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Introduction: Socialist Action is a group of revolutionary
socialists committed to the emancipation of working and oppressed people everywhere!
We are active in the labor, anti-war, human rights, student, women’s,
Black and Chicano liberation, queer and all other social movements that
challenge the injustices of capitalism and organize people to stand up
and fight in their own interests. We’ve set up this website to introduce
you to our organization and the struggles we support. We welcome any
questions or feedback you may have – and if you like what you see here –
we invite you to contact us about how to join Socialist Action!
What We Do:
We are active in a variety of social movements.
In particular we support the self-mobilization of workers and the
oppressed, and the building of independent working class institutions. We
believe in mass action, and commit ourselves to using our time, energy
and experience towards building successful protests and movements that
give people a sense of the power they have as a class when they stand
together. We also seek to inject a revolutionary Marxist perspective into
these movements and protests. Towards that end we organize classes,
forums and study groups on our politics where we seek to share our views
with our fellow activists, co-workers and classmates.
What We Stand For:
 We are a party that fights for workers’
democracy and socialism, for human needs not profits – for the full
liberation of workers and oppressed peoples everywhere!
We fight against racism in all its
forms. We also support the movements for liberation and
self-determination by Blacks and other oppressed nationalities.
We are opposed to any and all
discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation. We support equal
rights for all, and help build the women’s and GLBT movements.
We fight for jobs for all – 30 hours
work for 40 hours pay. We advocate a labor party based on the unions.
We oppose the Democrats and Republicans,
all capitalist governments, and all of capitalism’s representatives
everywhere.
We have always been uncompromising opponents
of Stalinist regimes from the ex-Soviet Union to China. We fight for a
socialist world that is democratically controlled by workers through
their own institutions.
What Will a Socialist
America Look Like:
Class
Struggle & Independence - We believe that the world is
divided into opposing social classes, and that the main driving force of
modern history is the struggle between the working class and the capitalist
class. We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the
need for independent working class politics – not alliances with the
capitalists, or any wing of that class. That is why we call for workers
to break from the Democratic Party to build a Labor Party based on the
trade unions. In all of our political work we seek to get workers to see
and think of themselves in terms of class, and to recognize that their
class interests are diametrically opposed to that of the capitalists.
Revolution
vs. Reform - We believe that the state and all of its
institutions are instruments of the ruling class, and that therefore they
cannot be used as tools of the working class, but have to be smashed.
That is why we fight for revolution, instead of for seeking to merely
reform or work within the system. When we fight for specific reforms we
do so only with the understanding that in the final analysis real social
change can only come about with the overthrow of capitalism, and the
establishment of a workers’ government. We seek to link the demands for
reforms with revolution through the Transitional Program and its
method.
The
Specially Oppressed & Oppressed Nationalities - We support
the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism –
women, queers, national minorities, etc. We support and help build
autonomous movements for the oppressed so that they can articulate their
own demands, and develop political consciousness as a group. We support
the right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including
Blacks, Chicanos & Puerto Ricans.
Internationalism
- While we support the nationalism of oppressed nationalities as progressive,
we are internationalists, and as such we hold that the workers of one
country have more in common with the workers of another than they do with
their own nation’s capitalist class. We oppose the nationalism of
oppressor nationalities as wholly reactionary. We seek to link the
struggles of workers and oppressed across national boundaries, and to
build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate the
sharing of experiences and political lessons from one country with
revolutionaries in another. That is why we maintain fraternal relations
with the Fourth
International.
Vanguard
Party - The capitalist class is highly organized, and to
overthrow it the working class likewise needs organization. We believe in
the need for a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries based on
a political program that incorporates the lessons of past working class
victories and defeats. The class struggle ebbs and flows – to maintain
continuity and to be prepared for openings in the class struggle there is
a need for an organization of always-active revolutionaries. We believe
within such a party there must be complete and fair discussion and
democracy, and the right to even form factions and tendencies to fight
for your ideas. However, these democratically made decisions (the party
line) must be binding on all members, and the party has to act as a common
unit in carrying out the decided upon line in order to test if it is
correct or not. This is called democratic-centralism.
United
Fronts - Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and
within the workers’ movement, as well as the low level of class
consciousness that exists among many workers, we seek to form united
fronts, and united front type organizations, around specific issues where
various groups have agreement with us. In this way we seek to maximize
our impact and the number of forces that can be mobilized around a given
issue, demonstrate the power and effectiveness of mass action as opposed
to symbolic small-scale and individual actions, and expose others on the
left and the workers’ movement to our method of functioning and our
political program. We also see this as the way of achieving meaningful
revolutionary regroupment – because it allows different groups to work
together and see whether or not they have significant political
convergence. It should also be said that while we support the tactic of
the united front, we are opposed to popular fronts – multi-class
alliances that subordinate the interests of workers to that of a wing of
the capitalist class.
Permanent
Revolution - This famous theory by Leon Trotsky holds that
revolution in modern times, even in under-developed countries, has to be
led by the working class and has to be a fully fledged socialist
revolution – revolution cannot go through stages and cannot be made in
alliance with any wing of the capitalist class. To be ultimately
successful it also needs to be an international revolution. We believe
that a successful socialist revolution will result in a workers’
government that is based on elected workers’ councils.
Membership Requirements:
Inside Socialist Action complete equality is
practiced. Every member enjoys the same rights, privileges and duties.
Membership is open to anyone who:
Accepts and is in general agreement
with our political program;
Who agrees to abide by majority rule;
Who seeks to build and is loyal to the
party;
Who agrees to engage actively in the
party’s work and materially support it.
If you like what you see, we invite you to join
us!
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