The Emancipation of the Wage-Slaves

 

What has happened to our politics? Our core principle, the inherently revolutionary capacity of the workers, is being abandoned. We fail to communicate that the development of the productive forces is in  sufficient degree to provide plenty for all the first time in human history.

The wealth and productive facilities of the world could supply the material basis for a new social organisation which would ensure plenty for all in the shortest time. But the capitalist ownership of industry and their monopolist control of governments stands in the way of using these riches and resources for the benefit of the whole of mankind.

The vision of the Socialist Party  is that if the enormous wealthy of society, presently controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people, poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to the mass murder of war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. In a revolution, the power and wealth of society change hands. This kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of the profit system, workers’ management of industry,, the end of wars growing out of the profit system – peace and plenty for all.

Why do we suffer unemployment, depressions and poverty? Because the economy is capitalist, meaning chaotic and anarchic, based on competition, producing not for public need but for private profit. Capitalism, which was once progressive in its beginnings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, because it overthrew the feudal method of production, has now become an anachronism, standing in the way of progress and the rational planning of society with aim being the economic security for all, as its minimum requirement.

It is no myth that there is plenty for all.  More food can be raised today than we could, possibly eat. Yet people starve in the midst of plenty and food is dumped when people cannot buy for they may not have the money. When the capitalists realise there is no profit in selling their goods, there are layoffs and slashing of wage’s. Food is left to rot in storage, and hungry people starve in the midst of plenty. Robotics and automation has  increased the productivity of labour. Contrary to the claims of some environmentalists we have the natural resources. Modern science has made comfort and culture and leisure possible for all. Who will deny the great potential for good ? But have the ruling class used them to end poverty, to secure a high standard of living and keep the peace? No, for they have flagrantly and wilfully mismanaged. Corporation profits have increased enormously. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer is always true under capitalism. The capitalist system won’t work, for the very root of capitalism is all wrong.

There is a way out of this chaos. The working people themselves should own and operate the industries cooperatively, through common ownership. This would end production for profit and the waste of competing corporations. There would be planned production for the first time, increasing the output of wealth so that there would be plenty for all.  We have today more workers, more efficiency, more productivity, and more machinery than ever before. We have more of all the means necessary to a high standing of living and shorter working hours. The kind of planned economy we envisage would, for the first time, make possible an end to wars between nations. Because the planned economy would include all countries. The aim of the working class would be to end capitalism and all forms of exploitation everywhere; and everywhere introduce a planned economy. Its aim would be to create a socialist world.

The Socialist Party is dedicated to the cause of  the emancipation of mankind from the horrors and fears and terrors of capitalism and the creation of a new society of fraternity,  of freedom, of prosperity, peace and plenty for all.

Falling Numbers

 Scotland’s population is currently at a record high, but it is also ageing and all growth over the next 20 years is projected to come from inward migration.

The national birth rate is also falling, with the average number of children per woman falling from 2.5 in 1971 to a record low of 1.37 in 2019. For a population to grow, the rate needs to be at least 2.1.

Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Like many advanced economies we now face different challenges, such as a falling birth rate, while Brexit threatens to significantly reduce inward migration from the EU..."

Want in the midst of plenty

Stunting is a disease of malnutrition, preventable by proper food – of which there is plenty in the world and of which, under a socialist system, there could be even more. The reason for that is that under socialism food would be produced for use, for the good of all humanity. Under capitalism, food is produced primarily for profit; needs are completely secondary. That today children in this modern world still hunger is a testimonial of social injustice – not of social necessity. For today there could be plenty for all the world now being laid waste by disease and war instead. Mankind has learned to fashion technology which are miracles of production for factory and farm. The world is teeming with millions of able hands and capable minds willing to build and operate those machines for production of abundance. Wonderful means of transportation exist to distribute to people, according to their needs.  Instead of the good things of and for life, what is delivered are bombs and destruction. It is the outcome of capitalism standing in the way of the peoples of the earth.  Capitalism developed the productive forces to a massive extent, so that plenty for all is possible. The anarchic competition between the capitalists imposes tyranny over the workers in every capitalist enterprise. Extreme wealth coexists with dreadful poverty. Famines have been around for thousands of years. But they were the result of the scarcity of food. Today, under capitalism, we have millions starving while there is surplus grain in the world.

