Socialism means...

What is socialism? What do the socialists want? The simplest way to find the answer to these questions is to ask yourself: "What do I want? What do the millions like me throughout the world want?"

Socialism is not a utopian ideal, a blueprint for society that exists in the minds of some people. It is a social necessity and it is a practical necessity. It is the direction that the people must take in order to save society from disintegration, in order to satisfy their social needs. To be a socialist, means to be conscious of this necessity, to make others conscious of it, and to work in an organised manner for the realisation of the goal. By socialism we understand the system of society the material basis of which is social production for social use; that is, the production of all the means of social existence — including all the necessaries and comforts of life — carried on by the organised community for its own use collectively and individually. We mean the common ownership and control of the whole of the world’s industry, the entire means of production becoming common property.  Socialism means a complete change in society in all its aspects.

Is it really possible to realise it?

Socialism is based upon the planned organisation of production for use by means of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production, is the abolition of all classes and class differences. Without production, society cannot live and the first step to be taken would be directed toward assuring continuous production so as to satisfy the needs of the people. If, however, production is to be carried on for use, to satisfy these needs, the question immediately arises: Who is to determine what is useful and what would satisfy these needs? Will that be decided exclusively by a small board of planners? No matter how high-minded and wise they might be, they could not plan production for the needs of the people. Production for use, by its very nature, demands constant consultation of the people, constant control and direction by the people. Democratic control of the means of production and distribution would have to be exercised by the people to see to it that their decision is being carried out.  We believe in the ability of working people to manage their own productive institutions democratically. The workers cannot rid themselves of their sufferings without abolishing the domination that the machine has over them. They can do this only if they gain control of the machine itself. In doing so, they must destroy capitalism and proceed with the complete reorganisation of society. Profit returns would no longer enter into calculations. Capitalist production depends upon profit, upon the accumulation of capital and increasing opportunities for its profitable investment.

We, the workers, mental and manual, with our muscle, mind and skill, wrested raw materials from Nature and fashioned them into the things of social value. We are the creators. We build things great and small yet we who are greater than all stand in abject fear of our own creations. The starting point is a grasp of the elementary truth that men working in organised co-operation can produce far more than the same men working in independent isolation. The greater the number of co-operating workers, the more complete can be the sub-division and co-ordination of the labour process. The more complex the productive mechanism the wider the area from which to draw raw and incidental materials, and the more complete the technical realisation of natural potentialities, the greater will be the power of self-disposal of the community so equipped, and so co-operating. Interposed between us  and that enormous potential of abundance is the social obstacle of property and legal rights. We have damned ourselves because we have thought that the rights of the bakery owner and the bread seller were greater than the right of a person with an empty stomach. We are all prostitutes—and prostitutes for bread. Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts a campaign for the socialist alternative on the immediate agenda. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society.

We speak of classes, but to be sure individuals own the instruments of production yet these individuals form a class bound together by common interests, as against the rest of society. Socialism does not mean mere governmental ownership or management. The State of to-day, nationally or locally, is only the agent of this possessing class and acts  in the interests of the employers. The Socialist Party indicts capitalism and challenges its political spokesmen of whatever name or brand to defend it. The Socialist Party denies the right of capitalism to exist. The division of society into property owners and property-less people lies at the root of the problems of the capitalist world.

Capitalism is founded upon production for profit. Whenever the owners of the world’s machinery of production and distribution fail for whatever reason to realize a profit, it is in their power to cease production or distribution and the world’s workers may starve for all they care. Capitalist society characterised by production for profit. Profit is derived from unpaid labour time. Workers’ labour power is purchased on the market by the owners of capital. The goods and services produced by workers’ socialised labour are  appropriated  by capitalists or the state. Wage-workers who, to live, must sell their labour power to the private owners of the means of production. They are parts of a competitive system, the motive of which is that of production for profit. The labour it uses is a commodity subject to all the laws of commodity production. The fundamental purpose of the Trade Unions, therefore, must be the pursuit of the interests of the wage-workers.They will continue to be produced so long as they can be sold for profit on the market. With socialism, production is planned (not necessarily centrally planned) and rational, and takes place for peoples’ use.

Capitalism is production for the market. The surplus-value created by the workers cannot be realized by the capitalist in the form of profit until the product has been sold on the market. For the capitalist there is no other way of disposing of the goods produced other than through the exchange market, the laws of which are not need nor beauty, nor quality. Capitalism produces only when there is a profit for the  owner of capital. When there is no profitable market for his product, the capitalist will not produce, no matter how great and urgent the need of the people for work, for food, for clothing and shelter, for a decent living standard, for security.

There can, in fact, be no social revolution without a fundamental change in the relation of the classes. In a revolution a class which held power loses it to the class which was previously below it.  For the first time ample leisure and a good standard of living can be the birthright of every child, whether it is born in Manchester, New York or Mumbai. A socialist system of production will by its superior efficiency make available not just ample consumables but (what is of infinitely greater importance) an greater wealth of leisure, enriched by the accessibility of all the cultural achievements of the human race.

 “Give us imagination enough to conceive; courage enough to will; power enough to compel; and then I say, the thing will be done.” - William Morris: