Our Goal

“The earth shall rise on new foundations;
We have been naught, we shall be all!” 
The Internationale

Since the Socialist Party was founded its  aim has been the realisation of a society based on equality of condition for all persons without distinction of race, sex or creed; a society which will not recognise the right of any privilege to interfere with that equality, whether such privilege rests its claim on birth, wealth or faculties in an individual. The Socialist Party holds that the necessary step to the achievement of this society is the abolition of monopoly ownership in the means of production, which should be owned by no individual or corporation, but by the whole community, in order that the use of them may be free to all in recognition of the maxim ‘from each according to ability, to each according to needs’.

Our party is a party of the revolution. The socialist revolution is the only solution of the labour problem and all our work must lead to this goal. This is our starting point in every field of activity in the class struggle. It is this fundamental conception that distinguishes us from all other parties in the labour movement. It is what that binds us together into one party. The revolutionary aspirations of our party give the party its driving power. Woe to us if we become so “practical” as to forget this for one moment. All our work must lead toward the socialist revolution. If we keep this always in mind and measure all our work by this standard we will keep on the right road. The revolutionary principles to which we are committed put upon us responsibilities which cannot be shifted or evaded if we are to live up to our conception of the party. We have to stand up and fight for the true interests of the working class as a whole, at every turn of the road. Ours is the only party standing for the solution of our social problems by means of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Our party is a party of revolutionary workers, a party of revolutionary struggle against capitalism and all its works. We are not reformists, but revolutionists.  Workers have the power to paralyse the entire system. Such is the conception of our party, the idea of socialism as the self-emancipation of the working class. We must build a mass revolutionary socialist party now, no matter how difficult and discouraging the circumstances may be.

In their everyday life, workers pour their sweat into production and, in capitalist society, experience the life-killing exploitation on which the system is built. They take part in struggles, together with fellow workers, against the abuses and outrages of the capitalist system. Each worker perceives the reality of capitalism. The goal of the Socialist Party is freedom, freedom from hunger and poverty, freedom from war, freedom from endless toil and exploitation, freedom from racial and sexual oppression. These can only be made a reality by establishing socialism. Capitalism has exhausted its progressive role; now it is time for a better system. The working class in society holds a special position. It has no property. It is a propertyless class—dependent upon the class which owns property—the land, the factories, mills, mines, railways, transport. But the land cannot give forth its fullness unless workers plough and sow and reap. The earth cannot deliver its mineral wealth unless workers dig it. Factories, mills, mines, railways, etc., cannot work unless workers are employed to make them serve their purpose in the transformation of nature’s wealth into social wealth. It is this fact which compels the owners of the means of producing wealth to employ labour. They need that labour or their ownership ceases to be of value. That is why the withdrawal of labour by the workers can be so powerful a weapon when used on a large scale. Socialism is the name given to that form of society in which there is no such thing as a propertyless class, but in which the whole community has become a working community owning the means of production—the land, factories, mills, mines, transport and all the means whereby wealth is created and distributed to the community. It will be obvious at once that the basic principles of Socialist society are diametrically opposite to those of Capitalist society in which we live. Socialism stands for social or community property. Capitalism stands for private or state property. Socialism is a society without classes. Capitalism is divided into classes—the class owning property and the propertyless working class. We can easily understand, therefore, why the great majority of landlords, employers of labour, financiers and the like are opposed to Socialism. Their very existence as the receivers of rent, interest, and profit is at stake.