Common Ownership: The Only Solution

 The former Soviet Union tried to pass off the regime as socialism to try to deceive the Soviet workers and others throughout the world, just as the exploiters in this country try to pass the USA off as a democracy with “equal justice for all.” American capitalists were happy to call the USSR socialist or communist, because it allowed them to say, when more and more people were discontent, “look, there is no alternative to capitalism, see what a mess communism has made in the Soviet Union.” And of course, capitalism in the Soviet Union is just as rotten as capitalism in this country. But real socialism is something all together different. 

Socialism means that all the wealth created by the workers became the common property of the whole of society, no longer do the working people toil all their lives to enrich a handful of bosses. Exploitation becomes a thing of the past. Under capitalism, workers have no control over what is produced and how. All that is decided by how much profit some capitalist will gain. But socialism enables the people to decide how to organise themselves and the resources of society to meet the needs of the people. As long as profit for the few is the basis of the economic system, that system–capitalism–will continue to go from crisis to deeper crisis, with more misery for the people. Without the common ownership of the means of production, not only does inequality between rich and poor remain, but also, be cause of the competition between workers for jobs, housing, educational opportunities, the inequality inside the working class remains. This is a breeding ground for racism and sexism.  Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of our fellow-workers. The present system of social production and private property converted society into two antagonistic classes — i.e., the capitalist class and the propertyless class.

The Socialist Party declares its object to be:

First — The organisation of the working class into a political party to conquer the public powers now under the controlof the capitalists. 

Second — The abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a world system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members' and the complete emancipation of the exploited from the domination of capitalism.

Third - The solidarity of labour connecting the millions of class-conscious fellow workers throughout the  world will lead to world socialism, the commonwealth of humanity.

We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a society, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy, from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated.  

Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of the people and the planet’s resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation.

 Incapable of turning their technology and organisation to the needs of people, the oligarchs such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are collapsing under the weight of their ever-mounting hoarded wealth. They have distorted the economic development of the world so fundamentally—the resources they have acquired, for instance, could eliminate hunger in the world. There are no new frontiers for their multinational corporations. Their new technology will only intensify massive permanent unemployment, tedious and stressful jobs for remaining workers, and terrifying concentrations of knowledge and control in the hands of corporate CEOs. The socialist option is the only alternative. Socialism relies on the needs and creativity of people. If harnessed to democratic administration and planning, technology could help us achieve an era of abundance for all, and release us from repetitive drudgery. The flaws of capitalism are too basic, the power of the corporations too great, the chasm separating the compulsions of profit and the needs of people too wide, for anything less to succeed.

The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, human appendages of machines. Employers have the power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers if they do not provide share-holder dividends.

The Socialist Party is the party of the dispossessed and the oppressed. We support the struggles against the injustices of capitalism. We offer a better future to build a new world. We invite all fellow-workers to eradicate a social system based on exploitation, discrimination, poverty and war. The capitalist system must be replaced by socialist democracy. That is the burning issue of our era, the only hope of humanity.