Organise for Socialism

WORKERS POWER

We cannot achieve economic and social freedom by merely wishing it. And to see what is wrong with capitalism and what is right with socialism is still not to see how to pass from one to the other. The participation of every person in the decision-making process which guides his life is a condition of freedom, it follows that until the working class find this way no one else can find it for them. Socialism is not a society of regimented individuals, regardless of whether there is equality of everyone, and regardless of whether they are well-fed, well-clad and well-shod. It is not a society in which people are subordinated to the state-machine and its bureaucracy. The aim of socialism is to create a form of production and an organisation of society in which mankind can overcome alienation from its product, from its work, from fellow men and women and from nature thus becoming one with the world. Mankind produces in an associated, not competitive way; produces rationally and in an unalienated way, which means that bringing production under control, instead of being ruled by some blind power. It means that the individual participates actively in the planning and in the execution of the plans; it means, in short, the realisation of political and industrial democracy. The aim of socialism is freedom in a much more radical sense than the existing democracy conceives of it. Socialism is a society which serves the needs of humanity. Socialism is the abolition of human self-alienation, the return of man as a real human being.

We live in a world where technological innovations unimaginable in previous societies are within our grasp. Yet never before have we felt so helpless and vulnerable. We can produce enough to satisfy the needs of everyone on the planet. Yet millions of lives suffer from poverty and are stunted by hunger and blighted by disease. Our society is dominated by feelings of insecurity, of isolation and of loneliness. Socialism has been best able to analyse the reality of society in its evolution but seeks not only to explain but to change the world, to bring the social organisation into harmony with mankind’s needs. Men and women working on a social basis of production, at a minute division of labour, producing an infinite number of commodities, has in effect socialised the forms of production. But we live with the paradox of private property, private profit and private accumulation which is a form inherited from past class systems, but can no longer be adjusted to present forms of production. So long as this paradox endures, we will have wars, crises, poverty and the final terrible agony of humanity on a world scale. End the vested interests and their centralised domination over man’s wealth and resources; eliminate the capitalist class which have within their hands tremendous wealth, and who prevent the living standards of the mass of the people from keeping pace with the output of the productive plant. Organise our economy on a socialised, planned basis and then the foundations will be laid for the withering away of the state as an agency of repression.

The Socialist Party aim is to sharpen our fellow-workers views to draw the central lesson of their class struggle: that the capitalist class as a whole is the enemy, its politicians included; that the capitalist system must be destroyed; and that the world working class has the social power to accomplish this. We point out that the working class needs to unite its various struggles against the capitalists to win real gains—and above all show the working class the real power it has when it unifies to challenge the system. Against the reformist palliatives, we point to the only way to actually solve the crises we all face is socialist revolution. Capitalism maintains its profits solely on the basis of lowering and worsening the standards of the workers. The capitalists, faced with increased productive power and a shrinking market, can only look for the solution in fiercer competition, in restricting production, in cheapening their own costs of production, in cutting wages against their competitors, in increasing their own competitive power, in fighting to enlarge their own share of the market. But these measures are pursued by the capitalists in every country. Although one set or another set may gain a temporary advantage for a short time, the net effect can only be to deepen the crisis. The net effect of every advance of technique, of every wage-cut, of every cheapening of costs and intensification of production, is to intensify the world crisis.

Only Socialism can bring the solution. Only Socialism can cut through the bonds of capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the working-class revolution. Only the organised working-class can fight and destroy the power of the capitalist class, care drive the capitalists from possession, can organise social production. Many workers placed their hopes in the Labour Party to bring the solution. They have seen the need of basic social change; the Labour Party spoke of basic social change, of socialism, and promised to realise it. Every time a Labour Government has been installed, swift disillusionment has followed. The Labour Party acts and will continue to act, as the representative of capitalism — because its basis is capitalism.