Our Road to Socialism

 

The goal of the Socialist Party is to help create the first socialist society based on a democratic, pluralistic and libertarian model. The sceptics and the prophets of doom will say that it is not possible. For a long time, science and technology have made it possible to assure that everybody enjoys the basic necessities which today are enjoyed only by a minority. The difficulties are not technical, and they are not due to a lack of natural resources. What prevents the realisation of our ideals is the organisation of society, and the nature of the ruling class vested interests which have so far dominated. 

Our aim is the attainment of social freedom through the exercise of political freedom, and this requires the establishment of economic equality as a basis. In the political field, the working class knows that it is fighting for the socialisation of the means of production. There is no socialism without common ownership. Those who live by their work have in their hands today the political direction of the socialist movement. The path to a new society is based on the people. The working class are being knit together in the bonds of cooperation, they are becoming conscious of their interests as a class. With the triumph of the workers the mode of production and distribution will be revolutionised. Private ownership and production for profit will be supplanted by social ownership and production for use.The economic interests of the workers will be mutual. They will work together in harmony instead of being arrayed against each other in rivalry and competition. To reach fellow workers that are still in darkness and to open their eyes, that is the task and to this we must give ourselves. The moment a worker sees oneself in true light begins our party and movement.

Capitalism is a system of commodity production (that is, the production of goods for sale and not for direct use by the producer). By replacing private ownership of the means of production with common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of production which is a feature of capitalism into planned production organised for the well-being and many-sided development of all of society, the  socialist revolution will end the division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms of exploitation of one section of society by another. Anarchy of production is the tendency of capitalist producers in general to produce to the maximum without regard to their competitors or to the capacity of the market to absorb their production. While technological progress brings about greater productivity of labour and increased social wealth, it cannot get rid of the evils of capitalism or solve the problems of the working class. Rather, it intensifies them. Only socialism can solve them. There is nothing to the argument that human nature will not warrant socialism. The industrial system does not depend upon human nature but human nature depends upon the system. Change the economic conditions and human behaviour will change.

The Socialist Party is the only party in this country that stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows itself as the party of the working class and its purpose is the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own the nation’s industries, the toiling masses will be struggling in the hell of poverty as they are today. To tell them that juggling with tax reform will change this disgraceful condition is to insult their intelligence. 

The Socialist Party is the party of the workers in the mills and mines, on the railways and on the farms, the workers of both sexes and all races and colours. The working class, constitutes a great majority of the people and in fact THE PEOPLE. We demand that industry shall be taken over by  workers and shall operate for the benefit of the whole people. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The Socialist Party stands for social ownership and co-operation. The one is capitalism; the other socialism. The one industrial despotism, the other economic democracy. The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for.

We demand the means of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand equal rights for all people regardless of gender, colour, creed or nationality. We demand that all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies and cultured minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental and physical achievement. We demand complete control of industry by the workers. We demand the Earth for all the people.