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Under Siege! Global Capitalism and the socialist alternative

Chapter 2 - Rotten from top to bottom

The parasitic nature of capitalism has given rise to increasing corruption and fraud. This is also reflected in the political and legal structure of capitalism. Golden circles of politicians and businessmen have stolen millions and sometimes billions from the state coffers.

Given the levels of corruption amongst the political elite, and the fact that there is hardly a cigarette paper’s width of difference between the mainstream parties, it is little wonder voters are increasingly abstaining in elections. The present disgust and contempt that exists could rapidly turn into mass anger and a willingness to take to the streets. Every revolt from below will tend to bypass the established parties and increase the gap between working people and the representatives of today’s capitalist political elite.

In most cases, there are now no political parties in elections that genuinely represent the interests of working people. However, working class representation is developing in a number of countries and the CWI is leading the way. CWI candidates pledge only to take an average workers’ wage if they win a seat. Our members of parliaments or councils live under the same conditions as their voters and refuse to accept any privileges. For example, even the capitalist press has to admit that the CWI member of the Irish parliament, Joe Higgins, is "the red that money can’t buy".

We take part, under our own name or together with other groups on the left, in elections in order to put forward a fighting, socialist alternative to the capitalist parties. Elections are not the main arena of the struggle, but it would be totally wrong for socialists to turn their back on elections and ignore the chance to spread the ideas of socialism to a broader audience.

What the capitalist establishment calls ‘liberal democracy’ is very much the dictatorship of the market. It is the capitalist class, despite what parties the electorate voted for, that dictates the essence of government policy.

For socialists, real democracy means struggling for a society where the majority - the working people - control and run society. The capitalist class and their representatives have a much more limited idea of democracy. Even the most ‘democratic’ government in the capitalist world is prepared to use the police and military against workers and youth that take to the streets or want to make their voice heard. Whatever is said about promoting democracy across the world, the capitalist class and imperialism have no problem in supporting dictatorships or implementing laws and regulations that restrict the democratic and national rights of working people.

The CWI defends every democratic right won by the struggle of the working class over decades. We are totally opposed to every measure taken by the capitalist state to suppress or restrict democratic, national, cultural or trade union rights.

We defend and support the right of oppressed nationalities to self-determination, up to and including the right to form their own independent state. We fight all forms of discrimination in the use of language. The cultural and educational rights of all ethnic and religious groups have to be fully respected.

The struggle to defend and extend democratic rights has to become part of a struggle against the dictatorship of the market and the rich. These forces have the politicians and the media in their pockets. The logical extension of the struggle for democracy is the establishment of socialist democracy in the economy itself.

Stamp out racism

The parties of the extreme right and nationalist, populist movements are trying to capitalise on the crisis of the established parties in the West and the widespread discontent that exists. The menace of the far right and fascist groups has to be met by a united working class and socialist alternative

Even if society, particularly under the blows of recession and slump, tends to move to the left there will also be periods when the forces of reaction will make gains. One of the consequences of capitalist decay and crisis is a social and political polarisation. The rise of the right-wing populist movement in Austria, led by Jörg Haider, of the extreme right in France, Belgium, Denmark and parts of Germany, should act as a warning. These parties or ‘movements’ represent a ‘mild’ reaction today, although their pernicious ideas put ethnic and racial minorities at risk. They are extremely unstable parties, with a relatively small membership. But much more brutal and openly racist and reactionary forces could develop out of these parties and movements. Not only the traditional right-wing parties but also the former workers’ parties are flirting with nationalism and playing the racist card, which in turn boosts the extreme right. Social democratic governments in Europe have introduced a raft of laws to "tackle the flood" of immigrants and asylum seekers. Careerist trade union leaders are no better; they are incapable of mobilising the organised workers movement to stop the racist and extreme right wing parties. The anti-working class policies of conservative and social democratic governments have allowed the extreme right to gain a certain audience with their poisonous demagogy. The racists blame minorities for unemployment, social cuts and job losses. That is why the struggle against racism is bound together with the struggle for jobs, social welfare, decent housing, free education and for a living pension for all pensioners. Unless a credible socialist alternative is built sections of the working class and middle classes are in danger of falling under the spell of racist and far right ideas.

