Capitalism, your place is in the cemetery

It follows from an analysis of capitalism that the primary task of a socialist party is to wage an intensive campaign of agitation for change by a revolution to the power and wealth of society which is transferred from one class to another. In our time, there are two fundamental classes within society, the working class and the capitalist class. The minority class owns the wealth, profits from it, keeps down the standard of living of the majority class which has no wealth. The theory of socialists is that if the enormous wealthy of society, controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. To achieve its goal, this kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale. Many real socialists today rally to the Socialist Party, the bearer of the traditions of Marx and Engels. It stands for the abolition of the profit system, social ownership management of industry, the end of wars growing out of the profit system – peace and plenty for all. Hard times for us means good times for the rich. Capitalism is proving every day that it can offer the world’s workers nothing but endless horrors. The “triumph” of the legacy of the profit system is poverty war and disease. As has been shown many times, the bosses can survive any number of crises. What they cannot survive will be the socialist revolution. The widespread discontent with the existing social order which is manifesting itself in the many voices raised against the evils of this system. But without an understanding of what is wrong and the sources of these wrongs, it is impossible to formulate a reconstruction vision which will end the problems from which we suffer. It is necessary that we have a clear understanding of what is evil and whence its source if we are to take intelligent action to remedy the situation. Among the very first of the things that are wrong and must be righted, we will set down the great uncertainty in regard to securing the necessities of life. From this anxiety only the favoured few are free.

In the past when people went hungry it was because sufficient food was not produced. A harvest failure or blight brought scarcity. Today’s problem is of a different character. We have an elaborate transport system, we have wonderful technology and we have freed ourselves from the danger of lack of food, clothing, or houses to live in because of the inability to produce them. We have solved the problem of production. We can produce all that is needed to supply the necessities of life, as well as the comforts of life — education and the opportunity for recreation — to all the people. Yet around the globe people cry for food, for homes, for healthcare and for education for their children. The ruling class would like us to forget these things. We know that the business organisations do not exist primarily for the purpose of supplying human needs. Their purpose is to make profits for their shareholders. If they cannot make profits for their shareholders, they go out of business. They are interested in producing wealth as a means of securing wealth for the limited number who share in their profits. The motive which drives the vast industrial machine which has grown up under capitalism is the desire for profits. The work of supplying human needs has become mere incidental to the process of realising profits. The evils of the present social order — insecurity and misery - are the product of the capitalist system in which the supreme purpose is the making and taking of profits. Society divides the people into two classes. Anyone with common sense will have to admit that. There are people who work for wages and those who employ wage workers. There are the people who own the industries and those who must go to the owners of industry for the opportunity to earn a living. The ownership of the means of production is the source of the power of the profit-seeking class. It gives them control over people to secure the necessities of life. The millions of men and women who are dependent upon the wages they earn for a living are economic serfs or wage-slaves. The power to hire and fire the workers, to give and take away the opportunity to earn a living, carries with it the power to compel the workers to work for such wages as will leave the capitalists a profit from their labour. The business of making profits and the source of profits is no mystery.  The capitalists’ source of profits and their great wealth was not created out of thin air. They make profits because they purchase the labour-power of the workers for less than the value of the goods the workers produce; that is, they do not pay the workers the full value of their labour. There is no other way of making profits out of industry. The lower the wages for which the capitalists can purchase the labour-power of the workers or longer they make employees work or by their increased productivity by new technology, the greater will be the capitalist’s profits. Naturally the capitalists will try to pay the lowest wages at which they can induce the workers to work. Since they are in a position to deny the workers employment if the workers do not accept their terms, they have been able to keep the wages at the point where they yield the workers a mere subsistence, or even less than a mere subsistence.

The workers naturally seek to increase their wages and reduce their working hours. They endeavour to secure for themselves better working conditions. The capitalists resist. They see their profits menaced by the workers’ demands. The workers organise their power and refuse to work unless their demands are granted, and we have a strike with all its accompaniments of stopping of production, misery and suffering for the workers.

If the goal is to build a better world, to bring them “life, liberty, and happiness”, the aim must be the abolition of the profit system. It must come hand in hand with industrial democracy and accompanied by the abolition of the rewards of private ownership — rent, interest, and profit. Together with the establishment of common ownership of industry there must be the democratic management of industry by the workers. The workers of the world will enjoy the wealth they produce. If, after supplying every family with good food, good clothing, a comfortable home, and the opportunity for culture and leisure, we find we have a surplus and an abundance, we will simply cut down the hours required to work. We can through the collective cooperative organisation and coordination of our powers of production, eliminate waste and increase in our productive capability. It will enable us to bring into existence more than enough wealth to give a high standard of living, which means good food, good clothing, good homes, well-being, peace and happiness, to every family in the world. We can eliminate all the social conflicts which are the constant accompaniment of production under the profit system. We can assure to the workers that joy which comes through creative effort when men and women are not drudges and slaves, but free. There is no hope for the working class if they continue to support the political parties representing the interest of the capitalist class. Socialism will not be established through a series of legislative acts but will be established by a mass movement of the working class. The task the workers have to do for freedom, is through building a class-conscious political movement which will carry on the work of educating the workers to an understanding of the system of exploitation which now exists. The struggle of the working class will henceforth be a political struggle for control of the State because it must gain control of the machinery of government to wrest control of the State out of the hands of the capitalist class before it can hope to establish economic democracy.  The Socialist Party is the medium through which this work can be done. At the same time it is an essential workers build up organisations in the work-places themselves, having as their goal to supersede the capitalists in control of industry and to expand and grow until they have become a huge cooperative organisation of  control and management of the work of production and of all matters pertaining to the communities common interest.

We won't be slaves any longer

Capitalism has failed miserably to provide the basic necessities of life for hundreds of millions of workers around the world. Millions of workers are unemployed, hungry and homeless.  Older workers are thrown out like garbage when they no longer have any value to employers. Capitalism is the dictatorship of the bosses. In the capitalist society, only the bosses are free - free to hire and fire, free to pillage and plunder, free to make our class fight for their profits. We will allow no freedom to exploit workers. They hold power through their political parties, their cops, their courts, and their military. Like all thieves, bosses have no honour among themselves. They are constantly falling out.

The entire labour movement should concern itself with eliminating ignorance through increasing knowledge to the working class. Men and women must transcend the narrow limits of capitalist thought  if mankind is to be saved from barbarism. Socialists look for every opportunity to turn things around. Socialism means an end to capitalism through the means of planned methods of production for use in the interests of all. We want a society whose workers run everything in the interests of the world's workers. We want a system that encourages every worker to become involved in running society; that trains everyone to act for the common good and does not indoctrinate people to "look out for number one;" that opposes placing selfish interests above the social needs. We want society to help each person grow as individuals. We want a system that stamps out such capitalist ideas as racism, nationalism and sexism. We seek to render religions unnecessary. Religion serves only the interests of the rulers, who use it to mystify workers so that conditions stay as they are.

