Editorial: Our Third Anniversary. (1907)

Editorial from the June 1907 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Socialist Party of Great Britain was born on June 12th, 1904, and three years of crowded life have been added unto it. It has passed through periods of difficulty and of unusual stress and each has left it firmer and more convinced than before. The Party has grown, but not with a mushroom growth, while notwithstanding the comparative smallness of its numbers, its voice has been widely heard—and in no uncertain tone—in the cause of the working class.

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Numbers, indeed, are never the only essentials to political strength. Our strength is given us by the logical impregnability of our position and by the fright of our opponents who feel that they have no case. Numbers, in fact, as numbers only, are often a source of weakness, and the disastrous results of seeking numbers first have too often been seen for The Socialist Party to make a similar mistake. The organisation that does not keep numbers and popularity ever subordinate to its early aim becomes easily the tool of self-seekers and its original object becomes entirely lost

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The rigidity and correctness of the principles of The Socialist Party, and the knowledge and class-consciousness of its members, form the surest guarantee for the Party’s future. In its early stages the very poverty of the Party is a source of strength. No nameless friends put big sums into its coffers and no lucrative offices exist to attract the charlatan and demagogue. All its work is voluntary and has its root in the sincerity and class-consciousness of working men. The place hunter and the man who unintelligently follows the big show are thus repelled, while the thoughtful and sincere are soonest attracted to its ranks. Thus it is that a firm foundation for the Party’s useful future is being laid.

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It is certainly necessary to the realisation of our object that numbers be on our side, but only in so far as they help toward that realisation can they be welcomed. The emancipation of Labour requires working-class unity, but it can be on none other than a Socialist basis since that alone is of any use. And what, it may be asked, do we mean by a Socialist basis ? In the Declaration of Principles of The Socialist Party the essentials of Socialism are, we believe, concisely stated. Assent to these essentials comprises the qualification can neither be made broader without abandoning Socialism nor made narrower without excluding Socialists. Hence we are justified in claiming that the principles upon which The Socialist Party is based are those which must be accepted by the mass of the working class before its emancipation can be accomplished.

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We can, therefore, look to the future with confidence and bright hopes, and also upon our past with some complacency: not, however, that we deceive ourselves as to the work yet to be done; but the Party is firmly established and its membership earnest and increasing, while we are confident that our Party cannot be drawn one whit from its path, and that it will keep Socialism ever to the forefront until the day is won.

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For the rest, the seed is being widely sown, and, hastened to ripeness in the forcing house of Capitalism, the reaping of the bounteous harvest of Socialism cannot long be delayed.