We say that this class struggle must \ufb01nally end in the downfall of the capitalist system, and the building of the cooperative commonwealth. We say that if the cooperative commonwealth is to be brought about it is a social revolution.\u00a0There is a simple way to get hold of\u00a0the machinery of government. It is by voting for the party of the working class, that is, the World Socialist Movement. We do not mean to say that the election of one World Socialist Party candidate or of a hundred World Socialist Party delegates\u00a0will in itself bring any great measure of freedom and happiness to the working class. As long as the capitalists control any part of the machinery of government, they will use that part to nullify any measure that may be passed in the interest of the working class. Our constant aim, therefore, is to organise the workers into a party that shall \ufb01nally dislodge the capitalists from power once for all, and establish the cooperative commonwealth.\u00a0The organisation of the Socialist Party may be grown into the organisation of the cooperative commonwealth, and it is worth the best efforts of every worker to make this organisation as effective as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aim of the\u00a0World Socialist Movement\u00a0(WSM) is building\u00a0by democratic means\u00a0a cooperative commonwealth in which the supplying of human needs and enrichment of human life shall be the primary purpose of our society.\u00a0The\u00a0WSM reaffirms its belief that our society must build a new relationship among mankind\u00a0– a relationship based on mutual respect and on equality of opportunity. In such a society everyone will have a sense of worth and belonging and will be enabled to develop his\u00a0or her abilities\u00a0to the full.\u00a0With the creation of the\u00a0cooperative commonwealth regulating production\u00a0and\u00a0distribution\u00a0to satisfy peoples\u00a0needs and not the making of profits\u00a0will be the overriding principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This social and economic transformation can\u00a0only\u00a0be brought about by political action, through the election of a\u00a0political party\u00a0inspired by the ideal of a cooperative commonwealth and supported by a majority of the people. We do not believe in change by violence. We consider that both the other\u00a0parties\u00a0are the instruments of capitalist interests and cannot serve as agents of social reconstruction and that whatever the superficial differences between them, they are bound to carry on government in accordance with the dictates of the\u00a0Big\u00a0Business interests who finance them.\u00a0The\u00a0World Socialist Movement\u2019s purpose is\u00a0the capture of\u00a0political power in order to put an end to this capitalist domination of our lives.\u00a0World Socialist Parties\u00a0will not rest content until it has\u00a0helped\u00a0to\u00a0eradicate\u00a0capitalism\u00a0and\u00a0establish\u00a0the cooperative commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Socialist Movement\u2019s vision of a future cooperative commonwealth is rather too vague an\u00a0idea in\u00a0the minds of\u00a0many of our fellow workers\u00a0who, living\u00a0under present\u00a0society and\u00a0needing to\u00a0functioning\u00a0within it to survive,\u00a0require to\u00a0deal constantly with the\u00a0concrete\u00a0and the\u00a0immediate. They have neither time nor inclination for speculation, and our proclamation\u00a0“Vote the cooperative commonwealth” lacks\u00a0for them any\u00a0practicality. So far as they can see,\u00a0those who seek that world\u00a0commonwealth, are,\u00a0sadly, in a small\u00a0minority at the polls.\u00a0The future society comes only at the desire and with the consent of the proletariat.\u00a0We shall unite all our energies to destroy the present capitalist system and establish the cooperative commonwealth.\u00a0We are thus headed towards social harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transformation of modern civilisation into the cooperative commonwealth, involving the greatest change known at least to history, must necessarily result in a corresponding change in the content of mankind\u2019s nature.\u00a0That the ultra-selfish\u00a0individualist\u00a0engendered by competitive conditions will speedily disappear\u00a0in socialism we may fairly take for granted, just as we\u00a0see no reason to\u00a0expect\u00a0that the unselfish saint will become more numerous even under\u00a0socialism than he\u00a0or she\u00a0is at present.\u00a0It\u00a0is not the hearts of men\u00a0and women, but the conditions of society\u00a0that socialists intend to change. It is\u00a0the transformation of society\u00a0we seek and in doing so\u00a0we want rather enlightened selfishness than unselfishness. The class-conscious worker\u00a0full of the class war spirit\u00a0could hardly be described as an unselfish saint identifying one’s\u00a0own interest with that of\u00a0one\u2019s\u00a0class.\u00a0The reorganisation of society in a\u00a0socialist sense; we must lose no opportunity of proclaiming, does not require for its vindication men\u00a0and women as\u00a0paragons of\u00a0unselfish virtue.\u00a0It presupposes simply \u2013\u00a0an\u00a0ordinary\u00a0person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We want a cooperative commonwealth. Our part is to get control of political power, in order to complete the transition to a socialist society\u00a0peacefully and systematically. In whatever way socialism comes, we must have a majority of the people in favour of it.\u00a0Every socialist who spreads the case for socialism helps the campaign\u00a0and encourages others to vote for the socialist case, is doing his or her share to speed the day of the new commonwealth.\u00a0Socialism will the\u00a0ownership by\u00a0working people\u00a0in common of the instruments of production\u00a0and\u00a0that means a cooperative system of production and the extinction of the exploitation of the workers.\u00a0The abolition of the present system of production means\u00a0ending\u00a0production for sale\u00a0and instead\u00a0substituting\u00a0it with\u00a0production for use, the\u00a0social or cooperative production for the satisfaction of the wants of a commonwealth.\u00a0Such cooperative production for use is nothing less than socialist production. Production for sale can be overcome only by such a system. Socialist production is the only system of production possible when production for sale has become\u00a0redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our aim is a commonwealth without the State, without classes, in which the workers shall administer the means of production and distribution for the common benefit of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We say that this class struggle must \ufb01nally end in the downfall of the capitalist system, and the building of the cooperative commonwealth. We say that if the cooperative commonwealth is to be brought about it is a social revolution.\u00a0There is a simple way to get hold of\u00a0the machinery of government. It is by voting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3784,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions\/3784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}