As the condition of the world becomes more and more critical and chaotic, men’s minds turn with greater insistence towards remedies not tried before. Yet Socialism—not, of course, the spurious article which goes by that name in Labour circles—is rarely considered at the outset because of the twin fear that it is allied to violence and disorder and that it is not practical.
The fear of violence should not require more than a brief examination. Capitalism itself, whether in war or peace, is so full of violence that no alternative could very well be worse. What serves to hide this is that the propertied class always contrive to represent their violence as “lawful,” even when, as in Spain, it means organising a destructive armed rebellion, or when, as in Jaffa earlier this year, it meant the dynamiting by British authorities of the houses of 6,000 poor Arabs at only a few hours’ notice, leaving them to find shelter where they could, deprived of most of their furniture.
The best answer to the person who associates Socialism with violence and disorder is to instance the S.P.G.B. In 32 years of our existence we have never on any occasion advocated violence, or any form of dictatorship or anti-democratic method. We have never broken up opponents’ meetings, and we allow them the use of our platform to attack our case and state their own. Never have we preached or tried to justify any form of the suppression of the views and opinions of others. Our own past and the principles we preach and practise are the best of all guarantees that Socialists stand for orderly methods of social progress.
Socialists can also easily meet the charge that their principles are not practical. We, indeed, make that charge against all who stand for capitalism. Is it reasonable that millions of human beings should be in want or distress in face of society’s present powers of producing goods for their use? Is it practical to try to hold down these discontented millions by armed force or the methods of dictatorship ? Is it practical to cherish the illusion of the Fascists that you can eliminate the conflict between the haves and have-nots by dressing them in shirts of the same colour, while leaving the economic gulf untouched ? Is it practical to say, as do the Conservative, Liberal and many Labour politicians, that our only hope of peace is to amass still further gigantic forces of destruction, the vicious doctrine that force must be met with force? Is it practical to spend further years raising Labour Governments to power in the vain hope that they will be luckier at trying to administer capitalism than they were before? Is it practical any longer to believe in the capitalist system at all ?
Socialists, with their feet firmly planted on the ground, urge you to give unprejudiced attention to what we say, even if at first glance it appears to be made up of what you have been told are lofty ideal aims impossible to put into practice. In a world where goods can be produced in almost unlimited amount, is it really so impracticable to set about organising distribution on the basis that all people shall have free access to the goods? What is there to prevent such organisation—except that the necessary knowledge and will are at present lacking? Are you so contemptuous of the capacity for social conduct of your fellows (and of yourself) that you believe it impossible to get the population to work without the threat of starvation under the compulsion of capitalist tyranny? Moreover, what practical alternative is there to the reorganisation of society on the lines we advocate? The actual alternative held out by the so- called “practical” reformers in the Labour Party and other non-Socialist Parties is nothing else than a preparation for a new world war between the capitalist democracies and the dictatorships. Unless the workers of the world adopt the principles of Socialism showing the way of escape from capitalism to emancipation they will be drawn into a blind, fratricidal struggle about the minor differences between one kind of capitalism and another.
Socialism offers possibilities of life for the whole population such as the world has never known before. The road to Socialism is the road of persuasion, and of democratic organisation in a Socialist political party internationally organised. Socialists know the goal and know that orderly democratic methods are the way to achieve it. Socialists alone are the practical men and women who have the key to the future in their hands, a key that can be used whenever the majority come over to our side.
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