Practical Idealists

Many mainstream politicians sneer at the Socialist Party because we are “idealists.” Some on the Left claim that we are on the whole fairly nice but utterly “impractical.” What are the Socialist Party organised for? What is our bond of unity? Do we have a blueprint for a socialist society? Can we envision what such a society looks like? What is our avowed object? The abolition of capitalism. The Socialist Party declares uncompromisingly and unequivocally that we are for socialism. Our compass for where we are headed has socialism as its destination. We work for the coming of the cooperative commonwealth. We serve the workers who strive for the social revolution. We champion the oppressed and hasten the day of liberation. Capitalism is organized purely for private profit and the right to exploit the working class. The Socialist Party is organising for the purpose of securing political power upon the platform that declares in favour of common ownership in the name of the people and to take possession of industry. We look into the future with absolute confidence and see the emergence of the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism means expanding democracy not only in the political sense but in an economic sense – freedom from want.

What is the meaning of capitalism? Capitalism is an economic term. It is applied by political economists and sociologists to the economic system of our civilization, by means of which men achieve economic independence and have the privilege of living idly upon the labour of others, who produce a surplus value above that which they receive for their own sustenance. Capitalism refers to the system. A capitalist is one who profits by the system. If he labors himself, it does not alter the fact that he has an income apart from his labour sufficient to sustain him for life without labour, and therefore his is economically independent.

Capitalism inevitably produces exploitation and poverty, war, oppression, poisonous environmental pollution, and the waste of human and natural resources, none of which can be consistently eliminated without the socialist transformation of society. Under capitalism, the production of wealth is carried on for profit. The desire for profits is the motive force which drives the capitalist class to use its capital in the production of wealth. In order to secure profits, the workers must be exploited. Part of the product of their labour must be turned over to the capitalist class in the shape of interest and dividends. The result of this is the robbery of the workers.

Capitalism also hampers and limits the production of wealth by keeping thousands of workers in unemployment.  If these workers were allowed to use their brains and muscle in the production of wealth we could materially add to the amount produced. But this limitation on production by denying employment is necessary to the continuance of capitalism. The army of unemployed is a weapon in the hands of the master class with which the workers are kept in submission. If there were no unemployed, no strike would be lost. The workers could dictate their own terms to the capitalist and their terms would be that they receive for their labour the equivalent of what they produce. The reserve army of unemployed, however, gives the capitalist power to enforce his terms and continue the exploitation of the workers. The capitalists must, therefore, keep part of the workers in unemployment and deny society the benefit of their productive power.

In addition, capitalism prevents the complete socialisation of the production of wealth. We can today produce more wealth and can produce with less expenditure of labour-power. Production today is still in a chaotic condition. There exists a clash between the interest of society as a whole and the interest of the owners of industry under our present system of production. So long as the industries are privately owned, society does not receive the benefit of this development, but rather suffers further exploitation. Once we establish common ownership of our industries we will throw off the checks of our productive powers and will be able to produce more than enough not only to supply every human being food, clothing, and homes to live in, but the opportunity for education and culture which can make life worth living. You cannot create a revolution without convincing the majority. Unless your goal is to have some silly despot that is worse than what we have now.

Private ownership of the means of production and distribution is the seed or germ of capitalism, of which wage slavery is the most revolting feature. This seed has now brought forth a bitter fruit in the class struggle, but the Socialist Party, championing the working class, declares its intention to be the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a worldwide system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members and the complete emancipation of the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism. Socialism proposes the relief of the people from the demands of the capitalist class. Why should we struggle through a lifetime to maintain private ownership and to leave to our children, all the vicissitudes of the capitalist system, when through the substitution of collective ownership, we can make ourselves and our children the wards and stewards of society. The Socialist Party marches forward confidently with giant strides toward the historic mission of the working class — the abolition of wage slavery and establishment of the cooperative commonwealth.