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THE
LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE
The
Labourites went to Scarborough this year, but having arrived, they
had nowhere else to go. Why should they? Apparently Labourites have
not yet grasped the fact that after the 1945 term of office they had
no claim to be considered in the eyes of the voters as an alternative
government. In 1945 they went in on a wave of post-war enthusiasm.
They put into effect what was for Capitalism a necessary
reorganisation of certain sectors of British industry via
nationalisation. They initiated the necessary policies for restoring
the debilitated condition of the post-war economy and bringing the
social services in line with the requirements of Capitalism.
What
else was left in their political ragbag? Only dull odd remnants which
did not show up so well with the more brightly coloured Tory jumble
sale, and now to vary the metaphor the Labour Party's only appeal to
the voters: “Play the game, you chaps, you’ve put the other side
in twice, let us have a turn at batting.”
Nationalisation,
which was once the great plank of the Labour Party, is now a heap of
sawdust and shavings which was quietly swept up. Even the 50 odd year
Labour project, land nationalisation was rejected. Nationalisation,
which once helped to float S.S. “Labour,” is now in danger of
sinking it. Nationalisation rouses no enthusiasm among electors and
is a source of disillusionment to the Labour rank and file.
(From
article by
E.W., Socialist Standard, November 1958)
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Declaration
of Principles
This
declaration is the basis of our organisation and, because
it is
also an important
historical document dating from the
formation
of the party
in 1904, its original language has been retained.
Object
The establishment of a system of
society based upon the
common ownership and democratic control of the
means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in
the interest of the whole community.
Declaration of Principles
the socialist Party of Great Britain
holds,
1.
That society as at
present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of living
(i.e., land, factories, railways,
etc.) by the capitalist or master class, and the consequent enslavement
of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced.
2.
That in society,
therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as a
class struggle between those who possess but do not produce and those
who produce but do not possess.
3.
That this antagonism
can be abolished only by the emancipation of the working class from the
domination of the master class, by the conversion into the common
property of society of the means of production and distribution, and
their democratic control by the whole people.
4.
That as in the order
of social evolution the working class is the last class to achieve its
freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the
emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex.
5.
That this
emancipation must be the work of the working class itself.
6.
That as the machinery
of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists only to
conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken from
the workers, the working class must organize consciously and
politically for the conquest of the powers of government, national and
local, in order that
this machinery, including these forces, may be converted from an
instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation and the
overthrow of privilege, aristocratic and plutocratic.
7.
That as all political
parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest
of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interests of all
sections of the master class, the party seeking working class
emancipation must be hostile to every other party.
8.
The Socialist Party of
Great Britain, therefore, enters the field of political action
determined to wage war against all other political parties, whether
alleged labour or avowedly capitalist, and calls upon the members of
the working class of this country to muster under its banner to the end
that a speedy termination may be wrought to the system which deprives
them of the fruits of their labour, and that poverty may give place to
comfort, privilege to equality, and slavery to freedom.
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