50 Years Ago: Day-to-Day Runners of Capitalism

The complete lack of grasp of the general situation from a Socialist point of view, screams from every line of Driberg’s reports. Kruschev, having taken the Labour Party to task for being “reformist” and failing to educate the masses in the “revolutionary spirit,” Driberg enters the defence by saying “though Britain had certainly not been transformed into a Socialist State, the Labour Government had taken substantial steps towards Socialism—taking basic industries into public ownership, introducing comprehensive social security measures, and so on”

The only “revolutionary spirit” in which workers need educating will come from a knowledge of their class position under the wages system and a realisation on their part of the need to use that knowledge to vote for the abolition of this system. Far from drawing attention to the real nature of Capitalism, at every election the so-called Communist Party uses exactly the same stunts as the rest of them, promising houses, jobs and peace, etc.

As we stated earlier, to the Labour Party nationalisation means Socialism, but  perhaps workers are beginning to see that the so-called “public ownership” is two steps forward, three steps back and does not mean that they own any more of the means of living than they ever have.

The term “social security” has a nice sound but only insecure people need it. No reform can give workers security because their insecurity does not arise from lack of reforms but is basic to their wage slave position under Capitalism.(From an article by ‘H.B.’, Socialist Standard, January 1957)