Opting for Socialism

The cause of our misery and poverty is the ownership of the means and instruments of wealth production by the capitalist class. The remedy, therefore, is to dispossess that class of its ownership. It maintains its ownership by virtue of its political control. Its economic domination would cease the moment that the working class captured the political machinery. 

Curiously enough, the working class never seem to discover that it is they who gratuitously give the capitalist class the power to enslave and keep them in bondage every time they go to the ballot-box! It is obvious, then, that the method of recapturing political control is going back to the ballot-box and voting for socialism. While the workers accept the poisonous nonsense that “employers should have a fair profit,” while they swallow the lies and humbug of the labour leaders that the interests of the master class are the interests of the “community,” or ”society,” they will be easily led to vote their masters into possession of the power to rule society. When the working class realises that the way to emancipation lies through organisation for control of the political power. Not until that is assured can the workers own the means of life and operate them for their own benefit. When that lesson is learnt the day of socialism will be dawning.

Capitalism exists today simply and solely because you and your fellow members of the working class, who produce its wealth and endure its miseries, permit it to exist. It is parliament that makes the law and it is the law that says it is legal for capitalists to own Nature’s resources and the tools and instruments of production which the working class have produced. The law further enshrines the right of the owners of wealth production to use their property in their own interests— to produce wealth for sale and profit and not for the satisfaction of human needs.

When there is no profit in employing workers, in building homes, in clothing or feeding the needy the law does not require the owners of society’s means of production to provide these things nor does the law ensure capitalism when its profit needs create the conditions for crime, bad social relationships, violence and war.

In fact the law is made to suit the needs of capitalism and is relevant to the needs of the working class only insofar as such needs are compatible with the requirements of capitalism to disguise its function, keep down social discontent and prevent open rebellion. 

It is for the purpose of getting into parliament and tinkering with laws and their social and economic by-products that you are now been showered with speeches, promises and leaflets by the various candidates and parties. You are being asked to give your assent and consent to the continuation of the very system that denies you even the hope of a full and happy life!

What, then, should you do with your vote in the present election since all the candidates and parties, irrespective of their political labels and speeches support the continuation of capitalism?

Well, let us first tell you about the alternative to capitalism, Socialism, and then see if we can resolve the problem of what you should do with your vote.

As we have shown, it is parliament which makes the law and it is the laws made by parliament that make possible the usurpation of the means of production by the capitalist class and the consequent enslavement of the working class. Obviously, therefore, it follows that if we are to change things the working class must organise for the purpose of electing its own representatives to parliament and making the means of production the property of society to be used solely for the satisfaction of human needs. Socialism is a feasible proposition NOW! 

Its introduction is delayed not by the capitalist class but by you, the working class: it is your political naivety  that prevails against it; your reluctance to look beyond the narrow limits of capitalism that keeps that system in operation. It is your vote that gives it legitimacy and  legality.

When there is no Socialist Party candidate standing and if you accept its case for socialism you will realise that in giving it to any candidate or party in this election you are pledging your support for capitalism; but you can register your disapproval of capitalism by going to the polls and writing across your ballot paper the word “World Socialism”.

But whether you make such a gesture of protest or even simply refrain from voting, what is really important is that you join with us and ensure that next time there will be an effective socialist opposition sufficiently strong locally to challenge the parties of capitalism at the polling stations.

Where we stand

A socialist is one who, having investigated the causes of present day social discord, decides that these causes are found in the private ownership of the means of wealth production and who therefore endorses the necessity for co-operative ownership in order to eliminate private or sectional monopoly, and secure the advantages for the whole people.

It is common to find some persons expressing sympathy with socialism and socialists, when all that is intended is a sympathetic altruistic feeling towards the poor, but by no means do they endorse the co-operative ownership and control of the land, mines, minerals, machinery and transport, without which no one can be a socialist. By co-operative ownership is meant common ownership by all the communities within society - the whole people, ie the raw material and machinery of production to become the property of all and is regulated by all.

