“Anti-capitalism" has become a popular slogan, and a good thing too. But if it is to have a positive impact, people have to understand what is meant by it. Socialists must tear away the curtains that hide the absurdity and horror of capitalism. With the development of new technology and information there is no doubt that it is feasible to create abundance in regard to the basic needs of all humans (nor just the basic needs) and to organise production so that all can choose to work and where the elimination of drudgery becomes the conscious goal of society, offering free time for everyone. But what this requires above all is the conscious will of humanity to make it real, to organise and control this revolution. We believe that this will can only be forged in struggle, in revolt against the class whose existence depends on the perpetuation of production for profit. Only the autonomous struggle of the working class, the great majority of society whose work makes the wheels of the world economy turn provides this hope.
No member of the working class gives up the struggle for immediate reforms and for as many reforms as possible. But the reformists substitute their reforms for revolution. Reforms, whatever their number, never lead to a transformation of the system. For as soon as a reform threatens the basis of the system, the ruling class put forward such resistance to it, that a revolution is unavoidable. Also, there are reforms and reforms, those which the ruling class bring about in order to save the capitalist system and those which the workers extract through struggle, by the power and the effectiveness of action. The capitalists, if they are clear-sighted, consent to ameliorate the lot of the workers in order to keep them in subjection, whilst the workers, although demanding amelioration of their conditions, should fforemost , be striving to free themselves from their capitalist chains. Too often reformists, for the sake of one or two palliatives, try to make the working class forget its captivity. With all the best intentions many reform campaigns rather than politicalisation reduces itself to an emotional appeal much akin to charities. To attack social problems but not to attack the wages system which produces them is at best shortsighted and at worst false radicalism.
For decades political activists have struggled against the evils of our society. Against war and militarism, against unemployment and poverty and against environmental destruction. Yet despite all the time and effort spent campaigning and protesting these problems remain and in many cases and in many places they have gotten worse. It is therefore not surprising that many people become discouraged. If nothing seems to work, what's the sense in continuing to beat our heads against the wall? In fact, it doesn't make any sense to continue the same kind of actions that have failed to produce results. But rather than give up hope, the answer is to examine the reasons for our failure.
For a very long time now, the class struggle has consisted of more or less short-lived and scattered actions. Now and then, sudden outbreaks of resistance are fiercely fought but are quickly broken and everything collapses back again into apathy, nonetheless, in due course new and other forms of struggle would appear. In the class struggle the creative potentialities of working people are amply demonstrated.
Any chance at revolutionary success necessitates a struggle on many battle-fields and socialists struggling on different fronts must be thoroughly knowledgeable about those engaged in an all the other fronts. In thinking of the class war as an actual war, the drive for a socialist understanding in the working class and the creation of a socialist society should be the main offensive, demanding the most effort, while everyday issues of pay and conditions and protecting the gains that have been made would be a necessary but secondary defensive front. The trade union movement is our economic weapon on the battlefield of class war, but they apply palliatives within the system and cannot cure the malady.
To effectively minimise violence will require a movement of the majority which means getting people to understand how the capitalist system exploits all so they can join in its abolition. We need to arrive at a more unified movement which acts concertedly, agrees on a common approach, and has the ability to overcome whatever divisions make us ineffectual? In order to build a majority movement, it will be necessary to get our ideas more effectively conveyed into mainstream consciousness of everyday people. Wise wine-makers mix different types of grapes to produce the best wines, each type of grape provides that special something. We propose that we do the same and propose a toast for what unites us: For social revolution.
Our revolution must be the most uncompromising of all. The programme of this revolution demands the unconditional surrender of the capitalist system and its system of wage-slavery; the total extinction of class rule is its object. Nothing short of that - whether as a first, a temporary, or any other sort of step should receive recognition. We socialists are not reformers; we are revolutionists. We socialists do not propose to change forms. We care nothing for forms. We want a change of fundamentals. Until the underlying cause - the profit system - is addressed, no actions against poverty, war, pollution or any other pressing problem will have any lasting effect. Socialists do not oppose reforms and reformism on the basis of whether capitalism had the capacity to grant reforms but rather because we recognise the motives of the capitalists and their reformers: to buy labour peace and a more pliant, docile work force. The question of cost isn't in it. No price is too high that will enable the capitalist class to continue their ownership of the means of production. In fact, the development of the Impossiblist wing in nearly all parties of the Second International around the turn of the 20th century reflected the need for revolutionaries to separate themselves from the reformist appeasers and their willingness to deal with capital in the matter of concessions to its wage slaves designed to maintain the status quo. Ruling classes secure in a stable economic and political system could risk granting workers the right to vote. But the ballot has a mixed blessing. Clearly it is possible for revolutionaries to use capitalism's "bourgeois democracy" to call for revolution, and universal suffrage can be used to campaign for a non-violent revolution. The combination of an educated working class and a socialist majority in parliament would abolish capitalism and disband the state apparatus while at the same time our class will be organising in the work-places and communities to take over and administer production and distribution.
