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.

A Message of Hope

 

The socialist transformation of society entails the dispossession of the minority capitalist class of their ownership and control of the means of wealth production and distribution. All of their lands and factories, mines, media and transport will be taken away from them. The machinery of production will become the common property of society. In order for the capitalists to be dispossessed — or "the expropriators to be expropriated", as Marx put it — there is one prerequisite. The working class, who produce all the wealth and constitute a majority of society, must be conscious of what they are doing. The dispossession of the capitalists cannot be carried out by politically ignorant workers, and nor can the task be performed for them by enlightened leaders. As the World Socialist Movement makes clear, the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves. 

Socialists will enter the state bodies as delegates, not representatives or political leaders. They will be accountable for every move to the socialist movement and their sole purpose in entering the state bodies will be to abolish ruling class power. They will formally enact the abolition of class ownership, and in doing so will express the wishes of millions who have voted for socialism and nothing less. 

It is crucial that the state, which controls the means of coercion including the police and armed forces, is not left in the hands of the capitalists it represents. But unlike previous contestants for state power, the working class will not seek to establish its own state: a workers' state or a socialist state.

 As Engels pointed out, the workers' conquest of state power will be the last act of the state. The state will be dismantled. Government over people will be replaced by the administration of things. A class-free society, which will exist the moment that the capitalists are dispossessed and the means of wealth production and distribution are commonly owned and democratically controlled must be a society without a state. The State, like other social institutions, has not existed for all eternity, the long era of primitive man’s existence knew it not, only the advent of property with consequent class subjections makes the State a necessity.

“The modern State is but an executive committee for administering the affairs of the whole bourgeois class.”— (Communist Manifesto.)

With the establishment of Socialism and the consequent abolition of classes and class oppression, the function of the State ceases, and its need is ended. Socialism and the State are therefore incompatible. 

The World Socialist Movement seeks through the self-interest of the workers to change the system because that system is run in the interest of those who are parasites in society. It urges the producers of wealth to gain comfort for themselves. Within the capitalist system, there are countless intellectuals laying claim to being the teachers of the working class. every library and bookshop is filled with their voluminous works, professing their deepest sympathy with the sufferings of that class. Our advice to our fellow workers in this age of political chicanery and academic charlatans is to trust none. The main force generated within that system and the human factor that must bring that change is the growing conscious discontent of the working class, who in order to achieve their emancipation must realise that the barrier of freedom and comfort for all stands in the present socially operated, but privately-owned means of life. The only possible alternative is social ownership, by which the evils of to-day will be removed and the communal form of society in which the human family was cradled for so many thousands of years restored.

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, working people learned that it was difficult to improve their condition by individual appeals to their employers. They also discovered that appeals to elected representatives went unheard. And so the men and women organised into trade unions to exercise their economic power in forcing the employers of labour to concede better working conditions, shorter hours or higher wages. The trade unions are organised for the expressed purpose of exercising the economic power possessed by the workers through the use of their hands or brains in operating and running industry.  Without the working class not one wheel would turn. There is no power in the world strong enough to oppose successfully the will of the organised, useful, productive working class when it is conscious of its class interests and determined to serve them. For it is only the people who work who carry folks around and feed them, and shelter to warm and clothe them, and take things to them. In spite of the innumerable battles between the employers and the workers and in spite of the steady gains made by labour, the workers have lost as many battles as they have won. In spite of increased wages and in spite of improved conditions, workers are still exploited. The workers have to be forever fighting to keep pace with the rising cost of living. The workers have to fight on the industrial field, with their fellow workers or sink lower and lower into utter degradation and despair. There is absolutely no way to avoid this fight. The only real hope for the working class is in the abolition of the wages system.