Once again then, socialism involves the transferring private ownership to common ownership of all those agencies of wealth production necessary for supply of life’s necessaries for the whole people. The root basis of this is found in the fact that private ownership of the means of wealth production fails most lamentably to provide all the people with the requisites of life. Let that fact never he forgotten, private enterprise utterly fails at the present time to provide what is necessary to afford the means of healthy vigourous life for all. There is no possible escape from this so long as private enterprise dominates the system by which all must live. The more the workers contribute towards facilitating production the smaller will be the proportion of their total number in employment.

Socialism does not seek to destroy but to build. Socialism does not aim at making any the slaves of governments, but to get rid of all governments other than the self-government of free citizens. We therefore declare that the present capitalist system is based upon the legalised robbery of the wealth producers.

Socialism is the recognition and adoption of the principle and practice of association as against isolation, of co-operation as against competition, of concerted action in the interests of all, instead of “each for himself and devil take the hindmost.” Socialism saddles upon each of us the responsibility of being our “brother’s keeper.” If a child, woman or man is starving, socialism says there is something wrong in our social system, and upon us all individually and collectively rests the responsibility of righting the wrong. If one street or a dozen streets contain one slum dwelling or a number of such, Socialism says to each of us jointly and severally, “crime exists somewhere or no slum would exist, see to it quickly, root it out, raze the slum to the ground and let air and sunshine operate. If men and women are overworked, and so prevented from fully sharing in the joys of life, socialism bids us to immediately remove the overwork and see to it that every man and every woman shall have a fair share of all that makes life worth living.

There can be no socialism where exploitation exists.  Therefore socialism means the, complete supercession of the present capitalist system, of private ownership and control of land, machinery, and money, necessary for reproductive purposes. Defenders of capitalism who are so lyrical about the technical achievements of modern industry, might try to explain why, after all these years, even the most elementary needs of the working class remain unsatisfied.

Is the Socialist Party opposed to working-class unity? On the contrary, the basis of our position is that socialism will only be established when a majority of the working class unite for that purpose. But that unity must have a sound foundation, based on socialist principles. If you fight an election on a manifesto of reforms, you will get votes, not from workers who desire the abolition of capitalism, but from those who still think that their economic problems can be solved within capitalism. If these reforms are put into operation, capitalism will still continue and the workers will still be wage-slaves. If, on the other hand, the reforms are not effected, then these people will turn away from socialism in disappointment. Once again we repeat the classic slogan, “Workers of the world, unite!” But with the understanding that they must unite for the purpose of stripping the capitalist class of its ownership of the means of production and distribution, making these common property, and thus establishing a class-free society.

The Socialist Versus the Vote Catcher. (Short story 1924)

 A Short Story from the November 1924 issue of the Socialist Standard

Some few years ago, in the suburb known as Battenham, there lived a poor workman whose name was Hyam Eezi. He was poor in that his clothing was shoddy, his food coarse and adulterated, his habitation mean, inconvenient and hired by the week, his hold upon life so precarious that starvation or pauperism were ever on the horizon. He owned no land: nor anything beyond the rags upon his back and the few articles of utility with which he had furnished his hired house.

He himself lived by letting himself upon hire, the process being as follows. Being possessed of nothing material beyond the few poor articles mentioned, and driven by the stern goad of hunger, he found that he still possessed one saleable thing—his energy. He had read no history, so he did not know how he and those around him had become landless, propertyless outcasts in a land of plenty. He just took things as he found them, and imagined that thus they had ever been, and thus would remain. And so his main concern was to find some hirer of human labour, and lend his services to him for as long a time as possible and for as large a sum as possible. Unfortunately he found that so many hundreds of those around him were in like case, that the hirers were enabled to select those who would take the smallest sum, or alternatively those who could work the hardest or most skilfully. He, therefore, found that, no matter how hard he worked or at what occupation, the sum he received each week barely sufficed to keep him and his family in their poor standard of “comfort” and security. Security! Ever before him there loomed the prospect of finding in his pay envelope a little slip of paper, bearing the dread intimation that his services were no longer necessary. What puzzled him, when he really did sit down to think the matter out, was the undoubted fact that when he and his mates had worked so hard that the warehouses were overflowing with goods, then was the most likely time for the “sack,”'as they called it. Terms like "over-production,” “slump,” "glutted markets,” etc., filtered down to him, but he had but the haziest idea of what they all meant. The hunt for a master began anew. Presently he found one; or after an interval of semi-starvation the old one took him back again. The process is repeated, and so the years pass.

