Take Their Power from Them

 

The vast majority of our population live by, or are dependent on, the sale of labour power to industries and businesses owned or dominated by capitalists. They own no tools of production. They own no property. labourers in all trades and occupations, and their dependents, including scientists, engineers, technicians, mechanics. The capitalists know better than anyone else that their “free enterprise” is not free at all, where the monopolies and corporations have destroy the last vestiges of the small independent producers. Capitalism produced small wars. Capitalism produces world wars. Wars can be postponed but they cannot be prevented. The grip of the capitalists by means of their ownership and control of the means of life, their domination of government to maintain their power to rob and rule can, must be broken. Working class power is the essential condition for far-reaching social change.

 The immediate aim of the Socialist Party is the revolutionary transformation of society culminating the creation of a class-free and state-free society in which the guiding principle will be ’From each according to ability, to each according to need’. The immediate goal of the Socialist Party is to transform an economy based upon private ownership of the means of production with the aim of maximising profits for the capitalist class into an economy based upon common ownership of the means of production with the aim of maximising the satisfaction of the human needs of the people. 

 Despite the tremendous power of technology large numbers of people still lack nutritious food, decent housing and many other benefits of modern civilisation, simply because capitalist relations of production restrict the truly useful application of the forces of production. The, first step of socialism is liberating the productive forces by expropriation of means of production, the industrial and commercial concerns, from capitalist class. As the working class abolishes capitalist relations of production and replaces them by non-oppressive, non-exploitive ones then the alienating characteristics of capitalism will disappear. As  people gain control of their productive activity and the products of their labour so their antagonistic estrangement from each other and their aversion to work will be overcome. Productive activity will become once again a creative, fulfilling and truly human activity. The division between work and non-work will gradually disappear and people will freely choose what to produce rather than being constrained by immediate necessities.

 The capitalist system of production and social relations is antagonistic by its very nature. The purpose and the motive power of capitalist production is the derivation of profits. Under the conditions of capitalism, science as well as technology, whether consciously or unconsciously, serve the interests of capitalist profit. ‘Machines are a means for the production of surplus value..’ ["Capital" Volume I]  Capitalism, in developing new technology, pursues the purpose not of developing the forces of production to satisfy the requirements of society , but of increasing the profits. Therefore, capitalism introduces a new machine only when the difference between the price of this machine and the cost of labour-power that it replaces is sufficiently large to secure an average profit and successful competition in the market. Unemployment, under capitalism, is the inevitable consequence of technical progress.

 The buying of intellectual ownership rights, patents, maintaining secrecy in scientific research work such are everyday facts of industrial reality in capitalism. Under capitalism, the adoption of technical innovation and invention is always below the potential the level of scientific and technical development possible. Under capitalism, this discrepancy between technical possibilities and their industrial application becomes particularly great. Capitalism clips the wings of scientific creativity and technological initiative.  Even when scientific achievements are carried into effect are resulting only in worsening the conditions of millions of toilers, hence the latter are bound to treat them with indifference and hostility. As was written by Marx, "Under capitalism, to be a worker engaged in production is not a blessing, but a curse." Capitalism has clearly destroyed all the hopes that were entertained for the possibility of a lengthy period of prosperity without crisis. The liberating influences of labour-saving robotics and automation has become the  source of poverty and destitution for millions of workers. Millions of workers are shut out from the process of production; they are eager to work but they cannot find it. Others are engaged in non-productive labour, the gigantic machinery for suppressing the masses, the manufacturing of public opinion, and, lastly, service industries catering to the luxuries and whims of the bourgeoisie. Hundreds of millions toil from morning till night in factories, mines, plantations, burning away their stamina in a few years, turning old at 40. Hundreds of millions in agriculture are labouring in the sweat of their brow, under conditions which exclude the application of science and modern technique, to eke out the most miserable existence.

The most appalling part of capitalism is in the manner of how science and technology plays a role in wars and in in the preparations for wars. Research institutions and laboratories engage in the study of deadly weapons of warfare, rather than serve the needs of humanity.

Capitalism is the economics of the asylum.

Capitalist Confusion or Socialist Clarity?

 We aim at replacing the present capitalist system by socialism, understood as a system where there will be common ownership of the means of production and distribution. Socialism is a society where political power is in the hands of the working people We envisage socialism as a society where the exploitation of man by man will be ended, where production will be used not for private profit, where a new relationship of fraternity will develop between peoples based on equality and independence, where individual men and women will find totally new possibilities to develop their abilities. We see the need to win the overwhelming majority of the population for the fight against capitalism and for socialism.

