There’s a lot of debate going on in the various YourParty groups and on social media about whether YourParty should be overtly socialist or not.
This is a very good and very important discussion for all of us to engage in.
What is socialism? What do we all mean by it? Should we call for socialism? Will it put people off? Should we try to win people by not mentioning it?
In my opinion, and I am sure it is the opinion of all who have signed up to YourParty, it is absolutely essential that the new party fights against all the ills of society – poverty, inequality, racism and all forms of discrimination, austerity, lack of decent wages, benefits, homelessness, the decline of the NHS, the growing authoritarianism in the UK and across the globe. We see the rise of racist and fascist movements, the suppression of protest and free speech, wars, and the destruction of the environment through climate change. (We could add a hundred or more extra problems to be confronted.)
But we as a party have to do more than this. We have to explain the cause of all these ills. Why do they occur? Why are things getting worse.
If we want to fight the symptoms of the disease we need to know what the disease is.
If we look at any single one of the subjects listed above we can see that they all occur because of the division of society into classes and the present capitalist system, which is based on profit.
Our society here in the UK, and elsewhere across the planet, is dominated by capitalism. Capitalism is a system in which a tiny, tiny proportion of the world’s population own and control the world’s resources – the land, waters, minerals, transport, factories, science & technology, what can be called the ‘Means of Production’.
On the other hand we have the international working class, which makes up the vast bulk of the world’s 8.2 billion population.
The capitalist class uses its ownership of the means of production to exploit the working class to make a profit. The capitalist class wants always to increase its profit, at the expense of the working class.
Capitalism demands that workers work faster and longer. It wants always to limit the wages it pays. It cuts corners on health and safety. It introduces new technology but instead of freeing up time for workers to enjoy more leisure time, it throws them out of work. Instead of being master of the machine, the worker is its slave.
Take Amazon as just one example, where workers are timed when they go to the lavatory. The bosses want to squeeze every extra penny in profit out of us.
Capitalism always has money for its wars. Trillions of pounds/dollars are spent on weapons of destruction, while millions starve. 4.4 billion people don’t have ready access to clean water to drink or to bathe in.
Capitalism causes the growing inequality we see. It makes the owners of the corporations richer and richer, while the gap between the billionaires and their workers gets wider.
Capitalism demands that governments cut back on social spending on the services we need, to open areas like the NHS and education to private investment for profit.
Capitalism is a system based on competition between companies – and countries – for markets, resources, strategic locations, trade links and labour to exploit. This develops into the imperialist rivalry we see escalating today, with the horrific genocide in Gaza and the prospect of a world war between the USA and China looming. The competitive nature of capitalism inevitably breaks out into wars. If we want to end wars, we must end the system that causes them.
Climate change is caused by the disregard of the environment in the unquenchable thirst for more profit. Those who pump out the vast carbon emissions are concerned only for their profit, not for the health of this or future generations. If we want to save the planet, we must end the system that is destroying it.
None of the ills described can be resolved by allowing the continuation of capitalism. There is no such things as a ‘fair’ capitalism. Capitalism is not ‘fair’. It is rooted in an unequal class-divided society – the exploiters and the exploited. It is driven by its need for profit. Nothing else matters.
The interests of the capitalist class – to make more profit – are incompatible and irreconcilable with the interests of the working class – a safe, comfortable life without financial, health, housing or education insecurity.
So long as the exploitative capitalist system survives, humanity will live in constant inequality, uncertainty and fear – of the future, of war, of environmental disaster, of a lack of any future for the generations to follow.
We can, of course, force reforms – concessions – from the ruling capitalist class. And we should fight determinedly for all the reforms we can.
But those reforms will always be transient, will always be susceptible to counter-reforms, i.e. that they will be taken away. All the reforms that were conceded in the post-WWII period have been destroyed or eroded – including the NHS.
We should aim not to manage capitalism. It cannot be made to work in our interest. We should aim to abolish it.
We should aim for a society in which the means of production are owned in common – by all; in which the resources of the world are used to meet the needs of all, not to make a profit for a few.
We should aim for a society in which no-one is left behind, in which everyone is cherished and looked after, not abandoned and discarded because the capitalist system has no use for them.
So, our new party must not be afraid of shouting loudly, boldy, and clearly: We want to see the end of this rotten, corrupt, divisive profit system and all its consequential misery.
We want to abolish capitalism, and to create a new socialist society.
Not a single word in Nick’s article to disagree with.
But also a massive omission: the question of how capitalism can be abolished. We probably agree that this depends on the organisation of a revolutionary socialist party rooted among the most class conscious members of the working class.
To say so is also to mark out the limitations of Your Party. To answer Nick’s opening questions, there will be YP enthusiasts arguing vehemently against the ‘s’ word. They will want ‘inclusiveness’ instead.
Hence the idea that YP can bypass the divisions and disagreement s on the left, bemoaned by many, is simply fanciful.
If so, how can it be of value to Marxist socialists?
In the same way, I suggest, as the ascendant period of Corbynism was after 2015. It can free up the possibility of discussions with workers about how to win against the boss class, and about the nature of class struggle, no longer constrained by the ‘common sense’ that There Is No Alternative (TINA)
This of course is modest, compared to the almost messianic hopes that some people have vested in Your Party.
Marxists though are realists, not fantasists.
Following Gramsci, our watchwords are ‘Pessimism of the intelligence; optimism of the will’.
Capitalism will only be abolished by the conscious act of the working class – the overwhelming majority of the world’s population.
It requires the majority working class collectively to understand the need for the present system to be overturned/abolished.
To achieve this we need to build a mass socialist party committed to this aim.
We need to persuade people of the need for this step and that this step requires them to carry it out.
YourParty is in the process of being set up. There are lots of discussions taking place about what it should be for.
Socialists/Communists should argue that it should be for the abolition of the present system – capitalism – and for the creation of a new one – socialism/communism. [I do not mean what existed in the Soviet Union and similar states, or what exists currently in China or North Korea. That has nothing to do with socialism/communism.]
The majority working class in power would transform society, democratising every aspect of it, from the abolition of the monarchy through to the expropriation of the private capitalist ownership of the means of production and their vast accumulated wealth.
This would be a fundamental break with the old capitalist system and the basis for a new classless, stateless society to be created.
We need more material arguing in favour of socialism. Why would it be better? How would things be differently done? We need to convince others that the new socialist society is worth them putting in their effort, time, energy and money.
This system is rotten. Socialism would transform the lives of billions now and for future generations.
We should argue for YourParty to clearly state this is its aim.