The Socialist Party's Practice

 

Environmentalists rightly show how many of our current production methods are unsustainable in that they damage the environment for the present and future generations. For example, they advocate a range of farm practices designed to reduce the need for high inputs of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Integrated plant nutrition with a combination of organic and mineral sources of soil nutrients with tillage and crop rotation can increase crop production; and integrated pest management reduces the need for chemical pesticides by making use of biological controls to minimise disease and damage by pests. However, such methods could only be used to their full advantage when we eliminate the market forces that drives short-term, low-cost methods. This short-termism has prevented progress on a whole range of environmental issues.

We expect a majority of the workers of the world to become socialists, but not simply by clicking on to our website and visiting our social media outlets. Contrary to rumour, the Socialist Party does do not insist that the workers be convinced one by one by members of the party. We anticipate actual experience of living under capitalism, as well as obviously encountering the arguments of a growing number of already convinced socialists, to do the job.  We hold a stubborn insistence that socialism will be made by a socialist majority. The Socialist Party believe that the job of a socialist party is solely to make more socialists (and of course to get elected to all the representative bodies of the world and abolish capitalism when they convince a couple of billion people that it's a good idea.) It has no objection to workers, and socialists, getting involved in fights for partial demands but doesn't believe the party should do that. The party doesn't support anything (other than world socialism) because that might lead people to support the party for the wrong reasons.

The Socialist Party and its companion parties have as their objective the replacement of  capitalism with a global society of common ownership, voluntary work and free access, which is socialism. This society can be achieved if and only if a majority of the workers of the world understand and want it, in other words if most of the world working people are convinced socialists. This socialist majority will  elect socialist delegates to whatever democratic institutions exist, with the sole objective of legally abolishing capitalism. The Socialist Party considers that the Parliamentary process of the  democratic mandate would smooth the transition. We are also aware that the socialist majority might have to use force to impose its will under certain conditions and circumstances, but consider this unlikely.

Hence the sole purpose of the party is to (a) argue for socialism, and (b) put up candidates to measure how many socialist voters there are.

The Socialist Party is also unique among political parties in calling on people not to vote for them unless they agree with what they stand for. We  don't see it as the party's task to 'lead’ the workers in struggle' or to instruct its members on what to do in trade unions, because they believe that socialists and class-conscious workers are quite capable of making decisions for themselves.

 Capitalism (or property/class based societies in general) necessitates a state. Hence to bring about a stateless society which is what is meant by anarchism you need to get rid of capitalism. And that logically entails getting rid of the need for money and the market as well, very much echoing Engels to Cuno in 1872:

 “And since the state is the chief evil [for Bakunin], the state above all must be abolished; then capital will go to hell of itself. We, on the contrary, say: Abolish capital, the appropriation of all the means of production by the few, and the state will fall of itself. The difference is an essential one: the abolition of the state is nonsense without a social revolution beforehand; the abolition of capital is the social revolution and involves a change in the whole mode of production.”

The difference between socialists and anarchists is not over the aim of abolishing the State but over how to do this. Anarchists say that the first objective of the workers' revolution against capitalism should be to abolish the State. The Socialist Party says that, to abolish the State, the socialist working class majority must first win control of it and, if necessary, retain it (in a suitably very modified form) but for a very short while just in case any pro-capitalist recalcitrant minority should try to resist the establishment of socialism. Once socialism, as the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production by the whole people, has been established (which we have always claimed can be done almost immediately), the State is dismantled, dissolved completely We are not talking years or decades or generations here, but as a continuation of the immediate revolutionary phase of the over throw of capitalism.

We should be more demanding on labels we ascribe to people. The very words "socialism" and "communism" are connected with the idea that the means of production should be owned by society as a whole (or socially, hence "socialism") or by the whole community (or communally, hence "communism"). And it is far better that people who are opposed to it are not called "socialists" or “communists". Marx used the words 'socialism' and 'communism' in reference to a future society interchangeably. He did not use the word 'socialism' to mean 'the lower stage of communism' as distinct from the higher which Lenin did in his usage. Lenin's definition of 'socialism' or the 'lower stage of communism' differed from that of Marx in that it included wage labour ('All citizens are transformed into hired employees of the state ... and get equal pay') and commodity production, thus equating the transition period with the first stage of communism.

To Be Against War

 

Every annual Remembrance Day politicians shed crocodile tears for the dead and the sacrifice they made for Queen and Country.  

The fact is, it is not really politicians who cause wars. They are caused by economic competition, by the international struggle for foreign markets, trade routes and sources of raw materials. The  Socialist Party explains that the cause of war in the modern world is to be found in the inevitable economic rivalries among dominant, competitive capitalist groups in capitalist society.

