The Workers Party in America is a revolutionary political party of the working class. Our central task is the organization of our class into a conscious movement capable of defeating capitalist rule in the political arena and establishing a workers’ republic as the transition to the classless communist society.

    But recognition of the task alone is not enough. The Workers Party understands that it is also necessary to know how we are going to carry out this task. A general strategy for accomplishing our tasks, based on communist principle and theory, is a vital prerequisite for engaging in the work and actions, and formulating the tactics and methods, we see as building that movement.

Reform vs. Revolution

    The Workers Party in America believes that capitalism cannot be reformed into a social system that functions in the interests of the working class.

    Private ownership of the means of production and distribution (the industries and services of society) means that a minority of the population — the owners and managers, the capitalists and petty bourgeoisie — uses the resources of society for their own gain, while condemning the majority of the population — the working class — to a modern form of slavery, their ability to work — their labor-power — bought and sold by capitalists as commodities, dependent on the desires of the owners and managers of these industries and services for their very survival.

    As a result, capitalism fails to meet even the most basic needs of the majority of society. Moreover, it creates ever greater problems that it cannot solve. Every advance in technology that could be used to ease the burden on the working class is transformed into a weapon by the capitalists and petty bourgeoisie, to pit workers against each other and force them to produce more for less. The drive for profit, which is a natural outgrowth of private ownership, condemns the working-class majority to poverty and hardship while making the capitalists and petty bourgeoisie richer and giving them the means to expand their control.

    Capitalism destroys people, their communities, their environment, their culture, their health and their humanity. And yet, capitalism cannot survive without the working-class majority. The capitalists and their petty bourgeoisie need the working class, because workers collectively create all the wealth in society. However, the working class does not need the capitalists and the petty bourgeoisie. Today’s exploiting and oppressing classes outlived their usefulness after they put an end to slavery and feudalism, ceasing to play any progressive role and acting only as a brake on the development of society.

    Throughout history, countless efforts to alter or reform this reality have met with failure. From liberal and “progressive” capitalists to petty-bourgeois democrats and “democratic socialists,” countless efforts to make capitalism “humane” have only led to new forms of exploitation and oppression.

    This is because these efforts have left the underlying despotism that comes from the private ownership of the means of production and distribution relatively unchanged. Even in the most “democratic,” “free” and “equal” of these modified systems, a minority that owns and controls production and distribution continues to make all the decisions in society — decisions that are, quite literally, a matter of life or death for the majority.

    History has shown that efforts at reforming capitalism result in, at best, a temporary and partial advance for the working class. Even when these reforms are gained through years of bitter struggle, it is only a matter of time before the capitalists and petty bourgeoisie seek to take back what was forced from them. And in those instances where the struggle for reforms was unrelenting, the capitalists and petty bourgeoisie demonstrated their willingness to use extralegal terrorist methods to wrest back what they lost.

    Therefore, the Workers Party in America rejects the struggle for reforms as anything more than a tactical effort to gain time and breathing space for the working class, during which it takes advantage of the temporary gains to continue organizing and fighting for fundamental, revolutionary change. Its Platform is recognized as a temporary document that changes along with material conditions and the provisions in the Platform are not “demands” on the capitalist system but a guide for practical action of the Workers Party when it is in power.

All-Encompassing Struggle

    Even though the Workers Party in America is primarily the vehicle for advancing the class struggle in the political arena, it also seeks to coordinate the efforts of the organized working-class movement for self-liberation from capitalism in all arenas of society: political, economic, cultural and social.

    The different components of the working-class movement, though they may be organized as independent bodies, function together as a single instrument in the hands of our class, and each is closely connected and requires the existence of the others in order to be successful.

    The political organization is the spearhead of the broader movement. It is the part of the instrument that pierces the armored might of the capitalist class — its state: the armed organizations that enforce the capitalists’ “law and order” — and renders its power and authority worthless. As the spearhead, the political movement is what points the whole movement in the proper direction, finds the weaknesses of the class enemy and exploits them to the benefit of the working class.

    The economic organization is the concentrated weight and force behind the spearhead, and thus is the real power of the broader movement. While the spearhead may be able to pierce capitalism’s armor, it is only with the weight of the working class, organized at the point of production and distribution, behind it that it acquires its true power and, for the capitalist social system, deadly effect. It is the economic movement of organized class-conscious workers that keeps the political movement on course and true to its core principles, and makes its ability to strike more than an annoyance to the exploiters and oppressors.

