Changing the world

Under capitalism, the conditions of labour are dictated by supervisors who are driven to maintain or increase profits by the fear of losing their jobs. With socialism, where the whole people owned the land and means of wealth production, they would arrange their own conditions of labour. They would naturally adopt the shortest, easiest and safest methods to achieve their objectives because such a course would give them the maximum amount of leisure. In any case, freedom to exercise craft pride would be possible in socialism, under capitalism it is not. The worker’s business is to work. He or she must work in such a way as to satisfy the capitalist greed for profits; there is no time for him or her to find pleasure in it.

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace a society divided into property-owners and non-property-owners, by a system of society in which the only claim to the enjoyment of wealth produced, will be the rendering of service by all who are fit to do so. This involves the suppression of all incomes derived from the ownership of property, but does the Labour Party propose that suppression? If not, the Labour Party is not a socialist party, and cannot be trusted to advance socialism. The capitalist class does, at present, own and control the means of producing wealth, and will not, without compulsion, yield its legal right to live by the ownership of property. Rather than face this fact, rather than admit that the class struggle exists and can be abolished from society only by the victory of the working-class majority, the Labour Party proclaims its belief in the possibility of achieving socialism without destroying the property rights of the capitalist class. It believes that it has found a solution to the ancient problem of making omelettes without breaking eggs. It will have “socialism” without “confiscation.”

All of the Labour Party’s nationalisation proposals involve the payment of compensation in the shape of interest-bearing bonds to the former owners. Now, apart from the futility of trying to introduce socialism piecemeal, industry by industry, what will be the position when the Labour Party has finished nationalising all the essential services? The capitalist class will still be property-owners —their property being Government Bonds instead of company shares, etc. They will still live by owning, and without rendering service.

The working class will still be engaged in producing wealth for the benefit of the capitalist class. Socialism will not be in existence, and no important working-class problem will have been solved.

The alternative advocated by us is to propagate socialism and organise the working-class in a Socialist Party on a clear-cut socialist programme.  The working-class are the great majority. When they become Socialist they will endeavour to obtain possession of the machinery of government in the usual “constitutional” way.

 Until a larger number of the workers understand and desire socialism, mass media devoted to the propaganda of socialist principles remains a project for the future. In the meantime, this blog will continue to advance the object of the Socialist Party, which seeks to organise all workers who desire to replace the present system of capitalism by a system based upon the possession and administration by the whole community of the means necessary to produce and apportion wealth to the full needs of all.

  

Free the People

 It is impossible for either the Conservative or the Labour Party, Republican or the Democratic Party, to offer any practicable solution for our social ills because those maladies are the inevitable and natural outgrowth of the wage system which system these parties are alike pledged to support and defend the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class is a continuous and irrepressible conflict, a conflict that tends every day rather be intensified than to be softened.

 Socialism means co-operative economics, based on common ownership of land and the means of production. Poverty is due to capitalism, i.e., to the monopoly by a diminishing class of the fruits of social effort. It can be abolished so soon as the class which suffers from it realises the cause of it and removes that cause. When the workers organise as a class, seize political power, and convert the means of living into the common property of all, then and then only will class distinctions and their social and economic accompaniments disappear.

The struggle between the capitalists over the surplus wealth wrung from their slaves on the one hand and the struggle between the slaves for jobs on the other are the fruits of immature development. They will vanish when in the struggle between these two classes as a whole, the workers, are victorious. Production will then be carried on in conscious co-operation in order to secure the fullest possible development for every individual. 

Our work is not to pander to the prejudices of the ignorant but to win the workers’ minds for socialism. Not by agreeing with their unsound ideas but by replacing these wrong notions with sound knowledge. Nothing can help you but the conscious organisation of your class for the conquest of political power and the introduction of a social order in which “private” or “public” property based on profit-making shall find no place, but in which the means of life shall be the common heritage of all.

 We do not say that “everything in the garden will be lovely” when a class-conscious working class controls Parliament. The capture of the political machinery is, as Marx says in the Communist Manifesto, the first step which must be taken to obtain emancipation. The succeeding conditions may be quite unlovely, depending upon the circumstances of the time and the degree of counter-revolution attempted. Parliament is a machine that arose and evolved long before capitalism. The tremendous outlay of finance and effort on the part of capitalists to assure that the workers vote for capitalist candidates and their lackeys show how important control of Parliament is. Then we are told that socialist control of Parliament will allow capitalists to have the money to pay for the upkeep of the armed forces for their own use. The actual fact is that the armed forces are maintained out of funds voted by Parliament. These huge sums are obtained from taxation paid by the employers out of the surplus extracted from the result of the workers’ labour. This exploitation will stop when the workers control political power and hence the funds out of which capitalists can pay armies will cease.

