Humanity faces a multi-faceted crisis. Endless wars, economic inequality, racism, xenophobia, sexism and other forms of hate-filled discrimination and possible climate Armageddon. There is no “we”; there is only “us and them.” There are two opposing sides in this struggle. Pleading with those few with wealth and power to do the right thing is not a very effective strategy and it hasn’t gotten us very far up to now. A better strategy is to take the power and wealth into our own hands – into the hands of the majority – and use that political power to directly address the problems we face. We must adopt the democratic position of the majority giving the orders rather than continuing to accept the crumbs offered by the unelected minority that has been running the system for generations. We have to identify who’s on our side and whom we’re up against. Our allies are broadly speaking all working people, every person who lives from pay cheque to pay cheque.
Does capitalism deserve to be supported any longer? It brings hard toil, misery, and desolation, in peace and in war, to the mass of the people. It is time those who bear the sufferings took time to think how those sufferings could be abolished. The only way to do so is to destroy the source from which they flow—the private ownership of the means of production. It is high time that the workers realised that whoever rules over them will continue to serve the interests of only one section of society, the capitalist class. In socialism, there will be no ruling class and no working class, just free and equal human beings who will run society’s affairs communally and democratically. Socialist society will serve the interests of all.
One of the consequences of believing that big is bad is that certain key aspects of capitalism—such as markets, money, and buying and selling—can come to be seen as acceptable provided they only exist on a small-scale; then they become beautiful.
Marxism is not a dogma, not a record of the sayings and doings of Karl Marx to be carefully preserved and uncritically applied whatever the circumstances. Marxism is a method of assessing what, at any particular time, is in the best interest of the working class and should be done to hasten the establishment of socialism.
Being Marxists, the Socialist Party broadly accepts the analyses of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels which indicted the capitalist mode of production as underpinning the state of class divide in contemporary society. They identified that the material abundance created by capitalism paradoxically involved the exploitation of the majority of people, and their deprivation from a share in the fruits of their own labour. Nevertheless, their subjugation could also provide an opportunity for the emergence of a class consciousness, an opportunity for a consciousness that could bring about a socialist revolution which would dispossess the capitalists of their ownership of the means of production. This would in effect dissolve the basis for class domination and in turn, allow for a different kind of economy built on efforts in common.
Mankind is facing frightful threats to its survival. Some already believe it is already too late and doomsday unavoidable. The Socialist Party believes that humankind is not doomed and it is not merely wishful thinking but we make no predictions about the future. Within a capitalist society, human beings are despised, alienated, exploited, oppressed or denied basic dignity. There is no better way than to dedicate your life to the great cause of ending such a humiliating system.
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