The message of the Socialist Party

The Socialist Party’s conviction about the revolutionary potential of our fellow-workers is based upon an analysis of the historical record and not on irrational faith. If the overwhelming historical evidence showed our assumptions were proven wrong, then we would have no choice but to accept the truth of it. But we contend that the evidence provided by history so far does not warrant any such conclusion. But, also, this also does not mean we wait passively for a victorious socialist revolution. Men and women are actors in history and what they think and do will determine the future of world revolution and, therefore, the future of humanity.

The Socialist Party has never claimed socialist society would be a utopia but we do say it will eliminate most of the waste and gross inequalities of capitalism.  For men and women to cease to be a commodity, it is necessary that they are no longer forced to sell themselves, but have "the right to live", so to speak. So it is necessary that the means of production are no longer controlled by an employing class, and not even by the state, but by society. The means of production are no longer to be instruments that pump out surplus-value, that suck up human labour to extract surplus-labour. They are used to perform a labour process required to produce a certain quantity of products which society needs. To end wage-labour means to remove the character of capital from the means of production. Socialist freedom is realised with the disappearance of the old social antagonisms. In socialism, there are neither measures of value nor value. There are no exchanges between men. Only one exchange remains: between human society and nature. There will be no more private property so no more classes or State. There will no longer be a separation between town and country, humanity will spread harmoniously over the earth's surface. The division between manual and intellectual labour will cease, a reflection of the end of class-struggle. The disconnection between private and public life will disappear. Politics in the conventional sense no longer exists, since there are no men or women to be governed. There is, instead, “the administration of things”. Consequently, there are no further leaders and led. As Marx wrote, “The category of the worker is not done away with, but extended to all men [and women].” It is generalised to all of society’s members.

Capitalists can find no solution to their social problems. This small clique of capitalist magnates stands in the way of abundance. To expand production and achieve full material abundance workers have to wrest control of the factories, banks, and other major means of production from the hands of the ruling class and establish their own rule over industry and society. Production for profit must be supplanted by production according to the needs of the entire people and directed by the associated producers themselves. This is the socialist remedy for capitalist anarchy, insecurity and misery. The wealthiest of capitalist nations cannot satisfy the basic needs of its working people for jobs at living wages, decent housing, adequate food and clothing. So long as the rich continue to coin profits out of the sweat and blood of the toilers, they do not care how many are out of work, go hungry and homeless, and lack all hope for the future.

The message of the Socialist Party is not that the worker could better adjust to the situation by demanding a higher price for his or her labour power – insofar as labour power is a mere commodity, he or she already receives the equivalent for it. The implication for socialist theory is that the worker should reject the status of a thing, of a commodity, and change the whole social framework of wage labour itself. The basic feature of the world socialist revolution is that requires a conscious effort by the working class who, through its social conditions, is capable of creating a planned economy and emancipated society, a “society of associated producers,” as Marx put it. World socialism can and will end all want and preventable illnesses and diseases for all human beings; restore the ecological balance and conserve scarce resources for future generations; introduce technology which will be subordinated to human needs. Equality among all peoples and races can become a reality only if it is based on equality in the access to material resources. Socialism will be the first social system in the history of mankind to be introduced by the conscious action of the majority in their own interests and not behind their backs for the benefit of a small minority. The Socialist Party stands by its political position that capitalism can absorb and integrate many reforms and automatically rejects all those reforms which run counter to the logic of the system. You can abolish capitalism only by overthrowing it, not by reforming it out of existence.