Democratic Socialist Alliance - Declaration for a New Workers' Party

On 21 January 2006, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union organised a conference on "the crisis of working class representation", the situation whereby no major party in Britain today represents the interests of the working class. Speaker after speaker advocated that a new working class party for socialism should be formed, as an alternative to the now explicitly pro-big business Labour Party.

The idea that the Labour Party originated as a socialist party is a myth. Just over a century ago representatives of trade unions and socialist groups met to form the Labour Representation Committee - renamed the Labour Party in 1906. At its 1900 founding conference a motion calling for the LRC to fight the class struggle for socialism was narrowly defeated. Instead a motion from Keir Hardie was passed in favour of an organisationally independent Labour Group in parliament, "which must embrace a readiness to co-operate with any party which, for the time being, may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interest of Labour". In reality this meant political dependence on the Liberals. It was a move that sent the organisation on the road to capitalist class influenced parliamentarianism.

At the Labour Party conference in 1907, Keir Hardie and other leaders stated that party conference decisions were merely opinions, to be accepted or rejected by the parliamentary leadership and so it has remained to this day. He even offered his resignation unless conference accepted that its manifesto pledge to fight for the total and equal enfranchisement of women would not be regarded as limiting the actions of the parliamentary leadership, who were trying to obtain a deal with the Liberals for something that fell short of the demand. The alternative course, of the Party leading a massive extra-parliamentary campaign of demonstrations, public meetings and strikes to demand an end to the disgrace of the denial of the vote to half of the population, did not fit the scheme of the party leaders.

The Labour Party was and is a federal party, with distinct sections, the dominant section always being the MPs. Federalism places sectional interests above those of the party as a whole and is thus undemocratic. A new workers' party should have a democratic unitary structure without the dominance of parliamentarians.

Keir Hardie had declared his agreement with the Liberal programme when he was elected as an MP in West Ham in 1893. Even when there was mass working class support for socialism following the Russian Revolution, the Labour Party merely adopted symbols, such as the now discarded Clause 4, which were gutted of any class or socialist content. At the same time, Ramsey Macdonald denounced class war and advocated class harmony. Socialism was redefined as state intervention for national capitalist efficiency. The nationalisation of inefficient industries by the 1945 Labour Government was the culmination of this top down tradition. For workers in the nationalised industries, the same management dictatorship as before continued. Workers' control was never considered as an option by the Labour Party.

The parliamentary leadership refused to support the workers great unrest in 1910/1914 or the 1926 general strike. The Attlee 1945/51 government used troops to break strikes. Harold Wilson witch hunted the leaders of the striking seafarers in 1964. Neil Kinnock scabbed on the striking miners in the great strike of 1984/5.

Some may argue that a reformist party that is democratic, one in which party conference is sovereign and parliamentarians cannot rule the roost would be a step forward. But it would be dishonest for us to promote such an idea. Capitalism is in an epoch of decline and the capitalist class, through its international financial institutions, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, etc., cannot and will not allow reformism. Instead capital requires an all out assault on the conditions won in the past by the workers of all nations. So we must reject a strategy of pretending to be reformists in the hope of winning a 'wider audience'. This would contradict the interests of the working class. The working class needs an international Marxist revolutionary party.

A new workers' party for England, Scotland and Wales, as a step towards such an international party, must be uncompromisingly socialist and democratic. It should be based on the principles of Marxism, determined to lead the working class in achieving political power and socialism.

The party cannot be democratic unless it allows its members freedom of criticism. Groups of members holding minority views must be allowed to organise to try to win a majority for their views.

A new workers' party should draw up a programme based on the political conviction that the emancipation of the workers must be the act of the workers themselves. The programme should seek to replace capitalism with socialism. The DSA is proposing the programme on which the Socialist Alliance stood 98 candidates in the 2001 general election, People Before Profit (1.6Mb, PDF), as a starting point for this task.

Campaign for a New Workers Party

The Campaign for a New Workers Party was initiated by the Socialist Party in England & Wales, which published, in November 2005, its own "Declaration for a New Workers Party"

The DSA welcomed this initiative from a still important working class organisation and we participated in the launching conference of the Campaign for a New Workers Party on 19 March 2006. We have some disagreements, however with the political analysis contained in the Socialist Party's declaration. In particular, we do not agree that the Labour Party ever truly represented the interests of the working class. We also feel that it is wrong to call for a new workers' party that will be geographically restricted to England and Wales, excluding comrades in Scotland who have the invaluable experience of working to build the Scottish Socialist Party.

These differences find reflection in our own 'Declaration for a New Workers' Party', which is set out above. The DSA will work to build the Campaign for a New Workers' Party. In doing so, we will fight for the principles set out in the DSA declaration.

