The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as the class struggle. This struggle is an economic fact as old as history itself, but it is only within recent generations that it has become a conscious and well-organised political fact. As long as this struggle was confined to its economic aspect the ruling classes had nothing to fear, as, being in control of all the means and agencies of government, they were always able to use their power effectively to suppress uprisings either of chattel slaves, feudal serfs, or free-born and politically equal capitalist wage-workers. But now that the struggle has definitely entered the political field it assumes for the present ruling class a new and sinister aspect. With the whole power of the state -- the military, the courts, the police -- in possession of the working class by virtue of its victory at the polls, the death knell of capitalist private property and wage slavery is sounded. This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of government from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new plane, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places, as many poorly informed persons undoubtedly still believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear. If the Socialist Party did not have any higher political ideal than the victory of one class over another it would not be worthy of a moment’s support from any right-thinking individual. It would, indeed, be impossible for the party to gain any strength or prestige. It is the worth of its ideals that attracts adherents to the World Socialist Movement even from the ranks of the capitalist class.
The capitalist was originally a socially useful individual, but the evolution of our economic system has rendered him a parasite, an entirely useless functionary that must be eliminated if civilization is to endure. He is no longer useful. He is now merely an obstacle to social progress and must be abolished, just as the feudal lord and chattel slave-owner have been abolished. From the point of view of the corporation owners, the workers are simply an extension of the machine of profit production. The workers are not regarded as having human attributes. Their labour is trafficked in as a commodity, like iron and steel, and the only interest the capitalist retains in production receiving his dividends. Society can get along without the capitalist; it refuses longer to support him in idleness and luxury. Industrial and commerce has now evolved an organization, co-operative in character, whereby industry may be carried on without friction for the benefit of the whole people instead of for the profit of the individual capitalist. It is not the mission of the Socialist Party to speculate concerning the manner in which the workers will conduct their affairs when they have come into possession of their inheritance which the ages have prepared for them but there exist ample indicators on how enterprises will be democratically administered and decisions made. “Without rights there shall be no duties; without duties no rights.” What will be the practical interpretation of this Socialist axiom? Obviously, social parasitism must cease; every man must be a producer or perform some socially useful function, in order to procure title to any share in the product of the collective industry. The only citizenship held honourable will be economic citizenship or comradeship in production and in the sharing of product. Is there is a single thing you can think of that cannot be produced in abundance? The spectacle of strong men walking the streets idle and hungry, vainly begging for a chance to work for the pittance that will suffice to ward off starvation from themselves and their loved ones, will be no more. The cruelty of children of tender years being forced hungry to school will disappear. No longer will there be a problem of the unemployed. The class struggle must necessarily cease, for there will be no classes. Each individual will be his or her own economic master, and all will be servants of the collectivity.
The struggle for working class emancipation, which finds its expression through the Socialist Party, must continue and will increase in intensity until either the ruling class completely subjugates the working class, or until the working class entirely absorbs the capitalist class. There is no middle ground possible, and it is this fact that makes ludicrous those sporadic reform movements. It is so easy to agree with the ignorant majority. It is so easy to make the people applaud an empty platitude. It takes some courage to face that majority, and tell the truth to their faces. Nature’s storehouse is full to the surface of the earth. All of the raw materials are deposited here in abundance. We have the most marvelous machinery the world has ever known. Mankind has long since become master of the natural forces and made them work for us. Now we need only to touch a button and the wheels begin to spin and the machinery to whirr, and wealth is produced on every hand in increasing abundance. Why should any man, woman or child suffer for food, clothing or shelter? Why? Don’t tell us that some are too lazy to work. Suppose they are too lazy to work, what do you think of a social system that produces men too lazy to work? If a man is too lazy to work don’t treat him with contempt. Don’t look down upon him with scorn as if you were a superior being. If there is a man too lazy to work there is something the matter with him, He wasn’t born right or he was perverted in this system. You could not, if you tried, keep a normal person sloth-like and inactive, and if you did he or she would go stark raving mad. Go to any jail and you will find the convicts there begging for the privilege of doing prison-work.
The material foundation of society determines the character of all social institutions—political, educational, ethical and spiritual. In proportion as the economic foundation of society changes the character of social institutions changes to correspond. Half of America was in favour of chattel slavery, and half was opposed to it, geographically speaking. Why was the church of the South in favour of chattel slavery? Why was the church of the Northern states opposed to chattel slavery? The Northern capitalist wasn’t a bit more opposed to chattel slavery from any morality than was the Southern plantation owner. The South produced cotton for the market by the hand labour of black slaves. On the other hand, the North wasn’t dependent upon cotton—could raise no cotton. In the North it was the small capitalist at the beginning of capitalism, who, with the machine, had begun to manufacture, and wanted cheap labour; and the sharper the competition the cheaper he could buy his labour. Now, chattel slavery to the Southern plantation owner was the source of his wealth. He had to have slaves, and what the plantation owner had to have in economics the preacher had to justify in religion. As long as chattel slavery was necessary to the Southern plantation owner, as long as that stage of the economic condition lasted, the preachers stood up in the pulpits of the South and said that slavery was ordained of God, and proved it by the Bible. (We don’t know of any crime that the oppressors have not proven by the Bible.) The free soilers came to Kansas, despised, hated and were persecuted. They were the enemies of the human race. Why? Because they looked with pity upon the black slave who received his wages in lashes applied to his naked back; who saw his crying wife torn from him and his children, pleading, snatched from his side and sold into slavery, while the great mass looked on just as the great mass is looking on today, and the preachers stood up in their pulpits and said: “It is all right. God knows best.” And whenever an abolitionist raised his head he was hounded as if he had been a wild beast. All of the slave catchers and holders, all of the oppressors of man, all of the enemies of the humanity, all have spoken in the name of the Great God and the Holy Bible.
