Globusz^® Publishing 

Important historical developments have taken place which contribute to solving the problem of work and wages, i.e. the relationship between the workers and the employers, between the producers and the owners. The developments include fixed working-hours, wages for additional work, different types of leave, minimum wages, profit sharing and participation in administration. In addition, arbitrary dismissal has been outlawed and social security has been guaranteed, along with the right to strike and whatever other provisions are found in almost all modern labour laws. Of no less significance are the changes in the field of ownership such as the emergence of systems limiting income or outlawing private ownership and transferring it to the state.

Partners not wage-workers

Despite all these not inconsiderable developments in the history of the economic problem, nevertheless the problem still basically exists. The modifications, improvements, provisions and other measures have made the problem less severe than it was in past centuries by gaining many advantages for the workers. Yet, the economic problem has not been solved. All the attempts which have concentrated on ownership have not solved the problem of producers. They are still wage-workers, even when ownership has been transferred from the extreme right to the extreme left or has been given various intermediate positions.

Attempts to improve wages are as important as those which lead to the transference of ownership. The benefits received by workers, guaranteed by legislation and protected by Trade Unions are all that have been achieved in tackling the problem of wages. Thus the hard conditions of the producers immediately after the Industrial Revolution have been transformed, and, in the course of time workers, technicians and administrators have gained previously unattainable rights. However, the economic problem still, in fact, exists.

This attempt confined to wages was certainly not a solution at all. It is an artificial attempt, aimed merely at reform, more of a charity than a recognition of the right of workers. Why are the workers given wages? Because they carry out a production process for the benefit of others who hire them to produce a certain product. In this case, they have not consumed their production, but have been obliged to surrender it for a wage. The sound rule is:

'He who produces is the one who consumes.'

Wage-workers are a type of slave, however improved their wages may be.

The wage-worker is like a slave to the master who hires him. He is even a temporary slave, since his slavery lasts as long as he works for wages from the employer, whether the latter is an individual or a state. The workers' relationship with the owner of the productive establishment as regards their own interests is one and the same ... Under all conditions prevailing now in the world they are wage-workers, even though ownership varies . . . from the right to the left. The public economic establishment itself gives to its workers only wages and other social benefits; and these do not differ from the charity granted to the workers by the rich, the owners of private economic corporations.

The argument that, in the case of public ownership, income reverts to society, including the workers, in contrast to the case of the private corporation where income reverts only to its owner, is valid. This is so provided that we take into consideration the general interests of the society rather than the particular interests of the workers, and provided that we assume that the political authority which monopolizes ownership is the authority of all the people, that is to say the authority of the people in their entirety, as practised through their popular congresses, people's committees and professional syndicates rather than the authority of one class, one party, group of parties, sect, family, tribe, individual or any other representative authority. However, what is received directly by the workers, as regards their own interests, in the form of wages, percentage of the profit or social benefits, is the same as is received by the workers in the private corporation. That is to say, workers in both public and private establishments are equally wage-workers though the owners differ. Thus the change in ownership from one type to another has not solved the problem of the workers' right in what has been produced directly by himself, and not by society or for wages. The proof is that the producers are still wage-workers despite the change in ownership.

The ultimate solution is to abolish the wage-system, emancipate man from its bondage and return to the natural law which defined relationships before the emergence of classes, forms of government and man-made laws. The natural rules are the measure, the reference book and the sole course in human relations.

Natural law has led to natural socialism based on equality among the economic factors of production and has almost brought about, among individuals, consumption equal to nature's production. But the exploitation of man by man and the possession by some individuals of more of the general wealth than they need is a manifest departure from natural law and the beginning of distortion and corruption in the life of the human community. It is the beginning of the emergence of the society of exploitation.