    The cultural organization is the stability and ballast for the economic and political movements, and keeps the broader movement moving on course in the face of shifting winds. Without the stability provided by a movement rooted in working-class culture, and both developing the working class as a ruling class and building the cultural foundations of the classless communist society, even the strongest, fastest and sharpest of political and economic movements can be knocked off course and rendered useless.

    The social organization is the initial impulse that puts the movement on course toward the clash with capitalist class rule. The social organization is the working class itself, organized within capitalist society, and exploited and oppressed by its rulers and administrators. But for that impulse to be made real — for the potential energy to be released in a kinetic explosion of class struggle — our class must be conscious of both its current and historic role in society, and be ready to take the future of humanity into its hands.

The Defeat and Downfall of Capitalist Rule

    The Workers Party in America sees its ultimate political task as organizing the defeat and downfall of capitalist rule in the United States of America at the earliest possible opportunity, to be replaced by a workers’ republic based on councils and assemblies of working people elected from their workplaces and communities.

    Different organizations have different perspectives on how to bring about this downfall. Some advocate an armed offensive action against the capitalist state, either in the form of a guerrilla conflict or a “people’s war.” Others advocate forming a political party based in the existing labor unions and self-appointed “community organizations” that can take power and gradually implement reforms that will lead to a societal transformation. While history, at some unknown point in the future, may allow for scenarios to develop that would be favorable to such methods, neither represents a positive, socially-progressive or constructive strategy for defeating capitalist rule, and we reject advocating such methods.

    The Workers Party advocates the organization of our class into alternative political structures, known as workers’ councils and assemblies, that can wrest control from the ruling capitalist class, its government and state by taking over and/or creating a new basis for providing the essential services needed in a modern society and currently administered by the exploiting and oppressing classes. From sanitation collection to community peacekeeping and protection, we advocate the organizing of structures necessary to give birth to a new society within the shell of the old. For those structures that cannot be efficiently duplicated, we advocate their reorganization under workers’ control and integration into the new system.

    By wresting control from the capitalists and their petty-bourgeois administrators, we deprive them of their means of continued rule. Without the support of the working-class masses of society, the capitalist government and state will become superfluous and without foundation. Starved of resources, confidence and support, the capitalist state will wither and die on the vine. And when it falls, the workers’ republic will continue the work of advancing and reconstructing society on new foundations.

    Through the organization of working people into an all-encompassing movement for an all-encompassing struggle against capitalism, the Workers Party offers and advocates a strategy that is, at once, non-violent and revolutionary.

Workers’ Control: The Foundation

    The Workers Party in America sees the development of the principles and practice of workers’ control as the foundation for the revolutionary working-class movement and the transition from class to classless society. In our view, this means not looking to the existing labor unions for the building of this foundation, but developing new forms of organization and, generally speaking, a new unionism.

    The main labor unions in the United States today are remnants of the old craft unions from the 19th century and pro-capitalist industrial unions of the 20th century. While the forms each of these kinds of unions takes may differ, they share a common perspective and goal: the preservation of capitalism and capitalist rule. Both foster a belief that what is good for the boss and manager is good for the worker, even when our eyes, minds and basic instincts tell us otherwise.

    As opposed to this reactionary and corporatist business unionism, the Workers Party advocates and works for the building of revolutionary industrial unionism*. Revolutionary industrial unionism, as opposed to the pro-capitalist forms of unionism, begins from the understanding that there is no “common interest” between the exploiters and exploited, and that our intention as a class is the abolition of capitalism and capitalist rule. What we as the Workers Party seek to accomplish in the political struggle can only be made real and enforced through revolutionary industrial unionism in the economic struggle.

    The basis for revolutionary industrial unionism is the organization of our class into one great union movement, drawing in all workers from all industries and services and uniting them under one banner and platform of action. The union itself acts as a weapon of defense for our class, defending its daily interests while safeguarding our principles and core values as a class. At the same time, the union represents the basis for bringing together all workers to begin to reorganize and reconstruct the economy to meet the needs of society, not the needs of profit.

    Central to the organization of the revolutionary industrial union is the organization of the workplace committee, which is the school for workers’ control of production. Where the union operates as the shield of our class at the point of production, the workplace committee it is sword. The workplace committee, drawn from among our most forward-thinking and self-acting brothers and sisters, takes the principles and concepts of revolutionary industrial unionism and works to make them a reality.

    It is the workplace committee, as a part of the revolutionary industrial union, that oversees the development of self-management and self-organization at the point of production — that assists in the training and development of workers to coordinate production, work with other industries to maintain a steady supply chain, and move the product of workers’ collective labor from the factory to the store.

