The article which follows this one is a dramatization of an incident that took place during the Winnipeg General Strike of May-June 1919. This strike was basically over wages, and hence only a defensive action in the class struggle, but many of those active in it had pronounced socialist views. To illustrate this we publish below extracts from a pamphlet written and published over fifty years later in Los Angeles by one of those sentenced, as the play records, to one year's imprisonment for his part in the strike.
A few centuries old, capitalism emerged from a static, clerical, feudal society into one of voyages of discovery, of exploration and conquest of foreign lands, into one of burgeoning trade. Following the voyages of discovery of Da Gama, Columbus, De Soto, Magellan and others, trade bloomed tremendously and the initial steps were taken for the development of regional markets into a world market, and the capitalist system from a European (chiefly) restricted economy into an ever-expanding world-wide system.
It must be admitted that capitalism, historically considered, is a higher, superior social system than any of its predecessors. It broke the restraints that feudalism placed on society's productive forces and thereby developed the increasing productivity of labor.
One could enter many areas to show how capitalism rapidly improved industry, providing an ever-increasing volume of useful vendible goods. Without doubt this was a great social advance. It should be noted here, however, that this increasing volume of goods, while useful, was not produced primarily with this usefulness in mind, but for sale on an ever-expanding world market with profit as the ultimate objective. The main question before any promoter of a new article, etc, is: will it sell?
From simple factories powered by windmill and water-wheel to the use of steam, capitalism has developed huge plants with fast-moving assembly lines, employing thousands of workers in each plant. Today this mere mechanical production is giving way to the electronic and the use of the computer. All this means, as time goes on, more and more wealth will be produced with less and less labor. The button-pusher replaces the skilled mechanic.
One thing is definitely revealed as we study capitalism in its genesis and growth. Problems which once confronted society have disappeared. In times past famine occurred because not enough could be produced or conveniently transported. Capitalism has developed the forces of production to the point where an over-abundance now becomes the source of human distress. Famine and want are with us today as a result of too much production. Those in greater need invariably lack the purchase price. Yet the fact stands out: society can with its present means of producing useful goods supply an abundance for all. Famine (shortage) can become as obsolete as the windmill and the water-wheel. The means exist that can make this abundance for all a living reality. But this is prevented by the very structure and nature of the capitalist system. "Production for Sale" is the obstacle. Capitalism, however, should be credited with having so developed the means of production and increased the productivity of labor that this abundance can be apprehended. No previous society carried within it this potential.
Further, it has created potentials whose nature and function foreshadow possibilities for much greater use in a future society wherein these potentials could be developed to their fullest. The growth in logistics indicates there should be no cause to fear the absence in such a society of the necessary distributive agencies. In the modern army logistics have been developed to a high degree, and in this alone appears the potential for a satisfactory distribution of society's products. It is the highly destructive competitive nature of capitalism which prevents the full growth and use (for society's good) of these agencies and potentials.
From this "positive" side of capitalism it can be argued that a higher and better organized social system, a system of "Production for Use", in which the instruments of production and distribution will be socially controlled and administered is not only desirable but possible.
The question is thus put: "How will production and distribution be carried on in this visualized possible future society?" And, dealing with what we know now, of what is and what has been, peering as well as we are able into the future, all we can honestly say is: "Production and distribution will be carried on as they are now but with the exploiter of labor, the master class, off the scene". But surely by then society will have gained greater knowledge of more than these points. If we can imagine socialism being established, say, tomorrow, the same agencies (but without the self-perpetuating "bureaucracies"), the same techniques, etc, will carry out the necessary work. But those potentials of which we have made mention will no doubt by the time socialism has been established have been developed to a higher degree, the technology of society so increased yet controlled, that the work could be carried out with a greater efficiency, with waste eliminated, and greater social benefits accruing.
The potentials we now observe also indicate that since production will be for the social good and not for profit, wage-labor will disappear and therefore wages (that badge of modern slavery). Goods being distributed on the same basis and not sold, money would become superfluous. "Production for Use" being the objective of social effort, "distribution", as such, would be carried out unrestricted by any elements of "exchange". Thus the socially wasteful efforts represented in banking, insurance, brokerage, etc, would perforce be eliminated. Since society would require from its members contributions to the social welfare "according to each individual's ability", and return to each "according to his needs", those economic rivalries—which even such capitalist spokesmen as President Wilson and President Eisenhower claim to be the cause of modern war—would have become things of the past. The disappearance of these hostile elements would allow the development of more humane and harmonious relations among people. Poverty, as we know it will have gone; industry—whose technological development has produced world-wide pollution—could be so organized and operated that further pollution could be avoided and the present pollution eliminated. It is safe then at least to predict that war and its horrors would have ceased, poverty done away with and a really sane world "created" fit for human habitation.
from Socialism: A Simple Exposition by W.A. Pritchard (1972).
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