Author: alanjjohnstone
Reforms and Reformism 1/3
The political parties of the World Socialist Movement do not advocate reformism, i.e. a platform of legislative reforms with the aim of gradually changing capitalism into a system that works for all. While we are happy to see the conditions of workers improved, reforms can never lead to the establishment of socialism and tend to sap energy, ideas, and resources…
World Without Borders 3/3
To escape capitalist exploitation, class solidarity needs to take precedence over any national allegiances. Our case is that the new social system we advocate must be worldwide. The world must be regarded as one country and humanity as one people. We reject borders and frontiers in world socialism. In the World Socialist Movement, we do not accept the view that things will always stay…
World Without Borders 2/3
Paul Lincoln, the outgoing head of the UK Border Force, quoted Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, saying: ‘People are talking about immigration, emigration and the rest of the bloody thing. It’s all bloody crap.’ Lincoln concluded his speech with ‘We’re all human beings, we’re all mammals, we’re all rocks, plants, rivers. Bloody borders are just such a pain in the bloody…
World Without Borders 1/3
Just as capitalism is a world system of society, so too must socialism be. There never has been, and never can be, socialism in just one country. Socialism will be one worldwide community without national boundaries, united humanity, sharing a world of common interests, would also share world administration. This is the socialist alternative to…
The Revolutionary Vote 6/6
The Vote as Weapon People who come into contact with the World Socialist Movement and learn that we advocate revolution are often surprised that the revolution we urge is one that can be brought about by parliamentary means. To many, the word “revolution” conjures up images of barricades and street fighting. People associate revolution with the violent overthrow of governments,…
The Revolutionary Vote 5/6
The World Socialist Movement seeks a revolution but one involving much more than a change of political master. We want a social revolution, a revolution in the basis of society. A sweeping, fundamental change in political and economic organisation. The key task of the working class is to capture control of the political machinery of society for the…
The Revolutionary Vote 4/6
Many have noticed that whoever gets elected, nothing much really changes. This is because politicians usually have no intention of changing anything. It has been borne out by hard and painful experience that for even the most starry-eyed of us that the politicians we have voted for are not only unable to make good on…
The Revolutionary Vote 3/6
”I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.”– Eugene V. Debs”Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position…
The Revolutionary Vote 2/6
The vote is a gain, a potential class weapon, a potential “instrument of emancipation” as Marx put it. Despite Leninist distortions, Marx and Engels always held that the bourgeois-democratic republic was the best political framework for the development and triumph of the socialist movement. This is a socialist position we see no reason to abandon. Certainly,…
The Revolutionary Vote 1/6
The World Socialist Movement (WSM) has never held that a merely formal majority at the polls will give the workers power to achieve socialism. We have always emphasised that such a majority must be educated in the essentials of socialist principles and have a party democratically organised. William Morris wrote: “It should be our special aim…