"But socialists are just a tiny minority..."
The fact that socialists are a minority shouldn't be a surprise; in fact, it couldn't be any other way, or else capitalism would've been overthrown by now, and my website would be a website about peace, love, and flowers. But the reality is most people accept most of the ideas of the rulers; and almost everyone accepts their right to rule, either openly or in a more disguised, subtle form. For example, the idea that "workers are too stupid to run things," or that "the rich earned their wealth by working hard" both amount to the same thing - the bosses have the right to rule.
So if most workers accept the bosses' right to rule, how are they going to liberate themselves and win a socialist society? Ideas are not the fixed eternal property of individuals or classes. The higher the level of struggle, the more movements against the system are growing and winning victories, the more workers go on strike and exercise their class power, the more people are going to be open to the ideas of revolutionary socialism. In the process of changing the world, the changers themselves undergo tremendous change. White, liberal college students travelled to the South to organize against Jim Crow, and many came back convinced revolutionaries because of their experiences with the cops, the feds, and so on.
Today, in the here and now, revolutionary socialists are a tiny minority. But that is no reason to despair - it couldn't be otherwise. But as isolated individual socialists, we can't do much. Can a single drop turn the mighty river of the class struggle? Isolated individuals, disconnected from any organization, can't generalize lessons of past battles and the experiences of today; they have no one to generalize with! There is no other set of experiences to look at and compare notes with.
That's why it's so important that the people who are socialists, who see themselves as leaders in their workplaces or where ever, need to join together and build a revolutionary socialist organization that connects the ideas of socialism with the struggles of today, that connects the fight for reforms with the fight for workers' revolution. Only in an organization based on socialist politics and organization discipline can revolutionary socialists, who "are just a tiny minority," make a difference, change the world, and win a socialist society.
That organization, a revolutionary socialist party, is the means through which socialists can generalize their experiences. Socialists in NYC, LA, and for that matter, South Korea and Germany need to be fighting around the same set of ideas, the same program.
That's why you should join the International Socialist Organization.
Back
Next