What Now?

There is a prevailing assumption that the media is not to be relied on; that it is full of fake news and distortions. That assumption is largely a correct one and socialists have often exposed the veracity of the capitalist media. If there is any movement that is and must be based on objective truth it is the world socialist movement. No one should be able to question the facts which form the foundations of the theory and practice of that movement. To be a socialist means to be so scrupulous about factual matters that no listener or reader would assume to raise any doubt about them. The Socialist Party has earned for accuracy which is spotless. Nothing more dangerous to our movement can be imagined than the absurd thought that we should not report the exact truth. Any movement that is based on principles that cannot stand the test of critical examination is bound to rely on deception. The Socialist Party must be honest if some mistake do creep in it should be be immediately acknowledged and corrected. Only in such a way can the Socialist Party gain the confidence of the working class.

Socialism was born out of a criticism of capitalist conditions and capitalist theories. The emancipation of the working class from capitalism and from their degradation is the paramount problem of society. The only road to freedom for the workers and to equality is through their common struggle for the abolition of capitalism. The owning and employing class use every trick known to politics to dominate the state, from bribery and intimidation to fraudulent control of elections. Civil liberties nor human rights mean nothing if they stand in their way.

The Socialist Party maintain that our society is divided into classes based on groups of people standing in the same relationship to the means of production. Secondly, it holds that the interests of these classes are antagonistic and irreconcilable and that a constant struggle goes on between them over the division of the wealth that. society produces. Thirdly, the Socialist Party understands that the ability of the present ruling class, the capitalists, to maintain their power is due to their using their economic strength to control the government and use it as “an instrument of oppression” against the rest of society. We say that the ability of the present ruling class, the capitalists, to maintain their power is due to their using their political and economic strength to control the government and use it as “an instrument of oppression” against the rest of society.

To summarise, we live in a class society, that the dynamic force of that society is the class struggle, that the capitalist class maintains its position by control of the government, and that labour can only free itself by wrestling political power from capital for the purpose of building a class-free society. We accept that the possessing class is the ruling class by virtue of its control of the State. The government protects the capitalist class by protecting the source of its economic strength private property. It uses its control of government to decree what is called the law. It uses its control of government to enforce the law. The law is the will of the ruling class and its interests. Democracy literally means “rule of the people”. The master class maintains its privileged position because it controls the “rule by the people” by ensuring that the majority of people support the present system. Therefore the capitalist class controls the government only as long as the majority of the voters permit them to. Socialism cannot be introduced without public opinion supporting the socialist ideal. One thing seems evident. If we cannot get people to vote for our aim, there is little hope of getting them to take to the streets, much less to take up arms on behalf of the socialist cause.

The Socialist Party differentiates itself from the reformists in their conception of the state and the road to power. Gradualists argue that we can change society introducing one good law after another; and one fine day the workers will wake up pleasantly surprised to find themselves in the midst of a socialist world. The Socialist Party rejects the idea that socialism can be introduced by the constitutional amendments and the enactments of legislation and regulation. We say the State is an instrument to serve and protect the interests of the capitalist class and it is pure utopianism to expect that the working class can use that instrument for the ushering in of a socialist world. Socialists must be constantly teaching the workers that is not capitalist democracy and not the capitalist state which will bring us socialism.

The politics of the Socialist Party is utterly different in KIND from all other politics. Its aim is not to “improve conditions” or gain reforms or stop corruption or accomplish any other end within the framework of existing society; nor does it aim to win a parliamentary majority in “the government.” Its aim, the expression of the interests of the revolutionary class, is quite precisely to overthrow existing social relations, to abolish the existing state, and to engage in the task of establishing a new society. Non-revolutionary political parties, contesting for votes and office, represent different sections of the ruling class struggling for the major share of profits and privilege They are different groups seeking the lucrative control of the governmental bureaucracy, offering different theories of how best to maintain the existing order and keep for it the support or at least the acquiescence of the working class, with attempts to secure this by that reform or this concession for this for a particular section of the population. ALL varieties of non-revolutionary politics PRESUPPOSE the continuance of the existing order in its fundamental structure: that is to say in capitalist society. Non-revolutionary politics presupposes capitalist property relations, the exploitation of working people by the propertied minority, the continuance of their class domination and the maintenance of the capitalist state.

The Socialist Party breaks with the deceptions of conventional politics and opposes all reformist delusions, to pose directly the central issue: the class struggle for workers’ power and for socialism.