Onward, fellow humans

Something is happening in our world that you are not going to read about in the newspapers or see in on TV. We all know there is a crisis that threatens our planet and our existence. Economic insecurity is everyone’s nightmare. It sucks the life out of us all. Inequality and mass poverty are integral design features of capitalism. Divide-and-conquer is a very effective strategy to enslave people’s minds into habits that guide them toward system preservation. Nevertheless, the thought of people co-owning everything is growing. Millions of us are waking up to the reality that the political and economic system is thoroughly rigged. Control of the political state combined with the ownership of the means of production and distribution gives the capitalist class mastery over the workers. Being poor and powerless means we are reliant on people who don’t give a damn about us. We need to change it. This means we need a political revolution. Not barricades and petrol bombs but a revolution of consciousness. The primary purpose of the socialist political party is to challenge the political apparatus of the capitalist class and its domination of state power while promoting worker class-consciousness. A revolution is when we no longer accept or wish to perpetuate the status quo. The Socialist Party, although still comparatively minute, we are confident will strengthen, grow and ultimately prove decisive. Our aim is a simple one: to avoid the mistakes of the past and build a movement based upon democracy.

Too often socialism is described in the context of austerity and of self-sacrifice. We see socialism as something much different, of a whole lot of possibilities – imaginative and creative. Socialism as enhancing one’s pleasure and enjoyment and rewards in life. Our case for socialism is that there is a phenomenal human potential which is being squandered every single day this wretched system persists. We are talking about an enormous human potential that is being at the moment wasted.  

 Co-operative commonwealth is another name for socialism. With the aid of socialists all over the world, we will replace competitive capitalism by the human co-operation of Socialism. Socialism does not presuppose any radical change in individual character at all, or that it has anything necessarily to do with what is known as selfishness or unselfishness in the present condition of society. It is said that in socialism all property is abolished. That is a lie. All property is not abolished. The form of property abolished is that in the hands of industrialists, but personal property for use is not abolished because the aim of socialism is to increase the personal property available to the highest possible point. We desire to see the maximum amount of personal property in existence so that people will be able to enjoy the highest standard of living. Socialism means, not equality in personal requirements and personal life, but the abolition of classes. Socialism starts out with the assumption that people’s tastes and requirements are not, and cannot be, equal in quality or in quantity “from each according to ability, to each according to need ”

The revolution that is coming will place the working women and men full command over its vast resources. To-day’s production and distribution is at the mercy of the banks and the corporations, whose aim is to make profits. It is no good talking about the need for decentralisation and building up cooperatives unless we are willing to get at the very root of the evil. The Socialist Party asserts that the basic cause of social and economic problems are to be found in our present system of society that we call capitalism, that is, a system in which the financial institutions and most of the means of production are in the hands of a relatively small number of people, a system in which production is carried on primarily for profit and in which when profit ceases production ceases, whether or not the people require what is being produced. It is a system under which production is carried on at the will of individual capitalist groups and not in accordance with the needs of its people. The Socialist Party asserts that many social problems we suffer shall never be solved so long as capitalism endures. We accept that some temporary reforms and limited improvements can be won from time to time within the present system through the organised political and industrial action, but we contend that no final solution can be won unless we change the whole social system from top to bottom, unless we change from the private capitalist system for profit to the social co-operative system of production for use; in other words production and distribution must not be left dependent the blind forces of capitalism.

Socialism cannot be imposed upon the people by a minority. It is a movement in the interests of the vast majority and will come into existence only when a majority of the people want it and are organised sufficiently to obtain and maintain it.