Why we are revolutionary

Unquestionably the Socialist Party aims at a revolution. It offers no apology. The Socialist Party holds that the very essence of socialism is inherent in the word itself -- a SOCIAL system that, freed from economic class rule, serves the common interests of the people-as-a-whole. Socialism is that social system under which the necessaries of production [factories, technology, land, etc.] are owned, controlled and administered by the people, for the people.  Accordingly, the cause of political and economic despotism having been abolished, class rule is at an end. That is socialism, nothing short of that. Capitalism is a two-class system in which the ruling class is fit for nothing except riding the back and sucking the life out of the producing working class. Capitalism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart; it ruthlessly sweeps away old traditions and ideas opposed to its progress, and it exploits and corrupts those things once held sacred. The capitalist class misrepresents socialism that would destroy individuality. Capitalism is a fraud.

Labour alone produces all wealth. The capitalist class is a parasite on the body social. To take away the property of the capitalist class is to restore it to the working class, to the overwhelming majority, and thereby reorganise society in such a form as may promote the happiness of its members. This course has become unquestionable justice. The exploiting and idle class struggles upon the lines of their class interests. They aim to conserve the power they now enjoy to live in luxury without work, to ride the proletariat, to fleece the workers. That their aim should be such is not to be wondered at; it is natural. But for the very reason that "conservatism" is natural with the capitalist class. "Conservatism" is the motto of the upholders of the present system. They invoke "patriotism" to their aid; "the flag" becomes their symbol. The working class has nothing, no economic or social powers, worth conserving.

Capitalism commits crime behind the mask of righteousness. The property of the working class, the product of its labour, does not remain in its hands to enjoy; it is stolen from it by the capitalist class. The members of the capitalist class have cared little how the working class was robbed; the beneficiaries of the theft, they glorified it by singing the praises of the sacredness of private property. Wage slavery and oppression is the inevitable lot of the working class -- under capitalism. Working-class advancement is only possible when the working class, acting in conjunction with industrial evolution, rise en masse, economically, politically and socially, for the overthrow of capitalism. Socialism's aim is, is not to "lessen" poverty but it is to "abolish" poverty. Socialism spurns the goal of "lessening poverty" as a miserable reform.

By seeking to establish the cooperative commonwealth and to abolish all class distinctions, the Socialist Party is the party of the people. Socialism, democratic workers' control of the economy, is an attainable goal. To attain the goal, however, our fellow-workers must have a greater understanding of society and the social forces with which they must contend, and be better prepared and organised than any other revolutionary class in history. The more thoroughly the working class is already organised around a sound socialist party and its principles, the better its chances for success. The determined message of the Socialist Party, still the only party educating and organising for the revolutionary self-emancipation of the workers, continues to be voiced loud and clear.