Our cause is our class and socialism. Our class, the working
class, has to work for a living in factories and workplaces, the majority of
which are owned by a tiny, rich elite. That rich elite takes the profits and
pockets them. The rest of us hardly earn enough to get by and then have to go
back to work the next week in an endless struggle to get our heads above water.
The only force in society that can end this domination are the workers. There
is a misconception that the term ‘working class’ is restricted to manual
workers. This is incorrect. Socialists has always defined ‘working class’ to
include all those who work for a wage, are looking for work or preparing to be
workers, like students. By this description, the working class is over 90% of
the population.
The class war isn’t some invention. It is simply a
reality. Instead of being organized to
provide all members of society with an abundance of food, clothing, and
shelter, and the highest attainable freedom and culture, industry is at present
disorganized and conducted for the benefit of a parasitic class. A small group
of extremely wealthy and powerful people run this society and they are
determined to squeeze even more sacrifices out of the majority in order to keep
increasing their profits. There is a class war but today but only one side is
on the offensive: the rich and powerful 1% against the 99%. All around the
world, this 1% has ripped off people and the environment. Austerity is
euphemism for class war waged by rich. They’ve launched bloody and protracted
wars of terror at huge human cost, for no good reason and with no real ends in
sight. The dire consequences of the system are everywhere apparent. The workers
are oppressed and deprived of much that makes for physical, mental, and moral
well-being. Year by year poverty and industrial accidents and occupational
illnesses destroy more lives than all the armies of the world.
All the powers of government, and all our industrial genius,
are directed to the end of securing to the relatively small class of capitalist
investors the largest amount of profits which can be wrung from the labor of
the ever increasing class whose only property is muscle and brain, manual and
mental labor-power. To preserve their privilege is the most vital interest of
the possessing class, while it is the most vital interest of the working class
to resist oppression, improve its position, and struggle to obtain security of
life and liberty. hence there exists a conflict of interests, a social war
within the nation, which can know neither truce nor compromise. So long as the
few control the economic life of the nation, the many must be enslaved, poverty
must coexist with riotous luxury, and civil strife prevail.
Class struggle by the working class is the only way to
change society fundamentally by building a powerful movement the workers that
could run society democratically through committees elected in the workplaces
and neighborhoods who would coordinate production and distribution on a local,
regional and a worldwide level. A socialist society, with the active
involvement and decision-making by the majority, would then be able to make
real decisions about all aspects of life. Democratic decisions developing a
clear plan would rebuild the economy. A satisfying job, quality health care,
housing and education would become a reality for everyone. Adopting new
technology and eliminating the profit motive could reduce the work week. That
would allow the broadest possible participation in decision-making. Racism,
sexism and war, inherent under capitalism, would wither away, since they would
no longer serve the interests of a small propertied minority seeking to attain
global power while dividing working class resistance.
There are two roads open to humanity: one leads through
social revolution to socialism, and the other leads to ecological devastation,
maybe even human extinction. The way to extinction is clear; we do not have to
do anything, as its threat is a growing part of our everyday lives. The way
forward towards socialism is not so clear. There's only one road to socialism,
and that road is the road of revolution. And not just an ordinary revolution;
this revolution will not just replaced the old ruling class with another. It is
to abolish the very notion of a ruling class and a ruled class. This revolution
will be a democratic revolution created by equals. Socialist society can only
come into existence by the abolition of the capitalist class society in which
we live, and through the construction of a classless society. The building of
socialism can be seen as a series of abolitions.
The abolition of wage slavery, the abolition of the state
and of countries and the abolition of private property, as well, through the
socialisation of land, workplaces, and natural resources. All private property
will become social property belonging to all. This is not the same as
nationalisation. The idea that socialism means nationalisation is false. The
aim of socialism is the destruction of the state and the act of nationalisation
strengthens the state. Nationalization is the basis for state capitalism once
considered the highest form of capitalism. Self-management under capitalism
however is nothing more than self-exploitation. Capitalism as a mode of production
remains perfectly feasible without joint stock companies or sole owners. A
capitalist mode of production would be perfectly possible without any personal
ownership of capital. One could have an economy in which all production was
carried on by impersonal enterprises that were not themselves owned by anybody.
Companies do not need to be owned by any individual to function efficiently, as
juridical forms for the accumulation of capital. As such, an economy of this
sort, would still be capitalist in the sense that commodities, money, and
enterprises employing wage labour still existed.
Social ownership means the democratic control over the
economy by those who participate in its operation. Thus a particular workplace
would not be owned by anyone; not even the workers who work. Decisions on the
use of social property would be made democratically by the community at large,
as well as in the work-place and by those directly involved. All products
produced will be to meet the real human needs for food, shelter, clothing,
creativity, etc., and not for profit.
The social revolution is a movement of passionate human
beings who want to create a new world, because they wish to live in it. This
revolution has to be a self-organised revolution, organised by the oppressed
themselves, not a group made up of professional leaders. To paraphrase Eugene
Debs, if one leader can lead you into the new world, they could have just as
well as brought you into slavery. The oppressed must liberate themselves. The
Socialist Party is a group of conscious individuals who theorise, analyse, and exchange
information, acting as a communication centre. They would provide information
useful to workers in their day-to-day struggles. They serve the growth of the democratic
revolutionary process, but never control it. As ever the liberation of the
oppressed must be done by the oppressed themselves! The major task of the
groups of revolutionaries is to win the battle for consciousness. This means we
must bring about the conditions that would enable the oppressed groups to
become conscious of their oppression as unnecessary and then to empower them to
struggle against it. Fundamentally, this is a task of education aimed at the
individual so that they can begin to see the world as it is; to dispel the
illusions of capitalist ideologies from the mind of the exploited. Socialist
Party members have been awoken to the realities of their own oppression and
therefore see it as their duty to awaken others. Our revolution must be a world
revolution, sweeping the planet clean of all the injustices of the past and the
present.
Our slogans such as ‘Solidarity Forever’, ‘An Injury to One
is An Injury to All’, and the ‘Workers United Can Never Be Defeated’, are not
mere morale-building rallying-cries without content. They are real and fully
meaningful. It all comes through with full force in the words of the song,
Solidarity Forever, which starts off with these words: “When the unions
inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run, there can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun,” and ends with the words, “Solidarity forever, for
the union makes us strong.” These slogans and these words are just as true
today as when literally millions of workers sang this song on the picket lines
of America in the great labor strike victories of the 1930s.
Endless destruction and slaughter can be ended only by the
victory of the workers. It will be possible to banish war for good from human
society only when socialist revolution would become victorious throughout the
world. The people can create a different future. The struggle has begun and
will intensify. The authentic, subjective individual and collective experience
of working people will increasingly bring workers together to claim power in
their various fields, whether it’s the factory, mine, school, hospital or
university. The cry of “All power to the
people” is not just a slogan; it is an outcome that through organisation can
deliver social justice and sustainable peace and it is achievable. History is
on the side of the people. The only strategy that can win is the strategy of
class struggle. And for that workers need to understand that no solution is
possible within the framework of capitalism. Only a revolutionary overthrow of
the capitalist class and the reconstitution of society on the foundation of the
world socialist society can do that. We need a revolution, not reforms.
“When I say I am
opposed to war I mean ruling class war, for the ruling class is the only class
that makes war. It matters not to me whether this war be offensive or
defensive, or what other lying excuse may be invented for it, I am opposed to
it, and I would be shot for treason before I would enter such a war.” Eugene Debs, September 1915
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