Capitalism is a system of exploitation

To make revolution and put an end to capitalism, the working class must have a clear strategic plan. They must determine what the nature of the struggle is, who are the enemies and who are friends that can be rallied to the cause. The Socialist Party’s concept of socialism, is not that it is an arbitrary constructed preconceived plan, but rather another stage of social evolution. Those who will design and build the socialist society of the future will be the socialist generations themselves. The people in the future society will be wiser than we are. The Socialist Party can only point out the general direction we should take, and any more we should not try. The vision of a new world and what the future socialist society will look like is a fascinating topic for speculation and laying out some of the broad outlines of probable future development is possible but not the fine details. Socialism will undoubtedly bring a transformation in human relationships. Socialism is based on one great premise – sharing the abundance of wealth which we can create. Socialism cannot be inaugurated by decree, nor can it be established by any government, no matter how admirable. Socialism must be built by the people, must be made by every worker. Where the chains of capitalism are forged, there must the chain be broken.

A handful of capitalists control our world and make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the planet. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few capitalists. These people at the centre of the multinational corporations, lord over huge personal fortunes accumulated from the backs of the working class. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the sweat and toils of the workers and could not care less about them. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour.  At the end of the week a worker collects their pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalists. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. For working people the future is less and less certain.

Capitalism is a system of international exploitation. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street. The monopolies invest their capital abroad, as "transnational" corporations. They penetrate foreign markets and plunder the natural resources of developing countries. They also attempt to dominate other countries politically and to a degree militarily. This international exploitation brings enormous profits for the big corporations, and wretched lives for the people. Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis. Monopoly capitalism is plagued by periodic economic crises, such as recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. It is the very nature of each monopoly to try to maximise its profits by pushing production and cutting expenses, especially the pay of workers. Economic crises are aggravated by speculation, hoarding and other schemes of the bankers, financiers and industrialists. Each tries to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class to suffer. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive. In the face of economic crisis, capitalists have always tried to put the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working people. It has tried wage freezes, social contracts, cuts in benefits, increases in taxation, cuts in expenditure on health and education, and handouts to business. People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or resist.

Working people make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, anarchy of production, speculation and crisis, oppression of nationalities and women, and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self-interest of the tiny group of monopoly capitalists. In nearly every country they are the oppressed majority, labouring to support the luxury of a handful of exploiters. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production there must be common ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. Socialism will be won through the overthrow of capitalism. Having overthrown the capitalist class, working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests in society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government ownership and  control. Today we often hear of government control of the railways or post office as " socialism". But the state serves the interests of the ruling class. When the government intervene in the present economy, it does so to help, not hurt, capitalism.

With socialism, the economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit and luxury consumption by the rich. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion in useful production and the wealth of society will become useful. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of central planning and local coordination. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to common ownership will allow workers to run democratically their own work places through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of management supervisors.

The capitalists are composed of the top owners, large investors and CEOs of the multinational corporations that control the economic life. Against this minority stands the vast majority of the rest of the population. The conditions of life for 99% of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the capitalist ruling class. The most resolute opponent of the capitalists is the working class. The working class is daily thrown into conflict with the capitalist class. Because of its social position, it is the most revolutionary class and will be the principal and leading force in the socialist revolution. The most fundamental of all human activities is material production. If we did not produce, we could not live - politics, law, religion, philosophy, literature, recreation would all be impossible if we didn't have food to eat and shelter over our heads. For this reason the method of organising production has long been the most contentious of all problems faced by society. Society is characterised by the division of people into classes according to their role in the production and distribution of social wealth. In capitalist society, the capitalist class and the working class are the two basis classes. The capitalist class owns the means of production and holds state power. The working class is the main and leading force in the revolutionary struggle. The capitalists are the ruling class. They are our enemy in the fight for socialism. Through their ownership and control of the means of production they control the economic life of the planet and live off the profits they squeeze from the working class. The capitalists are a powerful enemy but there is a potentially much more powerful force opposing them: the unity of the vast majority of people. Despite its huge numerical advantage, the powerful potential of the working class has been frustrated by internal divisions and limited development of class consciousness. The majority of workers at this time do not understand the need for fundamental change to society. They have difficult lives but do not see how their problems can be resolved. They want an improvement in their lives and often struggle against their employers, but do not yet see the need for revolutionary change. There are also workers who are generally content with their situation or feel that, even though things could improve, capitalism is the best system. They do not favour change and many are affected by racism, sexism and national chauvinism. Only by isolating our enemies to the maximum and winning over all those who are oppressed by capital to the red banner of socialism can the working class succeed in overthrowing capitalism.

With the help of the Socialist Party, more and more workers will become politically educated and grow class conscious and understand the need for revolutionary socialism. Workers will realise that their interests lie in the overthrow of capitalist private property and the establishment of socialism. The Socialist Party are internationalists. We are campaigning for the socialist revolution to make our contribution to the struggle for world socialism.