With
socialism, all power to make social decisions will be vested in the
people. Our industries, their ownership, and how they are run will be
based on the means of producing all goods and services owned
collectively by all the people. The industries will be administered
democratically from bottom to top by representatives elected directly
by the workers in each industry and subject to their control. All
representatives will be subject to recall at any time by those who
elected them. Production will be carried out to satisfy the people’s
wants. There is nothing in this which in any way resembles the
workings of class-divided capitalism and its political state.
Democracy founded on common ownership of the instruments of
production and distribution and on economic freedom is the only form
of society that can solve the problems capitalism has imposed upon
us. It is the only social structure that can release the abundance
for all now locked up in the capitalist economy.
For you, as an
individual, social democracy will mean a full, happy and useful life.
It will mean the opportunity to develop all your talents. It will
mean direct participation in the decisions of a society of free human
beings. In socialist society, class divisions and exploitation will
have been eliminated. Production will be carried out for use by all
rather than to serve the profit interests of a small minority.
In
each plant and enterprise, people will collectively determine
workplace policies and will elect committees to plan the overall
operations where the workers will participate in determining how best
to implement and assure the efficient running of their economic unit.
The workers will also elect representatives to a local and regional
committees and to a central council representing all the industries
and services. They will draw up the necessary production, expansion
and improvement plans and allocate these to the various industries.
All persons elected to posts in this economic administration, at
whatever level, will be subject to rank-and-file control, and to
removal whenever a majority of those who elected them find it
desirable to replace them. The principles of workers’
democracy—i.e., the right and power of the majority to recall all
elected representatives, the abolition of bureaucratic privileges,
etc.—would ensure that control remained in the hands of the people.
In
socialist society, for the first time, the people will consciously
direct their economic activity and democratically provide for their
own well-being and security. Not only useful labour, but the fruits
of that labour as well, will be available to all. The only limit on
production would be social needs and wants. The allocation of
resources will be democratically planned by a society in full control
of its productive forces.
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