Socialism will abolish the wage system and the sharing principle "to each according to need" will be as basic as the selfish principle "every man for himself" is to capitalism. For the first time in history, workers will receive a fair share of society's wealth, regardless of the work they do. People will work because they want to because their brothers and sisters around the world need their contribution. They will share in decision-making, including the distribution of goods and services according to society's needs. They will be abundance. Socialism will abolish socially useless forms of work that exist now only for capitalist profit. Communism will not need millions of lawyers, advertisers, or salespeople. In one stroke, it will do away with layers of needless government bureaucrats, as well as the hordes of petty supervisors and administrators who oversee and manage us for the bosses. It will free everyone to perform socially useful work, which is the source of true creativity. Socialism will not succeed unless people understand it, agree with it, and vow to make it succeed.

Ending the wage system will reduce the problems capitalism causes inside the working class. Racism, one of capitalism's greatest evils, exploits one worker to a greater degree than another.  Marx said over 100 years ago that, "the worker in white skin can never be free as long as the worker in black skin remains in chains." An egalitarian society ends the exploitative wage system and ends racism once and for all. Having rid itself of the wage system, society can also end the oppression of women and end male chauvinism, which serve only capitalism. We oppose nationalism and fight for world socialism. By nationalism, the bosses mean that workers must respect capitalist borders. These borders are artificial; they exist to divide workers and keep different sets of bosses in power. Workers need no borders. Workers in one part of the world are not different from or better than workers in another. Nationalism creates false loyalties. Workers should be loyal only to other workers, never to a boss. Our views on the war are clear, too.  We oppose all wars. We endorse the revolutionary slogan: "Workers of the world, unite!"

Homes not Hovels

“A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But if a palace arises besides the little house, the little house shrinks into a hut. The little house now shows that its owner has only very slight or no demands to make; and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilisation, if the neighbouring palace grows to an equal or even greater extent, the dweller in the relatively small house will feel more and more uncomfortable, dissatisfied and cramped within its four walls.” Marx, (Wage Labour and Capital)

The problem of securing a roof over one’s head is one of the greatest uncertainties for most working people, subject as they are to the vicissitudes of the capitalist business cycles. Those who have sufficient savings for a down payment on a home stand to lose it during the depressions. Renting tenants unable to pay are mercilessly evicted. The need for homes is never satisfied, precisely because the profit system bars the way.

Assuredly it is urgent to make a change here – a change to production for use, to rational planning. The housing shortage is becoming more and more acute with no real relief in sight. The mounting cost of living and the shrinkage in housing are the twin burdens that weigh most heavily upon the mass of the people. And they can lead to the most serious upheavals. We are not speaking about some developing country where millions of suffering human beings must seek shelter among urban slums and shanty towns. We are speaking about one of the richest countries in the world. In the UK skills are available and so are the raw materials. Technology has made new and great strides. And yet, there is exist a housing shortage where young no longer believe they can get on the first rung of ownership. Nor do people believe they can have the security of long-term rentals. The housing crisis is not a new phenomenon in Britain.

Decent housing, as well as the problem of other necessities of life, is indissolubly linked with the social and economic conditions of the working class. Nowhere in the world can capitalism point to having provided adequate housing for the people. Nevertheless, in contrast to the hovels of the poor, we have the luxurious palaces and mansions of the rich in their gated communities. To escape the pollution and acquire clean fresh air many of the rich own their country estates far from the prying eyes of the poor.  On the one hand, limitless luxury and affluence – on the other, want and misery. The housing problem, as well as all other social problems, reflects the distinction of class, of economic position, of wealth and poverty. As we all know, in a system whose production is governed exclusively by the profit motive, the needs of the people must of necessity be left utterly disregarded. Production for profit and peoples’ needs constitute two opposite poles. That housing is one of the basic needs of people nobody denies; and yet every housing programme and project has been stymied by the profit motive and by the attitude and actions of the government and city councils, and by the conduct of the mortgage bankers, the real estate sharks, all the way down to the building contractors. Why is there a housing crisis? How can there be a housing shortage with so many houses left empty and unused? Why, with stockpiles of bricks, cement, timber, and roof-tiles are houses not being built in sufficient quantity? Why, after centuries of progress in construction and building technology and the passing of masses of housing legislation by successive governments do poor dwellings continue to be built and unhealthy, uninhabitable older buildings still stand? The lesson is inescapable. The housing market is so irrational and unplanned that even those who own and control the industry cannot now make a profit without the state helping them out. Subsidies, tax-relief and other forms of government inducements are all intended to make the housing market profitable enough for capitalists to invest in.

The capitalist profit system itself remains the greatest obstacle in the way of adequate housing for the people, just as it stands in the way of satisfying all the other peoples’ needs. Hence our determination to fight for the socialist solution. Such a system would put an end to speculative land owners, to the land-owners and rent-gougers, not to mention the profit hungry mortgage brokers and financiers. Profit returns would no longer enter into calculations for home building. Houses are not built to alleviate the very real problem of a housing shortage. They are built solely in order that the speculator and the house builder can squeeze the last penny-worth of profit out of a small site. Some rooms are so small as to be unusable for the routines of nuclear family life and fences “protect” tiny, private patches of lawn. On the contrary, the needs of the people would be the highest concern. Society will apply to the fullest extent new building materials and more efficient construction methods. Healthy and comfortable homes would be the rule.

The working-class should not delude themselves by thinking that there is anything basically different between rented and mortgaged accommodation for the quality and quantity of both types are, in the end, determined by the very same market. Both depend on the conditions under which those with money, land and materials are prepared to lend, invest or build in the housing market. Those with capital to invest do not mind whether it is used to build council houses or houses in the private sector; they participate in the housing market to make a profit. The market determines what is available and at what price — which means that the capitalist class gets the housing they want and profits come before the housing needs of the community.

Engels, writing in the nineteenth century, wrote of the housing crisis in these terms:

“The so-called housing shortage which plays such a great role in the press nowadays, does not consist in the fact that the working-class generally lives in bad, overcrowded and unhealthy dwelling. This shortage is not something peculiar to the present, it is not even one of the sufferings peculiar to the modern proletariat in contradistinction to all earlier oppressed classes. On the contrary all oppressed classes in all periods suffered rather uniformly from it. To put an end to this housing shortage there is only one means: to abolish altogether the exploitation and oppression of the working class by the ruling class . . . The housing shortage from which the working class suffers today is one of the many evils which result from present-day capitalist production.”

The problem remains the same today as it did for Engels

Churches in retreat (1987)

From the February 1987 issue of the Socialist Standard

Christian churches in Britain have lost half a million members in the last five years. According to the UK Christian Handbook, Christian church membership has declined to under seven million people, which is about fifteen per cent of the population. But other religions have shown an increase. In particular the number of Muslims has increased by over a third to 852.000 and many churches have been converted into Mosques. Other religions to have increased their membership, on a smaller scale, were Sikhs. Hindus, Buddhists and Satanists while the number of Jews showed a slight decline.

Although there has been a change in the type of superstitious nonsense being peddled, on the whole religion is a very minor activity in Britain. There will be a greater number than the above who still profess a belief in a god of some kind but who don't want to be confined to the absurd behaviour patterns these churches demand.