    And at all times, in all places and all points in the process, decisions are made directly and democratically by the workers themselves. Through revolutionary industrial unionism, workers are prepared and organized to take possession of the means of production and distribution.

    The Workers Party in America will support any workers’ economic organization based generally on the principles of revolutionary industrial unionism, and its members in other workers’ economic organizations, such as the existing business unions, will promote revolutionary industrial unionism and its principles, with the goal of winning fellow workers over to its ideas and, if appropriate, its organization.

The Culture of Liberation

    The liberation of the working class from capitalism’s exploitation and oppression is the task of workers themselves. Moreover, that task is a necessarily conscious act, since it represents a fundamental and revolutionary rupture will all existing relations and conditions. This means not only the building of a revolutionary working-class movement in the political and economic arenas, but also a revolutionary working-class cultural movement.

    In recent decades, the reactionary capitalists and petty bourgeoisie have waged a nearly unceasing “culture war” against their enemies. They have come to understand that how people see each other in a society affects how they relate to each other, and whether or not class antagonisms brought about by social, economic and political relations will either simmer under the surface or explode in upheaval.

    The “culture war” waged by the exploiting and oppressing classes has been designed to reinforce the most reactionary and socially-backward aspects of capitalism’s dominant ideologies. The goal has been to culturally reinforce and “normalize” the artificial divisions that the ruling classes have imposed on society — race and nationality, gender and sexuality, age and ability, religion and personal belief, etc. — and place more barriers in the way of working-class unity against capitalism.

    In opposition to this culture of oppression and division, the Workers Party in America counterposes the building and development of a culture of liberation and class unity.

    From music to art to popular entertainment, the working class has a long and rich tradition of cultural expression. When this culture is freed from the drive for profit, the basic principles and foundation of our class is able to shine through and express itself in ways that no capitalist enterprise can duplicate. The Workers Party encourages the rebuilding and expansion of this cultural movement through the cultivation of working-class musicians, artists and entertainers.

    But the culture of liberation is more than cultivating working-class art and entertainment. The dominance of the culture of a class is shaped by the ability of that class to take its place as the ruling class in society. Central to the building of a culture of liberation is the development of our class for that role.

    Under capitalist rule, workers are kept intellectually impoverished. We as a class are told that we are incapable of understanding the “big picture” or the larger theoretical questions in life, and that it is best if we leave such things to “experts” from the exploiting and oppressing classes. The Workers Party rejects this view, and considers it a primary task of our movement to assist workers in educating and developing themselves as theoretical, philosophical, intellectual and practical leaders in society.

    As an organization composed of and led by workers, we have already shown the potential that the working class can achieve. The Workers Party seeks to build on that real-world experience by providing the means for any working person draw on their existing skills and abilities in order to build new ones.

    From basic literacy skills to advanced theoretical development, the Workers Party is committed to assisting members of our class — regardless of whether they are members of our organization or not — to gain the necessary knowledge and experience they will need to step forward and act as the guiding force for the future of our society.

Elections and the Workers Party

    The capitalist electoral system, with its restrictive ballot-access laws, money-driven campaigning and apolitical “politics” is little more than a slaughterhouse for ideas and principles, especially those of working people’s political movements. The Workers Party in America understands that capitalism’s electoral system belongs to the capitalist class — that it is their system, not ours and not “the people’s.”

    However, the capitalists continue to tell us that it is through this system that “change” is effected. Indeed, the capitalist politicians and propagandists tell us that participating in elections is the only “civilized” and “democratic” means of changing society, and that any kind of social change can occur based on the ballot. The Workers Party sees the exposure of this contradiction between the image of elections and their reality as a central part of its educational work — including, when appropriate and possible, standing in elections and challenging the representatives of the exploiting and oppressing classes.

    When the Workers Party believes it is tactically necessary to stand candidates in elections, the central political platform revolves around three central points: 1) the need for a workers’ republic based on workers’ councils and assemblies to replace capitalist rule; 2) the need for direct and democratic workers’ control at the point of production; and, 3) the need for the organization of the working class into an all-encompassing movement in all arenas of society. All secondary and concrete demands raised must flow directly from these three principles.

    Candidates of the Workers Party would conduct themselves in electoral campaigns with the same level of seriousness and professionalism that is expected of them in all other areas of work. Our working-class candidates will be able to address the immediate issues of the day, giving the Party’s perspective and presenting its platform, while also demonstrating the need for revolutionary change: a mass working-class movement; workers’ control of production and distribution; and, a workers’ republic.