For the peoples of the world to receive the things of life in peace and plenty, they must rid themselves of the motives of capitalist profits. Socialism, and only socialism, will create a world without national barriers, without international rivalries, without master and slave nations and, hence, a world without war.  Its primary duty will be to conduct the affairs of the world with the aim of eliminating poverty, joblessness, hunger and general insecurity. Its 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, mills, machinery and land, 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. The preoccupation  of socialism will be to assist 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. In abolishing classes, class government and war, socialism will at the same time destroy all forms of dictatorship, political as well as economic. World socialism will be the freest, most democratic society the world has ever known, truly representing the majority of the population World socialism will assess the industrial potential of the planet, determine its resources, the needs of the people and plan production with the aim of increasing the standards of living of a free people, creating abundance, increasing leisure and opportunity for cultural enjoyment.

Socialism will not concern itself with profits and war, but with providing decent homes for all the people. Socialism will provide for a multitude of schools for all the people. Socialism will create a system of health care in which the needs of the people would be paramount consideration. Socialism will provide jobs for all. But this will be work without exploitation. For the aim of socialism is not the increased exploitation and intensification of labour, but the utilisation of machinery, technology, science and invention to diminish drudgery, to permit all the people to enjoy leisure and the benefits of social progress. Socialism will place at the disposal of science and the scientists all the material means to help create an ever-improving social life for mankind. Socialism will place science where it properly belongs: in the service of the people,  to make it more possible for humanity to control our natural and social environment,  to create a fruitful life of abundance. We can travel the road of chaos, war, poverty and barbarism, or we can take the socialist path toward true freedom, peace and security, towards a society of plenty for all which would end the exploitation of man by man for all time.

Humanity needs a socialist world

 

The word "socialism" is so loosely used and abused. Socialism means plenty for all,  abundance for all. Such a declaration goes very much against the austerity promoters of the environmental movement.  are. Our desire is not to pull down the present rulers to put other rulers in their places. Our desire is to end poverty, to increase production that will supply all with the the necessities for a decent life. 

Workers don’t need a crystal ball to see their future. The capitalists and their state, in their never-ending need for higher profits, are willing to make the lives of the majority of working people a misery. In contrast, the working class, if it were united, could transform this planet into a storehouse of plenty for all. But the roots of capitalism and private enterprise are deep and strong. The problem is that too many people accept capitalism and its economic laws and therefore see no alternative and defend that system at all costs. Capitalism offers no hope of ending this reign of poverty. It is an astonishing paradox that, in a world where science and technology have advanced to the stage where there could be plenty for all, there is a growing amount of scarcity and shortages.  

Working men and women need a new perspective today as never before. They need the knowledge of their own strength to empower them to construct a better world – a world free from hunger, unemployment, war and destruction. It is by the independent political action of working people, those who produce the wealth of society, that plutocratic power and privilege can be eliminated and a world of peace, prosperity and plenty for all will be built. There can be plenty for all – but only by socialising the means of production and placing production under control of society as a whole. There is a new and fuller life to be made.

Our most cherished hope for the future is one of the class-free socialist society. For our part we seek to abolish the chains of exploitation and establish the true free society of socialism. However, the apologists of the capitalist system wish to assure everyone that it can actually bring abundance but at every turn they hide the fact that capitalist ownership regulates production for capitalist profit and that the system does not run as production ought to run, to produce for society. Instead they have been  painting a rosy picture of capitalism run according to a plan, with a board of government experts ensuring that everything will run smoothly. Yet they refuse to acknowledge the disparity between the steady abundance the workers could produce, and the  pittance that they receive. Under capitalist ownership, the capitalists make profits by keeping as much as they can, and paying out as little in wages as they must. They pay the workers the smallest wage they can bargain them down to. On the average, that amounts to a wage which is just enough to get along on, the smallest amount a worker can afford to work for. Even, for a large part of the workers, it amounts to not enough support a family and to raise healthy children. And this is the case even in the most prosperous capitalist country. It is the very system of capitalist ownership and wage labour which sets this ceiling on the standard of living. This same system prevents production of abundance. It is one of the outstanding absurdities of capitalism that millions of workers must be arbitrarily sentenced to suffer unemployment in order to regulate wage levels for the economic system.  Every worker must know that there is a person out of a job that the boss can hire if an employee demands higher wages. This ever-existent unemployed group under capitalism Marx named the industrial reserve army.

The special strength of the workers is that they are workers – their strength is in the factories and wherever else they work. Through their own workers’ councils the people who work by hand and by brain, can freely participate in the construction of a new society, can socialise production under the control of workers’ committees, can organise the whole of production for the use of the majority. In the struggle between labour and capital, this is the outcome that we hope for and work for.

