Xmas reality

Age Scotland said about 60,000 people over the age of 65 would experience the Chrismas Day without family or friends, a 50% increase in the number of Scots pensioners who will spend Christmas day alone since 2015.

The charity said the figures represented a surge in the "epidemic" of loneliness.

Brian Sloan, chief executive of the charity, said: "The epidemic of loneliness among older people is having a devastating impact on their health and wellbeing. While most of us are looking forward to spending the festive period with family or friends, it's sobering to think that 60,000 older Scots will have only their television for company. Many more will go for days without a visit or even a phone call from family or friends

About 80,000 people over 65 feel lonelier at Christmas time than at any other time of year, with those who have been widowed most at risk, according to the study. The same number see television as their only source of company over the festive period, with nearly one in five keeping it on all day because "it's lovely to hear human voices".

Food poverty is real

Poverty-stricken Scots are having to turn to handouts from food banks for their Christmas dinner. The Trussell Trust charity say they have seen a 48 per cent increase in the number of Scots coming through their doors in December compared to the rest of the year. Their Glasgow south-east foodbank is one of the busiest in Scotland.

Audrey Flannagan, who has managed the operation for six years, said: “We are seeing more people who are struggling due to universal credit, benefits cap or losing out on their child tax credit. Some are up to £50 a week down, which is a substantial amount when you have kids to feed... Most of the people are desperate and don’t have money to buy their kids presents, let alone fund a Christmas dinner.” Audrey said: “People who come here are at crisis point and have no where else to turn. That’s why we exist because people have no other way of feeding themselves. It’s heartbreaking, especially at this time of year.”

The trust have just reported their busiest year in Scotland with 76,764 packages of three-day emergency food supplies given to people in crisis – 24,142 to children. Trussell Trust data reveals that issues with benefit payments remain the biggest cause of referral to a food bank across Scotland, accounting for 42 per cent of all cases.

Scotland director, Tony Graham, said: “We are concerned that the ongoing impact of welfare reform – especially universal credit roll-out – combined with increased demand we traditionally see over winter, will leave foodbanks struggling to feed everyone who comes through the doors. Food banks in Scotland are already acting as an unofficial safety net, attempting to catch people let down by a welfare system that should be there for vulnerable families when they need it most. Not only would it be morally wrong for us to become a de facto arm of the welfare state, if welfare reform and universal credit roll-out continue unchanged, we simply will not be able to catch everyone that falls.”

People who are being badly let down by the welfare system and who have to choose between heating and eating.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/theresa-mays-breadline-britain-leaves-11740244

This is real socialism

Capitalism is a system of commodity production (that is, the production of goods for sale and not for direct use by the producer) which is distinguished by the fact that labour power itself becomes a commodity. The major means of production and exchange which make up the capital of society are owned privately by a small minority, the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie), while the great majority of the population consists of proletarians or semi-proletarians. Because of their economic position, this majority can only exist by permanently or periodically selling their labour power to the capitalists and thus creating through their work the incomes of the upper classes. Thus, fundamentally, capitalism is a system of exploitation of the working class (the proletariat) by the capitalist class. In Britain and Europe capitalist economic relations (those between the class of capitalist employers and the class of wage workers) grew up within feudalism and became dominant with the overthrow of the feudal social order which took place in the revolutions of 1640 and 1688 in Britain, and later on in Europe.

For the workers, capitalism has meant widespread unemployment, accompanied by homelessness. At the same time, the exploitation of those in jobs has become more intense. Mass poverty escalates while multi-million fortunes are accumulated by the capitalist class. The development of exchange throughout history has led in the modern world to close ties being established between all the civilised nations on earth. The emergence of capitalism as a social system greatly accelerated this process. It also brought forth two powerful, antagonistic classes, the decisive classes of the system: capitalists and workers. Its international character meant that the struggle of the proletariat for its emancipation from class exploitation and oppression also became, and has remained, international.

The contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of appropriation is the basic contradiction of the capitalist system, impelling its development and giving rise to the motive force of capitalist society, the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It also manifests itself as an antagonism between the high level of organisation in the individual factory or enterprise on the one hand, and on the other, the anarchy of production prevailing in the social economy as a whole. The anarchy of production is the tendency of capitalist producers, in general, to produce to the maximum without regard to their competitors or to the capacity of the market to absorb their production. Technological development under capitalism, stimulated by competition, together with other conditions favourable to the concentration of capital, leads to the steady growth of larger enterprises at the expense of many small ones. At the same time, it reduces the employers’ demand for human labour, which lags behind the supply, resulting in the development of a large pool of unemployed, a ’reserve army’ of labour, and in the intensified exploitation of those in work. The existence of such a reserve army enables capitalism to expand rapidly in ’normal’ times, providing a ready-to-hand supply of extra labour in boom times which can be laid off whenever it suits capital. It can be seen, then, that while technical progress brings about the greater productivity of labour and increased social wealth, it cannot get rid of the evils of capitalism or solve the problems of the working class. Rather, it intensifies them. Only socialism, which results from the class struggle of workers against capitalists, can solve them. Production is socialised to an ever-greater degree while the means of production are concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Social production and the socialisation of labour are enhanced by the advance of technology, creating a material basis for the transformation of capitalism into socialism i.e., classless society. That is, it becomes both possible and necessary for the working class, the main and decisive productive force in capitalist society, to carry out a social revolution which it is the historic mission of the working class to accomplish. By replacing private ownership of the means of production by common ownership, by transforming the anarchy of production which is a feature of capitalism into planned production organised for the well-being and development of all of society, the socialist revolution will end the division of society into classes and emancipate all of humanity from all forms of exploitation of one section of society by another.

