The Vision of the Socialist Party

The Socialist Party is anti-capitalist, anti-statist and anti-reformist. One of the tasks of the Socialist Party is to help inspire a vision of an alternative way of living where all the world’s resources are owned in common and democratically controlled by communities on an ecologically sustainable and socially harmonious basis. Socialism will be a society based on cooperation and solidarity, meeting human needs. Instead of ownership or control of the means of production - land, factories, offices and so on - being in the hands of private individuals or the state, a socialist society is based on the common ownership and control of those means. And instead of production for exchange and profit, socialism means production to meet human needs. It is we, the workers, who produce everything and run all the services necessary for life. We build the roads, lay the rail tracks and drive the trains, we construct the houses, care for the sick, raise the children, grow the food, invent and design the products, manufacture the clothes and we teach the next generation. And every worker knows that often the system hinders us more than it helps. There is ample evidence demonstrating that we do not need the threat of destitution or starvation enforced by the wage system in order to engage in productive activity.

Capitalism is an economic system that necessitates continuous expansion, exploitation, and the concentrated ownership of wealth. The driving force of capitalism is the competitive market. The market economy's essential purpose is to sell commodities for profit. Profit has to be made, regardless of the impact on the environment or society at large. In order to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses, the capitalist is compelled to exploit labor and lower the cost of production.  Due to the “grow or die” imperative imposed by the market, economic growth cannot be contained by moral persuasion, it must continue to expand without any regard for human needs or environmental impact. Thus, capitalism should be seen for what it is, malignant cancer.

Amongst some of those who advocate their version of “socialism” are those who insist that nationalisation of industry, land, and services are the basis of socialism. Yet across the world, there are countries that have nationalised all or a part of their economies so one would expect them to have wised up. It could be suggested that they really do not want to acknowledge the failure of state-ownership AKA state-capitalism because they aspire to be leaders and become a new state bourgeoisie. The very act of nationalisation implies state control over all that is being nationalized and it means the extension of the state instead of the socialist principle of the withering away of the. An expanding state is the very anti-thesis to a state that should be withering away. Since the state and not the working class would control the means of production, the working class would still be alienated and would still remain commodities. State-appointed managers would use the same methods that the capitalists used to extract surplus-value. Socialists have no interest in reforming capitalism; we want to end it. We have no interest to make capitalism more rational or livable, a utopian venture. Reformism is in practice an appeal for government intervention to rectify a defect in the system. Remember anything that governments grant today can easily be taken back tomorrow by another government in office. Socialists seek to create permanent change. There is no shortage in the world of politicians or political parties claiming to have ready-made blueprints for creating a fairer society. However, socialism is not something which can be decreed into being by political parties or individual politicians but must be created, through mass participation and by workers ourselves.

Humans are the most adaptable of life that ever existed. That is why we are a reflection of the education we receive. The forms of interaction from birth and then for at least the first half of a decade determines the way we function. All individuals need that early education to have any meaningful social interaction in their life. This would indicate that our human nature will take on whatever hue of interactions we are exposed to from birth. The different relationships we have observed over the last few centuries show an amazing variety of beliefs or non-beliefs and ways people relate to one another and to nature. We feel better and live in more harmony in some systems and condition than others. The kind of life that can give everyone the greatest security and satisfaction is likely to correlate with the most social life; whatever system people live in, we’re always social even as we have strong antisocial elements in our economic system.

 An economic system can contradict our genetic makeup; provided there’s some sociability in that life we can get by, but it does produce physical and mental strain on us and the environment. When one looks around the world one can hear so many languages and many lifestyles, cultures and viewpoint, yet none of those particular qualities are inherited, they are all learned. Our body shape and skin colour is due to the environment we have adapted to and are then in our genes, but the way we feel and interact with our companions and nature is learned due to our physical and mental ability to learn and be social. We are educated to fit into society’s structure, but does that structure suit human needs, does it harmonize with nature, can it be sustainable?

If we could abandon all the bad things in capitalism, we would be left with people and our knowledge. We would then see ourselves as the most extraordinary and wonderful life, our sociability is supreme it even shines through whatever shocking type of civilisation we ever had. The learning process is the way life survives. All living things maintain life due to that process. Nature produced the first life by trial and error; we learn by that process, our information is the outcome of that. Many folk tend to minimise the hopeless conditions our children will encounter but if we don’t have united action soon to stop the capitalist wasteful destructive activities and establish socialism there will be no hope.