Welcome to the Class War

The socialist movement is as wide as the world, and its mission is to win the world — the whole world. The world the socialist movement is to win from capitalism will be filled with wealth for all to have and to enjoy in its abundance. The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism. And why not? Nothing is so easily produced as wealth. The earth is one vast mass of raw materials. The era of invention and technological transformation has brought us to this common point of view. With the advent of socialism the machine has come to free, and not to enslave; to save, and not to destroy. To realise this great social ideal is a work of education and organisation. The working class must be aroused. They must be made to hear the call of solidarity. When enough have become socialists — a new power will be in control! The people! For the first time in history the working class will be free and no class will be in subjection. Democratic and Republican, Labour and Tory, politicians sneer at us because we are “idealists.” Socialism is defined by ourselves as the common ownership of the social means of production and distribution. It is the name given to the next stage of civilisation, if civilisation is to survive. This class struggle will not, cannot cease. It is simply the manifestation of the law of development and evolution. Through all the centuries of the past man has enslaved and preyed upon his fellow being. For thousands of years there has been masters and slaves. Today we have employers and wage slaves. It is now the task of workers to dispossess the small possessing class in the name of the whole people. To accomplish this where all men and women have the ballot, political organisation is an absolute necessity, and hence the organization of the Socialist Party to represent the interests of the working class. The prevailing economic system can only be abolished in two ways; namely, by securing control of the state machine or by violent revolution. No sane person prefers violent to peaceful measures, and hence socialists rely upon the efficacy of a united class-conscious ballot to accomplish their end.

We have two nations in every country. One nation is very large in number, but poorly-fed, poorly-educated, and suffering from overwork and misery; the other nation is tiny in number, but over-fed, degenerate from too much luxury and too much idleness. Some day in the near future the hungry millions will turn against the sated few. A fearful retribution will be enacted on the capitalist class as a class — and the innocent will suffer with the guilty. Such a revolution will  throw back the human race into barbarism. Socialists do not want to destroy but to build anew and we do not intend for humanity to regress to the dark days of the middle ages. But as long as the means of production — land, machinery, raw materials, transport, communications and media remain private property of the comparatively few such will be the case. There is but one deliverance from the rule of the capitalist — and that is the rule by the people. The Socialist Party is the only party that is or can be truly representative of the interests of the working class, the only class essential to society and the class that is destined ultimately to succeed to political power, “not for the purpose of governing men,” in the words of Engels, but “to administer things.” The present form of government based solely upon private property in the means of production is wholly coercive; in socialism it will be purely administrative. The only vital function of the present government is to keep the exploited class in subjection by their exploiters. The owning class is necessarily the ruling class. It dictates legislation and in case of doubt or controversy has it construed to its own interest.

 Economic freedom can result only from common ownership, and upon this vital principle the Socialist Party differs diametrically from every other party. The Socialist Party is a class party and frankly admits that a political organization is but an expression of class interest. The Socialist Party therefore exists for the sole purpose of representing the producers, that is to say, the working class. Seeing clearly the age-long struggle between the producers of the world’s necessities and the parasites upon their backs, the Marxian philosophy of the historic “class struggle” is the foundation of its propaganda and organization work. The Socialist Party did not create class lines or class distinctions. Whoever or whatever is to blame for the situation, there is no controverting the fact that The world is divided into two well defined groups: first, a very large number workers in mines, factories and fields; second, a comparatively small group who own and control those mines, mills, factories and land. Between private ownership and common ownership there can be no compromise. You might as well try to harmonise fire and water. One produces for profit, the other for use. One produces millionaires and beggars, the other equals. One gives us palaces and hovels, robes and rags, the other will secure to every man and woman their full product of his or her toil, abolish class rule, wipe out class distinction, secure the peace of society, and make of this world an earthly paradise.

The Socialist Party with its clear cut understanding of the class struggle is the political expression of the dispossessed class and holds out hope of liberation and for a place beneath the sun. An enlightened and class-conscious working class will be satisfied with nothing less than the common ownership and democratic management of the means and instruments of production and distribution.