The Socialist Party demands social ownership of the tools and machinery of labour only; it does not concern itself with the part of property that is devoted to personal and private uses. The introduction of socialist production not require the expropriation of non-productive wealth. Co-operative production requires also common ownership in the means of production. Private property in the means of production is irreconcilable with co-operative work. The aim of socialism is to place the worker in possession of the necessary means of production. It is the capitalists who expropriate the producing class. Socialist society puts an end to this expropriation. Socialism will not put an end to development. On the contrary, it is the only means to ensure progress. Capitalist society is based on the robbery of the working class. The capitalists themselves are the greatest criminals and murderers of all time. Socialist society will eliminate the criminal capitalist class.
Socialist communities will have inherited from capitalism its “division of labour”–division between mental and manual workers, between workers in industry and working people in agriculture, between the city and the countryside, and between workers in different branches of the economy. They will break down these divisions and step by step eliminate all aspects of commodity production (production for exchange controlled by private individuals, or groups of individuals, rather than production for use controlled by society as a whole), which contains within it the core of the separation of society into classes, based on private ownership of means of production. The working class must also overcome the inequalities that capitalism fosters between men and women, between black and white, between young and old. When all of society has been transformed, the ulcers left over from capitalism have been eliminated, and the community of workers has been established, then a completely class-free society will have been achieved, and humanity will enter a whole new stage of history. There will no longer be the need for the state, since there will no longer be any class to suppress, and the state will be replaced with common administration by all of society. Socialism eliminates the anarchy of capitalism and its crises, by common ownership of the means of production and democratic planning of the economy. This removes the tremendous barriers to production that capitalist relations have erected.
Unemployment will be ended, because socialism will be able to make full use of the labour of everyone in society, while at the same time developing and introducing new technology and scientific methods to increase output. As machines replace workers, workers will not be thrown into the streets, but transferred to other jobs, reducing working hours for all workers. The nature of work itself will change completely, because the labour of the workers will no longer go to enrich capital to further enslave the working class, but to improve life today, while providing for the future, according to the conscious plan of the working class itself. The pride that workers have in their work will be unhindered by any sense that they are working themselves, or someone else, out of a job, or that they are being driven to produce for the private benefit of some moneybags, under the orders of his foremen and the constant threat of being fired. Automation and robotics will no longer be weapons in the hands of the capitalists to grind down the working class, and workers will no longer be a mere extension of the machine, as they are under capitalism. Instead machinery will become weapons in the hands of the working class in its own struggle to revolutionise society and overcome scarcity.
All this will release the stored-up knowledge of the working class, based on its direct experience in production, and inspire workers to make new breakthroughs in improving production. Work itself will become a joy and enrichment of the worker’s life, instead of a miserable means to sustain existence, as it is under capitalism. Socialism will make possible the building of well-constructed housing for the masses of people. Under capitalism, it is more profitable to speculate in land, maintain slum housing and put capital into buildings for big business than to build decent housing. The slums, shanty towns, and ghettoes will be ripped down, and in their place new homes a will be built. More than that, housing construction will be part of an overall plan, in a rational way, so that homes are built near work-places, with easy access to schools, medical clinics, parks and other social services. Health care under capitalism is a nightmare for the people and big business for the drug companies, hospital corporations and others who make billions from the butchery of the people. Under socialism health care and hospitals will no longer be a means to make profit, but a means for the working class to prevent disease and to preserve the health of the people.
Education
in class society reflects and promotes the interests of the ruling
class and instills in the youth the values and outlook of this class.
Under capitalism this means that education is geared to maintain the
division of society into classes, the conditions of capitalist
exploitation and the rule of the capitalists over the working class
and masses of people. Capitalist
education prepares the great majority of youth only for existence as
wage-slaves and as a key part of perpetuating the capitalist system
of wage-slavery distorts history to make it revolve around the
“brilliant ideas” and individual heroism of great “geniuses,”
Kings, Emperors, Presidents, bankers, industrialists and other
representatives of the exploiting classes throughout history.
Children are taught to compete against each other and that
competition is what “makes this country great.” Reality is stood
on its head, so that it seems that capital, not labour, is the source
of all progress and that the workers live by the grace of the
capitalists.
Education in socialism will serve the interests of society.
In
capitalist society many workers and other oppressed people are drawn
to religion because it represents their hopes and aspirations for a
better life–projected, however, into the future and into another
realm completely beyond man’s ability to understand. Since life is
miserable on this Earth, the answer is to hope for a paradise in the
hereafter. Religion
serves capitalism by telling people that they are basically helpless
before the forces of nature-and the rulers of society –and they
should put their faith not in the ability of the masses of people to
change the world, but in a supreme, supernatural being, or beings.
And if that isn’t enough, religion can call up the image of fire
and brimstone to threaten people. More, those who control major
organised religions make huge fortunes from collecting large sums
from their members, investing much of these sums and exploiting
labour. While telling the people to wait for “pie in the sky,”
these hypocritical leeches live like kings, right here and now, from
the sweat and blood, hopes and fears, of the people. At the same
time, in every community, hustlers of all kinds–calling themselves
“men of god, prophets,” etc.– prey on workers and other poor
people, promising them all kinds of miracles to ease their misery –
for a nice fee (donation), of course.
The
reorganisation of society is the Socialist Party case. Every
political party defends the interest of one class or another in
society. On all questions, in every battle, the Socialist Party
defends the interests of the working class, and works to prepare its
victory over the capitalists. It is made up those men and women who
are most conscious of the need to fight, the most determined to fight
for the liberation of their whole class and of all the oppressed
people. The Party’s role is to educate, organise and mobilise the
working class. The Party is the organisation that can orient the
struggle of the entire class. It can bring an overall perspective to
each branch of the workers’ movement and unite all the isolated
battles into one powerful revolutionary storm. The Socialist Party
can raise the discontent of the workers to the level of conscious
political struggle to put an end to this criminal system of
capitalism. We have fought the good
fight, and will fight it again and again until at last the
co-operative commonwealth shall be established and the red flag shall
fly over all lands
Peace
between the peoples - War against the exploiters
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