Where we stand

A socialist system of production will by its superior efficiency make available  a greater variety of ordinary goods but what is of infinitely greater importance also a  greater amount of leisure and increased access to all the cultural achievements of humanity. Socialism is not just a question of bread, although it may be that. It is in the first instance a question of mankind’s human dignity. In a class society, social equality is impossible. If you ask how it will be reached, we answer in the words of William Morris:
“Give us Imagination enough to conceive; courage enough to will; power enough to compel; and then I say, the thing will be done.”

The Socialist Party is not prepared to associate with organisations which carry on propaganda for the reform of capitalism, recruit members on that basis and seek the votes of reformists. Our case is that work for socialism is the essential end and it cannot be combined with reformism. Socialism cannot be achieved without a social revolution, that is a change in the property basis of society, from private ownership to social ownership and democratic control. Alone, we have stood for a social revolution to overturn capitalist society and replace it with socialism.

The Socialist Party stands for putting an end to this profit system. For replacing it with a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the world’s natural and industrial resources.

We live in a world of potential plenty, where we could meet our needs by freely cooperating on the basis of ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.’ There is no need for anyone anywhere in the world to go without what they need to live a happy, healthy and fulfilled life. What prevents this is the ownership of resources today by a privileged few and production for sale with the aim of making a profit.

The parties committed to running the market system – and that includes the Labour Party and the Greens – are making empty promises.

It cannot be stressed enough, that without a widespread and clear idea among workers of what a socialist society entails, it will he unattainable. The reason is simple. The very nature of socialism—a money-free, wage-free world of unrestricted access to the goods and services provided by voluntary cooperative effort—necessitates understanding. There is absolutely no way in which such a sweeping fundamental transformation of social relationships could be thrust upon an unwilling, unknowing majority by some minority, however enlightened or well meaning.

 

Where We Stand

1. For a worldwide society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and the consequent abolition of the whole market economy, the wages system, money and the political state, with free access to goods and services according to individual wants.

2. Only within this framework can people live in harmony with each other and the world about them, and have the opportunity to fulfil their human potential, as individuals and as a community.

3. Socialism involves major changes in everyday life—in education, work, the family—as well as in the ownership and control of the means of production; the new, free, non-authoritarian social relationships being formed in the course of the struggle for socialism.

4. Socialism can only be established by the revolutionary transformation of society through the conscious action of the working class, democratically organised in all areas of political, economic and social activity.

5. The working class are all those who have no ownership and no control of the means of production, either directly or indirectly, on a wage or salary, and so includes office, shop and farm workers as well as industrial workers, and their dependents.

6. The working class gains the knowledge, confidence, and democratic organisation necessary to carry out the socialist revolution in the course of their struggle to assert their needs, in every sphere of social activity, against the profit-seeking needs of capital and its functionaries, the ruling class.

7. The task of socialists is to encourage, both by revolutionary propaganda and, where appropriate, active participation, working class struggle, with a view to the emergence of socialist consciousness, the democratic self-organisation of the working class and the militant defence of working class living standards.

8. An organisation of revolutionary socialists must always maintain its independent identity and must not itself put forward any programme of reforms to be implemented by the capitalist state.

9. Anti-racism and anti-sexism must form an important part of socialist propaganda and other activity. A revolutionary socialist alternative must be built to counter the divisive separatist ideologies of black nationalism and radical feminism.

10. Socialists must oppose all governments as representing capitalist and ruling class interests, including those of state capitalist Russia, China, Yugoslavia, Cuba and other such places.

11. Socialists must oppose reformist movements which seek government power to modify capitalism, or which rely on the capitalist state to deal with working class problems.

12. Socialists must oppose the ideology of state capitalism propounded by Bolsheviks (Leninist, Stalinist, Trotskyist, Maoist) and Social  Democrats.

13. Socialists must oppose all imperialism, and also so-called “national liberation” movements as reactionary movements seeking to establish new ruling classes in power and to re-divide the world into different, but equally irrelevant frontiers.

