Our Immediate Demands

Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of people. We are living under a system which is more and more clearly revealed as the enemy of mankind. There is a crying need for an immediate change in the social system and this necessitates the adoption of socialism which is the common ownership of the means of production for the common good and welfare. The capitalist system has created the potential for a vast abundance, but it brings poverty and hunger to the working people. It imposes draconian cuts in living standards on the already poor, simply in the interest of still greater profits for the capitalist class. From the standpoint of the vast majority, it is already an obsolete system, and the productive forces and technology it has created will have to be turned to the benefit of humanity as a whole under a new social system. Capitalism is responsible for the destruction of the environment. Its arms industry sucks up the world’s research and development and cynically profits from a series of local wars of unparalleled destructiveness. The root cause of all this is capitalism’s guiding principle, the quest for profit, which takes precedence over any human interest. Today more than ever capitalism brings nothing but misery and exploitation. Capitalism threatens the future of humanity. The profit motive is incompatible with safeguarding the world’s resources. So long as it is profitable, environmental destruction is perfectly ’logical’ under capitalism. Our problem is not limited resources but the waste of resources which is an essential part of the process of capital accumulation. Marx and Engels explained that only the working class could be the force bringing about the necessary revolutionary transformation of society. Socialism will provide the opportunity for a society planned for the majority rather than for profit.

The Socialist Party will not confine itself to demanding some demand for improvement of this or that condition. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has undergone many changes in its history, but much of these have simply meant finding new ways to exploit people. The only solution is to destroy it and build a new social system. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to expropriate the capitalists. The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” The overthrow of capitalism—that is our DEMAND—it is THE demand. This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of the State from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new plane, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of the government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places, as many believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear. If the Socialist Party had no political ideal than the victory of one class over another it would not be worthy. The struggle for working class emancipation, which finds its expression thru the Socialist Party, must continue and will increase in intensity. There is no middle ground possible. Corbyn and Sanders want to bluff the voters that they can transform the capitalist system into a socialist one. All that is necessary are a few new taxation laws. “Squeeze the rich” with taxes and give to the poor. Many of their reform ideas cannot be successfully carried out inside the framework of capitalism, and if some of them are, they will deepen the recession rather than help to overcome it. We only know that the principles of socialism are necessary to the emancipation of the working class. Social changes are preceded by agitation and unrest. The old system is being shaken to its foundations and its passing is but a question of time. The Socialist Party stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows its purpose the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own all, workers will be struggling in the hell of poverty, as they are today. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The Socialist Party stands for common ownership and co-operation. Capitalism is industrial despotism; Socialism, industrial democracy. The Socialist party demands the overthrow of the wages system.

The Socialist Party demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we demand the earth for all the people.