There is a widespread feeling that something is wrong, and that the problem is becoming worse. Many fear catastrophes looming ahead, dreading that they cannot be stopped, much less reversed. Doing nothing will only make matters worse. Taking action requirescourage and our politicians are scarcely up to the task. Plutocrats are calling the shots, telling the government what it should do and what it shouldn’t with the politicians serving their corporate masters, promoting the oligarchy’s interests, not ours. Normal politics has become even more futile than it used to be. We are faced with a world crisis of capitalism.
The only solution is revolution. The various Occupy movements came into being and caused the idea behind the slogan, “we are the 99%” to take root. It brought to public awareness that not just were the poor getting poorer or that the gap between the rich and the poor was growing. It highlighted that it was the 1% enriching itself in ways that threatened what remains of our rights and liberties and of government of, by and for the people. Occupy gave expression to political aspirations and to a demand for justice that is implicitly revolutionary.
The political solidarity of the working class means the death of despotism and the birth of freedom. The Socialist Party’s basic idea is the complete and permanent emancipation of workers all over the world. The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” The struggle for working class emancipation must increase in intensity until the working class entirely subjugates the capitalist class. There is no middle ground possible, and it is this fact that makes ludicrous many of the reform movements seeking unrealisable concessions and compromises.
A new era is now developing across the world. Working people are seeing through the deceit of the capitalist class. History is moving with big strides. For the first time in a long time there are emerging political organisations whose aim is to overthrow the capitalist system. The news media showed try their best to conceal and to confuse. The mouth pieces of the capitalist ruling class do not even mention the names of socialist candidates most of the time, nor quote their manifestoes. The main purpose of this propaganda is to say that there is no choice but the capitalist system and that ending the profit system is not a real alternative. The media believe in the divine right of the capitalist class to rule. Revolution is not practical politics, the television pundits tell us.
The purpose of the Socialist Party is the achievement of a new social system based on the elimination of all classes and class differences, a rational system without exploitation or oppression. The abolition of classes makes possible the enormous development of the productive forces and the production of abundant social wealth. The State, as an instrument of class domination, is no longer necessary, and will wither away. It will replace the anarchy of capitalist production with planned socialist production. Socialist revolution is the only practical politics and not a wooly idea. If this course is not taken, starvation and ruin faces the world’s population. The capitalist class gives no thought for the future; with eyes only for the immediate plunder beyond the dreams of avarice to be made by the spoliation of the world. They assume growth will last for ever. The delusion is ending. Capitalism maintains its profits; no longer on a basis of growing world expansion but solely on the basis of lowering and worsening the standards of the workers. The parasitic burdens of capitalism grow ever greater, as the capitalists maintain their enormous incomes in the midst of decline of the wages of all workers. The attacks of capitalism, to maintain its profits, grow ever more sweeping and ferocious, ranging over every field, against both employed and unemployed workers, against wages and social services.
This position cannot last. The battle between the workers’ needs and capitalism grows ever fiercer. It can only end in revolution. The Labour Party reformists, now turned policemen of capitalism, can no longer hold the workers back. The only path before workers is Revolution.
Do not imagine that the crisis is only a crisis of British industry to be solved by some form of reorganisation within capitalism which would restore British competitive efficiency. All the capitalist spokesmen, Conservative, LibDems and Labour, speak of reorganisation, of new policies of this, that and the other (but never touching rent, interest and profits), to “save” British industry. They imagine that if only British capitalist organisation and technique could be modernised and improved, if rationalisation could be introduced or the like, all would be well. They appeal to the workers to make “sacrifices” to help in this. But all these so-called remedies not only fail to touch the root or the evil — capitalist parasitism. It is not a peculiar crisis of British capitalism, it is a crisis of world capitalism. The same measures are pursued by the capitalists in every country and although one set or another set may gain a temporary advantage for a short time net effect of every advance of technique, of every wage-cut, of every cheapening of costs and intensification of production, is to intensify workers’ exploitation. Note well. The crisis is not a crisis of natural scarcity or shortage. We suffer from the curse of plenty. The crisis is a crisis of capitalism alone. Why? Because capitalism cannot organise production for use. Every advance of production only intensifies the crisis, intensifies the ferocity of capitalist competition for the market.
