May Day: Build the revolutionary movement for independence and socialism!

Nick G.

May Day is the day for international celebration of the socialist objective of the working class. It is a day born of the struggles and sacrifices of working class activists, a day immersed in the contemporary struggles of the working class, and a day which defines the future and sets the tasks for the working class.

People want a better world, but imperialist domination
and monopoly capitalism stand in their way

What is socialism….

People’s understanding of socialism differs.  

For some it simply means a fairer distribution of incomes and services without any fundamental change to the prevailing system of capitalism.  For such people there is hope for parliamentary means of achieving that “fairness” through a Labor (or Greens) party. 

The sentiment behind this hope is quite resilient: despite all the betrayals by Labor governments, some people seem unable to break out of a cycle of hoping for a better deal than they are going to get from the Liberals, and then losing heart every time Labor wins office and backtracks on its promises to the point where it seems indistinguishable from the more open party of big business. 

This hopeful sentiment has been given new life by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership victory in the British Labour Party, and by Bernie Sanders’ challenge to Hillary Clinton in the US Democratic primaries.

We respect this sentiment, but do not share it.  We need to break out of its dead-end cycle.

For us, socialism has two main characteristics.  Firstly, it means ending the private ownership of the major means of production, distribution and exchange.  It means ending the system which enriches a few, and reinvesting all profit and wealth in society for the benefit of the many. 

Secondly, it means depriving the capitalist ruling class of its political power and its machinery of the state and creating new institutions of power through which the working class will take control of the decision-making processes.

…and how will we get it?

We do not believe that either of those characteristics can be obtained through the parliamentary process.  In no country have the rich and powerful ever surrendered their right to profit from the labour of others.  They did not do it under Allende in Chile, and they are not doing it in Venezuela despite the heroic leaderships of Chavez and Maduro. Leaving the existing institutions of the capitalist class’s creation intact only invites subversion, instability, sabotage and ultimately, armed removal of the progressive government.

More and more workers in Australia must involve themselves in the fight for anti-imperialist independence and socialism.  That fight will eventually be waged as a revolution against capitalism and imperialism.  We are not yet at that stage: there is no revolutionary situation, but there must be a revolutionary movement to prepare for it.

That revolution will be a two-stage process

Australia is a dependent, client capitalist state; whose politics, economy and military is dominated by US and foreign interests. 

The first stage, the anti-imperialist stage, is defined by the socialist character of the expropriation of the assets belonging to the imperialists and their local associates, assets which are at the heart of capitalism in Australia.  

This can only occur under working class leadership, leading to the deepening of the socialist character of the revolution and its embrace of all economic and political functions throughout a second stage when remaining influences of capitalism will be eradicated. There is no intermediate capitalist stage between these two phases; rather, there is an overlap with the first stage melding into the second.

In our Party’s logo, the first anti-imperialist stage, represented by the Eureka flag, is foregrounded in and rests upon the foundation of the red star of socialism.

On this May Day, 2016, we express our complete confidence in the Australian working class, in the revolutionary movement that advances the interests of the working class, and in the independence and socialism that are the future of our class.