After Capitalism

 

Socialism is the social ownership of all natural resources and the application of all productive forces in co-operation for the satisfaction of all material social needs. It, therefore, involves not merely co-operation between individuals  but also co-operation between peoples of all lands. Socialism is a system of universal co-operation for production for use. All that science, technology and art is to be utilised, not for the few, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole. Socialism is about ending all social oppression and dissolving the hostile classes into a community of free and equal producers striving not for sectional interests, but for the common good, based on the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. It will be a socialist commonwealth, liberating the individual from all economic, political and social oppression,  providing real freedom  for the full and harmonious development of each person.

The total transformation of social relations will mean:

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. Working people’s management of the economy and society.

4. Elimination of the power of the old classes and the end of classes

5. The elimination of differences between manual and mental labour, town and country.

6. The abolition of wage labour.

7. The disappearance of the state.

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

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

Socialist production is guided not by blind market processes but by decisions consciously and democratically made in the interests of the community as a whole. ‘Exchange’ is replaced by distribution.  Production in socialism will be ‘for use not for profit’ and that its purpose will be to ‘meet human needs’. Although individuals will decide for themselves what goods they need, there will be no absolute right for production is a social act and communities will collectively choose what to manufacture. The needs of the community are to be determined socially and not just by aggregating the expressed needs of individuals. Having added that caveat, people will have free access to distribution centres where all desired goods are available in abundance. The advance of automation and robotics has made it technically possible to generate such abundance with a minimum of human labour. Elimination of the waste inherent in the money system will also play its part. 

Socialism will a society of abundance but that is not to say that by the time that socialism is established the human race may well  be embroiled in severe climatic, environmental and social crises so top priority will have to be given to the tasks of coping with and gradually overcoming these crises. Enormous efforts will be required to halt and reverse global heating, care for masses of environmental and other refugees, and improve the living conditions of the world’s slum dwellers.

By definition socialism is a society of free people. They cannot be compelled to do what they do not want to do, either by brute force or (as in capitalism) by threats to their livelihood. We have to assume that they will be sufficiently responsible and self-disciplined voluntarily to do whatever may be required to implement a democratically made decision, even if they disagree with that decision – unless, arguably, they have good reason to regard the decision as dangerously incompetent (if, say, a council has approved an unsafe design for a nuclear reactor).

Boy! Weren’t We Taken In?

Stats-Canada said the economy lost 213,000 jobs in January as employment fell to its lowest level since August, wiping out the gains made in the fall. The unemployment rate rose to 9.4 per cent. Boy! weren't we taken in? The financial data firm Refinitiv said the average economist estimate was for a loss of 47,500 jobs in Jan. Another loss was their failure to explain the 165,500 other losses.

 One prediction that we can take seriously is the one made by the Association of Small Businesses Canada, that if present trends continue and more small businesses close permanently, there will be another 180,000 jobs lost.

 Sure we have a pandemic, but capitalism, by its very nature, is unable to deal with it – unable to deal with anything other than its own parasitic self-preservation.

S.P.C. Members

In The End You Get Shafted

The Hudson Bay Co. is laying 600 employees off across Canada amid store closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Company spokesperson, Tiffany Bourre, said on Feb.1,'' HBC is committed to treating each individual affected with fairness and respect''. The woman should be doing stand up comedy. Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru said his firm had been contacted by about 40 workers concerned about the terms of their termination. They claim they are not being offered adequate severance pay and they have been working for the Bay from between 10 and 30 years. 

Doesn't matter how hard you work and for how long, in the end you get shafted - that's life under crapitalism.

S.P.C. Members

The Iron-clad Laws of Capitalist Economics

For a good read try, The Rise and Fall of United Grain Growers: Cooperatives, Market Regulation and Free Enterprise, by Paul D. Earl, U of Manitoba Press, $27.95. Earl traces the history of the Winnipeg based co-operative grain company from its beginning in 1906 to its takeover in 2007 by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, now called Viterra. The UGG was started by farmers in Saskatchewan and was the first farmer owned grain marketing business in Canada. Initially it was kept going by about 16,000 producer-shareholders who were organized in a network of local associations which supported the company. 

As good as it sounds, the iron-clad laws of capitalist economics forced the UGG to compete on the market with private grain companies. This eventually led to mergers, which in turn led to them being sucked in to the whole capitalist scheme of things; clear proof that bits of socialism cannot exist within capitalism.

