The Practical Politics of Socialists

The bankers and corporate CEOs who run the country are caught in a crisis. The working class
 is being roused to action as its anger and struggle mounts, gathering  momentum especially over the last few years. To advocate a strategy whose admitted aim is the reform of  capitalism is to mislead the working class. Workers have the power to cripple the capitalists. If the workers don’t work, the capitalists don’t profit.  As the only productive class in society, as the only class which produces and distributes the things necessary for life, the working class is the only class which literally holds in its hands not only the ability to destroy the old capitalist society, but the ability to build the new socialist society. Some people who call themselves socialists, however, do not believe that the working class will play this role.  Their position comes down to the old romantic notion of a handful of heroic revolutionaries making the revolution for the people, rather than the people, led by the working class, making the revolution for themselves. In every revolutionary movement there are some who lack faith in the ability of the people themselves to make a revolution, and who therefore feel that they must do it for them. History shows over and over, however, that all such schemes are doomed to failure.

The capitalist parties are as rotten and bankrupt as the system they uphold. They can maintain themselves and that system only by piling additional burdens upon the people. The evils of capitalism will disappear only with the destruction of capitalism and the building of socialism. The Socialist Party of Great Britain dedicates to socialism. The only road is the socialist road. Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution. We are not reformers — we are revolutionaries. Let it be understood that by revolution we do not mean violence or bloodshed.

The class-conscious socialist realises that it is neither reform nor conciliation, nor humanitarian ideals which can free the working class and overthrow capitalism, but only an economic and social revolution. So long as the the capitalist class has state power it will continue to attack  and attempt to corrupt every gain won by the working class – and it will sooner or later succeed in setting back the workers’ movement. They can increase their profits only by pushing  the working class down, only through more speed-ups, more wage cuts, more job automation, more attacks on the victories the working class has won in the past. Workers must never forget that their interests and the interests of this small number of  bankers and corporate billionaires can never be reconciled. That is why they need to set  their aim high and build for the day when they can overthrow these profit-mongers for good, establishing socialism. Under socialism the working class  will control the economy and take ownership of the factories, machines, farmlands, etc. No parasites will grow fat off the labour of others and the working class will be able to advance towards a bright future when all class distinctions in society will be eliminated. The working class is the most powerful force in society. Not only does it create the vast  bulk of society’s wealth, but it is welded together in the process of production and its daily battles. Standing in direct opposition to the owners, it is the most consistent  opponent of oppression in all its forms. When it enters these battles as a force fighting under its own banner, the working class brings with it and instills in others its strength.

What the workers have to learn is that the “impossiblist” socialists are in the end the only practical men, because the only real practical work for the people is the transformation of capitalism into socialism.