In the race for profits, the capitalists continually expand their production in order to throw the greatest possible amount of goods onto the market. But their production and expansion are anarchistic, that is, it is not organised according to any rational social plan based on the real needs of the majority of the population. Working people have always had to work hard for a living – and still do. We live in a World where, despite the richness in natural resources and productive capacities, peoples’ standard of living is declining and the gap between the rich and poor is steadily widening not narrowing.
Many people will say that they have lived in the former Soviet Union or Eastern European Bloc and that they want no part of it. Let’s look at the Soviet Union – an example of what socialism is not. The Russian economy and state were ruled by a new exploiting class. The separate enterprises and the entire economy were dominated by the profit motive. Managers had the power to speed-up, lay off and fire workers. Managers’ salaries depended on the productivity of their particular enterprises. Unions negotiated with management for contracts much as we do. Black markets flourished. “Democracy” existed only for the new ruling class, not for the majority of the working people. The U.S.S.R. competes with the U.S.A. to divide the world’s people under their respective spheres of influence. Its forms of aid to countries and movements around the world deliberately build dependency on the Soviet Union, not self-reliance. When members of its “family” stepped out of line as Czechoslovakia did in 1968 or Hungary in 1956, the Soviet rulers used their full political, economic and military strength to repress them. None of the above are features of a socialist society. They describe a country ruled by a new privileged bureaucrat-capitalist class, where the working population is exploited and oppressed. Anyone who defends this kind of country as socialist only serves to confuse people as to what socialism is really all about, and what socialists actually stand for. It is very important for working people to discuss these questions seriously. They are directly connected with the problems we experience every day of our lives. The myriad of so-called socialist and communist groups who claim to be the vanguard does not represent the interests of the working class. Nor will class-consciousness be built by any one of the hosts of left-wing sects presently vying for the workers’ favour. It is not through “revolutionary phrase-mongering”, or opportunist interventions in the class struggle, that workers will be won to accept socialist ideas and become genuinely “class-conscious”. If any such group begins luring people with the bait of reform promises from a desire to further their own interests as the self-proclaimed vanguard of the class struggle”, then it is not really acting in the interests of their fellow-workers.
Socialism is the end of exploitation of one class by another has been eliminated. Production develops not for profit but according to the needs of the people. It is the community that controls what is produced and how it is distributed, not a tiny handful of capitalists. It is only through building a socialist society that we can solve the basic problems that we face. Socialism and only socialism will create a world without national barriers, without international rivalries, without master and slave nations and, hence, a world without war. World socialism will not be a government of a dominant economic class but will be an administration of all the peoples that inhabit the globe. Its primary duty will be to conduct the affairs of the world with the aim of eliminating poverty, joblessness, hunger and general insecurity. Its sole criterion would be the needs of the people. Socialism will end the root evil of modern society, i.e., the private ownership of the means of production, the factories, mines, mills, machinery, and land, which produce the necessities of life. Socialism will guarantee peace, security, and freedom and prevent the destruction of mankind. With socialism, these instruments of production will become the property of society, owned in common, producing for use, for the general welfare of the people as a whole. With the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life and with it the factor of profit as the prime mover of production, the sharp divisions of society between nations and classes will disappear. Then, and only then, will society be in a position to become a social order of abundance and plenty for all, for socialism will create a new world of genuine cooperation and collaboration between the peoples of the Earth. In abolishing classes in society, socialism will change the form and type of governments which exist today. Governments will become administrative bodies regulating production and consumption. They will not be the instruments of the capitalist class, i.e., capitalist governments whose main reason for existence is to guarantee the political as well as the economic rule of big business, their profits, their private ownership of the instruments of production, and the conduct of war in the economic and political interests of this class. The preoccupation of decision-making in socialism will be to assist and to improve continually the living standards of the people, to extend their leisure time and thus make it possible to heighten the cultural level of the whole world. The aim of socialism is not the increased exploitation and intensification of labour, but the utilization of machinery, technology, science, and invention to diminish toil, to create time in which to permit all the people to enjoy the benefits of social progress.
In abolishing classes, class government and war, socialism will at the same time destroy all forms of dictatorship, political as well as economic. The socialist world state will be the freest, most democratic society the world has ever known, with the world government truly representing the majority of the population and subject to its recall. A citizen of a socialist society will look back upon the capitalist era with its wars, destruction and bloody and cruel dictatorships as we now look back upon the Dark Ages. World socialism will assess the productive potential of the world, determine its resources, the needs of the people and plan production with the aim of increasing the standards of living of a free people, creating abundance, increasing leisure and opportunity for cultural enjoyment. Socialism will not concern itself with profits and war, but with providing a decent life for all the people. The modern world contains all the pre-conditions necessary for socialism. All about us, we observe gigantic industrial establishments containing machinery which could produce the goods of life in abundance. Mankind has developed a marvelous technology. The discovery and control of atomic energy have not only made it more possible for mankind to control the natural and social environment to create a fruitful life of abundance but has made it imperative. Socialism will place at the disposal of science and the scientists all the material means to help create an ever-improving social life for mankind. Only socialism can place science and technology where they properly belong: in the service of the people
Humanity is at a crossroads. We can travel the road of capitalism, the road of chaos, war, poverty, and barbarism, or we can take the socialist path toward true freedom, peace and security, towards a society of plenty for all which would end the exploitation of man by man for all time.
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