Against the "Realists"

Thinking capitalism is good for you is like thinking a Big Mac is good for you because it has lettuce and a pickle.  In 2008, 1.9 million Portuguese workers in the private sector were covered by collective bargaining agreements. Last year, the number was down to 300,000. Spain has eased restrictions on collective layoffs and unfair dismissal, and relaxed limits on extending temporary work, allowing workers to be kept on fixed-term contracts for up to four years. Andrew Watt, an economist who heads the Macroeconomic Policy Institute in Germany, worries that the push for labor market deregulation will cascade from one weak country to the next, as all engage in a futile race to create jobs by gaining market share from one another in a world of insufficient demand. “Whichever country is weakest at the time is forced into major cutbacks. First Germany, now Spain, next France,” he said.

Inequality across much of Europe has widened. In 1991, the richest 10 percent of Germans took in 26 percent of the nation’s income before taxes and transfers. By 2010 they took in 31 percent. Over the same period, the slice of the nation’s income taken by the bottom half of the population fell to 17 percent, from 22 percent.

Too often union leaders have prided themselves on their hard-headed "realism”, their tough “practicality”, their "pragmatic" approach of looking at each problem concretely with no “abstract theories” to block their view. They want only a “fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” Their “reasonableness" cover their ignorance and refusal to face the facts of life. They are indeed not idealists but firm supporters of the present capitalist system. For over two hundred years capitalism has proceeded in a jerky fashion of cyclical prosperity and depression.

The essential basic feature of the capitalist mode of production is profit; the driving motivation of capitalist society must be the relentless pursuit of an ever greater rate and mass of profit. This profit is the surplus over and above what the costs of production are, the costs of the means of production and the cost of labor power. This profit is placed in the hands of the capitalist. Part of it is spent for his enjoyment; another part is divided among different groups of society or is paid in taxes. But an essential part of the profit must be reinvested in the productive process itself on an ever increasing scale. Capital must be accumulated or it will die.

The drive to increase or maintain profit or prevent their decline means that every effort must be made to reduce the costs of production, the costs of the means of production and the cost of labour power. To do this science, engineering, technology and techniques are developed as much and as speedily as possible so that mankind can produce the goods for the needs and wants of society with the least cost possible.

Every capitalist, therefore, must throw into the market all he possibly can over and above the amount he took out of the market. This surplus must grow in ever increasing and rapid amounts. If the markets do not expand accordingly, and they do not, there must come a time when the surplus cannot be marketed and a depression occurs with consequent unemployment and suffering.

The depression, however, tends to have this historic result. The less efficient methods of production are wiped out, the more efficient prevail; and when the depression ends, there is production on a far more efficient and better scale than ever. Competition and depression have forcibly destroyed what had been allowed economically to remain too long. Depressions result in intensification of both the suffering of the people and economic progress. The capitalist is no more to blame for this situation than the worker. Both are products of the same mode of production.

In all this long cyclical history of capitalism some people have arisen in the past who have tried to see whether depressions could be prevented and yet capitalism saved. Nevertheless depressions are still with us and grow ever more intense and enduring. A far greater number of noble people, especially from the ranks of the sufferers, have clamored for some relief and academics suggest all manner of policies so that the recessions can be made more gradual and not so severe, made shorter and not so prolonged, have less fearsome effects. Perhaps the suffering could be alleviated to a degree. Certainly it is an anomaly to have lines at food banks in the midst of great piles of useful commodities lying ready to be consumed or to be produced. Indeed, advanced capitalist countries have done something along this if only to prevent riots and revolutions from the suffering victims. But for the moment, taking advantage of the weaknesses in the union movement and the lack of effective resistance, the cuts and onslaught against workers will continue unabated until that union fight-back grows in strength.

Today in the Autumn Statement the Chancellor will be setting out new cuts that will see social welfare budgets curtailed even more. 

The Unpaid Over-worked "Angels"

The NHS in Scotland is close to breaking point, with most nurses claiming they are forced to work overtime to meet patient needs, a new report has found. A majority of nurses say patient care is suffering because of the pressure they are under, according to a staff survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Nurses are going unpaid for the extra hours they work because this was not agreed in advance, the report reveals, and time back in lieu cannot be taken because this would leave colleagues even more short staffed.

