The Socialist Plan

In capitalist society, the capitalists own the means of production and engage in production for the sole purpose of making profits and satisfying their private interests. Therefore, though there may be planned production in a few enterprises, competition is rife and lack of co-ordination prevails among the different enterprises and economic departments as a whole. A socialist economy is a planned economy. The establishment of common ownership of the means of production and the  identity of the interests of the working people in socialist society make it possible to arrange the whole society’s labour force and means of production in a co-ordinated way. Socialist planning and control is not a command economy by the State or technocratic bureaucracy. When we socialists speak of planned economy we do not mean schemes similar to that of Stalin’s FiveYear Plans. When we socialists speak of a society organised on the basis of planned production and distribution we mean something entirely different. What we have in mind is very simple. It is clear-cut. Do away with production for profit.

Capitalism has evolved a system of economy - the anarchy of the market, within political conditions guaranteed by the capitalist state, the accumulation of capital, money, property, etc. This system is the fundamental basis of the maintenance of rule by the capitalist class, and the oppression of the working class. The control exercised by capitalism over production comes chiefly from two different directions - from the top-down diktat of the owner or whoever holds the purse strings; and from the outside-in, via the constraints of the market, with or without the active intervention of the capitalists. The liberation of the working class and the achievement of socialism is of course synonymous with the abolition of this system. Once the idea of the exclusive right of the owners of capital to exercise control over the means of production is set aside, the concept of workers control extends over the whole range of social activity. Initially, it must express the class struggle of the producers to wrest control of production away from the capitalists.

Let us suppose it is possible, while preserving the capitalist system, to reduce unemployment to a certain minimum. But surely, no capitalist would ever agree to the complete abolition of unemployment, to the abolition of the reserve army of unemployed, the purpose of which is to bring pressure on the labour market, to ensure a supply of cheap labour. Planned economy presupposes increased output in those branches of industry which produce goods that people need particularly. But you know that the expansion of production under capitalism takes place for entirely different motives, that capital flows into those branches of economy in which the rate of profit is highest. You will never compel a capitalist to incur loss to himself and agree to a lower rate of profit for the sake of satisfying the needs of the people. These people see nothing but their own interests, their striving after profits. The capitalist is riveted to profit; and no power on Earth can tear him away from it. Without getting rid of the capitalists, without abolishing the principle of private property in the means of production, it is impossible to create a planned economy. The State is an institution that organises the defence of the country, organises the maintenance of "law and order"; it is an apparatus for collecting taxes for the upkeep of the infrastructure and to ameliorate poverty. The capitalist State does not deal much with economy in the strict sense of the word; the latter is not in the hands of the State. On the contrary, the State is in the hands of capitalist economy. The capitalists will say: “Presidents come and presidents go, but we go on forever; if this or that president does not protect our interests, we shall find another.”

The Socialist Party propose, in brief, that all resources, all land and buildings, all manufacturing establishments, mines, railways and other means of transportation and communication, should be, not private property, but the common property of all people. Socialist economy on the basis of common ownership without any class division will avoid anything resembling the crises in capitalist society. Experience has proved that planning under capitalism is impossible. The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists and to their predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed. When private profit is the main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between periods of feverish prosperity in which the main benefits go to speculators and profiteers, and of catastrophic depression, in which the common man's normal state of insecurity and hardship is accentuated. We believe that these evils can be removed only in a planned and socialized economy in which our natural resources and principal means of production and distribution are owned, controlled and operated by the people.

Socialism encourages scientific advance on a colossal scale. It reduces human labour to the easy task of maintaining machinery a few hours a day. It leaves mankind free to engage in the higher intellectual pursuits. It makes everybody responsible for the welfare of all. It inscribes on its portals: Let everybody work according to his ability; let everybody receive from the common stock of goods according to his needs. There is no exploitation, no oppression, no insecurity, no poverty. Life is made humane. People receive dignity and respect. As a species we can do better if we believe in the human family and in ourselves.