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All things are held in commonWhen we talk about the inevitability of socialism we assume that the workers will continue to struggle for it. Were they, on the other hand, sit down tamely and wait till socialism came to them, they would remain enslaved by wage-labour. Socialism can only come when workers are no longer willing to allow themselves to be exploited. When the workers, both politically and economically, are so class conscious and so well organised as to make their exploitation impossible then capitalism will have reached the end of its road. That is what we understand by social revolution, and our ideal – that of human brotherhood – is revolutionary, because it is only to be realised by the social revolution. Whoever speaks of social revolution speaks above all of the abolition of capitalism, the abolition of its productive and property relations and the establishment of new relations.
It is important to realise that capitalists are not always looking for ways to increase the degree of exploitation of workers because they, the capitalists, are inherently greedy but that they do this because of the way in which the capitalist economy operates leaves them with no choice if they are to stay in business. Similarly, if workers are not to be worked to death and totally impoverished then they have no choice except to take a common stand together against capitalist employers so as to resist employers’ attempts to exploit them even more. This is done by forming trade unions to defend wage levels and working conditions. Not only do capitalist exploit workers but the system operates in such a way that capitalists constantly have to try to exploit workers even more. Different capitalists producing the same kind of commodity are competing with one another in the market to sell their products. Failure to sell the commodities produced by his firm means bankruptcy and ruin for a capitalist and the main way of ensuring steady sales is to offer given commodities on the market at a price below that charged by other capitalists. If a capitalist is to reduce his prices without reducing his profits then one way is to increase the hours of work of his employees without paying them any more wages. Another ploy is to speed up the rate of work, increase its intensity, and thus reduce the cost per item by forcing the workforce to produce more commodities in the same time as before. It is obvious, especially with the onset of the present economic recession, that trade unions only have a very limited capacity to defend the living standards and working conditions of the working class. While trade unions are a necessary means of defence of the working class against the capitalist class it is also the case that they pose no fundamental challenge to the whole capitalist system. Trade unions do not challenge the right of capitalists to exploit workers but only the degree to which this takes place. Even the most militant trade union struggles pose no fundamental challenge to the dominant position of the capitalist class within contemporary Britain. If the working class does not rise above the level of recognising the necessity to organise industrially, of a trade union consciousness, then it will be doomed to an eternity of struggle with the capitalist class.
A paradox of the capitalist system of production is that in the midst of plenty it also produces severe material deprivation. Capitalism has brought about the progressive development of the forces of production at a very rapid rate. Modern science and technology make it possible to provide material comfort and plenty for all. Yet in the world as a whole today the gap between the rich and the poor is actually widening, especially in the underdeveloped countries. The proportion of the world’s population who are underfed and starving is increasing. Even in the relatively prosperous countries such as Britain there are still millions of people who lack such basic necessities as a healthy diet and adequate housing. Clearly the problem for the great mass of humanity is not a lack of the skills, knowledge and resources necessary to bring about the material welfare of humankind. Rather the problem is one of abolishing the capitalist relations which prevent the forces of production being utilised in ways that meet the real human needs of everyone. From being in its earlier stages a force for the progressive development of humanity capitalism has now become a brake on further progress. The working class in all countries, including Britain, has a very real and urgent need to abolish the capitalist economic order.
Not only does capitalism deprive most people of the means of material well-being but it also means that they lose control over the process whereby they produce the means of material life; we are in a state of alienation. What crucially distinguishes human beings from other animals is the very active relationship we have with our natural environment in the course of productive activity. We act on the world to satisfy our material needs and in the course of so doing change not only the world but ourselves as well; our relationships and consciousness. Mankind reproduces itself through work. Yet the worker does not possess the products of his or her labour, he or she does not have control over the productive process, capitalist economic relations throw workers into conflict with each other and work itself, that most human of our attributes, is experienced as a burdensome imposition. The loss of control, the alienation of the worker, is not confined to the sphere of production but extends out to all aspects of life in capitalist society. We need to abolish capitalism not simply to have a fatter pay packet but so as to gain control together over all aspects of our lives, to liberate the whole of humanity from alienation.