Nevertheless, the coming to power of the extreme right in any country can provoke an outbreak of struggle and mass protests. This was shown in Austria at the beginning of 2000, when school students went on strike and 300,000 people took to the streets in a massive demonstration against the new coalition between Haider’s party and the Conservatives.

The EU is building a ‘Fortress Europe’ against refugees and asylum seekers. The bosses and their governments are deliberately using racism in order to try and divide the working class.

Only a united, working class movement can prevent right-wing nationalist parties hjacking popular anger against global capitalism. Only a mass socialist movement can cut across national and ethnic divisions amongst the masses and prevent society entering a vicious cycle of violence, civil wars and chaos.

Racism must be stamped out wherever it raises its ugly head; this can only be done by mass action and a united struggle to defend social services and jobs.

“An injury to one is an injury to all”

The process of globalisation has underlined the need for an international outlook on the part of workers and young people and for solidarity in action. International grass roots movements amongst the unemployed, environmentalists and other sections illustrates that that there is an awareness that international capitalism needs to be challenged on a global scale. We do not for a minute accept, unlike the pro-capitalist trade union leaders, that it is impossible to stand up against the forces of global capitalism and the multinationals. The struggle to save jobs and to defend workers’ rights in one country more than ever before needs support and solidarity from fellow workers in other countries. It goes without saying that the same trade union leaders who are utterly incapable of organising a fightback on a national plane are not capable of organising an international struggle.

It has been up to workers at a rank and file level to organise international campaigns and to build support for struggles. The next step is to build up organisational links between workers in different workplaces in across the world.

The power of internationalism was shown in 1999 when the Australian trade unions organised demonstrations and strikes and refused to handle goods from Indonesia in protest against that government’s brutal oppression of the democratic rights of the people of East Timor. This was the main reason why the Indonesian government was forced to retreat, not because of the crocodile tears shed by western imperialism, which has armed the Indonesian state and therefore connived in the oppression of the Timorese people for years. A more recent example was shown by the marvellous solidarity action of Dutch steel workers who pledged in 2001 to boycott any transfer of Corus steel production to the Netherlands from Britain (where the company had announced its intentions to cease operations in Wales).

Workers and young people can only rely on their own strength, solidarity and independent action. “An injury to one is an injury to all” is still one of the most relevant slogans for the workers’ movement. The key, as far as the international working class is concerned, is to maintain its political and organisational independence from the bosses and the capitalist state.

Those working in the multinational companies need to come together to discuss and agree on joint demands with the aim of cutting differentials in wages and working hours, improving working conditions, social protection and environmental standards, etc.

Special international campaigns need to be organised against companies enforcing sweatshop conditions or those that do not recognise trade unions or use child labour etc.

A workers’ ‘core of labour standards’ should include: the right to organise; a minimum wage which could automatically rise when prices go up; a shorter working week without loss of pay; social protection i.e. unemployment benefit, sick pay, and pensions.

International struggles for common class aims need to be armed with an international socialist programme, and tactics and strategy that are based on the concrete lessons and experiences of workers’ struggles.

The CWI fights for:

No restrictions of trade union rights. Scrap all the anti-trade union laws. Full freedom for workers to organise and take whatever collective action they regard as necessary on a national as well as international level.

For a democratic and fighting trade union movement, that acts and speaks as an independent force for the working class. Full-time officials should be regularly elected and receive the wage of an average worker.

International actions and campaigns (including strikes, worldwide days of actions, blockades and boycotts) need to be organised against the bosses’ onslaught on welfare and jobs, and in defence of workers’ rights and the environment. Trade union struggles must be combined with the idea of changing the world, of eliminating the power of the big monopolies that hold the majority of humankind by the throat.

Abolish big business secrets. Open the books of big business. Let the workers know where all the massive profits, tax rebates and subsidies have gone. No transfers of jobs or production without the agreement of workers.

All factories under threat of closure or partial closure to be taken into public ownership, under the democratic control of workers. Confiscate the assets of companies that threaten the jobs and conditions of workers and jeopardise the future of the community, or which have a record of environmental pollution.

