The Pestilence of Patriotism

"It is better to be a traitor to your country than a traitor to your class!"

So the Nicola Sturgeon is rallying her followers at another pro-independence parade today. On this march the word patriotism will be upon everyone’s lips and there will be much waving of the Saltire and the royalist Lion Rampant. The Socialist Party can agree with the Indian writer, Arundhati Roy that “Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” 

Patriotism requires allegiance to the flag, which means obedience and readiness to kill another father, mother, brother, sister. Scots claim to be a peace-loving people, opposed to violence and hate bloodshed yet Scots regiments policed the British Empire with brutality and swelled the Scottish hearts with pride. To-day we too often see the spectacle of the working classes uniting to applaud the crimes of their exploiters. Such is the logic of patriotism. The message of “My country right or wrong” will be seen for the abomination that it is. When we deny the patriotic lie, we clear the path for when all separate nationalities are united into a universal one family, where “Man to Man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that.”

The toxic poison of nationalism must on all occasions be heavily perfumed such words as liberty, freedom and self-determination. Socialists judges ideas not on the basis of ideals and wishes, nor of distant far-off goals, but on the specific answers to specific questions on concrete issues. So long as nation-state exists, people will hold a certain preference for the particular nationality into which they have been born, a bond of a common language, of a common national culture customs and traditions. But does it constitute a virtue to be so especially proud of, even justifying any and every action, of one’s nation? All socialists are internationalists. The belief that class solidarity and patriotism can be combined is erroneous.

If Scotland be our motherland then it is a cruel stepmother who we detest. Working class internationalism springs from the recognition that the working people of all lands have a common interest in creating a world in which the exploitation of man by man no longer exists. Scotland is not "our" country. The title and land deeds belong to our masters. Why should people strive for its independence? There are only two countries in the world: that of the privileged and that of the dispossessed. It is a fact known since the time of the ancient Greeks when Plato observed "Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another."

Our compatriots are not the Scottish capitalists. Our compatriots are our fellow-workers of the whole world, who wage everywhere the same battle as ourselves for the establishment of a better society.

Socialism has ended all national sentiments. Patriotism assumes that our planet is divided into little regions, each one surrounded by a wall and an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born inside these walls consider themselves better than those living outside. Such a belief poison the minds of the children and if need be the sacrifice of children in wars. The Socialist Party finds nothing reasonable to inspire any of our fellow-workers in the thought that they are slaves of one governmental system run by their masters rather than another and a rival one. Hence our adoption of the slogan “Proletarians of all lands unite.”

We all know what nationalism means today. A gang of thieves by fraud to acquire the office of government and gain the the seat power. There are those left-nationalists who tell us that socialism is international in principle, but not necessarily anti-national. But they forget to say that internationalism socialism must inevitably counteract the importance of the nation-state, and weaken the sentiment of patriotism. The cause of the working class is lost if they allow ourselves to be caught again in the net of nationalism. The left-nationalists try to persuade us that the resurrection of a nation of by-gone times is of primary importance rather than the unity of humanity. Nationalism is objectionable since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity, invariably at the expense of the welfare and interests of other peoples. Dedication to the socialist ideal rather than devotion to a patch of particular soil on which one happens to have been born is what motivates the members of the Socialist Party

If only the Socialist Party could persuade just one among all those demonstrating for national sovereignty for Scotland to see how you are being hoodwinked and duped by nationalist lies, and instead to join us in the World Socialist Movement to hasten the day when the working class of the world will finally abandon the national flags of their masters, and range themselves under the red banner of international socialism and solidarity, our efforts will not have been in vain. Let us do away with nationalism, patriotism and national chauvinism altogether and substitute in its place the “ internationalism” of the class-conscious worker. It is not a question of fighting for the political independence of one nation, but for a new society for all lands – for the Socialist Commonwealth.

“Ubi bene, ibi patria,” (Where it goes well with me, there is my country.)

