Defending the right to protest, in Bristol, photo Mike Luff

Defending the right to protest, in Bristol, photo Mike Luff   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Nick Hart, Wolverhampton Socialist Party

If you’re reading this, chances are you see yourself as a socialist. Maybe you bought the paper you’re currently holding after meeting Socialist Party members out campaigning for this May’s local elections. Or maybe you saw us on one of the many picket lines against ‘fire and rehire’, marching against the Tories’ anti-protest bill, or building for the day of action for free education on 21 April.

It’s clear that workers and young people are facing many different attacks at the moment. And wherever you find people fighting back against the bosses and the government, you’ll find the Socialist Party standing alongside them, and often helping to organise these struggles.

This isn’t a coincidence. The reason we’re among the first on the scene when campaigns spring up – putting forward demands and a strategy that we think can help them win – is precisely because we’re organised as a party.

We work with others in the unions, in our communities and on university and college campuses to energetically build campaigns. But we don’t stop there. We also point out at every turn that the root cause of austerity, attacks on workers, racism, climate change and many other problems is a decaying capitalist system.

While important victories can be won on these individual issues by mass campaigning, it’s clear that defeating these age-old problems once and for all requires fundamental socialist change. And achieving that requires a party ready to organise and fight for it.

By discussing together as a party what issues face the working class, and the socialist solution to them, we’re better prepared to go out and argue for socialism and win support for it. By learning the lessons of previous struggles that our organisation has taken part in over several decades, we’re ready for whatever present-day capitalism throws at us.

This clarity of ideas, and a shared determination to put them into action, is what marks us out as a party. But you don’t have to be superhuman to join us! Our organisation is made up of ordinary workers, alongside students and those unable to work.

Everyone who joins the Socialist Party is supported to find a role, big or small, that they can play in helping to build the struggle, and given the political grounding and confidence that they need to do that. How much each member can offer in time, money and skills will vary depending on their own circumstances, but whatever they can is valued, and helps us achieve far more together than any of us could as individuals.

So whether you’ve been thinking about getting involved in fighting back against capitalism, or you’re already active with your union or local community, if you want to get organised with other socialists, now is the time to join the Socialist Party.

  • Go to socialistparty.org.uk/join or text JOIN with your name and postcode to 07530 429 441