THE SOCIALIST GOAL

The purpose of the Socialist Party is to replace capitalism with the economic and social democracy of socialism.

 Computers and technological advances in production have swept through and transformed many industries. There is no question that these changes in the means and methods of production have wiped out millions of jobs. Many of the factories and production plants that once littered the country have disappeared. Some have been torn down or abandoned. Some have been replaced by new facilities equipped with the labour-displacing computers and robotics that have left millions of workers unemployed and unlikely ever again to find work at their former trades. At the same time, however, millions of workers are still employed in the manufacturing and extractive industries dedicated to the production of commodities, whether raw materials such as coal, oil and steel, or to finished products such as cars, aircraft and apparel. They continue to turn out commodities meant to be sold for a profit. While this may be the "age of information," virtually all of that information is gathered and applied to facilitate the production and disposal of finished goods on the domestic and world markets.

In short, while technological advances have brought and will continue to bring changes into the industrial process, they are being used to increase the quantity of manufactured goods, but to do it by intensifying the exploitation of a dwindling number of workers. It is absolutely certain that capitalism will continue to introduce new and increasingly sophisticated technology into industry. It is a certainty that millions more workers will be forcibly evicted from the economy -- and not only workers in the manufacturing and extractive industries, but millions who now hold so-called "white-collar" jobs. Indeed, that process is already well underway. Promises that "post- industrial" capitalism would create new and "high-paying" jobs to replace those that have been eliminated have proven hollow. Instead we have low-paid service industry jobs.

An absolute certainty because of the economic laws on which capitalism is based -- laws which compel every capitalist concern to strive for the greatest possible profit at the lowest possible cost,  mean one thing. It can only mean that permanent joblessness is the only future that millions -- perhaps the majority -- of workers can look forward to as long as capitalism survives.

To put it another way: Unless the working class becomes conscious of what a capitalist future holds the time may well come when it will be reduced to a beggar state. A capitalist future is human misery.

At some stage in the mass displacement of workers by modern technology the fear that already touches millions of workers will mature into the realisation that they must act in their own defence. The realisation will grow that there is no solution to the problem within the capitalist system. Thought, discussion, enlightenment will produce action. The real question therefore is: At what stage will this occur? The answer will doubtless involve many other factors, not the least of which will be the economic distortions and political reaction resulting from capitalist economic anarchy.

It is, of course, possible that the workers may remain apathetic even while the ranks of chronically unemployed grow to massive proportions. We do not think that they will, and we shall do all in our power to insure that they won't. Nevertheless, it is possible. In this case, society would move into an era of industrial feudalism which, while it would not last forever, might keep the workers in a state of industrial serfdom for decades.

Socialism is no predestined inevitable development and depends, not upon material conditions alone; it depends on these-plus clearness of vision to assist the evolutionary process. Nor was the agency of intellect needed at any previous stage of social evolution in the class struggle to the extent that it is needful at this, the culminating one of all. Because socialism is not an automatic affair, workers as a class must play an active role in the socialist revolution. Capitalism will not vanish. It will remain until it is overthrown. And capitalism can be overthrown only as the result of class conscious mass struggle.

Promoting class conciousness, however, is no easy matter. Workers are bombarded daily with capitalist propaganda in the newspapers, on television and on th web. Politicians and economists obscure the capitalist roots of economic crisis and falsely predict a better future after a painful period of "adjustment." Political leaders tell workers that they need to make concessions to their exploiters instead of fighting back.

Even worse, many so-called socialists confuse workers by talking about myths such as "structural reforms" or by raising false hopes that workers can force the political state to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty. Such notions can only help convince workers that they have a future under capitalism and that capitalism is, at this late date, somehow capable of being reformed.

In truth, ending the effects of capitalism requires ending their cause -- the capitalist system.

As socialists become involved in workers' daily struggles, they must try to bridge the gap between the establishment of socialism and the present consciousness of the working class. It is important that workers come to recognise that there is an alternative to capitalism. For the sooner the working class realises that the misery imposed by capitalism need not be endured, the sooner will workers turn to socialism.

Yet even the most thoroughgoing class consciousness by itself is not enough for revolution. Above all else, organisation is required. Workers already hold in their collective hands the potential power capable of restructuring society. Workers need to transform that potential power into the active force - revolutionary organisation - that is needed to establish socialism.

On the political field, workers need to form a mass revolutionary socialist party to challenge and defeat the political state for the purpose of dismantling it. That will clear the way for the workers' organisation on the economic field to administer the classless socialist society by ousting the capitalist class from the seat of its economic power and by taking, holding and operating the economy in workers' interests.

Socialist revolution is a complex process. It will not occur overnight nor as the result of a heroic act of will. It is the result of the interaction of economic crisis, class consciousness and working-class organisation.

Capitalism can be counted on to produce economic crises. However, economic crisis is not a sufficient condition of revolution. Even if the economy should utterly collapse, the result would not necessarily be socialism. For in the absence of revolutionary working-class organization, the ruling class would readily impose its own totalitarian alternative. Yet economic crisis produces discontent,  social unrest and the objective need for change that provide opportunities for effective socialist agitation and education, for raising class consciousness and for creating the working-class organization required for a victorious ending of the class struggle.

It is up to us, the working class. Capitalism won't vanish. It must be overthrown.