The Essence of the Socialist Party

What does the Socialist Party seek? Nothing less than a social revolution, a complete transformation of human society from its base. That is not a little thing. It is about the biggest job that any body of men and women have ever set out to do. And what means are at our disposal in which to perform this task. We have nothing than people like ourselves. Apart from the tremendous forces set in motion by the economic development - forces which are hastening the revolution more rapidly every day, and which make it, as we believe, inevitable - the revolutionary instrument we have been trying to forge is a proletarian political party, conscious of the present class subjection . So far, our efforts in this direction have not been particularly successful. But what of it? Didn't we know, when we were first founded in 1904, difficulty of our task? Didn't we know it would take years and years? Didn't we know that we should meet with set-backs? Didn't we know that many of our members would go their graves without even a glimpse of that free co-operative com­monwealth of which they were unquestioningly assured, and which, even in their lifetime, seemed so near? How many years ago is it since Morris wrote the words: "Only three little words to speak: We will it!"? But the people do not will it yet!

The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working-class themselves. There is no other way. The socialist movement is fundamentally a movement for the emancipation of the working-class, they cannot be emancipated against their will, and so far we have not succeeded in inspiring them with that consciousness of their present enslaved condition, that passionate desire for their own emancipation, which is essential to an active, aggressive revolutionary move­ment on their part. That is where we have failed. But is the failure due to our own fault, or should it cause us discouragement and despair? We believe not. If we saw others succeeding where the Socialist Party has failed we might conclude that the fault was ours. We have been frequently and constantly derided by rival organisations and critics, nevertheless, we do not see that they have succeeded any better than we have. Over and over again attempts have been made to show what a poor, hopeless lot of ineffectual cranks we of the Socialist Party were, and they presented their own maps for the road to socialism. But they were lost in side-tracks , in dead-end short-cuts and lost in the by-ways of history. We claim that the road we have marked out is the right road, and that no other party has, as yet, discovered a better way and that whatever may be the sins of omission or commission with which we have to reproach ourselves, it is scarcely a fault to be laid to our charge if those to whom we appeal deliberately refuse to take the road we point out to them, and persist in continually marching up and down a blind alley.

The Left have not rallied the workers to any greater extent than the Socialist Party have done, and only achieved greater success in this direction in so far as their socialist ideas have grown more hazy and the vague principles less definite. It is not pleasing to dwell upon these failures to organise a mass socialist working-class political party. We would have been delighted had any one of them suc­ceeded. We could then have heartily joined with them in their work, rejoicing in their progress. But alas...The cause of our own lack of success cannot be centred on our own error because the present position of the socialist movement is one that is not a matter solely of the failure of the Socialist Party to rally the workers under our banner and into a class-conscious political party, but the failure of all bodies which have attempted the task. It is a quite common mistake on the part of young, enthusiastic activists to envisage the working class as in a state of dis­content, seething unrest , latent revolt, only waiting for a strong lead to spring into vigorous militant action. Such ardent activists soon, as a rule, become discouraged by disillusionment. But we know better - have always known better. Our fellow-workers for the moment are imbued with bourgeois ideas; unconscious of its own subjugated position as a class; unconscious of the essential class antagonism of the capitalist social order, and reverential towards the master class. And add to this conservatism, the readiness of the ruling class to adopt - and to adapt to their own ends - any ameliorative measures. Measures of social reform which we first formulated as stepping-stones to­wards a complete revolution, in the teeth of the bitterest opposition from all quarters, have been in many cases adopted in a modified form, and even where that is not the case they are no longer opposed but are generally admitted to be necessary and beneficial. Those handicaps are sufficient to account for our failure. But it ought not to overwhelm us with despair.

In the direction of building up a class-conscious working-class Socialist Party is where we have still to bend our efforts with renewed energy. Agitate, Educate, Organise! And above all, Organise! Let us look to and eliminate the faults and defects of our own organisation, for it is not free from them. The causes which have operated to prevent our success in rallying the whole working-class to our banner do not supply the reasons for the fact that so many avowed, earnest and active socialists are outside our party. Let us enquire into these reasons and if possible remedy them. Are we, as is sometimes alleged, too narrow, too sectarian, too intolerant? Are we too discourteous, not to enemies, but to would-be friends and allies? Do we seek to antagonise people rather than to win them? These are searching questions to which it may be worth while to give some considera­tion.

There should be no heresy-hunting; no nosing out of non-essential points of difference;. but rather a seeking for essential points of agreement - In things doubtful, liberty; in things essential, unity; and in all things, charity; courtesy and forbear­ance to each other; good comradeship - as among a body which is organised to fight a world in arms against it; to have the word "comrade" less frequently on our lips and its spirit more constantly in our hearts; to disarm hostility and to bring together all comrades and friends into a united Socialist Party, a live, active, vigorous instrument for the realisation of the emancipation of humanity.