Revolutionary Times

There are times when social and economic problems become so 

bad that people are forced to choose between the social system that makes their lives difficult and a new one that will make their lives better. Times like that are called revolutionary times. They don’t come often, but when they do the question of HOW to make the change that’s needed becomes as important as WHAT that change should be. We face that kind of choice today. Capitalism—the social system we live under—no longer serves the interests of the people. It creates countless problems that it cannot solve. It uses technology to throw people out of work and to make those who keep their jobs work harder. It creates hardship and poverty for millions, while the few who own and control the economy grow rich off the labour of those allowed to keep their jobs. It destroys the cities that we built up. It is destroying the natural environment that is the source of the food we eat and the air we breathe. Every attempt made to prevent these problems, or to keep them from growing even worse, has failed. 

The reason is that society is controlled by a small capitalist class that owns the industries and services that everyone depends on. The workers built and they operate all of those essential industries and services. However, they do not own and control them. They are the majority, but they have no voice in deciding what to produce or how much to produce. Their needs and desires count for nothing when those decisions are made. When a small group owns and controls what everyone needs to feed, house and clothe themselves and their families, when that small group makes every important decision that affects the lives of the vast majority, it is called a dictatorship. Capitalism is economic despotism and it spoils and corrupts everything that is good and decent. Technology that could and should be used to lessen the need for arduous toil and to enhance our lives is used instead to eliminate jobs and increase exploitation. Poverty is as widespread as it has ever been. Joblessness, homelessness, helplessness and hopelessness are spreading. Economic insecurity places an unbearable strain on our families, our children and ourselves.

The Socialist Party seeks to build a serious socialist movement that will be bound together enough to act as a united body. Socialism is not a “dogma”. Historical materialism teaches us that nothing is static. 

The Socialist Party's goal is a class-free society based on common ownership and control of the industries and social services, these to be administered in the interests of all society by society. 

The Socialist Party is the political party of the working class. This is so because it is the sole protagonist of the policies and principles that the working class must adopt if it is ever to achieve its complete emancipation from wage slavery and, at the same time, save society from catastrophe. 

The Socialist Party is the only organisation demanding the abolition of capitalism and advocating the socialist reconstruction of society. It has been doing so for well over 100 years. It is the political party through which the workers can establish their majority right to reorganise society. To establish socialism, political unity under the banner of a mass political party of labour is needed.The role of the party is to educate workers to the need to abolish capitalism, to agitate and to express the revolutionary mandate of the working class at the ballot box. 

The Socialist Party aims to capture and dismantle the political state and pave the way for a new form of administration, a participatory democracy. To establish socialism,workers must unite as a class, based on the principle that the working class is involved in a class struggle with the employing, capitalist class, a struggle that cannot be ended under the capitalist system and until capitalist ownership of the industries and services is replaced with social ownership and democratic community control. After the revolution, the administration of all production and distribution will be the function of the various democratically elected or delegated bodies and organs at all levels and where easily and immediately exercisable power to recall exists to remove any administrator who, in their judgement, fails to serve their interests in office. Thus production will at long last be for use and the benefit of all.

Should we keep a social system that is destroying the lives? Or shall we do the common sense thing by making the means of production our collective property, abolishing exploitation of the many by the few, and create security and abundance for all? The workers can expect no help from the beneficiaries of capitalism. The capitalists, just like the slave-owning and feudal classes before them, will try to keep their strife-ridden and poverty-breeding system. The workers can only rely on themselves to build a better world and free themselves through their own class-conscious efforts. By workers we mean the working class. We mean all whose intellectual and physical labour contributes to the development, manufacture and distribution of the goods, services and information that our complex society needs. We mean all those who must sell their physical and mental talents and skills on the job market, and who depend on the wages and salaries they receive in exchange. We mean white-collar and blue-collar, production and office workers, those who research and develop as well as those who build, distribute and serve. We mean the whole working class, including the unemployed and those forced to settle for part-time or temporary work. The working class makes everything and it makes everything work. Collectively, it has tremendous potential power. The working class runs the industries from top to bottom. The potential economic power that rests in its hands is enormous.