Under the yoke of imperialism

By the beginning of the 20th century Africa and Asia and a large part of Latin America were already reduced to providing raw materials and cheap labour on the world market. The profits made in the colonies went to the dominant imperialist countries. Colonialism was the greatest robbery and land grab in history.

In the decades following 1945, the imperialist powers were forced to relinquish direct military domination in the colonial world. This was because, on the one hand, the cost of direct rule had become too expensive, and on the other hand, the movements for national and social liberation had reached unstoppable proportions.

Independence did not solve the problems facing the masses in what are now called ‘the developing countries’. The super-exploitation of the poor continued after imperialism was forced to give up its colonies. Through their control of the means of production and the world market, the imperialist monopolies have combined to impose a collective exploitation of the poorer countries. The old colonial system has been replaced by neo-colonialism, based on the dominance of the multinationals and imperialism. And the screw has been tightened over the last 20 years. In 1980 the average westerner was 15 times richer than the average African. Twenty years later the ratio had climbed to a staggering 50 to one!

The poorer countries are doomed to be robbed by the economic and political rules set by the imperialist powers. The very fact that natural resources, production and trade are in the hands of the multinationals has made it impossible for the ‘developing countries’ to develop and catch up to the West. Unequal terms of trade, dictated by the imperialist countries, means that exports (mainly raw materials) from the poorer countries are cheaper compared to manufactured goods and technology these countries have to import from West. It does not matter if the poor increase their volume of exports, they will end up with lower incomes anyway thanks to a fall in the value of their exports. Adding more salt to the wounds, the richer capitalist countries’ tariffs against imports from poorer countries are much higher than on those against goods from other richer countries, which means that the poorest countries are losing up to US $700 billion in export earnings each year.

There is no such thing as ‘fair trade’ under capitalism. The multinationals have gained a stranglehold over the supply chains - just four companies in each industry control 90 per cent of the exports of corn, wheat, coffee, tea and pineapples. Inevitably, the poorest are marginalised on the world market, and increasingly also in their domestic markets, as long as the multinationals are in the driving seat.

The resulting intensification of neo-liberal policies has led to an unbearable situation facing the masses. The wealth ratio between the richest and the poorest countries in the world was about 3 to 1 in 1820 and 74 to 1 in 1997.

The solution to the land problem and the future of the rural population is bound together with the struggle to overthrow capitalism and establish a government of workers and poor - a socialist government. Such a government would immediately expropriate the land owned by the big capitalist landowners (agribusiness) and redistribute land to the small farmers and the landless. The state would then provide cheap loans to the farmers, public funds for sustainable food production, and inducements to form co-operatives and collective farming.

The CWI gives full support to the struggle for "land to the tillers" conducted by the rural poor. In Brazil, hundreds of thousands of landless peasants have taken upon themselves the task of carrying out long overdue land reform. The 20 biggest landowners in Brazil own more land than the 3.3 million smallest farmers.

The struggle for fundamental change in Asia, Africa and Latin America today has to be linked to the struggle of the working class in the advanced capitalist world. The historic delay of the socialist revolution in the West has turned life into a nightmare without end for the poorer masses in the neo-colonial world.

Non-payment of the debts

The burden of debts that have been forced on the poorest countries - by the so-called ‘civilised’ and ‘enlightened’ big powers - are killing thirteen children every minute in Africa alone. In 1999, Sub Saharan Africa - the world’s poorest region - paid out US $42 million a day to service their debts.

In Africa, where only one child in two goes to school, governments transfer to creditors in the industrialised world more than four times in debt repayment than they spend on health and education.

This obscene state of affairs has caused an outcry amongst workers and young people internationally, and forced the imperialist powers onto the defensive. However, the debt relief agreed by the richer countries will not change much. Western imperialism is fully aware of the fact that the poorest countries will never be able to pay off the total debt owed (US $2.5 trillion in 1999). The US had already started to write off some of the debts when the leaders of the richer countries were obliged to pretend to sit up and respond to the plight of the poor. But, of course, this so-called debt relief is on the conditions set by the major imperialist countries and their institutions, like the IMF. In other words, left to the representatives of imperialism, it could become an instrument for increased exploitation, as shown by the examples of Tanzania or Zambia.

