Whenever there is an election the
ordinary person, the man in the street—the working class
voter—becomes suddenly very popular. Any number of political
parties are anxious to please him and to make him all manner of
tempting promises, if he in his turn will agree to vote for their
candidate. Election time, in other words, is the time when there is
an enormous hunt for Votes—for your vote.
The bait which is used in this hunt is
largely made up by promises. All the other parties offer this bait,
and the generosity of their promises is usually in inverse proportion
to the likelihood of their getting power. The Labour and Conservative
Parties cannot be too extravagant; the Liberals can be a little more
wild; the Communists can promise almost anything. And so on.
Most of the promises in this election
are about things like modernisation, housing, education, pensions,
wages and prices, war and peace. To read the literature of the other
parties, it seems that all that has to be done to solve overnight all
the problems connected with these issues is to vote for their
candidate. They will all, it seems, bring British industry up to
date, replace all the slums with new houses, give everyone a fair
chance of the best education, increase pensions, keep prices stable
while wages increase, banish war from the earth.
These promises sound very fine and in
one election after another millions of working people vote for them.
And presumably, when they do so, they think that they are
contributing to the solution of our problems.
But let us stop and think about it.
Firstly, it is obvious that election
promises are not a new thing. Political parties have been making them
for as long as anyone can remember—and always about the same sort
of problems.
Now what has been the result of all
this?
The housing problem remains with us;
despite repeated promises to deal with it, slums are developing
faster than new houses are being built. For the workers, who depend
on their wage to live, housing is still an aspect of their general
poverty.
The sort of education we get is
governed by the financial standing of our parents. Even if a working
class lad wins his way to university he is only studying to become a
different type of worker—one with a degree behind him.
Millions of old age pensioners are
living on the tightrope of destitution—and it only needs something
like a severe winter for many of them to loosen their precarious hold
on life.
Prices continue to rise, as they have
done steadily since the war. No government has yet given a free rein
to the level of wages—they have all tried to restrain them. And
whatever the respective level of prices and wages, we always find
that our wage packet only just covers our food, clothing,
entertainment and whatever else goes to keep us ticking over.
War is just as much a universal problem
as ever. At the moment there are only comparatively minor incidents,
punctuated by more serious clashes such as Cuba and Berlin. But over
it all hangs the threat of another world conflict, this time fought
out with nuclear weapons.
It is not accidental that the
politicians make so many promises and that they have so little effect
upon the ailments they are supposed to cure. The world is full of
chronic problems, but this is not because political parties have not
thought up reforms which are supposed to deal with them nor
because their leaders are not clever or knowledgeable enough.
The fact is that the problems persist
whichever party is in power—and this suggests that their roots go
deep into the very nature of modern society.
We live today in a social system which
is called capitalism, The basis of this system is the ownership by a
section of the population of the means of producing and distributing
wealth —of factories, mines, steamships, and so on. It follows from
this that all the wealth which we produce today is turned out with
the intention of realising a profit for the owning class. It is from
this basis that the problems of modern society spring.
The class which does not own the means
of wealth production—the working class—are condemned to a life of
impoverished dependence upon their wages. This poverty expresses
itself in inferior housing, clothes, education, and the like. In the
end, it expresses itself in the pathetic destitution of the old age
pensioner—a fate which no old capitalist ever faces.
The basis of capitalism throws up the
continual battle over wages and working conditions with attendant
industrial disputes. It gives rise, with its international economic
rivalries, to the wars which have disfigured man's recent history.
Every other party in this election
stands for capitalism, whatever they may call themselves. And
whatever their protestations, they stand for a world of poverty,
hunger, unrest and war. They stand for a world in which no human
being is secure.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain,
alone, stands for Socialism. We stand for a world in which everything
which goes to make and distribute wealth will be owned by the people
of the world. Because Socialism is the direct opposite of capitalism,
it follows that when it is established the basic problems of
capitalism will disappear. There will be no more war, no more
poverty. Man will live a full, abundant life; we shall be free.
But Socialism cannot be brought about
by promises. It needs a knowledgeable working class who understand
and desire it. They alone can establish the new world order.
That is why we have a candidate in this
constituency. He does not make you any promises; he does not try to
convince you that he will do anything for you; he does not even seek
your vote. What he—and the party which he represents—are offering
you is the case for a new social system. We are seeking to spread the
knowledge of Socialism and to give as many people as possible the
opportunity of voting for a world of abundance, peace and freedom.
Posts
