We live in a most paradoxical world. We live in an age of science, an age in which man has become more and more the master over nature. The spectres of disease, starvation, and death, beat a steady retreat before the onslaught of test tube and microscope. Fire, water and the atom are being steadily harnessed to the whims and will of man. The mysteries of the past have become the studies of the present. What man feared in his ignorance has been conquered by his understanding. And yet amidst this possible Eden of peace and plenty rears the ugly head of destruction and poverty.
Before us lies a world of highly developed national interests, stilled in a web of its own making. A society based upon production of commodities for profit continues as an economy which cannot adjust itself to the complications of the highly technical relationships of the 20th Century. Because of its inherent contradictions, Capitalism finds itself, constantly faced with war. It is not democracy or dictatorship but expansion or extinction of capitalist interests that are at stake. In new markets from which profits may be reaped, in new territories to exploit, lies the cause for which men die.
The new advances in the means and methods of production, which provide capitalism with its claim to greatness, have become a Frankenstein. Technological progress has outgrown and is being strangled by the restraints and limitations of our private-property society. The small production units of early capitalism have given way to a complicated, highly socialised organisation. Despite this, control still remains in private hands, typified by individual, corporate, or state ownership. It is this glaring contradiction that results in wars, crises and misery.
Poverty amidst plenty has no justification. Man can produce food, clothing and shelter, more than enough for all, and yet many go hungry, homeless and unclad. Within his power lies a world of peace and plenty. Yet Man appears reluctant to make it possible in his political ignorance.
It is a current prejudice that man’s inhumanity to man, his selfishness and greed, are the core of all social ills. The pious are devout in their claim that man’s difficulties are due to his lack of faith and ungodliness. The “intellectuals” are equally insistent in maintaining that the working class are not only incapable but also unwilling to lead a better life. The “practical” men insist that a rigid and authoritative leadership is necessary to control the ignorance and stupidity of the mob.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain opposes all these contentions. If we want to understand the human behaviour of the present-day, we must seek for an explanation in the organisation of society. We live in a commodity system in which everything has a price, including man. Goods are not produced primarily to satisfy the needs of people, but to be sold on the market for profit. The means of production are concentrated in the hands of a few who live by virtue of their ownership. On the other hand, we have the overwhelming majority of the world whose only means of livelihood is the selling of their energies, physical and mental, to those who own the machinery of wealth production. The few live in splendour and luxury; the many dwell precariously.
It is not a change of heart that is needed, but the establishment of Socialism, a social system that will be in harmony with man’s needs. There is but one way to speed the day: that is by banding together to destroy the barriers of national patriotism and race hatred;, to organise into a movement that stands for the establishment of a world in which war will give way to peace, scarcity to abundance, and nationalism to world cooperation. Only such a movement can be an inspiration and rallying point for the working class everywhere.
The common ownership and democratic control of the means of living, by and in the interest of society as a whole, is the only insurance of a future worth living for.
1 comment:
That's the April 1960 issue of the Socialist Standard done and dusted.
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