Tanzania, a country where four in ten people die before they reach 35, was ordered by the IMF to start to charge for hospital visits and to implement school fees, to the great fanfare of ‘debt relief’. Zambia was forced to privatise its copper mines leading to the loss of 50,000 jobs in order to receive the same ‘debt relief’. The debt and ‘debt relief’ are used by the main imperialist powers as weapons to speed up privatisation and deregulation. After writing off some debts, everything is the same or even worse.

Walking a tightrope

The fate of the planet’s future cannot be left in the hands of the capitalist politicians, generals or diplomats. International organisations, such as the United Nations, are and will always be controlled by the major imperialist powers. The politicians talk about ‘peace’, ‘collective security’, ‘military interventions in the interests of humanity’ at the same time as they spend billions of dollars each day on arms, sell arms to whoever is prepared to pay, and wage a constant war on the working class and the poor. War is a continuation of politics by other means.

The world’s arsenal of nuclear arms is a threat to the very survival of humanity. Only in the fantasy world of the ultra-right can a nuclear war be ‘won’. For decades, the horrifying results of a nuclear war have prevented the use of such weapons. It is not in the interests of the ruling class to annihilate the goose that lays the golden egg - the working class. But this does not exhaust the question. In the longer term, if the working class fails again and again to take power into its own hands and suffers a series of crushing defeats, then the coming to power of the ‘Iron Heel’, of brutal, unstable dictatorships, in the US, Europe and other industrialised countries, could become a reality. The ruling class would find it very difficult to keep such frenzied nuclear-armed regimes under control. This could open up the possibility that in order to ‘escape’ social and economic crises one of these monstrous regimes would be tempted to initiate a ‘first strike’ against another competing power, and to ‘win’ a nuclear war.

The arms industry must be brought into public ownership in order to work out plans for alternative production and to make sure that the resources spent on military research and arms are used for the benefit of humankind. President Bush has made it clear that he is prepared to pour billions of US dollars into the ‘Son of Star Wars’ project (a variant of the former US president Ronald Reagan’s so-called vision of a space-based missile shield). It is estimated this ‘National Missile Defence system’ (NMD) will cost US $60 billion to US $100 billion or more. Even the retiring British Chief of Defence Staff was moved to call it "bloody expensive and extremely difficult to use" and he warned of a "doomsday scenario". The idea behind the NMD is that it is going to protect the US against a nuclear attack, not from a collapsing North Korea or a group of ‘terrorists’ (this ‘threat’ is created for propaganda purposes only), but from other military competitors, Russia and China in particular. Whoever achieves dominance in outer space will control the planet, according to the reactionary hawks in the Pentagon. A new militarisation thousands of kilometres above the planet will inevitably follow in the wake of the NMD, causing further instability and insecurity in the new world disorder created in the 1990s.

New mass parties of workers and young people

"No one speaks and acts for us", is probably one of the most common statements heard today in working class areas. In most cases, working class people and youth are deprived of a political voice.

The complete capitalist transformation of former workers’ parties in the 1990s has posed the task of laying the basis for the formation of new mass democratic socialist parties of the working class and young people. The old parties, like the social democrats in western Europe, went from parties regarded as defending the interest of the working class but ruled by a capitalist leadership, to parties openly embracing global capitalism and the neo-liberal agenda.

At the same time, the CWI is working to win members to our own parties and groups, and to win support for the ideas, programme and method of revolutionary socialism (Marxism). There is no contradiction between those two tasks. In fact, they go hand in hand. Broad mass parties of the working class can only successfully overthrow capitalism if they are imbued with the ideas and programme of Marxism. The CWI is trying wherever possible to advance that process. In elections we want to work with other parties or independent candidates on the left, including standing on a common list or platform where there is agreement. In the trade unions we are working to build up a left opposition that stands for an independent, democratic and fighting trade union movement representing the members.

