Which side are you on?

 As we approach the general election there will be pressure brought to bear upon those of us who are cynical enough about politicians and governments that we will advocate abstention or in the case of the Socialist Party propose spoiling one’s ballot paper by writing “world socialism” across it. In the media the message will be  “if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain”, or “it is your duty to vote”, or “Whatever you do, just make sure you get out there and vote”.

We will be chastised about not voting for Corbyn’s Labour Party and scolded for effectively supporting Johnson’s Tories by withholding our vote from Labour. We will be lectured on the virtues of voting for the lesser evil. We have been here over and over again. We will be told that just to reduce increased attacks on welfare benefits to get Corbyn into office so to ward off a greater threat. But once in office, Corbyn comes under irresistible pressure from his  masters to break his “populist” promises, to disappoint and disillusion the working people who placed their trust and hope in him and who will sink into despair, while some will fall victim to a populist-style backlash. Those who support the lesser evil share the responsibility for its persistence. Support for the lesser evil entails support for the greater evil.

“Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.” - 17th-century Spanish philosopher Baltasar Gracián y Morales

People cease to vote and no longer engage in the political process when they have been betrayed by the lesser evil.

The Socialist Party is convinced that workers' cannot be defended by an adoption of the 'lesser evil', that is, a policy of concessions to and compromise with elements of capitalism. No matter what the outcome of the election no matter who wins, the continued existence of capitalism is guaranteed. The problems of capitalist society have been described by journalists, novelists, historians, economists, sociologists, and even many politicians. But only socialists recognise that these problems cannot be solved until capitalism is replaced by a social system in which people throughout the world will work harmoniously together to produce and distribute wealth to satisfy society’s needs.

 Our goal is for the working class to become conscious of itself and become a power in society. Genuine socialists understand that all political consciousness begins with the recognition of the fundamental class division: the working class versus the ruling capitalist class. Success in the class struggle demands working-class independence from all capitalist parties. 

The Socialist Party uses electoral campaigns to promote socialist consciousness among workers and it cautions that social change cannot be achieved by electing a capitalist candidate. But too often political activists on the Left feel a desperate need to offer a “pragmatic” electoral policy. But all they are doing is giving a “radical” cover to capitalist reformism and offering a diversion from the necessary task of making socialists.  There is no such thing when the choice is between measles and German measles.

In the conflict between Tweedledum and Tweedledumber, our advice is to spoil the ballot paper and abstain from voting for either evil. The only way we can prevail is by offering an alternative – don’t play the game, don’t be forced into a false and hypocritical “choice”. The only way to save democracy is to expose the falsity of the choice at hand. Reformists are Judas goats, helping to lead the working class into the slaughterhouse. Well-meaning, good-intentioned reformers have nearly obliterated one of the fundamental principles of socialism, that the independent working class must create its own revolutionary party and put an end to class collaboration.

The Socialist Party task is to break with the idea of a ’lesser’ evil. Capitalism offers no future for any worker. There is no choice for workers on June the 8th election. Sadly, there will be no genuine socialist party to offer a real alternative. Until we form a mass socialist party we are accepting the rule of the capitalist parties. The working class must make use of democratic rights under capitalism to build their own organisations of struggle and in doing so we shall acquire the ability to bring down this wretched system of exploitation, oppression, and sham democracy. The working class needs a political alternative, a socialist party dedicated to overthrowing both the capitalist economic system and the state that defends it.

 What lesser evilism is all about is supping with the devil, but with a longer spoon. Join the Socialist Party in a refusal to vote for evil, either of the lesser or the greater sort.