The Future Belongs to Us

The principles of the Socialist Party are clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers must own and control all the processes of wealth production and operate these in the interests of the community. The Socialist Party is a revolutionary organisation and believes in revolutionary political action. It urges the workers to use their ballots to capture political power—not to play at politicians or pose as statesmen, but to use their votes to uproot the State and to hand to the working class the constructive task of building socialism. To think that Parliament can be used as the means of permanently improving the conditions of Labour, by passing a series of acts, is to believe in parliamentarianism. The Socialist Party is not a parliamentary party. It believes in entering Parliament only as a means of sweeping away all antiquated institutions which stand in the way of society owning and controlling the means of production.

Socialism is the next stage of social evolution. The builders of the socialist society of the future will be the socialist generations themselves. When discussing the socialist future, it is always essential to bear this in mind. The task for the Socialist Party is to expose the ruling class and all its divisive ideologies which stands in the way of the emancipation of working people. Universal peace and fraternity cannot become real and secure until there are no rich and no poor.

The fight for socialism is a hard fight. The revolutionary overthrow of capitalism is a vital urgent necessity. It is not true is that anti-capitalist struggle automatically equals socialist struggle. Socialism considers our views dependent upon our material needs, and our political standpoint dependent upon the economic position of the class we belong to. Socialism is distinguished by its principle that the people can only be free when they free themselves from poverty.

 The Socialist Party visualised socialism as a stage of human society where all the accumulated knowledge, all the treasures of technology created by the genius of mankind, all that science and art acquired by humanity over generations is to be used, not for the few, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole, striving not for sectional interests, but for the common good, transforming society into a community of free and equal producers. This socialist commonwealth liberates the individual from all economic, political and social oppression to provide the basis, for real liberty and for the full and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth of the creative faculties of the mind.

The Socialist Party is not a reform party, but a revolutionary party. It does not propose to modify the competitive profit system, but abolish it. An examination of its case shows that it stands unequivocally for the common ownership and democratic control of all the means of weal production and distribution — in a word, socialism. We are not a party like other parties. The Socialist Party has no interest in any of the so-called issues over which capitalist politicians fight sham battles. We retain an unshakable confidence in the socialist future of humanity. We hold an undimmed vision of the future. To fight for the socialist future, to hasten its realisation, is the greatest privilege for a man or woman in the world today. Our party is built on correct ideas and therefore is indestructible. Organisation means getting together with a common understanding and a common end in view, and working systematically for the attainment of that end. For the workers to organise effectively, they must have a correct understanding of their position in society and of the conditions under which they live and work. If they fail to understand these things, they will either not organise at all or will organise in an ineffective manner. The effectiveness of their organisation depends on the correctness of their understanding. The better they understand conditions the more effectively they will organise. The workers have a power infinitely greater than that of the capitalists. That is their power to produce wealth - to run industry-to carry on production. They can do this without capitalists, while without workers, capitalists are helpless. But the power of the workers is unorganised and therefore ineffective.

The coming fight, the coming revolution, is a social revolution, the revolution for socialism. The Socialist Party stands first, last, and always for the common ownership of all the means of production and distribution, and will press forward unceasingly until it is secured, thereby liberating the human race. Complete workers' control means possession of the source of all wealth and social power. When the workers control industry, they will own the earth. In no other way can they improve their conditions or gain economic freedom. So let us study economic conditions that we may understand them and agree on a common end, and all work systematically by the intelligent use of our economic power for the attainment of that end, which can be none other than to take over the means of production and distribution and operate them for use instead of profit.