Socialism is not yet a ‘wasm.’

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