S.P.C. Members

A rat race is for rats.

 

Our socialist message is said to be repetitive and we plead guilty to the charge. When faced with the power of the pro-capitalist media, many things require repeating over and over again. Capitalism can only create a world of war, injustice and harm to the environment. Capitalism has brought humanity to the brink of  disaster. 

The current social order cannot continue without catastrophe occurring yet we there are large numbers who lack a vision of what might replace it. The purpose of the World Socialist Movement (WSM) is to argue for a viable post-capitalist society. We propose a vision in which peoples’ needs form the basis of production. Some critics of capitalism have suggested workers’ cooperatives as an alternative model but  production continues to be on the basis of wage-labour manufacturing commodities in order to sell them on the market in competition with other such enterprises. Such model are not fundamentally different from the exchange economy of capitalism. Continuing to have production conducted on the basis by which workers sell their labour power to employers (who then engage in commerce trading  with each other for a market share so to get exchange value back with which to buy more labour power is capitalism.

The WSM offer a different view of what kind of new world we should aim for where the people themselves choose what might be produced and and decide how we might do it where nobody is obliged   need to, nor be able to, sell their labour power. Work will be voluntary. Selling one’s labour power makes it and its products into commodities with exchange value. People will nonetheless work, not out of a need to get pay in order to live, but as part of their contribution to the community and with work re-designed receiving job-satisfaction and enjoyment from the social involvement of it.

To make it possible for people to avoid selling their labour power, we will have to find ways to make a decent living standard available to everybody. Marx suggested an initial temporary expedient of labour-time vouchers that people will be provided with what they need to consume by giving workers an amount tied to the number of hours that they work. We suggest such a framework is no longer necessary. Automation and artificial intelligence has resulted in the possibility of abundance with the minimum of labour-effort. If wars are largely based on capitalism and its needs, as  socialists believe, then we no will longer need to engage in the vast amount of human labour and ingenuity expended on war and the preparations for war, and this can give more resources for better constructive purposes.

The WSM holds the view that apart from perhaps a few luxury items a system of free access to goods and services is an immediate prospect. We do not adhere to what can be described as the “lazy, greedy parasite” hypothesis where individuals will wastefully over-consume and engage in status-seeking conspicuous-consumption patterns. Our desires and culture will be re-shaped in profound ways and our social values will undergo great changes for the better.

As Glasgow’s own son, the late Jimmy Reid, declared, “A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.” 

We can get away from a culture of compulsive sociopathic competition and build a society where we can care for each other and enjoy taking time talking together and engaging with one another.

Why we bother

 

Socialism is not some Utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. It is the next step in the further evolution of society. Socialism will be achieved by the capture of political power by the workers and the abolition of  capitalism.  Working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. This will  bring a qualitative improvement in the lives of the working class. Because working peoples will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force.

What, then, will socialism  look like?  How is Socialism to come? How are you going to bring it about? Socialism will not mean government control.  The state serves the interests of the ruling monopoly capitalist class.

Government involvement in the economy is a form of state capitalism. The main means of production – the factories, mines, mills, big workshops, offices, agricultural fields, banks, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, big retailers, etc., will be transformed into common-owned property. Private ownership of the main means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society.

Our fellow-workers decline to join the Socialist Party nor to vote for the Socialist Party, because the Socialist Party  can do nothing to improve conditions now. Our fellow-workers think that certain “reform” parties, or perhaps some “reform” wing of one of the old parties, is going to bring about certain improvements right away.

 Socialists, however, realise that present-day society, not only in Great Britain but all over the world, is divided into two classes—the capitalists or owning class, controlling all the means of wealth production and distribution, and the workers who, by reason of their propertyless status in relation to the means of living, are compelled to spend the best part of their lives in their masters’ factories, mills, mines or shops, etc., producing and selling goods. In short, the whole complex business of present-day society is run from top to bottom by members of the working class who, in return for their services, receive wages. You, fellow worker, do not need us to tell you that whatever the amount in your wage-packet, it is never quite enough to, colloquially speaking, “make ends meet.” In fact, in a great number of cases, workers are born to and live a life of direst poverty.

This, then, is where a little simple economic illustration is called for. It is known to socialists as the theory of value and surplus value and can briefly be depicted thus: A worker is paid the rate for the job at which he is employed but that sum will be much smaller than the values he will create during working-hours. This difference is known as surplus-value, and is the source of the capitalists’ income.

