Thursday, April 04, 2019

The problem is capitalism

A socialist is one who endorses the necessity for common ownership to eliminate private, state or sectional capitalism, and secure the advantages for the whole people by the common ownership and control of the land, the factories and transport. By the co-operative commonwealth is meant ownership of the whole people in the common interest. The present capitalistic competitive system is aimed at making for each capitalist, but never for securing the public welfare. Capitalists own and control in every manufacturing country, competing in the world’s market against all other capitalists also seeking a share in the market. To compete effectively, they must place the commodity on the market as cheaply as other competitors and in order to do this they must ever have regard to cheapening the cost of production and keeping wages down to the lowest possible margin. There is not an exception to this rule. It necessarily follows that each group of capitalists is continually on the lookout to save on wages, and therefore every new technology termed labour-saving is really wages-saving constantly increasing proportion of output going as profits to the capitalist. This is the direct effect of private ownership of the means of production for the purpose of making profit for the capitalists, instead of working co-operatively in the common or public interest. The present system stands condemned. Society is divided into two opposite classes, one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the landlords and bankers, holding in their hands the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to command the labour of others. The other, the working-class, the wage-earners possessing nothing but their labour-power, and being forced by necessity to work for the former.

Socialism can only exist when the people commonly own the instruments and agencies of production and distribution currently possessed by a plutocracy. Socialism does not aim at making citizens the slaves of Big Brother governments, but to get rid of all governments other than the self-government of free citizens. There can be no real socialism where exploitation exists and no person can live idly in luxury on the labour of others by receiving unearned income in the forms of interest, profit or rent. Therefore, socialism means the, complete replacement of the present capitalist system, of private ownership and control of land, machinery, and money. declare that the present capitalist system is based upon the legalised robbery of the wealth producers and the object of socialism is to get rid of the employing owning class as speedily as possible. Socialism stands for the abolition of robbery and the abolition of poverty. This social transformation means the emancipation not only of the proletariat, but of the whole human race, which suffers under the conditions today. But it can only be the work of the working class, because all the other classes, in spite of mutually conflicting interests, take their stand on the basis of private ownership of the means of production, and have as their common object the preservation of the principle. 


The battle of the working class against capitalist exploitation is necessarily a political battle. The working class cannot carry on its economic battles or develop its economic organisation without political rights. It cannot effect the passing of the means of production into the ownership of the community without acquiring political power. To shape this battle of the working class into a conscious and united effort is the object of the Socialist Party. The interests of the working class are the same in all lands with capitalistic methods of production. With the world market, the condition of the workers in any one country becomes constantly more dependent on that of the workers in other countries. The emancipation of the working class is thus a task in which the workers of all countries. Conscious of this, the Socialist Party declares itself one with the class-conscious workers of all other lands. The Socialist Party fights not for new class privileges but for the abolition of class domination and of the classes themselves, and for the equal rights of all.


The socialist principle is common brotherhood based on the socialisation of the means of production and distribution in the interests of the entire community, and the complete emancipation of labour from the domination of capitalism. Our object is the cooperative commonwealth founded upon the socialisation of land and industry where the storehouse of all the necessaries of life should be declared and treated as public property. The future of the world is to be co-operative, and not competitive, supplying the needs of all, with modern methods of production, effectively applied, an abundance of commodities can be provided to satisfy the needs of all.


The object of the Socialist Party is to secure economic freedom for the whole community, that all men and all women shall have equal opportunities of sharing in wealth production and consumption untrammelled by any restriction. The clearly avowed object therefore of the Socialist Party is to hasten the change and to aim at securing for the highest standard of social well-being.
We are engaged in prolonged class warfare, not the mere shuttlecock game of ordinary party politics. It’s a battle of ideas not of parties. The struggle is not confined to one people but covers the whole of mankind. Humanity cannot possibly remain in its chaotic condition. We are suffering from a capitalist system that fosters environmental destruction.


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