Who We Are
Socialist Action is a nationwide party made up of activists committed to the emancipation of workers and the oppressed. We work to revitalize the anti-war, labor, anti-racist, feminist, student and other social movements, and build a revolutionary workers’ party deeply integrated into all the struggles of working people, that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite.
Socialism is the only way to build a truly democratic society organized for the needs of the many, not the profits of the few.
What We Stand For
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 believe in independent working class politics – not alliances with the capitalists, or any wing of the capitalist class. That is why we call for workers to break with the Democratic Party to build a party of the working class. To do that, we work to raise the class-consciousness of workers and their awareness of the class struggle in society. The interests of the working class are diametrically opposed to those 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 simply wanting to reform the system or change it from within.
When we fight for specific reforms to improve the lives of working people, we do so with the understanding that real social change can only come about with the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a workers’ government. That is why we follow the method of the Transitional Program, which links the demands for reforms with the need for revolution by pointing to capitalism’s inability to provide for the basic needs of working people.
Specially Oppressed Groups & Oppressed Nationalities
We support the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism – women, LGBTQI, Black, Latin@, and indigenous people, and many more. We support and help build autonomous movements for the oppressed to raise their own demands and develop political consciousness as a group. We support the right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including Black people, Chicanos & Puerto Ricans.
Internationalism
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 jingoism and national chauvinism as wholly reactionary. We seek to link the struggles of workers and the oppressed across national boundaries, and to build an international revolutionary movement that will be able to share the 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 needs to be just as organized. We believe in the need for a disciplined revolutionary party based on a political program that incorporates the lessons of past working class victories and defeats. The class struggle ebbs and flows – but for class-conscious workers to be prepared to act when openings arise, 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, which become the party line, must be binding on all members, and the party has to act as a common unit in carrying out the democratically decided line, in order to give it the test of real life, to see if it proves correct or not. This is called democratic-centralism.
United Fronts
We recognize that many differences divide the Left and the workers’ movement, in addition to the low level of class consciousness that exists among many workers, we seek to form united fronts around specific issues with many groups based on principled areas of agreement. For example, we gladly work together to fight the climate crisis with many groups we disagree with on electoral politics, as long as that work is based on principled demands that we agree with. By doing so, we can mobilize the largest number of people possible around a principled set of demands and maximize our impact. The historic successes of united front organizations demonstrate the power and effectiveness of mass action as opposed to symbolic small-scale and individual actions.
United fronts expose others on the left and the workers’ movement to our socialist program and democratic functioning. 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 agreement. 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.