Revolution! Not Reforms!

 The aim of the Socialist Party of Great Britain to establish socialism and abolish the right of one person to rob another. Our aim is the unity of the working class movement, and the political unification in one party based on socialist principles. The trade union struggle is the defensive struggle of the workers against their employers. It is an expression of the irreconcilable antagonism between the two great classes of modern society.  At first resistance took the form of isolated outbursts, of smashing machines, of blindly striking out at the capitalists. But soon the individual workers learnt that their oppression is common and that their resistance must be collective. At this point the workers combine into unions, the first, most immediate form of organisation available to them. Through the unions the workers wage a united struggle of resistance, confronting the employing class with one voice, demanding better wages and working conditions, testing their strength through downing their tools, and wringing concessions from the government for improved labour laws for the entire working class. Even when the trade unions are under rank and file control, they cannot on their own,  protect and advance the long-term interests of the working class, cannot touch the foundations of capitalist exploitation. The trade unions can bargain with the capitalists over wages, but they cannot bargain away the wages system. They are geared only to look after the workers immediate interests, to wage a defensive, economic struggle. That is the limit of trade unionism in general. And this is the reason why the working class must have its own political organisation, an organisation which combines the struggle for the workers immediate interests with the struggle for the long-term interests of the entire working class into a consistently waged class struggle. Our task is not only to fight for better terms in the sale of labour-power, but to fight for the abolition of the capitalist system that compels the working class to sell themselves as wage-slaves. We must utilise the economic struggle to teach the workers that their fundamental economic interests can only be satisfied by the destruction of the entire capitalist system and the creation of a socialist society.

Nowhere in the world has socialism been established. The struggle for socialism is the struggle for socialist consciousness. The Left has failed to raise the prospect of what could be achieved by socialism but, rather, advanced arguments for the more efficient management of capitalism. Our argument with the Left and the policies it is advocating is not that they would not benefit the working class, but that measured against the criterion of achieving socialism which is, after all, what socialists  has as its goal, they fall far short. In other words, we would argue that whatever the rhetoric of the Left-wing, it nevertheless remains an ideology of capitalism, and has been utilised as a method of ingratiating capital to the working class. The Labour Party no longer even claims to represent working class interests. On the contrary, it sets out not to present a class interest, but a non-existent “national interest” common to all classes.  Their motive for production would remain profit, the relations of production would remain capitalist relations. There is nothing new here, since Labour Governments have always sought to bolster capital with public subsidy. Nowhere are the problems inherent to the capitalist mode of production dealt with; there is no mention of the class struggle – only of the national interest. All that the Labour Party has laid claim to do up to now is to be able to manage the capitalist ship of state better than anyone else. It has never seen itself – either in its policies or its propaganda – as being, despite its name, a party which represents the working class. It has consistently been a party for “the nation as a whole”. It has claimed to represent the capitalist millionaire ruling establishment as much as the working class.

The class struggle was not invented by Marx. It is a fact, which exists whether we wish it or not. While capitalism lasts, so too will the inevitable class struggle. The change from capitalism to socialism, from capitalist dictatorship to the democratic  rule of the working class, is a revolution and the most far-reaching revolution in human history. That is the objective of the SPGB.