 

Anti-Nationalism

 

All kinds of nationalism are pervasive in the world today. The conflict between national interest on the one side, as opposed to human interest on the other, can hardly fail to constitute one of the great issues of the world. Nationalism is an unmitigated curse. It leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of the planet’s surface on which a particular person has been born. It leads to racism and bigotry, to petty rivalries.

Patriotism is an objectionable sentiment since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity. Nationalism always claims certain virtues as the peculiar, exclusive possession of certain nations. If individuals make such claims, they are laughed to scorn. Why — with what logic — may nations make such claims? Nationalism claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This was so in the past, but the natural evolution of mankind is making it less so. Increased means of communication — the mass media, the internet and swift transport have caused no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Even language is tending to become universal with English becoming the lingua franca of commerce, science and the arts. More people understand each other today than ever before. Governments are coming to resemble each other. Global councils and organisations are becoming international. It is only by the most artificial kind of promotion that nationalism is kept alive.

 

A person who wants to see his or her country great and strong invariably wishes to see it so, if need be, at the expense of the welfare and interests of other countries. A nationalist says “My country right or wrong. The Socialist Party regards nationalism as the enemy of socialism. Let us cast off all sectionalism, all parochialism, and sit down as brothers and sisters together  against the common capitalist enemy. Mankind must become one family or destroy itself. The Socialist Party reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of working class solidarity the world over.

Once the nationalism is victorious we soon see the “national” police clubbing the “national” workers by order of the “national” state whose legality is maintained at all costs by the “national” judges: the “national” parents and their children go without basic necessities so that  the “national” industrialists maintain their profit level and the “national” finance companies do a great business. 

Our role in the  Socialist Party is to develop a class “patriotism,” refusing to murder one another for a sordid world capitalism.

National struggles are a diversion from the class struggle. There are no short-cuts to the socialist revolution, and those who take the nationalist path retard its coming. We hold emancipation of the worker requires the conversion of the means of production into the common property of society.

 

Socialists have always claimed that at the bottom of all war there is an economic cause. “Sphere of influence” is only an elegant euphemism that really means exclusive possession of a foreign market and trade privileges. But today, with nationalistic preaching playing right into the hands of the powers that be, it is easier than ever to obscure this fact. Nationalism is the cloak behind which the economic causes work. Nationalism is the best camouflage for the intrigues and machinations of capitalists. Socialism adopts a policy of unrelenting antagonism toward nationalism.

 There is only one real alternative to the present centralised and bureaucratic capitalist nation-states  and that is the world socialist cooperative commonwealth.

The Necessity of Change

 

The world is in a sad plight. It needs new revitalising forces and a, broad vision. There can be no return to capitalist normalcy. The whole world is in ruins. It has been wrecked by the pandemic. The human family may never fully recover from it. Normalcy means the former  age of international capitalist rivalry and unlimited exploitation and oppression of labour. Reaction is rife all over the globe. The capitalists have entered upon an open and relentless campaign to destroy the labour organisations and break the fighting spirit of the workers, to cut their wages, to lengthen their work hours, to throw them back into the conditions of unprotesting, non-resisting slavery of former generations. The attacks has met decided temporary success. The capitalist reactionaries are triumphant

There is nothing but strife ahead of mankind unless the entire machinery of capitalism is scrapped, and the workers of the world take hold of the industries and run them rationally and peacefully for the equal benefit and happiness of all people and all peoples. We strive to bring about the working class control of industries based upon the principles of democracy and majority rule. We are bitterly opposed to violence and oppression exercised by the capitalist class; we do not propose to supplant them by working class violence and oppression. We hope to bring to all mankind a steadily increasing measure of freedom and happiness.

The Socialist Party believes in fighting for every tool of democracy it is possible to lay hold of. It believes that the human mind must be reached and convinced before efficient action can accomplish anything. When we can convince a majority of our fellows that the putting into practice of our principles will bring about an era of industrial freedom — the only true freedom — then we know our goal will be achieved. It cannot be gained until we do this. We do not believe in minority rule of any kind, no matter by whom. We do not believe in dictatorship, whether of the plutocracy or the misnamed “dictatorship of the proletariat.” We have been for centuries and are now suffering from dictatorships, and we want to help abolish them from the face of the earth. Our role is to do our part in convincing the majority that they must use their organised industrial and political power to achieve their freedom. We believe in using every effort to overthrow the present economic system called capitalism. We believe in using every effort to capture the political power of the state to be used in overthrowing this system. We believe in it because we also believe that the peaceable method of the ballot is the most efficient method; that it is real “direct action.”

