Will the Workers Learn? (1942)

From the June 1942 issue of the Socialist Standard 

We can tell you the answer in a moment. They will learn. And there are abundant reasons for thinking so. But there are others who hold a contrary view. These gentlemen constitute two schools of thought. One group says that the workers are mentally incapable of ever understanding Socialist ideas, and the other group believes that there is something defective in Socialist propaganda. They say that our appeal lacks colour and vigour, in short, imagination. For example, we do not paint pretty pictures of what life will be under Socialism, the changes in domestic life, personal habits, social customs, architecture, music and art. Now, of course, we are aware that a system of production solely for use will make human society quite different from what it is now, but we obviously cannot sketch the details, It would be foolish to assume that we could accurately foretell the detailed reactions of the majority of people to the conditions of a Socialist society. In fact, we cannot say that everything will be perfect, that there will be no problems to solve, and no difficulties to settle. What we do say, and say it continuously, is, that in present society no problems may be solved, and no adjustments made, without first giving due consideration for the interests of a class of property owners. That only in a classless society will these hindrances be removed, and the way thrown open for development and improvement, and that there will be no poverty problem. We offer Socialism to the working class as a simple and practical solution to certain problems that face them. These problems are serious, and they become more and more urgent with time. The workers are faced with increasing insecurity set in a background of poverty and unhappiness. They are compelled to endure the kind of poverty that injures their health, and puts them into premature graves, half-starved or completely starved. This, mark you, in the so-called rich countries where the workers are said to consume larger quantities of nutritious food than the unfortunate workers in other countries that are not so prosperous. Remember that we are told that the workers of America and England drive their own cars, live in their own houses and that they bring home heavier wage packets than the miserable work beasts of Germany, Italy and Japan, not to mention the teeming millions of “over-populated” India and China. It is true that the workers in some countries eat more meat, but eating-more meat, particularly the embalmed variety, is no more indicative of happiness and good health than buying a car on the H.P. is evidence of economic security !

Many workers support the war because they believe that the imperial wealth in their employers’ hands allows them a much better standard of life and that the loss of this wealth would place them at a disadvantage. Now if it is true that German capitalism was too impoverished to allow the workers in that country higher wages and better social services, how can one explain its tremendous military power? It was estimated in 1939 that the Nazi Government had spent something like £6,000,000,000 in military expansion. Surely manna from heaven !

Japan, another “poor” and “over-populated” country, has maintained armies in China for four years, and is now strong enough to overrun strongholds in the Far East, even if only temporarily. This was accomplished by a superiority in machines. Quite obviously, men with empty stomachs cannot fight wars, nor can they work in armament factories. In order to produce the same tanks and planes as the workers in this country they have to be maintained in approximately the same degree of efficiency. In all of these “have not” countries there are groups of wealthy people who are engaged in the war with the one object of increasing their wealth because they feel that they are strong enough to do it.

The fact is glaring. The world is rich in untapped resources. Its mineral wealth is incalculable. Many more acres of land could be placed under cultivation. More factories could be built. And there are millions of men and women expending their energies in unproductive work who could easily do something useful. Socialism would make this possible. Why then do the workers turn a deaf ear to the message of the Socialist?

The question can only be answered by taking a long view. The workers are a comparatively young class, hardly out of their swaddling clothes, even in England. The vast countries of the East, with their great resources, have merely been scratched by capitalism. It is only in the last twenty years that Russia has begun to develop its agriculture and industry along modern lines.

In fact, it is only in America, Europe and the British Dominions that there exists, at present, the economic foundations on which Socialism could be established. It would be difficult to find means of measuring whether working class political development is slow or fast, but there is certainly not a shred of evidence to indicate that the workers will never understand their class position. They have definitely made very useful progress. They are enfranchised and educated slaves. They read and write, and they produce complicated instruments of great ingenuity. They have a knowledge of organisation and administration.

Darwin has shown that even animals will learn from painful experience. Men also learn from experience, perhaps more rapidly.

If the great majority of mankind were incapable of absorbing ideas, learning from their mistakes, and adapting themselves to changing conditions, then present development would never have appeared. But men fear the future. They cling tenaciously to outworn institutions until it becomes clear to them that these institutions have to be abolished if life is to become tolerable for them. The people who say that the workers will never understand Socialism are always anxious to emphasise that the capitalists are well aware of their own position in society. But if their theory is sound why should this be so? What is it that makes the capitalists conscious of their interests in apposition to the workers? They certainly do not possess a more than average capacity for abstract thought. But they to have something which the workers lack. They possess centuries of accumulated experience behind them. They have learned their lesson. The workers have yet a larger field of experience to investigate before they learn their own lesson.

Kaye.