Unite for World Socialism (1993)

From the December 1993 issue of the Socialist Standard

Imagine a world without frontiers, without war or world hunger: a world where goods are produced and services rendered solely to meet needs, without buying or selling, without exchange or barter. Such a society organized democratically at local, regional and world levels, without governments, without bureaucratic domination, benign or despotic, could be brought into being in a short space of time. The world network for spreading information on such a society already exists in our global electronic village.

No sensible person could deny that the building of a world co-operative community which could safeguard the biosphere as well as creating a constructive and satisfying way of life for humankind is the most important issue on the agenda, not merely of Europe, but of the wider world.

Europe became dominant not because of the superiority of its people, resources or innovations, but as a result of the advantage of its being the inheritor of the knowledge and discoveries made throughout history — from the most ancient times — by the peoples of Africa and Asia. With the riches and exploitation of the natural resources and inhabitants of North and South America and elsewhere, the competing rulers of developing European capitalism and their successors established a cruel ascendancy over their own subject classes and much of the world.

Empires fall

In this century we have seen the rise and fall of empires, allegedly democratic or allegedly socialistic. Today this world system has grown more terrible in its effects, real and potential, on people and planet. Powerful states in various parts of the world, their real interests cloaked in religious or political ideology are ready to expand. So-called "Red" China, really the sleeping capitalist giant, with its overtly tyrannical government, stirs itself — and continues to pollute our atmosphere just as all the other nuclear powers have done.

The problems of our world cannot be solved within the existing structures of production and government. Our world is divided into national areas dominated by class minorities in each country, which, either by private or corporate ownership or by state bureaucratic parties, monopolize the means of production.

These ruling classes and their political representatives, by reason of a combination of historical circumstances, governmental, military and ideological control or influence, are able to keep the majority of the world's population in subjection. In the decisive areas of the world this domination takes the form of people being denied access to the means of living except on the basis of working for a wage or salary. In the major countries of the world the people who, in the widest sense, produce what we need to live are wage-slaves.

Our access to food, clothing, shelter and other needs is rationed by money. Even professional persons and those running small businesses are dominated by the capitalist system. It is a world-system based upon the class monopoly of the means of production where things are produced and services rendered as commodities for sale at a profit. Labour-power is also a commodity: its price is what we receive as wage or salary.

Democratic action

Each enterprise or grouping of capitalism, in competition with others in the market, must strive to increase the profit surplus which it makes after the investment of capital. If it fails to achieve sufficient profit to re-invest in new machinery and techniques it will lose out to more powerful groupings or nations. The class interests, values and drive for profit of this world-system have been the underlying reasons for the unprecedented destruction of life and resources throughout this century. This appalling process — made worse by new forms of pollution, including the spread of artificial radio-activity and the cutting down of the rain forests will continue unless we take the necessary democratic action to transform our way of life throughout the planet.

Socialism is a new world society where the means of production are commonly owned and where governments and systems of exchange, whether barter or money, have been replaced by democratic administration at local, regional and world levels: a society where there could be de-centralized coordination of production with free access according to need. Socialism can only be brought about by an overwhelming majority of the population, a majority which understands why capitalism must be replaced by socialism. If we are to bring into being production solely for use, where needs are self-determined, we must have a clear idea of how such a society could be established, organized and sustained.

We must also ensure that the values, methods and actions of the World Socialist Movement are fully consistent with its aims. The means by which the new society can be achieved are determined by its nature as a society involving voluntary co-operation and democratic participation. It cannot be imposed from above by some self-appointed liberators nor by some well-meaning state bureaucracy.

Immediate tasks

The World Socialist Movement must have an immediate programme to be implemented by the elected delegates of the various areas of the world subsequent to the democratic change from capitalism to socialism. This programme would have the active support and informed involvement of their communities.

All dangerous, harmful and useless production must be stopped or run down where this is not technically possible. Changes previously prepared must be made to ensure democratic and participatory relationships. Many measures essential to safeguard the planet and its people at present blocked by class interests and the profit motive would have to be initiated.

Between the present time and the orderly transformation of society aspired to by the World Socialist Movement we would undoubtedly draw the support of many of the millions of people with specialized knowledge and experience, who even now are critical of our present system. Already they are examining in detail the nature of the many problems confronting us and are considering how less damaging, more sensible ways of producing what we really need could be devised.

The first priority of the world socialist community would have to be to feed the hungry, house the homeless and care for the sick and neglected, seeking to ensure that everyone had a minimum sufficiency as soon as possible. It would have to ensure that the essential productive means were constructed in order to meet the needs of a world population no longer in thrall to the values of an acquisitive society, but which wished to enjoy individually and socially the benefits of our shared home — the very world which is the world of all of us — the place in which, in the end. we find our happiness or not at all!