till 1970 when he left over a disagreement about the use of parliament as an instrument for establishing the classless, stateless, moneyless society of free access advocated by the SPGB. He nevertheless retained his association with the Party and 10 years later rejoined having concluded that there was, as he put it, ‘nowhere else to go’.
Here's an explanation provided from memory by a member of Swansea Branch:
Quote:
if I remember rightly, his argument was something like once we get socialist consciousness, we won't need necessarily need parliament to bring in socialism and in fact we can't foresee what means the Socialist majority will use to establish it once the idea is 'in the air'. So the Party is wrong to insist that parliament if of necessity the mechanism that must be used to bring in Socialism.
Might just be me but i think quite a few could accept his view. We aren't determinists, or future-tellers, we can just generalise on what we know and understand at present and that is why we do what we do, but come a mass socialist movement and what the political situation then exists, then the working class will decide on a strategy to achieve socialism, taking into consideration world conditions not necessarily just the parochial British one.
Oh i see. Yes of course parliamentary action is not sufficient as it has to reflect a majority desire outside for socialism. I thought you were talking about Jack Hughes's one-time position: that with this majority desire parliament wasn't necessarily necessary. Perhaps we should say that parliamentary action is neither sufficient nor necessary but the best and easiest way.