In Britain, the Independent Labour Party was formed in 1893. Marxists called it the “Independent of Socialism” party as it was never Marxist or revolutionary; it was, as Frederick Engels called it, “the bourgeois Labour Party”. So despite rhetoric about the early Labour Party being more “socialist”, there was nothing genuinely socialist about them. It was all phony propaganda. What left-wing Labourites seek to establish is state capitalism, not socialism - the capitalists are still the ruling class, and the working class was still the exploited class. The Labour Party in its early years relied on the working-class for its support and most of its members were working people. To some, this is taken as a sign that Labour was a workers’ party. Yet whether a party is actually a political party of the working class does not depend merely on a membership of workers but also upon the people who lead it, its programme, the content of its actions and political policies. The history of the Labour Party that we have outlined shows that it has never been a genuine workers’ party. Time after time workers’ living conditions and democratic rights have actually got worse under Labour governments.

Socialism is Our Destiny

 The objective of the Socialist Party is the socialist revolution. This can only be achieved when the majority wage class war to overthrow the capitalist’s state power in order to establish socialism. It is necessary for the people of the world to unite for the socialist cause. The conditions are ripe for propagating immediately the socialist revolution. Worldwide, the forces of production have rapidly grown to an immense scale on the basis of advanced technology and a well-educated workforce and are crucially interdependent on a world scale. 

Yet the avaricious character of capitalist appropriation knows no bounds. The drive of the corporations to accumulate and concentrate constant capital and cut down variable capital for wages is reducing the market in all types of goods and generating one crisis of over-production after the other, resulting in the financial strangulation of the people. The bourgeoisie has the illusion that it can solve its problems by accelerating the privatisation of state assets, deregulation and trade and investment 'liberalisation' It has run amuck in trying to dismantle the social services of its own state and to blame the working class for the ravages of the system of capitalism.

There is great confusion in the world today over the question of what is socialism. Our aim is to try to clear some of this up.

In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels penned a series of books that reflected on this change, developed a theory for explaining social change and political revolution. One of the key insights of Marxism was to identify political revolutions as rooted in wide struggles for power among social classes. On this basis, the revolutions above can be distinguished. The earlier ones are revolutions led by the rising capitalist class against feudalism. The later ones reflect the growth of the working class with the industrial revolution. They express the working class struggle for power against the new capitalist rulers. When feudalism was overthrown, and “free” capitalist society emerged, it at once became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the toilers. Various socialist doctrines immediately began to rise as a reflection of and protest against this oppression. But early socialism was utopian socialism. It criticised capitalist society, it condemned and damned it, it dreamed of its destruction, it indulged in fancies of a better order and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation. However, utopian socialism could not point the real way out. It had not explained the essence of wage-slavery under capitalism; it did not examine the process of social development; it did not identify a social force capable of creating a new society. These were developments that Marx and Engels provided. It was the stormy revolutions everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanying the fall of feudalism, that ever more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the motive force of the whole development. Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life and death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society. Marx was able to draw from this the deduction that world history revolves around class struggle. Marx and Engels repeatedly exposed the way people fell victims of deceit and self-deceit in politics until they learned to discover the interests of some class behind the moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. They argued that the supporters of reforms and palliatives will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is maintained by the forces of some ruling classes. They insisted that there is only one way of defeat these classes, and that is to find in the very society which surrounds us, the forces capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new. The task of socialists was not to concoct utopian schemes but to enlighten and organise these forces for this struggle. Marx and Engels transformed socialism from a Utopia into a science. For the first time in history, they armed the working class with a fully-developed scientific theory.

Parliamentary elections provide an opportunity for the capitalist class to apply their ability to deceive the people. At every election, we are asked to choose between capitalist parties offering minor variations of the same diet of falling wages, reduced social services, poverty and desperation for many, and support for wars. The working class has made repeated attempts to elect representatives to parliament but the capitalists have been adept at co-opting and corrupting these. After all, parliamentary democracy is a fundamental capitalist institution; the capitalists created parliaments to secure their power after the defeat of feudalism centuries ago. They set the rules and know the game backward. The reality has been while Labour politicians talked about socialism, in practice, they carried on running capitalism. They did introduce certain reforms which ameliorated the effects of some of the worst features of capitalism in the spheres of health, housing, and family support. Collectively, these became known as the ‘Welfare State’ – but they were not socialism. The essential feature of capitalism, that very thing which makes the system one of exploitation and robbery of the mass of wage workers by the ruling class of capitalists, namely the private ownership of the means of production and exchange, this remained untouched. There are many workers who have belonged to the Labour Party, and some who still belong, though far fewer. But this by no means makes it a political party of the workers. All their ‘socialism’ amounted to was state capitalism, in which the state was controlled and run by the capitalist class.

