In the class war, the battle is now

The battle in which we are fighting for survival on this planet. It is a political struggle against the plutocrats and oligarchs. Yet, still, many of us do not see the desperate and dangerous jeopardy we are faced by this economic system. The Socialist Party, instead, seeks and strives for a people and planet friendly production system. We need to go beyond capitalism the planet itself become uninhabitable for many humans. We hope that the many mounting crises of global warming will bring a new realisation that we require system change and see where the real battle lies.

Capitalism heaps misery upon misery upon backs of the toiling working people. For countless millions of human beings it is exploitation and oppression. Everywhere there is chaos and suffering and the capitalist rulers propose futile remedies but there is no way out by dead-end paths. Wars forever looms and there is impending environmental destruction. The working man or woman who tries to find a way clear through the maze and hardships of present-day conditions is faced with a hard task. On every side is distress, confusion and uncertainty. The workers are beaten down, because they are divided and because they are misled by sham policies of their mis-leaders. Capitalism can only maintain itself by driving down the workers, by harder and harder exploitation. Longer hours, lower wages, misery and war—these are the offerings of capitalism. Every blow that falls upon the workers points towards socialism. If the workers in this country do not awaken in time to the issue before them a terrible fate awaits all. It will mean a blind and helpless struggle, anarchic violence and destruction, wild outbursts of anger and suppression. Working people desire a new world. They want a world free of war, free of inequality, free of want. They want a world free of the rule of the few over the many. Our first duty is to extend a brotherly hand to the oppressed peoples everywhere. In the midst of unparalleled opportunities to achieve plenty for all, millions are unemployed.

In a wage-slave society it is important that the system shall appear to have the sanction of the slaves themselves. To this end all education and media is directed. The majority of information is provided for by the master-class an by this means acquiescence has been secured. Socialism, a post-capitalist system in which the state has disappeared and the affairs of society is no longer focused on the private interest of a few, requires common ownership of the means of production and the democratic decision making on how we produce, and what we produce.

Capitalism cannot be fundamentally reformed and attempts to reform it lead to a form of state-capitalism, not socialism. We don’t think that the main social and economic problems we face can be overcome in a lasting way within capitalism. We’ll need to establish a free communal society that’s not governed by the economic laws that govern capitalism. For instance, to succeed with capitalism, producers are forced to maximise production and minimise costs, and this is the main cause of inequality, poverty, unemployment etc.

The Socialist Party is not trying to lead the working class, who must form their own organisations, and whose emancipation must be their own act. But we have seen that spontaneous actions alone are insufficient to usher in a new society. There is also an ideological struggle to be waged in addition to the class struggle along with the class war, there is the battle of ideas. The Socialist Party is guided by the interests of working people all around the world who are striving to freely develop their own humanity. We have no interests separate and apart from theirs. The Socialist Party stands for a new society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle. We have come together as a political party because we believe that organisation is needed to transform of this world by promoting and advancing socialist ideas. This aim cannot be fulfilled by individuals working separately. The creation of a new society requires much more than democratic decision-making. If the economic laws of capitalism remain in control of our lives, we can decide to eliminate unemployment, produce for need instead of for profit, and so on, but we won’t be able to successfully implement what we decide. 

We need a clear understanding of the goals and what exactly must be changed in order to achieve them. The driving force of capitalism is the maximum accumulation of capital. This is achieved by forcing people to work for a living and extracting the maximum possible labour from workers while paying them the minimum possible. That’s exploitation; and because the goal is to expand abstract wealth without limit, it’s capitalist exploitation. It’s true that some people get rich off the backs of others as a result, but that’s not what drives the system; capitalist companies are forced to operate in this way in order to be competitive. So a focus on greedy capitalists loses sight of the underlying problem, the drive to expand abstract wealth without limit. We have to overcome this drive­­––and the economic laws that force capitalists to operate in this way––in order to have a society in which we produce directly to satisfy human needs.