Lack of money is sufficient reason to let people starve. Hungry people cannot eat because they have no money. The world provides ample food for all to eat yet about 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.
Socialism teaches that the revolution against capitalism and the socialist reconstruction of the old world can be accomplished only through conscious, collective action by the workers themselves. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organised. We will inspire our people with a society organised for the benefit of all. A society built on cooperation and the well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. The Socialist Party will reorganise society so that the abundance is distributed according to need. The material and technical resources for such a society, unquestionably exist in the world today. No competent inquirer doubts that insofar as it depends upon natural resources and the productive capacity, everybody could have a comfortable home, adequate nutritious food, opportunities for leisure, recreation and education, decent healthcare against accident, sickness, and old age; and the sense of independence and self-respect that goes with these things. Instead we actually have, however, is mass insecurity and widespread poverty. There is an appalling contrast between what is and what might be. It arises from the nature of the economic system – capitalism – under which we operate.
A revolution in technology is in process. The system acts as a brake upon production so that, as the phrase goes, you have “want in the midst of plenty.” It is impossible for this antiquated system of private/state ownership and profit to supply the needs of the population today. Socialism is in essence a world economy. Every effort to establish “planned” production under private capitalism breaks down, since the warfare between rival capitalists, in a nation and capitalist groups in different nations disrupts such efforts.
Today capitalist ownership of the means of production and its legal right to exploitation of labour stands in the final analysis determines all political relations; which is another way of saying that those who own and control the means of production are those who rule. The mere change to government ownership or public ownership, so long as these capitalist relations remain in effect, would therefore not suffice. It is nonsense to assume that production for use, which pre-supposes the expropriation of the means of production and the transfer of the ownership thereof to the producers, can find its realisation without the overthrow of capitalist rule. The demand for production for use and not for profit has revolutionary implications and presupposes revolutionary action for its realisation.
Socialism proposes wealth for all. Plenty of the good things of life for everybody. A fine home to live in. A table of good things to eat. Abundance. Opportunity and means to travel the world. Leisure to read and play and work. No poverty any more. You say all this is a dream? No, no dream at all, but an immediate possibility. By means of the vast new technology of this modern world, we can produce wealth enough for all without any trouble. There is no doubt at all about this. Automation and Artificial Intelligence have so increased the productive capacity that all men and women could have abundance of wealth by working only 3 or 4 hours a day. Socialism proposes to get this abundance for all.
In order to get this abundance for all, we must do something. The Socialist Party proposes this: To take to ourselves industry and use it for producing for the welfare for all instead of producing for a few owners and investors. The only reason we live in misery now is that a few people own these great modern enterprises for their own benefit. If we owned these factories and mines and mills ourselves in common and worked at them to produce wealth for our own use and happiness, all the problems associated with poverty would disappear. The Socialist Party proposes that society as a whole takes possession of the means of wealth production and run them for the use of all. We propose that the people shall come together in a political party and vote the capitalists out of power.
The Socialist Party appeals to our fellow-workers on the ground of their self-interests. They have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. We seek to empower working people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and with the confidence that it’s possible to win. A socialists we indulge in no dreams or false hopes. We say to our fellow-worker, “Come join our party, vote yourselves into power, use that power to capture back those means of wealth production which the capitalists have stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which modern technology can offer to you.”
The aim of the Socialist Party is to muster together fellow-workers whose real interests lie in abolishing the private ownership of the means of production, and also to oppose the parties who wish to preserve the present system.
The one road to security, to peace, to freedom, to cultural advancement is the road of the socialist revolution. This is your choice – capitalism which means increasing chaos or socialism which means a future for civilisation.
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