It’s Time to Escalate

There is always confusion over what socialism is. For decades, we have been told lies. We have been told that it existed in the former Soviet Union and that it was a bureaucratic dictatorship or that it means a welfare and control over the economy in Sweden or Britain. It's in the interests of the ruling class to promote these falsehoods so that the working class never understands or supports, a viable alternative to capitalism, a system based on the exploitation of labour. All this so that the capitalist class can maintain their despotic wealth and privilege, continue fighting their bloody wars with the support of the general public and continue to dominate the world economy with their ideas and interests. The cost to the vast majority of the world, is poverty, unemployment, a culture dominated by despondency, avarice and selfishness, crime and violence, constant attacks on our basic civil rights with repressive laws, environmental devastation and the continued threat of a nuclear war. All this so a few individuals can live in luxury, while the rest of us do not. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to promote real socialism, explain its purpose and the promise it holds for our future, and to expose capitalism for what it truly is. We not only try to make genuine socialists but endeavor to get people believing that there is indeed hope for the future, and that a viable socialist society, and a benevolent alternative to capitalism and class rule, is indeed possible.

The workers who make up the Socialist Party envision the end of the current exchange economy. We advocate a system of free access where the rights to consume the products of our collective labour will not be based on how many hours we work, but on the self-defined needs of the individual. Free access can basically be defined as no money as a medium of exchange nor any form of barter is necessary for obtaining goods and using services. If we need a certain item record the request and take it from the nearest distribution centre. Any type of barter in an advanced industrialised society is believed to be ludicrous by people who are aware of the material possibilities in an era of abundance which we live under today. In fact, it will be probable under a free access system that people will keep consumption in check by agreeing to share items in which we now purchase for every family, such as methods of transportation and home maintenance. Lawn mowers, for example, can be shared by several families on one block, and future means of superior public transportation or car-pools will lessen the demand for personal automobiles. Also, without the need for market hungry advertising, needs will not be created, and the demand for outlandish and unnecessary devices sold in abundance under capitalism will be seen as a waste of production under socialism.

Common sense will prevent over consumption, due to the fact that we have a natural interest and aptitude in our work and artificial rationing will be seen as unnecessary. Of course, if we don't collectively agree not to over consume, or if we collectively choose not to work, socialism in general and free access in particular will not work. However, since everybody in a socialist society will be working at jobs in which they have an aptitude for and personal interest in, and since work will encompass only a fraction of the time for each worker that it does under capitalism (with far more leisure time available to workers than under capitalism), the need for some medium to enforce work will be unnecessary. As new technology continues to advance, and as production becomes more and more efficient, it will become increasingly easier to produce what we need and want in greater abundance, making artificial limits on production for the purpose of limiting consumption and enforcing work to appear more and more absurd in the eye of the worker. People will not be concerned with how much his or her neighbour will be taking as long as he or she is content. Contrary to what capitalism attempts to teach us, to work is natural for people. It is only under capitalism that work becomes something which we are forced to do too often, or because we are forced to take a job that we hate, that makes people lazy and unwilling to work. Once doctors are allowed to practice medicine, gardeners are allowed to create beautiful floral gardens, chefs are allowed to cook, artists are allowed to draw, writers are allowed to write and engineers are allowed to design and advance technology, and work will be made interesting to everyone and controlled by the workers themselves, then people will gladly be willing to do the work society requires of them, with a lot less stress and a lot more cooperation between everyone, and we will probably not even see a well-defined difference between work and leisure that we see under capitalism today. We have had the technological capability for socialism for well over a century, and our socialist descendants will view the 20th century as the "wasted century."

Socialism will be completely voluntary, and should have no need to be enforced as under capitalism. Goods must be free to all in addition to the required services, and since people will be able to work jobs in which they have a personal aptitude, work will be a pleasure under socialism, and not the unmitigated burden that people try to avoid under capitalism. Hence, virtually all individuals will be happy to do their share of the useful work required in society, and much leisure in which to enjoy it will be available (there is a saying that goes "those who love their job never work a day in their life", a saying very applicable to what our life will be like under socialism concerning our jobs). However, it may be possible that a form of labour vouchers ( an account of contribution to society) may be temporarily used to allow workers to acquire particular scarce goods during the brief transition period that will occur when the workers are completing the transformation from a capitalist to socialist economy, as Marx once speculated, nevertheless, once this brief transition period is ended (which should be no more than a few years at most) we would then switch over to free access, although the Socialist Party remains convinced such a situation will not arise even on a temporarily but we don’t exclude the remote possibility.

We would live in a truly free society, with no political state to control our actions, and none would be needed in a system without the material conditions that breed crime and violence, thus making it "necessary" to pass laws to control our behavior. We would be free from want, with no poverty or unemployment. As a result, crime would virtually vanish altogether, and we will have a society that functions with far less friction than any previous system in existence. We would be free from the violent and disturbed individuals that are bred by a capitalist society, which fosters ruthless competition among people, both within and across nations. Because the profit motive would no longer exist, sufficient health care, food, education and recreation would be given to all directly in exchange for their work. No longer would anyone be forced into debt, and no small class of individuals would control the economy and use it for their own personal enrichment. Socialism will be a worldwide system. Elected delegates will be recallable at any time if a majority of society deems it necessary, and will have no power to rule or to control society or the economy at large. No "leaders" or politicians will exist, which is considered by socialists to be undemocratic. It will be an industrial democracy rather than a simple political democracy that we have today, the latter being a system that thinly conceals an economic dictatorship. Since we will not be divided into separate nations, each with their own ruling class vying for control over the world's resources, the cause of modern wars will be eliminated. Diversity will be tolerated as never before, as no one will have the power to gain dominance for a particular group of individuals. No one will have economic control over anyone else, everyone will be free to choose a job that they are suited for and have the talent to perform well, and the media, as it's called today, will be completely free and in control of the public. This is the society of the future, and we have the technology to achieve it now. All we need is to organise to establish it, and this future is ours for the taking. Socialism can and must be established before capitalism brings our world into a second Dark Age.

Many have understandably dismissed socialism out of hand never knowing what it really is after all the lies crafted by the politicians so that we will never question the power that they and the capitalists hold over us. We must become class conscious. We must recognise ourselves as members of the working class, regardless of our occupations, income or employment status. Anyone who must work for a living is a member of the working class. Anyone who owns enough property to live off of the labor of others, yet never needs to work themselves, is a member of the capitalist class. It's that simple. We must form our own political party which will be organized solely on the basis of fighting for socialism. Not for reforms, not for "nationalisation" of the industries, but for socialism only. The socialist political party will present us with the revolutionary ballot when the political party will capture the state with the express purpose of dismantling it. The socialist political party will then vote itself out of existence that will herald a Golden Age for all humanity. It is within our grasp as soon as we organise to establish it.