Reply To: Russian Tensions

October 2026 › Forums › General discussion › Russian Tensions › Reply To: Russian Tensions

#238469
DJP
Participant

<i>So violence is never justified?</i>

The SPGB position isn’t a pacifist one. If a recalcitrant minority was to use force to block the majority from obtaining Socialism, then it would be justified to use force against them. That’s why there is a section in the DoP about the necessity of socialists gaining control of the armed forces.

But the difference between the SPGB and those that think a minority can achieve ‘good by force’ is that the SPGB thinks that socialism can only be bought about through conscious majority co-operative action; since a socialist society will require this kind of conscious cooperation in order to function as such.