The object of the S.P.G.B. is Socialism, a definition of which is given in every issue of the Socialist Standard, together with a Declaration of Principles, which show how society is constituted and how the working class must organise to overthrow the capitalist system and introduce Socialism.
As shown in the Declaration of Principles, the class struggle originates out of economic conditions; all workers take part in the class struggle, whether they are conscious of it or not and whether they like it or not
It is always necessary to remember that the class struggle is two-sided, that it is not only the workers who organise to try and maintain and improve their position, but the capitalist class at all times do likewise and so far they have done it more successfully than the working class. W. Liebknecht, in his pamphlet, “No Compromise,” recognised the class struggle carried on by the capitalists when he wrote: “The class struggle which the proletariat carries on is only a counter struggle in self-defence to resist the class struggle of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat; and the end of this struggle by the victory of the proletariat will be the abolition of the class struggle in every form.”
Victory over capitalism will never be attained by being on the defensive; the class struggle carried on by non-Socialist workers on the economic field in Trade Unions, etc., will never lead to Socialism, indeed, that is not the aim of non-Socialists. They struggle to maintain and improve their conditions under capitalism and the capitalist class struggle to maintain and improve theirs, but history has proved that on the economic field the capitalist class has most of the advantages.
Socialists, by taking political action against the capitalist class, switch from the defensive to the offensive. The class struggle is both industrial and political, the latter its revolutionary form. On the political field the workers of all countries have but one interest, and that involves winning political power and dispossessing the master class. Tie supreme conflict with that class leaves no room for sectional antagonisms between workers.
The Declaration of Principles of the Socialist Party were drafted by Socialists with a great deal of thought and knowledge of the development of society. The Declaration of Principles allow for no compromise with the capitalist class, and offers no reforms for improving capitalism.
The strength of the Socialist Party rests on acceptance of the class struggle, that the working class is exploited and oppressed by the capitalist class, and that within capitalist society effectual reforms which will put an end to class government and class exploitation are impossible. As Marx so correctly stated, “When the class struggle is pushed on one side as a disagreeable 'crude’ phenomenon, nothing remains as a basis for Socialism but ‘true love of humanity' and empty phraseology about 'justice'," Pity for poverty, enthusiasm for equality and freedom, recognition of social injustice and a desire to remove it, are not Socialism.
The basis of society to-day is the class ownership of the land, factories and other means of living. The central point of our attack is this social base, the class ownership of the means of life. The possessors must be dispossessed.
To Socialists, political action is the action aimed at getting control of the governmental machinery for the purpose of introducing Socialism. In other words, the prosecution of the class struggle in a revolutionary way.
D.W. Lock
1 comment:
I like this article. I really do. It's right up my impossibilist street.
However, I can't help but wonder if it's one of those 'coded' articles that occasionally appear in the Standard in response to internal disputes and debates.
By 1953 - partly as a response to the post-war boom - there was definitely a discussion going on within the SPGB amongst some members about whether or not class - and class struggle - was even central to the socialist case anymore. I think this article is a riposte to that.
The article was signed 'D.W.L. in the original Standard. I believe D. W.Lock is the person listed as WDW Lock in the membership records. They joined the Lewisham Branch of the SPGB in September 1948 - via literature and meetings - and remained a member until their death in 1993. (Their Form F dates from August 7th 1993.) Sadly, there was no obituary in the Standard.
According to the membership records, they had previously been a member of the ILP and the original Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party.
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