The Socialist Party cannot guarantee a peaceful road to socialism. There are many varieties of non-violence, some are by no means, passive docility, there are occupations, sit-downs, blockade pickets, non-cooperation, collective actions that go beyond turning the other cheek of 'Christian' pacifism. We advocate a world-wide social revolution that would make all that is in and on the Earth the common heritage of all mankind to be used to provide an abundance of wealth to which all could have free access according to need. This essentially peaceful revolution can only occur when the great majority of people in all countries are in favour of it and organise democratically to carry it out. It involves a rejection of all nationalism and all attempts to solve problems on a national scale.
Democracy must be the basic principle of both the movement to establish socialism and of socialist society itself. If a majority of workers really were as incapable of understanding socialism as many on the Left maintain, then socialism would be impossible since, by its very nature, as a society based on voluntary cooperation, it can only come into being and work with the conscious consent and participation of the majority. Socialism just cannot be imposed from above by an elite as envisaged by the Left. Political action must be taken by the conscious majority, without depending upon leadership. It is upon the working class that the working class must rely on their emancipation. Working class emancipation necessarily excludes the role of political leadership. Even if it could be conceived of a leader-ridden working class displacing the capitalist class from power such an immature class would be helpless to undertake the responsibilities of democratic socialist society. Valuable work may be done by individual teachers, writers, and speakers, and this work may necessarily raise them to prominence, but it is not to individuals that the working class must look. The movement for freedom must be a working-class movement. It must depend upon the working class vitality and intelligence and strength. Until the knowledge and experience of the working class are equal to the task of the revolution there can be no emancipation for them. There is just one political party that when it contest elections appeals to the electorate not to for it unless they understand and accept and want what they want. An uninformed voter is dangerous and should stay home on election day. It is better to not vote at all, than to cast a ballot with a lack of knowledge. The only factor in all the material conditions of today that are standing in the way of socialism is the political ignorance of the workers.
There can be no socialism without socialists. The lack of socialists is all that stands in the way of socialism. The revolution cannot be rammed down the throats of the workers against their understanding or desire. In the name of building up a socialist movement, some Leftists have emasculated their socialist principles. Socialism is possible, necessary and practical today the moment the great majority become conscious of their interests. In order to equip themselves for their own emancipation, the workers must acquire the consciousness which alone can enable them to do so. This consciousness must comprise, first of all, a knowledge of their class position. They must realise that, while they produce all wealth, their share of it will not, under the present system, be more than sufficient to enable them to reproduce their efficiency as wealth producers. They must realise that also, under the system they will remain subject to all the misery of unemployment, the anxiety of the threat of unemployment, and the cares of poverty. They must understand next the implications of their position – that the only hope of any real betterment lies in abolishing the social system which reduces them to mere sellers of their labour power, exploited by the capitalists. They will see then, since this involves dispossessing the master class of the means through which alone the exploitation of labour power can be achieved, there must necessarily be a struggle between the two classes – the one to maintain the present system of private (or class) ownership of the means of living and the other to wrest such ownership from them and make these things the property of society as a whole. This is the struggle of a dominant class to maintain its position of exploitation, on the one hand, and of an enslaved and exploited class to obtain its emancipation, on the other. It is a class struggle. A class which understands all this is class-conscious. It has only to find the means and the method by which to proceed, in order to become the fit instrument of the revolution.
There is but one political party that does take the issue of leadership seriously and it has had no leader. The Socialist Party is made up of people who have joined together because they want to rid the world of the profit system and establish real socialism. The Socialist Party is a leader-free political party where its executive committee is solely for administrative duties and cannot determine policy (or even influence party policy by the submission of resolutions to conference) All the EC meetings are open to the public and their minutes available for public scrutiny on the internet as proof of our commitment to transparency and democracy. We do possess a General Secretary but he or she holds has no position of power or authority over any other member. All our conference decisions have to be ratified by a referendum of the whole membership. Despite some very charismatic personalities in the past, no one person has held undue sway over the direction and workings of the Party. It is a political party that is an organisation of equals. The longevity of the Socialist Party as a political organisation based on agreed goals, methods and organisational principles which have produced without interruption a monthly magazine is an accomplishment that most other political organisations can only aspire towards.
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