Socialism or Reformism?

The Socialist Party is the only party that genuinely stands for socialism. Our main focus is we do not want to continue with capitalism. Capitalism has continued to throw up our problems such as with housing. The Socialist Party don’t have specific policies, because we are not a reformist group, but say capitalism is responsible for many existing problems and champion common ownership and democratic control as a replacement. We argue that the many social problems we face will only be solved by people taking democratic action to end capitalism and establishing the socialist principle ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’. A socialist society — call it communist if you like: names are not that important — producing to satisfy human needs, i.e. for socially useful purposes instead of for profit, will not have to waste and dissipate its resources on war and waste, nor will it have to worry about poverty problems. Let’s work to bring about a society where work will not be a four-letter word, due to the exploiting relationships of capitalism. Let’s help fellow-workers by building a movement for one world, a classless society where the dirty reality of profiteering from others’ sweat will have vanished and where humans will no longer be divided by man-made barriers of class, religion or racism. No longer the competitive rat-race, but the social cooperation of civilised homo sapiens: surely a worthy goal for anyone looking for socially useful political activity?

The working class should support the party that aimed at abolishing the problems that beset society as a whole and the working class in particular. Socialism would do this, so socialism must be defined. It must be a worldwide system in which there will be a community of interests. The privileges of ownership will disappear. There will be no production for profit, all goods will be produced for need. There will be no banks or insurance companies, no money, no profits, no rent, no interest. Poverty and other problems will continue as long as there are capitalist owners and most of the people are wage and salary earners. The competition between capitalists grows more intense and leads to greater wars. The Socialist Party is proud of its war record, it takes its stand on the basis of internationalism. Whilst wages continue, so will capitalism. Socialism is not merely the taking away of industry from the capitalist owners, it is the handing over of industry to the whole of mankind. Taking from one set of owners to give to another does not benefit the workers.

When the Labour Party came into existence it was to get socialism in a quicker way than the way advocated by the Socialist Party. It was going to do things in a hurry. Now it has not only slowed down the pace to a stand-still but and accuses the Socialist Party of being the ones in a hurry. The Socialist Party is small and its funds are but a tiny fraction compared to those of the massive Labour Party. If all those millions of pounds of funds and all that effort had been directed to the achievement of socialism we should have been much nearer the day of its establishment. While members of the working class remain in their present condition of political ignorance, leaving their affairs in the hands of “leaders,” there will continue to be desertion and betrayal. On the other hand, if they were conscious of their position as a class, if they had no leaders and refused to be followers, little or nothing would be gained by capitalism or lost to our class by the “ratting” of one of their number.

Many reformist liberals put forward ideas that seem to upset the capitalist class but totally fails to speak out in favour of socialism. Many do a great job of highlighting that capitalism won’t fix our problems, but for whatever reason fail to take up the position that we must abandon capitalism. Liberals advocate reforms as ways to preserve capitalism while socialism seeks to replace it. It is time to take the  revolutionary goal to the people and dismiss the idea that progress should be made in incremental steps. It is time for socialists to speak up and to rise up to the challenge of putting forth new ideas. The illusion of last resort for reformists is lesser evilism to defeat the greater evil. The argument against lesser evilism is that voting for the lesser evil paves the way for greater evils. The lesser evilists call it strategic voting. The most effective way to defeat the greater evil is to build support and power by organising and campaigning for its own distinct alternative. Socialism means a radical restructuring of society that socialises and democratises economic and political institutions. Without an independent workers movement to articulate this socialist vision, reformism, liberalism, progressivism will drown out the socialist message under a programme of palliatives and the voice of the socialists will be muted. Working class independence has been the first principle of socialist politics when workers found they could not count on the intellectual and “higher” classes to support their right to the franchise. They would have to fight themselves. The mass-membership working-class party was an invention of the socialists in the 19th century. It was how working people organised democratically to compete politically with the parties of the propertied elites. A popular socialist party has yet to re-emerge as a distinct and visible presence that matters in politics. There are no shortcuts to building such a mass party. A true opportunity for change has presented itself and the future of progress hinges on how we move forward. We are humans—we have great big brains that are hard-wired for all possible responses which makes us a unique species capable of infinite, illimitable choice. Let’s be wise about it. 

Revolution – the real thing – anyone?