Re-imagining the World

Within the World Socialist Movement there exists a widespread sincere belief in and commitment to equality and justice. There is absolutely no room for any discrimination, based on race,colour, ethnicity, caste, gender, or other such considerations. Top priority of a socialist society should be given to meeting the essential needs of all people, respecting the dignity of all people.

 

The most common objection to socialism is that it is against ‘human nature’.

 

I’m sure many know that in the UK the largest sea-rescue organisation is not a government-run Coastguard but the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a voluntary charity that declines any government funding to preserve its independence.

 

There is usually a waiting list of volunteers seeking to risk their lives in the wildest of weathers and they wish to join, not for any monetary reward as it is unpaid but they do so for the ‘selfish’ and ‘egoistical’ reason of receiving the respect and esteem of their communities. They also following that age-old tradition, the ‘law of the sea’, where mariners come to the assistance of those in difficulty, and it is in practise even today when many in distress are refugee boat-people and are picked up at considerable cost by commercial shipping. It is a simple principle but in fancy parlance it is called enlightened self-interest.

 

Then there are the mountain rescue teams, willing to save those also at great risk to themselves. The believe in mutual aid, that they expect others to come to help them when they get into difficulties in the mountains. Related is also the upkeep of the network of bothies, emergency refuges in the mountains. It is also performed by volunteers

 

 Do we have to cite all the voluntary organisations and the work done by the charities and NGOs to show that people express altruism and empathy for others? This gives us a glimpse of what can happen if we establish a state-free society in the future. 

Capitalism is an economic system in which means of production are controlled and owned by a numerically small group of people - the capitalist class. They dominate the government. Like many anarchists and right-wing libertarians we don’t believe we need the State to keep society operating but we suggest a very different way of accomplishing that aspiration.

 

Socialism has been attacked many times. Socialists are reproached with every kind of wickedness. If only we open our eyes and look around us, we find many beneficent and useful institutions established by many or by the whole people in common. In one place associations are formed, for instance, to save and shelter shipwrecked persons; at another place the community erect a school, a medical clinic, builds a harbour or a canal. In ordinary life everybody cares for himself, but in such cases as those just mentioned people unite for advancing a common, social purpose. Experience teaches that our own welfare is greatly advanced by such institutions of common usefulness. What would people be without common roads. common schools, etc.; that is, such as are built and instituted at the cost of the community for common use?  Socialism is nothing but exercising the principle of the common interests of society. 

 

In capitalism everybody looks out for ones own interest, even at the cost to others. What does the capitalist care for the victims of his greed? What does the stock-exchange speculator care about the damage done by the buying and selling of bonds and shares. Socialism represent the victory of common interests over this hideous individualism. Whoever is the enemy of socialism is an enemy of society and humanity.

 

The Socialist Party are always reminded of all the previous attempts at socialism by the gradualists in the Labour Party or the more radical Bolshevik-influenced Left-wingers but we reply that if anybody wants to make a Madeira cake, they require the correct ingredients in the proper proportions, then they need to be mixed in the appropriate manner before being baked at a specific heat for a particular time. If you do none of these actions, don’t call the mess that emerges from the oven a Madeira cake and least of all, don’t blame the author of the cookery book for your failure to follow the recipe guide.

 

Imagine a world built for us to thrive in rather than scarcely survive in. Maybe if we were able to have more control over our individual and collective lives, our self esteems would be stronger, lives less broken, and we’d all get better at making good decisions.

Organise, agitate and educate for a better world