Lest we forget

Obituary from the August 2020 issue of the Socialist Standard

West London branch regret to have to report the death of Comrade Gordon Docherty in June at the age of 79. He hailed from Glasgow where he joined the local branch in 1964 after listening to Party speakers in George Square. He served an apprenticeship as a turner lathe operator at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan and was one of a number of Glasgow comrades who moved to London at the end of the 1960s.

As a skilled engineering worker he had no problem in finding a job, at the Lucas CAV factory in Acton where he was an active trade unionist and AEU shop steward. In 1974 he won a landmark court case – which the New Statesman called ‘the case of Mr Docherty’s furniture’ – which resulted in hundreds of thousands of furnished tenancies becoming unfurnished and so enjoying a greater security against eviction.

He was a regular attendee at branch meetings and other branch events till last year. Our condolences go to his family and friends.

Out with the old - In with the new

End the Old - Build the New

 We are the Socialist Party which can transform society. Our aim is the socialist revolution that will put an end to capitalist exploitation and all the forms of oppression that inevitably accompany it. Will you help?

Humanity has become class-divided communities through the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a minority of people who constitute themselves as the ruling class. The aim of all those who want working class self-emancipation has to be the destruction of the capitalism

The theory of surplus value is the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory. Marx argued that the value of every commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour time spent on its production. Where the capitalist economists saw a relation of things (the exchange of one commodity for another), Marx revealed a relation among people. The exchange of commodities expresses the tie by which individual producers are bound through the market. Money signifies that this tie is becoming closer and closer, inseparably binding the entire economic life of the individual producers into one whole. Capital signifies a further development of this tie: people’s labour power becomes a commodity. The wage-worker sells labour power to the owner of the land, factories and instruments of labour. The worker uses one part of the labour day to cover living expenses (wages), while the other part of the day the worker toils without remuneration, creating surplus value for the capitalist. This is the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class.

As the working class fights against its increasingly worsened position it comes to the realisation that the only way out is for labour to take what it has produced for itself. To take over the means of production, the mines, mills, factories, resources, utilities and run them for their own benefit. Then we will have production for use and not for profit. Then we will end both despotism in the factory and anarchy in the market. Then society will allocate its resources and labour power according to a social plan that will benefit all. It is capitalism which creates the working class, which places this class before its problems, which sharpens its intelligence and gives it its science. It is capitalism that arms the workers and gives them the strength to carry out their own interests. In short, capitalism as it grows out of date creates its own grave-diggers who begin to do their work. But the interest of the workers is diametrically opposed to the interest of the capitalists and exploiters of the workers who, controlling the government and the social educational agencies, strive to keep the workers down. The capitalists want to keep the old relations of exploitation. They fight the rise of the workers. But their only alternative is to plunge society into one crisis and one war after another. The victory of the workers cannot be forever delayed.

When, however, the workers of the world unite to take over, then the rule over persons will begin to give way to an administration over things. The state, with its religion, will begin to wither away. There will be no exploitation. There will be no classes. Each will receive according to what he puts in, and as the productivity of labour will greatly increase, each will receive according to needs and will contribute according to ability. When we have reached socialism humanity will have reached a rational system of society where development of mankind will no longer be choked by social relations, where, therefore, society will be a free one and humanity emancipated. Socialism is seen, and rightly so, as the complete negation of the social order that has dominated the world for many generations of mankind. The supporters of capitalism have nothing to offer mankind beyond the continuous existence of a system of society which totters on under the the weight of crises inherent in that very system. 

Socialism will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society, decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a new foundation. The whole future of humanity rests on the emergence of the working class as the creative force in society. Socialism meets the desire for freedom. With the end of class oppression the state disappears.

Wars, hunger, environmental destruction are a terrible cost humanity has had to pay for the delay in instituting socialism after capitalism has outlived its usefulness. This delay of the revolution has visited a terrible plague upon mankind that is going to destroy hundreds of thousands of human lives. 

We Will Change The World

The Socialist Party is for general emancipation, i.e. for a class-free society. But such emancipation presupposes the abolition of private property, of commodity production and of the market economy, as well as of competition and the private enrichment. The realisation of these goals is only possible when the socialist struggle for them is merged with the real struggle of a class that is materially interested in it, intellectually prepared for it, and socially inclined to it. This means a class that is potentially capable of ‘bringing all wheels to a standstill’ if it so wishes; a class that, organised into the associated producers, is capable of taking over the organisation of production. The overthrow of capitalism, the transition to a class-free society, the replacement of domination by a free association of producers can emerge from the self-organization and inevitable, elementary class struggle of working people.

The educational and organisational activity, the stimulating of class consciousness and class organization shall be the task of the Socialist Party to build a society without private property, production of goods, money, enrichment, competition and nation-state. The practical task of abolishing the bondage of humanity thus becomes the practical politics of the Socialist Party. Its case is the total renunciation of manoeuvring, of tactics, of temporary compromises and retreat is unrealistic and impossible even if it means facing our opponents with the hands tied. Endless scheming, unlimited willingness to compromise, unprincipled manoeuvres, and total exclusion of self-activity, initiative, and action of one’s own class leads to nothing and brings us no closer to the goal.  Realpolitik and Machiavellianism can never be the strategy of the Socialist Party because the emancipatory goal is not a small-minded but a radical one: to overturn all conditions in which man is a degraded, enslaved being. Particular methods cannot bring about our goal because they contradict it too much. Even temporary, partial successes have long-term effects that are devastating. The unique nature of the socialist revolution  is that it can only be realised by a conscious majority. To this end it must conquer political power. The goal can only be achieved through the self-organisation and self-activity of working people.

