Presenting the argument for socialism

It is of importance that the Socialist Party’s case should be made as widely known as possible, in particular our opposition to all other parties. The control of the political machine by a socialist working class means the enacting of common ownership—that is socialism. The socialist society will be carried on by the workers, whose common interests will be expressed territorially and industrially and in every field. The production of wealth will result from the organisation of industry arranged democratically by a socialist population. The capitalist system has now outlived its usefulness, and the capitalist class has become an unnecessary class. The class can be dispensed with and the system replaced with advantage to the working class, who are the great majority and can impose their will when they choose to do so. That is the basis of socialism. No other basis is needed. We are out for the abolition of capitalism, because an investing class is a privileged and totally superfluous class.

Capitalism divides the human family into two parts: one, a small minority class, claims title to all the resources of the earth — this group is known as the capitalists; the other class in our society, the overwhelming majority of the population, are known, appropriately enough, as the working class.

Since the capitalists claim ownership of all the resources of the earth, either as individuals, private or public companies or through the agency of the State, the workers are obliged in order to live to sell to the owning class the only thing they (the workers) possess, their mental or physical skills. These they sell in return for wages or salaries, which enables them to buy back from the capitalists a portion of the things they have produced.

The sole reason for producing goods under capitalism is to ensure directly or indirectly, for the capitalists, profit. Human needs are of secondary importance. This is true of all the capitalist countries of the world today. It is true of the “western” nations under “private” capitalism and it is equally true of the former ‘communist’ countries under state-capitalism.

Socialist Party candidates for election run on no programme except that which our readers see in our literature, and they would receive, therefore, the votes only of those who want Socialism and reject the programmes of the opposing candidates. The number of persons who want Socialism and would vote for it would, although small, be larger than our enrolled membership.

From its formation the Socialist Party has regarded the contesting of elections as a means of propaganda to be used along with other means of propaganda

We accept Marx’s dictum that the working class must achieve their own emancipation. But Marx, of course, did not mean by this that nothing should be done until the working class as a whole decide upon doing it. If that attitude were correct, then the Socialist Party could not have been formed. The action of forming a Socialist organisation of any kind at a time when "the working class have no desire for Socialism” would, according to such reasoning, "be anti-Socialist action.” Marx, it is interesting to observe, had considered this situation and wholeheartedly agreed with the attitude which the Socialist Party takes up. In his ‘Address to the Communist League’ he wrote:

“Even in constituencies where there is no prospect of our candidate being elected, the workers must nevertheless put up candidates in order to maintain their independence, to steel their forces, and to bring their revolutionary attitude and party views before the public”

The Socialist Party takes the only attitude the working class, conscious of its own position, can assume - contemptuous indifference for the intrigues of its masters for political power. The socialist objective is the only thing that matters to us who are socialists. Its achievement is possible whenever the bulk of our fellow-workers are of like opinion, howsoever the political or other barriers are arranged by our opponents, the capitalist class; and its achievement is not possible while we have a minority, under any conceivable political or social circumstances. To produce that majority is the immediate object of the socialist, by which time the movements of our rulers may have created a position entirely different from the present one in its political aspect. But in those movements we can have no part: they concern them, not us. We know that the economic position of our class is incapable of any essential improvement within the limits of capitalism, and are therefore out for its abolition, and we refuse to stay our hand from that work for anything any section of the masters like to propose for our temporary benefit economically, or for the alleged purpose of facilitating our movement politically. It is thus we make ourselves socialists in the present, and it is thus we shall win socialism in the future.

The present political situation makes more than ever necessary the Party which alone in this country is emphasising the need for conscious working-class action along political lines for the realisation of socialism—the Socialist Party.

Socialism is a form of social organisation wherein the convention governing the production and distribution of all wealth will be the satisfaction of human needs. All the resources of the earth will be the property of mankind as a whole and people will apply their skills and energies to these resources in order to produce the things society needs. Under such circumstances an abundance of all the things we need could be produced and it will not be necessary to find markets in which goods can be sold — for as all (save the young, the aged and infirm) will have engaged in the job of production, so all will take from the abundant wealth available. Money, a measurement of wealth and means of exchange under capitalism, will, in Socialism, be rendered superfluous, hence the humiliation of the wages system, with all the other ugly features of class slavery, will disappear, leaving the simple principle of socialist organisation: from each in accordance with  ability; to each in accordance with needs.

