One of our election
campaign team has endeavoured to interest the media (as yet to no avail) with
this message:
There is no national solution to the problems that we face
at this election. Even the politicians competing for your vote admit that there
are global worldwide forces working against them.
We can either address the global causes of our problems or
we can pretend they do not exist and make promises we cannot keep. All
candidates except the socialist candidate are offering to continue with the existing
state of affairs in which 1% of the population owns more wealth than the other
99%.
The earth and its resources are owned by a very small
minority. For example the richest 92 people own more wealth than half the
population. Wealth is produced for sale on the world market with a view to
making a profit for the tiny minority.
These are the global forces working against us and require
our attention.
The socialist candidate is an elected delegate of the World
Socialist Movement, he is not a leader and he makes no promises to solve the
problems caused by capitalism.
The World Socialist Movement advocates a democratic
revolution to take into common ownership the earth’s resources and to organise
the production of goods and services to meet human needs instead of the needs
of profit
Vin Maratty,
Election Agent for
The Socialist Party (GB)
Easington
Constituency
Here's a recording of
discussion on immigration on BBC Radio
Oxford at which our candidate, Kevin
Parkin, took part:
Kevin managed to bring
out well that socialists consider themselves "citizens of the world"
and not, like the other candidates, Brits wanting to control "our"
borders and keep out immigrant benefit "scroungers". Bit annoying
that the presenter kept on saying that "immigration" was a big issue when
it's not really, only what the media are telling people to think is, so opening
the way for UKIP whose representative caught the ball and ran with it.
We can only sow the
seeds of the socialist idea, we cannot force them to sprout and bloom but we do
trust that eventually the principles of socialism will germinate and grow
On 7 May, you will have your occasional ration of democracy.
It's all very well having a vote—but are you normally given any real choice?
Let's face it, if it wasn't for the political party’s name on the election leaflet,
could you tell which party was which? It's tempting—in the absence of any real
alternative—to get drawn into the phoney war that is political debate today.
Whether Labour or Tory, SNP or UKIP, they all spout the same promises. But
it all amounts to the same thing—they offer no alternative to the present way
of running society. Do you really think who wins an election makes any
difference to how you live? And do politicians (whether left-wing, nationalist
or right-wing) actually have much real power anyway? OK, they get to open
supermarkets and factories, but it's capitalism and the market system which
closes them down.
Do any of the political parties address any of the real
issues:
Why is there world hunger in a world of food surpluses?
Why are there unemployed nurses, alongside closed-down
hospitals and waiting lists?
Why are there homeless people in the streets and empty
houses with "for sale" signs?
Why do some people get stressed working long hours while
others get stressed from the boredom of unemployment?
The press and television are screaming at us about the
importance of this general election. It's all nonsense of course. The day after
the election we will find that it is business as usual. Men and women of the
working class will return to the office, the factory or the hospital where we
work for a wage or a salary. That is those of us "lucky" enough to
have a job. The same round of work, insecurity and poverty will continue
irrespective of the make-up of the new parliament.
If you don't like present-day society, if you are fed up
with the way you are forced to live, if you think the root cause of most social
problems is the market system, then your ideas echo closely with ours. We are
not promising to deliver socialism to you. We are not putting ourselves forward
as leaders. This new society can only be achieved if you join together to
strive for it. If you want it, then it is something you have to bring about
yourselves. The Socialist Party are not after your unthinking support. We do not
want your vote unless you understand that the present system of
society—capitalism—cannot be made to run in the interests of the majority. We
are taking this opportunity to reach out to as many workers as possible. We We
want you to consider an alternative society to the present production for
profit rat-race that is capitalism. We want you to look at present-day society
and ask yourself: does it operate in your and your family's interest?
This society operates against the majority and only favours
a tiny handful of wealthy owners. The whole purpose of producing anything today
is to sell it and make a profit. No profit, then no production. That is why so
many live in sub-standard housing while building workers are unemployed. That
is why people throughout the world are undernourished while farmers are paid
not to grow food. Production for profit means that the world is armed to the
teeth. Billions are spent on armies, the whole purpose of which is to protect
markets, trade routes and sources of raw material. Wars are inevitable under
capitalism. Capitalism is based on competition, and the logical outcome of
global competition is military violence.
At this election you have a wide choices of parties.
Conservative, Lib Dem, Labour, various Nationalist, Green, even some calling
themselves "socialists". There are many differences in their
policies, but what have they all got in common? They want your vote on the
basis that they could run the system better or more fairly. Despite their
differences they all want to run the buying and selling system of capitalism,
and this applies as much to the "left" as the out and out supporters
of capitalism. This system is based on the production of all wealth by the
working class for a wage or salary. The owning class live off the unpaid labour
of the working class. To talk of "fairer" capitalism is like talking
of "fairer" robbery. Capitalism must go and be replaced by a new
society based on common ownership and democratic control. There must be
production to meet people's needs instead of production for profit. We must all
be free to take what we require to satisfy our needs, without being rationed as
today by the size of our wage packet. This new society can only
come about when a majority want it and are determined to get it. Nobody can
bring it about for you. So it's up to you, not the politicians. The future is
in your hands, not theirs.
We campaign to get
workers to say no to a society based on profit, privilege and competition and
yes to a society based on equality, cooperation and meeting people's needs.
Where we are not standing any candidates our message to those who want
socialism is to use their first vote to vote against all the various reformist
and pro-capitalist candidates by writing the word "SOCIALISM" across
the ballot paper.
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