Wednesday, March 17, 2021

The Emancipation of the Wage-Slaves

 


What has happened to our politics? Our core principle, the inherently revolutionary capacity of the workers, is being abandoned. We fail to communicate that the development of the productive forces is in  sufficient degree to provide plenty for all the first time in human history.

The wealth and productive facilities of the world could supply the material basis for a new social organisation which would ensure plenty for all in the shortest time. But the capitalist ownership of industry and their monopolist control of governments stands in the way of using these riches and resources for the benefit of the whole of mankind.

The vision of the Socialist Party  is that if the enormous wealthy of society, presently controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people, poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to the mass murder of war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. In a revolution, the power and wealth of society change hands. This kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of the profit system, workers’ management of industry,, the end of wars growing out of the profit system – peace and plenty for all.

Why do we suffer unemployment, depressions and poverty? Because the economy is capitalist, meaning chaotic and anarchic, based on competition, producing not for public need but for private profit. Capitalism, which was once progressive in its beginnings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, because it overthrew the feudal method of production, has now become an anachronism, standing in the way of progress and the rational planning of society with aim being the economic security for all, as its minimum requirement.

It is no myth that there is plenty for all.  More food can be raised today than we could, possibly eat. Yet people starve in the midst of plenty and food is dumped when people cannot buy for they may not have the money. When the capitalists realise there is no profit in selling their goods, there are layoffs and slashing of wage’s. Food is left to rot in storage, and hungry people starve in the midst of plenty. Robotics and automation has  increased the productivity of labour. Contrary to the claims of some environmentalists we have the natural resources. Modern science has made comfort and culture and leisure possible for all. Who will deny the great potential for good ? But have the ruling class used them to end poverty, to secure a high standard of living and keep the peace? No, for they have flagrantly and wilfully mismanaged. Corporation profits have increased enormously. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer is always true under capitalism. The capitalist system won’t work, for the very root of capitalism is all wrong.

There is a way out of this chaos. The working people themselves should own and operate the industries cooperatively, through common ownership. This would end production for profit and the waste of competing corporations. There would be planned production for the first time, increasing the output of wealth so that there would be plenty for all.  We have today more workers, more efficiency, more productivity, and more machinery than ever before. We have more of all the means necessary to a high standing of living and shorter working hours. The kind of planned economy we envisage would, for the first time, make possible an end to wars between nations. Because the planned economy would include all countries. The aim of the working class would be to end capitalism and all forms of exploitation everywhere; and everywhere introduce a planned economy. Its aim would be to create a socialist world.

The Socialist Party is dedicated to the cause of  the emancipation of mankind from the horrors and fears and terrors of capitalism and the creation of a new society of fraternity,  of freedom, of prosperity, peace and plenty for all.



No comments: