Socialism Explained (video)

Why the Socialist Party Is Different

 

The world today is a place of stark and bewildering contradictions.  It cannot feed, home and provide decent healthcare for billions although there are ample resources to do exactly that. Capitalism, the social system under which we live, is responsible for the contradictions. A system of exploitation,  racism and war makes our lives a misery. Capitalism thrives on the private ownership 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, and the politics of every country. 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. In its campaign for a new society, the Socialist Party seeks to attain its objectives by peaceful and orderly means. The Socialist Party proclaims anew its faith in economic and political democracy, but it unhesitatingly applies itself to the task of replacing the bogus democracy of capitalist parliamentarism with genuine social democracy. If capitalism can be superseded by a majority vote, the Socialist Party will rejoice. The aims of socialism are always in the interest of the working class. The working class has nothing in common with the employing class. 

The real business of socialism is to abolish a society that is based on the wage system. It proposes that the working class shall take over all industries, the mines, mills, factories, land, transport and communications. We can eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a humane system – socialism, a system where 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 many problems of capitalism. There is no other choice today but to win socialism which will qualitatively improve the lives of the working people. If the working people controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. We could have satisfying and safe places of work. We could end industrial pollution and global warming, and guarantee a decent standard of living for all. We could live in a society that is not constantly at war. The Socialist Party is opposed to militarism, imperialism and war. Its purpose is to eradicate the perpetual economic warfare of capitalism the fruit of which is international, conflict. War cannot be tolerated by socialists or preparedness for war. 

The difference between the objects of the political and labour union struggles is that 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. The objective of the unions, on the other hand, is an immediate one, the securing of higher wages and shorter hours. This is instantly intelligible to everyone; does not demand deep convictions, but appeals rather to immediate interest. On this account, quite undeveloped workers must not be hindered from joining the unions because of their prejudice against a world-overturning force like Socialism. As soon as the unions attempt to take in the great mass of the workers they must be absolutely independent. Of course, a friendly relationship with the Socialist Party can still be maintained.

The Socialist Party reminds workers that they should only expect their total emancipation and any improvements in their lot from themselves, from their own efforts and initiative, and not from the miraculous intervention of a third party, their elected representatives, whoever they might be, whatever party they might belong to, and whatever principles they might hold. Socialism means the overthrow of the wage system. This is the real essence of socialism.

A Clear Definition of Socialism (video)

 

The Earth for All

We live in times of revolutionary change. World organisations have been swept into limbo. Dictators have appeared as heaven-sent “leaders” of war-like nations. Politicians, statesmen of long-standing, have performed miracles of agile acrobatics, with their principles somersaulting and their positions flipping.  The Socialist Party that keeps to plain facts, is hotly denounced by both Right and Left. Amid the reams of paper and gallons of ink, used in publishing defences of capitalism, the short, plain, straight statements appearing in the Socialist Standard stand out like a spotlight, casting an illuminating beam through a cloud of murky confusion. While each and every political party has retracted their ideas, the Socialist Party statement does not require alteration.

Growing inequality and mounting misery are causing increasing protests around the world.

Of all the wealth produced between 1995 and 2021 globally, the top 1 percent captured 38 percent, while the bottom 50 percent captured a shocking 2 percent. 

 In the years following the 2007/08 crash, the world’s richest 1 per cent increased their wealth until they owned more than the bottom half of the world’s entire population. The world’s billionaires saw their wealth increase by nearly 70 per cent during the pandemic. 

The top 10 percent of the richest people in the United States own almost 70 percent of the country’s total wealth. The top 1 percent control 31 percent of the wealth. The bottom 50 percent of the U.S. population hold 2 percent of all U.S. wealth. 

We can turn the millions of empty houses and offices which exist as purely speculative assets into homes. We can expand public transport to make mobility available to everyone. We can even set up cafeterias that offer food for everyone in every neighbourhood something that many countries, including Britain, have historically done in times of hardship.

