This is what socialism is

The state – the police, army, courts, bureaucracy and similar institutions  – is set up and controlled by the capitalist class. These big businessmen consistently use the police, army, and courts to break workers’ strikes and generally to put down the rebellions of the poor who own little or no means of production. You yourself can decide how often the police and state officials are against the bankers and corporation executives when they break the laws of the land. Banking fraud, company bribery, tax-evasion...all gone unpunished by the courts. A tiny handful of profit-makers rule society and uses the state as their machine to protect their interests. The ruling class goes to great lengths to cover up their dictatorship under the mask of democracy, for it is extremely difficult for a minority of exploiters to rule by force alone. The capitalists are no more willing to “share” political power with the majority of people than it is to share the ownership of the means of production and the wealth that comes from this. For them to function as a capitalist class, they must exploit the working class; and to exploit the workers, who constantly resist this exploitation and oppression, they must use the state to suppress the workers. For sure, the ruling class has been forced to grant the workers some democratic rights such as the right to vote, free speech, free press, etc. But these freedoms mean one thing to the ruling class and quite another for the workers. For the capitalists, freedom of the press and free speech, as examples, mean the right to fill the air-waves and daily newspapers with their propaganda and lies and to use them freely to debate with each other. For the capitalists, elections are a way to settle differences among themselves, while making it look like everybody has equal say. For the working class, democratic rights are the fruits of previous struggles, and we fight to preserve them for they make it easier to organise and mobilise for the day when the capitalists will be overthrown. Nevertheless democratic rights for the masses are primarily a sham, a mask, to cover the real dictatorship of the capitalists. This becomes especially clear when democratic rights come into conflict with the most basic “freedom” of bourgeois society–the right of the capitalists to their “private property” and to exploit the labour of the workers.  In the final analysis all their talk about democracy boils down to one thing. The ruling class decides by struggle and compromise within its own ranks, and among its paid politicians, how it will maintain its system of exploitation over the people.

Socialism will replace capitalism, creating a new society and ending the old dog-eat-dog social system. Everyone in society will share equally in mental and manual work, in producing goods and services and managing the affairs of society; where the outlook of the working class, putting the common good above narrow, individual interests, has become “second nature” to members of society; when goods and services can be produced so abundantly that money is no longer needed to exchange them and they can be distributed to people solely according to their needs. Classes will have been completely eliminated, and the state as such will be replaced by the common administration of society by all its members. With socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. This will bring a qualitative improvement in the lives of the people.

Our vision of socialism is that the  means of production – the factories, mines, mills, offices, agricultural fields, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, retailers, etc., will be transformed into socially-owned common property. Private ownership of the main means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people, and steadily advance.

Socialism is not some Utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Because capitalism already has a developed and centralised economy, socialism’s main task will be to re-orient this structure towards social needs. Although there may be a period of economic reconstruction after the revolution, we will not face the problem of building a modern economy. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. It is the next step in the further development of this world. Because the working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. Socialism is not more government control. Under capitalism the state serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. Government ownership and control is a form of state capitalism. When the government intervenes in the economy, it does so to help, not hurt, capitalism. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and some experiment. There could be a combination of local and central planning and coordination. Workers will be able to manage democratically their own work places through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society’s. Various policies might be used, depending on what will be appropriate to changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy will uphold the basic principles of collective ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. The protection of the environment would be ensured.