“All for one and one for all”

Human nature is supposed to be such as to make socialism a mere utopia, a fantastic and unrealisable dream. Socialists explain that human ‘nature’ will reflect the character of the future society just as at present it assumes the competitive, selfish, grasping character of capitalist society. When you take into consideration the greed, the strife, the cheating and the violence that exist under the system of private property, you are amazed, not that the human animal is so bad but that, in spite of everything, man has not completely degenerated into a wild beast. Let no one imagine that we socialists assert that under socialism all men will be born with equal abilities. Just as at present there will be individuals with greater and lesser abilities, everyone will be educated to use his capacities to serve society and not to exploit others. For the person of greater talents, socialism, by doing away with the struggle for food and clothing, will mean a far greater opportunity for the exercise of those talents.

If the capitalists were to depend upon force alone to guarantee their privileged position, their situation would be precarious indeed. After all they represent only a small minority of the people. The overwhelming majority of the population would benefit by a change from the present system to socialism. Against such a decisive majority the instruments of force at the disposal of the capitalist class could not prevail. If the working masses would be aroused and determined to abolish capitalism, the police and the army would be helpless, even if we assume that all of the soldiers would be loyal to the capitalist class.

What the capitalist class must depend upon, more than on force, is deceit. All the force in the world would not avail the capitalists if they could not deceive and confuse the people. Even their police and their armies would not be reliable because the police and the army are composed of people who come from the working class and who permit themselves to be used against their class brothers simply because they do not know any better. The rulers of our present social order see to it that the workers are subjected to a system of schooling and training which succeeds in making them believe that the present system is the best possible system, and that if there is anything wrong with it, it is only of a minor character and can be easily cured by changing the people who are in control of things or implementing certain reforms. It is this deception, more than anything else, that assures the existence of a social order which brings so much misery and suffering to the vast majority of the people.

 What institutions exist for the purpose of deceiving the masses? There are quite a few, the most important being the church, the media, and the educational system. From early childhood every person is subjected to the influence of ideas which tend to make him or her respect authority, and to believe in things as they are. Obedience is the virtue stressed by religious teachers.

The members of the ruling class depend upon the schools, more perhaps than upon the churches, to instill into the minds of the working-class youth a proper respect for all the institutions and ideas which ensure the continuance of the present system. Above all, the educational system attempts to imbue the young people with an intense patriotism. To be ready to fight and die for one's country (which, of course, means the country owned by the capitalists) is pictured as the highest of all virtues. The average boy or girl is graduated from school firmly convinced that the economic, political and social ideas and ideals that they have been taught are correct and" necessary. They are prepared to fight, not in the interest of their class, but for things as they are, for the benefit of those who exploit them.

While the educational system, both religious and secular, molds the minds of the people in their earlier years, the   mass media is the chief instrument in the work of confusing and deceiving them in later life. Day in and day out the capitalist press TV and radio turns loose a veritable flood of lies and half-truths, the sum and substance of which is that capitalism is the best of all possible systems and that only people with vicious tendencies would want to change that
system. And there is very little that those of us, who want to establish a new social order, can do in order to counter-act the propaganda of the capitalism. To publish a paper,  to own a TV channel or radio station  requires tremendous capital. They are all owned by wealthy capitalists and depend for their advertisements on the big business people.  For every worker who has a
chance to read a paper advocating the ideas of socialism, there are tens of thousands who read nothing except the capitalist press. The cinema, too, subtly spreading the same poison that numbs the thinking workers.

Influenced by the false ideas propagated by the capitalist class the workers not only fail to struggle against their real enemies but actually permit themselves to be arrayed against one another. They allow themselves to be divided on racial, national and religious grounds. Prejudices are fostered amongst the workers and thereby the struggle against the common enemy is weakened. The best example of a prejudice that causes untold harm to the labor movement is the prejudice of the white and indigenous workers against the coloured and immigrant workers.

 Today the great majority of people imagine that in the last instance we can instill whatever ideas we may choose into a man's mind; that we can influence at our own discretion the development of ideas at any given time in any given people. But it is precisely this that is impossible. The fact is that we cannot and do not think what we please to think; we think what we must think. What obliges the individual to think in a certain way is the measure of his interests and opinions, which are in turn developed out of the social interests of a certain stratum or class in society. If our capitalist class stands opposed to Socialism, we socialists are the very last people to be astonished at it. No one can require a class to decide and act against its vital interests, nor do we in the least expect this.

It is only natural that people who sell their labour power and toil in servitude, who know that they are condemned without respite to this position which is anything but a pleasant one, for all their days that the thought must awaken in their minds: "Is this right? Is it reasonable? Is it to remain so for ever? Are we always to be the oppressed and expropriated, to the end that those who appropriate to themselves out of our labor all the wealth and enjoyment that this world can offer may live in opulence and ease?"

These, indeed, are very pertinent questions that produce the class consciousness of the worker and it is this  the socialist movement expand and develop. Not only must socialism be accepted as an ideal and the goal to aim for, it must also be understood as realisable, something that is feasible and achievable, as the practical solution of our social difficulties. Mankind can do all that it wills; but in order to will to do anything, we must first realise that it is necessary and possible.

It is not the object of the Socialist Party  to destroy civilisation. We do not desire to divide up and re-share out wealth as some  people suppose; we do not wish to throw humanity back into primitivism. Men and women should be free and equal without exception,and  they should be permitted to live their lives as civilised human beings. And in order to attain thisit is not just merely declaring it a  right but providing  the opportunity and furnishing the means of harmoniously developing and educating, in accordance with peoples needs, the physical and intellectual capacities which nature has given to them.

The socialist principle is “All for one and one for all”

Defend the Roma

When it comes to catch-all caveats "I'm not a racist" ranks alongside the most common.

No one's ever racist nowadays. But somehow racism still seems to exist and find its target. Few doubt that certain views pervade and practices persist but even fewer will own up to holding them or following them. A system of discrimination remains, yet no one, apparently, is running it. So while those who take responsibility for it are rare, those who suffer the consequences are many.

Nick Clegg, used his disclaimer. "I am a liberal,"and went on to describe the Roma as sometimes "intimidating" and "offensive".

The Guardian recently reported that South Yorkshire police say crime has not increased significantly since the Roma moved to town a few years ago.

After a chip-shop owner swore two teenagers tried to sell him a baby, the police scoured CCTV footage and records of babies born in the area and found nothing. A police spokesman said it "could have been a joke in poor taste". That didn't stop it making the front page of the Daily Express, however.

 The arrival of a large number of poor people does demand resources to facilitate their integration. Those challenges are most likely to fall on working-class communities that are least equipped to meet then, their capacity further diminished by the swingeing cuts of Clegg's government, including  the Migration Impact Fund. But the challenges are because the Roma are overwhelmingly poor, not because they're Roma.

The truth is the Roma have far more to fear from non-Roma than vice-versa. Gassed by the Nazis, forcibly sterilised by the Swedes, recently expelled by the French, they have long been persecuted. In the last six weeks, two Roma families in Ireland, accused of stealing children because they didn't sufficiently look like them, had their kids taken away from them by the state only to have them returned. In Serbia, skinheads tried to snatch a blond child from in front of his house for the same reason.

For decades the ‘Communists’ forced ‘integration’ on Roma people. They forced education on them. They forced them into guaranteed jobs. It failed. Indeed, the ‘Communists’ invented the crime of ‘Parasitism’ specifically for those Roma who refused to work under any circumstances.The plight of the Roma in eastern Europe was so bad that securing minority rights for the Roma was a precondition for countries from the region joining the EU. Polls show that 91% of Czechs had "negative views" towards them while a survey of Hungarian police officers revealed that 54% believed criminality to be a key element of the Roma identity. In the Czech Republic, 75% of Roma children were placed in schools for people with learning difficulties; in Hungary it was 44%. The mayor of Mendez, a small town in Slovakia, said: "I am no racist … but some Gypsies you would have to shoot."

