A Spotlight on the Searchlight (1942)

From the February 1942 issue of the Socialist Standard

Searchlights, when in use, are supposed to shed light in the darkness and illuminate those things we are looking for. So when we come into contact with a work’s magazine bearing the title of “The Searchlight,” published “by trade unionists for trade unionists,” we expect to find its contents examining working-class problems, and tackling them from the working-class angle.

A magazine, as described, was recently encountered by the present writer. On its editorial page was an appeal asking for articles and criticism.

In one issue appeared an article bearing the title “Browned-Offishness.” This was described by the author as a “disease eating into the workers’ hearts and souls,” and he suggested that the cause of this condition was the “cost-plus-profit” system of contract under which so many factories are now operating.

The present writer penned a reply to this article putting forward a Socialist viewpoint. This caused the “Searchlight” to flicker badly, suggesting to the observer that its purpose was not to enlighten its readers, but rather to dazzle them. The result was the return of the article to the writer, with the statement that it was not quite the type required.

So once again we must depend on the Socialist Standard as the medium through which working-class problems are illuminated by a class-conscious viewpoint. The reader will be able to judge this by reading the case; that was blacked out by the “Searchlight.”

The case was : At a time when large bodies of the working class are busy blowing each other to pieces, it seems tragic that certain members of our class should concern themselves with such nebulae as souls or diseases of the souls.

The world we live in is a very material world ; to find the reason for certain mental conditions of the worker, we must examine the material conditions in which he exists.

Before examining the relationships between the worker and his environment, it would be as well to point out that browned-offishness is a condition that existed amongst workers when there was no “cost-plus-profit” system of payment for their masters—i.e., pre-war days. Hence those political organisations that are peddling the fallacy that this is the cause of the workers being browned-off are selling false ideas.

Turning our attention to the worker, we see a creature possessing various emotional tendencies, such as love, fear, joy, etc., which, if freed from the effect of economic repression, would enable a full and varied existence to be lived.

Now it should be noted that there is no biological distinction between workers and capitalists. The distinction between the worker and the capitalist is one of property ownership. The capitalist class own the means by which life is sustained—i.e., the land, factories, workshops, etc.—while the workers possess only their ability to work.

Arising out of this class ownership of the means of life, the worker finds himself condemned to spend most of his waking life either toiling as a wage-slave or looking for the chance to become one.

This sordid existence robs the worker of any initiative as well as the fruits of his labour, strangles his emotional life, and tends to reduce him to the level of a beast of burden.

The intelligent worker becomes aware of the helplessness of his position under capitalism, and therefore often fails to develop an interest in the work he is compelled to do. Hence the state of browned-offishness.

The cure for this condition lies in the abolition of the private ownership of the means of living. This in its turn will bring us freedom from the curse of wage slavery.

Therefore, let Socialism become the aim of a politically enlightened working class. Keep the goal of Socialism ever before us; do not lose sight of it in squabbles over such things as canteens or a bonus system of payment, etc.

H. F. Mills