It is up to you

No politician can help you. It’s their system of making goods and services to sell for profit that led directly to the crisis. So long as we have this production for profit, we’ll have periodic crises and politicians wringing their hands over them. The only way out is to change the rules of the game: to change the system by putting an end to minority ownership by replacing it with the democracy of common ownership by and for everybody. Enough resources, know-how and skills exist already to provide comfortably for everyone. It’s the profit system that prevents this. We need to do away with it and instead produce and access goods for needs.

At the moment so many people think that there’s no alternative that they are shrugging their shoulders and hoping for the best. If a few of us stand up and say “we will not put up with this, we want something better” then the idea that resources should be owned in common and used to satisfy people’s needs can get on the agenda as the only genuine alternative to capitalism and austerity. We need to organise to bring about a world where the Earth’s resources have become the common heritage of all and where every man, woman and child on the planet can have free access to what they need to lead a decent and satisfying life.

Most politicians blame our problems on lack of money, but this is not true. Money doesn't build hospitals, schools decent housing and a healthy environment. The things that make a good community can only be created by the work of the people. We have an abundance of skills and energy. If we were free from having to work for the profits of employers we would be able to work for the needs of everyone. The profit system is oppressive; it dominates our lives. It plagues us with bills. The rent and mortgage payments, the food bills, the rates, gas, electricity, water and telephone bills. Money is used to screw us for the profits of business. If we don't pay, we don't get the goods. Without the capitalist system, a socialist community would easily provide for all of its members.

The chief characteristic of capitalism is private ownership of the means of wealth production: Socialism implies common ownership. Therefore there can no penalisation of or discrimination against any person or groups of persons in socialism. Today we have a class society—a community divided into groups, economically speaking. This division has nothing to do with biological characteristics. It is largely an accident of birth that makes one a capitalist. What determines his or her place in society is their economic position; and everything follows from that. Our habits, manners, speech, customs, ethics, all follow from this is division. Therefore class society means grinding inescapable poverty for the working class. People can be in a state of poverty without going short a meal or clothes. We live in a class society and cannot escape from poverty.

The Socialist Party has only one objective and that is the need to establish socialism as a society based on common ownership and democratic control where goods and services are produced to meet people's needs instead of for profit. This has never been tried (and certainly not in Russia or China) and can only come about democratically when a majority want it. This system of society which we propose is entirely different from what we know today. After taking over the means of production the characteristics of capitalism will disappear. Exchange will cease, for socialism will replace sale by free distribution. Socialism will put into practice "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Stock Exchanges, Banks, Insurance offices will all disappear. There will be no question of what to do with the man or woman who won't work; most people want to work; most would be only too glad to do a sensible job of work. Socialism will succeed by the enthusiasm and determination of the socialists who have brought it into being to make it successful. We stand for a system which will be world-wide, democratic, and based on a community of interest of the individual and society. The Socialist Party’s platform is for socialism (common ownership, democratic control, production for use not profit, and distribution according to need not money) and nothing but. We are not advocating reform of capitalism. Reforms trying to permanently redistribute income from the rich to the poor has been tried many times and has always failed because it is undermined by the way the capitalist system works and has to work. It would be more effective to work for a society in which there will be neither rich nor poor.

Socialists are working for a different and better world. This is a message to those who are fed up –

• with the failures of this dreary system

• with leaders and the false promises of career politicians

• with poor hospitals, poor schools, poor housing and an unhealthy environment

• with having to live on a wage that struggles to pay the endless bills

• with serving the profit system and seeing poverty amidst luxury

The world we want is a one where we all work together. We can all do this. Co-operation is in our own interests and this is how a socialist community would be organised – through democracy and through working with each other. To co-operate we need democratic control not only in our own area but by people everywhere. This means that all places of industry and manufacture, all the land, transport, the shops and means of distribution, should be owned in common by the whole community. With common ownership we would not produce goods for profit. The profit system exploits us. Without it we could easily produce enough quality things for everyone. We could all enjoy free access to what we need without the barriers of buying and selling. Most politicians blame our problems on lack of money, but this is not true. Money doesn't build hospitals, schools decent housing and a healthy environment. The things that make a good community can only be created by the work of the people. We have an abundance of skills and energy. If we were free from having to work for the profits of employers we would be able to work for the needs of everyone. The profit system is oppressive; it dominates our lives. It plagues us with bills. The rent and mortgage payments, the food bills, the rates, gas, electricity, water and telephone bills. Money is used to screw us for the profits of business. If we don't pay, we don't get the goods. Without the capitalist system, a socialist community would easily provide for all of its members.

The challenge now is to build a world-wide movement whose job will be to break with the failures of the past. It won't be for power or money or careers. It will work for the things that matter to people everywhere – peace, material security and the enjoyment of life through cooperation. This is the challenge that could link all people in a common cause without distinction of nationality, race or culture.

We in the Socialist Party reject the view that things will always stay the same. We can change the world. Nothing could stop a majority of socialists building a new society run for the benefit of everyone. We all have the ability to work together in each other's interests. All it takes is the right ideas and a willingness to make it happen.

The poor shut out of higher education

In some parts of Glasgow, a child is more likely to end up in prison than win a place at Glasgow University. In 2015, fewer than five students from Easterhouse, won a place at Glasgow University. That’s two fewer than the seven who were sent to Polmont Young Offenders Institution. These numbers give us a glimpse into the level of educational inequality in Scotland’s biggest city. Other working-class communities in Glasgow do equally badly. Fewer than five new students come from Bridgeton, in the east end, and seven from Possilpark. In each of the past four years, more young people from Possilpark, one of Glasgow’s most deprived neighbourhoods, have gone to jail than to Glasgow University.  In 2014, 17 new inmates at Polmont had a Possilpark postcode. That was more than three times the five students who made it to Glasgow University that year. Last year, seven of the university’s new undergraduates came from Possilpark; 10 young people from the area were imprisoned at Polmont.

More Glasgow University students come from the affluent south side community of Newton Mearns than anywhere else in Scotland. Last year, this prosperous suburb provided 57 undergraduates. It was closely followed by neighbouring Clarkston with 54 new students, and Bearsden, on the north of the city, with 52. Each of these well-to-do neighbourhoods sends more than 10 times as many young people to Glasgow University as Easterhouse.

Strathclyde University revealed that it admitted 103 first-year students from Newton Mearns last year and 102 from Bearsden, but just seven from Easterhouse.

Former Glasgow University student and cultural commentator Pat Kane describes how it is both a world-class and a local institution. "The other role it should play is as a symbol of aspiration for the ambitious, talented children of Glasgow, no matter what their background is. These figures show that it’s failing on that front - but it can’t in any way be entirely the blame of the institution itself. It matters hugely that, according to these statistics, Glasgow University is effectively closed off to so many kids from the poorer parts of the city."

Patrick Harvie, Glasgow MSP and co-convenor of the Scottish Greens, said: "Unequal access to higher education is a clear reflection of the deep inequality that tarnishes our society more generally.”

Not A Benefit For Employees

 The winter edition of the CAA magazine ran an article about the future manufacture of cars using the 3D printing method. A spokesman for Local Motors, a small vehicle maker based in Phoenix, said, "It takes thirty hours to make a car, but in a year or two, using this method, we can get it down to ten." 

 The technology is incredible and would be a wonderful benefit to humanity in a socialist world to reduce time spent on producing necessary goods, bur under capitalism, where profit rules, it can only lead to unemployment and more misery for the workers. 

John Ayers.

Confidence Trick?

In February we received the reassuring news from Factset that companies that buy their own shares are down a collective (if that word can be used to describe any capitalist activity) US$126 billion over the last three years. 

When a company buys its own shares, it makes its profitability look better and bolsters confidence in would-be investors. 

This just proves that the only confidence one can have is that things will go bad sooner or later. 

John Ayers.

Capitalism: they win, we lose

The Socialist Party contests elections on the single issue of capitalism (class ownership and production for profit) or socialism (common ownership, democratic control, and production to directly meet people's needs). Socialism is our priority and the only basis on which we want people to vote for us. In other words, we don't make promises to support particular measures within capitalism however desirable as we don't want people to vote for us on that basis -- even if, should we be elected, we might well vote for certain measures judged to further the cause of socialism or the interest of workers and their dependents.  Having said this, there is one pledge that, according to our Rulebook, all our candidates have to make:

"Candidates elected to a Political office shall be pledged to act on the instructions of their Branches locally, and by the Executive Committee nationally."

This, to ensure that any Socialist Party councillor or MPs remain mandated delegates, not leaders.

The Socialist Party stand in elections to raise awareness of the possibility of democratically establishing common ownership of the means of living. Enough resources, know-how and skills exist already to provide comfortably for everyone. It’s the profit system that prevents this. We need to do away with it and instead produce and access goods for needs. At a time when all other political parties are saying they have to make us all worse off in order to protect the wealth of the 1%, it's important that we each stand up to fight against this unnecessary impoverishment. The candidates of the Socialist Party if elected whilst quite prepared to use the powers for such small temporary benefits as may be forced from the capitalists' hands for the workers in those districts, nevertheless do not seek votes for this, which can only be a secondary business of the political party of the workers. The Socialist Party enters contests as a step in the work of capturing the whole political machinery. Fully realising, and pointing out to the workers, the strict limitations of the power, making no promises that are beyond our power to fulfil, we ask the members of our class, when (but not before) they have studied these facts and realised their correctness, to cast their votes for the candidates of the Socialist Party who alone stand on the above basis. Our candidates stand on a straight programme of socialism and nothing else and have no programme of ear-tickling, side-tracking, vote-catching palliatives and have not climbed into prominence on the backs of the workers, by posing as 'leaders'. We leave that to others.

What’s the point in complaining about the system and then voting for it to carry on? You’ve heard the Occupy people – you are the 99%, but the system is run by the 1%. The rich don’t create jobs and wealth, they create poverty. For the rich to be rich, millions of people have to be poor.  To get rich, they cut corners, rip off the world, fiddle, connive, cheat, lie and bribe. That’s the money system for you. That’s capitalism. There’s no such thing as an honest millionaire. There’s no such thing as honest business, or ‘fair trade’, or an ‘equitable share’. They win because you lose.

We have the technology and the know-how to run the world collectively, so that everybody can eat, have a place to live, and get access to a decent standard of living, but it is the money system that is making this impossible. If money makes you free, how come you’re tied down with debts, rents, mortgages, loans and bills, and doing some job you probably hate just to make ends meet? What kind of freedom is that? Is that a freedom you’d want to vote for?

The planet is being turned into a toxic waste dump, with poisoned air, warring factions and vanishing species, just so manufacturers can sell you more glossy trash that will break tomorrow, stuff you think you want because you can’t have the freedom you really want. Humanity is staring into the abyss, and our do-nothing politicians still cry ‘forward in the name of growth!’ Is that progress? Is that worth voting for?

This is a not an easy thing to explain to protestors but the fact is that under capitalism there is nothing that can be done to stop the cuts. All that can be achieved is a few concessions here and there and robbing one service to finance another. Of course people should protest at things getting worse but they shouldn't have any illusion that they can stop this. At most they can only slow it down a bit. Cuts are what the economic laws of capitalism require at the present time and no government can defy this. In fact they have to enforce it, as they did in 1984 when Ted Knight and Lambeth Council refused to make the cuts. Knight and the others were surcharged and bankrupted and banned for being councillors. Same in Liverpool with Derek Hatton. The cuts went through.  What this shows is that capitalism is a system that is not geared to meeting people's needs and ought to be replaced by one that is, one based the common ownership and democratic control. We are stand in elections with a view to raising awareness of this. Our candidates point out that capitalism can never be reformed so as to work in the interests of those who depend on having to work for a wage or a salary to live. We will advocating socialism as a society where there will be no banks and big business, and no profits, but where all productive resources will be commonly owned and democratically controlled by the whole community in the interests of all. This is the only basis on which to provide decent public services, transport, housing and education as it means there can be production geared to satisfying people's needs instead of for profit. People Not Profits, that's the real socialist slogan.

Why We Are Against Capitalism

Here is the Socialist Party’s definition of socialism:

Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population. But does it really make sense for everybody to own everything in common? Of course, some goods tend to be for personal consumption, rather than to share—clothes, for example. People 'owning' certain personal possessions does not contradict the principle of a society based upon common ownership. In practice, common ownership will mean everybody having the right to participate in decisions on how global resources will be used. It means nobody being able to take personal control of resources, beyond their own personal possessions.

Democratic control is therefore also essential to the meaning of socialism. Socialism will be a society in which everybody will have the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them. These decisions could be on a wide range of issues—one of the most important kinds of decision, for example, would be how to organise the production of goods and services.

Production under socialism would be directly and solely for use. With the natural and technical resources of the world held in common and controlled democratically, the sole object of production would be to meet human needs. This would entail an end to buying, selling and money. Instead, we would take freely what we had communally produced. The old slogan of "from each according to ability, to each according to needs" would apply.

So how would we decide what human needs are? This question takes us back to the concept of democracy, for the choices of society will reflect their needs. These needs will, of course, vary among different cultures and with individual preferences—but the democratic system could easily be designed to provide for this variety.

We cannot, of course, predict the exact form that would be taken by this future global democracy. The democratic system will itself be the outcome of future democratic decisions. We can however say that it is likely that decisions will need to be taken at a number of different levels—from local to global. This would help to streamline the democratic participation of every individual towards the issues that concern them.