The capitalist system could not be run by bodies of employers hiring some armed bands to attack the whole working class. Capitalism depends, upon the regular and smooth conduct of affairs under which the wheels of industry can turn, commerce be carried on and profits are obtained. Therefore a constitution with delegated functions and a Parliament controlling nationally the forces of repression is an essential thing to the life of capitalism in all “advanced” countries.

The vote does not itself abolish capitalism but the vote in the hands of an organised socialist working class in advanced “democratic” capitalist countries, gives control of the machinery of coercion, the army, etc. Whether and how that force will need to be used depends on the capitalist minority, who will then, if they resist the majority, be rebels. Therefore, the resolute efforts of all those aiming at the conquest of the social powers are to control the political machine.

Mussolini or Lenin or Hitler, or the worldwide struggles of rising capitalists—each had to, first of all, conquer political power as represented in the political machinery of each country. The capitalists being few, are compelled to hire the workers to run the system, and also the civil and military forces to control it. Further, officers are helpless without an army and the army acts not according to its officers but according to instructions that are given by those in charge of political power.

Our policy is framed for the country in which we live, and according to existing conditions. Parliament being the central machine of the present constitution, we are compelled to control it in our own interests as a working class.

Should the capitalists destroy the constitution, the situation would be changed and the detailed policy of the workers would be different. But this assumption of the destruction of Parliamentary institutions reckons without the facts of economic life. In destroying the constitution the capitalists would cripple their system. Capitalism in advanced countries depends upon government by elected authority, local and national and the disruption of these bodies would result in chaos, not in a system. The incitement to open warfare resulting from the abolition of Parliament would prevent that ordered working of affairs upon which capitalism depends.

A socialist working-class intent upon abolishing capitalism would have a policy directly in conflict with the interests of capitalists—financial or industrial, and the day of Parliament carrying out the wishes of the capitalists would be over. Socialist knowledge, socialist organisation and socialist political action by the mass of the working class. The class war is the only sound basis for the socialist theory.

It cannot be too often repeated that socialism is not inevitable in the sense that the return of the seasons, the alternation of day and night, the ebb and flow of the tides are inevitable. Socialism is the first conscious putting forth of human genius in a concrete endeavour to make the earth a common human possession. Humanly speaking, it appears to us to be humanity’s next step. We recognise that the process can be helped or retarded. We can form but the merest estimate of the extent to which selfishness and stupidity may retard the change, but we are certain that each and every new member of the Socialist Party hastens its coming and the speedy realisation of our hopes - SOCIALISM.

Capitalism has no Cure

 People recognise the virtues of socialism in as much as the general welfare is concerned. They oppose it under the pretext of it not being feasible or practicable.  Reformers, particularly among the possessing classes, have been trying to prevent the downfall of the capitalist system of private property and to thwart revolution with their perpetual tinkering to remove this or that ill effect or at least of softening its edge, without touching private property itself. Cures have been recommended and tried, all sorts of panaceas by social quacks to heal the old social ills quickly, without pain and without the expense, but often upon closer inspection, these are a revival of old policies, all of which have been tried before and found worthless.

In their defence, they demand of the Socialist Party that we draw a picture of the commonwealth which we strive for.  The Socialist Party declines to lay before the public a blueprint of the future commonwealth. The tendencies of the capitalist system of production are today well known. Nevertheless, no one would venture to foretell what forms it will take in a couple of decades, and those who call themselves futurologists couch their predictions with many caveats. And yet our critics demand of the Socialist Party to provide a detailed description of the social relationships that are to come into existence when the present system of production ends. Propositions for the shaping of the forms of social conditions can be made only where the field is fully under control and well understood. For this reason, the Socialist Party can make positive propositions only for the existing social order. Socialism postulates special historical conditions, which render it possible and necessary. Suggestions that go beyond that cannot deal with facts but must proceed from suppositions, they are, accordingly, speculations that will be a waste of time and energy. So many false notions about the socialist commonwealth have been inherited from the Utopians or invented by intellectuals, that this course would have the appearance of an evasion.