In fact, Christianity has been in decline for some time. It has also continuously retreated from what it claims to be able to explain. At one time it said that the world was created by god in six days and that the sun revolved around the earth. Although there are still some who claim a literal translation of the bible, most Christians now accept the theory of evolution and other scientific facts. Instead they now try to stress the "symbolic" nature of god and the bible — how god is about love and kindness — and play down the roasting in Hell bit. Hardly a week goes by without some trendy bishop on the telly saying that religion is fun and positive and not about saying no to the things people enjoy.

The churches have always felt able to say that, despite god being all-powerful and creating the world (even if he used evolution to do it) when anything unpleasant happens it's always the fault of human beings. So he takes the credit for humanity at its best when we are being loving, kind, creative and successful. But when it comes to Hiroshima and Auschwitz, pyorrhoea and Aids it's got nothing to do with him - unless he is moving in mysterious ways.

Religious ideas and socialist ideas are incompatible. Socialism is about understanding the way society operates with a view to changing it. Religions preach submission, basically saying that a superior being controls our destiny and we must accept our lot. Such beliefs grew up to explain away large gaps in human knowledge. But as our knowledge has widened, the religious explanation is shown to be increasingly untenable.

The persistence of religious ideas can be understood against the background of an insecure world where, due to the class- divided nature of society, people feel powerless. Religion, with its promise of a pie-in-the-sky afterlife, may offer some hope and comfort. But as Marx said, "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of men, is a demand for their real happiness. The call to abandon their illusions about their condition is a call to abandon a condition which requires illusions".

Religion has often been used by ruling classes to justify their dominance and the subjugation of the poor. Kings rule by the grace of god, it is supposedly ordained from on high. Often the first shock troops of the British Empire were the missionaries, who sought to convert the natives and teach them their proper (servile) place in the world.

The Catholic Church has made deals with fascist dictators in the past and is often a force for reaction in Latin America, although some priests have embraced "liberation theology", perhaps in an attempt to be on the right side of any new ruling class.

In Ireland, religion has been used to viciously divide workers to fight for their employers' interests, and many of the wars and disputes in the Middle East use religion and the idea of a holy war to get workers spilling each other's blood. Millions of deaths in capitalism's bloody wars have been blessed by religion.

Religious ideas are political and must be defeated. Only when workers are free from such illusion will be we able to set about the real task facing us, transforming the world into a place fit for people to live in. It is the only world we will get and we should make the most of it. And not let any trendy bishops or long-haired preachers get in our way.

Ian Ratcliffe

We aren’t fodder for the bosses to feed on

The Tories and the Labour Party are two sides of one coin. The only difference between them is that the Tories are in office and Labour are in opposition. If one understands this, then it is not difficult to grasp the meaning and purpose of the two parties. They are both employed by the same master – the City of London corporations. But, of course, these parties do not say the same things or act identically. There is a division of labour between them. The fact that they have special and different duties to perform towards their common master. The Conservative party directs all its statements and actions towards maintaining the status quo (the capitalist system) but also to defend the methods employed during their tenure of office, to perpetuate the system. The task that falls to Labour is to take charge of discontent and to steer it into harmless channels. But both parties make no bones about their job is - to ensure people don’t see things as they actually are. Both will claim it is not the capitalist system that is responsible for the unprecedented and the unparalleled misery. The profit system, they explain, is perfect and eternal. They will, however, concede that some greedy capitalists have misused and abused their “precious” system. And this is the main plank in Labour’s opposition. The crisis is due to the Tories austerity, wage cuts and unemployment policies – Tory maladministration. Vote the Tories out, put us in, and everything will be hunky-dory, Jeremy Corbyn proclaims. Yet he will stand by capitalism to his dying day and pose as a saviour of the workers. He will restore employment, improve present conditions and afford permanent relief to the people. There is nothing in his programme that could accomplish such a miracle. Labour have nothing but fake promises and polished words.

The duties of a socialist are to probe, to criticise, to fight exploitation of man by man, to stand on the side of social justice and the common good. That wealth exists on this planet in abundance is well known. But the distribution of this wealth proceeds according to the social relations of society. These are capitalist relations, resting upon the capitalist ownership and control of the means of production. Jeremy Corbyn proclaims in grandiose style for the redistribution of wealth, but he is equally vociferous in his proclamations for the maintenance of the present social relationship. The Labour Party plan is for these relations to remain, and the wealth would be redistributed by cutting down on the big fortunes and adding to the small ones or giving to those that have none. But this is impossible under capitalism since the ownership and control of the means of production determines the form of distribution of all wealth. So far this has meant and can only mean ever greater riches for the parasites and ever greater impoverishment for those who toil, who have nothing but their labour power to sell – and to sell only when the bosses see fit to buy. What is the cause of this condition; what is the cause of this unequal distribution of wealth? The cause is to be found in the ownership and control of the means of production. This system secures the right to exploit workers by leaving in the hands of the capitalist class also the ownership of the surplus value produced by the employee over and above what he or she receives as wages. This is how profits are acquired. Moreover, under the conditions of mass production, and in order to continue the process of production. In other words, sufficient only for their bare upkeep when they have jobs. Of course, the abundance of wealth available could easily guarantee to each family, as some reformist politicians propose, a guaranteed universal income of whatever. But this is equally impossible under the profit system and decent living standards can be obtained only when the profit system is abolished.

The “progressive”programme assumes the continuation of the right to exploitation, however, with the added hope that an increase of the purchasing power of the consumers returns to investors so unearned incomes may continue; so that dividends on shares may be paid and profits continue to be taken out of the exploitation of labour that now may proceed uninterrupted. There are no other sources for profits to come from. What is this but the stabilisation of the system of exploitation? To stabilise the system of exploitation means to stabilise the economic power of the class that owns and controls the means of production. Furthermore, it is well to remember that political relations are governed by this economic power which is another way of saying that those who own are also those who rule. They use their economic power to build up their political state, to build up their government and to reinforce it by courts, by police and by military forces, always ready to be used against the workers when on strike or in other forms of struggle and on a whole serving for the purpose of keeping the masses in subjection. This government, Corbyn proposes to entrust with the redistribution of wealth. They will not consent to any redistribution of their wealth acquired by exploitation without a fierce struggle. They will not even permit the workers to organise into unions so as to obtain a living wage without the most stubborn resistance. They will not yield their economic power, as represented by their accumulated wealth, or give up their privilege to exploit workers without a life and death struggle. They’ll use their economic and political power to determine who will be elected to the public office.  A real redistribution of wealth and a real social security can be carried out in no other way than by the overthrow of the system of capitalism. That is not at all the purpose of the Labour Party and its leftist followers. Only the working class revolution can accomplish that.

No man is good enough to be another man's master

Meantime, “in the meantime”

The capitalist system continues in existence, not because it is efficient or beneficial but because the people who suffer under it let the system exist. The working class support for a society which relentlessly deprives them of the fruits of their work which represses and degrades them. What is needed is the working class to stand up against capitalism and no longer permit itself to exploited and oppressed. Instead of at election times when workers duped with the pledges of political parties and politicians, forgetting all the broken campaign promises of the past mark their X  for a pro-capitalist candidate despite the election debate on the “issues” of the election have in fact been fact been a sham. and that the promises they are debating have little more chance of being kept than those they have debated in the past. When it is all over there are tens of millions of votes waiting to be counted, urging capitalism to carry on as before.

One reason for this continual acceptance of capitalism we are told is the problems such as the environmental destruction we face today are just too compelling, too urgent to be ignored. Let’s tackle these first. Then we can get round to establishing socialism. If we don’t, if we allow these issues to overwhelm us, this could rule out your socialist alternative altogether. How for instance could your socialism take root in the barren landscape of a world devastated by climate change. Reformism is designed to alleviate specific social problems arising within the framework of the capitalist system which doesn’t include abolishing capitalism. But the Socialist Party argue, that the cause of these problems are a direct manifestation of the way the system operates and has to operate. They are the unavoidable by-product of its economic conflicts in its remorseless search for profit. They will not disappear until the system itself has been scrapped by making the means of producing and distributing wealth the common property of everyone in society. It means, therefore, ending the exchange relationships of buyer and seller with their conflicting interests. As an attempt to treat the symptoms of a disease while keeping intact its cause has all the efficacy of scraping away the spots in a case of measles.

Postponing socialism “in the meantime” to try to resolve the serious social problems facing humanity, implies that such problems can be solved within capitalism, that they do not derive from the capitalist basis of society. They are not seen as the direct outcome of the competitive pressures capitalism imposes upon politicians and business-owners that constrains them to act in the way they do or removing them if they don’t. Politicians would give the voters all they wished just to remain in power and the corporation would do anything to satisfy their customers. They fail to do so in spite of, not because of, their efforts.

Believing that “in the meantime” we can remedy all the social ills and strife, invite us to accept the improbable: that these problems have just recently sprung into existence just yesterday, or alternatively that nothing previously had ever been done “in the meantime” about them. It is because such problems have survived all manner of attempted remedies throughout capitalism’s history, that the futility of reformism is evident. And it is precisely because of this that the need for socialism is especially urgent, in this age of potential plenty, in which the technology and productive powers at our disposal can now be placed at the disposal of the whole of society ad is no longer straight-jackets by redundant social relationships. Socialism must entail the rejection of reformism for all its will-o’-the-wisp attractions. The divergent aims of reform and revolution cannot be harmonised, that one cannot at the same time help patch up and perpetuate the very system one intends to overthrow.  It is wrong to see socialism as an ultimate and long term aim while “in the meantime” seeking the solution of existing social problems. Reformists are forsaking socialism altogether for capitalism will never present the opportunity to convert that ultimate aim into something immediate. The whole purpose of capitalist ideology and its proponents and apologists is to persuade workers to identify with ruling class interests, to distort social reality, to draw a smokescreen over the basic class cleavage of society; rather than to get workers to see themselves as a class united by common interests against their exploiters.

Beneath the ashes of past movements, embers are burning again. The objective conditions have come together once more for revolution.

A World to Win or a Planet to Lose

We all live under capitalism. It operates in every country all over the globe without exception. It is the capitalist system itself that is the basic cause of nearly all the problems human beings face all over the world: homelessness, misery, mental illness, violence, greed, envy, general dissatisfaction and war. No one person or group of persons is at fault for this, however. No blame can he attached to individuals personally. It is neither the rich man’s fault nor the poor man's fault. It is the fault of the system itself. The crux of the problem revolves around ownership. But not just personal ownership on a small scale, like one person owning a coat or a washing machine or a car. These are relatively unimportant. The problem is larger, yet quite simple to see. In other words, we are talking about the ownership of factories, transport, offices, mines, machines, tools, energy resources, raw materials. And we all depend on these means for food, clothes, warmth, shelter, travel and entertainment. In short, we depend on them for life itself. The problem at present lies in the fact that these means —which we all need to live — are owned and controlled by a small minority of the world’s population, which means that the rest the vast majority are dependent for their livelihood on this minority. Desperation and despair are by no means uncommon in the world today. The problems of starvation or malnourishment are rife in capitalism. For every tragedy, there is someone with a proposed palliative—a protester, a reformer, a counsellor—who are often described under the derogatory label of “do-gooder”. No matter how sincere or genuine they may be, “do-gooders are blind to the fact that every city slum and every mental hospital ward the problems are inter-connected; they have a common root and can be eradicated only by attacking that root. Capitalism is responsible for so many of the illnesses common to-day, either directly as their cause or because funds are refused for research into their origins and possible cure. Capitalist society cannot eliminate the stresses and strains which are responsible for many of today’s illnesses, nor can all the resources necessary to cure such illnesses mend the damage done by capitalism.

People around the world are experiencing a descent into chaos and uncertainty. There is a crisis of humanity. The level of global social polarization and inequality and is out-of-control as capital accumulates ruthlessly. Scapegoated communities are under siege. The ecological system is fast reaching several tipping points. Given capital's impulse to accumulate profit and to commodify nature, it is difficult to imagine that the environmental catastrophe can be resolved within the capitalist system. Capitalism is like riding a bicycle: When you stop pedaling, you fall over. If the capitalist system stops expanding outward, it enters a crisis and faces collapse. "Green capitalism" appears as an oxymoron, as capitalism's attempt to turn the ecological crisis into a profit-making opportunity. Social inequality is exemplified by gentrification, gated communities, surveillance systems, and state and private violence. The privileged few avail themselves of privatized social services and conspicuous consumption. They can work and communicate through internet and satellite sealed off under the protection of armies of soldiers, police, and private security forces. Global capitalism holds wages down everywhere. The global working class is the increasing "new precariat" which refers to workers under unstable and insecure labor relations – informal employee contracts, casualisation, part-time, temp-work, and zero-hour contracts. As communities are uprooted everywhere, there is a rising reserve army of immigrant labor. The global working class is becoming divided into native and immigrant workers. The latter are particularly attractive to transnational capital, as the lack of citizenship rights makes them particularly vulnerable, and therefore, exploitable. The capitalists only hire us when they need to increase their production (first of all by taking on more workers on the same machinery, by round-the-clock shifts, before taking on more workers on more machines) on condition of meeting a solvent market with a sufficient rate of profit. Outside particular sectors (seasonal work, construction, etc.), they don’t need any incentive to hire or fire, except when the productive cycle is falling or weakly recovering, as is the case at the moment.

Capitalism sets worker against worker and whips up wild nationalist sentiments, deceptively trying to associate the interest of propertyless workers with that of the owning minority. Scapegoat minority groups are singled out to be blamed for capitalist problems. Capitalism breeds racial hatred. Nationalism and racism makes the task of socialist unity much harder. A humanity divided against itself cannot organize to create socialism. A humanity linked by solidarity, friendship and respect can do just that.  The revolutionary route is now well signposted. The job of the Socialist Party is to speed the process, and not the impossible task of trying to make wage-slavery more palatable. The reformers have had their day and there is nothing to show for it. The time for the change to Socialism is long overdue and we urge you to work to that end. It is no longer utopian or unreasonable to expect that society should be able to provide the basic needs of people.