Many would-be reformers of capitalism (including those on the Left) urge that if only the employers would pay higher wages to the workers, enabling them to buy more of what they produce, there would be no crisis. This is utopian nonsense, which ignores the inevitable laws of capitalism — the drive for profits, and the drive of competition. The drive of capitalism is always to increase its profits by every possible means, to increase its surplus, not to decrease it. Individual capitalists may talk of the “gospel of high wages” in the hope of securing a larger market for their goods. But the actual drive of capitalism as a whole is the opposite. The force of competition compels every capitalist to cheapen costs of production, to extract more output per worker for less return, to cut wages. The “gospel of high wages” IS to conceal the real process of capitalism at work which is the intensified output from the workers, with a diminishing share to the workers.
Capitalism has no solution. Only revolution can bring the solution. Only socialism can cut through the chains of capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the working-class revolution. Only the organised working-class can fight and destroy the power of the capitalist class, care drive the capitalists from possession, can organise social production.
Engels wrote in 1891:
“But these inventions and discoveries, which supersede each other at an ever-increasing pace, this productiveness of human labour, which increases day by day at a hitherto unheard of rate, finally creates a conflict, in which the present capitalist system must fall to pieces. On the one side, immeasurable wealth and a surplus of products which the purchasers cannot control. On the other, the great mass of society proletarised, turned into wage workers, and just on that account become incapable of taking possession of that surplus of products. The division of society into a small over-rich class and a large propertyless working-class, causes this society to suffocate in its own surplus, while the great mass of its members is scarcely, or, indeed, not at all, protected from extreme want. Such a condition of things becomes daily more absurd and unnecessary. It can be abolished; it must be abolished. A new social order is possible, wherein the class differences of to-day will have disappeared, and wherein — perhaps, after a short transitional period, of materially rather straitened circumstances, maybe, but morally of great value-through the systematic use and development of the enormous productive forces already in existence (with equal obligation upon all to work), the means of life, of enjoying life, and of developing all the physical and mental capabilities, will be at the equal disposal of all in ever-increasing fullness.” (Engels: Introduction to Marx “Wage-Labour and Capital”).
To-day we are living to take part in the actual change. The struggle that goes on is our struggle.
All the means of production, the factories, mines, land, railways, docks, airports, are the shared property of society. The capitalist and landlord parasites are no longer there to levy tribute. The product of labour belongs to the people. The workers are free to organise production. There is no longer the capitalist anarchy of production by competing businesses for an unknown market, with the consequent gluts and slumps. Instead, communities will be abl to determine what we shall produce and how much to produce. Production will be directed solely to supplying peoples’needs. It is for use, not for profit. Therefore every expansion of production means greater abundance and leisure for all. Workers because it is their own production, for themselves, their families, their neighbours, are able to engage in production with an initiative and enthusiasm unattainable in capitalism maintaining management through their own elected committee in the workplace, controlling production and administration through their own elected organs.
What if we do not end capitalism? Capitalism can only restore its profits by throwing the burdens of the crisis on to the workers, by ever renewed attacks upon the workers wages and upon the workers’ living standards. We have seen that in the face of the crisis the immediate policy of the rival groups of capitalists is to fight to increase their own competitive power, to cheapen costs of production, to fight to enlarge their own share of the diminishing market. But this cheapening of costs, since capitalist rent, interest and profits are sacred, can only be carried out at the expense of the workers. So develops the new capitalist offensive which sweeps through the capitalist world in the wake of the crisis. Worsening conditions and desperate struggles, this is the outlook if we delay to overthrow capitalism. Wages and conditions are attacked on every side. Increased productivity and more output is demanded from every worker for less return. All the social services and benefit payments within the Welfare State — the bare and starveling expenditure on health, education, etc., grudgingly admitted by capitalism for the maintenance of its labour force — are now attacked by capitalism in its present reckless stage as an “extravagance” to be cut down the national debt. This is the very heart of the “crisis,” which no capitalist policy, Conservative, LibDems or Labour can change, but only the working-class revolution can put n end to. All the promises of the political parties and their think-tank analyses will not solve the crisis of capitalism . They will only make the more urgent, the workers’ revolution.
