philosopher
1st May 2006, 00:14
I have taken the liberty of drafting a new “manifesto of the communist party” which I have posted below in its entirety. I am sure that some people will consider this presumptuous and a little forward and I expect many to disagree strongly with its content. I hope however that everyone who reads it will find it at least a little interesting.
Good May Day to all.
Philosopher
MAN AND MACHINE
The development of mankind increasingly involves the intensification of mechanisation. In every area of industry and commerce we see a growing number of machines engaged in the daily task of manufacture and production, continual invention, the growth of the electricity industry, and the introduction of new forms of power and materials provide the means for rapid industrial change increasing the output or the workforce with the relentless introduction of new technology. Repetitive and tedious manual jobs once requiring the toil of an army of workers are now undertaken quickly and effortlessly by ingenious new machines. Nor is it just manual labour being replaced by mechanical power, the introduction of advanced high speed computers into offices and factories can assist in the intricate accounting and managerial functions once the preserve of skilled and educated professionals.
Now and again the introduction of new machines causes resentment when trained craftsmen whose skills have been acquired by long and arduous apprenticeships suddenly find their trades redundant in a rapidly changing world. But few mourn the passing of hard and monotonous work and the resistance against mechanisation is half-hearted and short lived. The invention and introduction of technology is a rapid and unstoppable process, each new advance bringing a greater and more diverse range of labour saving devices to produce goods for the eager and receptive consumer.
Like an army of worker ants millions of men and women are actively engaged in designing, constructing and assembling components for a gigantic and awesome machine, a production machine; for the moment crude and disjointed but being expanded and perfected constantly by the development of robotics and the addition of computers
MAN MACHINE AND CAPITALISM
Mechanisation will follow the path of those who control its destiny. Capitalism; a system based on greed and self-preservation with the privilege intrinsic within it develops isolated areas of intensive mechanisation, less concerned with output and more with profit, neglecting vast regions and their inhabitants with less money and goods are considered expendable in the drive for efficiency. Capitalism favours and fosters machinery to serve an increasingly affluent minority in its quest for profit leaving the majority of destitute people to struggle in a commercial environment made increasingly more cutthroat and hostile with the introduction of each new machine.
Capitalism concentrates wealth, power and privilege into those who own and control the production machinery; moreover capitalist commercial property rights demand an ever increasing accumulation or personal power and wealth in order to protect an individual’s self-preservation, bankruptcy leaving those who fail at the mercy of others. Capitalism will given the unhindered opportunity develop and foster communities accommodating owners and shareholders of the industrial complex and for a dwindling number of technicians employed to operate and perfect the industrial process. Capitalist communities will continue to reduce in size as smaller and more rapid advancement takes precedence over larger and more costly and cumbersome production requirements, small and increasingly isolated communities of extreme luxury and technical achievement surrounded by a mass of backwardness and abject poverty. Backwardness and poverty perpetuated by a market swamped by more efficiently and therefore cheaply produced goods destabilising the efforts and incentives of weaker competitors. Backwardness and poverty perpetuated by the advancement of modern industry itself.
MAN MACHINE AND SOCIALISM
The ownership of the means of production by a small and privileged section of the community will become more and more destructive and unacceptable as industry moves toward total automation. Workers who only have their labour to sell must in order to survive replace capitalism with a new socialist economic order, sweeping aside the entire system of private ownership of the means of production in a revolutionary transformation of commerce ushering in a new era in mans development, the dawning of a new era of freedom.
The communal ownership of the means of production will mark the beginning of the realisation of the aspirations of mankind. Commercial land, buildings machinery and all the apparatus of industry become the property of the community; held in trust by the state and made equally available to everyone through a system of rental. Workers organisations take the place of commercial profit accumulating companies in the new socialist economy utilising the commercial assets available for rent to produce their chosen commodities. Workers rewarded by the money generated by their own labour distributed from trading surpluses achieved through the production and sale of merchandise in a free and open market.
Unemployment; the unacceptable and inherent evil of the capitalist system disappears with the advent of socialism. A basic salary funded by the state through the asset rental system and taxation and drawn through the workplace creates an employment benefit instead of an unemployment benefit ensuring full employment.
With its inbuilt and ongoing expense underutilised machinery and property quickly become a liability, and the absence of the profit motive in the acquisition and disposal facilitate a rapid transfer of valuable assets into the hands of those best able to make use of them in the proper process of industrial development.
