About the Debs Tendency

"To my mind the working class character and the revolutionary integrity of the Socialist party are of first importance. All the votes of the people would do us no good if our party ceased to be a revolutionary party, or only incidentally so, while yielding more and more to the pressure to modify the principles and program of the party for the sake of swelling the vote and hastening the day of its expected triumph."
-Eugene V. Debs

We are in a powerful and dynamic time. On the one hand, we have seen the rise of a far-right movement within the ruling capitalist class, which, hand in hand with the all-too-willing so-called "liberal" wing, seeks to once and for all break all resistance to its agenda of unrestricted exploitation of the working masses and total control of the world. On the other hand, we have seen the growth of mass movements around the world in opposition to war, imperialism and repression. That great contradiction was best seen when the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq, while confronted by the largest worldwide movement against war in history.

The period ahead looks to be even sharper in its contradictions and conflicts. Regardless of the intentions, evasions, and demagoguery of the main political parties of capital, the 2008 elections, and the debates that will swirl around them, will center among the people on what kind of country and world we want and believe is possible. The ongoing, endless so-called "war on terror," the attacks on basic democratic rights and living standards, the increasing race to the bottom in jobs and wages, the rights and status of immigrants and the very meaning of freedom and democracy will be discussed even more than ever among friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. The twin parties of capital will not seriously address these vital concerns. Now more than ever, a viable socialist alternative must be raised, in order to point a way out of the mess that capitalism has made of the world.

However, in the midst of this great convergence of events, the Socialist Party USA stands at a crossroads. Years of existence as a small political party, especially during the turbulent 1990s, has led sections of the Party to feel that there is little, if anything, we can do to influence events and build ourselves as a key force in the existing movements of labor and those for social justice and change. This impasse in the work and development of the Socialist Party has led to an inward-looking perspective, where internal divisions are endlessly debated in sterility, instead of being turned outward and subjected to the test of history and the class struggle.

The 2003 Socialist National Convention was a wake-up call for the Socialist Party and its members. The hotly contested issues and narrow votes, including the selection of the Party's dismal candidate for President, told a story of division and dissent. Far from being the unifying force a National Convention should be, the 2003 SNC yielded a Party more politically divided than in previous years, and a membership asking more questions and making more demands than has been seen in quite a while.

The 2005 National Convention of the Socialist Party once again displayed tremendous division over the fundamental principles and direction of the Party. But it also showed a gradual but concrete desire to transcend the pessimism, stagnation, and de-radicalization that has characterized much of the Socialist Party in recent decades. In addressing its Statement of Principles, the Convention re-affirmed its commitment to fundamental rights of women and oppressed minorities and to the centrality and revolutionary potential of the working class. The Convention re-affirmed its commitment to aggressively running Socialist candidates by all possible means while requiring that Socialist candidates always run openly as Socialist Party candidates on full socialist programs. The Convention reaffirmed its commitment to unified organizing at the national level by unanimously passing a resolution to hold annual national Party organizing conferences. Additionally, all of the backward proposals of the Party's conservative elements were resolutely defeated.

But despite the marginal improvements in the Party since the last Convention, there remains a long struggle ahead. We are faced with one conservative faction of the Party that wishes to virtually eliminate the socialist content from our statements and campaigns in the hope of having greater chances of electoral success. Another conservative faction wishes to explicitly give up the hope of ever becoming a mass-based independent party in favor of becoming a moderate pressure group within the pillars of the capitalist status quo.

From both these factions we have seen agreement that tenets as basic as social ownership and worker control should be dismissed in our campaigns, if not outright rejected. From both these factions we have seen agreement that the Party's Principles, Platform, and Constitution can and should be ignored. From both these factions have even come calls for the formal abolition of the Party's Statement of Principles altogether. Most resolutely, these factions are united in their opposition to the Socialist Party ever trying to return to the political force it was in the days of Eugene Debs and beyond.

We cannot afford to step backward. If the aims of either of these factions are ever to gain control of the Socialist Party it would not only result in the abdication of our Party's vital tasks, but also to the death of the Socialist Party in substance if not in organization. We on the organized left of the Party, along with the bulk of the regular rank and file, are the majority, and if the forces of reaction can unite in their ambitions of backwardness and pessimism, surely we as the majority can unite in pursuit of progress, internally as much as externally! The 2007 SP-USA Convention is quickly approaching and the right wing is intending to regain control of the Party. We can stop them, and move the party further forward. But we must organize now to go to the Convention in strength.

