Weekly Worker 368 Thursday January 25 2001

4. Character of the revolution

[Classes in the revolution] [The socialist constitution] [Economic measures]

Britain is materially ready for socialism. To achieve that goal there must be an overthrow of the main enemy, the capitalist state. However, it has to be stressed that without the workers as the agency of change there can be no subsequent socialism, no end to exploitation, no human freedom. Only the workers can rally all who are oppressed and through a people’s revolution establish a new socialist semi-state. To carry out its historic mission the workers’ movement must educate and organise itself as a class. The proletariat cannot become the liberator of society without grasping and fighting for the positive resolution of all contradictions inherent in it.

4.1. Classes in the revolution

The working class is the only consistently revolutionary class in Britain. Of course, left to itself, left to spontaneity, it exists merely as a slave class, capable of being militant, democratic and even insurrectionary, but not hegemonic.

What makes it fully a class is the leadership of advanced workers who have transcended the purely economic struggle and mastered scientific theory - ie, revolutionary socialists and communists. With such consciousness the working class can raise itself to a future ruling class, which by the very nature of its own self-liberation also liberates humanity.

The working class is by far the great majority of the population in Britain. Besides manual industrial workers it consists of workers in the health service, transport, the civil service and local government, as well as non-manual workers in industry, finance and distribution such as technicians, clerical and sales workers.

Many of the traditional distinctions between manual and non-manual work are being more and more broken down by advances in the production process. Despite that, if the working class does not elevate itself from being a slave class, it finds its common actions paralysed or limited by opposing competitive interests which divide every section against every other section.

The inspiring and time-honoured call for workers’ unity can be realised only as unity around a genuinely revolutionary programme founded on the aim of universal human freedom. Only in the process of this self-realisation can all oppressed sections of the population be won to identify with the working class.

In Britain, as in any other capitalist country, there are contradictions within the bourgeoisie. Capitalist is pitted against capitalist in the market. But the most important contradiction in this respect is the domination of Britain by monopoly capital.

What does this mean for the non-monopoly bourgeoisie?

On the one hand the non-monopoly bourgeoisie suffers due to its disadvantageous position in the market and the state. On the other it benefits from monopoly capitalism’s global reach and ability to pacify the working class.

All capitalists are united in needing the working class to remain wage slaves in perpetuity. So as well as contradiction there is benefit, which is in fact the main feature in the relationship of non-monopoly capital to monopoly capital. Hence contradiction is secondary.

This is mirrored politically. The non-monopoly bourgeoisie is united behind the monopoly bourgeoisie. It has no real inde-pendent voice. It is ideologically narrow-minded and tries to influence society through institutions which are in the main entirely subordinate to the monopoly bourgeoisie.

So while monopoly capital operates at the expense of non-monopoly capital, the latter is kept in place by a thousand golden threads. Like the monopoly bourgeoisie, the non-monopoly bourgeoisie will fight tooth and nail to kill the revolution. It is a reactionary section of society.

The task of the Socialist Alliance is to break the working class from the influence of all sections of the bourgeoisie. There can be no revolutionary alliance with the non-monopoly bourgeoisie. Individuals from the bourgeoisie, but never any section of it, can come over to the side of the working class. However, the working class can and should take advantage of the contradictions within the bourgeoisie, not least between monopoly and non-monopoly capital. Concessions offered by the working class to the non-monopoly bourgeoisie open up fissures in the ranks of our enemy and help to neutralise sections of it.

The middle class, including the petty bourgeoisie - lawyers, doctors, middle management, middle grade civil servants, the self-employed, well paid professionals - is defined negatively as what exists and wavers between the two main classes in society.

As monopoly capitalism relentlessly revolutionises production, elements within the middle class find old privileged positions being dissolved. Such a process gives rise to explosive shifts and, through political intervention, can speed the process of proletarianisation. Economic crises plunge the middle class into turmoil and into political action.

Workers ought to seek, as opportunities present themselves, alliances with the various organisations and manifestations of these intermediate strata. Indeed the working class must represent the middle class against capital.

The middle class is always open to bourgeois influences and can under no circumstances be regarded a consistent ally of the working class. That said, success in prising it away from monopoly capital deprives our main enemy of a major social prop and adds to the momentum of revolution.

4.2. The socialist constitution

This section on the socialist constitution outlines the form of organisation of the state and political life under socialism. It represents the culmination, embodiment and continuation of our immediate demands.

Incongruous as it might seem, the aim of this constitution is to facilitate its own negation. The socialist constitution will become simply a piece of paper, an historical document, as the state withers away along with classes.

The principles of our constitution are born out of a scientific understanding of the class struggle. Crucially, that in the process of smashing the capitalist state, organs of working class struggle become organs of working class state power. Our principles are not gleaming abstractions; nor are they a utopian dream. They reflect historic experience and the necessity for the workers to continue the class struggle even when they are the ruling class.

The Socialist Alliance fights for:

Supreme power in the state will be in the hands of workers’ councils, composed of delegates who are elected and recallable at any time. These organs will have both executive and legislative functions.
The pay of full-time elected delegates will be no greater than the average skilled worker.
All parties which accept revolutionary laws will be free to operate. We accept the possibility of one revolutionary party or coalition of parties replacing another peacefully. Minorities have the right and should be given the opportunity to become majorities.
There must be no financial penalties to inhibit standing in elections. Elections should be on the basis of proportional representation with an open count.
Local organs of power must have a broad degree of autonomy.
The principle of openness in state affairs will be guaranteed.
All international agreements counter to the interests of the working class will be abrogated. Key constitutional, international and other such questions should be put to referendum.
There will be no censorship. There must be the right of expression and discussion of all topics.
The armed forces and the police will be dispersed. In their place will be a workers’ militia that will embody the right of everyone to bear arms. The production and distribution of weapons will be under the control of workers’ collectives.

4.3. Economic measures

The workers’ state would be wrong to nationalise some pre-set number of companies or list of industries. Nationalisation could be used tactically as a political weapon against those who refuse to cooperate or who rebel. But the full socialisation of production in Britain is dependent on and can only proceed in line with the completion of world revolution.

The immediate task is the systematic extension of workers’ control over production. This greatly curtails the power of capital and culturally prepares the workers for the day when the law of the plan finally and completely replaces the law of value.

The scope of workers’ control should be gradually extended as the working class “wrests by degrees” power over the economy from the capitalist class and management experts. This will require the raising of the cultural level of the working class, its capacity for organisation and leadership.

This process will continue until full workers’ management of production is achieved. At this stage the economy will be fully socialised and will in the main be communally owned: that is, in the “hands of the state - ie, of the proletariat, organised as the ruling class”.

In order to facilitate this we envisage the following measures:

All major decisions relating to management of production, hiring and firing, etc, must be ratified by workers’ committees.
Trade unions must be independent from the state and should protect workers’ rights and conditions against the state and the remnants of capitalism.
As part of the process of expropriating the bourgeoisie, a graduated inheritance tax targeted against the rich will be introduced.
Income tax for all wage workers will be abolished as part of the process of simplifying the economic regulation of society.
It will be compulsory for everyone to do socially useful work - the only exception being those who are unable to do so for reasons of health or age.
A national plan of production will be formulated, based on the widest participation, discussion and decision-making process possible in society. This plan as a whole will be presented to the working class organs that have formulated it for ratification before being implemented. It will then be monitored, analysed and if necessary modified at every stage by the class fighting for its implementation, the working class.