The urgent need of working-class unity has never been so glaringly obvious as it is today and there has been something of a unity fever but unity of what...and for what?
One of the dispiriting things socialists have to experience is the existence of individuals and groups possessing many of the attitudes we sympathise with. This existence of a number of libertarian organisations complicates the task of building a socialist party. Where differences are not fundamental, the needs of the class struggle must override secondary and petty divisions. If two contending socialist factions share the same object and agreement on the means of achieving it, with reciprocal goodwill, they will certainly arrive at an understanding for a fusion of organisations. But no informed socialist can observe such a situation today. Fundamental differences do remain and they are not simply restricted to the choice of tactics to adopt.
Means cannot contradict the end. Socialists cannot tolerate in our midst wide differences of opinion but instead must remain firmly united in face of the enemy, the pro-capitalist parties. Politically, nothing can be more deceptive than the conception of unity in the abstract. Unity for its own sake is a waste of time that either results in a movement turning inwards as internal debate either takes over all activity or it becomes ineffective because of being unable to agree on anything and unable to act in a co-ordinated manner. What is needed is not abstract unity, but concrete unity.
We are for unity – because it advances the general interests of the working class, develops the class struggle and points to an increased participation by broader layers of workers. If another genuine socialist party was organised, the SPGB would join such a party wholeheartedly and become an integral part of it. While embracing the idea of unity and united action, we will, however, not automatically embrace every appeal.
The trade unions are vital organisations of the working-class. United action is a day-to-day necessity. Political and religious beliefs are put to one side otherwise the union would be split, action would be impossible and the workers paralysed. No worker, whether socialist, Labour Party supporter or ConDem voter; black, white or brown, catholic, protestant or hindu; wants his or her wages reduced. No-one wants to toil harder for longer hours. Therefore we all unite against the employers. Trade unions unite both revolutionaries and reformists in the common struggle over wages and conditions. Unions were invented for one reason only - to represent the interests of its members. Within the trade union movement a single organisation, the One Big Union, would give them extra muscle against the rapacious employers. The primary need of the workers is unity instead of being separated according to their trade or occupation. A divided working class makes itself easy prey for the capitalist. To demonstrate our power we must stand together. In regards to the unions, the Socialist Party has supported unity and opposed setting up of "politicalised" breakaway unions once instigated by the De Leonist SLP industrial unions or the Communist Party’s “red unions”, even though some of our own members as individuals have been involved in breakaway unions in the past.
We should note that trade unions are not political parties. What is appropriate for one is not necessary proper for the other. The Socialist Party does not accept the “let’s forget our differences and unite” approach in politics advocated by some. On the contrary, we are hostile to our political enemies and make no alliance. Unity can never, under any circumstances, mean the subordination of principles to reformist politics. It is necessary to hold firm to convictions. The proponents of class struggle are the mortal enemy of the practitioners of class collaboration. The Socialist Party is the party of the workers organised politically to express their determination to break their chains of wage-slavery. If there is no basis for fusion we have to be able to demonstrate that the differences are both serious and irreconcilable and that false unity would merely blunt the revolutionary instrument, not sharpen it. There exists a need to distinguish our purpose from the what amounts to the capitalist programme of left-wing politics in all it's varieties. Unity that's not based around a common goal and common ideas of how this goal can be achieved will invariably falter and fail.
The Socialist Party does not endeavour to win elections by a sacrifice of principle or by any sort of compromise. If elected to Parliament Socialist Party members will go with a direct socialist mandate, and if they cannot go with that they had better stay outside. It is of no relevance to us that this, that, or the other individual or personality should be elected to the House of Commons. It is of importance however, that a socialist should be elected and a seat won for socialism. It is better for a socialist to fight and be beaten as a socialist than to fight and win under any other banner. The Socialist Party holds a very different conception of the function of elected delegates from that held by the present Labour members in the House of Commons who regard themselves as statesmen and legislators, elected to take part in the government and running of their country. A Socialist Party MP’s value will be rather agitational than legislative. We reject unity because we would be allied to non-socialists, and with no common socialist aim as a party. Members of the SPGB would enter parliament as rebels, not to co-operate with bourgeois politicians in passing petty measures of reform, in the forlorn hope that socialism might eventually be realised; but the real object of which is to put off that realisation as long as possible. What are we out for is nothing less than , a complete transformation of human society from its base. That is no small thing.
