Socialism is the answer

These days no one has a kind word for capitalism. We recall how they said if some people were getting obscenely wealthy, enough of it would trickle down to the masses to make everyone happy. And we now know that never happened. The solution is not about reforming capitalism. It’s an economic system, not just a policy that can be changed by changing politicians and amending a few laws. Capitalism is driven by profits. The search for profits drives it to expand; the need to make profits also drives it into crisis. These cycles have been recurring for more than three centuries and no one has ever figured out a way to fix the system. So it isn’t about trying to patch up capitalism. It’s about getting rid of it entirely. What shall we replace capitalism with? Socialism is the answer. We will establish a society where the all means of production and distribution—factories, mines, the energy sources, transport are owned in common by all the people. The “right” to exploit other people will not exist which may deprive the rich of their way of life but for the rest of us working people it won’t be anything to worry about. Those who benefit from capitalism scare-monger and tell you that under socialism you can’t have your own PERSONAL property or possessions. You won’t own your own home, for instance. Only a few workers actually do own their own home, for most of us it is still owned by the bank or building society for the next twenty or twenty-five years when eventually the mortgage is paid off. Same with our cars bought on four or five year repayment plans, and becomes ours just when the rust begins to take effect. And if we suffer redundancy we soon find what we thought was ours – ain’t. We are repossessed of our homes, and the car taken away to be sold at auction. It exposes the illusion that capitalism protects personal property, you can lose everything.

What socialism proposes is wealth for all, plenty of the good things of life for everybody. A finehouse to live in, nice furniture in it, and a garden. A dining table loaded with good things to eat. Abundance of clothing, comfortable and elegant. Opportunity and means to travel all over the world. Leisure to read and play and work. No poverty anymore with its filth and sickness and vice. With all these things, socialism will bring a natural human development, healthy, noble men and women, happy and energetic.

You say all this is a dream? No, not a dream at all, but an immediate possibility. By means of the vast new technology of this modern world, we can produce wealth enough for all without any trouble whatsoever. There is no doubt at all about this. Modern inventions have so increased the productive capacity of mankind. Socialism proposes to get this abundance for all to share in. Socialism will take this vast new machinery and use it for producing new wealth for all instead of producing profit for a few. If we all owned these factories and railroads and mines and mills and all of us worked at them to produce wealth for our own use and happiness, all the troubles of poverty would disappear. The Socialist Party proposes that we who are deprived of the right to use the machinery we have made and to get the riches we make, shall come to-gether in a political party and vote the parasite class out of power. We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. The Socialist Party appeals to the workers on the ground of their self-interests. We are a being very practical and indulging in no dreams or false hopes. We simply say to our fellow workers: “Come, join our party, vote yourselves into power, use the power of the state to capture back those means of wealth production which the capitalists have stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which you are entitled to.”

The mission of the Socialist Party is to muster all those workers whose real interests lie in abolishing the private or government ownership of the means of production, and also to shut out of the parties of the class whose real interests lie in the preservation of the status quo.