People recognise the virtues of socialism in as much as the general welfare is concerned. They oppose it under the pretext of it not being feasible or practicable. Reformers, particularly among the possessing classes, have been trying to prevent the downfall of the capitalist system of private property and to thwart revolution with their perpetual tinkering to remove this or that ill effect or at least of softening its edge, without touching private property itself. Cures have been recommended and tried, all sorts of panaceas by social quacks to heal the old social ills quickly, without pain and without the expense, but often upon closer inspection, these are a revival of old policies, all of which have been tried before and found worthless.
In their defence, they demand of the Socialist Party that we draw a picture of the commonwealth which we strive for. The Socialist Party declines to lay before the public a blueprint of the future commonwealth. The tendencies of the capitalist system of production are today well known. Nevertheless, no one would venture to foretell what forms it will take in a couple of decades, and those who call themselves futurologists couch their predictions with many caveats. And yet our critics demand of the Socialist Party to provide a detailed description of the social relationships that are to come into existence when the present system of production ends. Propositions for the shaping of the forms of social conditions can be made only where the field is fully under control and well understood. For this reason, the Socialist Party can make positive propositions only for the existing social order. Socialism postulates special historical conditions, which render it possible and necessary. Suggestions that go beyond that cannot deal with facts but must proceed from suppositions, they are, accordingly, speculations that will be a waste of time and energy. So many false notions about the socialist commonwealth have been inherited from the Utopians or invented by intellectuals, that this course would have the appearance of an evasion.
The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” With the whole power of the state - the military and law enforcement - in possession of the working class by virtue of its victory at the polls, the death knell of capitalist private property and wage slavery is sounded.
This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of the government from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new level, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of the government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear.
There is only one way to destroy the wage system, and that is the determination of the workers never to sell their labour for wages. They need but to concentrate their energies on the abolition of the wage system. Social peace will reign, for, with the capitalist class and State bureaucracy being abolished, there can be no antagonism of classes or accumulation of dissatisfaction. And these two facts combined will give the producers freedom at work and at leisure, freedom for self-expression in their work, and instead of the deadening drudgery of the wage-slave for the benefit of the capitalist, there will be the creation of beautiful things by free men and women for the use of the whole community.
Working people cannot emancipate themselves without emancipating all society from the tyrannies, superstitions and prejudices of class, race, nationality caste, creed and sex, which keep society divided and enslaved. The victory of socialism means the political supremacy of the working masses and the abolition of every form of exploitation
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