Many workers placed their hopes in the Labour Party to bring the solution. They have seen the need of basic social change; the Labour Party spoke of basic social change, of socialism, and promised to realise it. When a Labour government has been installed swift disillusionment has followed. The condition of the workers has grown worse; there is no sign of the advance to socialism. Many workers who voted for the Labour Party now abstain; discontent is widespread. The “failure” of the Labour Party is not an accident, not a personal question of this or that particular leader, of this or that particular policy. The Labour Party acts and will continues to act, as the representative of capitalism. Their basic principles is of winning for the workers gradual gains within capitalism. Therefore their practice is based on capitalism, on acceptance of the capitalist State , on administering capitalism and helping to build up capitalism. This they call “practical” politics.
What is the outcome? As we have seen, in the period of flourishing capitalism, reformism was able to win small gains for the workers, and on this basis to keep them from the socialist revolution, to hold the workers to capitalism. Capitalism to-day is no longer willing to grant concessions to the workers, on the contrary finds itself compelled to withdraw existing concessions, to make new attacks, to worsen conditions. And therefore the role of reformism, which is the servant of capitalism in the working-class, changes. The role of reformism inevitably becomes to assist capitalism to attack the workers, to enforce wage-cuts, to stifle the workers’ resistance — all in the name of “practical” policy. Labour Party leaders like Miliband seek by every means to suppress revolt, to bind the workers’ organisations to capitalism and to the capitalist state, to enforce increasingly spartan conditions on the workers in order to save capitalism.
The so-called Left-wing hasten to proclaim their “opposition” to the Labour Party policy and to advocate so-called “socialist” alternatives. But on examination their policy will be found to be only the old policy of the Old Labour Party dressed up in new clothes. Although they speak of “socialism” against “capitalism,” they do not propose the overthrow of capitalism.Their platforms are still committed to some form of capitalism, a reorganisation of capitalism by a system of State ownership , by which they promise a minimum wage for the workers, at the same time as higher profits for the State. But in fact, reorganisation can only at the expense of the workers. The Left’s value to capitalism, to divert the workers from the struggle in the name of phrases of “socialism.” The supposed “alternatives” to the Labour Party line are in fact conscious attempts to draw the workers back, as they become disillusioned with the Labour Party, from advancing beyond the Labour Party to the conscious revolutionary fight.
Millions of workers are turning from the Labour Party and seeking a new direction. Where shall they turn? It will be necessary to break with the Labour Party in order to advance the struggle against capitalism. We in the Socialist Party say the only path forward is the path of struggle against capitalism, the path that leads to the social revolution, to socialism. This is required to be understood by the majority of the workers who constitute nine-tenths of the population, by all who are willing to face the facts and are not, tied to the interests of the handful of rich.
The first requirement is the working-class conquest of power. Without power, no change. But what do we mean by “power”? Do we mean simply a change of government? No. What is in question is not simply a change of government on top, but a change of class power; since our purpose, is not simply to carry through one or two legislative measures, but to change the whole class-direction of existing society.
The first step is the expropriation of the capitalists and taking over by the working-class of all the large-scale means of production. By this means we can begin the social organisation of production, free from the burdens of parasitism and private ownership. The second step is the organisation of production on a single plan to meet social needs. Every industry is organised as a single unit under its own workers council or community committee, with social control at every stage of production. What will be the immediate consequences of the change-over from the present capitalist society to the socialist society? It means the end of the present reign of inequality — inequality in respect of every elementary human need of food, clothing, shelter, conditions of labour health, education, etc., and will bring the material conditions of real freedom and development to all.
We are not speaking of some utopia, but only of what is immediately and practically realisable so soon as the workers are united to overthrow capitalism and enforce their will. Production at present is below its potential capacity and could create an abundance. The labour of millions workers is not used at all. The labour of millions of others is wasted in useless non-productive work, in provision of luxury goods and services for the rich, but more importantly in what would be redundant, the commercial, financial and banking spheres made only necessary by private ownership and competition. Add to all this, the work and occupations which can readily be replaced by computers and automation. So there is the possibility of an enormous increase of output in the things we need to make our lives comfortable and it could all be done by working less! We shall immediately banish poverty.
This, then, is the choice we place before workers. Capitalism and continuing misery or socialism and a new life for all. Capitalism already begrudges us a bare subsistence. The fight to-day against capitalism’s attacks is only a beginning. Let us go forward from the present struggles, determined above all to carry forward the struggle to overthrow capitalism and realise a socialist world.
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