What do we mean when we say we’re socialists? We mean that we oppose all social relations in which persons are exploited or oppressed by others — we mean that we’re for a radically democratic society where working people own and control the wealth their labor creates.

We are committed to fighting for socialism-from-below, not socialism-from-above. This means that we believe that socialism can only be won through the active struggles of ordinary working class people themselves. It cannot be handed down from above or imposed from without. Hence, we do not support authoritarian, bureaucratic states such as China, North Korea or the former USSR. These top-down regimes are fundamentally at odds with the basic ideal of socialism-from-below.

 

---