The Socialist Party is made up of working men and women. We are organised to overthrow the system that breeds overwork and underpayment. Millions have the greatest difficulty in keeping the wolf from the door, owing to the smallness and uncertainty of the wages they obtain. There is no question we live in a world of widening inequality. The majority of us struggle day to day while the rich get ever richer. Politicians have done virtually nothing to improve the lot of ordinary folk who work for a living. The owning class is necessarily the ruling class. It dictates legislation and it has it construed to its own interest. The Socialist Party is a revolutionary party as its basic demand is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and the operation of all industry in the interest of all the people. This will mean an economic democracy. Economic freedom can result only from common ownership, and upon this vital principle the Socialist Party differs diametrically from every other party. Between private ownership and common ownership there can be no compromise. One produces for profit, the other for use. The Socialist Party is organised for the purpose of securing control of the government. Having conquered the political power upon the platform that declares in favour of common ownership in the name of the people, it will take possession of industry which will already have been organising to meet cooperation. Cooperative industry carried forward in the interest of all the people — that is the foundation of the new social order; economic freedom for every human being.
The existing system is unspeakably cruel. What is the meaning of capitalism? Capitalism is an economic term. It is applied by political economists and sociologists to the economic system of our civilisation, by means of which men achieve economic independence and have the privilege of living idly upon the labour of others, who produce a surplus value above that which they receive for their own sustenance. Capitalism refers to the system. A capitalist is one who profits by the system. If he labours himself, it does not alter the fact that he has an income apart from his labour sufficient to sustain him for life without labour, and therefore his is economically independent. Under capitalism, the production of wealth is carried on for profit. The desire for profits is the motive force which drives the capitalist class to use its capital in the production of wealth. In order to secure profits the workers must be exploited. Part of the product of their labour must be turned over to the capitalist class in the shape of interest and dividends. The Socialist Party champions the working class and declares its intention to abolish wage slavery by the establishment of a worldwide system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members. In socialism, private ownership and barter being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be abolished.
When the means of production are converted into the common property of all members of society, it will be possible for all to enjoy the fruits of labour without excessive toil under bad conditions. Then no one will depend for his existence upon the whim or the desire for profit of another. Men and women, freed from dependence upon property, will form relationships of mutual affection and mutual admiration and no property inspired laws will bind them to sordid, joyless lives. Our compass for where we are headed must have socialism as its destination. We need to keep this end in the forefront of our activity so not to lose our way. Workers will no longer be bought and sold in the labour-markets of the world. We will not make things for sale but will make things to use. We will fill the world with wealth and every man can have all that he can rationally use. Rent, interest, and profit, three forces of exploitation, will disappear forever. Men and women will be economically free and life will no longer be a struggle to place food on the table. The abolishing of the capitalistic system does not merely mean the emancipation of the working class, but of all society. Only through common ownership can society secure for all its members the benefit of the improved method of organisation. Once we establish social ownership of our industries we will throw off the checks on our productive powers and will be able to produce more than enough not only to supply every human being food, clothing, and homes to live in but the opportunity for education and culture which can make life worth living. This planet for the first time since it was flung into space, will be a habitable world, fit for men and women to live in. The Socialist Party's vision is of a world without a master and without a slave.
No comments:
Post a Comment