In socialism, everybody would have free access to the goods and services designed to directly meet their needs and there need be no system of payment for the work that each individual contributes to producing them. All work would be on a voluntary basis. Producing for needs means that people would engage in work that has a direct usefulness. The satisfaction that this would provide, along with the increased opportunity to shape working patterns and conditions, would bring about new attitudes to work.

As a world socialist who stands for a world without borders in which the Earth's resources will have become the common heritage of all, naturally we favour a welcoming treatment of fellow workers fleeing oppression. After all, Karl Marx was in this position himself

Profits before people that's how capitalism works and can only work. There is no alternative within capitalism and it's misleading and even dishonest to suggest that there could be. The real lesson is that, since all that capitalism has to offer is austerity and cuts, we should concentrate on organising to bring it to an end by political action aimed at ushering in a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production so that there can be produce for directly for use and not for profit, and distribution on the principle of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". Socialism.

It’s the system that’s to blame, not those elected to run it. That’s why changing the politicians in charge makes no difference. As the saying goes, “changing governments changes nothing”. It will be like this as long as the profit system lasts. So there is no point in voting for parties that accept this system. The alternative is to change to a new system based on satisfying our needs, where the places where wealth is produced will no longer be owned by profit-seeking businesses but will be owned and democratically controlled by us all. That’s what the Socialist Party stands for. We are contest elections to raise this issue, and to give those of you who agree a chance to be counted. Parties promising to do things for others is not our idea of politics, so we make no campaign or manifesto promises to do anything for anyone. The Socialist Party is standing to give people the chance to show they reject the capitalist system where making profits always comes first. Capitalism is going through one of its economic crises and the only way out for it is to restore profits by cutting the living standard of working people and their dependents. That’s why what our wages can buy has shrunk. It’s why benefits are being slashed. And it’s why local councils have been cutting local services. It’s councils everywhere, whichever party is in control. Politicians, local and national, are just running the system in the only way it can be. It’s the system that’s to blame, not those elected to run it. That’s why changing the politicians in charge makes no difference.  Instead of trusting in politicians we’ve have got to change the system ourselves, to one where the places where wealth is produced are no longer run as profit-seeking businesses but owned and democratically controlled by the community and used to provide a decent life for all. Public services and amenities are being cut and people shouldn't put up with this, but this is the fault of the capitalist profit system as it goes through one of its economic crises. So, it is misleading to blame those who administer this system rather than the system itself. The only way capitalism can get out of a crisis is by cutting living standards.  This is why the Socialist Party campaigns for the abolition of capitalism, not for a change in the people running it or trying to make it work in a way it just cannot.

THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE FUTURE

When we speak of the commonwealth, we think of a confederation of free people united in one common bond - socialism. The trend is towards the cooperative commonwealth. It is the hope of the world. We in the Socialist Party will continue to seek the world wide advance toward the cooperative commonwealth. Our every step will be in the direction of the co-operative commonwealth where the motto, “From each according to ability, to each according to needs,” ceases to be an aspiration and becomes a reality.

The capitalistic system of production, under the rule of which we live, is the production of commodities for profit instead of for use for the private gain of those who own and control the tools and means of production and distribution. Out of this system of production and sale for profit spring all monopolies (arising from and following competition) and out of it, naturally, grow an overwhelming percentage of moral evils, and the entire problem of misery, want, and poverty that, as a deadly menace, now confronts civilisation.

To substitute common, for private or state, ownership in the means of production is what we say socialism means. It means a co-operative system of production and the extinction of the exploitation of the workers. The natural resources of the world are the property of the people as a whole. The abolition of the present system of production means substituting production for use for production for sale. Production for use, which is the social or co-operative production for the satisfaction of the wants of a commonwealth. Under the capitalist system, all products are produced for the market, they all become commodities. Capitalist society is based upon the exploitation of labour. A small minority owns everything; the working masses own nothing. The capitalists command. The workers obey. The capitalists exploit. The workers are exploited. The very essence of capitalist society is found in this merciless and ever-increasing exploitation. Until the present system of capitalist production (production for sale) was developed, co-operative production for common use was the leading form; it is as old as production itself. If any one system of production could be considered better adapted than any other to the nature of man, then co-operative production must be pronounced the natural one. In all probability for every thousand years of production for sale, cooperative production for use numbers tens of thousands. They all had certain essential features in common. Each satisfied its own wants, at least the most vital ones, with the product of its own labor; the instruments of production were the property of the community; its members worked together as free and equal individuals according to some plan inherited or devised, and administered by some power elected by themselves. The product of such co-operative labor was the property of the community and was applied either to the satisfaction of common wants, whether these were occasioned by production or consumption, or were distributed among the individuals or groups which composed the community. Socialist production will and must have certain features in common with the older systems of communal production, in so far, namely, as both are systems of co-operative production for use.

Whilst the Socialist Party share with many other organisations the general principles of democracy, co-operation and worldwide action, we see the problems facing the world as stemming from the ownership of the wealth of the world by a privileged class. We do not think the world's problems can be solved until the wealth of the world is taken into the common and direct democratic ownership of the whole of humanity. Specifically, we think this requires a self-conscious and active movement of people working together, worldwide, and we cannot allow this movement to be divided into nation states or rely on governments to help us. The present system can never be reformed to work in the interest of the majority. All the other candidates disagree and are promising to reform it in one way or another. But reform has been tried many times and look where we still are. The present system can only work by putting profits before people. That’s how capitalism works and can only work. It’s the economic system. And that’s what got to be changed. The Socialist Party seeks an essentially peaceful democratic majority revolution to replace capitalism with a system in which productive resources have become the common heritage of all to be used for the benefit of all.

Things are not produced today to meet people’s needs. They are produced to make a profit. And that’s the cause of the problems people face. Under the profit system profits always come first. Before providing basic services like health care and transport, before improving conditions at work, and before providing decent housing. It is profits first, people second. Under the profit system production is in the hands of profit-seeking business enterprises, all competing to maximise the rate of return on the money invested in them. Decisions as to what to produce and how much, and how and where to produce it, are not made in response to people’s needs but in response to market forces. As a result, the health and welfare of the workforce and the effects on the environment take second place. The profit system can’t help doing this. It’s the only way it can work. Which is why it must go. Governments, whatever their political colour, have to cut their spending so as to give profits a chance to recover.

So, what’s the alternative? One thing is certain. The Tories and Labour have nothing to offer, nor the LibDems, UKIP or the nationalists. They all support the profit system and are only squabbling over which of them should have a go at running it. If we are going to improve things we are going to have to act for ourselves, without professional politicians or leaders of any kind. We are going to have to organise ourselves democratically to bring about a society geared to serving human needs not profits. Production to satisfy people’s needs. That’s the alternative. But this can only be done if we control production and the only basis for this is common ownership and democratic control. Supporting the Socialist Party registers your rejection of the profit system and your agreement with the alternative.

