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Revolution not Reform.
We are often told that the way to make a real difference in society, is through voting and parliament. If we don't like the leaders we currently have, then go and vote for different ones. While this might seem like a nice idea in principle, as a revolutionary socialist, I would argue that real change cannot come from within the current system of "democracy".
Many people I know say when I mention revolution "oh what do we need that for?, can't we just elect proper representatives to parliament to do that?" NO capitalism as a system means that real power is not held by parliaments, it is held by the rich ruling classes, a person can be elected with the best of intentions will quickly find that once elected to power there is actually very little they can do to make a real difference. When the Labour party in Britain came to power in 1997 it was on huge working class vote, now we see the chaos caused by a rail system run for profit, frequent accidents, delays( to give an example: I was at Manchester central station recently, every announcement almost was a delayed train, no kidding.) and all this comes as rail companies announce record profits year after year. Instead of re-nationalizing the rail network operators, Blair instead does nothing. Well ok he nationalized the rail operator Rail Track again, but with full compensation for shareholders.
So supposing a real socialist party came to power through elections, what would happen and why? Things would stay much the same as they are now. This system is set up so that parliament has no real power to make real changes to society. There have been three major Labour party victories in the UK between 1945 and 1979 yet we are no nearer socialism than we were in 1945. The reasons why these parties and similar ones abroad such as Salvador Allende in Chile have failed; firstly while socialist majorities in parliament are gradually introducing socialist measures the real economic power still lies in the hands of the ruling class. They can and do use this power to shut down huge sections of industry , to create mass unemployment, to force up prices through speculation and and hoarding and by sending vast sums of money abroad, so creating a 'balance of payments crisis, then using the media they control to launch a press campaign to blame the socialist government for causing this.
Reasons such as those listed above forced Wilson's Labour government to drop measures benefiting workers in both 1964 and 1966. He describes in memoirs how "We had no reached a situation where a newly elected government was being told by international speculators that the policy which we had been elected on could not be implemented."
A real socialist party in power would be very similar to Wilson's government. The same problems would affect it, and it would probably end up going the same way as Wilson's government and giving in to the ruling class. To change society properly we need to look to the masses of people taking action by themselves.
The best example I can give of not being able to make a difference in society through elected means comes from the E.U commissioner on the third world. I was at a young peoples event at which he was speaking. He told us all about what E.U countries are doing to ease third world debt and famine aid etc. Then he asked for questions from the floor; I put the following questions to him:
1.Why hasn't the debt relief promised by the Genoa G8 summit be delivered in full?
2.How much of the aid given to the third world comes back in debt repayments?
3.Why can't we cancel third world debt since it is the main cause of a lot of their problems?
I got the following answers:
1. The E.U has no power over what the G8 decides or does. -In spite of the fact that the G8 is made up of 4 E.U countries and Russia which could be influenced by the E.U easily enough.
2. Its a big problem- but no actual figure given.
3. We can't cancel third world debt because it would lower the valuation of banks or some shit like that, can't remember exactly what the reason was!
When he was later questioned about the privatizing of education he said he hoped it wouldn't happen and that the E.U had no plans to do so that he knew of. I pointed out to him that a senior E.U negotiator on GATS had been quoted as saying that "the education system is ripe for privatization" He then told that "we mustn't be afraid of what might or will happen!!!!!" To finish he told us all to get involved in politics to make a difference!!!!!!HaHaHa!!!
This is just my personal experience of elected officials, but I think it shows that real change cannot come from within the system. Only by organizing from the outside to build a mass movement against this crazy system can we hope to change society properly.