And then a great excitement stirs his drab life. There is an Election. Certain shiny-hatted, sleek, comfortable looking gentlemen appear, and profess to take an absorbing interest in his welfare. All his troubles, he is told, are directly traceable to Free Imports, lack of Preference, want of Stability, Foreign Competition, and the Crass Stupidity of the existing Government. The remedy is quite simple. Just put a little cross opposite the shiny-hatted gentleman’s name, and Prosperity will dawn upon all.

The next few years are spent in continuing to hire himself out when fortunate enough to find a hirer, and in wondering when the promised Prosperity will arrive, or what form it was supposed to take. Suddenly the mystery is solved. He has been betrayed, swindled, duped. How does he know that? Another gentleman is good enough to devote much of his-spare time to patiently explaining what is wrong. A rash of handbills, cards, posters, etc., has broken out, and he gathers that another Election is arranged for him. The gentleman explains that the individual who cajoled his vote from him last time is one of an unscrupulous gang of self-seekers who are bent on ruining the country. They are hypocrites, liars and fools, their sole aim being the feathering of their own nests at the expense of the honest working man. "What have they done for you,” he asks searchingly. Hyam has no difficulty in replying, “Nothing.” Fortunately the remedy is simple. This gentleman stands for Peace, Retrenchment and Reform; Economy, Progress and a Free Breakfast Table; Justice, Liberty and No Tariffs. The mellifluous flow of high-sounding words leaves Hyam slightly dazed. They are not part of his everyday vocabulary and he cannot connect them with any article of use in his daily life, unless it be the Free Breakfast Table. That sounds promising, anyhow. He can’t do less than the previous blighter, thinks Hyam, so here goes my vote for the gent that has shown him up.

It is needless to recount how the ship of prosperity again seemed to have mistaken the harbour and put into some more distant haven. The cause of this was made clear as crystal to our friend Hyam Eezi by a simple working man. The occasion was another General Election, and this man proved in the most convincing manner that the previous two gentlemen were arrant swindlers, both of them employers of labour and consequently living upon the ill-gotten wealth they sweated from the honest workers. What we wanted was a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, also pensions for mothers, also no taxes on food, also better education. What we wanted was Peace in Europe; Houses to let at low Rents; No Profiteering; No Inhabited House Duty; No Entertainment Tax; Larger Unemployment Dole; More Scholarships; Cheap Electricity; Sugar Beet Factories, and, above all, No Unemployment.

Who could resist it? Not Hyam Eezi! Here was a man of his own class, who talked his own language. Here were thing he could understand. Houses at low rents! No Profiteering! No Unemployment! These were ideas he could handle. And the remedy was so exquisitely simple. Just put a little cross opposite this honest toiler’s name and the Dawn was guaranteed visible within a few short weeks. God!. would polling day never arrive?

Alas! The months have gone by with little to distinguish them from the drab years before. Hyam still hires himself out when he can find a hirer, and starves when he can’t. The honest working man of his last choice is painfully explaining to him how the main caravan missed its way, but how grateful he should be for what has been salvaged. The capitalists of France and of Germany are on much better terms; the capitalists of England and of France are happier together; the “socialist” capitalists of Russia and the ordinary capitalists of England are in a fair way to doing business; the low-rented houses are, er— on paper; the thirty million pounds (think of it, Hyam!) a year off food taxes has reduced the cost of living, except where it has gone up; the landlord has been freed of the irritating Inhabitated House Duty;, your seat at the ”pictures” has gone down a whole penny—in some places; we have increased the pittance to ex-Servicemen whom we sent to be butchered in the War; we have—, but Hyam is bewildered.. He asks himself what all this means to him. Receiving no answer, he seeks out one of those “extremist” fellows who works in the same shop, and inquires rather irrelevantly: “Where the devil are we, mate? ”