By means of mass struggle, and under the hammer blow of big events, the working class will see the need to set up their own political party. This will mark a huge step forward and drastically change the political situation in society. However, as the history of the workers’ movement has illustrated, only on the basis of a clear socialist programme and the method of class struggle would it be possible to maintain the political independence of the workers’ movement and to close the door to careerism and opportunism.

The CWI fights for new mass socialist parties of the working class. We call for a new mass international - a world party of socialism.

The class struggle in the 21st century

The movement of the oppressed faces formidable forces ranged against it. The capitalist class has developed a sophisticated system of upholding its power by using the carrot and the stick - divide and rule amongst the wage earners. The state and its armed forces, media and the education system are in the hands of the capitalist class and are used as a means of upholding the economic, ideological and political dominance of the ruling class and to maintain the present capitalist order.

The working class forms the absolute majority of the population. A growing number of people in the world - directly or indirectly - depend on the sale of their labour power. The World Bank in 1995 put the number at 2.5 billion. It estimated that the global working class has doubled in numbers since 1975. So much for all the nonsense that the working class no longer exists, and that the class struggle is a thing of the past! At the same time the capitalist class, the class that owns the means of production and the wealth produced by workers, make up a tiny, but powerful minority in society. "The entire U.S. ruling class could easily be seated in Yankee Stadium which holds 57,000 people", wrote Michael Zweig in his book The Working Class Majority. That is out of a total population of more than 270 million! The same author, using a narrow definition, estimated that the "great majority form the working class...they account for over 60 per cent of the labour force".

Industrial workers, workers in the retail and service sectors, and public sector workers are all part of the working class. Significant changes in the geographic and gender composition of the international working class has given new strength and potential power to workers. More women than ever are in work, probably one of the most important social changes over the last decades. But still women are carrying a double burden, because of the class and gender oppression that exists under capitalism.

The new more brutal regime established at workplaces has also meant that the middle class is facing the same problems - longer working hours, shorter working lives, burden of debts, job insecurity and stress related illness - as the working class. Important sections of the middle layers and professionals have become increasingly close to the working class and are prepared to join ranks with workers in struggle. This was shown in the strikes and protest that took place in France in 1995 or in the one-day general strike that brought Greece to a standstill in April 2001. Furthermore, the urban working class in Africa, Asia and Latin America have a close ally in the rural poor, the landless and the poor peasantry.

Monopolisation and the development of a more advanced and global method of production has in fact increased the specific weight and role of the working class under capitalism. As capitalism has developed, it has turned more and more of the population into wage earners.

A small group of workers can bring a country’s economy to a halt. In 1997, for example, a strike by French lorry drivers brought not only France to a standstill but a large part of Europe as well. A group of protesters effectively cut off oil and petrol supplies in Britain during September 2000.

It is precisely its specific role in production and distribution that gives the working class its collective power and consciousness. It is its collective consciousness and capacity as a class that allows the working class to play the leading role in the revolutionary process and lays the basis for socialism. That is also the case in the poorer countries where the working class accounts for a smaller proportion of the population than in the West. Its role is decisive in the struggle against imperialism, capitalism and landlordism. Guerrilla struggle in the countryside can assist the struggle of the workers in the cities. But without the working class consciously at the head of a revolutionary movement, it will not be possible to establish a new regime based on workers’ democracy (a democratic socialist regime), which is able to begin the task of constructing socialism.

The ending of Milosevic’s regime in Yugoslavia in 2000 was a graphic illustration of the decisive role of the working class in a revolution. It was the strike action by Serbian workers that broke the resolve of police ranks. With the police going over to the workers and youth, Milosevic’s days were numbered. The working masses in Serbia needed only one week to remove the old regime, a task NATO was unable to accomplish despite unleashing its full military power during the eleven-week war in 1999.

In order to uphold their power the capitalists use the tactic of ‘divide and rule’. This is the main instrument used by the bosses to create divisions amongst the workers and to reinforce every backward prejudice in relation to women, immigrants, refugees, gays and lesbians. However, in order to struggle successfully the workers have to rise above divisions of nationality, gender and religion - unity is strength. That is why the organised movement of the working class holds the key to overcoming all divisions and prejudices that exist under capitalism.

