The nationalist smokescreen

To advance toward socialism, the working class must develop its consciousness of being a class with common interests radically opposed to those of the capitalist class. It must also understand that nationalism serve the interests of the capitalists, not the interests of the workers. To hang on to the shirt-tails of nationalists and drag workers along behind the Left Nationalist have once again come up with classic reformist ideas that oppose real political education, education and the propagation of socialist ideas. It is a strategy that capitulates totally before the task of education is carried out. A newly empowered Scottish capitalist class would certainly have no interest in raising workers’ wages, nor improving working conditions. On the contrary, they would call on their workers to tighten their belts even more in the name of the new nation. The Scottish workers would have, for all intents and purposes, won the right to self-determination but at the cost of strengthening the Scottish employers and putting off the socialist revolution far into the future. Our enemy is the same as that of the British working class as a whole: the capitalists. Independence, instead of uniting the working class against the bosses, divides them from the rest of the working class. It delays the socialist revolution by advocating unity with the Scottish employing class.


Scottish independence pushed by the Left is shown up for what it really is, a mirage and an illusion intended to attract Scottish workers to tie them to the interests of the native ruling class. Looked at concretely, one by one, the so-called advantages that workers would gain from separation go up in smoke. And the disadvantages are great: holding back the achievement of the working class’s basic aim, the capture of political power from the current ruling class. The working class would be sacrificing its struggle for socialism, which is the only way to do away with exploitation, in return for a few crumbs obtained by a change of constitution. The present debate over the constitutional status will result in no substantial solutions to the pressing problems of the daily life of the working people. The chief promoters of nationalism have no intention of changing the relationship of class forces. They will act to protect the interests of Big Business on which they ultimately rest, and they must move against the struggles of the exploited class. Separatists will not offer a challenge to the power of the corporations. A sovereign Scottish government will be unable to develop policies genuinely independent of the capitalist class. The working class are fated to be shoved aside. There are no grounds to believe that the working class, by adopting independence, would advance its interests in any way, in terms either of its class consciousness or of its ultimate objective of building socialism. The Left Nationalists are totally incapable and unwilling to provide such a revolutionary socialist alternative, for pursuing its policy of peaceful collaboration with the SNP, it has in fact given up the perspective of struggle for the socialist transformation. Their tactics are foredoomed to failure.


What progressive ends would be achieved by the secession of the Scots from the Union? The answer is obviously none. The Scottish people have everything to gain and nothing to lose by rejecting the line of nationalism. We must refuse to become the cannon fodder for nationalists. The ravings of the Left Nationalists contribute little but division and confusion among workers. They ally with the bosses yet don the garb of socialism in order to appear radical. For sure, many Scots are fed up with present-day conditions. But a good portion, though, are geared towards the forward march of labour. They see there is no other choice, that the best possible future for them is to ally themselves with other members of the working class in order to carry on a common struggle with them. Only the working class is capable of overthrowing the capitalist system and only a solid working-class base can accomplish the social revolution.


Whatever twists and turns lie down the road in the fight for socialism, one thing is certain: the success of that struggle depends on achieving the greatest possible unity of the working class, it is utterly ridiculous to argue that the working class ought to divide itself into two different countries in order to accomplish this unity. It is completely absurd to justify this with the false argument, disproven many times, that the battle for socialism would be easier if it were led by a more nationally “pure” and homogeneous working class. Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the crisis measures imposed by the capitalists. Unity is necessary to stand up against all the attacks on our democratic rights. Unity is the key in putting an end to the discrimination suffered by the oppressed nations. The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite the real contradictions within its ranks. The people’s forces are not going to win by dividing themselves. Those gentlemen who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalist class. The left nationalists find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class.


Workers in Scotland have a difficult task ahead of them. It is to unite to resist the attacks of the employers with greater and greater strength and eventually to oust them from political power. The problems of workers will not be solved in the framework of any form of the nation-state. The fate of Scottish workers is irrevocably bound up with the fate of the rest of the British, European and World workers. Socialism is the order of the day. Workers all across the world can be united against their common enemy, against the bosses’ class and their state We can end their rotten system and build a new system for workers – socialism. A divided international working class, split and shackled by nationalism can never build its strength to challenge the ruling class world-wide, and crush the entire capitalist system of exploitation, racism and war, once and for all. Independence, for Scottish workers simply spells increased exploitation. Separation will weaken the struggle of the entire British working class for socialism by dividing its ranks. Supporting Scottish independence in the name of socialism is a monumental hoax. It flows from the same kind of logic that leads others to preach nationalisation as the cure for all our ills.

