Why are we socialists

Capitalism has bled the people white. People there are many, their needs are vast. The capitalists run the factories in the interest of earning profit. They do not do so to provide a livelihood for the people. They run industries with a view to earning profit. If they find that the introduction of some machines lowers the cost and helps them earn more, they will employ fewer workers, resulting in further unemployment. Technology and science are being used in the class interest of the capitalists, in the interest of profit and exploitation of the working class. The socialist revolution and the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist state machine that we advocate means emancipation — the emancipation of the workers from the exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class but also the emancipation of science from the tentacles of capitalist profit motive. We need emancipation for all from all bondage and exploitation. The struggle for establishing socialism is also a struggle to free science from the bondage of capitalism and to use it for the benefit of mankind. 

 We witness today that people against capitalism are growing so as to free science and the productive system from the motive of exploitation; that is, from profit motive and instead use it for the satisfaction of the social needs. The workers are engaged in the struggle to oust private ownership over the production system and establish social ownership in its place. Although workers want to free from the chains of capitalism, all the falsehood and myths, the web of confusions and conspiracies laid by the capitalist class in the society can only be disentangled with the help of political knowledge.

The function of the Socialist Party is to educate the people by criticising all attempts at so-called reforms, whose aim is not the realisation of a new society, but the hindering of it. The world today is full of bewildering contradictions. Despite great industrial and agricultural power it cannot feed, clothe and provide a decent livelihood for people on this planet who toil away their lives to survive, while billionaires squander fortunes on mansions and fly around the world in private jets. Poverty and economic insecurity exist alongside abundance and extravagance. We fed promises of promises of liberty, justice and equality yet we have a system of exploitation, violence, racism, and war strangles our lives, where people cry out for the welfare of humanity.

What is the reason for these contradictions between the promises, the potential of this society, and its stark reality? Why is there such an agonizing gap between what is and what could be!

The answers to these questions cannot be found in cynical condemnations of “human nature” or apologies about the “way things are.” No! capitalism, the social system under which we live, is responsible for the contradictions of society. Capitalism thrives on the private control of society’s wealth and production – production involving the interconnected efforts of millions of working people. The rich have one basic goal in life: to make more and more profits, and they accomplish this by dominating the economics, politics, and cultural life of the country. The employing class will throw workers out into the streets to starve, promote racism and bigotry, and build a military arsenal that can destroy the world several times over – anything for profits! This is an irrational and unjust system. But life does not have to be this way. We can improve our lives and society, and eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern; where working people become the rightful masters of society. Such an economic and political transformation will be radical, but a radical solution is what it will take to bury the miseries of capitalism. The socialist revolution has become a historical necessity and possibility. There is no other choice today but for the working people to organise to struggle and win socialism.  Today we must look ahead to the future where socialism, as a more advanced social system, will be built on the powerful productive capacities now stifled by capitalism. Each person is faced with the choice of either enduring the suffering of unemployment, recessions, brutalisation and war; or joining with others who are dissatisfied and know that a better society is possible. If working people, and not the capitalists, controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. We could have happy, safe places of work, and guarantee a decent standard of living for all. We could end pollution and the destruction of the environment. We could could wipe out racism and xenophobic nationalism. We could live in a society that is not preparing constantly for war and self-extinction. These are the things that urge us forward.