“Mate” replies : “Look here, Hyam boy, the main thing that’s wrong is yourself. All these loquacious gentlemen have had one thing in common. They have invited you to trust them. You have done so; that is why you now find yourself ‘trussed.’ Your trouble is glaringly thrust in your face every morning, but you are so used to it, you don’t notice it. You ‘book-on,’ or 'clock-on' at a definite time, and after some hours have gone, you 'book-off.’ But you feel different,  don’t you? Something has gone from you; you are tired; you have less energy. There you have it. The firm have had so many hours of your energy—and what have they given you in exchange? A wage. And what does a wage represent? The cost of replacing the energy, plus a bit to enable you to bring up kiddies to take your place. Many factors make wages vary, but the point round which they vary is the average cost of living. So you see, Hyam, you are a thing of hire, a piece of merchandise, a commodity. In selling your energy, you sell yourself, for you are inseparable. You sell yourself—a piece at a time; and when your energy thins off, you are scrapped. Foreign Agreements don’t help you; Russian and German Loans don’t help you. You still remain a worker. The whole collection of Pensions,' Insurances, Health Benefits, etc., do not really affect you. You remain a worker. Cheap rents, cheap food, low rents, low taxes, cheap everything, do not affect you. Cheap cost of living means cheap wages. With any wages, high or low, you remain a worker. And that is the whole trouble. Palliatives do not palliate; 'benefits' do not benefit; 'something now’ means next to nothing for ever.

"The system under which we live is called Capitalism. Under it the land, factories and means by which we all live are owned by small groups of people. The workers, the great mass of the people, hire themselves out to the capitalist at so much per day, per week or per month. The result of their toil goes to the owners of the tools of production; the workers get their hire. When the capitalists cannot make a profit out of the hire of labour they stop hiring it and the labourer starves. Starving men are desperate men, so good, kind capitalism arranges a scheme of Insurance, that just sufficiently dulls the edge of desperation to secure the continuance of the system of capitalism. Your Labour party has sounded the loud trumpet over their having increased this "benefit” You can read this little lesson for yourself, can’t you.

"The Socialist says there is one problem, and one problem only, before the worker: his wage-slavery. There is one solution and one solution only for his problem; that he and his fellows must own the means whereby they all live. To do this they must capture the political machinery of society—Parliament—not by trusting to any glib-tongued orator to do something for them, but by organising in the workers’ party, the Socialist Party, to capture and use the political machinery in the interests of the whole working class. That is a very brief outline of Socialism, and if it appeals to you, don't trust any more to people who are going to bring Utopia here without the least effort on your part, but come into the Socialist Party and work for Socialism. Socialism will come when enough of you want it. Why not begin to work now, Hyam? ”

W. T. Hopley

Nationalism = Parochialism

'It seems to me that you are bound to assume that a self-governing Scotland is going to be immediately morally better, and I don’t see it unless there has also been a revolution.’ - novelist Naomi Mitchison to the Scottish nationalist Robert Muirhead in 1953.

 The responsibility of the Socialist Party is to state things as they are. The whole of  humanity to-day is divided into territorial and ethnical sections. This is a matter of fact which we all have to take account of whether we like it or not. But it need not affect socialist principles. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is no less a party for world socialism any more than its Manchester branch of the Party need not be for the promotion of Lancashire socialism. The Socialist Party is internationalist and cosmopolitan.

We have witnessed a rapid growth in and an intensification of nationalist movements. However, they are not to be confused with socialism. Nationalist movements are not desirable from a socialist point of view. The nationalist ideology leads to the pursuit of a class collaborationist reformist Utopia. A section of the Scottish capitalist class perceive the declining fortunes of British capitalism. They want to cut themselves free from the sinking British economy. To gain support they offer the prospect of a series of reforms frequently illusory to Scottish workers. The Socialist Party does not defend the integrity of the United Kingdom in any way. To do so is to line up with a predominant British nationalism in Britain today. That does not mean we are in favour of separatism. We do not spread the illusion among Scottish workers that independence would be any gain for them. We insist that a sovereign Scotland will leave the workers in exactly the same position as before. Perhaps even in a worse position  for we say nationalism threatens to poison relations between English, Scottish and Welsh workers. Class unity is about solidarity, which recognises no borders. Separatism will not miraculously end the many problems facing Scottish workers.

