Very few people believe in the wisdom of any of the ideologists of capitalism any more. The bankers, employers, politicians and economists talk about the state of the economy but none of them know what to do. The fundamental reason why the world recovery is faltering now is because this recession did not provide capitalists with new opportunities for profitable investment. To bolster their profits, employers are making it even more difficult for workers.The failure of the recession to solve capitalists’ problems explains why they are demanding, in every major country, cuts in public spending. Employers are on an offensive to take back what workers have won in previous years. Workers face deteriorating conditions, declining income and diminishing benefits. More and more workers find that one income is insufficient to support their families and many workers now have to hold down two jobs. While people are facing steadily lowering of living conditions, the movement against these conditions is still relatively undeveloped. The unions are largely inactive. There are pockets of resistance but these are not yet strong. The coming months and years will be important for workers to develop a militant movement. Some of the key struggles will be around keeping wages up with the cost of living and maintaining contracts and job security as well as the the problems of declining membership as a result of years of not organising unorganised workers.
We stand for socialism: a new system in which the people own and control the economy, through the widest democracy. We stand for a socialism which is completely opposed to the exploitation of man by man which now divides the world: capitalism which is an outlived system. Capitalism is played-out, its constructive aspects long dead. Its life-blood is private profit and oppression, whether avowedly capitalist or whether administered by self-styled “socialists.” We stand for a socialism that is both democratic and revolutionary. Socialism is not the rule of bureaucrats over the people. The new, free society will have as its sole purpose the needs of humankind and in place of the present anarchy, waste and inefficiency, production will be planned. This planning, requires the common ownership. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created, we will be able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman or bureaucrat to supervise who gets what and frustrate the democratic process. For the first time knowledge would be applied entirely for the benefit of mankind. Our wealth is part of humanity’s common heritage and the world’s natural resources would be used with no other thought than for the well-being of mankind.
To choose anything other than socialism is to opt for futility. The Socialist Party are optimists. It is only the working class that is capable of wiping out all the misery and suffering in this world brought about by centuries of class society. But, while we understand why our future is bright, we are also materialists. We know that the road ahead is tortuous, full of twists and turns. Not all those who wave the red flag or claim to speak for the working class actually do so. Rather than overthrowing the capitalists, they argued that workers should make alliances among the capitalists and their politicians and support one faction against another as a lesser evil. Of course, the workers have made some gains through their struggles. The employers have had to make a considerable number of concessions. But what are these gains, really? To a certain extent, the gains won in struggle served to strengthen the unity and fighting capacity of the workers. But when you consider the wealth that the working people in this country have produced, when you consider the power and potential for abundance of the productive forces that the workers themselves have created, then these reforms are shown up for what they really are. They are nothing but crumbs, scraps left over on the table after the capitalists have had their feast. But today, it is the capitalists who are on the offensive and the working class that is in the position of the defensive. The capitalists following the path for their usual solution to their economic crises in order to defend their profits. They want to tell people that revolution is impossible, and revolution can’t solve these problems, that the capitalist system is the best thing there is.
In the words of the Internationale, “The earth shall rise on new foundations, we have been naught, we shall be all.” The class that has borne untold sufferings and has nothing to lose but its chains. In the words of Eugene Victor Debs, “ I oppose all wars but one, the revolutionary class war to rid this earth of the evils of capitalism.”
We’re going to raise the red banner of revolution.
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