Socialism has long been a necessity. Socialism is now more necessary because the only alternative under capitalism is the ecological destruction of our environment and civilisation returning to barbarism for the entire population of our planet. Capitalism has provided the technology which are necessary for a socialist reorganisation of society, it long ago ceased to be able to provide for thebasic needs of people. We want security. We want peace. We want decent homes. We want comfort and prosperity. We want democracy and freedom. Despite its huge industries and abundant natural resources, capitalism is unable to provide us with these elementary wants. The insanity of this system of capitalism is that it creates inequality, poverty and unemployment and all the crises of society because it produces too much.
Capitalists are in competition against each other and against their capitalist counterparts abroad. They all try to outproduce and outsell each other on the market because the mainspring of capitalist production is profit, not human needs. Consequently, a manufacturer produces as much as he thinks he can sell at a profit. So does his rival. The market becomes glutted, because there are more products produced than the customers can buy – not, of course, more than they need.
Socialism, and only socialism, will create a true global society, a world without national barriers, without international rivalries, without master and slave and, hence, a world without war. Socialism’s sole criterion would be the needs of the people. Socialism will guarantee peace, security and freedom and prevent the destruction of mankind. Socialism will end the root evil of modern society, i.e., the private ownership of the means of production, the factories, mines, transport, communications and land, which produce the necessities of life.
With socialism, these instruments of production will become the property of society, owned in common, producing for use, for the general welfare of the people as a whole. With the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life and with it the factor of profit as the prime mover of production, the sharp divisions of society between nations and classes will disappear. Then, and only then, will society be in a position to become a social order of abundance and plenty for all, for socialism will create a new world of genuine cooperation and collaboration between the peoples of the earth.
By abolishing classes in society, socialism will change the form and type of governments which exist today. Governments will become administrative bodies regulating production and consumption. They will not be the instruments of the capitalist class coercion or to promote the economic rule of big business, their profits, their private ownership. Socialism will in the elevation of society, to improve continually the living standards of the people, to extend their leisure time and thus make it possible to heighten the cultural level of the whole world. A socialist world state will be the freest, most democratic society the world has ever known. A socialist world will assess the industrial potential of the world, determine its resources, the needs of the people and plan production with the aim of increasing the standards of living, creating abundance, increasing leisure and building opportunities for cultural advancement. Socialism will not concern itself with profits. The aim of socialism is not the increased exploitation and intensification of labour, but the implementation of technology, science and invention to diminish toil, to create time in which to permit all the people to enjoy the benefits of social progress.
Today’s modern world contains all the pre-conditions necessary for socialism. All around us are elaborate industrial enterprises containing machinery which could produce the goods of life in abundance. Mankind has developed marvelousnew technology to create a fruitful life of abundance. Socialism will place at the disposal of humanity the scientists and experts to help create an ever-improving life for mankind. Under capitalism, scientists and inventors are mere wage workers hiring out their skills to private R and D industry. The fruits of their intelligence under intellectual ownership laws become the exclusive property of the capitalists who profit from the research of these scientists. Thus, science has become subordinated to profits rather than to the common good of all mankind. Future society depends on changing this relation of science to society. Socialism can place science where it properly belongs: in the service of the community.
Working people can travel the road of capitalism towards chaos, war, poverty and barbarism, or we can take the socialist path toward true freedom, peace and security, the way toward a society of plenty for all which would end the exploitation of man by man for all time.
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