The Socialist Party does not shy away from the electoral struggle, however. We do not seek salvation in the false promises of the capitalist parties nor offer false hope of a reformist road to socialism. We see the election as an opportunity to criticise capitalism. Every political party defends the interest of one class or another in society. On all questions, in every battle, the Socialist Party defends the interests of the working class and works for its victory over the capitalists. We believe that socialism will be brought about by workers’ own efforts, our struggles in the workplace and in society. As Karl Marx put it: “The emancipation of the working class is the act of the workers themselves”.

Granite City Prejudice

There was 144 incidents of prejudice and discrimination recorded in Aberdeen in a six-month period this year, BBC Scotland has learned.

Figures in the report by the Grampian Racial Equality Council (Grec) show, between 1 April and 30 September, the largest group targeted was Polish. 

70% was verbal abuse.

In 64% of cases, the incident was motivated by race, with 19% linked to sexuality.

The majority of perpetrators were of Scottish origin. The youngest perpetrator was 11, the oldest 78.

The youngest victim was eight years old and the oldest 65. 

Scotland's productivity

The Office for National Statistics found that, last year, the Glasgow City Council area generated more than £20bn of economic output for the first time.

The figure of £20.3bn was 3% up on the previous year.

The City of Edinburgh's economy grew slightly faster, at 4.6%, but fell just short of the £20bn mark.

Measured as output per resident, Edinburgh was ahead of Glasgow, by £39,330 to £33,120.

However, both were well behind Aberdeen, with output per head of £46,150.

Of the four home nations, Scotland grew the slowest, at 3% in cash terms, while the UK as a whole grew by 3.7%.

Output per head in Scotland was £24,800, while across the UK as a whole, it was £26,339.

The highest output per head was in London at £46,482

Socialism is the Alternative to Capitalism

The aim of the Socialist Party is the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class and its replacement with socialism. Every political party defends the interest of one class or another in society. The Socialist Party defends the interests of the working class, and works to prepare its victory over the capitalists. Our Party’s role is to educate, organise and agitate the working class. The primary task of the Socialist Party is the political education of the working class. Through our campaigns, we explain the true nature of the system that oppresses workers and the need for socialist revolution. Our Party bases itself firmly on the theory of Marxism and the worldview of historical materialism. Marxism shows how the working class is exploited by the capitalist class; why capitalism must be overthrown and replaced by socialism. Our Party struggles firmly against all distortions of Marxism. The Socialist Party is the only one to represent the interest of the working class. It is the party that defends the cause of all the working people.

A handful of capitalists make vast profits on the labour of the working people. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries, and mines are in the hands of a few hundred capitalists. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. Every bit of the capitalists' vast wealth was stolen from the working people. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour. At the end of the week/month, a worker collects their pay. The capitalists and their apologetic flunkeys claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalists and their flunkeys. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street.

Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis, plagued by periodic economic recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. It is the very nature of each business to try to maximise its profits by pushing production and cutting expenses, especially the pay of workers. Prices tend to go up and wages down. The result is that companies find they cannot sell all they have produced, and they lay off workers. This only worsens the situation and the economy sinks even further. Economic crises are aggravated by speculation, hoarding and other schemes of the bankers, financiers, and industrialists. Each tries to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class and people to suffer. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. Money is diverted from the expansion of production and social services into speculative frenzies. Useful products and crops are routinely destroyed to keep prices and profits high. Massive industrial plants sit idle as the investors and CEOs decide they can make money in other ventures. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive. In the face of economic crisis, capitalism has always tried to put the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working people. It uses wage freezes, social contracts, cuts in benefits, increases in taxation, cuts in expenditure on health and education, and handouts to businesses. For working people the future is less and less certain. Wages fall or remain stagnant while hours increase and working conditions deteriorate.

People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reaction, and social decay. The drive for profits holds thousands hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breathe and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence, drugs, crime and social devastation. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, the anarchy of production, economic crises and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self-interest of the tiny group of monopoly capitalists. Capitalism, nevertheless, has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production, there must be common ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. Socialism will be won through the overthrow of capitalism - the seizure of political power by the working class. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government control. Today we often hear of government control of the railways or post office as "creeping socialism". But the state serves the interests of the ruling class.

The economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit and luxury consumption by the rich. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion in useful production and the wealth of society will become useful. The means of production - the factories, forests, farms, offices, transportation systems, media, communications, retail chains will be taken into common ownership. Private ownership will end. The personal possessions property of people will be left alone. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of coordination. A socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. Productivity gains will be used to shorten the working day and improve living standards, rather than create unemployment. Construction of housing, schools, medical, cultural and sporting facilities for working people will be a priority. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. No longer will investors and landlords live off the labour of others. Every person will get the opportunity to contribute to society as much as they are able. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to common ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own workplaces through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of supervisors and consultants today. In this way, workers will be able to make their workplaces safe and efficient places that can serve their own interests as well as society's.

To make revolution and put an end to capitalism, the working class must have a clear strategic plan and must determine who are the main enemies. Standing in the way of social progress and socialism is the capitalist class. In making the socialist revolution, the capitalist class is our main enemy. Our foe is the ruling class who hold state power and is responsible for the hardships facing our people. Against this minority stands the vast majority of the rest of the population. The conditions of life for 95% of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the ruling class of capitalists. The working class is daily thrown into conflict with the capitalist class. The capitalists are the ruling class. They are our enemy in the fight for socialism. Through their ownership and control of the means of production they control the economic life and live off the profits they squeeze from the working class. Through the Tories, Labour and Nationalist parties the capitalist class uses the government for its own ends. Through its control of the State, the capitalists make the decisions which affect the whole of society. However, for all its power, the capitalist class is not a totally united class. There are divisions between domestic and foreign capital, between monopoly and non-monopoly capital, between state and private capital.

The working class is composed of all wage-earners - mental and manual, urban and rural - whether in basic industry, manufacturing, service, farm, sales, domestic, clerical, public or other jobs. The working class is composed of skilled and unskilled, employed and unemployed. Some workers earn more money than some in the so-called middle-class, but they are still members of the working class because they must sell their labour power to survive. Despite its huge numerical advantage, the powerful potential of the working class has been frustrated by division and lack of class consciousness. The majority of workers at this time do not understand the need for fundamental change to society. They have difficult lives but do not see how their problems can be resolved. They want an improvement in their lives and often struggle against their employers, but do not yet see the need for revolutionary change. There are also workers who are generally content with their station in life or feel that, even though things could improve, capitalism is the best system. They do not favour change and many are affected by national chauvinism. These workers normally agree with the capitalist class on major domestic and foreign policy issues.

The struggle for socialism will mainly be a protracted legal one, but the working class cannot chain itself to the rules established by the ruling class. The working class must make preparations to defend itself from attack and be able to adopt different tactics in the case of class war. We are internationalists.  

The Crisis Society

 Workers have to deal with the buying and selling in different ways from capitalist. Capitalists must sell the products in order to realise a return of their capital investment. Workers must live on the wages paid which requires them to be careful and search around for what are often called bargains.

Socialists want a society where people would take the goods they need from the store when needed and no money or bargains or Black Fridays or gimmicks or financial distress or frantic promotional and discounting would be necessary.  

The comments below extracted from the "Sarah Butler - The Guardian - 21 December 2017" under the title " UK retailers in financial distress" expresses a worry by retailers that shoppers are wising up to gimmicks which might not appear as good as they first appear.

 Nearly 45,000 retailers are in financial distress this Christmas as a snowy weekend and the squeeze on consumer spending power hit sales after the Black Friday rush.

Julie Palmer, a retail expert at Begbies Traynor, said retailers had faced a particularly disappointing few weeks of trading following the apparent success of Black Friday at the end of November.

"The increasingly frantic promotional and discounting activity we are seeing this week across the high street is simply not having the same effect on consumers as it once did," she said.

"UK shoppers are savvier than ever and prepared to search online for the best deals, having grown wise to the gimmicks and discounts on offer in store, which many now realise may not be as good as they first appear."

Fellow-Workers, Join Your Party!

The capitalists have attacked you with every weapon at their command. They have battered down your wages to starvation levels. They have cast you on the scrap-heap of insecurity and the gig economy in the millions. They have ignored your every protest. The working man or woman who tries to find a way clear through the hurdles and hardships of present-day conditions is faced with a hard task. Everywhere, there are distress and despair. Rising prices, falling wages, the uncertainty of a steady secure job and ever-deepening misery.

 The trade unions are engaged only in a desperate endeavour to keep their membership from disappearing.  The Labour Party leaders have nothing to say, although always ready to make all kinds of promises for a beautiful future time when they are the Government. New organisations and new saviours are held before the workers as salvation, shams to conceal from the workers their continued enslavement and hide from them the real issue and the only path for the workers - the path of the workers’ revolution.

The Socialist Party wants an end to this class tyranny and oppression. The pro-capitalist politicians all stand upon the backs of the workers and differ on only over their share of the plunder. We must stand together in the struggle of the workers against their exploiters. If our fellow-workers do not awaken in time a terrible fate awaits us all. The aim of the Socialist Party is to establish socialism and abolish the right of one person to rob another of the fruits of his or her labour. This is what makes our party different from all others.