 

 One of the favourite arguments of the anti-socialists used to be that if everything produced in Britain was divided up equally, this would make very little difference in the standard of living of the workers. Even if this were true – and it is not – it has absolutely nothing to do with Marx’s conception of socialism. In socialist society, production is not for profit but for use. But the machinery and the products are not divided out in kind among the people. After all, to divide up the product according to work done or any other principle is to confess that there is not enough to satisfy everyone’s needs. In capitalist society a family which is able to afford as much bread as all members of the family need does not share out a loaf on any principle: every member of the family takes what he or she needs. And when production in a socialist society has risen to such a height that all citizens can take what they need without anyone going short, there is no longer the slightest point in measuring and limiting what anyone takes. When that stage is reached, the principle on which production and distribution are based becomes: from each according to ability, to each according to needs. Socialism, as Marx used the term, is when the means of production are owned by the people and therefore there is no longer any exploitation of man by man.

 

 Socialism implies much more than merely material sufficiency. From the time when the working class takes power and begins the change to socialism, a change also begins to take place in the outlook of the people. All kinds of barriers which under capitalism seemed rigid grow weaker and are finally broken down. Education and all opportunities for development are open to all equally. Class differences no longer exist. Everyone becomes an “intellectual,” while “intellectuals” no longer separate themselves off from physical work. Women are no longer looked on as inferior or unable to play their part in every sphere of the life of society. The barriers between ethnic groups are broken down. There are no races” in a socialist society; no one is treated as superior or inferior because of colour or nationality. Socialist society shows that it will mean the end of wars. When production and distribution in each country are organised on a socialist basis, there will be no group in any country which will have the slightest interest in conquering other countries. Democracy is not limited to voting for a representative in parliament every five years. In every factory, in every block of flats, in every aspect of life, men and women are shaping their own lives and the destiny of their country. More and more people are drawn into some sphere of public life, given responsibility for helping themselves and others. This is a much fuller, more real democracy than exists anywhere else. The difference between the town and the countryside is broken down. Vast changes also take place in the development and outlook of men and women. They will be people with an all-round development, an all-round training, people who will be able to do everything.  The self-seeking, individualist outlook bred by capitalism will have been replaced by a really social outlook, a sense of responsibility to society.

 

This  could only be regarded as Utopian by people who do not understand the materialist basis of society. Human beings have no fixed characteristics and outlook, eternally permanent. In primitive tribal society, even in those forms of it which have survived to recent times, the sense of responsibility to the tribe is very great. In later society, after the division of society into classes, the sense of social responsibility was broken down, but still showed itself in a certain feeling of responsibility to the class. In capitalist society there is the most extreme disintegration of social responsibility: the system makes “every person for oneself” the main principle of life.

 

But even under capitalism there is “solidarity” among the workers – a sense of common shared interest. This is not an idea which someone has thought of and put into the heads of workers: it is an idea which arises out of the material conditions of working-class life, the fact that they get their living in the same way, working alongside each other. Individualists, on the other hand, possess no sense of social or collective responsibility, such as the capitalist surrounded by competitors, each struggling to survive by killing each other off. These  ideas of the dominant class – the competition and rivalry instead of solidarity – tend to spread among the workers. But the fundamental basis for the outlook of any class (as distinct from individuals) is the material conditions of life, the way it gets its living. Hence it follows that the outlook of people can be changed by changing their material conditions, the way in which they get their living.

What Socialists Aspire Towards

 In the warfare against class-rule and social wrong the Socialist Party was borne and will play its full part. The Socialist Party is attacking the very heart of misery and degradation which is capitalism. It is attacking the poverty growing heavier with every day, by calling for a society for the benefit of all people. The opponents of the Socialist Party say our goal is impractical and not feasible But we proudly stand for a change in the basis of present society - a change which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities. The Socialist Party aims at the realisation of world socialism. For us neither geographical boundaries, nationality nor race makes rivals or enemies; for us there are no nations, but only varied and diverse fellow-workers. Socialism would substitute community of interest for conflict of interest.

 

The study of economics is no doubt necessary for socialists; the more a person knows of it, the more able he or she is to meet not only the sophistries of the ‘educated’ anti-socialist, but, which is still more important, the awkward and hard-to-be-answered questions which people who have never thought of these matters at all sometimes stumble on. The essence of socialism is that both the production and the distribution of goods will be carried on for the benefit of the community. What greater purpose is there than working to create a world that secures the health of our world and for the well-being of all our peoples? Our vision is one of communities cooperatively linked together and dedicated to protecting the planet and all who live on it.

