Socialism is just the beginning

We live in a world rife with misery and oppression in various forms. Hunger, poverty, unemployment, racial and sexual discrimination, and many forms of repression, from the restriction of the most basic democratic rights like freedom of speech and association to hideous barbarism like torture and genocide, are still the lot of the majority of the people of the world. Now even the existence of the human species has been put at risk by the rapacious demands made upon the planet’s resources.  Far from lessening with the progress of science and technology, the various forms of misery endured by the masses are growing and the gulf between the rich and the poor, between the powerful and the dispossessed, is steadily widening. Ever since the first class societies, the exploited have aspired to a better life where the living conditions of all would be in keeping with society’s ability to use the wealth of nature. They have yearned for a society where all injustice would be banished forever, a society with no trace of corruption, a society in which the weak would no longer be oppressed by the strong, a society in which one class would no longer be exploited by another. Humanity has reached a turning point in its history. The dreams of the past have become real possibilities for a future that can already be foreseen, because the material conditions necessary for achieving them are growing steadily. Only a socialist revolution can put an end to the capitalist relations of exploitation that are now the fundamental obstacle to further progress for mankind. This is the meaning of the struggle for a society of abundance, of justice and of freedom.

Capitalists have only one reason for existence – to accumulate more and more capital. They are therefore always looking for ways to increase the productivity of labour. Capitalists seek to increase the productivity of workers. They impose speed-ups and compulsory overtime. They multiply their attacks on the democratic rights of working people and continually try to control their organizations and even to destroy them.  The State is controlled entirely by, and in the service of, the capitalist class. It results in a very keen competition among capitalists themselves; many are reduced to bankruptcy, while a minority get richer and richer. Capitalism has created the very conditions for its own destruction. The spread of capitalist production has resulted in the growth of the size, cohesion, and revolt of the working class, the only thoroughly revolutionary class. With the abolition of capitalist exploitation, the workers are the only class that has everything to gain and nothing to lose but its chains. The working class cannot free itself without freeing all of humanity at the same time, because the ultimate goal of its struggle is not to replace the power of one class with that of another but rather to abolish all classes. This is the only way to put an end to all the social divisions and inequalities that have characterized class societies thus far. Capitalism, undermined by its own contradictions, will inevitably be overthrown, just as all previous systems of class exploitation, including slavery and feudalism, have been. The working class has the mission of carrying this task out to its ultimate conclusion: the abolition of class society.

The development of productive forces is fundamental to the emergence of socialism. It will permit a steady reduction in the human work needed to produce goods. Socialist society is based on the free association of all individuals who work together to produce the goods necessary for their collective well-being. All will work according to their capacities and their needs will be fully satisfied. Thus, individuals will no longer be governed by the division of labour and all opposition between city and countryside and between manual and intellectual work will be eliminated. The abolition of classes will also mean the elimination of the roots of women’s oppression at last. Only socialism and the expropriation of the capitalists and the socialization of the means of production will lead directly to the abolition of society divided into classes with opposing interests. The abolition of classes will in turn lead to the withering away of the State, and its extinction. The State is not, and can never be, anything other than the instrument of dictatorship of one class over others.

The fundamental interests of the workers are the same throughout the world. The socialist revolution is inseparable from a world revolution. Socialism itself is only possible in a world totally rid of capitalist exploitation. After we have overthrown the socialism will mean the rule of the people. It will put an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for all peoples. Gone will be the anarchy of capitalist production. Gone, too, its resultant economic crises which today bring so much misery to workers. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. There will be no more billions in profits squandered by the bourgeoisie. There will be no more destruction of goods and productive forces as there is today in times of crisis. We will also have socialist relations of production to replace the capitalist organisation of labour. The repressive system of bosses and supervisors who today control the workers, will be wiped out. Workers will participate in the running of their work-places and factories by electing the administration and drawing up coordinated plans via local, regional and worldwide advisory committees. Socialism represents an enormous historical advance over capitalism. It is the future of humanity, a radically new society where classes and the state will have been completely eliminated. The state is simply an instrument by which one class dominates another. It became a necessity when society split into classes. Just as the ancient slave state served the slave owners to suppress the countless slave rebellions, so too the modern capitalist state is a tool of the bourgeoisie to maintain its dictatorship over the working class. No longer will there be capitalists siphoning profits and no more destruction of the productive forces.

Socialism is not an end to human development but just the beginning – the beginning of a further development of production, the people’s well-being and all facets of human society.