Why Socialism?

Socialist Alliance stands for socialism — democratic ownership and management of society’s wealth.

Socialism is the only possible alternative to capitalism, the source of gross inequalities and environmental disasters around the world.

The decisions that most affect our lives can either be made as they are now – by corporate elites and the politicians who do their bidding – or they can be made through communities using their shared wealth, talents and power to forge their own future.

In a way, socialism is nothing new. From the time of the Roman slave revolts, people have struggled for the dream of a society based on the values of equality, freedom, generosity and solidarity.

But for thousands of years the dream could never become reality – society was too poor to provide a decent life for all.

That’s no longer the reality. We could readily meet everyone’s needs for food, housing, health, education, culture and recreation if the modern technologies, scientific knowledge, organisational know-how and sheer wealth that the giant corporations monopolise were brought under the control of all people.

Indeed, human labour is now so productive that we could achieve these goals at the same time as repairing the devastated natural environment, guaranteeing a good income for all and shortening the working week.

This last reform would provide the spare time for all human beings to develop their creative potential. We would be free to learn the skills of economic and social management – presently the property of an elite few.

The main roadblock to this potential future is the profit system itself. So long as giant corporations compete with one another to produce ever more output at ever decreasing cost, our lives will be hostage to their needs.

We will be told that everything that hinders the corporations (especially the Australian variety!) from prevailing in the global war for profits is bad.

The messages will never change – public is inefficient, disarmament is irresponsible and the main purpose of life is to “make it” and consume. In short, today’s dog-eat-dog existence is “natural” and capitalist competition the only practical form of social organisation.

Yet once the vital decisions in society are no longer made by a powerful parasitic few, people’s instincts for solidarity will be liberated and we will be free to plan the solutions to the most pressing problems.

How to start to close the widening gulf between rich and poor? How to end the Third World conditions in which Aboriginal people live? How to take rapid steps towards environmental sustainability?

In a socialist society we will tackle such issues through our elected democratic institutions – studying the options, hearing the debates, voting for the necessary plans of work and overseeing their implementation.

Increasingly, this culture of collective creativity and self-management of social wealth will become the rule, massively expanding people’s potential for development and fulfillment.

And at that point brutally primitive capitalism will have been placed where it already now belongs – in the dustbin of history.