For a New Socialist Society

 

“For our part, it is our task to drag the old world into the full light of day and to give positive shape to the new one. The more time history allows thinking mankind to reflect and suffering mankind to collect its strength the more perfect will be the fruit which the present now bears within its womb.” - Marx

 Capitalism promises the people not amelioration of conditions but austerity, oppression, wars and environmental destruction. Technological progress is now reaping vast profits for the industrial and financial oligarchy and condemning many of us to vulnerable jobs or unemployment. The people have been robbed and cheated for too long.  We suffer low wages and higher costs of living while the employers get richer. To create a new society, it is necessary that we reject the present economic and political system which we live under. More than this, we need to construct an entirely new system of values where the lust for money, power, and individual selfish gain are no longer the motivating factors. he new society must not only speak of democracy but must practice it in all its aspects. Our first task, therefore, is to join hands with us here to build a better world for our children and our children's children.

Each day real conditions grow worse. There is inflation. Threats of unemployment. Working conditions become more miserable. The insecurity of daily life becomes unbearable. The capitalist system won’t work, for the very root of capitalism is all wrong.  The working people themselves should own and operate the industries cooperatively, through owning and operating the government. This would end production for profit and the waste of competing corporations. There would be planned production for the first time, increasing the output of wealth so that there would be plenty for all. Socialism demands the conscious participation of millions of workers to end capitalism and replace it with social ownership. The kind of planned economy we envisage would, for the first time, make possible an end to wars between nations. Because the planned economy would include all countries. The aim of the working class would be to end capitalism and all forms of exploitation everywhere and to create a socialist world. Socialism is not just about fighting for reforms or demands. Reformism is not the same as revolution. We can’t make that distinction clear if we lend our support to capitalist politicians no matter what they call themselves. There is no such thing as a kinder and gentler capitalism. That is an oxymoron. Capitalism’s assault on the working class is not a matter of moral or immoral decisions being made by individual capitalists. It is an economic imperative that has a logic of its own that individual capitalists cannot control. For the economic system of capitalism to survive, it MUST increase profit by any means necessary including driving down our wages.

There is a war being waged against the entire working class by the capitalist class. In every country, in every corner of the world, workers are being force-fed austerity while the capitalists accumulate more wealth. The capitalist political system of “lesser evil” politics is designed to channel workers into a downward spiral of powerlessness by voting for the least-bad candidates among all the capitalist candidates. It is not a democratic system at all. Money drives all the campaigns and political parties and their candidates are representatives of the commanders of capital. They will say whatever they think will get them elected—whatever might get the most votes. But they are not held accountable whatsoever to their promises. Their job is to preserve the power of the capitalist class over the working class. Workers lose no matter which pro- or reform-capitalist candidate is elected to office.

Our environment is being systematically plundered for the natural resources capitalism needs to fuel its profits. Capitalism is destroying the planet. It cannot be reformed, reshaped or restructured—it must be abolished. This is no easy task. Working people are kept divided and live in constant fear of poverty, made to feel powerless. Through unity and solidarity across the world, we can overthrow capitalism. We need socialists who understand that capitalism must go and that workers must organize independently of the capitalists so that there can be no collaboration between the workers and the capitalists. The power of a united working class is the only way to create a world that can answer the needs of all of humanity and all life on the planet to establish a truly democratic socialist society without borders, exploitation and oppression. The  Socialist Party—with the support of the overwhelming majority—does have the power to end capitalism and replace it with a socialist system that puts people and the planet first.

We will sing one song (music)

 

The Socialist Alternative Vision

 

Capitalism thrives on exploitation. Its logic is that of profit. Its morality is that of self-interest. Socialism, on the other hand, stresses the cooperative rather than the selfish nature of human beings by eliminating the conditions that promote the self-centered thirst for property. The primary contradiction of any capitalist order is between the social character of production and the private appropriation of surplus. Socialism resolves this contradiction through the socialisation of the ownership of the means of production and the development of the productive forces so as to accomplish the eradication of both poverty and inequality. Without a vision of a better world and the organisation that goes with it, the movement of working people will likely go nowhere.

Since private ownership of property produces inequality and feeds on the exploitation of the majority, a socialist society must be based on common ownership of the means of productive property, the operation of which required collective labour power. Hence, under the regime of private ownership, it serves as a means for exploiting others. This concept extended to land and natural resources, the private appropriation of which deprive others of their means to life. Social ownership of the means of social production does not mean no personal possessions or having to share each other’s toothbrush. Personal property is respected, but not ownership of property that is used to exploit others. The goal of socialism is to enable everyone to have access to more personal property such as food, housing, clothing, books and leisure. But to accomplish this, the ownership and control by a few over the means of production must be eliminated. 

In such a society, production would be basically oriented to need, not to market demand. This can only be accomplished through rational social planning. A planned economy requires the identification of basic need that must be met, and an efficient distribution system. These can only be achieved through the effective participation of people in the determination of individual needs, In such a society, production would be basically oriented to need, not to market demand.