Socialism is nothing if not revolution. There is no common ground between combatants in the class war. Class struggle exists. It is a essential part of the fight towards the emancipation of humanity. It is important to bear in mind that the relationship between the owners of the means of production and the workers is unchanged. Socialism is not the management of capitalism, no matter how “democratic” it claims to be but its complete destruction!
Our revolution will be carried out by the mass organisation of the working class. Once the majority is informed and organised, democratic revolution, to eliminate for-profit production in favour of democratically-controlled production for human use is possible. History has painfully demonstrated, minority action by self-appointed "vanguards" lead nowhere - except to new forms of oppression. We strive for a future society, which will have no need for leaders, social classes, borders, nation-states, armies or money and this is called socialism and it has nothing to do with the state-capitalisms so dear to some on the Left. The false radicalism of the Left is one of the last barriers in the way of the acceptance of a revolutionary view of society, and a revolutionary struggle leading to the establishment of the socialist society. This is not the time to put our energies into piecemeal reforms. We have little time to prevent global ecological devastation and preserve a world worth living in. We need to build a clear and definitive anti-capitalist movement which unequivocally has as its aim to abolish capitalism and the political state and which seeks to replace it with a classless, moneyless, democratically-run society of free access.
People's apathy results from their sense of powerlessness. The capitalists keep us enslaved by physical chains (the police and the army) but mostly by mental chains. Yet "the people," the working class, the 99 % who work for the 1% who are the owning class possess the potential power to revolutionise society. While their money gives the ruling class economic and political power, the fact that our labour creates all the goods and services. It is ourselves that society depends upon and that gives us the ultimate power - once we organise to realise it. From each according to his ability and to each according to his need: this is the sharing of wealth that we socialists have historically fought for. Socialism is a society in which we all collectively control our own existence, in which we run the world for our own needs and desires. The strategies and means to achieve the goal of that new society already exist. We need a political party which will struggle for working class power but not a party which will govern in its place. Socialists claim no messianic role over the exploited and the oppressed.
The object of the Socialist Party is the realisation of socialism; and only incidentally to assist in organising the working-class for the amelioration of its conditions in existing society. The object of a trade union is to improve existing conditions and to seek the best terms for its members in competitive society, and, only incidentally, to help on the emancipation of the working-class. The complementary relation between the two, as well as the difference of function, is thus clearly established. Yet we in the Socialist Party are frequently charged with being hostile to trade unions, because we refuse to subordinate the one function to the other. Far from being hostile to the trade unions, we have full-heartedly supported the trade unions.
What we must do is to discover what socialism is. What we must do is educate ourselves in the principles of socialism. We cannot hope to grasp the situation in a moment. We cannot become able fighters for the workers’ cause in a day or week or month. Ours is not a creed or dogma which one can embrace at a moment’s notice. Ours are ideas which we must learn. Not to believe but to know should be our motto. We are not “converted” to Socialism; we do not all of a sudden “see the light.” It is only by consistent plugging away and hard work that we become class conscious socialists. We have a new world to face, and with it come the thousands of new problems so, above all, we must become free so that we can develop ourselves mentally to a level where we will not be followers, where we will not be led this way or that way, but as men and women who understand socialism we will decide for ourselves what our attitude is going to be when new issues arise.
Socialists envision social power in a socialist world exercised through a wide variety of forms (such as general assemblies of people living together in a neighborhood, or workplace committees of people working together on a specific project of social production), organised horizontally rather than hierarchically into larger city-wide, regional, and larger groupings. We propose forms of direct democracy to replace the bogus representational "democracy". To protect ourselves from domination and exploitation people need to keep power in their own hands so organisation evenly spread in this way means power loses its power of coercion, while still retaining its power of constructive application to all the many tasks and problems of our lives.
To all those who honestly wish to fight for working class interests, but who still believe in the illusions of the transitional programmes and immediate demands of Leftism, we say: “Abandon these ideas - our chance is now.” It's time to raise the cry, “We've had enough."
The Socialist Party of Great Britain declares a war on the ruling class and their allies. We preach the class war, a real war of liberation, a war for emancipation, a war for socialism. The basis of the workers’ organisation must be class solidarity and class interests. Its strategy must be offensive as well as defensive, and its aim revolutionary. Tactics may vary and may be modified, but the goal that socialists will never abandon will always be the expropriation of the dominant class. It is class against class. The capitalists are our class enemies, they possess what we want and we must take it from them. The political objective of socialists is to dispossess the capitalist class of their ownership and control of the means of life. We will no longer be content for a few more crumbs from the cake.
To the Peoples Assembly we say: “We want the world and we want it now”
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