Would-be dictators and admirers of dictatorship consider the earth’s people pawns, to be used for the profit of some few controlling rulers.
Socialism is a system of society in which the land, the means of production, and distribution are held in common. Production is for use, as and when required, not for profit, exchange or sale. The organisation of production and distribution is by those who do the work. Each work-place is an autonomous unit working in unison with others and in mutual harmony with other enterprises. Socialism is a class-free society in which all shall have leisure and culture, and all shall be secured from want. We shall be cultured, equal co-workers for the commonweal. Our goal is a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the industries and services to be administered in the interests of all society. Achieving this revolutionary change from capitalism to socialism can only be through the class-conscious action of the working-class itself. The issue, literally, is survival. The harm and damage already done to all of us and to our environment by capitalism’s existence is beyond exact calculation. If it is not abolished and replaced with a socialist cooperative commonwealth by the organised working class, there is the distinct possibility that capitalism may destroy humanity and the world in the process. That need not happen. And it won’t happen if all who realise the need for a socialist reconstruction of society join us to appeal to our brothers and sisters of every race, of every colour, to accomplish the revolutionary change to socialism and thus guarantee the future safety and well-being of the humanity.
Many people believe that socialism means government or state ownership and control. Who can blame them when that is what is taught and repeated by the media, politicians and our schools? But worse, some people and organizations that label themselves “socialist” preach it, too — not the Socialist Party which says that socialism means something entirely different. If nationalisation or state ownership is not socialism, what is? In socialism, the workers who operate the industries and services would collectively own and democratically manage them. In each workplace, the producers would elect their own immediate management committees. They would also elect representatives to local and national assemblies of the industry or service in which they work, and to wider all-industrial congresses to coordinate production and distribution of all goods and services throughout the region and world. In short, socialism would replace the political government run by politicians with a democratic administration run by workers, their elected delegates and their communities. And when the Socialist Party uses the word “worker,” we mean everyone who sells his or her labor power, or ability to work, at so much per hour, or so much per week, to a capitalist employer. Coal miners are workers, but so are musicians, scientists, nurses, teachers, architects, inventors, and mathematicians.
Socialism means not just political democracy but also economic democracy. Under capitalism workers receive only a small fraction of the wealth that they alone produce, while the lion’s share goes to the capitalist owners and to the bankers, landlords, insurance companies, lawyers, politicians, and all the other parasites who live off the back of labour and perform no useful work. By ending this robbery of the working class, socialism will enable workers to share in the full fruit of their labour.
Socialism would also enable us to raise our living standards dramatically by ending the billions in resources thrown away on arms production and “defence,” by ending the waste, duplication, and inefficiency of capitalist industries, and by returning millions of soldiers and unemployed workers to useful occupations.
In socialist society, there would be no wage system. And since the people would collectively own the industries, anyone would be free to select any occupation in which he or she has an interest and aptitude. No longer would workers live under the fear of being laid off, or be compelled to spend their lives at some job they hate or are unsuited for. Also, since the people would collectively own the colleges and universities, no longer would workers be denied education or training because they lack the money to buy it.
Furthermore, with socialism, we would produce for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. Under capitalism, the industries operate for one purpose—to make a profit for their owners. Under this system, food is not grown primarily to be eaten. It is grown to be sold. Cars are not manufactured primarily to be driven. They are made to be sold. If there are enough buyers here and abroad, then the capitalists will have their factories turn out cars or everything else for which buyers can be found and where a return can be made. But if people lack money, if the market cannot absorb them, then these factories shut down, no matter how much people need these commodities.
At the present time, Big-Ag knows that they can produce more than market conditions permit them to. Meanwhile, millions suffer from malnutrition and hunger.
Inside a socialist society industry and technology would be used to benefit all of us, not restricted to the creation of profits for the enrichment of a small group of capitalist owners. Our farmlands would yield an abundance without great toil; the factories, mines, and mills would be the safest, the most modern, the most efficient possible and productive beyond our wildest dreams—and without labourious work. Our natural resources would be intelligently conserved. Our schools would have the finest facilities and they would be devoted to developing complete human beings, not wages slaves who are trained to hire themselves out for someone else’s profit. Our hospitals and social services would create and maintain the finest health and recreational facilities. Under capitalism, new technology, robotics, automation and Artificial Intelligence is used to replace workers and increase profits. Instead of creating a society of abundance, capitalism uses our inventiveness to create unemployment and poverty. It is not the technology that threatens us. By themselves, improved methods of production and distribution are not social evils. They could be a blessing, but under capitalism, technology is used for anti-social purpose in the interest of the few and not the many.
The Socialist Party, on the other hand, propose that should own in common the factories and means of production, where would have full and free access to the means of wealth production and distribution. We would collectively produce the things we want and need for full and happy lives. It would be to the benefit of all to find new inventions, new means of production, improved means of distribution. Society as a whole would have a vital interest in providing opportunity to each individual to find the work for which he or she is best suited and in which he or she will be happiest. There would be the fullest freedom and opportunity. There would be a complete and full democracy. Democracy that will truly be based on the broadest lines. Democracy in which the final and only power will be the great mass of our people, the useful producers, which in a socialist society would mean everybody. Society no longer would be split into two contending classes. Instead, we would all be useful producers, collectively owning the means of production and distribution, collectively concerned with producing the most with the least expenditure of human labour, and collectively jealous of the rights of the individual to a full, free and untrammeled life of happiness and accomplishment.
How can we get such a society? The answer is easy. It is within the power of the working class to establish such a society as soon as they recognise the need for it and organise to establish it. By learning about real socialism you will learn how to effectively demand the end of capitalism and to organise with your fellow-workers for the establishment of socialism.
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