As we oppose, we must also propose.

“The enemy on whom we declare war is capital, and it is against capital that we will direct all our efforts, taking care not to become distracted from our goal by the phony campaigns and arguments of the political parties. The great struggle that we are preparing for is essentially economic, and so it is on the economic terrain that we should focus our activities.” -  Kropotkin

Workers cannot get straight improvements under capitalism —they all have strings. Wages may improve, but with a big demand for labour, up go rents and the price of food and necessaries. So that, overall, it might be said that in spite of the fantastic technical developments of the last decades—the fundamental position of the remains the same. And this, after hundreds of reforms and scores of political leaders. The Labour Party was born out of the idea of working-class political action. Many of its prominent figureheads claimed to be socialists. Even more than this, they claimed to be "practical" socialists who knew the way to get socialism. But the myth of the working class moving steadily forward to socialism by Labour governments is well and truly finished. Labour once used to be a reformist party which claimed to be able to impose socialist values—democracy, equality, co-operation not competition—on capitalist society. It was an impossible project of course which was bound to fail because capitalism can only work as capitalism. Capitalism offers to those who administer it just a choice of evils.  Now Labour is an openly capitalist party trying to impose capitalist values on those who haven’t absorbed them. How right was the Socialist Party to have had nothing to do with the Labour Party from the start.

We are inclined to accept the view that a terrible apathy exists and it is not as unhealthy as it would appear. The workers may not yet have awakened to the need for socialism, but they are beginning to demonstrate that they at least realise that so far whatever party they have voted for no change ensues for them—hence the abstentionists are the real majority—they continue to accept capitalism, but they are not voting for it. We believe that, especially among such people, real effort on our party can carry the day and convince them that there is something worth voting for. The fact that we are small numerically does not mean that the influence of our propaganda is not being felt; many people are quite prepared to vote and think with us to the exclusion of all others, even if they are not prepared at this stage to join us. 

Capitalism is tremendously wasteful and destructive of men, goods, power, land. The ultimate destiny of all useful goods is to be consumed. Yet under capitalism goods are not produced to be consumed, but for profit, and if a greater profit can be made by destroying the goods, the destruction takes place. A capitalist system that prioritises profit and market growth over all else is the mortal enemy of a sustainable economy that satisfies needs rather than stock portfolios. Capitalist crises provide essential fuel for the growth of far-right politics. In times of crisis, we can either look towards solidarity or turn inward in xenophobic fear. Far right demagogues harness and promote fears of difference and anxieties about joblessness and financial ruin when leftwing alternatives fail. When so-called "socialist" political parties enact brutal austerity measures, they open the door for the far right as the lesser evil.

 With so many people now aware how much harm and misery profits can cause, the socialist alternative appears more clearly as the way out. If people come to see that profits themselves only exist because a minority have unjust possession of what the majority need, and this dominant class exploit both with damaging anti-social consequences, then all that unfocused anger would linger, politicians’ gibberish and worthless promises would be ignored, and there would be ever-increasing support for common ownership of vital industries and other productive assets, along with politician-free democratic control over how these are used. This is genuine socialism. It has never existed anywhere. It would make restrictive and dangerous money completely obsolete. Take a little time to find out more about this people-first system before your next trip to the polling stations.

 We are a Socialist Party because socialism alone is based on the facts of working-class existence. Socialism alone can free the workers from the necessity of selling themselves for the profit of a master. Socialism alone will strip all of us of our merchandise character, and allow everyone to become a full social being. Debates about reformism vs. revolution have waged for generations on the left. But now we are on a deadline. We need to organise socialist movements to gain political power and shut down capitalism that threatens our existence. We must recognise that the climate crisis is the most acute symptom of our failure to abolish capitalism.

The Socialist Party measures working-class progress in terms of its heightening awareness of its needs and aspirations. Consciousness in short, of its liberating rôle in history. Do workers realise the necessity of their building trade-union organisation that is independent of the employing class? Do they know the value of the strike weapon—and its limitations? Do they value and exercise hard-won electoral rights and the right to dissent? Do they become more and more convinced of the need for a change in the very basis of present society if humanity is to survive and to reach its proper stature? These are our criteria.

Nationalism teaches the worker to identify with his or her ruling-class. The Socialist Party says that the worker has no country and should recognise his common bonds with workers everywhere. Each new state that is set up has as its number one task the inculcation of a sense of differentness into its school-children and of their loyalty to a piece of territory quite arbitrarily arrived at. 

 If the workers vote for capitalism, then they will get what they vote for. Workers who want socialism will vote only for socialist candidates. The Socialist Party is unique among the political parties in this country is being prepared to put forward candidates fighting on that issue alone, socialism or capitalism. At present, the number of workers who want socialism is few in comparison with those who want capitalism. That unfortunate position can be remedied only by socialist propaganda. It is not helped, but hindered, by voting for one in preference to another of the parties which stand for private or state capitalism. There are differences, and real differences, between the capitalist parties, but the differences do not touch the subject condition of the working-class.