The Socialist Party is the only political party in this land that stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows itself the party of the working class and its purpose the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own the world’s resources, the toiling masses will be struggling in the hell of poverty as they are today. The Socialist Party champions of the world socialist society and seeks to reawaken and revitalise a world movement of the workers. The Socialist Party as the party of the exploited workers in the mills, mines, on the railways and on the farms, and in the offices, the workers of both sexes and all colours, the working class in a word, constituting a great majority of the people and in fact the people, demands that the means of production and distribution shall be taken over by the workers shall operate them for the benefit of the whole people. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The capitalist system is doomed. Capitalism exploits the world and has no future. The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. The Socialist Party stands for social ownership and co-operation. Our demands are most modest. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand that that all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies and active minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental and physical achievement. We demand the earth for all the people.
It is important to realise that capitalists are not always looking for ways to increase the degree of exploitation of workers because they, the capitalists, are inherently greedy but that they do this because of the way in which the capitalist economy operates leaves them with no choice if they are to stay in business. Similarly, if workers are not to be worked to death and totally impoverished then they have no choice except to take a common stand together against capitalist employers so as to resist employers’ attempts to exploit them even more. This is done by forming trade unions to defend wage levels and working conditions. Not only do capitalist exploit workers but the system operates in such a way that capitalists constantly have to try to exploit workers even more. Different capitalists producing the same kind of commodity are competing with one another in the market to sell their products. Failure to sell the commodities produced by his firm means bankruptcy and ruin for a capitalist and the main way of ensuring steady sales is to offer given commodities on the market at a price below that charged by other capitalists. If a capitalist is to reduce his prices without reducing his profits then one way is to increase the hours of work of his employees without paying them any more wages. Another ploy is to speed up the rate of work, increase its intensity, and thus reduce the cost per item by forcing the workforce to produce more commodities in the same time as before. It is obvious, especially with the onset of the present economic recession, that trade unions only have a very limited capacity to defend the living standards and working conditions of the working class. While trade unions are a necessary means of defence of the working class against the capitalist class it is also the case that they pose no fundamental challenge to the whole capitalist system. Trade unions do not challenge the right of capitalists to exploit workers but only the degree to which this takes place. Even the most militant trade union struggles pose no fundamental challenge to the dominant position of the capitalist class within contemporary Britain. If the working class does not rise above the level of recognising the necessity to organise industrially, of a trade union consciousness, then it will be doomed to an eternity of struggle with the capitalist class.
A paradox of the capitalist system of production is that in the midst of plenty it also produces severe material deprivation. Capitalism has brought about the progressive development of the forces of production at a very rapid rate. Modern science and technology make it possible to provide material comfort and plenty for all. Yet in the world as a whole today the gap between the rich and the poor is actually widening, especially in the underdeveloped countries. The proportion of the world’s population who are underfed and starving is increasing. Even in the relatively prosperous countries such as Britain there are still millions of people who lack such basic necessities as a healthy diet and adequate housing. Clearly the problem for the great mass of humanity is not a lack of the skills, knowledge and resources necessary to bring about the material welfare of humankind. Rather the problem is one of abolishing the capitalist relations which prevent the forces of production being utilised in ways that meet the real human needs of everyone. From being in its earlier stages a force for the progressive development of humanity capitalism has now become a brake on further progress. The working class in all countries, including Britain, has a very real and urgent need to abolish the capitalist economic order.
Not only does capitalism deprive most people of the means of material well-being but it also means that they lose control over the process whereby they produce the means of material life; we are in a state of alienation. What crucially distinguishes human beings from other animals is the very active relationship we have with our natural environment in the course of productive activity. We act on the world to satisfy our material needs and in the course of so doing change not only the world but ourselves as well; our relationships and consciousness. Mankind reproduces itself through work. Yet the worker does not possess the products of his or her labour, he or she does not have control over the productive process, capitalist economic relations throw workers into conflict with each other and work itself, that most human of our attributes, is experienced as a burdensome imposition. The loss of control, the alienation of the worker, is not confined to the sphere of production but extends out to all aspects of life in capitalist society. We need to abolish capitalism not simply to have a fatter pay packet but so as to gain control together over all aspects of our lives, to liberate the whole of humanity from alienation.