Scapegoating foreigners proves easier than blaming the housing crisis on all those single mums getting purposefully pregnant to get a council house, because often than not a reader will actually have a single mother as a relation or a friend who is and they know very well it is not true. Blaming people you have little contact with is more fruitful a tactic for the divide and rule merchants. The Roma are powerless, they voiceless and  unrepresented,and now serve as our enemy within. They are defenceless against us, but we tell each other that they threaten us. The media frighten us with ancient fairy tales: they steal our children. Politicians join in, sanctioning prejudices with veiled threats of legal action and punitive restrictions. The racists have moved on from the “white pakis” - the Poles - to the Roma. Who lives here, belongs here.

The Slovak Spectator: In the UK you use the terms Roma, Gypsies and Travellers. What is the difference between them?

Arthur Ivatts: The difference is just in the name. The English Gypsies are Roma, they came from India in the 10th century in the same way as the Slovak Roma and they migrated further west to the Netherlands, Scotland and then travelled as nomadic groups in England, Ireland and Scotland since the 16th century. So they are Roma but they were called Egyptians because they said they had come from Egypt. But the word ‘Gypsy’ was seen as a bit derogatory in the UK, as here. So in the 1950s and 60s the Gypsies said they didn’t want to be called Gypsies, they said they were ‘Travellers’. But then in the 1970s the Irish travellers came to the UK in more significant numbers and many Gypsies didn’t want to be called the same, with some wanting to be called Roma, to follow the rest of Europe. Then we had Central-Eastern European (CEE) Roma coming to the UK, so the English Gypsies wanted to be distinguished from them and so now perhaps a majority say they would prefer to be known as Gypsies again. So we use the terms Roma, Gypsies and Travellers to attempt to satisfy everyone in terms of the justified sensitivities surrounding ethnic self-ascription... The Roma have been abused for over 500 years. They are the classic example of the whole continent’s racial abuse of a minority. And now, everybody stands back and says: ‘Just look at them, they are happy in their ghetto communities, they don’t want to work, they are not interested in education, they are just interested in the benefits’.

The non-Roma world is not accepting their responsibility for what they’ve done to this minority over five centuries. And when we come to pick up the pieces of this abuse, what do we do? We blame the victims. We don’t blame ourselves. This is the tragedy of Europe today. What we need is an apology to the Roma. We need an historic apology from the governments to say ‘We are sorry about what has happened to you in this society’. Because what European society has done to the Roma has included enslavement, banishment, discrimination, persecution and attempted genocide time and time again. Has any of that ever been apologised for or even publicly acknowledged? ... One well known British politician said that if they [Roma] start behaving properly we would treat them properly – such a comment shows a complete lack of understanding of the history, it blames the victims of racial abuse and suggests that human rights are a conditional commodity linked to the stereotypes of particular groups of people.

Capitalism is the Disease - Socialism is the Cure

"The emancipation of the workers must be achieved by the working class itself"

Things have turned out quite differently from what people had hoped. Instead of a future era of the positive achievements of social reforms, we are in a period of economic crisis, of rising prices and falling wages, the stagnation in all social legislation, of war and increased armaments spending, of nationalist and racial division and of the persistence of absolutist dictatorships. People had been hoping to be able to stem the tide by skilful tactics of our union movement supported by our protests in the streets but, alas, there, too, we have been disappointed. It has proved impossible to defend existing social reforms, much less, gain new ones. The faith and hope people held in their representatives in Parliament has proved mis-placed. But it is with discontent with the whole world of capitalism that our strength grows! It is not an era of social reforms that we now hope for, but the great epoch of social revolution!

There have always been comrades who warned against reformism, and who endeavoured to bring to the political debate the revolutionary way of thinking. But they were rarely listened to, and then only by the few. The Socialist Party has repeatedly stated that reformist illusions can only lead to disappointments and when it is done in the name of socialism then it is socialists who are made responsible. If the mass of the people are given exaggerated hopes and  when these promises of better things do not materialise, the people will no longer make capitalism responsible for their misery, but they will hold socialists culpable. No longer will they blame the governing classes, but their own representatives.

The Socialist Party’s propaganda and theory is based on the idea that in a socialist society production will be for need and not for profit. Devoting time, energy and resources to drawing up detailed plans for the reformation of  capitalist society will ultimately be disillusioning and demoralising at best or strengthen capitalism at worst.

Socialism is no cut-and-dried collection of dogmas, which are to be taken without investigation. If each successive generation considers itself bound to argue out over again all the principles of , so much the better. The process will, we believe, give them only a firmer grip of their entire soundness.

One topic where there exists a great confusion of thought is the relation between reform and revolution. If we fail to educate and to prepare the working class for a clear understanding of, and for the attainment of the revolutionary objective, any temporary concessions they may have gained can be turned into a stumbling block of the struggle. Socialists have no interest in supporting palliatives which only serve to make capitalism tolerable. There is nothing intrinsically socialist or even working class about reformism. Often, the granting of concessions acts as a lubricant, making the system run more smoothly. Reform can divert the threat of revolution.  It creates a political climate that is conducive to capitalism’s stability. It pays the capitalist state to appear to be generous since this conceals the true nature of its being. Reformism is a prop for capitalism that the revolution intends to kick it away.

One class—the capitalist class—owns and controls the economic resources of the world.  The workers must take over and operate all the means of production and distribution, for the well-being of all.  Harmonious relations of mankind in all their material affairs will evolve out of the change in the control and ownership in the industrial resources of the world. That accomplished all members of society sharing in the enjoyment the good things and comforts of life, will be the arbiters of their own destinies in a free society. Freedom and equality will be no longer empty and cheap phrases, but will have a meaning; when all men and women are really free and equal they will honour and advance one another. Long enough a future state of bliss has been held out to suffering mankind, in which they would be rewarded for all the wants and sufferings and pains of this world, and now most people have lost confidence in such empty promises. They demand an amelioration: not words, not promises, but facts. They do not want to expect, with resignation, what may come after death; they demand a change of their unfortunate situation while living on earth.

The disenchantment with the political parties and in particular the Labour Party has so far manifested itself in abstentionism. Many have become disillusioned and dropped out of political activity and the electorate have voted with their feet – by refusing to leave the house on polling day. At each election, a smaller percentage go to vote. However, for the socialist this opting out of conventional political process offers a potential for a genuine socialist party, one that does not hold out the promise of quick cure-alls for the social ills but which traces social sickness and misery to their sources.

 If you think the aims of the Socialist Party of Great Britain are worthy, that the Socialist Party endeavours to promote the happiness and welfare of mankind, join us! Try to propagate their principles among your acquaintances, explaining them its truths, exposing the falsehoods. Tell them that the socialists form the only party of the working people.

"Workers of the World, Unite!"

Fair and Balanced?

Cameron has ordered an investigation into union tactics in the wake of the threatened closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, that saw Unite members picketing the homes of INEOS directors.

The review will be led by QC Bruce Carr, who acted for  British Airways against the trade unions in court when it blocked plans for a Christmas strike by Unite members in 2009.

TUC head of employment rights Sarah Veale said the investigation was clearly “politically driven”.

Food for thought

Thanks to frozen hospital budgets, heart surgeons and eye doctors are among a growing number of specialized physicians who can't find work in Canada despite long waits for surgery, according to a report issued by The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Sixteen per cent of those interviewed for the report said, although newly qualified, could not find work in their field. Thirty-one per cent said they were pursuing extra training to become more employable. Nearly a quarter of the new graduates said they were working part-time jobs. This shows that no matter what training one receives, either there is a market for your skills or there isn't, and if not, tough. But that's capitalism. John Ayers.

