One of the more frustrating objections that World Socialist Party members have to continually meet goes something like this: “of course you have a wonderful idea and we are also interested in working toward that goal: a socialist world. But in the meantime there is an immediate and pressing problem that has to be solved and until it is solved we don’t have the time to devote to spreading socialist information.” Such objections, of course, come from members of other groups with names that indicate an opposition to the present system — capitalism — and which are widely regarded as parties of socialism or communism. It is interesting, indeed, to note that after more than fifty years of existence as a socialist propaganda organization, the World Socialist Party still is forced to contend with the identical argument despite the number of such pressing and immediate problems that have been eliminated from the scene. Sooner or later realisation must come to masses of people that the pressing immediate problems are part of the very nature of the capitalist system of society and that for every problem that may be solved, two more will pop up to take its place. There will never be time, then, to devote to the propagation of socialism so long as one permits oneself to get involved in these so-called more immediate problems. To a socialist. only socialism can be a problem requiring immediate action.
Back in the Thirties, for example, our speakers and writers were continually being challenged with the immediate problems of unemployment on a mass scale and the threat to world peace of the Nazi government in Germany. “What are you doing about the 14 million unemployed in America!” they would scream at us. “You are nothing but a bunch of ivory-towered theoreticians! Do you expect millions of workers to starve to death or be slaughtered in war until you people bring in socialism?” And they would regard us pityingly.
Somehow, the Hungry Thirties came to an end with the opening of World War II, despite all of the efforts of the United Front and the Popular Front against War and Fascism. Before long there was very little unemployment in America but there was still a big problem. “Can't you people see that we have to get rid of Hitler before we can have time to preach socialism?” They thought we must be a bunch of lunatics.
Of course World War II finally ended. Hitler was gotten rid of. the Japanese defeated, Italian Fascism destroyed along with its figurehead Mussolini, but there was still no time for socialist propaganda — not for those so-called socialists and communists. “Are you blind?" They shrieked at us. “Don't you see that we have to put all of our efforts into helping the workers hold onto their jobs and get more money to make up for their loss of overtime? And with all of the soldiers coming home we have to demand more jobs so we won't have another depression. And look at the housing problem!"
But the housing problem didn't seem to get much better despite all of the efforts of the radicals in demanding reforms. Workers by the millions had to go on living in substandard houses and slum tenements of the worst type. And then came those other pressing problems such as the Korean War, the years of McCarthy "red-baiting," the Castro Revolution in Cuba, the fall-out shelter program, the Berlin blockade and so on and on. Until now, in the tall end of the Sixties we have the problem of how to get rid of the Vietnamese War and we see among the massed marchers who protest the American atrocities in that area the same type of radical-oriented people who, thirty years ago, agitated for American participation in the war against Franco in Spain and Hitler in Germany. They are now actively opposing — not war in itself — but this particular war. In fact, many of them are as "hawkish" as the typical “hawk," except that they support the other side. And they still have no time for socialism.
As for us, our position remains the same. We oppose all wars but we are convinced that war, like unemployment, like poverty, and like all the other ills of capitalism will not be ended until capitalism is done away with. There was a time, of course, when socialists had some valid grounds for participating in the struggle for the attainment of immediate demands. But those times have long since passed and with the rapid development of world capitalism, particularly in the last thirty years, it is even more imperative that socialists bend all of their efforts In the task of spreading socialist information Those who struggle for the attainment of so-called immediate objectives are holding back the socialist revolution and are — in that sense — reactionaries.
If this makes sense to you why not contact us and inquire further about the advantages of a society of world socialism?
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