There exists left nationalists who project a scenario of a Scottish road to socialism. Such an event could only happen in conditions of massively heightened class struggle, but in how is it possible that a dramatic event would only take place in Scotland and not the rest of Britain? The socialist revolution is a global event. 

The nationalist campaign a diversion from the class struggle. The role of the Socialist Party is to oppose the expression of nationalist sentiments. Our aim is world socialism and the overthrow of world capitalism. Nationalism is completely reactionary. There is now only one class capable of overthrowing capitalism: the working class. There is no ideology that serves the interests of both the ruling class and the working class. With socialism, people will have neither to keep its ancient nationalities nor to constitute new ones, because by becoming free socialism will abolish classes: the world will be its mother land, its fatherland and everybody will become brothers and sisters.

Capitalism's Insane Logic.

One thing about capitalism is it is sooo logical. An exert from an article about Africa, in the September issue of the Socialist Standard, the journal of our companion party in U.K., shows you what I mean:
 "Africa is host to 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, yet currently spends tens of billions of dollars per year on importing food. This figure is projected to shoot up to US$110 billion by 2025. Africa is importing what it could be producing. African countries export raw goods outside the continent to be processed into consumer products imported back into Africa for purchase. In essence, Africa is exporting jobs outside the continent and contributing to Africa's poverty.'' 

A few years back an SPC'er reported that in the apple growing area of Ontario, the stores were selling apples imported from New Zealand. So much for capitalism's insane logic.

Canadian Comrades.

Socialist Party and Ideas

Working class ideas may be temporarily fashioned by, but will often act against all the hysterical denunciations of the press, the TV and the rest. At the moment there is overwhelming support for capitalism, with dissent occasionally being directed towards policies for some tinkering reforms of the system. It is not enough to hope that the system does not have to be abolished but can be reformed out of character. The remorseless everyday experience of capitalism works to change these ideas, to enlighten the working class as to their true interests and to the need for a social revolution to bring capitalism to an end.

This is no mechanical process, which socialists can sit back and watch. The human race makes its own history and socialists strive to encourage, to stimulate and to accelerate the trend towards the understanding which will bring about the revolution. In this, a kind of battle of ideas, communication is vital. In numbers alone, the capitalist class at present have the advantage. But the ideas of socialism are too powerful to be denied.

Employers hold the whip-hand by virtue of being a member of the class which monopolises the means of production; that is to say, the means of life. This results in the rest of society being able to live only by selling their ability to work to an employer. They have no choice about this — they are forced to sell it as a condition for obtaining some access to the things they need to live. But this is not all; the employers only agree to buy the ability to work of individual members of the excluded class if they think they can make a profit out of selling what they produce. In other words, the class which monopolises the means of production in effect uses its position to hold the rest of society to ransom by extracting a tribute from them as a condition for allowing them to use the means of production.

So the fundamental social activity of wealth production, far from being achieved through free contracts made between individuals as libertarian theory assumes, is in fact achieved through the economic and political coercion of one class in society by another. Social relations at the point of production are relations of coercion, domination and exploitation, in which individual rights are overridden and where might is right.

A New Society is Needed

We are living in fearful times under an inherently frightening social system. Workers are frightened. Under capitalism there is no escape from fear. Want and insecurity are both endemic to capitalism. The fundamental fact of society to-day was that there was a deep cleavage. On one side there was the working class—the class that lived by the sale of their services—and on the other the class that lived on profit derived from the ownership of capital. The economic circumstances of the two resulted in the worker class being a slave class. In that sense the worker class were the slaves of the capitalist class. How were they kept enslaved? By the possession of political power; ultimately upon the control of the fighting forces for the purpose of keeping the other class enslaved. The working class could get control by obtaining control of the political machine. It came down, then, in the first instance, to the control of Parliament, which was the centre of power in all modern States. That was the lesson which the working class had got first to learn—to send their own representatives to Parliament.