In the event of a Socialist Party candidate being elected, he or she would enter parliament to expose the system´s falseness; to treat that body as the camp of the enemy, to fight above all for the class interests of the wage workers, by which we mean not only their economic but also their political interests. What are these? Simply, the achievement of a socialist society. Of course, we harbour no illusions that we will get a seat in parliament in the near future. The support for revolutionary politics is at a low level at present and we are well aware that the vote for the Socialist Party will be tiny, but we feel it necessary to state our views on how revolutionary socialists should treat parliament and parliamentary seats. Workers desperately need a political movement of our own. A movement which puts our interests first because it is a movement by, for and of us. Since the system we live under, capitalism, is based on our exploitation, such a movement needs to be explicitly anti-capitalist. It needs to aim for the overthrow of the capitalist system and its replacement by a new truly socialist society, based on organising production to meet the human needs of all rather than private profit for a super-rich few. One part of building such a movement is running in elections, to challenge the parties which defend and manage exploitation and oppression and to get our ideas out to the widest possible audience.

Health and inequality

Significant health inequalities that persist between the richest and poorest parts of Scotland should “shame us as a society”, according to doctors in BMA Scotland. Men in the most deprived parts of Glasgow can only expect 44 years of a healthy life according to the latest statistics.

Official figures show the gap in healthy life expectancy between Scotland’s least deprived and most deprived communities of 26 years for men and 22.2 years for women. 

The rate of people being treated in hospital for a heart attack is twice as high in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived.

And analysis of cancer deaths in the same age group show people in the poorest areas twice as likely to die than in the wealthiest.

Alcohol related hospital admissions are six times higher on the most deprived areas than in the least deprived.

While the gap in alcohol-related deaths is 28 per cent lower than its 2002 peak, it has been increasing since 2013 and is now 13 per cent higher than in 1997.  The gap in alcohol-related hospital admissions has remained the highest over the longer term, while relative inequalities in heart attack admissions have increased since 2008. The difference in cancer incidence has stayed relatively stable. Relative inequalities in coronary heart disease, cancer and premature mortality have all increased over the long term.

BMA Scotland Chairman Dr Peter Bennie said: “These latest statistics show that efforts to tackle health inequalities still have a long, long way to go. “The gap in healthy life expectancy between our most and least deprived communities is stark and should shame us as a society. “Far greater action is needed to address Scotland’s health inequalities. That means stronger public health measures to address issues like obesity and alcohol misuse, but it also requires action to address problems like low pay, poor educational outcomes and inadequate housing. “We cannot keep letting more years pass without stronger action from every level of government to address these persistent inequalities.”

For a worldwide co-operative commonwealth.

In the earlier days of the socialist movement the labour movement demanded the “nationalisation” of this or that industry and this was understood to mean “ownership by the state” or public ownership. Reformist socialists generally accepted, without discussion, that the State represented society as a whole; that its parliamentary institutions provided the means for popular opinion to express itself; and when that opinion became socialist, or at least the majority of it, the State would become socialist automatically. Guild Socialism was a mixture of syndicalism and public ownership. The fact is that it is no more socialist than the Post Office was socialist. No amount of representation of the trade unions on this or that committee will constitute socialism.  The workers within state enterprises are as much wage slaves as the workers in private capitalism. The path to socialism is not through state-owned corporations or trade union representation on this or that public board but through a fundamental change in class relations.

Socialism is not inevitable. What has been termed its ‘inevitability’ consists in this, that only through socialism can human progress continue? But there is not and cannot be any absolute deterministic inevitability in human affairs since man makes his own history and chooses what to do. What is determined is not his choice, but the conditions under which it is made, and the consequences when it is made. The meaning of scientific socialism is not that it tells us that socialism will come regardless, but that it explains to us where we stand, what course lies open to us, what is the road to life. What will this mean in practice? It will mean that the capitalists will be deprived of their ownership and control of the factories and workshops, mills and mines, shipyards and transport. All these means of production which they have used and misused only to pile up profits for themselves will be taken from them. Socialism will put an end of production for profit and will carry on production for use. The needs of all will be met, and new needs and pleasures now denied to the working class will be created and satisfied by a socialist organisation and extension of production. We have to-day ample resources for producing all the things we need. Moreover, the workers will naturally produce far better and more willingly under their own management than they do now.  The ending of capitalism will put an end at the same time to the threat of wars, to the maintenance of armed forces in preparation for war abroad or suppression of the workers at home. 

Although many speak of Britain as “their” country, and many have died or have been injured in defence of what they called “their” country, as a matter of fact, Britain does not belong to the whole of the British people, but to a comparative few. How many of you can point to a particular spot on the map and say “this is mine”? The greatest portion of the United Kingdom is divided among a few great landlords from whom we rent our homes or pay the bankers their mortgage on it. The UK is spoken of as a wealthy country. Does that mean that the people as a whole are well off? Of course not. Some are immensely rich, most us get by on a bare living. The means of producing the nation’s wealth are owned by the capitalist class. Most of us own nothing except our muscles and brains, that is, our ability to work.