For an excellent insight into this aspect of Socialism we would recommend Karl Marx’s "Value, Price and Profit,” in which this question is ably dealt with in a very interesting discourse.

It is irrational to rely on capitalist solutions for the social ills that inflict society when it is capitalism itself that has led us towards those. Statisticians miss one vital point, that food, health and shelter, which are necessary to sustain human life, are produced, not because people need them, but for sale on a market with a view to profit. The only solution to any problem is to remove the cause. Only socialism can solve this problem, a system of society in which goods will be produced solely for use, where people will work according to their ability and take according to their needs. To-day’s productive powers have reached a level where it would be possible for everybody to have enough—even to-day, it would be possible were it not for the capitalist class who control not only their factories, mines, etc,, but our very lives as well. Wages will be an anachronism in a community where "from each according to ability, to each according to needs” is the maxim, and with the existence of common ownership in the means of wealth production and distribution which socialism presupposes, there cannot be use for either masters or money.

Socialists are often dubbed pessimistic. Our policy is not one of pessimism or hopelessness, but we tell you to face up to the facts. The future lies before you and it is up to you to fashion it as you desire. Two roads are here—capitalism or socialism—which one are you going to take? capitalism you know and if you are satisfied with it you will continue to give it your support. We socialists are not satisfied and we have made an effort to understand the world in which we live. Our solution to the problems that confront us is simple — We stand for the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism—a system based on common ownership of the means of wealth production. But we cannot establish socialism until you and the majority of the working class desire it capitalism with all its horrors will be your lot until you join with us to abolish it. If you are unconvinced have a look at the history of capitalism and you will see what it has to offer you.

Are you content to make this your lot? At the end of your life will you be able to say you have enjoyed it to the full? Are you not sick of war, unemployment and misery? Do you want to pass this state of affairs on to posterity? The world is really a very beautiful place; life, too, could be beautiful, and yet the conditions of the majority of the people make it very ugly. If you desire something better why not study the case for socialism? Once you start to do this it will not be long before we will have your agreement. Then you too can join with us in the work that will ultimately lead to the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. Only then will the working class put the past behind them and go forward to a future of peace and prosperity—that of socialism.

 

Achieving our Aims

 There is an abundance of evidence to support the socialist contention that a membership which is ignorant of the basic principles of socialism can never hope to build up an organisation which has as its object the capture of political power, and its use to abolish capitalism and establish socialism. A  membership lacking knowledge can at best be used for the capture of political power in order to introduce certain reforms, which, in due course prove themselves futile to solve the basic problems which perpetually confront our class. Such an organisation, whilst it can be most active, cannot, because of its membership's political ignorance, go any further in its objectives than the object of its members without undermining the loyalty of such members.

The politically uneducated members are not altogether to be blamed as they are schooled by leaders who retain their position of authority by maintaining the lack of political awareness, preferring to foster a culture of hero-worship in themselves as those trusted to know better than the rank and file.

The Socialist Party stand is the working class must, as a preliminary to the establishment of socialism, gain control of the political machinery of society. They can do this in the most capitalist countries through political organisation and the use of the vote; the working class possessing, as they do, the overwhelming majority of votes. Armed revolt is the height of futility. The capitalist class, by their control of the State machinery, control powerful armed forces possessing all the latest and most potent weapons of destruction. In addition they can and do prevent the formation of any serious rival force. Even if the workers had any means of purchasing expensive modern weapons they would have no means of training themselves to use them.

History knows many instances of romantic hot-heads vainly trying to overthrow powerful governments without considering the hopelessness of the odds against them, being, in fact, more interested in heroics and martyrdom than anything else.

There is an admission test for prospective members to the Socialist Party based upon the acceptance of its essential principles and policies as a class movement. Its questions  can be easily understood by the average worker, and they comprise the irreducible minima of the principles and policy of socialism; narrow enough to exclude all who are not socialists, yet broad enough to embrace everyone who is.  To demand more is to degenerate into a sect; to require less is to embark on the slippery incline of labourism and compromise. It is a reasonable test so that the  essentials for membership of a socialist party are not neglected.

To be a socialist, you need to be part of an organisation that advances socialist ideas.  The Socialist Party stands, not for reform and state capitalism, but for socialism and nothing else. Nowhere do the ruling classes offer the people a way out of the nightmare of suffering that has been imposed upon them.  Nowhere can they offer a way out.  

