Editorial: Better get rid of capitalism (2022)

Editorial from the July 2022 issue of the Socialist Standard

The long-time boss of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, was once asked what the aim of the trade union movement was. His one-word answer: ‘More’. Apparently, this was too militant for the TUC as their one-word slogan for the national march and rally they organised in London on 18 June was ‘Better’. But then, with the cost of living currently soaring and so our standard of living falling, the unions are not so much demanding ‘more’ as ‘not less’ and even ‘not so much less’.

Unions do aim to get more wages and better working conditions for their members within the framework of the capitalist system. Under capitalism the vast majority of people, as non-owners of places where wealth is produced and services provided, can only get a living by selling their mental and physical energies to some employer. Combining with other workers is a way to get the best price we can for what we are selling. So unions are useful but they are not against capitalism.

The ‘small-c’ conservative nature of the official demands was reflected in the slogans of the various unions. UNISON was demanding ‘fair’ wages, the GMB ‘better’ wages, the CWU ‘decent’ wages. Even RMT was only demanding ‘Cut Profits, Not Wages’. All were accepting the wages system and its other side, the profit system. After all, how can you cut profits unless they are first extracted from workers? The slogans of the left-wing political groups – ‘Tax the Rich’, and ‘Make Them Pay’ – were no better. How can you tax the rich unless they continue to exist?

There were demands to ‘kick the Tories out,’ implying elect a Labour government instead. As if that would make any difference. Even if its current leaders were not an alternative bunch of self-serving careerists but were sincerely committed to furthering the interests of the workers, they would still not be able to make capitalism work other than as a profit system to the benefit of those who live off profits and the detriment of those who work for wages. It is not the Tories that are the problem. It’s capitalism.

Socialists were at the rally with this message:

‘Want better? 

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better. It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions. That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor. Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable, and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it. So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is

free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.’