The Choice Before Us

Working people make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. But in nearly every country they are the oppressed majority, labouring to support the luxury of a handful of exploiters Everywhere people are waking up to the reality that oppression and exploitation is a daily fact of their lives. The lies of the ruling class are being further exposed every day. The situation in health care, housing and welfare services is rapidly deteriorating. The unjust man-eating system of capitalism is set up with one thing in mind – to make the most profits possible for the handful of people who own the big banks and corporations. It is the system under which we, and our parents and grandparents before us, have done all the work. We mine the mines, build the buildings, the manufacture all the products: and then get just enough to live on – if we fight hard enough for it! On the other hand, the small capitalist class builds up huge fortunes off of our work. The Socialist Party stands for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system, and the establishment of a socialist system. Once it is no longer possible to make a profit from the general misery of people most social problems can be quickly solved. We must be mindful, at all times, to keep the forefront of all our activity: the need to raise the socialist consciousness of the working masses and convince them of the necessity for socialist revolution. Every political party defends the interest of one class or another in society. On all questions, in every battle, our Party defends the interests of the working class. The Socialist Party’s role is to educate. We explain the true nature of the system that oppresses workers and the need for socialist revolution. Our task is to bring class consciousness to the working class – the understanding of workers’ historic mission. As we carry out our political and economic education in the heart of the class battles against the capitalists, we strengthen and win ever more workers to our cause, a just cause. It is the cause of all those who are exploited and oppressed by capitalism. It is the cause of the liberation of all humanity.

A handful of capitalists control our country and make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the land. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few hundred capitalists. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites lives off the backs of the workers. Every bit of the capitalists' vast wealth was stolen from the working people. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour. At the end of the week, a worker collects their pay. The capitalists and their flunkeys claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street. Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis, plagued by periodic economic crises, such as recessions. Economic crises are aggravated by speculation, hoarding and other schemes of the bankers, financiers and industrialists. Each tries to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class and people to suffer. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive.

People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time, the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it. This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reaction and social decay. The drive for profits holds thousands hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breathe and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence, drugs, crime and social devastation. Capitalist society callously mistreats people because everything is geared to the drive for profits. The elderly and the disabled are also treated unfairly. The elderly toil their entire lives, but after retirement, they lead lives of fear and worry. Capitalism has no regard for its senior citizens; once it has squeezed the working life out of the workers they are tossed away.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism in the World. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production, there must be social ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, its anarchy of production, speculation and crisis, oppression of nationalities and women, and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self-interest of the tiny group of capitalists. Socialism will be won through the seizure of political power by the working class. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. 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 a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government control. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to social ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own workplaces through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of supervisors and consultants today. There would be a combination of central planning and local coordination. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of to each according to their needs, from each according to their ability.