The Socialist Party is the only political party in this land that stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows itself the party of the working class and its purpose the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own the world’s resources, the toiling masses will be struggling in the hell of poverty as they are today. The Socialist Party champions of the world socialist society and seeks to reawaken and revitalise a world movement of the workers. The Socialist Party as the party of the exploited workers in the mills, mines, on the railways and on the farms, and in the offices, the workers of both sexes and all colours, the working class in a word, constituting a great majority of the people and in fact the people, demands that the means of production and distribution shall be taken over by the workers shall operate them for the benefit of the whole people. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The capitalist system is doomed. Capitalism exploits the world and has no future. The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. The Socialist Party stands for social ownership and co-operation. Our demands are most modest. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand that that all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies and active minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental and physical achievement. We demand the earth for all the people.
10 hours 6 min ago
The most infectious and deadly disease in the world is tuberculosis
(TB) - and it’s curable. TB kills 1.5 million people per year. World TB day was
on March 24.
The disease now kills more people world-wide than HIV/AIDS,
according to the World Health Organization. It is now virtually extinct in the
UK, still ravages countries around the world like India, South Africa and
Russia. Tuberculosis
13 hours 7 min ago
Indonesia has long been used as a stopover for refugees from
various countries, but many get stranded as they wait to be officially
recognised and then accepted for resettlement by a third country. First they
need to wait until their asylum claim is approved, then they can apply for
resettlement. At that point, UNHCR forwards their application to countries with
resettlement programmes. If
19 hours 18 min ago
“Competition is civil war, and monopoly a massacre of the prisoners” - Proudhon
Hunger in the midst of plenty, that distinguishing mark of the capitalist system of production, is intensified a hundredfold during an economic crisis. The anarchy of the market brings about a catastrophic fall in wages, the shutdown of factories, widespread unemployment, disruption of world trade, disturbance of the monetary system, the frantic search of capitalists for new outlets and new markets. To restore profit margins, the government, as executive committee of the capitalist class, drives down the living standards of the workers in order to place the national capitalism in a stronger competitive position. To start the wheels of industry going, the capitalist government pours bail out the banks and subsidises the corporations. The state’s budget takes on undreamed-of proportions. Its balancing becomes ever more precarious and in fact near-impossible. The national debt increases at a dizzying pace. The big bourgeoisie evades and escapes taxation paying little or nothing by loopholes and the use of tax-havens. The bankers not only protect themselves but profit anew. The politicians rely on the method of democratic illusions to baulk and blind the masses to carry out the will of the ruling class, long on promises, short on performance. The vicious capitalist drive to beat down the living standards of the workers is conducted under a barrage of propaganda concerning raising these living standards at the expense of profit. The eventual upturn in business, due in large measure to government spending, permits workers an opportunity to organise and engage in renewed struggles to try and regain the conditions they had lost during the recession. But the recovery gives to business, a refreshed taste for profits and a new sense of power and confidence. Capitalists will brook no resistance to the expansion of profits by the wage slaves. Anti-union laws subdue any rebellion. No ruling class has ever proclaimed: “We sacrifice you for our class interests.” It is always for for the country and “national” interests. Salvation will been provided not for the workers, but for the capitalist class.