We are today the abolitionists, intent upon ending wage-slavery. Our conduct is determined largely by our economic relations. If you and I must fight each other to exist, we will not love each other very hard. Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy all human wants. According to the American Declaration of Independence, man has the inalienable right to life. If that be true it follows that he has also the inalienable right to work. If you have no right to work you have no right to life because you can only live by work. And if you live in a system that deprives you of the right to work, that system denies you the right to live. Now men and women have a right to life because we are here. That is sufficient proof, and if he or she has the right to life, it follows that he or she has the right to all the means that sustain life. But how is it in this outgrown capitalist system? A worker can only work on condition that he or she finds somebody who will give him or her permission to work for just enough of what his or her labour produces to keep him or her in working order.
No man can be for labor without being against capital. No man can be for capital without being against labor. Here is the capitalist; here are the workers. Here is the capitalist who owns the mines; here are the miners who work in the mines. There is so much coal produced. There is a quarrel between them over a division of the product. Each wants all he can get. Here we have the class struggle. Now. is it possible to be for the capitalist without being against the worker. Are their interest not diametrically opposite? If you increase the share of the capitalist don’t you decrease the share of the workers? Can a door be both open and shut at the same time? Can you increase both the workers’ and the capitalist’s share at the same time? There is just so much produced, and in the present system it has to be divided between the capitalists and the workers, and both sides are fighting for all they can get. and this is the historic class struggle.
There is one fact, and a very important one, that the Socialist Party would impress upon you, and that is the necessity for revolutionary working class political action. No one will attempt to dispute the fact that our interests as workers are identical. If our interests are identical, then we ought to unite. We ought to unite within the same organization, and if there is a strike we should all strike, and if there is a boycott all of us ought to engage in it. If our interests are identical, it follows that we ought to belong to the same party as well as to the same economic organization. What is politics? It is simply the reflex of economics. What is a party? It is the expression politically of certain material class interests. You belong to that party that you believe will promote your material welfare. Is not that a fact? If you find yourself in a party that attacks your pocket do you not quit that party? Now, if you are in a party that opposes your interests it is because you don’t have intelligence enough to understand your interests. That is where the capitalists have the better of you. As a rule, they are intelligent., and shrewd. They understand their material interests and how to .protect them. You find the capitalists as a rule belonging only to capitalist parties. They don’t join a working-class party and they don’t vote for the Socialist Party. They know enough to know that socialists oppose their economic interests. The inequality question, which is really the question of all humanity, will never be solved until it is solved by the working class. It will never be solved for you by the capitalists. It will never be solved for you by the politicians. It will remain unsolved until you yourselves solve it. As long as you can stand and are willing to stand these conditions, these conditions will remain; but when you unite all over the land, when you present a solid class-conscious phalanx, economically and politically, there is no power on this earth that can stand between you and complete emancipation. As individuals you are helpless, but united you are an irresistible power.
This whole system is based upon the private ownership by the capitalist of the tools and the wage-slavery of the working class, and as long as the tools are privately owned by the capitalists the great mass of workers will be wage-slaves. You may, at times, temporarily better your condition within certain limitations, but you will still remain wage-slaves, and why wage-slaves? For just one reason and no other – you have got to work. To work you have got to have tools, and if you have no tools you have to beg for work, and if you have got to beg for work the man who owns the tools you use will determine the conditions under which you shall work. As long as he owns your tools he owns your job, and if he owns your job he is the master of your fate. You are in no sense a free man. You are subject to his interest and to his will. He decides whether you shall work or not. Therefore, he decides whether you shall live or die. And in that humiliating position any one who tries to persuade you that you are a free man is guilty of insulting your intelligence. You will never be free, you will never stand erect in your own manly self-reliance until you are the master of the tools you work with, and when you are you can freely work without the consent of any master, and when you do work you will get all your labour produces. As it is now the lion’s share goes to the capitalist for which he does nothing, while you get a small fraction to feed, clothe and shelter yourself, and reproduce yourself in the form of labour power. That is all you get out of it and all you ever will get in the capitalist system. Can you be satisfied with your lot? Will you insist that life shall continue a mere struggle for existence and one prolonged misery to which death comes as a blessed relief? How is it with the average worker today? I am not referring to the few who have been favored and who have fared better than the great mass, but I am asking how it is with the average workingman in this system? Admittedly many still possess a job. What assurance has in twenty-four hours? Robotics and automation is conquering every department of activity. It is displacing more and more workers, and not just the unskilled, and making the lot of those who have employment more and more insecure. Admit that a man has a job. What assurance is there that if some workers engage in any industrial action and gains a temporary advantage, that the employer invests in new machinery to make his workers redundant. The moment workers are dismissed they have to hunt for a new buyer for their labour power. They owns no tools; the tools are great machines. There is only one condition under which they can work and that is when they sell their labour power. They are not sold from the block, as was the chattel slave. They sells themselves by the hour, by the day, by the week and by the month in exchange for just enough to keep themselves and their families in that same slavish condition. You are a worker, you live in capitalism, and you have nothing but your labour power, and you don’t know whether you are going to find a buyer or not. It is in the nature of capitalism to turn every human disaster into an opportunity to make profit.
