Socialist Party of Great Britain - Organisation

Organisation

Since it puts a premium on conscious understanding of the case, the party restricts membership to those who can pass a membership test on the party's policies and principles. For example, the satirist John Bird is quoted as saying, I was a member of something called the Socialist Party of Great Britain at school for a while. You had to pass an exam, you know. You could not just join.

Although the SPGB claim to follow Marx's precepts, they claim to follow them simply because they are correct in their own right, not because Marx was a special individual, sometimes quoting his own contention that Je ne suis pas un Marxiste (I am not a Marxist). They do, however, often challenge the use of the term Marxist in the media, specifically when used to describe guerrilla and terrorist movements that have nothing to do with what the SPGB considers to be working-class socialist emancipation.

The party is one of the oldest political parties in the UK, founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation. It consistently argues against vanguardism and denies the possibility of reforming capitalism in the interests of the working class. It refuses to engage in direct action or to co-operate with political parties that do not agree with the ideas set out in its founding document, the Object and Declaration of Principles. The SPGB and its companion parties in other countries constitute the World Socialist Movement.

One of the reasons the party split from the SDF was over the issue of leadership. Since its establishment in 1904, the Socialist Party has existed without any leader. The Party has a ten-person executive committee, which is elected annually by a ballot of the whole membership and is charged with the day-to-day administration of the organisation. Its decision-making powers are tightly restricted. All substantial decisions are taken at the Annual Conference held each year at Easter.