It is time for action and the time left is short

On the political field the Socialist Party has no common ground with any other political party; being a working-class organisation, we have all the “sympathy” in the world with members of our class. This "sympathy” is shared by many members of the capitalist class, who are always prepared to shed a tear for the underdogs of that class and to throw charity at them. But our “sympathy” finds practical expression as a political body in seeking to show the way out through socialism. Anything short of that leads to muddle-headedness; it delays understanding and therefore is detrimental to socialism. To be told this may hurt the feelings of the enthusiastic young leftist lad or lassie; it may bring painful surprise to the conceited old fools who were a “socialist” long before you were born.

The Socialist Party holds that the material factors in the capitalist world have ripened to the point of plucking the unexpected fruit of socialism; the harvest awaits reaping; the banditry of a decayed feudalism, glorified Banksters and Factory Robber Barons are now stage- at the gates of the Socialist Paradise. The really effective enemy barring the way is the slimy monster wooing Eve with the deadly apple of Reform.

A socialist organisation cannot seek alliances with groups dominated by, or subordinated to, a capitalist ideology. The Socialist Party is right in its insistence that socialism will come, not as the result of impersonal economic processes, not in consequence of the manipulation of the masses by astute demagogues, but only when the majority of the workers consciously desire socialism. One of the main arguments of the opponents of the Socialist Party is that which accuses us of being "dreamers" because we claim that the working class are astute enough to establish socialism without the use of leaders. True, the Socialist Party not only denies the necessity of leaders in the socialist movement but declare that socialism cannot be established until workers have dispensed with the notion of leadership.

Throughout the ages, men and women in their struggle for survival have continually turned to the strongest and the wisest among them for inspiration and courage in their battles with nature and with each other. To-day, however, when everyone has access to the knowledge needed for the achievement of socialism, and the necessities of life are produced in abundance, there is no longer any need for "chiefs". The minimum knowledge that a wage slave requires before he or she is fitted to take his or her place in the revolutionary struggle is easily obtained, and well within the range of proletarian comprehension. Workers must know they are poor and why, and must then find the solution to their economic problems. What does this imply? The knowledge of a Marx and Engels or comprehension of Hegelian philosophy? Certainly not!

It is sheer impudence and indeed megalomania when leftist vanguards claim that by trusting them, the workers will, in consequence, become free men and women. The Socialist Party has continually attacked and exposed these "pseudo-socialists," who are among the working class's greatest enemies. We have stated that the workers must emancipate themselves, and establish the new society, not with the aid of “leaders," but in spite of them!

Workers must learn that they are poor because they sell their labour power to a master for wages; which at all times are at a subsistence level. They must understand that in a capitalist society wealth is produced for sale at a profit. They must realise that the capitalists are able to live in abundance because of the poverty of the masses and that the latter are dispossessed of the goods they produce by masters who in the main take no part in the production, but who nevertheless own and control all wealth.

When we all assimilate that basic knowledge we will then have the mental capacity to immunise ourselves to the false slogans mouthed by nationalist and religious leaders. We will treat with contempt the rogues and who said we were too ignorant to know the solution to our own social problems. The conclusions we will draw are socialist conclusions, and we will realise the necessity of organising for political action within the workers' own party, the Socialist Party. By capturing control of the State machine, workers will abolish private property, and convert the means of producing wealth into the property of society as a whole. This will end for all time poverty, social degradation and war. Such, then, is the minimum knowledge that the exploited class need to acquire. With it, socialism will be something easily understood, enthusiastically acclaimed; and the worker will laugh disdainfully at the futile and absurd idea of the necessity of leaders.