Capitalism can be characterised by the fact that by and large all human needs can be bought and sold in the form of commodities. Among other commodities the worker sells his labour-power to the boss who employs him. Now by capitalist law, whatever the worker produces belongs to the employer, who in return pays the worker only part of the value of his product in the form of wages. The value retained by the capitalist in this exploitive process is called surplus value. Under capitalism the class struggle centers about the relative portions of the value produced by the worker that go to the worker in the form of wages and to the capitalist as surplus value. Profit is derived from unpaid labour time. Workers’ labour power is purchased on the market by the owners of capital. Put to work, on average in half the working week, it produces values sufficient to cover wages to maintain a worker and family. The value produced in the remainder of the working week constitutes surplus value, the source of profit. The commodities produced by workers’ socialised labour are privately appropriated by capitalists.
Socialism will be a world of peace and plenty, the ideal of the poor since time immemorial, the cooperative commonwealth for all who toil. No bosses, no landlords, no bankers, no loan sharks, no armament makers, no unemployment; no child labour; no sex trade or prostitution; no unfinished education; no broken old age; no long hours; no speed-up; no rich, no profiteers, no capitalism. Our aim is a communist, class-free society. It is inevitable that sooner or later these social conditions will impel people to organise to end the conflict between the socialised labour process and private ownership of the decisive means of production, the big factories, mines and corporate farms by the establishment of socialism. With socialism, production takes place for people’s use.
The working class revolution is the first to be carried out by the lowest social class in society, a class that has little economic power and little social wealth. We can compare the rise of the capitalists against the feudal system. The capitalist class was economically dominant by the time it sought political control of society.
The workers revolution is the first revolution aimed at a consciously planned overthrow of existing society. That is, it does not seek to return to a previous era, like the slave, nor does it seek to merely legalise its political domination of society in a situation where an economic transfer of power has already taken place, as had occurred in England in the seventeenth century and in France in the eighteenth century.
Like other revolutions, the working class revolution grows out of class antagonisms, overthrowing all existing human relationships and brings the whole working class into self-activity, and when classes begin to disappear it extends this process to all members of society. It is only in revolution itself that the vast majority of the oppressed can liberate themselves from the ideology of the ruling class. Ideological control by the ruling class is not simply exercised by education, television and the press but continually flows from the daily reality of working class life, as everything is produced and judged for its profitability.
Under capitalism, the commodity seems to be determining human relations and human labour is seen solely as a disposable commodity. Also, the alienating and increasing division of labour isolates workers and produces all sorts of mystifications. Only in a revolutionary situation of mass activity outside the confines of alienated labour can this deep ideological control be really broken.
Although political class consciousness can develop fully only during a revolution, it can only do so if it has begun to develop before the revolution. No matter how concentrated and centralised, capitalist economy always remains dominated by the anarchy of production, and no efforts at planning can fundamentally alter this. The Socialist Party has learned the brutal and murderous character of capitalist rule, to defend the profits of the few, to keep the workers in subjection, to perpetuate capitalism, the modern slave-holding class resorts to the most violent means at its disposal.
The prerequisites of a socialist society have been as follows: The abolition of exploitation of men by men, the obliteration of the division of society into classes, the destruction of the conditions from which they arise, i.e., the abolition of private property in the means of production, and the establishment of a class-free socialist society. In accordance with this, private ownership of the means of production and distribution has been abandoned, with all the practical consequences that this implies.
But what about the socialist society proposed by Marx and Engels — didn’t it miserably fail? No, in the same way as the teachings of Jesus cannot be equated with the subsequent misdeeds committed by the various churches in the name of his supposed teachings.
Our aim in the Socialist Party is a society free from exploitation and oppression, in other words, a class-free society. Socialism will also remove the enormous waste inherent in capitalist production with its duplication of effort - the manufacture of numerous but essentially similar products. It will put an end to the massive resources devoted on advertising and production of superfluous luxuries for the rich. Socialism will bring about a phenomenal development of the productive forces which will make it possible to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter – the necessities of life – for everyone on the face of the planet and will lay the material basis for a completely class-free society. Never again will any person die of hunger or a preventable disease, achieving a decent standard of living for all through the free distribution according to need. Socialism will increase the production of an ever wider range of goods to the point where supply exceeds demand - a cornucopia of abundance. Buying and selling will cease and distribution of goods based on need. The people as a whole own the means of production (factories, mines, etc.). Production is for people’s use, not for private profit. The principle of the operation of socialism is “from each according to ability, to each according to needs”. Production is of such a high level that there are abundant commodities for every member of the community and each member helps oneself according to needs.
The desire for socialism as a just social system, runs deep among workers. That desire may be latent, but it is always present. It ignites whenever there is crisis in society and the people are involved in struggle. That can be any intense struggle such as campaigning for peace, for preservation of the environment or during a strike and in many other circumstances. The socialist message in such conditions may receive a receptive response, encouraging hope among the working people.
