Socialist Progress

 

We live in a world rife with misery and oppression. We suffer from hunger, poverty, unemployment, racial and sexual discrimination, and many forms of repression, from the restriction of the most basic democratic rights like freedom of speech and association to hideous barbarism like state torture and genocide. The gulf between the rich and the poor is steadily widening. The various forms of exploitation endured by the working people are growing.

 However, we all aspire to a better life where the living conditions of all would be in keeping with society’s ability to use the wealth of nature. We yearn for a society where all injustice will be banished forever, a society in which the weak would no longer be oppressed by the strong, a society in which one class would no longer be exploited by another. The dreams of the past have become real possibilities for a future and this sort of society can only be achieved through proletarian revolution. Capitalist relations of exploitation are now the fundamental obstacle to further progress for mankind and a society of abundance, of justice and of freedom: world socialism.

Capitalists have only one raison d’etre – to accumulate more and more capital. They are therefore always looking for ways to increase the productivity of labour. This stimulates the development of science and technology and leads to an ever greater division of labour. It also results in very keen competition among capitalists themselves; many are reduced to bankruptcy, while a minority get richer and richer. The existence of modern society depends on the work of millions of individuals whose roles in production are increasingly interdependent. At the same time, a minority, the owners of capital, continues to control production. This contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of the appropriation of the fruits of production is the fundamental contradiction of capitalism. This fundamental contradiction is the source of the anarchy of production under capitalism. This explains the enormous waste of productive forces lost through drops in production and plant shutdowns, and the resulting social misery, notably unemployment. This also explains why, alongside this waste, millions of people lack the basic necessities and why even famine still strikes in various parts of the world. Capitalists seek to increase the productivity of workers. They impose speed-ups and compulsory overtime. They multiply their attacks on the democratic rights of working people and continually try to control their organisations and even to destroy them.

Capitalism has created the very conditions for its own destruction. The spread of capitalist production has resulted in the growth of the size, cohesion, and revolt of the working class. With the abolition of capitalist exploitation, working people have everything to gain and nothing to lose but its chains. Socialist revolution is the only way that the working people can ensure the abolition of all exploitation. The working class cannot free itself without freeing all of humanity at the same time, because the ultimate goal of its struggle is not to replace the power of one class with that of another but rather to abolish all classes. This is the only way to put an end to all the social divisions and inequalities that have characterised class societies thus far. A socialist society will permit a steady reduction in the human work needed to produce goods. Socialism is based on the free association of all individuals who work together to produce the goods necessary for their collective well-being. All will work according to their capacities and their needs will be fully satisfied. Thus, individuals will no longer be governed by the division of labour and all opposition between city and countryside and between manual and intellectual work will be eliminated.

Only socialism can fully realize the material and ideological conditions for a society of plenty. The expropriation of the capitalists and the socialisation of the means of production will lead directly to the abolition of society divided into classes with opposing interests. The abolition of classes will in turn lead to the withering away of the State, and ultimately to its extinction for the State is not, and can never be, anything other than the instrument of dictatorship of one class over others. The world is in the midst of change. The assembly lines no longer dominate our factories. The jobs we once knew are slowly disappearing. We are being replaced by robots, computers, and other new technologies in our workplaces. The capitalists are defending their profits and domination by being ever more ruthless in their policies towards the workers. The system can no longer feed and house us or provide us with jobs. At every opportunity we must go on the offensive and expose the capitalist system and uncloak our class enemy.