Principles

A socialist organisation will get nowhere without a firm grasp of democracy, a disdain to conceal its socialist objective, and a membership in full possession of the facts about current society and the revolutionary alternative. Unity is only possible among those who possess common principles.

We are not in favour of the concept of the united front and reject the need for socialists to undertake joint activity for anything less than socialism itself. What we welcomed about recent developments was the emergence of the view that the global capitalists system, based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit of a few, is at the very root of our social and environmental troubles. We fully accept that it is the responsibility of socialists to engage with these workers in a battle of ideas, by talking to, leafleting and discussing with them, so as to encourage them to take the next step: if capitalism is the root cause of social problems, then the intelligent course of action is to concentrate on removing the cause rather than trying to deal with a particular problem as a single issue since as long as the cause remains so, inevitably, will the particular problems.

The one thing necessary is a full recognition by the workers themselves of the hostility of interests between themselves and their masters. Organised on that basis, refusing to be tricked and bluffed by promises or stampeded into violence by threats, they will emergence victorious from the age-long struggle. Win political power! That is the first step. Such political action will, however, be quite futile unless carried on by a class-conscious party with definite aims. Such a party must recognise that in the class-war they are waging there must be no truce.

Workers must organise as a class, not merely industrially, for the capture of supreme power as represented by the political machine. It is useless for the workers either to "trust" leaders or to "change" them. The entire institution of leadership must be swept by the board.