14. Socialists must oppose all wars as conflicts between rival ruling classes over capitalist interests not worth the sacrifice of a single working class life.

15. An organisation of revolutionary socialists must be a fully democratic and free association of people, and must always be on guard against the emergence of forms of organisation and relationships that help perpetuate capitalism.

Socialism: Management of Society by Workers

We must repeat for the benefit of those who do not yet know it that socialism is quite different from the aim of other organisations. Socialists are not trying to carry out an improved Labour Party programme.

The elements of the problem are simple. Nine people out of ten live frugally and with little to hope for, on wages that never leave any worth-while margin beyond necessities. And the social system we live in does not even produce enough consumer goods to satisfy reasonable human needs; nor will it ever do so. At present the means of production and distribution—land, factories, transport systems, etc., are owned by the propertied minority and used by them to make profit out of the sale of the products. Goods are not produced solely for use but for profit, and national groups, coming into conflict through rivalries about markets and trade routes, and sources of raw material, are all forced into their costly and inhuman armament schemes. The Socialist Party’s aim is to get to the root cause of these evils of poverty and war by changing the basis of the social system so that things would be produced not for sale and profit but solely for the use of mankind. Only by this can war and poverty be abolished, and along with them class and national rivalries and hatreds.

"Fantasy!" say opponents of socialism, including supporters of the Labour Party. All great social advances of the past, including the abolition of chattel slavery and serfdom, have appeared to be fantastic until they came about.

For those people who like going in for marches, demonstrations, signing petitions and lobbying M.P.s. capitalism sees to it that they are kept busy, even if they achieve nothing. The fact is there is so much wrong, so many objectionable things taking place all the time, that the protesters are bound to miss quite a lot. 

Apart from this they suffer from two fatal faults, first the objects of their marching are only effects and do not touch the fundamental cause, secondly, the fundamental cause being the class ownership of the means of production, marching is not the way to remove it.

It must not be taken from the above that demonstrations can serve no purpose of importance to the working-class. As a means of rallying support for wage claims, drawing attention to grievances and mustering a certain amount of solidarity during strikes they are useful. But we are concerned here purely with demonstrations as a means of altering the course of capitalism or eradicating one at a time the problems which arise because of capitalism; even in the sphere of wages etc., the effect is short-lived for the conflict between exploiter and exploited goes on interminably and will do so until the exploited understand socialism.

 The answer is bluntly that, squirm as they may, while the world remains under the present system, the workers will continue to bear the brunt of it.

From our standpoint as socialists, taking the interests of the world working-class as our guide, there is no proposition which simply involves re-arranging capitalism that can make one arrangement "preferable" to another. Whatever the arrangement, the workers are going to continue being exploited for the profit of an idle class, insecurity will continue to be the lot of the useful, crises will continue to arise while commodity production, world markets and profits remain, and wars with all this bestiality will continue to arise. It therefore remains that the one object of any real use that the world's workers should devote their efforts to, is the establishment of socialism. This means they must understand that capitalism cannot be made to work in their interests by adjustments here and there. From this understanding they must build the political organisation to send delegates to Parliament for the task of making the means of production common-property so that society can then proceed from this basis of a classless world to organise production for use and eliminate all wasteful and harmful production, so that mankind in peace eternal be able to enjoy the fruits of their labours to the full.

Socialism is a pledge of fraternity and internationalism, an awakening to the social mission of the working class.

Let us face the blunt truth, most people do not at present see the need for socialism and prefer to campaign on issues such as climate change and against the innumerable social injustices. They are constantly advocating "solutions" to these problems. Our challenge as socialists is how we can be generalise such resistance into opposition to capitalism itself. How do we reach those people engaged in a struggle against our exploitative society and help them to understand the need to act in an organized class way and not as isolated groups with limited or one-issue objectives. How can the fragmented struggles of isolated groups of working people come together and cooperate in a co-ordinated struggle? How can a mass socialist consciousness be developed?

