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Our
Political 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.
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