One Big Union

Unions were the first means of defence developed by the working class in its struggle against capitalist exploitation. They were the result of concerted efforts by workers to organise and fight collectively for better working conditions, wage increases and a shorter working day. The establishment and growth of unions was no gift from the capitalist class, but the result of workers’ struggles against their exploiters.

Working conditions were intolerable before unions were organised. The working day in factories had no limit other than the physical exhaustion of the workers, and would often exceed 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Children were frequently employed, deprived of any education, they did the same job as adults, but for barely one-half or one-quarter of the pay. Women fared no better, overworked and underpaid in the sweatshops of the time. Employers could pay workers when they pleased and cut wages whenever they wanted to.

For many years workers fought back in a sporadic, random manner, in an unorganised way. With the development of unions, the working class took a major step forward. The isolated conflicts between individual workers and capitalists now took on the character of conflicts between two classes. Now, not only were the capitalists organised with their industrial associations and the governments at their service, but the workers also had their own collective organisations – the trade unions. Strikes broke out and many were successful. Thus, the establishment of unions, a major step forward in uniting workers into a class, was the result of struggle against the capitalists, particularly political action against their state and its anti-worker laws. Instead of leaving workers isolated to face their bosses alone, labour unions do everything possible to strengthen and broaden the struggles. The main problem was that trade unionism accepts the capitalist system and tries only to get a bigger piece of the pie for themselves.

As an organisation of the working class, the unions cannot limit itself to the economic struggle for better working conditions and wages. As long as the capitalist system exists, the bosses will always try to take back what they have been forced to concede. They will continually try to step up the exploitation of the working class in order to boost their profits. Until the workers get rid of the capitalist system itself, the cause of all the injustices and suffering they face,  the source of their misery they will constantly have to take up their struggles over and over again.

A role of the socialist party is to educate and teach the members of trade unions their limitations and to show that every conflict between workers and management is part of the general struggle in society between the capitalist and its state on the one hand, and the working class on the other. We try to dispel the f illusions about the role of governments, the police or the law.We denounce all the bosses’ or the bureaucrats’ attempts to institutionalise class collaboration through joint employer/employee committees. Our guiding principle is that the interests of the bosses and the workers are irreconcilable. We reject any support, official or otherwise, on the part of the unions for any capitalist party even those that try to give themselves a friend-of-the-worker image

Karl Marx summed it up in Wages, Price and Profit:
“Trade unions work well as centres of resistance against the encroachments of capital. They fail partially from an injudicious use of their power. They fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerilla war against the effects of the existing system, instead of simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organized forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class, that is to say, the ultimate abolition of the wages system.”

 Workers must transform the labour movement into a class-conscious political movement. Unions with this perspective defend the workers best. They are strong because they understand the nature and the objectives of the capitalist class, and they use every struggle to strengthen the labour movement as a whole.

We hold that unions should practice democracy and is fully controlled by its members. The union should ensure those members actively participate in union life, structures, general meetings or tasks. Decisions are made after thorough debates in which all opinions are expressed. They are not made by a  bureaucracy who tell us to leave everything to them. Union officials apply the decisions of their members and place themselves at their members’ service. They have no special privileges and if they fail to carry out the union’s decisions or fail to apply its wishes, means should exist for their recall  and remove them from their functions, if necessary. To reach important decisions members must have all the information they is required in order to take a position. Workers must participate in formulating their demands, and should have democratic control over all decisions to strike or to return to work, and on all other issues that affect them.Unions are essential for the working class and without them, workers would still be subject to the every whim and fancy of the employers and their foremen. What is as important as the growth of numbers is the development of the trade unions in the direction of class solidarity as opposed to sectional exclusiveness and antagonism.

However, the support of the Socialist Party for the trade unions is not necessarily all one-way. In  order to move the struggle for socialism forward, they must support a party that is fighting to do away with capitalism, a socialist party. As Marx wrote in a resolution of the International Workingmen’s Association on unions:
“Aside from their immediate work of reacting to the pestering manoeuvres of capital, they must become the organizing centres of the working class fighting towards that great goal, its total emancipation. They must help any political and social movement in favour of this aim.”

The unions’ indispensable support for a socialist party will not come about automatically. It must be won through education and persuasion, and by the union members own experience. The support is not imposed but is won democratically.  Our primary function is to organise a political party, independent, class-conscious, proletarian and socialist. The function of industrial organisation lies with the trade unions. These two functions are not absolutely distinct and separate, they are to some extent interdependent. Yet they are not identical. The trade unions can help us, we can help them. It is as much unreasonable to suggest that in politics the Socialist Party should be the subordinate partner as it would be to suggest that the Socialist Party should claim to dictate the policy of the trade union in conducting the strike, or should expect the union to abandon the immediate objects and demands of the strike simply in order to make socialist propaganda.

Reading Notes

When we think of World War I, we tend to think almost exclusively of the European theatre and certainly not about Africa. Niall Ferguson in his book, "Civilization : The West and the Rest", although a decidedly capitalist supporter, tells us, "The war that began in 1914 was not a war between a few quarrelling European states. It was a war between world empires (socialists would not disagree with that)…In no theatre were the problems of communication more severe than in Africa, and, in the absence of extensive railways and reliable beasts of burden, there was only one solution: men. Over 2 million Africans served in the First World War all of carriers of supplies, weapons and wounded, and although they were far from the fields of Flanders, these forgotten auxiliaries had as hellish a time as the most exposed front-line troops in Europe. Not only were they overworked and underfed; once removed from their usual locales they were every bit as susceptible to disease as their white masters. Roughly a fifth of all Africans employed as carriers died, many of them the victims of the dysentery that ravaged all colonial armies in the field." Ferguson also tells us that as recruits dwindled, the French turned to Africa for manpower in the trenches. The first African elected to the French Assembly, Blaise Diagne became a recruiting agent for the French army. Africans were often sent into enemy gunfire first, whites behind. One in five Africans died in the war, one fifth of those who joined up, compared to 17% for French soldiers.

Despite the establishment line of the book, Ferguson prints Thomas Carlyle's comment on capitalism in his essay, "Past and Present", "…the world has been rushing on with such fiery animation to get work and ever more work done, , it has had no time to think of dividing the wages; and has merely left them to be scrambled for by the Law of the Stronger, law of supply-and-demand, law of Laissez-faire, and other idle Laws and Un-Laws. We call it a society; and go about professing openly the totalise separation, isolation. Our life is not a mutual helpfulness; but rather, cloaked under due laws-of-war, named 'fair competition' and so forth, it is a mutual hostility. We have forgotten everywhere that cash-payment is not the sole relation of human beings…[it] is not the sole nexus of man with man, - how far from it! Deep, far deeper than Supply-and-demand, are Laws, Obligations sacred as Man's Life itself."

So there!

 

For socialism, John Ayers

Meet the new boss - Same as the old boss

FOR CLASS WAR

Our job is to overthrow the capitalist system and so socialists are always accused of setting class against class and trying to create ill feeling. Yet the real fact is, we only point out what already exists. They exist because some men live by owning the factories and mines and machines, and the most part have to go to work on these machines which they don’t own. The boss tries to squeeze as much profit out of the worker as he can. The worker tries to wring as close to a living wage out of the boss as he or she can. And if the workers stopped struggling, they’d just be squeezed more, that’s all. That’s why there’s a class struggle.

There are nice bosses and nasty bosses just as there were  kind slave-masters and cruel ones. Socialists want NO slave-masters and NO bosses. There are no small employers, no working capitalists, no friendly relations between masters and men. There is only one connecting link between the employers and the employees, and that link is to be found in the money the worker finds in his pay packet. We’re going to do it by getting rid of the profit system, which exists only because there is a class of exploiters and a class of the exploited.  Workers meet this class war everywhere, but do not always recognise it. It is our work to label its every manifestation, in order that workers may recognise it.

We have always said that in present times the worker is not class-conscious – that is, knowing and understanding his class subjection and its cause, and therefore knowing and understanding his class interest in overthrowing the institutions which keep him so. This is not the case with the capitalist. They are thoroughly class-conscious and never lose sight of the cardinal principle of the class struggle. While the average worker has little to do with politics, the other class know its value, not merely to their whole class, but for each sections of their class. All government is therefore class government.

These days the media  proclaim that employer and employee are partners in industry and decry "wasteful and futile" strikes, describing them as obsolete and unnecessary — it is interesting to understand what the bosses  really mean when they speak of harmony. Workers are not regarded by their masters as human beings – they are only reckoned as so many items in the balance-sheet, and troublesome items at that. The capitalist class hold no illusions. It looks upon the working class as its class enemy. It still employs every weapon at its disposal to keep its supremacy from anti-union legislation to secret black-lists of those “trouble-makers”. The press and TV will endeavour to soften or obliterate the divisions. There is no question of removing those divisions or their causes as those are inherent in a system which sharply divides society into two classes, the propertied and the propertyless, master and slave, owner and owned, employer and employed. But those divisions may eventually lead to revolt on the part of the subject class unless they can be softened or bridged over by a seeming identity of interest.

The Socialist Party stands alone as the standard bearer of socialism. The class war is our war and our only war.  It is time to line up in the class struggle regardless of race or nationality for the overthrow of class rule and for the emancipation of their class and humanity. A win at football is the result of many moves and counter-moves. We do not lie down and weep when our side loses a goal. No, we roll up our sleeves, pull up our socks, and carry on, determined to get two goals in return. So it is the same with the class war. 

Giving your right arm for the job

A sawmill firm has been fined £30,000 after a young worker was injured in a "wholly avoidable" accident. Damian Gawlowski, 20, lost full use of his arm after it was pulled into unguarded machinery at Tennants (Elgin) Ltd.

Health and Safety Executive principal inspector Niall Miller said: "This incident was wholly avoidable. HSE said its investigation revealed that the saw-blade guard was positioned incorrectly. Additionally, Mr Gawlowski was not trained to use the machine and was left unsupervised despite his inexperience.

"Mr Gawlowski was let down by the company's lack of proper training, inadequate assessment of risks and ineffective measures to stop access to dangerous parts of equipment." He added: "From Mr Gawlowski's point of view, his life has been destroyed. He is unable to go back to work, unable to use his hand and he relies on others for many of the tasks of daily living."

EMPTY SLOGANS

Politicians are wonderful at dreaming up meaningless vote-catching slogans. We have had Harold MacMillan's "You have never had it so good" and Margaret Thatcher's "A property owning democracy". The last one looks a little more empty today. 'Around 200,000 families in Britain are at risk of losing their homes after falling up to 12 months behind with their mortgage repayments, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said yesterday. The warning comes after the Bank of England governor said he would be "absolutely" prepared to raise interest rates before the next election in May 2015.' (Daily Mail, 15 November) Perhaps "You have never been had so often" would be more appropriate. RD

PROFIT AND GLOBAL WARMING

The majority of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions, believed to be one of the main causes of global warming, stem from deforestation. So all sorts of pious noises have been made by politicians about curbing this danger, but capitalism being capitalism what has been the result? 'Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July, after years of decline. ..... The provisional statistics from August 2012 to last July suggest that the area suffering deforestation was 5,843 sq km (2,255 sq miles), compared to 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in the previous 12 months.' (BBC News, 14 November) Despite the piety capitalism concentrates on profit above all else, so global concerns take a back seat. RD

SOCIALIST CLARITY

Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. The great only appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.

Society contains many contradictions which have arisen as a result of the fact that production has a social character under capitalism while ownership of the means of production is in private hands. The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is the principal contradiction. Socialists have always maintained that the change from capitalism to
socialism would be a fundamental change, that is, we would have a complete reorganisation of society, that this change would not be a question of reform; that the capitalist system of society would be completely changed and that that system would give way to a new system of society based on a new form of production.

Capitalism is that system of society in which the means of production and distribution are owned by a few individuals for their own profit. Yet all the capitalist institutions are based on labour-power of working people. The factories, the mines, the land, and all means of production. Labour power is essential to make them valuable and to provide profits for those that own and control
them. All of our institutions are based on the labour-power of the working man. Without that labour-power society could not exist. Not a wheel could turn. Capitalists today controls the creative power of labour for their own particular advantage.

We have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labour to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and yet there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue. It is not the fault of nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that must be abolished. The Socialist Party of Great Britain opposes a social order in which it is possible for one person who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. Although we be still a small minority members of the Socialist Party have learned how to be patient and to bide our time. They  know, that the time is coming the minority will become the majority. When that  day arrives we shall have a harmonious  commonwealth, industrial freedom and social justice.

The  confusion and lack of clarity on the Left enables the the policies of the Labour Party to be labelled as socialist and to confuse the mass of workers about the real nature of capitalism and socialism. Thus the equation of nationalisation with socialism, the description of the Labour Party as a working class party and the demands for nationalisation as a means of making inroads into the capitalist state. The essence of capitalism is property relationships; ownership is merely a formal question, which can take MANY forms.  Hence nationalisation can never be a means of making ’inroads’ into capitalism. One of the battles for the Socialist Party, therefore, to combat nationalisation and argue that it diverts the fight for socialism to a fight for reformism and gradualism.

 Old Labour demand nationalisation as a means of making inroads into the capitalist system – as a form of creeping socialism. The Trotskyists of SPEW (Militant) say that they are making ’transitional’ demands, so their approach is different to that of the Labour ‘leftists’. The SWP claim that slogans for more nationalisation raises the question of state power and heighten the consciousness of the workers. Objectively all these organisations are serving the capitalist in that they are attempting to mobilise the working class in order to bring about the expansion of state-capitalism to rescue bankrupt private industries and enterprises.  In the long-term nationalisation cannot stem the tide of redundancies and indeed may accelerate it. These calls for nationalisation as a means of saving jobs is an aspect of the general reformist outlook of the British labour movement.

Scotland's 1%

Scotland's top earners have increased their income at a greater rate than the rest of the nation's workers in the past decade, according to a report. Scotland’s highest earners have pulled away from the rest of the country’s workforce, after increasing their share of total incomes by nearly 50 per cent in a decade. The top 1 per cent – made up of 25,000 people earning more than £120,000 a year – are estimated to earn a tenth of all income in Scotland,

It said those in the top 1% income bracket could expect to earn 20 times more than someone in the bottom 1%.  The richest 1% of earners contribute a fifth of income tax raised in Scotland.

It says the explosion in “superstar” wages – typically for company chiefs and financial executives – has led to an overall increase in wage inequality over the past 20 years, with wage growth among low and middle earners failing to keep pace. Much of the increase in wage inequality in Scotland has been driven by increased part-time working. This was particularly the case in lower-paying occupations, and although this has increased inequality, the authors noted that some workers may prefer shorter hours. The report also suggested that another important factor has been the changing job market. The share of higher-paying and lower-paying jobs increased between 2001 and 2010, while the share of middle-wage jobs fell, which was as a result of technological change and globalisation.

David Bell, professor of economics at Stirling University, said: "Though an independent Scotland would have more powers to address inequality, its room for manoeuvre would be constrained by these wider forces. Inequality in Scotland, like in many developed nations, is partly being driven by technology, by trade, and even by how we decide to form households. So, there are likely to be limits to the extent that a small open economy can reduce inequality. Scottish independence would provide opportunities, but the constraints that already exist would not go away."

The report lists 35 OECD countries, and it ranked the UK seventh in terms of income inequality, behind Chile, Mexico, Turkey, the United States, Israel and Portugal. Scotland was ranked 18th, below Ireland, Spain and Italy but ahead of France, Sweden and Norway. Iceland was ranked the most equal country of the 35. While the taxation system means the UK is not rising up the list, the report says income inequality is increasing and being driven almost entirely by the wages of the top earners. Those in the top 2 per cent were ranked as those earning more than £86,000, while those in the top 1 per cent were earning more than £119,000. The report found that, in 1997, the top 1 per cent earned 6.3 per cent of total pre-tax incomes. By 2009, that had increased to 9.4 per cent – a rise of 49 per cent.

Buying a nationality

Malta set a price tag for acquiring citizenship: 650,000 euros (£548,000)
Spain grants residence to foreigners who spend at least 500,000 euros on real estate or invest at least 2m euros in Spanish government bonds.
Hungary grants residence to foreigners who invest at least 250,000 euros in government bonds.
Cyprus cut the amount of investment required to be eligible for citizenship, from 10m euros to 3m, in its existing "citizenship by investment" programme.
The UK also offers a fast-track residence scheme for foreigners prepared to make a big investment.
Wealthy foreigners can settle permanently in the UK if they have been officially resident for at least two years. The continuous residence requirement is two years for individuals who have at least £10m in personal wealth in the UK; three years for those with at least £5m in the UK and five years for those with at least £1m.
Netherlands plans to give residence to foreigners with more than 1.25m euros in their bank account.

Rich people who want to get abroad and can 'buy' a residence permit for Canada, Singapore or the USA [and Thailand.]

What immigration problem?

From here

Food for thought

The Toronto Star published photographs of children working in Bangaldeshi garment factories. The captions read, " A young boy sleeps at his sewing machine after a long shift in an open-air garment factory…" and , " Twelve –year-old girls glue on sequins at the AT garment factory", and how about, " Shakil Khan, 10, has worked for four months as an unpaid trainee. When he finally gets a salary, it will be $4 a day." Capital doesn't care, the human race should! John Ayers.

THE MODERN CLASS STRUGGLE

Politicians like to portray themselves as modern and progressive in their political outlook unlike the harsh Victorian politicians of the 19th century. Modern and progressive are hardly the words to describe this statement however. 'Feckless fathers should be put in chains and made to work to pay back the costs of bringing up their children, David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, said. (Times, 13 November) Davies views perfectly reflect how many of the owning class view the modern working class. RD

We Won't Be Fooled Again

Today, despite all the promises that the likes of the Depression of the 1930’s would never happen again, the world is in the grips of economic and political crisis. Mass unemployment is already a reality. Workers rights and a whole range of health and social services are under fierce attack. Never have we stood in greater need of fundamental solutions. As a result of this recession workers in the country are in fear of losing their jobs. Every self-employed sub-contractor is in fear of bankruptcy looming ahead. The way to win workers away from Tory, Labour and Liberal is to tell them the truth.  And the plain fact is that the continued existence of capitalism will bring unemployment, wage cuts, poverty and insecurity to most people. The productive capacity of the country, which could produce an decent  standard of living for all, is not being utilised. Industry is being run not for use, but for the profit of the big banks, financial tycoons, multi-national corporations and the big land and property owners.

In fact, from the point of view of some Big Businesses the economic recession such as this was not at all unwelcome, provided it did not turn into a political revolution. A crisis furnishes an excellent challenge in the game of competition in which Big Business can emerge the winner by an overwhelming margin through bull-dozing Little Business into the ground. These far-flung business empires, of a scope and size unimaginable to previous generations, treat the entire planet as their domain. They are a law unto themselves, free to roam the globe in search of cheaper labour, more exploitable resources, more pliant governments and greater profits.  Governments have put themselves at the service of these giant corporations. They now hold the power of life and death over every region and industry. Workers are their pawns in a global game of mergers, shutdowns, and relocations. Simply look at the examples of INEOS and BAE. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, extentions of machines—as long as they provide dividends. Employers use their power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers through layoffs, shutdowns and purposeful neglect of health and safety. Unions, despite their brave efforts, have difficulty eliminating even the worst abuses of management power.

The recession and slump in company profits mean the capitalists can no longer make the old concessions and the fate of us all is now at stake, as the government continue to add their austerity cuts to our woes. The Conservatives and Labour offer nothing but wait-and-see-and-hope platitudes with policies that punish the population for the crimes of an economic system.

It is a law of capitalism that capital moves to wherever the profit is highest. Capitalism is a system of production for profit: for the accumulation of more capital. Companies therefore produce only the products that give them the greatest profit, and they try to set up their enterprises whenever the most favorable conditions for making maximum profits are to be found. The welfare of the people is simply trampled on by the profit-hungry monopolies: their search for profits is a ruthless rampage that leaves a trail of misery, ruin, hardship and poverty. This is how capitalism works. There is no way to preserve security of employment (let alone full employment) or decent living standards for the people under capitalism. The only way out is socialism. There can be no peace in the class war until the workers organise as a class, take possession of the resources of the earth and the machinery of production and distribution and abolish the wage system. The needs of people, not profit, are the motivating force of a socialist society. We believe in the ability of working people to manage and control their own productive institutions democratically.

Socialism promises more than an ideal. It promises to be the only answer to the pressing challenges before us. The Socialist Party is dedicated to a cooperative commonwealth. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social system from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede the anarchy of the capitalist market and its wasteful competition. Our goal is a socialist world, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. A world where along with our friends and neighbours we work to create all that men and women may need. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. Only socialism is capable of turning technology and globalisation to the needs of people. Socialism is the only option. The flaws of capitalism are too basic, the power of the corporations too great, the chasm separating the compulsions of profit and the needs of people too wide, for anything less to succeed. The half-measures of the reformists cannot meet the challenge. Government intervention—tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate investment and spending—has proven as bankrupt as the failed companies they have strived to protect. Regulatory reforms, aimed at the most blatant abuses of corporate power, have proved impotent. The Welfare State, won by hard struggles, is dismantled and emasculated.  Governments have passed vicious legislation, slashing social services and trampling the basic rights of workers.

Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts the campaign for the socialism once again on the immediate agenda. 

Fact of the Day

Research has found that almost nine million households across the UK would collapse in a week if they suddenly lost their income. One in three UK households or 8.8 million have less than £250 in savings set aside as a financial safety net, and they would be brought to their knees if they lost their income.

The findings show a household with average monthly outgoings of £1,500 would only last five days before running out of funds. But, for a quarter of people, it would be almost immediate as they have no savings at all to fall back on

Food for thought

The Toronto Star is examining clothing manufacturing and the retail sector in Canada. Retail is "a job where workers face low wages and part-time hours; it is the largest employment sector in the country; a business where many employers compete by cutting labour costs (only here, I ask); a growing part of the country's economic future." Capitalist apologists keep telling us that growing poverty of the working class was a mistake by Marx. As wealth to the capitalist class continues to soar, it seems Marx's analysis is getting harder to disprove.
The same series reported on Cambodia, a growing player in the garment--making world. Cambodia was touted as a model for fair labour practices. Right now that means starting work at 7am and sewing T-shirt sleeves until eight or nine at night, six days a week with one hour for lunch and sewing 950 shirts per day, with 25 cents extra for every one hundred shirts above that quota. With all that work, a young woman can expect to receive $130 per month. Now that's fair, by nineteenth century standards that capital hastens to reproduce wherever it can get away with it. John Ayers

Organise for Civilisation

WORLD FOR THE WORKERS

Organisation means getting together with a common understanding and a common end in view, and working systematically for the attainment of that end. For the workers to organise effectively, they must have an understanding of their position in society and of the conditions under which they live and work. If they fail to understand these things, they will organise in an ineffective manner. The effectiveness of their organisation depends on the correctness of their understanding. The better they understand conditions the more effectively they will organise.

