The planet will survive climate change. Life on Earth will survive climate change, although many species may not. Human beings will survive it, too, although many people may not and many more will experience needless suffering. Since the Industrial Revolution, the world has experienced historically unprecedented levels of growth, with capitalism raising the standard of living of many ye at the same time, capitalism has generated immense contradictions such as brutal exploitation of labour, the looting of natural resources, and has created huge inequalities and gross social injustice. means the division of society into two opposing classes: the vast majority who work for a living, and the elite few who live off the proceeds of other people's labor by virtue of the ownership of capital. It means just about anything involving markets, or wage-labour or the profit motive. It is the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few. It condemns many to poverty and powerlessness, it erodes the mutual trust and affection without which a society cannot function happily or well. it’It's bad for the planet because it allows those at the top to use and abuse the environment - both as a source of raw materials and as a sink for the disposal of waste – at the expense of everyone else. It doesn't matter whether we have a free-market economy or a state-run economy: the result will be the same; unpleasant outcomes for most of the people and for the planet, too.
The theory of surplus value is the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory. According to the Marxian law of value, the value of every commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor required for its production (or reproduction). In the highest stage of commodity production, the one in which it becomes predominant, namely, capitalism, labour power itself becomes almost universally a commodity, a peculiar commodity, it is true, but one whose value is nevertheless determined like that of any other commodity. The worker sells his or her commodity, as they must, to the capitalist. But, exploiter though he is, the capitalist pays the worker the full value (more or less) of his labour power. He pays him in the form of another peculiar commodity, money, which is a universal equivalent and with which the worker, in turn, acquires those commodities needed to live on (that is, to reproduce labour power). He, in turn, pays the full value (more or less) for these commodities. For the value of his or her labour power, the worker receives an equivalent value in other commodities. The bourgeois principle of equality is perfectly maintained. Equal values have been exchanged. There has been no cheating, no stealing. Commodity exchange can operate on no other principle, above all under the conditions of capitalism, than that of the exchange of equivalents.
Yet the capitalist exploits the worker. In paying for labour power at its value, the capitalist has the use of labour power, namely, labour itself, for a longer time than is needed to reproduce the value of the labor power he has bought. That is, he disposes of its use during the time when it is necessary labour, and during the time when it is surplus labour, that is, while it produces a value above that of the labour power purchased. The secret of surplus value is laid bare. No cheating, equal values fairly exchanged – and that is exactly how the worker is exploited and surplus value appropriated by the capitalist. Thus, the Marxian theory of value is nothing but the theory of surplus value. That is all it is or ever was.
The wage-worker sells labour power to the owner of the land, factories, and instruments of labour. The worker uses one part of the labour day to cover living expenses (wages), while the other part of the day the worker toils without remuneration, creating surplus value for the capitalist. This is the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class. While increasing the dependence of the workers on capital, the capitalist system at the same time creates the great power of united labour. Marx foresaw ever-greater confrontations between capital and labour, only resolvable by the ultimate triumph of labour. Marx repeatedly exposed the way people fell victims of deceit and self-deceit in politics until they learned the ulterior motives behind the declarations and promises of the employing class. The supporters of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the status quo until they realise that it is maintained by the forces of the ruling class.
What would a post-capitalist society and a sustainable economy look like? The task of the Socialist Party is not to concoct utopian schemes but to enlighten and organise our fellow-workers. Protest marches are just not enough. We must do more than demonstrate. Socialism holds, first and foremost, to the unshakable commitment that building a better world and a better future by the workers’ own hands is both necessary and possible. The Socialist Party holds to the belief that people can, individually and collectively, influence the shape of the world to come. To change the world and to create a better one, to free today's world of inequalities, hardships, and deprivations, is the aim of the Socialist Party. Socialism is the movement for transforming the world and building a free, equal and prosperous society.
The Socialist Party reflects the vision and ideals of our goal. We are not reformers nor heroic saviours, seeking martyrdom for future humanity. We are not an organisation of know-alls laying out a blueprint for Utopia. What distinguishes our party is that, firstly, it champions the unity and common interests of the workers of the entire world, and, secondly, it represents the interests of the working class as a whole. The interest of the workers is diametrically opposed to the interest of the capitalists and exploiters of the workers who, controlling the government and its agencies, strive to keep the workers down. The capitalists want to keep the old relations of exploitation. They fight the rise of the workers. But their only alternative is to plunge society into one crisis and one war after another. The victory of the workers cannot be forever delayed. The old relations of society must be rendered asunder. When the workers of the world unite then the rule over persons will give way to an administration over things. The state, with religion, will wither away. There will be no exploitation. There will be no classes. Each will receive according to what he or she put in, each will receive according to his or her needs.
Marx avoided all attempts to draw him into the construction of utopias. However, he did not hesitate to dwell on the strategy and tactics of the socialist revolution, but only the most general principles of rational organisation of the socialist society. But these principles have remained for the Socialist Party the very essence of socialism.
It has always been part of the Socialist Party’s case that socialism was not only desirable but is also practicable; that socialist society would revolutionise human relationships, replacing worship for property by respect for mankind, and replacing the consumerist society by the common weal. All forms of human oppression are rooted, ultimately, in the economic oppression arising from the private ownership of the means of production; and once these are socialised, the ending of other oppressions will rapidly ensue. Throughout the world, men and women are growing angry at the decades of hunger poverty and war. Human beings are active creators and shapers of their natural and social worlds who find their scope for free action drastically constrained by capitalism.
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