Nearly 2,000 nursing posts have been axed in Scotland in recent years. The survey finds that 54 per cent of nurses are working beyond their contracted hours each week in order to meet demands, with 58 per cent saying they are under too much pressure. More than half (55 per cent) say they are not providing the level of care they want to as the pressure builds. Only 38.1 per cent in Scotland say they would choose nursing as a career if they had to do it all again.

Norman Provan, of RCN Scotland, said the report must act as a “wake-up call” for NHS chiefs and the Scottish Government. “It is both unfair and unsustainable to continue to rely on the goodwill of nurses to keep health services running. It is apparent that health services are only managing to meet demand because of nurses willing to go the extra mile, for free.” he said.

Cosla Chief Condemns Constitutional Change Debate

The 25-year gap in life expectancy between Scotland’s richest and poorest neighbourhoods has been branded “unacceptable for a modern western democracy”, by the country’s council chief, COSLA president David O’Neill.

He told MSPs on Holyrood’s local Government committee today that since the Second World War inequality has grown in Scotland, as a result of “top down” approach to Government. “The gap between the haves and have-nots has increased,” he said. He compared the likely fates of a child brought up in a deprived area today, with that of a child born in a well-off area. “The kid in the latter community can expect to live well into their eighties, but the kid born into the community with high levels of deprivation, that kid will be lucky - extremely lucky - to see 60 That’s a gap in life expectancy of 25-plus years.”

“It’s not so much about what the constitutional outcome is, but what that constitutional outcome does for our communities - whether it enables people to improve their quality of life,” he added.“If you speak to local people their story is not about the workings of Holyrood or Westminster, it’s about the local services they need. It’s about libraries not about legal advice; it’s about schools not about submarines; it’s about care not about currency. These are the things that matter to people.”

Reasons not to be cheerful

Unemployment crises are as old as modern capitalism, and thus it is clear the causes and roots of unemployment lie in how capitalism works. Under capitalism goods are produced for the market, that is, they are commodities. Included in commodities is a special commodity, labour power, which is also bought and sold in the open market. The price of labour power takes the form of wages. These wages are supposed to be enough to allow the laborer to purchase the necessities of life which can reproduce the labour power lost at work.

Under capitalism there are private owners of the factories, mines and other means of production, and the mass of workers must sell their capacity to work to the capitalists for wages. However, when the workers in the factories and other places of production work for the capitalists, they produce much more value than they receive in the form of wages. This surplus value included in the whole product of the factory is the property of the capitalist and becomes his profit.

The capitalist is in business for the profit and does his best to increase the mass of profit and the rate of profit. He can do this either by winning more markets or by reducing the cost of production or by speeding up the circulation of his capital, or all these. In short, in order to increase his profit the capitalist must expand his business and produce more stuff at lower cost. To do this he must accumulate capital and reinvest part of his profits back into the business. This accumulation of capital is the basic law of capitalism. Because of it, the factories grow larger, the industries become greater, little business turns into big business in this in turn develops into huge national and international corporations.

The chief method by which the capitalist can lower the cost of his production is through cheapening the value of labour power. This is done by introducing new machinery which can enable the worker to produce an ever-increasing quantity of goods in less and less time and with the same effort. Thus the introduction of machinery which increased not only the actual production but also the productive capacity of industry had two effects: if the market did not expand as rapidly as production increased, then workers were thrown out of work. Secondly, the amount of goods that were turned over to the employer, over and above the amount set aside for wages and replacement of capital, became increasingly large and increasingly difficult for the boss to get rid of.

Hand in hand with all these methods to increase the productivity of labour went all sorts of clever schemes to speed up (that is to increase the intensity of labour) and to increase the hours of labor wherever possible. The speed-up and stretch-out system was elaborated to its highest point and labor became so condensed that the laborer was burned out in a very short time. Social welfare schemes were introduced to keep the workers docile and to break up any tendency to organisation. Many company unions were cleverly contrived to keep the discontented in a safe channel.