 This can only be accomplished through rational social planning. A planned economy requires the identification of basic need that must be met, and an efficient distribution system. These can only be achieved through the effective participation of people in the determination of needs. Democratic social planning is thus in complete contrast to the anarchy of capitalism where surplus is expropriated from those who produce by the social classes the own the means of production. Under capitalism, control is purely in the hands of the owners of the means of social production.

A socialist society can only be sustained through a stable and adequate resource base. Hence the conservation of natural resources and the maintenance of ecological balance must be integral principles of socialism. 

Socialism is aimed at the fullest development if each individual. Socialism having removed unacceptable inequalities, and having removed the greatest barriers to mutual respect and understanding ie private property in the means of production and the wage labour market, a society in which people are motivated for the common good will develop. Socialism, for Marx, is a society which serves the needs of humanity. No one will need to, nor be able to, sell their labour power. This is the minimum criterion for a socialist society, since selling one’s labour power makes it (and its products) into commodities with exchange value. People will nonetheless work, not out of a need to get pay in order to live but to keep society running smoothly.

The capitalist system is irreparable. The capitalist runs the factory to provide himself with profits. This leads to fiercer exploitation of the mass of workers on the one side; and a sharper aggravation of the capitalists’ own problems on the other, it leads to economic crashes, recessions and wars. Socialism is an entirely different system. The workers run the factories themselves. By doing so, they produce useful things instead of profits. They put an end to their own status as commodities. They are no longer bought and sold. And their aim is no longer to produce a surplus value above their own wages. Everything they produce now belongs to all the world. A society of human harmony, freedom, peace, that is socialism.  It will eliminate all the narrowness and conflict that now saps mankind’s potentialities. All will gain. 

Revolution (music)

 

Socialism - the Movement for World Unity

 

The Socialist Party is an organisation of men and women committed to building a cooperative commonwealth. Only within a socialist society can we take control over our own lives and bring an end to war, economic insecurity and inequality. Only within socialism can all people fully develop their potential and capabilities. We must bring about the end of the present economic and political system that is imposed upon our lives.

“War to the palaces, peace to the cottages” - The Chartists’ slogan.

The Socialist Party is for war. The class war. The war to end wage slavery, to end capitalism with its misery and degradation. The war to end ALL wars. And until that war is ended we do not want peace—because such peace will be the peace of the beggar and the slave. Workers still have the task in the main to see the capitalist as their class enemy, to organise as a class to defeat the employers. 

This system is inherently based on misery and exploitation. It profits a wealthy few at the expense of the vast majority of working people throughout the world.  It generates conflict. It keeps people divided and powerless. This system is controlled by a small number of extremely rich – a ruling class – who use all major institutions, including the government, to protect their interests and wealth to maintain their control over our lives. Capitalism has reduced the workers to destitution, to deprivation, to despair. Capitalism is discarding them out into the streets. 

 

 Capitalism is a social system characterised by a few great monopolies owning the means of production (factories, mines) and the great majority of the people working in those means of production and owning nothing but their capacity to labour which they are forced to sell. Capitalism brings misery to the people, unemployment, inflation, crises, and war. Our view is that the revolutionary road is the only answer. Socialism is where political and economic power is held and used to benefit not just a handful of people, but all people. Socialism is the social ownership of all natural resources and the application of all social forces in cooperation for the satisfaction of all material social needs. It is a system of universal cooperation for production for use.

 

 The Socialist Party, as always, scorns to hide its aims. Under capitalist society, it exists to fight against the exploitation of those who toil by hand and brain and to struggle to improve the working and living conditions of the toiling masses, to strengthen the working-class organisation and political understanding of the need of ending capitalism and establishing socialism. Those who have departed from these aims are the real betrayers of working-class principles. We are the inheritors of the true traditions of the Marxist pioneers. We represent the future. We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We believe that these purposes for which we stand should end impoverishment and win the earth from the fear of war. We seek a world in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease when the evolution of human society to new and higher forms shall become possible to all mankind when socialism and peace shall be enjoyed by all.

 

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 administrative councils, must own and control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field 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 can suppress labour. 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 manipulate all facts through its power over the media.  The electorate is not asked to vote upon facts but only upon such topics as the media, representing capital, puts before the workers. It is the control of the State that gives to the capitalists in its struggle with labour. Its power. It is through its political strength that the capitalists can deprive us of every shred of civil liberty.  Working people to achieve a peaceful revolution must capture the powers of the State at the ballot box.

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 or pose as statesmen, but to use their votes to uproot the political State and to hand to our fellow workers the ability to build administrative councils. To think that Parliament can be used as the means of permanently improving the conditions of working folk by passing a series of acts is to believe in parliamentarism. 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 achieving socialism.

It is the capitalist system which produces misery and disaster. It is up to you to transform the enormous forces utilised by capitalism for destruction into prosperity for all peoples and all human beings. Organise under the banner of the world socialist revolution with confidence. The dawn of socialism is rising on mankind’s horizon. Turn toward it resolutely, ending forever all misery, dictatorship and war. 

EMPTY CHAIRS AND EMPTY TABLES (music)

Lest we forget the comrades that have gone before