Making our future for ourselves

The purpose of the Socialist Party is to explain to the workers why it is that, although they produce the wealth, they remain poor. The capitalist buys labour-power and pockets the difference between the value of the workers’ product and the wage he pays them. It is obvious, therefore, that while the wages system remains, exploitation must continue.  The Socialist Party holds a clear and consistent course. The Socialist Party since its inception pointed out the essential facts of the working-class position and laid out its policy. The Socialist Party holds resolutely to the need for the workers to advance to their emancipation through the conquest of the political machinery. One path they have never trodden, one weapon they have never found fail them — the policy and path of the Socialist Party — the weapon of political action on class-conscious, uncompromising, revolutionary lines. So we go on as we have gone on, declaring that the only way is by the capture of the political machinery by means of the ballot, by the organised, politically educated workers. This implies that the first need is to politically educate and organise the workers. Empty platitudes and meaningless rhetoric is not enough to change society. There is a false hope that somehow the ruling class may inexplicably become humane. Or technology and robotics will save us.  It should be noted that political and business leaders do not listen to the scientists and there is no reason why they will forgo their power by reason. False hopes lead to inaction and blind us to real possibilities. Blinkered views produce flawed pseudo-solutions, which if attempted often exacerbate other problems, or at the very least are a complete waste of time and energy. We must act together in a fight that people have never engaged in ever before. A peaceful revolution must be stoked among the working class. The lies of capitalism incite the "us against them” paranoia and fear. Our civilization is headed for a downfall, to be sure, if social change does not come. If global warming were the only problem,(and don’t forget it’s associated problem of acidification of the oceans) humans might in by remote chance still survive. But combine that with pollution (extinction of insect pollinators; poisoning of fresh water resources), the depletion of soil fecundity then the prospects for the survival of homo sapiens becomes even slimmer.

The Socialist Party tries to reveal the truth about society and talk about a whole set of better ways to be humane and human, of how socialism holds the key to sanity and salvation. Today, we are suffering from so many social problems that urgently need to be addressed by the whole humanity – environmental crisis, large-scale poverty and huge inequality, wars an civil wars. So we should not opt for adding more problems by creating nationalism and separatism. Independence movements are only distractions from the main task. It is essential that we build an economy based on mutual aid and solidarity that seeks sufficiency and abundance for all, in balance and harmony with our planet. Only a rationally planned and ecologically-aware system, locally organised and at the same time globally integrated, can solve our crises. Cooperation and reciprocation were the rule for 99.9% of human existence. There is archaeological evidence of large-scale warfare before 4000 BCE. Human society was almost totally peaceful and egalitarian throughout history.

 Imagine a world organising as a world of democratically self-governing yet interdependent communities in which each community bears responsibility for living within the means of its own natural resources,  that recognises our common humanity and fulfils our need to share and care for our brothers and sisters and the planet itself. This will require fostering an internationalist outlook for we are interconnected with human societies worldwide. Socialism calls for sustainable, steady-state economy where distribution is based on need and not on the ability to pay. The capitalist system is suicidal for the planet and our species in the long term. Although it may seem like a pipe-dream today, a  fully-automated “Star Trek” socialism, and it appears that we are a long way from this vision, the longer we wait, the worse things are going to get. In the end, it is up to each and every one of us to decide the type of world we want to help foster. What version of the future do we want?  One where the ruling class expands their exploitation of nearly everything around us for their wanton self-gain? Or we accept the responsibility of good stewardship toward one another and the planet and recognise the underlying interdependence, which all life requires for its continuance?