Added to these industrial measures were methods in the field of finance, and circulation of capital that helped capitalists scientifically to increase the rate and mass of profits. The government rushed to the aid of big business and in a thousand ways saw to it that  rivals countries’ businesses were excluded by protectionism and the maximum possible was squeezed out of the workers.

In periods of depression the "normal" waste under capitalism is tremendously increased. Half of the productive apparatus of the country is left idle, the machinery abandoned to rust or doomed to be thrown out as antiquated. Since the product is not consumed, the gap between capacity to produce and actual production so greatly increases as to threaten the very ability further to increase capacity and government aid must be given to private industry in order to prevent a complete cessation of new inventions and industrial processes that increase the capacity of the country to produce. The soil is so wastefully mishandled that we are forced to become acutely aware of this chaos through droughts, erosion, and  floodsetc. The natural resources literally cry aloud for social control in a rational manner and failing to receive this control, take their dire vengeance upon humanity.

This is capitalism. This will not end. This is going to be the future.

Socialist Standard My Space

This blog by our Brooklyn comrade offers invaluable posts from the Socialist Standard archives and visits are well worth while.

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/

"I'm not racist, but....”

Scotland’s immigrant population is 369,284 -7% of the total population. Edinburgh has the highest number of immigrants with 75,696, but Aberdeen’s 35,436 is the largest proportionately, representing 16 per cent of the population. And Glasgow has seen the largest increase in numbers, up by almost 40,000 in a decade. 55,231 Poles were living in Scotland in 2011, more than 20 times higher than in 2001.

Europe as an ethnically homogenous nation-state is just a dream, and a pretty nasty one at that.  The free movement of labour is one of the basic premises of EU membership. It is always the way with  nationalists to hide racism under a cloak of caring about social conditions and forget that these were just as bad before any influx of immigrants. As the recession continues to bite, negative attitudes towards foreigners are becoming more common. Integration is often regarded as the key factor, but immigrant advocates say the whole burden of adjustment should not be borne by migrants themselves. Integration is the Holy Grail of immigration policy, accepted and promoted by all major political parties. There is the expectation  that they have to become like us and many are against cultural diversity.

We recently had Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, offering his tuppence-worth in the Daily Telegraph which i am sure all his constituents read. He repeats all the usual stereotypes about the Roma, such as aggressive begging, even though laws presently exist  to stop that sort of thing and plenty of other laws against  all  the other alleged anti-social behaviour from happening. But par for the course as a Labour MP he never asks why the Roma are begging, appearing to believe its a comfortable desirable occupation to walk cold, windy, wet  Scottish streets, pleading for charity. It is because Romanians and Bulgarians are stopped from working and are refused benefits, legislation brought in by his government  that many beg as an alternative to starving.
He says "my constituents become angrier and more resentful, because the lives they have worked so hard to build for themselves and their families are being impinged upon by people whose culture, way of life and attitude to authority and those around them are utterly alien" [my emphasis] Then he goes on to associate accepting different cultures with the custom of female genital mutilation. He then implies that Labour should follow the Tory policy of further cutting benefits to migrant workers because "[Cameron] is speaking to a lot more people than just his own party’s Right wing."
So, his argument is not one of let us not challenge attitudes and try to change them, but rather, let us make sure we agree with the racists because it is not nice to call them prejudiced - especially if they are voters!!

We need people who want to make things better rather than scare-mongering MPs out to court popularity. Harris tries a mealy mouthed get out that he is not being racist and a xenophobe but he conveniently forgets that almost everywhere in Europe the Roma are exposed to a growing discrimination, ranging from exclusion from education and employment to racially motivated attacks. If we keep reading and hearing all the same tired old images of beggars and poverty it reinforces the prejudices. We'll fail to see the normality that are the experience of huge swathes of Romani society who are happily integrating - not to mention the common threads that bind us all.

