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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.
Our Program in a Nutshell:
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 - 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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