Rallying for Socialism

Starvation, hunger, disease, the cries for “food!” – the depths of privation in the midst of an unprecedented abundance of wealth. The Socialist Party views capitalism as a destructive system that hurts, divides and exploits the vast majority of our people for the sake of profits and power for the few.

The Socialist Party advocates and works for socialism–that is, common ownership and collective control of the means of production (factories, fields, utilities, etc.) We want a system based on cooperation, where the people build together for the common good.  Votes obtained by a campaign conducted on the case for socialism mean that those who voted can be counted as sincere votes for socialism but votes obtained by offering all kinds of promises, can shift to some other party the next election with a better menu of reforms. The struggle between individual capitalists to realise profits sets employer against employer. The conflict between national groups of financiers sets nation against nation and produces war. But despite their individual and national conflicts, the whole capitalist class stands united in their common desire to exploit labour. Hence under capitalism, the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers and are but mere commodities.

Socialism aims at giving a meaning to people's life and work; at enabling then freedom, their creativity, and the most positive aspects of their personality to flourish. Socialist society implies people's self-organisation of every aspect of their social activities. Socialism can be established only by the autonomous action of the working class. The hallmark of socialism is for the first time in history, technology will be subordinated to human needs. We are socialists out of conviction–because we see capitalism as harmful to the vast majority of our own and the world’s people. This system we live under, by its very nature, grinds the poor and working people, sets one group against another, and acts violently against people at home and around the world when they resist. We see in socialism the seeds and the method of achieving a more just, more cooperative and more peaceful society. Socialism offers a future free from the fears of poverty, sexism, racism, dog-eat-dog competition, joblessness, and the loneliness of old age. As the socialist movement grows, we will be nearer to creating a society that allows each person to create and produce according to her or his ability and to obtain what she or he needs. People are the planet's most precious resource.

In opposition to all other parties—Conservative, Lib-Dem, Nationalist, and Labour—we affirm that so long as one section of the community own and control the means of production, and the rest of the community is compelled to work for that section in order to obtain the means of life, there can be no peace between them.

By your neglect you stand for misery, exploitation, greed and war. The eyes of the world are upon you. The choice is the sweeping away of ignorance.