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How Socialism Can Be Won

To win socialism, we first have to get rid of the capitalist system that stands in our way. But who is going to do this? The capitalists aren’t going to suddenly get a social conscience and give up their privileges. Some might, but not the class as a whole. It’s those who are exploited and oppressed by the system that have an interest in changing it. Capitalism can’t permanently satisfy the needs of the working class, working farmers, women, ethnic and racial minorities, lesbians and gay men, the young, the old, the disabled. Moreover, we form the vast majority of society, 90% or more. So we are also the people with the power to change it. The working class, the main producing class, has the power to stop production and distribution. As the collective producer, the working class also has the capacity to establish a new, nonexploitative system of production-an economy that works for people, not profits. Working people in Australia could abolish capitalism and run the country for themselves. Every morning millions of workers go out and occupy the banks, factories, hospitals, schools and shops of Australia. There’s hardly a capitalist around, and certainly not enough police to keep things in line. Yet every evening when the bell rings, the workers voluntarily get up and go home and leave behind the things they just produced for the capitalists to keep. Then, after work, they go to the store and pay outrageous prices for the goods they made. There’s no way in the world that the capitalists could force workers to do that if the workers united against them. Consider the recent examples in Venezuela. When workers rose up against price increases in 1989, the government ordered them massacred. But this didn’t stop the poor from organising, and in 1998 they elected a president, Hugo Chavez, who defied the priorities of the ruling class. When the big capitalists and privileged bureaucrats tried to overthrow this government in April 2002, the workers and rankand- file soldiers rose up and stopped them. Then the capitalists tried to shut down the economy to starve the workers and their elected government into submission, but the workers responded by taking over factories, and even entire industries, and running them themselves! The Australian ruling class has developed a huge propaganda machine devoted to selling the illusion to workers that they have a stake in the system. What’s good for business is good for everyone. Companies talk about team spirit at their annual picnic. The government says we have to curb our wages to make "our" companies more competitive. It works to some extent. Many people do identify with the system. Like the bank teller who’s happy to say, "We opened a new branch in Hobart last week". But people don’t always believe the lie that the system benefits us all. Capitalism itself exposes the lie. Have you ever heard anyone say: "We had to cut my wages" or "We had to sack me"? Because people don’t always accept this lie, there are always struggles going on: strikes in factories and offices, campaigns to save forests, marches for women’s rights. Capitalism tells people they have to "work within the system": talk to the boss if you think you should get a wage rise, vote to save a forest or lobby to legalise abortion. But to win anything, people have always had to step outside the trappings of the system. When Australia pulled out of the Vietnam War, it was because hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets-not just once, but over and over again, persistently, until the ideas of the anti-war movement penetrated all sections of society, including the army. Most importantly, the growing realisation among working people that the war was fundamentally against their interests started to make people question the whole nature of society, whether it was really democratic and really able to meet their interests. The Australian ruling class wasn’t taking any chances. It was better for them to cut their losses and run from Vietnam than to lose control over their own population.

Why We Need a Revolution

Capitalism fears the power of the oppressed. When it’s necessary and when they can get away with it, the system will smash any struggle that threatens its profits and power. Trade unions are made illegal or protesters arrested. But often the capitalists have no choice except to make some concessions. But under capitalism, no rights are guaranteed. What capitalism gives, it takes back at the first chance. In Australia, Labor and Liberal take turns at eroding people’s rights. In stable and prosperous times, the ruling class tends to back the Liberals over other parties because the Liberals’ policies tend to be the purest reflection of the capitalists’ priorities. They are seen as less likely to be responsive to pressure from the working class, small farmers or other sectors that lose what the capitalists gain. However, in times of economic crisis, the ruling class often prefers Labor. The ALP has the advantage of controlling the trade union bureaucracy. With the union leadership’s compliance, a Labor government can cut wages and living standards with minimum social protest and maximum efficiency. Labor has also perfected giving with one hand while taking much more with the other. To survive in recession, capitalists have to lower their costs. So in every recession, every economic crisis, working people stand to lose what they have. Because every reform can be reversed, the struggle for reform as an end in itself is insufficient. Socialists fight for reforms in order to make a revolution. Every time working people win reforms, they get a glimpse of their power to change society. Every time they occupy an office or factory, they know they don’t need a boss to run it.