    And even though we may believe that our victory in an election is not possible, Workers Party candidates will at all times conduct their campaigns on a “run-to-win” basis — that is, no Workers Party campaign will ever be seen as merely a “placeholder” or phantom campaign, but as a serious attempt to win mass support for revolutionary transformation through intersecting the audience attracted by an election.

    An electoral platform of the Workers Party in America would declare that the task of the party, should it ascend to political power as a result of the ballot, would be to take hold of the political government and use its democratically-elected position to transfer all power to the working class and its organizations, and bring into being the beginning of the transition to a workers’ republic, itself the transition to a classless, communist society. Part and parcel of this transfer would be the formal dissolution of the organs of the capitalist state — the police, military and other armed enforcers of capitalism’s “law and order” — and transfer of the “public power” into the hands of workers’ councils and assemblies, and the appropriate peacekeeping and self-defense bodies they have organized.

    Any electoral victory by the Workers Party on a large scale would be seen as a mandate to implement our program, and we would seek the active support of the working class to see that it is implemented.

    Any attempts by the capitalists or petty bourgeoisie to disenfranchise or otherwise dispossess the working class — that is, to deny them their chosen candidates — would be seen by the Workers Party as the staging of a coup d’état, and we would immediately turn to and call upon the working class to implement their democratic will through other means: through the seizure of the means of production and distribution, as well as the seizure of essential state services, and their immediate reorganization on the basis of workers’ control; through the assumption of responsibility by workers’ councils and assemblies for public order, general welfare and common defense.

    Any attempts by the capitalists or petty bourgeoisie to use extralegal means against seated Workers Party representatives or a Workers Party-led government would be handled in the same manner, and with the same level of determination, as the capitalists have historically shown when dealing with working people’s protests and uprisings.

Self-Defense and the Use of Force

    While the Workers Party in America advocates a strategy that is non-violent and seeks to be implemented as peacefully as humanly possible, we understand that the exploiting and oppressing classes, and their agents, will use violence and terror to prevent the working class from liberating itself.

    Throughout history, the capitalists have turned to their police, intelligence and military forces to break strikes, disrupt workers’ movements and destabilize organized dissent. Even today, agents of the capitalist state are hard at work in broader movements of political dissent and leftwing political organizations, spying on organizers, setting up provocations that can be exploited by the state, and preventing a broader unity of workers and of democratic-minded people in general from being achieved.

    Inevitably, as working people begin to organize in greater numbers and start to fight for their common class interests, the capitalists will unleash their armed agents on our class. Where the presence of the police or military might be too controversial, the capitalists and their petty-bourgeois managers will turn to private “security” or even the growing fascist movement to do the dirty work. Regardless of the form, it all is designed to achieve the same goal: the breakup of workers’ organizations, the breakdown of the workers’ movement and the neutralizing of the ability of the working class to fight for its rights and livelihood.

    This is why, even though the Workers Party advocates a non-violent solution to the defeat of capitalism, we also reserve the right to use force to defend ourselves when attacked by the capitalists and their agents. Self-defense is an historic right of all people seeking to be free from tyranny. We in the Workers Party see no reason to ignore that historic right, especially when faced with an enemy that would sooner slaughter us and our families than recognize or accept the changes happening around them.

    The Workers Party believes the use of force is justified as a means of self-defense, and only as a means of self-defense. We reject the idea that force is effective as an offensive tool — that is, we reject the idea of drawing the sword first, without provocation or reason. To do so is to invite greater repression and misery on our class, undermining the hard-won and precious confidence we will have previously gained, and little more than a recipe for a bloodbath in our communities and society.

* Revolutionary industrial unionism is based on the theory and strategy of socialist industrial unionism formulated by Daniel DeLeon. DeLeon’s theory represents the only significant and fundamental advance of communist theory in the time after Marx’s death, and has been the basis for the workers’ council/assembly structure of the transitional system, as well as for class-struggle industrial unionism, such as that of the Industrial Workers of the World. Revolutionary industrial unionism differs from socialist industrial unionism in two ways: First, revolutionary industrial unionism includes the workplace committee as the direct administrative arm of the movement, responsible for the implementation of workers’ control and the development of workers on the job for that task. Second, revolutionary industrial unionism, through the workplace committees, links directly to workers’ councils and assemblies that take responsibility for public services and control of the political government, and integrates the two into a single system. For an expanded explanation, see “The Character and Structure of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism,” by WPA Chairperson Martin Sayles.