The movement never dies

Socialism is an economic doctrine but it is an economic doctrine inseparably bound up with ideals concerning humanity.  The liberty aimed at by socialism is freedom of development for the individual as for society. This freedom is impossible under a regime of private property in the means of production. Marx never doubted that the emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves, and before him William Lovett and others in the London Working Men's Association (1836) firmly held that the workers could and must trust in themselves, not in leaders. Nevertheless, the other view has persisted, though with some changes of form. Almost alone among the parties the Socialist Party has consistently combatted those views. Are we right in doing so? Can the majority of the workers understand our case when it is presented to them? Is our slow progress due to some innate incapacity or—as we have always contended—is it due to capitalist propaganda and to the fact that our means of spreading socialist knowledge are restricted by our small resources and can only grow gradually? Are those people right who contend that the workers never will understand and that unless socialism can be achieved without working class understanding, it will never be achieved at all? Against all of the advocates of clever leaders using stupid masses stands the S.P.G.B. At the formation of the Party it was frankly recognised that knowledge is necessary and that the workers as a whole lacked knowledge—but not the capacity to understand and learn. Therefore the S.P.G.B. accepted that progress must lie slow, there could be no short cuts. In the Socialist Standard for February 1905 appeared the following typical declaration:

“The ignorance of the workers in the past has enabled the capitalists to possess themselves of the political machine. The workers all unwittingly have made the rod that is now applied to their backs. But what working class ignorance has done, working class enlightenment can undo. . . It is absolutely necessary that the workers shall see every step of the way clearly before they take it. Which may mean a slow advance, but it will certainly mean a sure advance." We in the Socialist Party know of no reason why other workers should not come to understand what we have come to understand. Some may develop more slowly than others, but logical understanding and action are not beyond the capacity of the majority. What we are up against is not an innate incapacity to understand, but the massive and tireless machinery of capitalist propaganda, including all the red herrings. No capitalist propaganda can for ever prevent the workers from becoming passionately interested in the failure of the capitalist system and the need to find a way out by their own efforts.

Reformism is a strategy; broadly speaking, it is the perspective that capitalist society can be transformed gradually, through a series of reforms, to meet people’s real needs.

Revolutionary Marxists, on the other hand, deny that reforms alone can eliminate the injustices of our society. Those injustices stem from the fundamental character of capitalism—so the system as a whole must be changed. In particular, working people must abolish capitalism’s repressive apparatus—the state, police, armed forces and bureaucracy—replacing them with democratic structures which are truly reflective of the needs and desires of the vast majority. The Socialist Party has carried on an unrelenting struggle against reformism in working class politics, attempting to break the working and its allies from reformist Illusions. To you, workers of the world, we address ourselves. AGITATE in the workshop, in the field, in the factory, until you arouse your co-workers to hatred of the slavery of which we are all the victims. EDUCATE, that the people may no longer be deluded by illusory hopes of prosperity under any system of society of which capitalists or landlords form an integral part. ORGANISE conscious of your historic mission as a class, you may seize the reins of political power whenever possible and, by intelligent application of the working-class ballot, clear the field of action for the revolutionary forces of the future.

Revolutionary socialism must be international. One harmonious system throughout the whole World. Everywhere society is in chaos and ferment. Climate crises and refugees from war are shaking up the thinking of millions. Nationalism is being revealed as capitalist snares to increasing numbers of workers, who are groping for a solution to their problems. Socialism is our only hope.

The dream of human liberation doesn’t die And the longer we go on without reaching that dream, the more determined we  become to achieve it.

Socialist Standard No. 1383 November 2019

November-2019-PDF Version

• Editorial: Towards a general election
  
• Pathfinders: Socialism – there’s an app for that
  
• Brexit and Democracy: The Value of Your Vote
  
• Cooking the Books I: Divided Business Elite
  
• Wood for the Trees: Through a Glass Darkly
  
• Material World: Hong Kong
  
• Climate Versus Capital: The Juggernaught of Profit
  
• Nuclear Threat: Resetting the Doomsday Clock
  
• St. Monday: Ye Old holiday
  
• The Barrier: Ex XR Member Gets Real
  
• 1989 and All That: The Fall of the Russian Empire
  
• Cooking the Books II: Lenders and Borrowers
  
• Knife Crime : Violence and Youth
  
• Proper Gander
  
• Where are we now?
  