We can establish tool libraries where we can take out tools like drills or lawn-mowers from the library instead of every one possessing their own

We can make energy democratically run, and truly sustainable. A 2020 research paper on energy sufficiency found that it is possible to provide a decent life to the entire global population at 40 percent of current energy use, despite population growth until 2050.

And we can end the practice of planned obsolescence that makes everything – break or fall out of fashion. 57 million tonnes of electronics were thrown away in 2021. If we only designed smartphones, TVs and other appliances to last twice as long as they currently do, we could reduce this by half right away, without reducing wellbeing (but probably reducing profits).

It is a waste of energy to attempt to reform or appeal to governments. We must organise to overturn the capitalist system.

The real issue is capitalism or socialism?

 The working class should not side with any of our class enemies. It should stand for its own interests—freedom from wage slavery and exploitation; socialism: a society of production for use and free access, where all will contribute according to their abilities. 

The Socialist Party is against capitalism. This means socialists are for a global union, and not nation states, federal unions or global capitalism.  When it comes to the nationalistic zeal there is nothing at all with which we can identify, for both are abstractions that have imbued the workers of the region with a false consciousness that prevents them from identifying their real interests. For the real conflict is yet to be waged—that between ourselves, the exploited, and the master class—though with ideas, not cannon and bombs.

In a socialist society, critical decisions affecting whole communities will not, as is so often the case today, be made undemocratically by a Board of Directors meeting privately or by some autocratic state committee as in China or Cuba. Decisions will have to be made democratically by anyone in the community who wishes to participate in the process and vote. Everyone will need to have access to any information they require.

There will be no separate economic interests, as now, but there will of course be multifarious social interests. Experts and campaigners will disagree. If that sort of debate and progression through the clash of ideas ever ceases, society will stagnate. Some people will favour more rail transport infrastructure and others will be opposed, some will favour one form of energy development while others will disagree. These disputes will need to be democratically settled according to set procedures not dealt with all over society in a sort of random, capricious, chaotic way according to whatever mode of decision-making happened to prevail in a particular area at a particular time.

In order for this to be done reliably, and in a way which allows all citizens the comfort of knowing in advance of any decision how it will be made and how, if need be, it can be challenged, there will need to be rule. Anyone who thinks that all rules, by definition, are bad would need to ask whether he or she would say, if caught in a hotel fire, “bugger the Fire Rules about the procedures to be followed in the case of a fire, I’m not being dictated to.” Rules are not always made by one person or group to oppress another.

A socialist society will have to operate according to rules. There will be lots of them. Who can practise medicine, who can pilot planes, who can drive cars, what procedures will be required to be followed in order to stop an allegedly incompetent person from practising, the procedures for deciding on whether society wishes to build more roads, and the priorities of using resources will all need to be governed by a democratic process which will require rules. A democratic process is not something you can make up as you go along.

The Socialist Party has never overly boasted of its proletarian origin and membership; it is so “proud” of its class that it is out for its abolition. We shall continue to pursue our immediate task—political education, never swerving from our adherence to the principle of delegation of executive work and abhorrence of leadership; in short, to the principles of socialism and all that socialism implies.

Today’s society rests on the basis of capitalist private ownership. A small section of society owns the lands, factories and machines for producing wealth, and are able by this ownership to live without working. The workers who possess nothing but their energy are forced to sell themselves piecemeal to the capitalists for wages. Each day they produce goods of all descriptions which belong to their masters, who desire neither to consume these goods nor keep them, only to sell them. Failure to sell generally means that the workers are thrown on the streets to search for alternative employment. In a socialist society, all able-bodied people would be expected to do their share of the necessary work of society, but this has no relation to the present wage slavery.

Because we state these facts, does this mean that our propaganda is doleful or pessimistic? No, it means that we realise that the economic laws running through society, not a few abstract “revolutionary” measures will determine what kind of a world will emerge following this conflict.

