{"id":4199,"date":"2022-03-14T00:07:22","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T00:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/?p=4199"},"modified":"2022-03-14T00:07:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T00:07:23","slug":"understanding-the-wsm-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/understanding-the-wsm-1-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the WSM 1\/3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our Impossiblism <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Impossiblism” is basically the view that a socialist party should only seek support on the basis of socialism and the abolition of the wages system and not possess any programme of immediate or transitional demands. It is the view that socialism can only arise when a majority of workers want and understand it. Our task as a socialist party is educational to persuade workers to become socialists and when there is a socialist majority to win control of political power rather than propose reforms within capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Accepting the label “Impossiblists” does not infer\u00a0that we oppose\u00a0the laws of physics and are demanding the impossible, but refers to a\u00a0split that emerged within the early socialist movement between the “Possiblists” who believed that socialists should work towards\u00a0attaining\u00a0reforms as stepping stones to the ultimate goal of socialism, and the \u201cImpossiblists\u201d\u00a0who demanded socialism as a first premise. It is a division\u00a0that has been seen in other movements where one\u00a0group gets into office only\u00a0to find that they have been elected to manage capitalism, not to implement the socialist objective. \u201cImpossiblists,\u201d\u00a0say if you want socialism, you have to stand for socialism and nothing but\u00a0and\u00a0not\u00a0claim to be able to run capitalism better than the capitalist parties. No reforms trying to change capitalism without abolishing it – only the clear and constant call for the abolition of the wages system itself. It is reasonable, only to demand the \u201cimpossible\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Nevertheless, the\u00a0refusal to advocate reforms does\u00a0not mean that the \u201cImpossiblists\u201d\u00a0thought a socialist party should oppose palliative policies. On the contrary, any socialist elected to a parliament or a municipal council would vote for any measure considered to be in the interest of the working class.\u00a0A\u00a0socialist delegate, when elected, shall always and everywhere make his or her\u00a0guiding rule: will this legislation advance the interest of the working doss and aid the workers in their class struggle against capitalism? If it will, the socialist is for it; if it will not, the socialist is absolutely opposed to it. In accordance with this principle, the World Socialist Movement\u00a0pledges itself to conduct all the public affairs placed in its hands in such a manner as to promote the interests of the working class alone.\u00a0Our critics\u00a0equate\u00a0not advocating reform measures\u00a0with being against\u00a0them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What reformist critics, fail to understand is the logic of the \u201cImpossiblist\u201d position adopted by the WSM. This involved not advocating any reforms to be achieved within capitalism on the grounds that socialism was the only solution and that absolute priority should be given to trying to achieve it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Socialist Movement\u00a0does\u00a0not set itself\u00a0up as discouraging fellow\u00a0workers from improving their conditions\u00a0under capitalism. We simply understand\u00a0the limits of these attempts\u00a0due to the constraints imposed by the economic laws of capitalism. Our fellow workers have yet to learn them. But it is one thing to say that the WSM \u00a0does\u00a0not oppose working people\u00a0fighting for reforms, and quite another to state that we in the WSM\u00a0should place ourselves in a position of trying to make capitalism work in the interests of the workers when all along we are fully aware that\u00a0it cannot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Suppose the WSM were to embark on a campaign to obtain more housing, better hospitals and so forth. Perhaps it would bring more people to join our organisation. However, on what basis would they join? The same basis on which we appealed to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We would end up having a movement made up of workers who were seeking continual improvement under capitalist methods of production and distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What happens when such an organisation is voted into political office? It would be obliged to carry out reforms of capitalism. We could cite example after example where a party calling itself \u201csocialist\u201d but advocating immediate demands now and \u201csocialism in the future\u201d that once in political power, instead of abolishing exploitation, merely altered the shape of it. The World Socialist Movement does not advocate political legislation to reform capitalism. To do so would put the socialists in a position of deceiving workers to believe that the capitalist state can function in their interests when it is the State by which the capitalist class maintains its domination over the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The World Socialist Movement is not concerned with reforms under capitalism. This is the concern of the ruling class which uses reforms to bribe off the working class. Even if the World Socialist Movement was to entirely disappear, the capitalists, by the very class nature of the system, would still have to grant reforms to forestall the development of revolutionary thought among the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, a rapidly rising socialist movement would force the capitalist class to grant more and more reforms.