The SPGB - the liberation party

The Socialist Party has never embraced the belief that capitalism would inevitably, with scientific certainty, lead to the socialist revolution. We have insisted that socialism is not inevitable but desirable. It is the task of socialist organisations to bring the vision of socialism to life. "The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves". No "saviours from on high" will free it.

 Socialism requires the constant, conscious and permanent participation of the great majority. There is no automatic socialist future, no guaranteed progress and no “final crisis of capitalism” leading by itself to the socialist utopia: the choice between socialism and barbarism is still open, and its outcome depends on each one of us. 

It is the Socialist Party's view that the interests of all men and women are represented by the working class – the only class which had nothing to lose from the destruction of capitalism. In other words, the abolition of classes, allowing for the free development of all people, would be possible only following the triumph of one class – the working class. The working class (in the broadest meaning) is a decisive and central component. 

A social revolution can only take place providing the working class itself is conscious of the need to change society and is prepared to struggle. The overthrow of exploiting society is not a military operation to be planned by a secretariat of armchair generals. Its success is dependent on the disintegration of the capitalist institutions more than on their military overthrow but unless the military can either be won over or neutralised, then the taking of power is impossible. 

Socialists must help break down the false divisions between workers. Most people do not at present see the need for socialism. Is a future socialist society Utopian? We completely reject this idea. We believe that people engaged in class struggle and from their experience of it do draw conclusions which are fundamentally socialist in content. Men and women want to be something more than well-fed servants. The desire to be free is not some sort of pious desire. The pre-condition of this freedom is, of course, freedom in the field of production - workers' self-management. There can be no real freedom and no real future for humanity in an exploiting society. 

The path to freedom lies through the socialist revolution. The resentment of working people today against the stifling and degrading relations imposed upon them by class society provides the strongest driving force towards the socialist future. Exploiting society constantly seeks to coerce people into obeying its will. It denies them the right to manage their own lives, to decide their own destinies. The real challenge of socialism is that it will give to men and women the right to direct their own fate in a spirit of free association.

 Socialist consciousness demands more than a knowledge of history. It demands an understanding of today's reality and not through those self-appointed and self-perpetuating leaders who "interpret" the Marxist canon and relate them to today's events. 

When the running of an organisation by its members is replaced by control from above, vitality is lost and the determination decreases.