The Workers Republic- What It Means Wi

Karl Marx, the founder of modern socialism, wrote that in the ideal socialist or communist society - not to be confused with the deformed class-ridden system in Russia and Eastern Europe - the state would wither away and man would be a hunter in the morning, a worker in the afternoon and a writer in the evening.

How is this ideal system to be achieved? Can we change overnight from a system built on poverty and slums, breeding wars and requiring more and more blatant force to maintain itself in power to this ideal society where repression and want are abo!ished and people are free to develop their personality to the fullest extent?

Marx also argued that the capitalist system is based on classes. A very small group of people own almost all the productive wealth of the country, mines, banks, factories etc. and the vast majority of the population, the working class are employed by them and paid only a fraction of the value of their labour. In a capitalist society the repressive organs of the state, the law, police and army are used to protect the privileges of the ruling class. fishermen All this was self-evident in Marx's day in the mid 19th century. It may seem less so now as the cruder forms of capitalism have been forced to make concessions to the working class. But the situation is still basically the same. Some of the most grinding poverty has been eliminated in Europe and N. America, but slums, and unemp.oyment, remain together with oppressed and discriminated against minorities such as blacks in America or Cath olics in N.Ireland. The law and police are still on the side of the capitalists. To take just two examples:

When bailiffs of the thieving Toome Eel Company ram fishermen's boats and sink them the law supports them. When fishermen protect themselves they are charged with assault. When a desperately needy family squats in a vacant house the law and the police combine to errect them at the request of a landlord who 'owns' several houses.

This cannot be eliminated overnight and so Marxists do not believe in instant change from capitalism to ideal socialism. There has ' to be a transitional period during which classes still exist but the capitalists are expropriated.

This is known as a workers' state or, since it's not likely to be a monarchy, a workers' republic. | What it means in practice is that socialist and working class parties come to power and proceed to expropriate the capitalists, to take over their monopoly of wealth. A workers' republic cannot eliminate classes or all private ownership of productive wealth but it can take over the most important sectors of the economy for the benefit of the working class.

The immediate priorities of a workers! government would be to take over all mines and mineral resources, all industries employing’ over 25 or 30 people and all farms and estates over about 250 acres. Ground rents would be totally abolished and private ownership of more than two houses prohibited while strict laws would govern inheritances, preventing any individual from inheriting more than about £10,000 in cash or property. Measures like these would prevent the exploitation of workers by the capitalist class but they would also have to be accompanied by worker? control of the new industries to prevent capitalist exploitation being replaced by the type of oppression found in Russia, where the party officials have taken over the functions of the capitalist class.

Workers' control would mean that in each factory or large firm meetings of the workers would take the major decisions in the way the Board of Directors do to-day and the managers and adminstrative staff would be answerable to these on them. At the national level a central council of delegates from factories, farms and other enterprises would share power with the Parliament elected by areas like today. The effect of these measures would be to turn the class-society upside down and replace domination by the capitalist class with domination by the working class and small farmers who constitute the great majority of the population. This would be infinitely more democratic but it would still not have eliminated social inequality. Instead it would have eliminated need for in a workers' republic the government would be obliged to guarantee full employment, a decent home for every family, 4 weeks paid holiday per year and an adequate minimum wage. middle class The element of inequality would arise from the continued existence of a third class, the middle class. In a capitialist society this class is made up of those who by possession of a small amount of capital or so some special skill eg. teachers,lawyers, doctors etc manage to raise themselves above the working class without controlling any significant amount of productive pruperty. A workers' government would not expropriate the small shop-keeper or medium sized farmer or seize the house and car of a professional worker. On the contrary ina workers' state they would be relieved of the constant pressure from chin stores, ranchers, and the rising cost of living. The workers' government would encourage them to form co-operatives but without coercion and would reduce inequality by raising the living standards ; of workers and small farmers not | by lowering the living standards of the smaller middle classes. Person al property would not be interfered with by a workers' government. police e However it would be foolish to imagine that the capitalist class would give up their privileges voluntarily and not try periodically to seize them back. Moreover capitelism, by contrasting slums and mansions, the idle rich and the toiling poor, and by forcing people to grow up and live in degrading conditions, breeds crime and the criminal mentality. For these reasons, and the added one in the case of Ireland that this country is exploited by imperialism as well,and the imperialists are notoriously loath to give up their priviliges, the workers' republic would have to retain the repressive forces of law, police and army. These would be completely overhauled however. Judges would be drawn from the working class, not the relics of the feudal aristocracy. The law would be reversed in favour of the workers and the existing force scrapped and a | new one recruited and placed under | strict community control at local and central level. The army would be purely defensive and run on democratic lines with elected regimental councils. This way the repressive forces of the state while continuing to exist would change their character and become agents for en: forcing the will of the people renee than suppressing them. As poverty is abolished and with it the need for cut-throat competition; as the constant urging to acummulate more material goods is removed from the mass-media; and as men have more leisure and more choice of creative occupations so crime should gradually vanish and the instinctive desire for private property as a defence against hard times die out. When that happens, when the new socialist man is born, free of greed, hate and fear and anxious to help his fellows then society will move beyond the workers' republic. The state will wither away, there will be no need ;

for police or army, public opinion 4 will enforce the law if needed and «AS CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE