Tuesday, September 07, 2021

Build A Sane World

 


For years, the Socialist Party has encouraged workers to take control of the economy and use the means of production to meet the needs of the people rather than to make profits. Socialists maintain that the capitalists' profits are a theft from the working class because the working class produces all social wealth. A class of parasites is not needed for production to be organised in an efficient manner. Production will operate far more efficiently, in the social interest, when the workers themselves are in full control of production and distribution.


A state-run economic system is not socialism! Karl Marx and Frederick Engels clearly distinguished between state ownership of the means of production and social ownership. They opposed the very existence of the state. State ownership means the continued existence of governmental power over and above the people themselves; it signifies continued class rule. Social ownership means that the people themselves, collectively and democratically, control the use of the means of production. Marx and Engels described socialism as a society run by "associations of free and equal producers."


 The former Soviet Union never was a socialist country. At no time did the USSR ever have place a system in which the people owned all the means of production and in which the decisions governing production and distribution were made by democratic associations encompassing all the workers. At no time did the workers dismantle the state, or abolish exploitation and the wages system. Furthermore,  the Socialist Party pointed out in 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution was not, and could not have been, a socialist revolution. Russia in 1917 had none of the material prerequisites for socialism. It was a backward, semi-feudal country, incapable of eliminating scarcity. It had very little industry and only a small minority of people belonged to the working class.


Socialism can only be established by a class conscious, organised majority of the working class. It can only be built by workers who understand the need to prevent any individual or group from gaining the power to control production or distribution. The structure of a socialist society would preclude a bureaucratic takeover. Control of society's economic resources would be in the collective hands of the working class. All persons elected to serve in the committees, councils and congresses running industry, and administering the economy as a whole, would be responsible only for performing designated administrative tasks. They would have no bureaucratic power to dictate production or distribution goals toward their own individual enrichment.


 We live in a social system and culture that teaches us that the way to survive, and "get ahead" materially, is to compete for positions of power, gain dominance over others, and, ultimately, become an owner of productive property and exploit others. Not surprisingly, many people come to greedily and competitively crave power and wealth above all else.


But such behaviour is not a fixture of human nature. People clearly have the capability of being cooperative as well as competitive, supportive and helpful as well as antagonistic, egalitarian as well as selfish. All of these qualities are part of "human nature." We can and do choose to employ one quality or the other, depending on how our material circumstances and interests affect us, and how we perceive our own self-interest. It is also part of our human nature to think, evaluate our circumstances and change our behaviour when we conclude that doing so is in our self-interest.


Accordingly, socialism is not contrary to human nature. For the vast majority of the people who belong to the working class today, it does no good to be greedy, competitive or power-hungry; capitalism rewards them with hardship. Sooner or later, a majority of workers can and will come to the realization that their own self-interest demands the creation of a new social system based on social ownership of the industries and cooperative production for the common good. Once a socialist society is established, the material and other rewards of that system will continue to reinforce cooperative behaviour and nullify selfishness, greed and the desire for power over others.


The idea that there would be no incentive for workers to be productive in a socialist society is a myth. In a genuinely socialist society, workers would have strong incentives to work conscientiously and improve the means and methods of production-incentives far stronger than those that exist under capitalism. The ethical and social incentive to be a productive and responsible member of society would be reinforced by the knowledge that one's efforts would truly be benefiting all society, and not merely an idle class of social parasites.


Socialism is grounded in material realities. It is grounded in the reality that it is now objectively and physically possible for society to meet the basic human needs and wants of all the people -- and more. It is grounded in the reality that capitalism stands as an obstacle to society realizing this potential to meet the needs and wants of all. It is grounded in the reality that society's sole useful producers -- the working class, which includes all who do productive work, mental or physical -- are increasingly being denied their material needs and wants under the present system. 


All that's missing is for workers to recognise their true interests as a class, understand the socialist goal, and begin organising as a class to establish it. Thus, socialism is realistic. The workers already collectively occupy the industries every day and operate them from top to bottom. The only thing they don't do is own them, control them, and control their product. 



