The need is for socialism

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.