International Socialists

Socialists call parties like Labour and the Alliance "reformist" because they seek to reform capitalism to varying degrees rather than getting rid of it through a working class revolution. In essence, parties like Labour and the Alliance disagree with National or ACT on how best to manage capitalism, not whether we should get rid of it altogether.

 

But many on the left still argue that socialists should put their energies into trying to bring about change within these parties, because they are mass working class organisations. At first sight it is a claim that seems to have a lot of truth in it. Certainly no other parties are in a position to make such a claim and certainly a large proportion of the working class (frequently a majority) have regularly voted for them since 1935 when Labour first came to power. It is also the case that the Labour Party and later the Alliance were set up by, and have always retained a close relationship with, the trade unions - which undoubtedly are mass working class organisations.

 

These are important facts that should not be lost sight of. They clearly distinguish Labour and the Alliance not only from the National Party - a direct representative of the ruling class - but also from the Greens, which have no such organisational connection with the working class. Because of this, when it comes to a choice between Labour or the Alliance and any of these other parties, as at a general election, revolutionary socialists will not abstain, but will call for a vote for a reformist party.

 

But this alone isn't enough to explain the true character of reformist parties. It is necessary also to consider the nature of these parties' programmes, their leadership, and above all their actual practice, in order to make an overall assessment of their role.

 

 

Reformists in power

In government reformist parties have repeatedly shown their preference for the priorities and requirements of capitalism over the needs of the working people they claim to represent. Again and again they have attacked strikes, raised unemployment, held down wages through incomes policies and cut spending on health and education.

 

Thus in neither programme, nor leadership, are reformist parties like Labour and the Alliance "parties of the working class." Rather they are capitalist parties operating within the working class movement. Their role is to give just enough expression to working class discontent to contain that discontent within the structures of capitalism. They are, together with the trade union bureaucracy, a principal prop and defender of the capitalist order. Further, their membership, while large, is overwhelmingly passive.

 

Can reformist parties be changed into socialist parties that really represent and fight for the interests of working class people? History suggests otherwise.

 

For over 80 years the Labour Party and then the Alliance have been sustained by people on the left who were trying to change them. Overwhelmingly the experience has been not of them changing the Party but of the Party changing them.

 

Leader after leader, Savage, Fraser, Nash, Kirk, Lange, and Clark, have begun on the left and then progressed to the right, and they are only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath them are innumerable lesser figures who have been subject to the same process of gradual political corruption - "radical firebrands turned into respectable moderates" if not worse.

 

However it is not just experience that testifies against the possibilities of changing reformist parties, it is also any realistic assessment of the nature of those parties today.

 

First there is the fact that there is still very little that the party rank and file can do to control the behaviour of MPs and nothing it can do to control the actions of them once in government. Consequently any number of left-wing resolutions on lowering student fees or increasing social spending can be won at party conferences without the least guarantee that anything will be done about them.

 

The whole structure and organisation of reformist parties reflect the fact that they are essentially electoral machines, designed to elect MPs rather than advance the interest of workers and the oppressed. The bulk of the membership are passive cardholders except at election times.