The enemy is capitalism.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."- Goethe - 1749-1832

The word “politics” is for many like a red flag to a bull. What does the word “politics” mean to the average worker? It brings to his mind a picture of graft, bribery and corruption. To be sure, politics as conducted by the capitalist politicians is usually dirty and sordid. Politics seems to mean simply politicians trying to catch votes to elect them to some comfortable office, where they can comfortably forget all about those who voted them into power.  All this is based upon the realities of capitalist politics, which is always accompanied by rottenness, corruption, office-hunting and spoils. But it represents at the same time a fatal misconception of what political action really is. Reformists believe that they can gradually gain concessions by using the political machinery of the capitalist state to win ameliorations and palliatives to the countless social ills. Preaching such parliamentarian tactics causes them to make deals and compromises with the capitalist class. The reformist argument is designed to blind people to the realities of political power. They reject the class structure of society and class struggle, and some claim that class divisions are withering away. They say that the state is neutral, above classes; that there is no need to change it. They tell the workers that they should make capitalism work, that employers and workers should collaborate to this end. They say that legislation and regulation to manage capitalism is a step towards socialism; that socialism can be built piecemeal within capitalism; or even that the aim should now be a “mixed economy” with a welfare state and nothing more. These ideas confuse and disarm people.

The Socialist Party holds that the necessary step to the realisation of socialism is  that the means of production should be owned by no individual, but by the whole community, in order that the use of them may be free to all and the recognition of the maxim ‘from each according to ability, to each according to needs’. Reforms wouldn’t solve the problem, even if they could be achieved. So long as the capitalist system exists a very small minority will be making money out of the toil of others. All reforms of the present system simply trick workers into believing that they aren’t being plundered as much as they were before. To save the old system of exploitation the capitalists unite and chain the workers to the machines of industry and cry: “More production! More production!'’ In other words, the workers must do more work for less wages, so that their blood and sweat may be turned into profits.  The Socialist Party proposes to overthrow the capitalist system and its servile state and to establish in its place immediately industrial democracy and the cooperative commonwealth, to substitute for the government of men the administration of things. The Socialist Party understands that the capitalist ownership of the means of production and distribution means the exploitation of the great majority by a small minority; that capitalism brings recurring threat of war and increasingly undermines democracy. Therefore the aim of the Socialist Party is the ending of capitalism and the building of a new socialist society. The features of the Socialist Party are distinctive and unique, not possessed by any other section of the labour movement, which makes it aimed towards clarity of ideas and help in the growth of socialist understanding. We envisage socialism as a society where material wealth will be in the hands of those who produce it, where the exploitation of man by man will be ended, where production will be used not for private profit, where a new relationship of fraternity will develop between peoples based on equality and independence, where individual men and women will find totally new possibilities to develop their capacities. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” can be achieved in today’s world only by a socialist revolution. The Socialist Party recognises that we are engaged in the class war, and therefore cannot be neutral. We defend the working class, at home, and our fellow-workers, in whatever country, against capitalist attacks.