The Socialist Party pursues its course without seeking temporary advantage. Long enough have so-called socialist parties begged for votes that they did not get. Long enough have they canvassed with immediate demands in the hope they might swell their apparent strength by winning the votes. The Socialist Party does not include immediate demands in our platform and leave reformers to wrangle over palliatives. To plead for votes because we promise workers this, that or the other, is to enter into competition with the Labour Party (or even the UKIP) on their own ground, for there will be no reason why the workers should prefer our brand of reforms to those of any other. We can offer the masses no more and no better reforms than can any other political party and the workers would be entirely correct if, on the basis of an appeal for reforms, to turn their backs to us and vote for the more “practical” parties. To make ourselves fundamentally different from all other reformist groups by carrying on a campaign for revolutionary socialism is not only correct but common sense.
Our chief task is to spread the propaganda of socialist revolution. Our independence and integrity of purpose will, in the long run, win the confidence of those whom it aims to weld into a class-conscious body. Our propaganda is not just only to educate, but it is also to organise the working class for the conquest of power, for the complete overthrow of capitalism. It is only through the education of the workers that they can come to clearly understand the necessity of not only organising, but for what kind of organisations are required to give them the power to carry on their struggle and to fight their everyday battles, and finally to conquer capitalism and come into possession of their own.
We in the Socialist Party are social revolutionaries. We maintain that the present capitalist government does not represent the interests of the workers but acts on behalf of the few rich who monopolise economic and political power. We have no reason to conceal our aims or camouflage our revolutionary position. We have nothing to hide. We propose that workers replace this utterly discredited system. It is not sufficient to simply wound a rabid dog; one must ultimately put it down. We advocate this openly in our publications and public meetings and not by secret and conspiratorial methods. The Socialist Party does not yearn for the kinder and gentler capitalism of yesteryear’s welfare state. We have not abandoned the original socialist vision of a post-capitalist society. This means working openly under the socialist banner, identifying capitalism as a social system that benefits a tiny minority at the expense of everyone else, and organising within our communities and workplaces to challenge the structures and relationships that dominate our lives. It means creating a party unique from those on the political scene today. “Socialism and revolution are not practical politics”. How often have we heard this preached, not from the capitalist platform and press but by supposed “socialist” and “workers’” parties? Socialist revolution is the only “practical”“ politics, not a wild idea but the sole constructive path forward. The immediate issue is class-power, the issue of capitalism or socialism.
It gives the Socialist Party of Great Britain no pleasure to dwell upon these failures to organise an effective mass socialist party. We have no occasion for complacent self-righteousness. Are we, as an organisation, as is sometimes alleged, too narrow, too sectarian, too intolerant? Are we too discourteous, not to enemies, but to would-be friends and allies? Do we seek to antagonise people rather than to win them over? These are questions to which it may be worth while to give some consideration. We should seek to understand why many earnest and sincere activists are outside our ranks. Let us enquire into these reasons and if possible remedy them. But we are not alone in our failure to convince the working class that a vote for socialism is not a wasted vote and that socialism is not something to be achieved in the far off distant future but something to aim for as an immediate possibility.
The Socialist Party claims that the road we have marked out is the proper route, and that no other party has, as yet, discovered a better way. We can be scarcely faulted if those to whom we appeal deliberately refuse to take the road we point out to them, and persist in continually marching up and down a blind alley.
“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.” - Malcolm X
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