The man who has money is the master of the world, and in his presence the people prostrate themselves. The chief aim is to become wealthy, and in these days society is not very particular as to the means you employ in accumulating your wealth. The power of money power now dominates every department of the government.
“What’s the matter with the world?“ Capitalism! What’s the solution? Socialism!
In building the mass movement to overthrow the capitalist system, the workers have the greatest power to cripple the capitalists. If the workers don’t work, the capitalists don’t profit. Finally, as the only thoroughly productive class in society, as the only class which produces and distributes the things necessary for life, the working class is the only class which literally holds in its hands not only the ability to destroy the old, rotting capitalist society, but the ability to build the new, healthy socialist society. For this reason, the Socialist Party believes that the working class must play its role in creating and developing the revolutionary movement to overthrow capitalism and to replace it with socialism. Some people who call themselves socialists, however, do not believe that the working class will play this active role. Essentially, their position comes down to the old romantic notion of a handful of heroic revolutionists making the revolution for the people rather than the people making the revolution for themselves. They lack confidence in the ability of the people themselves to make a revolution, and who therefore feel that they must do it for them. They called the Socialist Party idealists and utopians because we refuse to go along with their notion.
The Socialist Party proposes to put an end to the rule of capital by abolishing the capitalist class, and transferring the means of production and distribution from private hands for personal gain to common ownership for the welfare of all. The profit system will thus cease to exist, and all industry will be owned and controlled by the people in their collective capacity, organized on a scientific basis, operating with the most improved technology. This will mean economic equality, the basis of the only real civilisation the world can ever know.
All men and women will enjoy access to the necessities of life. Wage slavery will cease. The capitalist master will disappear together. Under the capitalist system the few have enjoyed the fruits of the Earth and the people have been doomed to serve as beasts of burden. The beneficiaries of this system believe that a system under which the few rule and the masses toil and submit to their masters in silence is on the whole a good system. It is a system, however, which has filled the world with unspeakable misery. There is another system under which there is no favoured class, no special privileges, where the earth and the fullness thereof becomes the heritage of the common people. In the socialist system, economic freedom will be established and the brotherhood of man will be inaugurated. The time has come to supplant this system with the cooperative system under which men and women shall work together for the common uplifting of our common humanity.
There are those who say this is a good system. It may be a good system for its beneficiaries, but it is not a good system for the people. If men and women enjoyed economic freedom, if they had equal opportunities this would be a different world — it would be a veritable paradise. The Socialist Party proposes that technology shall become the property of the people. The new technology that was designed to bless the world is, under its present management, its curse. It displaces workers, it starves workers. Whether the good time comes sooner or later, it will come. The working class, the sleeping giant, is already beginning to stir, and when it fully awakens, when it recognises the great power it has in its hands, the whole world will shake. It is only a matter of time.
