All the hopes of a better future and the promises of prosperity just around the corner keep crashing down, time after time. Fewer and fewer people are satisfied with the status quo. But the powerful ideology of “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) has constrained many people’s political imagination and consigned them to political apathy; our task as socialists is to convince them that there is, indeed, an alternative to capitalism. Discussions about socialism inevitably depend on what is meant by “socialism” in the first place. Socialism means a class-free society, and a class-free society means that a privileged minority is not in a position to enjoy the wealth, while the majority live only on their labour to produce it. It means especially that privileged individuals who do have excess income cannot invest it in the instruments of production with which others work, thus reducing them to a position of fixed subservience. It means an end of rent, profit, and interest on stocks and bonds, an end of “surplus value,” an end of the exploitation of labour. The Socialist Party does not hide the fact that we are consistent enemies of capitalism. Our aim is to replace capitalism by socialism because it is absolutely necessary to the survival of civilisation. We hold that capitalism has outlived its usefulness. We are convinced that if capitalism is allowed to continue, we will be plunged into barbarism. In a word, we hold that capitalism is bankrupt and that if humanity is to advance it must move on to socialism. A socialist society means peace, security, prosperity, freedom, and equality - all the things that the working people, the little people of society, have always wanted and longed for.
Capitalist society, like all class societies, is divided into unequals. So long as one class continues to own the means of production, and another class owns nothing but its ability to work, which it is compelled to sell to the other class in order to live – the best government in the world, composed of the best men and adopting the best laws, cannot possibly establish equality between the two classes. If one class owns, it will always exploit and rule the class that does not own. The capitalist government is an instrument for maintaining the power over society of the capitalist class and for suppressing the class that is ruled over, the workers. A machine whose basic function is to maintain the rule of one class over another is necessarily also a machine of oppression. That is essentially the purpose for the police and the prisons. The capitalist class owns and controls the means of creating and influencing opinion through its control of the media. In countless ways it instills its class ideas into the minds of the workers. It poisons their thinking. It not only gets them to believe that capitalism is eternal and benevolent, but that socialism is unnecessary and impossible. It even gets many workers to oppose such elementary necessities as trade unions. Capitalist society is organised against the working class. The capitalist class is an irreconcilable enemy of the workers. Political equality is a myth. The capitalist class do ninety-nine per cent of the talking and writing, because of its economic power, and the working class only one per cent. Political power gives the capitalist class an overwhelming advantage over its workers in influencing votes and thereby determining elections.
Socialism alone can give its true meaning to the whole idea of human justice. The Socialist Party maintains that the means of production and wealth acquired and accumulated by humanity should be at the disposal of humanity. Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and their democratic organisation and management by all the people in a society free of classes, class divisions and class rule. Socialism is the democratic organisation of production for use, of production for abundance, of plenty for all, without the exploitation of man by man. Socialism is the union of the whole world into a global federation of free and equal people, disposing in common of the natural resources and wealth of our planet. Can this great ideal ever be realised? It can and must be realised. It can be realised because it is capitalism itself that has prepared the two main and indispensable conditions for socialism. The first condition is such a highly developed industry, such a highly developed technique of production, such a highly developed social (instead of individual) way of producing the means of life, that it is now possible to organise our economic life to produce in abundance for all in a minimum of working time. The second condition is the development of a modern working class whose interests are so diametrically opposed to the interests of the capitalist class that it is compelled, in sheer self-defence, to replace capitalism by a rational socialist society, and which is so numerous and mighty that it is able to replace capitalism by socialism. Socialist production is organised for use, not for profit. Production is carried on in a planned, coordinated, democratically-administered way, not on the basis of whether or not the private capitalist can make a profit on the market.
Where there is abundance for all, the nightmare of insecurity vanishes. There are jobs for all, and they are no longer dependent on whether or not the employer can make a fat profit in a fat market. There is not only a high standard of living, but every industrial advance is followed by a rising standard of living and a declining working-day. Where there is abundance for all, and where no one has the economic power to exploit and oppress others, the basis of classes, class division, and class conflict vanishes. The basis of a ruling state, of a government of violence and repression, with its prisons and police and army, also disappears. Police and thieves, prisons and violence are inevitable where there is economic inequality or abundance for the few and scarcity for the many. They disappear when there is plenty for all, therefore economic equality, therefore social equality. Where there is abundance for all, and where all have equal access to the fruits of the soil and the wealth of industry, the mad conflicts and wars between nations and peoples vanish. With them vanishes the irrepressible urge that exists under capitalism for one nation to subject others, to rob it of its rights, to exploit and oppress it, to provoke and maintain the hideous national and racial antagonisms that cling to capitalism like an ineradicable bloodstain. Where mankind is free of economic exploitation, of economic inequality, of economic insecurity, he is free for the first time to develop as a human being among his fellow human beings, free to contribute to the unfolding of a new culture and a new humanity.
We are revolutionary socialists who believe that capitalism — as a system centred on private accumulation and profit — is inherently a system of inequality, injustice, and war. We want a social system where social wealth is not in the hands of a few billionaires, but is controlled by the people. We seek both economic and political democracy. Our enemy is capitalism. Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, food industries, and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. It is this system that we are fighting. Capitalism organises globally. Blocs of capital compete intensely for growth and profits. Under capitalism you either destroy the competition, or are destroyed yourself. This drive sends the corporations around the world, seeking cheaper raw materials and corrupt local governments that will ensure a "friendly investment climate." Capitalism continuously seeks cheaper labour costs. Capitalism is a system of violence. Poverty is built into its operation. The capitalist class needs to maintain its grip on the levers of power.
The struggle for a liveable and sustainable planet is a life-and-death issue. Capitalist greed has polluted our air, destroyed the forests, poisoned our waters, and drenched our food with toxic chemicals. Our survival necessitates control of technology and production and the elimination of the blind competition and consumerism that causes us to squander so many of the world's resources needlessly. We work to develop a new vision to deepen our understanding of the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature. People will have to change how they live and how society is organised. Only conscious socialist planning by all of society can make this a reality.
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