Something is wrong with the world

 

We in the Socialist Party are not nationalists but world socialists as our name indicate.  We had better define our terms. Most will probably think they know what a socialist is but are sadly mistaken.  Socialists are people who want political power for one purpose only, to revolutionise the world we live in, and change it from a capitalist system to a socialist one, where the means of life are owned by society as a whole. “From each according to his ability" is the first half of the socialist's golden rule for the kind of society we want to create.  “To each according to his need" is in this second half of our motto. 

We hold to a vision of a united world  a planet where national boundaries shall be unknown. Socialists know that a new world of unity and cooperation can exist in the future by observing certain features in society now, such as widespread cooperation despite tremendous pressures to divide and compete, and examples of generosity and self-sacrifice that are always evident in times of crisis. 

One day there is an announcement that goes something like this: We, the workers of the world, declare all the raw-materials of the planet, the means of production and distribution, the means to a good life, to be ours. The world is no longer owned by the non-producing class. The Earth no longer belongs to the privileged minority. Today the world belongs to all of humanity . The fruits of the labours we ,the producers of goods, produce are ours.

We, the working people, understand that capitalism doesn’t operate for us. And all the reforms in the world are not going to make it serve us.

We the producing class, the workers of the world, the vast majorityt, understand a world without money is the system that is best for us. As it also does for all the animals andthe environment.

We are now the caretakers of planet Earth. We are the masters of our own destiny.

So much of our labour yesterday was wasted. We put a stop to that nonsense—in a non-violent, peaceful, radical, intelligent way. We will never again squander our raw-materials. No more will we mis-use our labour, our lives, our time, our genius, our industry, our potential, our love.

In everything we produce for ourselves we will produce nothing but what our best endeavours can produce. Everyone of us will have the means to enjoy a good life.

We, the workers of the world,  with the right ideas have conquered the capitalist system.

We have dismantled and abolished capitalism. And have established a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the best interest of the humanity.

We, the workers of the world, construct every building, lay every railway track, bake every pie. This world is ours by right. Because we make it.

We, the workers of the world, hereby declare that from this day forth our labour will turn the resourcess of Earth into the things we need and want for a civilised system of society. For all of us to enjoy. And our children to enjoy. And their children. And their children. And their children.

We, the workers of the world,  will make Earth if not paradise then as near as much that it makes no difference.

We ask you, fellow workers, to imagine you are living in a world where money does not exist. When you want something you go to the store and take it. There isn’t someone to tell you what you can take or when you can take it; that decision is yours. And everybody else has the same right to avail themselves of what they need as you — so there are no criminals wanting to rob you.

Of course, all the things that people freely avail themselves of have to be produced. Food has to be grown and processed; things have got to be made and houses and other buildings have to be built; a thorough and efficient health service has to be run as well as emergency and other services. In the world where you are pretending to be there is plenty of work to do.

But because money is no more, millions of jobs that used to use the skills and energies of people no longer exist. There is no need for banks, insurance offices, advertising and promotion services, sales people of all the different sorts, mortgage services, dole clerks, security personnel, judges, lawyers and criminals. The list is a very long one and includes armed forces and all those munition workers, scientists and others employed in the killing industry — as the competition for markets, trade routes and other material interests that cause wars and conflicts would have disappeared. All in all, it would be safe to say that, in the world in which you are pretending to be now, there would be at least three times as many people to do the necessary work as there are in the world you are pretending to have left.

Picture a future where there is no government because there are no conflicting interests and no need for people to be controlled by a coercive state. Instead, there are democratically-elected bodies at local, regional and world level whose function is to organise production and distribution. You may be elected to one of these bodies. If you are you will not receive any special favours — of course, you won’t need to for, like everybody else, the things you need are freely available to you. Those elected to carry on public administration can be recalled by those who elected them and no-one is coerced into fulfilling any task.

In a socialist world, neither you nor any other person will ever endure poverty or insecurity; you will never be homeless or badly housed; you will not die in warfare or civil conflict for the basis of these evils will have been abolished and, since there is no need to steal, crime and offences against the person do not now exist. Automation and new productive processes, instead of creating unemployment, simply make necessary work easier for all and, like the fact that all the wasteful occupations of the old world have been abolished, give more leisure to those who wish to travel in a world where frontiers do not exist or to pursue other work, hobbies or interests.

The world we asked you to imagine was the world envisaged by the early socialists. Unfortunately, that vision was deliberately corrupted by politicians acting in ignorance or in the interests of the ruling class. Socialism has not failed; on the contrary, it has never been tried and the growth of a genuine movement to bring it about has been deliberately frustrated by  lies and misrepresentation. It is because the case for socialism is so overwhelmingly logical that those who oppose it out of narrow self-interest use their wealth, their power and their privilege to distort its meaning and to deny it. These are interests that have successfully pretended to you that you have to put up with capitalism and its disgusting abuse of humanity because there is no alternative to that system.

The task of the Socialist Party is to build the political means of convincing a majority to opt for socialism. We do not pretend that it is an easy task but, confronted with capitalist reality, it is an urgent and essential one.