Capitalism or Common-Sense Common Ownership

ABOLISH WAGE SLAVERY

 “If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning.” Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett

There has been much talk about class warfare, mostly from right-wingers accusing socialists of fomenting unfair and divisive hate against the wealthy. Class war must exist so long as society is divided into classes with opposing interests. Capitalism, by its very nature, creates that division. Class war must end as soon as society is no longer divided into hostile classes. Socialism, by its very nature, creates a classless society. Socialists don’t "preach" class war—they describe the class war that already exists. Class struggle is both the reality of everyday life under capitalism and the way forward to a society based on human needs and not profit. They call upon the working class to help bring about the change from a society which must be divided into classes to a society where no such division is possible. They urge that universal brotherhood, which can be only a dream under capitalism, be transformed into a reality under socialism.

Jack London in his novel ‘The Iron Heel’ explains it:

"And, believe me, we foment no hatred. We say that the class struggle is a law of social development. We are not responsible for it. We do not make the class struggle. We merely explain it, as Newton explained gravitation. We explain the nature of the conflict of interest that produces the class struggle." 

London wishes to present a vision beyond class conflict;

“Let us not destroy those wonderful machines that produce efficiently and cheaply. Let us control them. Let us profit by their efficiency and cheapness. Let us run them for ourselves. That, gentlemen, is socialism...”

Class, class struggle and class war are terms usually deliberately avoided in the media. There is a good reason for this: The ruling elite don’t want working people to see the massive division in wealth between the 1% and the rest of us. They especially don’t want us drawing the political conclusion that working people, the poor and young people have common interests that are opposed to those of the richest 1%. There is a class war going on and being waged against those that have nothing in comparison to those that have everything the best homes, food, medication, education and the material wealth at the expense of the majority, and further more they intend to hold on to it, and we the majority will pay a very high price unless we fight back, we must organise we must come together like never before. We live in a class society. We can't wish that away or pretend like small children that if we can't see it that it can't affect us. Class politics remains the key to uniting the overwhelming majority of the world's people in the fight for a new and classless society.

Today’s robber barons know that the media matters and have effectively bought-off the popular opinion makers. Stylishly groomed corporate executives and financiers, who are morally no better than sneak thieves, have become celebrities. They are flattered on reality TV shows, unquestioningly praised on business programmes and voyeuristically acclaimed in the celebrity columns. The media knows better than bite the hand that feeds it. But most people can recognise class struggle for, on the one side, there are the ceaseless reports of high-levels of unemployment  and mounting unpaid bills and, on the other, in a skyrocketing stock market with sky-high bonuses paid to financial wheeler-dealers. Capital is confident that it appears to have won the class war while many socialists have lost confidence in their utopian hopes. People have lost their belief that change is possible. We need to rebuild belief in the possibility of a better world. Today, when capitalism, the free market, and private enterprise are being hailed as triumphant in the world, it is a good time to rekindle the idea of socialism.

There are two classes in capitalist society— property-owners and propertyless workers. The capitalists, own the banks, the factories, and the corporations and their profits derive from work that is done by workers. Workers, on the other hand, can only survive by selling their ability to work to the owners. The owners of capital have a single goal: increasing profit. Since profits are based on the value that workers add in production above and beyond the cost of production, including wages, owners try to keep the cost of labour as low as possible. Workers, on the other hand, need to earn enough for food, clothing, shelter, education and other necessities. Workers’ and owners’ interests are diametrically opposed. This is the basis for class struggle. A form of class struggle is strikes and other labour struggles. In those fights, workers join together based on common interests as workers to win back some of the surplus value they have produced. But class struggle is constant, even in periods of relative labour “peace.” Even when workers are not struggling to increase their share of the wealth they produce, the owners are trying to increase their share by raising productivity or cutting benefits. Workers seek safety on the job and better rewards for their work; owners seek the maximum amount of cost-cutting and expropriation without completely breaking the mental and physical wellness of workers. Awareness of class interests and looking for ways to advance these interests in the class struggle is called class consciousness. For the working class, class consciousness means understanding the need for unity and solidarity of the whole class against the tiny class of employers.

Socialism means production for need, whereas capitalism is production for profit. Capitalism increases productivity, but this just means more exploitation for higher profit. Socialism is self-management of the workplace and society. People’s conscious direction of their own lives, which the free market only pretends to offer. A revolution means an awakening of the people, rising to their feet from their knees so that they can become true human beings. They will feel that the world truly belongs to them. Under capitalism people are not free at all as they compete with each other in an animal struggle for existence. It is an inhuman and immoral. Socialism is based on respect and solidarity. The division of society into order-givers and order-takers must be ended. Socialism must start as it means to carry on: means and ends are interrelated. We can’t use authoritarian methods to create a society without bosses. Politics is too important to be left to politicians. We cannot wait for saviours to come and liberate us. The faith in the vanguard party must be abandoned.

