The Socialist Truth

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE ROBBER BARONS

Capitalist politicians on the TV, radio and newspapers have been running their mouth endlessly about the glories of “democracy,” “liberty,” and “national pride.” This giant sales pitch for capitalism is part and parcel of the ruling class preparations for war. They’re trying to whip up nationalism for war in Syria. But for all the air-time the ruling class is putting into it, they aren’t getting their war-mongering message over. Many see right through it. In the past decade, the working class has struggled against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the economic recession that have landed us in the deepest crisis since the 1930s Great Depression, and has seen the ruling class exposed in deceit after deceit. The workers’ complete disdain for this barrage of capitalist lies is a show of resistance and the strength of our class. We are unwilling to starve any longer while doing the world’s drudgery, in order to support by our poverty. It shows how we learn from our own experience in class struggle.  It also shows that the Socialist Party must use these lessons to show the need for socialism to the workers and the need to build the genuine socialist party of the working class. Most people in the world still struggle daily for food, clothing, and shelter. While a relative handful of people grow ever richer, the vast majority of people face a rapidly declining standard of living. We will make the world listen to the facts of our condition.

The Socialist Party rejects the Leninist view of the vanguard ‘communist’ party. We do not believe that a single party can or should determine the direction, strategy and tactics of the class struggle. We reject the idea that fundamental change can or should come about through a seizure of power by a vanguard party claiming to act in the interests of the working class and the majority of society. We reject the goal of what is misconstrued as the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” We reject the view that a single party can use its claim to represent the working class as a substitute for multi-party democracy and free elections. We are opposed to dictatorship in any and all forms, and we recognize that the application of this principle has in every case meant that a minority acts for and defines the interests of the majority of society. Such a view is antithetical to a belief in genuine democracy. We believe that fundamental will take the support of the majority of people who will demonstrate in some verifiable way (such as through voting) that they want such a change. We do not pretend to have a blueprint for a new and better society nor the road-map on how to get there yet we do possess a vision of a better society and general agreement on how to achieve it. At the same time, we believe that the options for change calls for re-examination and debates over possible new approaches. Socialists understand that we will have to travel new paths, and establish new sign-posts, while under the fire of our class enemies, of reformism. An open discussion of all these questions will be of great assistance to the whole revolutionary movement.