We are in the midst of a worldwide industrial, political, and social revolution. The capitalist system, with its extreme wealth upon the one hand, its abject and widespread poverty on the other; and its political corruption, its industrial slavery, and its social demoralisation has about run its course and is being challenged by a growing number of working people. Regardless of all that we hear of liberty, we are not yet truly free. Through the ages the many have been the slaves of the few. Little has changed. Many of us are living in poverty and dying in despair.
The worker must sell his or her labour-power to the capitalist class, which owns and controls the machinery and technology. And how is this controlled? By the law of supply and demand. Labour-power is in the market for sale. The capitalist buys labour-power. He buys as cheaply as possible, and between employer and employee there is an economic and political struggle, and strikes and lockouts, injunctions and bloodshed. The media and the politicians seek to obscure this class struggle. The politician wish to keep you in darkness.
The Socialist Party points out that this class rule must be abolished and human freedom shall be established, freedom for all humanity. The Socialist Party tells you not to trust in political leaders and their mouth-pieces in the media, but insists that you open your eyes so that you may see, that you may understand and it candidly tells the harsh truth on how you lack knowledge and and class consciousness. You produce by your labour all the wealth . You have little or nothing to show for it. You build all the mansions and palaces and live in slums and shanty towns. You vote for this or that government, but you are oppressed and suppressed by them. You produce everything and have practically nothing, while the ruling class produces nothing and has everything. If you understood you would produce wealth, not for your masters, but for yourselves. Political liberty without economic freedom is a myth. Political liberty is rooted in economic freedom. The man who controls and owns the means that sustains life, owns and controls you. You are his slave and in no sense free. They divide you at the ballot box upon alleged issues, issues in which you have not the slightest interest. Politicians claim that they can serve both the bosses and the workers. This is impossible. Politicians who serve one class serves that class at the expense of the other class. There is not the slightest difference between the parties so far as the working class is concerned. They both stand for the capitalist system, for the private ownership of the means of wealth production and the operation of industry in the interest of the capitalist class. They are committed to the perpetuation of wage-slavery, and whether one or the other wins, you lose.
The Socialist Party is the party of the working class. Its platform consists of but a single plank. It declares against the capitalist system, against wage-slavery, and in favour of a socialist society. It proposes organising the working class into a party representing the economic interests of the working class. We are overwhelmingly in the majority, and when we are politically organised as a class and become conscious of our power as a class, we will conquer political power and take hold of the machinery of the state. We will take possession of the industries, put the working class in possession and control of production and distribution, and then capitalism fall, never to rise again. We have raw materials in overwhelming abundance, the most wonderful technology the world has ever known, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their skills and talents to transform the raw materials into finished products.
In the capitalist competitive society working people are pitted against one another in every sphere of activity, and the struggle has become so sharp, so fierce, so brutal, that it develops and appeals to all that is cold and cruel and dehumanising to a person. The pressing issue is, how shall we eat, how shall we find a home to call our own, how can we educate our children and find healthcare for our sick and elderly. Everywhere there is the spectre of want, the possibility of failure. We do not know what is to become of ourselves. It is said that these things are inherent in and inseparable in our society. We repudiate the charge as a libel upon the human race, as a slander upon civilisation.
In the capitalist system we are pitted against each other. Our economic interests are in conflict. We make war upon each other. We do not develop those qualities that dignify humanity. We do develop tooth and fang and claw; cunning at the expense of conscience. No-one understands this better than the businessman. No one mistrusts the businessman more than another businessman. It is his rule to treat every man as a rogue until he proves himself otherwise, and never to give him a chance to prove otherwise, for that might be his own undoing. He may wear a nice suit and talk eloquently but he is in no true sense a civilised human being. He is obsessed on how to make larger dividends, how to secure greater profit. The more he gets the greedier he grows. He gets rich in the worldly sense; but spiritually he remains a pauper hence a need to sponsor the arts, to perform charitable deeds, to disguise his mercenary nature.
The Socialist Party knows that men and women are locked in an economic condition in which they are compelled to fight others for scraps. We do not propose a mere change of party as a solution — we propose a change of system. We are not reformers — we are revolutionaries. We appeal to our fellow-worker to organise a party that represents their economic interest. Our vision of socialism has in which there is no master and no slave. We wait until our socialist minority becomes the majority. If you respect human life as greater value than profit, we ask you to join our party.
New technology, automation and robotics and Artificial Intelligence will serve us. At the touch of button, mankind will produce abundance for all. Work will be joy with everybody gladly doing ones own share of the world’s useful work. Everyone will have leisure and can cultivate the mind. Men and women will rise from the rule of capitalism, from the realm of necessity, to the heights of freedom.
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