Under capitalism, production is carried on not for the purpose of supplying the needs of the people but for the purpose of sale in order to realise a profit. Only those who have something to sell can get a living. Only those can obtain things who can afford to buy. If things were produced for use, nobody would spend time in the manufacture of shoddy goods, jerry-built houses, or adulterated food. Commerce is the only purpose of British industry.

The worker has nothing to sell but his or her labour power, sold to an employer for so many hours a day for a certain price, that is, wages. Since one cannot separate labour power from one’s body it comes to this, that a worker actually sells oneself like a slave. We socialists, call the workers, “Wage slaves”. Wages are determined by what it costs to keep a person and family. How many working people do you know who can save out of their wages? Very few, these days. They may be able to put something by in good times, but a misfortune may arrive come and the savings are gone. It is a fact that in on the average a worker is not more than two weeks removed from penury.

The capitalist will only buy labour if he can make a profit out of it. Just compare the value of the goods you turned out in a day when you were in the factory, and what you received for your work. The difference between the two is the employer’s profit. Profit is the result of the unpaid labour of the worker. Under capitalism, the workers are continually robbed of the results of their labour.

The capitalist will compel the worker to work as hard and as long as possible, for as little money as possible. In spite of various Health and Safety laws, sweat-shop condition still flourishes, whole industries in which absolutely inhuman conditions of work and pay exist.

Even through the efforts of the best-organised trade unions wages never rise higher than the cost of living. And even this is not secured. In the endeavour to produce as cheaply as possible, the capitalist continually introduces labour-dispensing machinery, which enables him to produce more goods in less time and reduces the standard of skill required. As a result unemployment or precarious work is continually on the increase.

What does capitalism offer the working man and woman? A life of toil and drudgery. Always the dread fear of the sack. A drab, colourless existence when unable to work any longer, to be thrown on the scrap-heap. If capitalism remains in existence, the worker will still remain subject to the capitalist. There will still be riches for the few and poverty for the many. Palaces for the idlers, shoeboxes for the workers. Capitalism can offer its workers nothing but wage slavery. Yet, together we shall form a worldwide co-operative commonwealth.

WHY WE WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

 “Study because we will need all your intelligence.

Agitate because we will need all your enthusiasm.

Organize because we will need all your strength.”

Antonio Gramsci

We are socialists out of conviction because we see capitalism as harmful to the vast majority of the world’s people. This system we live under, by its very nature and grinds the working people, sets one group against another. Capitalism today as a destructive system that hurts, divides and exploits the vast majority of our people for the sake of profits and power for the few. We see in socialism a more just, more cooperative and more peaceful society. Socialists suggest an alternative which can meet basic needs of people and which is based on cooperation. Socialism offers a future free from the fears of poverty, sexism, racism, dog-eat-dog competition, joblessness, and the loneliness of old age, a society that allows each person to create and produce according to her or his ability and to obtain what she or he needs. We advocate and work for socialism – that is, common ownership and collective control of the means of production (factories, fields, utilities, etc.). We want a system based on cooperation, where the people build together for the common good. 

We see the primary task of the Socialist Party to be the building of a mass movement of the working class to strive for socialism. From this task arises the character of the organisation. People are our most precious resource.  We expect that as the Socialist Party grows, it will become richer and stronger, where members would and should develop social as well as political ties with each other. The organisation would have internal education, parties, outings, dinners, sports and the like, and would encourage an all-rounded development of its members. Men and women want freedom from misery, from exploitation, from the jackboots of the state, from living their lives in alienation and insecurity. People want freedom to become fully human, to develop all our talents and abilities. In the final analysis, we need a mass global socialist organization dedicated to welding together all the diverse struggles and resistance of the working class. We have no illusions that the Socialist Party will on its own become such an organisation, but one of our tasks is to help bring such a force into being when the conditions for it grow ripe. In the meantime, we will seek new members to push the road to freedom a little further into the new uncharted territory that lies ahead.

The principal function of the Socialist Party is to participate in the class struggle in such a way that the workers are educated to realise that it is their own political and industrial power which must lead to their emancipation as a class. The socialist revolution is not an endeavour of outstanding individuals or a select sect; rather, it is the endeavour of the exploited and oppressed of all lands. The working class is the commonality of the masses of people who are compelled to sell their labour power in order to survive. It is the only class whose liberation is impossible without the abolition of class society on a global scale. It is the class whose very functioning in the processes of modern society – based as they are in a collective process of production – predisposes it to reach an understanding of its own situation and the cause of its oppression, to combine with other exploited groups and classes for a common revolutionary struggle, and together with them to organise the life of post-revolutionary socialist society.