The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” With the whole power of the state - the military and law enforcement - in possession of the working class by virtue of its victory at the polls, the death knell of capitalist private property and wage slavery is sounded.

This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of the government from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new level, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of the government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear.

 There is only one way to destroy the wage system, and that is the determination of the workers never to sell their labour for wages. They need but to concentrate their energies on the abolition of the wage system. Social peace will reign, for, with the capitalist class and State bureaucracy being abolished, there can be no antagonism of classes or accumulation of dissatisfaction. And these two facts combined will give the producers freedom at work and at leisure, freedom for self-expression in their work, and instead of the deadening drudgery of the wage-slave for the benefit of the capitalist, there will be the creation of beautiful things by free men and women for the use of the whole community. 

Working people cannot emancipate themselves without emancipating all society from the tyrannies, superstitions and prejudices of class, race, nationality caste, creed and sex, which keep society divided and enslaved. The victory of socialism means the political supremacy of the working masses and the abolition of every form of exploitation 

Advance the ideas of socialism

 

When the Socialist Party puts forward its plea for the common ownership of the means of wealth production it is sometimes greeted with the statement that if all the wealth produced was divided among the whole of the people, the workers would receive little more than they do at present owing to the small number of those who are very wealthy and the multitude of those who are poor. Economic “authorities” assert that if the wealth of the rich, or the total income of the whole of the people were “divided up” the result would only amount to an extra pound or two each. The insignificance of the amount is then paraded as a demonstration of the impractical and delusive nature of the Socialist Party’s proposals.

 “Dividing up” has no place in the Socialist Party’s philosophy, and our case, from the point of view of wealth, is built upon modern productive capacity rather than the actual amount of wealth at present produced. The ideal aimed at by industry is a future when one person can, by pressing a button, set in motion the machinery that will automatically perform all the functions necessary to produce what will meet the needs of the whole world without the help of another labourer. The greater the productivity of machinery and the economy of labour the nearer industry approaches to this ideal. That is to say, fewer and fewer workers are required to attend to the needs of the world.

 Given the capitalist method of production, under which the means of production and the products are owned by the employers, it is surely obvious that, after a certain limit has been passed, the greater the productivity of machinery the more workers will be thrown out of work whose labour has been “saved.” How will they stand in the division of wealth? As they will not be receiving any wages they will have no means with which to buy—unless it is the unemployment dole.  So that the future of the industry would appear to present a picture of growing prosperity in which wage earners tend to decline and dole receivers tend to increase.

Modern capitalist society depends upon the individual and collective effort of the workers. The sum total of all these efforts results in the production and distribution of all those things which provide the comforts and wants of modern civilisation. 

The millions of unemployed workers throughout the world are perfectly conscious of a desire to use their energies, their abilities, to this end, but they are unable to find a suitable opportunity. It is obvious that, in order to live, mankind is forced to make such efforts as will wrest from mother earth those things which will satisfy his needs. The earth is ready to hand—but the unemployed worker finds oneself obstructed by a code of laws and regulations which says, in effect, that the land belongs to various individuals—a distinct and separate class in society. It is the nature of this legal code, this property right in the private ownership and control of the source of the means of life which the workers have to enquire into. It comes to this, society can be divided, in the main, into two classes:

1. The class who possess but do not produce—the property-owning master class, and

2. Those who produce but do not possess—the propertyless working class.

 

The socialist, therefore, may be said to vary from the rest of the members of his class, as a result of a consciousness of this division of society into classes. Let us now examine in what way such variation makes for the ultimate survival of himself and his class.

The socialist, being class-conscious, recognises that there is a constant struggle going on between the two classes referred to. We probe into the nature of this struggle, and as a result of the study of the economic conditions and the political history of capitalism, is forced to the conclusion that it is through their control of the political machinery of the state that the master class—the owners of the means of life—are able to subject the working class to their wage-slavery position.

The long history of the struggle which has taken place between these two classes is admirably expressed in the life-long labours of Karl Marx, in whose writings is revealed the nature of the struggle and the historical mission which confronts the working class, so far as the future reorganisation of society is concerned.

