People tend to accept as true the things they hear over and over again. But repetition doesn’t make things true. Because the truth and the facts often contradict “common knowledge”, socialists have to show that “common knowledge” is wrong. That takes more words than just accepting the status quo.

The World Socialist Movement couldn’t run capitalism any better than the other parties and so hasn’t tried to get elected to run capitalism (even with so-called “socialistic” changes). Socialism will not come into existence by making incremental changes to capitalism until it one day becomes socialism, so the World Socialist Movement doesn’t get side tracked into attempts to improve capitalism.

The Companion Parties of Socialism base their arguments, objects, and principles upon a scientific understanding of society, not upon the latest trend or opinion poll or upon some utopian dream.

Also, the World Socialist Movement is working for its own demise. In socialism there will be no need for any political parties.

For a fuller answer to this question, see Why the World Socialist Movement is different from other groups on the World Socialist Movement web site.

Organizations which claim to want socialism, and which also promote reforms, ignore socialism and spend their time working for reforms.

The Companion Parties of Socialism, in the World Socialist Movement, are socialist parties. They promote socialism because that is all a socialist party can promote.

If you find a “socialist” party promoting “social activism,” you’ll have found a non-socialist party.

In the World Socialist Movement, every individual member has an equal say, and nobody tells the rest what to do. Decisions are made democratically by the whole membership, and by representatives or delegates. If the membership doesn’t like the decisions of those it elects, those administrators can be removed from office and their decisions overridden.

Only when people have real, democratic control over their own lives will they have the freedom that is socialism.

a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of society as a whole.

• If there are wages and salaries, it is not socialism.
• State ownership is not socialism.
• Social programs are not socialism.
• Socialism means democracy at all levels of society, including the workplace.
• Socialism means a wageless, moneyless society.
• Socialism means voluntary labour.
• Socialism means free access to the goods produced by society.

With this understanding of socialism, the Socialist Party of Great Britain noted in its journal, the Socialist Standard (August 1918, page 87), that the supposedly “Marxist” Russian Revolution of November 1917 was not socialist.

Once the vast majority makes the decision in favour of socialism, then it will elect socialist representatives or delegates to prove its majority, and to serve as a temporary focal point to administer the elimination of capitalism and the creation of socialism. But it won’t be, and could not be, the elected representatives or delegates who create socialism, it will be the people of the world as a whole.

The vast majority of the people of the world are working class, so socialism will be established by the working class. It also means that ordinary people will have to do all of the work required. The capitalist class isn’t going to do it, and professional socialists (whatever they might be) aren’t going to do it. The only way to establish socialism is for people to work for it.

Socialism will be a world without countries. Borders are just artificial barriers that belong to a past and present that is best left behind.

The only thing socialists can say now, about administration, is that socialism is only socialism if it is democratic.

Human behaviour reflects society. In a society such as capitalism, people’s needs are not met and reasonable people feel insecure. People tend to acquire and hoard goods because possession provides some security. People have a tendency to distrust others because the world is organized in such a dog-eat-dog manner.

Under capitalism, and the previous systems, people have good reason to worry about tomorrow—they can lose their jobs, or be injured, or grow old, and need a cushion of wealth to fall back on. In a socialist society, everyone is entitled to have their needs met. They won’t be kicked out onto the street, or forced to give up the pleasures of life. There will be no poverty. The “cushion” will be cooperatively provided by all.

• Work is part of human life. Today rich people work when they don’t have to, because they, like many of the rest of us, enjoy working. Many people work harder at their hobbies than they do at work. It is the nature of employment that makes it “work” instead of pleasure. Work needn’t be a part of the day that we wish would end.
• People enjoy creating useful things. Instead of producing junk that people only buy because they can’t afford quality, every worker will be able to produce quality products for themselves and others, and know that other workers will be doing the same.
• The workday will be shortened. Many jobs (such as those dealing with money, or war, or poverty) will not be required at all. The people doing those jobs now, will perform work that actually produces goods and services that people want.
• People will gain respect for doing jobs that others might find unpleasant, or the unpleasant jobs might be shared around. Many of the unpleasant jobs could be made more pleasant and some could be done away with.

Under capitalism, there is a very large industry devoted to creating needs. It tells us we need toilet seat warmers, nifty gadgets (that don’t work), new this and that, and attempts to convince us that our human worth is dependent upon our material wealth. Capitalism requires consumption, whether it improves our lives or not, and drives us to consume up to, and past, our ability to pay for that consumption. On top of that, goods are not built to last because that would interfere with profit making.

Socialism will be a very different society. Goods will be built to last. The buy-buy-buy advertising industry will no longer exist. People may decide that they have better things to do rather than produce goods that are widely seen to be extravagances. And people may discover that more material goods don’t make them happier.

Society already has the knowledge and technology to satisfy all of our basic needs sustainably. There is every reason to believe that socialist society will supply every human being with all the material goods that they need for a comfortable, pleasant, enjoyable life.

The solution is to change the economic system. In a socialist world, there will be no profit. Production will be democratically decided. The human need for a livable eco-system will be considered as a normal part of all decision making.

Freedom must include allowing disagreement with the status quo and spreading unpopular ideas, but freedom does not include hurting people or destroying the common wealth of humanity. Exactly what methods a future socialist society will democratically choose to use, if people need to protect themselves, are beyond the ability of the World Socialist Movement to predict, but one can expect that those methods will be more humane and less dictated by blanket policies than the methods used today.

An example of a major problem: even under capitalism, natural disasters generate tremendous volunteer effort and people donate huge amounts of goods, services, and money to help those who are suffering. It is not conceivable that this human response will decrease in socialism. Without the profit constraints of capitalism, such major problems can be dealt with quickly and satisfactorily.