Monday, September 06, 2021

Workers' Control

 


Socialism is a product of the mass movement, and can never divorce itself from practice. Socialism is not an idle dream. Socialism is the ideal and ideology of the exploited class. It can be misleading simply to advocate seeking happiness for all humanity, as humanity is not a whole, and it is divided into two antagonistic classes. We are materialists, We understand that the arrival of social revolution cannot be determined by our good intentions. Only a social revolution can allow us to build a really free and really egalitarian society. Today "freedom and equality" are part of the vocabulary of each and every one of us. However, the reality is that those words mean that the capitalists can loot the common wealth of our planet and are allowed to live in peace. The people who stand most vehemently against socialist ideas are those who understand them the least.

“Reformism” is the doctrine of those who, while saying they support a social transformation of society propose to arrive at this goal by a series of reforms realised within the framework of Parliament. Those political parties who say they are of the “vanguard” and proclaim themselves revolutionary are all more or less reformist. The more reformist they are, the less revolutionary they are, and, consequently, the less revolutionary they are, the more reformist they are. There is but one plank for the Socialist Party platform - the abolition of wage slavery. It is important to recognise reformism as traps and lures to divert our movement from its aim of emancipation. The Socialist Party is frequently accused of professing the doctrine of “all or nothing.” In this accusation there is some truth, but only some. 


The Socialist Party holds that involvement in daily struggles is not inherently reformistic. Indeed, such involvement, conducted in principled, class conscious, non-opportunistic fashion is an indispensible aspect of the class war. In practical terms, the worker can, by participating in workers' daily struggles, gain first hand knowledge and experience that will aid him or her in improving strategy and tactics thus bringing socialist perspectives to the attention of the workers involved. We will not declare themselves satisfied and won’t be so until we have forever ended capitalism and substituted for it, our principle: the well-being for each and for all. All our work is aimed at this goal:  economic and social liberation, the complete emancipation of the workers, the producing class.  We seek to free those who are exploited and enslaved by the capitalist system.


Cooperatives and employee-owned businesses resolve none of the basic problems facing workers under capitalism. All the basic relations of capitalist production, exploitation of wage labor, production for sale and profit, and the like remain in effect. It isworker capitalism, not worker management. No matter who owns it, it's going to have to be run like a conventional enterprise.


Even if an individual "worker-owned" company were to be run collectively and democratically by its workers, it would still function within the overall context of a capitalist economy. "Worker ownership" does not miraculously free a company from the anarchy of the marketplace, competition, and the effects of capitalism's recurrent economic crises. In order to compete in such a climate, "worker-owned" enterprises have little choice but to intensify exploitation just as much as their capitalist-owned competitors do. They must, modernise outmoded equipment and lay off workers made superfluous by automation, and pay the market rate for wages, and no higher.


It is understandable that at times such as these of insecurity some workers will be attracted to the idea of "worker-ownership." They are desperately seeking ways to assure a livelihood for themselves and their families. But the experience of cooperative schemes demonstrates that they do not attack the cause of workers' misery. In fact, to make such schemes "succeed" in a capitalist context, workers must make more sacrifices and intensify their own exploitation.


Yet, such schemes do demonstrate that production in no way depends on the superintence of the  capitalist class whose sole function is to drain off the social wealth produced by workers' labor. But, if the concept of worker ownership is to truly benefit workers, it must be effected on a society-wide basis. To do that, a socialist revolution is needed to abolish the entire system based on private ownership and control of the means of production by a parasitic capitalist class. The potential of worker ownership can be fully realised only by replacing an economic system based on exploitation, competition, the market and the profit motive with one based on social co-operation for the common good. What workers must gain is not nominal ownership of individual enterprises, but real control of the entire economy.



Sunday, September 05, 2021

Socialism - its meaning and promise

 


Why haven't we had a socialist revolution? How much longer can capitalism last? How bad must conditions become before workers take action?  Capitalism long ago developed the material conditions prerequisite for socialism. It has created production on a scale sufficient to banish forever want and the fear of want. Yet there has been no revolution. Rather the working class has been divided by confusion, uncertainty and despair. If capitalism continues to exist, the likely result is an unthinkable end to human civilisation.

