Socialism - A Better World

 

The Socialist Party seeks to build a workers’ movement which believes in political action and also in economic organisation.  Both these methods go side by side. What the workers need is political education, class consciousness and trade union solidarity. When it comes to a showdown between the working class and the capitalist class, these are vitally necessary. Until we break the power of the state, nothing else can be accomplished. When we proclaim the abolition of the capitalists’ property and the establishment of common property, that in itself is a political act. And the socialists believe that it is necessary, as a matter of strategy, to attack the capitalist at his only accessible point, his government. We regard the state as a very efficient weapon in the hands of the ruling class. Until it is taken over no attempt at a social revolution will be safe for the working class. With the armed power of the state out of the way, then we shall be in a position to inaugurate a co-operative commonwealth, and we shall be ready to set it in motion. And when that time comes, it will be done through the activities of the economic organisation of the working class.

The  wages system, under which labour has been reduced to a commodity is to be supplanted by the cooperative system under which all may engage in useful occupation and work together in harmonious cooperation for the emancipation of labour, the uplifting of humanity, and the advancement of our civilisation. By uniting at the ballot box, political control of the State can be secured, and the cooperative commonwealth established. The Socialist Party is not content with piecemeal, incremental improvements in the conditions of the working class, but instead advances the need for a revolutionary transformation of society that would result in a cooperative commonwealth where workers would democratically determine their working conditions. We shall unite all our energies to destroy the present capitalist system.

The time has come for social regeneration, and this is only possible through a new and worldwide change of system.

We therefore call upon all to muster under the banner of the Socialist Party, so that we may be ready to conquer capitalism by making use of our political liberty and by taking possession of State power, so that we may put an end to the present barbarous struggle, by the abolition of capitalism, the restoration of the land, and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribution, to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth for the present state of unplanned production, commercial competition, and social strive — a commonwealth which, although it will not make every person equal physically or mentally, will give to every worker the free exercise and the full benefit of his or her abilities , multiplied by all the modern factors of civilisation and ultimately inaugurate the universal brotherhood of mankind. The Socialist Party will make democracy, “the rule of the people,” a truth by ending the economic subjugation of the overwhelmingly great majority of the people. The cooperative commonwealth is the inevitable, inexorable product of the evolution of society. There is no power in capitalism, nor in the universe, that can prevent the consummation of a united and harmonious socialist movement in the cooperative commonwealth.

Private ownership of the centralised means of production and distribution — an industrial despotism, or common ownership and an industrial democracy? It must be one or the other — which? Socialism will wrest the earth from its exploiters and its vast and inexhaustible storehouse will yield abundance for all. The growth of socialism is the promise of freedom. Socialism means a more perfect and equitable distributions of the products of labour; cooperation instead of competition; common ownership of land, capital, and all the means of production and distribution. It proclaims the coming of the cooperative commonwealth to take the place of wage slavery.

The present economic system is not only a failure, but a colossal aggregation of crime. It robs, it degrades, it starves; it is a foul blot upon the face of civilisation. It promises only an increase of the horrors which the world deplores. There is no hope for our fellow-workers except by the path mapped out by socialists, the advocates of the cooperative commonwealth.

As we have witnessed in the recent American election, it will then make no sort of difference to capitalists, or to the working class either, whether the Republican or the Democratic Party be in control of government; for capitalism will be in possession of both parties. The perpetuity of the capitalist system depends upon its having two political parties, about equally matched, to play off against each other, and to shuttlecock the proletariat behind blind issues. America]s electoral process have long been a sort of Punch and Judy show; and it has been all one to the working man, whether he was looking at Republican Punch or Democratic Judy. The strings of both parties were in the capitalists’ hands.

Whatever is done we must do ourselves

 

Joseph Dietzgen, in his philosophical works, has demonstrated the fact that all of man’s ideas come from the outside—that no thought ever sprang spontaneous in the human brain. In other words—human thoughts, human ideas, spring from human contacts and experiences with the physical universe about us. Man’s ability to think—his consciousness—the thing we call the "Ego"—the mind—is a natural development. According to Dietzgen, "human thoughts and ideas spring from human experiences." Similar experiences produce similar ideas. History furnishes us with many instances of great popular and class movements which concertedly move towards some definite goal, having discovered those similarities of experience and their common ground. Mankind is a product of its environment; and that its collective thoughts and ideas are generated by contacts and experiences with the world around it.