Capitalists cannot exist without workers, but workers can exist without capitalists. As it is workers who actually do the producing, they are quite capable of undertaking this activity in their own interests. This cannot be accomplished unless workers are aware of their objective interests and are organised to achieve this goal.  The socialist movement without a working class is impossible. But a working class which does not have the necessary knowledge to effect its transformation will not spontaneously evolve into a revolutionary force. For this to occur, workers in large enough numbers must develop sufficient knowledge concerning the nature of capitalist society, the nature of the state and the necessity of revolution to “change the world”.

In a democratically planned and ecologically rational society, many of the lifestyle changes that individualist environmentalism points to as necessary would occur, but as part of a social process of liberation, not as a forced sacrifice or moralistic principle. Work would be structured in ways that allow people to feel a closer connection with the production of food and resources. Overall, a socialist society would give us the freedom to live fulfilling lives less centered around consumption. The level of individual consumption will naturally decrease, without anyone forcing workers to lower their standard of living. Certainly there would be changes in what people consume in a sustainable society — an ecologically sound agricultural system would probably supply less meat and less out-of-season produce — but this would occur because of a change in production in context of revolutionary liberation leading to a better life (overall, such an agricultural system would supply healthier, cheaper and better-tasting food), so it would not be experienced as a sacrifice. All this being said, environmentalists must face the reality that much of the world does need higher levels of consumption — more stuff.

Billions of people in the world need, in order to live fulfilling lives, secure food and water, better transportation and communications infrastructure, and medical services. Under a democratic, planned program of development, these resources could be produced in different, more efficient and ecologically sound ways, paid for by reparations from imperialist capital for its centuries of exploitation, and in concert with reducing the ecological footprint of the developed countries. If people have no secure means of subsistence to live, they will survive as best they can using what means are available to them, which tend to be highly ecologically destructive.  Poverty is a major part of the reason there is so much deforestation. Renewable energy provision for the entire planet — and the eradication of poverty — would have to be part of any move to living sustainably with the Earth. The only way to both develop human potential around the world and regenerate a healthy biosphere is through a development of the productive forces of society. A democratically planned and ecologically rational society will be able to overcome the ways in which capitalism is holding us back from producing more efficiently and sustainably. In an economy designed to meet human needs, there would be many opportunities to eliminate waste: for example, by eliminating product packaging, by eliminating planned obsolescence so that electronic equipment and machines (e.g. laptops and mobile phones) will last longer, by reducing imports and exports and producing locally where most efficient, and by eliminating many industries — advertising, health insurance, financial services, the military — that will be largely useless in a socialist society.

Further, the technological basis of society could be transformed. We could adopt a power system based around solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy. We could redesign urban areas based around walking, bicycling and public transit. And we could transform our agricultural methods, drawing from organic agriculture and permaculture techniques.

All these transformations in production and social allocation of resources are possible with technologies that exist now, but capitalism’s drive for private profit holds us back from implementing them. An ecologically rational society is incompatible with capitalism. Ecology need not be treated as a separate concern that must be brought into other movements. Because all aspects of society are involved in the relation to nature, all struggles have an ecological dimension; and because a sustainable society and a socialist society are inseparable as the aspiration ecological demands belong in all struggles.

The spirit of socialism is best summarised in the verse from the Internationale:

“No saviour from on high delivers

No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear.”

For the Human Family

1. The abolition of the private ownership of the means of production.

2. Elimination of competition and production for exchange value and its replacement by democratic planning and production for use.

3. Workers’ and people’s management of the economy and society.

4. The abolition of wage labour.

5. The elimination of classes.

6. The disappearance of the state.

7. Full socialist development of the productive forces in the context of world socialism

8. From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.

Class society is not specific to capitalism, nor does the abolition of private property necessarily imply the abolition of class society. Too often the left has fallen into the trap of associating the abolition of private ownership and its replacement by a nationalised economy as the key process in establishing socialism. 

So long as the capitalists remain in possession of the reins of government all the powers of the state will be used to protect and defend their property rights in the means of wealth production, and their control of the product of labour. The capitalist system gives to the capitalist an ever-swelling stream of profits, and to the worker an ever-increasing measure of misery and degradation. The interest of the working class lies in the direction of setting itself free from capitalist exploitation by the abolition of the wage system. To accomplish this necessitates the transformation of capitalist property in the means of wealth production into collective or working class property. The irrepressible conflict of interests between the capitalist and the worker is rapidly culminating in a struggle for possession of the powers of government—the capitalist to hold, the worker to secure it by political action. 

“Get to work! Work faster! Work harder! Work longer for the same pay!” This is the song of all the bosses. This is the class struggle.

Therefore, we call upon all wage-earners to organize under the banner of the Socialist Party, with the object of conquering the public powers for the purpose of setting up and enforcing the economic program of the working class, as follows:

1. The transformation, as rapidly as possible, of capitalist property in the means of wealth production (natural resources, factories, mills, railways, etc.) into the collective property of the working class.

2. Thorough and democratic organization and management of industry by the workers.

3.  The establishment, as speedily as possible, of production for use in lieu of production for profit.

The Socialist Party shall always and everywhere, until the present system is utterly abolished, make the answer to this question its guiding rule of conduct: Will this legislation advance the interests of the working class and aid the workers in their class struggle against capitalism? If it will, the Socialist party is for it; if it will not, the Socialist Party is absolutely opposed to it. The Socialist Party pledges itself to conduct all the public affairs placed in its hands in such manner as to promote the interests of the working class alone.

The Socialist Party stands upon the clearest and most uncompromising platform in the world. We shall exert ourselves in the effort to reconstruct human society on the basis of socialism. Ours is a party for the oppressed everywhere. We address ourselves to all workers. We cannot wait patiently for capitalism to collapse. Rally to the call for complete emancipation.