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| WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE |
Capitalism — the rule of business — must be abolished.
Working people need to throw the capitalist parties out of office and
fundamentally transform society. The needs of working people can only be met by
creating an economy, where ownership and control of the means of production are
taken from the tiny minority of capitalists and placed in the hands of the
working people, to be run democratically. When we speak of the means of
production, we mean that wealth which is necessary for the production of the
necessities of the people. The industries, the railroads, mines, and so on. We
have never proposed the elimination of private property in personal effects. We
speak of those things which are necessary for the production of the people’s
needs. When the vast resources available to us are used to serve the needs of
all instead of the profits of the few, and there exists a world socialist
commonwealth, then the way will be opened for unparalleled growth in culture,
freedom and the development of every individual. In a socialist world of
plenty, mankind is at long last freed of the dominance of economics, the
tyranny of economics. We will for the first time be free to develop the full
potentialities and capacities of the human individual, and see the full
flowering of man’s spirit. This is the only goal worth fighting for today. It
is the real freedom. Socialism is a name applied to a new form of society, and
it is a name also applied to the movement working in that direction. Those of
us within the World Socialist Movement visualise a social system that would be
based on the common ownership of the means of production, the elimination of
private profit in the means of production, the abolition of the wage system,
the abolition of the division of society into classes.
Such a society is worth fighting for. Socialists often hear
the comment that "Socialism is a good idea but it’s not practical."
But today it’s becoming more apparent than ever that it is the present system —
capitalism — that is impractical and unworkable. The Socialist Party want to
change society. But we think that problems will not disappear by wishing or
hoping them away. The only way we can get a rational society, based on the
needs of the majority, is by organizing and fighting for it. We know that a
better world is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. We in the Socialist
Party stand for a society where ownership and control of the means of
production are taken out of the hands of the tiny minority of capitalists, and
placed in the hands of the majority — the workers. The capitalist system is run
for the profits of the few, not the needs of the majority. Workers are thus
continually forced to fight to defend their interests. Through these struggles,
they will come to see the need for socialism, to replace capitalism. We feel
that all the problems people experience in the context of our present society —
war, poverty, pollution, the deep economic crises— flow from a cause, the
nature of this profit-oriented society. We see that there are no real solutions
to these problems until the entire society is changed.
We should be very clear about the kind of change that we are
talking about. When we say that we are revolutionaries we are not talking about
a change in society that would take place when some small group storms
parliament and runs up the red flag. What we mean by revolution is the
political and economic transformation of society and it is fundamental change because
it will affect the property system and affects the method and means of
production. A political revolution can occur without any radical transformation
of the underlying economic structure of society, the property basis of society.
A social revolution, on the other hand, affects not only the government, but
affects the economic system. We are talking about a change that will involve
the vast majority of people consciously acting to change the entire society and
all the relationships in it, from the way people relate to each other, to the
way people relate to their jobs. We're out to change the whole system. If you
are serious about changing the system, about changing the world, it is
necessary to confront the system and to build a political organisation capable
of assisting in that. A few workers see the need for socialism. Others don't
see that need. The task of the Socialist Party is to educate, agitate and
organise.
