The Workers' Party

Socialism has been the goal of the working class political movement since before the time of Marx and Engels. The core elements of whose political ideas can be found in the Communist Manifesto, which is still relevant for today. Socialists foresee that humanity will do away with the system that threatens its survival with destructive wars and environmental destruction. Socialism will win the world and change the world, and make a planet of peace and freedom. Capitalism's economic problems are generating a ruling class offensive, designed to cut costly social welfare programmes and drive down wages, at the expense of the living standards of the working class. Although by no means certain, socialists are optimistic of a class struggle upsurge which will lead to actually challenging capitalism, (but again, this need not automatically follow). We are talking about the beginning of the radicalisation of the working class.

If the working class is destined to transform society then it must create its own political party within the framework of capitalist society to fulfill its historic mission which must be working class in composition and subject to the control of its members. Creating a party of the working class with the aim of establishing a new socialist society is very different and far more difficult than organising a union movement. But the two are related and will eventually be connected. Education is essential and comes through experience, but its essence is the grasping of ideas and not to feel intimidated in questioning authority or—as Marx once put it— “doubting everything.” That is why democracy and education must go hand in hand.

 If an organisation’s principles are correct the tactics reflected must also be correct. If an organisation’s tactics are wrong, it is nearly certain that its principles can be nothing else but wrong. We must not be swept off our feet by fine sounding phrases. Obviously the workers cannot wait until the social revolution has stepped upon the scene and then organise. Tactics therefore dictate the organisation of the working class today, under capitalism, into an organisation whose primary purpose is to to create a new social order. The working class must organise today, under capitalism, in order to achieve its emancipation. Slogans will get us nowhere. What is needed is a class-conscious organisation of the working class on the political and industrial fields.

Some so-called socialists argue that the large mass of workers will never become socialist and will have to be led by an enlightened minority (the vanguard) which  is willing to unite with any movement of workers, no matter how wrong this may be, in order that they will have some masses to lead, and who are frequently willing to barter away all its principles for the sake of being taken into the ranks of reformist organisations. In other words, numbers are more important than principles. In order to reach the masses, we find their manifestoes filled with all kinds of  reforms and demands, simply to garner support. Marx and Engels lived and wrote in vain. Their teaching that the workers are robbed at the point of production and not at the point of consumption is not even grasped. The workers’ party that is of any use in our estimate is one that recognises that the workers are robbed by the capitalist, and understands how that robbery takes place; and is one that is organised to prosecute the class struggle politically until socialism is attained. Such would be a socialist party based on Marxian principles. All other parties, no matter how named, and of whom composed, are useless. The Socialist Party holds that the political party must be a party of no compromise. Its mission is to point the way to the goal and it refuses to leave the main road to follow the small side-tracks that lead into the swamp of reformism. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It must be overthrown.

The Socialist Party knows that no leaders are going to pull the workers into socialism. As Marx stated, “The emancipation of the working class must be the class conscious act of the working class itself.” A muddle-minded working class will never be able to act correctly or move in the proper direction no matter how insightful the leaders may be. “The day is past,” says Engels, “for revolutions carried through by small minorities at the head of unconscious ” yet some activists say the workers must arm themselves for the revolution and that mass action and armed insurrection are the means by which our emancipation is to be accomplished. These “revolutionaries” are a century behind the times resorting to such methods. If there is anything the capitalist class likes and which it tries to bring about, it is to have the workers engaging in these street-fighting tactics. After pointing out that the development of capitalism had rendered barricade fighting and armed insurrection obsolete, Engels goes on to say:
“Does the reader now understand why the ruling class, by hook or by crook, would get us where the rifle pops and the sabre slashes? Why, today, do they charge us with cowardice because we will not, without further ado, get down into the street where we are SURE OF OUR DEFEAT IN
ADVANCE? Why are we so persistently importuned to play the role of cannon fodder?”

The Socialist Party is opposed to violence or the advocacy of violence in the labour movement because it knows that such tactics are playing right into the hands of the capitalist class. It is not cowardice that dictates our position but common sense and it is not heroism or bravery that dictates the advocacy of violence but idiocy. In today’s protest movements, any who embrace violent resistance is either a lunatic or a police spy acting as an agent provocateur. The labour movement must not descend into a conspiracy behind closed doors. It must be fully transparent in its structure and operation. This the Socialist Party can proudly serve as an example of openness.

One argument made against the Socialist Party is that it is small, the Small Party of Good Boys,  but when the time is ripe for the social revolution, it will be the organisation, no matter what its size, that has the correct principles and tactics that will be the rallying point of the working class. The Socialist Party never compromises truth to make a friend, never withholds criticism of error lest it make an enemy.