Saying like it is

You've read the misinformation about SOCIALISM ... now read the FACTS!

Socialism means the common ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, railroads, land and all the other means of wealth-production. Socialism means production of things to satisfy human needs, and not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means free access. Socialism, by eliminating the scandalous waste resulting from capitalist anarchy, and by accelerating the adoption of new techniques and inventions, will greatly increase the wealth available for the people's consumption and enjoyment. Improved technology, especially automation, has greatly increased the productivity of American workers. And while, under capitalism, the workers are denied the fruits of technology, under Socialism it will insure material well-being for all beyond the dreams of avarice.

For you, as an individual, socialism means a full, happy and useful life. It means the opportunity to develop all your faculties and talents. It means that, instead of being a mere chattel bought and sold in the labour market, an appendage to a machine, you will take your place as a human being in a free society of human beings.

Your job in socialism will not be dependent on the caprice either of a private employer or the capitalist market. When things are produced to satisfy human needs, instead of primarily for sale and profit, forced unemployment will be an impossibility. The "demand," instead of being limited to what people can buy, will be limited only to what people can use. Nor will technological unemployment be possible in socialism. Instead of kicking workers out of their jobs, the improved methods and facilities will kick hours out of the working day. "Jobs for all" under capitalism is a hypocritical slogan, except possibly when capitalism is preparing for, or engaged in, an all-out war. Socialism alone can give jobs for all and open wide the doorway to economic opportunity. Your hours of work in socialism will be the minimum necessary to fulfill society's needs. Work is not the end and aim of man's existence; it is the means to an end. We do not live to work; we work to live. Socialism will, therefore, strive in every way to lighten the labor of man and give him the leisure to develop his faculties and live a happy, healthful, useful life. It is estimated that, with the facilities we now have, by the elimination of capitalist waste and duplication, and by opening jobs at useful work to all who are now deprived of them, we could produce an abundance for all by working four hours a day, three or four days a week, for half a year. In socialism, the workers would operate and manage the industries themselves. In each factory and plant, they would elect their own foremen and management committees.

You’ve read that socialism would result in the loss of individual liberty; that all power would be surrendered to the state or the government, and a harsh bureaucracy would regulate our lives and enforce blind obedience. The fact is that socialism rejects the state! Socialists hold with Karl Marx that "The existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery." How then, in the name of common sense, could socialists wish to glorify the state and surrender to it? On the contrary - where there is socialism, there can be no state, and where there is a state, there can be no socialism! Socialism rests on democracy. All power will reside in the hands of the people. Socialism does not mean nationalisation, or government ownership and control of industry. Socialism rejects nationalisation or government ownership of industry! For the workers, government ownership is merely a change of masters - it brings no solution to their problems.  Nothing was changed except that, instead of being exploited directly by the capitalists, the workers were exploited by the state for the benefit of the capitalist class. Socialism is not bureaucratic management. Socialism means complete control by the workers and their community, in other words, social ownership and control by the people.

In a socialist society, there will be no wage system. No longer will workers live under the fear of being laid off, or be compelled to spend their lives at some job they hate or are unsuited for.  With socialism we will produce for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. Under capitalism, the industries operate for one purpose-to earn a profit for their owners. Under this system, food is not grown primarily to be eaten. It is grown to be sold. Cars are not manufactured primarily to be driven. They are made to be sold. If there are enough buyers here and abroad, then the capitalists will have their factories turn out cars, TV sets, and everything else for which buyers can be found. But if people lack money, if the domestic and foreign markets cannot absorb them, then these factories shut down, and the country stagnates, no matter how much people need these commodities. Inside socialism, the factories and industries would be used to benefit all of us, not restricted to the creation of profits for the enrichment of a small group of capitalist owners. Inside socialism, our farmlands would yield an abundance without great toil; the factories, mines and mills would be the safest, the most modern, the most efficient possible, and productive beyond our wildest dreams- and without toil and drudgery. Our natural resources would be intelligently conserved, our schools would have the finest facilities, and they would be devoted to developing complete human beings, not wage slaves who are trained to hire themselves out for someone else's profit. Our hospitals and social services will create and maintain the finest health and recreational facilities.

 Automation and our technological  and scientific knowledge have so vastly increased ability to produce what we need and wants, that there is no longer any excuse whatsoever for the poverty of a single member of society. Today, we have the material possibility of abundance for everyone, and the promise of the leisure in which to enjoy it. But under capitalism, automation and computers are used to replace workers and increase profits. Instead of creating a society of abundance, capitalism uses machinery to create unemployment and poverty. But it is not new technology that threatens us at all. Improved productivity is not an evil. It is a blessing. It is under capitalism that automation is used for anti-social purposes. There is nothing threatening about labour-saving machinery. The only threat is the fact that this machinery and industries are the exclusive property of a small minority of people -- the capitalist class; and the fact that these industries are used for the private profit of their owners and not for the benefit of the vast majority. When the  means of production and distribution belong to all of society, then everyone in that society will share and benefit. Socialism will produce an abundance for all.