From the November 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard
The following is the text (slightly amended) of a leaflet that was recently distributed by our members in Edinburgh
The aim of the Socialist Party
The aim of the Socialist Party and the other parties which make up the World Socialist Movement is the sole objective of achieving Socialism. To us Socialism is a world without employers and employees and the poverty that is caused by this master-slave relationship. We want a classless, stateless, world society where everything that is produced is available free. No money — we take what we need and we make decisions about what is produced and what isn’t. In short, we seek the end of what is usually called Business and Commerce.
How do we achieve this?
If such a democratic community is to come about it must do so because the majority of people want it. It isn’t going to fall out of the sky or be brought about by leaders who are going to sneak such a society upon us pretty much without our knowledge. So the Socialist Party seeks to build support for the end of the Profit System and its replacement by World Socialism. We are prepared to use Parliament and other elected bodies to affect this change. We also believe that as socialist ideas grow there will be developments in the organisation of people at their places of work. Clearly, we don’t just have a parliamentary strategy. The main thing is that the majority are the only people who can bring this change about and sustain socialism.
Do we have leaders?
No. Leadership is undemocratic. It implies, as can be seen from the way virtually every other political party is organised, that certain members have more rights than others. Every member of the Socialist Party joins on an entirely equal footing with every other member.
Are we after Nationalisation?
No. Nationalisation, of key industries or all industries, just means that government bodies administer Business and workers continue to be exploited. Wc want the end of Business.
Do we Vote Labour or suggest that people should vote Labour?
No way. The Labour Party is in our view an anti-socialist party which now has no ideas at all. It is virtually identical to the Tories. Even when it claimed to have ideas these merely amounted to government bodies running business — nationalisation isn’t socialism.
Do we campaign for Reforms?
No. That isn’t to say that some reforms haven’t in the past benefited workers. Like the vote, elementary education, “free” health care. But, as people now know, even these reforms can be wrecked or they can be taken away all together. So we don’t campaign to house the homeless or for more funds for the Health Service — this isn’t because we don’t care - we reject this because campaigning for reforms hasn't worked. Instead we try to get people to look beyond the acceptance of a daily life of relative poverty.
Are we involved in “the day-to-day struggle"?
Yes. No worker can avoid being in the day-to-day struggle to look after ourselves and our families. Most of our members who work are involved in trades unions — and actively resist attempts by employers to worsen our working conditions, but we recognise that unions have many limitations. Our members are also involved in things like tenants’ associations and other community groups.
Russia and all that.
No! For 75 years we have been criticising the methods, tactics and the outcomes of events like the Bolshevik Revolution. The idea of a coup d’etat by a small minority in the name of the working class which then enacts nationalisation measures is totally at odds with trying to build a majority who want to bring into being a classless, moneyless world society. The notion that socialism means this was not in the game at all in Russia in 1917
What do we do?
We hold public meetings, debates, weekend conferences. We occasionally contest local, national and European elections. We produce leaflets for door-to-door distribution and for handing out on the streets or at demonstrations. We sell the Socialist Standard (it’s not compulsory) and in Edinburgh we have written and produced our own free paper/magazine called the International Times. We attend other organisations’ meetings and demonstrations to talk to people, give away leaflets and sell literature. And while we don’t join in demonstrations to demand reforms we are anti-war and anti-racist.
We also do things like organise “socials” which are just get-togethers in pubs with people performing. With more people we could do a whole lot more. One thing we never do, however, is set ourselves up as some kind of leadership of the working class — we leave that short of thing to the SWP, Labour and the like — or to any other conservative groupings who think that workers are sheep in need of leaders.
1 comment:
I'm not sure I ever saw a copy of the Edinburgh branch journal, the International Times. I wonder how many copies were produced?
I won't lie: I'm not a fan of this text. I get what they were trying to do but it comes across as a bit too mealy mouthed in places.
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