Today Capitalism - Tomorrow Socialism

 

The capitalist nature of present-day society is a fact. No thinking person nowadays denies that we live in a capitalist era, where goods are produced for profit, where the worker is a mere instrument of production, a seller of labour-power, receiving in return for the expenditure of his energies a wage, just enough to keep the worker in that state of efficiency which will enable him or her to perform work satisfactorily. Practically the whole mechanism of production is carried through by large corporations, and these in turn are owned and controlled by often anonymous shareholders. The corporation is brought into being as a rule in order to eliminate competition.  They are examples of the evolutionary development inherent in capitalism to greater and still greater monopolies.

The ownership of corporations appears to be vested in thousands of private shareholders, but as anyone knows, who has inspected the share books of capitalist concerns, while large numbers of private investors hold five and ten shares each, the great bulk of the shares is often held by holding companies, institutions such as insurance companies and banks , so that the real owners and controllers, in the background can remain more or less anonymous. The Inland Revenue returns, however, disclose the real position. With the passing of each year the private incomes of the wealthy become greater, while the number of people of great wealth becomes smaller. One can almost visualise the eventual passing of the entire productive wealth of a country and its dependencies into the hands of one family or even one man.

The slave position of the worker can only be accentuated with the further development of capitalism. We will still be a slave to the class which exploits us and we will still suffer from the poverty and its consequences which goes with that condition. The worker must concentrate attention on the cause of poverty, the capitalist nature of the world in which we live. Cause and cure go hand in hand—capitalism the cause, socialism—-in the real meaning of the term—the remedy. There is one thing, however, the ruling class forget, and that is the increased knowledge that is being imbibed by those who live by selling their labour-power. The wage slaves are not all asleep. 

The material conditions have reached the stage when the present system of production is a fetter on production. A sure harbinger of a new, and, let us hope, a better form of society, in which there will be neither wage-slave nor capitalist, nor private property in the means of life. The Socialist Party has so far lacked encouragement. The issue between the capitalist-class and the working-class has been kept clear, and moving circumstance has now brought into being those conditions which make socialism practical politics. It is the only policy that unquestionably offers peace and plenty to all mankind. It is the only policy that can be advocated honestly and without equivocation. It is most lamentable that the Socialist Party, in its long and arduous struggle to dispel working-class political ignorance, receive hindrance rather than help from those acclaimed by many as intellectual leaders.  Whatever its enemies attempt in another direction will be exposed as inadequate and harmful. The common ownership of the means of life and production solely for use is our goal. Those who ask for less condone exploitation and betray the class to which we belong.

Socialism is where the hope for humanity lies. We share an aversion for authoritarianism. Socialism cannot be till society consciously desires it. Violence will not achieve it, and consequently there will be no need of power to impose it. We strive for socialism—common ownership and democratic control of the means of life—not because it is moral, ethical, virtuous, or seemingly eligible for any other relative abstract description, but because it is a scientifically demonstrable social and economic necessity.

There can be no socialism without socialists. Socialism, which can only be democratic world, must be brought about democratically. This point should become obvious if you think about it. Democracy rules out leadership and self-appointed vanguards. Socialists who know what they want and how to get it do not need leaders to tell them what to do. The capture of power has to be done on a state-by-state basis because this is the way political power is structured in the world today. As the Communist Manifesto pointed out, it will first be necessary for the working class of a country to win the struggle for democracy over the capitalists in that country. But this does not mean that there can be socialism in one country. Nor does it mean that we can expect the workers of one country to be ready for socialism while the rest of the world lags behind. The idea of world socialism cannot be confined to one country.

Another Summer School Special

 

At Summer School, Brian Gardner will be giving the following talk:

Let Them Do Yoga! - Inequality, Mental Health and Social Revolution

This talk will explore one of the less obvious ways in which capitalism and the class divide impacts negatively on humans. As the profit system turns the screw we are faced with huge and growing mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety.

How much of our this is down to the individual’s biology, and how much is social/political? What does inequality do to our psyches? Why are humans so apparently sensitive to class divisions? And does this provide insight to why inequality is so apparently resistant to political reform?

