The only hope is a socialist future

An employer is interested in only one thing: profits. The sole reason why any owner of a business hires workers and produces goods is because he can make a profit by selling the goods that he produces and if he is unable to gain a profitable return he closes his factory and the workers are made redundant. Lower the wages — higher the profits. Fortunately, the workers do not submit passively. They organise themselves into unions so that they can sell the only thing they possess, their labour-power, at a higher price and under better conditions.

Knowing the basic cause of society's social ills, we are in the position of a doctor who knows the cause of what ails people. We can prescribe the cure. The cure is socialism. The basic idea of socialism is that all the means of production and distribution be owned in common by all of the people. Instead of having individuals or corporations own all the factories and employ workers to produce goods only when a profit can be made from their sale, society as a whole will own the factories, and the workers will produce the things required to feed, house and clothe all of the people. Communities will figure out how much of each article will be necessary to satisfy the needs of consumers and the factories will be set into motion to produce more than enough of each item. Instead of the anarchy and the waste of competition that prevail at the present, production and distribution will be thoroughly planned by elected committees delegated to help alongside the participation of the workers. Decisions and projections will constantly be subjected to analysis and revision. It is impossible, of course, to furnish a complete blueprint indicating every detail of the functioning of society under socialism. Of one thing we can be certain. A change in the system of property from private ownership, producing for profit, to collective ownership, producing for use, will solve the major problems facing the people today.

The Socialist Party contends that industry has developed technology to such a degree where a sufficient quantity of goods can be produced to assure everyone the highest standard of living and with the production of goods in sufficiently large quantities socialism will end the problem of insecurity. Since things will be produced for use and not for profit and if too much will be produced, it will merely mean more leisure for the workers. With profits eliminated and production increased, there will be no difficulty for society to take care of those unable or even unwilling to work. It is certainly necessary to convince of the desirability and necessity for socialism. Human nature is supposed to be such as to make socialism an unachievable and unrealisable utopia. Human behaviour will reflect the character of the future society just as at present it assumes the competitive, selfish, grasping character of capitalist society. When you take into consideration the greed, the strife, the cheating and the violence that exist under the system of private property, you are amazed, not that the human animal is so bad but that, in spite of everything, mankind has not completely degenerated into a wild beast. If anything, it can be argued that humanity is inherently good and not bad. But, let no one imagine that we assert that under socialism all men will be born with equal abilities. Just as at present, there will be individuals with greater and lesser abilities, but the superior individual will be educated to use his or her capacities to serve society and not to exploit others. For the person of greater talents, socialism, by doing away with the struggle for food and clothing, will mean a far greater opportunity for the exercise of those talents.

If the capitalists were to depend upon force alone to guarantee their privileged position, their situation would be precarious indeed. After all, they represent only a small minority of the people. Against such a decisive majority the instruments of force at the disposal of the capitalist class could not prevail. If the working masses would be aroused and determined to abolish capitalism, the police and the army would be helpless, even if we assume that all of the soldiers would be loyal to the capitalist class. What the capitalist class must depend upon, more than on force is deceit. All the force in the world would not avail the capitalists if they could not deceive and confuse the majority. Even their police and their armies would not be reliable because the police and the army are composed of people who come from the working class and who permit themselves to be used against their class brothers simply because they do not know better. The rulers of our present social order see to it that the workers are subjected to a system of conditioning which succeeds in making them believe that the present system is the best possible system and that if there is anything wrong with it, it is only of a minor character and can be easily cured by changing the people who are in control of things. It is this deception, more than anything else, that assures the existence of a social order which brings so much misery and suffering to people. From early childhood, every person is subjected to the influence of ideas which tend to make him respect authority, and to believe in things as they are. Obedience is the virtue stressed by religious preachers and by school teachers. Day in and day out the capitalist media lets loose a veritable flood of lies and half-truths, the sum, and substance of which is that capitalism is the best of all possible systems and that only people with pathological tendencies would want to change that system. On all sides there stand the gate-keepers of the rulers guarding the interests of the exploiting few, permitting only debate and discussion that does not threaten their masters. Swayed by the fake news and false ideas promoted by the capitalist class, the workers not only fail to struggle against their real enemies but actually permit themselves to be pitted against one another. They allow themselves to be divided on racial, national and gender grounds. Prejudices are fostered so that the struggle against the common enemy is weakened. Mighty forces stand in the path of the working class yet if we look at history, we discover that there have been revolutions in the past which were successful. The lesson is clear. When the problems confronting people cannot be resolved by the ruling class, when the people are suffering without getting relief, when they see an arrogant minority wallowing in luxury, indifferent to the fate of others, then they are receptive to radical solutions. The ideas which the ruling class brainwash into the minds of the masses loses their hold and new ideas are accepted. The blinkers which blinded the workers are lifted from their eyes and they realise that they must take their fate into their own hands. No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. When a system of society outlives its usefulness, when in the womb of the old society there has been prepared the possibility of a new social order, when the people suffer needlessly, and when the ruling class is unable to solve the problems facing society—under such circumstances—the ideas representing the new social order are understood and accepted leaving the tools and instruments of force and deceit at the disposal of the ruling class ineffective to preserve the old order. A revolution occurs and a new social system comes into being.