1912 Platform of the Socialist Party of Washington

Platform of the
Socialist Party of Washington

[Adopted M arch 12, 1912]

Published in The Commonwealth [Everett, W A], whole no. 91 (September 27, 1912), pg. 4.

Adopted at State Convention, Seattle, M arch 9,10,
11, 12, 1 912; ratified byStateReferendum "A"; amended
by State Referendum "C."

The Socialist Party of Washington, in conven-
tion assembled, reaffirms its unfaltering loyalty in the
principles of international socialism, and the Socialist
Party of the United States, and presents the following
as its platform:

In the struggle for freedom the interests of all
modern workers are identical. The struggle is not only
national, but international. It em braces the world, and
will be carried to ultimate victory through intelligent
class-conscious political and industrial action.

H uman labor creates machinery and applies it
to the land to produce things necessary for human
life. W hosoever has control of land and machinery con-
trols human labor, and with it human life and liberty.

T he working class owns nothing but its labor-
power, and sells this for wages to the capitalist state.

This labor-power applied to modern means of
production and distribution produces at least four
times as much value as the working class receives in
wages.

The capitalist class, unable to find a market ei-
ther in this or foreign countries for the surplus prod-
uct, are now closing the mines, mills, and factories.

This, together with the constant invention of
labor-saving machinery, throws men, women, and
children oftheworkingclassout of employment, caus-
ing untold misery and distress.

The lack and uncertainty of employment pro-
duces extreme poverty, which in turn produces crime,
insanity, prostitution of body and brain, suicides,
drunkenness, disease, and degradation.

The insecurity of a livelihood and consequent
degenerating results are therefore directly due to the
privateownership and control by thecapitalist classof
mine, mill, factory, and
land.

The remedy lies
in thesocial ownership
of these means of pro-
duction and distribu-
tion, thereby giving all
an equal opportunity to
live and enjoy the prod-
uct of their labor.

Humanity lives amid constant change. Laws,
institutions, and customs, once useful and popular,
become oppressive, abusive, intolerable, and danger-
ous to further progress of the race. It is at such a time
that the race must find a new method, inaugurate a
new system more in harmony with its needs. If any
nation or community can not change for the better it
is because it is either too ignorant or too terrorized by
the ruling class. Tyranny rulesfrom the top down, so-
cial democracy from the bottom up.

The Socialist Party is the only political party
which stands for the overthrow of the present capital-
ist system of exploitation and the substitution of the
social ownership of the source of food, clothing, shel-
ter, and other necessities.

0 ur U Itimate D emand.

0 ur ultimate demand isthesocial ownership and
democratic management of all thesocially used means
of production and distribution.

Platform of the Socialist Party of Washington [1912]

Program.

As measures calculated to strengthen the work-
ing class in its fight for the realization of its ultimate
aim, and increase its power of resistance against capi-
talist oppression; we advocate and pledge ourselves to
the following program:

1. Collective ownership and management of all
public utilities, and all industries that have become
monopolized.

2. Abolition of private ownership of land and
natural resources when used for exploitation and specu-
lation.

3. Publicemploymentoftheunemployedatnot
less than prevailing union scaleof wages and not more
than eight hours per day.

4. We demand the enactment of a maximum
eight-hour law to apply to both men and women em-
ployed in all capitalized industries.

5. We advocate initiative, referendum, and re-
call to apply to all public officials, the petition not to
exceed 10 percent of the voters at the previous elec-
tion.

6. Abolition of child labor under the age of 16
years.

7. The elimination of the injunction in labor
disputes.

8. Abolition of all residential qualification or
other restrictions for voters, the abolition of all filing
fees at primaries and other elections, and repeal of all
non-partisan laws. Abolition of property qualifications
for jurors. We favor the election of a public defender
as well as prosecutor together with the adoption of
other means to insure the free administration of jus-
tice.

9. We favor a constitutional amendment abol-
ishing the Senate and we also demand that all cities be
prohibited from enacting ordinances infringing on the
right of free speech and free press.

10. Wefavor the establishment of a state board
of health with full power for the inspection and con-

demnation of all unsanitary factories, tenements, etc.,
and the liberal appropriation for use of the latest
scientific methods of eliminating disease.

11. Wedemand the free use of all public build-
ingsand property for public meetings, including court-
houses, schoolhouses, parks, etc., without distinction,
and wedemand a liberal appropriation for promotion
of social centers.

Resolutions.

Resolved, That we, the Socialist Party in con-
vention assembled, do hereby recall to the minds of
the working class all the arbitrary, cruel, and inhuman
methods used by the capitalist class in this class war,
including the useof police power to suppress thefree-
dom of speech, press, and public assembly, as recently
evidence in several cities of this state, and as this abuse
can only continue as long as we, the working class,
remain divided, we here and now, urge the members
of our class to devote their efforts toward greater so-
lidity [sic], clearer class consciousness, and the neces-
sity of united political action, and we hereby endorse
the principle of revolutionary industrial unionism.

Resolved, That we, the Socialist Party, hereby
endorse all united action of the workers and pledge
ourselves to assist them by supplying speakers, money,
and other necessary support whenever possible to the
end that we may win our economic freedom and over-
throw the capitalist system.

To the small farmer we say, we are opposed to
the private ownershi p of land for the purpose of specu-
lation and exploitation.

We are absolutely opposed to the Boy Scout
movement, and theteaching of military drill with guns
and other means of destruction of human life to our
school children.

Edited by Tim Davenport

Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2010. * Non-commercial reproduction permitted.

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