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Socialist Standard | May 2005
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Fifty Years Ago |
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(Front page article by R.
Coster,
Socialist Standard, May 1955) |
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It is sixty-five years since half a million people poured though London, "an interminable array with multitudinous banners," on the first International May Day.
No celebration, no insubstantial pageant this: column upon threadbare column they came, signifying and expressing labour's strength and labour's aspirations, with an eight-hour day as their rallying call. For sixty-five years it has continued, but the columns are small now. And the eight-hour day?
They have it and, so generous is life to the working class, work overtime.
May Day is workers' day, the day of our class.
However hollow the cries and futile the demonstrations, it remains the anniversary of protest, a continual reminder of exploitation and subjection.
"Class" is the reason and the theme of May Day - class in its fullest, truest sense. The working class is not the labourers or the artisans or the machine-minders: it is all people to whom wages are life. The working class is international: so is its cause. Among the cries and chants and slogans of May Day, only one has meaning: "Workers of all countries unite!"
Class consciousness was never more needed than now. Sixty-five years have seen war, dereliction, fear and disaster; today mankind is under a shadow without precedent. The working people of the world have it in their hands to end poverty, fear, hatred and war. Nationalism is not their interest but their rulers'; submission is taught, not conceived. That is where the tragedy of the May Day processions lies. The hundreds of thousands who paraded their rights in 1890 lined the streets
again seven years later, still threadbare, still of one mind - to cheer and wave streamers for their Queen.
To the Socialist, class consciousness is the breaking-down of all barriers to understanding. Without it, militancy means nothing. The conflict between the classes is more than a struggle for each to gain from the other: it is the division which reaches across all others. The class-conscious working man knows where he stands in society. His interests are opposed at every point to those of the capitalist class; his cause can only be the cause of revolution for the abolishing of classes. Without that understanding, militancy can mean little.
It is not mere preamble that the Socialist Party's principles open by stating the class division in capitalism: it is the all important basis from which the rest must follow.
In many movies after the second world war there was a scene where the local boys came home to their little US town. The band played, hats were thrown in the air and the old frosty school mar'm could be seen to shed a secret tear. It is a beautiful fantasy and if you add Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor and whoever happens to be the present teen dream to the scene it could play for ever today. There is only one snag, it is not true. Some of the homeless people that try to beg money from you on Waterloo Bridge fought in the Falklands. Some that will try to tap you in the future fought in Afghanistan or Iraq. From North America we read in the Toronto Globe and Mail (19 February): "Since Vietnam, we've learned that there's on average a 12 year delay between returning from war and begging on the streets," Linda Boone of the Washington-based National Coalition for Homeless Veterans told me. She said governments should start getting ready for vast numbers of beggars and vagrants, all created by war. It is a well-known phenomenon, albeit one that governments have never properly acknowledged: After any war ends, the number of people living on the streets increases dramatically.' Does this mean that the ElizabethTaylor and Van Johnson charachters ended up sleeping rough, surely not! From the same article we learn that "in Britain, the government has estimated that a quarter of the people 'sleeping rough' - on the streets - are military veterans. If you want to find someone who fought in the Falklands war, you'd best look in the tunnels beneath Waterloo Bridge." The facts seem obvious to us - Johnny, stay at home and read your Socialist Standard. RD
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- you may have seen the TV ads for the website www.yearofthevolunteer.org. This is a government-run scheme, aimed at "encouraging active citizenship", but if we leave aside the government involvement, the whole volunteering set-up is both interesting and positive from a socialist viewpoint. Some people volunteer because they believe or hope that it will be useful for their careers, but the vast majority do so because they see themselves as genuinely contributing to the well-being of their fellow humans. Voluntary activities include almost everything from helping people to make phone calls or fill in forms, teaching English or the use of computers, helping blind people get to appointments, befriending and supporting those with HIV, working for St John's Ambulance or the Samaritans, counselling people with all sorts of problems, even working as a Special Constable. And all this is done unpaid, in the volunteers' own time, often in addition to paid employment, and with no reward other than the satisfaction of helping. In the light of this, how can anyone object to socialism on the grounds that in a society of free access nobody would wish to work? If people's consumption is not dependent on their work, the argument goes, why would someone want to work at all? One answer, as we have seen, is that even under capitalism people work voluntarily, probably not even regarding what they do as work, as it is not employment. This is not because they are saints or angels but because they do not want to see others suffering or in difficulties. And helping others means helping yourself too. Age Concern carried out a survey of elderly volunteers, which found: "Volunteering benefits older volunteers in many ways, including making new friends, gaining self confidence, losing weight and living healthier lives. "More than half (51%) of the over 65s who took part in Age Concern's report said volunteering improved their health and fitness and 62% said volunteering helped reduce stress" (From the above website). So there you have it: even in a society of pressure and alienation voluntary work can be good for you. Just think of the pleasure of work in a world where there are no bosses, no dangerous workplaces and no production of useless rubbish. PB |
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