Class inequality increases over time because employers pay workers less than the value of what they produce. However, this exploitative relationship is hidden by the lies that a) employers create jobs and b) workers are lucky to have them. In fact, labour creates all wealth, and capitalists are lucky that workers keep producing it for them. Lies are used to divide workers. Only employers benefit when workers are divided. The purpose of pitting workers against one another is to prevent unity. "Foolish and vain is the working man who makes the colour of his skin the stepping stone to his imaginary superiority," Eugene Debs decried. We must remember what it takes to win – fighting as a class. Class struggle is built into the fabric of all societies that have classes. Our challenge is to rebuild a movement that can end the class-division of society and all the oppressions that go with it. The employing class are organised and fighting their own offensive against the working class, as they always have been. Itʼs time to organise ourselves.

Struggle to survive

Marx observed in 1865 that wage levels can only be "settled by the continuous struggle between capital and labour, the capitalist constantly tending to reduce wages to their physical minimum, and to extend the working day to its physical maximum, while the working man constantly presses in the opposite direction."

Hal Draper later remarked, "To engage in class struggle it is not necessary to 'believe in' the class struggle any more than it is necessary to believe in Newton to fall from an airplane. There is no evidence that workers like to struggle any more than anyone else; the evidence is that capitalism compels and accustoms them to do so."

Unlike peasants in a capitalist society the proletariat as the most exploited class divorced from the means of production and therefore condemned to live by selling the only commodity they are left with, their bare hands, or their labour power to the owners of capital. Therefore they are the most revolutionary class. They are located in the most progressive sectors of the economy i.e. large-scale machine production in urban areas and working together in large bodies under one roof. For that reason,  they are the most organised, the most disciplined and therefore the most revolutionary class in capitalist society. And as Karl Marx observed, having lost their property to the capitalists they have nothing to lose in the struggle but their chains. They see for themselves that they toil and live in deplorable conditions and yet they are the creators of the country's wealth which accumulate in the hands of a few rich people.  More than any other class, they are interested in the abolition of private property and exploitation of one person by another and the eventual collective ownership and management of the economy by workers' councils or soviets. This makes them the most revolutionary class once their class consciousness is awakened. Their class interests are irreconcilable with those of capitalism.

In a society of class antagonism, there are basically two socially opposing types of people - the capitalist exploiter and the exploited working-person. This polarisation is sharper in advanced capitalist economies where the bourgeoisie regards the working class as an object for the extraction of surplus value - the source of their profits. The workers are reduced to cogs in the machinery of capitalist production and denied all rights. However, it is important to note that in a capitalist society the workers have actually accomplished a great deal. Due primarily to their efforts, massive productive forces have been built up, which make it possible to create unprecedented  material and spiritual wealth for the benefit of all. The first condition, especially in advanced capitalist countries,  for building a society of equals in which the workers themselves become the aim and purpose of production have already been created.

Unions are important because of the centrality of the working class to the larger struggle for socialism. Karl Marx was the first socialist among his contemporaries to recognise this important role of the working-class and therefore trade unions, as the only leading force in the struggle for a socialist revolution. Utopian socialists before Marx had dismissed unions as irrelevant and some of them even opposed strike action. Marx understood the absolute importance at all times of organising this class to unite as a class against their capitalist enemy.

The trade unions are workers' front line of defense against their employers under capitalism. But as vehicles for struggle, they are also crucial to the future self-emancipation of the working class. But there is also a contradiction: unions both negotiate the terms of exploitation of workers under capitalism and also provide the vehicle for struggle that can prepare the working class for revolution. Capitalism forces workers into competition with each other-native vs. foreign born, skilled vs. unskilled, and so on-exploiting every opportunity to keep workers divided. Organising into unions, which presents the opportunity for collective struggle against the employers, thereby reduces competition between workers. Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, "This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier."

In the the US, the number of strikes fell to their lowest point on record in 2009 and to the second lowest in 2010. These figures demonstrate the extent to which labour leaders have been unwilling to use labour's most effective weapon, the strike. Decades of concessionary bargaining-at first, claimed to be a temporary phenomenon-have made wage and benefit cuts routine aspects of union negotiations, thereby enabling the deterioration of working-class living standards. Conservative trade-union leaders are de facto agents of the employing class trying to hide behind the mask of trade-union neutrality in order to divert the workers from the path of class war onto a path of collaboration with the capitalist. Economics and politics are inseparably linked. In practice, trade union neutrality amounts to supporting the bosses.

