Dear Humanity…

It's time to talk about what's next. It's time to talk about the alternative. It is time to promote real solutions and a radical transformation. It’s time for system change. The time has come for socialism. Capitalism is ignoring the needs and well-being of people, communities and the planet as a whole. It is time to explore a genuine new economic model and move our world to a very different place, one where outcomes that are truly sustainable, equitable, and democratic are commonplace. Now is the time to shift the political discourse about the future away from narrow debates over reform policies that do not fundamentally alter any significant part of the nature of the political-economic system itself. The Socialist Party must bring people together who are serious about really tackling the system question, about building a new system of society and re-defining the public debate. We believe there are grounds for optimism that revolutionary change is possible.

For many political activists it is getting harder and harder to be an optimist and a deep cynicism has grown about the prospects of ending the capitalist system and establishing socialism. In an age of unprecedented technological promise, politics has failed to keep up with this progress. For sure there is no shortage of people today to tell us that something is wrong, but there does exist a dearth of real ideas about removing the many problems we all face each and every day around the globe. There are many diagnoses of our social ills but few remedies offered. Any proposals  for actually changing the system are treated as impractical or a distraction from “immediate” demands. We are told that it can only be capitalism as usual as our only option right now and that a viable, plausible alternative system is not yet possible. But people are beginning to stir and imagine a different world to this one. They are starting to realise that without another type of society they may not have a future.

We live in a time of crisis, a time when millions of people across the world are victims of capitalist policies of war, exploitation and oppression, and destruction of the natural environment. There is renewed interest in the idea of socialism; a system based on common ownership of the means of production, rather than private ownership. But what do genuine people find when they try to investigate this revolutionary alternative? They find that all sorts of people, including political organisations and the governments of various countries, proclaim themselves to be ‘socialist’ without ever really defining what is meant by the term. There might be some vague and incomplete references to the wealth and resources of society being used for the benefit of all the people rather than a privileged minority, but not much else, and rarely, any strategy of how to achieve this. There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what “socialism” means. For those who are not familiar with it, let’s get one misconception out of the way right at the start. Socialism, as we use the term, never existed in Soviet Russia, even before Stalin, or in China, even under Mao. Socialism also is not the same as the “social-democratic” capitalism that exists in Scandinavia and the” welfare states” in some other parts of Europe today. None of them conforms to the definition of socialism that we use. Their concepts of ‘socialism’ can mean anything from mildly reformist liberalism to state ownership and the nationalisation of water, gas and electricity, through to total state-capitalism. None of these have much at all to do with the genuine socialism that we are talking about, but are used to confuse and mislead the people, and hence to deflect interest away. 

Any attempt at defining socialism is dismissed on the grounds that we can’t predict the future and that a blueprint cannot be imposed. Since nobody is going to argue with that, it just closes off any discussion of the subject, leaving ‘socialism’ as a pie-in the-sky vision somewhere in the distant future. It also leaves the opportunists and pragmatists free to vacillate and somersault through various policies and tactics with no goals other than a ‘pragmatic’ and resigned critique of capitalism. We believe the fundamental principles of socialism and their universal application can be clearly defined without prescribing a blueprint for the form of their application in any country.

The Socialist Party is committed to the emancipation of working people everywhere. We believe that capitalism is an anarchic and crisis-ridden economic system based on production for profit. We are for the expropriation of the capitalist class and the abolition of capitalism. We are for its replacement by socialist production planned to satisfy human needs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that only a socialist rationally planned society can make the changes in our production and use of energy and resources that are essential to prevent, or at least mitigate, catastrophic climate change and other environmental degradation.

Socialism, as we envision it, is an economic system under which all natural resources, as well as all means of producing goods and of organizing the delivery of services, will be owned in common and democratically managed for the benefit of the society as a whole. Communities within a socialist system will take full responsibility for meeting everyone’s fundamental needs – food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, transportation, a healthy eco-system, access to cultural and recreational resources.  Rational planning, not competition for profit, will drive the allocation of resources, with the goal of meeting the needs of society as a whole. Under capitalism, advances in technology are used to replace workers, so that the wealthy owners of large enterprises can increase their profits, while the displaced workers are thrown out on the street and left to fend for themselves. In socialism, by contrast, advances in technology – intelligently designed and environmentally sustainable – will be planned and implemented so as to reduce the level of human drudgery. Advances in productivity will result in reducing the length of the work week and raising the standard of living for everyone, rather than enriching a privileged elite. Everyone will reap equal benefits from, and thus have an equal stake in, improving the way goods and services are produced and distributed. Everyone will enjoy a decent standard of living, and an opportunity to enjoy the richness of life. As machines and technology replace more and more manual labour and routine chores, people will be freed to devote more time to leisure pursuits such as recreation, creative endeavors, and social relationships. Meanwhile, better education, improved technology, humanely and democratically operated workplaces, a shorter work week, and an emphasis on cooperation will all combine to make work a more rewarding, less stressful experience. Under these circumstances, people will understand that everyone who is able to do so must work, and few (if any) will be reluctant to make their appropriate contribution to society in this way. All workers – not just those in a few lucky professions – will be motivated by a positive desire to help others, rather than by the need to avoid hunger and homelessness.