Machinery? (1952)

From the January 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

Many objects! in class society stand as a monument to the foolishness of man. One of these in present society is that infernal machine the Underground Railway.

At certain times during the day, a surging mass of humanity descends upon this particular means of transport, as it seems to be the quickest way of getting to and from work, speed being the order of the day.

The first delay that must be taken into consideration in our measurement of time, is the long queue of people who wait for an employee of the London Transport, to present them with a ticket in exchange for money. Then we meet that effigy of wasted labour “The Hole Puncher.” After our ticket has made the acquaintance of his Instrument of Office, we put it into our pocket, for it has nothing to do with the running of the train anyway.

Our next step, takes us onto the moving staircase (a realisation on somebody’s part that the worker has so little energy left after his employer has finished with him that he cannot use a normal staircase). Then, standing on an overcrowded platform, we wait the arrival of “The Monster.”

Man has passed many laws for the protection of cattle in transport yet, during the next part of this journey we will see him voluntarily submit himself to conditions that are a violation of every one of these laws. Even the horse has to be saddled, he doesn’t put the halter round his own neck. Pushing and shoving, the assembled company boards the tram, hardly able to breathe the rotten air that pervades the vacant spaces. At last with a sigh of relief, we arrive at our destination, having kept our hands in our own pockets, and our name out of The News of The World.

We present out ticket to another employee of the London Transport Board, who examines it to make sure that we have not fiddled his employer, and then relieves us of its care. So much for “Our” trains. Who ever heard of a person cheating himself? Unless it be a worker at Election time.

Walking off into the comparative fresh air all we can murmur is Why? Why? We are met with the Socialist case. All these unpleasantries are facets of Capitalism, facets of the undeniable fact that Society is divided into two classes.

The “ticket” we buy has no function in the actual running of the train but measures the value of the commodity we are buying in train service, which like all other commodities is produced for exchange, with a view to profit.

This overcrowding is due to the fact that the majority of society owning no “Property” are forced to sell themselves to the Owning Class. They sell themselves for a certain amount of time, and receive sufficient to reproduce the commodity. It is not the purpose of this article to go too deeply into the measure of Value. Sufficient to say that the worker receives just the value of his Labour Power, which is the commodity he sells. This necessitates him living as near to his place of employment as possible, so we have the advent of large industrial towns. It also necessitates him finding the quickest, and cheapest means of travel, so we have the existence of such social monstrosities as Underground Railways. 

The working day begins for most of us long before we arrive at our place of employment, for travelling for the worker is darned hard work, and it is a long time after we leave our place of employment before we can relax, and try to forget that we have to do it all again on the morrow.

All these rotten conditions of life will be with us until the vast majority sees an alternative. It is these conditions that have thrown up a small minority that can see an alternative, the Socialists, but as Socialism is a system of society, based on the cooperation of Common Owners, to introduce it needs the understanding of the vast majority. Therefore we ask you to study our case, for we are sure that if you really get down to understanding Socialism, you will join with us.

Oh! by the way, the Underground seems to have another use too, by the people who, fed up with the problems of Capitalism, have used its electric rail to find the only way out they knew.

Terry Lord

(Croydon Branch)

Party News Briefs: Glasgow and Brighton (1952)

Party News from the January 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Organiser of Kelvingrove Branch sent the following news of Branch propaganda activity for last month’s issue but it was just too late for the printer so it had to be held over until this month.

   “Since the middle of August, the Kelvingrove Branch has had a very successful series of outdoor meetings. Two members who previously had not shown any great ability as speakers, have, with a little change of technique, managed to hold outdoor meetings at which on only one occasion, has there been less than 100 of an audience and, on every other, the audience varied between 150 and 300. Collections and Literature sales have been good and a number of regular attenders are beginning to come around. But, best of all, the success we have had, has put new zest into the Branch as a whole. Our meetings started off with attendances of about 3 to 4 party members and quickly mounted until at the last two we could count 15 to 20 members.
   To those members who have tried speaking and then given up when they did not meet with immediate success; we hope our achievement will act as encouragement to have another go. It helps a great deal if one is big enough to accept constructive criticism from fellow members and, of course, if a deaf ear can be turned to members and relatives who deplore your lack of ability.
  During the election period, with the help of three "Glasgow City" comrades, we managed to push about 2,000 Election Manifestos through an equivalent number of doors. We would have liked to have done the whole Kelvingrove constituency, but to succeed in such a venture, we would have needed more members or the Manifestoes at our disposal on an earlier date.
   By holding meetings, attending opposition party meetings and canvassing from door to door almost 20 doz. S.S. were sold, this being the total amount of S.S. ordered by City and Kelvingrove.
  Taking stock of the past couple of months’ activity, we feel pleased, and look forward to next year’s propaganda season with renewed vigour and vitality—our recent success has acted like a tonic.”

