Work for Socialism—Now ! (1941)

From the December 1941 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialism is a question of historical development. That is to say, certain historic conditions must exist before Socialism is possible. It could not be brought about merely because people willed or desired it—in the absence of the economic and political circumstances which make it possible. It could not be brought about in the absence of the will and desire for it, even if the economic and political circumstances were favourable. The two things must go together: favourable economic conditions, and the desire, before Socialism can displace the existing social order.

Nothing is more certain than that to-day all the circumstances necessary for the establishment of Socialism do not exist. Those lacking are the desire, the will and the understanding. In a world in which the majority of the workers in one of the largest continents are organised behind their respective governments in a war which promises to provide the most wholesale example of suffering and self-sacrifice by any subject class since the beginning of civilisation cannot, by any strain of the imagination, be described as a world which is even remotely ready for Socialism. Millions are at death grips with each other in a war which, whatever the outcome, means the continuance of capitalism in one form or another.

And yet ideas concerning Socialism are more widely spread than ever. True that many are bastard ideas; true, tragically, also that few recognise their illegitimacy.

Let us therefore restate a few basic essentials of the Socialist case. We need not apologise for doing so. We regret it has been necessary for forty years. It is still necessary. Socialism involves the abolition of private and class ownership in the means and instruments of production, and the establishing of an order of things wherein they will be owned by society. For the first time in civilised history mankind will face the problem of organising production for society without an owning class. Things will be produced solely for use and because people need them. They will not be produced to sell and to provide profit for the owners of the means and instruments of production as they are under capitalism. There will be no profit. There will be no wages because men and women will not need to sell their energies in order to live. The function of money to circulate goods will disappear because it will not be needed. The function of wages to ensure that the worker receives only part of the wealth he produces will disappear because the worker in Socialist society will enjoy the full fruits of his production, after meeting the necessary replacements and enlargements of the means of production and distribution. Wages are an indication of working-class poverty and measure only its extent. The continuance of the wages system under any government or with whatever modifications is still capitalism.

The revolutionary change in the economic basis of society from private to common ownership will produce corresponding changes in the whole organisation of social life. Culture and leisure will be free to all instead of to a minority. Social, moral and family habits and customs which rest upon the private property basis of capitalism will adjust themselves to fit into the new order. Capitalist ideas will dissolve into history’s melting pot. Freed from the poverty and servitude of class-society men and women will face each and the other as free and equal social beings. All social values will undergo revolutionary changes. Reflection upon the potentialities of society organised on a Socialist basis humbles the imagination.

Anything short of this is not Socialism : it is capitalism by whatever name it is called.

Even most workers who desire some change would not accept Socialism as defined above. They would reject it because they are not ready for the revolutionary and profound changes which Socialism would involve. Socialism to them expresses no more than a drive for some particular adjustment in social conditions or some improvement in the conditions of life of the workers. Steeped in the prejudices of the capitalist system and all the ideas which go with it, most of them would reject Socialism as we expound it. The Socialist Party is opposed to them only on the grounds of logic and science. Simply, they are not Socialists.

We do not exaggerate the position. Take the I.L.P. as an organised political party, as an example—and, incidentally, since most other sections of the Labour movement have given up or suspended any claim to a role in the struggle for Socialism during the war the I.L.P. is perhaps the one organisation which to-day provides obvious examples of the misconceptions concerning the nature of Socialism. In the “New Leader” (November 15th) it announces that it has decided “to start a campaign for a Socialist Britain,” and accompanies the great news with bold headlines. And the programme? Just the old reformist trash : (1) “Social justice in Britain and National Liberation in the Empire”; (2) “To shorten the war by stimulating Socialist Revolution against Nazism in Europe”; (3) “To save Soviet Russia.” Plus the usual features in I.L.P. “programmes”—”the nation to take over the banks” . . .”the control of prices,” and “minimum standards of living,” etc. The disappointing thing about the “decision to start (our italics) a campaign for Socialist Britain now” was the realisation that the announcement did not preface a confession of the discovery, that until the “start now” the I.L.P. had concerned itself with anything but Socialism. Another striking thing was the uncertain interpretation as to whether it was in support of the war (“Save Soviet Russia”) or in favour of stopping it, as formerly.

We repeat, the fact that Socialism is assumed to denote no more than social reforms or government decrees shows that the worker is not yet ready for Socialism. Socialism is not round the corner. To pretend that it is or to ignore the immense tasks that yet lie before Socialists and the working class would be a disservice to Socialism, We scorn the easy road that might lead to large support and popularity. We have been in the business of making Socialists for nearly forty years for no other reason than that a majority wanting Socialism is the first condition for its establishment. For nearly forty years events have provided innumerable tests of the soundness of our Object and Declaration of Principles. Nothing has deflected us from our purpose and path, or diverted us to the pursuit of any secondary purpose or of any other object than Socialism. We have tenaciously ploughed our way unshaken by revolutions, civil wars and world wars. More than ever to-day we take our stand on the position that the economic and social problems of the world can be solved only by Socialism; that workers everywhere have a common interest with each other which overrides all other interests. When this second world war is over and the armed struggle for dominance is suspended pending recovery or regrouping, there will be a return to the problems which existed before the war. The workers will face basically the same problems as before. Unemployment and insecurity and the perpetual fear and threat of war.

There can be but one answer to these problems for the workers. There is no solution to any of them separately. The solution to any one of them is the solution which will sweep all of them away together. That solution is the one we have proffered at all times throughout our history as the remedy for the social and economic problems which confront the workers. That solution is not a new discovery. At all moments throughout our history it has been our answer. It still is and will continue to be:

It is SOCIALISM NOW !

Harry Waite