Revolution is not only a possibility, it is a necessity

The socialist movement is almost suffocated by reformers. Every crying evil of capitalism has its devoted band of would-be reformers. What a vast and formidable force would they be if they united for the abolition of the wages system. The horrors of capitalism are world-wide and ever growing, they cannot be cured a bit at a time. All over the world, in all the great cities, are horrible and indescribable slums. People are mentally and physically starved, and repressed in a thousand different ways. All the means of production lie in the hands of private holders. The motive of industry all the time is profit-making, not the supplying of things for the people’s use. Yet it is possible to produce everything that we need in spacious surroundings and decent buildings, and for people to enjoy life to the full. Socialism means a system of society where men and women organise together to produce the things they need, and having produced them in co-operation enjoy them freely. This does not mean a stilted uniformity, but a satisfaction of individual requirements. Socialism means that all men and women will become individuals for the first time and will have individual expression of thought and feeling. The Socialist Party seeks a new world, a class-free world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. There is only one thing in the way of realising this wondrous state of things, and that is the realisation of its possibility by the rest of the workers. Help us to spread the knowledge and waken our fellow-workers so we can transform this hell of capitalism into a cooperative commonwealth for the benefit of all. Working people, wake up! The time has come to open your eyes and see things as they are. You have been hoodwinked and robbed and enslaved long enough. Line up with your class in the great struggle for freedom. Transform the whole world into one cooperative commonwealth, and bring about real human freedom and Brotherhood of Man.

The theory of the Socialist Party is based on Marxism: Marxian economics, the theory of the class struggle and the materialist conception of history. Marx supported certain wars. The Socialist Party does not.? Is the Socialist Party not Marxist or was Marx wrong? One of the dangers of dogmatism, of going by quotations, is that the historical context is lost. Mid-nineteenth century Europe was a different place from the modern world. Marx’s support for wars and nationalist insurrections must be seen against the background of Europe a hundred years ago. Socialism grew out of the European revolutionary democratic movement which the French Revolution had triggered off. Marx and Engels, in Germany in 1848. had played an active part in this movement and they shared many of its assumptions. Socialism is only possible on the basis of large-scale industry as developed by capitalism. However, at this time. Europe was in danger of being dominated by powerful feudal forces — the Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria. These powers had already been used to crush uprisings in Italy, Hungary, Poland and Germany. Marx felt that in these circumstances there was a very real danger that Europe might be overrun by these feudal powers, particularly Russia, thus putting off the social revolution for decades. This fear of Tsarist Russia explains Marx’s support of the Franco-British side in the Crimean War and also of Polish nationalism.  An independent Polish nation, was supposed to be a shield against Russia for a revolutionary Europe.

The task of the Socialist Party is to spread socialist understanding among the working class. This is not done by suggesting that “defensive” wars should be supported by workers, nor by confusing the interests of the working class and bourgeoisie. It was a mistake for the socialist pioneers to entangle themselves in the international power struggles between the capitalist class and feudal nobility. Apart from anything else, they provided an opportunity for the leaders of the social-democratic parties, when they supported the slaughter of the First World War, to claim that they were following a precedent set by Marx and Engels. This made the task of the Socialist Party all the more difficult when it sought to explain that there were no interests at stake which could justify the shedding of one drop of working-class blood. Marx’s position on war was thus mistaken. Looked at in the context of the historical conditions of the nineteenth century, it is understandable how he arrived at this point of view. But, although we can see the reasons for his error, this makes it no less an error. As it happened the feudal powers did not overrun Europe. They grew weaker and were destroyed completely as a result of the First World War. By the turn of the century capitalism had conquered the world and there was no danger of a feudal reaction. All wars were now purely capitalist, disputes between rival imperialist powers. The purpose of the Socialist Party is quite clear: to struggle uncompromisingly and consistently for the establishment of socialism throughout the world.