Socialism — the way forward
By John Percy
Resistance Books, 1997
30pp., $3.50
Available at all Resistance Bookshops
Review by Pip Hinman
While the early 1990s was marked by a propaganda offensive about the end of "socialism", as we near the end of the century it's becoming increasingly hard for ideologues to sell the virtues of capitalism. Many of the bourgeois economists who initially tried to explain away the Asian economic crisis as nothing more than blip, now seem less cocky.
In this context, Socialism — the way forward is particularly relevant. Based on a talk presented to the Democratic Socialist Party's 1997 national conference, Percy, the party's national secretary, flatly rejects the idea now prevalent on the left that socialism may be a good idea, but, for a number of different reasons, is currently not on the agenda.
Percy turns that premise on its head. He argues that global environmental destruction, the growing gap between rich and poor, the horrors of the "free market", the gigantic Third World debt to the rich countries and the dismantling of the remnants of the welfare system are conclusive proof that, "The necessity for a socialist solution to the contradictions, crimes and horrors of capitalism is greater than ever before".
The liberals and do-gooders don't have the answers, Percy says. It's clear the system can't be patched up. While this isn't controversial, what is disputed by many on the left is the premise put by Marx, Engels and Lenin that the working class is still the only force with the potential to bring about socialism.
According to Percy, the working class is not finished as a potential challenger to capitalism. While the leadership of the working class has, in the main, succumbed to the trappings of privilege offered by social democracy and Stalinism, the struggles for decent living conditions around the world illustrate that, although it is weak organisationally and politically, the working class is still capable of fighting back.
But militant struggle, no matter how important, cannot substitute for revolutionary struggle. Percy outlines Lenin's polemic against the "economists" — the liberals of his day — saying that without the conscious adoption of a revolutionary strategy to win socialism, the working class will always remain enslaved by the ideology of the ruling class.
For Lenin, this highlighted the "immense ideological responsibility" of socialists organised and active in a revolutionary party.
But why do we need such a party when only a tiny minority of the working class has a socialist consciousness and revolution is still some way off? Because history shows that without a revolutionary party whose goal is the struggle for socialism, opportunities for revolutionary transformation can be easily wasted. This was illustrated in the experiences of the German Social Democratic Party on the eve of World War 1 and the Chilean left in the 1970s.
The need to build a mass revolutionary party is the main lesson from the history of the socialist movement, Percy argues. This may involve a variety of tactical shifts such as regroupments, splits and new alliances. These are not detours, but ways of involving greater numbers in the struggle for socialism, ultimately the most conscious revolution in the history of humankind.
For those interested in finding out, in a nutshell, the world view of the DSP, this is a useful and accessible pamphlet.