This is our planet. We want it back

 

We need to abolish the out-moded and old-fashioned division of the world into nation states. Instead we need to cooperate on a world basis to meet our material needs and energy requirements. Only in a socialist society will the community be able to make decisions about energy production which are based on what is safe and in the human interest instead of decisions based on, and limited by, economic considerations. Only in a socialist society, when human beings can relate to each other as one family and not as units of labour to be exploited or national enemies to be destroyed, will the threats of environmental or military destruction really be removed. Socialism needs mass understanding and support — and then the world will be changed.  We in the World Socialist Movement can envisage a socialist party growing in the future along with many other expressions of working class organisation including trade unions and workers’ councils. We have never stood aloof from the industrial scene and class struggle, as our critics keep repeating until such claims have become an urban legend for many on the Left. However, what we strictly adhere to is that decisions about industrial disputes and work-place agreements are to be made by those directly involved and not by outside-the-union political parties.

The working class will organise itself to expropriate those who live parasitically upon it. It will link itself with the workers of every country, to achieve this internationally, when the workers understand their class-interests. Force is the foundation of capitalist domination, and that force is obtained through Parliament; capitalist control there means capitalist control everywhere. The workers therefore have nothing to gain by supporting any party which seeks to maintain that control. Concessions and reliefs may have been granted in the past by both parties, but none of these concessions, none of these vaunted reliefs have altered the general position of the workers in society. They are still slaves, and while Conservatism, or Labourism has their loyalty they will remain slaves. The workers alone can free themselves from the burden of their condition—this they can do when they wish by organising on a class basis. The SocialistParty preaches the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life. That is the only way of ending the war of classes.

‘The Socialist Party seeks to build an inclusive united working class movement as the next stage in the class struggle. Socialist Party members understand that a shorter work week and the creation of a new union organisation will not topple the capitalist system. But, as a first step, it would provide an example and a base of operations. The object is to continue the education of the worker, to secure badly-needed immediate improvements in working conditions, and, thus, through the organisation, to further the solidarity of the working class and to prevent premature violence. The workers’ revolt can commence on a regional basis, the socialist revolution must be national, continental, and, ultimately, world-wide. Let us determine that that demand for a new idea in the workers’ minds shall not be the sterile idea of nationalism but with the one fruitful conception for humanity, the idea of socialism, the aim will be to make the whole earth a common human possession.

The immediate task is to make socialists and the conditions for propaganda have never been more favourable. After the most devastating war in history, capitalism is still torn by dissension and struggle. It is as useful to write in dust as to work for peace on a capitalist basis. The way to prevent war is to establish socialism. Let us not bow our heads and complain of betrayal; let us organise together for the establishment of a worldwide society—Socialism. A socialist world is possible now, to-day. Make it a certainty by joining the Socialist Party to-day. Workers, for your own sakes and for humanity's sake study socialism. Then, when you understand it, you will organise to establish it and so emancipate yourselves from the shackles of wage-slavery. Clearer than ever before stands out the great fact that there is no hope for real peace in the world until these various sections of workers recognise the common fundamental character of their slavery and set to work to remove it, thus ending the enslavement of the human race by the establishment of socialism.

A World to Gain

 

It is in the interest of all workers whatever their colour, nationality, or sex to recognise that the root of their problems lies in capitalism itself. The problems cannot be cured without its abolition. All workers must unite to bring to an end a system that sentences them to a lifetime of poverty, insecurity, conflict and hardship. Then, world-wide, all will work together, co-operating in producing everything that humanity requires to satisfy its needs. All mankind will live in harmony. National frontiers will be superseded, workers of different states will realise their identical economic interests as producers.

Competition under capitalism leads to false ideas about the burden of newcomers to native-born workers, who claim first pick on ‘our’ hospitals, ‘our’ housing, ‘our’ social security benefits. In fact, bad housing, hospital waiting lists, low pay and bad working conditions are universal problems. They are a consequence of the essential poverty of all people who depend on being employed in order to live. There was never a time when life was easy. Migrants did not create the problems. They arrive here with the false hope of escaping the same misery in their home countries, but find when they arrive here they have to share it and take the blame for it.

Since its inception, capitalism has drawn workers from poorer parts of the country and from abroad to more developed regions in order to satisfy its labour needs. And, as Marx said, capitalists require to also build up an industrial reserve army for the bosses to maintain their dominance in the job market and to control wage levels. All those people migrating are simply obeying the imperative that they must try to find a place to work. No amount of restrictions will change that fact.

