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Monday, July 18, 2016

Socialism will not fall from the skies.


Elections bring a renewed interest in politics. For at least a moment, it is a time to reflect on deep issues and concerns. However, beneath all of the political discussions lies an uncomfortable and overwhelming truth: Nearly all of our problems are rooted in the massively unequal ownership of land, wealth, and power. These problems are rooted in the majority of the planet's population being stripped of its ability to satisfy the most basic of human needs. This predicament is far from natural and is the product of centuries of political and economic policy carried out by a minuscule section of the world's people. If we are to ever establish a free and just society, mass expropriation of personal wealth and property will be a necessity. In other words, the few dozens of families who have amassed personal riches equal to half the world must be forced to surrender this wealth. This is a harsh and discomforting truth, indeed. But it is an undeniable truth. It is a truth that we must recognise. It is a truth that, despite being conditioned to resist, we must embrace if we are to construct a just world for all. After centuries upon centuries of being subjected to extreme hierarchical systems - from monarchies to feudalism to capitalism - we are on the precipice of making a final choice: economic justice through the mass expropriation of the capitalist class or continual wage-slavery.

Make no mistake, expropriation is not theft. It is not the confiscation of "hard-earned" money. It is not the stealing of private property. It is, rather, the restoration of massive amounts of land and wealth that have been built on the back of stolen natural resources, human enslavement, and coerced labor, and amassed over a number of centuries by a small privileged minority. This wealth, that has been falsely justified by a vast array of courts, judges, executioners, policemen, and gaolers, all of whom have been created to protect the interests of the ruling classes. Before we can take collective action, we must free our mental bondage (believing wealth and private property have been earned by those who monopolize it; and, thus, should be respected, revered, and even sought after), open our minds, study and understand history, and recognize this illegitimacy. With this understanding, we can move beyond the futile process of trying to reform systems that are rotted from the core and move forward on deconstructing this formidable autocracy and plutocracy.

Socialism is the system under which classes and exploitation are abolished for good and the differences between town and country and between manual and mental labour no longer exist. With socialism people are not forced to obey the division of labour as slaves, work no longer becomes a means of making a living, and the people will perform their social duties without any special coercive apparatus for the public good.  To eliminate the old society and build a brand-new social system is a great cause.

The basic cause of capitalist ills are the right to private property, the right to exploit, the right to rob, the right to cause crises, the right to compete, and cause wars by the lords of capital who herd people into factories and offices. Our choice is between two worlds, a world of exploitation, social injustice, chronic insecurity, economic crisis, and recurring wars ... and a world of proper economic planning, progressively increasing living standards, prosperity, and peace.

Socialism will not fall from the skies. Socialism can be realised only as the outcome of the class struggle of the workers. Every attempt to find another way, by supporting the capitalists, by conciliating them, by collaborating with them, in peace or in war, has led not toward the socialist goal but to defeat and disaster for the workers.

Socialists are not out to create a bloody insurrection. Socialists strive for the improvement of the conditions of the people. Our understanding of society teaches us that that improvement can only be attained by changing basic social relations, by a shift in ownership and control from the few to the many in an all-embracing socialisation - the elimination of the private ownership of the entire means of production - socialism. The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go. And in the work of abolishing it, we all will co-operate together. We will work together so that we may enjoy together. Socialism, real socialism, is the only alternative to capitalism; and it is worth fighting for. If society is to change in a socialist direction and if capitalism is to be replaced by socialism, the source of that change must be the fight against the exploitative society by the exploited people themselves. Socialism is, and must always be a revolutionary idea. Unless it means the transfer of economic power from a small, greedy and irresponsible elite to the democratic control of the majority it means nothing. Socialism means nothing unless it means taking control of society from below. There has never been a time when real socialism is more relevant.

The Socialist Party is anxious that the interests of the workers as a class shall come before all other interests, either individual or sectional. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to gather these conscious workers together, to organise them, so that they can actively agitate and pursue the aim of achieving socialism. The object of the Socialist Party is the overthrow of capitalism, the emancipation of the workers from their oppressors and exploiters, and the establishment of the socialist commonwealth.

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