• Reviews
  
• 50 Years Ago: The Red capitalist class
  
• Obituary: Norman Deutz
  
• Meetings
  
• Rear View
  
• Free Lunch
  

Out of the Dark and into the Light

The capitalist system is an exploitative system whose rotting carcass has to be removed by social revolution to allow humanity a new lease on life. The accumulated wealth of the capitalist class is wealth the workers produced but never got. Let the working class merely decide to use its labour and life for a better purpose than to sustain the capitalist and socialism will have a reasonable chance of being achieved and socialism in our time will be realistic. The SPGB seeks to win a majority of workers for socialism.

The solution to repressive laws is not better government but no government. The SPGB advocate socialism. Most who use this term understand by it a society which may (and usually does) include a coercive state, but the SPGB intend a society without the state. “The achievement of state power has never had any place within socialist thought. The state could never exist within socialist society” (Socialist Standard).

The socialist revolution will only be possible when there are enough convinced socialists who want it. the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.The social revolution must not lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat but to the abolition of classes. The state, the executive committee of the ruling class, exists to maintain this condition; replace private with common ownership and the state, losing its function, will disappear. People will work freely together to produce what they need, the productive power of modern technology enabling free access without the restrictions imposed by money or exchange. Reformism (the belief that society can be substantially changed by piecemeal palliative policies) has to be opposed. There can be no transitional period between existing society and the society aimed at. Superficially, socialism is a movement of the Left, but this is not strictly so, since it implies being part of the political spectrum. Socialists reject this, asserting that there is more in common between Right and Left political parties (including the struggle for power) than between even Far-Left political groups and the socialists. The SPGB represents the interests of the working class. We have never flinched from the struggle against capitalism and never forsaken the principles, of socialism.

The Socialist Party has neither a leader nor a hierarchy of committees, and it repudiates the principle of leadership. Organised as local branches, the members of each electing their own officers independently of Head Office (which serves as hardly more than a clearing-house) and sending delegates to the annual Conference, it works throughout on one person one vote and simple majorities. Subject to a minimum of procedural rules any branch can bring any issue before Conference and Conference decisions bind the Executive Committee (which, like the Party officers, is elected annually by vote of the whole Party). A majority of the members controls the organisation and its officers. It emphasises that socialists must think for themselves and control their own affairs, stressing that the society intended, being class-free would also be state-free. It would use Parliament to do away with both Parliament and the state, carrying out the change from government of people to administration of things by majority vote.

Many men and women have contributed to the great body of socialist theory. Among these certain names stand out for their exceptional contributions – for example, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who built the massive foundations of scientific socialism. There are others as well, giants who in knowledge, practice, and organisation advanced the revolutionary movement immeasurably: for example, Joseph Dietzgen, Anton Pannekoek, and Rosa Luxemburg, as well as lesser known such as Paul Mattick. . Each of these was a creative contributor to socialist theory and organisation, and from them we have learned, as well by their disagreements as by their agreements, the method and meaning of Marxian principles.

Capitalist society is rushing headlong into a form of barbarism. So long as the mad struggle for profit in this private property economy exists, and it must exist as long as capitalism exists, economic chaos is forever the prospect of life and environmental destruction are forever the reward of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of all countries. Then there are the vultures who gorge themselves on profit in war, as in peace, whose main occupation is to exploit workers for their own class benefit. While all the capitalist nations are incapable and unwilling to produce in the interests of the common good of the people, while production is organised solely in the interests of profit, technology in the interests of society as a whole remains stagnant. Automation and robotics which could lighten the lives of the people and produce enough to have plenty for all, is impossible in an economy where the main aim of those who own the industries, mines, transportation and utilities is production for profit.