So, let's be clear: The Socialist Party doesn't want your vote to be in office. We're seeking to abolish a society in which people are made to work for the people who own all the property. We're in politics to call you to revolt. If you want a state-free, class-free, money-free society where we co-operate to produce the things we need, then you need to revolt. You need to say that that is your priority.  You need to tell your fellow workers that you want them to revolt too.  That is what putting a cross next to The Socialist Party candidate means, it means a rejection of the whole system of government and society, with no compromise. It's a big leap, let's see you make it.

Let us hoist our sails and sail straight for the cooperative commonwealth. The sun shines upon us and the wind blows our way.  The future is ours.

All Change for Socialism.

It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? Inequality is rising, and services are being cut to those who most need them. Our eco-system is teetering on the edge, and oil companies are controlling the climate agenda. Multinationals are booming off the labour of the poorest and racism is rife. Our current reality is an economic/political arrangement that is run by and for the richest people in the world. Effectively it is an oligarchical system of one dollar, one vote; certainly not a democracy based on one person, one vote. Power is global. The financial elite now float beyond national borders and no longer care about the common good. Hence, the ruling class make no concessions in their pursuits of power and profits where increased human misery is an acceptable price to be paid. They foster a new breed of politician who wages war on any viable notion of the welfare state.  Workers are demonised, criminalised or simply abandoned and discarded. A perpetual climate of fear and insecurity has been created. The propaganda and indoctrination we are fed are so disconnected from facts, evidence and logic that it has become laughable. Capitalism is a coercive economic system that creates persistent patterns of economic deprivation.  If capitalism makes workers’ lives miserable, for those who can’t work it is even worse. True freedom requires freedom from destitution and freedom from the demands of the employer. Capitalism ensures neither. But the ripples of dissent are very much there. All over the world people are standing up and being heard.

More and more people are identifying capitalism as the underlying cause of our social ills and crises. That’s certainly positive: the first step toward cure is a proper diagnosis. But most of what is being offered are placebos, an endless supply of ineffective remedies to “fix” or reform it, to make it “less greedy.” Getting the greed out of capitalism is impossible, and we’ll just waste precious time by trying. The faults of capitalism is integral to the way it works. Capital must expand, buy up or destroy competitors, reach into every corner of society to try to squeeze money out of it. It naturally accumulates, concentrating wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. That’s not a mistake. That’s what it does. There’s no other way it works. The problem isn’t extreme capitalism, corporate capitalism, crony capitalism, vulture capitalism or greedy capitalism. It’s just capitalism. Capital has its own relentless drive, never to be satisfied, feeding ever more hungrily on the life-force of the world while leaving mountains of destruction and misery in its wake. It can’t do otherwise. Forget trying to fix it. It needs to be ended.

If we want the socialist movement to grow then we have to create opportunities where the learning process is welcome and valued. We have to celebrate the new possibilities that each new individual brings. In practical terms, this means making sure our meetings are open to newcomers, and that quieter and introverted folks are given opportunities to speak. Folks who are good at talking and writing usually have the most power, while those who have less experience and are less vocal have the least.  It means that terminology is explained when necessary, and it means not using academic jargon to sound impressive. Refusing to explain yourself contributes to a form of discrimination in which people with less formal education and access to information are marginalised.  Obsession with “correct” language plays an enormous part in making socialist ideas inaccessible to many people. Having reading the ‘right’ books and blogs there are still disagreements between activists about which terms are and aren’t appropriate. Many in the socialist movement happen to be educated enough to understand varying levels of heavy jargon. Some don’t have any conditions that prevent them from reading for hours and they have the luxury of sufficient free time in which to do this. But most people don’t have that level of luxury. People are busy, you know, surviving themselves. They don’t necessarily have laptops, broadband, and ample time in which to make use of those things. There is also an unawareness of just how much there is to read out there. It also assumes that there are 'correct' resources to be reading that are available, and that the person in question will be able to find them among thousands of conflicting resources. Multiple lifetimes are required to really get to know in-depth all the topics, multiple entire academic careers of critical analysis.  We should accept that nobody gets things right 100% of the time. They’re still learning. It means having the humility to know that all of us are, in fact, still learning.

How do we discover and implement new tactics and methods?  Perhaps we return to basics like compassion, altruism, empathy, and communication.  Perhaps we learn to listen to and heed the voices most often drowned out.  Perhaps we do the work to cultivate authentic organisations in which everyone is held accountable for their behavior.  Perhaps we start refining and honing our own face-to-face social skills such as making eye contact. Speak the language you know. Many folk lack the gift of oration that moves people, yet our own words are often good enough. Working together offers the strength that comes from the fact that we are dreaming and longing and working together for all of us to be free. Freedom requires creativity, a little skill, and a daily dose of courage. Most of all, it requires us to share our stories of our own struggles with each other. “We are the 99%.” For decades, the Left had been trying to come up with a slogan that was both inclusive and oppositional. A slogan that put a relatively complex critique of class society in populist language.

Is it possible that a different system could be built without people first imagining it? Is imagining a better economic/political system a necessary step in making it happen? For those of us who believe human beings are in control of our own destiny, or at least the rules that govern our economic and political system, it is time to come together and imagine a better system, one that promotes environmental sustainability, equality and world-wide cooperation. It seems impossible to deny, at least for any reality-based thinker, that our current global capitalist economic/political system has created, and prevents us from fixing, the mess we are in. This is due to the powerful private profit engine of capitalism, which in turn incentivises the externalisation/socialisation of as many costs as possible. The owners of capital are driven to make ever greater profits -- the system rewards those who do and punishes those who don't -- which of course leads the profit seeker to reduce costs in any way possible. To survive, capitalists must try to avoid paying for the negative consequences of whatever is the source of their profits, be it the instruments of war, environmental destruction, global warming, over-consumption or an unhealthy food system. Protecting and maximising profit gives capitalists an incentive to deny the ill effects of their products, to fund global warming deniers and to promote war. The potential for governments to pass laws that may negatively affect profits is an incentive for capitalists to do whatever it takes to make sure the political system works in their narrow, immediate interests. This is the source of what some defenders of an abstract, idealised capitalism call cronyism, but which is, in fact, a logical outcome of a system that promotes greed and private profit.

What sort of economic/political system can be imagined and then built that will save us from global warming, other forms of environmental disaster and growing inequality; one that can come about relatively peacefully so that weapons of mass destruction are turned into ploughshares rather than destroy the planet? The new system we imagine must get rid of the perverse incentives that result in war, the devastation of our environment and inequality. Instead it must encourage environmental stewardship, cooperation and equality, both of responsibility and power. These must become foundational principles of our economy as well as our political system on the individual, local, regional, and world level. This imagined system must be achievable, because it is worse than pointless to dream about something that cannot happen, it is a waste of time we do not have. And to be achievable this new system must be something that can be built by the people. For change to happen peacefully it must be popular, supported by most people around the world. That, in turn, means the new system must ultimately be more democratic, because the most popular system is one in which most people feel they have a stake. Whatever the details of this new system of economic and political democracy, millions of us need to soon begin imagining it.

