<!--wrsf-->
Organising for Revolution
Working people make revolutions possible. Socialists organise for their success. All the spontaneous actions and uprisings against capitalism can never lead to a successful revolution unless it’s organised, unless there is a concept of how to win. The ruling class controls the entire state apparatus of capitalism — the judges, the politicians, the police and courts. They can crush struggles with their law. Their media can confuse and divert struggles. And their money can buy off leaders. Working people need a strategy for their struggle. And they need to work together to carry it out.
The mass of people have no love for the system. Women don’t like being treated like second-class citizens nor workers like factory fodder. But alone they rarely come to understand the general problems. They may struggle for reforms but not understand that their only guarantee is revolution.
Oppression itself does not automatically generate a socialist understanding. The ideas of socialism and the strategy of revolution have a long history, with many experiences and lessons. No individual can embody all this experience, let alone use it. Only a consciously constructed socialist organisation or party can hope to bring such lessons to bear on making history.
Many people who have generally progressive ideas in Australia today look to the Greens as an alternative party that challenges the worst aspects of capitalism. Indeed, the Greens have better positions than any of the main capitalist parties on the environment, war, refugees, women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, trade union rights and more. The Greens talk also about grassroots democracy and the importance of activism, and they often help build movements that challenge the priorities of government and big business.
However, the Greens accept the capitalist system, seeking only to ameliorate its "excesses". The Greens prioritise getting seats in parliament over leading mass struggles. They don’t provide a clear explanation of the problems of capitalism, what it is, how to get rid of it and what to replace it with. In some cases, they’ve supported state governments that have attacked the living standards of working people, such as in Tasmania in the 1990s, in the hope that they could win some environmental concessions in return.
The role of a socialist organisation is to build a mass revolutionary movement-to convince the mass of people that the only lasting solution to the problems capitalism poses is a revolutionary one. No revolution can be made without majority support. It can’t be made by appeals to the rulers. Nor can it be made by minority violence against the rulers.
Socialists get involved in every struggle against the injustices of capitalism. In every struggle, we aim to win. So we aim to draw the largest number of people into every fight. In their numbers, in marches, strikes and occupations, working people find their power. They can bring the system to a halt. Every successful struggle raises the confidence of the oppressed in their own power and wins more and more people to socialist activity.
To make a revolution in Australia, we will need to build a mass socialist party, a party that can get involved in an increasing number of struggles against the system’s attacks, a party that fights against attacks on workers, women, students and all those oppressed by capitalism, a party that can organise and unite these struggles against the central problem, the system itself.