Inherent in the capitalist system is an antagonism, a conflict of interests—the class struggle. Leaving aside for the moment periods of trade depression, when such conflicts of interests between the workers and the masters are glaring and need a little illustration, let us examine the conditions when so-called peace prevails. Even then the struggle still goes on; the struggle on the part of the worker to obtain as much by the sale of his labour-power as he can get, and the struggle on the part of the master to buy that labour-power at the lowest possible rate. Employers of labour compete for the world’s markets. To do this successfully, up-to-date machinery, the very latest equipment and industrial organisation, efficient workers, are essential for this success.

Further, the workers also compete with one another for jobs. Non-unionised all tend to keep the workers’ wages, in the aggregate, down to the bare cost of subsistence. The fundamental principle of socialism is based on the recognition of the class struggle. The workers will prove their fitness to survive by associating themselves with the work of the Socialist Party. That work consists in resolutely organising for the dethronement of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. Naturally, this work falls upon those who will benefit i.e., the working class.

Help to prove the fitness of your class to survive.

 

Marxist and Internationalist

 

“With us it cannot be a mere matter of a change in the form of private property, but of destroying it as an institution; not in hushing up class antagonisms but in abolishing all classes; not in the improvement of present-day society but in the foundation of a new society.” Karl Marx (The Address of the Communist League.)

We make no secret about it. The Socialist Party is Marxist and its members are revolutionaries. Our goal is socialism. We will not go just a part of the way – or even half of the way – we are going all of the way and we are going to build the party to do it. Our sights are set on social revolution. Meantime, we will stand in solidarity with all workers in struggle. The working class is a revolutionary class and is capable of overthrowing the capitalist system and establishing socialism.

There is a capitalist system. There are workers and masters. Between them, a struggle is raging. So far there are no signs whatever of socialism. Socialism has not even been thought of anywhere when the workers were already waging their struggle.  Yes, the workers are fighting. But they are fighting separately against their masters; here they go out on strike, there they hold protests and demonstrations. Some talk about the political struggle, others about the economic struggle, and so forth. But that does not mean that the workers possess socialist consciousness; it does not mean that their aim is to overthrow the capitalist system and of the establishment of the socialist system.

Much of the media believe the working-class unrest is the result of troublemakers and it would be a good thing to bring to people to their senses with the stick. Others believe that it is the duty of the rich to throw use the carrot with various reforms. It is the socialists who hold that the capitalist system is by no means eternal, that it is just as transient as feudalism was, and that it must inevitably be superseded by the socialist system, which can be established only by means of a social revolution. What is the working-class resistance without socialism?—A  movement without a compass.

At elections where there have been no Socialist Party candidates our policy has been one of spoiling the ballot and abstention, It believes that alliances with other political parties are in every way harmful to the socialist cause. It prefers to build up an organisation of workers and genuine adherents in the necessity for socialism and to wait till it can win elections with candidates whose socialism is beyond dispute, rather than drop any essential principle for the sake of an apparent temporary gain.

Socialists are not internationalists for sentimental reasons, just because they think that the workers of one country must love the workers of another country. We are internationalists, as Marx explained because the whole essence and function of capitalism has drawn up the whole world into one single interdependent unit where every country is an inter-related economic unit. It is this which gives us the essence of the internationalism of the working class. Events that occur in one country affect the workers of other countries.

 The Socialist Party ever upholds the solidarity of all workers, regardless of race or nationality. It rejoices in their successes and shares with them their sorrows. It looks forward with confident hope to the worldwide organisation of workers and echoes the cry, whose realisation means the complete downfall of capitalism, and the final triumph of social democracy— WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

WARS WITHOUT END

 

In regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as socialists, we place on record our abhorrence of this latest manifestation of the callous, sordid, and mercenary nature of the international capitalist system, while hoping that the fighting, the killing and the destruction stop immediately and unconditionally. The wars of capitalism solve no problem simply because they aim only to readjust the balance between clashing interests. To abolish war we must go for its roots, not tinker with the superficialities of those interests. We must strike at the basis of capitalism. But to do that means to abolish the system and to replace it with socialism. The way to end war is by tackling the root cause of war, that is by the ending of the capitalist system itself. There can be no escape from the spectacle of bloodshed and horror while capitalism lasts. There is at least one war going on every single day. Ceaselessly, throughout the world, the scientists and the factories are hard at work turning out armaments the cost of which is beyond our imagination and men and women are being made frighteningly proficient in the business of killing. Putin has learned that the rules of capitalism mean that a country can only prosper if it is aggressive in defence of its economic interests.

