Socialist Party contingent at the People's Assembly demo 12 January, photo Mathan Nathan, photo Mathan Nathan

Socialist Party contingent at the People’s Assembly demo 12 January, photo Mathan Nathan, photo Mathan Nathan   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

More than a decade on from the world economic crash, the ongoing capitalist crisis is ravaging lives across the planet – with wars, homelessness, poverty and inequality.

Increasingly, the majority see nothing on offer from capitalism. This is what lies behind the workers and young people taking to the streets in Chile and elsewhere.

The president of the Santiago Metro Workers’ Union said: “It’s the low pensions, the privatisation of water, the rise in electricity prices, the healthcare system, the need for equal education rights… The metro fare was just the trigger, it is symbolic. It made people say – enough.”

As socialists, we don’t only decry these rotten conditions – we fight them. We always say what needs to be said and organise to do what needs to be done – to point to what is necessary to win.

To do that, we help to build collective action and democratic organisation of the working class. We participate in campaigns and movements to help show how we can achieve the maximum unity of all the different sections of the working class, with all their different experiences and demands, around a programme of struggle.

The trade unions are the basic organisations of the working class, through which millions of workers can defend themselves against their employers in the workplace. Key to our work is participating and campaigning within them to be able to fight most effectively.

We always link this to explaining how capitalism is incapable of solving our problems. Therefore we need to transform society in a socialist direction.

And another role of a party like ours is to keep safe the memories of the working class for future generations to benefit from the experiences of past struggle and learn the lessons. This is what our brave comrades in Chile, Socialismo Revolucionario, are doing now. This is the way we aid our movement in speeding up its understanding of what is necessary today to win.

You can make socialist ideas stronger. Join the Socialist Party.

  • Order our reprinted pamphlet ‘The case for socialism: why you should join the Socialist Party’, or our leaflet outlining our record in struggle, at leftbooks.co.uk