D-I-Y - Build A Sane World

The Socialist Party is the only organisation with a "Do It Yourself" plan for changing society. We have been almost alone have warned of the dangers of depending upon "leaders" who want to do your thinking for you. For years we have explained that since the working class is intelligent enough to plan, design build and operate the complex and complicated industries throughout the world, it is also intelligent enough to collectively own and administer those same productive forces through the democracy of socialism.

Instead of workers being divided into hostile groups competing for jobs that will pay enough to keep a family until next payday, we will work in harmony, cooperating to produce most efficiently the best possible products, since we will all directly benefit from each improvement in quality and quantity of the goods and services we have made available. Socialism is not a paternalistic society in which the good things are handed down to you. It is a society of economic equality, which is to say, equality of economic opportunity. You will have full say in the industrial democracy of socialism.

 The Socialist  Party calls upon the majority to vote for the change from private ownership to social ownership. You can "Do It Yourself" at the ballot box.

 It is important that we restate in definite terms what the Socialist Party is and what it stands for, at the same time pointing out the anti-socialist character of such political parties as the "socialist" and "workers" parties. Socialism will have no private ownership in the necessaries of life, i.e., the industries and the system of communication and distribution, as well as the social services. Second, there will be no political State, no political parties, no politicians, and, accordingly, there will be no State ownership or bureaucratic control of these necessaries of life. Third, there will be no wage system, hence, no exploitation. In place of private and/or state ownership, we shall have social ownership of the necessaries of life. Socialism is a social system under which all the instruments of production, distribution, education, health, etc., are owned, controlled and administered by the people, for the people.

We do not advocate a hodgepodge of state ownership or municipal ownership all of which would make necessary the retention of the political state and give politicians positions of power as the ruling bureaucrats making meaningless promises in the name of "socialism." They pay lip service to "social ownership," "industrial democracy," "production for use," and then in the next breath advocate higher minimum wages, expanded unemployment and old-age benefits, free maternity care, equal pay for women, and the like. Their "ace-in-the-hole" is "a Workers' State. These political hucksters have no right to the title "socialist," but unfortunately there is no way to stop them from using it. These reformists opportunistic outfits while the Socialist Party is a political party whose aim is, and always has been, the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism.

But capitalism cannot be abolished and replaced by socialism by a political party despite claims of such phony "socialists". That is a task that only the workers as a class can do for themselves. The social revolution cannot be accomplished unless the working class becomes conscious of its class interests  The Socialist Party demands, via the ballot box, the unconditional surrender of capitalism, "locking out" the capitalist class and continuing production and social services under the direction of a workers and community councils.  Together we shall do the common-sense thing; make the means of production our collective property, abolish exploitation of the many by the few, and use our productive genius to create leisure and abundance for all. Society must be reconstructed and workers of hand and brain must build this new world and emancipate themselves through their own class conscious efforts and they can apply their collective strength to the task at hand only through organisation. Politically workers must draw together in a party that stands for their own collective interests. For too long workers have relied on capitalist politicians to speak for them. They must build their own political organization, to challenge the domination of the capitalist class and help all workers realize how socialism serves their needs, and how it can be won. But a political party by itself is not enough. Socialism means more than a change in ideas, or a different set of political figures in government. It means that the masses of working people must build the new forms of socialist administration.