Socialism — The Hope of the World

Socialism can’t be built on the ruins of the existing society by a revolt of starving beggars in rags. It can only result from organised working people. The present strength of the Socialist Party counts for little. Its ability to build for the future is its true significance. We are not a party of patchwork reform, nor a party of sham revolutionary slogans, but are firmly rooted in a policy of education and organisation. For many long years the Socialist Party has appealed to fellow-workers to organise and take over the entire means of production and distribution. Books, pamphlets, leaflets and periodicals of all kinds we have freely circulated, with scant result. It is not a question of condemning capitalism; capitalism repeatedly condemns itself.

 The onus is on the Socialist Party of demonstrating in a way that can be understood that the theories it has so long expounded can be translated into a practical method of producing and distributing the wealth in such a way as to end for ever the exploitation of the many by the privileged few. Can we carry through a revolution that will take us out of capitalism into the new world of socialism? Yes, we say, we can do it. All we have to do is to organise and capture political power. If wages are abolished with the taking over of the industries, what form of organisation, for the purpose of distributing the necessities of life, do we propose should take its place? The industries are already in the hands of the workers, but the strength of the employers lies in the fact that they own, control and direct production. What the Socialist Party show is that we can carry on the distribution without feeding the voracious greed of these socially useless parasites, who are waiting at every turn to squeeze a profit out of us.

 The Socialist Party does not hide the fact that it is the consistent enemy of capitalism which aims to replace capitalism by socialism not only because it is possible to do so but because it is absolutely necessary to the maintenance and the progress and evolution of society.

We are convinced that if capitalism is allowed to continue, we will be plunged into barbarism. If humanity is to advance it must move on to socialism. Capitalism produces only when there is a profit for the owner of capital. When there is no profitable market for his product, the capitalist will not produce, no matter how great and urgent the need of the people for a secure decent living standard. What is worse is that the longer capitalism is allowed to exist, the greater becomes the inequality-social, economic and political and the lesser becomes the prosperity of the people. Capitalism reeks more and more. of the slave-market. Every day it lives it brings us a step closer to barbarism.

Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and their democratic organisation and running by all the people in a society free of classes, class divisions and class rule. Socialism is the democratic organisation of production for use, of production for abundance, of plenty for all, without the exploitation of man by man. Socialism is the union of the whole world allocating the natural resources and wealth of our planet. Can this great ideal ever be accomplished? It can and must be if we are to maintain and advance society to new levels. Can socialism organise production and distribution in the interests of society as a whole, providing abundance, security and freedom for all? Yes, socialism and only socialism  With socialism, production is organised for use, not for profit.

Where there is abundance for all, the nightmare of insecurity vanishes. There are jobs for all, and they are no longer dependent on whether or not the employer can make a fat profit in a fat market. There is not only a high standard of living, but every industrial advance is followed by a rising standard of living and a declining working-day. Where there is abundance for all, and where no one has the economic power to exploit and oppress others, the basis of classes, class division and class conflict vanishes. The basis of a ruling state, of a government of violence and repression, with its prisons and police and army, also disappears. Police and thieves, prisons and violence are inevitable where there is economic inequality, or abundance for the few and scarcity for the many. They disappear when there is plenty for all, therefore economic equality, therefore social equality. Where there is abundance for all, and where all have equal access to the fruits of the soil and the wealth of industry, the mad conflicts and wars between nations and peoples vanish. With them vanishes the irrepressible urge that exists under capitalism for one nation to subject others, to rob it of its rights, to exploit and oppress it, to provoke and maintain the hideous national and racial antagonisms that cling to capitalism like an ineradicable bloodstain.

Where mankind is free of economic exploitation, of economic inequality, of economic insecurity, he is free for the first time to develop as a human being among his fellow human beings, free to contribute to the unfolding of a new culture and a new human race, which recalls the capitalistic war of all against all only as a sordid and horrible memory of mankind's ugly childhood. To the achievement of this noble ideal which is a burning necessity, socialism addresses itself firstly and above all to the members of the working class. 

History has given them the lofty task, of making a reality out of the ideal. They are the most numerous class in present-day society. They are the best organized and best trained class, and the most democratically representative of all the people ruled by capitalism. But not only that. The conditions of existence to which capitalism condemns them, forces them, day in and day out, to fight against these very conditions. This fight cannot be conducted consistently nor, in the long run, successfully, unless it becomes a conscious fight against the whole rotten foundation of capitalism and for laying the foundation of socialism.