How will the global collective trauma of COVID play out? And what about the looming existential crisis that is the climate emergency?

Once taboo, we are now encouraged to parade our mental health like some fashion accessory. Are there other ways to regain wellbeing than lunchtime meditation or a friendly chat with HR? Are we just accommodating to the pressures of being both worker and consumer under capitalism?

Or are we seeing signs of humanity growing up? Is our mental environment a key battleground? How might mental well-being influence class consciousness? And what could we reasonably say about mental health inside a future socialist society?

Brian Gardner will explore these questions and more.

Details of more sessions will be announced soon.

 For more information on the event, see here: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summer-school-2022/

 

END THE SYSTEM

 

A “system” is, any assemblage of things forming a regular and connected whole. The name given to such a system depends upon the outstanding features of the things under consideration. For instance, we find the immediate heavenly bodies acting upon each other according to a certain order, forming a connected whole, the first of which is the sun—we call this order the solar system. We look into society at different periods and find different social forms, each as a connected whole having as outstanding features certain economic arrangements. At one time it is the exaction of dues in place of military service by the owners of the land—the feudal dues of the feudal system; at another time it is the ownership of the wealth produced by virtue of the investment of capital—as in the capitalist system.

Particular social systems are not necessarily laid down beforehand, one grows out of another owing to the development of a new form (or a latent form) in the older system. When the new form grows to such proportions that its further development is seriously hampered by the system suited to the older form, then a revolution takes place and the old system is swept away, giving place to the new. Within the feudal system, production for sale was originally a relatively minor economic form, but owing to various agencies, among them the discoveries that opened up a world market, production for sale brought into its circle of influence practically the whole of society in given countries, and those engaged in this sphere found they were constantly coming up against the laws and arrangements of feudalism. First in England and then in France, a successful effort was made to destroy the old shackling forms and remodel society according to arrangements suited to the new. Social philosophers in England and in France, prior to the revolutions, laid down very definitely “deliberate” plans “on paper” of what the new order should be like.

The coming of socialism would dispense with the need for coercive State institutions, as there would be no subject class to govern and repress. As every student of social science knows, the State did not always exist; it is a product of society at a stage of evolution. Through different forms, its essential character has been a power of coercion apart from the mass of the people. Today we know it as the parliamentary State, in which the subject class, the workers, are enfranchised. The State is the executive of the present ruling class (the capitalists), and it protects and maintains their ownership of property because the slave class politically permit it.

In our object and Principles, readers will see that production and distribution could only be vested in society, the whole people, as distinct from the capitalist few, any other method (State Capitalism, for instance) would still retain private ownership, and therefore class society.

Who would organise the maintenance of supplies in a class-free society? Who organises supplies today? The landlords and the shareholders or the working class? What the workers now do for idlers, surely with growing intelligence they can do for themselves. It is in politics they are ignorant, not in production. When wealth is no longer produced for profit, i.e., when the workers cease to be exploited. The exchange economy as a means to realise that profit or unpaid labour will be as unnecessary as the State.

 Capitalism, in its development, is carrying out Marx’s predictions. It has swelled the ranks of the workers in proportion to the other section of society. Modern technology renders more and more workers redundant. Wage slavery, high or low paid, cannot prevent these worsening conditions, because the workers’ opportunity to enjoy the results of their increasing productivity is denied them by the present outworn system of production for profit. Private property in the means of life allows an idle class to monopolise the benefits, the privileges, the comforts. United and organised by the very system that enslaves them, the workers will acquire the knowledge that will set society free from the last phase of class exploitation.

Support Socialism

 

Capitalism is beset with an immense political and economic crisis, the likes of which it has not experienced. It is rife with misery and oppression in various forms. Hunger, poverty, unemployment, racial and sexual discrimination, wars and many forms of environmental degradation. Far from diminishing with the progress of science and the advances of technology, living conditions are worsening, the gulf between the rich and the poor, between the powerful and the dispossessed, is steadily widening. Capitalists seek to increase the productivity of workers. They impose speed-ups and compulsory overtime. They multiply their attacks on the democratic rights of working people and continually try to control their organisations and even to destroy them. 

