We Want Freedom for All

The Socialist Party is made up of workers who share agreement on some simple generalisations. Our bond of comradeship is rooted in the acceptance of the barest minimum of socialist principles which are

1. Socialism is a product of social evolution;
2. The socialist revolution is inherently democratic because of its nature of being conscious, majority, and political;
3. Socialism is based on the social relations of a community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole.
4. 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;
5. Capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, war, crises, etc.;

The times call for arousing the majority to become socialists to construct socialism, which is now possible and necessary.

To establish socialism, the workers must first gain control of the powers of government through their political organisation. The state is the central organ of power in the hands of the capitalist class. The state has through the ecades demonstrated its function as the executive committee 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 need the working class has of 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. We emphasise that the ballot is the lever of emancipation.  We urge the socialist majority to vote for socialism, and socialism alone. If the workers ever rely or depend on the Socialist Party, then the Party may well indeed sell them down the river but nothing could be more repugnant to a member of the Socialist Party than the idea of voting for it so that they might do something for the workers. We are uncompromisingly opposed to any leadership policy or principle!  We are organised for action to change the world from capitalism to socialism. We are not concerned with the problems of administering capitalism. Capitalism cannot be administered in the interests of the working class or of society as a whole. 

 The Socialist Party is always prepared express solidarity in the economic struggles between the wage slaves and their parasitic masters over the division of the wealth produced by the workers. We also always support the fight for civil and human liberties. Workers who are satisfied with the status quo, are contented slaves and poor prospects for socialist revolution. Civil liberties are powerful tools for socialist victory. What stands in the way of socialism, today? It is not the limitations of technology, nor of the material conditions of existence. It is not the lack of literacy, scientific information or democratic forms. The only material condition lacking is a majority of class-conscious revolutionary socialists determined to inaugurate the new social system. Building that majority is the task of the socialist movement. Our great ally is the workings of capitalism and the lessons of experience. That is the latent strength of socialism. Once the workers wake up and the ideas of socialism spread like wildfire, they have the tools ready to hand — the vote. All that the capitalist class can do is to submit to the inevitable.

The Socialist Party does not advocate reforms nor fight for reforms, that does not mean that it refuses to accept reforms. However, reforms and reformism are just because their objectives are palliative in nature and are fought for in order to make the system function more smoothly. Historically, reformism has dissipated the earnest energies of so-called socialists from doing any socialist work. Once achieved the need to protect the gains of the reforms is an all-time job. Reforms are efforts to introduce measures into the legal machinery of the State for making the operation of capitalism more efficient. The difficulties that arise from the irreconcilable contradictions of the system require “remedial” measures. Thus the advocacy and fight for reforms, such as nationalisation, social welfare, tax relief, and the host of proposals as can be found in the programmes of all the parties that are geared to the amelioration of the conditions of life with a view to a better administration of capitalism.

But we have to distinguish activities that some like to equate with reformism but we consider not to be..

1. Workers going out on strike over wages, hours, work-shop conditions, have as their objective resistance to increased exploitation. The economic phase of the class struggle, trade unionism, is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a reform. It is undeniable that many unions do engage in reform activities. Workers are compelled to organise into unions by the very conditions of capitalism, i.e., the division of the new value produced by the workers into its two component parts: variable capital (the workers’ share) and surplus value (the capitalists’ share). Through the mechanism of unionism, the workers, over the long run, sell their commodity, labour power, at its value. 
2. Socialists fighting for civil liberties, the right to free speech, to publish and distribute literature, removing restrictions from the franchise and similar activities strengthen the workers' movement to get rid of capitalism — and have nothing to do with reforming the system. The strength of the socialist movement is that it is the task of the vast majority. Democratic procedures are the essential conditions for the social change we are working for; they themselves are the special products of the material conditions of the 20th century. Civil liberties are revolutionary weapons in the hands of socialists and the socialist majority. This is not a reform activity.

The fight by workers for their economic interests within the framework of capitalism is the economic phase of the class struggle. The fight for civil liberties within the framework of capitalism is a manifestation of the highest expression of the class struggle, its political phase.