The Reason The Socialist Party Exists

 

Vast changes are taking place in the world. Those who try to investigate what is going on around them are fobbed off by politicians with trivial phrases and meaningless soundbites.  Too often our reaction is to be turn  off by politics altogether, to becoming completely cynical to frequently feel powerless and to sink into apathy. The Labour Party is committed to an all-out effort to make capitalism work indefinitely.  It does not see a revolutionary transformation of society as the way to solve the problems capitalism has shown itself incapable of solving. It does not want power to pass from the existing state to a revolutionary society set up by the workers to dispossess the capitalist class and create a class-free society. But there is no escape from the problems of our time. We cannot remain passive about issues which affect our daily lives. The slogan calling for unity neglects the vital question: unity for what purpose? It glosses over the class struggle and the need for the workers to increase their own understanding and become conscious that their class has the power to carry through the necessary revolutionary transformation of society.

In every epoch the class commanding the means of production was the governing class. In the Middle Ages, before the manufacture of commodities, the land-owning barons were the dominant class. In this age of commodity production the owners of factories, machinery, raw materials, and banks, constitute the capitalist class which is the dominant class. As methods of production change, those interested in the new methods find their development restricted by the laws and customs framed by the ruling class. Gradually, the class that depends for its rise to power upon the development of the new methods of production grows in numbers and influence, and assumes definite opposition to the existing order. Ultimately the ruling class is driven from power, and the control of society passes into the hands of the class that represents the new methods of production. These now reconstruct society in order to allow the free development of the system, favourable to themselves. In this way the capitalist class gained power, overthrew the landed aristocracy, and instituted constitutional government. The change may be rapid, as in the French Revolution, or slow as in England, where the struggle between the rising capitalist class and the landed aristocracy commenced with the Cromwellian Revolution and did not terminate in the victory of the middle class until the passing of the Reform Act.

In each form of society, there have developed certain antagonisms: the struggle of classes has arisen and created the movement for the overthrow of the existing order. The change does not come from without, but from within, and as a result of conditions created in the old order. Modern capitalism is subject to the same laws as the preceding forms of society. The capitalists’ exploitation of the propertyless worker engenders the class antagonism. The methods of production have changed from simple individualist manufacture to complex machine production. Production is no longer individual, but co-operative. Already the foundations of the new order are laid. The superstructure will be raised when the passage from individual to co-operative production has been completed by the cooperative ownership of the means of production in place of private ownership. We say that the only class—as a class—that is interested in this change is the working class. Socialism, therefore, must come through the medium of the working-class action. Whatever its faults, it is this working-class alone that can take power and establish the Cooperative Commonwealth. It must, of course, possess the necessary ardour before it can achieve this objective.

Marx did not intend his message for select disciples. Marx viewed the working class as a whole. From his vast store of knowledge, he deduced that the workers, by their adoption of the principles he had enunciated, would fulfil his anticipations of the form the working-class movement would ultimately take. To Marx, the workers when they become socialists do not become different from the rest of the working class. Their change in thought is evidence of transformation in the working-class movement. They remain of the workers, struggling with them for emancipation. There are ‘socialists’ who pose as superior but, in any case, the advance of socialism is governed by the progress of socialist thought among the workers. The current socialist movement of today cannot bring about socialism. 

The Co-operative Commonwealth will be inaugurated by the majority action of the mass of workers. To assert the contrary is a denial of the very principles Marxists support. Steadily the workers move along the road to socialism. Circumstances compel them to take that road. Economic laws operate whether they are known or not, but if we understand their operation we can bend them to our purpose pad assist society along the course it tends to travel. 

