Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Organise, agitate, and educate

 

“The social revolution...cannot take its poetry from the past but only from the future...” Karl Marx

It is impossible to provide more than a basic picture now of what the new society will look like or even what the struggle that will bring it will be like. We can assume general principles but particular details will depend on the actual conditions at the time. We can say that within the old society's forms the forms of a new society are incubated.

We can improve our lives and society by overturning the capitalist system. We can eliminate exploitation and injustice by replacing capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Hunger in the midst of plenty is the distinguishing mark of the capitalist system of production.Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern; where the everyday working people become the rightful masters of society. There is no other choice today but for the working people to organize to struggle to win socialism and  bury capitalism. Today we must look ahead to the future where socialism will be built on the powerful productive capacities now stifled by capitalism. Socialism will qualitatively improve the lives of the working and oppressed people.

The socialist revolution has become a real feasible possibility. Each person  is faced with the choice of either enduring the suffering of unemployment, inflation, brutalisation and war; or taking the path of struggle – joining with the millions of others who are dissatisfied and know that a better society is possible. Women and men, young and old, and people of all nationalities are realizing we must unite and struggle to survive, to be able to work, eat and live as decent human beings. If the working people controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. Standing in the way of social progress and socialism is the capitalist class. In opposition to this minority is the vast majority of the rest of the population. In the final analysis, the conditions of life for the 99% cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the1%. Through struggle and education, workers will realise that their interest lies in the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism.

But such a revolution will require the global unity of the workers of all nationalities who share the common identity that they are all exploited by the capitalist class.  With the development of world commerce and the production for the world market will the position of the working class in one country become dependent of the positions in all other countries. The nation becomes a fetter upon production, and equally a fetter upon the emancipation of the proletariat. The emancipation of the working class is thus an achievement, in which every people must take part.

 Socialism is not the conquest of the state by a political party, rather, it is the conquest of society by the working class through industrial and political action. Socialism is not government ownership or control of industry, two things that are purely a capitalist expression. Socialism struggles for the abolition of the state, not the enlarging of its functions. Some reformists are seduced by the idea of a beneficial state and fail to recognise its powers for shackling the workers. Socialism is the struggle to place the management and control of industry directly in the workers and community through the overthrow of capitalism and its governmental agents in the State. Those advocating nationalisation has been developing state capitalism, not socialism. Socialists  rejects the policy of state ownership, rejects the notion that state capitalism is progressive and a phase of socialism.

The working class would like to attain socialism without violence. It will utilise all legal possibilities and legislative approaches in the struggle for socialism. It, however, cannot chain itself to the rules established by the ruling class if they will not relinquish power peacefully. The main activity of the Socialist Party will be through the various avenues available under democracy to organise, agitate, and educate our fellow workers. Democracy can’t be strengthened if we discredit the entire process of democracy and permit the supremacy of the be non-elected. 

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