Is such a society possible?

Of course it is! When you consider the organised waste that the ending of the money-system alone will bring you begin to appreciate the great possibilities that lie before us. Think of all the useless functionaries connected with capitalism and essential to that system: we have the capitalists themselves, and their lackeys and flunkeys . . . armies of salesmen, touts, tickmen and agents of all descriptions . . . brokers, bankers, clerks. . . policemen, jailers and prisoners — to give point to the commandments of the system . . . soldiers, sailors and airmen, to fight capitalism’s wars — and, of course, the vast array of civilian brains and brawn necessary to the appetite of the war-machines, not to speak of the loss of human life and energy associated with “civilisation’s” wars. Very little mental exercise will show that we could fill many pages with lists of functionaries necessary only to the maintenence of capitalism.

With socialism all these useless functions will come to an end and the people concerned can begin to make a real contribution to the happiness of themselves and all mankind.

There can be no doubt that freed from the restrictions and organised waste of capitalism the peoples of the world have it within their power to produce their needs, thus opening the door to a full and happy life for all humanity. The question remains, how can the change to Socialism be accomplished?

Capitalism could not continue to exist without the willingness and assistance of the majority of the people whose role in that society is that of wage-slaves. Even more so will socialism require the participation of its people but, by the very nature of socialism such support and participation must be conscious. Only the unqualified and conscious support and participation of the majority of the world’s workers can bring about socialism. The socialist objective will mean freedom as humanity has never before known it; it represents the beginning of the highest form of social organisation that mankind can achieve, hence it demands of those who institute it a knowledge of what it is and how it will function.

Accordingly, the task of the Socialist Party and its Companion Parties overseas, is to use all the means at our disposal to bring about mass Socialist understanding; to build up an organised majority of conscious socialists to the end of gaining control of the state power and converting this from the agent of capitalist exploitation into an instrument of socialist emancipation.

Simply stated, socialism will come about when the majority of the workers of the world realise that they are the people who equip and run capitalism in the interests of their masters and undertake the task of changing the economic foundations of society in such a way as will facilitate the functioning of society in the interests of all, irrespective of race or sex.

Socialism is only as far off as the willingness of the workers to accept capitalism and attempt its reform leaves it. We cannot over-emphasise the fact that there is no bar to socialism now but the lack of socialist knowledge prevailing among the working class.

It is not usual for a political party to ask you to think and to ply you with something really worth thinking about. It is the practice to assure you that the party has your problem in hand and that “ So-and-So”, a “born leader” will collect your vote and put matters right. We hasten to assure you that we have no “leaders” in our ranks; we are an organisation of working men and women tormented by the problems and humiliations of capitalism and eager to enlist your support to banish that system from the earth.

We want to change the system, not our rulers

Capitalism - Good for Some. Bad - for Many Others.

Stats-Canada informs us that September's unemployment rate was the lowest in nearly 40 years at 5.5 per cent. The analysts had predicted that the economy would gain 10,000 jobs, instead it gained 54,000. Most of these were full time jobs and wages increased Stats said, but didn't release any further figures. Sounds great doesn't it ?, but- but- but- there's just one thing: we live under capitalism. 

UNIFOR, which is Canada's largest private sector union, ran the following ad in the Toronto Star: ''Doug Ford's conservatives plan to cut more than $1billion from our children's education. He intends to increase class sizes by nearly 30%, leaving struggling students further behind. As a direct result of Ford's cuts, the province will lose as many as 10,000 teaching positions. He halted construction on three college campuses, eliminating 8,000 spaces for new students. He cut $670 million from the Ontario Student Assistance Program, disproportionately impacting students from low income families. 

Doug Ford says he's for the people, but he's certainly not for our children and grandchildren.'' 

So even if life under capitalism doesn’t sound too bad for some you can always count on it that it’s bad for others.

Canadian comrade.

The Extremes Between Wealth And Poverty.

 Trolling the internet, I came across this little goodie: The Duchess of Cambridge, (one of capitalism's better P.R. creations), was seen with a Chanel, purse which cost $6,225 - a price they justified, because it had a gold and burgundy handle. 

When one considers the poverty in the world, this ridiculous kit bag clearly emphasizes the extremes between wealth and poverty. This is not to suggest they should take it away from Lady rich-bitch, nor to say that everyone would have one in a Socialist society, because within Socialism their would be no great desire for the meaningless symbols of wealth for privilege.