Neither gods, nor masters, nor states, nor bosses

Socialism or Common Ruin for All

The history of capitalism is its quest for profits. The profit system is the horrific and soulless essence of capitalism. The Socialist Party sets itself the aim of spreading socialist ideas to expose the consequences of this profit system we live under. The emancipation of the working class will be achieved only by the transfer to common ownership by the working people of all means and products of production and the organisation of all the functions of social and economic life in accordance with the requirements of society. This radical economic revolution will entail most fundamental changes in the entire constitution of social relationships. The Left no longer thinks in terms of “socialism” as a society that will some-day come into being, but only of improvements upon present-day society. Few on the left now accept that out of the struggle between capital and labour, which means between those profiting and those suffering from exploitation, there will arise a non-exploitative society. They believe that if capitalists learn to think socialistically and the socialists learn to think capitalistically then it will lead to a harmonious new world. They seek an equitable re-division of income and re-distribution of wealth and willingly compromise the original goal of the socialist movement to achieve this. The line they offer is that government can take from Paul to give to Peter in order to safeguard the existence of the capitalist system of labour exploitation.

The Labour Party is based on the premise that there is no irreconcilable contradiction between labour and capital and that concessions and the gradual transformation of capitalism into socialism are possible. It has led to to-day’s Labour Party's only platform that is to be able to manage the capitalist ship of state better than the Tories. It has failed to use its position within working class to popularise any real vision of socialism distinct from capitalism. And none of the current arguments around Corbyn and the question of party democracy or policy has raised the slightest prospect of what could be achieved by socialism but, rather, advance arguments for improved efficient management of capitalism. Nowhere do they indicate how the fundamental contradiction within the capitalist mode of production can be resolved by the establishment of a socialist society. It is significant in their definition of the enemies of the working class generally consists of the greedy bankers and financiers  in the City while industrialist and manufacturing capitalists are largely excluded from their criticism but are, indeed, seen as the lifeblood of the nation. The nature of production for profit is not questioned. If the Labour Party holds out no solution, what are the alternatives?

To most reform-minded politicians the socialist vision of the future with a modern technological cornucopia of abundance has always seemed either too unreal or too remote to be taken very seriously. The left imagined that socialism would re-model capitalism rather than abolish it. Marx and Engels assumed, however, that economic phenomena which they saw as being peculiar to capitalism would vanish with capitalism. Wages, profit and rent represented such social relationships, peculiar to capitalism and unthinkable in socialism. The same was true of the modern division of labour, especially the separation of brain work from manual labour.  Workers in their opinion are able to end class relations by abolishing their own class position, thus clearing the way for a further unfolding of the social forces of production. This would result in further technological development leading toward the abolition of human labour or, at any rate, of unwanted and disagreeable human labour. Capitalism is an obstacle to technological advance. The capitalist “solution” to the problem of automation is to be found not in higher wages and a shorter work-week for employees but in higher profitability expressed in increased capital and will try to secure its profitability at the expense of the work-force. Each entrepreneur, or corporation, employs the minimum of workers relative to capital investment; each, of course, tries to increase this minimum by a correspondingly larger investment. They are interested, economically speaking, not in a larger or smaller work-force but in the one which proves most profitable. They are not, and cannot, be concerned with the unemployed who are the government’s responsibility.

Workers in democracies have the right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. This right they exercise through the secret ballot. Thus each voter exercises his or her ‘power’ in isolation from any community, as an individual in a polling booth. Voting is not a matter for public discussion, or for meetings. It is utterly individualised. Many have always argued that mass assemblies are more democratic than secret ballots, since they permit the exercise of wider kinds of political reasoning than can be applied by the isolated voter. At a mass assembly, issues can be discussed, arguments refuted. In a mass meeting, estimates can be made of the general level of support for some proposals for action, and thus of the likelihood of that action being successful. This is not possible with the secret ballot.  Nor do voters have no real control over their elected ‘representatives’. There is no effective right of recall, no effective mandate which voters can exercise over MPs, etc. The voters elect the MP as isolated voters, and as such have no control over him or her. The MP is protected from control by constituents by a whole gamut of ‘parliamentary privileges’ once he or she is elected. The MP ceases to represent anyone once elected. Thus, in the parliamentary system, the exercise of political freedom and power consists in the few seconds, every few years, it takes the voter to express a choice between parliamentary misrepresentatives – marking a ballot paper with a cross, like an illiterate. Legislature are elected by powerless parliamentary constituencies who exercise no control over the remaining part of the state machine: We do not elect our judiciary or ‘civil servants’. Nor have we effective means of control over them. It is exceptional for the legislature itself, i.e. Parliament, to exercise real control over the state bureaucracies. The non-elected part of the state is protected from popular control by a whole variety of institutional means and official. Even the MPs are excluded from scrutiny of large parts of the bureaucracy’s personnel and actions. Many will declare that parliamentary democracy and peoples’ power are incompatible. For the Socialist Party the mechanics of voting and getting elected exists and despite its limitations political power does lie in the chambers of the legislatures, otherwise the squabbling factions of the ruling class would not be so intent upon taking control of them by using chicanery to dupe the voters. It is the knowledge behind the ballot rather than determines power in the end. We must not let an uncontested profit system bring about the common ruin of all.

Organise as a class - Organise in the Socialist Party

All things are held in common

It is a wonderful world we live in. Or, more accurately, it could be. It is up to us to make the world we live in a wonderful world. It is very simple really. All we need to do to make this happen is to end capitalism. Socialists are not fatalists that we accept what will be, will be. Nor are we determinists that change will happen without us actually changing things ourselves. Human nature is not inevitable. Racism is not inevitable. Nationalism is not inevitable. We can abolish wage-slavery, we can also abolish hunger and war. We can save the environment. The threat of climate change is one we can respond to and avoid. Its destructive consequences are not inevitable. It is within our power to make our world one in which our children and grand-children can survive. We must create universal human solidarity. The capitalist system is a human creation. The laws of the market are not laws of nature. If we choose we could maximise human happiness, rather than maximising production and profits. We need system change. We need a new economic system, a new society and a new way of life. We must achieve a steady-state economic system. We must restore democracy where it has disappeared and create where it never existed. We must develop a social system of rational decision-making in the interests of all to match the potential power of our new technology.

 The working class has no interest in helping the capitalists figure out how to make an unworkable system ’work’ for its every working is based on the misery and exploitation of the working class. All capitalist economics is to assist the bosses in making the highest (or “optimum”) rate of profit possible workers are reduced to a “resource” and a “cost item” to be kept to the absolute minimum through speedups, wage-cuts and layoffs. Employers spend millions figuring out how to squeeze every possible ounce of labour out of us, for it is only out of our labour that they make their profits. Management has a small army of economists and experts on the payroll, but all their fancy schemes just add up to more exploitation for us. Throughout the world and in every industry, we have had to fight against their ever-tightening squeeze.

In the past capitalists were happy to call the USSR socialist or communist, because it allowed them to say, when more and more people were fed up with the system in this country, “look, there is no alternative to capitalism, see what a mess communism is in the Soviet Union.” And of course, capitalism in the old Soviet Union was just as rotten as capitalism elsewhere. But real socialism is something altogether different. Under capitalism, workers have no control over what is produced and how. All that is decided by how much profit some capitalist will gain. But socialism enables the working class to decide how to organise itself and the resources of society to meet the needs of the people. As long as profit for the few is the basis of the economic system, that system–capitalism–will continue to go from crisis to deeper crisis, with more misery for the masses of people. We have a choice - to organise and against the system that can’t provide us with a decent life. Socialists put the lie to the capitalists’ line that “What’s good for the companies is good for the workers”. The basis for the Socialist Party is to carry out campaigns that clarify that the enemy is the whole capitalist class and their profit system.

The basic policy of the Socialist Party is one of opposition to capitalism and support for socialism, the political power of the working class. The character of our organisation is one that helps explain the comradely relationships that exist among our membership – leader-free. In our party, there are genuine expressions of comradeship among our membership. For us, a personal tragedy in the lives of any one of our members is a tragedy which in some way touches us all thus an integral part of political struggle and growth. Workers around the world face the same enemy, the capitalists of any and all nationalities. Our day-to-day struggles and everyday life prove this over and over. It is up to us to act accordingly.

The Socialist Party differs from other political parties in that it completely wants to change society’s capitalist economic structure and bring the social emancipation of the working class. The main reason for the imperfections is the private capitalistic way of production. It is this fateful tendency in the development of society which forces workers into a counteractive motion. We organise as a class to obtain such a large share as possible in wage from the production of work. Thus, the unions are formed and the constantly on-going struggle, on the national and international labour market, between workers and employers shall never cease until the working class have stopped being a class of wage earners. This again can only happen through the abolishment of capitalist ownership the means of production and their transformation into common ownership, to all of society owning and controlling social property, and the replacement of the unplanned production of goods solely for profit with a socialism, satisfying society’s real needs and corresponding production. The working class takes possession of the public power and transforms into common property all means of production — the means of transportation, the forests, the farms, the mines, the mills, the machines, the factories, the Earth. The interests of the working class are the same in every country with the development of world trade and the production for the world market where the position of the working class in one country becomes dependent on the positions in all other countries. The emancipation of the working class is thus something in which every worker in every land must take part.

Socialism Means Plenty for All

 “You are suffering from a dire disease, called money. The only known cure is a revolution.” – Peter Sellers (in the film The Millionairess)

The lives of the workers are made up of worry, anxiety, insecurity, and hardships. There is the monotonous drudgery of uninteresting work, the constant penny-pinching to make ends meet, and the continual necessity to learn to do without things.  As long as the wages system continues, part of the wealth which the workers create will be kept back from them. The things necessary for the production of wealth must be made the common property of the workers, and it must be controlled by them.

The capitalist media, that is, the mouth-piece of the ruling class and their flunkies—denounce strikers as “greedy,” “selfish” and frequently ”thuggish”. Trade unions exist to fight against the exploitation of those who toil by hand and brain. They struggle to improve the working and living conditions of working people and strengthen working-class organisation. The Socialist Party exists to further political understanding of the need of ending capitalism and establishing socialism.

The working class has always been compelled to earn its own living and to support capitalists and landlords who did not. It is the workers who represent the decisive force in our society. The capitalists, however, fail to recognise this elementary fact. They still hope to preserve the traditional position of class privilege. They think their class system is eternal. The struggle of workers is part of the world struggle of all workers against all forms of capitalist exploitation and oppression. What is labour solidarity if not the unity of the working class against the common enemy? It is the kind of unity that can only be built from below. It cannot be imposed ’from above’. When workers refuse to be divided they will be moving forward to the total overthrow of the whole system of social exploitation.

The challenge facing workers is essentially a simple one. It consists in recognising that existing ruling classes have hindered the development of a truly social production and distribution and to acknowledge the need to do away  with production and distribution for profit and to benefit the privileged elites in society who own and control the means of production. Workers require to learn that Production has to be shifted so that it can provide for the real needs of the people; it has to become a production for use. When this knowledge is acquired then the workers have to act upon them to realise their requirements and desires. Not a lot of philosophy, sociology, economics and political science are needed to understand those simple things and to act upon it. There is enough intelligence in the world to co-ordinate social production and distribution without the help or interference of leaders and vanguard parties.

Too often workers attempt to distinguish between “good” and “bad” political leaders, ignoring the fact that the difference between the two is mainly that one flatters us into the hope that we trust he can do something for us in office, while, the other, more harsh and adamant, makes no claim to either interest or sympathy with the working class. There exists the Labour Party, which is often considered a working-class party. The majority of its supporters are drawn from the workers, but its supporters have never understood the make-up of capitalist society. The Labour Party thought that all that was necessary was to get into power and administer the State. This party has been elected to power several times and no noticeable improvement has taken place in the condition of the workers. It has administered society very economically and efficiently in the interest of the class for whom government exists, serving the needs of the capitalist class, and by continuing to administer society in the interests of the owning class. The fact that workers should use its power and might to represent their employers' interests and not its own was certainly a triumph for the ruling class and its reformists.

Socialists, elected to any capitalist Parliament, will call attention to the fact that they do not intend to conform in any way with the present constitution of society; and that their only object in getting into the political machine is to clog up the works and stop the smooth running machinery on every possible occasion. The enter Parliament as rebels, not reformers.

Workers cannot emancipate themselves without making an end to all oppression and exploitation. So the class-conscious socialist, whenever he or she obtains power, becomes the advocate of all. Organised class-conscious workers must feel themselves as the champions of the rest. We cannot emancipate ourselves within the wage system. We require the abolition of the existing order of property and production. Out of the class-war grows a high social aim, a lofty end, where workers manage affairs in the interest of the whole community. As revolutionary socialists, the political fight is a fight for principles. Our fight concerns the whole social life and how we fight is dependent upon our goal.

The Socialist Party represents the future. We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We stand for the end of impoverishment and seek a World in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease when the evolution of human society to new and higher forms shall become possible to all mankind, when abundance and peace shall be enjoyed by all. It is the capitalist system which produces misery for all. We urge no pessimism. The future is ours. Production is social. All people, whoever they are or whatever they do, are equally important.

How a New World Would Look



The world is plagued by elites who tell us to tighten our belts while they go on with their lavish lifestyles. Capitalism is the ideology of the 1%. What's ours? To defeat the 1%, we need an alternative vision. For generations, we have been taught that "there is no alternative." For the first time in a long time, the word "socialism" is on the lips of millions. Our lives, our homes, our work-places, our communities; our neighbourhood, our town, our city, our land, our waters, our soil and our air;  our food, water, shelter and energy. Connect the dots, put the pieces of the puzzle together -- that's how revolutions get started. Connecting issues and social movements and organisations to each other have the potential to build a powerful movement of movements that is stronger than any of its individual parts. This means educating ourselves and in our groups about these issues and their causes and their interconnection – the capitalist system. We don't need moral calls for personal life-style change. We need calls for economic and political justice. Nor is it a call for taxing the rich and reform of the tax structure. As Engels puts it, concisely, in The Housing Question: “‘Taxes’! A matter that interests the bourgeoisie very much but the worker only very little. What the worker pays in taxes goes in the long run into the cost of production of labour power and must therefore be compensated for by the capitalist”. Workers will go on allowing themselves to be kidded into supporting one party or other of their exploiters — until they get the message that the enemy is not taxes but the wages system itself.

