Revolutionary Socialists

The Russian Revolution did stir and inspire large segments of workers, that fact we freely acknowledge. Yet in light of developments, the socialist movement would be a far greater force and factor today had it not been for the wasted energies and illusions of the Bolshevik counterfeits as far as a genuine socialist revolutionary movement is concerned. These Bolshevik groupings, including the Communist Parties over the world, the Trotskyists, and all their various splinter groups, usually revolve around personalities and “leaders.” They are dominated by the concept of a vanguard of “professional revolutionists.” It is the responsibility of the vanguard to guide and lead their followers. They arouse the emotions with their “grassroots” activities of organising demonstrations and protests on any and all questions. Their concepts of the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” and the “Transitional Period” are reflected in what they call “Democratic Centralism.” The control of the organisation is from the top, who inform the membership of “the party line.”

When the workers become socialists, they will not need a vanguard party to lead them. They will organise consciously and politically to emancipate themselves. Its bond of comradeship and unity is rooted in the barest minimum of socialist principles which may be summarized as socialism is a product of social evolution; the socialist revolution is inherently democratic because of its nature of being conscious, majority, and political; and that socialism is based on the social relations of a community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole. There can hardly be any compromise on these three general principles. Further, a socialist is one who recognises and realises that capitalism can no longer be reformed or administered in the interest of society or of the working class; that capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, war, crises, etc.; and that the times call for arousing the majority to become socialists to inaugurate socialism, now possible and necessary.

The word “government” is often confused with the word “administration.” It is a very common misconception until one realizes that “government” is but a synonym for the “state,” that is, rulers and ruled; governors and governed. (Although all governments have a secondary function of administering social affairs, it is a secondary function that is subordinate to its primary function of ruling society in the interest of the ruling class.) Where the social relationships of private property exist, there is a need for state machinery (a government) to keep the people in check and under control, as well as to protect the national ruling class interests against the rivalries of foreign “enemies.” Thus, we have had governments in chattel slave, feudal, and capitalist societies. Primitive tribal societies were typically administered communally and had no governments, as such. Socialism is a class-free society, without rulers and the ruled, a genuine democracy where there exists a real community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole. It is a social administration of affairs where everyone cooperates in the common interests according to his abilities and desires; where human beings live useful, interesting and meaningful lives.

To establish socialism the workers must first gain control of the powers of government through their political organisation. It is the recognition that the state is the central organ of power in the hands of the capitalist class. By gaining control of the powers of the state, the socialist majority are in a position to transfer the means of living from the parasites, who own them, to society, where they belong. This is the only function or needs the working class has the state/government. As soon as the revolution has accomplished this task, the state is replaced by the socialist administration of affairs. There is no government in a socialist society.

Some say we require leaders to educate the workers politically and economically towards socialism. But teachers are not leaders any more than writers or speakers are leaders. Their function is to spread knowledge and understanding so that the workers, the conscious majority, may emancipate themselves. Quite different from that we must have leaders (great men) to direct their followers (blind supporters) into a socialist society. Socialism is not the result of blind faith, followers, or, by the same token, vanguards, and leaders. Nothing is more repugnant to socialism than conspiratorial tactics. Socialism is not possible without socialists. What makes socialist work stirring and inspiring is not that there are shortcuts, but that there is no alternative worth a damn. The seeming failures, the disappointments, and discouragements, the slow growth, only indicate that socialist work is not an easy task. Our satisfaction is that the latent strength of the movement is that it makes sense, and when the great majority wake up and socialist ideas come of age, then socialism, a world fit for human beings, becomes invincible. “socialist activists” have had impressive “successes” and “victories” in every field except one. The lessons of experience and history have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they have not remotely convinced the workers of the need for socialism. From the activities carried on in the name of socialism, the one thing conspicuous by its absence has been any mention of the socialist case. In common, the efforts of “socialist activists” — ranging from peace activists, through to campaigners for human rights have been geared to an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism. With contempt, they sneer at the dumb workers and their backwardness. Such groups have been guilty of disillusioning the workers about real socialism. The great indictment of these activists is that they divert the workers from the genuine socialist movement, and have hampered the growth of socialism by many years. Were all that tremendous energy and enthusiasm harnessed in the genuine socialist work of making socialists, how much more the movement would have been advanced! The “practical realist” has proven to be an impractical utopian; the “activist” has proven to be the occupant of an ivory tower.

 The great mass of the workers never hears the socialist message. Had all the enthusiasms and energies of the past fifty years been harnessed for the spread of socialist knowledge and understanding, imagine how much more advanced the revolutionary movement would be today. The history of the “practical socialists” sneering at the “impossiblists and theoreticians” finds them landing in the camp of capitalist politicians. There is no shortcut to socialism, short of socialist determination. Our latent strength lies in the fact that science, truth, and above all, necessity is on the side of the scientific, revolutionary socialist movement. Socialism cannot be rammed down the throats of the majority against their wishes. We have the glorious task of arousing our fellow workers to speedily introduce socialism. The alternative facing us is socialism or chaos. Our task is primarily that of arousing socialist consciousness, on the basis of evidence and unfolding events, that capitalism has outlived its historic usefulness and is now ripe for burial; that socialism is no fanciful utopia, but the crying need of the times; and that we, as socialists, are catalytic agents, acting on our fellow workers and all others to do something about it as speedily as possible.

Members of the Socialist Party are wary of the use of the word, “radical.” Actually, socialists are not radicals in the usual usage of the word. We are, rather, revolutionary. Under the heading of “radical” must be included a hodge-podge of confusionists full of nebulous, vapid discontent based on blind misconceptions. What company is included in the term “radical”!

Of course, there is no question whatever that there is a need for “some sort of unity of understanding,” as many put it; but that is the function of a socialist organisation, i.e., a socialist party. The nature of a socialist party is that it is not for the workers. The party is not going to emancipate the workers or do anything for them. There is no dichotomy or separation between the workers and the party. It would be quite valid to say that the socialist party is the party of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers. The real socialist party cannot be apart and distinct from the working class; it has to be comprised of the whole human community. That is the general nature of any socialist party. The Communist Manifesto phrases this very well: Section II starts off that the party “always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole” and ends with “the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy.”  In other words, the work of emancipation, the transformation of capitalism into a socialist society, the transfer of the means of living from the hands of the parasites into the hands of society as a whole, is the conscious, majority, and political action of the working class — the socialist party. When the workers finally wake up, they will use their party to change the “civitas” of propertied society into the “societas” of communal society.