Today’s tasks must prepare for tomorrow's work

The Socialist Party envision a day when the capitalist class will not be in charge of our lives. Its members share a common political agenda and seek to act collectively. Socialist revolution does not happen spontaneously–nor does the capitalist order collapse on its own. Upsurges of class struggle and periods of social crisis may lead to improved conditions for working people and their allies. But these gains are not automatic or permanent, and do not necessarily bring socialist revolution closer. Revolution must be made by working people, but their numbers and enthusiasm are not enough. Organisation and education are needed. A socialist vision and aspiration is needed to merge particular struggles into a single movement, and different issues into a common revolutionary outlook.

We are also not interested in having any group take power in any society in order to oppress anyone else. We are against dictatorship in any form. We are for a society where human needs are more important than profit; where working people have the right to a job, housing, health care, education; where society has democratic structures for the people to control their communities and workplaces. Since we are for the majority, we are by definition for the working class, as the working class is the majority of the population. We need to build an organisation which stands for the interests of the majority, can capture the diversity and creativity of the people, respects the interests of all those who are part of the struggle. The empowerment of working should be upheld and respected, a mass movement in which working people are able to participate fully in the struggles and issues that affect their lives from education to electoral representation, from unionisation to job safety to contribute in different ways to our common goal of fundamental social change. We hope to capture the hopes and dreams of the people, regard to their needs and their desire for a better life. We seek to inspire our fellow-workers “fighting spirit.” This is an important foundation for us to build upon.

The establishment of socialism would banish forever hunger, unemployment, poverty and wars. Exploitation is precisely what we seek to abolish and create a true free society. It is also necessary to put forward a vision of the socialist future as a definite, concrete goal worth fighting for. There is no automatic socialist future, no guaranteed progress and no “final crisis” of capitalism leading by itself to the socialist utopia: the choice between socialism and barbarism is still open, and its outcome depends on each one of us. Mankind has the opportunity of eliminating all relations of oppression and exploitation by the total abolition, of all forced labour of production.

Capitalist ownership of the facilities of production is the principal obstacle to the development of the means for achieving economic security, social solidarity and human happiness. The road to a harmonious and class-free society has to pass through the door of the world socialist revolution in order to eliminate the root causes of conflict between one part of mankind and another.

If socialism becomes the predominant political power in the country, then peace, democracy, prosperity and security are assured. It could and would organise the economic and political life of the country not in the interests of the monopolists, the profiteers, the time-server bureaucrats, but in its own simple interests of all the people, who want to oppress nobody, to exploit nobody, to war on no other people. It would organise production not for the profit of a handful of capitalists but for the use and enjoyment of all. It would build homes, instead of bombs to destroy homes; provide for the health and life of all, instead of armies for the destruction of life. It would set a living example of well-being and democracy that no tyranny on earth could withstand the uprising of its own slaves who would be immediately inspired to follow the example. For this, the working class needs nothing but the consciousness of its task in society and of its irresistible power to perform this task. Up to now, however, the working class, and especially the organised labour movement, has been content to leave its own fate in the hands of the parties of capitalism. The workers’ movement waits humbly with cap in hand while the capitalist politicians it elected to office laugh in its face. Workers require their own political power! It cannot express it without having its own political party. The Socialist Party has no other interests except that of the working class itself. The workers’ movement is our movement. We are its uncompromising champion. We seek nothing more than to be part and parcel of tomorrow’s political movement for socialism.

The Socialist Party gives coherent voice to the socialist case for  world peace, international brotherhood and global emancipation of labour and has to expressed its unfaltering socialist opposition to all wars. We are convinced that stirring days lie ahead. We are convinced that the working class will start making mighty strides along the road of independent political action towards socialism under the red flag. We are and we remain socialists – independent socialists. We are independent of capitalism, of all capitalist governments, of all capitalist politics. The fight for socialism is the fight for democracy. To all those who refuse to surrender themselves in helplessness and hopelessness to the barbarism of capitalism, to tyranny, to the unspeakable horrors of war the Socialist Party is your organisation. To all those who have confidence in the working-class movement and in its socialist future, and therefore confidence in the noble future of mankind and the  assurance a socialist future for humanity the Socialist Party extends its welcoming hand of comradeship.

A Better World For All

Mankind is moving towards a showdown with all the forces of the old order. The patching up and piecemeal remedies of the reformers do little good. By replacing private ownership of the means of production by common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of production which is a feature of capitalism into planned l production organised for the well-being of all of society, the  socialist revolution will end the division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms of exploitation of one section of society by another. The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers, through their industrial and administrative councils, must own and control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. By its victory at the ballot box, and its consequent political domination, the capitalists are able to enslave Labour by creating State departments which control industrial conditions. These State departments are in the hands of unsympathetic bureaucrats who are appointed by our masters. 