In the course of its evolution, capitalism has brought about an unprecedented rise of social productivity; based on the achievements of science and technology, capitalism has developed methods of production that require close cooperation of masses of human beings and make possible the creation of limitless plenty; in spreading over the entire planet, capitalism has created a global system that binds together all human beings across the planet in close mutual ties. But this development is based on the exploitation of human beings who are denied any control over the process of their labour, the means of their labour and the fruits of their labour, and are therefore denied control over the entire social process. In the capitalist system the products of human labour assume the form of commodities: everything is sold and bought – means of subsistence, means of labour, and even the brawn and brain power of human beings. Capitalism has created a system that enslaves and exploits. Capitalism is the foremost enemy of the socialist revolution: the revolution strives to overthrow capitalism, and the latter attempts to prevent and suppress the revolution. As the modern world is a single interlinked system, and as the privileged class in all countries have interconnected interests opposed to the socialist revolution, revolutionary socialists will act in mutual international solidarity, and to lend fraternal support to the struggle of every exploited and oppressed group of human beings.

Ireland's Scottish High King

In Faughart, County Louth, overlooking the border town of Dundalk, lies the remains of Edward de Bruce, brother of Robert de Bruce,  a Scotsman who crowned himself High King of Ireland. It was here in on October 14, 1318, that he met his end at the point of a sword.  Both countries original names where greater Scotia and lesser Scotia-Greater Scotia meaning Ireland and lesser Scotia meaning Scotland. 

 On May 26, 1315, Edward de Bruce landed on the shores of Larne with an army to overthrow English rule of Ireland. At first, he set his sights on laying siege to Carrickfergus Castle but the castle’s impregnable fortifications meant that he would have to look elsewhere.  De Bruce then turned his attention to Roche Castle, a formidable looking castle perched on top of a rocky outcrop. Bruce took one look at the Castle and decided that it would be virtually impossible to capture. So instead he headed to the nearby town of Dundalk which he proceeded to burn to the ground. 

After victories at the battle of Connor and at the Battle of Kells Edward de Bruce's forces looked unstoppable but then a foe came that de Bruce couldn’t defeat- the weather and famine. This led to the Scottish forces pillaging of the locals and had the effect of the turning many of the Irish against his forces.

At Faughart Co Louth on October 14, 1318, the weakened and depleted Scottish Army faced John de Berminghams force of 20,000.  De Bruce was advised that it would be prudent to withdraw his forces and wait for reinforcements but instead of retreating Edward decided upon a head-on full-scale assault. Predictably, the battle was a disaster.  A knight by the name of Sir John Maupas cut Bruce down and ended his short reign as High King of Ireland. The King was  beheaded, and his arms and legs were cut off and sent to the four corners of Ireland as warning to any other Irish who may have been thinking of rebelling against their English overlords. And so, ended the reign of Irelands Scottish High King.

The Best Thing To Dump For Collective Survival

Over 15,000 scientists tell us humanity is screwed if it doesn't lighten up on killing the biosphere. One leading scientists say, "We are in the throes of a mass extinction event that is anthropogenic. This is not something we can fix. If we lose 50 to 75 per cent of the species on the planet in this century — which is what scientists are telling us what will occur if we continue to operate as business-as-usual — if this happens, this can not be fixed." 

You'd think some of this sad news might wake up the swindling class trampling the workers to make a quick buck to stop and wonder about their lunacy.

But nope, the parasite class has proven beyond any doubt they can't do such a thing, let alone think about yielding to any sense of collective survival.

 It's time: Dump capitalism and dump them 

it's better for yours and my health.

For socialism, 
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

The future belongs to the people

What every worker must realise is that through trade union struggle we are not fighting the causes which is capitalism but only its symptoms. We are fighting against the effects of the system and not against the system itself. When we fight for a demand like a wage increase we are merely fighting against the effects of capitalism. Not merely that. We are demanding it from the capitalists. In other words, we envisage the continuation of the capitalist system. What trade union struggles really do is to fight to improve the conditions of the working class within the framework of the capitalist system. They do not challenge capitalism itself. That is why they degenerate to pure and simple reformism and, in the end, bolster up capitalism. Of course, every wage increase that is won by the workers is immediately offset by the employers by more intensive work, by stricter supervision etc. and by a general price increase. So that, usually the worker is back to from where he started. What all workers must understand is that their misery is due to exploitation carried on by the capitalist class. Trade unionism merely restricts their struggle to attempts at lessening this exploitation. It does not fight to end exploitation i.e. to end the capitalist system and replace it with socialism. This is the fatal limitation of trade union struggles. The Socialist Party nevertheless does not oppose trade union struggles nor its members refuse to participate in them. It is very essential to organise workers and help them to fight against the reductions in their working conditions and for their day-to-day demands. The vote was given to us by our masters for their own purpose; let us use it for our own. Let us demonstrate at that ballot-box the strength and intelligence of the revolutionary idea; let us make the hustings a rostrum from which to promulgate our principles; let us grasp the public powers in the interest of the disinherited class.

The Socialist Party knows that no leaders are going to pull the workers into socialism. As Marx stated, “The emancipation of the working class must be the class-conscious act of the working class itself.” An ignorant muddleheaded working class will never be able to act correctly or move in the proper direction no matter how brainy the leaders may be. “The day is past,” says Engels, “for revolutions carried through by small minorities at the head of unconscious masses.” The Socialist Party correctly holds that the political party must be a party of no compromise. Its mission is to point the way to the goal and it refuses to leave the main road to follow the small bypaths that lead into the swamp of reformism. Its skirts are clean. The red banner of socialism is held high, uncorrupted, and not dragged down into the mire of petty reform.

