Our Goal Is Socialism

Working people around the world have always sought a future without war, exploitation, inequality, and poverty. They strive to build a brighter future, one based on democracy, peace, justice, equality, cooperation, and meeting human needs. That future is socialism, a system in which working people control their own lives and destinies, and together build a better world. The Socialist Party is in existence to build this authentic social revolution. Socialism will usher in a new epoch. The great wealth of our planet will for the first time be for the benefit of all the people. Socialism is not a dream, but a necessity to working peoples’ lives. Only socialism has the solutions to the problems of capitalism.

Anyone who thinks even for a moment about the enormous productive capacity of our world cannot but ask: why it with such sophisticated means of technology that we are unable to guarantee the well-being of people? Why is the curse of unemployment and the plague of falling wages and living standards undermining the lives of millions? Why do millions of people go without needed medical care? Why have people all across the world always crying poverty? It is because these modern means of production – which can only be set in motion through the cooperative socialised labour of the whole working class – are owned by a tiny class of capitalists. A few thousand plutocrats control the economy and constitute a real financial oligarchy which commands the economic life of the world.

The necessity for socialism is rising to the surface, demanding recognition but the capitalist system is blocking the way forward. It is the capitalist system which is denying a livelihood. It is the system of private property which exploits human labour and creativity and turns society into a slave-market in which the rich live off the sweat and suffering of the poor. It is the system of private property, the capitalist system, which is poisoning the air we breathe and the water we drink, wilfully destroying the natural environment in the pursuit of maximum profit. Environmental activists face corporate power when they try to stop pollution, stop the dumping of industrial waste, or stop the ravaging of the remaining wilderness areas for profit.

From its very emergence, the working class has been locked in a struggle against capitalist exploitation and the capitalist class. All who work for a living - the vast majority of the people - face a relentless, vicious, and amoral enemy: the capitalist class. We are oppressed by one of the most controlling entrenched capitalist ruling classes ever, concentrating enormous political, economic, and military power in the hands of a few. The overwhelming majority of the workers still live in a state of job and economic insecurity. Just to maintain their physical existence, the workers are forced to fight the capitalists over the issues of wages, hours of work, working conditions and so forth. In addition, the working class wages continual struggles in the political sphere, asserting its rights in opposition to and struggle against the capitalist class and capitalist state. The workers have won many victories in their economic and political battles but still the fundamental problem remains unresolved and the same issues come up again and again. Every movement for change and progress is challenged by the power of the employers. One day the workers are able to establish union organisations and gain higher wages; but the next day, the capitalists are able to smash the union and cut wages. These days it is easy to see that such social and political victories as workers gained over decades of struggle are again under attack. The root of the problem is precisely the capitalist system which, at its very foundation, is based on the exploitation of wage-labour. Capitalism recognises the worker only as a seller of labour-power, only as a beast of burden to be exploited. The bosses and their paid hacks in the media constantly proclaim that competition requires lower wages, fewer benefits, fewer holidays, gutted pension plans, continuing wage differentials and discrimination, and the out-sourcing of jobs to other regions. People are misled as to their real interests, blinded by the propaganda of fear and scapegoating, used to divide working people and achieve extra profits by relentless efforts to drive wages down to the lowest possible level and by attempts to destroy unions and all protections won by workers through struggle

All this is not an aberration that can be adjusted by some thoughtful legislation and well-placed reforms but is normal and necessary to the functioning of the capitalist system. Our environment is being destroyed by the greed of a few obscenely wealthy capitalist groupings. Our world is threatened by the ravages of carbon emissions and global warming. We shouldn’t let this continue – we can't let it happen. We need radical solutions, real democracy, and real unity. We, the people, need to take power from the hands of the wealthy few, their corporations, and their political henchmen. We need real solutions to real problems, not the empty promises of politicians and corporate bosses. We need socialism. The Socialist Party believes that the working people have the power, if organised and united, to run the whole wide world, to create a democracy of the people, by the people, for the people. We can eject capitalist class through the election process.