Socialism cannot be postponed.

The private ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth has caused society to split into two distinct classes with conflicting interests, the small possessing class of capitalists or exploiters of the labour force of others and the ever-increasing large dispossessed class of wage-workers, who are deprived of their due share of their product. Capitalism is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of people. The same economic forces which have produced and now intensify the capitalist system will compel the adoption of Socialism, the common ownership of the means of production for the collective good and welfare of all people, or it will result in the destruction of civilisation. The Cooperative Commonwealth is our goal. In order to be understood, this idea must be carefully scrutinised. If you wish to oppose it, study it. No man or woman has a right to be a socialist or to criticise it without understanding the subject.

The Socialist Party declares its object to be the establishment of a system of cooperative production and distribution, to be administered democratically in the interest of the whole people, and the complete emancipation of society from the domination of capitalism. The capture and control of political power by the Socialist Party will be tantamount to the abolition of capitalism and all class rule. The capitalist system of production, under the rule of which we live, is the production of commodities for profit instead of for use for the private gain of those who own and control the means of production and distribution. Out of this system of production and sale for profit spring the entire problem of misery, want, war and poverty that, as a deadly menace, now confronts civilisation.

Socialism is an interpretation of the past, a diagnosis of the present, and a forecast of the future. Socialism is the science of human association reduced to a practical proposal, based upon profound study. It recognises that social life in society as well as in the natural world is constantly passing through a process of evolution. The Socialist Party declares that labour is the sole creator of value and that the labourer is collectively entitled to the full social value of the things he or she produces. The Socialist Party teaches that the only way to attain the just distribution of wealth to those who produce it is by the common ownership, control, and operation of the means of production and distribution, such as lands, mines, factories, transport, communications a, etc., etc. It asserts that this production should be for use and not for sale or profit, thus doing away with all private, sectional or state ownership of the means of subsistence.  Socialism would protect and not abolish the personal ownership of possessions as distinguished from capital. Thus homes and all personal belongings not used to produce more wealth would be individually and not collectively owned.

Socialism, based upon the planned organisation of production for use by means of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production, is the abolition of all classes. Without production, society cannot survive. The first step in a future socialist society will be directed toward assuring continuous production so as to satisfy the needs of the people. The social property of the capitalists will be confiscated without compensation. The whole system of capitalism is based on confiscation. The original accumulation of capital, as will be recalled, was accomplished for the most part by an elaborate system of confiscating (expropriating) the wealth and resources of small producers, independent peasants and farmers. Day-in and day-out capitalism exists only because it confiscates the surplus-value produced by the worker over and above the wages he or she receives for their labour. Capitalism has developed confiscation to a forcibly-maintained, scientific process of exploitation. If we understand the fact that the value of all the products of society has been produced by labour, it would be perfectly proper for labour to appropriate the appropriators without further ado. As stated earlier, we are concerned not with personal possessions but with the capitalist private property, that is, privately-owned means of production and distribution, that is, with capital, or wealth used for the creation of more wealth by exploiting the labour of others. We do not have in mind such things as the family house, automobiles and other items of purely personal nature. If anything, the aim of socialism is to make such things available in larger quantities to millions who have never enjoyed them. The basic problem of society is related to such property as is represented by the means of production and distribution. It is these that must be turned into communal property.

Nor will daily life be centrally organised and planned. The purpose of planning is to assure the harmonious expansion of industry and the systematic raising of the standard of living. The raw materials, machinery and labour power worldwide will be brought together into an integrated whole. The waste of capitalist competition and the stagnation of capitalism would be overcome. Production would not be organised on the basis of the blind push and pull of the capitalist market but in accordance with the needs of the people. Production for profit would give way to production for use, as already said. Democracy in socialism will continually be expanded, not merely because it is a desirable ideal, but because it is indispensable to the planning of production for use. Capitalism’s motive of production was, is, and always will be profit. It is not the needs of the people that dictate its production. So if production was carried on for use, to satisfy the needs of the people, the question immediately arises: Who is to determine what is useful and what would satisfy these needs? Will that be decided exclusively by a small board of government technocrats? No matter how high-minded and wise they might be, they could not plan production for the needs of the people. Production for use, by its very nature, demands constant consultation of the people, continual control and direction by the people. The democratically-adopted decision of the people would have to guide the course of production and distribution. Democratic control of the means of production and distribution would have to be exercised by the people to see to it that their decision is being carried out. Otherwise, we would have a benevolent regimentation of the people for their own good. A government which declares itself to be “for” the people, but is not a government “of” and ”by” the people. Instead of being regulated by the blind market, as under capitalism, production would be regulated by the autocratic, uncontrolled will of a bureaucracy. Economic distortions, social conflict, exploitation and oppression would inevitably result. Production for use, aimed at satisfying the needs of society and of freeing all the people from class rule, would be impossible. Democratic control, the continual extension of democracy, is, therefore, an indispensable necessity. Socialism is not a utopian ideal, a blueprint for society that exists in the minds of some people. It is a social necessity; it is a practical necessity.

People cannot rid themselves of their sufferings without abolishing the domination that the machine has over them. They can do this only if they gain control of the machine itself. In doing so, they must destroy capitalism and proceed with the complete reorganisation of society. Only the working class can emancipate all humanity from exploitation, class distinctions, class privileges, class conflict, to establish social equality for all. No other class is capable of doing this historic task. The working class is thus the bearer of socialism. Mankind will no longer be the slave of the machine. The machine would be the servant of humanity. Every increase in productivity would bring with it two things: an increase in the things required for the need, comfort and even luxury of all; and an increase in everyone’s leisure time, to devote to the free cultural and intellectual development of humankind. People will not live primarily to work; we will work primarily to live.

Even today, with all the restrictions that capitalism places upon production, there are experts who declare that industry, properly organised, can produce the necessities of life for all in a working day of four hours or less. Organised on a socialist basis, even this figure could be cut down. As the necessities and comforts of life become increasingly abundant, and the differences between physical and mental labour, between town and country, are eliminated – the need for tolerating even the last vestiges of inequality will disappear as a matter of course. This may seem impossible to a mind thoroughly poisoned with capitalist prejudices. But why should it be impossible? If everyone knew that there is an ample supply of bread today, and there will be just as large a supply tomorrow and the next day, there would be nobody trying to hoard an extra loaf in order to make sure of eating the next day. If society could assure everyone of as ample and constant a supply of bread as there is of air, why would anyone need or want a greater right to buy bread than his neighbour? Bread is used here only as the simplest illustration. But the same applies to all other foods, to clothing, to shelter, to means of transportation and so forth.

A planned, rationally organised society, efficiently using even our present technology with better still to come, could easily assure abundance to all. In return, society could confidently expect every citizen to contribute his or her best voluntarily. In the midst of abundance for all and of the high cultural development that will accompany it, there is no reason to believe that coercion will be needed to make people work. What need is there for compulsion? And robbery and burglary? What will there be to steal in the midst of abundance? The state, itself, will prove to be not indispensable and will die out for lack of any social need or function. The transition from class society to socialism will be completed. There will be the simple administration of things, but no longer the rule of man over man.

Such is the choice the Socialist Party presents to our fellow workers. Freedom for all. Abundance for all. A society without governments. Impossible? We say, think again.