There are many points on which the Socialist Party takes a different stand from that taken by other organisations claiming to be socialist. There are differences on principle and therefore, necessarily, differences in tactics. If an organisation’s principles are correct, the tactics reflected must also be correct. If an organisation’s tactics are wrong, it is nearly certain that its principles can be nothing else but wrong. For this reason, if organisations differ on tactics, there is apt to be a like difference in the principles espoused by each. Principles are fundamental and by showing that the principles of those other so-called socialist parties are wrong, we can proceed to demonstrate the incorrectness of their tactics. And at the same time, by contrast, it will be conclusively proven that the principles and therefore the tactics of the Socialist Party are the only logical ones to be followed.

The first difference to be noted is hinged around the conception each has of its goal. The goal of the Left is a form of workers' government. The goal of the Socialist Party is socialism. The Left claims that in order to achieve the workers must first go through a transition period. Therefore their aim now is for this transition period. The goal being such, the tactics adhered to must be in keeping with the same. The transition period, we are told, will last until the last vestiges of capitalism are destroyed and in order to safeguard the interests of the working class during this period, we must have a revolutionary 'dictatorship of the proletariat.'

When the working class takes political power, according to the Socialist Party, it controls all that is necessary to run production on socialised lines. A 'dictatorship of the proletariat' is unnecessary, the workers being in a majority. There will not even be a rule of the proletariat because the act of socializing the industries automatically abolishes all classes and therefore the proletariat as a class ceases to be. In order to run the industries for themselves the workers must first secure complete power over and ownership of them. In order to accomplish this, they must organize so that it can be done in a thorough manner to avoid anarchy and chaos. If the Socialist Party’s analysis is correct, then it follows that the tactics reflected by this analysis are also correct. And by showing that the left-wing's goal is wrong, that automatically disposes of the tactics that organization advocates. 

Freedom or Slavery - Your Choice

The Socialist Party endeavours to explain to our fellow workers the nature of the struggle in which they are participating. To tell them of the principles for which we work and fight. To reveal what we are confident is the way out for our class from the horrid nightmare of the competitive struggle which sets nation against nation, class against class, and individual against individual.

The struggle between individual capitalists to realise profits sets employer against employer. The conflict between national groups of capitalists sets nation against nation and produces war. But despite their individual and national conflicts, the whole capitalist class stands united in their common desire to exploit labour. Hence under capitalism, the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities.

The master class lives upon the labour of the working class, and use all the powers of government, nationally and municipally, in their own interest and against those who labour. The master class, the dominant ruling class, strives by every means in its power to keep the working class in such a state of subjection that the process of spoiling or robbing the worker of his earnings, may go smoothly on with as little risks or dislocation as possible. The working class on the other hand perpetually rises in protest against the incidental details of the robbery, organises to reduce the theft of the masters, and ever casts down its tools, and enters on a bloodless insurrection against the conditions of its servitude. These protests, these organised movements, these unarmed insurrections of labour, these strikes are the inevitable accompaniment of the capitalist system of society – they are the salient proofs that the members of the Socialist Party know what they are talking about when they declare that the normal condition of society is not peace, but war; that the class war is the one, great fact in the modern world. The Socialist Party affirms that so long as one section of the community own and control the means of production, and the rest of the community is compelled to work for that section in order to obtain the means of life, there can be no social peace.

The capitalist state has not always existed any more than the capitalist class itself has always existed. Before the advent of capitalist democracy, there was the feudal state of the Middle Ages – the political-armed fist by which the then powerful landowning nobility ruled over and extracted wealth from the toil of the serfs. The young capitalist class undertook the revolutionary overthrow of the feudal state and the establishment of something entirely unknown in that age, namely their own capitalist state. The capitalist classes in the various countries did not – and could not have – accomplished their revolution by themselves. It was the seething discontented masses of serfs, worker, and townspeople who carried the capitalist revolution on their shoulders, fought the tyrants, gave their lives for liberty, equality, fraternity. To the rising capitalists, liberty, equality, fraternity were ideals they wanted for themselves alone. They had no thought to grant the lower classes liberty, equality, and fraternity. To the ruling class, the revolution ushered in a period of capitalist masterly over the subject classes, in place of the rule of the aristocracy.

 

Rally to the support of the Socialist Party which stands for the interests of the working class, seeking to capture the political power necessary to make the instruments of Labour the property, not of a class, but of a free people in a free social order, the world socialist republic. We appeal to fellow workers to rally around the only banner the red banner of socialism. Cast off all your old political affiliations, and organise and vote to conquer society in the interests of its only useful class – the workers. Let your slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, your weapon the political organisation of the wage slaves to achieve their own emancipation.

The eyes of the world are upon you, fellow workers. The choice is yours.