As a Socialist Party, we must bring this knowledge to the workers and what tactics must be pursued to that end. The necessity for political action is essential. Whenever the power of the governing class asserts itself, then the workers must fight. The State is the political expression of the dominant class, and since that dominant class uses the machinery of the State—law, justice, coercive forces—to maintain its own privileges and to impose its will upon the labouring mass, the workers contest their claims by political action. The distinction between political and industrial action is false; they are the two poles of the same movement. The reason why some participate in the every-day struggle in the industrial field, and yet decline to take a part in political action, is that they regard industrial action as more important than political. That belief is without justification. If the political movement is the pole, opposite to the industrial movement, the standard of political activity is governed by the level of industrial activity. When a worker votes for a Socialist Party candidate he or she votes against the whole of the capitalist class; votes for one's own class without regard for craft or industrial divisions.  The Socialist Party does not act for a particular group, but for the whole working class. 

The Labour Party is not a socialist party. Socialist parties are an integral part of the working-class movement. They are the centre from which propaganda is disseminated; members of the trade unions should be the agents of the socialist parties. The stronger the socialist body the better can it permeate the working-class movement. Socialist parties give imagination, and vitality to the workers’ movement.

Our Socialist Purpose

 We are fundamentally and thoroughly going opponents of capitalism and we seek to replace it completely by a socialist society.  We do not seek to “reform” it – wage slavery is not to be reformed but replaced fundamentally by socialism. As democratic socialists, we reject completely as incompatible with our principles and our aims any and all regimes, even if they proclaim themselves as “socialist” or “people’s democracies,” that are in actuality totalitarian. We reject all political movements, parties and doctrines that support such regimes, that are their defenders or apologists. We aim at building a democratic socialist movement, for the aim of socialism is nothing but the fullest attainment of democracy.

 The World Socialist Movement differs from all others in that it is the only consistent and thoroughgoing champion of democracy in all spheres of economic, political and social life. In that most urgent of political struggles of our day, the struggle against the war danger and for world peace. We stand for the traditional socialist conception that the winning of the battle for democracy is the inauguration of a class-free society. A “socialism” that denies or suppresses democracy is a contradiction in terms. We reject any dictatorship over the working class, as the road to socialism. We reject the imposition of “socialism” on the working class “for its own good,” against its will or without its freely-arrived-at democratic decision. The path towards a socialist society lies only through the ever-greater expansion of democracy. To these propositions the World Socialist Movement is unequivocally committed. The WORLD SOCIALIST MOVEMENT must be democratic first and foremost in its internal affairs, so that its membership may be able to arrive freely and fairly at decisions on policy and activity, where the views of the majority prevail at all times with scrupulous assurances that the rights and conscience of minorities are in no way violated. 

The object of a Socialist Party is socialism. To that end the education, organisation and conversion to socialist principles is essential. We cannot have socialism without socialists. Therefore, the primary task of the Socialist Party is to campaign  to make socialists. In doing this a Socialist Party should also champion every movement of the working class towards improving its condition – even in present circumstances – or in defence of its interests; so that the Socialist Party may come to be constituted as the head and centre and rallying point of the whole working-class movement. No-one in the  Socialist Party will deny that it is a help to the movement to win a Parliamentary seat for socialism; but it is an obstacle and an hindrance rather than a help if the seat is won by a sacrifice of principle or by any sort of compromise. When our men and women go to Parliament they want to go with a direct Socialist mandate, and if they cannot go with that they had better stay outside.  It is of no importance to us that this, that, or the other individual personality should be elected to the House of Commons. It is imperative however, that a socialist should be elected and a seat won for socialism. From this standpoint, therefore, it is better for a socialist to fight and be beaten as a socialist than to fight and win under any other flag. If in the future the Socialist Party succeeds in becoming a small minority in Parliament our most important work will not be done in Parliament but in the country at large. A Parliamentary socialist group  in the House of Commons will be not involve itself in  direct influence on legislation, but focus its effect in the constituencies. Its value will be rather agitational than legislative. We might vote for a change of policy, for the adoption of a more aggressive line of action, but, being in the minority, we should be out-voted every time.

