What we ought to do (1980)

From the April 1980 issue of the Socialist Standard

A major part of our lives is spent working for the benefit of another class. We sell our abilities for the highest wage we can get—and call that success, although in so doing we lose control of something irreplaceable—our  time. We’ve little say in the organisation of our working life, in what we produce, the quality of what we make and so on. We don’t need to make things which simply fall apart. Many of us spend hour after hour, every day, doing monotonous, repetitive jobs which mean little to us but which help give our masters, the capitalists, a life of freedom. Anyway, we’re only allowed to work when those masters see the chance to make a profit out of it.

And what can we have instead? A worldwide socialist society offers us an alternative way of life. First, we won’t be supporting any property-monopolising class and we won’t be wasting our time making bombs, working in banks and the like. We'll democratically control our own work as society requires and we'll only turn out the best available and possible. When we are not making for the market we won’t need to make things which fall apart.

We can achieve security, abundance and fulfillment in a socialist society. Now, what are you going to do about it?

S. F.