We need revolution

The great bulk of people would vastly prefer to live in a world free of poverty, unemployment, racism and war. This kind of world is only possible in socialism. Many workers today would readily agree that this is the kind of world they would want for themselves and future generations. But they think it’s a pipedream. In fact, the need for class struggle is the key to what will make the difference for future generations. For decades now the working class has been under attack yet the employers would love for this class struggle to just be considered an “old-fashioned” notion from the past. The class struggle -- the conflict between the capitalists and the workers -- is at the very heart of the capitalist system and without going into the scientific understanding first explained by Karl Marx, simply put, the capitalist class makes profits at the expense of the working class’s wages and living standards, so the two sides are inevitably driven into conflict. The workers create the wealth and the bosses take the lion’s share.

Capitalism has always been brutal in its methods. But it developed technology and a worldwide system of production which laid the material basis or groundwork for overcoming scarcity and creating abundance for all. People could have everything they need to live well. But it’s impossible to achieve under the capitalist system, which is driven to pursue profits rather than human needs. Therefore, as Karl Marx pointed out, only a socialist revolution could bring about a society of abundance for all. Socialism can only be built upon abundance. Racism, sexism, and nationalism would die out, since there would be no need for vicious competition among workers, who are all forced to compete with each other for the miserable jobs and other crumbs that capitalism offers us. As profit margins have fallen in the system as a whole, competition between capitalist firms and nations has become ever more vicious. The needs of the ruling class to boost profit rates also dictates escalated racist and anti-immigrant attacks across the board -- to keep the working class down through divide-and-conquer methods. There exists a “race to the bottom” in which capitalists try to outdo each other in finding the cheapest labour possible is prevalent. A key focus of these recent attacks has been pensions. The employers are demanding that workers either pay into the pension funds themselves or accept inferior plans.

Globalisation brings multinationals which are tools to exploit natural resources, livelihood and finally affected the survival of masses. Yet it also in some way helped people to connect globally with like-minded people and organizations and exchange ideas, tools and information against oppression. Platforms, for all their flaws, like World Social Forum help people to align globally against the neoliberal forces under the slogan Another World is Possible as against There is No Alternative pushed by the market forces.

The Socialist Party argues that socialism is the only solution. In order to build toward this future socialist revolution, we urge interested workers to get in touch with ourselves. We believe that in order to save humanity from the economic chaos, social injustice, and environmental destruction caused by global capitalism, it is necessary to abolish the capitalist system altogether and replace it with a humane, democratically-run planned socialist economy. Socialism is possible only from the self-organised working class realising its power as an alternative to that of its masters, the capitalist ruling class. If socialism is to represent a new society of freedom, then it has to be achieved through a process in which people liberated themselves. Unlike many on the Left who look to an elite to change things for the masses, the Socialist Party argue that the working class has to free themselves. Freedom cannot be conquered for and handed over to the workers. The Socialist Party puts forth the principle of self-emancipation - the principle that socialism can only be brought into being by the self-mobilisation of the working class - a fundamental aspect of the socialist project. Socialism can only be brought into being through the mass democratic action of the exploited and the oppressed.

Socialism means a society restructured according to the working-class principle of solidarity. It means an economy of democratic planning, based on common ownership of the means of production, a high level of technology, education, culture and leisure, economic equality, no material privileges for officials, and accountability. Beyond the work necessary to ensure secure material comfort for all, it means the maximum of individual liberty and autonomy. Socialism can be far freer and more democratic than capitalism could conceivably be - through integrating economic and political power in democratic structures, through accountability and provisions for decision-making participation.

To think that a socialist revolution is not possible, you would have to believe not only that the ruling class and their economic wizards have found a way to ‘manage’ capitalism. You would also have to close your eyes to the spreading wars, and economic, financial, and social crises we are in the midst of. With climate change, poverty, wars, racism and much else - is such that it is not very easy for our rulers to persuade people that everything is alright. But they don't need to. All they need to do is persuade people that there is nothing they can do about it. This is why, when it comes to justifying capitalism, inequality and war, the mantra of: "But you can't change human nature" has always been popular with the powerful and drummed into the heads of ordinary people. It is commonly said that human nature, being greedy and self-interested, makes real equality impossible. But this is false because human nature is not fixed. It changes and develops as circumstances change. We know from the fact that hunters and gatherers lived in democratic and egalitarian societies for tens of thousands of years before classes emerged that there is not some innate obstacle to equality lodged in human nature.

 It is easy to produce a list of revolutions and uprisings that failed. Yet many of today's democratic capitalist regimes are the product of successful revolutions. So how is it, after this abundant experience of successful revolutions, that the claim that they always fail has the resonance it does? The answer is that none of these revolutions have yet produced a society of equality and freedom as almost all of them claimed they would. We need to be clear about the difference between the bourgeois revolutions of the past and the socialist revolution we are talking about today. The bourgeois revolutions were both progressive and successful but they could not introduce economic equality or a classless society. They adopted the rhetoric of "equal rights" to mobilise popular support but in reality were led by, and transferred state power to, a class - the capitalists - which was by its nature an exploiting class and which could not exist without a working class beneath it. The same applies to the various anti-colonial, anti-imperialist nationalist revolutions. For historical reasons these revolutions often adopted radical language, frequently calling themselves socialist or Marxist but they could do no more than establish independent state capitalist regimes which would not only be class societies but would also be subject to all the distorting pressures of the world market.

It’s not enough to say that socialism is the solution. Its vision must be in our hearts. Marxists such as William Morris and the anarchists around Kropotkin saw the new world as a different system, not a change of administration. If we don't get a clearer idea of where we want to go, all the discussions devolve into discussions of changing administration. Sticking to a vision of the cooperative commonwealth as mere worker-run enterprises leads to “workers’ business capitalism”. Today humanity faces a global crisis stemming from the incredible rapacious requirements of the capitalist system. In the first place, there is catastrophic climate change which threatens to end life on our planet, then there is endemic war and civil wars, mass poverty  and an ever more ruthless assault on working people everywhere. It is absolutely clear that the bourgeoisie will continue to put the drive for corporate profit ahead of everything, even our own future as a species. It is incapable of changing. Even when it recognises the danger it cannot stop doing what it does. If capitalism is not overthrown, humanity is most likely doomed. Capitalism will destroy the human race. The only way out is the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by socialismThis can be achieved only through a socialist revolution. A socialist revolution radically differs from all the preceding types of social revolution. What is the difference? Firstly, all previous revolutions did not aim to abolish exploitation, but merely modified its forms. A socialist revolution, however, abolishes every exploitation for all time and ushers in the era of construction of a classless society. Secondly, previous revolutions did not have to create a new economy. They only brought political power into line with the new economic relations which arose within the old society. One of the principal tasks of a socialist revolution is to create a new economy, the economy of socialism which does not arise within the womb of capitalism. Thirdly, no revolution is marked by as much great activity of the people as a socialist revolution.

Reformists have always opposed the socialist revolution. The reformists claim that in present-day conditions there is no need for a socialist revolution, that the possibility has arisen for the evolution from capitalism to socialism through reforms. Contemporary capitalism, they maintain, has ceased to be the capitalism of which Marx wrote in Capital. They claim that it has lost its class nature and has become a “welfare state” capable of bringing about socialism by reforms within the framework-of the existing political system. Reformists do not even toy with the idea of destroying the cornerstone of capitalism, private property.

The significance of the socialist revolution consists in this; that the length of the working day for the average person will shrink, and they will thus be free in the real sense of the word to turn their attention to all of the various activities that round out the human as a species. They would become more involved in art and craft and science, socialising and recreation