Towards socialism

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

The first requirement for the workers in all countries of the world is to break from the capitalist class and their political parties, and reject any and all concepts of coalitions with their parties. Their programmes are reformist when our task is revolutionary socialist. The reformists project a perspective of merely removing what they present as minor defects in the existing capitalist order of things, of patching capitalism up and making it more tolerable, preaching conciliation and co-existence with capitalism, not class struggle against it for a fundamental change. . Only through an irreconcilable struggle against capitalism, towards its elimination and the establishment of socialism, will the people of the world find the full freedom, equality and democracy for which they aspire. The workers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to gain. Workers of the world—unite!

The resources of the world must pass into the possession of humanity. All other problems, the problems of nationality and of race and colour will be solved once society is freed from exploitation and class divisions. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede unregulated private enterprise and competition, and in which genuine democratic self-government, based upon economic equality will be possible. The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. This lack of social planning results in a waste of our human as well as our natural resources. Our human resources are wasted through social and economic conditions which stunt human growth, through unemployment and through our failure to provide adequate education. Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists and to their predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed. When private profit is the main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between periods of feverish prosperity in which the main benefits go to speculators and profiteers, and of catastrophic depression, in which the common man's normal state of insecurity and hardship is accentuated. We believe that these evils can be removed only in a planned and socialised economy in which our natural resources and principal means of production and distribution are owned in common, democratically controlled by the people. What we seek is a proper collective organization of our economic resources such as will make possible a much greater degree of leisure and a much richer individual life for every citizen.

This social and economic transformation can only be brought about by political action, supported by a majority of the people. We do not believe in change by violence. The hungry, oppressed and underprivileged of the world must know democracy not as a smug slogan but as a dynamic way of life which sees the world as one whole. The vision of a new world of co-operative labor, the elimination of the exploitation of man by man, and the free development of, the human personality, is a practical possibility and a necessity. It is in harmony with the world-wide march of mankind. For over a century the domination of the capitalist mode of production has posed before humanity the alternatives: Socialism or Barbarism. The only definitive solution is the elimination of capitalism and its institutions, and the establishment of common ownership of the means of production and rational economic planning. Capitalism has developed as a world economic system. It is illusory to believe that the much higher development of the productive forces that socialism entails can be achieved within the framework of a single country. The construction of socialism can be completed only on a world scale. Capitalism must be abolished. The needs of working people can only be met by creating a planned economy, where ownership and control are taken from the tiny minority of capitalists and placed in the hands of the working people, to be run democratically.

Socialists often hear the comment that "Socialism is a good idea but it’s not practical." But today it’s becoming more apparent than ever that it is the present system — capitalism — that is impractical and unworkable. We know that a better world is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. If you think so too, join us. We take every opportunity to present the socialist case and to convince people of the need to do away with the repressive, unjust capitalist system, and replace it with socialism. Everywhere there is a searching for a solution to the problems confronting working people. We stand for a socialist society: where ownership and control of the means of production are taken out of the hands of the tiny minority of capitalists, and placed in the hands of the majority — the workers. The capitalist system is run for the profits of the few, not the needs of the majority. Workers are thus continually forced to fight to defend their interests. Through these struggles, they will come to see the need for socialism, to replace capitalism.