50 Years Ago: The purpose of nationalisation

At the present moment a kind of Socialism for capitalists is being created. It is very modest. It contents itself with the transformation of certain industries into public services. Above all, it does not compromise one. On the contrary, it will rally a good number of capitalists. They are told: look at the Post Office, that is a socialist public service functioning admirably to the profit of the community and more cheaply than if it were entrusted to a private company, as was formerly the case. The gas supply, the railways, and the building of workmen’s dwellings, must also become public services. They will function to the profit of the community and will chiefly benefit the capitalist class.

In capitalist society, the transformation of certain industries into municipal or national services is the last form of capitalist exploitation. It is because that form presents multiple and incontestable advantages for the bourgeoisie that in every capitalist country the same industries are becoming nationalised (Army, Police, Post Office, Telegraphs, the Mint, etc.) . . .

In capitalist society a private industry only becomes a State service in order to better serve the interests of the bourgeoisie.

(From an article by Paul Lafargue written in 1882 and reproduced in the SOCIALIST STANDARD, Feb. 1912.)