We Want to Change the World

Vast changes are taking place in the world, sweeping away old political positions. We cannot remain inactive about issues which affect our daily lives. Calls for unity of the left ignore the fundamental conflict between reformism and socialism and  obscures the difference between reformist politics and class struggle.

The  aim of the Socialist Party of Great Britain is to replace the world capitalist system with world socialism, the end of the end of classes, private property and nations. Exploitation, and oppression will not exist in socialism. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally.  As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will wither away. Only when men and women are freed from the pressure of economic necessity by socialism will individual liberty properly speaking begin.

It should be clear that socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have some idea of what it is. If the people who vote for the Socialist Party do not do so because it is socialist but instead vote for it out of ignorance of what socialism means, of what  use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness understanding of the people and not upon their lack of knowledge.  So long as the ballot box, the right of representation and civil liberties are maintained the Socialist Party will depend upon education and organization of the working class.  Our doctrine tells us that socialism cannot be built on the wreckage and  ruins of the existing society by a revolt of desperate starving beggars .

The Socialist Party also declares it holds that socialism cannot be achieved as a result of a series of reforms within the framework of the capitalism. Socialist society is not merely the quantitative extension of the “public’ ownership features of capitalist society, but instead is a qualitatively new form of society. Another name used in the past for socialism was an  association of free and equal producers.  It will be up to the workers to organize work and to regulate their reciprocal relations. Force can do nothing here; agreement is necessary. It will occur through free pacts and contracts that are always modifiable among all associations, and through pacts that associations will contract among themselves. Free associations can differ much among themselves. In an association workers will reciprocally commit to a certain number of hours of labour, in another to accomplish in a given amount of time a given task. Free pacts contracted by associated workers as the basis of organisations of labor and  the federation of associations more or less extended world-wide.

Emancipation of the workers can begin only when the workers capture political power.  Workers must unite with workers in all countries to win socialism. Once the revolution has broken out our first concern must be production. Socialism will be victorious only when the working people take possession of all the means of production. The Socialist Party will remain the servants and will not become the masters.

Our immediate goal is the social revolution. We only see one solution: the revolution. We cleanly separate ourselves from reformists. We fight against everything that slows it down and all that  reconciles us to the current order of things. We are above all socialists, i.e., we want to end the cause of all iniquities, all exploitation, all poverty and crime: private property. The workers must take possession of their tools, of the means of labour and life without paying tribute and without serving anyone. The revolution we conceive of can only be made by and for the people, without any false representatives. We believe that the new organization of society will be from the bottom up not from top down, by the decrees of a central authority served by an army of functionaries. Simple relations of reciprocity is the final and visible end of the revolution, because it is the highest expression of human solidarity. The revolution obviously can’t be the work of a party or a coalition of parties that will take the direction of the movement and take control: it demands the assistance of the entire people. Without them we can carry out a coup d’etat, a party putsch but not a revolution. Vanguardism smothers the revolution and necessarily prepare its own domination. The workers have no need of a leadership cadre: they are quite capable of charging one of their own with a particular task. Their society must be their home. They should gather together like a family, consecrate their leisure hours to it and deal there with all their interests. This is a new phase into which working class societies must enter in order to prepare the completion of the great transformation of society. Everyone, instead of thinking of its own interests, will fraternize, practice solidarity on a vast scale.  A true pact is one that has as its basis common aspirations and a community of ideas. It is only through this that workers unite, when workers place the general interest above every particular interest and aim for total emancipation, doing without bosses and exploiters.

The existing political parties  pay too much attention to interests, and too little to principles. A party  with convictions will never betray its own kind. It is necessary that in each socialist party there be a means of raising the great social questions, that all ideas be discussed, that the workers be intellectually prepared for the task incumbent upon them: that of renewing society.

When the workers demand improvements, wage rises, reductions in working hours, abolition of work rules; when they go on strike to defend their dignity or to affirm their solidarity with other workers, we have to say to them that none of this resolves the question. We may gain from the occasion to advocate more widely and effectively the need for the revolution, for the abolition of private property and the state. The Socialist Party will be with the workers, fighting alongside them. To stay aloof from the labour movement would mean appearing to be friends of the capitalist class , rendering our ideas  hostile to the daily struggles of the people and consequently renouncing the medium indispensable for materially making the revolution: the participation of the people.  Even if the economic effects of strikes are partial, transitory, and often non-existent or actually disastrous, that doesn’t change the fact that every strike is an act of dignity, an act of revolt, and serves to get workers used to thinking of the boss as an enemy and to fight for what he or she wants without waiting for grace from on high. Strikers are already no longer slaves who blesses their boss with submission: they are already rebels,  already engaged on the path of socialism and revolution. It is only up to us to sign-post that road. This then is our only programme: the social revolution as immediate goal, agitation among the working class as principal means.

Now a few words about ourselves, the Socialist Party.  We have argued the need in the future society for organisation among all  and for all needs, and the necessity in current society for the workers to struggle against their exploiters. It would be absurd if we were to admit the need for organisation for everyone, but not admit or practice it ourselves. This party is naturally anarchist i.e., without leaders. Demanding the revolution, and wanting it completely and seriously, with all our being, we will choose the means that seem most apt to bring it closer. In pursuing our goal, dedicating the party to the cause of the social revolution we think that the moment has come to gather together our forces, to leave behind vagueness and to give battle to the ruling class, in mutual confidence and solidarity. We must act. We must demonstrate our principles in action. We must prove to the world that socialism is not an abstract concept, a utopian dream, or a distant vision, but a vital and living principle, destined to renew the world and establishing it on the imperishable foundations of well-being and human fraternity.