One for all, All for one

The ruling class claim for themselves the mantle of progress, logic, truth, beauty, and knowledge. They represent socialists as deluded, irrational, psychotic, violent and hateful. But just look at these critics of socialism; the militarist and perverted capitalists who would see a world plunged into barbarism before they relinquish a penny of their fabulous profits and the power-mad industrialists who calmly grind the working class to dust beneath the wheels of automation. Socialists are infinitely more rational than our class enemies. The socialist future is clearly within our grasp. And what better life can a person carve out than participation in the emancipation of humanity? What better use to make of one's life than in working towards a new civilisation? We look toward a time when we shall have ceased to mourn martyrs. A time when we are no longer occupied with accepting defeats and explaining betrayals. Not because we will have forgotten the past, but simply because we will be too busy creating a new world rich with freedom, plenty, humane relations between people, and the joy of living. For sure, we are still few and isolated, and the road ahead is uncertain and complex, nevertheless, we are dedicated to achieving human freedom because without it we know there is no freedom for us. People forced to fight on many fronts will begin to wonder about the reasons for having to struggle so often, so hard, and against so many enemies. It will dawn that something obviously must be wrong with the entire system; that our separate struggles have a common enemy, and we must find common cause and mutual solidarity if any of us is to survive. So we arrive at the answers: The problem is capitalism. The solution is socialism. Our task in the Socialist Party is to tell the truth to a disbelieving world. The world is in crisis. Capitalism, the prevailing system of society, is in process of destroying our planet. To the ripening condition for socialism must be added the maturity of the working class. Whenever the working class desires socialism, we will have socialism. It is impossible to have socialism in a country where small production is general as in the case of Russia. A weak ruling class, lacking the means of repression found in highly organized capitalist centres; a peasantry uneducated and consequently devoid of that respect for master class teaching inseparable from well developed industrial communities; a state of war in existence, which spelled starvation, bloodshed, and discontent for the masses; all these circumstances made possible the successful attempt of the Bolsheviks to capture political power. This they did. It is also impossible to have socialism where the vast majority of people do not desire it. In other words, socialism without democracy is unthinkable. The building of socialism requires widespread understanding and participation, and will not be achieved by an elite working “on behalf of” the people. Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. Democracy in daily life is the core of our socialism.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY strives to establish a democracy that places people’s lives under their own control — a class-free society in which people cooperate at work and in the community. Socialism is not government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic system. The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewable future by not plundering the resources of the earth. In a socialist system, the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically-controlled agencies. The goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health-care, child-care, and cultural opportunities. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and global levels, and is determined democratically. Worker and community control make it possible to combine life at work, home and in the community into a meaningful whole.

People live in a society racked with crises. This society can neither guarantee them a secure future nor even promise there will be a future. The threat of nuclear war casts a shadow over the lives of all of us and an environmental apocalypse looms before us. This society places a premium on wealth. The vast majority of our people work out their lives for the enrichment of the small minority of profiteers who through their wealth control the entire society. The system is capitalism. Under it a small minority rule in fact if not in name, and profit is the be-all and end-all of economic life; human needs comes a distant second—if at all. People across the world need to cast off the systems which oppress them and build a new world fit for all humanity. The profit system cannot make use of automation for the benefit of society; socialism will. The future society that will be constructed under socialism will reduce work to an insignificant part of daily life and offer the individual the fullest possibilities to pursue his own abilities and interests. In politics, we don’t believe in choosing the “lesser evil” over a greater evil. We choose instead something good for working men and women: THE SOCIALIST PARTY!