Our Immediate Demands

“Our demands most moderate are – We only want the earth!” ― James Connolly

In the last few months, vast sections of the working class have struggled against and struck blows against the capitalist class. The history of the working class has been a history of unremitting struggle against exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. The working class come into existence by the forcible driving of the peasants from the land. The landless peasants were then forced to work at starvation wages in the factories. The ruling class, while in the main using lies and deception to exploit and oppress the workers of our countries as well as working people all over the world, has never shrunk from brutalising workers. But where there is oppression there is always resistance and the working class has never been cowed. The spirit of the workers has always been never to capitulate. The working class has time and time again supported the struggles of its class brothers and sisters around the world. Why then has the mighty force of the working class so filled with the spirit of rebellion and international brotherhood, never overthrown their oppressors and exploiters.

Working men and women, do not forget for an instant that the great struggle in which you are engaged is a class conflict, and that the lines must be sharply drawn in every battle, whether on the economic or the political field. The slavery of your class is responsible for your chains and never until your entire class is emancipated can you escape from the iron grasp of your capitalist masters. As far the class struggle is concerned, there is no good capitalist and no bad worker. Every capitalist is your enemy and every worker, your friend. You have got to stand and act as one. Solidarity is our strategy, and socialism points unerringly the way. Day by day the class-conscious socialist movement increases in power. It scorns all compromise. It firmly holds every inch it conquers. It cannot be intimidated nor frightened by threats. It is pursuing its historic course and come what may, it will press on and on until the goal is reached and labour rules the world.

Under chattel-slavery the slave was bought and sold and became the property of the buyer. Under the system of wage-slavery, to which workers of all races in all capitalist countries are subjected at present, the LABOUR or LABOUR POWER of the individual worker is bought, a wage is paid to the worker by the employer, and the employer only takes an interest in the welfare of his workers in so far as it helps him to make profits out of them.

Under chattel-slavery the slave was oppressed and exploited by the slave master and slave rebellions took place time and again led by the instinctive surge to freedom. The wage-slaves — workers of today — are exploited and oppressed by the capitalist employers. As under the system of wage-slavery, so under capitalist slavery, workers are constantly struggling for better conditions and for the ABOLITION OF CAPITALIST SLAVERY in all countries. The struggles of the industrial workers and oppressed colonial peoples take on more and more a bitterly conscious fight against exploitation and imperialist slavery, for that OVERTHROW of this FINAL slave system of the government and for the establishment of a society controlled by the workers and all toilers. The emancipation of humanity from all forms of slavery and oppression is the historical TASK OF THE WORKING CLASS AND CAN ONLY BE REALISED BY THIS CLASS. The capitalists freed the chattel-slaves in order to transform them into wage-slaves; the WAGE-SLAVES WILL FREE THEMSELVES, IN ORDER TO FREE HUMANITY. Working people have shown that their revolutionary spirit of rebellion cannot be crushed. The capitalist class have NOT succeeded in quelling the revolutionary spirit of the working people. It is necessary to take the struggle forwards, to fight for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system of exploitation, and for the establishment of the working class as the ruling class. There are no solutions within the capitalist system. The spirit of our time is revolutionary and growing more so every day. A new social order is struggling into existence. The old economic foundation of society is breaking up and the social fabric is beginning to totter. The capitalist system is doomed. The signs of change confront us upon every hand.

The Socialist Party is the only party that stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows itself the party of the working class and its purpose the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own the world’s industries, the toiling masses will be struggling in poverty. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The Socialist Party stands for common ownership and co-operation. The one is Capitalism; the other Socialism. The one industrial despotism, the other industrial democracy. The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies and minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental and physical achievement. We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we demand the Earth for all the people.

“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.” Jimmy Reid