A Happy World

How little discussion there is about socialism. Activists concern themselves with  practical day-to-day issues of the class struggle, leaving the future society to take care of itself. Many people know that life can be improved to make it better for all. Socialists understand that within the way our society is ordered today, there are already forces growing that can change it for a better one and that life can be made happy for all. It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today. It is the way society is organised, with a minority of people owning and controlling the wealth and the industry, excluding the vast majority of the people from any say in the operation of society. This is what lies at the root of the problems that working people face. It is this system we call capitalism. The Socialist Party believe that it can be changed for the better if the people are willing to fight for  the ending of capitalism so that the people will decide how industry is to be run. Socialists are concerned more with people and change than with anything else.

 Under capitalism the world is divided into classes and their respective interest cannot be reconciled which means there exists class struggle  between  employers and their employees. The workers want better wages and conditions, and the bosses wants to make the maximum profit out of the labour of the workers. Profits can only come from the value created by the workers. Hence the conflict. Capitalism is based on the production of goods for sale and employers are only interested in organising the production of those goods which will make him a profit. Workers are  not particularly interested in profit, but in being paid so to be able to buy what he or she needs or wants. The higher the wages paid to the worker, the greater the threat to the capitalist’s profits.

It is often suggested that the state is above the vested interest of the two class and cares only for the peoples general well-being. That it is neutral between the contesting classes. Far from being independent, it acts in the interests of the capitalists and serves as  the instrument through which the the capitalists are able to rule the workers.

 Society is composed of human beings, of men and women. There is one phenomenon that is more important than all the propaganda of the ruling class, and this is experience, the experience of the reality that people go through in their daily struggles. Men and women cannot be fooled by lies and false promises forever. It is to try to slow down people’s thinking, to withhold information, that the ruling class keeps such a tight rein on education  and the media. People come to learn the need for radical change in the way things are. They start to draw the conclusions about what needs to be changed. They begin to look towards a future society organised without exploitation.

To change the system, however, political organisation is needed. While people think and act as individuals, they come together as a class. To be put into practice, to become reality, ideas must be adopted by the people. To bring about change, therefore, demands explanation of the facts and in a way that can be understood by the people. The trade unions are the collective organisations  of class struggle at the point of production. The demand for ending the exploitation of man by man is a political demand, and workers must also have to organise in a socialist party to take state power out of the hands of the bosses. These political actions to win fundamental change for the better for the vast majority of the population cannot be brought about without the active participation of the people. Decisions can never be left to others. Democratic popular control must be brought into the economic and industrial world.

This is what socialists mean by a revolution that must take place. Reforms have not shifted society one inch along the road to people’s rule, to socialism, so no continuation of the reforms will end in socialism. Today workers can defend and improve living standards and win extension of democracy. But they cannot solve the wages problem or triumph the struggle for democracy while capitalism continues. This capitalist society demands, not patching up and blood transfusions, but the death blow and its over-throw to enable the introduction of socialism, an order of society that can manage the new technology revolution to the benefit of the all the people.

No leader, no political party can do the job of ending capitalism and building socialism. This can only come about when the people engage in action themselves. When people learn the need for the fundamental change, the revolution that will end capitalism. Against the power of the rulers , the workers has the potential weapons of unity and organisation. Working people make up the overwhelming majority. No power on earth can stop their advance if they are united and have the understanding of how a socialism can be achieved. In all parts of the world people are ready to make the break with capitalism.

Our path to revolution is based on a careful study of the actual, not wishful, conditions of  today’s society. We do conjure up a vision of how we would like to see socialism, and then to try and force this image on to reality. That is for dreamers. Clearly, the actual conditions of the social revolution will decide what socialism will look like. To do everything to make this possibility more real requires the building, cementing and strengthening of the movement of the people. As been already mentioned, socialism means, above all else, that political power has been taken out of the hands of the capitalists and their representatives and placed in the hands of the people. There will be common ownership of all the means of production and distribution. From the present day production for profit, the aim will be changed to production for use for the whole of the people. Life for the people will become secure.

Work will become more interesting and more meaningful as the result of its benefits will be going entirely to the people. With the harnessing of science and technology, boring and repetitive work will be eliminated. Work for all will become as it is today for only a very small minority—interesting and satisfying. The boundaries between mental and physical labour will be removed as all people receive the freedom and means by which to exercise their potential, their talents and abilities. As more goods are produced, so working hours will be shortened. As the market is filled with particular goods, so production will be switched to other goods. This will be possible, because, for the first time in our history, the economy will be planned. It will be planned by those who own it, the community,  through co-operation and collaboration with the factory committees. Industry will have a completely different purpose in socialism, to serve the people. The enormous wastage by which the same goods are sold by different competing companies will be replaced by real variety in goods. Choice will be more real and less of an advertisement illusion.

Social and industrial democracy will be extended in a way not possible under capitalism. All of the people will be able to make their contribution to the productive life of society. The oppressive functions of the state as we know them will become redundant, and will wither away as they fall out of use. What will remain will be only a democratic administration of production in the hands of the people. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the people, making it possible to meet their needs in food, clothing and shelter. Humanity will be freed from worry about basic material needs as we know them today. Mankind will be able to develop his own personality and talents to the full. Life for all will be plentiful and secure, and most probably, a happy one.