Canadian comrade.

Opting for Socialism

The cause of our misery and poverty is the ownership of the means and instruments of wealth production by the capitalist class. The remedy, therefore, is to dispossess that class of its ownership. It maintains its ownership by virtue of its political control. Its economic domination would cease the moment that the working class captured the political machinery. 

Curiously enough, the working class never seem to discover that it is they who gratuitously give the capitalist class the power to enslave and keep them in bondage every time they go to the ballot-box! It is obvious, then, that the method of recapturing political control is going back to the ballot-box and voting for socialism. While the workers accept the poisonous nonsense that “employers should have a fair profit,” while they swallow the lies and humbug of the labour leaders that the interests of the master class are the interests of the “community,” or ”society,” they will be easily led to vote their masters into possession of the power to rule society. When the working class realises that the way to emancipation lies through organisation for control of the political power. Not until that is assured can the workers own the means of life and operate them for their own benefit. When that lesson is learnt the day of socialism will be dawning.

Capitalism exists today simply and solely because you and your fellow members of the working class, who produce its wealth and endure its miseries, permit it to exist. It is parliament that makes the law and it is the law that says it is legal for capitalists to own Nature’s resources and the tools and instruments of production which the working class have produced. The law further enshrines the right of the owners of wealth production to use their property in their own interests— to produce wealth for sale and profit and not for the satisfaction of human needs.

When there is no profit in employing workers, in building homes, in clothing or feeding the needy the law does not require the owners of society’s means of production to provide these things nor does the law ensure capitalism when its profit needs create the conditions for crime, bad social relationships, violence and war.

In fact the law is made to suit the needs of capitalism and is relevant to the needs of the working class only insofar as such needs are compatible with the requirements of capitalism to disguise its function, keep down social discontent and prevent open rebellion. 

It is for the purpose of getting into parliament and tinkering with laws and their social and economic by-products that you are now been showered with speeches, promises and leaflets by the various candidates and parties. You are being asked to give your assent and consent to the continuation of the very system that denies you even the hope of a full and happy life!

What, then, should you do with your vote in the present election since all the candidates and parties, irrespective of their political labels and speeches support the continuation of capitalism?

Well, let us first tell you about the alternative to capitalism, Socialism, and then see if we can resolve the problem of what you should do with your vote.

As we have shown, it is parliament which makes the law and it is the laws made by parliament that make possible the usurpation of the means of production by the capitalist class and the consequent enslavement of the working class. Obviously, therefore, it follows that if we are to change things the working class must organise for the purpose of electing its own representatives to parliament and making the means of production the property of society to be used solely for the satisfaction of human needs. Socialism is a feasible proposition NOW! 

Its introduction is delayed not by the capitalist class but by you, the working class: it is your political naivety  that prevails against it; your reluctance to look beyond the narrow limits of capitalism that keeps that system in operation. It is your vote that gives it legitimacy and  legality.

When there is no Socialist Party candidate standing and if you accept its case for socialism you will realise that in giving it to any candidate or party in this election you are pledging your support for capitalism; but you can register your disapproval of capitalism by going to the polls and writing across your ballot paper the word “World Socialism”.

But whether you make such a gesture of protest or even simply refrain from voting, what is really important is that you join with us and ensure that next time there will be an effective socialist opposition sufficiently strong locally to challenge the parties of capitalism at the polling stations.

Where we stand

A socialist is one who, having investigated the causes of present day social discord, decides that these causes are found in the private ownership of the means of wealth production and who therefore endorses the necessity for co-operative ownership in order to eliminate private or sectional monopoly, and secure the advantages for the whole people.

It is common to find some persons expressing sympathy with socialism and socialists, when all that is intended is a sympathetic altruistic feeling towards the poor, but by no means do they endorse the co-operative ownership and control of the land, mines, minerals, machinery and transport, without which no one can be a socialist. By co-operative ownership is meant common ownership by all the communities within society - the whole people, ie the raw material and machinery of production to become the property of all and is regulated by all.

Once again then, socialism involves the transferring private ownership to common ownership of all those agencies of wealth production necessary for supply of life’s necessaries for the whole people. The root basis of this is found in the fact that private ownership of the means of wealth production fails most lamentably to provide all the people with the requisites of life. Let that fact never he forgotten, private enterprise utterly fails at the present time to provide what is necessary to afford the means of healthy vigourous life for all. There is no possible escape from this so long as private enterprise dominates the system by which all must live. The more the workers contribute towards facilitating production the smaller will be the proportion of their total number in employment.