Socialism banishes inequality of opportunity and enterprise to the past by the abolition of all privately owned commercial property accumulated under capitalism by depriving the worker of his just reward, commercial property gathered for the benefit of shareholders at the expense of the workers who upon leaving or retiring from their employment stand to gain no future benefit from the unfair and often painful sacrifices.
Expansion of the productive output of the socialist economy becomes the responsibility of democratically elected government and not the result of competition and a drive for survival. Commercial property purchased by the state according to a predetermined plan from revenue raised through rental income is obtained from workers manufacturing organisations at prices determined by the free market according to desirability and rent producing value. The free market in consumer goods, productive machinery and construction ensures the attainment of excellence in production and the common ownership of industrial wealth with planned economic growth for production and prosperity ensures equality of opportunity and enterprise for all citizens.
The new socialist economic order ensures that the workers benefit equally from industrial development by preventing the accumulation of the means of production into the hands of a privileged minority. Socialism offers a golden opportunity for workers to join together in free trading associations, an era of true free enterprise, not the fraudulent free enterprise of private capital only open to those with sufficient money to compete, not the freedom to exploit others but the creation of a fair democratic facility for workers to truly benefit from the fruits of their own labour. The deployment of the means of production into the hands of the workers brings new purpose to the mechanisation process. No longer a competitor to the working man; the machine can be harnessed for its full potential. The machine once a weapon in the arsenal of capital engaged in a war of survival becomes at a stroke an instrument of peace, a tool for prosperity, a vital component in the building of a fully automated process for the benefit of all.
MAN MACHINE AND COMMUNISM
With each new addition and perfection machines will be able to undertake more and more tasks with the help of human effort, machines design machines, computers designed to operate machines and a host of ingenious new inventions designed to replace man in all aspects of the production process. Ultimately the machine can and will dispense with mans own labour, totally automated and capable of producing mans every want and need from automatically extracted raw materials and recycled goods the machine will be self-manufacturing, self-repairing and self-governing in every conceivable way, a machine processing goods to satisfy the needs of man instantly at the push of a button and even at the command of the spoken word, designing and producing instantly food, cloths and other requirements to the taste of each individual making commodities of all kinds as abundant and freely available as air itself.
The creation of a perfect society, a communist society guaranteeing total equality through free and instant production, total equality bought about by the abandonment of private property and the liberation from toil The true communist society of total equality not attainable in an underdeveloped world is the final act in the process of history; the ultimate state of human development made possible by the industrialisation and mechanisation process. Communism is not an alternative to capitalism but its ultimate and undeniable successor. Capitalism; worshiped like a sacred idol and believed by many to be an eternal institution will in fact not be able to survive in future society. In a world without shortages and the elimination of labour, money; the very basis of capital will cease to exist made redundant by total automation. Ironically each new machine acquired by individual capitalist firms for the sake of survival brings forward the day of the systems own destruction.
The liberation from work and the creation of the communist society will bring substantial benefits to mankind transforming society through the free and instant production of all material items previously obtained through hard work and jealously guarded as private property by individuals who have no easy way of furnishing their replacement. Selfishness over material items, greed, theft, and all other evils which are a direct result of shortage and private property will be banished forever. Mans estrangement from man becomes a relic of the past as all basis of conflict; individual wealth is superseded by the new order; communal wealth and the age of plenty. Even relationships between man and woman become fundamentally transformed, marriage hitherto maintained by material need as a matter of convenience will find new meaning in future society. Relationships; where they exist through lack of financial ties inevitably become based on mutual liking and understanding bringing a sense of decency to mankind whose morals have long been corrupted by the influence of money and the age of capital.
THE PROGRAM
Bring all commercial property including land, buildings, equipment, commercial vehicles, and machinery; advertised trade marks patents, working capital and all other commercially exploitable items into common ownership.
Create the legal framework for worker organisations to be formed including defining acceptable constitutions and prohibit such organisations to own or accumulate commercial property and equipment of any kind
Draft an economic development plan for the economy including anticipated revenue from asset rental and taxes and define state spending on investment in new equipment and on public services.
Introduce legislation covering the contractual obligations of worker organisations renting industrial land, buildings and equipment with regard to maintenance and condition at the end of term. Include environmental factors with regard to land use to ensure that land used for both industry and agriculture is not poisoned or overused and rental levels are sufficient to repair damage and wear and tear.
Ensure the provision of a free health service, free education, and ensure that all other branches of government are set up to operate in the new economic order.