The World Socialist Movement is to be a movement of revolt against the existing social order, scorning all alliances and working along the lines of political organisation, and with all available means, for the emancipation of the working class and the abolition of capitalism. It will not have for its object such ameliorations and palliations of capitalism as will make the capitalist system tolerable, and to work for that object by participating in every possible way in the function of organising and administering the government in a capitalist State.

The Socialism of the Socialist Party

 

The object of the Socialist Party is to secure economic freedom for the whole community, ie, that all women and all men shall have equal opportunities of sharing in wealth production and consumption. The Socialist Party  is organised to assist our fellow workers, by a dissemination of its literature, to educate the working-class  into a knowledge of socialist principles and to prepare them to co-operate with the workers of all other races, colours and nationalities in the emancipation of labour. Political and social freedom are not two separate and unrelated ideas, but are two sides of the one great principle, each being incomplete without the other. Socialists believing in the necessity for working for the speedy realisation of a socialist society, must also work definitely to bring about the same. To do this we must unceasingly agitate, as by this means we can arouse some of the apathetic who would otherwise remain passive until doomsday; we must educate ourselves and the community by innumerable campaign meetings and the spread of socialist knowledge, and we must miss no opportunity at election times, not only of taking part in the work of elections, but also by bringing to the front and popularising those measures calculated to lead to the realisation of our ideal. Anti-socialists have been actively engaged, both in encouraging the ignorant to remain ignorant, and in the spreading of the falsehoods they themselves have concocted.

 

The  Socialist Party cannot support opponents of socialism, no matter what fine fellows they may be in other directions; and it is no secret that in the ranks of Labour Party are some who have no knowledge whatsoever of socialist principles, and therefore no appreciation thereof. Such a party must never expect to get the backing of socialists. We have also continually advocated the class war and by this we mean that we are conscious of the fact that present society is based on class domination, ie, the capitalistic class dominates in all countries, and the parliaments of the world are used as committees of the capitalist class to carry out their desires. Class antagonisms exist in every nation state, and these antagonisms are being daily accentuated. The immediate interests of the capitalists  are not in the same direction as the workers. The growth of the monopolies and corporations renders organisation of the workers increasingly necessary to check the harmful effects of the hostile and antagonistic capitalist factions. Therefore, while believing in the necessity for and possibility of getting rid of classes, we know that the way to do this is by the workers — quite distinct from the capitalistic parties — organising industrially and politically, and so conquering political power to facilitate the change and get rid of the modern class state, and establish a regime of co-operation when there will be no employing class outside of the employed, and where community of interests will be universally recognised.

 

Capitalist society will not collapse spontaneously. The economic bankruptcy of capitalist society confronts the working class with the necessity of the immediate struggle for Socialism. Now it ought to be obvious to every socialist that socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have some idea of what it is. If the people who vote for a socialist do not do so because the candidate is a socialist but because they do not know that he is a socialist, of what earthly use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness of the working people and not upon their lack of knowledge. The idea that we should first be elected to office and then teach socialism to the masses is so utterly absurd that it should not even be discussed. It can be stated with the greatest of assurance that a candidate on socialist policies  who refrains from teaching socialism during the campaign, with the idea that he or she will do so after  elected will forget all about socialism while in office. The Socialist Party is and must be a political party throughout the year and not only during election campaigns.  No scan afford to forget for one moment the fundamental Marxist principle that we can achieve socialism either through the conscious action of the working class or we do not get it at all.

 

We of the Socialist Party have done something to usher in the new time. It is to be our privilege to do more, much more to help materially in securing the economic salvation of the working people.

Socialist Democracy

 

The illusion of democracy peddled by the exponents of the capitalist authoritarian order hinged on the existence of political pluralism which allowed the masses to choose their leaders. Socialism does not negate pluralism. But it goes further by creating the conditions for people to indeed exercise their right to determine not only their leaders but the oath towards the future. Under capitalism, politics is limited to the elite who have the resources to engage in politics. While elections allow the masses a token right to choose their leaders, the choice is actually only between members of the ruling class. While recognising the limitations of democracy in a capitalist order, we must also deplore the depolitisation that has taken place in many countries, where a small bureaucracy had effectively paralysed the masses and simply rules in their name. 

