Saturday, June 29 at
52 Clapham High Street,
London S
W4 7UN
52 Clapham High Street,
London S
W4 7UN
The
Socialist Party is an independent political organisation that has
neither allegiance to, nor sympathy with, any other political party
or group in this country. Our aim as socialism—a wage-free,
moneyless, class-free society based upon production for use in which each
member of society would contribute to the wealth of society in
accordance with mental or physical abilities and take from the wealth
of society in accordance with needs.
If you think about it for a
moment, you will agree that if it were possible to build such a
social system, the many problems that we face today under
capitalism—problems like poverty, insecurity, homelessness, crime
and war that arise inevitably out of the capitalist scheme of
production for profit would no longer exist. Socialism offers us an
escape from the evils that afflict our society today the feasibility
of the proposition merits sympathetic consideration.
No
doubt the “human nature” argument has already occurred to you:
“Human nature, being what it is, people could not live
co-operatively in a society where coercion ceased...the greedy would
take it all...the lazy would never work...” Most of us who are now
in the Socialist Party used the same argument ourselves when first
encountered socialists, before realising that what we termed “human
nature” was, in fact, human behaviour, something dependent upon
situations and circumstances, the social and economic environment,
not something unchangeable and unalterable.
Capitalism
today has developed the resources of society to a point where
abundance is possible and can provide plenty for everybody. We have
the technological potential of robots and automation. What is
necessary required is now only that a majority arm themselves with
the knowledge of what socialism involves and entails, and use the
power of the vote to consciously initiate social change. Socialism,
by its very nature, requires the conscious participation of the
majority from the outset. It cannot be delivered to you by saviours.
Fellow-workers,
the building up of a strong Socialist Party is indispensable for the
establishment of the cooperative commonwealth, an industrial
democracy. We appeal to all our fellow-workers who believe that
the emancipation of the working-class can only be obtained by the
combined action of the members of that class and consciously
recognise that the class-struggle can alone be the basis of such a
party; that we must disavow ourselves from all non-socialist parties
and politicians, to throw in your lot with us and help us in building
up a strong and healthy fighting party, organised along definite
class lines for the emancipation of the working class from
wage-slavery and from the capitalist society of which they are the
victims. Conscious of the correctness and the soundness of our
Declaration of Principles, we ask you to help us carry them into
action and to refuse longer to place leaders or vanguards above your
principles.
No comments:
Post a Comment