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Tuesday, February 03, 2015

The Brotherhood of Man.


“If capitalism is to endure, whatever may become of men when they die, they will come into hell when they are born." – William Morris

There is no future on the basis of capitalism in the world today. Unless we overthrow capitalism, collapse and starvation await us. As the numerous crises grow and takes new forms, as policy after policy is desperately tried by capitalism and thrown aside in failure, the struggles of the workers and capitalism deepen and gather on a thousand issues while wider and wider sections of the population are awakening to the rallying trumpet call of socialist revolution. Capitalism or socialism this is no longer an academic debating issue of the future, it is a life and death issue; a fight for human-life that draws ever close. Environmental destruction and waste are not an accidental outcome of capitalism but an intrinsic element of the system, just as class division, poverty and war. It is built into the structure of the capitalist system. On their current path homo sapiens will soon lose their ability to consciously and creatively determine the course of their destiny. Capitalism is driven by the logic of its economics to the ruination of the world. The future is in our hands. Planetary forces have been unleashed far beyond our control and

How often have we heard “socialism is not practical politics” or that “socialism is a wild idea not a commonsense solution.” People by are counseled by wiser minds to stick with “pragmatic progress” and “gradual advance”. The contrary is the truth. Working people by the method of social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone, rapidly overcome the difficulties of the present economic and environmental crises, can swiftly construct and extend production and win prosperity for all. The socialist revolution is the only path forward because only the workers can break the bonds of capitalism; can cut through the tangle of anarchic private property rights, conflicting interests and dis-organisation that fetter the growth of; can end the crushing burdens of parasitism that are strangling industry; can organise production socially on planned and environmentally sound lines; can reconcile the conflict of productive power and consumption; can replace the empire of world corporations with the rational organisation of a world socialist economy. Only the socialist revolution can affect the causes of the climate change, arrest the course of global warming, and bring in a new era of a sustainable technology in harmony with the planet’s ecosystems. Capitalism has no policy within the conditions of market anarchy. There is no harmonious solution possible, but only the blind drive for ever more profit. Capitalism can only seek to prolong its life by throwing the burdens of the crisis on to the workers. There are voices crying out to know how the world can produce so much food that people starve, and produce abundance that people go without. It is a question capitalism cannot answer. Capitalism creates and demands scarcity in order to facilitate competition and profit-making

There are people fearful of the word, “socialism”. What is important is not the word, but those ideas which offer a real alternative. Socialism calls for cooperation and production for use. Socialist production for use, unlike production for profit, would allow for a calculation of the true costs of creating useful things and bringing them to the people. The goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural opportunities, and social services. Far from being a society based upon state-controlled centralized command economy, socialism would be a society without a state. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and world levels. Workers take direction of the means of production by "associations of free and equal producers." Far from being a bureaucratically controlled system, socialism would bring democracy -- the rule of the people -- to the most vital part of our lives, the economy. In every plant, every office and every workplace in socialist society, the workers themselves will meet in democratic assembly to determine their own workplace policies and elect committees to administer and supervise production. To administer production at higher levels, the workers will also elect representatives to councils of their respective industry, but also to other bodies representing all the industries and services which will ascertain what goods and services are wanted and will determine the resources needed to supply them. Socialism means economic democracy. Instead of production for sale and the profit of a few, socialism means production to satisfy the human needs and wants of all. The more we collectively produce, the more we shall collectively enjoy. All of us will be useful producers, working but a fraction of the time we are forced to work today. But we shall not only be useful producers, we shall all share equitably in the wealth we produce, and our compensation will literally dwarf anything we can imagine today without harming our relationship with nature. We shall produce everything we need and want in abundance under conditions best suited to our welfare and those for the planet’s well-being.

In short, socialist society will be a society of secure human beings, living in peace, in harmony and human brotherhood. This all may sound too good to be true. Yet the world has the productive capacity to provide a high standard of living for all, to provide security and comfort for all, to create safe workplaces and clean green industries. The Socialist Party is the sole one that furnishes the foundation for the loftiest aspiration of the loftiest minds of all ages -- the Brotherhood of Man.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that


The only thing keeping us from reaching these goals is that the workers don't own and control that productive capacity; it is owned and controlled by a few who use it solely to profit themselves. To build a socialist society of peace, plenty and freedom, is the only real alternative workers have.

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