Who Needs Leaders

Although in due course things will become clearer it appears from early reports the people involved in the so-called "slavery" case  in South London were members of a Maoist cult.

They were based in Acre Lane in Clapham and contested a parliamentary by-election in Lambeth Central in 1978, standing as the "South London People's Front" but this was a front for the "Workers Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought".  This sect/cult apparently emerged from  the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) on the Wandsworth Road. The RCPB (M-L) shop in Wandsworth Road now goes under the guise of the John Buckle Centre. The late John Buckle was its General Secretary between 1979 and 1983.

 Many Maoist and Trotskyist groups are self-styled "vanguard parties" formed around a single leader (or Leader). People who join such groups already consider themselves followers and are psychologically prepared to submit to the will of the central committee or its leader(s). It is not surprising that from time to time some of these leaders take advantage of this. Why for instance would female members of the Workers Revolutionary Party have submitted to Trotskyist leader Gerry Healey'sexual advances if they had not already been prepared to submit to him politically?  Simon Pirani, ex-WRP, has attempted to explain this phenomenon in this article on his blog. 

It appears that the vanguard party, especially when led by a single leader, is a much more dangerous form of organisation than we normally assume.

See also here, an article on an American Maoist cult

Who needs Leaders

The Socialist Party of Great Britain differs from other parties in various ways, one of the most striking difference being the views socialist hold towards the question of leadership. A socialist organisation does not recognise the need for any one person to be regarded as leader. This is based on the fact that within a socialist organisation everyone is conscious of the objective, and therefore there is no need for any special person to lead.

Most political parties start from the premise that the majority of people can’t understand the complex nature of society. They therefore encourage members that this analysis of society be left to an "educated" elite. No doubt conscious of the fact that if members do examine our social structure they would soon no longer be members. Observe how we hear quite often people expressing their disappointment in a particular leadership. This is partly due to the fact that the leader, and the members don't share the same philosophy, and are in the organisation for different reasons. Few organisations on the political level, ask people to endorse a set of principles before becoming members. They would in fact regard this as suicidal, their chief objective being, to gain as much popular support as possible, and not to put obstacles in the way to this end. This in one reason why they need a leader, someone with the personality to unite so many people with different views. The ability to keep alive hopes that can never be fulfilled, is regarded as an essential quality for a modern leader. Despite this however it is impossible for any political leader to escape conflict within his or her organisation, with members so confused as to goal, and their natural ignorance of the motive of capitalist society.

Every member of the World Socialist Movement demand that each prospective member endorse a set of principles. This eliminate conflict of goal, and the method of achieving it. Members already conscious of the wrong in capitalist society soon grasp the full consequence of its continued existence. This is done through our literature, and lecture programme. The Socialist Party expresses confidence in any person of average intelligence, to understand the socialist case. It is really the intelligence of the average worker they attack, those people who accuse us of inaction. While other organisations do everything to create the impression of false strength, to gain recognition, the Socialist Party continue to reflect their true influence in society. We regard polities as serious business, and proceed to educate people to realise that capitalist society can be changed to socialism, to others it really is a game, with the leader as the chief player.

The world cannot change to something better, until the majority of people in it visualise a new social system, and then set out to make it a reality. This is everyone's responsibility, not for a few to decide. When people have this vision they won't need leaders, as they will be certain of where they are going. It is in the structure of society that we live under that create the problems of the world, leaders can't change the system, all of us can. The record of the staggering failure of leadership is proof enough how useless it is. We only help to make capitalism survive by supporting leaders. We need a social system to establish harmonious, relationship for men and women on Earth. When humanity is moving consciously to this end they will nave no need for leaders.