I have been asked to say a few words about the WSP and what it stands for. Due to the great strides during the past hundred years, in science and technology, in the efforts by the capitalist class to increase their profits and to win new markets, the material conditions in 1978 are now ripe for the establishment of Socialism. The very evolution of capitalism itself has solved the problem of production.
Nobody starves today because enough cannot be produced. An outstanding illustration is the 1942 issue of the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture. This report was titled “Farmers in a Changing World.” What a significant title that is! It showed the state of Texas alone, using the latest farm equipment and the latest information on agronomy, could produce all the food needed to feed the entire United States; and, further, the United States could feed the entire globe, under the same conditions.
The urgent need today is a world fit for human beings. This is not only possible, practical and necessary today, here and now; the evidence is overwhelming that no longer can capitalism be reformed or administered in the interest of the working class, or of society, for that matter — (and, just as an afterthought, we owe a great debt of gratitude to capitalism. You could not “skip” capitalism. Capitalism is an important stage in social evolution).
Two items to illustrate this. First, in spite of all the Government experts, authorities, Congressional measures, and scholarly advisors, with their profound plans for eliminating inflation and pollution, international relations, poverty, and other problems, ad infinitum — these problems still remain.
The second item I want to mention is this. All the dedicated efforts of liberals, radicals, progressives, not to forget the so-called “socialists,” with their dilute deluge of measures of reforms to ease the lot of the poor victims of capitalism are of no avail. Especially futile are the measures advocated by the “practical,” “non-sectarian,” “in-the-meantime” socialists, with all their programs. Their plans do not alter the situation in any way, nor do they rouse socialist understanding. The World Socialist Movement, parties and groups scattered in many countries, maintain that neither they nor [any other] leaders can emancipate the working class. This is the task of the vast majority of class-conscious workers, using their political power to introduce a socialist society. And the signs of the times are encouraging in this respect.
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