The General Election

So it looks like 12^th December is going to be agreed as the date of the General Election. As is our usual policy, we are standing only token candidates in this general election to ensure that the voice of socialism is not entirely lost. It is unfortunate that the Socialist Party is unable to contest any constituencies in Scotland. But, that does not mean our voice will not be heard.

We don’t believe any politician can solve capitalism's problems, as long as the flawed basis of our society remains intact. In fact, we believe only you and your fellow workers can solve these problems. We believe that it will take a revolution in how we organise our lives, a fundamental change. We want to see a society based on the fact that you know how to run your lives, know your needs and have the skills and capacity to organise with your fellows to satisfy them. With democratic control of production we can ensure that looking after our communities and our environment becomes a priority. Together, we have the ability to run our world for ourselves. We need to build a mass socialist movement to effect that change. Our candidate makes no promises except only to be the means by which you can re-make society.

The Socialist Party is standing alone as a party which aims at the capture of political power by the working class, to abolish capitalism and replace it with a society based on common ownership of wealth production and distribution and making that wealth freely available to everyone. That is socialism – the only alternative to capitalism and its political parties. If you agree with this aim, then this is the most important general election ever for you.

Our Future is Now

The coming hope the future day,

When wrong to right shall bow,

And hearts that have the courage man

To make the future NOW”

Ernest Jones, Chartist

The Socialist Party aims to remove the capitalist anarchy of production, which today is again leading to economic crisis; a crisis which, as in the past, the working class will be made to pay for, unless it puts an end to the capitalist system. Today the contradictions of capitalism threatens to plunge the working class into the chaos of climate change. Inherent in the realities of capitalism, historically and down to the present moment, have been a deep authoritarianism and inhumanity. Such things threaten the very survival of humanity. This is the capitalist system, which some reformists work day and night to save. Today this is often called “getting our priorities right”. Working people will not break with their exploiters and their machinery of deception.

Capitalism is the right of private property, the right of a few to own and control the means by which all must live, the right of the owners of the means of production to use it to exploit the rest of the community in the interest of their personal profit, the right to determine what shall be produced and how, regardless of the misery and wretchedness of those who produce it. Capitalism is the right to exploit, the right to rob, the right to over-produce and cause crises, the right to compete, and cause wars. These are basic cause of capitalist ills. To exist economically, the capitalist must accumulate; not that he wants to or doesn’t – he must accumulate in order to live. To accumulate, he must be assured profit. To profit, he must exploit labour. There is no other way. No one, no genius, not the greatest, has discovered another way. Capital always seeks to intensify exploitation; labour always and necessarily seeks to resist exploitation. Capitalism seeks what is rightfully its own, from its point of view: the maximum that it can get out of the worker. Labour seeks what is rightfully its own: that’s why it forms class organisations, labour unions. Now what is rightfully labour’s own, at least from our point of view?

The abolition of the right of private property, and instead the common ownership of the means of production, so that all may enjoy the fruit of their labour, and consume it, thus eliminating the crises of over-production, and the crises of wars is the socialist answer. Socialism demands the common ownership and democratic control and management of the means of production and exchange for the benefit and welfare of the people as a whole; nothing less than that suffices. We base that upon the fact that capitalism, which is founded upon and cannot exist without the ownership and control of the means of production has brought society almost literally to the edge of a precipice, where it cannot guarantee security to the people, cannot guarantee peace to the people, cannot guarantee brotherhood to the people, cannot guarantee abundance to the people. Any social system which cannot guarantee those to the people stands condemned. The only way to replace capitalism, the only socialism.

