Join the party for the millions – not the millionaires


    Lenny Shail

    Cuts of £155 billion to services and benefits for the elderly, the young, workers and families are being implemented. Yet the wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain rose by more than that in the last three years alone!

    Capitalism has opened up the possibility of living standards beyond the wildest dreams of our grandparents and great-grandparents.

    Yet the potential of millions of people lies squandered in the dole and food bank queues up and down the country, and/or exploited in slave-like or zero-hour contracts.

    Clearly capitalism has long since passed its ‘best before’ date. This brutal parasitic system cannot meet the basic needs of the vast majority of people, in Britain or internationally. More and more people are drawing similar conclusions across the world.

    Capitalism is a system based on making profit for the rich. Not only is the working class exploited by the 1% – we actually create their wealth.

    Socialists believe that within capitalism lies the seeds of a new way of organising and running society – a socialist society.

    The enormous wealth that exists, currently in the hands of the capitalist class, is collectively produced by the working class.

    It could be used to meet the needs of the billions on the planet – eradicating unemployment, hunger and poverty.

    Mass action

    But to do so requires taking the assets, wealth and means of creating more wealth out of the hands of the capitalist class and into democratic public control and management.

    That way, we can begin to democratically plan and organise society on the basis of everyone’s needs, not what fills the back pocket of the top 1%.

    But achieving this requires mass working class action that is organised with a strategy and leadership.

    Socialist Party members are some of the most militant working class people – workers, youth, unemployed, disabled people or retired.

    In our day-to-day campaigning, the party is dedicated to fighting for every possible improvement for ordinary people.

    Across England and Wales, the Socialist Party organises on estates to fight the bedroom tax, defend the NHS, to save jobs and services; in trade unions, schools and universities; on protests, strikes, elections and demonstrations.

    Our members are at the centre of many struggles, battles and campaigns taking place locally and nationally.

    But we always link this to the need to fundamentally change society along socialist lines internationally. That is why the Socialist Party is part of the Committee for a Workers’ International.

    We want working class fighters and campaigners to join the Socialist Party to help with the urgent task of defeating austerity and the struggle for a socialist world. That includes you!

    Phone 020 8988 8777, go to socialistparty.org.uk/join or find out about Socialist Party meetings near you at socialistparty.org.uk/articles/17104