Holding the future

The struggle of the oppressed is first and foremost a struggle of the youth and working class women. It is often the struggle of the young people that inspires the older generation to take to the streets. Young people have always played a key role in the socialist movement.

Most members of the CWI, at this stage, are young workers, school students or students. The struggle of young people, however, has to be linked with the organised struggle of the working class. In bringing workers and young people together a mighty force is created, strong enough to end capitalist rule. An example of this was given in the demonstrations held against global capitalism in Melbourne in September 2000. Our organisation in Australia (the Socialist Party) was instrumental in linking up the trade unions, particularly the building workers, with the anti-capitalist youth making Melbourne and the S11 protest into another milestone in the global struggle against capitalism.

The decay of capitalism has meant that the young generation of today is going to be worse off than their parents, for the first time since 1930s. And the capitalists call this ‘progress’! Unemployment is higher amongst young people than other sections of the population. Young women face higher unemployment than young men. At the same time governments are spending less resources on education and introducing school or student fees.

The capitalists and their governments have nothing to offer young people in general and working class youth in particular. This system is rotten from top to bottom and has to be overthrown and replaced by a democratic socialist society.

Half of the world’s population is female. Two-thirds of all the world’s work is done by women and yet they receive just one-tenth of the world’s income.

Working class women still face double oppression - the double burden of being exploited as workers and as women. Worldwide, women still earn an average of 75 per cent of men’s pay, and still bear the main responsibility for childcare and household tasks regardless of the number of hours they work.

Many women experience violence and abuse in or outside the family. The so-called beauty industry, advertisements, magazines, movies, etc, portray a degrading and sexist picture of women. The porn industry, a symbol of the sickness of capitalism, is making billions of dollars from the global sex trade and prostitution.

Neo-liberalism represents an all-out attack on the rights and position of working class women and in its wake has followed an ideological/religious attack on women’s rights, particularly against single parents.

All the parties and organisations of the CWI have themselves pioneered campaigns on issues that directly affect women. Members of the CWI have initiated national campaigns against the low pay scandal, cuts in public spending, domestic violence and sexism.

As socialists we do not see equality as the right of women to share in the oppression of working-class men under capitalism. The struggle for equality and even more, the true liberation of women and men must involve the struggle to end exploitation based on class. The struggle for gender equality and the struggle for socialism are bound together. A united movement of the working class and of many middle-class women and men will change attitudes and gender relations.

The abolition of class society and the building of a new socialist society based on democratic involvement and co-operation would change social relations in society away from one based on hierarchy and abuse of one group by another. This will also be reflected in attitudes, culture and ideology.

How will socialism work?

What will things be like after a socialist revolution? Karl Marx was the first to say it is not possible to give a blueprint of the future society in advance. A socialist society will be under the conscious control of the working class, the majority of society, who will determine how society is run. Under capitalism, parliamentary democracy is held up as the highest form of democratic rule. But this only allows people to vote every four or five years, while society is still ruled by an elite. The CWI defends all the democratic rights, including the right to vote. But that right is undermined by the very absence of a real alternative and the political influence of big business.

A workers’ state would be completely different. Democratic councils or committees of working people would operate on a local, regional and national level. All delegates to these councils would be elected and open to recall. Trade unions would be independent of state interference. The government and other state institutions would be under the control of these bodies. Different political parties would have full freedom to operate, provided they did not side with counter-revolution. The workers’ state would see the self-organisation and creativity of the working class flourish. The economy would be brought under state ownership and workers’ control, as the first step towards creating a society of superabundance.

The critics of socialism say economic planning cannot work ("look at the Soviet Union") and that only the market can respond to people’s desires. The ‘impossibility’ of national and international planning is one of the oldest myths of capitalism. The truth is that nothing would be able to function without planning and aims. The multinationals cannot act globally without a plan. They use the new technology to "fine tune" supply with demand, i.e. to try to calculate exactly how much the market can absorb. In the hands of big business it is a kind of advanced guesswork, but it gives a glimpse of how new technology could be used as an instrument to plan the economy as a whole. The planning of the multinationals is restricted to one company or one sector of the economy and motivated by the interests of its big shareholders. This is an attempt to overcome the anarchy of the market, which, of course, is doomed to end in failure, because capitalism operates under the blind chaotic forces of the market. Production for profit not need inevitably means that the expansion of the market and consumption always tends to fall behind production in capitalism, causing recessions and slumps.