History has shown that the rate of union membership corresponds to the rise and decline in the level of class struggle. If the current balance of class forces can only be reversed through a revival of class struggle, then the key challenge facing union activists is how to transform their unions into fighting organisations. For Marxists, this necessarily entails, step by step, strengthening the fighting capacity of workers in general, and union workers in particular.

The working class must now conquer capitalism. And history has bestowed the role of conquering capitalist society squarely on the shoulders of the working class - they are the undisputed 'grave-diggers' of capitalism. It is therefore totally inconceivable that this class can be denied the right to intervene in politics to liberate themselves and society at large. Every social and political movement tending in that direction should be aided by the trade unions. Unions must be champions of the entire class and should not form themselves into corporate bodies only of their members, shutting out non members. It is their duty to help organise those who cannot organise themselves easily and protect the interests of the worst paid trades like agricultural workers. Experience  bears testimony to the fact that trade union involvement in broader struggles has a salutary or beneficial effect on the working class than being stuck in the narrow and parochial rut. The trade union movement must fight to bring the marginalised into the mainstream, and the weakest into more advantageous positions in society. By their action they must demonstrate that they are not using their organised strength only to guard their interests, but for all the downtrodden.

Today working class consciousness has to develop to a point where they are in the process of becoming "a class for-itself" i.e. a class consciousness working class which enables them to see their real class enemy as capitalism.
Adapted from here and here 

The Future Belongs to Us

The State, for us socialists, is not any social organisation whatsoever. As soon as there are in a society a possessing class and a dispossessed class, there exists in that society a constant source of conflict which the social organisation would not long resist, if there was not a power charged with maintaining, to use the phrase, the “established order,” charged, in other words, with the protection of the economic situation of the possessing party, and therefore with the duty of ensuring the submission of the dispossessed party. Now, from its very birth, this has been the role of the State. With the division of society into classes, the State has evolved with the development of that division. As soon as it is understood that the State is not an independent organism. In short, one can abolish the State only after having suppressed classes. Statism tends to turn everything over to the State which is a body apart from individuals and above them.

Capitalism, by its method of production, has brought isolated workers together and constituted them as a class in society. Capitalism has made the workers a class in themselves. That is, the workers are a distinct class in society, whether they recognise this fact or not. Historical development calls upon this class to reorganise society completely and establish socialism. To do this, the workers must become a class for themselves. They must acquire a clear understanding of their real position under capitalism, of the nature of capitalist society as a whole, and of their mission in history. They must act consciously for their class interests. They must become conscious of the fact that these class interests lead to a socialist society. When this takes place, the workers are a class for themselves, a class with socialist consciousness. Our fellow-workers require an understanding of capitalist society, their position in it, and the need to replace this society with socialism? 

To help imbue the workers with this class consciousness, or socialist consciousness that is the function of the Socialist Party. It is composed of those workers who already understand the nature of capitalism and the historical task of the working class. Their aim is to develop the same understanding among all the workers, so that they no longer fight blindly, or with only one eye open but with a clear and scientific knowledge of what their class enemy is, of what the working class itself really is and of what it can and must do in society. They and their party therefore have no interests separate from the interests of the working class as a whole. It defends working class interests from every capitalist attack. It supports every working class fight. It makes clear to the workers the full meaning of their fight. It shows how even the local struggles, against one capitalist, are really class struggles against capitalism; how the local struggles must be extended and expanded if the workers are to win a victory. It points out the political meaning of the economic struggle. It shows how the workers must organise as a class to take political power, and use it to inaugurate socialism. It combats the open and the insidious ideas of capitalism so that the working class as a whole may be better equipped to fight its enemy. It aims to improve the position of the working class, to strengthen it, to clarify it and supply it with the most effective weapons in the struggle, in order that it may most speedily and successfully win the final battle for socialism. A socialist party is needed to win the working class to the principles of socialism and the struggle against capitalist exploitations and oppression. Socialism will never come by itself. It must be fought for. Without an organised, conscious, active revolutionary socialist party, the triumph of socialism is impossible. The Socialist Party represents a long and rich tradition. It is proud of the fact that its principles  are founded on the teachings of great thinkers of the international working class, such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Our analysis of capitalist society has never been successfully refuted. Our principles set forth for the working class to achieve socialism have passed the most critical tests a hundred times over. The Socialist Party was formed as an independent organisation in 1904. But its roots reach much further back.

The Socialist Party champions the idea of revolution. Does that means violence, bloodshed, killing, destruction? Will this this revolution, be accomplished by violence? What is a social revolution? It is the replacement of one ruling class by another. History is filled with such revolutions and in almost every case they made possible the progress of society. The socialist revolution is simply the overthrow of capitalist despotism and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. Members of the Socialist Party are not bloodthirsty maniacs. A socialist would indeed be a lunatic to want bloodshed and destruction when the aim is an orderly society.