Socialist revolution is the only way that the working people can ensure the abolition of all exploitation. The working class cannot free itself without freeing all of humanity at the same time, because the ultimate goal of its struggle is not to replace the power of one class with that of another but rather to abolish all classes. This is the only way to put an end to all the social divisions and inequalities that have characterised class societies thus far. The expropriation of the capitalists and the socialisation of the means of production will lead directly to the abolition of society divided into classes with opposing interests. The abolition of classes will in turn lead to the withering away of the State.

Socialism will put an end to the recurring crises of capitalism which result in the destruction and waste of productive resources. It will mean the scientific, technological, economic and human resources currently devoted to the preparation and waging of war will be redirected to socially useful purposes. Socialism will also remove the enormous waste inherent in capitalist production with its duplication of effort - the manufacture of numerous but essentially similar washing powders, cars, and so on. It will put an end to the massive sums spent on advertising and production of superfluous luxuries for the rich. Socialism will be a society where all injustice would be banished forever, a society with no trace of corruption, a society in which the weak would no longer be oppressed by the strong, a society in which one class would no longer be exploited by another. The dreams of the past have become real possibilities for a future that can already be foreseen, because the material conditions necessary for achieving them are steadily appearing. Working people are becoming increasingly aware that this society can be achieved if only they can put an end to the capitalist relations of exploitation that are now the fundamental obstacle to the further evolution of society.

Million of our fellow humans suffer from chronic malnutrition and go without food. Charities and NGOs may do their bit, alleviate a little suffering here and there, but their work in is in reality only addressing the symptoms, not the disease. The disease is the global profit-drive market system whose golden maxim is “can’t pay–can’t have”. It is a system governments believe they can run in the interests of us all. In the years to come we will see many conferences and summits looking at the problem of global hunger. A lot of rubbish will no doubt be uttered at the same and you can bet no remedy will emerge. This is because there is only one remedy and governments cannot contemplate it because, as the executive of capitalism, it runs counter to the real interests they serve. The remedy involves abolishing the money system, freeing production from the artificial constraints of profit and establishing a world of free access to the benefits of civilisation. A utopian dream you may say, but is it not more utopian to believe the present system can be made to work in all our interests?

The Labour Party pledged to make capitalism work and pave the way for socialism at the same time, has forgotten the second in face of the obstacles that have frustrated their efforts in pursuit of the first. While the working class are blind enough to acquiesce in a social system in which they are governed by leaders in the interests of the capitalist class, it is of little consequence whether the leaders are politically skilful or not. But the working class are not politically mature. They vote in ignorance and in docile acceptance of whatever capitalism likes to dish out to them.

The Socialist Party was never impressed by the extravagant claims made for the ideas of the Welfare State by the various parties in 1945. By then, we had already issued a couple of pamphlets analysing the Beveridge plan and the proposals for family allowances, and we said that they would make no essential difference to the workers' position as the exploited section of the population. Because of this, we felt sure that the worry and insecurity that is life for most of us, would continue. Social security was in fact a gigantic misnomer. Many Labour Party governments later, we still see no need to alter our claim.

We are solely concerned with the establishment of socialism. This cannot be obtained until a majority of the workers want it and work for it. Once the workers do understand and want socialism, and without this socialism cannot be established, then they will vote delegates to parliament to take control of political power for the sole purpose of establishing socialism. Clause 6 of our Declaration of Principles points out that the armed forces of the nation are controlled through Parliament, the centre of political power. Once the workers obtain a majority in Parliament, for the purpose of establishing socialism, they will have control of the armed forces.

Wake up! wake up!

 

Society contains many contradictions which have arisen as a result of the fact that production has a social character under capitalism while ownership of the means of production is in private hands. The interests of the capitalists and of the working class are irreconcilable. Exploitation and economic anarchy with its the recurring crises of the capitalist mode of production oppress the working class and working people in a thousand different ways. The continual attacks of the  capitalists on working people meet resistance in fierce and bitter economic class struggles. This resistance limits the extent to which the capitalists can increase the rate of exploitation, and trains the working class in battle. Capital must accumulate in order to survive. It grows by keeping for itself the surplus value produced by workers after they have reproduced the value of their labour power, their wages. Surplus value is the source of all profit. The unending search for surplus-value, for profit, is the motive force of capitalist production. 