 Failing the advent of socialism it will be a world where the capitalist class will be still in control, where the struggle for markets, jobs and existence will be even fiercer than in previous ages. It cannot be altered by a few ameliorative laws passed in Parliament which can modify or remedy a few glaring anomalies, but so far as the general trend of events is concerned the politicians are helpless and hapless. Their political somersaults show only too clearly how incapable our masters are of discerning the future, even from day to day.

We cannot do that either, but we can and have shown that so long as wealth is produced for profit, certain evils must exist. We have shown that reforms cannot alter the basis of society, but merely remedy some defects of capitalism, they have failed to deal with any major evil such as unemployment, poverty, slums, crises and wars. These were with us 150 years ago, and are still with us today. All the reforms and planning that are suggested will not alter that. 

Revolutionary Parliamentarism, the Road to Socialism

 

Our objective is the capturing of the powers of the state. parties are the product of the class struggle. In a class-free society which has rid itself of the remnants of class interests and ideology, there will be no political parties. They will be unnecessary. But we live in a class-divided world and to protect and promote the interests of the exploited class, a socialist party is required.

Real democratic practice demands that every member of an organisation shall participate actively in the conduct of the movement. We need, therefore, to reverse the present situation,  of leaders and officials being in the forefront. If one person can sway working people in one direction, another can just as easily move them in the opposite direction. We desire men and women to think for themselves.

We in the Socialist Party call on all socialists to fight the political fight on the straight ticket of revolutionary socialism. The reformist programme, never truly socialist, can be nothing but capitalist programme to-day. The Labour Party is saturated with capitalist ideas without any vision of emancipation from the rulership of the capitalist class. 

We in the World Socialist Movement fight on principles which penetrate to the foundations of society in all lands: the abolition of the private ownership of the land and means of production. We seek to unite groups upon the principles of Marxism comprising a complete recognition of the class struggle, the materialistic conception of history, and the labour theory of value and surplus value; that all education be in harmony with these principles and conducted uncompromisingly against capitalism and all of its institutions that prop up, apologise for, and buttress in any manner the present system. A revolutionary political party embraces the unceasing open struggle against exploitation in all of its forms whether they are frankly capitalist enterprises or cloaked as municipal or government ownership.  Our attitude toward organisation will be to endeavour to direct fellow workers into the channels of revolutionary political action.

On the issue of parliamentarism we believe that all the attacks that have been made against parliamentarism today, and all the criticism that has been directed against it, referred to capitalist parliamentarism and not revolutionary parliamentarism. It is true that many representatives of the socialist movement who have entered parliament have become traitors. But that is not sufficient reason to condemn any activity at all within parliamentary institutions. It is senseless to claim that we must remain outside an institution simply because certain politicians failed to promote people's power inside it. We do not remain outside the trades unions because, although its members belong to the working class, the ideology unions express is, in the main, capitalist.

The question is not one of keeping ourselves pure, but of taking the revolutionary fight into the enemy’s camp. Many arguments have been brought forward of the propagandist and agitational value parliamentarism Many arguments have been brought forward which deal with the propagandist and agitational values of parliamentarism. No important struggle of the workers against the ruling class can take place outside parliament without having its echo resound inside parliament. We must fight inside parliament as revolutionaries. Parliamentarism is not an end but a means.

The point is not that capitalism is collapsing or failed to deliver the goods, as all sorts of planners have wrongly argued. It is rather that, for all its technical successes, unemployment, malnutrition and poverty have remained in evidence and a realisation that capitalism can produce wealth in great quantities but leaves untouched the widespread distress amongst the population. Wealth is produced fairly easily but often is destroyed because the markets are incapable of absorbing such quantities. Millions live in want, suffer from malnutrition, and exist in unhealthy hovels, despite the massive wealth-producing machinery of the present day, because in this society the object is not to produce solely for use but for profit.