The social revolution is no predestined inevitable development depending not upon material conditions alone but also depends a clearness of vision. Because socialism is not an automatic affair, the working people class must play a crucial active role in the socialist revolution. Capitalism will not vanish. It will remain until it is overthrown. And capitalism can be overthrown only as of the result of class conscious mass struggle which is no easy matter.  Workers are bombarded daily with capitalist indoctrination in the media to obscure the capitalist roots of all our miseries. We are told that we need to make concessions to our exploiters, rather than fighting back. Even worse, many so-called socialists confuse workers by talking about the myths of "reforms", raising false hopes that workers can petition the political state to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty. Such notions can only help convince workers that they have a future under capitalism and that capitalism is, at this late date, somehow capable of being reformed. In truth, ending the effects of capitalism requires ending their cause -- the capitalist system.

There are fundamental differences between the "so-called socialist and communist parties" that have controlled the states of various countries, and the Socialist Party. It is that we uphold the Marxist conception of socialism, of a class-free society based on "associations of free and equal producers." The elite, "vanguard" party paved the way for bureaucratic state-capitalist regimes. The assortment of labour parties rejected the Marxist analyses in favour of reformism - leaving the capitalist class to firmly retain control of the means of production. Both conceptions of "socialism" place central emphasis on the role of the party and are predicated on maintaining the state; they reject the essence of socialism -- i.e., establishing common ownership, and democratic control of the means of production and distribution. 

We believe that the Socialist Party’s case offers the best -- indeed the only realistic -- chance to achieve socialism by non-violent and peaceful means. We believe it is the only way in which the working class can organise itself for socialism while simultaneously nullifying the ruling class's capacity to resist by means of armed force. Of course, we understand that the Socialist Party’s policy can only work under certain circumstances. It presupposes a certain measure of democracy that permits it to advocate its goal openly. The sad fact is that workers are still duped by the notion that capitalism can somehow solve the problems and miseries it creates and confronts them with. This misunderstanding is no accident. That misconception is nurtured deliberately by capitalism's politicians, and by mis-education and mis-information from the media, the schools, the universities, the churches and more -- all of which are dominated by pro-capitalist interests. Those interests and their political lackeys are primarily concerned with the preservation of their system -- the source of their wealth and their positions of privilege -- at the continued expense of the useful producers of the nation. They will not and do not hesitate to mouth any promise or resort to any action they think will serve their purpose, no matter how hypocritical or ruthless.

The Socialist Party’s task is to help workers come to recognise that there is an alternative to capitalism. For the sooner the working class understands that the misery imposed by capitalism need not be endured, the sooner will workers turn to socialism. Our fellow workers need to form a mass revolutionary party to challenge to defeat the political state for the purpose of dismantling it. Such a party is also needed to convince the working-class majority of the need for socialism and to recruit the forces for carrying out the revolution. It is the task of the World Socialist Movement to arouse the working class to its historic mission to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism. It is true that the capitalist class appears all-powerful. It is winning the class struggle. That, however, is because the capitalists are united in their battle against the workers, despite differences regarding strategy and tactics. They have their goal clearly in mind -- the pursuit of ever-greater profits through the continued and ever-intensified exploitation of the workers.

The working class is weak because it is unorganised. It is unorganised because it lacks a fundamental understanding of the class nature of capitalism and its own class interest. The workers must at long last realise that the hope of their future rests in their hands. They must focus their concerns and political perspectives on themselves, on their collective interests as a class, on their latent economic and political power and its potential for changing society in a manner that will assure economic security and social welfare for all.

That change can be accomplished once the workers organise their political and economic power.



Saturday, September 04, 2021

The Party for a New Society

 


The principle of the class struggle recognises that it is the class interests at the root from which social conflicts arise. The worker who does not understand the principle of the class struggle will fall into the arms of the capitalist politicians who promise to redress all wrongs. Enlightened, however, on the class struggle, the worker is aware that no 'reform' could possibly make things better and knows that the 'reformer' is the upholder of a system under which we are oppressed under capitalism means every individual's hand raised against all others; its motto is: 'One man's misfortune is another man's opportunity'. Under capitalism the life of all is impossible; for some to prosper, many more must suffer.


Capitalism creates so many problems it is hard to know which one to focus on. Occasionally, however, something comes along that seems to put everything else into perspective. We presently observe two events - the Covid Pandemic and the Climate Crisis. The Socialist Party cannot stop world capitalism from creating even more misery on a global scale than it already has. Only the working class can do that. What it can do, however, is hasten the day when workers will come to the knowledge that they must act to end capitalism and build socialism.