The development to socialism is inevitable because just as feudalism replaced slavery, and capitalism feudalism – all based upon the right of private property – so capitalism, having enormously developed the productive processes on a social basis, has reached the stage when, because of the private ownership of those processes, the system has become a fetter on production itself. What is in question is how much more of the ills caused by capitalism, from wage servitude to atomic war, we have to go through, and that depends upon all of us, upon you. Capitalism produces its own grave-diggers, the wage workers and they reach a point where it is no longer possible to live, they see the limitations of the trade union struggle in the persistence of insecurity...private ownership must go, common ownership must plustake its place, socialism. It is capitalism, economic and environmental crises and war – or socialism, freedom, economic planning and peace. Private wnership on the one hand, non-ownership of the means of production on the other hand

“Nature furnishes its wealth to all men in common. God beneficiently has created all things that their enjoyment be common to all living beings, and that the earth become the common possession of all. It is nature itself that has given birth to the right of the community, while it is only unjust usurpation that has created the right of private property.” - St Ambrose (340-397 AD) 

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.

No To Nationalism

The Radical Independence Campaign's conference at the weekend in Glasgow has come and gone. Invited speakers of the likes of Tariq Ali, SNP, Catalan and Basque politicians along with various political activists have had their say and declared their positions. The Socialist Party was not among the invited guest speakers and our message would have been one that would not have been welcomed.

In the struggle to win the minds of the working class one of the biggest obstacles to the establishment of socialism, is nationalism ― the loyalty and patriotism felt by many members of the working class towards "their country." Feelings of loyalty to a nation are purely subjective, having no basis in reality; the working class in Scotland has more in common with the workers in other regions of the UK and in other countries than it has with the any Scottish capitalist. Like it or not, but nationalist movements represent the interests of a section of the capitalist class. Nationalism can take on a "right-wing" or a "left-wing" form. This depends upon the position of the capitalist class in the particular time and place. However, once independence is achieved and the new ruling class has consolidated its power, then nationalism becomes a conservative force.

The Socialist Party opposes all nationalist movements, recognising that the working class has no country. But there are certain other groups the left-nationalists in Scotland who, though claiming to have a class outlook, possess a wholly opportunist attitude to nationalism, which reflects not so much the interest of the working class as it does a certain part of the Scottish business. They accept the mythology of the existence of "the Scottish nation" and espouse the right of people of each nation to self-determination and national sovereignty. Scotland is a nation; Scotland is not Britain; and the Scots have a right to decide whether or not they wish to have any association with the rest of the UK. This is a complete denial of Marxism; it is almost incomprehensible that people who call themselves as “socialists” should call for the right to re-establish Scottish nationhood. The Scottish independence is in essence no different from any other nationalist movement; it has been brought into being to further the ambitions of a fledgling native capitalist class to break away from Britain.

Some on the Left resort to the argument argued Marx and Engels supported particular nationalist movements and that therefore socialists should do so today. Such an assertion is based on a faulty understanding of the Materialist Conception of History. Marx and Engels were living in time when the bourgeoisie was engaged in a struggle to assert itself against the old feudal regimes. The victory of this class was a historically progressive step at that time in that it brought about the re-organisation of society on a capitalist basis, the essential pre-condition for the establishment of socialism; and it created an urban proletariat, the only class which can bring about socialism. This was why Marx supported the rising capitalist class in Poland and Ireland in their bid to capture political power. They were at the same time vehemently against the nationalist aspirations of many Slavic peoples. However, once capitalism reaches the point where socialism is a practical proposition, there is no need for socialists to advocate the capitalist industrialisation of every corner of the globe; they can concentrate fully on the task of establishing socialism. Hence the Socialist Party gives no support to any nationalist group, and in place of the opportunism and hypocrisy of the left-nationalists, our call is for "Workers of All Countries, Unite!"

Socialist Principles

The basic principles of the Socialist Party are that reforms (‘palliative measures’) will not change the position of the working class; that the goal is the abolition of all classes; and this can be achieved by the organised working class seizing power, expropriating the capitalist class, and socialising the means of production. Socialists hate capitalism with our heads and with our hearts because we see in it an out-dated social system, an anomaly in our present world, holding back that wonderful development of technology and resources that the present state of our knowledge could turn to the well-being of the people. We see in it a social system that carries within itself slumps and wars, poverty amid plenty, exploitation and oppression. All of us in the Socialist Party want to end it as soon as possible. Our aim is replacing the present capitalist system by socialism, understood as a society where there will be common ownership of the means of production and distribution. socialism is a society where the means of production and distribution are socially owned, in the hands of the working people.