The capitalist system  push working people down the economic ladder and concentrate wealth at the top. But promoters of capitalism, who dominate the media debate, simply blame the poor for poverty. Most of poverty is artificially manufactured. It is poverty created in the pursuit of market ideals expressed in recent times by the imposition of neo-liberal economic policies – the sort of policies that cut taxes on the wealthy, do away with fiscal and other business regulations, shred the social safety net, and erode middle-income stability – all while singing the praises of self-reliance and individual responsibility. As a result it has done very well in making the rich richer and the poor both poorer and more numerous. However, the working class is beginning to awaken from its long slumber. Slowly we are waking up. The people — the great "common herd" — are finding out what is wrong with the social, political and economical structure of the system of which they are a part. Slowly but surely the lesson is being learned that capitalists are not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world . They are interested only in profits.

If the productive forces in the world were to be used for providing for the needs of people, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Despite the hunger and famine in dozens of countries, crops in millions of bushels have been destroyed because there was a “surplus”. It was not profitable to feed the starving peoples,  therefore the capitalist class preferred to plough it into the ground. Capitalism preys upon the life-blood of the poor, its ethics are expressed in beastly gluttony and insatiable greed, and whose track of conquest is strewn with the bones of its countless victim.

While the capitalists revel in luxury and riot in extravagance, the workers are condemned to lives of poverty, ignorance, toil and privation. They lack economic security. Poverty and the fear of poverty render their lives miserable. The average worker is not more than a few pay-days removed from a state of dependency. If he or she  should become sick or injured, they would soon become a burden to friends or relatives or to public charity. Thousands are killed annually in the industries. Hundreds of thousands die from occupational diseases. Having little standing before the law, workers are hounded by the police, victimised by the courts and subjected to all kinds of abuse, injustice and tyranny. Millions of children around the world are deprived of education and are stunted and dwarfed physically and mentally by slavery in factories and farms. Millions go hungry to school and suffer from countless diseases brought on by malnutrition.

 Only the unity of the workers can produce that “One World” which can abolish want and oppression, dictatorship and war. Capitalism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart; it ruthlessly sweeps away old traditions and ideas opposed to its progress, and it exploits and corrupts those things once held sacred. The structure of a society built upon such wrong basic principles is bound to retard the development of all people, even the most successful ones because it tends to divert a person’s energies into useless channels and to degrade his or her character. The result is a false standard of values. Trade and material prosperity are held to be the main objects of pursuit and conquest, the lowest instincts in human nature — love of gain, cunning and selfishness — are fostered. Nevertheless, although, crushed, stupefied by terrible poverty, people demand that they shall have some of the beauty, some of the comforts, some of the luxuries which they have produced. Socialism means plenty for all. We do not call for self-denial but for a great production that will supply all, and more than all the people can consume.Such a great production is already possible, with the knowledge already possessed. The majority of the population is not engaged in productive work. The greater part of the non-producers is employed in the buying, selling and advertising of the commodities.

The only way to abolish capitalism is to strike at the root. This is radical action.  The word "radical" is derived from the Latin word "radix," a root and radical means "pertaining to a root." Radical action means action that deals with causes instead of tinkering with effects.  Lacking wealth, workers lack power, and the wealth they produce constitutes the power of the capitalists which is used to hold them in subjection. he workers have a power infinitely greater than that of the capitalists - numbers.

 In socialism the land, the means of production and transport belong to all the people. The title to be one of the joint owners of the earth and its products and the inheritance of collective human labour does not rest on any question of inheritance or purchase; the only title required is that one is alive on this planet. In Socialism no one can lose the right to a share or the common possession. In socialism a comfortable, cultured and leisured people will produce artistic and scientific work for pleasure, and will have the ability and the desire to paint, to carve, to write, to play, and to compose music. They will adorn their dwellings with their arti, and will share them freely to whoever admires them.  There will be no buying and selling, no money, no barter or exchange of commodities.

There can be no organisation without action, and it must be systematic, not haphazard action. Getting together is not enough, we must get together and act systematically, otherwise we are not an organisation but only a herd. When the workers get together to demonstrate or protest they are only making of themselves a target for police-clubs and tear-gas. The power of the workers is not on the street but at the ballot box. If the workers are not  organised, they may easily become a blind force of destruction, unable to check their own momentum, their cry for justice drowned in a howl of rage.

When workers come together and join the Socialist Party, some will be speakers, some others will be writers, some arranging and advertising meetings, some distributing literature, all taking part in its administration, discussing and exchanging ideas, making decisions by the combined intelligence and experience of all, then we are organised and are using our power to the best advantage. Every worker can take part in this activity. Every member being valued equally.

Let us study the social and economic conditions that we may understand them and agree on a common end, and all work as one for the attainment of that end, which can be none other than to take over the means of production and distribution and operate them for use instead of profit. Whatever is good and beneficent in our civilisation can be saved only by the workers.

Cash before Nature

Socialist Courier has reported how the huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ lobby has had a devastating effect on Scotland’s natural wild-life by slaughtering any threat to their grouse. It now transpires that they are also guilty of over-stocking deer herds to the point that they and the environment suffer.

Scotland’s sporting estates must be forced to cull thousands of deer, the country’s most powerful environmental groups have told MSPs. Deer numbers had spiralled and they were damaging the country’s moorland, peatland and “fragile populations” of other native species like capercaillie. The group, the membership of which includes the National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said a voluntary code of conduct has failed to tackle the scourge. But the group suggested that landowners were unwilling to take action because the value of Highland sporting estates is partly based on “the number of sporting stags available to shoot”.

The group argued estates want to keep deer numbers as high as possible to help stalking and called for them to bear the financial burden of culling under a “polluter pays” principle.Landowners warned about the harm this would cause the £105 million stalking industry and the 2,520 jobs it is estimated to support. Scottish Land & Estates, the body representing landowners, said: “Red deer stalking attracts relatively high-spending visitors who come outside the peak tourist seasons. These visitors are willing to come to our more remote areas where employment and other economic activities are scarce.”

Food for thought (updated) - Brazil's Deforestation

Deforestation in Brazil is increasing and that means a decline in the Rainforest. Environmentalists blame farming, mining, and infrastructure projects that are consistent with the Brazilian government's (lack of) environmental policies. 2, 776 square kilometres of the rainforest has been cleared in the last year, a thirty-five per cent increase over the previous year. The city of Los Angeles could fit twice into the cleared areas. One third of all plant and animal species on earth I found in the Amazon rainforest. It's only too obvious what the government's policy is – bring in the profits and to hell with the environment and that is tantamount to saying to hell with the future of the planet. Capitalism must be stopped! John Ayers.

UPDATE

Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July. Environmentalists say the controversial reform of the forest protection law in 2012 is to blame for the upwards trend. The changes reduced protected areas in farms and declared an amnesty for areas destroyed before 2008. The reform, a long-standing demand of the country's farmers' lobby, known as the ruralists, was passed after several vetoes by President Dilma Rousseff. "If you sleep with the ruralist lobby, you wake up with deforestation," Amazon expert Paulo Adario from Greenpeace wrote

Support our troops?

NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR

Among men and women it is commonly held that we should support our troops because they’re protecting our country, they’re protecting the world, and we wouldn’t have freedom without them. It is no wonder such beliefs are widely held since those claims are continually repeated by politicians and the media. The undercurrent of  that “support” and “gratitude” for the military and those who serve in it is intrinsically apolitical. Often, the spectacle of public gratitude to the troops reaches absurd proportions. Recently we witnessed at Ibrox, soldiers chanting and singing along with the hard-core Protestant supporters in a celebration of Armed Services Day.

If our freedom is bestowed on us by soldiers the implication that people should feel boundless gratitude to the military as an institution and all the men and women who serve in it. But it also follows that if our freedom exists only at the pleasure of the military, of course, is that the same military can revoke said freedom if it so desires.

Supporting the military and expressing gratitude for what the military is actually doing around the world, are nothing if not explicitly political sentiments. It reflects the highly effective propaganda that has convinced generations of people that there is virtually nothing for which we should not thank the troops.  There is seemingly no limit to the scope of human activity that many of us sincerely believe would not be possible were it not for the military’s selflessness. We reduce our entire existence as free people to something that only exists at the whim of themilitary, and suffocate critical thought about the military and what it’s actually doing in the world such as the murder of wound prisoners in the name of freedom.

Adapted from here

One Planet, One People, For the Common Good

CLASS WAR

History is forever repeating itself without us learning much from it. The halo of capitalism has been smashed by the recession. The halo of our industrial system is gone. It is no longer a sacred thing, which must not be meddled with because of fear of the consequences. For years the working-class has been silent, a sleeping giant lulled to sleep by its own victories and the ability of capitalism to expand and provide a gradually rising standard of living. The working-class has had to struggle to realise these gains, but this struggle has been contained within the limits and rules established by the system. Now the system has been unable to raise real wages for the majority of workers or to prevent a drop in the living standards.  All sorts of estimates are made of the number of unemployed. One thing is sure. The number is not getting any smaller, but instead, it grows larger as each year passes by. The future looks as black as the past. The workers are beginning to ask: Will unemployment ever end? What is the world coming to? Capitalism’s instability and the growing crisis affects every aspect of life.

The lives of the workers are made up of worry, anxiety, insecurity, and hardships. There is the monotonous grind of uninteresting drudgery, the constant penny-pinching to make ends meet, and the continual necessity of learning to do without things. Workers are  abused like dogs by tyrannical foremen, pauperised by low wages, destroyed by piecework systems, crushed to death by faulty equipment. All this misery is created so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can continue to line their pockets. The only protection the workers have had from the most savage exploitation, the sole thing that has kept us from sinking into complete degradation is our trade unions. These organisations have achieved results entirely upon the basis of the amount of power they have been able to exert.

Profits and wages clash, and profits beat down wages. The two basic classes in our society, the working class and the capitalist class, are locked in a bitter struggle. A handful of capitalists  make fabulous profits off the labour of working people.  All the major means of production - the factories, the mines, telecommunications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of  capitalists who employ millions of workers. Every bit of capitalists’ vast possessions was stolen from the people. It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. At the end of a work week the worker collects his or her pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he or she produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. 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 reduce the number of employees with speed-ups, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. And if the boss thinks he can make more profit somewhere else, he just closes his factory and throws the workers out on the street.

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. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! As long as the wages system continues, part of the wealth which the workers create will be kept back from them. The share which is withheld from the workers is the larger share, and, as machinery increases and improves, the share will grow larger. The things necessary for the production of wealth must be made the common property of the workers, and must be controlled by them. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, therefore, advocates the organisation of the workers for the purpose of taking control of the means of production. The Socialist Party is not a political party in the sense that other parties are because it has no reform to advocate. Can reforms help the workers? Reforms are the trade of politicians. Reforms invariably result from economic pressures on the employers and so far as the workers is considered, their sole effect is to render tolerable if not beautiful the capitalist or wages system. The revolution comes about because of the economic experience of the working class, and has for its accomplishment the abolition of the wages system and the entire overthrow of capitalism to the end waste and want. We shall not compromise with the capitalists.

There exists a false belief and trust in the Labour Party, which is often considered a working-class party. The majority of its supporters are drawn from the workers.  This party cannot, and will not, free the workers; the workers must free themselves. We workers would be more than foolish to help one section of the capitalist robbers against another section. The capitalist robbers as a whole rob the workers and the robbers’ division of the spoils is not our problem. Rather, our problem is to expropriate the expropriators.

 The World is rich in natural resources. It is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation.  There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker.The working class cannot eliminate exploitation and poverty unless it overthrows the capitalist system.

Quote of the Day

Dennis Skinner: "Half the Tories opposite are crooks"

Speaker: "Please retract"

Dennis Skinner: "Okay. Half the Tories opposite aren't crooks"

Food for thought

As always, the Canadian Communist Party never flags in its efforts to Improve life under capitalism. An article in the September 16-30 issue of "The Peoples' Voice" lists some of their achievements – "such as fighting against fascism, organizing industrial workers into unions, initiating movements to win unemployment insurance, public health care and other social programs, to campaign for peace and disarmament, fighting for the full national rights of aboriginal peoples and Quebec, and to defend Canada's sovereignty." Upholders of capitalism should admire and respect the so-called communist party, whereas we, of the SPC aim for creating a society where none of the social evils the Communist Party is working hard to reform will exist. John Ayers.

COOKING THE BOOKS

Capitalism has elevated book-keeping and accountancy into a near-religion and while this is perfectly understandable in the realms of business it is completely inappropriate when it comes to treating ill-health. 'The scandal over cancer treatment at a leading hospital has widened after it emerged that its own officials now fear that at least 6,000 patients may have had their records falsified to meet treatment targets. Investigations by the Observer into the crisis at Colchester general hospital have also established that inquiries into whether staff were bullied into changing records will include the questioning of the hospital's chief executive, Gordon Coutts.' (Observer, 10 November) Needless to say these 6,000 patients would all be members of the working class. The owning class could afford to pay for first-class treatment. RD

Real Eco-Socialism or Green Reformism

CHANGE THE SYSTEM NOT THE CLIMATE

“It’s blindingly obvious that our economic system is failing us,” said economist Tim Jackson, a professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey in the UK. “It is a travesty of what economy should be. It has absolutely failed to create social well being and has hurt people and communities around the world.”

Jackson and number of ecological economists say the current self-destructive economy must be transformed into one that delivers a shared and lasting prosperity. This kind of Green Economy is far beyond business as usual with some clean technology thrown in. It is what Jackson calls a “fit-for-purpose economy” that is stable, based on equity and provides decent, satisfying livelihoods while treading lightly on the earth. The current growth-worshiping consumption economy is “perverse” and at odds with human nature and our real needs, he said. “Prosperity isn’t just about having more stuff,” he said. “Prosperity is the art of living well on a finite planet.”

With powerful vested interests in the current economy, making this transformation will be difficult but it is already starting to happen at the community level according to Jackson and co-author Peter Victor of Canada’s York University.

Sadly these well-intentioned academics' proposed alternative is another form of capitalism which is not capable of superseding the current system.  Community banks, credit unions and cooperative investment schemes that enhance local communities, creating local currencies and community-owned energy projects simply cannot prevail against the power and dominance of an alliance of corporations and governments. And even if they were to, it would be only a matter of time before in the search for profits to sustain their existence , these enterprises will revert back to the inherent base nature of exploitative capitalism. 

