It’s up to You

Discontent and unrest are having a wide sway and even to the most superficial observer it is evident that there is something wrong in our social and economic life, and ignore it as we may, the question is daily attracting the public’s attention.  Of the two great `isms’ - socialism and nationalism—the latter has proved the stronger. Socialist internationalism has suffered from the beliefs of patriotism and national chauvinism. War is not merely inevitable under capitalism, but another is actually impending as this blog written. The wonderful inventions and marvellous discoveries which has received joyous acclaim has failed to lift the burden of toil or brought relief to working men and women, but the new technology, under the control of the private capitalist, has driven many from employment and forced down wages of many more. It is true that working people still have political rights, but these are largely infringed, if not extinguished, by economic dependence. Employees of the corporations know that their contracts and security depend upon them voting as their employers want them to vote, and they become the unresisting serfs of the capitalist class. The object the Socialist Party is economic emancipation, that is to say, the abolition of the capitalist system of production and distribution and the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth.

There are the exponents of one system — the capitalists — who claim they hold the right to live off the toil of others, while there are the others — the socialists — that believe the earth and and its resources belong to all the people. The competitive capitalist system produces millionaires and millions of mendicants, and it was those who work the hardest who are rewarded with the least. Capitalism makes it necessary for the successful man to compete with his competitor in what is not “the survival of the fittest,” but “the survival of the most unscrupulous.” Capitalism is a cut-throat system where there can be no ethics. Capitalism’s history is written in the tears and blood of the human race.

As a remedy for this pernicious system the Socialist Party is organised with its object to achieve the cooperative commonwealth, where men and women would stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder for the uplifting of our common humanity. Working people should be ashamed to follow leaders. They may betray them. Ignorance is slavery. Knowledge is freedom. The working class shall unite all its energies to destroy the present capitalistic system and establish the cooperative commonwealth. The world has been brought to the verge of ruin, and humanity has been degraded beyond the power of language to describe. To one whose sensibilities are not wholly dead a mere contemplation of the horror of our social life is sickening and shocking. The time has come for social revolution and regeneration. This is only possible through a new and global-wide change of system. We will establish the cooperative commonwealth in harmony with the planet. Socialist ideas will leap over borders and permeate others, and thus the tide will sweep in all directions until the old barbaric system of capitalism has been destroyed. The Socialist Party stands for a cooperative commonwealth system as the substitute for the wage system. Then production will be carried forward for the use and comfort of mankind, and not for the gratification of private greed. Then we shall have industry organized, and work, being scientifically done, will be relieved of all drudgery and the hours of labour reduced in proportion to the progress of invention.  Then poverty, the prolific parent of crime, will disappear. And it is then that we shall progress to a higher stage of social evolution. A civilisation fit for people.

However, as realists, socialists realise that world socialism seems distant and only the optimist that sees the imminent arrival of socialism and the cooperative commonwealth. But to judge it unsuccessful is to reproduce the common and tempting error of thinking that history moves according to the rhythm and tempo of individual human lives. It does not. The Socialist Party’s significant contribution to the attempt to replace capitalism with a better form of social organization, has been its commitment to original socialist principles. It has boldly defied the enemies of freedom, the oppressors of the people, the exploiters of the working class, and the foes of all humanity. Let us in one mighty effort hasten the end of capitalism and herald the inauguration of the cooperative commonwealth.