We believe that it is possible, not inevitable, that working people in struggle can draw conclusions which are fundamentally socialist in content. The resentment of working people today for the failures of capitalism to fulfil its promises provides a driving force towards a socialist future. Too many times the attempts of workers to organise a new society have mirrored the very system they were allegedly trying to overthrow. 

Socialism presupposes a high degree of social and political consciousness. It cannot arise out of a mere revolt or insurrection but must answer the immense problem of the reconstruction of modern society. No one individual, group, or party can be accomplish this on behalf of the working class or in its stead. It is because it is impossible for a minority to take on such tasks, since these tasks are on a scale that humanity and humanity alone is capable of dealing with.

The Socialist Party has no blueprints. Nor are we intending to be the ultimate and final word on the way we organise for revolutionary change. The methods of struggle decided by the working class will to a large extent on their situation and the circumstances they face which will shape the form of their organisation. 

The Socialist Party is not self-appointed "leadership". The future may show us the need to modify and alter our present conceptions. That is to be expected and is nothing to worry about. Capitalist society denies working people the right to manage their own lives and to decide their own destinies. 

The approach of the Socialist Party is to facilitate for our fellow-workers to determine and direct their own fate. We reject the idea that matters of great importance require decisions by a political party’s polit-bureau and Marxian theoreticians. 

The Socialist Party does hold certain principles but as correct as we hold our ideas to be, they are dependent on workers agreeing with them. We cannot impose our case for socialism upon an unwilling and unreceptive audience. Socialism is not and cannot be anything other than the management of production, the economy, and society by the workers.

Education Brings Enlightenment

During this pandemic crisis we have seen how fragile and vulnerable our world is, We really need to do something radical and fundemental. We need to make the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to build a fairer and a sustainable future.

The task of socialists is to win over fellow-workers to the cause of socialist revolution. Socialism will change our way of life. Socialism will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society, decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a new foundation. The whole future of humanity rests on the emergence of working people as the creative force in society. Socialism meets the desire for freedom innate in every human being. Socialists are not worshippers of violence. Above all do they try to guard against the sporadic, meaningless and inevitably self-defeating insurrections that suffering are likely to prompt. We are aiming at a better, a more human world. The history of mankind can be described as the history of the efforts of communities to free themselves from the constraints always imposed by the necessity of meeting their daily survival needs and reproducing the species. All societies throughout the world are now interdependent. The socialisation of humanity has reached unprecedented levels. 

Most workers accept capitalism, believe it can’t be changed, and view socialists who want to change it as idealists. Why do workers so often accept reactionary ideas, and how can this change? In feudal society there was a rigid division between lords and serfs. This was therefore generally accepted as natural and inevitable; to use the language of the time, something ‘ordained by God’. Capitalist society is founded on the profit motive – and therefore this is thought of as ‘natural’. In fact such ideas do more than simply reflect society; they justify it. They justify the current class divisions. As socialists put it: ‘the ruling ideas of any age will be the ideas of the ruling class’. If we look at capitalism today we can easily see how this can be so. The ruling class controls the channels for the formation and propagation of ideas: the education system, the press, the television stations and all other means of mass communication, and its ideas are dominant in all these. But the power of ruling-class ideas does not arise simply from a ‘conspiracy’ of rich media moguls, publishers and university professors, ministers and civil servants and so on.

Capitalist ideas seem to make sense because they reflect the world as we experience it. Businesses are run for profit and society is divided into classes – so to believe these things are ‘natural’ and ‘true’ seems simple common sense. If workers do not believe the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class, then they will look for salvation from above, or, worse still, come to the conclusion that no emancipation is possible at all. If workers lack a socialist analysis of the economic crisis they will accept one or other of the various bourgeois explanations on offer: ‘it’s an act of god’, ‘it’s all the fault of lazy workers’ or ‘powerful trade unions’. At best it’s due to ‘government mismanagement’ and the solution is to elect a better government.