The social revolution is the end towards with every step the Socialist Party of Great Britain takes. It is our immediate objective. The hour is late and urgent action is necessary. The only viable way forward is to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment. To create a socialist world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution. The working class must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society.
All recorded history is the history of class struggles and consequent evolutionary changes in the form of society; the class divisions and institutions varying from age to age according to the current economic basis, and each form being superseded by another when its mission is fulfilled. Today this is more true than ever. An emancipated world of economic and social equals wherein class divisions and privileges will for the first time in history be no longer possible; a system of social ownership of the means of production administered coordinated by communities themselves in harmony, ensuring from everybody contributes according to their ability and receives according to their needs, under the motto “All for One and One for All”.
We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humanity. It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars, steals the resources and causes the devastation to our natural environment. People know that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. Either we get rid of this outmoded and decrepit system or it will destroy mankind.
It is time for the labour movement too to heed the call of the Socialist Party to discard its futile reformism. We seek a change in the basis of society - a change which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities. The profit-grinding system is maintained by a veiled war, not only between the conflicting classes, but also within the classes themselves: there is always war among the workers for bare subsistence, and among their employers, for the share of the profit wrung out of the workers; lastly, there is competition always, and sometimes open war, among the nations of the world for their share of the world-market.
Moreover, the whole method of distribution under this system is full of waste; for it employs whole armies of clerks, retailers, advertisers, and what not, merely for the sake of shifting money from one person's pocket to another's; and this waste in production and waste in distribution, added to the maintenance of the useless lives of the capitalist class, must all be paid for and is a ceaseless burden on workers lives.
The people alter the foundations of the economy: the land, the machinery and factories, the mines. All the means of production and distribution of wealth, must be declared and treated as the common property of all and the waste now incurred by the pursuit of profit will be at an end. The amount of labour necessary for every individual to perform in order to carry on the essential work of the world will be reduced to something like two or three hours daily; so that every one will have abundant leisure for following intellectual or other pursuits congenial to his nature. This change in the method of production and distribution would enable every one to enjoy a decent life, free from the sordid anxieties for daily drudgery which at present weigh so heavily on us all.
Co-operatives would merely increase the number of small capitalists and would intensify the labour of its participants by the temptations to overwork and exploit themselves in the competitive struggle to survive and be a viable success.
No better solution would be that of state-capitalism or by whatever name it may be called. Nationalisation, leaving the present system of capital and wages still in operation, would be useless so long as labour was subject to the fleecing of surplus value inevitable under the capitalist system. No number of concessions or administrative changes would make any real difference.
The Socialist Party therefore aims at the realisation of the social revolution, and well knows that this can never happen in any one country without the help of the workers of all the world. For us neither geographical boundaries, race, nor creed makes rivals or enemies; for us there are no nations, but only varied masses of workers and friends, whose mutual sympathies are perverted by different groups of our masters whose interest it is to stir up hatreds between the dwellers in different lands. We are working for fraternity for all the world, and it is only through brotherhood that we can make our work effective.
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