Socialism is a society where material wealth will be in the hands of those who produce it, where the exploitation of man by man will be ended, where production will be used not for private profit, where a new relationship of fraternity will develop between peoples based on equality, where individual men and women will find totally new possibilities to develop their abilities. Although we strive to replace capitalism by socialism, we all of us believe that it is both possible and essential to fight now, within capitalism to defend and improve the immediate lot of the working people. We understand therefore the great importance for the Socialist Party which is working for a new social order to give their support to those organisations of the people whose main present concern is improving conditions under the existing social order. We therefore support such organisations as trade unions and community organisations. We see both the need and the possibility to win the overwhelming majority of the population for the fight against capitalism and for socialism and see the working class as the driving force in the advance to socialism. Marxists and the practical experiences of the international working class movement has shown that without the winning of political power and the transformation of the state, no successful advance to socialism is possible. We Marxists believe that this has always been and remains true. This after all is the essence of the old conflict of revolution versus evolution, because revolution means in essence a change of political power.

As Marxists we do not believe that the state in Britain is in essence different from the state in any capitalist country. We do not believe that it is neutral or above classes, and we do believe that in order to advance to socialism it is necessary for the working class majority to take political power out of the hands of the capitalists and to transform the State so that it becomes an instrument of the will of the majority in expropriation of the capitalists and the abolition of capitalism. We do not stand for violence, but if violence should be used by the old ruling class against the people, then the people themselves will, with all legitimacy behind them, have to find appropriate methods to deal with it. The enemy is modern capitalism. British capitalism is the oldest, most cunning, most skilled, most experienced in the world. It is no mean enemy to overcome and we would do wrong in any way to underestimate it. To defeat capitalism we need all our resources, and the issue of the moment is how best to bring them together in unity for the common struggle.

The Labour Party and their left-wing hangers-on possess a platform that is reformist when the task is revolutionary — that is, socialist. While capitalism is moving out to slash the many gains already won, straight-jacketing organized labour with anti-union laws, cutting down on social legislation, they talk in terms of the affluent society and the amelioration of class conflicts. They project a perspective of merely removing what they present as minor defects in the existing capitalist order of things, of patching capitalism up and making it more tolerable, instead of a perspective of fundamental change with a leadership preaching conciliation, peaceful co-existence with capitalism, not class struggle against it. In desperation they are attempting to shore up the system. Capitalism promises the people not amelioration of conditions but austerity, oppression, and either nuclear destruction of mankind or the environmental destruction of humanity. Only through an irreconcilable struggle against capitalism, towards its elimination and the establishment of socialism, will the people of the world find the full freedom, equality and democracy for which they aspire. Despite the campaign of lies and distortions about the socialist viewpoint we are confident that developing realities, together with the conscious participation of all who consider themselves socialists will offer the people the powerful leap forward on the march to a socialist world.

Bringing it Together

Standing in the way of social progress is the capitalist class. The ruling class control the destinies of millions of others around the globe. In opposition to this minority is the vast majority of the rest of the population. In the final analysis, the conditions of life for 99% of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the ruling class. The capitalists are a powerful enemy and it will require protracted efforts to overthrow them. This class is the enemy of the revolution and the vast majority of the people. These capitalists live off the exploited labour of others. The vast majority of people belong to the working class. The working class produces the wealth appropriated by the capitalists and its basic interest lies in the abolition of the private ownership of the means of production.

