Winning the Battle of Ideas

 

“For our party, and for our party tactics, there is but one valid basis: the basis of the class struggle, out of which the Socialist Party has sprung up, and out of which alone it can draw the necessary strength to bid defiance to every storm and to all its enemies. . . . We may not do as other parties, because we are not like the others. We are—and this cannot be too often repeated—separated from all other parties by an insurmountable barrier, a barrier that any individual can easily surmount; but once on the other side of it, and he is no Socialist. . . . Just in this fact lies our strength, that we are not like the others, and that we are not only not like the others, and that we are not simply different from the others, but that we are their deadly enemy, who have sworn to storm the Bastille of Capitalism, whose defenders all those others are. Therefore we are only strong when we are alone.” - Wilhelm Liebknecht

 

The influence of socialist ideas among working people is weaker than it has been at any time before.  it has not recovered from the damage done by the experience of the Soviet Union and the Labour Party. The struggle is to win the workers to a socialist point of view, as against the efforts of the capitalist media to keep the workers mentally bound to capitalism.  Socialism is, without exception, the greatest revolutionary idea which has ever fired the imagination or enthused the heart of mankind

 

The working people are made up of those whose political and economic vision varies very considerably. Very many remain blind to the realities of the capitalist system and do not understand that they are wage-slaves to those who own the means of life of society Nor do they see that they are robbed by the wages system of most of the wealth they have produced and continue to produce. Not understanding the essence of capitalism, they fail to fully understand socialism or even the need for it.

As time goes on the class struggle itself, in which the workers are involved, is performing a wondrous operation upon them, for they are suffering through the inevitable evils of capitalism—unemployment, pitiable wages, and chronic poverty. At the mercy of their exploiters and profiteers, they frantically turn this way and that to cope with the evils of capitalism, to futilely try to set things straight. But the SYSTEM that produces their sufferings they do not dream of challenging. They see neither a definite goal nor the path towards it.

Yet a small minority there is who, by experience, thought, and study, are clear-sighted enough to see the way before them. These are class-conscious and revolutionary workers. They know that no palliatives or tinkering reforms of any kind will, or can remove the blighting effects of the present system or emancipate their class from wage slavery. Only the destruction of capitalism itself, and the establishment by the workers of the socialist commonwealth in its place ever can—and it inevitably will. And this they know can be proved by a series of irrefutable facts—a perfect arsenal of proofs, historic, material, economic, and political.

The future of humanity rests in socialism

 “The real barrier of capitalist production is capital itself. It is the fact that capital and its self-expansion appear as the starting and closing point, as the motive and aim of production; that production is merely production for capital, and not vice versa, the means of production mere means for an ever expanding system of the life process for the benefit of the society of producers.” - Marx, Capital, Vol.3

A social revolution is coming. We, socialists, do not create revolutions. We recognise them. Socialists must be capable of enthusing fellow workers, passing on to them visions of a different and better world. Socialism appears to be the only possible solution for our troubles; the only system, based on solidarity which links all humanity linking them in brotherhood, that can reconcile the interests of all and serve as the basis for a society in which everyone is guaranteed the greatest possible well-being and freedom. Socialism must be voluntary, freely desired, and accepted; for were it was to be imposed, it would produce tyranny. Unless internecine struggles cease in favour of a common struggle against the economic system, it will not be socialism that puts an end to the present social chaos. It is essential that political activists begin to focus on ending the economic system of capitalism itself. The survival of life on this planet depends on it. On this planet, there is not room for both the capitalist system and the harmony of mankind. The Socialist Party wants to finish off the profit system to make room for the cooperative commonwealth.

The realisation of profit and the accumulation of capital is the primary urge and the motivating force of all capitalist production. In socialism, the means of production – the factories, mines, offices, land and fields, transportation system,  communications, medical facilities, retailers, etc., will be transformed into social property. Private ownership will end. The economy will be geared not toward the interest of profit, but toward serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will benefit the people. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. Workers will be able to manage democratically their own workplaces through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way, workers will be able to make their workplaces safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society's. Socialism will bring about the ideal “from each according to one’s ability, to each according to one’s need.” Classes will disappear, the state will “wither” away, and a new era of human freedom and prosperity will arise.

The workplace is a place of continual struggle and conflict, where social explosions are always possible. Not inevitable, not limited to this or that country, but possible anywhere in the industrial world. Does that mean that socialism is now on the agenda? In historical terms, yes. In terms of immediate, practical politics, it is obviously not. We have always said that the future belongs to socialism even if it has seemed a dimly distant prospect. Socialism has become synonymous with tyranny. The very word “socialism” almost dropped out of our vocabulary, but there is a reawakening of interest in socialism. Many are now willing to listen because deep down they know there is something rotten about today’s world. They are looking for something that makes sense. What Karl Marx had to say still resonates. Only the world’s working class can save humanity from the prospect of annihilation. With socialism, we can use the world’s resources, and human beings’ ingenuity to change the world, to create a world in which poverty, exploitation, and war are only memories.