Once we achieve socialism, instead of government there will then be simply an administration. Free men and women, the producers will decide in common everything concerning production, and instead of being the puppets of economic forces beyond their control. Capitalism created the conditions and forces for the socialist movement: the necessary technical basis, science and the working class itself. That is its major contribution to social progress. It also provokes the working class into action and is the involuntary promoter of the class struggle. Workers draw strength from the indispensable part they play as the principal force of production, the creators of all wealth and profit. Labour asserts itself as the only creative force in society that carries the future along with it as it rises. Socialism cannot “grow into” capitalism through the co-operation of classes. Socialism must overthrow capitalism. Instead of being softened, class antagonisms and the class struggle must be emphasised. Instead of compromise with capitalism, relentless attack upon the whole capitalist regime. Some today have forgotten this lesson; others have still to learn it.

To the workers belongs the future.

The Socialist Party is organised to assist the working-class movement by a dissemination of its literature, to educate into a knowledge of socialist principles.  It affirms its belief that political and social freedom are not two separate and unrelated ideas, but are two sides of the one great principle, each being incomplete without the other. The Socialist Party is organised because we are face to face with conditions that require united action of our class at the ballot box.

Today’s society rests on ownership of the land and the machinery of production. The owners of most of the land and the tools of production constitute what is the capitalist class. Ownership divides society into two distinct classes. One is the class of employers, and the other is the class of wage-workers (the working class). The working class, by their labour, produce the wealth that sustains society, they lack economic and industrial security, suffer from over-work, enforced unemployment, and their attendant miseries, all of which are due to the present capitalist form of society. The capitalist class, through the ownership of most of the land and the tools of production — which are necessary for the production of food, clothing, shelter and fuel — hold the working class in complete economic and industrial subjection, and thus live on the labour of the working class. Workers, who do all the useful work of society, in order to secure food, clothing, shelter and fuel, must sell their labour-power to the employers who  are the exploiters and live on the wealth produced by the working class.

The interest of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interest of the capitalists. The capitalist class — owning as they do, most of the land and the tools of production — employ the workers, buy their labour-power, and return to them in the form of wages, only part of the wealth they have produced. The rest of the wealth produced by the worker the employers keep; it constitutes their profit — i.e., rent, interest, and dividends. Thus the working class produce their own wages as well as the profits of the capitalists. In other words, the working class work a part only of each day to produce their wages, and the rest of the day to produce surplus (profits) for the owning capitalist class. The interest of the employing class is to get all the surplus (profits) possible out of the work of the working class. The interest of employees is to get the full product of their labour. Hence there is a struggle between these two classes. This struggle is called the “class struggle.” It is a struggle between the owning class — which must continue to exploit the workers in order to live — and the non-owning working Class, who, in order to live must work for the owners of the land and the tools of production.

The ruling class control the State and govern the working class not for the well-being of the workers but for the well-being and profit of the capitalists. It is only by using their political power that the capitalists make their exploitation of the working class legal and the oppression of their system constitutional. And it is only by using their political power that the working class can make their own exploitation illegal and their own oppression unconstitutional. It is only by the use of their political power that the workers can abolish capitalist rule and privilege, and establish a social system based on the common ownership of all the land and the tools of production, to be the share of all. In a socialist society, the only people who live on the work of others, and who have the right to be dependent upon their fellows, are small children, people who are too old to support themselves, the sick and disabled. To win economic freedom the non-owning working class must force this struggle into the political field and use their political power (the ballot) to abolish capitalist class ownership, and thus revolutionise in the interests of themselves the entire structure of society.

To the workers belongs the future. We ask fellow workers to organise with to end the domination of private ownership — with its poverty-breeding system of unplanned production — and substitute in its place the Socialist Co-operative Commonwealth in which every person shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilisation.

Understanding Capitalism

Today the whole world is in the grip of capitalism. Millions of workers are unemployed and reduced to near subsistence standards of living. It is an astonishing that in a world where science and technology have developed to an advanced stage there could be plenty for all, there is a growing poverty and hunger. Not only are untold millions unnecessarily materially deprived but the human species has even developed an antagonistic relationship towards its environment by poisoning the atmosphere, polluting the oceans and ravaging the land so that now nature has turned against us. At the root of all these problems is the exploitation of some people by other people - the capitalist class exploiting the working class. All of the deprivation and conflict are brought about by a society divided into oppressors and oppressed. No lasting solution to any of these problems will be found while capitalism is allowed to survive in the world. For the working class the only way forward is to struggle to bring about a class revolution and begin the struggle to eventually build a socialist society where exploitative class divisions and all the evils that go with them are abolished. Either we achieve a socialist transformation of society or our civilization will eventually be destroyed. There is nothing inevitable about the further advancement of the humanity. The only real, lasting way forward is socialism but whether or not this road is taken is a matter of decision for people themselves to make. In the world today only the working class has sufficient objective interest in the overthrow of capitalism and the strength to carry out this revolutionary task if it chooses to do so. The working class has it within its power to overthrow capitalist society and in so doing to pave the way for the liberation of the whole of humankind. The Socialist Party is dedicated to the cause of socialist revolution in Britain as part of the world-wide struggle against capitalism. We do everything within our power to stimulate the working class to overthrow its capitalist masters. If we do not move forward then we will move backwards. The choice before us is “Socialism or Barbarism”.

