SOCIALISM NOW !

Socialism maintains that there can be no fundamental change in the living conditions of the people while a minority holds economic power in the natural resources and in the right to exploit the majority for personal gain. Socialists insist that the basis of exploitation — the use of men and women for individual profit and power — lie in the capitalist system. Reforms do not remove the villain of the piece from the scene of action. A true socialist society must be change from a capitalist system of ownership, exploitation and control to one of common ownership, administration and control of the affairs by all men and women who produce its wealth. Socialists do not want bloody revolution. Revolution means change. There have been revolutions in art, industry and social relations which have not caused bloodshed. One of the most widespread misconceptions about socialism is that it is a doctrine of nationalisation and state ownership, where a bureaucracy controls everything – like it was in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This myth was also believed and encouraged by many who call themselves Marxists who called countries like Russia and Poland ‘socialist’ simply on the grounds that their economies were owned by the government.

The socialist movement has always aimed to take the means of production and distribution out of the hands of individuals and to transfer them to the ownership of the people as a whole, so that they can be used for the common good. Social ownership is production to meet the people’s needs instead of production for private profit. Social ownership means an end to the chaos and wasteful competition of production for profit and the development of new productive resources to provide what people really want. Socialism does not mean the levelling down of living standards. Nor does it bring bureaucracy and tyranny. On the contrary, socialism draws more and more people into planning and making their own future, and frees their creative energies for great economic, social and cultural advances. The scientific and technical knowledge we already possess, when given free rein for the benefit of all, can bring a far higher standard of living than we have today. But in order to build socialism, the dominant position of the rich must be ended. Political power must be taken from the hands of the capitalist minority, and firmly grasped by the majority of the people, the working class. The change to socialism, therefore, means that the industrial enterprises must be taken over by the people, and production organised and planned not for profit but for use. Socialism will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society, decide that they are determined to lay down the foundations of a whole new future of humanity. The class struggle is important and cannot be avoided because it marks the road towards the class-less society. With the end of class oppression the state disappears.

Parliament may have lost much of its prestige but its control over the forces of law and order, the armed forces, education and a, number of other services means that it cannot be ignored. The seeds of the socialist society are growing right in the soil of capitalist society itself. Poverty, unemployment, industrial crises and wars are not the product of the machinations of politicians but the rotten fruits of the capitalist system. They are the stink weeds of the capitalist system. They smell to high heaven. Conditions make the workers learn the lessons of socialism and conditions compel the masses to strive for a better social system. Conditions have been the workers’ best teacher, and conditions have shaken the faith in the system. The apologists of every social system that has passed into history have always sought to justify its continuance by saying: “It’s the best yet.” Doubtless the patricians of the doomed Roman Empire used that limping argument, also the feudal lords, and now the whitewashers of capitalism. But human progress continues only by mankind looking forward – not back. Socialism will be the order of society but totally depends on what the working class does. Its struggle for socialism cannot be postponed.