POLITICAL EDUCATION SERIES | Introduction

The Marxist Workers Party fights for socialism where the dog-eat-dog exploitation and oppression of capitalism is replaced with social solidarity in a society based on the rule of the working class and its allies – the rural and urban poor. Socialism will be a superior form of economic organisation of society’s productive forces – of science, technique and the organisation of labour. The commanding heights of the economy will be nationalised under democratic working class control and integrated according to a democratic plan of production. This will be the foundation to raise wages, protect jobs and create new ones, end poverty and eliminate exploitation and oppression. Read What We Stand For here.

It is only the working class that has an interest in the socialist transformation of society; the only class which has the capacity to lead the socialist revolution. But to do this it needs to be armed with a clear programme. The current generation of working class fighters and activists have been handed-down a powerful weapon in the ideas of Marxism. Marxism represents the worldwide experience of the working class’s nearly two-hundred year struggle to transform society, distilled into a programme.

The MWP’s programme rests on the ideas of the following:

Karl Marx (1818-83) & Friedrich Engels (1820-95)
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
The First Four Congresses of the Communist International (1919-22)
Trotsky’s Left Opposition (1923-27) and the founding of the Fourth International (1938)
The Committee for a Workers International (1974-) and its forerunners, including its South African founding affiliate the Marxist Workers Tendency (1979-1996)

The history of the revolutionary programme is the history of the preparation of the working class to carry through the socialist revolution. This history and this struggle is a global one. The MWP is an affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI). Standing in the Marxist tradition of internationalism, together we are working to build a world party of socialist revolution.

This political education series is written for new members of the MWP – future cadres of the socialist revolution. It outlines the most important stages in the development of the revolutionary programme. It cannot do more than familiarise new members with the key ideas, key names, and key events, placing them in their historical context. It is only an overview, allowing new members to see where our ideas came from and how they fit together, providing a foundation for further study.

Each booklet CAPITALISES key ideas and concepts that every MWP member should be familiar with. These can be used to guide political discussions in branch meetings, day schools and individual cadre-development discussions. Each booklet has at least one companion ‘reader’ bringing together classic Marxist writings and other key texts. In addition audio and video versions are being produced.