If
there is any one thing that impelled us to join the socialist
movement, it is a hatred of the violence that exists in society –
not only the physical violence but the violence which condemns
children to starvation or semi-starvation because of the poverty of
the parents, the violence which condemns children to go to work long
before they have received an adequate education. Everywhere in
society there is violence of one sort or another, culminating in the
dreadful violence which sacrifices millions of human beings upon the
altar of war. It is this violence which we hate that drives us into a
movement which has as its ideal the creation of a world free from
violence, where human beings will cooperate in the ‘production of
goods to satisfy their needs, where peace and security will prevail.
The
Socialist Party is internationalist because we really take seriously
the doctrine that all men and women are created equal. That they must
have an equal opportunity, and that they are equally good or bad; that there
is no difference between German and English and American and Chinese
and Whites or Blacks; that whatever differences crop up, upon
maturity, are the result of their environment, and not of their
birth. So the doctrine that all people are created equal is full of
meaning to us. We live by it. We have no prejudices, and we detest
all forms of racial, religious and national prejudice. All of us are
obviously born without any prejudices whatever. Have you ever seen a
child of one or two or three years of age who knew anything about
racial or religious hatreds? We have never seen one, and we know you
have never seen one. But as the child becomes an adult, as he or she
absorbs the poisons that exist in modern society, he or she becomes
prejudiced. Every important judgement that a human being makes is
determined by the ideas and by the prejudices acquired in early
youth – in school, in church, at home.
If
you are interested in finding out the general outlines of what we
consider to be a socialist society, you can do so by reading our
Declaration
of Principles.
The
fundamental feature of a socialist society will be that all the means
of production – transportation, the mines, the factories – will
be owned by the people and the goods that will be produced will be
produced for use. Under the present system, which we call capitalist,
the means of production are owned by private persons or corporations
and although some owners may be very good and charitable gentlemen,
they operate their industries not because people need the goods that
they produce but because they want to make a profit.
In
socialism the people will decide how many pairs of shoes, how many
garments, how many hats, how much coal, how many houses will be
needed to satisfy the needs of the people and these things will be
produced. The productive wealth of society – not goods for
consumption such as a coat, or a shirt, or a radio or an automobile –
but the productive wealth of society – machinery, factories, mines
– will be owned in common by the people and goods will be produced
for the use of the people.
There
will be no classes under socialism – that is, there will be no
class that owns the wealth and no class that is exploited. Today a
worker only has his labour power and he sells that to someone who owns
machinery and he gets a wage in return and the man who owns the
machinery makes a profit out of the labour power. This is what
socialists term exploitation of labour. Individuals
inside socialism will, of course, have different capabilities. But no
one will be permitted to own any productive wealth and thus exploit
labour.
Socialism,
which some also designate as communism, the productive forces of
society will be so greatly developed and the education of the people
will be such as to enable society to follow the principle: From each
according to ability; to each according to need. If anyone of you
raises the objection that human nature makes that impossible. With
socialism people will be educated not to think of profit but of
service to society. Great scientists even now do not work in their
laboratories because they expect to make millions of dollars; they
work because they are interested in science. We want a socialist
society where all the productive wealth is owned in common and there
is no exploitation. We want a social revolution; that is undeniable.
By that we mean that our aim is to transfer the economic and
political power from the class we call capitalists to the workers .
When that happens, a social revolution will have occurred. A social
revolution may or may not be accompanied by violence. No one knows
exactly how it will occur in the future.
Marxists
are of the opinion that society operates on the basis of certain
laws.
The
phrase, “overthrow” of the government, raises in most minds a
terrible picture of the use of weapons and violence. But you can see
that to abolish or destroy or overthrow a government can mean and
usually does mean, replacing certain individuals, organised in a
certain way, basing themselves on certain concepts, replacing them
with other individuals, organised in a different way. and basing
themselves on different concepts.
Marxists
are of the opinion that society operates on the basis of certain
laws. Economic determinism is not the theory of socialism, but it
does give an idea that socialists consider the economic factor the
determining factor in the development of society. The
primary concern of human beings has always been to feed, clothe and
shelter themselves. As human beings lived together, certain
necessities drove them to invent certain machines and with the
invention of these machines production could increase and with the
increase in production changes occurred in the economic and social
system. Struggles arose between groups and the victors made slaves
out of the vanquished. A system of slavery arose and the forces of
production continued to develop. More machines were invented; the
forces of production increased; society developed further and ever
further and class struggles arose; slaves revolted against masters;
the social system based on slavery could no longer function
effectively and that social system was displaced by a new system.
What
is known as feudalism came into existence. He who owned the land had
the right to exploit the man who worked on the land and this man who
worked on the land was called a serf. In comparison with the chattel
slave, he was a free man but nevertheless he could not leave the
land.
New
markets came into being; new machinery was invented; the forces of
production grew and with it a new and powerful class came into being
– the merchant class of the middle ages – and it is this merchant
class that constituted the beginning of the modern capitalist class.
