We are the people to change the world

“The earth shall rise on new foundations” - The Internationale

The aim of the Socialist Party is to build a socialist society. This aim is shared by all the companion parties within the World Socialist Movement. Socialism will be a classless society, in which all the means of producing wealth are owned in common. Instead of being divided into workers and employers, rich and poor, society will be an association of free people, all making their special contributions to the well-being of society, which in return will supply them with what they need in order to live full and happy lives. Such a society can be summed up in the slogan: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

For this to be possible, socialism must be based on abundance. Production will be organised in such a way that there is plenty of everything for everybody: not only food, houses, and so forth, to satisfy material needs; but also schools, theatres and concert-halls, play-grounds and sports-fields so that people can lead full, physical and cultural lives.

The nature of work will itself have changed. Through the development of science much of its drudgery will have disappeared. With the abolition of the exchange economy, of buying and selling, a whole range of occupations based upon commerce and finance disappears. Because it will be a community of plenty, where there is enough for all and therefore no advantage can be obtained by theft or other forms of crime, all need for courts of justice and police will have disappeared. In other words, the State, which is the sum of all these institutions and organisations, will itself disappear. Instead of one section of society ruling and oppressing another, men will have grown accustomed to living together in society without fear and compulsion. Thus, for the first time, mankind, united in a world-wide family of nations. It is obvious that by the time such a stage of human development has been reached many institutions which we accept today as essential, such as policemen and prisons, employers and workers, armies and civil servants, will have disappeared.

It is often argued that, however desirable socialism may be, it could never be made to work, because, whatever changes are made in the form of society, human nature will always remain fundamentally the same: there must always be rulers and ruled, rich and poor, employers and employed. This argument springs from ignorance of the facts. The study of history, and the observation of primitive communities still living in the world, prove that in the earliest kind of society not only were the land and the tools (what are called the means of production) regarded as the common property of the tribe, but everyone shared in the common tasks of production as well as in the product of their labour. Because of the low level of technique such communities were necessarily extremely primitive and poor, but because there was common ownership, and therefore no classes, they are correctly described as “primitive Communism.” Gradually, however, as mankind achieved greater mastery over the forces of nature through increased society the exploitation of the vast majority by a small privileged section, and the class struggles resulting from that, were unavoidable because of the low technical and productive development. Now, however, capitalist society has led to such a tremendous improvement in technique and to such a vast increase in the productive forces that there is no longer any need for the division of society into classes. Moreover, by explaining how the capitalist class exploits the working class Marx was able to show that the very existence of the capitalist class, instead of helping forward the development of the productive forces, is now increasingly hindering such development.

It follows, then, that the next step forward in the development of human society can only be taken by the working class. By taking this step, the socialistworking class, being itself the great majority of the people, will end the exploitation of man by man.  Socialist society needs to be global. It is not something which can be established in one country, isolated from the rest of the world. On the contrary it must eventually embrace all the peoples of the world; and in so doing it will put an end to war. Because no wars can take place in a truly international society there will be no need for armies or the manufacture of armaments.

Capitalist society is a society divided into two main classes: the capitalists, or bourgeoisie; and the working class, or proletariat. The former own the land, the factories and the machines, and all the means by which wealth is produced (the means of production), and are therefore the ruling class, though they do no productive work themselves. The latter though they do all the real productive work of society, own neither the means of production nor the wealth they create; and, therefore, are forced to sell to the capitalists their ability to work and produce. Numerically, the capitalists are an insignificant minority, while the workers constitute the vast majority of the people.

Capitalism is not based on plenty. Though it has developed, for the first time in history, the possibility of providing enough for everybody, it has always condemned a great part of the people to live in poverty and insecurity. This is because the capitalist class, who decide what is to be produced, base their decisions not on what people need but upon how much profit they will make when the goods are sold in the market.

Capitalist society is not a peaceful, international society, but, on the contrary, nationalist. Just as within each capitalist country the various capitalists and groups of capitalists compete with each other in order to sell their goods at a greater profit, so capitalist countries as a whole enter into competition with other capitalist countries. This competition inevitably leads to wars: on the one hand to enslave more backward countries; and on the other, to re-divide the countries which have been enslaved between the different capitalist countries. Such wars are not in the interests of the working class, but only of the capitalists.

 Because capitalism is a class society, in which the small class of monopoly capitalists exploits the great majority of the people—not only the manual workers, but also the professional and technical workers, and the small farmers and shopkeepers—it is necessary for the capitalists to impose their will upon the people. It does this, partly by filling all the key posts in the armed forces, the Civil Service and all legal institutions (that is, in the State) with members of its own class; partly through its control of the media , by which public opinion is influenced.

Thus, while in a capitalist democracy it is true that the majority of the people have the opportunity of taking part every few years in the election of the Government and of the local authorities, and in addition have won a number of democratic rights such as the right to organise in trade unions and political parties, freedom of the Press, etc., nevertheless the real power of the State remains in the hands of the capitalists.

Under capitalism, human society is condemned to a series of bitter struggles; class against class, nation against nation, and individual against individual. Inevitably, therefore, the great majority of the people, instead of being inspired by a common social purpose, are forced to struggle for their own individual and selfish interests. Moreover, since capitalism condemns the majority of people to poverty or insecurity, there is a continual waste of human talent and ability.

We’re in so many urgent crises that we have to change everything. Or else. And there’s no one to do it for us. There’s just us. Everyone, everywhere who cares what happens to each other, to humanity, to Nature and the planet, to the future can make a difference. Possibly all the difference. What do we have to do is to change the system in which we live. We have to be radical. Revolutionary in our thinking and actions.

The climate on Earth has gone critical—greenhouse gases, poisoned waters, dying oceans, melting ice, heat waves, drought, floods, cyclones, air pollution. Then there is the constant poverty, the hunger, the seemingly endless wars, the forced migrations, the joblessness, the hopelessness. It’s all inter-connected. It’s capitalism. It’s up to us to change everything. We’ll have to have everyone we can, doing what they think best, giving everything they have. And when we give our all things change. We are stronger so we have something more to give. Will it be enough? Who can say? Who knows which future we’ll have? Who can measure the power our imagination? Who knows the limits of our creativity?

Now is the time. 2016 is our year. Don't wait for everyone to get on board before YOU make change. The first thing to do is for YOU to change. Stop being afraid.

“Alone, we can only do so much to fight for justice and inequality. But, if we stand together and spark a fire, we will discover that we are more powerful than we ever imagined. We are the people we've been waiting for.”