This new world is one we call socialism. Let’s get together as social beings and organise our society as we would like it. Let’s have production for use not profit and at the same time remove the evils of war and environmental destruction that threaten to eliminate our species altogether. Come on! Change for socialism.

Socialism in our hearts

The world we're living in right now won't allow fundamental change of the sort we need to eliminate all the social problems that make our lives a misery. You don’t get people to change by scaring them, or pointing fingers. Instead, give them an alternative that’s so compelling they want to have change. So let’s tell stories of our dreams and not the nightmares. A fear-based politics breeds cynicism, apathy or hopelessness. The more people start believing we can create a better society, the sooner we can start taking positive action. We should be planning for a future in which things get better. When you realise something’s wrong with the world, the first step has to focus on educating yourself about it. Then, when you begin to have a grasp on the issue, you step up and do something about it. We can change the world, but the key to doing so is in you and me and others all working together.

We live in extreme times. We are over-worked and undernourished. Those of us not caught in violence and poverty, are traumatised by its images. We are reaching our limits. People can't stand their jobs. People want out. You don't have to be in jail to feel imprisoned. People are wakening up and are realising how crazy it is to live in this society. Despite millions of years of evolution and fighting to stay alive, members of the most advanced species on the planet are now choosing to end their own life through lack of purpose and meaning. Seemingly disparate crises are not happening separately and accidentally. They are interrelated symptoms of our global capitalist system. The global elites have no intention of interfering with the profits they make. Those who are despoiling the planet do so for personal and corporate gain. Their worship of Mammon, the idol of power and greed, threatens to doom the human race. If we keep going the way we do, there won’t be a planet left.

Isn’t it very strange that the two most basic things needed to live, food and a home, are still not a right. To have a safe place to sleep and food to eat is the foundation of all life. Yet that costs money, which is created and hoarded by a tiny elite, in effect making all other rights void because people have to submit to all kinds of cruel and undignified ways to make enough money to simply stay alive. Automate whatever menial jobs can be automated, get rid of unnecessary jobs. Growing food can be a community service – each member working 4 hours a week. It might not be perfect but it’s a heck of a lot better than what we have going on now. Many people think money makes the world go around, or the global economy, at least. They consider it in a similar way that gravity holds the planet in orbit. But this is simply not fact. Money’s creation is no law of nature.

According to Kropotkin, anarchism (and for us in the Socialist Party, his definition is a valid description of socialism): “is a name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government – harmony in such a society being obtained, not by the submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilised being.” It is a form of social organisation with a set of key principles, such as self-organisation, voluntary association, freedom, autonomy, solidarity, direct democracy, egalitarianism and mutual aid. It rejects both a capitalist economy and a nation state.

Resistance and struggle are not separate from the rest of life. Caring about politics is optional for too many people. As if it somehow doesn’t affect them. Political activity is not just someone’s hobby. Radical grassroots movements are the groundwork for the new world we carry in our hearts. At first they start as essential support lines for survival and small-scale resistance that are available to the weak. At the same time these networks and communities are the same ones in which we live, learn, play, work, invent and build alternative social and political structures. As a movement’s strength grows, and as crises expose weaknesses in its enemies, these networks become the infrastructure for open revolution.

The best way to give away your power is to think you don’t have any. Over and over, people say that they cared deeply about the need for social change, but were hesitant to speak since they weren’t experts. They deferred to others who knew more. But we need all voices — not just experts on Marxist theory. It is important to have all kinds of people, from all walks of life, be part of the socialist movement — whether you’re new to it or a many-year socialist veteran. More voices means more power to make change. You don’t have to be an expert to join in the call for a just future. Once you start learning about social justice, the learning never stops. We can’t afford to wait until we “know enough” to raise our voices. Socialism won’t be achieved without a movement that is big and diverse enough that everyone has a voice, regardless of the amount of knowledge they possess of Marx and Engels. 

Neither God nor Master

Banish gods from the sky and capitalists from the earth

More than half of people in Scotland now have no religion, according to findings from the Scottish Social Attitudes survey.

52% of people say they are not religious, compared with 40% in 1999 when the survey began.

The proportion who say they belong to the Church of Scotland has fallen from 35% in 1999 to just 20%. Other religious groups, including Roman Catholic (15%) and other Christian (11%) have remained steady. The number of non-Christians has remained at 2%.

Two-thirds of people living in Scotland who say they are religious "never or practically never" attend services.  Ian Montagu, researcher at ScotCen, said:"Today's findings show that Scottish commitment to religion, both in terms of our willingness to say we belong to a religion and to attend religious services, is in decline. As fewer Scots are acknowledging even a default religious identity, it is affiliation with the national church that is the hardest hit." 

Sweep Away Capitalism

 Occasionally in the course of human events, a new worldview emerges that transforms society. The Socialist Party is a political party dedicated to building class-consciousness from the bottom-up through education and discussion to achieve workers’ empowerment. It holds the promise of fulfilling the great aspirations of the past and heralds the advent of the next phase of our social evolution. For this to be successful it will require a movement of movements, an alliance of separate movements, including a coalition of the global social and environmental justice movements, environmentalists and so on. We will need to work together to find more sustainable ways of living on this planet. All of this begins by asking the right questions and making the attempt to understand. There is, of course, no guarantee of success.

For many people the idea of anti-capitalism seems ridiculous. After all, capitalist businesses and entrepreneurs have brought us fantastic technological innovations in recent years: from smartphones to driverless cars.  The array of consumer goods available and affordable for the average person, and even for the poor, has increased dramatically almost everywhere. There has been an improvement in basic standards of living in poorer regions of the world as well where the material standards of millions have risen. So, if you care about improving the lives of people, how can you be anti-capitalist? That is the story we are taught. Yet there is another story: the hallmark of capitalism is poverty in the midst of plenty. Alongside the economic growth, technological invention, increasing productivity, and a diffusion of consumer goods, comes, at the same time, destitution for those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the advance of capitalism, precariousness for those at the bottom of the labour market, and alienating and monotonous work for the rest of us. Capitalism has generated massive increases in productivity and extravagant wealth for some, yet many people still struggle to make ends meet. Capitalism is an inequality-enhancing machine as well as a growth machine. Not to mention that it is becoming clearer that capitalism, driven by the relentless search for profits, is destroying the environment. In a time when the old promises about technology are failing; when economies are collapsing and collective trust in public institutions is plummeting. Yet it is not an illusion that capitalism has transformed the material conditions of life in the world and enormously increased human productivity; many people have benefited from this. But equally, it is not an illusion that capitalism generates great harms and perpetuates unnecessary forms of human suffering.

