that capitalism doesn’t operate for us. And all the reforms in the world are not going to make it serve us.

We the producing class, the workers of the world, the vast majorityt, understand a world without money is the system that is best for us. As it also does for all the animals andthe environment.

We are now the caretakers of planet Earth. We are the masters of our own destiny.

So much of our labour yesterday was wasted. We put a stop to that nonsense—in a non-violent, peaceful, radical, intelligent way. We will never again squander our raw-materials. No more will we mis-use our labour, our lives, our time, our genius, our industry, our potential, our love.

In everything we produce for ourselves we will produce nothing but what our best endeavours can produce. Everyone of us will have the means to enjoy a good life.

We, the workers of the world,  with the right ideas have conquered the capitalist system.

We have dismantled and abolished capitalism. And have established a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the best interest of the humanity.

We, the workers of the world, construct every building, lay every railway track, bake every pie. This world is ours by right. Because we make it.

We, the workers of the world, hereby declare that from this day forth our labour will turn the resourcess of Earth into the things we need and want for a civilised system of society. For all of us to enjoy. And our children to enjoy. And their children. And their children. And their children.

We, the workers of the world,  will make Earth if not paradise then as near as much that it makes no difference.

We ask you, fellow workers, to imagine you are living in a world where money does not exist. When you want something you go to the store and take it. There isn’t someone to tell you what you can take or when you can take it; that decision is yours. And everybody else has the same right to avail themselves of what they need as you — so there are no criminals wanting to rob you.

Of course, all the things that people freely avail themselves of have to be produced. Food has to be grown and processed; things have got to be made and houses and other buildings have to be built; a thorough and efficient health service has to be run as well as emergency and other services. In the world where you are pretending to be there is plenty of work to do.

But because money is no more, millions of jobs that used to use the skills and energies of people no longer exist. There is no need for banks, insurance offices, advertising and promotion services, sales people of all the different sorts, mortgage services, dole clerks, security personnel, judges, lawyers and criminals. The list is a very long one and includes armed forces and all those munition workers, scientists and others employed in the killing industry — as the competition for markets, trade routes and other material interests that cause wars and conflicts would have disappeared. All in all, it would be safe to say that, in the world in which you are pretending to be now, there would be at least three times as many people to do the necessary work as there are in the world you are pretending to have left.

Picture a future where there is no government because there are no conflicting interests and no need for people to be controlled by a coercive state. Instead, there are democratically-elected bodies at local, regional and world level whose function is to organise production and distribution. You may be elected to one of these bodies. If you are you will not receive any special favours — of course, you won’t need to for, like everybody else, the things you need are freely available to you. Those elected to carry on public administration can be recalled by those who elected them and no-one is coerced into fulfilling any task.

In a socialist world, neither you nor any other person will ever endure poverty or insecurity; you will never be homeless or badly housed; you will not die in warfare or civil conflict for the basis of these evils will have been abolished and, since there is no need to steal, crime and offences against the person do not now exist. Automation and new productive processes, instead of creating unemployment, simply make necessary work easier for all and, like the fact that all the wasteful occupations of the old world have been abolished, give more leisure to those who wish to travel in a world where frontiers do not exist or to pursue other work, hobbies or interests.

The world we asked you to imagine was the world envisaged by the early socialists. Unfortunately, that vision was deliberately corrupted by politicians acting in ignorance or in the interests of the ruling class. Socialism has not failed; on the contrary, it has never been tried and the growth of a genuine movement to bring it about has been deliberately frustrated by  lies and misrepresentation. It is because the case for socialism is so overwhelmingly logical that those who oppose it out of narrow self-interest use their wealth, their power and their privilege to distort its meaning and to deny it. These are interests that have successfully pretended to you that you have to put up with capitalism and its disgusting abuse of humanity because there is no alternative to that system.

The task of the Socialist Party is to build the political means of convincing a majority to opt for socialism. We do not pretend that it is an easy task but, confronted with capitalist reality, it is an urgent and essential one.

Hold the Fort (music)

 

Towards A New Freedom

 

Socialism has long been a necessity. Socialism is now more necessary because the only alternative under capitalism is the ecological destruction of our environment and civilisation returning to  barbarism for the entire population of our planet. Capitalism has provided the technology which are necessary for a socialist reorganisation of society, it long ago ceased to be able to provide for thebasic  needs of people. We want security. We want peace. We want decent homes.  We want comfort and prosperity. We want democracy and freedom. Despite its huge industries and abundant natural resources, capitalism is unable to provide us with these elementary wants. The insanity of this system of  capitalism is that it creates inequality, poverty and unemployment and all the crises of society because it produces too much.

Capitalists are in competition against each other and against their capitalist counterparts abroad. They all try to outproduce and outsell each other on the market because the mainspring of capitalist production is profit, not human needs. Consequently, a  manufacturer produces as much as he thinks he can sell at a profit. So does his rival. The market becomes glutted, because there are more products produced than the customers can buy – not, of course, more than they need.

Socialism, and only socialism, will create a true global society, a world without national barriers, without international rivalries, without master and slave and, hence, a world without war. Socialism’s sole criterion would be the needs of the people.  Socialism will guarantee peace, security and freedom and prevent the destruction of mankind. Socialism will end the root evil of modern society, i.e., the private ownership of the means of production, the factories, mines, transport, communications and land, which produce the necessities of life.

 With socialism, these instruments of production will become the property of society, owned in common, producing for use, for the general welfare of the people as a whole. With the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life and with it the factor of profit as the prime mover of production, the sharp divisions of society between nations and classes will disappear. Then, and only then, will society be in a position to become a social order of abundance and plenty for all, for socialism will create a new world of genuine cooperation and collaboration between the peoples of the earth.