The future of the working class in Britain is unavoidably bound up with the development of the world as a whole. Only if we conduct our struggle against capitalism on the basis of being just one contingent of the international working class will we achieve ultimate victory. The capitalist classes of the different countries are in rivalry with each other in their struggles to dominate the world. The very character of capitalism drives the capitalists to continually search abroad for new sources of cheap raw materials, cheap labour and new markets and this eventual gives rise to wars.  

The working class has no interest in making peace with its own rulers so as to weather the storm of any economic depression. On the contrary we have every interest in stepping up and intensifying the class war to overthrow this oppressive and exploitative capitalist system. Taking the road of tightening our belts to help our masters through the recessions of this rotten system simply perpetuates a class-divided and oppressive society.

Central to the capitalist economic system is the exploitation of workers by capitalists, the chief means of production – raw materials, machinery, buildings, transport, etc. are owned and controlled by a small minority of capitalists. This determines that the great mass of people, the working class, have no choice except to work for capitalist employers so as to earn a money wage to buy the goods and services, the commodities, necessary for them to survive. On the face of things this relationship between capitalist and worker seems to be a fair and equal one: the worker agrees to do so many hours work for the capitalist and in return the capitalist agrees to pay a certain amount of money in wages. In reality this relationship is an unequal and exploitative one because the wages paid to the worker are less than the value of what he or she produces. The difference between the value of what workers produce and what they receive in wages constitutes the profits of the capitalist employer. Massive exploitation of the working class is an integral part of the capitalist economic system and will persist for as long as does capitalism.

Not only do capitalist exploit workers but the system operates in such a way that capitalists constantly have to try to exploit workers even more. Different capitalists producing the same kind of commodity are competing with one another in the market to sell their products. Failure to sell the commodities produced by his firm means bankruptcy and ruin for a capitalist and the main way of ensuring steady sales is to offer given commodities on the market at a price below that charged by other capitalists. If a capitalist is to reduce his prices without reducing his profits then one way is to increase the hours of work of his employees without paying them any more wages. Sometimes employers get away with this move (for example, in the car industry paid, time for tea breaks and cleaning up have been abolished), but in many countries where many workers are organised in trade unions, it is not easy for capitalists to force workers to accept such an increase in the degree to which they are exploited. Another ploy is to speed up the rate of work, increase its intensity, and thus reduce the cost per item by forcing the workforce to produce more commodities in the same time as before. In the car industry this generally takes the form of speeding up the rate at which the production assembly line moves. Again, this does happen but in a given type of production there is usually a very definite limit to which the pace of work can be increased and anyway workers are likely to resist such a move.

Another way, in fact the most important way in which capitalists try to gain an advantage over each other is by introducing new and more efficient means of production, technological innovation. The capitalist employer in a given field of production may be able to reduce his costs of production by introducing new production processes which enable output per worker to rise and thus cost per unit to fall. This allows the employer to sell his commodities at a price lower than that of his competitors while at the same time increasing his rate of profit on the capital he has invested. This advantage does not last long because the other employers will also quickly adopt the new production processes so as to be able to compete and stay in business. As the new production processes become introduced throughout an industry the proportion of total capital which is spent on raw materials, machinery, etc. rises while the proportion spent on employing labour power, on paying wages, falls. The consequence of this change is that since capitalists can only extract surplus value from those workers they employ directly and the number of these is falling, their rate of return on their capital falls as well. Paradoxically the greater efficiency in production brought about by developments in technology means a falling rate of profit for capitalists and redundancy for workers. Such is the inbuilt unavoidable absurdity of the capitalist system of production: its enormous productive power brings it grinding to a halt. The only way in which the working class can permanently rid itself of these cycles of boom and slump is to get rid of capitalism and replace it with socialism. The only way out of economic depression for the capitalist class is to do whatever is necessary to restore the profitability of capital. One way or another, this means intensifying the exploitation of the working class.

