Our world is a shared world

The Socialist Party is opposed to the system of society in which we live today, there are millions upon millions who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under capitalist ethics that man’s business upon earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle. Look after yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilised society. yes, I am my brother’s keeper. What would you think of me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow-beings starving to death? Nature has spread a great table bounteously for all of the children of men. There is room for all, and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of society that denies a single one the right and the opportunity to freely help himself to Nature’s bounties is an unjust and iniquitous system that ought to be abolished in the interest of humanity. In every age of this world’s history the kings and emperors and tsars and the potentates, in alliance with the priests, have sought by all the means at their command to keep the people in darkness, that they might perpetuate the power in which they riot and revel in luxury while the great mass are in a state of slavery and degeneration, and he who has spoken out courageously against the existing order, he who has dared to voice the protest of the oppressed and downtrodden, has had to pay the penalty.

As long as a relatively few men own the transport, the media and the communications; own the oil and the gas and the steel, own, in short, the sources and means of life, they will corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working class, they will impoverish and debase society, they will do all things that are needful to perpetuate their power as the economic masters and the political rulers of the people. Not until the means of production and distribution are owned and operated by the people can the people hope for any material improvement in their social condition. In this system, we have one set who are called capitalists, and another set who are called workers; and they are at war with each other over the division of the product.

Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy human wants; that every person shall have the inalienable right to work, and receive the full equivalent of all he or she produces. Every man and every woman can be economically free. They can, without let or hindrance, apply their labour, with the best machinery that can be devised, to all the natural resources, do the work of society and produce for all and then receive in exchange a certificate of value equivalent to that of their production. Then society will improve its institutions in exact proportion to the progress of invention. Whether you work in the city or on a farm, all things productive will be carried forward on a gigantic scale. All industry will be completely organised. Society for the first time will have a scientific foundation. Everyone, by being economically free, will have some time for oneself.

We are not going to abolish private property. We are going to increase private property — all private property that is necessary to house people, to keep them comfort, and to satisfy all their physical wants. Too many people in this world have no property of any kind today. A privileged wealthy few have got it all. They have dispossessed the people, and when we get into power we will dispossess them. We will reduce the workday and give everyone opportunities and a chance. Mankind has many attributes. They are in a latent state. They are not yet developed. When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other’s throats when we have stopped enslaving each other, then we will stand together, hands clasped, and we will be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers and sisters, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilisation that the humanity has ever known.