By  abolishing classes in society, socialism will change the form and type of governments which exist today. Governments will become administrative bodies regulating production and consumption. They will not be the instruments of the capitalist class coercion or to promote the economic rule of big business, their profits, their private ownership. Socialism will in the elevation of society, to improve continually the living standards of the people, to extend their leisure time and thus make it possible to heighten the cultural level of the whole world. A socialist world state will be the freest, most democratic society the world has ever known. A socialist world will assess the industrial potential of the world, determine its resources, the needs of the people and plan production with the aim of increasing the standards of living, creating abundance, increasing leisure and building opportunities for cultural advancement. Socialism will not concern itself with profits. The aim of socialism is not the increased exploitation and intensification of labour, but the implementation  of technology, science and invention to diminish toil, to create time in which to permit all the people to enjoy the benefits of social progress.

Today’s modern world contains all the pre-conditions necessary for socialism. All around us are elaborate  industrial enterprises containing machinery which could produce the goods of life in abundance. Mankind has developed marvelousnew  technology to create a fruitful life of abundance. Socialism will place at the disposal of humanity the scientists and experts to help create an ever-improving life for mankind. Under capitalism, scientists and inventors are mere wage workers hiring out their skills to private R and D industry. The fruits of their intelligence under intellectual ownership laws become the exclusive property of the capitalists who profit from the research of these scientists. Thus, science has become subordinated to profits rather than to the common good of all mankind. Future society depends on changing this relation of science to society. Socialism can place science where it properly belongs: in the service of the community.

 Working people can travel the road of capitalism towards chaos, war, poverty and barbarism, or we can take the socialist path toward true freedom, peace and security, the way toward a society of plenty for all which would end the exploitation of man by man for all time.

Glasgow Eskimos (music)

 

No Way But The Socialist Way

 The only way humanity can survive is by ending capitalism. humanity cannot thrive by pursuing profit.

The world today is in the hands of billionaires-owners of the biggest corporations. They use their power to make themselves richer and richer—at our expense. They hire workers to make a profit out of their labour; their capitalist production is for profit, not for use and to get more profit they keep wages low and worsen conditions. Poverty and insecurity are making great inroads into the homes of working people. Capitalism has become an obsolete oppressive system that ought to be gotten rid of. Socialism will mean the end of production for profit and instead work will carry on production for use. The needs of all will be met, and new needs and pleasures now denied to the working class will be created and satisfied by a socialist organisation and extension of production. Advancing slogans like “Make the Rich Pay”  implies no intention to abolish capitalism.

Capitalism exists on the basis of unpaid labour. You as a worker produce commodities to be exchanged on the market. You produce not only enough to pay your own wage, but also an added value, a surplus value, over and above the cost of your maintenance. Surplus labour is your unpaid wage. In polite circles, it is called “profit. ” And that’s what capitalism is all about. The ruling class wants to preserve its privileges, its interests, its power, its wealth, and its dominion. And so it engages in divide and conquer.

Paradoxically, capitalist society has internationalised humanity’s life. It has forged material bonds between all peoples which establish an inevitable solidarity between them. Internationalism is not ideal, it is a historical reality. Capitalism causes the peoples’ interests, ideas, customs, and regimes to coalesce and co-mingle. Working people are not making good progress toward the solution of their problems because they see only isolated injustices and do not see the underlying cause. Too many people still believe that their government stands for peace and freedom.

Workers are all the people who don’t own their own means of production. Are you a producer of goods, or are you an appropriator of profits? Are you a worker employed by somebody else, or are you the owner who reaps surplus value from the labour of your workers? 

In order to replace capitalism with an egalitarian society we need a revolution. Capitalism, no matter how it plans and promises and prays, can never actually lift the worker from the bedrock of subsistence – although there is potentially plenty to provide an abundance for all.  Our world revolution aims not only at the abolition of privilege, and class, but ending national boundaries and the fusion of all peoples into one society.

Socialism is the sole solution to the question of poverty and the question of exploited labour.  The Socialist  Party holds that the exploitation of labour, with all of its consequences, will not disappear until the day the means of production – land, machinery, communications and transport will be transformed from private property into collective property.

Socialism is not production for profit. It is production for use. It is not production for private ownership and the private ownership of resources. It is common ownership of wealth. It is not inequality and misery and persecution and discrimination. It is not deprivation and destitution. It is equality and fairness.  It is freedom from poverty and want. It is freedom from hunger and war. It is freedom from oppression and squalor. Socialism is a celebration of life, not a cult of death.

How is a socialist movement to be built? This blog does not pretend to have a formula but does believe that certain steps can and should be taken. Defeatism must be replaced by confidence in victory. Raising the political consciousness of the largest possible number of fellow workers we could reach remains our main task today. To transform the SPGB from a propaganda group into a party of mass action and where workers shall learn to accept Marxism as their guide to action.

The Socialist Party looks to the working class to fashion and fights for its own solution—workers’ control, self-management and democratic planning.  We stand with the workers as they organise.  We must not entertain illusions for it is only the working class, who can forge an authentic socialist revolution. We are the people. We are the majority.  We are the working class. If we organise we will change this world.  The Socialist Party is the harbinger of a world movement for the future. The working class today stands at a crossroads of history. The workers cannot afford to be lulled into a false sense of security. The empty gesture of capitalism to save itself must be repudiated. The happiness of humanity is not in the past but rests in the future.

Strange Fruit (music video)