It is important to realise that capitalists are not always looking for ways to increase the degree of exploitation of workers because they, the capitalists, are inherently greedy but that they do this because of the way in which the capitalist economy operates leaves them with no choice if they are to stay in business. Similarly, if workers are not to be worked to death and totally impoverished then they have no choice except to take a common stand together against capitalist employers so as to resist employers’ attempts to exploit them even more. This is done by forming trade unions to defend wage levels and working conditions. In Britain a greater proportion of workers are in trade unions than in any of the other advanced capitalist countries. Even so it is obvious, especially with the onset of an economic depression, that trade unions only have a very limited capacity to defend the living standards and working conditions of the working class. While trade unions are a necessary means of defence of the working class against the capitalist class it is also the case that they pose no fundamental challenge to the whole capitalist system. Trade unions do not challenge the right of capitalists to exploit workers but only the degree to which this takes place. Even the most militant trade union struggles, involving workplace occupations and clashes with the police, pose no fundamental challenge to the dominant position of the capitalist class. If the working class does not rise above the level of recognising the necessity to organise industrially, of a trade union consciousness, then it will be doomed to an eternity of struggle with the capitalist class.

The whole of capitalist society is organised around the capitalist economy. The modern family is structured to produce and discipline the workforce, labour power. The state passes laws and maintains the police and armed forces So as to keep the working class in line. Education and the mass media are powerful means of spreading the ideas and outlook of the capitalist class, bourgeois ideology, among the working class so as to get them to accept the capitalist system. Religions promise the good life in this world for those who knuckle under to oppression and exploitation in this one, and so on. Capitalist society in its totality is structured so as to preserve the exploitative relationship between the capitalist class and the working class which lies at its heart. Nonetheless this same system contains within itself forces which periodically throw it into crisis and open up the possibility of its final overthrow arid replacement by a society where oppression and exploitation do not exist.

As with all class societies, there is a fundamental division between the small but immensely rich and powerful monopoly capitalist class who own and control the chief means of production and the great majority of people, the working class, who own and control no means of production except for their ability to work, their labour power which they are forced to sell to the capitalist class in return for wages. The relationship between capitalists and workers is unavoidably and inherently exploitive and oppressive because capitalist profits are derived from paying workers less than the value of what they produce. It follows that all the time a class-divided capitalist society exists there will be a continuous, never-ending class war between capitalists and workers. The main enemy of the working class, the target of the revolution, is the capitalist class. While there are differences within this class on what is the best way of controlling the working class so as to perpetuate the rule of capital they stand united in their determination to uphold its reign.

These people are the real rulers. Many people believe in democracy, and that everyone should have a say in how the country should be run, what laws should be passed etc. In reality this is an illusion, a clever and subtle illusion which is propagated by the capitalists. It is they and they alone who have real power over the destinies of the great mass of the people. The employing class own and control all the means of production, that is the factories and all the other places where wealth is created by means of the exploitation of the working class. In this way the ruling class dominate the economic life of the whole people. Yet economic domination in and of itself is not sufficient for them to maintain an all-round rule. They also need to dominate in an ideological way, that is, they need to mould and shape the very thinking of the people whose bodies they already control: They need to rule both hearts and minds. The ruling class need to manipulate and restrict the consciousness of the working class so that their world-view is seen as the only possible way of seeing things and is the natural order of things which can never be altered. So in order to maintain economic and ideological control, that is - total control, over the great mass of the people, the boss class have created a number of agencies of social control. One very important agent of ideological control is the bourgeois state. More specifically the idea that this state is fair and neutral; that it is the same for everybody, rich or poor, that it stands above the class divisions in society. Yet in truth, the bourgeois state is the instrument of control of the employers and investors who exercise a dictatorship over the working class. The range of activities of the capitalist state has been expanded in response to the growing instability of the whole capitalist system and a corresponding desire on behalf of the ruling class to keep control at all costs. The working class can only take control of its destiny by taking political action to capture the bourgeois state and then to abolish it as an institution of class rule. As the working class abolishes capitalist relations of production and replaces them by non-oppressive, non-exploitive ones then the alienation characteristic of capitalism will begin to disappear. As the great mass of people gain control of their productive activity and the products of their labour so their antagonistic estrangement from each other and their aversion to work will be overcome. Productive activity will become once again a creative, fulfilling and truly human activity. The division between work and non-work will gradually disappear and people will freely choose what to produce rather than being constrained by immediate necessities.

Workers in Britain are just one part of the global working class and our revolutionary struggle is essentially an international one. Although we have an immense task in front of us it is one worth tackling for ’the proletariat have nothing to lose except their chains, they have a world to win’.

What we need is socialism

We live in an era in which socialism has largely lost its meaning. Social-democratic, Leninist, Stalinist, and Maoist governments over the past century which have failed to carry out their supposedly socialist objectives has dealt a serious blow to the integrity of the very concept of socialism.