The Socialist  Party is the working people’s political organisation that stands irreconcilably opposed to capitalism and works for the establishment of worldwide socialism. The word socialism has come to be applied to any activity of the state or local municipal council in an economic direction, irrespective of what the nature of the activity or the state concerned is. Hence any industrial or commercial enterprise undertaken by a government ministerial department is labelled socialism nowadays. The mere form is here confounded with the content. Mere state capitalism, as we may term it, does not mean socialism. The state of to-day is an agent of the possessing class and the governmental bodies are run in the interests of that class. Their aim in all cases is to show a profit, in the same way as ordinary capitalistic enterprises. This profit accrues to the possessing class in the form of relief of  taxation, mainly paid by them, interest on loans, etc. 

In other words these industrial undertakings are run for profit and not for use and their employees are little, if at all, better off than those of private employers. A bureaucracy, that is, a body of permanent officials, entrenched in government departments, to whose tune ministers themselves have  dance, is totally incompatible with the very elementary conditions socialist administration. 

Beware attempts to envisage future world-socialism. We are only too prone to interpolate into our conceptions elements drawn from the present or the past. The result is very much the same as though Shakespeare had attempted to give a picture of the world of modern London. We can detect tendencies, we can offer the main trends on which the society of the future must build itself, but this is all we can do towards forecasting a time to come.

Co-ops are no Cure for Capitalism

 

It is too early yet to pronounce in detail what various forms socialist administration will take. That will become more clear  to decide closer to the time. But its outlines exist now. It will not be a government, ordering affairs from the top, with merely the acquiescence of the people. It must be giving effect to the decisions of the workers themselves where every  public office must be elective, responsible, and revocable. 

On some matters it is possible to give detailed instructions, on others, general orders only, the particular execution of them being left to the discretion of the delegate. We are convinced that when working people are ready to take possession of the means of life they will be ready to begin to control them democratically. But in all matters in the socialist commonwealth, the will of those whose work he is doing, and not his own, should determine his actions. The socialist way out of capitalism is the only way. Consequently the very necessity of socialist propaganda, as a prelude to the overthrow of capitalist society, and the establishment of socialism, is sufficient to guard us against pessimism. But in carrying on the work of socialist education, one qualification is necessary, and that is, we must be patient. The work of enlightening the workers in the knowledge of their slave position and the way out from their slavery, is essential to the establishment of socialism. 

We do not pretend to prophecy as to the details of the future working class organisations, but reasoning from past and present experience, it would seem that the greatest efficiency would be attained by forming one organisation for political work and another for economic work. These two organisations would be affiliated under some form, and where necessary would work together, until socialism was established. One organisation on the industrial field would not be on the basis of its class, unless the members understood their slave position and were deliberately working for their own emancipation, by organising for control of political power, in addition to being organised on the economic field for immediate purposes. Socialism will be established when a majority of the working class use the vote to wrest political power out of the hands of the capitalist class for that object. This will leave a minority either neutral or actively opposing the new order. Without the backing of the political power, with its armed forces, the master class are bereft of any “power”—economic or other. To retain possession of the means of life, they are completely dependent upon the control of political power, which is placed in their hands by the working class who are ignorant of their own interests. The mills, mines, factories, etc., can only be seized after the workers have gained political power with its control of the armed forces. Any other method merely leads the working class to the shambles. The possession of political power by the master class is a result of the lack of class consciousness of the workers, it is clear that only with the growth of class consciousness—knowledge of their class position—will the political power be wrested from the hands of the masters.

Since the early 19^th Century, groups of workers have tried to escape from their servile condition by creating either producer or consumer cooperatives as an aim in itself  or a much needed means of self-defence. Sometimes, cooperatives lessons were learned from it as a workplace experiment but at other times they proved to be a negative experience. Often they were expressions of  paternalistic reformism such as the Mondragon cooperative, which today has evolved into a large holding company. There are similar experiences of cooperatives failing across the world where the exploitation of the cooperative workers does not substantially differ from the exploitation of any other worker in conventional businesses. In short it leads to the cooperation of the workers participating in their own exploitation. Once a co-op  enters the capitalist market they are required to play by its the rules of competition and cost cutting to achieve returns. This situation forces them to compromise their workplace “democracy”. Above all, we should not think that the capitalist system can be gradually transformed by the multiplication of cooperatives.