What kind of society do we want as we harness the technology of artificial intelligence and robotics which could provide an era of abundance for all, releasing us from the drudgery of monotonous toil and enrich our lives.
The Socialist Party is the party of the dispossessed and oppressed, organised to build a new world but we do not offer a blueprint to a better future. But offer an invitation to all fellow-workers to join us in our efforts to eradicate a social system based on exploitation, discrimination, poverty and war. The capitalist system must be replaced by political and economic democracy. That is the burning issue of our era, the only hope of humanity. A socialist society must be founded on true solidarity, on true cooperation.
Socialism is the only option to consider if you seek to avoid a dystopian nightmare where global crises are inevitable as long as profits dictate the course of humanity. Attempts to reform capitalism has failed. That failure puts a campaign for the socialist alternative once again on the immediate agenda. A world confronted by a political, social and economic emergencies demands straight-forward solutions. Half-measures cannot meet the challenge. We need a socialist economic system based on common ownership. We will replace private ownership with collective control. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. This wholesale reconstruction will be accomplished by democratising all levels of society. We believe in the ability of working people to manage society democratically.
The Socialist Party’s task is not to convert the world. Our task is only to point out as widely as possible what should be self-evident to every person sufficiently educated to be able to read the book of history. It is not enough to point an accusing finger at the greedy and evil men who are running the government today. Their individual avarice and lust for power are important factors, but not the decisive ones. They are driven to desperate measures not merely by some quirk in their individual or collective minds or hearts, but by the very needs of the capitalist system itself. Many “reasonable” people suggest the answer is to put in good men and women to reform or patch up the system. In a rational world there would of course be no poverty or lack of resources which would be accessible to all and collectively used for the common welfare. But a world dominated by capitalism is not a rational world. Capitalist rivals competing in the long run undermines the system they seek to maintain.
History has taught us to be on guard against capitalist reformism. Fundamentally, the reason is that you can’t end all the social ills we suffer from without ending its cause, capitalism. No matter how sincere are the intentions, as long as the reformist’s influence is able to dissuade the people from replacing capitalism with a socialist system, then the reformist is our enemy. The Socialist Party cannot support any individual or group dedicated to the maintenance of capitalism. The oppressor and oppressed, stand in constant opposition to one another in a fight for the revolutionary reconstruction of society, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. The essence of the capitalist system is the ownership and control of the materials and technology of production and distribution by a small class whose legal title to the lands, forests, mines, transportation, offices, factories, and other industrial and utilities gives the people. Workers survive in a form of slavery, wherein labour power is paid for by wages, and the bare chance to live depends upon some capitalist master.
The socialist revolution cannot be achieved by direct seizure of industry by the workers, without the workers first having conquered the power of the state. The Socialist Party seeks to abolish a society which cannot constructively apply technological advances. Since capitalism produces for profits, it is indifferent to the fate of those workers thrown out of employment because of technological progress. A socialist society, however, would welcome such progress and would merely shorten the work week to give the workers the benefits of the new advances in machine production. The more successful the researchers, inventors and cooperators are, the greater becomes the profit of the wealthy who can take advantage of a new development greater the menace to the little people despite that this is the age of plenty
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