Don’t be fooled again, Let’s have the real thing

There is no easy road to socialism. No short-cuts. Socialism offers the only road to the society of abundance, peace and well-being that is obviously within our capacity to construct. 
 
We live in an economic system which relies on making a profit. If it can’t make a profit, it shuts down production. Enough food can be produced to feed the entire world. But if it cannot be sold for a profit, the capitalist destroys it or stores it in mountains, or pays farmers not to grow it. Our environment is being destroyed, polluted, and laid to waste in the interest of profits.

Socialists have a saying which is a warning — either socialism or barbarism. It will be your generation that will have to destroy the profit system of capitalism and build a democratic socialist society, or we will descend into barbarism. We will either unite in solidarity with each other, and take control of our destiny or we shall risk the destruction of civilisation. If we are united, and know who the real enemy is, we cannot lose. The World Socialist Party extends its hand of solidarity to the rest of humanity.

Many people in America today are dissatisfied with both the Republican and Democratic parties. Some hope of getting some reform from the Democratic Party. It is argued that as long as workers consider the Republican Party to be the stronghold of the right and reaction, then the Democratic Party can be the vehicle for winning concessions for labor. To avoid being isolated and accusations of sectarianism from fellow-workers it is necessary to get into the Democratic Party. It is, of course, flawed specious argument. You have class-collaborationist politics in all its nakedness. The magic word “unity” is not the unity of the working class in struggle against the capitalist class. It is a cry for “peace” where there is no peace in the class war. This has been proved over and over again.

It would be futile to deny that the “lesser-evil” theory is alluring and easily deceptive. The realists of the “lesser evil” argue that an independent socialist campaign is ineffectual because the voters are not ready to support it. They want to enjoy the harvest without tilling the soil and sowing the seeds for a new politics. Our job is to hasten this process, our job is to break with the idea of a ’lesser’ evil. 

But others would like to see a complete shake-up and fresh alignment on the political scene. Deep disenchantment with the Democratic Party has created great interest in alternatives to the major capitalist parties. While under certain circumstances a boycott of a phony electoral system is justified, this does not hold to be always true. The foolish thing is to stay home and let the dishonest politicians monopolise the ballot. Sincere men and women should seek exert their independent political power at every opportunity. There is not and cannot be any political party which genuinely fights for the people other than one which is clearly and unambiguously a socialist party. The interests of the working class are completely and consistently in opposition to those of the capitalists.