Socialism does not seek to destroy but to build. Socialism does not aim at making any the slaves of governments, but to get rid of all governments other than the self-government of free citizens. We therefore declare that the present capitalist system is based upon the legalised robbery of the wealth producers.

Socialism is the recognition and adoption of the principle and practice of association as against isolation, of co-operation as against competition, of concerted action in the interests of all, instead of “each for himself and devil take the hindmost.” Socialism saddles upon each of us the responsibility of being our “brother’s keeper.” If a child, woman or man is starving, socialism says there is something wrong in our social system, and upon us all individually and collectively rests the responsibility of righting the wrong. If one street or a dozen streets contain one slum dwelling or a number of such, Socialism says to each of us jointly and severally, “crime exists somewhere or no slum would exist, see to it quickly, root it out, raze the slum to the ground and let air and sunshine operate. If men and women are overworked, and so prevented from fully sharing in the joys of life, socialism bids us to immediately remove the overwork and see to it that every man and every woman shall have a fair share of all that makes life worth living.

There can be no socialism where exploitation exists.  Therefore socialism means the, complete supercession of the present capitalist system, of private ownership and control of land, machinery, and money, necessary for reproductive purposes. Defenders of capitalism who are so lyrical about the technical achievements of modern industry, might try to explain why, after all these years, even the most elementary needs of the working class remain unsatisfied.

Is the Socialist Party opposed to working-class unity? On the contrary, the basis of our position is that socialism will only be established when a majority of the working class unite for that purpose. But that unity must have a sound foundation, based on socialist principles. If you fight an election on a manifesto of reforms, you will get votes, not from workers who desire the abolition of capitalism, but from those who still think that their economic problems can be solved within capitalism. If these reforms are put into operation, capitalism will still continue and the workers will still be wage-slaves. If, on the other hand, the reforms are not effected, then these people will turn away from socialism in disappointment. Once again we repeat the classic slogan, “Workers of the world, unite!” But with the understanding that they must unite for the purpose of stripping the capitalist class of its ownership of the means of production and distribution, making these common property, and thus establishing a class-free society.

The Socialist Versus the Vote Catcher. (Short story 1924)

 A Short Story from the November 1924 issue of the Socialist Standard

Some few years ago, in the suburb known as Battenham, there lived a poor workman whose name was Hyam Eezi. He was poor in that his clothing was shoddy, his food coarse and adulterated, his habitation mean, inconvenient and hired by the week, his hold upon life so precarious that starvation or pauperism were ever on the horizon. He owned no land: nor anything beyond the rags upon his back and the few articles of utility with which he had furnished his hired house.

He himself lived by letting himself upon hire, the process being as follows. Being possessed of nothing material beyond the few poor articles mentioned, and driven by the stern goad of hunger, he found that he still possessed one saleable thing—his energy. He had read no history, so he did not know how he and those around him had become landless, propertyless outcasts in a land of plenty. He just took things as he found them, and imagined that thus they had ever been, and thus would remain. And so his main concern was to find some hirer of human labour, and lend his services to him for as long a time as possible and for as large a sum as possible. Unfortunately he found that so many hundreds of those around him were in like case, that the hirers were enabled to select those who would take the smallest sum, or alternatively those who could work the hardest or most skilfully. He, therefore, found that, no matter how hard he worked or at what occupation, the sum he received each week barely sufficed to keep him and his family in their poor standard of “comfort” and security. Security! Ever before him there loomed the prospect of finding in his pay envelope a little slip of paper, bearing the dread intimation that his services were no longer necessary. What puzzled him, when he really did sit down to think the matter out, was the undoubted fact that when he and his mates had worked so hard that the warehouses were overflowing with goods, then was the most likely time for the “sack,”'as they called it. Terms like "over-production,” “slump,” "glutted markets,” etc., filtered down to him, but he had but the haziest idea of what they all meant. The hunt for a master began anew. Presently he found one; or after an interval of semi-starvation the old one took him back again. The process is repeated, and so the years pass.

