No Palliatives, No Piecemeal Reforms

 

The entire capitalist world is currently in a period of great economic and social crises hurting the lives of millions while a small minority reaps super-profits. Piecemeal reforms cannot solve the problems our society faces.

To end crises, recessions, mass unemployment and poverty, to end wars and conflicts, to end exploitation of man by man, to end the present system which compels the many to work to produce wealth for a few, to end all racial, national and religious discrimination and persecution, to use planned production for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of our population, to release all productive forces throughout the world for the benefit of the vast majority of the earth’s population, to end the use of government power and its domination of working people, to build the democracy of socialism to replace the dictatorship of the capitalists,  to end the rule of the capitalist class and abolish the class struggle by abolishing capitalism, a system able to survive only by mass deception, tyranny, terror and war, to work for the common good and not the rule of wealth, to liberate working people from the rule of capitalism; to guarantee the rapid liberation of all mankind from the exploitation of Wall Street, to end capitalism by which the millions of the majority are compelled to sell their only commodity, labour power, for the profit of a small minority, to win the campaign for world socialism where every material resource for a socialist society exists and where all the technical productive forces are present, to develop the class-free society: “From each according to ability; to each according to needs.” These are the demands of the Socialist Party. To change society and end oppression, we need a plan to get from where we are now to liberation - a strategy that will work. Working people need political power. This power is the means to reorganise society in our own interests.

The misery and turmoil which exists throughout the world is caused by capitalism. The capitalist class, is a small class composed of those who own and control the financial institutions and means of production–the land, raw materials, machines, mines, mills, factories, farms. The working class, is made up of those who are deprived of the ownership of the means of production and therefore are forced to sell their labour power as a commodity to the capitalist class. The working class participates directly in production, transportation, communication, service, agriculture, and commerce. It is the class which creates the wealth of society and from which the capitalists extract surplus value. The ranks of the working class also encompass the reserve army of unemployed, including old and disabled workers and semi-permanently and permanently unemployed workers forced to live on the benefits system. 

Our ruling class have built an empire that spans the earth. Like vampires, they suck the blood of the workers. They live off the toil, land and natural resources of others. The capitalists have accumulated untold wealth based on the exploitation and robbery of working people. The  capitalist class own and control the big corporations. All of them are parasites. They control an empire that spans the globe. They control the political and cultural life. They finance a host of a host of business associations, institutions and think tanks that actively promote their strategic interests. They are puppet masters pulling the strings of their puppets - the Tories, the Labour Party, the Republicans and the Democrats - through a host of laws that ensure that the electoral process favours the rich, direct and indirect campaign contributions, outright bribery, cheating, and corruption, and by an army of lobbyists who are guardians of their interests. In order to safeguard the wealth they have robbed from us and insure more profits, it is in the interests of the capitalist class to have a divided working class A working class that is divided is one that is not capable of defending itself or fighting in its own interests. The capitalists have a vast array of tools of oppression to keep the working class divided, men are pitted against women, white people against non-white people, They continually promote discord among us to keep us weak, fighting among ourselves, fighting against our class brothers and sisters throughout the world. The ruling class attempts to keep us under their thumbs with their repressive state apparatus and ideological illusions.

The working class makes its living by selling its ability to work. The capitalists own the places and things that are used to create goods and services. They appropriate for themselves all that is produced by the collective labour of the working class. This gives rise to an irrepressible conflict, a clash of basic interests that can be solved by the working class taking all power into its own hands. Today the working class as a whole is characterised by a low level of class consciousness. While it's true that many workers are dissatisfied with the existing order of things, there is not a widespread understanding that the working class has a distinct set of interests that can only be addressed by the collective action of the class. In fact, while there is a widespread perception among working people that life for them and their children might well get harder, many workers, either do not view themselves as a part of the working class or have hopes of rising out of it altogether.

 

The Socialist Party seeks no power inside of capitalism. Our task is to work for the realization of socialism – the association of free and equal producers. We are an organisation that fights for class unity. We see that only with a united working class can an effective fight be waged against the ruling capitalist class. This unity must not be based on paper or words, but in actual facts – in deeds. Socialism is not some Utopian scheme. Capitalism itself has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production, redirecting the productive capacity to meet human needs, the next rational step in the further development of social evolution. The main means of production will be the property of society, not a handful of capitalists

The captains of industry command

 

The aim of socialist industrial production is not profits but the prosperity of the the people. The capitalist practice of only seeking profit while ignoring the harm done to the planet and its people is alien to socialism. It is becoming more and more obvious that capitalism can only destroy the environment. The market and the profit system are incapable of planning a world where millions can live in safety and security. The pursuit of profit leads corporations down pathways that might be quicker and cheaper in the short term, at the expense of public health and safety. The very definition of greed. Fast disappearing are clean fresh air, clear pure water and wholesome nutritious food. Pollutants fill the atmosphere, our rivers and seas have been turned into sewers and we fill our plates with chemicalised fodder.

