No War Between Nations, No Peace Between Classes!

Capitalism has us heading towards catastrophe. Today, future prospects certainly appear dire on many fronts. The Socialist Party argues that the idea of the global socialist revolution must become stronger than the idea of the nation, that the nation-state must be dismembered, if the working class wishes to be victorious. Between capitalism and the social revolution there can be no compromise of any sort, only class struggle until resolution. It must be clearly decided what is understood as socialism and what is not. 

Marx and Engels took a pragmatic view of nationalism. Hungarian and Polish nationalism in 1848 was good because these potential new nations would form a bulwark against Tsarist despotism, but on the other hand, Czech and Croat nationalism was bad as it would facilitate Russian reactionaryism. Marx and Engels supported many of the nationalist struggles of their day because they viewed capitalism as a historic advance over feudalism.  They understood that capitalism could develop the productive capacities of human society to levels unimaginable under feudalism. They understood further that capitalism brought into existence a class of producers--the proletariat, the modern working class--that for the fir›t time in history was truly collective. This class thereby embodied the potential for democratic self-rule. In the eyes of Marx and Engels, every victory for capitalism over feudalism propelled humanity further toward the goal of freedom from material want and political subjugation.

Later socialist such as Luxemburg, on the other hand, believed that the right of nations’ to self-determination had become pure utopianism and national independence was no longer something worthy to strive for. Times had changed and history had moved on from the situation Marx and Engels faced. The truth of what Marx and Engels had written that " The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got." had been proven. Workers own no country, so why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world? Workers have the world to win, not nations to fight for. National liberation revolutions were not proletarian movements that led to socialism of any kind.  We cannot separate abolishing capitalism from abolishing nation-states, which is not accomplished by national-liberation revolutions or socialism-in-one-country. We aim for the worldwide cooperative commonwealth, where all of the world’s people are able to fully flourish as individuals. National sovereignty is something socialists don’t actually want because our aim is not national independence but planetary cooperation.

Every Socialist recognises the complete futility of individual or mob violence as a working-class weapon, in face of the overwhelming power of the State. The fact that the “propaganda of the deed,” so dear to the anarchists or direct-action advocates, has always played into the hands of reaction is a commonplace. The labour movement in all lands passes through despairing stages of such activity, and it is only as its futility becomes thoroughly realised, and the true nature of the problem which faces the worker is understood, that the worship of mere disorder or violence is outgrown. Its very hopelessness shows it to be a gesture of despair. It is the expression of economic and political weakness, disorganisation, and ignorant passion.

 This is not to say that the question of force has not an important part to play in the struggle for socialism; for when the need and time arrive the workers cannot hesitate to use force against force. It does mean, however, that the force to be used must be the organised might of the whole working class, rooted in economic needs, and based on knowledge rather than on blind hate, and used because essential to complete the task of emancipation. In essence, though, the success of a revolution depends, not upon mere force, but upon economic necessity. The role of force is secondary to this. And it is only because the economic necessities of the capitalist system pave the way for the working class advance to power, that Socialists are enabled to use legality in their educational and organising work; it is only because they are the expression of economic needs and forces that the workers have the opportunity of advancing from strength to strength until their power is sufficient to finally wrest from their masters the major force of the State.

Marx and Engels say in the Communist Manifesto:

“The First Step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of a ruling class, to win the battle of democracy. The Proletariat will use its political supremacy, to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the Slate, i.e., of the proletariat organised as a ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.”

The measures necessary when the workers have won their class battle can, indeed, only be definitely decided upon when that moment arrives. The only possible program for a Socialist party is Socialism; and its only “immediate aim” is the straight fight for the conquest of the State in order to begin the transformation of capitalist society into Socialism. As the founders of scientific Socialism state in the Manifesto itself, their “immediate aim" is the “formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” Any party, indeed, whose immediate aim is less than this, is, by that same token, not a Socialist party.

The point of socialist activity is their effect on consciousness by highlighting the forces of capitalism responsible for damage and death to the exploited and the oppressed, and to show people that there are still creative and daring ways to resist the powers-that-be despite repression. The world despite all the tragedies remains rich with possibilities and holds a sense that we can and must do better. It necessitates the overthrow of the ruling class as being in the interests of the vast majority of humanity, and that goal becomes increasingly imaginable. We put the interests and aspirations of the vast majority, in the forefront and need a massive social revolution. We must reach to the root of things. We require to study, learn, organize and talk the language of radical change. Knowing that things are unjust or terrible is never quite enough. Socialism's motivating ideal is the liberation of all humanity from all forms of alienation.  We always need a vision and a palpable sense of the world we're fighting for.  A socialist vision is essential for sustained motivation, at both the individual and the organisational levels. The Socialist Party wants to embrace a better world.  We point to the world we want to live in and invite solidarity to build unity. Let's begin by linking arms and raising up clenched fists.