Unite for what?

Beyond the world of divisions of colour, religion and nationality, socialists uphold the ideas of unity, emphasising what we all have in common - our class. The greatest weapon we posses is our class unity and our willingness to unite as a global exploited majority and to confront the capitalists. Our unity is vital and the capitalist way of doing things will end once we organise and work for the good of all. This will entail acquiring political power to make it easier to replace capitalism.


Let us unite to establish the system that caters for the needs of all the members of the society— is the Socialist Party call for unity. We address our case to the working class of the world, rather than to any particular interest group or the left-wing's supposed "advanced sections" of it.

Many will be familiar with the Socialist Party's attitude towards the Labour Party and the collection of various Trotskyist groups. We are hostile. Our insistence upon the necessity for agreement on principles, on methods, and above all on the object, is scorned as sectarianism and as heresy against most holy “unity”. Yet true unity is a means to an end. First of all the essentials regarding the end to be sought and the means to that end must be agreed upon, for “unity”without this is unity in impotence, being without everything that makes unity useful, namely, common principles, methods, and aims. Unity under any other conditions than that of agreement on the essentials of aims and methods is guaranteed squabbles where they can address one another fraternally as their ‘dear comrades’, and castigate them with venomous hate.

The problem is that faced with conflicting ideas the necessary unity of purpose and co-operative action is impossible to achieve. Hundreds of different organisations are not a movement, many are not even anti-capitalist, in the sense that they haven't yet agreed on a definition of capitalism. For the sake of a desperately fragile unity, some so-called socialists advise that it was better not to express any ideas which might cause division. The Socialist Party, however, is convinced that by laying down a clearly defined body of economic and political truths, and by consistently advocating them they will ultimately gain the confidence and the support of the working-class of this country.

The first duty of a socialist party is the teaching of its principles and the organisation of a political party on a socialist basis. Unity is only possible among those who possess common principles. Unity can not, therefore, be secured for any length of time if it is not based upon socialist principles. For the triumph of socialism, national and international, organisation is essential, but the organisation must be for socialism and based on socialist principles or such organisation can be nothing to the workers but a delusion and a snare. “Compromise” and “unity” have been the reformists magician’s misdirection. A socialist organisation will get nowhere without a firm grasp of democracy, sound principles, and a disdain to conceal its socialist objective. Neither now nor in the future could a genuine socialist movement join hands with its Labour Party or its Leninist parties opponents in a so-called united front.

Periodically over the decades we have heard the refrain “Don't split the Left. We are all working for the same goal. Let us join together and through unity we will get strength.”This offer of unity is always a poisoned chalice: “Join us today to promote whatever this or that reform. and tomorrow we'll start the revolution together.” But, of course, tomorrow never comes.

The Socialist Party would welcome is the emergence to the end of the dead-end, reformist single-issue campaigns. While we fully accept that it is the responsibility of socialists to engage with workers in a battle of ideas, by talking with and discussing with them, we try to explain that if capitalism is the root cause of social and ecological troubles, then the 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.

To the ordinary members of the trade unions we say: end your apathy, take an interest in its actions and, above all, send representatives from your own ranks instead of the case-hardened officials with their dirty tricks and personal ambitions who use the union. Only by so selecting spokes-persons from your own ranks, men and women who have no "official" interests to support, and over whom the membership have complete control, can the organised workers ever get these problems of organisation settled in their own interests, and achieve the unity vital to the successful struggle on the industrial field

A trade union is primarily organised to protect workers. Its methods are economic, not political; the cessation of, or threat to cease, production and distribution, the strike, direct pressure upon or resistance to the employers, are its weapons – their effectiveness is not in question here. The only unity in trade union ranks is and has been on the economic plane. One lesson the workers have learned has been the necessity of trade union unity, a lesson embodied in their slogans "Unity is Strength" and "United We Stand, Divided We Fall". Workplace and occupation , rather than politics or religion, were recognised as the proper bases for organisation on the industrial field. What economic interests joined together politics tears asunder – for the simple reason that all shades of political opinion meet in the economic organisation. But unity is not just to be achieved on a national basis – capitalism is a worldwide social order and workers of all lands have a common interest in joining together against the common foe.

Such a party as ours recognise that in the class-war there can be no truce and there can be no alliances with the enemy. The Socialist Party is not prepared to join with parties whose aims and methods are contrary to the interests of the working class and a hindrance to the achievement of socialism. It is our experience that any other policy is fatal for a socialist organisation. In short, the only unity worth worrying about is socialist unity.