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| A SOCIALIST WORLD |
Capitalism creates countless problems that it cannot solve.
It uses technology to throw people out of work and to make those who keep their
jobs work harder. It creates hardship and poverty for millions, while the few
who own and control the economy grow rich off the labour of those allowed to
keep their jobs. It destroys the cities that we built up. It is destroying the
natural environment that is the source of the food we eat and the air we
breathe. Every effort made to prevent these problems, or to keep them from
growing even worse, has failed. The reason is that society is controlled by a
small capitalist class that owns the industries and services that everyone
depends on. The workers built and they operate all of those essential
industries and services. However, they do not own and control them. They are
the majority, but they have no voice in deciding what to produce or how much to
produce. Their needs and desires count for nothing when those decisions are
made. When that small group makes every important decision that affects the
lives of the vast majority, it is called despotism.
Capitalism is an economic despotism, and like any other form
of despotism, it spoils and corrupts everything that is good and decent. Look
at what it done to us. Capitalism has twisted this great achievement of labour’s
collective genius by causing wealth and power to collect in the hands of a few.
Technology that could and should be used to lessen the need for arduous toil
and to enhance our lives is used instead to eliminate jobs and increase
exploitation. Poverty is as widespread as it has ever been. Wages go down even
as productivity rises. Joblessness, homelessness, helplessness and despair are
spreading. Economic insecurity and social breakdown place an unbearable strain
on our families, our children and ourselves. Emotional stress, crime,
prostitution, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and many more signs of
unhappiness and hopelessness, are on the rise.
Is this what we want? Is this what we have worked so hard to
build? Should we keep a social system that is destroying the lives, the
liberties and the chance for happiness that our work and productivity make
possible? Is it really worth the price to keep a small and despotic class of
capitalists living in obscene wealth? Wouldn’t it be more the common sense
thing by making the means of production our collective property, abolishing
exploitation of the many by the few, and using our productive genius to create
security and abundance for all? The workers can only rely on themselves to
build a better world and free themselves through their own class conscious
efforts.
People can apply their collective strength only through
organisation. This means that the working class organising a political party of
its own to speak out for social change, to explain the socialist to all
workers, and to vote for the change they want. This is the non-violent method
to declare the purpose in the open, and to mobilise themselves for the conquest
of the capitalist state. With socialism all power to make social decisions will
be vested in the people. Production will be carried out to satisfy the people’s
wants. Every person will share in that abundance. The allocation of resources
will be democratically planned by a society in full control of its productive
forces. In socialist society, for the first time, the people will consciously
direct their economic activity and democratically provide for their own
well-being and security where the fruits of that labour will be available to
all.
Production and distribution, together with modern
communications and transportation, are much more complicated today and they
form a web of connected parts that cuts across all arbitrary borders. National
government based on territory is outdated. Nation states are redundant. We need
a new form of worldwide administration that fits in with modern conditions. We
need social democracy. WORLD SOCIALISM.
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