We are convinced that the present political State, with most of its attendant institutions, must be swept away. The political State is not and cannot be a true democracy. It is elected because the wealthiest section of society can suppress all facts through its power over the media. By its money the capitalists can buy control of the mass media and these create fake election issues. The electorate is not asked to vote upon facts but only upon such topics as the media, representing capital, puts before the workers.

We cannot leave political control in the hands of the ruling class. We have seen what power the conquest of the State gives to capital in its struggle with labour. It is through its political strength that the capitalists can deprive us of every shred of civil liberty the loss of which makes the peaceful agitation for the revolution impossible. The maintenance of civil liberty is part of the political struggle of revolutionary labour. And in the measure that the industrial movement becomes more powerful so in the same measure capital will resort to the use of the armed forces and other violent methods of suppression. The control of these forces flow directly from capital’s control of the State which it secures at the ballot box. This destructive function is the revolutionary role of political action. But this destructive political function is necessary in order that the industrial constructive element in the revolution may not be thwarted. the political issue confronting the working class is the preservation of civil liberties and the destruction of the political State. All other questions, such as the League of Nations, social reconstruction, free trade, or tariff reform—these things which are agitating the minds of Tory, Liberal, and Labour parties—are merely traps to catch the unwary workers and to persuade them to vote to preserve capitalism.

The Labour Party has no message for the working class whereby the workers may destroy capitalism and construct socialism. The Socialist Party alone puts forward such a position.

The more the wage-workers threaten to revolt, the more does the capitalist class seek to hold them down. For, it is in the factories, in the mills and workshops, where all wealth is created. It is there where profits and wages are produced. It is there, on the industrial field, that labour and capital struggle to increase their respective shares of the social product. Each class wishes to get as much of the wealth produced as it can. Consequently there is a struggle between wages and profits. The more labour gets the less there is for capital. The more capital gets the less there is for labour. This clash of interests provokes the class struggle. Each side desires to get as much power as possible in order to overcome its class opponent. Thus, the control of the government, which includes the power over the armed forces, civil, and legal powers of the nation, is one way by means of which the capitalist class is able to hold the workers in subjection. That is the reason why the capitalist class strains its every source in order to control the powers of State. Thus, the class struggle in the factory and on the industrial field must also be fought out at the ballot box. Within the next few days the political aspect of the class struggle will be waged at the ballot box. What is the issue? It is whether capital or labour is going to control the destinies of humanity.

The immediate aim of the Socialist Party is to organise the social revolution of the working class. A revolution that overthrows the entire exploitative capitalist relations and puts an end to all exploitation and oppression. We seek the immediate establishment of a socialist society; a society without classes, without private ownership of the means of production, without wage labour and without a State; a free human society in which all share in the social wealth and collectively decide the society's direction and future.

Socialism is possible this very day. We would see the wealth of the World as part of mankind’s common heritage. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created, we will be quickly able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. The essence of communist revolution is abolition of private ownership of the means of production and their conversion into common ownership of the whole society. Socialist revolution puts an end to the class division of society and abolishes the wage-labour system. Thus, market, exchange of commodities, and money disappear. Production for profit is replaced by production to meet people's needs and to bring about greater prosperity for all. Work, which in capitalist society for the overwhelming majority is an involuntary, mechanical and strenuous activity to earn a living, gives way to voluntary, creative and conscious activity to enrich human life. Everyone, by virtue of being a human being and being born into human society will be equally entitled to all of life's resources and the products of collective effort. From everyone according to their ability, to everyone according to their need — this is a basic principle of socialist society. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman to supervise who gets what. The socialist revolution is not a revolution out of desperation or poverty but one relying on the consciousness and material readiness of the working people.

We will empower people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and with the confidence that it’s possible to win. We are an organisation of revolutionaries. The task of the Socialist Party is always agitation and propaganda. It is the vision of a World free forever from want, from race and national hatred, from sexual oppression and from human exploitation. The vision is one of peace and social harmony. It expresses the changes being brought about and the possibilities being created by the new technology. We no longer have to work long hours or wait for the meagre welfare payment just to eke out a miserable existence for our families. The new technology makes a world of material abundance and cultural development for all possible. Only when control of our World is in the hands of the working people can we transform our vision of the future into reality. We are an organisation dedicated and united to that cause. To teach the idea of revolution, our classroom has to become the street, the factories, the schools – wherever there’s injustice, oppression and tyranny. They are few; we are many.

The Socialist Party is a revolutionary political organisation and therefore believes in revolutionary political action. It urges the workers to use their ballots to capture political power—not to play at politicians but to use their votes to uproot the political State and to hand to the people  the constructive task of building up the administrative councils of the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth. 

To think that Parliament can be used as the means of permanently improving the conditions of Labour, by passing a series of acts, is to believe in parliamentarianism. The Socialist Party is not a parliamentary party. It believes in entering Parliament only as a means of sweeping away all antiquated institutions which stand in the way of industrial democracy owning and controlling the means of production.