We call that class the “bourgeoisie” and this class began a
struggle against the feudal nobility and finally conquered and became
the dominant class in society.
Thus
you see that, in our opinion, a class struggle has existed since time
immemorial. The chattel slaves struggled against the masters, the
plebeians struggled against the patricians, the serf against the
feudal nobility; and today we have the fundamental struggle between
the capitalists who own the: wealth and the wage workers who create
the wealth. And is this struggle a result of man’s will or desire?
No, it is a struggle that is due fundamentally to the development of
economic forces. A social system is born, develops, decays and is
displaced by a new social system – all this by virtue of laws that
operate independently of the will of human beings.
A
new social system gives birth to new ideas, to new moral concepts.
Under the feudal system in the Middle Ages, for instance, the church
prohibited the lending of money on interest. To lend money on
interest was considered usury. But with the development of the
merchant class and the capitalist system, the lending of money became
an absolute necessity and obviously people would not lend money
unless they could make a profit out of it. The rule of the church
against usury was abolished and interest up to a certain point was
sanctified.
Mankind’s
ideas, mankind’s morals, mankind’s philosophies are determined
fundamentally by the economic structure of society and not vice
versa. The history of humanity is determined not by its will nor by
its consciousness nor by what it thinks is right or wrong but by
inexorable economic forces operating on the basis of certain laws.
Society cannot be changed by the mere desire of a small group to
change it. It must, in the first instance, be ripe for a change and
in the second instance the masses of people must understand the
necessity for a change.
We
have now reached that point in the development of society where
mankind must take control of social forces and determine the
operation of those social forces. Up to now, mankind has been
subjected to social forces that it did not understand and could not
cope with. What mankind must do now is to become master of its own
destiny. If mankind does not do so, then , barbarism, the destruction
of all civilisation and culture ensue. Look
at our social system and you can see for yourselves how this struggle
operates. The tenant farmer struggles against the landlord, the
worker against employer, and workers against Wall Street. Why is our
society subjected to these struggles? Because each social group wants
a larger share of the income that society produces. Of all the
struggles existing in modern society, the one between the industrial
wage worker and those who own the industries is the bitterest and
most virulent. It is the fundamental struggle of our epoch. The
struggle between the worker on the one hand, anxious to get a higher
wage, and the employer on the other hand, anxious to make more
profit, is a struggle that will go on regardless of the desire or the
intention of any person. There are some employers who are willing to
give higher wages but they are prevented by the law of competition
under capitalism. By and large the employers are anxious to make more
and more profits and, because of that, the class struggle must
necessarily continue.
Throughout
history there have been men who dreamed of changing society. They saw
the poverty, the oppression, the persecution and hatred that
prevailed in the world and concluded that the only way by which these
evils could be abolished was to have men and women accept the right
kind of beliefs. to change people, you must change the social system.
It is impossible to have a society where love between men and men
prevails, unless you have a society where the struggle for economic
existence is done away with. Under the present social system, mean,
petty and violent struggles prevail in all classes. Way up on top
there are struggles for colonies and spheres of influence; then there
are struggles in the form of bitter competition between business men;
there are struggles between the small business men and the chain
stores; there are struggles between workers. Everywhere in society
struggle prevails. There are some people who claim that the
human being is essentially bad and no attempt to change his nature
can succeed. But when one considers that in spite of the meanness and
violence that prevails in society, there are millions of decent human
beings, one must come to the conclusion that the human being is
essentially good. Before people
can develop to a point where the relationship between one human being
and another will be on a decent basis, society will have to be
altered.
How
will this change from capitalism to socialism come about? Does the
Socialist Party advocate the idea that people should take up arms in
insurrection and destroy the government and thereby bring a change in
the social system? The Socialist Party accepts two fundamental
principles: one, the necessity of convincing the majority of the
people of the ideas of socialism, and two, the necessity of capturing
the machinery of government so we can begin building the socialist
society. If we want a majority of the people, as we do, to accept our
ideas, then we must be in favour of a peaceful “destruction” of
the government. Does peaceful destruction sound paradoxical? Not if
you understand it correctly in the sense that it means the removal of
certain persons ruling on the basis of certain principles, and
replacing them by other persons obligating themselves to rule upon
different principles. We want to take over the means of production
peacefully.
The
Socialist Party's task is to inform fellow-workers of our ideas. We
cannot possibly be conspirators, because we want to educate the
majority of the people to accept our ideas. The Socialist Party's
task is to convince fellow-workers that our ideas and our solution to
the problems of mankind are correct and that it is impossible to use
force against the majority. We can only use the power of persuasion
and no other power. We attempt to educate the working class to act
independently on the political field and also to exhaust all
possibilities of a peaceful change. If there is any one thing that
will prevent the capitalists from using violence, it will be the
strong organisations of the working class. The greater the strength
of the working class organisations, the less violence will there be.
To accuse the Socialist Party of wanting and advocating violence is
to accuse it of something that is abhorrent to its very nature.
