No Is Not Enough

Socialism will be achieved by socialists; by the deliberate action, that is, of those who, understanding. what is at the root of the present evils, know what is necessary for their removal. The existence of a considerable proportion of convinced socialists precludes the possibility of swaying the electorate by emotional appeals. Political bargaining exists because socialist knowledge is lacking. Without such knowledge neither the Socialist Party nor anyone else can give you socialism. Do not, therefore, waste time trying to dragoon the working class into striving for an object which they do not understand. Men and women who clearly recognised the cause of the workers' poverty in the private ownership of the means of production, and who realised that the spreading of socialist knowledge is the only permanent basis for working-class organisation would not have to go into battle with untrained troops, and would not risk finding themselves at the end of a life of ceaseless toil for their class, the disappointed leaders of a phantom army.

The working class are the people without property who in order to live must from lack of alternative sell the use of themselves in the labour-market. Wherever a wage worker confronts an employer the possibility of strife and conflict is born.  The worker lives by selling the use of his body—the employer lives by buying that use. It lies in the nature of things that the buyer should on instinct struggle to buy cheap and the seller to sell dear. Hence it was a foregone conclusion that the history of the relations between Employer and Employed—between “Capital” and “Labour”—should be one of constant enlarging and intensifying conflict between these two interests. A constant battle over the price of the commodity labour-power—over wages, hours, and working conditions—such is the history of the relation of Capital and Labour. The worker wants more money, the boss refuses. There are still fools who believe the relation between worker and boss is one of equality because “if the worker doesn’t like his job he can throw it up and look for another.”  However, no matter how often we changed our boss, never are we freed from the need to find somebody else to boss over us.

The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers, through their industrial and administrative organisations, must own in common and democratically control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. By its victory at the ballot box, and its consequent political domination, using unsympathetic bureaucrats who are appointed by our masters, the capitalists are able to enslave labour. Being appointed by the ruling class, who control the State, the bureaucracy can only maintain its position by serving those who control them. We are convinced that the present political State, with most of its attendant institutions, must be swept away. The political State is not and cannot be a true democracy. It is not elected according to the wants of the community. It is elected because the wealthiest section of society can suppress all facts through its power over the media. By its money the capitalists can buy up the news-outlets and then trump up fake election issues. The electorate is not asked to vote upon facts but only upon such topics as the TV and press, representing capital, puts before the workers.  It is through its political strength that the capitalists can deprive us of civil liberties. Therefore, in order to achieve a peaceful revolution, workers must capture the powers of the State at the ballot box and prevent the capitalist class from using the nation’s forces of coercion against the emerging socialist movement.  This destructive function is the revolutionary role of political action. But this destructive political function is necessary in order that the constructive elements in the revolution may not be thwarted. Thus, the political issue confronting the working class is the preservation of civil liberties and the destruction of the political State. All other questions, such as Brexit or free trade, are merely traps to catch the unwary workers and to persuade them to vote to preserve capitalism.

The Labour Party has no message for the working class. It outlines no method whereby the workers may destroy Capitalism and construct Socialism.  To think that Parliament can be used as the means of permanently improving the conditions of workers, by passing a series of statutes, is to believe in Parliamentarianism. The Socialist Party is not a parliamentary party. It believes in entering Parliament only as a means of sweeping away all antiquated institutions which stand in the way of socially controlling the means of production. The Socialist Party alone puts forward such a position. The Socialist Party is a revolutionary political organisation and therefore believes in revolutionary political action. It urges the workers to use their ballots to capture political power—not to play at politicians or pose as statesmen, but to use their votes to uproot the political State and to hand to the organs of the working class the constructive task of building socialism. 

The social revolution is now on. It is for us to bring it to its consummation by challenging and overthrowing all political institutions standing in the way of or emancipation.