 The wages system is, in essence, another form of servitude. Free trade—free competition in buying and selling commodities—is the basic principle of the Capitalist system of exchange of private property, and it is but natural that the labor-power of the working class should also be regarded as a commodity. In fact, it is inevitable that, under a system of production for profit, labour-power should take on such a character and that it should be bought and sold in the open market according to the law of supply and demand of commodities. Nor is it surprising that in a competitive market, where the seller with the greatest necessity for cash fixes the market price, the price of labour-power should always tend to sink to the level of a bare subsistence for the workers; and that those workers with the ability to exist at the lowest standard of living should dictate the terms on which the others may also continue to exist. The whole tendency of the wage system has been to drag all the workers down to the same poverty.

The associated producers collectively organise and manages production and is itself responsible for overseeing the labour process. This is self-organisation, This is self-management.

“… by far the most important decree of the Commune instituted an organization of large-scale industry and even of manufacture which was to not only be based on the association of the workers in each factory, but also to combine all these associations in one great union; in short, an organization which, as Marx quite rightly says in The Civil War, must necessarily have led in the end to communism.” (Engels, Preface to The Civil War in France).

We, the workers, who operate the productive apparatus that has been bequeathed to us by capitalism will strip away all State power. We shall reduce the role of public officials and civil servants to that of mere executors of our directions, responsible to recallable by the workplace or community. We want every person engaged in industry to have a voice in making the rules under which they must work. In socialism the workers would elect their own administrators, regulate their hours of work and determine the conditions under which work would be carried on. We may be sure that when this power is arrived at, the work-places will be arranged according to wishes of the workers and all disagreeable pollution and noise eliminated, and with every precaution taken against accidents. In other words, under Socialism the workers would have absolute freedom in the economic sphere in place of the present absolute servitude.

The economic emancipation of the working class requires a political revolution, the conquering of state power. Workers have not yet awakened to independent political activity. The pro-capitalist parties simply want the workers to be voting fodder in elections and servile camp-followers. They seek to keep the workers politically subservient. 

The Socialist Party emphasises the need of economic freedom, for it is the basis of all freedoms. There can be no liberty in economic dependence. Freedom will become the heritage of all as soon as socialism is realised. True liberty and freedom can only be attained in the cooperative commonwealth.

So long as the worker is deprived of ownership in the means  of production, so long as labour-power is a commodity which he or she is obliged to sell to another, a person is not free but simply a slave to a master. The worker today, then, is a slave, bound by the pressure of economic need to compulsory servitude under capitalist masters, obliged to sell one’s liberties in exchange for the means of subsistence. We live under the greatest tyranny of all — the tyranny of want. By this lash men and women are driven to work long hours and in despicable occupations and to live in slums.

With new technology and the scientific organisation of industry, eliminating all the wastes of the present system, two or three hours a day would suffice to supply all the comforts and even luxuries of life. This would secure to the worker the leisure necessary to to develop skills and talents.  

"If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself." - Joseph Dietzgen 

The Emancipation of the Wage Slaves

 

The purpose of the Socialist Party is to accomplish the Co-operative Commonwealth. We demand the common ownership and control of industry and its democratic management in the interest of all the people — that is our demand. The elimination of rent, interest, and profit and instead the production of wealth to satisfy the wants of all the people — that is our demand. Cooperative industry in which all shall work together in harmony as the basis of a new social system, that is our demand. The end of class struggles and class rule, of master and slave, of poverty  of cruelty and crime; the birth of freedom, the dawn of brotherhood, the evolution of mankind — that is our demand. That is our socialism!

