Let it blossom

We need little proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Capitalism is the enemy of nature and of labour alike. Its sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for constant growth. It wastefully creates unnecessary products, squandering the environment's limited resources and returning to it only toxins and pollutants. Under capitalism, the only measure of success is how much more is sold every day, every week, every year – involving the creation of vast quantities of products that are directly harmful to both humans and nature, commodities that cannot be produced without spreading disease, destroying the forests that produce the oxygen we breathe, demolishing ecosystems, and treating our water, air and soil like sewers for the disposal of industrial waste. Capitalism's need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by militarist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labour and new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive, but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated. Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically, leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the norm. Air, water, and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria, cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most vulnerable members of every society.

Ecological devastation, resulting from the insatiable need to increase profits, is not an accidental feature of capitalism: it is built into the system's DNA and cannot be reformed away. Profit-oriented production only considers a short-term horizon in its investment decisions, and cannot take into account the long-term health and stability of the environment. Infinite economic expansion is incompatible with finite and fragile ecosystems, but the capitalist economic system cannot tolerate limits on growth; its constant need to expand will subvert any limits that might be imposed in the name of “sustainable development.” Thus the inherently unstable capitalist system cannot regulate its own activity, much less overcome the crises caused by its chaotic and parasitical growth, because to do so would require setting limits upon accumulation – an unacceptable option for a system predicated upon the rule: Grow or Die! Mankind cannot serve two masters – the integrity of the planet and the profitability of capitalism. One must be abandoned. History leaves little question about the allegiances of the vast majority of present-day policy-makers. The reforms over the past thirty-five years have been a monstrous failure. Isolated improvements do of course occur, but they are inevitably overwhelmed and swept away by the ruthless expansion of the system and the chaotic character of its production. In order to affirm and sustain our human future, a revolutionary transformation is needed, where all particular struggles take part in a greater struggle against capital itself. This larger struggle cannot remain merely negative and anti-capitalist. It must announce and build a different kind of society, and this is socialism.

Socialism is not a utopia with which reality should comply. It is the reasoned human answer to the social problems in which humanity is now locked because of the modes of production and consumption of our times which are exhausting human beings and the environment. This calls for radical thinking and political action, in the sense that we must go to the root causes.  Capitalism imposes the commodification of everything for new sources of profit. It is, therefore, responsible for poverty, the widening gap in inequality and the environmental damage to ecosystems.  Socialism is all about founding a new economy based on real needs and not the accumulation of capital and expanding growth to make increased profits. Socialism has always sought the emancipation of the human being. This implies the sharing of the wealth produced and the democratisation of power. This remains the project of the Socialist Party. We reject the deception of an economics that advocates reform of capitalism by legislation and regulation. Socialism wants to put the economic and productive systems at the service of human needs. Socialism challenges the dictatorship of the private and state ownership of the means of production. Socialism involves a revolutionary social transformation, which will replace exchange-value with use-value.

The Socialist Party advocates the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. We propose a steady-state economy where is no point in working longer than necessary to produce what we need. The time thus freed could be usefully allocated to activities now considered as unproductive which are nevertheless essential to good living by working less and working better. Our goal requires that the largest number of people be involved in political action. It is a question of gathering and acting together. We stand alongside the workers and those excluded by the system. The struggle of labour – workers, farmers, the landless and the unemployed – for social justice is inseparable from the struggle for socialism.  Economic planning requires the control of citizens, workers, and consumers. The problem is not industry, research or the technology in

themselves, but the lack of choice and control by citizens. Socialism cannot emerge from decisions dictated from above.  We want neither an enlightened intellectual avant-garde nor a vanguard political elite. This requires that the socialist parliamentary majorities combine their efforts with popular movements involved in all domains of life in society. A people's revolution is needed to conquer this capacity of control.  Decisions taken on one side on the planet have repercussions everywhere else.  This reclaiming of political and civic initiatives by every person, in order to determine where the general interest lies, everywhere and on every issue, is what we call a social revolution. It is a social revolution because it intends to change the forms of ownership, the institutional system and the hierarchy of legal, social and environmental standards which organise both society and the economy.  Only collective decision-making and common ownership of production can offer the perspective that is necessary for the balance and sustainability of our social and natural systems. It intends to empower every person, not in the interest of a particular class but for the good of all humans.

If capitalism remains the dominant social order, the best we can expect is unbearable climate conditions, an intensification of social crises and the spread of the most barbaric forms of class rule, as the imperialist powers fight among themselves for continued control of the world's diminishing resources. At worst, human life may not survive. Humanity today faces a stark choice: socialism or barbarism.