CNWP launching conference, 19 March 2006

Click here to read the agenda, motions and nominations for the CNWP conference on 19 March 2006

Click here to read the resolutions which were passed at the CNWP conference on 19 March 2006

The DSA submitted a motion setting out the principles we think are essential for a successful project of building a working class party for socialism. Although the motion was defeated by the conference, we will continue to work to seek support for those principles.* Click here to read *

We also submitted a procedural motion designed to ensure the fullest democratic inclusivity in the launching conference of the CNWP. It opposed the conference organising group's recommendation that only those registered conference attenders who have signed the "declaration for a new workers party" issued by the SP shall be entitled to vote.* Click here to read *

To the same end, we submitted an amendment seeking to delete the conference organising group's proposal that only organisations with more than 100 members will be entitled to a seat on the steering committee of the CNWP.* Click here to read *

It is highly regrettable that both the procedural motion and the amendment were not included on the agenda by the Socialist Party organisers who drew it up. The important principles set out in the two motions were therefore not put before the conference for democratic determination. We very much hope that this episode does not indicate that bureaucratic manipulation will become a norm within the CNWP campaign and in the party that the DSA sincerely hopes will emerge from that campaign.

For a new workers' party - motion from DSA to conference of the Campaign for a New Workers Party

"This conference resolves that the following principles should underpin the Campaign for a New Workers' Party :-

i) That, in its party building work, the CNWP will advocate the organisational model of the Scottish Socialist Party. This is a unitary democratic, i.e. non-federalist party with full liberty of tendency, platform and faction.

ii) That we reject a strategy of pretending to be reformists in the hope of winning a 'wider audience'. This would contradict the interests of the working class. Our political model is a workers' party based on the fundamentals of Marxism, i.e :-

• (a) Only the self-emancipation of the working class can lead to the emancipation of humanity and to a society of the freely associated producers. Accordingly, we reject all strategies based on the collaboration of antagonistically opposed classes.
• (b) The self-emancipation of the working class requires a political struggle for the fullest possible democracy :-
• - against the capitalist state;
• - in the workers' movement, against the bureaucracy of the trade union officials and the bureaucratic centralism of the petty sects; and with a leadership accountable to its membership.

iii) That the democratic development of a socialist programme is indispensible to the process of building a working class party for socialism and that this development should take place via the most thorough discussion and debate and by resolution of future conferences. The CNWP will adopt as a template for the democratic development of a programme, the Socialist Alliance's 2001 programme 'People Before Profit'.

People Before Profit(1.6Mb, PDF)

iv) That the CNWP stands opposed to the bureaucratic centralism and sectarianism which has been endemic in so many left groups, (where sectarianism is defined as putting the interests of their own organisation above the interests of the working class).

v) That the building and re-building of vibrant local CNWP branches should be an urgent priority.

This conference recognises the urgency of the need for a working class party for socialism and it sets the steering committee of the CNWP the target of convening a founding conference of the party on an all-Britain basis on May Day 2007.

For a democratic and inclusive Campaign for a New Workers Party

Procedural motion from the Democratic Socialist Alliance to the Conference to launch the Campaign for a New Workers Party, 19 March 2006

"This conference resolves that all persons who have registered for the conference shall have voting rights, speaking rights and the right to propose or second motions and amendments. It is not acceptable that such democratic rights should be conditional upon having signified agreement with one particular commentary on the problem of working class representation".

For representation of minority views on the CNWP steering committee

Motion on steering committee from conference organising group

1) Given the early stage of development of the campaign any structure we set up will of necessity be interim and, to some degree, ad-hoc.

2) However, it is important that we elect an interim steering committee from today's conference in order to coordinate the work effectively whilst ensuring that different points of view are heard.

3) We therefore agree to elect a secretary, chair, vice-chair, treasurer, trade union liaison officer and press officer who will together act as a day-to-day coordinating committee.

4) In addition we agree to form a broader interim steering committee which will meet at least once a quarter. The steering committee will be made up of: the officers; one representative per affiliated political organisation with 100 or more members; one representative elected by each group meeting at today¹s conference (one for each trade union present, plus one for community campaigns, and one for youth and student groups).

5) We agree to invite those national trade union leaders who see the need for a left alternative to New Labour to attend as observers.

6) The steering committee has the right to co-opt new members or observers prior to the next conference in the event of new forces becoming involved in the campaign. At the next conference we will review the structure of the steering committee.

Amendment from Democratic Socialist Alliance to motion on steering committee

"In paragraph (4), delete "with 100 or more members".

To join the DSA, contact : Membership Secretary, DSA, P.O. Box 107, Stockport, SK6 7WT or e-mail : dpsa.manchester@ntlworld.com