 Nationalisation would leave industry under the control of the capitalist class through Parliament and leave the workers still slaves. Not nationalisation but socialisation—ownership by society—was the thing needed. Socialism there would be no selling. They would have no need to sell what was their own. Organise production for use instead of for profit, and there would be no need to sell. The problem of production had been solved. The possibilities of production were so immense that they had increased beyond present consumption. It was being pointed out by more than one writer and observer that you could increase efficiency and yet create unemployment. The problem was rather the problem of distribution and consumption. The immense powers of production existing today would, if socially owned, provide plenty for all. When socialism is established those powers will have reached a much higher degree of proficiency, and the best method of distribution will be to allow each as much as he or she desires of the social products. Each would contribute to the social production according to his capacity, and it would be a waste of time and energy to measure out what each should have. Today, for illustration, many municipalities supply water to their citizens on a ‘rate’ and find it more economical to let them take what they require for domestic purposes than to charge accordingly to quantity used.

Capitalism provides no hope for the working class. But that does not mean that there is no hope. William Morris declared that:
  “Fear and Hope those are the names of the two great passions which rule the race of man. and with which revolutionists have to deal; to give hope to the many oppressed and fear to the few oppressors, that is our business…” (How We Live And How We Might Live)

Socialism is about the politics of indignation. Socialism is not about the ceaseless pursuit of more commodities on a treadmill of keeping-up-with-Joneses. It is not about levelling down the rich so that the living standards of the poor might rise. It is about a fundamental change in social relationships.

We have learned the correctness of our analysis of capitalist society:
That the capture of political power is essential before any fundamental change in the social system can be made.

That leadership is a necessary principle for capitalist society whereas the socialist revolution requires the conscious understanding and participation of the majority of the working class.

That a socialist party cannot advocate reforms of capitalism, must not encourage support from non-socialists. and must be independent of all other parties.

That socialism can only be a world-wide system, and therefore must be a worldwide movement; to this end the growth of companion organisations in the USA, Canada, India, New Zealand, as well as individual members scattered around the world, demonstrates the developing geographical spread of socialist ideas.

That there is no need for a transition period between capitalism and socialism.
That all wars must be opposed, without distinction between alleged wars of defence, offence, or opposition to tyranny.

That nationalism will not exist in socialist society.

That taxation is a burden on the capitalist class and not on the working class, whose take-home pay must approximate at least to the minimum of wages in order to reproduce the commodity labour-power.

That all Socialist Parties in different areas of the capitalist world must be open, democratic parties, with no leaders, no closed or secret meetings, with all members of equal footing, operating by majority decision, and thus demonstrating the society they seek to establish.

That capitalism will not collapse of its own accord, but crisis will follow crisis until the working class of the world unites to abolish it.

This will be socialism

It is, and always has been, a feature of capitalism that there are big differences in wealth and income between rich property-owners and property-less workers. The solution is to get rid of capitalism and establish socialism, in which there will be no incomes from property ownership and no wages system: all the members of society will have free access to the products of industry. With the establishment of socialism, all individuals will be members of the community. co-operating together democratically to meet the needs of all on the basis of “free access" and making the necessary production and other arrangements to make it possible.

 Socialism will mean production for use not profit. The community will control what is produced with all the care, meticulous research and pride which will flow from the awareness that we are producing for our own good, and not as now to provide profits for an owning minority.

 The Socialist Party stands for the establishment of a system of society fundamentally different from that which exists now. In a socialist society the means of producing and distributing wealth — factories, farms, mines, docks, offices, transport — will belong to the whole community. Common ownership will do away with the need for exchange, so that money will have no use. Production in socialism will be determined by people on the basis of social need, not profit. At the moment people may need wealth but, unless they can afford to buy it, they must go without. Production is geared to sale with a view to profit. Socialism means production solely for use: bread to eat, houses to live in, clothes to wear.

What will be the incentive to work in a socialist society? There will be no wages, for in a class-free society no person will have the right to buy another person's ability to work for a price. Work in socialist society will depend on co-operation and the voluntary decisions of men and women to contribute to society in order to keep it going. Just as an individual could not survive if he or she did not eat, drink or take basic health care, so a socialist society would not survive unless the people in it acted cooperatively in a spirit of mutuality.

Unpleasant work will still have to be done. Of course, much of the dirty work of the profit system will be deemed unnecessary will be dispensed with immediately in a socialist society. Other unappealing work can probably be taken care of by robots and automation. Where dirty work is unavoidable it will not be done by the same people all the time — members of society will share in the task by rotation and such work will be carried out by socially conscious men and women who will appreciate that society belongs to them and therefore its less pleasant tasks must be performed by them. In the knowledge that we own and control the earth, and all that is in and on it, it is unlikely that human beings will decline to perform the dirty work within socialism.

