Is the goal of socialism simply a projection of an idealistic notion, a utopian aspiration, an unrealisable dream? Cynics mock when they first come across the Socialist Party’s revolutionary proposition. We are depicted as the painters of a pretty portrait of an unobtainable future, rather than informed critics of the real world. Our idea of a future society arises from the potentiality of producing abundant wealth which has been created by capitalism but cannot be achieved within the limitations of a profit system. For so long as a single child starves for lack of food or a single drop of working class blood is shed in a war over property, the struggle for socialism remains the most urgent challenge of our time. Reformism presents an absurd promise to tackle thousands of social problems while leaving the cause of these problems intact. Capitalism is inevitably exploitative and undemocratic and its crises; housing problems, pollution, starvation, unemployment and wars are symptoms of the system and cannot be eradicated independently of the cause. The socialist answer to capitalism does not embrace utopias or gods or states or leaders or reforms.
Socialism will be the first ever social democracy in the sense that there will be no governments, authoritarianism or imposed morality. The limited political democracy of today will be expanded into a full social democracy. All aspects of society, including the production and distribution of wealth, will be subject to democratic social control. The coercive state machine and government over people of class society — with the armed forces and police, the judges and gaolers — will be replaced by the simple democratic administration of social affairs. Those chosen by society to carry out administrative functions on its behalf will not be in any special privileged position. They will not have at their command any means of coercing people. Nor will they be materially better off than anyone else since, as we shall see next, in socialism everybody will have free access to the wealth they need to live and enjoy life. The community will make decisions, using the advanced machinery of communication which is now available. In a social democracy, the needs of minorities will be accommodated, including the needs of those who are critical and opposed to socialism. For the first time in the history of human society men and women will live in a humane society designed to meet their needs. In the socialist society, the means of producing wealth will be democratically owned and controlled by the community, without distinction of race or sex. The wages system, which we have demonstrated to be a system of exploitation, will be replaced by an economy in which each will give according to his or her abilities and each will take according to his or her needs. There will be free access to all wealth, without the need to buy what already belongs to you as a member of society. With the abolition of property money and barter will no longer have any use. There cannot be socialism in one country, just as there is not capitalism in one country. The present fragmented world system must be replaced by a united world system. The evils of racial and national division, which now split the working class, will give way to a common social bond linking every man, woman and child on the face of the earth.
The socialist case proposes uncompromising political revolution. Having recognised that capitalism is a system of class exploitation, that the working class constitutes a majority of society, and that the capitalist class owe their hegemony to the consent of the working class, socialists advocate the withdrawal of working class consent to capitalism. Once workers understand and desire the abolition of the present system they must organise themselves for the political, democratic conquest of the state machine, including the government and the armed forces. It is to this sole end that the Socialist Party is organised. After the socialist revolution, there will be no classes, for all will stand in equal relation to the means of life. The state will cease to exist as there will be no privileged group for governments to maintain and no private property for the police and armies to defend. There will be conscious human co-operation to meet the needs of the world community. The world will, at last, belong to its inhabitants as a whole.
So to sum up, the essential features of socialism are that the land, industry, transport and communications will have become the common property of the whole community. This means that classes will have been abolished, everyone having an equal say in how the means of production are used. There will no longer be a propertied employing class, nor a propertyless working class. Wages will not be paid or received as nobody will be in a position either to buy or to sell a human being’s ability to work. There will simply be people, free men and women, co-operating to produce what they need. Wealth will be produced solely and directly for human use. It will not be produced for sale, but for people to take according to their needs. Goods will not be priced, nor will people’s consumption be limited by the amount of money they have. There will, in fact, be no need for money in a socialist society, as the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” will apply.
Free distribution of wealth is now possible because modern industry and agriculture can turn out an abundance of the things people need. A world of plenty is now possible. There is no need for any man, woman or child in any part of the world to go hungry, be badly clothed or live in slums. The technical problem of producing plenty for all has been solved for a long time. The problem now is that the present social system, capitalism places a fetter on production because it operates, and must operate, according to the rule of “no profit, no production.” What the world suffers from today is not over-population, but the chronic under-production that is built into capitalism. Not only does world capitalism hold back production, but it also misuses and wastes the resources of the world. Think of the waste involved in armed forces and of the destruction of wars. Think of the waste of commerce and finance — of banks, insurance companies, salesmen, ticket collectors, accountants, economists, cashiers. Only a minority of the world’s population is actually engaged in producing useful things. Then, of course, there is the deliberate destruction of wealth that is carried out every year in order to maintain prices and profits: the bonfires of coffee and cocoa, the pouring of milk down coal mines, the dumping of vegetables in rivers, the feeding of butter to pigs.
Socialism, where people will cooperate freely to produce an abundance of wealth from which they can take freely according to their needs, is not only possible but is also the only solution to humanity’s problems.
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