What we're saying is, enough is enough. We don't need calls for repairing the system; instead, we need to create a new system. This whole capitalist system must go. Exploitation and alienation go hand in hand in class societies, having reached new peaks under capitalism. To unravel the real nature of exploitation in capitalism is, therefore, an important part of the struggle against it. We have to reclaim the radical imagination, infuse it with the spirit of independent politics and radical democracy. That is what Marxism is all about. The World Socialist Movement isn't against voting. What we oppose is people throwing their votes away on candidates of a party that opposes their interests. Eugene V. Debs, often said, 'it's better to vote for something you want and not get it than to vote for something you don't want and get that.' The WSM believe elections offer the hope of social change, but also insist it isn't enough. We also need to spend time building grassroots movements for change.

Imagine an economy without bosses. It’s not a utopian vision but an achievable aspiration. The Socialist Party have been producing article after article committed to a vision of a new society and advocating the struggle for a new free society for more than a hundred years. These are not minor achievements. Our hope of a future is the goal of socialism, of transcending capitalism, even though many hold the view that for humankind, there is no viable alternative to global capitalism. The Socialist Party questions whether this is the furthest point humanity can seek to reach. Socialists can have no illusions about the speed with which we may be able to achieve the fulfilment of our aims. Today, humanity finds itself at a turning point in historical progress and a new age is being ushered in. Mankind is now faced with building a free and peaceful new world. In order to build this new world, it is necessary to abolish all the old politics and economy.  We live in a world dominated by the capitalist system which allows a small minority of employers and investors to exploit the great majority.  It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards. Either we get rid of this outdated system or it will destroy humanity.  Urgent action is necessary. The only way forward is to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment.  To create such a world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution.  The working class establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society. People understand that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. It is essential to generate interest and knowledge in socialist ideas. When workers express their solidarity with the struggles of their fellow-workers all over the world, when they pledge themselves to the fight for the end of the exploitation of man by man political commentators scoff at such sentiments and aspirations.

Humanity seems to be in the grip of some invisible, malevolent force. We devote a huge part of our energy and ingenuity to lying and cheating, to hurting or killing each other.  Scientific and technological resources are devoted to fabricating the means to kill, torture and maim other human beings. Across the world, the drive to expand industry and agriculture has included the destruction of natural eco-systems. The last vestiges of communal life are replaced by the impersonal market. People have no control over their own lives and social life is fragmented and atomised. Society is now viewed as a web of corruption and inhumanity. Human beings are bereft of the power to determine their own futures. More and more, believe there is no way out.

A socialist future would guarantee the rational use of human creativity and resources. There is no longer any need for a class society. There could be a better society that is not utopian precisely because it is possible – it can be brought about. Every election the Conservative Party will make all sorts of promises and the Labour Party will make all sorts of promises. Will they keep their promises? Of course, they will not. The working class, since its coming into being from among the working people, has struggled against the capitalist class for near on three centuries. After trying all types of struggle (such as Luddites, Chartists) the working class learnt that it could solve its problems only through the capture of political power. 

For the Queen on her birthday

 Lines on Oliver Cromwell in Ramsay Churchyard, Huntingdonshire,1848

“The old Plantagenets brought us chains; 

the Tudors frowns and Scars, 

The Stuarts brought us lives of shame; 

the Hanoverians wars; 

But his brave man, with his strong arm, 

brought freedom to our Lives 

-The best of Princes England had, 

was the Farmer of St. Ives” 

 A 'Jubilee Version of “God Save the Queen”' from the 1880s runs:

Lord help our precious Queen,
Noble, but rather mean,
Lord help the Queen.
Keep Queen VicTORYous,
From work laborious 
Let snobs uproarious,
Slaver the Queen.

Time is running out

The world is never out of crises. It is fairly well agreed, I think, that no generation has faced such a dangerous situation as ours. Responsible scientists warn insistently that there will be lasting environmental damage to the human race which can mean the extinction of all the higher forms of life. No generation has ever been given an opportunity as fraught with responsibility as ours.

The answer is a social revolution. The theory and practice of reformists is to modify capitalism, of a gradual “growing into” Socialism by means of legislative palliatives and ameliorations. Capitalism cannot reform itself; it cannot be reformed. Humanity can be saved from its excesses only by a socialist revolution. Socialists insist that the parliamentary capitalist state can never be the basis for the introduction of socialism.

The term “socialism” embraces a multitude of evils in the eyes of the proponents of the capitalist system. The first argument against socialism was the assumption that capitalism had always existed and would naturally always continue to exist because it corresponded with “human nature.” Hard facts upset this naive assumption. Capitalism was shown to be but a newcomer among economic systems; it is less than five hundred years old. Moreover, the decline of other systems after their rise indicated a similar fate for capitalism. Associated with that standard argument was socialism represented a beautiful ideal but lacked a basis in reality; socialists were, therefore, nothing but Utopians. The working class, created by capitalism itself, was shown to have a decisive economic interest in the development of socialism, and since socialism signifies a higher level of economy and culture, leading to a classless society, the working-class movement in this direction represents the interests of society as a whole. In addition, the worldwide industrial system established by capitalism provides a sufficient base for the enormous increase in productivity required to realize socialism. The growth of socialist sentiment is inevitable, for the development of capitalism itself impels it. The technological expansion of industry on the scale now required and now possible is qualitatively beyond the capacity of capitalist property relations. Popular consciousness, no matter how resistant, cannot fail to catch up with this fact. The constant renewal of the class struggle on a worldwide scale is the single most encouraging sign of the readiness of people to struggle for socialism. As Marx long ago pointed out, the classless society of the future will be the inevitable outcome of the class struggle, intensified and carried to its logical conclusion. No piecemeal reforms or partial solutions can bring an end to this state of things. We must resist the efforts of the apologists of the capitalists to sow illusions about “reforming” capitalism, and, instead, build our movement with the perspective of overthrowing it.

Marx’s “association of free and equal producers,” determines its own production and distribution, is thinkable only as a system of self-determination at the point of production, and the absence of any other authority than the collective will of the producers themselves. It means the end of the State or any state-based system of exploitation. It must be a planned production, without the intervention of exchange relations and the vicissitudes of the market system. History has shown that real change in the interests of the majority can only be achieved by challenging the very core of capitalist exploitation – in the workplace. Parliament is an institution of capitalism. It makes the laws which ensure the exploitation of the majority by the rich minority. Decisive at times, it is wrong to be mesmerised by parliament or parliamentary parties. It can be used in that as a component of a bigger, broader peoples’ action. Our vision is far beyond simply elections and far beyond putting political leaders into office. Instead of exposing the bosses, politicians have put the blame for the crisis on foreign-born workers, women, and minorities—anything that serves to divide the people and hide the real nature of the problem.

It is a sign of the times that more and more people are talking about socialism yet it is surprising how little discussion there is today among socialists about socialism. Many describe themselves “socialist” but more often than not the label is meaningless. Many who claim to adhere to socialist ideas believe we ought to concern ourselves exclusively with the ‘practical’, ‘day-to-day issues’ of the class struggle, leaving a future revolution to take care of itself. So if we are socialists, what are we actually striving for?