 Many are now awakening to realise that change needs to take place on multiple levels- social, economic, environmental, and political. It is becoming increasingly apparent to many that our political and economic system is run and controlled by a network of economic elites and private interests. The fundamental essence of capitalism is that the needs to make a profit takes precedence over the well-being and needs of the people. The Socialist Party mission is to raise awareness of social, economic and political issues through dialogue with our fellow workers, creating the foundation for wide-scale change. Knowledge is a torch of freedom and the fundamental step towards liberation begins with individual understanding. We aim to build a people-powered revolution. Our objective is to create a society that benefits the many and not the few. It will take a collective effort of shared resources and ideas to restructure our world. But false solutions abound; almost all of the solutions put forth to solve the problems of capitalism continue it in another form.

All efforts to make life tolerable under capitalism will eventually fail. From time to time small reforms that improve the lives of people may be possible when popular forces are strong, but such improvements will always be fragile, vulnerable to attack and reversible. The idea that capitalism can be rendered a benign social order in which ordinary people can live flourishing, meaningful lives is ultimately an illusion because, at its core, capitalism cannot be reformed. The only hope is to sweep it away, and then build an alternative. As the workers’ anthem tune “Solidarity Forever” proclaim, “We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.”

For a Humanity without Division

The world we must seek for our children and grandchildren is surely not the world we have today. The planet is confronted a daunting array of problems challenging our ability to people’s well-being. If we are going to change things for the better, we must first understand the forces that brought us to this. We have problems because of fundamental flaws in our economic and political system. By understanding these flaws, we can end them and move forward to a new system. The capitalist system upon which our society runs is voracious in pursuing its economic interests without concern for the values of fairness, justice, or sustainability. Solutions cannot arise from within the structures of the capitalist system but must instead get at the root causes. The greatest problem we have is that we can’t imagine any alternative. And that is the challenge: to invent, create and think about how we will organise and for what.

  Capitalism cannot be reformed or made to be kinder and gentler to the working class. Capitalism's only objective is to generate profit/capital so the capitalist ruling class can continue to accumulate more and more capital. Capitalism does not have conscience and it was never intended to have a sense of right and wrong. Exploiting people and natural resources are simply ways to generate and accumulate more capital. Capitalism prioritises economic growth above all else. We think of growth as an unalloyed good, but this growth fetish is a big source of our problems. A capitalist system, whose prime directive is the production of capital, will work constantly to refine and improve its ability to do just that. It will continue until it is stopped by an external force of some kind.

Socialists believe that the problems facing the world, such as environmental despoliation, the systematic waste of public resources for private profit, persistent unemployment concentrated among women and racial minorities, and the mal-distribution of wealth, power, and income, are not mere aberrations of the capitalist system - they are the capitalist system. This is why Socialists are not impressed by political appeals based on the personal qualities or “charisma” of any individual politician. Socialists believe that it is the system — and the institutions which make up that system — that must be changed. What is now desperately needed is transformative change of the present profit system itself. We are confronted with a multifaceted, systemic crises born of the inability of our current system of political economy to sustain human and natural communities. It is a system that has always been rigged against people. The socialist goal is to provide a shared prosperity that meets human needs while preserving nature’s diversity, ecological integrity, and beauty—in short, a society nourishing people and nourishing nature. People must rise to the challenge of building a better world that demands we fundamentally transform our economic and political systems.

A growing number of people are already finding it impossible to accept the deteriorating conditions of life and living. They see the frightening gap between the world that is and the one that could be. So, our first step is to become teachers—to help bring our fellow workers to see the basic relationships: that the huge challenges we face are the result of the failure of capitalism, that it no longer deserves legitimacy because it doesn’t deliver on the promises it proclaims, and that, therefore, the path forward is to change the system. This is the core message of the Socialist Party.  The journey to the next system truly begins when enough people have come to see our challenge in this way. The crises—economic and  environmental, point to the underlying failure and raises questions which sends people searching for answers. It can wake people up and shake them up. However, we won’t be able to take advantage of positive opportunities and developments opened up by this rising popular disenchantment if the various movements remain fragmented and isolated. What’s needed is a unified identity, a common infrastructure capable of formulating clear policy objectives and strategic messages, a common platform, and a commitment to creating a powerful, coordinated campaign– in other words - a world socialist movement. Coming together is imperative because all workers and causes face the same reality. Our best hope is a fusion of all those concerned about environment, social justice, true democracy, and peace into one effective social force. By connecting ideas together, creative leaps can be made, producing breakthroughs. We have to recognise that we all have in common is a shared fate. We will rise or fall together.

A powerful part of the motivation for changing society must be a compelling vision of the world we want for our children and grandchildren. An important part of agitating for change is to paint a picture of what a better future might look like. As Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables: “There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia today, flesh and blood tomorrow.” We need to depict life in this desirable socialist future. These are an important part of banishing the myth that there is no feasible alternative to the current system. We are indeed the dreamers of John Lennon’s “Imagine” but we are dreamers with a plan that builds on much which already exists. Our goal is achievable, but, we freely admit, it will not be easy. In the end, it all comes down to the willingness and determination of people to make change for themselves by developing political and economic muscle for system change at to spur the necessary action at all levels. Socialists seek to plant the seeds of change. What socialists must also ask ourselves is why so many activists are increasingly accepting and working within the frame of global capitalism. We have lost many to the camp of reformism. Instead of dissent being born, individual life-style responsibility is urged to tackle issues that actually requires social political responses. Hopefully, many who are still trust in reformism will see the need for deep change and will join the World Socialist  Movement for a better world.

The Mission of Socialist Courier

The Socialist Courier blog has no great expectation of being able to take you by storm and make you all good socialists. Certainly, it would give the blog great pleasure to succeed in convincing any large number of you of the justice of the ideas of socialism, and of the necessity of putting its ideals into practice. Even today people imagine that we can instill whatever ideas we may choose into a person's mind; that we can influence at our own discretion the development of ideas at any given time in any given people. But it is precisely this that is impossible.

But what we are more eager to do, is to convince you how necessary and important it is for you, yourself, to take an interest in the socialist movement, to take that one step beyond so to open your eyes to the world around you, and for once to realize that what you have in all probability been told about socialism is to a large extent based on exaggeration, lack of understanding, or ignorance of the nature of the movement, and perhaps also on ill-will. Every man and woman should take an interest in politics and in socialism. From the very day that we enter into the world, politics begins to operate upon us and this continues all through our lives down to the grave.

In regard to socialism many have no doubt often been told that it consists of utopian attempts toward the destruction of every good thing that civilisation has called into being: as something which under no conditions can realise its ideal and is capable only of doing serious damage to society in general. How easy it would be to put an end to socialism if it were really only a matter of nonsensical theories. But has this occurred? Has it been demonstrated to be the case? No.

