For socialists in Britain, no task is now more important and urgent than the reassertion, by word and deed, of socialist principles and purposes.
In opposition to the whole trend of thought and policy which now dominates the Labour movement, socialists need to insist that they are concerned, not with the shoring up of capitalism, but with its abolition and replacement by a socialist society based on common ownership and industrial as well as political democracy.
Against the attempts to defeat socialist and revolutionary forces in all parts of the world, and particularly in the Third World, socialists in Britain also need to insist upon their solidarity with these forces and upon their determination to help them.
The socialist struggle must assume a wide variety of forms, political, industrial and cultural. But that struggle can only be waged effectively by men and women who are able, on the basis of their own knowledge and understanding, to present socialist solutions to the evils they oppose. Only thus can they hope to help come into being that mass socialist movement which is the first and essential condition for the achievement of a socialist society.
We are well aware of how strong and determined are the forces, not least in the Labour movement, which seek to prevent the spread of socialist consciousness. But we believe that conditions at home and abroad offer excellent opportunities for the spread of socialist ideas. In any case, we feel that socialists need not only take opportunities when they arise, but to create them when they do not.
It is for this purpose of socialist education that we have created the Centre for Socialist Education and that we call upon fellow socialists to join with us. This work of socialist education does not mean remoteness from the immediate struggles
P.T.O.