Sadly, a great number of people concerned about the environment have been naive enough to believe that their protests and lobbying would force those at the controls of industry and finance to turn around climate change, even if only because of self-interest. But this once again proved to be a cruel illusion. The people came on to the streets to be heard. But in the CEO board-rooms, they were not listened to. The very sources of global warming, means of production, are in the hands of a few who cannot see beyond their share-holder returns. What is to be done about global warming and the greenhouse effect? The Socialist Party rejects the idea that capitalism has a self-correcting economic mechanism. If nothing changes the result will be climate chaos. Only a reduction and redistribution of resources makes any sense. All the resources for a world of abundance, without pollution, disease and squalor, exist at the present time in skill, technique and science. Yet, they are the same resources used to produce environmental destruction. They cannot be used for constructive purposes till the capitalist system of profit-making is overthrown. Grim reality teaches that the choice of socialism or barbarism may have been transformed to world socialism  or extinction

The world today is one of stark and bewildering contradictions. Possessing the greatest industrial and agricultural power in history, we cannot feed, clothe and provide a decent livelihood for billions. Countless struggle away their lives to just survive.  Poverty and economic insecurity exist alongside luxury and extravagance. The answers to these questions cannot be found in cynical condemnations of “human nature” or apologies about the “way things are.” No! Capitalism, the social system under which we live, is responsible for the contradictions of society. A system of exploitation, violence, racism and war strangles our lives. Capitalism thrives on the private control of society’s wealth and production – production involving the interconnected efforts of millions of working people.

The rich have one basic goal in life: to make more and more profits, and they accomplish this by dominating the economics, politics, and cultural life of the country. The monopolists will throw workers out into the streets to starve, promote violent racism, and build a military arsenal that can destroy the world several times over – anything for profits!

This is an irrational and unjust system. But life does not have to be this way. We can improve our lives and society, and eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern. Such an economic and political transformation will be radical, but a radical solution is what it will take to bury the miseries of capitalism. Socialism will qualitatively improve the lives of the working people. The socialist revolution has become a historical necessity and possibility. There is no other choice today. If the working people, and not the monopolies, controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. These are the hopes and dreams of socialism. 

The Socialist Party is dedicated to realising that day when the exploiters, racists and warmongers will be thrown from power forever, and a new life for the people of the world can begin.  We must use the power we have won to end the bosses’ rule of profit.

A New Vision for the Working People

"The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority" - Communist Manifesto

All socialists are rebels against any kind of enslavement and exploitation. Reformers believe that the working class can not emancipate itself by its own efforts. We are to be emancipated through the efforts of humanitarians, intellectually superior to the workers.  But it is clear that little was to be expected from the politicians and millionaires of the bourgeois.

 The Socialist Party perceives that the power necessary for the realisation of socialism can come only from the working class itself. The Socialist Party fights not only for shorter working hours and higher wages, unemployment insurance and shop councils, but also for the liberty, equality, fraternity of all human beings, regardless of race, gender, colour or nationality. Our Party declares that its aim is to develop the class consciousness of our fellow- workers through our education and agitation campaigns. We try to get the workers to have trust in their own power to achieve their own emancipation,  to have confidence in the ability of their own class.

The essence of socialism is cooperation, organisation, concerted effort, and united action on the part of the working class for their own advancement and their own emancipation. If a person does not understand the necessity of these things, the person does not understand socialism, and is not yet a socialist. The working class must organise to get it for themselves. The struggle against the capitalist class is a struggle against all who live by the labour of others, and against all exploitation. It can only end in taking political power by the working class, and the transfer of all land, instruments, factories, machinery and mines to the whole of society for the organisation of social production under which all that is produced by the workers and all improvements of production must benefit the people themselves.

The Socialist Party has always said that socialism cannot be established unless and until it has majority support and has always emphatically rejected minority violence. We are actively working to avoid violence by seeking to persuade in an open, democratic and peaceful manner a majority of the merits of socialism.

The socialist revolution will be essentially peaceful precisely because it will be the act of a conscious majority. Unfortunately, whether isolated incidents involving violence may occur does not depend on the majority, but on the anti-socialist minority.

Whether a minority of anti-socialists, faced with an overwhelming democratic decision in favour of the establishment of socialism, would dare to take up arms in a futile gesture against the socialist majority is very much open to question. But if they do, the Socialist majority must have a policy for dealing with them. We think it reasonable that steps should be taken to restrain them, even to the extent of using actual physical violence if need be. After all it will be they who began the violence and acted in an anti-democratic way. Not to act against them would be to allow a few fanatics to hold up the establishment of socialism. “Peacefully if possible, violently if necessary” only applies when once the vast majority of society are already in favour of the establishment of socialism.

Do you wish to hasten the day of victory? Join the Socialist Party! Don’t wait for the morrow. Join now. Take your place where you belong. You cannot do your duty by proxy. You have got to do it yourself and do it squarely and then as you look yourself in the face you will have no occasion to blush. You will know what it is to be a real man or woman. You will lose nothing; you will gain everything. You need to know that you were not created to work and produce and impoverish yourself to enrich an idle exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to improve, a spirit to develop. You need to know that you are verging on the edge of a great new world. You need to get in touch with your comrades and fellow workers and to become conscious of your interests, your powers and your possibilities as a class. You need to know that you belong to the great majority of humankind. You need to know that as long as you are ignorant, as long as you are indifferent, as long as you are apathetic, unorganised and content, you will remain exactly where you are. You will be exploited; you will be degraded, and you will have to beg for a job. You will get just enough for your slavish toil to keep you in working order, and you will be looked down upon with scorn and contempt by the very parasites that live in luxury out of your sweat and unpaid toil. The Socialist Party says: “Take possession of the factories and work-places in the name of the people.”