The foremost principle of socialism is the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment in its place of a cooperative commonwealth.
The aim of socialism can hardly be better expressed than by the formula of Marx and Engels that the basis of the new society will be the administration of things, as opposed to the existing order which consists of the coercion of persons. Socialism means the freeing of the individual from the fetters which weigh upon him under the capitalistic system. And this is not to be understood as meaning that while the old fetters are removed new ones will be imposed. All direct coercion of the individual is contrary to the first principles of socialism. One of the primary aims of the industrial and political organisation supposed by socialism is the guaranteeing of the freedom of the individual for good or ill. The aim is one for the working class throughout the world - the abolition of class society itself.
No one who really believes in socialist principles can afford to dally with the enemy or come to terms, in any shape or form. Socialism is the victory of the working class, the destruction of the economic and social bases of the possessing classes, the putting into practice of the principles of the planned economy, and the creation of a class-free society, where there will be no exploited or exploiters, nor class struggles, and all the efforts of society will be deployed to the common good. Socialism means the emancipation of all humanity. Society will then determine for itself the forms of its confederations and its organisational structure.
Whoever travels through the land must be struck by its beauty. But, in addition to great natural beauty— our planet is rich. in natural resources, in the skill and art of its peoples, in its capacity to produce everything necessary for a good life for all. Our world could be a paradise for people. But on the contrary, it is not a paradise. The fundamental cause of all the sufferings and tribulations of the people is that we are ruled by capitalists for their profit and interests. The world is divided into rich and poor—a tiny handful of rich who need not work, and the overwhelming majority who work their whole lives through. It is a system of exploitation. By exploitation, we mean living off the labour of other people. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing the wealth (the land, the mines, factories, the machines, etc.) are in private hands. A tiny handful of people own these “means of production” as they are called. But they do not work them. The immense majority of the people own nothing (in the sense that they can live on what they own) but their ability to work. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs.
The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists is that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in value than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages. In short, they produce a surplus which is taken by the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages.
Capitalism is a system in which there are different classes—exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. The interests of these two classes are clearly opposed. The exploiters try to increase the exploitation of the workers as much as possible in order to increase their profits. The exploited try to limit this exploitation and to get back as much of the wealth as possible of which they have been robbed. This is one aspect of the class struggle which arises inevitably out of the whole character of capitalism as a class system based on exploitation.
The working class has to fight both immediate and long-term struggles. The immediate struggles are those that are fought out on different aspects of the struggle within the existing capitalist order. These struggles can be victorious without a fundamental change in the social system. Such struggles are those for wages, in defence of living standards, for peace etc. Organisations for waging these particular struggles are established, e.g. trade unions.
But for a lasting solution to all these problems, it is necessary to end capitalism altogether and replace it with a new system of society in which the working people decide how the world is run.
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