The Socialist Party. Why it Exists

Socialism is the theory of the revolution and is not a complicated doctrine yet it is not widely understood. The basic principles of socialist society are diametrically opposite to those of capitalist society in which we live. Socialism stands for social or community property. Capitalism stands for private property. Socialism is a society without classes. Capitalism is divided into classes—the class owning property and the propertyless working class. We can easily understand, therefore, why the great majority of employers, financiers, and the like are opposed to socialism. Their very existence as the beneficiaries of rent, interest and profit is at stake. They bitterly fight every movement associated with the struggle for socialism.

The goal of the socialist revolution is the abolition of capitalist private property, the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the social ownership of the means of production and their planned use for the benefit of the whole of society, leading to abundance. Working people will be guaranteed security, democracy, equality and peace only when our country is run on an entirely different basis than it is now; only when a socialist system replaces the present capitalist one. The socialist system would mean that working people would collectively own the factories and farms and they would plan production and distribution for their own needs. In order to have socialism, workers have to be in control. Workers must unite with workers in all countries to win peace and socialism.

Socialism is that form of society in which there is no such thing as a propertyless class, but in which the whole community has become a working community owning the means of production—the land, factories, communications, transport and all the means whereby wealth is created and distributed to the community.

The Socialist Party does not put forward this goal as a utopia, as a mere vision of what would ideally satisfy people’s needs and make them all happy, but as a practical objective. The socialist society is now a necessity. Socialism means the ending of exploitation of man by man, a society without class antagonisms, in which the people themselves control their means of life and use them for their own happiness. Socialism will only be gained by waging the working-class struggle. Ideas and culture cannot be produced to order; they must achieve their own growth in the minds and hearts of men and women. Nurtured and allowed to grow, they will express the experiences and aspirations of the people. Socialism is not inevitable. What has been termed its ‘inevitability’ consists in this, that only through socialism can human progress continue. But there is not and cannot be any absolute deterministic inevitability in human affairs, since mankind makes its own history and chooses what to do. What is determined is not its choice, but the conditions under which it is made, and the consequences when it is made. The meaning of scientific socialism is not that it tells us that socialism will come regardless, but that it explains to us where we stand, what course lies open to us, what is the road to life. 

The Socialist Party is convinced of the senselessness of capitalism which shows what a wasteful and oppressive system it is. What we aim to do is to give people something to think about and help them deepen their grasp of socialist ideas. We aim to encourage people to enter the hurly-burly of ideological struggle the world of working-class politics. We hope we can help those with doubts to formulate more precisely their own thinking. There must be constant public advocacy of socialism.