Socialism means a class-free society, and a classless society means that a privileged minority of the population are not in a position to enjoy the national wealth, while the majority live only on their labour to produce it. It means especially that privileged individuals who do have excess income cannot invest it in the instruments of production with which others work, thus reducing them to a position of fixed subservience. It means an end of rent, profit, and interest on stocks and bonds, an end of “surplus value,” an end of the exploitation of labour. To all those other cultural goods of which we have been speaking, this economic change was regarded by socialists as pre-requisite and fundamental. Socialism means fewer officials than capitalism, not more. It is capitalism, with its huge bureaucratic organisation of administrators, directors, managers, under-managers, foremen, sales managers, advertising agents and production experts that outweighs – at the expense of the ratepayer – the official against the operative side of industry.

Socialism has a future and Marxism retains its validity. Revolution does not fall out of the sky. It requires organization–an organization committed to this goal. After we have overthrown the capitalists we will establish socialism. It will put an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for people. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. Industrial democracy will wrest the earth from its exploiters and its vast and inexhaustible storehouse will yield abundance for all. The growth of socialism is the promise of freedom. What the people want they can't have. The trouble is that they have been too patient and too modest, but one of these days they are going to realise that this earth is theirs, and then they will take possession of it in the name of the humanity. Politically the people are not yet ready for socialism. They do not understand that the capitalist system is not capable of feeding, clothing, or sheltering them. Because of this political backwardness they are capable of seeing only their immediate ills, and hence are capable of making only immediate and emergency demands. Because of the political backwardness the struggle for socialism is small and isolated. The burning problem of the day for millions is to construct the bridge between the present political backwardness of the masses and the socialist revolution. But they can see the surrounding plenty. They can see the fertile fields full of crops. They can see the packed warehouses, the idle machines. And they can see just as clearly the empty plates at their dinner table. They can hear their children crying for food. They can feel all the horrible misery of the rotten conditions, the shame and degradation in which they are compelled to live. We are convinced that in spite of all the difficulties the ideas of socialism will continue to grow in strength, that socialism will conquer. The workers are in the majority, and their interests are in line with Socialism, which may, therefore, be realised as soon as they desire, and are resolute enough to put their desires into practice.

Capitalism has only known how to cause humanity misery and unhappiness; socialism will establish peace and harmony among men and women. Socialism maintains and proves that there is only one solution to the social problems as it presents itself in capitalist civilization: it’s that all the centralized labor instruments, such as the railroads, factories, textile works, mines, large farming properties, banks, etc, become common property and be given over to the associated workers, who will operate them , not for the profit of a few capitalists, do-nothings and thieves, but for the benefit of the entire community. This transformation of capitalist property into common property will create social well-being. The anarchic production of capitalist civilization , which only knows how to engender the poverty of the producers with its overabundances of merchandise and its periods of overwork and of unemployment, will be replaced by nationally and internationally regulated production, calculated according to the needs that are to be satisfied. Industrial inventions and improvements, no longer serving to enrich a few individuals, will increase the means of leisure and enjoyment of all members of society.

Socialism is international, just like capitalism. But whereas the internationalism of the bourgeoisie is continually frustrated by the mutual competition of national capitalisms, the internationalism of the workers is nourished and perpetually strengthened by the active solidarity of the interests of all the workers, regardless of their nationality. The situation of the workers is identical in its essential features throughout all capitalist countries. Whilst the interests of the bourgeoisies of different lands unceasingly conflict one with another, the interests of proletarians coincide. the social revolution cannot count upon success unless at the outset it involves, if not all, then at least the major capitalist countries. For this reason, from the moment when the workers begin to become aware that their complete emancipation is unthinkable without the socialist reconstruction of contemporary bourgeois society, they take as their watchword the union of the workers of the whole world in a common struggle for emancipation.