It should be clear that a socialist campaign means a campaign with the fundamental purpose to teach the necessity of the destruction of the capitalist system and the substitution by a socialist society. To try to get people to vote for our candidates merely because we promise them some immediate reforms is to enter into competition with all the other political parties on their own ground and there is no earthly reason why the workers should prefer whatever our brand of reforms would be to those of the others. Within the limits of what is possible under capitalist conditions we can offer no more and no better reforms than can any other party and the workers would be entirely correct if, on the basis of an appeal for reforms, they would turn their backs to us and vote for the more “practical” parties with a higher chance of achieving them. To distinguish ourselves fundamentally from all reformist groups by carrying on a campaign for socialism and only socialism is not only theoretically correct also common sense. We acknowledge that when we do conduct a campaign on socialist lines our vote will not be a huge one but also it has to be recognised that if we don’t conduct such a campaign there is no use having one at all. Why advocate a platform of immediate demands and at the same time stress the necessity for socialism unless it is only a bait for getting votes.

The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism

Our mission is to inform, to inspire and to agitate for change for the common good. The mission of the Socialist Party is so to organize the creation of wealth so that can be so abundantly produced as to free mankind from want and the fear of want, from the  necessity of a life of drudgery and toil. The World is ready for socialism. The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of government from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new different level, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of the government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places as many people believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new social system of production and distribution, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It instead of profit being the ruling motivation for industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear. Society can get along without the capitalist, he has been rendered a useless functionary. It is not the mission of the Socialist Party to speculate concerning the manner in which the workers will conduct their affairs when they have come into possession the factories, offices and farms for there exists a myriad of ways and methods people can organize themselves in a democratic co-operative manner to provide for all.

In capitalist society, a worker is not, in fact, a person at all; as a wage-worker, he or she is simply merchandise, a commodity to be bought in the open market the same as any other form of good. The very terminology of the capitalist system proves that you are a person in any sense of that term. Look at that name of the department in your own place of work – “human resources”. That is your status.

Our obligation is to make clear the problems of the working people. In clarifying these important social problems we will adhere to the staunch principles of the World Socialist Movement. Briefly stated: we demand human dignity and justice. To achieve this goal, we strive by all peaceful to influence our society; we wish to make our voice heard and we will shout until we are heard. Only the working people themselves can improve their miserable conditions. This is not the time for the empty conceits of vainglorious demagogues, but the occasion for well-grounded Marxists to seize the opportunities to rouse our class to victory. Socialism’s principal mission today is to group the workers of all countries into a living revolutionary force; to make it, through a powerful worldwide organisation which has only one conception of its tasks and interests, and only one universal tactic appropriate to political action in peace and war alike, the decisive factor in political life: so that it may fulfil its historic mission. There is no socialism without international working class solidarity, and there is no socialism without class struggle. The activity of workers of all countries as a class, in peace time as in war-time, must be geared to the fight against capitalism as its supreme goal. 

Parliamentary and trade union action, like every activity of the workers’ movement, must be subordinated to this aim, so that the workers in each country is opposed in the sharpest fashion to its national ruling class. The immediate mission of socialists is the mental liberation of our fellow workers from the tutelage of our rulers, which expresses itself through the influence of nationalist ideology so we must agitate and denounce the empty words of nationalism as an instrument of domination. To achieve our social ideal is a work of education and organization. The working class must be aroused. They must be made to hear the call of solidarity. Educate our fellow workers. Spread the socialist message with newspapers, the pamphlets, and leaflets, Go on the internet and social media. Turn on the stream so powerful that the workers who will not be only be lifted by it but will be swept away with enthusiasm. Join us in fanning the flames of the socialist revolution. This organisation has a world-wide mission; it makes its appeal directly to the working class. The Socialist Party declares that the workers must make themselves the masters of society. You are an individual with a thinking brain, and if you do not use it in your own interests you are guilty of betraying yourself. We are the only people essential to society and without us society would perish. We produce the wealth and we create civilization. Why should we be dependent upon the capitalist? Every cog in every wheel that revolves everywhere has been made by the working class and is kept in operation by the working class. If the working class use their intelligence, not to turn out millionaires, but to produce for ourselves, we would possess wealth in abundance for all to share in. 

People Power

Conditions of class strife and recurring social crises are the daily experiences around the globe. Every vote cast for the Socialist Party is for world peace and economic security for the human family. Neither the stability of economic relations nor the improvement of social conditions can be secured without the workers dispossessing the capitalist class. The working class is the only social force to which humanity can turn to end the chaos of capitalism. We are our own liberators. There is a battle of ideas now in progress for socialism, peoples’ power, the ‘self-emancipation of the working class’ as Marx put it.

“We can reclaim Labour” is the message being put out by the left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn but what can be expected from a new Labour government? Not socialism, that’s for sure. The Corbyn programme is left reformist in its aims and methods: it does not involve the expropriation of the capitalist class. The Labour Party has always served the needs of the capitalist system. The rhetoric would be different from the Tories; the substance would be the same. Common sense confirms this. The evidence is plain to see, not just in Labour’s past record but in the actions taken by left-wing governments elsewhere in the past few years. It is clear from the record that the election of a Labour government in no way guarantees benefits for the working class, let alone advance towards socialism. Labourites could be described as believers in utopian capitalism, a profit system without inherent contradictions. It never has existed – it never will. The working class may have won benefits such as the NHS set up in the years after 1945 But Labour has been just as willing to cut back that welfare provision, when the needs of British capitalism demands it. A Labour government is dependent on the willingness, or unwillingness, of the capitalist class to make concessions. Capitalism is no mutual benefit society, however, and the record shows that concessions have to be fought for and they are conceded when the employers fear the strength and militancy of the working class. The key to working-class progress lies in the power and activity of the working class itself. The only real solution for the working class is the socialist revolution.

The only kind of politics that is going to work is a do-it-yourself politics aimed at abolishing the profit-system. Democracy means participating in the running of affairs, not following leaders. Real democracy is not possible under capitalism where a minority own and control the means of production and are therefore more equal than the rest of us and where the mechanisms of the profit system work to frustrate what people vote for from being carried out. The only way everybody can participate and have a genuinely equal say in how things are run is in a classless society based on common ownership. This is still our position and the message we would put over.

We look forward to a society where buying and selling have no place, to a truly social world where each contributes such work as they are able and all may take freely from the store of wealth created. Socialist society is not a dream, but something for which the development of capitalism has prepared production. Remove the vast unproductive apparatus and you can see what a flood of labour power and resources would be available for useful production in a socialist society. Socialist freedom means the ability to accommodate all the many and varied styles of living, different production systems, plus the many special and overall concerns that grab people in their interactions with the social and physical environment.

In the social and economic crises that engulf the planet, there is only one solution. That solution is the mass struggle of the World’s workers. The direction of that struggle to establish the rule of the working class, that is of the vast majority. In socialism, all means of production will be common property. There will be no classes and no class struggle. The consequences of class-divided society – racism, nationalism male chauvinism, will all have disappeared. There will be no wars, no armies, and no need for weapons of war, which will become historical curiosities. There will be no distinction between mental and manual work. Socialism will be a life of material and cultural abundance. Contradictions between people will remain, but these will not be antagonistic and will be resolved by mutual cooperation.