If we analyse the economic factors of production from ancient times till now we always find that they are composed of these essentials: raw materials, an instrument of production and a producer. The natural rule of equality is that each of the factors has a share in this production, for if any of them is withdrawn, there will be no production. Each factor has an essential role in the process of production and without it production comes to a halt. As long as each factor is essential and fundamental, they are all equal in their essential character within the process of production. Therefore they all should be equal in their right to what is produced. The encroachment of one factor on another is opposed to the natural rule of equality, and is an attack on the right of others. Each factor, then, has a share regardless of the number of factors. If we find a process of production which can be performed by only two factors, each factor shall have half of the production. If it is carried out by three factors, each shall have a third of the production and so on ...

Applying this natural rule to both ancient and modern situations we find the following:

In the state of manual production the productive process involved raw materials, and man, the producer. Later, an instrument of production intervened between the two and man used it in the productive process. The animal may be considered as an example of the instrument as a power unit. It, then, developed and the machine replaced the animal. Raw materials increased in kind and quantity, from cheap simple materials to valuable complex ones. Likewise man developed from an ordinary worker into a technician and an engineer and a large number of workers began to be replaced by a few technicians. Although the factors of production have quantitatively and qualitatively changed, the essential role of each factor has not changed. For example, the iron-ore which is one of the factors of production, both past and present, was primitively manufactured by the ironsmith to produce a knife, an axe or a spear ... etc. The same iron-ore is now manufactured in big furnaces, and from it engineers and technicians produce machines, engines and all kinds of vehicles. The animal ~ the horse, the mule or the camel and the like ~ which was one of the factors of production has now been replaced by the vast factory and huge machines. The means of production which were formerly primitive tools have now become sophisticated technical equipment. The essential natural factors of production are basically stable despite their great development. The essential stability of the factors of production makes the natural rule sound. It is inevitable, after the failure of all previous historical attempts, which disregarded natural law, to return to it in order, finally, to solve the economic problem.

The previous historical theories tackled the economic problem either from the angle of the ownership of one of the factors of production only or from the angle of wages for production only. They have not solved the real problem, namely the problem of production itself. Thus the most important characteristic of the economic systems prevailing in the world today is the wage system which deprives the worker of any right in his production whether it is produced for society or for a private establishment.

The industrial establishment is based on raw materials, machines and workers. Production is the outcome of the workers' use of the machines in the factory to manufacture raw materials. In this way, the finished goods pass through a process of production which would have been impossible without the raw materials, the factory and the workers. So if we take away the raw materials, the factory cannot operate; if we take away the factory, the raw materials will not be manufactured and if we remove the producers, the factory comes to a halt. The three factors are equally essential in the process of production. Without these three factors there will be no production. Any one factor cannot carry out this process by itself. Even two of these factors cannot carry it out. The natural rule in this case requires that the shares of the three factors in the production be equal, i.e. the production of such a factory is divided into three shares, a share for each of the factors of production. It is not only the factory which is important, but also those who consume its production.

The same is the case in the process of agricultural production. That which involves man and land without a third factor, the instrument, is exactly like the manual process of industrial production. Here production is only divided into two shares in accordance with the number of factors of production. But if an agricultural machine or the like is used, production is divided into three shares: the land, the farmer and the instrument used in the process of agriculture.

Thus a socialist system is established to which all processes of production are subjected, by analogy with this natural rule.

The producers are the workers. We call them 'producers' because the words 'workers', 'employees' or 'toilers' are no longer applicable. The reason is that workers, according to the traditional definition, are quantitatively and qualitatively changing. The working class is continually declining as science and machines develop.

Strenuous tasks which previously had to be performed by a number of workers are now done by machines. To run a machine requires a smaller number of workers. This is the quantitative change in the labour force, while the qualitative change necessitated the replacement of a physical force by technical skill.

A power which is totally concerned with producing has now become one of the factors of production. As a result of these developments the workers have changed from a multitude of ignorant toilers into a limited number of technicians, engineers and scientists. Consequently, Trade Unions will disappear to be replaced by professional and technical syndicates because scientific development is an irreversible gain to humanity. Through such scientific development, illiteracy will be eradicated and the ordinary worker as a temporal phenomenon will gradually disappear. However, man, in his new form, will always remain an essential factor in the process of production.