The resentment against migrants is a class matter and such prejudice is inflamed by the many sections of the ruling class. Capitalism has sometimes been against immigration restrictions by promoting the free movement and availability of wage labour. But, at the same time, the capitalist social system is a fertile breeding ground for anti-foreigner policies. This may seem like a contradiction, but that is how it is, for capitalism is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It cannot be a system of human harmony - division and conflict are in its very nature. Capitalism is a ‘dog eat dog’ world and will remain so until it is abolished.

The solution to the immigration crisis lies not with building fences, but with creating the conditions that do not necessitate people leaving their homes, their family, their friends and neighbours. The reality is that the solution is socialism. In the meantime, instead of undermining the ability of migrant workers to cross borders in search of work, migrants need to be unionised, uniting migrant workers alongside local workers in a collective struggle to maintain and improve upon wages and conditions. As long as workers are viewing migrants as the cause of their problems, they leave themselves divided and distracted.

The concern of working people over wages, unemployment, welfare and public services is totally legitimate. However, placing the blame on migrants does not address the causes of these problems or bring improvements to the situation. The problem is the capitalist system itself. The path to beginning to solve these problems is workers’ unity across ethnic, religious and national lines. It is vital that the trade unions make the recruitment of migrant labour a top priority.

 No worker, solely by birthright, has a guarantee to a secure, decent life under capitalism. It is wishful, utopian thinking to believe otherwise.

The Socialist Party stands for a system of society based upon the principle of each individual having access to what they need, as a pre-condition of social activity. That is, securing for each human being the food, healthcare and housing they need, as well as the cultural and social goods of life, should be the first priority of any sane society. Of course, each person getting what they need means that different people will get different things. People are, of course, born with different needs, so it is not a question of everybody getting the same. What the Socialist Party proposes is a different world. Wherein everyone could have more than enough of the things they require, so they need no longer fear to lose it; where meeting and exploring our different needs becomes a past-time and an end in itself; where without conflicts of power and dominance – because we co-operate voluntarily and democratically – there is no limitation set on, nor distortion of, our endeavour to understand what it means to be a part of the human race. In short, socialism will allow us to be treated as unique individuals. Only where we can equally and freely participate in the community can our own personality become harmoniously enriched. That is why in answer to this antagonism-ridden, people-divided, class-divided, nation-divided society, we proclaim the alternative, socialism, one world, one people.

Our Socialist Stand

  "It is necessary to suffer to achieve wisdom" 

While class consciousness often shows up in some form or other in the class struggle, the class struggle, in the main, is singularly lacking in class consciousness. Socialists cannot but draw attention to and participate in the class struggle until such time as capitalism is defeated

The working class, in fact, is not only all-important but, with education and organisation on class-conscious lines, will ultimately be all-powerful. The workers, as a class, know not yet their own colossal might. Alone producing all the wealth of the world, the very fabric of society is maintained by their active energies of mind and hands. A section of them strike, and the withholding of their labour frequently disorganises industry. Many sections strike concurrently, the wheels of production cease to revolve, and a serious crisis is precipitated. Labour has not yet learnt its strength.

As time goes on, the class struggle itself, in which the workers are involved, inflicts suffering through the inevitable evils of capitalism — pitiful 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, and try futilely to set things straight. But the SYSTEM that produces their sufferings they do not dream of attacking. They see neither a definite goal nor the way to it.

Yet a small minority there is who, by experience, thought, and study, is clear-sighted enough to see the way before them. These are the class-conscious and revolutionary proletarians. 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.

We have seen an accentuated and ever-increasing class struggle, growing out of the essential antagonism between the wealth-producing workers and their exploiters. And that conflict of interests produces an increased class consciousness in some, whilst it illuminates and reveals for others the essential clash of the classes that is the outcome of the capitalist system, and of which they probably had not been otherwise aware. Also, the development of a predatory and ruthless system of capitalism automatically not only produces its antagonists but drives them to combat it. And the result is that weapon after weapon will be tried and discarded—because they are no good.

At best, the function of the trade unions is simply that of collective bargaining for a better price for their members’ labour-power, and better conditions, not to abolish the system under which they are daily robbed. It all finally reduces down to the matter of class consciousness—an exact knowledge of their position, importance, and potentialities, on the part of the workers AS A CLASS in relation to society as a whole, and especially to to the capitalist class, to whom they stand as propertyless, wealth-producing slaves. Class consciousness must be the basis of all revolutionary political action, and it is a tremendous driving force, wherever it is developed. It germinates from a mixture of experience and the study of Marxian economics. Without class consciousness as arriving force all the varied activities of the proletariat to better their conditions must necessarily be weakened in power.

Our exploiters, the capitalist class, hold and will continue to keep as long as they can, the whole edifice of society as a means to conserve and further their own class interests. It is only because they have the POLITICAL POWER that they wield such force as they do. It is obvious, then, that no action whatever on the part of the long-oppressed proletariat will emancipate the workers from wage-slavery other than the capture of political power for the purpose of overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialism.

An unbreakable sense of working-class solidarity can only spread at the same rate as socialist understanding develops among all sections of the workers. The Socialist Party constantly attempts to foster this unity in its work of analysing capitalism and its class structure and presenting the socialist alternative to present society. Now so long as the working class think that socialism is impossible, then it is impossible. And as they accept the very existence of capitalism, and the priorities and fundamentals of the system, as evidence in favour of keeping it in being, they continue to think that socialism is impossible, undesirable, insane 

Most People and Socialism

 

Most people think that whichever government is elected it will make no real difference to their lives. Most people are right.

 

Most people think that political leaders are dishonest careerists. Most people are right.

 

Most people think that the world is in a mess: millions unemployed, homeless and house repossessions, kids on the streets, a collapsing health service, wars, ecological destruction, countless millions starving while farmers are paid to let food rot. Most People are right.

 

Most people think that little can be done to change it. They’re wrong.

 

Society does not have to be like this. We live under a system where:

· Production is for profit, not primarily for need.

· The richest 10 per cent own over half of all personal marketable wealth.

· The richest one per cent own three times as much as the poorest 50 per cent added together.

· The economy is run to make the rich stay rich at the expense of the poor.

 

The world market can never be run in the interest of the majority of us who produce the wealth but do not possess the major resources. No tinkering with the profit system by any government can ever make it comfortable, secure and happy for the majority of us.

 

All of the politicians in this election are asking you to vote for them so that they can run capitalism—continue the mess—carry on putting profit before needs—piling on the misery. 

It is all very well being against austerity but the cruel fact is that, when capitalism is going through one of its recurring crises, there is no alternative within the system to austerity. It is not the government that is to blame but the capitalist system. In imposing austerity all that governments are doing is what is required by the way capitalism works.

Of course austerity should be resisted to the extent that it can be – that’s what trade unions and such organisations are for – but without illusions. The most that can be achieved is a few mitigations here and there or a different distribution of the cuts, but they cannot be avoided. This is not defeatism. It is realism. The only alternative to the present austerity is neither a change of economic policy nor a change of government. It is a change of system. Socialism is the only realistic alternative to the present austerity. That’s what those who call themselves socialists should be advocating. Whatever job a worker does, and whatever the pay for it, does not change the facts of their class position in capitalist society. Capitalism is divided; on one side are the workers, who sell their abilities for a wage, and on the other the capitalists, who buy those abilities.

The interests of those two groups have always been opposed, and that will stay as long as capitalism lasts. Only a basically different society can bring us social harmony.

 

What we need is a new way of running society based on:

· The common ownership of all resources by the whole community, not just a rich minority.

· Democratic control of the community by everyone, without distinction of age, race or sex, instead of rule by unelected company directors or state bureaucrats.

· Production purely for use, not profit.

· Free and equal access to all goods and services—an end to the market and to money.

 

Only the Socialist Party stands for genuine socialism.

 

Support for  the Socialist Party means that:

· You reject the policies of the profit system.

· You understand and want the real socialist alternative.

· You do not need leaders to do your thinking and run society for you.