In a capitalist order, the inequalities in the economic sphere spawn inequalities in the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms. The capitalist class that wields economic and political power which live in material comfort, comprise a small segment of the population, which can enjoy the rights, and freedoms of citizens under a capitalist democracy. But the exploited majority who are consigned to poverty know no freedom and suffer violation of their human rights. In a socialist society, the absence of the force of private property, which determines inequality, is what provides the basis for the equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms. Contrary to the usual attacks against it, socialism does not substitute material welfare for human rights. The socialist vision, in fact, is not meant to negate the rights enjoyed by only a few in a capitalist society, but to expand these rights and make them available to all.  socialism must therefore ensure the full flowering of equal rights and freedoms. One of the basic requirements is the full guarantee of the right to dissent. The freedom to criticise must be guaranteed not only on the law but in fact. The right to free speech, to assembly, to demonstrate against the government, must be protected at all times. But the actual guarantee of these rights can only come from an organised and politicised people.

Socialism means the creation of a society where the people, not a few property owners, own and manage the affairs of the country. In such a society, production would be basically oriented to need, not to market demand. This can only be accomplished through rational social planning. A planned economy requires the identification of basic need that must be met, and an efficient distribution system. These can only be achieved through the effective participation of people in the determination of production goals. It is crucial, therefore, that a planned economy be the result of decisions popularly participated in by all sectors of society. This is the only way through which real needs can be arrived at, people motivated to act collectively made based on rational choices. Democratic  planning is thus in complete contrast to the anarchy of capitalism where surplus is expropriated from those who by the social classes the own the means of production. 

If economic planning is not to degenerate into control by bureaucracy, it must be based on the direct producers’ control over decision making. Under capitalism, control is purely in the hands of the owners of the means of production. Workers must also have control over both the organisation and technology of production to avoid becoming slaves to these.  Control over the wealth produced should therefore rest in the hands of the actual producers. Under capitalism the economy always responds to the logic of the world capitalist market. In contrast, a socialist system, being under the control of the people, develops production sensitive to real needs rather than to global market demands.

Socialism is not Luddism or the worship of the primitive. Considering the 19^th century level of our productive forces which resulted from inefficient and dependent capitalism, socialism must put special emphasis on the development of science and technology. Economic progress and improvement of the people’s standard of living are largely dependent upon the capacity to produce our own means of production. What is important is to identify needs that must be met and to develop appropriate technologies to realise these. Science and technology must always be conscious of the need for technology that does not alienate, but rather enhances the humanity of the worker. Such a technology must therefore be in the control of the people.

 A socialist society can be sustained only through a stable and adequate resource base. Hence the conservation of natural resources and the maintenance of ecological balance must be integral principles of  socialism. Our natural resources, whether organic or inorganic, are not infinite. They will not last unless necessary policies and measures are undertaken to preserve them. This task is both immediate and long-range. It is urgent because of the continued depletion and deterioration of our natural biosphere due mainly to the intensive, wide-scale agricultural and industrial activities of capitalist corporations. The result has been widespread poverty among the masses, especially in the countryside. Among others, this task entails a transition process involving: the phasing out of non-ecological capitalist production technology (i.e., polluting, disruptive and inappropriate); the regeneration of ruined and weakened ecosystems (i.e., upland areas, inland and coastal waters, agricultural soil and air) towards a new balance, and the establishment of an optimum equilibrium between human population and nature’s limits (i.e., the capacity to provide space, food an other raw materials). The initial foundations of this transition process, in the form of preliminary solutions guided by scientific study, must be laid down as the masses are organised for political and economic empowerment.