17.07.1997

A new party?

From The Call, paper of the British Socialist Party, July 12 1917

The Leeds Convention was an expression of the ever growing movement for a general peace.

Because socialism was and remains the motive power in that movement, there arose the eager desire to respond to the internationalist appeal of our Russian comrades. Desirable as it is that soldiers’ pensions should be augmented and allowances to soldiers’ dependants be increased, the palliation of war was not the aim of that memorable gathering. Neither did it stand for amendments of political democracy, too often advanced to avoid attack upon the fundamental evils of society. The Convention was an organ of working class internationalism ...

We are not of those who consider the Labour Party the final word in political organisation. As in the more orthodox parties, greater wealth has weight in the Labour Party. Neither do we view the craft trade unions as perfect instruments against capitalism in its recent developments.

The Labour Party must change. Probably it will be completely transformed before long. But while it changes, the socialist organisations must be in the Labour Party, fighting to ensure that its reconstruction is on lines which they alone can indicate.

There is no sure foundation for a workers’ party but the organisation of the working class. Only a political party with that basis can respond to the requirements of independent organisation. For us there can be no participation in forming a body designed to find place and profit for politicians, for whom existing parties provide no avenues for advancement or notoriety.

The Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council, and the coming district conferences, should coordinate existing local bodies ... From the first the representatives of the British Socialist Party on the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council have been insistent in their demand that its object and basis should be as indicated above.