War of the Classes

A socialist is one who, having investigated the causes of present-day social discord, decides that these causes are found in the private ownership of the means of wealth production and who therefore endorses the necessity for co-operative ownership in order to eliminate private or sectional monopoly, and secure the advantages for the whole people. It is a common thing to find persons expressing sympathy with socialism and socialists, when all that is intended by them is a kindly feeling towards those in poverty, but by no means do they endorse the co-operative ownership and control of the land, mines, minerals, machinery and agencies of transit, without which no one can be a socialist. By co-operative ownership is meant ownership of the whole people, ie the raw material and machinery of production to become the property of the all, and industry to be democratically administered in the common interest. Socialism involves the transference from present-day private ownership to common ownership of all those agencies of wealth production necessary for the supply of life’s necessaries for the whole people. Let the fact never be forgotten, private property system utterly fails most lamentably to provide all the people with the necessities of life. The Socialist Party declares and the whole world bears witness to the truth of that statement. We declare the present system stands condemned.

 Socialism is the recognition and adoption of the principle and practice of association as against isolation, of co-operation as against competition, of concerted action in the interests of all, instead of “each for himself and devil take the hindmost.” Socialism saddles upon each of us the responsibility of being our “brother’s keeper.” If a child, woman or man is starving, socialism says there is something wrong in our social system, and upon us, all individually and collectively rests the responsibility of righting the wrong. If one street or a dozen streets contain one slum dwelling or a number of such, Socialism says to each of us jointly and severally, “crime exists somewhere or no slum would exist, see to it quickly, root it out, raze the slum to the ground and let air and sunshine operate. If men are overworked, and so prevented from fully sharing in the joys of life, socialism bids us to immediately remove the overwork and see to it that every man and every woman shall have a fair share of all that makes life worth living. There can be no real socialism where exploitation exists, under socialism no person can live idly upon the labour of others by receiving unearned income in the forms of interest, profit or rent. Therefore socialism means the complete supercession of the present capitalist system, of private ownership and control of land, machinery, and money, necessary for reproductive purposes. Therefore those who do not believe in the necessity for and the justice of the common ownership of the means of production should not call themselves socialists. No one should consider it necessary to patronise socialists or socialism, whilst not believing in the principles. To understand the socialist position one must have some root grasp of the Socialist Party's case which declares that the present capitalist system is based upon the legalised robbery of the wealth producers by the capitalist class and the undoubted object of our Party is to get rid of the employing class as speedily as possible. Socialism stands for the abolition of this class robbery and the abolition of its associated poverty.  All socialists of every country agree with that statement. There may be differences of opinion as to the particular kind of action, political and economic and there are some who would not use parliamentary action at all for the realisation of the object, but few would disagree with that object as stated.

The Socialist Party desires a free society wherein exploitation will be impossible. The future of the world is to be co-operative, and not competitive. The well-being of the planet depends upon the efficiency of wealth production and equity of distribution. With modern methods of production, effectively applied, an abundance of commodities can be provided to satisfy the needs of all. To ensure efficiency of production, there must be free access to the raw material and machinery, therefore all private and sectional monopoly of natural agencies or mechanical appliances must disappear. The present system of conducting manufacturing and trading operations primarily for the purposes of capitalist profit instead of producing for the use of all is directly responsible for the enforced idleness of a considerable section in every country, and for keeping the mass of the wage workers in of all countries in constant subjection to the capitalist class. Modern science teaches that man’s powers over natural forces are constantly increasing, the only possible basis for industrialism that will admit of all sharing in these advantages is the co-operative basis. The clearly avowed object therefore of the Socialist Party is to hasten the change of transferring from private ownership to common ownership, all the agencies of wealth production and distribution, to control these agencies on a co-operative basis in the interests of all alike, and to aim constantly at securing for all citizens the highest standard of mental culture, industrial efficiency, and social well-being. The struggle is not confined to one nation but covers the whole of civilisation.