Organisation and Consciousness

Capitalism, by its method of production, has brought isolated workers together and constituted them as a class in society. Capitalism has made the workers a class in themselves. That is, the workers are a distinct class in society, whether they recognise this fact or not. Historical development calls upon this class to reorganise society completely and establish socialism. To do this, the workers must become a class for themselves. They must acquire a clear understanding of their real position under capitalism, of the nature of capitalist society as a whole, and of their mission in history. They must act consciously for their class interests. They must become conscious of the fact that these class interests lead to a socialist society. When this takes place, the workers are a class for themselves, a class with socialist consciousness. How are the workers to acquire this consciousness – this clear, thoroughgoing understanding of capitalist society, their position in it, and the need to replace this society with socialism? In the factory, the worker tries to get better wages and working conditions from the employer. If he cannot get them by a simple request, he soon learns the need of union organisation with which to enforce his requests and to defend himself from attacks by the employer. He learns, too, that the workers must resort to political action in order to influence the government in their interests. He and all other workers are forced by capitalism to engage in the class struggle. The thinking of the workers, which guides their fight, is based upon the ideas of the capitalist class, acquired directly from the capitalist media. What the workers still lack is a fundamental and thorough understanding of their real position in society and of their historic mission to establish socialism. This lack of a socialist consciousness reduces the effectiveness of their organisation, of their struggle, and prevents them from accomplishing their mission in society.

To imbue the workers with this rounded-out class consciousness, or socialist consciousness; to organise and lead the struggle for socialism – that is the specific function of the Socialist Party. It is composed of those workers who already understand the nature of capitalism and the historical task of the working class. Their aim is to develop the same understanding among all the workers, so that they no longer fight blindly, or with only one eye open but with a clear and scientific knowledge of what their class enemy is, of what the working class itself really is and of what it can and must do in society. They and their party therefore have no interests separate from the interests of the working class as a whole. It makes clear to the workers the full meaning of their fight. It shows how even the local struggles, against one capitalist, are really class struggles against capitalism; how the local struggles must be extended on a national and international scale if the workers are to win a lasting victory. It points out the political meaning of the economic struggle. It shows how the workers must organise as a class to take political power, and use it to inaugurate socialism. It combats the open and the insidious ideas of capitalism so that the working class as a whole may be better equipped to fight its enemy. To put it briefly, the Socialist Party is needed to win the working class to the principles of socialism. Socialism will never come by itself. It must be fought for. 

Without an organised, conscious, active mass socialist party, the triumph of socialism is impossible. To judge the different parties, it is necessary to check on their words and their deeds. Socialism cannot be achieved, and the workers cannot effectively promote their interests, without class consciousness. Class consciousness means an understanding working class, a self-confident and self-reliant working class.The socialist who has no conscious understanding, cannot work to make non-socialist workers conscious of their task.

The Socialist Party represents a long and rich tradition. The Socialist Party knows the nature of the capitalist class and its long, brutal history, some of which is known to every worker. It is proud of the fact that its principles are founded on the teachings of the greatest scientific thinkers of the international working class, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Socialist Party describes itself as Marxist which merely signify it stands firmly on the basic principles of the greatest teachers in the history of the working class. The Socialist Party champions the idea of social revolution. What is a social revolution? It is the replacement of one ruling class by another. History is filled with such revolutions and in almost every case they made possible the progress of society. The socialist revolution is simply the overthrow of capitalist despotism and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism can be established by the workers gaining a majority of the votes for their candidates to public office. Once they have been elected in sufficient number they can introduce socialism relatively painlessly.

Capitalism is a world system, and it can be thoroughly destroyed only on a world scale. The Socialist Party is internationalist because it considers nationalism reactionary and the brotherhood and equality of all peoples of the human race the highest social aim. It is internationalist because it understands that the class-free socialist society cannot be established within the framework of one country alone. It is internationalist because it considers that national frontiers have become an obstacle to social progress and a direct contributing source to conflicts and wars. Socialism cannot conceivably be restricted to one country, no matter how big it is. Socialism is world socialism, or it is not socialism at all. Socialism means peace and freedom for the entire world. That is why the Socialist Party endeavours to promote an international organisation, to build unity and solidarity of the working class. The Socialist Party itself is only the link of a world chain of similar parties and organisations that aim to establish a world socialist movement. The Socialist Party therefore gives no support to war and opposes them at all times. It is the party of peace, not war; of the brotherhood of the peoples, not the slaughter of the peoples. Socialists are opposed to all exploitation and oppression