The economy of the world now is all tied together in one
unit, and because we think that the solution of the problem of the day—the
establishment of socialism—is a world problem, we believe that workers in every
country must collaborate in working toward that goal. We have, from the very
beginning of our movement, collaborated with like-minded people in all other
countries in trying to promote the socialist movement on a world scale. We have
advocated the international organisation of the workers, and their cooperation
in all respects, and mutual assistance in all respects possible. The Socialist
Party is opposed to all forms of national chauvinism, race prejudice, sex
discrimination. We visualise the future society of mankind as a world socialism
where will have a worldwide division of labour according to their resources, a
comradely collaboration between them, and production of the necessities and
luxuries of mankind according to a single universal world plan
The reformists wish that the problems of the world could be
solved by reforming capitalism. They don't recognise the existing reality today
and what the possibilities are right now for building the socialist movement. They
don't want to have to work for a fundamental change in society. They conclude
that capitalism can be reformed. Bernie Sanders campaigning to win the
Democratic nomination so he can contest the presidency simply says that the
United States can learn a few things from Scandinavian states when it comes to
having a stronger welfare state, socialised health care, stronger unions, and
the like. He is diluting the meaning of the word socialism which for actual
socialists refers to workers’ control of production and the democratic running
of the economy for people and the common good, not the profits of a capitalist
elite as much as advancing it. Bernie blames the US billionaire class for the
increase in poverty, joblessness, homelessness, and even war. It also makes it
clear that Bernie believes the system that created this relatively minuscule
group of billionaires can reform itself given the right person at the helm with
a large popular movement behind them. This belies the idea that he has a
socialist understanding of how capitalists accumulate wealth. In other words,
Bernie Sanders is no socialist. Instead, he is a progressive in the tradition
of Teddy Roosevelt. Like both of those men, Sanders believes that capitalism
can work if it is properly tethered and monopolies are broken up.
Socialists contend that present day society is divided into
two main classes. One is the capitalists, or the bourgeoisie (a French
designation which is used by Marx interchangeably with the expression the modern
capitalist). The other main class is the working class (or the proletariat.)
These are the two main classes in society. We use the term working class, or
proletariat, to designate the modern wage workers. The workers are exploited by
the capitalists. There is a constant conflict of interests between them, an
unceasing struggle between these classes, which can only culminate in the
eventual victory of the proletariat and the establishment of socialism.
The Socialist Party view the trade-union movement as the
basic organisation of the workers that should include the great mass of the
workers, and must include them, in the struggle to defend their interests from
day to day. We are in favor of trade unions, and participate in organising them
wherever we can as individuals. The trade unions help the workers to resist
oppression, possibly to gain improvement of conditions; that is for us a decisive
reason to support them, because we are in favour of anything that protects the
workers. In general we are in favour of industrial unionism. That is, that form
of unionism which organises all the workers in a given shop or given industry
into one union. We consider that a more progressive and effective form of
organisation than sectional craft unionism but we do not believe in setting up
rival parallel unions. We don’t condemn trade unionism although we are
continually insisting upon a democratic structure of decision-making inside the
unions, demanding the rights of the members to speak freely, to have regular
elections of officials , and in general, to have the unions under the control
of its members through the system of democracy.
When classes are abolished, as exploitation is eliminated,
as the conflict of class against class is eliminated, the very reason for the
existence of the State diminishes. Governments are primarily instruments of
repression of one class against another. According to the doctrine of Marx and
Engels and all of the great Marxists who followed them, and based themselves on
their doctrine, we visualise, as Engels expressed it, the withering away of the
State as a repressive force, as an armed force, and its replacement by purely administrative
councils, whose duties will be to plan production, to supervise public works,
and education, and things of this sort. As Engels expressed it the government
of men will be replaced by the administration of things. The “government” of a
socialist society in reality will be an administrative body, because we don’t
anticipate the need for police and armies, jails, repressions, and consequently
that aspect of government dies out for want of function.
We have the possibility of peaceful revolution by the
registration of the will of the majority of the people in elections and it
seems to the Socialist Party it would be utterly absurd to reject that, because
if we don’t have the support of the majority of the people, we can’t make a
successful revolution anyhow. Our party runs candidates wherever it is able to
get on the ballot. We conduct very energetic campaigns during the elections,
and in general, to the best of our ability, and to the limit of our resources,
we participate in elections . The first purpose is to make full use of
the democratic possibility afforded to popularise our ideas, to try to get
elected wherever possible and advancing the socialist cause by democratic
means. It is our opinion is that if the workers reached the point of the
majority, and confronted the capitalist private owners of industry with the
fact of their majority and will exercise their power, then the capitalist class
will capitulate but if not then the workers will appropriate and remove them
from power by force, legitimised by our electoral victories.