 “The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves” is a socialist principle. Self-emancipation requires that the working class gain power in society. This means the working class needs mass organisations it controls in order to secure its liberation and which looks out to the interests of the working class as a whole; that remains independent of the capitalist political parties and their professional politicians thus rejecting any “partnership” with the employing class. Part of the role of the Socialist Party is to help people see through the illusions of capitalism, to understand that we are faced with this stark choice of socialism or barbarism, and to encourage a vision of self-emancipation as the only means of creating socialism and the essence of what socialism would be. Revolutions are a dynamic process, not a single event or series of discrete events. Marx said that revolution is absolutely necessary not only because the old ruling classes cannot be disposed of in any other way, but because the class overthrowing it can only rid itself of all of the old “shite” (sheisse) and be fit to rule and found society anew only through the process of revolution. And it’s only through struggle that this revolutionary consciousness develops.

The present form of society rests on private ownership of the land and the machinery of production and distribution. The owners of the land and the machinery of production constitute what is known as the capital class. Yet it is the working class produces all the wealth that sustains society and it is held in complete economic and industrial subjection to the capitalist class, which lives on the wealth produced by the working class. The working class must wage class war and be fully conscious of the wrongs inflicted upon it by the capitalist class. The deaths by starvation, the millions of unemployed, the excessive toil for bare subsistence, the poverty, crime, and consequent misery, are all the direct outcome of domination by the ruling class. That class must go. Capitalist class relations perpetuate problems of human suffering that can be eradicated. Capitalism generates morally intolerable levels of inequality of material conditions of people. Capitalism thwarts democracy by placing the basic economic resources and conditions of investment in the hands of private individuals. Capitalism robs most people of meaningful control over much of their work lives because they are pawns in other people’s projects. Capitalism does not merely generate inequality and poverty through exploitation, it generates alienation as well. Capitalist competition and conflict destroys a sense of solidarity among people and built into capitalism economics is greed and fear.

Workers must organise to voice the wrongs. Then it will be prepared for political action to overthrow the usurping class and to abolish classes for ever. The people have to be organised so that they know what they were doing. Socialists need to educate them first. Socialism requires the re-organisation of the economy to serve working people’s needs. Its precondition is therefore the organisation of the working class. The workers must be taught to unite and vote together as a class in support of the socialist party, the party that represents them as a class, and when they do this the government will pass into their hands and capitalism will fall to rise no more; private ownership will give way to social ownership, and production for profit to production for use; the wages-system will disappear, and with it the ignorance and poverty; misery and crime that wage-slavery breeds; the working class will stand forth triumphant and free, and a new era will dawn in human progress of mankind. The Socialist Party demands common ownership of all agencies of wealth production by the people themselves and the control of all industrial affairs on the basis of social equality. There is no escape from the thraldom of capitalism short of its complete overthrow, and this can only be achieved by the class-conscious political strength of the working class. The Socialist Party, therefore, calls upon all workers to forthwith to work unceasingly for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system, and for the emancipation of their class from wage slavery.

Socialists do not provide blueprints for how we should do things differently. Socialism does not depend on some miraculous change in human nature. Instead, the Socialist Party poses this question as the guiding rule of conduct: Will the proposal advance the interests of the working class and aid the workers in their class struggle against capitalism? If it will, the Socialist Party is for it; if it will not, the Socialist Party is absolutely opposed to it. The advocacy of political reforms obscures the working class objective of emancipation from wage slavery, and thus causes the workers to expend time and effort to little purpose.  Whereas the so-called palliatives when adopted by governments they have rarely proved efficacious, and have usually created the need for further legislation restrictions, and therefore kept working class action circular instead of straight. Reforms even if desirable are best obtained by educating and organising for basic ends, inasmuch as sops have ever been conceded when something more fundamental is the demand. The Socialist Party declares against reformism and a programme of palliatives, and urges the workers to concentrate their energies upon abolishing capitalism. Even if palliatives were granted, the capitalists would just take something away somewhere else. Palliatives means just going round and round in circles.

Socialism has gone in cycles. There have been periods when it has gone down and periods when it has risen. It will rise again. Re-establishing the belief in socialism as the viable alternative to capitalism is the critical task of the Socialist Party.  We have to admit that the system has no answers to its crises and there is no light at the end of the tunnel of capitalism. The working class remains “a class in itself”, with interests that are diametrically opposed to the interests of the ruling class. Whether it can became a “class for itself”, realising its power and moving consciously towards overturning the system that exploits and oppresses us all, will only be resolved through the struggle. Those who create the wealth in society need to take back the world. And that is exactly what we will do. We have a world to win.