 The Socialist Party can do that provided as long as it receives the full support of all those who appreciate the urgency of the times and the need to spread the socialist message. Our purpose is to promote class consciousness among workers while advocating a complete revolutionary change from capitalism to socialism, to challenge the power of the ruling class, to capture the state machinery and to turn the reins of social administration over to the working people to economic democracy embracing all workers.

The chaos that exists in capitalism today makes it clear that the socialist revolution is past due. The working class is paying a heavy toll in human misery and suffering, which will become more intense unless our class organises its political and economic strength and uses it to establish the socialist alternative. As a Marxist organisation, the Socialist Party provides positive revolutionary direction to workers by promoting the growth of class consciousness. However, just as will not grow of its own accord, neither will we in the Socialist Party. That responsibility ultimately rests with those that our message has reached and it is the responsibility of all those who grasp the case for socialism to step forward and to enhance its ability to reach the working class.


Many of us comprehend that capitalism has outlived its usefulness and that it is time for humanity to move on to the next logical stage of social evolution. We want to create a sane and productive world. But how can we do so? We need a road map. The plan is based on workers acting with workers for workers. It is useless for us to wait for deliverance from the pains caused by capitalism. We will have to deliver ourselves via a non-violent combination of political and economic action, based on control by the entire working class instead of by a "vanguard" political leadership, a dictatorship by any name. The answer is that workers must form a political party of their own that specifically organises workers as a class. If we workers stopped cooperating with the political parties of capitalism and actively took part in controlling our world through our own political and industrial organisations, capitalism would soon wither and die. Only if the people as a whole take control of the economy can they maintain that control and use the forces of production to fill their needs. 


We don't have to turn our backs on politics or passively wait for a better day that will never come if we fail to organise to bring it about. We don't have to aimlessly wander around in search of direction. A plan already exists that is simple, flexible and designed to meet the needs and desires of workers. It is peaceful, workable and within the grasp of working people. We don't have to suffer in isolation. We can join together and we can change our world.


Common sense should tell workers that the cause of declining wages, spreading economic insecurity and unemployment has nothing to do with who forms the government of the day


Common sense should tell workers that politicians don't decide when factories will close down or how many workers to lay off.


Common sense should tell workers that in a capitalist economy those decisions are made by those who own the factories, mills, mines and other means of wealth production.


Common sense should tell workers that capitalists make those decisions in their own interests, not in the interests of the working class.

From these and other facts, the Socialist Party draws certain conclusions.


First: Increased productivity, declining wages, massive elimination of jobs, spreading economic insecurity and the congestion of wealth proves that the capitalist system of private ownership and profit production is based on the exploitation of the working class.


Second: As long as this foundation of society remains this trend will continue regardless of the claims and promises of politicians.


Third: That the only solution to such fundamental problems stemming from the very nature of the system under which we live must also be a fundamental one.


As long as the working class tolerates the private ownership and control of the economy, workers will be used and disposed of to suit the profit whims of the tiny capitalist class.



Friday, September 03, 2021

The People Have No Future Under Capitalism


Socialism means economic democracy. 

Instead of production for sale and the profit of a few, socialism means production to satisfy the human needs and wants of all. Socialism will allow for us to carry on production for use in the most modern production laboratories we can possibly create, utilising the safest and most productive methods. The more we collectively produce, the more we shall collectively enjoy. All of us will be useful producers, working but a fraction of the time we are forced to work today. But we shall not only be useful producers, but we shall also all share equitably in the wealth we produce, and our compensation will literally dwarf anything we can imagine today. In socialist society there will be neither involuntary unemployment nor poverty. The young will be educated not only to prepare them to participate in social production but also to enable them to expand their interests and develop their individual interests and talents.

The aged will be cared for, and not by any such demeaning methods as are used today. We shall provide all their material needs and create a social atmosphere in which they can live lives that are culturally and intellectually satisfying. It will not be charity, but their rightful share as former contributors to production. Under capitalism, improved methods and machinery of production kick workers out of jobs. Under socialism, such improvements will be blessings for the simple reason that they will increase the amount of wealth produced and make possible ever higher standards of living, while providing us with greater and greater leisure in which to enjoy them. 

