Socialism is the Alternative to Capitalism

The aim of the Socialist Party is the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class and its replacement with socialism. Every political party defends the interest of one class or another in society. The Socialist Party defends the interests of the working class, and works to prepare its victory over the capitalists. Our Party’s role is to educate, organise and agitate the working class. The primary task of the Socialist Party is the political education of the working class. Through our campaigns, we explain the true nature of the system that oppresses workers and the need for socialist revolution. Our Party bases itself firmly on the theory of Marxism and the worldview of historical materialism. Marxism shows how the working class is exploited by the capitalist class; why capitalism must be overthrown and replaced by socialism. Our Party struggles firmly against all distortions of Marxism. The Socialist Party is the only one to represent the interest of the working class. It is the party that defends the cause of all the working people.

A handful of capitalists make vast profits on the labour of the working people. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries, and mines are in the hands of a few hundred capitalists. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. Every bit of the capitalists' vast wealth was stolen from the working people. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour. At the end of the week/month, a worker collects their pay. The capitalists and their apologetic flunkeys claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalists and their flunkeys. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street.

Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis, plagued by periodic economic recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. It is the very nature of each business to try to maximise its profits by pushing production and cutting expenses, especially the pay of workers. Prices tend to go up and wages down. The result is that companies find they cannot sell all they have produced, and they lay off workers. This only worsens the situation and the economy sinks even further. Economic crises are aggravated by speculation, hoarding and other schemes of the bankers, financiers, and industrialists. Each tries to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class and people to suffer. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. Money is diverted from the expansion of production and social services into speculative frenzies. Useful products and crops are routinely destroyed to keep prices and profits high. Massive industrial plants sit idle as the investors and CEOs decide they can make money in other ventures. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive. In the face of economic crisis, capitalism has always tried to put the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working people. It uses wage freezes, social contracts, cuts in benefits, increases in taxation, cuts in expenditure on health and education, and handouts to businesses. For working people the future is less and less certain. Wages fall or remain stagnant while hours increase and working conditions deteriorate.

People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reaction, and social decay. The drive for profits holds thousands hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breathe and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence, drugs, crime and social devastation. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, the anarchy of production, economic crises and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self-interest of the tiny group of monopoly capitalists. Capitalism, nevertheless, has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production, there must be common ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. Socialism will be won through the overthrow of capitalism - the seizure of political power by the working class. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government control. Today we often hear of government control of the railways or post office as "creeping socialism". But the state serves the interests of the ruling class.

The economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit and luxury consumption by the rich. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion in useful production and the wealth of society will become useful. The means of production - the factories, forests, farms, offices, transportation systems, media, communications, retail chains will be taken into common ownership. Private ownership will end. The personal possessions property of people will be left alone. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of coordination. A socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. Productivity gains will be used to shorten the working day and improve living standards, rather than create unemployment. Construction of housing, schools, medical, cultural and sporting facilities for working people will be a priority. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. No longer will investors and landlords live off the labour of others. Every person will get the opportunity to contribute to society as much as they are able. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to common ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own workplaces through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of supervisors and consultants today. In this way, workers will be able to make their workplaces safe and efficient places that can serve their own interests as well as society's.

To make revolution and put an end to capitalism, the working class must have a clear strategic plan and must determine who are the main enemies. Standing in the way of social progress and socialism is the capitalist class. In making the socialist revolution, the capitalist class is our main enemy. Our foe is the ruling class who hold state power and is responsible for the hardships facing our people. Against this minority stands the vast majority of the rest of the population. The conditions of life for 95% of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the ruling class of capitalists. The working class is daily thrown into conflict with the capitalist class. The capitalists are the ruling class. They are our enemy in the fight for socialism. Through their ownership and control of the means of production they control the economic life and live off the profits they squeeze from the working class. Through the Tories, Labour and Nationalist parties the capitalist class uses the government for its own ends. Through its control of the State, the capitalists make the decisions which affect the whole of society. However, for all its power, the capitalist class is not a totally united class. There are divisions between domestic and foreign capital, between monopoly and non-monopoly capital, between state and private capital.

The working class is composed of all wage-earners - mental and manual, urban and rural - whether in basic industry, manufacturing, service, farm, sales, domestic, clerical, public or other jobs. The working class is composed of skilled and unskilled, employed and unemployed. Some workers earn more money than some in the so-called middle-class, but they are still members of the working class because they must sell their labour power to survive. Despite its huge numerical advantage, the powerful potential of the working class has been frustrated by division and lack of class consciousness. The majority of workers at this time do not understand the need for fundamental change to society. They have difficult lives but do not see how their problems can be resolved. They want an improvement in their lives and often struggle against their employers, but do not yet see the need for revolutionary change. There are also workers who are generally content with their station in life or feel that, even though things could improve, capitalism is the best system. They do not favour change and many are affected by national chauvinism. These workers normally agree with the capitalist class on major domestic and foreign policy issues.

The struggle for socialism will mainly be a protracted legal one, but the working class cannot chain itself to the rules established by the ruling class. The working class must make preparations to defend itself from attack and be able to adopt different tactics in the case of class war. We are internationalists.