Against Labourism - For Socialism

 All around us are the signs of a world in crisis, yet men and women seem unable to do anything about it. Resources that should be used to feed the hungry are squandered in the name of commerce and profits towards the few. Of course, the greatest threat comes from the threat of climate change. In the past many loyal Labour supporters have found it difficult to distinguish the policies of Labour governments from those of their Tory rivals. Jeremy Corbyn as the new party leader has infused fresh hope and a new anticipation of for a ‘radical’ Labour Party. But the new influx of activists are not homogeneous in ideological and political terms.

The continuing hold of Labourism over the working class is an issue which confronts all socialists. The Labour Party, not being socialist, is useless. Facts show that the Labour Party opposes socialism. The Labour Party is a party of capitalism, a party of liberal reformers on to which have been grafted some features and language of social democracy. By social democracy we mean the political position that in the name of the working class nominally subscribes to socialism, promotes the gradual evolution to socialism and places reforms under capitalism as the solution of the problems to which capitalism gives rise. It has always acted within the boundaries of capitalism. It has “explained” and “interpreted” the socialist argument in such a way as to make it virtually unrecognizable to genuine socialists as having anything to do with socialism. By presenting itself as a workers’ party, the Labour Party has, nevertheless, attracted working class support. It serves no purpose whatever to think that the Labour Party would or could act in any way other than it does.

The only real solution for the working class is the socialist revolution: the construction of a revolutionary socialist party. The struggle for socialism is the struggle for socialist consciousness. We would contend that only the Socialist Party is capable of winning the battle of ideas. Some may question that claim considering our small size and lack of influence but we believe we are the practical base for building a party really capable of serving workers’ interests. We can be the party with the organizational integrity and political honesty that forces the Labour Party to drop their mask of “socialism”, revealing their true face so that the workers, who are still following them, will see the ugliness. We decline to separate the Labour Party from its origin, its evolution, its deeds, its leaders, and the attitude of the rank and file. Because the Labour Party is in the capitalist camp, it must meet with the opposition of Marxists. When the Left attempts to persuade socialists to devote themselves to an impossible ‘reform’ of the Labour Party, it becomes an accomplice of the Labour Party and becomes itself a reformist roadblock in the path of the socialist movement. 

The Socialist Party is said to be dogmatic and sectarian. We are dogmatic in so far as we hold ideas that make us strive to end capitalism. We are dogmatic because we talk about surplus value, another expression for rent, interest, dividends. We are sectarian because we preach the class war, another way of asking the workers to stop supporting the capitalist parties. We fight for nothing short socialism, because we believe that nothing short of that will save the workers. There can be no substitute for the basic ideas of socialism and the principles of socialism, for common ownership of the means of production and distribution. The day is arriving when every man and woman of our class will have to make a great decision. We shall have to choose whether capitalism with all its attendant miseries and horrors is to remain or whether we intend to be free. The Socialist Party comes forward to explain to our fellow workers the nature of the struggle in. which they are participating. To tell them of the principles for which we work and fight. We set out the way for our class to end the horrid nightmare of the competitive struggle which sets nation against nation, class against class, and individual against individual. The struggle between individual capitalists to realise profits sets employer against employer. The conflict between national groups of financiers sets nation against nation, and produces war. But despite their individual and national conflicts the whole capitalist class stands united in their common desire to exploit employees. Hence under capitalism the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour-power to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities. In opposition to the Labour Party we affirm that so long as one section of the community own and control the means of production, and the rest of the community are compelled to work for that section in order to obtain the means of life, there can be no peace between them.

The Labour Party leaders have not led the movement astray but, rather, the general movement of the working class, as represented by the Labour Party, refused to follow the socialist movement. There was a party which has been for more than a hundred years endeavouring to impress the truths of what capitalism is and what socialism could be upon the working class – that they could not trust Labour or Tory, and that if they wanted anything done politically, and if they wanted socialism, they must join the Socialist Party, and agitate, educate, and organise for socialism. The Socialist Party has never wearied in pointing out the right road; but the reality is that the mass of the workers have preferred to take the wrong path, and there are those who have actively encouraged them in doing so. Every obstacle placed in our way by our opponents must be used to show that this opposition is really opposition to the interests of the workers and in favour of the capitalists. Socialist work means something very different for a socialist party than the kind of political activity of labourism. ‘Educate, Agitate, Organise’ is a valid slogan and tactic for the future and the coming years may give it more effective meaning than it has ever had in the past. The Labour Party will not lead us to socialism.