Critics of  socialism tell us that socialism would be confronted with millions of lazy idle men and women who would refuse to do their bit to make society run efficiently. They also tell us that given a society of unrestricted access to social wealth, human greed will lead people to rapidly consume all the wealth of society. Now it is quite true that if the stores were opened tomorrow and workers were invited to go in and take as much as they want without having to pay there would be a mad rush and the stores would be empty within a day. But why should this be the case if the stores are always open for free access? It would be odd indeed for the inhabitants of socialism to store dozens of loaves of bread, which would go stale before they could be eaten, when the option would exist to go to the store and collect a new loaf of bread each day or few days. Perhaps, in innocence, the earliest inhabitants of socialism will indulge in a few feasts of conspicuous over-consumption. Who wouldn't be surprised at such action after years of enforced poverty and privation, but such events will soon end when its irrationality is realised.

Apart from the enormous changes which will become possible to make the physical conditions of labour more pleasant, work will be viewed in the new light of usefulness to society. The incentive to carry out work will therefore lie in the personal knowledge that one’s efforts are meeting a social need. The maintenance of socialist society where starvation, the threat of warfare, unemployment and poverty with all its implications are things of the past, and where men and women are free to work in harmony for the sole purpose of satisfying their social requirements, will be the over-riding incentive.

We are also told that if classes were abolished and all people were equal, a hierarchy would soon return  again and society would be back to square one? Socialism does not attempt to eradicate  inequalities of talent and skills: one person might be a greater footballer than another will ever be, while another will better musician than another. But this does not mean that socialism will establish a hierarchy of musicians or athletes nor poets or brain surgeons. In a co-operative society it will be recognised that poets cannot write their odes unless the farmer is willing to bring food from the fields. Humanity lives interdependently. And who is to say that farmers will not be poets or that great chess masters in socialism will not clean the neighbourhood where he or she lives or that the greatest brain surgeon won't offer a helping hand in making the hospital hygienic and sterile? The rigid division of labour and consequently differing status and privileges which is a feature of the present system will not exist in socialist society.

A majority of people whose minds are still filled with the ideas and prejudices of the capitalist system can never operate socialism. Their objections and prejudices against socialism reflect their own conditioning by the present social order. The future always looks strange when people’s minds are imprisoned within the past, but the nearer we get to the next stage in social development the less strange the idea of production for need becomes. That is why the Socialist Party emphatically insists that there can be no socialist society until a majority of workers understand and want it. As the number of socialists grows as they gather into the conscious political movement for socialism, the doubts of the critics become fainter.

General Election 2019 Leaflet

Here is the image of our election leaflet for distribution outside the two constituencies that we are contesting (Cardiff Central and Folkestone & Hythe)

 

Write-in for "world socialism"

Once again we ask you, our readers and supporters, to help us expand our socialist activities by contributing what you can to our election campaign. We aren’t asking for money but requesting that you use your social media to draw attention to our general appeal to spoil the ballot paper by writing across it “world socialism.”

If we simply moan and complain from our armchairs what will change? With a general election approaching what exactly can working people expect? A few cosmetic tweaks here and there, but nonetheless, the status quo will endure.

The job of making a better world must be the work of all of us. The world we want is a one where we all work together. We can all do this. Co-operation is in our own interests and this is how a socialist community would be organised – through democracy and through working with each other. The challenge  is to build a world-wide movement to link people in a common cause without distinction of nationality, race or culture. 

The Socialist Party reject the view that things will always stay the same. We can change the world. Nothing could stop a majority building a new society run for the benefit of everyone. We have the ability to work together in each other’s interests. All it takes is the willingness to make it happen.

To co-operate we need democratic control not only in our own area but by people everywhere. This means that all places of industry and manufacture, all the land, transport, the shops and means of distribution, should be owned in common by the whole community. With common ownership we would not produce goods for profit. The profit system exploits us. Without it we could easily produce enough quality things for everyone. We could all enjoy free access to what we need without the barriers of buying and selling.