The Day of the People is Arriving

The spirit of our time is revolutionary and growing more so every day. The signs of change confront us everywhere. Social changes are preceded by discontent and unrest and we witness that near and far. Fortunately, the workers do not submit passively. If they did, their condition would be a thousand times worse than it is now.

Professional politicians act in the interests of the bosses and this fact has become so apparent that their sham theatricals have lost their magic and now treated with the scorn and derision by working men and women. We are seeing through the con tricks they have been playing with us, setting the agenda, deciding what election “issues”, all of their own making.

The capitalist system is distinguished by the fact that complete anarchy exists in the production of goods for the market. Within a factory everything is planned but the general system works in a plan-less fashion. Many capitalists compete amongst themselves, and they are all producing for a market, the extent of which they do not know.

In the struggle of the working class to free itself from wage slavery it cannot be repeated too often that everything depends upon the working class itself. The simple question is, can the workers equip themselves, by education, organisation and co-operation to take control of the productive forces and manage industry in the interest of the people and for the benefit of society? The workers must organise their own emancipation to achieve it and to control its limitless opportunities and possibilities. Suppose that you and I, and some thousands of others, agree that socialism is the only solution, what shall we do about it? It is possible that the solution is a correct one only in theory, that there is no way in which we can put it into effect. It is possible that the difficulties in the way are so great that all our attempts to bring socialism into actual existence must inevitably fail. It is necessary to convince many more people, than are at present convinced, of the desirability and necessity for socialism.

The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class.  We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we demand the Earth for all the people. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for.

Socialism is a matter of growth, of evolution, which can be advanced by wise methods, but never by obtaining for it a fictitious vote.Voting for socialism is not socialism any more than a menu is a meal.  We seek only the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less. In our propaganda we should state our principles clearly to convince those who should be with us and win them over through an understanding of our party case. We want the support of of those who believe in socialism and are ready to vote and work with us for the overthrow of capitalism. Nature’s storehouse is full to the surface of the earth. All of the raw materials are deposited here in abundance. We have the most marvelous machinery the world has ever known. Why should any man, woman or child suffer for food, clothing or shelter? Why? Because the capitalist  put his hands of the means of production and declared  “This is mine!”

The idea of socialism is that all the means of production and distribution be owned in common by all of the people, and that every person, who is not too young, or too old, or too sick, cooperate in producing those things which every member of society needs and uses. Instead of having individuals or corporations own all the factories and hire workers to produce goods only when a profit can be made from their sale, society as a whole will own the factories, and the workers will produce the things required to feed, house and clothe all of the people, and to satisfy all of their cultural needs. Administrators and co-ordinators elected by the workers using all manner of statistics, facts and figures will  calculate approximately how much of each article will be necessary to satisfy the needs of society and the factories will be set into motion to produce more than enough of each item. Every geographic region will produce that which it is best fitted to produce.

Instead of the anarchy and wasteful competition that prevail at the present,  production and distribution will be thoroughly planned by the participation of the workers. The plans will be constantly subjected to analysis and revision. It is impossible, of course, to furnish a complete blueprint indicating every detail of the functioning of society under socialism, but one thing we can be certain of.The change in the system of property from private ownership, producing for profit, to collective ownership, producing for use, will solve the major problems facing the workers.

We socialists contend that industry has developed to a point where a sufficient quantity of goods can be produced to assure every one a very high standard of living. Eliminate all the waste under capitalism and the present standard of living is immediately raise ten-fold.

There can be no gradual reform of capitalism into socialism. This is because capitalism operates by means of certain economic laws and, if you introduce certain types of reforms into it, those laws will result in economic collapse. A reform that makes the system less profitable will lead to economic downturn and increased unemployment. Therefore, the reformists get tossed out in the next elections and the conservatives come back to promote the needs of capital.

Nor is every type of reform incompatible with the health of capitalism. Some reforms, quite desirable in themselves, would improve the functioning of the system at the expense of certain entrenched sections of the capitalist class. An example that comes readily to mind is the proposal for introducing a single payer health insurance scheme in the US. This would result in massive savings for both households and the public sector, as well as a huge improvement in health outcomes for the population. It is resisted, however, for two reasons: Firstly, the private health insurance sector would be virtually wiped out and any sector of the capitalist class faced with annihilation will resist it. Secondly, many other sectors of the capitalist class object to such a reform on the grounds that it would set a bad example, that governments should not put any section of the capitalist class out of business because that would be to legitimate putting the rest of them out of business some time.

The capitalist system is not so delicate an instrument that it cannot handle a few reforms that run counter to the need for profits. It is only once they get to a certain point that they seriously affect the system.

POISONED BY PROFIT

One of the most rapid examples of the industrialised advance of modern capitalism is China. However, the Chinese workers must pay a terrible price for this advancing industrialisation. 'The number of lung cancer cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has soared over the last decade. According to figures published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, they have increased by more than 50%. Beijing health officials say smoking is still the number one cause of lung cancer, but they admit air pollution is also a factor. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently estimated that polluted air kills millions of people every year.' (BBC News, 9 November) In their smog-polluted cities the advance of lung cancer is the inevitable outcome of the mad drive for more and more profits. RD

Cheap hospital food

 Scotland’s biggest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s catering budget was slashed last year by £1million and documents released under freedom of information laws suggest the average daily spend per person is just £4.08.

Critics say patients could end up taking longer to heal because they are not getting adequate nutrients and vitamins at a time when they need them most.

Dr Margaret Richie, of Edinburgh University, said it was unlikely the limited budget could provide a healthy diet, unless patients were served baked beans every day.

Killing nature for profits

Mountain hares are facing extinction in large parts of the Scottish Highlands because landowners are killing thousands of them every year in order to protect the grouse shooting industry, wildlife experts have warned. The distinctive mammals are being shot and snared by gamekeepers on grouse moors due to fears that ticks carried by hares spread a viral disease, which can be fatal to grouse. However, experts have poured doubt on claims that killing hares protects grouse.

“A preventable catastrophe has befallen the mountain hare,” said Dr Adam Watson, a veteran mountain ecologist. “This is a national scandal.” This was “due to deliberate efforts by estates to eradicate them,” he said. “Gamekeepers on several estates have told me that they were instructed to reduce hare numbers and to try to eradicate them.”

Watson condemned the government’s wildlife conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), for failing to protect mountain hares under European law. “SNH has known what has been happening for years and has done nothing about it,” he said. “In my view, this is supine behavior, pleasing to or subservient to powerful grouse-shooting interests, but wholly against the wider public interest.”

Tim Baynes of Scottish Land and Estates claims that even though thousands of hares are destroyed each year, this was ‘less than 10% of the population’. The most up-to-date UK population estimate appears to have been made in a 1995 publication. It’s also ludicrous for Baynes to be referring to a (fairly dodgy) population estimate from 1995 – that was 18 years ago.  Baynes also failed to mention was that the 25,000 culled only related to information provided by 90 estates; a further 102 estates (68 driven grouse estates and 34 walked-up grouse estates) did not provide any information to the survey, so the actual figure culled was likely to be considerably higher.

Alex Hogg of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is also quoted in The Herald article, claiming that gamekeepers have ‘no alternative but to suppress the numbers of mountain hares on grouse moors because of the dangers of Louping Ill Virus, which can infect humans’. However, here is an article that suggests humans are “rarely” affected by the Louping Ill Virus. And here is an article about a scientific publication that suggests there is “no compelling evidence base” that culling mountain hares can stop the spread of Louping Ill Virus. A tick-borne disease that seems to be of more concern to humans is Lyme Disease. And what spreads Lyme Disease? Pheasants, amongst other species. Given Mr Hogg’s concern for human health, can we expect to see him advocating a moratorium on the release of 43 million pheasants, per year, into our countryside?