The Socialist Party is organising to securing control of  government powers. Having conquered the political power upon the platform that declares in favour of common ownership in the name of the people, they will take possession of production. It will already have already begun the organisation of industry , that is to say, self-management. Industry will be will be cooperative in every department of human industry. Men and women will be economically free; life will no longer be a struggle for survival and sustenance. Labour will no longer be servitude. Every person will gladly do one’s share of the world’s useful work. Every person will be able to say honestly they enjoy his or her share. Every technology will be a blessing to mankind because it will serve to reduce the number of hours constituting a day’s work, and the work-day will be shortened in exact proportion to the progress of invention. Labour will no longer be bought and sold on the market of the world. We will not make things for sale, but will make things to use. We will fill the world with wealth and every person can have all that a person can rationally use. Rent, interest, and profit, three forces of exploitation, will disappear forever.

The existing system is unspeakably cruel. Capitalist society is a diseased organism. We boast of our civilisation and yet every nation on the face of the globe is armed to the teeth against other nations. Is that civilisation in the proper sense of the term? We must bear in mind that competition is war; that war is the normal state of capitalism. With the end of capitalism comes the end of war, and the inauguration of peace. The Socialist Party does what little it can to hasten to coming of the day when war shall curse this earth no more. Its members are not patriots and possess no ambition to kill their fellow-workers from another land.

The Socialist Party is the expression of the world socialist movement, based upon the class struggle in which all workers of all countries, regardless of race, nationality, creed, or sex, are called upon to unite against the capitalist class, their shared common exploiter and oppressor. In the class struggle the equality of all workers is a foregone conclusion, and who does not recognise and subscribe to it as one of the basic principles of the socialism  is not a socialist and should be speedily set adrift to  return to the capitalist parties with their divisions.  Foolish and vain indeed is the person who makes the colour of skin or nationality the stepping-stone to an imaginary superiority. Socialism will give all people economic freedom. Socialism will break the chains of capitalism.

The abolition of the capitalist system does not merely mean the emancipation of the working class, but of all society. It will level upwards. This planet for the first time  will be fit for  men and women to live in.

 

The SPGB - The People’s Party

 The economic basis of society is changing more rapidly today than ever before in human history. This is an age of social evolution.

So much has been said and written of socialism by those who have no proper understanding of it and who have resorted to a wilful misrepresentation of its ideas, that it is not at all strange that a great number of people reject it and look upon those who advocate socialism as enemies. The evolution of the social organisation is a fact in nature. In the ceaseless process one state of society follows another in the sequence of succession. Socialism means the overthrow of capitalism, the abolition of wage-slavery, and the creation of the cooperative commonwealth. It means a social revolution which shall give to every worker economic freedom. The working class is the foundation of society. You are the producers of all value. All the wealth you see around you is the result of labour. Yet, do you own the wealth which you produce? No, you do not. You are the wealth-producers, but you live under wage slavery, in poverty and misery.

 You are the fundamental power of society, and you don’t know it. You imagine that you are free, while in fact you are enslaved. The man who owns the tools of of your livelihood, the means of production, controls you. The class which owns the means of production, owns your very life. You elect the same political parties into power whose policies are to protect and advance the class interests of capitalism.. The politicians flatter you before the day of the election; after the election they forget you. Whenever and wherever organized labour is engaged in struggle against the powers of capitalism you will find both the same parties on the capitalist side, fighting against the working class. By voting for the parties of capitalism you help to perpetuate wage slavery, you  strengthen the chains of misery. The political parties of capitalism are organised against you. It is for you to organise under the banner of socialism and the Socialist Party and fight the battles of your own emancipation

Think for yourselves. Be men and women who do their own thinking. Under the present system of society you are being robbed whether you receive higher or lower wages, because the wage system is based on legalised robbery. The millions of toilers slave and starve for the idle few who accumulate the stolen products of labour and lead a life of luxury. We want you to fight for the freedom of your own class and join the working class party, which is the Socialist Party.

