The Socialist Answer

The hope for a class-free society is a very old idea.  The stoics of the the 3rd century BC believed in a "world city" where all were brothers. They were the first to condemn all kinds of slavery and to talk about the oneness of the whole human community regardless of national and ethnic differences.

 Some say that early Christianity was originally ‘socialist’ where the expression “to each according to their need” should not be credited to Marx but to “Acts of the Apostles” in the Bible.

 In the 13^th Century the preacher, John Ball, was telling peasants:

 “ye good people, the matters goeth not well to pass in England, nor shall do till everything be common, and that there be no villains nor gentlemen, but that we are all united together, and that the lords be no greater masters than we. What have we deserved, or why should we be thus kept in servage? We be all come from one father and mother, Adam and Eve: whereby can they say or show that they be greater lords than we, saving by that they cause us to win and labour for that they dispend?”

By the 17^th Century, Gerard Winstanley was writing about  the abolition of money.

 “Every tradesman shall fetch materials… from the public store-houses to work upon without buying and selling; and when particular works are made… the tradesmen shall bring these particular works to particular shops, as it is now the practice, without buying and selling. And every family as they want such things as they cannot make, they shall go to these shops and fetch without money.”

We hear much about the“dignity of work” especially from those who do not toil.They instruct us to be content with our lot in life. To say that we should rise above meaningless drudgery and wage-slavery makes us socialists agitators and rabble-rousers.The term “labour or job market” expresses the fact that in capitalist society a worker is merchandise to be bought and sold for a price.It means little if the person is skilled or unskilled, works with ones hands or brain. It simply makes the price paid different.The mission of the Socialist Party is to abolish the wage system, in it entirety.Society needs to be reconstructed upon a new foundation, and the working class alone — the only class without which society would perish — can accomplish the task.The working class holds  the power at the ballot-box to end the tragedy of toil and modern technology  will become our servant, not our master.

Socialism is not an authoritarian creed. It is a society without a government. It is a free society; a society without rulers and ruled, nor leaders and led, without masters and slaves. Socialism is not only on the side of freedom but is equivalent to freedom, standing opposed to hierarchy, bureaucracy , regimentation, oppression, repression and submission. Any movement towards freedom is a movement towards socialism. The Socialist Party does not intend to lead the masses towards a free and classless society because we are a part of the masses themselves and adhere to the motto of the First International: “The emancipation of the workers is an act of the workers themselves”. If our fellow-workers wait for a “revolutionary vanguard party” to lead them to the free society, they will neither be free nor classless.

 No socialist can be a socialist in a non-socialist society. The socialist know it and, therefore, tries to bring about a socialist society. Our goal of socialism is a class-free society offering abundance for all.  The class character of society cannot be achieved by machinations and manipulations at the top. It can only be done by a revolution which is followed by a fundamental change in property relations.