Socialist ideas are assailed on all sides by our class foes,
the story of the alternative, socialism, is not told so it necessary to keep
explaining it. Capitalism is the mortal enemy of the people
Capitalism is a system of commodity production (that is, the
production of goods for sale and not for direct use by the producer) which is
distinguished by the fact that labour power itself becomes a commodity. The
major means of production and exchange which make up the capital of society are
owned privately by a small minority, the capitalist class, while the great
majority of the population consists of the working class. Because of their
economic position this majority can only exist by selling their labour power to
the capitalists and thus creating through their work the incomes of the upper
classes. Thus, fundamentally, capitalism is a system of exploitation of the
working class by the capitalist class. Under capitalism social production
replaces the individual production of the feudal era. It is based on an
ever-greater socialisation of labour. However, although production is social,
ownership is private. The working class produces the commodities which
constitute the wealth of capitalist society, but it does not own them. They are
appropriated by those who own the means of production – the capitalist class.
The contradiction between the social character of production
and the private character of appropriation is the basic contradiction of the
capitalist system, impelling its development and giving rise to the motive
force of capitalist society, the class struggle. It also manifests itself as an
antagonism between the high level of organisation in the individual factory or
enterprise on the one hand, and on the other, the anarchy of production
prevailing in the social economy as a whole. Production is socialised to an
ever-greater degree while the ownership of the means of production are
concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Anarchy of production is
It is both possible
and necessary for the working class, the main and decisive productive force in
capitalist society, to carry out a social revolution which it is the historic
mission of the working class to accomplish. By replacing private ownership of
the means of production by common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of
production which is a feature of capitalism into planned production organised
for the well-being of all of society, the socialist revolution will end the
division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms
of exploitation. Exploited by the relations of production under capitalism, the
working class has a direct material interest in the overthrow of capitalism and
its replacement by socialism, the system in which the working class owns and
controls the means of production and collectively shares in the products of its
labour. The working class, created by capitalism, is also the destroyer of
capitalism. This need for a socialist party is not something that is merely
thought up in the heads of revolutionaries. More and more production becomes
socialised, that is to say, great masses of workers are concentrated into huge
industrial plants in the great cities. The highly complicated machinery of
modern capitalism converts workers into a semi-skilled and unskilled mass which
merely serves or tends machines. The huge masses of capital become centralised
into fewer and fewer hands. The constantly diminishing number of capitalists
faces the constantly growing mass of workers. The class struggle becomes
sharper and sharper. The workers concentrated in the offices and factories are
not divided to the same degree that they once were. They are compelled to think
in terms of solidarity. For sure, there is still room for reform and betterment
in the present social system, but this is of minor consequence compared to the
world’s crying need for economic and social reorganisation. Private property
and private ownership of production for individual profit are no longer
compatible with social progress and have ceased to operate for humane and
civilised ends.
The Socialist Party sets its task to assist fellow-workers to
understand the irreconcilable antagonism between the exploiters and the
exploited, and explains to it the significance of the social revolution and the
necessary conditions for it. It highlights to all how hopeless their position
is under capitalist society and explains the necessity of a social revolution
if we are to free ourselves from the yoke of capital. Accordingly, the Socialist
Party calls upon all members of the working class to join it. The inauguration
of socialism is the aim of the Socialist Party. That is the task of the working
class. That is the road to human freedom. Upon socialism, depends the future of
humanity and of civilisation. The working class is called upon to save society
from barbarism. We can be sure, however, that recent setbacks are temporary and
that the socialist revolution remains on the agenda.
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