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE YOU HAVE A BETTER WORLD TO WIN AND NOTHING TO LOSE EXCEPT INJUSTICE, INEQUALITY, WORLD POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER!
Good May Day to all.
Philosopher
MAN AND MACHINE
The development of mankind increasingly involves the intensification of mechanisation. In every area of industry and commerce we see a growing number of machines engaged in the daily task of manufacture and production, continual invention, the growth of the electricity industry, and the introduction of new forms of power and materials provide the means for rapid industrial change increasing the output or the workforce with the relentless introduction of new technology. Repetitive and tedious manual jobs once requiring the toil of an army of workers are now undertaken quickly and effortlessly by ingenious new machines. Nor is it just manual labour being replaced by mechanical power, the introduction of advanced high speed computers into offices and factories can assist in the intricate accounting and managerial functions once the preserve of skilled and educated professionals.
Now and again the introduction of new machines causes resentment when trained craftsmen whose skills have been acquired by long and arduous apprenticeships suddenly find their trades redundant in a rapidly changing world. But few mourn the passing of hard and monotonous work and the resistance against mechanisation is half-hearted and short lived. The invention and introduction of technology is a rapid and unstoppable process, each new advance bringing a greater and more diverse range of labour saving devices to produce goods for the eager and receptive consumer.
Like an army of worker ants millions of men and women are actively engaged in designing, constructing and assembling components for a gigantic and awesome machine, a production machine; for the moment crude and disjointed but being expanded and perfected constantly by the development of robotics and the addition of computers
MAN MACHINE AND CAPITALISM
Mechanisation will follow the path of those who control its destiny. Capitalism; a system based on greed and self-preservation with the privilege intrinsic within it develops isolated areas of intensive mechanisation, less concerned with output and more with profit, neglecting vast regions and their inhabitants with less money and goods are considered expendable in the drive for efficiency. Capitalism favours and fosters machinery to serve an increasingly affluent minority in its quest for profit leaving the majority of destitute people to struggle in a commercial environment made increasingly more cutthroat and hostile with the introduction of each new machine.
Capitalism concentrates wealth, power and privilege into those who own and control the production machinery; moreover capitalist commercial property rights demand an ever increasing accumulation or personal power and wealth in order to protect an individual’s self-preservation, bankruptcy leaving those who fail at the mercy of others. Capitalism will given the unhindered opportunity develop and foster communities accommodating owners and shareholders of the industrial complex and for a dwindling number of technicians employed to operate and perfect the industrial process. Capitalist communities will continue to reduce in size as smaller and more rapid advancement takes precedence over larger and more costly and cumbersome production requirements, small and increasingly isolated communities of extreme luxury and technical achievement surrounded by a mass of backwardness and abject poverty. Backwardness and poverty perpetuated by a market swamped by more efficiently and therefore cheaply produced goods destabilising the efforts and incentives of weaker competitors. Backwardness and poverty perpetuated by the advancement of modern industry itself.
MAN MACHINE AND SOCIALISM
The ownership of the means of production by a small and privileged section of the community will become more and more destructive and unacceptable as industry moves toward total automation. Workers who only have their labour to sell must in order to survive replace capitalism with a new socialist economic order, sweeping aside the entire system of private ownership of the means of production in a revolutionary transformation of commerce ushering in a new era in mans development, the dawning of a new era of freedom.
The communal ownership of the means of production will mark the beginning of the realisation of the aspirations of mankind. Commercial land, buildings machinery and all the apparatus of industry become the property of the community; held in trust by the state and made equally available to everyone through a system of rental. Workers organisations take the place of commercial profit accumulating companies in the new socialist economy utilising the commercial assets available for rent to produce their chosen commodities. Workers rewarded by the money generated by their own labour distributed from trading surpluses achieved through the production and sale of merchandise in a free and open market.
Unemployment; the unacceptable and inherent evil of the capitalist system disappears with the advent of socialism. A basic salary funded by the state through the asset rental system and taxation and drawn through the workplace creates an employment benefit instead of an unemployment benefit ensuring full employment.
With its inbuilt and ongoing expense underutilised machinery and property quickly become a liability, and the absence of the profit motive in the acquisition and disposal facilitate a rapid transfer of valuable assets into the hands of those best able to make use of them in the proper process of industrial development.
Socialism banishes inequality of opportunity and enterprise to the past by the abolition of all privately owned commercial property accumulated under capitalism by depriving the worker of his just reward, commercial property gathered for the benefit of shareholders at the expense of the workers who upon leaving or retiring from their employment stand to gain no future benefit from the unfair and often painful sacrifices.