Members of the Brighton Group made application to the Executive Committee for permission to form a Brighton Branch. Permission was granted and so another Group becomes an official Branch of the Party. For some years now, members in the Brighton area have been very active and they formed a Group which has worked well and consistently. Good outdoor propaganda meetings have been maintained throughout the year.

Phyllis Howard

Roots of the Class Struggle (1952)

From the January 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

We have recently in this journal published a series of articles on economics from the socialist point of view. We think it would now be useful to go a little more carefully into this question of labour power. First of all, what is it? It is the mental and physical energy of the worker which he sells to the capitalist for a wage. Labour power is a commodity like any other commodity and exchanges at its value. It is unlike other commodities in that it can produce more value than it contains itself. For this reason it is the most treasured commodity for the capitalist class. Labour power is the sole creator of value. Other commodities merely transfer their own values into the commodities produced. This is made obvious by the effort of the capitalists in a world of competition to cheapen their commodities by reducing the time taken to produce them. Thus speeding up, labour saving machinery and the like.

We are sometimes asked why if labour power is sold at its value there should be such wide differences in the wages paid to various members of the working-class. The answer is that the value of the labour power differs. The value of the labour power of a skilled engineer is higher than that of a day labourer. Therefore the skilled workers get say £8 per week, and the day labourer say £5 10s. 0d. per week. Now remember that not only has a worker to reproduce his own energy, but also the capitalists hope that he will reproduce his kind, and ensure that the ranks of the working-class will always be filled. And so Henry Dubb gets enough for his labour power to keep alive Harry and Bill, Betty and Freda. Do not think that capitalists pay high wages to some through any generous feelings on their part. Rather it is due to qualitative differences in the labour power they purchase. These qualitative differences lead to quantitative differences in the amount they pay.

And then there are others who ask why, if labour power sells at its value, should it be necessary for the workers to struggle with the capitalists over questions of wages. Surely they will get the value of their labour power automatically. But all of working history shows us that the capitalists will pay as little as they can for labour power. If the workers do not struggle they will be plunged to the depths of destitution. True with the worker in that condition capitalism would run far from smoothly. But the capitalists are not so long sighted. They want profits now, and as much of them as they can get. While capitalism lasts the workers must struggle all the time. If they do not struggle for all they can get out of capitalism, they will certainly never struggle for socialism.

And then of course there are those who say that it is useless for the workers to obtain higher wages, because it merely leads to higher prices. This argument was adequately dealt with by Karl Marx in the pamphlet "Value Price and Profit" which we urged you to read. Marx points out that a rise in wages will increase the demand for a limited range of commodities. That is the commodities the workers consume. On these commodities there might be a temporary increase in prices. But soon capital will come from those industries producing commodities for the capitalists, and the increasing competition will force down the prices of the commodities produced for workers' use.

The tragedy of the wage struggle recently has of course been the attitude of the working class during the war. Then they were strong. labour power was scarce and badly needed by our masters. But workers obeyed the injunctions of their Trade Union leaders and the Government and soft pedalled on wage demands. At this time they could have obtained big increases in wage rates if they had concerned themselves not with a country which does not belong to them, but with a class of which they are members.

As a consequence many workers are in a worse position than they were before the war. Take for example the London 'bus men. Before the war 'bus drivers got £4 10s. 0d. per week, and conductors £4 4s. 0d. To-day drivers get £6 16s. 0d. and conductors £6 13s. 0d. According to "Locals Government Service" the cost of living in March 1951, was 190 as compared with 100 in 1938. This means that drivers and conductors are now getting about £4 0s 0d. per week on the cost of living to-day compared with 1938. This is the result of their failure to struggle.

Lloyd George, the Welsh wizard and arch enemy of the working class, said just after the 1914-18 war,

The whole state of society is more or less molten and you can stamp upon that molten mass almost anything as long as you do so with firmness and determination . . .
I believe the settlement after the war will succeed in proportion to its audacity . . . If I could have presumed to have been the adviser of the working class, I should say to them: audacity is the thing for you. Don't be thinking of getting back to where you were before the war: get a really new world."

(Quoted by Maurice Dobb in "Trade Union experience and Policy 1914-18, An Outline," p.25 Labour Research pamphlet.)

It would appear from this that Lloyd George had a much clearer conception of the class struggle than Trade Union leaders then and now. Perhaps however Trade Union leaders in the past few years have been mainly concerned with not embarrassing the capitalist Labour Government in which they have such faith. One message to the workers on the industrial field is this. On this field you have only one weapon, and that is the strike. If during the war you had gone on strike, or threatened to strike, it would have paid you handsome dividends.

But a final message. While capitalism lasts struggle with your masters all the time, but more importantly join us in the struggle for socialism. Capitalism can never give you more than poverty and misery. Socialism will give you a full free life and happiness.

Clifford Groves