Newtopia

Most people wonder what the future holds for them, their family and their friends. They want to know if it is possible to see a future free from the anxieties and worries of today, free from the insecurity of poverty. People ask themselves, can there be such a thing as a secure and happy future for all, or must there be a rat race? Is it inevitable that a small number of rich people should cream off the benefits of modern industry and new technology, while the rest of us spend our days in drudgery and toil, whether in the factory, building site, glass-tower offices or in the home? Are things arranged like this for eternity because of faults of “human nature”, “man’s natural greed”, “power-seeking” and the like? Increasingly more people know that life can be improved to make it better for all, which we no longer need to accept the way our society is ordered today and that they can become part of a growing to change it for a better one. It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today. It is the way society is organised, with a minority of people owning and controlling the wealth, the industry of our country, and excluding the vast majority of the people from any real say in the running of society. This is what lies at the root of the problems that working people face. It is this system, which we call capitalism, which cannot provide the good things of life for all, cannot give a constantly improving standard of living and cannot guarantee peace in the world. It is this that must be changed. The working people who have produced all the wealth around us must come into ownership and control of what is their own by right so that they can then build the society and produce the things they want.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism in the world.  Socialism is a future system of society characterised by the fact that capitalism, with its markets, commodities, values, prices, exchange, surplus value, capital, money, competition, etc., is no more; instead, there is a conscious, planned society where production is for use on a scale that there will be plenty for all. The State will have withered away and reduced to nothing, together with the eventual disappearance of religion. The facts speak clearly: socialism is the way to progress and liberty.

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 will not mean government control. Our vision of socialism is that the means of production – the factories, mines, mills, big workshops, offices, agricultural 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. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public administrative agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people, and steadily advance. Capitalism has already developed an interconnected economy, socialism’s main task will be to reorient this structure towards social needs, redirecting the productive capacity to human needs. A socialist economy is founded upon the basic principles of common ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation.

The important point is that, from the dawn of social production, there will be no more surplus-labour, no more classes, and, therefore, no more exploitation, as there inevitably is under capitalist production. Emancipated workers will be, since their lives will no longer be dependent upon the means of labour monopolised by others, will be free to make their lives what they will. In fact, they will freely choose the kind of productive work they prefer. Socialist society implies people's self-organisation of every aspect of their social activities.

Socialists insist on democracy not merely as a matter of justice but because without democracy and popular participation in and control over all phases of public life it is impossible to conceive of the well-being and happiness for the human race. People work better, are more interested in the success of a venture, and have a greater kinship with it, if they feel they are actually part of it and benefit from it. Democracy is not only a more just way of running society; it is more productive in the long run. It is the only way to fully unleash the creative powers lodged in the people. Socialism will be able to give full rein to democracy for the mass of the people, which under capitalism could never attain more than perverted and corrupted forms. Socialism implies that the organisation of a society will have become transparent to its members. With socialism, people will dominate the workings and institutions of society, instead of being dominated by them. Socialism will, therefore, have to realise democracy for the first time in human history. When we say that in a socialist society the central bodies will not constitute a delegation of power but will be the expression of the power of the people, we are implying a radical change in this way of doing things. In all essential fields, decisions will be made at the grass-roots and will be sent to those whose responsibility it will be to ensure their execution or to carry them out itself.

The apologists of every social system that has passed into history have always sought to justify its continuance by saying: “It’s the best yet.” The whitewashers of capitalism who support the status quo are no different.

In the socialist society, the means of production will be free to provide for the needs of the people. The capitalist profit-makers will have passed into history. The working people will be in control of industry. The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism. The world will be filled with wealth for all to have and to enjoy in its abundance. The World Socialist Movement’s mission is to win the world from capitalist barbarism and make it the sustainable home for the human family. While we live under capitalism, it is suffice enough for socialists to establish the possibility of the emancipation of the working-class and to work for that emancipation. There is no need to waste our time in working out and settling the elaborate and minutia details of the organisation of the future society. Each epoch has its task. Let us not have the presumption to lay down rules for those who are to come after us, and let us be content with present tasks. Socialists focus upon present. If we make general predictions of what possibly may happen they should not be taken as the socialist bible of reconstruction. There is no question of trying to draw up "statutes",  "rules," or an "ideal depictions" of a socialist society.