The
country is divided into two classes, who live very
differently.
The working class, the vast majority, produce virtually everything
but own virtually nothing. The capitalist class, a small minority,
produce very little but own almost everything. Do these
classes then have the sane “national interest” ?
Obviously
not. It's in the working class's interests to get as high wages
as possible. It's in the bosses' interests to get as high profits as
possible. Since the more of the wealth that goes to profits the less
there is for wages, and vice versa, the interests of the two classes
are completely opposed.
On
a wider scale, it's in the rich owners' interests to keep the present
social system going, because they're doing well out of it. But
for the workers this system offers us little more than boring work,
inferior housing, a polluted environment, and a constant struggle to
make ends meet. It's in our interests to get rid of this system and
replace it with a system based on the common ownership of wealth,
with
production to meet the needs of the whole community.
So
on every level the two great classes in this nation (as in all
nations) have totally opposing interests.
The
idea of the “National Interest” is a myth. It's designed to con
workers
into abandoning our own interests and falling in with the employers'
interests. There
is no “National, Interest”. There are only class interests.
The
government always acts in the interests of
the employers. The capitalist
system runs on profits and can only be run in the interests of
those who make profits. This is equally true whether it' s a Labour,
Tory
or Liberal Government.
What's
needed is for the working class to organise to capture political
power and remove the capitalists from their privileged position.
This
can only be done by a World Revolution, brought about peacefully
if possible, violently if necessary, by a socialist majority in at
least the industrially advanced countries.
The
only sane way to run modern society is for all the natural resources
and the means of producing wealth to be democratically controlled
and operated by and for the whole of the community. With
the elimination of socially useless work such as banking,
insurance and advertising, and the ending of other forms of waste
such as planned obsolescence, and the massive direction of resources
to armaments and so-called “Defence”, it would very soon be
possible to go over to a system of free distribution of goods and
services.
A
change to such a system is urgently needed if we are to progress
beyond
running fast to stand still.
As
Karl Marx put it, “The Trade Unions should abandon their
conservative
motto, 'A Fair Day's Wage for a Fair Day's Work”, and instead
inscribe
on their banners the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the
Wages System”.
(from
a leaflet by our old Aberdeen Group)
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