 

Socialism will exist for the welfare of society, and will be co-operative in the widest sense. It would subordinate to the real welfare of society; i.e., the production of goods not  production of profits as the means for the ease and happiness of life. For instance, in any society it is desirable that cotton should be produced at the least expenditure of labour, but in a socialist society it would be impossible to condemn a part of the population to live under miserable conditions, conditions worse than that of others in order to reduce the expenditure of labour for the community.

 

There will be necessary work to be done which will repellent. Much of this could be automated when the restrictions laid on production by the exigencies of profit-making were removed. But perhaps a portion of this work may not be done by robots. For this volunteers would have to be relied upon; nor would there be any difficulty in obtaining them, considering that the habit of looking upon necessary labour from the point of view of social duty would be universal. Disagreeable work which a socialist society found itself saddled with as a survival of past times, and which it found out not to be necessary, it would get rid of altogether.

 

The hope of socialism that carries the future of mankind within it may well be buried under the ruins of civilisation collapse brought about by a nuclear war disaster or the environmental catastrophe. The madness will not stop and the nightmare of hell will not cease until the workers of the world stir from their slumber and embrace one another in brotherhood. Today, the organised and unified class movement is a shell of its former self. It hardly exists. The rise of a socialist movement depends today on the rise of a politically-conscious working class. The Socialist Party dedicates itself to the purpose of hastening and influencing such a development.

 

The socialist concern with community is reflected even in our language—“brother,” “sister,” and “comrade” are used to address people with whom we do not know, indicating that there are firm bonds of a common cause. Our vision is for a society where people will see their own good as being connected and dependent to the good of others. No more free of fear and envy, and instead both self and mutual respect. It is which we aim to secure, through the abolition of the capitalist private property relations. We hope that people will come to respect one another in ways that they cannot under capitalism.

THE WORLD FOR ALL

Common-Sense Socialism

 

The Socialist Party is often criticised for offering no details of the socialist society which would follow on from that system of waste and war which is capitalism. Our critics demand a concrete idea of what socialism will be like. To this the Socialist Party answers that we do not set ourselves to build up a system to please our tastes; nor are we seeking to impose it on the world in a mechanical manner, but that we are helping to bring about a development of history which would take place without our help, but which nevertheless compels us to assist it. Under these circumstances it would be futile to map out the conditions of life in socialism which would  so different. Those details will be taken care of by the men and women who will be fortunate enough as to be born into a society relieved of the oppression which crushes us, and who surely will be, not less, but more prudent and reasonable than we are. Yet we can say that the prospect of socialism cannot fail to rouse our imaginations and to picture ourselves when the revolution will put socialism within the reach of all. Because we are at war, class against class and man against man; all our time is taken up with that; we are forced to busy ourselves not with the arts of peace, but with the arts of war, which are briefly, trickery and oppression. Under such conditions of life labour can but be a terrible burden, degrading to the workers, more degrading to those who live upon their work. This is the system which we seek to overthrow, and supplant by one in which work will no longer be a burden. Fellow-workers, what you have to do is to determine that you will be men, not machines, and will have full control as a body over your own labour, that you will organise it for the good of each of you and all of you. If you determine on this whatever it may cost, and it is worth any cost, you will obtain it, with the suffrage or without it:

 

There is no programme worthy of the acceptance by the working-class that stops short of the abolition of private property in the means of production. Any other platform is misleading and dishonest. It has two faces to it, one of which says to the working people, "This is socialism or the beginning of it" (which it is not), and the other says to the capitalist, "This is sham socialism (which it is) so get your workers to accept it and it will save you."

 

We are of the working class because we have no meaningful ownership of the institutions that produce everyday essentials. We have nothing but our bodies and minds, that we are obliged to hire out to employers. We are compelled to carry out jobs with little fulfilment or satisfaction and we either work too long hours, or else not enough hours to make an income for even a basic living. All of this means that our lives are dominated by the capitalist economy. Only the wealthy ruling class benefit from this capitalist order. Our freedom will only come from common ownership, free access, and democratic control over the means of life. The Socialist Party’s object is to end capitalist exploitation and domination for good.