As for curing the ills of the workers by reforming capitalism, particularly in a world where everybody could have a decent, comfortable home, plenty of attractive clothing, abundant food, educational opportunity, money for travel and amusement, it does not make any difference how well-meaning these capitalist saviors may be, there is no way out for people under capitalism. The bosses must run their businesses at a profit in competition with other bosses, and his chief concern is necessarily to keep his costs, including his labour costs, as low as possible. If for the moment the wage rates are maintained, the boss looks for some other way to squeeze out profit, as by putting in “labour-saving” technology and putting workers out on the street. Capitalists make their profits by paying the worker in wages a smaller value than he creates by laboring. The capitalist thus gets what Marx calls surplus value. It is the only way profit can be created. Under modern conditions expensive plants and equipment are increased, but the work is done with fewer workers. Thus they must be exploited ever more fiercely in order that surplus value – profit – may be squeezed out of their labour, the only possible source of profit. Capitalism will force the living standards lower and again lower. There was a time when made concessions to the workers, affording better the standard of living, without cutting into profits. No more. Capitalism now maintains itself only by taking away concessions – wage rates, working conditions and social benefits, etc. – which it once gave. Capitalism cannot be reformed, it must be abolished. The sole hope for humanity, the hope of civilisation, lies in the establishment of a socialist society of production for use, of genuine freedom and equality. Because capitalism must drive the standard of living lower all the time. Any trade union no matter how conservative, meek, respectable, peaceful, will offer resistance. By workers we mean the working class. It includes the miners, transportation, factory workers. It includes also the clerical workers, agricultural workers, many technicians and professionals who are also wage earners. These have to organize in their economic organizations, just as the factory workers. They will more and more engage in the same kind of struggles as the latter. We see this today with the Junior Doctors strikes and before them teachers and other professionals. They will fight for mere existence. The workers cannot save themselves or their movement by being humble and cautious.
We workers cannot obtain plenty and security, deliverance from misery and war, by trying to reform the capitalist economic system. We have to abolish it. And we cannot abolish it except by the revolutionary method. The Socialist Party seeks to build a new society on new foundations. The time has come when in order to exist, in order to prevent complete ruin, the people have to carry on their fight, ever more broadly and intensely, against the economic system which serves the masters. When we speak of unity today we have to understand clearly what we mean. Unity – on what basis? Merely repeating the word “unity” will not accomplish anything. Membership in a political party of the working class is not on the same basis as membership in a trade union. A union is a mass organisation to which all workers in a given trade or industry belong – Labour Party, Tories, nationalists and assorted leftists. It does not follow that you can put those in a political party, and have a socialist party. The Socialist Party does not deal with immediate issues of wages, hours and conditions of work – that is the role of the unions. The Socialist Party engages with the problem of the economic-political system as a whole, how it must and can be changed or abolished, etc. A revolutionary party must, therefore, have a philosophy, a theory, a program. If it has the wrong one, then at the critical moment it will fail and betray the masses. We have our Declaration of Principles upon which every member must agree. Our primary task, as the Declaration of Principles states, is “The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.” We do not believe that the fellow workers can be delivered from poverty, unemployment, degradation, war, by any reform of the capitalist system under which we live. That system must be abolished, wage slavery must be done away with altogether. The workers must collectively own and democratically control the machinery of production and distribution.
Hunger in the midst of plenty, that distinguishing mark of the capitalist system of production, is intensified a hundredfold during an economic crisis. The anarchy of the market brings about a catastrophic fall in wages, the shutdown of factories, widespread unemployment, disruption of world trade, disturbance of the monetary system, the frantic search of capitalists for new outlets and new markets. To restore profit margins, the government, as executive committee of the capitalist class, drives down the living standards of the workers in order to place the national capitalism in a stronger competitive position. To start the wheels of industry going, the capitalist government pours bail out the banks and subsidises the corporations. The state’s budget takes on undreamed-of proportions. Its balancing becomes ever more precarious and in fact near-impossible. The national debt increases at a dizzying pace. The big bourgeoisie evades and escapes taxation paying little or nothing by loopholes and the use of tax-havens. The bankers not only protect themselves but profit anew. The politicians rely on the method of democratic illusions to baulk and blind the masses to carry out the will of the ruling class, long on promises, short on performance. The vicious capitalist drive to beat down the living standards of the workers is conducted under a barrage of propaganda concerning raising these living standards at the expense of profit. The eventual upturn in business, due in large measure to government spending, permits workers an opportunity to organise and engage in renewed struggles to try and regain the conditions they had lost during the recession. But the recovery gives to business, a refreshed taste for profits and a new sense of power and confidence. Capitalists will brook no resistance to the expansion of profits by the wage slaves. Anti-union laws subdue any rebellion. No ruling class has ever proclaimed: “We sacrifice you for our class interests.” It is always for for the country and “national” interests. Salvation will been provided not for the workers, but for the capitalist class.
