Socialist Education

"The International shall be the human race."

The message of socialism is it promises to destroy the political, social and economic disadvantages imposed upon mankind. Socialism has gotten a bad name. Labourites defined their socialism only in terms of nationalisation. In Russia, a society calling itself socialist was a monstrous tyranny, where the workers were exploited every bit as cruelly as anywhere else. The liberating element of socialism was dismissed as utopian.  Many of our friends and colleagues remain aloof from the Socialist Party because the goal seems so far off and unattainable. For us in the Socialist Party, socialism is not some workers’ paradise in a distant and unimaginable future. We cannot forecast the date of the revolution. There are so many questions which it is quite futile to try to answer in advance by producing a detailed blueprint. There is, for example, no point in attempting to draw up any such plans. The reality of socialism will differ from any possible projection of it. But some of the seeds of the new society have been already sown and the struggle against the old one has already begun. The class struggle cannot be abolished or postponed under capitalism. When people take up the struggle for socialism, they need to know what they are fighting for, at least in general terms.

 Socialists have no illusions about the speed with which they may be able to achieve significant progress in the fulfilment of our aims. But it is reasonable to assume that there is a constituency which can be won over to socialist cause and that this constituency will grow as capitalism shows itself increasingly incapable of coping with the unfolding crises which it produces. Socialists will use the existing constitutional process, by means of a combination of electoral and extra-parliamentary activism. Socialists will not concern themselves with getting this or that policy passed but with changing the apparatus of the state. The capitalists always defend their class interests. If workers do not fight as a class, the capitalists will always triumph.

The diagnosis of a disease does not cure the disease. The mere voicing of complaints changes nothing. Democracy and solidarity, freedom and equality must be the fundamentals of socialist education. We teach the co-operative commonwealth, in which there shall be neither master nor servant, neither rich nor poor.

The Socialist Party, part of the World Socialist Movement, invites you to join its fight for working-class emancipation and socialist freedom. World socialism is the recognition of the reality of the modern world. It proceeds from the fact that the economy of modern society is a world-unit requiring international cooperation and division of labour for the further development of the productive forces. The class struggle arising from the class division between workers and exploiters within the countries requires class unity of the workers on a global scale. From its very beginning, socialism has called for the collaboration of the workers in the different countries in order that each might contribute their strength to world cooperative action. The Communist Manifesto called for common efforts of the workers in all countries for the common goal of workers' emancipation. 

“To escape its wretched lot,” wrote Bakunin “the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The two first are drink and the church, the third is the social revolution.” And the social revolution, we never weary of declaring, is at hand. 

Just as the petty states, principalities and duchies divided Europe under feudalism has given way to centralized national states such as Germany and Italy in order to create a broader arena for the development of the productive forces, so, in the same way, the artificially divided national states have to give way to the federation of states as we see with the European Union trading bloc. In the future course of development, this must lead eventually to a world federation operating as a one world economy without class and nationalistic divisions. Socialists are the champions of this idea of internationalism, renouncing the ideas of nationalism. Forsaking popularity, the Socialist Party has always stood against patriotism, xenophobia, and national chauvinism and can show an unsullied record opposing all wars. Our fellow-workers have to live in the class-ridden system with its state power, and their wills are restricted by the limitations imposed but nevertheless, within their own organisations they can build a community of democracy – The Socialist Party, honestly striving towards equality and liberty. We do not rely upon the politics of parliamentary legislation. We do not trust our economic security to the good intentions of the possessing class. We have our own political weapons that we control. The working class must achieve its own salvation. It must develop its own social intelligence. Our aim is simply the education of the workers in the interests of the workers. This movement on behalf of independent working-class education is world-wide. Our aim is making fellow-workers completely conscious of what they want and evoking in them the thought that corresponds to their impulses. If once the thoughts of the labouring masses have mounted to the level of their impulses, then will their will be soon determined and their power irresistible. Socialist education will be the midwife of the social revolution. Our ways and means are: to arouse the interest, concentrate the intelligence, stimulate the will. Without these three precepts, nothing can be done. With them, all difficulties will vanish.