The aim of the Socialist Party is for of the common ownership of all the means of production and distribution: namely, the land, mines, mills, factories, and productive machinery, for the purpose of operating industry in the interest of the whole people. Present society is based upon private property and is essentially coercive, with the function of the government being to protect the interests of the owning and ruling class, and to keep their victims in subjugation. When production becomes common property, government will be purely administrative, and will cease to be unjust and oppressive. The owning class in the present, as in all past ages, is necessarily the ruling class, and all legislation is enacted and interpreted in the interest of said class. Equality under the present system is simply a myth. The wage-worker whose employment is controlled by his industrial master ,and who in that relation is at the mercy of the master since we depend upon his arbitrary will for the opportunity to labour and support the family, is not on terms of political equality with the master. Political equality is rooted in economic freedom, and only when the means of production shall have become the common property of all, as they have been produced by all, are used by all, and are necessary to all, only then will political equality prevail and all men and women enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities. The Socialist Party proposes to establish industrial democracy, based upon cooperative industry. It should be understood that the party proposes to increase and not diminish the production of wealth. Rent, interest, and profit, three forms of exploitation, will be totally eliminated. Production will be carried forward for use and not for profit. The human trafficking — men women, and children — their purchase and sale upon a weekly or monthly instalment plan, will cease. The workday will be reduced in proportion to the progress of technology.

The Socialist Party is the only world political party in the world. Its fundamental principles are the same in all lands. The Socialist Party recognises no frontiers or borders. The nation in which we live embraces the working class of the world. Every worker everywhere is our brother and sister. Across the borders of all lands socialists clasp hands as comrades. The nationalism and patriotism which the ruling class of each nation is promotes, is the power which these give to capitalism to keep the workers of the world from uniting, and to throw them against each other in the struggles of contending capitalist interests for the control of the yet unexploited markets of the world, or the remaining sources of profit. The socialist movement, therefore, is a world movement. It knows of no conflicts of interests between the workers of one nation and the workers of another. It stands for the freedom of the workers of all nations; and, in so standing, it makes for the full freedom of all humanity.

The Socialist Party is the only party that stands for economic justice, and this is impossible in a system based upon exploitation. Political democracy and industrial despotism cannot co-exist. Socialism means that all those things upon which the people in common depend shall by the people in common be owned and administered. It means that the tools of employment shall belong to their creators and users; that all production shall be for the direct use of the producers; that the making of goods for profit shall come to an end; that we shall all be workers together; and that all opportunities shall be open and equal to all people.

The cause of the Socialist Party is and will be wholly educational. To arouse the consciousness of the workers to their economic interests as a class, to develop their capacity for clear thinking, to achieve their solidarity industrially and politically is to invest the working class with the inherent power it possesses to abolish the wage system and free itself from every form of servitude, and this is the mighty mission of the World Socialist Movement. We shall not compromise, nor shall we be diverted from the straight road to the cooperative commonwealth.

The Socialist Party is the only party that does not want a vote that is not intelligently cast. The popularity of a candidate is against him rather than for him in the Socialist Party. No vote is wanted on account of the personality of a candidate. It is the value of the socialist principle that is taught and emphasised, and if this is not understood and approved the vote is not wanted. Mere disgust with other candidates or their parties is not accepted by socialists as sufficient reason to encourage the voting of the Socialist Party. Such votes are unreliable, deceptive and misleading which are apt to desert at the very time they are most needed Any vote that is subject to the influence of personal considerations is so vacillating that it is of no use in the constructive work of a revolutionary political movement. Better united on the solid basis of principle, than thrown together on the shifting sands of personality. It is the case, not the face. Too many people are forever looking for some “great leader” to watch over and protect them. The Socialist Party makes principles paramount; the candidates are the last and least consideration. The supreme question is, “What are the principles?” and any interest in the delegates is about can he or she advance those principles.

The Socialist Party appeals to for fellow-workers for the realisation of its cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party is the party of the workers, who are on the right side of this worldwide struggle. The Socialist Party is the party of the present and of the immediate future. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of the wage system, for the economic freedom as well as the political equality of the working class, knowing that without the former the latter is impossible. The Socialist Party stands for the common ownership of the means of wealth production and distribution and the operation of industry in the interest of all. The Socialist Party stands for industry of the people, by the people and for the people, that wealth may be produced for the use of all instead of for the profit of a few. The Socialist Party stands for a social order, in which every human being, in the full enjoyment of economic freedom, shall have full opportunity, in the best possible environment, to develop their best. 

