Who are the “Crackpots?”
In its editorial, The People (7/9/52) greatly deplores the half million trade unionists who opposed the resolution on wage restraint at the Margate Conference of the T.U.C.
Referring to these workers as “crackpots,” “firebrands,” “flat earthers,” etc., who are “living in the age of the Tolpuddle Martyrs,” “Man o’ the People” tells us that “the workers do not want more money. They want more goods. More pieces of paper in their wage packets on Fridays cannot buy them more goods because they are not available.”
Here The People did not finish the sentence, which it should have concluded with—. . . . to the workers. But being supporters of the capitalist system The People could not be expected to see what must be obvious to every worker who takes his leisurely stroll in Kensington High Street or Oxford Street, etc.
Not available? The shops are crammed with every conceivable kind of food, clothing, furniture, etc.
“If we want more goods we’ve got to make them, or, if the goods we want come from abroad, we’ve got to sell more goods to the foreigner to buy them,” continues The People.
But that is exactly what the workers are doing, constantly making goods, but, with a difference, which seems to have escaped “Man o’ the People,” the workers are producing these goods for the capitalists, for sale and profit on the market.
The capitalist class, having property rights in all the wealth produced by the workers, and having to return only a part thereof for their upkeep, not only wants these things, but can pay for them, and has them.
The workers, on the other hand, lacking what the economists call “effective demand” cannot pay for these goods, and, therefore, do not get them.
They get slums, poor food, shoddy clothing, simply because they cannot buy back what they have produced.
The People, in common with other apologists of the capitalist class is constantly urging us to produce more and more and telling us that one day—it does not say when—we will all be better off.
A recent example of the work-harder campaign is the increasing unemployment amongst the textile workers in Lancashire.
“Under-production” or “over-production,” there has always been a shortage of the necessities of life for the majority of people, and whether the worker “thinks every employer is a wicked Capitalist engaged in a horrible conspiracy to down the working man” (in the words of The People) or whether he thinks they are all kind-hearted gentlemen, this is a fact which stares him in the face every time he looks in a shop window and wonders, “Can I afford it? ”
Whilst the majority of workers do not understand or desire Socialism, they will go on supporting Capitalism, and in doing so will continue to face the conflicts of that system of society. The struggle has not lessened with the “passing of the age of the Tolpuddle Martyrs,” rather has it increased.
The People ends with the hope that “the unions themselves will now set about clearing out these wreckers of the new social order that men died and slaved to build for us.”
We must confess as workers that we are unaware of any new social order having come into existence. Not having any reason to “study the stars” under
No, we still have Capitalism with us though we can grant this to The People, that “men did die and slave to build it,” thousands of them! Not only men. but women and children also, slaved 10, 12, 14, 16 hours per day and died of disease and poverty, often at an early age, and though in our present era the slavery may be masked a little, by a “five-day week,” “music while you work,” “National Health Schemes” and all the other “benefits” modern Capitalism has bestowed upon us, the slavery is still there.
Our forbears who struggled with eternal hope would indeed turn in their graves could they see how their successors have deserted the class struggle for the wining and dining, and kowtowing of our present “leaders.”
As trade unionists, we do not (as The People suggests) believe that “ their outlook and their reason are about as out-of-date as the flat earthers.” We regard the struggle for higher wages as a continuous necessity whilst Capitalism lasts, and incidentally, point out that the choice of “flat earthers” is an unwise one. as it was shown then that the ruling class was opposed to the ideas of the “crackpots” of that day.
When the new “social order,” Socialism, is established, access to the goods produced will not be determined by how much we will have in our wage packets, because there will be no wage packets.
The terrific waste of man-power at present directed to the needs of Capitalism, would be ended to ensure an abundance of all the things we need plus the so-called luxuries that people may desire.
A hundred and one different occupations necessary under Capitalism would not be required if goods were produced for use instead of profit.
When such a sane system of society is established only a few “crackpots” would wish to retain the present organised chaos known as Capitalism. They indeed would be the flat earthers!
G. H.