As with all wars, and threats of war, the conflict is about the squalid interests of the owning class in our society. The World Socialist Movement again reminds our fellow workers that we members of the working class own no productive resources except our ability to work. Ukraine and Russia, like all other nations, belong to the world capitalist class and, when one nation makes war on another, it is about the ownership and control of wealth; it is about resources, markets or areas of strategic importance – in a word, about things that concern us only in that our masters order us to kill and die for them. Until the hold of nationalist and racist poison on the minds of the world’s workers is destroyed, it will not be possible to live the full and satisfying life of socialism. Stand up for yourself as a human being and fight for the only worthwhile end — the achievement of free humanity.

Few, if any, lessons have been learned about the fundamental flaws of a society that continues to be run by a few to the detriment of the many. For as long as the abundant resources of our planet are exploited for profit rather than produced for need, wars will continue. Just as the Socialist Party has been pointing out for nearly a hundred and twenty years. We will keep on doing so until common-sense prevails.

A road of blood and tears must be followed by humankind until the working class of the world, for the opportunity to exploit whom all modern wars are fought, determine to find their emancipation in socialism. In the name of suffering humanity, we call you to our banner. We say to our fellow workers in all other lands, we have no quarrel with you. On the contrary, we appeal to workers in all lands to refuse to slaughter one another for and at the behest of, our capitalist masters. We appeal to you to unite with us in the struggle to overthrow the system of capitalism which not only causes war but all the other social problems which our class endures throughout the world.

 Let those workers who urge their fellows into uniform smell the corpses and the cordite, feel the fear of men and women, share the terror of a civilian population under bombardment. And let them see at first hand, the pompous cynicism of the generals and the statesmen.

World Citizens

 

The Socialist Party’s politics is not the same as the shabby dishonesty and opportunism of capitalist politicians but strives to raise the political awareness of our fellow workers.

Dangerous and deceptive is the resort to “patriotism.” Statements about loyalty to the nation, have to be ignored. The notion that the country is “our” country – i.e. everybody’s alike, that there is such a thing as nation or community, a mystic something to which we belong and which protects us, is cultivated by the ruling class for the purpose of hiding the fact of class cleavage, of exploitation for the purpose of making the worker think that when he goes to war he is fighting for “his” country, instead of against himself and for the capitalists. 

In a time when patriotism is the dominant emotion upon which capitalism calls in order to fasten the chains of reaction and terrorism upon the masses, we must not fall into the trap of arousing sentiments upon which the demagogues can, in any case, play much more effectively than revolutionists can, and which in the end can only be used to destroy the revolutionary movement. The hold of capitalist,  nationalistic symbols upon the workers must, however, be broken, not confirmed.

 

The revolutionary movement must, therefore, have its own. They must be such as to bring forward the idea and strengthen the emotion of class – the working class against the capitalist – and consequently the idea of labour internationalism against nationalism. To break the hold of false ideas is difficult enough at best. We should be foolish Indeed to make the task still more difficult by using symbols that might confuse the workers, which do not clearly and uncompromisingly suggest loyalty to class, loyalty to the worldwide brotherhood of labour, and not to any lesser cause.

 

While we, as humanity, remain divided by rival capitalist states, it is impossible to organise our use of the world in careful and sensitive ways that would be in the mutual interests of all people. Instead, we have economic exploitation, waste, war and destruction. Although we mostly think of the market system in terms of private corporations or state enterprises, it is also true that each nation is a "national business." A national economy must do its budgeting and keep its accounts as an autonomous trading nation. 

Governments must maintain national security. This is the protection and enforcement of national interests both within the state and between states. Externally, national security involves diplomacy, negotiated agreements and the formation of alliances which in turn can be backed up by networks of spies and where necessary the threat or use of armed force. The strategic aim is the ability to trade at the best advantage. As caretakers of national economic strategy, governments aim to promote national advantage whilst reducing vulnerability. 

If the people of the world are to stave off the global catastrophes that now loom before us, they are going to have to cast aside their lingering nationalism and patriotism, recognise their common humanity, and begin working for the good of all, promoting the cooperative commonwealth.