For Economic Freedom

 

The Socialist Party is the only party that is or can be truly representative of the interests of the working class, the only class essential to society. The present form of government, based solely upon private property in the means of production, is wholly coercive. The only vital function of the present government is to keep the exploited class in subjection by their exploiters. In socialism, political power, “not for the purpose of governing men,” in the words of Engels but “to administer things.” 

Parliaments, legislatures, and municipal councils as a rule legislate wholly in the interest of the ruling capitalist class. The owning class is necessarily the ruling class. It dictates reforms and it construes in its own vested interest. Marx was right in declaring the economic basis of society determines the character of all social institutions and in proportion only as this basis changes, the institutions are modified For instance, chattel slavery was legal and respectable as long as it was an economic necessity and no longer. When in the march of the industrial revolution, accelerated so swiftly by the development and application of modern machinery, slavery was overthrown, it became immoral, unjust, and disreputable. In other words it was moral as long as it paid; it became immoral only when it ceased, because of changed economic conditions, to be profitable to the capitalist class.

Today we have capitalist masters and working slaves, who, although called sovereign citizens, are exploited of the fruit of their labour as completely under the present system as were their slavish predecessors in the dark centuries of the past. The Socialist Party says the wage system, like the feudal system from which it sprang, will pass away. The capitalist economic system can only be abolished in two ways, namely, by securing control of government or by violent revolution. No sane person prefers violent to peaceful measures, and hence socialists rely upon the efficacy of a united class-conscious ballot to accomplish their end. The Socialist Party is necessarily a revolutionary party in the sense its basic demand is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and the operation of all industry in the interest of all the people. This will mean an economic democracy, the basis of the real social democracy yet to be. Economic freedom can result only from common ownership, and upon this vital principle the Socialist Party differs fundamentally from every other party. Between private ownership and common ownership there can be no compromise. One produces for profit, the other for use. One produces millionaire and beggars, the other people of social and economic equality. One gives us palaces and hovels, the other will abolish class rule, ending  class distinction, and securing peace and prosperity for society, and make of this earth for the first time a world of harmony.

The Socialist Party seeks to establish world socialism in which all men and all women, regardless of race, nationality, or creed, may enjoy equal freedom. To accomplish this we are not making war upon individuals, but upon a social and industrial system. In this system class rules class and while the system lasts, and this, is not a race or a gender question, but always a class question. The Socialist Party is the only political party in the world today whose declared purpose it is to abolish class rule and establish a society whose fundamental principle is freedom of all. The capitalist system has run its course. Socialism would establish cooperation instead of competition. Socialism believes in all for all, not all for a few.

Under the capitalist system men must fight each other for survival, under that condition mankind cannot love one another. Our economic conditions must always determine our conduct toward each other. Under the present system someone can’t walk up to you on the street and rob or kill you, but that person can rob and exploit you by more subtle indirect means. Socialism finds no fault with the individual but rather with the system. The earth is or should be an equal heritage for all that inhabit it. A person ought not to be dependent on any other for work and a livelihood. Political liberty is of no great benefit without economic freedom, and so the workers of the world are organising themselves for the overthrow of capitalism. With socialism we will produce to use, not to sell.

Don't Raise Your Hopes.

 On Nov.30, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled next years budget. The media made a load of hoopla over the fact that it was the first time the budget speech had been made by a woman, oblivious to the fact that whoever attempts to administrate a screwy system like capitalism, whether it be male, female, black, white catholic, protestant, jew or gentile, it’s strictly a case of B.F.D. 

The highlights of her speech were the spending of $13 billion on COVID-19 vaccine plans. $1 billion for setting up national standards for long term care homes and helping provinces meet those standards. People working from home with modest expenses can claim up to $400 on their 2020 taxes. Some families will receive a temporary boost of up to $1,200 for every child under 6 years of age. GST/HST will be dropped on face masks and face shields. Ottawa will eliminate interest on federal portions of Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans for 2021-22. Freeland also said Canada's deficit will balloon up to a record $381 billion, the biggest since W.W.2. 

Freeland, Trudeau and the rest of their crowd may mean well, but it takes a lot more than good intentions to solve the problems capitalism throws up at us, especially when so much money has been borrowed. 

Time will tell how this will work out, but for the members of Canada's working class, the best advice is to not raise your hopes too high.

S.P.C. Members.