Peace is possible but not until production for sale and private profit is supplanted by production for use. The Socialist Party proposes that we put an end to the cause of war by organising to uproot the capitalist system. The workers in the developed nations have more than the necessary numbers to vote capitalism out and socialism in, a genuinely socialist society, resting on the basis of economic freedom. This new social system the workers alone can bring into being, thus forever putting an end to wars, and establishing the society of human brotherhood based on freedom, peace and abundance. Only one thing can prevent the chaos toward which the world is heading. That is the establishment of genuine world socialism. There is no acceptable alternative. We must establish a society in which private ownership of the means of life will be replaced by social ownership and democratic control; in which production for sale and the profit of a few will be replaced by production for the benefit and use of all.  Poverty, insecurity, unemployment will be eliminated. War-breeding struggles for markets will be a thing of the past. Totalitarianism will be impossible. Everyone will lead a full life, contributing his or her fair share of the work and receiving his or her fair share of the total social product. We shall have laid the material and economic foundation for social harmony, peace, plenty and liberty, on the basis of international human brotherhood. 

The problems that make living so difficult today -- problems of poverty, slums, unemployment, crime, water shortages, air and water pollution and many more -- have been with us for a long time, a very long time. These problems are not peculiar to the country where you dwell  They exist in varying degrees in every nation. Every politician who runs for office promises to do something to alleviate or eliminate these evils. Despite these promises, and despite the reform efforts, these problems have defied solutions. The basic cause of our problems is the capitalist system under which we live. Capitalism today is an outmoded decadent social system. It has been so for a long time.

The  Socialist Party does not accuse individuals of deliberate efforts to engineer wars. Instead, we say the capitalist class generally, will do whatever they believe is necessary to protect, strengthen and preserve the capitalist system, the system that in the final analysis is the cause of war. For it is the economic facts and factors that control leaders and their actions -- leaders rarely control events, or at any event not for long.

 "I claim not," said Abraham Lincoln, "to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

Similarly, Napoleon remarked, “I found all the elements ready at hand to found an empire. Europe was weary of anarchy, they wanted to make an end of it. If I had not come probably someone else would have done like me . . .”

Conflicts are propelled by forces beyond the immediate control of individuals, regardless of the prior hopes and intent of individuals, leading to a termination of the precise nature of which even the most far-visioned cannot perceive at this moment.

We believe that the working class must, at last, come to understand that the competitive capitalist system of private ownership of the land and plants of production, means of transportation, mines, etc., is, in fact, the basic cause of the present state of world anarchy, and of wars, declared and undeclared. To avoid future wars, therefore, the capitalist cause must be abolished. Society must be reorganised on socialist lines, replacing private (and state) ownership and competition with social ownership and cooperation. We must make the factories, communications, mines, transport, and all the other means of social production the common property of society so that we can produce things to satisfy human needs instead of for the profit of the few. Only then can the competitive, war-breeding struggle for international markets, spheres of influence and sources of raw materials be ended. Only then will the nations of the world have an economic foundation for lasting cooperation, harmony and peace.

Socialism -- genuine socialism -- is literally the hope of humanity.

 The Socialist Party has devoted all its years to the collective study of the social question, offers a programme to accomplish this change to socialism peacefully. In the name of sanity, we urge you to study our principles and to help us bring to birth a society in which all of humanity can live in peace and freedom.

Sympathy and emotion for a good cause are laudable. But without a sound premise and attainable goal, they can only lead to failure and despair. The crying need of our time is not protest marches for limited and impossible objectives, but determined, unrelenting action to awaken the working class to the imperative need for a socialist reconstruction of society, and to enlighten them on the principles and programme for accomplishing that social change in a peaceful, civilised manner. At this late hour on the social clock, it is the only way to strike a decisive blow for peace and freedom for the workers of all nations. All else is futile and hopeless.

Militarism is part and parcel of a capitalist system based on profit-motivated production, the private ownership of the economy by a tiny capitalist minority, and the exploitation of working people. It is the means by which the capitalist minority enforces their political and economic will both at home and abroad. Accordingly, an effective antidote to militarism can only be fashioned by a working-class movement that organises workers to effect a basic transformation of society. This is the programme of the Socialist Party - to organise workers into mass organizations capable of wresting control over society from the capitalist minority and of creating a worker-controlled economy that will serve our collective needs and free us once and for all from the unspeakable horrors of militarism.

Our Revolutionary Alternative Society

 Capitalism is the organisation of brutality and chaos. The world is crying out for socialism, the democratic control of production by the producers and the worldwide planning of resources. The Socialist Party believes that capitalism is a system of private and state accumulation and profit, that is inherently a system of inequality, injustice, and war. We want a social system where social wealth is not in the hands of a few billionaires but is collectively controlled by the people. Human needs cannot replace profit as the driving force of society unless working people administer their workplaces and their communities. To end exploitation, the working class needs to struggle for its own interests. Our enemy is capitalism. In order to fight the enemy and win, we have to understand the enemy. Under capitalism, a handful possesses the communications, factories, mines, land and transport networks. We are fighting this system.

A socialist is an internationalist. It is nationalism that divides the working people so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few scraps the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose! It is nationalism that pits groups of workers against each other with the most hideous rage, while their respective oppressors pursue a little fun in the sun. Nationalism serves the capitalist class in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods. Any nationalism finally implies that people born on one particular patch of land are better than all others born by accident elsewhere. We are all the victims of nationalism that preaches superiority and inferiority.

