A Better World For All

Mankind is moving towards a showdown with all the forces of the old order. The patching up and piecemeal remedies of the reformers do little good. By replacing private ownership of the means of production by common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of production which is a feature of capitalism into planned l production organised for the well-being of all of society, the  socialist revolution will end the division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms of exploitation of one section of society by another. The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers, through their industrial and administrative councils, must own and control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. By its victory at the ballot box, and its consequent political domination, the capitalists are able to enslave Labour by creating State departments which control industrial conditions. These State departments are in the hands of unsympathetic bureaucrats who are appointed by our masters. 

We are convinced that the present political State, with most of its attendant institutions, must be swept away. The political State is not and cannot be a true democracy. It is elected because the wealthiest section of society can suppress all facts through its power over the media. By its money the capitalists can buy control of the mass media and these create fake election issues. The electorate is not asked to vote upon facts but only upon such topics as the media, representing capital, puts before the workers.

We cannot leave political control in the hands of the ruling class. We have seen what power the conquest of the State gives to capital in its struggle with labour. It is through its political strength that the capitalists can deprive us of every shred of civil liberty the loss of which makes the peaceful agitation for the revolution impossible. The maintenance of civil liberty is part of the political struggle of revolutionary labour. And in the measure that the industrial movement becomes more powerful so in the same measure capital will resort to the use of the armed forces and other violent methods of suppression. The control of these forces flow directly from capital’s control of the State which it secures at the ballot box. This destructive function is the revolutionary role of political action. But this destructive political function is necessary in order that the industrial constructive element in the revolution may not be thwarted. the political issue confronting the working class is the preservation of civil liberties and the destruction of the political State. All other questions, such as the League of Nations, social reconstruction, free trade, or tariff reform—these things which are agitating the minds of Tory, Liberal, and Labour parties—are merely traps to catch the unwary workers and to persuade them to vote to preserve capitalism.

The Labour Party has no message for the working class whereby the workers may destroy capitalism and construct socialism. The Socialist Party alone puts forward such a position.

The more the wage-workers threaten to revolt, the more does the capitalist class seek to hold them down. For, it is in the factories, in the mills and workshops, where all wealth is created. It is there where profits and wages are produced. It is there, on the industrial field, that labour and capital struggle to increase their respective shares of the social product. Each class wishes to get as much of the wealth produced as it can. Consequently there is a struggle between wages and profits. The more labour gets the less there is for capital. The more capital gets the less there is for labour. This clash of interests provokes the class struggle. Each side desires to get as much power as possible in order to overcome its class opponent. Thus, the control of the government, which includes the power over the armed forces, civil, and legal powers of the nation, is one way by means of which the capitalist class is able to hold the workers in subjection. That is the reason why the capitalist class strains its every source in order to control the powers of State. Thus, the class struggle in the factory and on the industrial field must also be fought out at the ballot box. Within the next few days the political aspect of the class struggle will be waged at the ballot box. What is the issue? It is whether capital or labour is going to control the destinies of humanity.

The immediate aim of the Socialist Party is to organise the social revolution of the working class. A revolution that overthrows the entire exploitative capitalist relations and puts an end to all exploitation and oppression. We seek the immediate establishment of a socialist society; a society without classes, without private ownership of the means of production, without wage labour and without a State; a free human society in which all share in the social wealth and collectively decide the society's direction and future.

Socialism is possible this very day. We would see the wealth of the World as part of mankind’s common heritage. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created, we will be quickly able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. The essence of communist revolution is abolition of private ownership of the means of production and their conversion into common ownership of the whole society. Socialist revolution puts an end to the class division of society and abolishes the wage-labour system. Thus, market, exchange of commodities, and money disappear. Production for profit is replaced by production to meet people's needs and to bring about greater prosperity for all. Work, which in capitalist society for the overwhelming majority is an involuntary, mechanical and strenuous activity to earn a living, gives way to voluntary, creative and conscious activity to enrich human life. Everyone, by virtue of being a human being and being born into human society will be equally entitled to all of life's resources and the products of collective effort. From everyone according to their ability, to everyone according to their need — this is a basic principle of socialist society. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman to supervise who gets what. The socialist revolution is not a revolution out of desperation or poverty but one relying on the consciousness and material readiness of the working people.

We will empower people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and with the confidence that it’s possible to win. We are an organisation of revolutionaries. The task of the Socialist Party is always agitation and propaganda. It is the vision of a World free forever from want, from race and national hatred, from sexual oppression and from human exploitation. The vision is one of peace and social harmony. It expresses the changes being brought about and the possibilities being created by the new technology. We no longer have to work long hours or wait for the meagre welfare payment just to eke out a miserable existence for our families. The new technology makes a world of material abundance and cultural development for all possible. Only when control of our World is in the hands of the working people can we transform our vision of the future into reality. We are an organisation dedicated and united to that cause. To teach the idea of revolution, our classroom has to become the street, the factories, the schools – wherever there’s injustice, oppression and tyranny. They are few; we are many.

The Socialist Party is a revolutionary political organisation and therefore believes in revolutionary political action. It urges the workers to use their ballots to capture political power—not to play at politicians but to use their votes to uproot the political State and to hand to the people  the constructive task of building up the administrative councils of the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth. 

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 industrial democracy owning and controlling the means of production.