The aim of the Socialist Party, is the emancipation of labour and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party is the political expression of the interests of the workers in this country, and is part of the worldwide working-class movement. The economic basis of present day society is the private ownership and control of socially necessary means of production, and the exploitation of the workers, who operate these means of production for the profit of those who own them. The interests of these two classes are diametrically opposed. It is the interest of the capitalist class to maintain the present system and to obtain for themselves the largest possible share of the product of labour. It is the interest of the working class to improve their conditions of life and get the largest possible share of their own product so long as the present system prevails, and to end this system as quickly as they can. In so far as the members of the opposing classes become conscious of these facts, each strives to advance its own interests as against the other. It is this active conflict of interest which we describe as the class struggle. The capitalist state, by controlling the old political parties, control the powers of the state and uses them to secure and entrench its position. Without such control of the state its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the building of the new social order, the cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party seeks to organise the working class for independent action on the political field, not merely for the betterment of their conditions, but also and above all with the revolutionary aim of putting an end to exploitation and class rule. Such political action is absolutely necessary to the emancipation of the working class, and the establishment of genuine liberty for all. To accomplish this aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the common ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production — to eliminate profit, rent, and interest, and make it impossible for any to share the product without sharing the burden of labour — to change our class society into a society of equals, in which the interest of one will be the interest of all. The Socialist Party is opposed to all political organisations that support and perpetuate the present capitalist profit system and is opposed to any form of horse-trading or alliances with any such organisations to prolong that system.

The World Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth

 

Capitalism is its own grave-digger. That is to say it provides and develops the means by which the capitalist social order will be brought to an end.  The role of the Socialist Party is clear. The material world demands critical analysis in order that social problems are understood. The solution to those problems must be explained in unambiguous and practical fashion. Working-class problems are material; their solution, Socialism, consists of material proposals. Socialism concerns itself with making life worth living for every human being: life in its fullest and finest sense—life that is Life indeed.

All men and women of the working class who think clearly, and feel deeply, must come to one conclusion when they consider the worker’s existence under capitalism. They cannot help seeing the great contrast existing between their own lives, as a class, and life as it might, and could, be. To very many of the workers life seems one long round of economically-forced toil and impaired health. The Socialist Party is out to abolish, not only the conditions of poverty, privation and preventable misery, but the very system itself which causes them. Socialism, is the only practicable solution for abolishing the many evils that are the product of the operations of capitalism. Socialism  is the only system that can effectually realise for the world’s billions of toilers a real, true and full Life, such as should be theirs who are the wealth creators. The Socialist Party seeks  a world where peace reigns from Pole to Pole; a world where war and the very causes of war are abolished. We desire a full, joyous and unfettered life for the peoples of all lands. We strive for the complete emancipation of the world’s workers from their wage-slavery, so that all these desirable things should be theirs in complete fulness. We must overthrow the capitalist system, and establish in its place the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth of the World. The social system of to-day does not assure or guarantee that the world’s inhabitants shall be amply fed, with adequate healthcare  and properly housed to suit human needs. Based on the private ownership of the means of life, capitalism exists simply for the benefit of those who live on “Rent,” “Interest” and “Profit.” So long as we continue to tolerate this system of private ownership and production for profit, so long will the needs of humanity be disregarded.

The starving  want food, and they cannot buy it because of their poverty. Those living on the streets and in the world’s slums and shanty-towns want decent homes and an end to hovels, squalor and filth. The sick and the disabled need doctors, nurses and hospitals. “Man's inhumanity to man,” as Robert Burns so aptly phrased it, is exemplified to the nth degree by the social system we know as capitalism. 

Owning the means and instruments of wealth-production and distribution, and being in complete control of political power it is obvious that the Master Class have the means to exercise their will and wish over the world’s working peoples in any and every way they desire. They hold control over our lives. The capitalist system exists for their benefit as a class; it is operated to increase their wealth; and lives and thrives as a system of thievish gain by systematically robbing the wealth-producers. We as wage-slaves will have to create surplus-values for their employers, which they, as workers, will be robbed of, and will not benefit by. After being exploited and robbed for, say, forty years, by the operations of a ruthless wage-system, they will be very little better off financially than when they started. What a future prospect we have in store for ourselves  

The Socialist Party is very clear that we are not only concerned about the ”bread-and-butter” business of "making a living”; we know that is fundamental. We desire that life for mankind should be the freest and fullest possible, and that every part of our physical, mental and cultural nature should have the finest opportunity for splendid development. Socialism will  free Mankind  from  age-long bondage of wage-slavery. Socialism, alone, being based on a splendidly firm economic basis, can assure humanity of a perfect foundation for the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth.