Socialism is the hope for humanity

Capitalism increasingly demonstrates itself incapable of providing a decent life for the vast majority of the world’s people. Capitalist society can neither guarantee a secure future nor even promise there will be a future.  The threat of climate change casts a shadow over the lives of all of us where once nuclear holocaust loomed. The hallmark of the capitalism we live under is that the vast majority of people work out their lives for the enrichment of the small minority of profiteers who own the bulk of the economy and through their wealth control the entire society. Profit is the be-all and end-all of economic life; human needs come second—if at all. It is only by understanding how capitalism runs against the interests of working people that we can advance on the road to revolution. Let working people manage industry, eliminate the profit motive, plan production to suit the needs of the people for prosperity and plenty for all. Workers can set up their own administrative committees which alone can plan for use and not for profit.  Capitalism cannot reform itself; it cannot be reformed. Humanity can be saved only by the socialist revolution.

But what is the alternative? Socialism will reduce work to an insignificant part of daily life and offer the individual the fullest possibilities to pursue his own abilities and interests. Capitalism cannot make use of automation for the benefit of society but socialism will. A socialist system will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, a future socialist society will produce abundance for all. Only by completely getting rid of this system of wage-slavery and its law of profits and the system in which the capitalists own and control everything, including us and our labour can we advance to socialism. There’s no way through piecemeal step by step can we win. It’s only by getting rid of the root cause of these problems, the system of capitalism, that we can build a new society run by and for the working class. If we stick to principles we will be able to stand up and go forward to socialism.

That wealth exists on this planet in abundance is well known and was known long before we said so. But the distribution of this wealth proceeds according to the social relations of society. These are capitalist relations, resting upon the capitalist ownership and control of the means of production.  In the plans put promoted by progressives these relations would remain, only the wealth would be redistributed by cutting down on the big fortunes and adding to the small ones or giving to those that have none. But this is impossible under capitalism since the ownership and control of the means of production determines the form of distribution of all wealth. So far this has meant and can only mean ever greater riches for the parasites and ever greater impoverishment for those who toil, who have nothing but their labor power to sell – and to sell only when the bosses see fit to buy. What is the cause of this unequal distribution of wealth? The cause is to be found in the ownership and control of the means of production. This system secures the right to exploit workers by leaving in the hands of the capitalist class also the ownership of the surplus value produced by the workers over and above what they receive as wages, sufficient only for their bare upkeep when they have jobs. This is how profits are acquired. Of course, the abundance of wealth available could easily be guarantee to each family. But this is equally impossible under the profit system and it can be obtained only when the profit system is abolished. Progressives advocate the redistribution of wealth; but accept the continuance of the present social relationship. Progressive programs assume the employers continued right to exploitation workers so that returns to shareholders in the form of unearned incomes may continue; so that dividends on stocks may be paid and the now of profits taken out of the exploitation of labour may proceed uninterrupted. There are no other sources for profits to come from.

Why does racism exist? Partly, it is a relic of the ideology which the British ruling class used to defend their imperial activities in the past; partly it is a reflection of outdated nationalism which teaches inhabitants of one country to believe that they are superior to others. The ruling class will use racism to divide workers when it is opportune to do so, and they will use immigrants as scapegoats when capitalist crises require workers to be thrown out of employment.

The Socialist Party is hostile to racism in all of its forms. Our Declaration of Principles make clear that socialism will involve the emancipation of all human beings, without distinction of race or sex. For us, the division in society is between exploiters and exploited; all workers are our brothers and sisters, whatever may be stamped on their passports, whatever colour their skin happens to be. Socialism holds out the prospect of one world inhabited by one people, emancipated consciously and politically from the ignorance of racist thinking. Statements about “serving” “our” country for the “national interest” is an assumption that there is such a thing as something to which we belong and which protects us. It is a notion cultivated by the ruling class for the purpose of hiding the fact of class cleavage, of exploitation for the purpose of making the worker think that when he makes sacrifices it is for “his” country, instead for the capitalists.