It is with that goal in mind that we in the Socialist Party set out. We have no illusions about the scale of the task, or about the limitations imposed by our size, influence, and talents. We know that only the working class can transform society. We don’t seek to put ourselves in the place of that class. We seek only to make workers conscious of their interests and their power. We appeal to all who agree with us, to join us in building a mass socialist party. Together we have a world to win.

 

Our Road Towards Socialism

 Ending of the exploitation, cruelty and injustice caused by class society in all its various forms is the goal of the Socialist Party. Socialism alone can end the exploitation of man by man. The aim we have set ourselves can be realised only with your active participation. 

 

Socialism will be when the means of production—the factories, mines, land,  and transport—are taken away from the monopoly capitalists are transformed into social property. This means that they belong to and are worked by the whole of the people, that the fruits of production likewise become social property, used to advance the standard of life of the people.

No longer can the capitalists by virtue of the fact that they own the means of production, live off the labour of others. No longer are the workers compelled to sell their labour power to the capitalists in order to live. The workers are no longer property-less proletarians. They now collectively own the means of production and work them in their own interests and in the interests of society, an associated body of wealth-producers. Socialism is the transition of mankind from class to a fully class-free society. This means the greatest advance in human history of all time, an abundance of goods of all kinds is reached. Society can now advance where the watchword is, “From each according to ability, to each according to needs”. Production will be planned in the interests of a continually rising standard of living for the people and in harmony for a healthy environment.

 

What is the Labour Party? Every socialist is supposed to be in the Labour Party we are told. But what distinguishes it from a socialist party. First, by eliminating the ultimate socialist ideal, the co-operative commonwealth, and confining its propaganda to present-day problems; and, second, by eliminating “general” questions and confining itself specifically to the special problems to unite in its organization the entire proletariat, irrespective of “political” or “social” belief, on a programme of its own “immediate demands;” and to carry that platform through by the aid of “friendly” capitalists disposed towards the “reasonable” demands of working people and such bourgeois political parties as may need its aid in Parliament and are willing to pay its price in the way of “social legislation.”

It is of the very essence of the Labour Party that it must not be “revolutionary.” First, because its aim is not to overthrow the existing order, but to meet the needs of “labour” under the present system. Second, it would alienate the sympathies of the bourgeois reformers, and it would make it impossible for any bourgeois political party to grant any of its demands. Any “revolutionary” sentiment that it may develop must be curbed.

The projected society we visualise is a society that would be based on the common ownership of the means of production, the elimination of private profit in the means of production, the abolition of the wage system, and the abolition of the division of society into classes.

Because as classes are abolished, as exploitation is eliminated, as the conflict of class against class is eliminated, the very reason for the existence of a government in the strict sense of the term begins to diminish. Governments are primarily instruments of repression of one class against another. According to the doctrine of all the great Marxists, we visualise, as Engels expressed it, a gradual withering away of the government as a repressive force, as an armed force, and its replacement by purely administrative councils, whose duties will be to plan production, to supervise public works, and education, and things of this sort. The government, as Engels expressed it, tends to wither away and the government of men will be replaced by the administration of things. The “government” of a socialist society in reality will be an administrative body because we don’t anticipate the need for armies, jails, repressions, and consequently, that aspect of government dies out for want of function.

By social revolution, we mean a transformation, a political and economic transformation of society. We visualise the future society of mankind as a socialist world order which will have a comradely collaboration between different lands and peoples with the production of the necessities and luxuries of mankind according to universal global planning

IT’S ALL UP TO THE WORKERS

 

The foremost principle of socialism is the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment in its place of a cooperative commonwealth. 

The aim of socialism can hardly be better expressed than by the formula of Marx and Engels that the basis of the new society will be the administration of things, as opposed to the existing order which consists of the coercion of persons.  Socialism means the freeing of the individual from the fetters which weigh upon him under the capitalistic system. And this is not to be understood as meaning that while the old fetters are removed new ones will be imposed. All direct coercion of the individual is contrary to the first principles of socialism.  One of the primary aims of the industrial and political organisation supposed by socialism is the guaranteeing of the freedom of the individual for good or ill. The aim is one for the working class throughout the world -  the abolition of class society itself. 

No one who really believes in socialist principles can afford to dally with the enemy or come to terms, in any shape or form. Socialism is the victory of the working class, the destruction of the economic and social bases of the possessing classes, the putting into practice of the principles of the planned economy, and the creation of a class-free society, where there will be no exploited or exploiters, nor class struggles, and all the efforts of society will be deployed to the common good. Socialism means the emancipation of all humanity.  Society will then determine for itself the forms of its confederations and its organisational structure.