Expansion of the productive output of the socialist economy becomes the responsibility of democratically elected government and not the result of competition and a drive for survival. Commercial property purchased by the state according to a predetermined plan from revenue raised through rental income is obtained from workers manufacturing organisations at prices determined by the free market according to desirability and rent producing value. The free market in consumer goods, productive machinery and construction ensures the attainment of excellence in production and the common ownership of industrial wealth with planned economic growth for production and prosperity ensures equality of opportunity and enterprise for all citizens.
The new socialist economic order ensures that the workers benefit equally from industrial development by preventing the accumulation of the means of production into the hands of a privileged minority. Socialism offers a golden opportunity for workers to join together in free trading associations, an era of true free enterprise, not the fraudulent free enterprise of private capital only open to those with sufficient money to compete, not the freedom to exploit others but the creation of a fair democratic facility for workers to truly benefit from the fruits of their own labour. The deployment of the means of production into the hands of the workers brings new purpose to the mechanisation process. No longer a competitor to the working man; the machine can be harnessed for its full potential. The machine once a weapon in the arsenal of capital engaged in a war of survival becomes at a stroke an instrument of peace, a tool for prosperity, a vital component in the building of a fully automated process for the benefit of all.
MAN MACHINE AND COMMUNISM
With each new addition and perfection machines will be able to undertake more and more tasks with the help of human effort, machines design machines, computers designed to operate machines and a host of ingenious new inventions designed to replace man in all aspects of the production process. Ultimately the machine can and will dispense with mans own labour, totally automated and capable of producing mans every want and need from automatically extracted raw materials and recycled goods the machine will be self-manufacturing, self-repairing and self-governing in every conceivable way, a machine processing goods to satisfy the needs of man instantly at the push of a button and even at the command of the spoken word, designing and producing instantly food, cloths and other requirements to the taste of each individual making commodities of all kinds as abundant and freely available as air itself.
The creation of a perfect society, a communist society guaranteeing total equality through free and instant production, total equality bought about by the abandonment of private property and the liberation from toil The true communist society of total equality not attainable in an underdeveloped world is the final act in the process of history; the ultimate state of human development made possible by the industrialisation and mechanisation process. Communism is not an alternative to capitalism but its ultimate and undeniable successor. Capitalism; worshiped like a sacred idol and believed by many to be an eternal institution will in fact not be able to survive in future society. In a world without shortages and the elimination of labour, money; the very basis of capital will cease to exist made redundant by total automation. Ironically each new machine acquired by individual capitalist firms for the sake of survival brings forward the day of the systems own destruction.
The liberation from work and the creation of the communist society will bring substantial benefits to mankind transforming society through the free and instant production of all material items previously obtained through hard work and jealously guarded as private property by individuals who have no easy way of furnishing their replacement. Selfishness over material items, greed, theft, and all other evils which are a direct result of shortage and private property will be banished forever. Mans estrangement from man becomes a relic of the past as all basis of conflict; individual wealth is superseded by the new order; communal wealth and the age of plenty. Even relationships between man and woman become fundamentally transformed, marriage hitherto maintained by material need as a matter of convenience will find new meaning in future society. Relationships; where they exist through lack of financial ties inevitably become based on mutual liking and understanding bringing a sense of decency to mankind whose morals have long been corrupted by the influence of money and the age of capital.
THE PROGRAM
Bring all commercial property including land, buildings, equipment, commercial vehicles, and machinery; advertised trade marks patents, working capital and all other commercially exploitable items into common ownership.
Create the legal framework for worker organisations to be formed including defining acceptable constitutions and prohibit such organisations to own or accumulate commercial property and equipment of any kind
Draft an economic development plan for the economy including anticipated revenue from asset rental and taxes and define state spending on investment in new equipment and on public services.
Introduce legislation covering the contractual obligations of worker organisations renting industrial land, buildings and equipment with regard to maintenance and condition at the end of term. Include environmental factors with regard to land use to ensure that land used for both industry and agriculture is not poisoned or overused and rental levels are sufficient to repair damage and wear and tear.
Ensure the provision of a free health service, free education, and ensure that all other branches of government are set up to operate in the new economic order.
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE YOU HAVE A BETTER WORLD TO WIN AND NOTHING TO LOSE EXCEPT INJUSTICE, INEQUALITY, WORLD POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER!