A Planet without Borders

The world is in a deep economic, political and social crisis. It is not the result of natural catastrophes, or forces beyond our control, but of the capitalist system under which we live. The peoples of the world are confronted today by ever-growing poverty and widespread malnutrition and disease which afflict billions; war and the threat of nuclear bombs; and the environmental climate change time-bomb, giving rise to fears about the very survival of humanity and life on the planet. Today the utmost struggle is needed just to maintain living standards and we have lost hope of improving them. The trade unions, the main defence of working people, are under attack. Millions of women and black people suffer discrimination on a daily basis and new-comers to the UK are made the scapegoats for problems caused by capitalism. The quality of life is constantly under increasing attack. Town-centres become goldmines for property speculators rather than urban renewal developments. The countryside is despoiled. Public transport is sacrificed. Culture is commercialized.  People are denied the opportunity to develop their talents and abilities to the full. Human relationships are distorted and sex exploited for profit. There are frequent examples of corruption and financial scandals. Government is divorced from the people. Bureaucratic control by the state has increased as local democracy has been eroded. The ruling class tries to confine democracy to the right to vote in elections, and deny the people real participation in decision-making. Hard-won democratic rights are increasingly threatened by authoritarian trends.

The root cause of all those problems is an economic and political system in which effective power is in the hands of a tiny minority of the people - the capitalist class. Capitalism’s motive force is not production for the needs of society, but for the maximum private profit for the employers and bankers. The basis of the economy is the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class. The workers by hand and brain - the great majority of the population - own little but their labour power, their capacity to work. In modern society production is a social process, but ownership and control are predominantly private. Within the enterprise production is planned; but in society as a whole it is not planned. The capitalists always try to increase their profits, not just for their own personal consumption, but to enlarge their capital so as to get greater productive power and make still more profit. In general, the more they can cut costs and limit increases in wages and salaries, the more profit they can make, and the more capital they can accumulate. Capitalism’s contradictions are not only in the sphere of economics. All human activities are seen as a source of profit. While men and women are exploited at work, their cultural, sporting and leisure activities are commercialised, and they are held to ransom as consumers by the big business concerns which dominate the supply and distribution of the goods they buy. The development of science is distorted, with its use for the super-exploitation of workers, degradation of the environment and pollution, and the development of weapons of mass destruction. The economic crisis of capitalism is paralleled by a deep political, social and cultural crisis.

Capitalism’s legitimacy relies primarily on the fact that millions of people believe that the capitalist system is the natural way to organise society, that the present political system is truly democratic, and that there is no realistic or better alternative. Every new generation is influenced to accept this. The family and school often perpetuate and reinforce capitalist ideas among children, while among adolescents and adults the media and social and cultural activities increasingly assume importance. Most of those in charge of the main information, social, educational and cultural institutions of capitalist society accept its outlook and its values, and play an important part in securing acceptance of capitalist rule. But all these efforts have not been able to prevent millions of people entering into struggle against the effects of capitalism, as a result of which they have won improvements in the standard of life over the years. But these advances are then attributed to the virtues of the system, and the belief is encouraged that, despite temporary setbacks, people can continue in the long run to improve their conditions within it. Thus, as a result of a combination of the indoctrination efforts of the ruling class and of a seemingly rise in living standards there is a large measure of voluntary acceptance of capitalist rule. To challenge capitalist rule the working class and its organisations to overcome capitalist ideas. The Socialist Party need to raise their political consciousness and convince them of their common need to end capitalism and advance to socialism. Experience of past decades has also shown that capitalism’s crisis cannot be solved within the limits of capitalism. A new strategy of social change is needed. It must be a strategy for a socialist revolution. Only socialism can overcome the basic contradiction of capitalist society from which every aspect of the crisis flows.

Socialism replaces private ownership by social ownership. The social process of production is matched by social ownership of the means of production. Production for private profit is replaced by production for social needs. Socialism creates the best conditions for the development of democratic control and popular initiative. Industrial democracy becomes a reality with the development and extension of a new type of decision making and self-management participation, and the democratic planning of production makes possible the full use of modern scientific and technological advance to eradicate poverty and raise the standard of living. The scandalous contrast of extreme wealth for a few and hardship for millions can be ended. A new quality of life, in relationship to work, the family and the whole environment, and a common social purpose, can be achieved. Instead of power being in the hands of a tiny minority, it is in the hands of the overwhelming majority. This is what is meant by the socialist revolution. The advance to socialism can only take place through the active democratic struggle of the great majority of the people.

The ingenuity of humanity which could be used to improve the living conditions of working people are, instead, wasted in war preparations or used to expand the profits of the giant corporations and banks that dominate the economy and society. The Socialist Party is imbued with confidence in the ability of the working class to overcome all opposition and to transform our society and change the world. The essential feature of a socialist revolution is capturing the state machine by the working class. This can only be achieved when the great majority of people are convinced of its necessity and prepared to use their strength and organisation to bring it about. To achieve socialism, the working class must take political, economic and state power out of the hands of the capitalist class. 

At each stage of the class struggle, our aim must be to win the majority of the people open the way to socialism. The activity of the Socialist Party in parliament will need to be intimately linked with the mass struggles outside, each reacting on the other. To democratise power and extend democracy is not just a question of the freedom to express opinions and vote in elections, important though these are. Democracy concerns the extension of control by the people over every aspect of political, economic and social life. This can only be fully realised as socialism is built, but a start must be made in the process of fighting to achieve socialism. We are in a world in which social change is taking place on an unprecedented scale. We have the opportunity to carry out social transformation in conditions in which environmental destruction and endless wars can be prevented and without the social collapse and human destruction such catastrophes would bring. The advance to socialism can only take place through the active democratic involvement of the great majority of workers.