Capitalism can produce only for profit. It is forced constantly to seek new ways to achieve the maximum profit. Competition between rival capitals (which still persists in modified form in the monopoly stage of capitalism) ensures the destruction of all capitals which do not conform to the blind laws of capitalist production. The  capitalists must continually try to raise their rate of profit by cutting the labour costs of production. The capitalists cut their costs of production mainly by stepping up their already vicious exploitation of the working class. They cut their wage bills by reducing wages and sacking workers. They also make the remaining workers work longer hours and they increase the intensity of labour. Capitalists also reduce their wage bill by buying more advanced machinery in order to produce the same goods with less labour.

Working people are highly socialised. Working alongside one another in their work-places, making the products the capitalists sell for profit, workers learn through their own experience the need for organisation and cooperation. Clearly, the products could never be made if the workers themselves were disorganised and did not cooperate with one another. Similarly, workers gain through their own work experience an understanding of the need for a sensible approach to solving problems. Clearly, the products could never be made if clear-headedness on the workers’ part didn’t exist. Of course, in a capitalist society such as our own, these qualities of organisation and cooperation are used to benefit not the workers, but the capitalists. The capitalists use these qualities of the workers to make huge profits and, in the process, keep workers in a state of near or actual poverty. These qualities, however, are very important for a revolution and building a socialist society after the capitalist society is destroyed. Moreover, since the workers are the ones who are directly exploited by the capitalists, they have the most potential for seeing most thoroughly the absolute unjustness and insanity of the capitalist system. Thus the working class also has the most potential for seeing the need to overthrow capitalism and to replace it with a new system – socialism – that will benefit not a handful of capitalists, but the workers and the masses of the people. Also, in building the mass movement of all sections of the people to overthrow the capitalist system, the workers have the greatest power to cripple the capitalists. If the workers don’t work, the capitalists don’t profit. Finally, as the only thoroughly productive class in society, as the only class which produces and distributes the things necessary for life, the working class is the only class which literally holds in its hands not only the ability to destroy the old, rotting capitalist society but the ability to build the new, healthy socialist society. 

The working class, the sleeping giant, is already beginning to stir, and when it fully awakens, when it recognises the great power it has in its hands, the whole world will shake. It is only a matter of time.

FREEDOM TO ALL HUMANITY

 

The Socialist Party aim is the complete emancipation of labour from the yoke of capital. This emancipation can be achieved by the transfer to social ownership of all the means and objects of production, a transfer which will entail:

a) the abolition of the present commodity production (i.e., the purchase and sale of products on the market) and

b) its replacement by a new system of social production according to a previously drawn-up plan with a view to satisfying the requirements both of society as a whole and of each one of its members within the limits permitted by the condition of the productive forces at the given time.

This socialist revolution will give rise to the most radical changes in the whole constitution of social and international relationships.

Replacing the present mastery of the product over the producer with that of the producer over the product will introduce consciousness where there now reigns blind economic necessity; by simplifying and giving purpose to all social relationships it will at the same time provide each citizen with the real economic possibility of participating directly in the discussion and decision of all social matters.

This direct participation of citizens in the management of social affairs presupposes the abolition of the present system of political representation and its replacement by direct popular legislation.

Given the present development of international exchange, it is possible to consolidate this revolution only by all or at least several of the civilised societies taking part in it. Hence follows the solidarity of interests between producers of all countries. But as the emancipation of the workers must be the matter of the workers themselves, as the interests of labour, in general, are diametrically opposed to the interests of the exploiters, and, therefore, the upper class will always hinder the above-described reorganisation of the social relationships, the necessary preliminary condition for this reorganisation is the seizure of political power by the working class in each of the countries concerned. Only this temporary domination of the working class can paralyse the efforts of counter-revolution and put an end to the existence of classes and their struggle. We shall concentrate all the efforts of the ranks on the class war, and shall aim at:

1. The capturing of political power.

2. The expropriation of capitalist property to restore it to social control and common ownership. All that under one pretext or another tends to turn away the proletariat from that supreme end, or to weaken its action, will be assailed by us because it tends to prolong, consciously or unconsciously, the present social order or disorder – the parent of all slavery and all misery.

