How Can We Move On?

Abstract

There is no effective socialist party in Britain. None of the existing organisations has the potential to become one. Yet the creation of such a party is indispensable for any real advance. This is, I think, a fair statement of the essential argument of Ralph Miliband's Moving On (Socialist Register 1976). The specifications given for an effective socialist party are modest enough. It is accepted that a mass party is not an immediate possibility. What is envisaged is 'a party of ten thousand members and upwards' with a serious implantation in the working class movement and 'a real measure of electoral legitimation'. The party must have the capacity to begin to challenge right wing dominance in the movement and it must be internally democratic.