This is our opportunity

“To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The two first are drink and the church, the third is the social revolution.” -  Bakunin (‘God, and the State,’ 1871)

The Socialist Party proposes great changes in the way our world is organised and run.  The idea of the impossibility of life without the market still predominates. Scouring the world for profits, capitalism has expanded into virtually every corner of the planet and created a global economy with an international division of labour. The capitalists have reaped unprecedented profits yet it is unable to solve the problem of growing poverty. As long as capitalism lasts only a few superficial cosmetic changes can be made in it. No matter that we remain a tiny minority. No matter that we face defeat. The more we proclaim the fundamentals of socialism, the more fertile the soil in the future. We, in the Socialist Party, seek the co-operative commonwealth, in which there shall be neither master nor servant, where people are not shackled and gagged by the system under which they work. 

Instead of the market choosing what to produce and when and how to distribute it, the Socialist Party say society should have rational planning. However, we decline to get lost in describing the fine details. What is the future of mankind? That is for mankind to decide, not the Socialist Party. Presently we are incapable of foretelling all the conditions of how this future will be like. Those who demand intricate blueprints of socialism are either political foes or sceptics. They insist upon a blueprint not to fill in any gap within it but highlight a weakness to undermine the idea. But we are able to depict socialism with broad brush strokes to indicate necessary components and signpost its direction. There is not much more to arranging socialism than there is to a happy family household. Socialism is the rational distribution of the necessaries of life according to need. A person’s needs are food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, and entertainment and leisure.  We cannot precisely define needs but socialism is bound to produce different longings and needs and we are confident that those can be furnished by ever more innovative technology

A community would get together in some presumably democratic way (no one way fits all) to organise the coordination among the individual production units.  So, the planning mechanism is where people would get together, exchange views and opinions, agree on a plan. That planning be done at a world level, at the regional level, at the local level, depending on circumstances. Obviously, if the planning is mostly local, and there has to be some coordination among the localities, then how much of that coordination is needed depends on the division of labour and the supply of materials. The more it does for itself, the less coordination needed but we are not talking about autarky. There will have to be cooperation among worker self-managed enterprises.

This age of plenty for all, an era of shared abundance for all has already been technically possible for several decades. Why wait any longer to usher in an age of peace and prosperity. Socialism will bring together the planning of production to meet human need, the development of science and technology, and the free access to goods. There is no obstacle to society being run on the socialist principle: ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.’

 Our rulers are absolutely united on what they must do as a class to protect themselves from any challenge to the system of private property and to their privilege and power. There is a manipulation of people’s thinking,  the age old tactic of “divide and conquer,” with the intent being to isolate one section of society in order to control the rest.  The ruling class’ tactics is to disarm and divide the working class. The ruling class uses every question to assert alliances along national and colour lines, inciting bigotry and xenophobia particularly among native born. The ruling class is waging a vicious, relentless campaign for the hearts and minds of the people. It emphasizes “me, me, me, and to hell with everyone else." The Socialist Party is engaged in a war of ideas to win the hearts and minds of fellow-workers.  

People are confused. They don’t know where to throw a blow or who to blame for their poverty and misery. The ruling class understands that as long as the mass of people lack a vision and remain confused about who is their friend and who is their foe, it can maintain its supremacy. Mankind's future must not be decided by those in power, the financiers, the industrialists, and the politicians. It must be decided by working people who must organise and speak out with one voice.  We demand life inside socialism before death under capitalism overtakes us all. The struggle for socialism has become the fight for the very existence of mankind.

The Socialist Party cause is a vision of humanity creating a new world, a world free of exploitation and strife. No force on Earth can stop workers from taking what rightfully belongs to them. No force can prevent working people from coalescing into one unified workers movement but it cannot progress without a goal. That aspiration is a world free forever from want, from race and national hatred and from sexual oppression and human exploitation, where the ever-expanding material and cultural needs of the people are satisfied by an ever-expanding technology that has freed humanity from toil. Today, the level of the means of production makes realising this cause possible. The Socialist Party aim is one of prosperity and social harmony. In 1904 we formed our organisation to accomplish this end. With little hope of a decent future, the working class will always present a threat to the capitalists. However, a movement of sorts is taking shape. The movement consists of the social activity of millions of people to reorganise society to be ecologically sustainable.

Workers have to live in a class society and their wills are restricted by the limitations imposed by the State; nevertheless, within their own organisations they can aspire to community of democracy and a socialist commonwealth.  The Socialist Party is part of the movement of independent working-class education world-wide. Without interest, knowledge, and will, nothing can be done. With them, all difficulties will vanish. For as Goethe once said, “You need only blow upon your hands.”