Seize the Moment

 Demagogues and dictators thrive on fear and insecurity. People are hurting and disillusioned with mainstream politics and increasingly angry at the austerity policies and the economic system destroying lives and the planet. Many believe that it's only a matter of time before a new crisis hits. Yet in today’s world, anyone who fails blame themselves and feels ashamed. People see themselves, not society, as the problem. Even when primary blame is placed upon the global elite, it says that the primary problem is not the system; but the beneficiaries of the system and things would be better if they were not too greedy. That is, of course, not to say that there aren't powerful people in the world that do tremendous damage, or that these people should not be held to account. These people, however, are produced and given power by a system that runs deeper than anyone's capacity to design. It is the money/profit system that has taken on a life of its own. We have a potential abundance at our fingertips. The scarcity that so many experience today is not the result of any fundamental lack, but rather of the misdistribution of resources. Imagine the kind of abundance we could have if we didn't devote ourselves to the production of weaponry, car culture, fashion and consumerism, junk food, and every other form of waste that contributes nothing to human happiness. A world of abundance doesn't depend on any new technology. We have the capability now.

People cannot rely on others to save them because fundamental change is required. If capitalism’s survival is at stake, it will marshal all the weapons to defend itself and stop the emergence of a new system. When we work for change from the ground up and when we are building towards a future we know is possible with our own hands, we find our true power rather than hoping distant leaders. The old economic system is dying and another is struggling to be born. The socialist movement must serve as midwife. Change is not going to be smooth or easy. We are the ones we are looking to and it must be ourselves who grasp the opportunities to come together. We cannot forget all the struggles that came before us, and imagine all those to come and we must remember that social movements are growing all over the world that must merge and coalesce into the common struggle. Socialists urgently need to mobilise fellow-workers around the world for a process of transformation that can end the cause of all our social problems.

The terms socialist and socialism were first used by Robert Owen to describe the views of those who were in favour of the substitution of universal and ordered co-operation for chaotic competition. A socialist means a man or a woman who recognises the class war between the propertyless and the owning class as the inevitable historic outcome of the capitalist system and of the direct economic and social antagonisms which it has engendered and fostered. Who sees that those antagonisms can only be resolved by the complete ownership control over the means of production and distribution, by the whole people, thus abolishing the class State and the wages system, and constituting a co-operative commonwealth or a social-democracy. Who uses existing political institutions to educate the people and to prepare, as far as possible, peacefully for the social revolution which must result in world socialism. Who holds that the methods of giving expression to this great socialist change should be completely democratic and accountable in every aspect. It is in the best interests of the working people that the struggle for political power should be carried through by peaceful means, without civil war. It will not be simple to achieve this. There will be advances and setbacks. Political power must be won; and in the struggle for power, the winning of a majority in Parliament, supreme organ of representative power, is one of the essential steps. A socialist majority in Parliament is to be won it needs the support of the mass movement outside Parliament. The one supports the other. The working class and popular movement will need to be ready to use its organised strength to prevent or defeat attempts at violence against it.

The goal is the democratisation of wealth. The Socialist Party is not resigned to the belief that the system cannot be changed because “that’s the way it is”. Our hope is to build a new system, a new pluralistic economic and political structure. The least we can do is begin by contributing to the solidification of that idea, involving ourselves in it as fully as we can. We seek to construct a new system of collective rights geared towards turning to society into an effective decision-making entity. Chaos and dictatorship are not the only alternatives to the current democracy. A democracy created among all people is possible – a democracy not reduced to merely voting, but founded on participation and citizen popular control.