There is no room in this direct attack on the State and on capital – or more precisely on capital by the State – there is no room for any collaboration or co-operation of any kind with the class which holds both, and of which they must be dispossessed, both politically and economically. There can be no bond of union between the exploiting class who hold the Government, and we, who wish to overthrow them, there can be nothing in common but the battlefield and the struggle, no alliance, between the two armies who are going to fight, any agreement must be the result of treachery. This war successfully carried out can alone bring about a victory, and an end of the class system enables us to attain true social peace, the great and final human peace.

There is no room either for the anarchistic illusion or policy, which disarms the working class and divides it by counselling an abstention from political action, as this only helps the holders of capital, whose privileges will remain intact until political power has been taken from them.

The Socialist Party - Anti-Nationalist

 

Nicola Sturgeon "must fire the starting gun" in a bid to secure another independence referendum, former first minister who now leads the Alba party, Alex Salmond has said. Salmond told BBC Scotland that if Sturgeon and the Scottish government were serious about winning a referendum next year, they must start campaigning for it now. The Socialist Party has never ceased its campaigning against any form of nationalism.

 

In order to change the future, remember the past. In the struggle to win the minds of the working class the Socialist Party has to contend not, on the whole, with rational critiques of our socialist position but with deeply held and unquestioned values. A few of these, for example, might be religion, "human nature", "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work" or the association of socialism with the former Soviet Union. One of the strongest of these sacred beliefs, and one of the biggest obstacles to the establishment of socialism, is nationalism ― the loyalty felt by many members of the working class to "their country", the political unit in which they happen to reside.

The Socialist Party holds that the only real divisions which exist in the world are horizontal ones, between different social and economic groups. In advanced capitalist countries this consists in a division between the capitalist class, which owns and controls the means of production, and the working class, which owns none of them and which has to sell its mental and physical labour-power to the capitalist class in order to live. Feelings of loyalty to a nation-State are purely subjective, having no basis in reality; the working class in Scotland has more in common with the workers in other countries than it has with the Scottish capitalist class.

There, is however, an alternative view of the world. This is the belief that the important divisions are not horizontal, between different classes, but vertical, between various nations. A "nation" consists, according to this view, of a hierarchy of men and women who, although having differing incomes, social status and power, all have a common interest in working in harmony for the benefit of the whole unit and, if necessary, in fighting against other nations to defend this interest. This completely mistaken outlook is the one held by most members of the working class and nearly all political parties. Most historians reject Marx's declaration that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle", preferring instead to see history as a succession of struggles of nations against foreign domination, of subjects against tyrannical kings and of nations and races against each other.

Broadly speaking, nationalist ideologies and movements represent the interests of the capitalist class. Nationalism as such did not exist in pre-capitalist society and its growth and development represents the parallel development of the capitalist class. Nationalism as we know it today first made its appearance during the French Revolution. In the early stages of the revolution cosmopolitan ideas were prevalent ― it was believed that the rest of Europe would be inspired by France's example and would likewise overthrow the old order. When this failed to happen strong feelings of nationalism developed; France was seen as a chosen nation, picked out to be the standard-bearer of revolution throughout Europe.

Politically, nationalism is ambiguous, in that it can take on a "right-wing" or a "left-wing" form. This depends upon the position of the capitalist class in the particular time and place. If political power is held by the aristocracy or nobility, and the middle-class is struggling to assert itself, then nationalism will have "left-wing" connotations. This was the case in Europe until 1848, when nationalism was a romantic, revolutionary force against the traditional ruling class. However, once the bourgeoisie has captured and consolidated its power, then nationalism becomes a conservative and right-wing force.