And then a great excitement stirs his drab life. There is an Election. Certain shiny-hatted, sleek, comfortable looking gentlemen appear, and profess to take an absorbing interest in his welfare. All his troubles, he is told, are directly traceable to Free Imports, lack of Preference, want of Stability, Foreign Competition, and the Crass Stupidity of the existing Government. The remedy is quite simple. Just put a little cross opposite the shiny-hatted gentleman’s name, and Prosperity will dawn upon all.

The next few years are spent in continuing to hire himself out when fortunate enough to find a hirer, and in wondering when the promised Prosperity will arrive, or what form it was supposed to take. Suddenly the mystery is solved. He has been betrayed, swindled, duped. How does he know that? Another gentleman is good enough to devote much of his-spare time to patiently explaining what is wrong. A rash of handbills, cards, posters, etc., has broken out, and he gathers that another Election is arranged for him. The gentleman explains that the individual who cajoled his vote from him last time is one of an unscrupulous gang of self-seekers who are bent on ruining the country. They are hypocrites, liars and fools, their sole aim being the feathering of their own nests at the expense of the honest working man. "What have they done for you,” he asks searchingly. Hyam has no difficulty in replying, “Nothing.” Fortunately the remedy is simple. This gentleman stands for Peace, Retrenchment and Reform; Economy, Progress and a Free Breakfast Table; Justice, Liberty and No Tariffs. The mellifluous flow of high-sounding words leaves Hyam slightly dazed. They are not part of his everyday vocabulary and he cannot connect them with any article of use in his daily life, unless it be the Free Breakfast Table. That sounds promising, anyhow. He can’t do less than the previous blighter, thinks Hyam, so here goes my vote for the gent that has shown him up.

It is needless to recount how the ship of prosperity again seemed to have mistaken the harbour and put into some more distant haven. The cause of this was made clear as crystal to our friend Hyam Eezi by a simple working man. The occasion was another General Election, and this man proved in the most convincing manner that the previous two gentlemen were arrant swindlers, both of them employers of labour and consequently living upon the ill-gotten wealth they sweated from the honest workers. What we wanted was a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, also pensions for mothers, also no taxes on food, also better education. What we wanted was Peace in Europe; Houses to let at low Rents; No Profiteering; No Inhabited House Duty; No Entertainment Tax; Larger Unemployment Dole; More Scholarships; Cheap Electricity; Sugar Beet Factories, and, above all, No Unemployment.

Who could resist it? Not Hyam Eezi! Here was a man of his own class, who talked his own language. Here were thing he could understand. Houses at low rents! No Profiteering! No Unemployment! These were ideas he could handle. And the remedy was so exquisitely simple. Just put a little cross opposite this honest toiler’s name and the Dawn was guaranteed visible within a few short weeks. God!. would polling day never arrive?

Alas! The months have gone by with little to distinguish them from the drab years before. Hyam still hires himself out when he can find a hirer, and starves when he can’t. The honest working man of his last choice is painfully explaining to him how the main caravan missed its way, but how grateful he should be for what has been salvaged. The capitalists of France and of Germany are on much better terms; the capitalists of England and of France are happier together; the “socialist” capitalists of Russia and the ordinary capitalists of England are in a fair way to doing business; the low-rented houses are, er— on paper; the thirty million pounds (think of it, Hyam!) a year off food taxes has reduced the cost of living, except where it has gone up; the landlord has been freed of the irritating Inhabitated House Duty;, your seat at the ”pictures” has gone down a whole penny—in some places; we have increased the pittance to ex-Servicemen whom we sent to be butchered in the War; we have—, but Hyam is bewildered.. He asks himself what all this means to him. Receiving no answer, he seeks out one of those “extremist” fellows who works in the same shop, and inquires rather irrelevantly: “Where the devil are we, mate? ”