Whoever travels through the land must be struck by its beauty. But, in addition to great natural beauty— our planet is rich. in natural resources, in the skill and art of its peoples, in its capacity to produce everything necessary for a good life for all. Our world could be a paradise for people. But on the contrary, it is not a paradise.  The fundamental cause of all the sufferings and tribulations of the people is that we are ruled by capitalists for their profit and interests.  The world is divided into rich and poor—a tiny handful of rich who need not work, and the overwhelming majority who work their whole lives through. It is a system of exploitation. By exploitation, we mean living off the labour of other people. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing the wealth (the land, the mines, factories, the machines, etc.) are in private hands. A tiny handful of people own these “means of production” as they are called. But they do not work them. The immense majority of the people own nothing (in the sense that they can live on what they own) but their ability to work. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs.

The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists is that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in value than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages. In short, they produce a surplus which is taken by the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages.

Capitalism is a system in which there are different classes—exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. The interests of these two classes are clearly opposed. The exploiters try to increase the exploitation of the workers as much as possible in order to increase their profits. The exploited try to limit this exploitation and to get back as much of the wealth as possible of which they have been robbed. This is one aspect of the class struggle which arises inevitably out of the whole character of capitalism as a class system based on exploitation.

The working class has to fight both immediate and long-term struggles. The immediate struggles are those that are fought out on different aspects of the struggle within the existing capitalist order. These struggles can be victorious without a fundamental change in the social system. Such struggles are those for wages, in defence of living standards, for peace etc. Organisations for waging these particular struggles are established, e.g. trade unions.

But for a lasting solution to all these problems, it is necessary to end capitalism altogether and replace it with a new system of society in which the working people decide how the world is run.

End Capitalism Now

 

Capitalism is in crisis.  The only vision remaining is the one put forward by the Socialist Party. The only credible alternative to running capitalism is to not run capitalism at all and thereby not let capitalism run our lives. What is important about socialism is its profound credibility.

Firstly, it has never been tried.

Secondly, the idea of production for use rather than profit is simple and makes sense to millions of people.

And thirdly, it is the only conceivable way that society will not get worse and worse to live in.

The practical alternative to living under capitalism, with all of its inevitable problems, is to establish consciously and democratically a different system of society in which production is owned by all, controlled by all and making wealth and services available to all. 

All the capitalist political parties try to comfort us with the promise that they alone know the way and have provided for every need to tempt us with better and brighter policies than their opponents. Capitalism can never be what its leaders promise. People already know that capitalism is a miserable system that’s rigged by and for the rich, and they don’t need to be told over and over again. But who’s offering a clear, understandable alternative, with a roadmap for how to get there? The Socialist Party disseminates the idea of a long-term solution to humanity's problems.

The reason why most people don’t consider revolution as a serious political option is that their thoughts are instantly derailed by the mental pictures that this conjures up. Either revolution is meaningless because everything nowadays is ‘revolutionary’ as advertising agencies keep proclaiming, or it is a blood-soaked insurrection to where nobody wants to go, no matter how desperate things get.

The Socialist Party has over the years,  always been reluctant to speculate too wildly, for several reasons.

First, technology changes almost by the day, and what’s possible changes along with it. If we’d cared to describe our vision of a future socialist society, when we started out back in 1904, we would no doubt have been thrilled at talk of gas lamps in every street and a telephone in every town hall.

Second, taste is a very time and culture-specific thing. What appeals to you might be off-putting to someone else, and there’s no point deterring people from building a free society simply because of idle speculation about what some of the furniture might look like.

Third, and most importantly, it’s not up to us anyway, it’s up to the people who will establish socialism, which is you and people like you. If you want to live in bucolic forested idylls, as William Morris supposed back in the industrial 1890s, then doubtless you’ll make the arrangements. If you hanker for futuristic circular cities and gadgets galore.

Nevertheless, the future society envisaged by the Socialist Party has no money and is based on common ownership, democratic control and ecological principles. A proper sense of community has been established, cities have been made much smaller and the countryside revitalised, with people living in self-managing communities.  Socialism will be a “big society” in that it will be all society and no state. However, what we mean by both “society” and “state” is different from what it means today. By “society” we don’t mean bourgeois civil society where everybody has to fend for themselves to get a living, but one based on the common ownership of the means for producing useful things where everyone will be guaranteed a decent living by virtue of having free access to what they need. What people need will be provided by society and will not depend on their own initiative or competitive effort. The coercive aspects of the state will have disappeared, and many of its administrative functions will remain. There will still be central and local councils, though much more accountable and democratic than today and whose personnel won’t be able to allocate themselves any material privileges as everyone will have free access to what they need. In these changed circumstances there is no reason why some of the services provided by these administrations today should not continue to be. On the other hand, there will be scope for some of them to be provided by groups of volunteers. It will be up to the local communities of the time to decide. But the debate then will be a genuine debate about the best way to organise things in the common interest. Not the smokescreen to disguise cost-cutting in the interest of the capitalist class.