The Future Is Up To Us

Barbarism or Socialism is no mere rhetoric. Socialism or barbarism is not an exhortative admonition; it is a grim fact. At its core, capitalism rests on the domination of the overwhelming majority by a small minority. Our objective is a society in which “the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all” as stated in the Communist Manifesto. This cannot be achieved by authoritarian methods. If self-emancipation is the goal, it must be the means as well. Part of our job as socialists is to help people see through the illusions of capitalism, to understand that we are faced with this stark choice of socialism or barbarism, and to encourage a vision of self-emancipation as both the means and our end , the only means of creating socialism and the essence of what socialism will be. The Socialist Party alone carries the banner of uncompromising struggle and holds the promise a new finer better world. Socialism hasn’t failed because it had never been tried. Socialism as a movement has still to fulfil its potential. Socialism is a system that allows every person to contribute to society, to express self worth, the foundation of happiness. It is the rational distribution of the necessaries of life according to need. These needs differ today from two hundred years ago, when a person’s needs were more basic in demands for food and shelter. Today, our needs now include education, health care, culture and entertainment. Working people do not compare their present situation with what their grandparents or great grandparents endured but compare themselves and their lives to the wealthy, to what they know society can deliver for a privileged few, and they question why it is not available for all. The huge potential which capitalism has opened up for improving our lives but yet the simultaneous crushing of that potential by the drive for profits leads to the expectation that things should get better which can contribute towards the formation of increased class consciousness. We cannot precisely define needs, but each level of satisfaction is bound to produce greater longings and needs which can be satisfied with the ever expanding technology. We can determine what type of food production is possible. What agrarian techniques. In which places Which materials to produce. In which localities. Under capitalism production is for profit and not for use.

The working class is called upon to refashion an economic system which has served its purpose and now can produce only crises and war; a class which has shown that it can learn and take action to meet its needs. Our goal is not only to explain the world, but to change it so that it may better serve the needs of the working people. We have always said that the future belongs to socialism, even though in recent years that seems a dim prospect. The very word “socialism” had almost dropped out of the political vocabulary, so complete there appeared an abandonment of the concept but now there is an increasing positive recognition given the word. The threat of global warming tied up with our current social system is forcing people to wonder if there is not some way out. That they now begin to consider the ideas of those people who call themselves socialists. There are clear signs of a re-awakening is the discussions. 

The principal task of the Socialist Party is to try to restore the credibility of socialism in the consciousness of millions of men and women. We are not the evangelists of a new revelation. Our society if organised properly can give a dignified life to everyone. None of this is dogmatic or utopian. Priority must be given to solidarity and cooperation. The practice of socialists must be totally consistent with their principles. We must not justify any alienating or oppressive practices whatsoever. We must struggle against all conditions in which human beings are alienated and humiliated. If our practice is consistent socialism will once again become a political force that will be invincible. We do not believe in the permanence of capitalism. We are dedicated to the task of promoting the liberating workers' revolution. We aim to help build – and we invite you to join us in building – a mass socialist party, an honest party that tells the truth to the workers, a party united with workers in all lands in one army for one idea, one program, one goal – Socialism. There is no middle road. The whole history of humanity shows that there is another road – the road which the oppressed in every society sooner or later take, the road not backward but forward – the road of resistance against and the overthrow of the capitalist oppressors, the only road to real freedom.