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we actually aiming for? And how was this new society to be achieved? These questions, long a subject of debate, is receiving even more attention today because of the momentous changes taking place. We have much to teach and learn from each other. Realising socialism’s potential requires flexibility and innovation. Socialism can only be built if the majority of the people support it actively involved in building it. The building of a classless society involves the participation of millions of people not only through their votes but also in the actual administration of various levels, bodies of self-organisation in all spheres of social life. Decisions can be best taken at the factory level, others again at the neighbourhood, local, regional, national, continental and finally at the world level. Global decision making would be all those decisions necessitating a redistribution of human and material resources to ensure the elimination of the ills of underdevelopment – hunger and disease. The second would cover priority allocation of genuinely scarce natural resources – those which could be depleted absolutely, and of which no minority of the human race has the right to dispossess the next generations; only the living population of the world in its totality has the right to decide here. The third would include everything affecting the natural environment and climate of the planet as a whole; all those processes which can pollute the air, the water and the land, destroying the ecological balance. Such an interconnected and conscious resource allocation, of coordinated planning and self-management, would be much more efficient than either a free-enterprise capitalist market economy or a State-controlled command economy. The workers are able to manage production.  Delegations of workers from the various factories, different industrial sectors will regularly be organised to have discussions with each other, exchange experience about production, discuss the quality of and problems with the products supplied by them, and so on. Planning is crucial. But planning cannot simply be left to experts and specialists. Let the working class operate industry.

The socialist revolution will usher in a new epoch in the history of mankind. We are living in the most industrialised and technologically advanced countries in the world. Socialism as a society is dedicated to the interests of the working people. The basic means by which society produces its wealth – factories, mines and farms – are transferred from private to common ownership, and exploitation eliminated. Socialism unleashes the creativity of the people, who are capable of tremendous progress when not toiling under a system of exploitation. Socialism replaces capitalism worldwide because it is economically superior and will provide a better quality of life for all people. Socialist planning means the allocation of resources according to socially established priorities instead of according to blind market forces and the rule of profit. 

Co-ops - False Hope

 

Cooperatives have been associated with working-class movements for a very long time. Things like worker-owned co-ops are great in theory, but they're not immune to the driving forces of, and the logic behind, the global capitalist system of production and exchange they find themselves in. In order for more neighbourhood-centred, worker-friendly, and/or worker-owned businesses to sprout and flourish, a more socialised economic 'field' needs to replace the current undemocratic one in which we presently plant our seeds of enterprise.

The  Socialist Party has nothing against working in a 'workers cooperative' if it means better conditions at work under capitalism and being treated better. We can have a little bit of improvement in our days of drudgery under capitalism and needn’t wait for the Glorious Day of the Revolution? Co-ops are not the panacea as presented by some, but they can improve the lives of a few of us. Co-ops don't exist outside capitalism but you can at least have some say in how you are exploited which is an improvement for many. We would all rather work for a business that at least treats us tolerably well and like human beings rather than making us miserable. However, seeing cooperatives as anything other than a partial palliative at improving one's working condition is definitely a huge mistake.

Setting up co-ops is not a revolutionary strategy or one which advances the interests of the working class as a whole, and as such isn't something we should promote. There are also dangers with it as described in the Mondragon example, in that workers at a capitalist enterprise facing pay cuts can take direct action such as strike action against it. But workers at a co-op cannot do this as they would just be striking against themselves. Another issue is that there are those on the right who are encouraging workers to set up cooperatives to take over some social services - to privatise public services much as the Irish government farmed out social services to the Catholic clerics in the past and describing such approaches as ethical consumerism.

The cooperative movement was easily integrated into the capitalist system and, in fact, was to a large extent an element of capitalist development. Even in bourgeois economic theory, it was considered an instrument of social conservatism by fostering the savings propensities of the lower layers of society, by increasing economic activities through credit unions, by improving agriculture through cooperative production and marketing organisations, and by shifting working-class attention from the sphere of production to that of consumption. As a capitalistically-oriented institution, the cooperative movement flourished, finally to become one form of capitalist enterprise among others, bent on the exploitation of the workers in its employ, and facing the latter as their opponents in strikes for higher wages and better working conditions. The general support of consumers’ cooperatives by the official labour movement – in sharp distinction to an earlier scepticism and even outright rejection – was merely an additional sign of the increasing ‘capitalisation’ of the reformist labour movement.

If factories anywhere fell into the hands of workers’ cooperatives tomorrow what would happen? Since workers at the moment all over the world are committed to capitalism because they have not yet grasped any alternative method of organising society, these factories under ‘workers’ self-management would continue to produce commodities for sale. It would simply be a question of the workers driving themselves, holding their own whips, managing their own exploitation. The factories will be run on socialist lines only when the goods they turn out are no longer for selling on the internal and world markets and when the people working in them have no need for wages.