Introduction

The peoples of the world are confronted today with problems of enormous magnitude. These include the ever-growing poverty and widespread malnutrition and disease which afflict billions of the world's six billion population; war and the threat of nuclear catastrophe; and the environmental and ecological time-bomb which adds a new threat to human survival.

This need not be so. Never before in history have the rapid advances in science and technology provided such opportunities for the all-round development of every human being. But in England, as in other capitalist countries, a deep-seated crisis of the whole economic, social and political system adversely affects every aspect of life.

The wealth, effort and ingenuity which could be used to improve the living conditions of working people are, instead, wasted in war preparations or otherwise used to expand the profits of the giant corporations and banks that dominate the economy and society. The Communist Party aims to replace the crisis, insecurity, profiteering, inequality and social conflict of capitalist society with socialism. A socialist England would be run by and for the people, not for private capitalist profit.

The commanding heights of the economy would be publicly owned. Production would be socially controlled and planned to guarantee everyone the right to a job and a home, to free education and health care, to comfort and dignity in retirement, and to other social services and benefits. Freedom would be rightly understood not as the right of individuals to exploit and oppress others, but as the power of human beings - through the collective control of their society and environment - to develop their interests, abilities and talents to the full.

For over a century, communists and socialists in England have had this aspiration to create a fundamentally humane, democratic and just society. The Communist Party of England, in this programme, shows how this can be done.

England's Road to Socialism is not a detailed catalogue of policies covering all issues, nor is it a fine blueprint for the future. Rather, it sets out the basic principles governing a strategy for socialist revolution in England. It outlines the general lines of action and struggle which can bring about the unity of the working class and its allies for the winning of political power and the building of socialism.

England's Road to Socialism is a living, developing programme to be constantly tested in practice and reassessed in the light of experience. In it, we make clear our view that:

• the major social and economic problems we face today can only be resolved by putting an end to capitalism and establishing socialism;

• to achieve socialism, the working class and its allies must take political, economic and state power out of the hands of the capitalist class;

• decisive advances towards socialism can only be achieved by mobilising the mass of the people in support of an intermediate alternative economic and political strategy which aims at securing full employment, a general improvement in living standards, a wide expansion of democracy and a genuine policy for peace;

• the socialist revolution can be carried through in England by organised mass struggle outside parliament, creating and combining with a socialist parliamentary majority - producing a government and mass movement determined and able to implement a socialist programme;

• the contradictions within imperialism and the historical growth of the world's other progressive forces place considerable obstacles in the way of any attempts at outside intervention in support of the ruling class - although the possibility of such attempts cannot be precluded;

• the forces exist which can put England on the road to socialism, and the need is to unite them in a democratic anti-monopoly alliance led by the organised working class;

• essential to the creation of such an alliance and the advance to socialism is the building of a Communist Party which exercises mass influence.

This programme is imbued with our confidence in the ability of the people of Engla, led by the organised labour movement, to overcome all opposition and to transform our society as part of the struggle to change the world.