THE ONE WAY OUT

Where politics are concerned a lot of Americans just no longer believe anymore in what politicians say or do. That's quite understandable after all the times they've been betrayed by phony campaign promises and let down by these “sure-fire” cures for their steadily worsening problems. However, many have not turned their backs on politics yet. They're watching the present Democratic Party presidential nomination race campaign and still believe that hearing what the various candidates propose can enable them to elect men or women who will get problems solved. There are two opposite views: The majority "believers" still hope to find the "right person" to put America in order. The minority "non-believers" have come to doubt that such a person exists.

There is, nevertheless, a third view on the subject -- a position which, besides agreeing that no "right person" are available, goes even further by denying that our country's desperate problems have been caused by "wrong men" chosen to run its government in the past. Instead of blaming political officeholders, this view claims that the real cause of our social problems lies partly in the form of government we have and mainly in the capitalist system on which the government rests. It therefore also claims that the ballot should be used to fundamentally change both. We have fully created the material conditions for socialism - a highly developed industrial society capable of producing an abundance and a superbly trained working class that, alone, is capable of running it. Moreover, we have an organisation embodying the only program that makes possible the change from capitalism to socialism – the Socialist Party. The crying need of our time is determined, resolute action to awaken the working class to the imperative need for a socialist reconstruction of society. At this late hour on the social clock it is the only way to strike a decisive blow for peace and freedom for the workers of all lands.

Capitalism ensures worsening conditions. A revolution means a complete change, and it need not be accompanied by violence. For a successful revolution there most be a constructive phase when new institutions are established to replace those that are dismantled. In an age of great technological and economic complexity such as the present one, when prolonged economic paralysis can have devastating consequences to great masses of people, especially to the masses crowded into the great urban centres, this constructive phase of the revolution must be carefully planned and prepared for. In socialist society we shall be able to enjoy the material well-being our productive capability makes possible. We shall be secure, healthy and happy human beings living in peace, harmony and freedom, in marked contrast to the capitalist jungle of strife, misery and insecurity in which we live today. Fellow-workers must face the fact that the task confronting them is to organise their political and economic power -- not to demand merely the amelioration of the horrible conditions of ghetto life, but to demand the abolition of the capitalist system of wage slavery, and to effect an orderly socialist reconstruction of society.