What Socialism Can Do?

 The fact that socialism is now possible does not yet establish that the workers will fight for it. History is not made that way. People do not discard that which they are satisfied with to adopt something that is still untried, no matter how alluring the latter appears. They only discard the old way of life when it no longer assures them stability and security to the degree to which they were accustomed. What has happened to all the noble promises of peace and freedom made by the capitalists. They callously deceived the people for their greater right to pillage, to oppress, to exploit, to disfranchise and subjugate. While all the capitalist nations are incapable and unwilling to produce in the interests of the common good of the people, while production is organised solely in the interests of profit, invention in the interests of society as a whole remains stagnant. Invention, which could lighten the lives of the people and produce enough to have plenty for all, is impossible in an economy where the main aim of those who own the industries, mines, transportation and utilities is production for profit.

Regardless of the nay-sayers in the green movement nature has spread a bountiful banquet table for all to share in. There is room for all, and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of society that denies a single person the right and the opportunity to freely help oneself to nature’s fruits is an unjust and iniquitous system that ought to be abolished.

 In the midst of unparalleled opportunities to achieve plenty for all, millions are compelled to struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. Capitalist society is rushing headlong into a form of barbarism. So long as the mad struggle for profit in this private property economy exists, and it must exist as long as capitalism exists, poverty, war and plague is forever the prospect of life. Chaos and destruction are forever the reward of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of all countries. The most important question is this: is it possible for capitalism, a society organised in the interests of profits for a handful of people who live off the exploitation of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world to use the discovery of new technologies for constructive purposes in the interests of mankind? The answer is, of course, no. Science, which can be of such benefit to society, is, under capitalism, the servant of the financial and industrial robber barons who rule society. Only a socialist society, a society without classes, without war, without competition, without unemployment, and poverty can properly utilise the harnessing of scientific invention. A class society which lives by exploitation can only subordinate such innovation to the interest of private profit.

The Socialist Party’s task is not to traffic on the ignorance and backwardness of others, not to attempt to win them unawares and by stealth, but on the contrary, to enlighten them and to educate them in the necessary steps to take along the road to power. The workers’ right of management, is acquired, not through providence of inheritance nor through the unholy exploitation of the people, but that it should belong to those who do the work of society. Let the organised working people manage industry, eliminate private profit, plan production to suit the needs of the people – for peace, prosperity and plenty for all! 

The destruction of the world may happen to be a grim reality unless the social order of capitalism is abolished and replaced by socialism, the society of all the people. The Socialist Party’s struggle is the struggle of the peoples for a new life, for a new social system, for a socialist world of peace, freedom and plenty for all.  The struggle for a new life, for a socialist society of plenty for all, will go on until victory is won. Society will have a new birth, and humanity a new destiny. There will be work for all, leisure for all, plenty for all and the joys of life for all. These are the ideals of the Socialist Party and to these ideals it is committed. It is the hope of all.