The fact that we cannot and do not think what we please to think; we think what we must think. And what obliges the individual to think in a certain way is the measure of his or her interests and opinions, which are in turn developed out of the social interests of a certain class in society. If our capitalist class stands opposed to socialism, we socialists are not in the least astonished by that. No one can expect a class to act against its interests.  Yet we are astounded that so many of our fellow-workers adopt the ideas and interests of the class that rules over them. If it had not been for this, socialism would certainly be established today. The very class in society, which is toiling in servitude, selling their labour power, and compelled to renounce the right of free disposal over their own persons accept the belief system of their masters. Socialist Courier thinks it is only natural that other thoughts will eventually awaken in their minds: "Is this right? Is it reasonable? Is it to remain so for ever? Are we always to be the oppressed and expropriated, to the end that those who appropriate to themselves out of our labour all the wealth and enjoyment that this world can offer may live in opulence and ease?" These pertinent questions are brought home to the consciousness of the working class by virtue of their labour, their intelligence and position as human beings, and so to this extent the socialist movement must expand and develop.

Not only can socialism and its demands be accepted as an ideal, they can also be realised. What do socialists demand? The abolition of every form of expropriation and oppression of man by man in social, political and economic life. Mankind shall be free and equal without exception and they shall be permitted to fulfil their mission in life as individuals with the opportunity of harmoniously developing and educating, in accordance with his or her needs, the physical and intellectual capacities which nature has given to him or her. From this arises the need for society to increase both the quantity and the quality of the means of life and of culture, so it shall prove adequate to meet the very highest demands that can be made upon it; and it follows, therefore, that it is the duty of every person to co-operate in accordance with their powers and capacities in the production of these means of culture and life.  We do not desire to "divide up," as people are in the habit of saying; we do not wish to throw humanity back into barbarism of barter; on the contrary, we desire to lift the whole of humanity to the highest thinkable plane of civilisation. We wish every individual without exception to have a share in the means of culture and education according to their capacities and needs. This ideal is possible today because we now possess all the means and possibilities to realise it. 

You can’t compromise your way to your goal

There are some who doubt the revolutionary potentiality of the workers and the validity of the struggle for a socialist society. The capitalist class itself, however, are not at all lulled by the apparent passivity of the workers and they constantly strive to disorient and confuse their thoughts. Socialism has been attacked throughout its existence. To prove socialism irrelevant, socialists are reproached with every kind of smear and slander. The learned men of history speak so disdainfully of socialism’s past and contemptuously of its future by caricaturing socialist thought so to present their case that socialism is sentenced by history as an unachievable utopian aspiration. But socialists are practical and realistic men and women.

Capitalism created the conditions and forces for the socialist movement: the necessary material basis and the working class itself.  Capitalism has created a world market, a world division of labour and world productive forces, it has also prepared the world economy as a whole for socialist transformation. Capitalism provokes the working class into action and is the involuntary promoter of the class struggle. Whilst capitalism dominates the world economy as a whole, inter-capitalist rivalry creates contradictions which aid the struggle for socialism. One capacity the working class has shown to the present day is that it can absorb the hardest blows and snap back after a while from the most terrible defeats. This is no mystical quality; its resilience and stamina spring from the material conditions of life in modern society. Capitalism creates the working class and depends upon it, as a parasite depends upon its host. Yet it cannot satisfy the demands or solve the problems of the working force it exploits and oppresses. Even in good times workers display their discontent and protest against insecurity by strikes and similar demonstrations; at more critical turning points their will to combat capitalism and cut through to a better life flares into insurrections and rebellions. The workers’ movement draws its inexhaustible strength from the indispensable part it plays as the principal force of production, the creator of all wealth and profit. It enhances that strength by its growing industrial organisation, by its political formations, by its cohesiveness and solidarity in struggle, by its developing awareness of itself as a decisive social power of growing importance compared to other classes. Finally, labour asserts itself as the only creative force in society that carries the future along with it as it rises. Having gained nothing but misery from capitalism, they are ready to fight it, instinctively, as a man is always ready to throw off someone who is sitting on his back and squeezing his life away.

The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working-class themselves. There is no other way, they cannot be emancipated against their will. It is the direction of building up a class-conscious working-class that the Socialist Party bend our efforts. Agitate, Educate, Organise. Let us look to and eliminate the faults of our own organisation, for it may not be free from them. The causes of which have operated to prevent our success in rallying the whole working-class to our banner do not supply the reasons for the fact that so many avowed, earnest and active socialists remain outside our party. Let us enquire into the reasons and if possible remedy them. In some cases, doubtless, they are purely accidental, but this is not always the case. Are we, as is sometimes alleged by our critics, too narrow, too sectarian, too intolerant, too dogmatic? Are we too hostile, not to enemies, but to would-be comrades? Does the style of our criticisms antagonise people rather than win them over? These are searching questions to which it may be worthwhile to give some consideration. There should be no heresy-hunting; no nosing out of non-essential points of difference but rather a seeking for essential points of agreement – “In things doubtful, liberty; in things essential, unity; and in all things, charity.”

To strengthen our organisation we are required to muster fellow workers to our banner; to bring together all comrades into a united Socialist Party, an active, vigorous tool for the realisation of socialism - the emancipation of humanity. The Socialist Party holds to a great and far-reaching purpose; a purpose not immediately understood by everyone; a purpose which, in fact, is often misunderstood and therefore has to meet opposition, prejudice and hatred which can be overcome only through extended educational propaganda. When the mass of the workers themselves come into action the dividing line between the political and industrial methods of struggle disappears; they march upon the field of battle to a single, undivided warfare against capitalism, armed with the class-consciousness, the discipline, the intelligence and the power of action gained in all previous conflicts. The attitude of the Socialist Party toward the trade union movement, broadly endorsing and commending it, but stopping there, and allowing it to manage its own internal affairs is, without doubt, the correct one, as any meddling must result in harm with no possible hope of good.

The socialist revolution consists of the entire process, on a world scale, through which the socialist mode of production is established and supplants earlier modes of production. he goal of the socialist revolution – the abolition of capitalist private property, the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the social ownership of the means of production and their planned use for the benefit of the whole of society, leading to abundance. The Socialist Party does not put forward this goal as a utopia, as a mere vision of what would ideally satisfy people’s needs and make them all happy, but as a goal the practical attainment of which is made necessary by the actual conditions of modern society. The goal of socialism is placed as a practical objective, that is because only under a socialist economy can the contradictions of modern capitalist society be solved and the great modern forces of production be fully utilised. Socialism will only be gained by waging the working-class struggle and to wage this struggle and achieve the conquest of power, the working class must have its own independent political party. It is clear to conclude that we my face new facts we have perhaps to guard against fixed ideas about the means for gaining socialism and for building it, that is, fixed ideas about the methods of working-class struggle. We may well have to review the application of some of our policies. The true aim of socialism is profoundly in accord with the sentiment for democracy and freedom – is, indeed, the only aim in which this sentiment can find fulfilment. The word ‘socialism’ is more than the name merely for a new system of economic relationships. So to restrict the meaning would be to kill the idea and aim. Socialism means the ending of exploitation of man by man, a society without class antagonisms, in which the people themselves control their means of life and use them for their own happiness. These are things we must above all make clear, breaking with and condemning everything which has contradicts our aim. Ideas cannot be produced to order; they must achieve their own growth in the minds and hearts of men and women. Nurtured and allowed to grow, they will truly and adequately express the experiences and aspirations of the people, the arguments, conflicts, sentiments and conclusions of people on the move for a better way of life.