\u00a0We would prefer a working-class armed with concise political knowledge negotiating\u00a0under terms of a clear understanding of the class struggle. But failing that, we fully acknowledge the class war exists and is being fought, whether people know or want it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strength of\u00a0the World Socialist Movement\u2019s\u00a0case is that it\u00a0clearly and unambiguously does not want to get into and control various\u00a0types of social struggles\u00a0– housing association struggles are for housing associations, union struggles are for unions. \u00a0\u201cImpossiblism\u201d\u00a0is not standing on the sidelines, it’s getting involved and getting dirty, practically.\u00a0The organisation for the capture and conversion of political machinery into an agent of emancipation is important involvement.\u00a0Demanding the \u201cImpossible\u201d\u00a0means raising the standard of hope, and affirming your own principles, not slavishly looking for yet another doomed battle to join. We can’t build a workers\u2019\u00a0movement unless working\u00a0people stand up and act differently. The choice is between the \u201cPossiblism\u201d\u00a0of compromise and concession or\u00a0the \u201cImpossiblism\u201d\u00a0of rising up and being counted.\u00a0The World Socialist Movement is not advocating for a few slight changes to capitalism, a few palliatives as\u00a0the mainstream and left-wing parties\u00a0do, but demanding an end to the present socio-economic system and everything associated with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, very sadly, at the moment, is just too radical for many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our membership remains small, scattered and, let\u2019s be brutally honest, relatively\u00a0insignificant and\u00a0inactive compared to all those marching and demonstrating. We are yet to win a seat in any local much less a\u00a0national election. And so it is not unusual\u00a0for our members\u00a0and sympathisers to sometimes despair.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we have\u00a0faced many obstacles to our growth,\u00a0such as the 1917 Bolshevik coup and the myriad groupings that sprung from the inspiration of the \u201cRussian Revolution\u201d and which, in truth, have caused untold damage to the true socialist cause. For many years now, we in the WSM\u00a0have expended\u00a0a great deal of time and energy to\u00a0rescue the socialist name from the many Leninist and Trotskyist groups who have sullied the image of socialism\u00a0by associating it\u00a0with\u00a0the former Soviet Union. We have had to\u00a0distance\u00a0ourselves from the illusion held by many that socialists advocate violent revolution or that socialism can exist in one country.\u00a0We have constantly had to compete for the minds of the workers with a myriad of left-wing groups\u00a0all of whom pedal the politics of confusion, offering the workers fictitious fast-track routes to the Land of Milk and Honey, prepared to recruit anyone willing to fill up a\u00a0membership form, regardless\u00a0of socialist knowledge. We have frustratingly watched in dismay the workers\u2019 support for the labour parties\u00a0and the\u00a0workers\u2019 belief in their\u00a0empty promises despite\u00a0their\u00a0repeated\u00a0betrayals of\u00a0those same workers at every opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also contributing a negative\u00a0impact are\u00a0the thousands of single-issue groups on the political scene who although well-meaning, \u00a0focus workers’\u00a0minds on isolated problems, presenting them\u00a0as if they as the most pressing matter of the day. If their combined energy had have been spent on attacking capitalism as a system, instead of campaigning against problems the system throws up, distracting millions of workers, then our task would\u00a0be far easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in all honesty, much of our work has been taken up in attempts to rectify the damage done by other political organisations to socialist ideas and in challenging the single-issue mentality of thousands of organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s be fair,\u00a0the lack of socialist consciousness and desire for real change is not all\u00a0down to our failure. It’s up to our fellow workers, not us, to establish socialism. But such has been the dead-ends and blind alleys, the distractions,\u00a0they\u00a0have had their work cut out to accomplish the required socialist consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cImpossiblists\u201d of the World Socialist Movement is not an unsuccessful organisation full of utopian dogmatists. As socialists we are not content to sit back on the sidelines of history \u2013 we are original thinkers and are open to innovation and new ideas \u2013 providing, that is, that they are sound. We are willing and able to cooperate with men and women the world over to bring about a better society, and we are proud of the small contribution we have already made to the movement that will one day sweep away capitalism once and for all. We remain small in size for numerous reasons outside of our control, not least because we refuse to compromise our position and pursue reforms and single issues to the detriment of revolutionary struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our message to those who can see no future in the market economy is to join us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Impossiblism “Impossiblism” is basically the view that a socialist party should only seek support on the basis of socialism and the abolition of the wages system and not possess any programme of immediate or transitional demands. It is the view that socialism can only arise when a majority of workers want and understand it. Our task as a socialist party…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4201,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4199\/revisions\/4201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}