Socialism
from ‘above’ always appeals to those who seek a system of
domination, hierarchy and exploitation. The
“practical” person sneers at socialism as visionary,
unattainable, and without any immediate social value, judging the
world from the limited horizon which they afford, they fails to
perceive that socialism is the only vital economic, political and
moral force of modern times. Socialism
is practical, in the best sense of the term; a living, vital force of
inestimable value to society.
The
Socialist Party stands for the self-emancipation of the working
class. Thus we are open about our goals with our fellow workers.
Socialist society will be state-free. With private property in
industry and land abolished (but, of course, not in articles of
personal use), with exploitation of the toilers ended, and with the
capitalist class finally defeated and all classes liquidated, there
will then be no further need for the State, which in its essence, is
an organ of class repression. The guiding principle will be: “From
each according to ability, to each according to needs.” That is,
the distribution of life necessities—food, shelter, education,
etc.—will be free, without let or hindrance. Socialist production,
carried out upon the most efficient basis and freed from the drains
of capitalist exploiters, will provide such an abundance of necessary
commodities that there will be plenty for all with a minimum of
effort. There will then be no need for penny-pinching measuring and
weighing. Mutuaol aid and solidarity will be quite sufficient to
prevent possible idlers from taking advantage of this free regime of
distribution by either refusing to work or by anti-social waste.
Socialism will bring the greatest advance in culture and general
well-being of the masses in the history of the human race. Culture,
emancipated from class ends, will pass to new and higher levels.
Socialism is the guarantee of a new life for the needy and exploited
of the earth.
Under
capitalism, the capitalists own the means of production. Workers are
forced to sell their labor power and the capitalist exploits and
oppresses them. With socialism, the main means of production are
owned by the community. Thus, the distribution of products and the
social surplus created by the producders is in their hands. Socialism
properly implies above all things the co-operative control by the
workers of the machinery of production. Public ownership by the State
is not socialism – it is only state capitalism. We repeat, state
ownership and control is not necessarily Socialism – if it were,
then the Army, the Navy, the Police, the Judges, the Gaolers, all
would all be socialist functionaries, as they are State officials –
but the ownership by the State of all the land and materials for
labour, combined with the co-operative control by the workers of such
land and materials, would be socialism. Schemes of state and
municipal ownership are but schemes for the perfectioning of the
mechanism of capitalist government-schemes to make the capitalist
regime respectable and efficient for the purposes of the capitalist.
They represent the class-conscious instinct of the business man who
feels that capitalist should not prey upon capitalist, while all may
unite to prey upon the workers.
Capitalism
has failed to provide a full and happy life for all everywhere
throughout the world. Politicians of all shades of political opinion
have tried to control capitalism; they have used all kinds of
political and economic devices to try and iron out its contradictions
and make it function smoothly; they have founded new parties and
concepts —
they
have even tried calling it “socialism” and “communism” —
but the system defeats their efforts. We don’t have to call on
economic theory to prove capitalism’s innate contradictions and
inability to function in the interests of all. The evidence of our
contention stands blatantly forth throughout the entire world of
capitalism: nowhere has capitalism, despite the fantastic development
of its wealth producing techniques, solved any of the basic social
problems that afflict humanity and, often, when some slight
amelioration of these problems is effected by some puny scheme of
social reform new problems are created, often greater than those at
which the reform was aimed. The fact is that capitalism is a social
system based on the exploitation of the overwhelming majority, the
majority in fact that produces all wealth, the working class. This is
the nature of the system and no form of political management can make
the system run contrary to its nature.
Throughout
the world the competition among the working class for their needs in
a system of organised scarcity becomes a weapon in the hands of
politicians anxious to secure the support of the workers. Group
features like religion, colour and ethnic origin are conveniently
related to this competition by some politicians who accuse “them”
of being responsible for “our” problems while other politicians
disguise the real source of the problem by blaming it on the
tensions, bigotries and prejudices induced by these bigots or
racialists.
There
is one group of organisations that does not make the claim that it
has the ability, sincerity, wisdom and all the other
qualities—claimed, by implication, to be the monopoly of the
various contenders for political office—to run capitalism in such a
way as to eradicate poverty, slums, unemployment, violence, etc. That
organisation is the World Socialist Movement. It explains how
capitalism is the cause of the problems wage and salary workers face
today and how only socialism will provide the framework within which
they can be solved for good. It points out how, in modern political
conditions, the way to socialism is through the democratic political
action of a majority of convinced socialists using the ballot box and
parliament to win political control. It exposes as futile the policy
of trying to deal with social problems by means of reforms of
capitalism and shows that nationalisation is merely state capitalism.
The relatively backward countries present no
barrier to the immediate establishment of socialism throughout the
world, the WSM explains, because the modern industrial system that
now covers the world is quite capable of turning out an abundance of
wealth for all the world’s population, wherever they live, to
enjoy. And what about human nature? This too is answered by showing
that the view that man is born lazy, greedy and aggressive is
nonsense. Human behaviour depends on the society human beings live in
and nothing anthropologists and other social scientists have found
shows that human beings are incapable of co-operating on the basis of
common ownership to produce an abundance of wealth from which they
can take freely according to their needs.
The
WSM. and its companion parties overseas, claim that, no more than all
the other political parties could they run the present system to the
satisfaction of all. Hence our struggle is not to win a mandate to
run capitalism’s production for profit scheme, with or without
amendments. Our struggle is to bring to our fellow members of the
working class an understanding of the only alternative to capitalism,
socialism, and provide a revolutionary party for the use of that
knowledge. We do not ask the working class to vote for us to reform
capitalism; we ask them to vote with us to abolish it!
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