This article is adapted from a talk given at the April 1 Socialism Conference hosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Washington, D.C.
I have been asked to speak for a few minutes about our party—why it is that we have a party, what our party does, what our party is built for and hopefully by the end of this presentation, you will have a better idea of how you can relate to our party and get involved.
If you were to sum up our organization, you could say the Party for Socialism and Liberation is a revolutionary workers party. We have already heard about the importance of the working class. So that only leaves us with two things to clarify: the concept of revolution, of being a revolutionary and the concept of a political party.
A political party is different from other types of organizations. It is an organization that aspires ultimately to political power. When we say political power, however, we do not mean just holding a political office or getting a party member elected here or there. We mean power in the sense that the workers shape and control the government.
Now this is no easy task. The institutions and legal system of our current society are set up to preserve the rule of the rich minority. We do not have a political system that is by, for and of the people. If that were true, the war in Iraq would have ended a long time ago—it would never have started. If that were true, they would not be raising the cost of health care or closing down workplaces. On all the important issues that affect us, we do not get a vote or a say.
In fact, we are living in a form of dictatorship. It is not that there is one dictator, but it is a dictatorship of the rich. We have the distinct privilege of being able to choose our oppressor for the next four or six years.
So given that we have this system, how does an organization such as ours, which aims to overturn all of society so that for the first time common people like you and I are put on top, ever conceive of coming to political power? To that question, our answer is revolution.
Will the rich minority that runs this country ever wake up one day and willingly turn over all its power for the creation of a new society based on the interests of the vast majority? Will those families who have amassed fortunes over centuries suddenly relinquish that wealth without a fight? Once you have posed the question in this way, real change without revolution looks idealistic.
We believe that it will take a fight, and that is why we are revolutionaries. It is not that we glorify the fight, but as Fredrick Douglass said, “Without struggle, there is no progress.”
Now does this mean that we spend our days talking about “the revolution” and insurrection? No, not at all. It just means that we accept that ultimately a revolution is what we will need. The concept of revolution is always part of our perspective.
The day-to-day struggles
In the short term, on a day-to-day level, we fight for reforms. We are involved in every effort to improve the lot of working people. We are dedicated anti-war activists. We support and work in labor unions. We fight for affordable tuitions, for tenant rights, for hospitals to stay open. We play an active role in the fight for immigrant rights. We organize and participate in activities against racism and police brutality.
These are what you will often hear us refer to as “struggles.” And this is where you will find members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation—wherever you see a struggle. That does not just mean the big protests involving millions of people, but also on a smaller scale, when workers are fighting for a fifty-cent raise or paid overtime, or when community members are trying to keep funding for a local after-school program. For us, no struggle is too large or too small.
We recognize that without those types of struggle, where people who are most affected stand up and say, “enough is enough,” there is no hope for real change.
How does this get us any closer to the goal of revolution and socialism?
Taking the offensive
That is where the party comes in. Activism alone is not enough to develop a movement to create a new society. If we are just fighting back, we will always be on the defensive and never on the offensive.
In each one of these struggles, the PSL aims to raise class-consciousness, point out the common enemy and the common good, so that someone fighting for immigrant rights sees the need to fight against police brutality, so that someone at an anti-police brutality protest sees their common link with the people marching against the war.
Ultimately, we aim to bring the people who are in the streets together into a united and class-conscious force—even if they are in the streets for different reasons. Otherwise their righteous anger is susceptible to be channeled back into the electoral sham.
What the PSL aims to do is to find the people who are the fighters, find all the people who down to their very core understand we need something better than this rotten system, and from those fighting individuals create a fighting organization.
Preparing for revolution
Of course, we know that a revolution will not just happen because we want it to. It cannot take place without society entering into a crisis that shakes the foundations of the rich minority’s rule and makes a large section of the people refuse to continue to go on living in the old way. These are crises—like wars or depressions—which the greedy capitalists inevitably create for themselves.
And as many experiences have shown over the past century, these opportunities to carry out a successful revolution usually last for only a short time before the rich minority again stabilizes their rule. The Iraq war is a crisis for the U.S. capitalist government, but it is not yet a revolutionary crisis. Will it become one? We don’t know. How and when a revolutionary crisis comes about is entirely unpredictable and outside the control of either revolutionaries or the ruling class.
What we as revolutionaries do have some control over is what type of organization will be there when a revolutionary crisis arises, as we know that it will.
For the PSL, we know that a revolutionary party must be strong, multinational, experienced, widespread, numerous and united. It must be tested in struggle.
We know that a storm is coming the question is whether we will have built the ship before it arrives.
Becoming a revolutionary leader
As an individual, one can have good ideas about how to change society or even concrete projects like your building or your neighborhood. But as an individual, those ideas rarely are put into practice. This is why you need an organization.
It is not enough to see the problem. You need an organization that can put your idea in practice. It is in organization, in an organized and unified collective effort, that our great ideas, that all the creativity of the oppressed, can be converted into a living reality.
We encourage you here to seriously consider becoming part of this. We encourage you to bring your own questions, ideas, skills, your own network and experiences.
In turn, you will learn from activists and leaders. You, too, will be shaped as a revolutionary and a leader. You will find yourself organizing meetings, film showings and conferences such as this one. You will find yourself making flyers, giving speeches, passing out literature and above all, becoming a voice of political clarity at your workplace or school. You will find your coworkers or fellow students looking to you when they have problems or concerns, because you will have a way forward—and if you don’t on the spot, your comrades will help you have one.
A socialist party fights on every day-to-day issue with a revolutionary perspective.
Photo: Bill Hackwell
Activists strategize during workshop at a Party for Socialism and Liberation conference in Washington, D.C., April 1.
Photo: Natasha Persaud