Capitalism is also a hierarchic system and therefore a highly bureaucratic system. It is only interested in exploiting the knowledge and the experience of workers for short-term profit. There can be no co-operative plan between workers and bosses under capitalism, let alone any democracy. Why should workers be prepared to propose changes to make production and distribution more efficient, or less costly, when they run the risk of it being turned against them? Nevertheless, if a multinational company can draw up a plan in the interest of the big shareholders, why shouldn’t a workers’ government be able to work out a plan that serves the needs of working people?

The task of the socialist revolution is to introduce democratic planning in society as whole. What is needed is to separate the means of production from their present parasitic owners and to organise society in accordance with a democratic rational plan. Then it will be possible, in a relatively short period of time, to raise the standard of living of the world’s population. Through a planned use of resources, the wealth produced could be used to slash the working week to enable everyone to take part in the running of society. Nationalised industries in a workers’ state would not be like the old bureaucratic nationalised industries under capitalism. Workers’ control would see each workplace or factory run by elected councils that would be accountable to the entire workforce. Would workers still need to be managed by ‘experts’ and ‘specialists’? It is workers who have the best understanding of the process of production. Under capitalism, managers are there to maintain exploitation and for marketing purposes, etc. There would be no place for these roles under socialism. Of course, technical experts are required until there is a dramatic improvement in mass education. These ‘experts’ however would be under the direction and control of democratic bodies in the workplace.

With production directed towards the needs of people, and with a drastic cut in working hours, people can start to build a new society based on human solidarity. The enormous ability and potential knowledge of every human being would for the first time be used to the benefit of society. The same goes for research and science, which is at present restricted and wasted under the profit system and imprisoned by companies’ patents and ‘intellectual property rights’.

Workers' Control

Workers’ control and ownership of industry is the basis for the introduction of a planned economy. There is a world of difference between socialist planning and the undemocratic, top-down and bureaucratic planning experienced under Stalinism in the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe. A plan of production needs democracy as the body needs oxygen. A democratic socialist plan of society would be the result of discussions and decisions on how the national income should be divided up between investment, consumption, social services and the transfer of resources to the poorer countries of the world. People’s needs and priorities would be worked out. Democratic committees at every level of society would run and control the plan, and make every necessary change or correction. New technology in the hands of working people will then be used as a means of shortening working hours and improving conditions at work. A shorter working week would not only means more jobs, but would give ordinary people for the first time an opportunity to combine work, social relations, and leisure with the task of running society. When the majority are actively involved in taking and executing decisions, there is no room for bureaucracy or privileged elites.

The establishment of a socialist planned economy would reduce many of the unnecessary costs of capitalist competition and the amount of waste it produces. Capitalism means the duplication of products, research and development. We are sold many manufactured goods (washing powder, televisions, cookers, cars etc), which are essentially the same. The amount spent on marketing in capitalism is estimated at US $1,000 billion a year! That sum alone could provide education, health care, clean water and sanitation for all. The money wasted on the military, ten times more than all governments are spending in total on education, could be used to wipe out poverty and to fight infectious diseases.

A socialist economy established on an international scale would put an end to the cyclical crises of capitalism, which cause the destruction and waste of productive forces through underinvestment, overproduction and mass unemployment. A planned use of resources and knowledge would rapidly eliminate today’s grotesque inequalities between different continents and countries, and pave the way for a future in harmony with nature and the environment. To begin with, it would be possible to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter for everyone. Beyond this, society would move towards superabundance and free distribution according to need.

This in turn would make it possible to reach full equality between men and women. A workers’ state would immediately enact a number of legal and educational measures to combat women’s oppression, including measures to combat violence against women. Women would receive equal pay and abortion on demand. However, in order to change the fundamental roots of women’s oppression it would be necessary to tackle the position of women in the family, which is a product of class society. Under capitalism, the burden of housework and child rearing falls on women. This provides the bosses with a supply of new productive labour at no cost. It also serves to divide the working class. Under socialism housework and childcare would be socialised in a caring and efficient manner.

