Sir Anthony Eden’s Prophetic Words (1956)

From the August 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

Almost daily we are urged to worship at the shrine of “progress"; progress in science and its application to industry and of the promise it holds out for the betterment of mankind. We hear of the marvels of atomic power, of radar and radio, of computing machines, of belt systems and automation. With all this “progress” how is it that insecurity and poverty cannot be banished from our lives? After two devastating world wars, numerous lesser wars and half a century of gigantic scientific development Sir Anthony Eden, the Prime Minister, tells us now:

 "We are in mortal peril, not of immediate unemployment, but of poverty by stages.

  “Inflation is the new battle of Britain. We are all in it, and upon its outcome our homes, our jobs, and our children's future depends."

(Sunday Express, 14/7/56).

There are multitudes of hands to produce and plenty of material to work upon but the system is running down because of an alleged flaw in the monetary arrangements. Could anything be more crazy? Robinson Crusoe had no money but he could feed and house himself. Our forefathers fed, housed themselves, and carried their social systems on centuries before money came into existence. People in all past ages have lived in comfort, meeting their needs, without the intervention of money and the worry about inflation. What is the real cause of the trouble; why is inflation only a bugbear of modern times?

Our early forefathers carried on production for the sole purpose of meeting their needs. Now the situation is entirely different. Production is not carried on for the purpose of meeting people’s needs. The aim of production is to so arrange it that a profit is made in order that shareholders and bondholders may draw their dividends without needing to work. Hence the Haves and the Have-nots—the workers and the Capitalists—those who must sell their physical and mental energies in order to get the wherewithal to meet their needs and those who can meet their needs without having to sell their energies.

Production today is for the market, and conditions in the market determine how, when, where and if a portion or all of the product will be sold. Conditions in the market can bring prosperity, financial difficulty, or even ruin to many producing concerns as crises of the past have borne witness. If one type of goods is produced too much in excess of what the market can absorb the competition to find buyers leaves some losers in the struggle, which appears to be what is happening in some industries to-day, like the motor industry. If the unsold surplus is large, or if there is an anticipation that this is going to happen, then there is a cut in production and workers are discharged. The strange part of it is that there can be a large unsold surplus of the very things that the mass of people are sorely in need of but cannot buy because of their limited resources. With only their wages or salaries to depend upon the workers are always on the side that loses when these troubles come.

Inflation is not the cause of poverty, though governments precipitate trouble by debasing the currency and issuing insufficiently backed current notes in the vain hope of getting out of financial difficulty—or just through plain ignorance.

Money is the medium of market dealings and products must be turned into money before profit, the object of market dealings, can be realised. Thus there is no way out of the crazy dilemma whilst buying and selling continues to be the means of transferring the product to the consumer. Whilst the means of production are privately owned by an individual, a company, or a State concern buying and selling will still go on. The answer, then, is to abolish this private ownership and substitute for it the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. When this is done human needs and not profit will be the aim of production and money, and all the evils associated with it, will disappear.

Relieve Sir Anthony of the worry of inflation by establishing Socialism. You can do so if you want to. If you heed Sir Anthony's warning about your children you will make haste to join in the battle for Socialism, for it alone will guarantee comfort and security to your children.

Gilmac.