With socialism, we shall produce everything we need and want in abundance under conditions best suited to our welfare, aiming for the highest quality. We shall constantly strive to improve our methods and equipment in order to reduce the hours of work. We shall provide ourselves with the best of everything: the finest educational facilities, the most modern and scientific health facilities and adequate and varied recreational facilities. We shall constantly seek to improve our socialist society. Purposeful research, expansion of the arts and culture, preservation and replacement of our natural resources, all will receive the most serious attention. It will be a society in which everyone will have the fullest opportunity to develop his or her individuality without sacrificing the blessings of cooperation.

Freed from the compulsions of competition and the profit motive that presently hurl capitalist nations into war, socialism will also be a society of peace. In short, socialist society will be a society of secure human beings, living in peace, in harmony and human brotherhood.

This all may sound too good to be true. Yet the world has the productive capacity to provide a high standard of living for all, to provide security and comfort for all, to create safe workplaces and clean industries, and to help other nations reach these same goals. The only thing keeping us from reaching these goals is that the workers don't own and control that productive capacity; it is owned and controlled by a few who use it solely to profit themselves. 

Socialism was born in response to the grave social problems generated by capitalism's uses of technology. Socialism grew out of the profound disruption of society capitalism caused. It was the pitiless and inhumane uses to which capitalism put the technology at its disposal to exploit human labor that made the socialist movement necessary.

 Socialism is not an idea that fell from the skies, but a natural response to the material conditions and social relations that took shape as the capitalist system of production developed.

At the same time, however, the socialist movement has always recognised the tremendous material possibilities technological advances offer for eliminating the poverty, misery and suffering it has engendered -- not of its own accord, but as a direct result of the capitalist system of private ownership of the productive forces created by human labour and ingenuity. The whole purpose of the socialist movement, therefore, is to solve the grave social problems resulting from the march of technology monopolised by a numerically insignificant capitalist class so that the magnificent possibilities modern advances in technology hold out may benefit all of humanity. Accordingly, the socialist movement also sees in so-called post-industrial technology the productive instrument for the attainment of its goal. Whatever good there is in modern methods of production, whatever their potential for making the world a better place, for eliminating arduous toil, hunger and poverty, that potential is wiped out by a single, dominating fact. The one fact that overwhelms and nullifies the promise of all progress is private ownership of the means of production and distribution. The goal of the WSM is to replace capitalism with the economic and social democracy of socialism.

 William Morris once wrote, "While theologians are disputing the existence of a hell elsewhere, we are on the way to realising it here…”

Organising to bring the industries under the ownership of all the people, to build a socialist society of peace, plenty and freedom, is the only real alternative workers have.



Thursday, September 02, 2021

We must teach one another

 


Within the World Socialist Movement, there is no advocacy of state ownership of the industries. There is no belief that political government should nationalise the industries, under the leadership of a supposed working-class party. The goal, rather, is direct democratic control of all industries and services by the workers united in an association of a cooperative commonwealth. The socialist political parties that constitute the WSM have but one thing to do upon winning control of the political offices, and that is to transfer all management authority to the workers' administrations and, in so doing, abolish all political forms of power, including the abolition of the socialist political party itself, without delay. The WSM calls for a complete change in the structure of government, creating local, regional and global networks consisting of delegates elected by neighbourhood and workers’ councils in manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, education, health, recreation, etc. Industrial democracy is to replace the political form of parliamentary democracy. The World Socialist Movement agree partially with the anarchists, insofar as to say that a truly class-free society must also be state-free, and have no coercive power that is distinct from and ruling over the populace. As Engels has written that, with socialism, "the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things." 

The WSM differs from anarchists and syndicalists in our insistence that the working class can only abolish the state by first capturing control of it. The working people must come to control the offices of political government (i.e., the coercive and nationalist-based form of government) in order to dismantle it. Therefore, the working class requires organisation in the political field. The ballot raises the workers’ movement above the level of a conspiracy. Without the use of the present constitutional method, the social revolution would have to be violent, either involving the slaughter of participants or the transformation of the mass movement into elite vanguardism of cadres. The WSM continues to insist that modifications to the surface forms of the social system by reforms cannot bring about structural change and fellow workers should not be distracted  with "palliatives." Labour parties and progressive liberals have failed to focus on the need for a revolutionary reconstruction, and possess a diluted political program with calls for gradual reforms which imply the continuation of capitalism. The goal of abolishing "the wage system" is abandoned and the aim of "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work" is adopted.

