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The Scottish debate

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The faction comrades make the preposterous claim that the Scottish section has "abandoned the historic programme of Marxism." The comrades also state that "the overall programme of the Scottish Socialist Party is not and cannot be a revolutionary programme." This is a dogmatic assertion which flies in the face of history. The reality is that the comrades have swallowed, hook, line and sinker the sterile argument presented by the British EC during the debate on whether to launch the Scottish Socialist Party.

The Socialist Party EC then solemnly insisted that the only revolutionary programme was "a body of ideas based on the first four congresses of the Communist International, the founding documents of the Fourth International and the accumulated experience of the Committee or a Workers' International'. (Letter from Socialist Party EC to Scottish Militant Labour EC April 1998)

This of course rules out a priori any possibility of the Scottish Socialist Party ever developing a revolutionary programme. No-one has seriously suggested that the Scottish Socialist Party should formally adopt the statutes of the first four congresses of the Communist International, or the programme of the Fourth International. For that matter, how many members, even leaders of the sections of the Committee for a Workers' International are familiar with these documents?

A programme, as Leon Trotsky once pointed out, is not formulated for discussion groups, but for the broad mass of the working class. The Scottish Socialist Party programme has not been modified to accommodate some mythical "reformist tendency" but is designed to appeal to the working class right now.

Could anyone seriously argue that if millions of Scottish workers were to be mobilised behind the programme of the Scottish Socialist Party, which includes democratic public ownership of the financial institutions, the oil industry, land, construction, energy, large scale industry; redistribution of wealth including a maximum income differential of ten to one; and workers control of industry that would not have revolutionary implications?

It is true that the Scottish Socialist Party programme does not deal in detail with the task of the transition from capitalism to a workers state and how exactly that will be achieved. At this stage, given the level of struggle, political consciousness and so on, to formulate such policies in any detail at Scottish Socialist Party conferences would be to run too far ahead of events. These debates will develop naturally as the class struggle itself intensifies.

In a polemical pamphlet directed against the Socialist Workers Party in Ireland, Peter Hadden makes some pertinent points. He quotes the Socialist Workers Party's programme which states "The present system cannot be reformed out of existence. Parliament cannot be used to end the system. The courts, army and police are there to defend the interests of the capitalist class, not to run society in a neutral fashion. To destroy capitalism, workers need to smash the state, and create a workers state based on workers councils." Peter Hadden retorts: 'This is true, but it is a theoretical position, not a programme. Under today's conditions your call for the smashing of the state and workers councils, when not oven the faintest outline of these exist in reality, is abstract propaganda, ultra left musing, nothing more, nothing less."

In the same pamphlet, Peter later states: "This programme is modest - for a decent standard of living to be guaranteed for all - but the fight to achieve it raises the question of where the resources to meet these needs will come from. This inability of the market to deliver poses the need for an alternative, for public ownership of the wealth-producing industries so that additional wealth can be generated to cater for human need. That is why this programme is 'transitional'- the struggle to achieve these demands brings the working class up against the limitations of capitalism, or in Trotsky's words, to the doorstep of the socialist revolution. "

We agree - and that is exactly the way in which the Scottish Socialist Party programme has been formulated. That is not to suggest that the Scottish Socialist Party programme is fully rounded-out. This is a brand new party which is in the process of development. Programme and ideology takes shape over many years and are developed not just in resolutions and conferences, but in the white hot furnace of class struggle itself.

A genuinely revolutionary programme for the 21st century will not be a regurgitation of statements drawn up at specific periods in history such as the programme of the Comintern or the Fourth International. We would suggest it would encompass the following points:

A clear statement in favour of socialism which clarifies that our aim is not to humanise or improve capitalism but to replace it with a new social and economic system.

An understanding that socialism is not simply counterposed in an abstract way to capitalism but is presented concretely, transitionally by relating the struggle for socialism to the day to day problems that working class people face.

An understanding that capitalism cannot be reformed out of existence or smuggled in through parliament but that it can only be achieved by the mass action of the working class, which in turn has to create its own forms of organisation in the course of the struggle which will become the embryo of a new form of state. That does not mean that we do not take full advantage of capitalist democratic institutions, we obviously do. It simply means that in the final analysis we subordinate the struggle inside these institutions to the struggle outside.

A preparedness to fight and struggle to defend and improve the day-to-day conditions of working class people. To fight for reforms does not make you a reformist. It all depends within what overall framework the reforms are fought for. In fact it is no accident that today the wing of the workers' movement which has traditionally been called reformist, with a few honourable exceptions, no longer fights for reforms.

A striving to unify the working class, to overcome divisions within it and to maintain its class independence and clear demarcation from all bourgeois parties. In the struggles of today and tomorrow, our aim is to unify the working class to defend and advance its own class interests.

A defence of the principles of socialist democracy. We are for the self-organisation of working people, whether in the workplace or in the communities, for them to democratically take charge of their own struggles and their own lives. Within that framework we defend the right of all currents of opinion to be expressed. Based on historical experience, we seek to counteract bureaucratic tendencies by the widest possible democracy and by strict refusal of material privileges. We apply this within our own parties.

A recognition of the importance of internationalism. We stress the international nature of the struggle and our solidarity with all workers in struggle anywhere and all peoples oppressed by imperialism. We see the highest point of internationalism as the building of a workers' International.

A preparedness to take up those questions that have arisen in the course of the 20th century that do not directly flow from the exploitation of the working class. Issues such as the oppression of women, national oppression, racism, homophobia, and the environment have assumed greater importance not just in the struggle to overthrow capitalism but in the way we conceive socialism. These questions therefore form an essential part of a socialist programme today.

If we look at the programme of the Scottish Socialist Party in the light of these points, we can see that a number of them have already been adopted. There is no objective reason why we cannot continue to make the programme of the Scottish Socialist Party evolve. It is therefore wrong for the comrades of the faction to say that "the overall programme of the Scottish Socialist Party, while clearly an explicit socialist one, is not and cannot be a revolutionary or transitional programme" (our emphasis). Simply, we have to make the party's programme evolve in line with the political situation and the concrete experience of the party and not to force things along artificially.

It is incumbent on the comrades of the faction not to simply state baldly that the Scottish Socialist Party is a non-revolutionary party, but to explain in what way the programme of the Scottish Socialist Party is insufficient for the tasks of today and to propose ways of improving it.

For example it is certainly true that the Scottish Socialist Party does not have a position on the revolutionary destruction of the bourgeois state. How can we pose this question concretely today?

The answer is that we cannot. We can do two things: educate the party to have no reliance on the state and educate the cadres of the party as to the nature of the capitalist state, the inevitable resistance of the ruling classes and the need for the working class to create its own alternative state. That is precisely one of the roles of the International Socialist Movement, not just on this question but on others: to provide the theoretical grounding which underlies the programme.

Of course, in order to have a serious discussion on the programme of the Scottish Socialist Party it would be necessary to abandon the methods of the present campaign in the Committee for a Workers' International of what could be politely called disinformation concerning the economic programme of the Scottish Socialist Party.

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