42. The Current Political Situation and the Goals of Social Democracy

1.) Developments in social and economic conditions have forced the government and the ruling classes to pursue a kind of social policy. The very way in which they conduct this policy shows that it is a class policy.

2.) It is evident from current fiscal policy that the state revenues, which flow from the pockets of the workers, are used for purposes in which they have no interest, and which even contradict their convictions.

3.) The influence of the current crisis on workers shows once again that the periods of industrial decline harm and even ruin the proletarian, because he cannot utilize his labor power and cannot take anything with him from the periods of recovery.

4.) The increase in the price of essential foodstuffs and the senseless customs policy cast a harsh light on the current situation. The current economic crisis shows the untenability of the system.

5.) Social democracy seeks to replace the current system of private capital rule with the socialization of the means of production. All the means it uses should lead to this:

6) It demands the eight-hour day, a workers' insurance policy that protects the worker against social misfortune; it demands workers' rights that relieve the worker of the arbitrariness of the business community; it demands living standards and health, a regulation (or abolition) of women and child labor; it also demands that workplaces be properly regulated in accordance with personal dignity, morality and hygiene.

7.) It demands full personal self-determination for the worker through unrestricted freedom of association, through the organization of every right to vote in the democratic sense, and through legal institutions that eliminate class prejudices and class privileges. It demands tax legislation that is in line with social justice. It demands complete freedom of public opinion.

8.) It strives for a regulation of housing conditions in the sense of human dignity, moral and sanitary requirements. It also seeks the elimination of indirect taxes and a system of tariffs that corresponds to social justice.

9.) [It seeks] to prevent the exploitation of workers by the ruling classes as far as possible within the current social relations through consumer cooperatives.