Socialism: Building the New Society

Capitalism doesn’t see people as people. We are commodities to be bought and sold. Working people are hurting, and the only way to stop that suffering and win any long-term gains is to continue to build the grassroots working-class movement. Meanwhile, we must simultaneously begin the process of creating a viable socialist party. Such a plan is about as straightforward and pragmatic as it gets. Thinking we can reform or take over the Labour Party or the Democratic Party is fantasy. If people really believe in the idea of a political revolution and want to participate in the construction of a new world, we will have to work for it every day, not just every few years during an election campaign. We socialists are up against the fact of life that once more a new generation has to be convinced afresh that socialism does represent a superior system for the peoples, and that the idea of the withering away of the state is not a pipedream, but a realistic rough sketch of the future state of human society. New recruits for socialism will arise only when people believe these things again, and only by a reasoned argument can we hope to convince them. They will certainly never be won by repeating the old, tired slogans.

The Socialist Party has nothing to hide. We invite the most merciless criticism from our opponents; and, conscious of the soundness of our position we happily engage in public debate. Not so, however, other parties. Socialism is the only remedy and the only rational solution. If we are socialists, what are we actually fighting for? It is all about organising a society by means of a free federation from below upward, of workers associations, industrial and agricultural, first into a commune, then a federation communes into regions, and into international associations. Socialism is rule by the working people. They will decide how socialism is to work. The task of socialists, therefore, is to help and guide the transfer of political power from capitalists to working people, but not to decide for them what a classless society is to be like.

When we socialists talk of ending “exploitation,” there is great confusion in the world today over this question. Our aim is to try to clear some of this up. What we mean is that the process of capitalists not paying workers the full value of what they produce. The capitalists withhold as profits part of the wealth that workers produce, a process called “exploitation.” There is great confusion in the world today over this question. Our aim is to try to clear some of this up. Labour politicians talked about socialism, in practice, they carried on running capitalism. They did introduce certain reforms which ameliorated the effects of some of the worst features of capitalism in the spheres of health, housing, and family support. Collectively, these became known as the ‘Welfare State’ – but that was not socialism. The essential feature of capitalism, that very thing which makes the system one of exploitation and robbery of the mass of wage workers by the ruling class of capitalists, namely the private ownership of the means of production and exchange, this remained untouched. All the Labour Party’s ‘socialism’ amounted to was state capitalism, in which the state was controlled and run by the capitalist class.

Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. Socialism will be a higher level of social development because 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 transformative force. Socialism does not mean state ownership or government control. Instead, the means of production – the factories, mines, mills, workshops, offices, farms and fields, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, retailers, etc., will be transformed into 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. The vast creative potential of the millions of working people will be unleashed. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic coordination and planning will replace the present anarchic system. And will aim at building an economy that will be benefit the people. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. The people will establish a genuine democracy for the people. The people will elect delegates and representatives at all levels of the administration of the economy. There will be the right of recall and referendum. Socialism will bring an end to the class struggle and usher in a new classless and stateless society of free brotherhood. Socialist society is the first society based upon the planned fulfillment of genuine human needs. Socialism will create a level of productive forces unknown before in the history of mankind.

We socialists are up against the fact of life that once more a new generation has to be convinced afresh that socialism does represent a superior system for the peoples, and that the idea of the withering away of the state is not a pipedream, but a realistic if very rough sketch of the future state of human society. New recruits for socialism will arise only when people believe these things again, and only by a reasoned argument can we hope to convince them. They will certainly never be won by repeating the old, tired slogans. Each step in the struggle of class society and every battle has been towards the aim of socialism. Exploitation, oppression, and degradation will not exist in a socialist society. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle of labour will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally and private property will be eliminated. With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and intellectual labor will disappear. As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will gradually have withered away.