As for curing the ills of the workers by reforming capitalism, particularly in a world where everybody could have a decent, comfortable home, plenty of attractive clothing, abundant food, educational opportunity, money for travel and amusement, it does not make any difference how well-meaning these capitalist saviors may be, there is no way out for people under capitalism. The bosses must run their businesses at a profit in competition with other bosses, and his chief concern is necessarily to keep his costs, including his labour costs, as low as possible. If for the moment the wage rates are maintained, the boss looks for some other way to squeeze out profit, as by putting in “labour-saving” technology and putting workers out on the street. Capitalists make their profits by paying the worker in wages a smaller value than he creates by laboring. The capitalist thus gets what Marx calls surplus value. It is the only way profit can be created. Under modern conditions expensive plants and equipment are increased, but the work is done with fewer workers. Thus they must be exploited ever more fiercely in order that surplus value – profit – may be squeezed out of their labour, the only possible source of profit. Capitalism will force the living standards lower and again lower. There was a time when made concessions to the workers, affording better the standard of living, without cutting into profits. No more. Capitalism now maintains itself only by taking away concessions – wage rates, working conditions and social benefits, etc. – which it once gave. Capitalism cannot be reformed, it must be abolished. The sole hope for humanity, the hope of civilisation, lies in the establishment of a socialist society of production for use, of genuine freedom and equality. Because capitalism must drive the standard of living lower all the time. Any trade union no matter how conservative, meek, respectable, peaceful, will offer resistance. By workers we mean the working class. It includes the miners, transportation, factory workers. It includes also the clerical workers, agricultural workers, many technicians and professionals who are also wage earners. These have to organize in their economic organizations, just as the factory workers. They will more and more engage in the same kind of struggles as the latter. We see this today with the Junior Doctors strikes and before them teachers and other professionals. They will fight for mere existence. The workers cannot save themselves or their movement by being humble and cautious.
We workers cannot obtain plenty and security, deliverance from misery and war, by trying to reform the capitalist economic system. We have to abolish it. And we cannot abolish it except by the revolutionary method. The Socialist Party seeks to build a new society on new foundations. The time has come when in order to exist, in order to prevent complete ruin, the people have to carry on their fight, ever more broadly and intensely, against the economic system which serves the masters. When we speak of unity today we have to understand clearly what we mean. Unity – on what basis? Merely repeating the word “unity” will not accomplish anything. Membership in a political party of the working class is not on the same basis as membership in a trade union. A union is a mass organisation to which all workers in a given trade or industry belong – Labour Party, Tories, nationalists and assorted leftists. It does not follow that you can put those in a political party, and have a socialist party. The Socialist Party does not deal with immediate issues of wages, hours and conditions of work – that is the role of the unions. The Socialist Party engages with the problem of the economic-political system as a whole, how it must and can be changed or abolished, etc. A revolutionary party must, therefore, have a philosophy, a theory, a program. If it has the wrong one, then at the critical moment it will fail and betray the masses. We have our Declaration of Principles upon which every member must agree. Our primary task, as the Declaration of Principles states, is “The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.” We do not believe that the fellow workers can be delivered from poverty, unemployment, degradation, war, by any reform of the capitalist system under which we live. That system must be abolished, wage slavery must be done away with altogether. The workers must collectively own and democratically control the machinery of production and distribution.
1 day 10 hours ago
FOR WORLD SOCIALISM
Photographs of Aylan Kurdi’s dead body on the beach faded
memory. Since then more recent pictures of dead children no longer feature in
the media. The European refugee crisis is part of a global refugee crisis that
won’t go away. The number of displaced people worldwide in 2015 — was 60
million — the highest ever. Global migration is also here to stay. There are an
1 day 10 hours ago