The members of the World Socialist Movement affirm, as a fundamental principle, that labour is the creator of wealth and is entitled to all it creates. They accept the logical conclusion of such as the overthrow of the whole profit-making system, the extinction of the exchange economy, the abolition of classes and the obliteration of poverty. We declare war upon wage slavery which robs workers and gorges capitalists.

Socialism is the common ownership by all the people of the factories, mines, transport, land and all other instruments of production. Socialism means production to satisfy human needs, not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means democratic control and management of the industries and social services by the workers where all authority will originate from the workers. Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a society based on the most primary freedom, economic freedom. Socialism does not mean government or state ownership. It does not mean a state bureaucracy as in the former Soviet Union or China, with the working class oppressed by a new bureaucratic class. It does not mean a party-run system without democratic rights. It does not mean nationalisation, or even cooperatives, or state capitalism of any kind. It means a complete end to all capitalist social relations. To win the struggle for socialist freedom requires enormous efforts of organisational and educational work. It requires building a political party of socialism to contest the power of the capitalist class on the political field and to educate the majority of workers about the need for socialism. You are needed by the Socialist Party fighting for a better world. Find out more about the work of the Socialist Party and join us to help make the promise of socialism a reality.

The capitalist economic system lies at the root of all of modern society's major social AND economic problems. Abolish strife-breeding capitalism and those problems are either eradicated or left to die, for lack of nourishment, on the ugly vine from which they spring. The Socialist  Party has long contended that only socialism can solve the major social and economic problems plaguing our society today. But many people have been taught all their lives that "socialism" means the state-controlled system that existed in the Soviet Union, exists today in China or Cuba, or bureaucratic state control of society in general. World socialism upheld by the Socialist Party, however, is completely different from the Soviet or Chinese systems, Cuban or any existing system. It has nothing to do with nationalisation, a welfare state or any kind of state ownership or control of industry whatsoever. World socialism would give power not to the state, but to the people themselves, allowing collective control of their own economic future.

Socialism means a class-free society. Unlike under capitalism, where a tiny minority owns the vast majority of wealth and the means of producing it, everyone would share equally in the ownership of all the means of production, and everyone able to do so would work. There wouldn't be separate classes of owners and workers. The economy would be administered by the workers themselves through industrially based, democratic "associations of free and equal producers," as Marx described it.

The workers collectively would decide what they want to be produced and how they want it produced. They would control their own workplaces and make the decisions governing their particular industry. With the abolition of the capitalist expropriation of the lion's share of workers' product, all workers would receive, directly or indirectly, the full value of the products they create, minus only the deductions needed to maintain and improve society's facilities of production and distribution.

As Engels once described it, socialism would be a system in "which every member of society will be enabled to participate not only in the production but also in the distribution of social wealth."

Far from being a state-controlled society, socialism would be a society WITHOUT A STATE. Marx once said that "the existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery." Consonant with this truth, socialism would have management, but not a separate, coercive body standing above society itself -- a state. The people themselves, through the democratic associations of workers, would BE ruling.

Socialism can only be built in a developed, industrialised society with a working-class majority. The Bolshevik and Chinese revolutions weren't socialist in character. They occurred in pre-industrial societies. Without a majority working class and the ability to eliminate scarcity of needed goods and services, the creation of a class-free society was impossible. Material conditions there bred conflict and made the continuation of the class struggle inevitable in such countries.

In a socialist revolution, the industrially organised workers take possession of the means of production, abolish capitalist-class rule and supplant the state with "associations of free and equal producers." 

In the Bolshevik and Chinese revolutions, an elite "vanguard" party seized control of the state and used the state to control the means of production. Instead of establishing a class-free society, the party-state bureaucracy became a new ruling class.

A socialist political party is needed to educate the working class and to recruit workers to the socialist cause. But a political party isn't suited to carry out the primary objective of socialism -- to bring the workers into collective control over all social production and distribution.