We need socialism

Socialism is built on three principles, all vital to one another. These principles are: social ownership of the means of production, egalitarianism, and social democracy. Our goal is a new social order based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of our people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. The socialist option is the only alternative to capitalism. Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. These failures puts a campaign for the socialist alternative as an immediate demand. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. It will be accomplished by democratizing all levels of society. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, extensions of machines—as long as they provide dividends. Employers use their power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers through lay-offs, shut-downs and neglect of health and safety. Socialism will dissolve the economic of management privilege by relying on the creativity of people.  We believe in the ability of working people to administer their own productive institutions democratically. We do not offer a blueprint to a better future. The capitalist system must be replaced by socialist democracy. That is the burning issue of our era, the only hope of humanity. Our planet is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. But today the great majority of our people are faced with the threat of poverty, ever-rising prices, deteriorating health, education and other social services. A handful of capitalists control our world and make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the land. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few capitalists.

Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour. At the end of the week a worker collects their pay. The capitalists and their apologetic flunkeys claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. For example, workers on average each produced new goods and services to the value of$1,000 each week. However they each received an average of $500 wages per week. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalists and their flunkeys. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street. Capitalists try to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class and people to suffer. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury.The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or resist it.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production there must be social ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, anarchy of production, speculation and crisis, oppression and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self interest of the tiny group of capitalists. Socialism will be won through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests in society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean  government control. Today we often hear of state ownership and  control of the railways or post office as "creeping socialism". But under capitalism the state serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. When the government intervenes it does so to help, not hurt, capitalism. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people. Directing the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of central planning, local coordination. Various policies might be used with changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. Productivity gains will be used to shorten the working day and improve living standards, rather than create unemployment. Construction of housing, schools, medical, cultural and sporting facilities for working people will be a priority.

With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. No longer will bankers, landlords and investors live off the labour of others. To protect and administer socialism, the people will establish a socialist people's democracy, a genuine democracy for the masses of people. The people will elect officials and representatives at all levels of government and the economy. There will be the right of recall and referendum. Socialist democracy would be far broader than what is possible today because the voices of the people would be heard, not simply those of the rich. Classes will have disappeared, the state will "wither" away, and an exciting new era of human freedom and prosperity will arise.