Let’s act and think for ourselves

Over the last week I’ve been coming to the conclusion that only by acting and thinking for ourselves can we get anywhere. Watching political conference after political conference drowns on and on in a misty haze of awfulness I’m struck by the thought of anger at these so called leaders looking to act on our behalf. It wound me up the other week with the TUC conference so called union leaders who earn far more a year than most of us do in a decade pontifying over what needs to happen just makes my skin crawl. I am no longer a member of any political party and can’t see myself getting involved in one again for some time at least if at all. The bitchy comments and backstabbing is unreal. No wonder so many young people are turned off from politics if all they see is MP's and so called representatives of all sides tearing chunks out of each other and arguing about things which matter little to them. Politics is quite widely seen now in Britain that it is something ordinary people just don’t do. We get a vote but many don’t use it and why would they? Voting for a lesser evil every so often is still evil. We seem as far away from a new workers party than ever too. Even if we were to see a new workers party come about what is to say they will be any better? Being sucked into the system, playing by the capitalist rules to conform. Clearly no political party as I see it today as we speak is fit for purpose to change things for the better. I have no faith in any party, MP or political grouping out there right now. The left is split in so many factions and groupings it’s hard to think they can have an impact in the coming period. Any chance of a unity project or getting together regularly ends in splits and fallings out. The left simply are too fractioned to move forward right now. The two main projects on the left electorally anyway are currently TUSC and Left Unity and while both will claim to be in their infancy past experiences do not fill you with confidence that they will get off the ground in any meaningful sense. I do think we can be political without being in a party. We don’t need a political party to be political I’ve always thought. I've been in a few parties and got on well with those not in one. Now I’m free of a party I feel a lot freer to think and be critical of where I feel things are slipping and what could be better. Having the freedom to criticize is important. Not to criticize for criticisms sake but to point out flawed strategies and point an alternative out. I do think we all have the potential to think and act for ourselves. We don’t need to be told what to think. The working class is not stupid and I don’t think it needs leading by the nose. Allowing people to think and explore their own political ideas is key to developing any political idea. Testing it against others having the freedom to be wrong and make mistakes as we all do from time to time. Being attacked or abused for speaking out against something you don’t agree with with people does not encourage free thinking. So now I’m free, independent for now I will think and act as I like. I was told my blog posts of late have been far more interesting since I’ve left the socialist party. Whilst I’m still a socialist and believe in socialism I found a fair few of the SP's organisational methods stifling at times where a pre determined party line decided by a leadership who I apparently endorsed without knowing much about their records in action or what their personal day to day work was like. This being due to the fact leadership meetings like NC and EC meetings minutes were not made available. How are you supposed to know who plays what role and who is better or not when coming to vote for a pre determined slate which you can challenge of course but again who do you replace them with if you don’t know what is said nor goes on in NC meetings and above? All this and other aspects of a lack of democracy worried me. While more democracy doesn’t lead to socialism necessarily I do think it’s something as socialists and those who oppose the current system should always try and promote and call out when you don’t feel there is enough. As I’ve always said its workers who have the power to change society and I still believe this. Allowing people to think for themselves is a key part of this though. Freedom of thought and speech does have its boundaries of course where we would oppose such things as racism, sexism and discrimination and so on but the ability to think politically without fear of retribution is a must in today’s society. We are not in 1920's Russia people should have the freedom to express disagreements, criticisms and not be isolated or punished for this.