The more the economic crisis of capitalism deepens the more all the organisations of the working class assume a political rôle and are compelled to coalesce together to avoid defeat. There is no union which can fight a winning battle on its own to-day. The working class of to-day has either consciously brought its organisations together in common defence and fearlessly face the fight for power or seen working people crushed to ever lower living standards. While the capitalists worry whether they have reached a recession, the Socialist Party is wondering how deep are the workers in their despondency.

Progress is nevertheless being made in the gradual enlightenment of members of our class, and in the growing political knowledge of the worker. Capitalism will throw up such obvious contradictions that the limited nature of its present-day aims will strike the workers as a strange contrast to the task that they will have to tackle, the establishment of socialism. This is our message to the workers; study the socialist case, and understand why we stand for social revolution and not reform. Knowing these things you will realise that only through the workers possessing socialist understanding and gaining political control can socialism be established and human progress guaranteed.

,New Times

 

non sibi sed omnibus (not for one but for all).

Few can deny that the world today is in an unstable condition of chaos. That is reflected in the widespread turmoil and conflict throughout the world. That the common cause of all the social problems, the Socialist Party has repeatedly asserted, is the capitalist system that does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority. It is a social system in which society is divided into two classes—a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority—the wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution. The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of life in order to survive. Under economic tyranny, the workers as a class are robbed of the social wealth that they produce.

Capitalists never weary of declaring this economic dictatorship the "best of all possible systems." Yet, today, after decades of wars on poverty, civil rights campaigns, government legislation and regulation, and a host of other reform efforts, capitalism still presents an obscene social picture.

Millions who need and want jobs are still unemployed despite the claims that unemployment is at historically "low" rates.

 Millions more are underemployed, working only part-time or in temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work.

Millions work without conditions of contract and deemed to be self-employed.

Millions aren't earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and their families despite the fact that they are working.  Real wages, fall,  and relative poverty rises. 

The malignant evils of nationalism, racism and bigotry are on the upsurge. The educational system is a mess and getting worse. The health care system still fails to meet the needs of the people. The infrastructure continues to crumble. Widespread pollution of our environment continues. Crime and corruption are pervasive at every level. Slums abound and homeless men, women and children roam the streets.

All of those problems persist to plague working people.

Unending reforms to solve or even alleviate these social ills have brought instead misery and suffering to millions of workers and their families. The capitalists express callous disregard and indifference towards the pain of the working-class victims. New inventions and technological innovation instead of bringing freedom from toil produce only insecurity.  

Our planet and its people are on the edge of obliteration through pollution, global warming, nuclear war, not to mention international and civil wars, a global food and energy crisis and ongoing poverty, whilst the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, yet too many believe that it’s worthwhile to come up with a put forward but futile adjustments to the condition of things.

Socialism is based on an underpinning knowledge of the nature of capitalistic society, a practical analysis of the reasons why we are on the edge of obliteration and reasonable and well-argued solutions to crises we face. If you don’t want to face up to the hard miles that are needed to help the working class break free from their ideological blinkers, that’s one’s choice. But to impugn those of us who are working hard to take on that difficult task makes our critics complicit in the crisis that we face.

If we don’t (you included) start acting to change the economic system that has produced the crisis, then we may as well bid goodbye to our futures and our children and our children’s children’s lives.

The fact that you have visited this blog indicates that you have an interest in being part of the solution. We need active people like you to join us in the struggle, why not be part of that work, rather than criticise us?

The Socialist Party  emphatic condemns the insanity of the capitalist system. It is now time for our society to be rid of the host of preventable and solvable economic, political and social ills. The capitalist system of private ownership of production for the profit of a few is now redundant and outmoded and must be replaced by a new social order. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. In short, it must be genuine socialism.

 

Accordingly, the Socialist Party calls upon the workers to rally under its banner for the purpose of advocating revolutionary change and building class consciousness among fellow workers.