SWP Program in 2001
At the 18th congress of the SWP in 2001, some new revisions were made to the program, but these mainly concern the evaluation of different political parties. Almost no changes were necessary in the fundamental nature of our program.
Most of the changes this time were made in the sixth chapter, “The Class Nature of Other Political Parties and the Attitude of the SWP Towards Them,” since this section has become outdated and in need of revision to correspond to changes that have occurred in the past few years. Unlike the political situation seven years ago, the Socialist Party and Democratic Socialist Party no longer exist, and new parties such as the Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party have been created. It was thus necessary for us to respond to such changes in reality.
Concerning the nature and future development of the Democratic Party—as was clear in discussions at the congress—our evaluation of parties and the view concerning their future development will not necessarily coincide perfectly. For example, our program now states that the Democratic Party will move closer to the LDP, and ally with them, but this is simply a broad view of the politics of this party intended to clarify its reactionary politics. In reality, however, this party may split or even disappear altogether. But this would not at all diminish the significance of the political definition of the Democratic Party in our program.
Our old program, for example, after discussing the “rightwing” and “leftwing” of the Socialist Party, concluded by saying: “Overall the Socialist Party is becoming a “centrist” party and moving towards the standpoint of capital and the political establishment, thereby exposing its own anti-worker and deceitful nature.”
Already, as seen in the process of reality, the Socialist Party has split and then dissolved after forming an alliance with the LDP. Our program thus did not “strictly” follow the process of reality, but despite this it exposed the reactionary, and meaningless nature of the Socialist Party, and appealed to workers that it was necessary to unite together against this party.
In terms of the former Democratic Socialist Party as well, we summed up the outlook of this party in the following way: “As capital becomes more reactionary, the DSP will not be able to avoid moving in the direction of ‘imperialistic social democracy.’” In actuality, the Democratic Socialist Party disappeared altogether to form one part of the new Democratic Party. Still, its reactionary nature has been well preserved, and reproduced, within the Democratic Party.
In the real political process, splits and realignments of parties are rapid, and many parties disappear while new ones are formed. Within this process, there is always a need, to some extent, to make changes in the part of a program that discusses political parties, defines them, and determines the attitudes of a workers’ party towards them. In this sense, the changes this year in our program were necessary, and unavoidable.
The fact that, apart from such changes, we saw little need to revise our program is a reflection of how sound and correct it has proved to be.
We sincerely hope that many class-conscious workers with the will to fight against the rule of capital will examine our program, and then join our ranks to fight together.
December 7, 2001-Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party