Socialism
will result in an enormous increase in industrial and agricultural
efficiency. The socialist system of planned production, based upon
common ownership of industry and the land, is incomparably more
efficient than the anarchic capitalist system founded upon private
property, competition and the exploitation of the workers. With the
limitations of the capitalist profit motive removed, the road will be
opened to virtually unlimited expansion of industry and mass
consumption.
Socialism will remove great waste, inherent in the
unplanned, competitive capitalist system. It will eliminate the
innumerable useless and parasitic occupations. It will turn to useful
social purposes the immense resources used by these socially useless
elements.
Socialism will also conserve the natural resources of the
country which are now being ruthlessly wasted in the mad capitalist
race for profits. Finally, socialism will end war, with all its
agonies and losses. The abolition of the robbery of the workers by
the capitalists in all its myriad forms; the disappearance of the
capitalist economic crises, with its mass unemployment and general
crippling of the productive forces; the development of an industrial
efficiency and a volume of production now hardly dreamed of; the
careful conservation of natural resources; the abolition of
war;—these measures will provide the material bases for a
well-being now quite unknown in the world.
It
is characteristic of capitalism's apologists to justify all the
robbery and misery and terrors of its system by seeking to create the
impression that they cab be blamed upon the basic traits in human
nature. Preventable disasters are made to appear almost as natural
phenomena, “acts of God”, over which mankind has no control. The
same general attitude is taken with regard to war. War is put forth
as arising out of the very nature of humanity. Mankind is depicted as
an aggressive animal, and therefore capitalism escapes
responsibility. War becomes more or less inevitable. This
is all nonsense, of course. Humanity is by nature a gregarious and
friendly animal and does not make war because of a dislike of others,
differing in appearance, language, or religion. Wars have always
arisen out of struggles over the very material things of wealth and
power. This is true, whether living in a tribal, slave, feudal or
capitalist economy, and whethe the true cause of his wars have been
obscured with an intense religious garb or with slogans about
building democracy. The cause of modern war is the commercial trading
policies of the capitalist nations for dominance in the world
struggle for markets, raw materials and territory. In a society in
which there is no private property in industry and land, in which no
exploitation of the workers takes place and where plenty is produced
for all, there can be no grounds for war. The interests of a
socialist society are fundamentally opposed to the murderous and
unnatural struggle of international war.
A
socialist world will be a unified, organized world and the raw
material supplies of the world will be at the disposition of the
peoples of the world. Another classical
capitalist argument against socialism is that it would destroy
innovation and incentive; that is, if private property in industry
and the right to exploit the workers were abolished the urge for
social progress, and even for day-to-day production, would be killed.
If there is no exploiting class to rob people of the fruits of their
toil and when they welcome better production methods because it
brings benefits to them and having broken the chain of wage-slavery
and engaged in building a new world of liberty, prosperity and
happiness for themselves and families, can anyone seriously suggest
there will not be enthusiasm for work.
In capitalism many workers
show no interest in their work for they are robbed of what they
produce and any improvements in technology mean job-cuts and
unemployment. Incentive under capitalism is confined practically to
the exploiting classes and their hangers-on. It is only with the
advent of socialism that the great masses develop real involvement.
When
capitalist intellectuals speak of individualism they have in mind the
right of freely exploiting the workers. They mean that the
anti-social individualism of capitalism. The boast of capitalist
apologists about the equal opportunity which their society affords,
that it is a case of the survival of the fittest, is a tissue of
lies. With socialism no one will have the right to exploit another;
no longer will a profit-hungry employer be able to shut his factory
gates and sentence thousands to starvation; no more will it be
possible for a little clique of capitalists and their political
henchmen to plunge the world into a blood-bath of war. Such
individualism is doomed. But the socialist revolution will create in
its stead a new and better development of the individual, freeing
each person from economic and political slavery will, for the first
time in history, give them an opportunity to fully develop and
express their personalities. Theirs will be an individuality growing
out of solidarity and harmonizing with the interests of all. It will
not have the objective of one’s getting rich by robbing the
toilers, but will develop itself in the direction of achievement in
science, industrial technique, art, sports, etc. Only socialism can
provide equality of opportunity, which means a genuine occasion to
enjoy life and to develop their latent talents.
Capitalism, with its
exploitation, terrorism, superstition, and cultural ignorance, not
socialism creates a regimentation and standardisation of the same.
Changed social conditions develop different “human natures.” Thus
competition, a ruinous, anti-social thing under capitalism, may
become, in socialism, highly beneficent. Life in a socialist society
will be varied and inspiring. People will vie with another, as never
before, to create the useful and the beautiful. Locality will compete
with locality in the beauty of their gardens and parks and
architecture. The influence of individuality and originality will be
upon everything. The world will become a place worth living in, and
its joys will not be the privileged monopoly of a ruling class but
the heritage of all. The socialist revolution initiates changes more
rapid and far-reaching than any in the whole history of mankind when
workers unshackle their age-old chains of slavery to construct a
society of liberty and prosperity.
Socialism will be a new era for
humanity, the building of a new world. The overthrow of capitalism
will bring about the immediate or eventual solution of many great
social problems, among them religious superstition, famine,
pestilence, crime, poverty, alcohol and drug dependency, racism and
national chauvinism, the suppression of women and every form
exploitation of one class by another. Capitalism, with its poverty,
wage-slavery, shanty towns, lack of hospitals and doctors undermines
the health and well-being of everyone and destroys our constitution.
Socialism with its nutritious food, its decent housing and
surroundings and working conditions, will make good health the
property of all.
Only
a system of world socialism can fully uproot and destroy all these
evils. Capitalism, based upon human exploitation, stands as the great
barrier to social progress. Socialism frees humanity from the
stultifying effects of the bestial struggle for survival and opens up
new horizons. Socialists will carry through many profound measures
for the re-organization of the economics of the world upon a rational
and planned basis, the sustainable use of the world’s natural
resources, the beautification of the world , the development of the
vast potential of science, the end of congested cities and the
combination of country and urban life.
For
many generations a long list of Utopians have dreamed about an ideal
society. Today, socialism can be a living reality. Our children and
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