Edinburgh Branch Meeting

7pm, Thursday, May 2nd
The Quaker Hall, 
Victoria Terrace (above Victoria Street), 
Edinburgh EH1 2JL

The Socialist Party has clearly stated is that to achieve socialism requires a clear understanding of socialist principles with a determined desire to put them into practice. 

For socialism to be established the mass of the prople must understand the nature and purpose of the new society. Our theory of socialist revolution is grounded in Marx's - the position of the working class within capitalist society forces it to struggle against capitalist conditions of existence and as the workers gained more experience of the class struggle and the workings of capitalism, the labour movement would become more consciously socialist and democratically organised by the workers themselves and would require no intervention by people outside the working class to bring it. 

Socialist propaganda and agitation are indeed necessary but would be carried out by workers themselves whose socialist ideas would have been derived from an interpretation of their class experience of capitalism. 

The end result would be an independent movement of the socialist-minded and democratically organised working class aimed at winning control of political power in order to abolish capitalism. Marx’s concept of the workers’ party to be was a mass democratic movement of the working class with a view to establishing socialism. This the Socialist Party still aspires to become.

We challenge capitalist apologists and pseudo-socialists in the battle of ideas. Our fellow-workers' acceptance of capitalist political and social ideas, like other beliefs are learned from other people - parents,  schoolteachers,  workmates, and the influence of the mass media and social media.  It follows therefore that the struggle against capitalist ideology must  also be a campaign to spread socialist ideas - a role taken on by ourselves. 

Socialist ideas arise when workers begin to reflect on the general position of the working class within capitalist society. The socialist view have to be communicated to other workers, but NOT from outside the working class as a whole. They have to be communicated by OTHER workers who, from their own life experiences and/or from being imbued with the past experience and knowledge of the working class, have come to a socialist understanding.

 It's not a question of enlightened outsiders bringing socialist ideas to the ignorant workers but of socialist-minded workers spreading socialist ideas amongst their fellow workers. We see socialist consciousness as emerging from a combination of two things - people's encounters with  capitalism and the problems capitalism inevitably creates but in addition, also the activity of socialists voicing the case for socialism as a part of peoples' experience.

We regard socialism not as a purely political theory, nor as an economic doctrine, but as one which embraces every phase of social life. The fact of the longevity of the Socialist Party as a political organisation based on agreed goals, methods and organisational principles seems to suggest that we indeed represent some strand of socialist thought that some people are drawn towards.

The Socialist Party does not minimise the necessity and importance of the worker keeping up the struggle over wages or to resisting cuts. There are some signs that union membership and general combativity are rising. And let's not forget that this is vital if our class is to develop some of the solidarity and self-confidence essential for the final abolition of wage slavery.

 We fully acknowledge the necessity of workers' solidarity in the class struggle against the capitalist class, and rejoice in every victory for the workers to assert their economic power. But to struggle for higher wages and better conditions is not revolutionary in any true sense of the word; and the essential weapons in this struggle are not inherently revolutionary either. It demands the revolutionising of the workers themselves. If there were more revolutionary workers in the unions—and in society generally—then the unions and the host of other community organisations would have a more revolutionary outlook. But the Socialist Party also cautions that participation in the class struggle does not automatically make workers class conscious. Militancy on the industrial field is just that and does not necessarily lead to political militancy, but ebbs and flows as labour market conditions change – and militants in the work-places can in no way count on their supporters on the political field. 

We do not say workers should sit back and do nothing, but that the struggle over wages and living conditions must go on. But it becomes clear that this is a secondary, defensive activity. The real struggle is to take the means of wealth production and distribution into the common ownership. Only by conscious and democratic action will such a socialist system of society be established. This means urging workers to want something more than what they once thought was "enough". The Socialist Party can be accused of wanting "too much" because our aim is free access and common ownership. The task of the Socialist Party is to show workers that in fact it is a practical proposition and to transform this desire into an immediancy for the working class.