“Mate” replies : “Look here, Hyam boy, the main thing that’s wrong is yourself. All these loquacious gentlemen have had one thing in common. They have invited you to trust them. You have done so; that is why you now find yourself ‘trussed.’ Your trouble is glaringly thrust in your face every morning, but you are so used to it, you don’t notice it. You ‘book-on,’ or 'clock-on' at a definite time, and after some hours have gone, you 'book-off.’ But you feel different,  don’t you? Something has gone from you; you are tired; you have less energy. There you have it. The firm have had so many hours of your energy—and what have they given you in exchange? A wage. And what does a wage represent? The cost of replacing the energy, plus a bit to enable you to bring up kiddies to take your place. Many factors make wages vary, but the point round which they vary is the average cost of living. So you see, Hyam, you are a thing of hire, a piece of merchandise, a commodity. In selling your energy, you sell yourself, for you are inseparable. You sell yourself—a piece at a time; and when your energy thins off, you are scrapped. Foreign Agreements don’t help you; Russian and German Loans don’t help you. You still remain a worker. The whole collection of Pensions,' Insurances, Health Benefits, etc., do not really affect you. You remain a worker. Cheap rents, cheap food, low rents, low taxes, cheap everything, do not affect you. Cheap cost of living means cheap wages. With any wages, high or low, you remain a worker. And that is the whole trouble. Palliatives do not palliate; 'benefits' do not benefit; 'something now’ means next to nothing for ever.

"The system under which we live is called Capitalism. Under it the land, factories and means by which we all live are owned by small groups of people. The workers, the great mass of the people, hire themselves out to the capitalist at so much per day, per week or per month. The result of their toil goes to the owners of the tools of production; the workers get their hire. When the capitalists cannot make a profit out of the hire of labour they stop hiring it and the labourer starves. Starving men are desperate men, so good, kind capitalism arranges a scheme of Insurance, that just sufficiently dulls the edge of desperation to secure the continuance of the system of capitalism. Your Labour party has sounded the loud trumpet over their having increased this "benefit” You can read this little lesson for yourself, can’t you.

"The Socialist says there is one problem, and one problem only, before the worker: his wage-slavery. There is one solution and one solution only for his problem; that he and his fellows must own the means whereby they all live. To do this they must capture the political machinery of society—Parliament—not by trusting to any glib-tongued orator to do something for them, but by organising in the workers’ party, the Socialist Party, to capture and use the political machinery in the interests of the whole working class. That is a very brief outline of Socialism, and if it appeals to you, don't trust any more to people who are going to bring Utopia here without the least effort on your part, but come into the Socialist Party and work for Socialism. Socialism will come when enough of you want it. Why not begin to work now, Hyam? ”

W. T. Hopley

Nationalism = Parochialism

'It seems to me that you are bound to assume that a self-governing Scotland is going to be immediately morally better, and I don’t see it unless there has also been a revolution.’ - novelist Naomi Mitchison to the Scottish nationalist Robert Muirhead in 1953.

 The responsibility of the Socialist Party is to state things as they are. The whole of  humanity to-day is divided into territorial and ethnical sections. This is a matter of fact which we all have to take account of whether we like it or not. But it need not affect socialist principles. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is no less a party for world socialism any more than its Manchester branch of the Party need not be for the promotion of Lancashire socialism. The Socialist Party is internationalist and cosmopolitan.

We have witnessed a rapid growth in and an intensification of nationalist movements. However, they are not to be confused with socialism. Nationalist movements are not desirable from a socialist point of view. The nationalist ideology leads to the pursuit of a class collaborationist reformist Utopia. A section of the Scottish capitalist class perceive the declining fortunes of British capitalism. They want to cut themselves free from the sinking British economy. To gain support they offer the prospect of a series of reforms frequently illusory to Scottish workers. The Socialist Party does not defend the integrity of the United Kingdom in any way. To do so is to line up with a predominant British nationalism in Britain today. That does not mean we are in favour of separatism. We do not spread the illusion among Scottish workers that independence would be any gain for them. We insist that a sovereign Scotland will leave the workers in exactly the same position as before. Perhaps even in a worse position  for we say nationalism threatens to poison relations between English, Scottish and Welsh workers. Class unity is about solidarity, which recognises no borders. Separatism will not miraculously end the many problems facing Scottish workers.

There exists left nationalists who project a scenario of a Scottish road to socialism. Such an event could only happen in conditions of massively heightened class struggle, but in how is it possible that a dramatic event would only take place in Scotland and not the rest of Britain? The socialist revolution is a global event. 

The nationalist campaign a diversion from the class struggle. The role of the Socialist Party is to oppose the expression of nationalist sentiments. Our aim is world socialism and the overthrow of world capitalism. Nationalism is completely reactionary. There is now only one class capable of overthrowing capitalism: the working class. There is no ideology that serves the interests of both the ruling class and the working class. With socialism, people will have neither to keep its ancient nationalities nor to constitute new ones, because by becoming free socialism will abolish classes: the world will be its mother land, its fatherland and everybody will become brothers and sisters.