Build a new society

Socialism is concerned more with people and change than with anything else. Socialists believe that social conditions can be changed for the better if the people are willing to struggle for it. The vast majority of the people gain nothing from capitalism and would lose nothing with its passing. Even today, although they do not own or control the industry, they, in fact, are turning the wheels that keep all industry going. With the ending of capitalism the people would decide how industry was to be run. The conviction that socialists have that life can be made happy for all comes from their study of life as it really is, and from the lessons learnt from the experience of striving for a better future. It comes also from the study of what life was like in the past, how it has changed and what made it change.

Under capitalism, a minority controls the wealth of the world (the raw materials, the factories and the land) and the majority work with machines in the factories that they do not own. As in previous societies that are divided into classes, under capitalism, the interests of the opposing classes cannot be reconciled. There is a class struggle between the employers on the one hand and the workers on the other. Class struggle, or “strife”, as some would call it, is built into capitalist society, because it is not possible to satisfy the capitalists’ aspirations and those of the workers at the same time. The workers fight for better wages and conditions, and the capitalist lives to make the maximum profit out of the labour of the workers. Profits can only come from the value created by the workers. Hence the conflict. . Capitalism is based on the production of goods for sale. The capitalist is interested in organising the production of those goods alone which will make him a profit, while the worker is interested not in profit, but in being able to buy what he wants and needs. The higher the wages paid to the worker, the greater the threat to the capitalist’s profits. As capitalist exploitation became world-wide, so workers in different countries became linked in the productive processes and came more and more to see that they had common interests. These common interests were opposed by the interests of capitalists in all countries. The watchword remains the slogan of socialists to this day is “Workers of all countries, unite!”

Classes are composed of men and women, of human beings. There is one phenomenon that is more important than all the propaganda of the ruling class, and this is experience, the experience of the reality that people go through in their struggles for a better deal. No matter what the capitalist-controlled mass media tell people about capitalism being the best of all possible worlds, experience belies this and teaches otherwise. Men and women cannot be fooled by lies and false promises forever. It is to try to slow down people’s thinking, to withhold information, which is the purpose the ruling class keeps such a tight check on the mass media, allowing real opposition viewpoints to an almost insignificant extent, and often forced to do so against its will. People form organisations to fight the excesses of capitalism, and they come to learn the need for radical, basic change in the system if they are to win real advances. In this class struggle, a theory that draws conclusions from the experience of struggle and which looks to a future society organised without exploiters, is an invaluable weapon when grasped by the people.

Since its birth, the working class has always fought the injustices of the capitalist system, and has been able to win higher wages, housing, education, a health service etc. This fight has limited the extent to which the powers of the state can be used, and to which the individual capitalists in their individual factories and federations can manoeuvre. In the course of their struggle the working class has founded its own fighting organisations of defence and attack. In the first instance, these are the trade unions. Their freedom of action, today again threatened by the state, was won at enormous cost to the founders, including imprisonment, deportations, lockouts and misery inflicted by the capitalists. The trade unions organise the workers for the day to day struggle under capitalism. To change the system, however, members of the working class need to generalise the experience gained in all the struggles, and acquire a class perspective as a whole.

While people think and act as individuals, they are only effective as a collective mass, as a class, to the extent to which they are organised together and conscious of what needs to be done. This is the lesson of hundreds of years of struggle. To be put into practice, to become reality, ideas must be adopted by the people. To bring about change, therefore, demands an explanation of the facts and in a way that can be understood by the people in their millions. Mankind’s struggle for a better life has never been confined to fighting for increases in wages, more to eat and better housing. The working people have always placed a premium on democracy. Democracy for them has meant the right to fight for a better life. The fight for a working class press, for the right to free speech, organisation and assembly and the right to vote figure prominently in the struggles of the working class. None of these have been granted without enormous resistance from the ruling class, resistance that cost the people many martyrs. It is for this reason that the working class is the staunchest defender of the liberties that have been won. This is why today when the state would like to curtail these liberties, it directs its main attack against the organisations of the working class such as the trade unions and why workers fight against it. There is no better atmosphere in which people come to understand new ideas and sense the potential strength of the working class, than when they themselves are involved in an action, fighting for their rights. Today workers can defend and improve living standards and win the extension of democracy. But they cannot solve the wages problem or complete the struggle for democracy while capitalism continues. This capitalist society demands, not patching up and blood transfusions, but the death blow to enable the introduction of socialism, an order of society that can manage the technological revolution to the benefit of the working people.

The Socialist Party believe that, just as in the past, no progress in improving the lot of the working class will be brought about without the struggle of the people. Decisions can never be left to others. No individual, no political party can do the job for the people of ending capitalism and building socialism. To win fundamental change for the better for the vast majority of the population, the question of the ownership and control of the means of production is crucial. Democratic popular control must be brought into the economic and industrial world of Britain. This means that the land and factories and transport must be made the property of all the working people. The people must win political  power. They must take it out of the hands of the capitalists to ensure that the transfer of the economy to the people is carried out. The power of the capitalists in the state machine must be broken.

Clearly, the actual conditions of the social revolution will decide what socialism will look like. However, it is possible to say some things about this. Socialism means, above all else, that political power has been taken out of the hands of the capitalists and their representatives and placed in the hands of the people. It means that this political power is used immediately to place the economy into common ownership, taking it out of the hands of the unelected oligarchs and plutocrats. There will be ownership of industry as a whole by the people. Clearly, those who work in a particular enterprise know more about its workings than anyone else so workers in particular factories and other public institutions will have their say in the control of those establishments. From the present day organisation of production for private profit, it will change to production for use, production of what is wanted and needed by the people. Work will become more interesting and more meaningful as a result since production will go entirely to benefit the people, not the investors and owners. As more goods are produced, so working hours will be shortened. The economy will be planned by those who own it, the people, through various levels beginning with the local factory and neighbourhood committee. Industry’s purpose inside socialism will be to serve the people. Priority will be given to improving working conditions, expanding the social services, education and the care for the sick, the aged and the young. The present enormous wastage by which the same goods are sold by different competing companies, which spend millions on advertising to convince you that their product is best, will be replaced by real variety in goods. Choice will be more real and less of an illusion. Removal of wastage will save the environment and improve life. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the mass of the people, making it possible to build an industrial base that will be able to meet their needs in food, clothing and shelter, and will open vast horizons of cultural and educational possibilities for millions. Mankind will be freed from worry about basic material needs as we know them today, and will be able to meet new ones of which we as yet have no conception. Classes will cease to exist, and all people will make their contribution to the productive life of society. The oppressive functions of the state as we know them will become redundant, and will wither away as they fall out of use. What will remain will be only a democratic administration of production in the hands of the people. Men and women will be able to develop their own personality and talents to the full. With the harnessing of science and technology to industry, boring and repetitive work will be eliminated. Work for all will become as it is today for only a very small minority—interesting and satisfying. The essential difference between town and country will be ended, as housing, travel and cultural facilities become available to all people. The boundaries between mental and physical labour will be removed as all people receive the freedom and means by which to exercise their potential, their talents and abilities.

 Life for all will be plentiful, secure, happy and interesting. It will not mean the end of questions and problems, but the end of those worries about wages, housing, poverty, peace that dominate our lives today. There will never be a time when humanity has solved all problems and then sits down to live like a cabbage. What happens is that the problems change. They become more worthy of our time and attention.

The building of this new society in our country is the aim of the Socialist Party.