It is precisely Eugene Debs' vision of a mass-based revolutionary party of the working class that the Debs Tendency seeks to build. We believe that we can build a mass party of labor and oppressed people on a direct socialist program with a commitment to socialist principles in all of our campaigns, statements, and activism. We believe that we can have a Party that will present a coherent introduction to basic socialist principles to the general public while still maintaining a radically democratic, multi-tendency, and cohesively unified and action-oriented structure. Most importantly we are members of the Socialist Party not only because of its past accomplishments, but also because we believe that such a party is needed in the United States now more than ever, and that the Socialist Party can become the best suited party to take on the role of a rallying point for the revolutionary democratic socialist left.

By multi-tendency, we mean a cooperative combination of groupings that, despite differences on specific issues and perspectives, nevertheless are united around the basic revolutionary democratic socialist concepts and intentions embodied in the Statement of Principles of the Party - the official position of the Socialist Party USA itself. This is the basis on which new members officially join the party and it is what gives the concept of a multi-tendency party its meaning and substance. The reality is unfortunately that the right-wing groupings within the Party do not adhere to the true meaning of multi-tendency or even believe in it. The intentions of the right-wing to co-opt the concept of a multi-tendency party and rob it of its essence not only hurts the party internally, but also seriously damages the Party's ability to present its fundamental principles to the public.

Not only do we of the Debs Tendency share the organizational aspirations of Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party of the early 20th Century, but also their fundamental principles. Like Debs, our mission is to build the Party as a revolutionary democratic socialist party of the working class, fighting to sweep away capitalism and its repressive state, and to build a democratic workers' republic that will open the path to socialism and a classless society. Far more than our early 20th Century predecessors, however, we also recognize that the struggle for the self-emancipation of the working class and oppressed peoples must go hand in hand with struggles against racism, patriarchy and chauvinism. The vast majority of the American working class is not white, heterosexual, and male, and the widespread recruitment of women and oppressed peoples to the membership and leadership of the Party is among its foremost tasks.

Such a Party must not only engage in electoral campaigns and separate organizational activism, but must also take on an active, visible, and leading role in labor struggles and mass movement-building coalitions. We further recognize that to even form the underpinnings of a mass-based socialist Party in the United States, we must make prolonged and concerted efforts to reach out to the rest of the American revolutionary democratic socialist movement. Such efforts must include both practical joint work and the goal of forming a living united left front within the Socialist Party, helping to lead someday toward the regroupment of revolutionary socialist forces and the creation of a unified revolutionary party and International.

The Debs Tendency is organized around a series of Points of Unity, which generally outline revolutionary democratic socialist principles and serve as a guide to practical action. The Points represent the collective lessons of the working class in its centuries-long struggle against capitalism, as well as reflecting many of the points of political understanding that define us as a coherent movement within the Socialist Party. Beginning with an understanding of the importance and central role of class and the class struggle, and concluding with the kind of work and organization needed to carry out the transition to a classless society, the Points of Unity represent a framework that we believe enhances and strengthens the democratic socialist principles embodied in the Party's basic statement, "Socialism as Radical Democracy".

However, even though the Points of Unity represent a strong common bond among the comrades of the Debs Tendency, it would be a mistake to regard them as the full extent of the politics of its members. The members of the Debs Tendency come from diverse political histories, and it is on the basis of their common work and understanding that they have achieved this level of agreement. Just as we believe that the Socialist Party should not be afraid of open, honest political discussion among the various tendencies and trends found in the membership, so too the members of the Debs Tendency welcome open, honest debate within the tendency itself, and are willing to carry out discussions on outstanding questions out in the open, in front of the Party membership and the working class as a whole.

In the coming months the Debs Tendency will organize a conference call to amend or re-draft our Points of Unity and re-launch the Debs Tendency as the preeminent force that can return the Party to its historical roots. We encourage all Socialist Party members who share our vision and find basic agreement with our current Points of Unity to join us today!

To join the Debs Tendency, email: debs-contact@debstendency.org
To read our current Points of Unity, visit the Debs Tendency website at: http://www.debstendency.org

In Solidarity,
The Debs Tendency of the Socialist Party USA