A workers’ government would introduce far-reaching legislation to safeguard gay and lesbian rights and introduce programmes to wipe out prejudices. The ending of the class based and oppressive capitalist family unit will see real equality and liberation for women, as well as gay and lesbian people.

Wars and violence would become a thing of the past under socialism as people by themselves and for themselves take part in the building of a new society. With the removal of the market economy and capitalist competition, and the introduction of global socialist co-operation that transforms the lives of all, why would one country want to wage war against another? Similarly, the last vestiges of racism and ethnic and national divisions would disappear under a socialist society. That is not to say racism, no more than sexism, would just vanish overnight. Their roots are deep and would last for a period beyond the end of capitalism. However, the working class will only come to power on the basis of a high degree of unity between people of all ethnic backgrounds. This struggle will overcome many prejudices. A socialist society will be based upon collective ownership and control of the productive forces, which unites workers rather than divide them. Unemployment, homelessness and poverty - often the breeding ground for racist ideas - would be eradicated.

To begin with, a socialist society will have to use the resources it inherits from capitalism. This will mean that the supply of goods will be limited and workers will have to work for wages, which they use to buy goods. Socialism will increase production to a point where supply exceeds demand. It will then not be necessary to sell goods and they can be distributed according to need. Free distribution will progressively cover everything, including housing, water, health, education, transport, food and entertainment.

But socialism is not only about distributing wealth and using the present resources in the interests of working people and according to a democratic plan. It is also about generating new wealth. The aim of world socialism is to provide everyone on the planet with all the necessities of life. Then people could really begin to enjoy life through stimulating work, culture, developing personal and social relations. For the first time in the history of humankind a future would be built without fear, violence and oppression.

New technology

For the great majority of people, work under capitalism is exhausting, boring and undignified. The introduction of new technology has not transformed this situation but, if anything, has increased rates of exploitation and the tyrannical regimes in the workplaces. Under socialism, work would be transformed into something rewarding, safe and useful. The working week would be slashed. The introduction of new technology in a planned economy would allow a greater sharing of work. Furthermore, technology and automation would continually reduce the amount of physical labour required and eliminate the most menial tasks. These changes will also help progressively overcome the division of labour (mental and manual, and the increasing compartmentalisation of work). Everyone will be able to become a planner and a producer and to have the time, energy and education to be fully involved in the running of society.

As society moves towards the ‘higher stage of socialism’ the state will wither away and there will be no need for money, or any other remnants of the old order that may exist in a transitional period between capitalism and socialism. In these conditions the state will have lost its coercive functions: there will be no oppressed class to hold down, no oppressor class to defend.

The promise of socialism has moved many millions in the past, and it will do so again. Working people - the young, women, the poor and oppressed - have no choice but to enter the road of struggle. But if society is to be fundamentally changed the struggle needs to adopt revolutionary Marxist ideas and methods. This includes making the fight for socialism international. The world is now more integrated than at any time before in history. In settling scores with its own national capitalist class, the working class will inevitably take on the multinationals and interests of the ruling class around the world. Already the international character of the anti-globalisation movement illustrates that many of the new generation of young activists have concluded that the fight to change the world has to be international. This is a tremendous step forward, even if at this stage only a minority of them are consciously socialists at this stage.

The resources for ending poverty, inequality and social deprivation exist on an international plane, not in one country alone. A socialist victory in one country has to be spread to other countries; otherwise it would not be possible to move towards socialism. There is no possibility of a single country building a socialist island in a sea of global capitalism, especially given the enormous expansion of the world economy. An international approach is therefore an absolute necessity in the fight to change society. That is why there is no more important task today than building a new mass socialist International. This is the key task the CWI sets before itself. All those workers and youth that want to be part of this historic struggle should join with us today.

committee for a workers' international
PO Box 3688, London, Britain, E11 1YE
Tel: ++ 44 20 8988 8760
Fax: ++ 44 20 8988 8793
cwi@worldsoc.co.uk