Although every nationalist movement believes it is unique, there exist basically these two forms of nationalism side by side. In the advanced parts of the world ― the United States, Britain, Western Europe ― nationalism is conservative, whilst in pre-industrial countries engaged in struggles against a foreign ruling class, nationalism is a "left-wing" force.

The World Socialist Movement opposes all nationalist movements recognising that the working class has no country. There are certain other groups the so-called Left ― which, though claiming to have a class outlook, have a wholly opportunist and ambiguous attitude to nationalism, which reflects not so much the interest of the working class as it does Russian or Chinese foreign policy. These groups fully accept the mythology of the existence of "the nation".

 

 

This attitude is a complete denial of Marxism; it is almost incomprehensible that people who describe themselves as socialists should write of the right to re-establish the Scottish nation. The Scottish independence movement is in essence no different from any other nationalist movement. Socialists give the Left nationalists or the SNP  no support whatsoever.

It will be argued that Marx and Engels supported nationalist movements and that therefore the Socialist Party should do so today. Such an assertion is based on a faulty understanding of the Materialist Conception of History. Marx and Engels were living in an era when the bourgeoisie was engaged in a struggle to assert itself against the old feudal regimes. The victory of this class was a historically progressive step at that time in that it brought about the re-organisation of society on a capitalist basis, the essential pre-condition for the establishment of socialism; and it created an urban proletariat, the only class which can bring about socialism. This was why Marx supported the rising capitalist class in their bid to capture political power. However, once capitalism reaches the point where socialism is a practical proposition, there is no need for socialists to advocate the capitalist industrialization of every corner of the globe; they can concentrate fully on the task of establishing socialism. Hence we give no support to any nationalist group, and in place of the opportunism and hypocrisy of the myriad left-wing groups in advocating "national self-determination", socialists echo the rallying cry of Marx and Engels, "Workers of All Countries, Unite!"

What Do You Want Out Of Life?

 The Socialist Party is the political expression of the interests of the workers in this country and is part of the International 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 in the political field. 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 aim of the Socialist Party is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution, and the consequent economic equality of every human being on earth. The Socialist Party, as a party, is simply preparing the way for the peaceful and orderly reception of the socialist commonwealth, and if the transition from capitalism to socialism is in any degree violent, it will be in spite of the efforts and desires of the Socialist Party because, unlike them, others were blind to the trend of economic evolution. Wealth creation and health creation will go hand in hand. Then there will be ample leisure for every human being and in such an invigorating mental and moral atmosphere, the human race will unfold and expand in heart and brain and soul. The cooperation of all for the good of all will inspire the love of all, and for the first time since the planet rolled into space, the human race will be truly civilised.

The Socialist Party sets itself the aim of spreading socialist ideas.

The essence of its outlook can be expressed in the following few propositions: 

I. The economic emancipation of the working class will be achieved only by the transfer to common ownership by the working people of all means and products of production and the organisation of all the functions of social and economic life in accordance with the requirements of society.

II. The modern development of technology in civilised societies not only provides the material possibility for such an organisation but makes it necessary for solving the contradictions which hinder the quiet and all-round development of those societies.

III. This radical economic revolution will entail the most fundamental changes in the entire constitution of social and international relationships.

Eliminating the class struggle by destroying the classes themselves; making the economic struggle of individuals impossible and unnecessary by abolishing commodity production and the competition connected with it; briefly, putting an end to the struggle for existence between individuals, classes and whole societies, it renders redundant all those social organs which have developed as the weapons of that struggle during the many centuries it has been proceeding.

Without falling into utopian fantasies about the social and international organisation of the future, we can already now foretell the abolition of the most important of the organs of chronic struggle inside society, namely, the state, as a political organisation opposed to society and safeguarding mainly the interests of its ruling section. In exactly the same way we can already now foresee the international character of the impending economic revolution. The contemporary development of the international exchange of products necessitates the participation of all civilised societies in this revolution.

That is why the socialist parties in all countries acknowledge the international character of the present-day working-class movement and proclaim the principle of international solidarity of producers.