What does socialism mean? It means that all wealth will be produced, not to be sold for cash in the market but to be freely consumed according to people's self-defined needs. The present-day, capitalist system of society which exists throughout the world operates on the opposite basis. It is very hard indeed at the moment to find anything which has not been made in order that it could at some point be sold at a profit, it is this key choice which lies at the heart of any serious political debate today. Are the world's vast productive resources to be used in order to generate cash profit for a minority as at present, or are they to be switched into working purely and directly to satisfy human needs, without the interference of the profit system?
In fact, although often hidden from view, this question lies behind all the battles in the class war which we experience day after day. Whether it is the postal workers, the P&O strike, nurses, teachers or miners, workers constantly come into conflict with their employers because present-day society is based fundamentally on the making of profit for the bosses at the expense of us. the wealth creators. For the entire working class of the world to defend our interests it will prove essential to transform society. This will mean abolishing the profit system, in all its forms. In that way. the class struggle can be brought to an end by a democratic victory for the majority who have no real stake in the profit system, so that production can then be carried out purely for human use and not for cash profit.
How, then, will the socialist alternative work? First, all the productive resources of the world would be owned neither by individuals nor by a state bureaucracy — they would instead be firmly in the hands of the community. In other words, the factories, farms, mines and transport would be under the democratic control of society as a whole, as would all other productive machinery and materials.
The idea of democratic control is hardly a new one. Socialism means simply that the most obvious and important aspect of social decision-making — the production and distribution of wealth — is taken over by the community as a whole, rather than being left to a minority who are forced to follow the whims of their perverse market system.
Second, and following from this, a worldwide socialist society will clearly have no interest in producing wealth for it to be bought and sold. The buying and selling of wealth has developed only as part of a private property society, as did barter in an earlier period. It has no useful social purpose in a world where resources could be developed only as part of a private property society, as did barter in an earlier period. It has no useful social purpose in a world where resources could be developed to meet all of our needs without the artificial scarcity and rationing suffered by all those on the wrong side of the present class division. For goods to be exchanged at all. they would have to be privately owned by the two parties exchanging them. Unlike capitalism, with its money obsession, socialism will have no need of barter, money, or any other means of exchange. Any system of finance can only make sense in the end if people are prepared to tolerate being told by some economic dictator that "this is mine — you cannot have it. whatever your needs", and it is precisely that weakness among workers which is the sole remaining prop of capitalism. When that has gone, through the strength and determination of a united working-class movement for socialism, then the world of money becomes meaningless.
Socialism, then, will be a social system of free access. Having worked together to produce the things we need, co-operatively and voluntarily, each of us will then be able to satisfy our personal needs freely from the supply of goods and services which will have been produced and set aside democratically for that purpose. Such a system of free access, contrary to the popular myth fostered and encouraged by capitalism, is perfectly in keeping with the behaviour patterns of human beings.
This social revolution will take place only on the basis of majority understanding and action. So, given that a majority have struggled to establish that economic democracy, they are hardly likely then to act perversely and destroy its basis of mutual responsibility. Also, on the day-to-day level, if people are working together to produce wealth which is freely available to be enjoyed by all. then people would have a direct interest in participating in this effort, if only to increase the produce available to them.
But capitalism is a very sick system. In addition to screwing every last drop of productivity out of workers, it also screws up our minds. We are taught methodically by this system to have the strangest ambitions. And so it has become a popular (if confused) aim to lie permanently in a bed, as if ill. with occasional visits to the back seat of a Rolls Royce car, while eating seven three-course dinners a day and pausing between drinks only to vomit. The fact that the many workers who seem to have this recurring dream stand more chance of flying to Venus never puts them off. Neither does the observation that those who do have millions of pounds often choose, understandably, to spend their lives far more actively and busily than this (even if it is the activity of ordering others about). Nevertheless, as a result of all this, socialists have sometimes been asked this question: "The socialist majority might well get on with the task of producing these stocks of wealth for their own pleasure, but what if some awkward individuals decide to do nothing useful, and then go and consume vast quantities of the wealth that others have produced?".
To this point, there are (at least) three answers. First, on being asked whether they are the ones who are going to behave in that situation so anti-socially, such people usually assure you that they would never be so stupid and that it is someone else they know who they are worried about. In fact nobody wants to be bed-ridden all their life. And it is far more satisfying to be properly involved in creative, useful and productive work in cooperation with other people, than to lead a "lazy", isolated and useless life, or to be lost in a world of games and pastimes which never relate to sorting out the basic human needs which still cry out so loud. Any of the many millions of unemployed workers across the world today will testify to this fact.
Second, and as a safeguard, social pressure can be a very compelling force, especially when it is a question of co-operating in the pursuit of satisfying a great and urgent need across the world — in this case, the abolition of war. hunger, poverty and all of the other by-products of the profit system. The exciting possibilities which would be opening up to humanity would certainly have a most dramatic effect on patterns of human behaviour and mutual expectations.
So to those who consider themselves stimulated by inactivity, you too may as well join the movement for socialism — you have nothing to lose but your boredom. And to the greater number who say that they are not themselves innately and completely lazy but they know of one or two who are — let us know when you have found these people, it would be fascinating for us to meet such an unlikely specimen, particularly after having heard so much about them.
Clifford Slapper
No comments:
Post a Comment