The battle for the future.

The struggle against the capitalist class is a struggle against all who live by the labour of others, and against all exploitation. It can only end in the capture of political power by the working class, and the transfer of all land, instruments, factories, machines and mines to the whole of society for the organisation of social production under which all that is produced by the workers and all improvements in production must benefit the working people themselves. From the oppressed and exploited workers there is developing a struggle against the capitalists and against the state. The emancipation of the working class is the revolutionary act of self-emancipation. The working class is the only thoroughly revolutionary class in modern society, the only class with the capacity to end the insanity of capitalist rule internationally. The Socialist Party declares that its aim is to develop the class consciousness of the workers.

Capitalism cannot feed the people, it cannot house them. It can destroy people, it can destroy homes with magnificent efficiency during war. The Socialist Party say: this is inevitable so long as capitalism exists and these social evils are not bred in the heart of mankind; they are bred by capitalism, and by nothing else. Capitalism is based on private property. We do not mean that socialism proposes to take your personal possessions from you, that socialism proposes to take your belongings from you, that socialism will take away your house or your car, in any sense whatsoever, which are not used for the purpose of exploiting others. We do assert the the Socialist Party will end the ownership of social wealth a mill or a mine, the ownership of which makes it possible for him to exploit people. That’s what we mean by private property, that and nothing else. The capitalist class is defined in no other way – and maintained in no other way – except by the ownership of the means of production and distribution. This ownership is what gives the capitalist class power of life or death over the working class and over society as a whole. To live, you, working people, must not only work for the owners of the means of production and exchange – you must guarantee them a profit. Working for them is not enough; a profit is absolutely required for you to get your job; and that profit can be obtained in no other wise except by exploiting that which is your only real possession – namely your physical or mental capacity to work. That is all a worker has. Ownership on the one hand, non-ownership of the means of production on the other hand, determine and fix the limits of existence of the two hostile classes.

Why are they hostile? There is no other result possible from its theory that social problems can best be solved by cooperation between classes. We are opposed to the cooperation between the capitalist class and the working class, we are for such a struggle against the capitalist class that we end all classes, that there are no class divisions in society. Cooperation between these two hostile classes, whose basic interests are irreconcilable, means – implies – necessitates – the perpetuation of class divisions. We say: Do not collaborate with the capitalist class, because the only basis upon which you can compromise is to your disadvantage. Fight the capitalist class for the essential necessary rights of labour! On what basis can you cooperate with the capitalist class?

To live economically, the capitalist must accumulate; not that he wants to or doesn’t – he must accumulate in order to live. To accumulate, he must be assured profit. To profit, he must exploit labour. There is no other way. No one, no genius, not the greatest, has discovered another way. Capital always seeks to intensify exploitation; labour always and necessarily seeks to resist exploitation. Capitalism seeks what is rightfully its own, from its point of view: the maximum that it can get out of the worker. Labour seeks what is rightfully its own: that’s why it forms class organisations, labour unions. Wealth is produced in no other way than by the labour of working men and women, then the wealth belongs rightfully to all the working people. By taking over the wealth which it has created, and which it alone has created that is common ownership of the means of production and distribution. That’s what the Socialist Party mean by revolution. 

 Slavery died; Serfdom died; Wage slavery too shall die. Socialism is a living movement of the workers everywhere for freedom, peace, abundance and progress.