The
Socialist Party holds that the working class must come to recognise
that the competitive capitalist system of private ownership of the
land and means of production, means of transportation, mines, etc.,
is in fact the basic cause of the present chaotic state of world. The
capitalist cause must be abolished. Society must be reorganised on
socialist lines, replacing private (and state) ownership and
competition with common ownership and cooperation. We must make the
factories, mines, transport, and all the other means of social
production the common property of society so that we can produce
things to satisfy human needs instead of for the profit of the few.
Only then can the competitive, war-breeding struggle for
international markets, spheres of influence and sources of raw
materials be ended. Only then will the nations of the world have an
economic foundation for lasting cooperation, harmony and peace.
In the name of sanity we urge you to study our case for socialism,
and to help us bring to birth a society in which all of humanity can
live in peace and freedom.
For
decades, capitalism has been, and remains, an economic system in
which the enormous wealth produced by the labour of its people
constitutes a problem. Not because it can't be used, but because it
can't be sold at a profit. And if the private owners of the tools of
social production can't make a profit, they close up shop, no matter
how pressing the needs of the nation may be. By what right do the
owners of industry choke off production when their profit margins
grow too slim? Only by virtue of the private ownership that gives
them autocratic control over the nation's economy, an autocratic
control which is subjecting the majority of people to a crushing
burden.
Piecemeal
solutions and temporary measures won't do. Not only do they leave the
cause of our problems intact, they fail to meet our most pressing
basic needs. Our solution must be as broad and far-reaching as the
problems we face. The working-class solution to the economic crisis
must rest on scrapping the entire economic system. Not sometime in
the distant future, but now, when our needs must be met. We must
build a movement that will extend democracy to control of the
economy; that will replace the profit motive with planned production
for use; that will eliminate the class monopoly on the means of life.
Workers
must rely on their own strength; no one else will save them. We must
form new organisations which, unlike the present labour bureaucracies
which plead the case of the employers, will base themselves squarely
on working-class interests. We must build a movement that joins all
workers in unity. Its goal must be nothing short of a total challenge
to the rule of capital and the construction of a new society. We
must form a political party based on our class interests. No faction
or variation of the capitalist parties will represent workers'
interests. For too long workers have relied on capitalist politicians
to be their spokespersons. A political party that expresses our
collective class interests aimed at a socialist goal- these are
weapons that have only begun to be built. The job of educating and
organising is immense. But any postponement of the task is a
postponement of the only solution we have -- a reconstruction of
capitalist society along socialist lines. There are no other ways out
and no one but the workers to do the job
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