Who We Are

We clearly see the socialist future and prepare the way for it. Capitalism can offer no prospect but the slaughter of millions and the destruction of civilisation. Only socialism can save humanity from this abyss. This is the truth. Our aim is to convince the majority that our programme is the only one which can put an end to capitalism. Society contains many contradictions which have arisen as a result of the fact that production has a social character under capitalism while ownership of the means of production is in private hands. In a world of abundance, we suffer from serious poverty and misery. 

There are only two classes–those who sell their labour power and those who exploit the labour of others.

The Labour Party has nothing to do with socialism. It is a programme to always rescue capitalism from its crises. The vast majority of British industry is corporately owned; by banks, by finance or insurance companies, by monopolies or by the STATE. These are all forms of capitalism in which capitalist property relationships remain intact. Surplus-value is still appropriated and production is governed through the market by the operation of the law of value and commodity exchange. These laws operate whether private companies or the state control production. The essence of capitalism is property relationships; ownership is merely a formal question, which can take MANY different forms. It is irrelevant to the real interests of the working people of Britain whether profits are in private or state hands. Campaigns for nationalisation diverts the fight for socialism to a fight for reformism and gradualism.

Working people will be guaranteed security, democracy, equality and peace only when our country is run on an entirely different basis than it is now; only when a socialist system replaces the present capitalist one. The new socialist system would mean that working people would collectively own the country’s factories and farms and they would plan production and distribution for their own needs. In order to have socialism workers have to be in control. 

The socialist revolution is not an endeavour of individuals or a select sect; rather, it is the endeavour of the exploited of all lands. On a worldwide scale, socialism is essentially connected to the rise and struggle of the working class. It is the only class whose liberation is impossible without the abolition of class society on a global scale. It is the class whose very functioning in the processes of modern society – based as they are on a collective process of production – predisposes it to reach an understanding of its own situation and the cause of its oppression, to combine with other exploited groups and classes for a common revolutionary struggle, and together with them to organise the life of post-revolutionary socialist society. The modern world is a single interlinked system, and as the ruling and privileged classes in all countries have interconnected interests opposed to the socialist revolution, it is a supreme duty of revolutionary socialists to act in mutual international solidarity, and to lend fraternal support to the struggle of every exploited and oppressed group of human beings against exploitation and oppression based on class, sex, nationality, race or religion. Capitalism is the foremost enemy of the socialist revolution: the revolution strives to overthrow capitalism, and the latter attempts to prevent and suppress the revolution.

Since the mass of workers, though predisposed by their condition to achieve revolutionary consciousness, do not achieve it automatically  it is incumbent on socialists in every country to combine in revolutionary organisations in order to disseminate revolutionary consciousness among the masses; to aid the mass struggle and to learn from it; to crystallise an overall revolutionary strategy and apply it in initiating struggles and working for unification and coordination of spontaneous struggle that break out on partial fronts; and to awaken in the toilers a consciousness of international solidarity. The revolutionary organisation must facilitate manifestations of self-initiative, self-organisation and self-activity of the masses in the revolutionary struggle, and propagate consciousness of people’s ability to control their own fate and to manage the social process autonomously. The revolutionary organisation must aid processes of social self-liberation. The role of the revolutionary organization is not to seize and hold on to power, but to work to the best of its ability for the seizure and retention of power by councils elected by the masses. Seizure of power by such councils is the hallmark and decisive step of a socialist revolution. The councils are a form of self-organisation of the masses: in the productive cells their function is to manage the process of production in each plant, subject to central planning, which will itself be determined by the masses through their councils. Council power, by its very nature, cannot be a rule of a minority against the majority, but constitutes the form of broad democratic participation of the masses in managing the social process as a whole. The councils at the various levels (an individual plant, a district, etc. – up to the council of regional at large) are democratically elected; the representatives constituting the councils do not enjoy any privileges and their mandate can be revoked at any time by their electors. 

Workers must unite with workers in all countries to win peace and socialism. Against the mad chorus of national hatreds we advance once more the old slogan of socialist internationalism: Workers of the World Unite!