"Their airses are oot the windae"

We are not a part of the "Left". We are opposed to measures which tinker with and attempt to reform capitalism. The "Left" on the other hand have kept their agenda well hidden, if it has a discernable revolutionary current, it isn't obvious, indeed, even their active supporters appear afraid to engage with any discussion about what socialism is.

However, it has been a "Left" tactic in the past where they are hypocritically asking workers to vote for a parliamentary party to get reforms which you know you can't get, on a road which they dont support, to socialism, which is not defined except, that it is recognisable as another state capitalism. The Socialist Party is opposed to such trickery of workers. This left-wingers call socialism. Such cynicism and hypocrisy allied to political opportunism is breathtaking. It started quite early this, Tommy Sheridan, at a radical book fair held in Edinburgh outlined his view of socialism which was nationalisation - with the maximum and minimum permitted wages of worker being in the ratio of 4-5:1, he added, that this lessening disparity of income was realistic as a society where equality of income existed wasn't realistic. Besides making him a “socialist” who doesn't believe in socialism, the society he mentions retains every feature of capitalism and therefore could only ever be a bastardised capitalist society.

Simply, the "Left" are not socialists. Lesson number one for would-be Leftists.

Even limited equality can not be achieved, while retaining the profit motive - It is economically impossible .

We on the other hand are quite explicit that socialism is, the common ownership and democratic control of all the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and on behalf of the whole population. In other word a free access society. We stand for the original idea of socialism.

Untrammelled by statist failures, indeed we predicted all of these failures. The "Left" appear to want to administer capitalism with minimum levels of wage slavery permitted in this.
Far from splitting the "Left", we, in the Socialist Party despise the "Left" for its political cowardice (being unable or unwilling to describe socialism to workers and nail their true colours to the socialist mast), of opportunism (interference in workers struggles and grass roots movements to subvert them to their cause), and for its pretensions (of presuming to know what socialism is, and presenting itself as the leadership to-wards it).
As the only Socialist Party we urge workers to "Abolish the wages system." We insist that socialism is an immediate and practical possibility, requiring only a majority of workers who know what it is, who desire it and are willing to organise as equals, without a vanguard of political leaders forming an elite and a cadre of misinformed workers, as their expendable cannon fodder and irrelevant pawns. Unlike the Leninist-Trotskyite, and former CP-er Stalinist Left, we dont, as Lenin said, regard workers, "left to their own devices as being only capable of achieving trade union consciousness"
What exactly is the purpose of the Socialist Party standing in elections? To put the case for socialism, as no others do this, made by workers seizing control of their own destiny and working for socialism , without the leadership of vanguardist organisations or any other leadership. The Socialist Party does not look for support or supporters, rather we insist, on the contrary, that workers learn what socialism is, and join us as equals to bring it about. We dont wish to lead them. They will not need leadership if they make themselves socialists. Far from having no link to working class people, we are the working class who are organised for socialism, admittedly pitifully small, though we are, but we dont lie to workers by pretending that by voting for reforms, or any other measure, they are supporting socialism. We do not intervene in workers struggles, except as workers in struggle.

Isn't standing against the Left is simply splitting the Left and helping the forces of capitalism? We are standing against all the capitalist parties, this inevitably includes the "Left" as they support a reformed capitalism with them as the new bosses, retaining wage labour capital, government control, and their platform reflects this. The "Leftists" ARE the forces of capitalism. 

Simply put, we are the only revolutionary alternative to capitalism. It is by insisting that left-wing style reforms can ameliorate the conditions of workers, and that this equates to a "socialist" response, the "Left" and any and all others who so mistrust the workers, that they can't describe the socialist alternative to them, are the reactionary element, leaving workers confusedly equating socialism with these tired and out-moded tried and failed remedies of the last century (the Labour Party, the Communist Party, social democrat parties of all stripes.)

The Socialist Party has an honourable record since 1904 of never selling socialism short and insisting it is an immediate and practical goal, requiring no other minimum demand, now that the vote has been won, that it can only be brought into existence by the workers themselves, comprising a majority, who know and understand what socialism is, a free access global society, without nation states. We don't pander to nationalist sentiments, following slavishly Lenin's silly "Imperialism as the highest form of capitalism" dogma.

Our demand is the world for the workers and not for some new state-capitalist entity, or a permissible level of wage slavery. In fact, the "Left's" platform is even less radical than the Old Labour one, where mistakenly, they thought they were ushering in a new era, and piously mouthed phrases such as "we are the masters now" and "socialism will come like a thief in the night " .

Matt Culbert

(slightly adapted)