 

Once capitalist society is dead and buried, working people will find fulfilment beyond what is possible in today’s society. We have everything to gain from our collective liberation, real liberty and true equality. Such shared desires spur us to act together. Socialism must be worldwide or it is nothing! The system of capital that confronts us is thoroughly international; it reaches well beyond the boundaries of nation-states. Just as global capitalism, today’s working class crosses all national borders. Capitalism is a world threat, and only a globally-organised working class is sufficient for fighting it. Standing in the way of socialism is the capitalist class. They control the economic life of the planet They control the destinies of billions around the globe. The conditions of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the capitalists. The capitalist class is a powerful enemy  but there is a potentially stronger force opposing them: the vast majority of people all over the world.

 

The government serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. The state suppresses and controls opposition to capitalism. It maintains social order to provide a stable environment for big business. It does this through the massive state apparatus. It also helps direct the capitalist economy and administer vital support services.

 

Socialism is a society of peace, prosperity and mutual aid. When cooperation has taken the place of competition there will be no outlet for war and destruction and the injuring of our neighbours and waste of our natural resources.

 

We are the SPGB,
The Socialist Party.
We teach you how you’re robbed and bled;
And show you how to build a workers’ world instead.

Green Cities

 Edinburgh and Glasgow have more green space than any of the UK's other 10 most populated cities. Edinburgh tops the list with 49% green space. Glasgow's total of 32% placed it second in the league table

Socialists Shall Prevail

 In truth a knowledge of socialism is not hard to acquire at the present time with so many distortions and misconceptions that are prevalent on both the Right and Left. At one time there were differences of opinion between socialists chiefly in the means to be used to achieve it yet in the aims of socialism there was really little difference. This is no longer the case. There are proponents of various “socialisms” that are clearly no resemblance of the original goal. Some of these “socialists” are purposefully acting disingenuously, while others merely try to placate a hostile audience.

A very general broad description of socialism is an aspiration towards a society founded on mutual goodwill and fair dealing, in other words towards a real society. Socialism is an economic change pure and simple to attain such a society. The aim of the Socialist Party is the realisation of a society based on equality for all persons without distinction and that the necessary step to achieve this society is the abolition of monopoly in ownership of the means of production, which should be owned by no individual, but by the whole community, in order that the use of them may be free to all, the recognition of the maxim ‘from each according to ability, to each according to needs’. 

 The Socialist Party speaks of world socialism where the workers do not recognise the national distinctions made by their masters, and that in the society of the future, nations as political entities will cease to exist, and give place to the federation of communities bound together by locality or convenience.

The Socialist Party has declared over and over again its sense of the futility of socialists wasting their time in getting  palliative measures passed by parliament, which, even if desirable are only temporarily useful. The Socialist Party believes there can be no useful purpose served by their running campaigns for the votes of those who do not understand the principles of socialism and who attracted solely by election promises made by the candidates. Our present political education is good for one thing - the creation of discontent.

The bonds in socialist society will be voluntary in the sense that all people will agree in its broad principles when it is fairly established, and will trust to it as affording mankind the best kind of life possible. However, any community will at times determine a course of action which, without being in itself oppressive, will give rise to dissent from some of its members. If that happens should the issue be left alone? Should the  minority give way or should the majority prevail? Life shows us that wherever a dozen thoughtful individuals shall meet together there will be twelve separate opinions. And we must not forget that mankind is a very complex species. We are made up with many different moods and impulses; no-one is always wise, or knowledgeable in all respects and if those twelve people want to act together, there must be give and take among them, and they must agree on some sort of common rule of conduct to act as a bond between them and that is, the conscience of the association voluntarily accepted by all in the first instance. There are some anarchists who describe the tyranny of the majority imposing its will upon the minority yet if it is not be carried by a majority then it must be carried by a minority. Where all are equal under a voluntary association, ‘give and take’ would influence people’s minds.

The Socialist Party makes it clear to our fellow-workers that private property permits the privileged few to compel the many to live in misery. Let it be clearly understood that only two systems of society are possible, wage-slavery and world-socialism. Common ownership and the abolition of the individual ownership of property is our aim, the aim of all real socialists.

Will Parliament help us towards the accomplishment of this aim? Take another question as an answer to that first question. What is the aim of Parliament? The upholding of privilege; the society of rich and poor; the society of inequality. For our part in the Socialist Party, we say that in the social revolution taking place the workers may be obliged to use parliament in order to thwart the resistance of the reactionaries. When the Socialists are strong enough to capture the parliament in order to put an end to it, the revolution will have all but come.

The bosses with most sincere conviction.
say there’s nothing wrong with the system,
It just needs a little fixin’.
But socialists around the world, 
we have the solution:
We want Revolution!