The banner of world socialism is now carried on the shoulders of the World Socialist Movement which carries the slogan: “Workers of all lands unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win!” Socialism is not inevitable. What has been termed its ‘inevitability’ consists in this, that only through socialism can human progress continue. But there is not and cannot be any absolute deterministic inevitability in human affairs, since man makes his own history and chooses what to do. What is determined is not his choice, but the conditions under which it is made, and the consequences when it is made. The meaning of scientific socialism is not that it tells us that socialism will come regardless, but that it explains to us where we stand, what course lies open to us, what is the road to take .

A Planet without Borders

The world is in a deep economic, political and social crisis. It is not the result of natural catastrophes, or forces beyond our control, but of the capitalist system under which we live. The peoples of the world are confronted today by ever-growing poverty and widespread malnutrition and disease which afflict billions; war and the threat of nuclear bombs; and the environmental climate change time-bomb, giving rise to fears about the very survival of humanity and life on the planet. Today the utmost struggle is needed just to maintain living standards and we have lost hope of improving them. The trade unions, the main defence of working people, are under attack. Millions of women and black people suffer discrimination on a daily basis and new-comers to the UK are made the scapegoats for problems caused by capitalism. The quality of life is constantly under increasing attack. Town-centres become goldmines for property speculators rather than urban renewal developments. The countryside is despoiled. Public transport is sacrificed. Culture is commercialized.  People are denied the opportunity to develop their talents and abilities to the full. Human relationships are distorted and sex exploited for profit. There are frequent examples of corruption and financial scandals. Government is divorced from the people. Bureaucratic control by the state has increased as local democracy has been eroded. The ruling class tries to confine democracy to the right to vote in elections, and deny the people real participation in decision-making. Hard-won democratic rights are increasingly threatened by authoritarian trends.

The root cause of all those problems is an economic and political system in which effective power is in the hands of a tiny minority of the people - the capitalist class. Capitalism’s motive force is not production for the needs of society, but for the maximum private profit for the employers and bankers. The basis of the economy is the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class. The workers by hand and brain - the great majority of the population - own little but their labour power, their capacity to work. In modern society production is a social process, but ownership and control are predominantly private. Within the enterprise production is planned; but in society as a whole it is not planned. The capitalists always try to increase their profits, not just for their own personal consumption, but to enlarge their capital so as to get greater productive power and make still more profit. In general, the more they can cut costs and limit increases in wages and salaries, the more profit they can make, and the more capital they can accumulate. Capitalism’s contradictions are not only in the sphere of economics. All human activities are seen as a source of profit. While men and women are exploited at work, their cultural, sporting and leisure activities are commercialised, and they are held to ransom as consumers by the big business concerns which dominate the supply and distribution of the goods they buy. The development of science is distorted, with its use for the super-exploitation of workers, degradation of the environment and pollution, and the development of weapons of mass destruction. The economic crisis of capitalism is paralleled by a deep political, social and cultural crisis.

Capitalism’s legitimacy relies primarily on the fact that millions of people believe that the capitalist system is the natural way to organise society, that the present political system is truly democratic, and that there is no realistic or better alternative. Every new generation is influenced to accept this. The family and school often perpetuate and reinforce capitalist ideas among children, while among adolescents and adults the media and social and cultural activities increasingly assume importance. Most of those in charge of the main information, social, educational and cultural institutions of capitalist society accept its outlook and its values, and play an important part in securing acceptance of capitalist rule. But all these efforts have not been able to prevent millions of people entering into struggle against the effects of capitalism, as a result of which they have won improvements in the standard of life over the years. But these advances are then attributed to the virtues of the system, and the belief is encouraged that, despite temporary setbacks, people can continue in the long run to improve their conditions within it. Thus, as a result of a combination of the indoctrination efforts of the ruling class and of a seemingly rise in living standards there is a large measure of voluntary acceptance of capitalist rule. To challenge capitalist rule the working class and its organisations to overcome capitalist ideas. The Socialist Party need to raise their political consciousness and convince them of their common need to end capitalism and advance to socialism. Experience of past decades has also shown that capitalism’s crisis cannot be solved within the limits of capitalism. A new strategy of social change is needed. It must be a strategy for a socialist revolution. Only socialism can overcome the basic contradiction of capitalist society from which every aspect of the crisis flows.

Socialism replaces private ownership by social ownership. The social process of production is matched by social ownership of the means of production. Production for private profit is replaced by production for social needs. Socialism creates the best conditions for the development of democratic control and popular initiative. Industrial democracy becomes a reality with the development and extension of a new type of decision making and self-management participation, and the democratic planning of production makes possible the full use of modern scientific and technological advance to eradicate poverty and raise the standard of living. The scandalous contrast of extreme wealth for a few and hardship for millions can be ended. A new quality of life, in relationship to work, the family and the whole environment, and a common social purpose, can be achieved. Instead of power being in the hands of a tiny minority, it is in the hands of the overwhelming majority. This is what is meant by the socialist revolution. The advance to socialism can only take place through the active democratic struggle of the great majority of the people.

The ingenuity of humanity which could be used to improve the living conditions of working people are, instead, wasted in war preparations or used to expand the profits of the giant corporations and banks that dominate the economy and society. The Socialist Party is imbued with confidence in the ability of the working class to overcome all opposition and to transform our society and change the world. The essential feature of a socialist revolution is capturing the state machine by the working class. This can only be achieved when the great majority of people are convinced of its necessity and prepared to use their strength and organisation to bring it about. To achieve socialism, the working class must take political, economic and state power out of the hands of the capitalist class. 

At each stage of the class struggle, our aim must be to win the majority of the people open the way to socialism. The activity of the Socialist Party in parliament will need to be intimately linked with the mass struggles outside, each reacting on the other. To democratise power and extend democracy is not just a question of the freedom to express opinions and vote in elections, important though these are. Democracy concerns the extension of control by the people over every aspect of political, economic and social life. This can only be fully realised as socialism is built, but a start must be made in the process of fighting to achieve socialism. We are in a world in which social change is taking place on an unprecedented scale. We have the opportunity to carry out social transformation in conditions in which environmental destruction and endless wars can be prevented and without the social collapse and human destruction such catastrophes would bring. The advance to socialism can only take place through the active democratic involvement of the great majority of workers.