 What people don't understand they tend to fear. There is a cycle of suspicion and hostility that generates anti-Roma sentiment, which in turn deepens prejudice and further pushes the community from the society into which we expect them to assimilate. Groups of men and socialise in the street, noisily chatting in Romani and gesticulating while their children play in the street. You can see how that is intimidating to a society that no longer know their neighbours in the same tenement building!

 The Roma distrust of authority is understandable, given their history of persecution and attempted genocide. In Eastern Europe there have been increased instances of firebombing, shooting, stabbing, beating and other violence towards the Roma community. France, Germany and Italy have expelled thousands of Roma.

Fotis Filippou of  Amnesty International said:
"Roma across Europe are being pushed to the margins of society as a result of forced evictions; they are attacked on ethnic basis, used as a scapegoat for wider societal problems, denied access to education and basic rights. The language used by media outlets across the region when reporting stories on Roma and the stereotyping rhetoric often used by politicians and public figures could have serious repercussions for the Roma all over Europe. It may further fuel the already existing prejudices against them and lead to stigmatisation and discrimination. Amnesty International calls on national and European authorities and media outlets to refrain from intentionally or unintentionally targeting Roma as an ethnic minority – and creating the perception in doing so that ethnicity can be linked to criminality – this is directly and unambiguously discriminatory, the effects of which could be disastrous.”
There is little chance of the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Express of heeding such cautionary advice but let us not be mistaken even the “liberal” media has enthusiastically joined in the scape-goating of the Roma. Malcom X said “ If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”

 "Man tae man the world o'er shall brithers be, for a' that"

Enough of Capitalism - Time to End it Now

In the class war one prevalent propaganda message from the capitalists is that many people now regard it as fact. "Rich people create jobs." Specifically, by starting and directing companies, rich entrepreneurs and investors create the jobs that sustain everyone else. It is not only used to justify their existing wealth but offered as reason why their tax burden should be lowered. The prevailing propaganda story that justifies tax cuts for businesses and investors is that the huge profits they make, some of it is supposed to "trickle down" and  thus benefit everyone. Unfortunately, that's not the way it actually works. The world needs to think differently in how it wants to solve social and economic issues, such as inequality, climate change, hunger and disease.

Enough is enough. Enough inequality. Enough unemployment. Enough insecurity. Enough austerity. Enough of swallowing the lie that all of these things are as inevitable as the seasons and  unalterable. Enough of “just the way it is”. Enough of all that. What was made by man can be changed by man. Capitalism has had its time and now works for the privileged few, making the rich richer and leaving the rest of us more wretched.

People are disillusioned with the recession and its results. They know that true wages have been badly cut. and that their standards of life are being steadily depressed, while profiteering capitalists have made, and are still making, new fortunes. They see  world peace menaced by the incapable and greedy governments of the ruling classes.

 Unemployment, starvation and repression are the daily reality for millions of people around the world today. The world today is in a constant state of upheaval and conflict. The fact that such conditions prevail generally throughout the world, and have prevailed for a long time, logically suggests the presence of a common cause. That shared factor, the Socialist  Party has repeatedly demonstrated, is the capitalist system that does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority. It is a social system in which society is divided into two classes — a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority — the wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution. The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of life in order to survive.

 The history of the world has been a history of the protracted struggles of classes of people to change the economic and social relations of production and reproduction of their lives. The central object of this struggle is political power, and therefore the control of society. As socialists our goal is socialism; a world without class, without division, inequality and oppression which characterises present and preceding societies. Our immediate aim is to change this society. We do not attempt to lay out a blue print for socialism, because the conditions existing at the time of the capture of state power and expropriation of the capitalist class will determine the specific path of socialist construction. History has shown that attempts to impose preconceived strategies for socialist construction can result in a dictatorship over the proletariat.

We hold that revolution and the construction of socialism depends upon the working class being  the heart and soul of progress. The socialist movement are only participants who  aim to argue for the interests of the working class as a whole. We want to help change the world. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. In short, it must be genuine socialism. Historical experience shows that the more democratic the process of deciding on and applying strategy and tactics the greater the political unity. And the greater the political unity the greater the ability to build and sustain unity of action.  It is the workers who create the new social framework and make the people’s ownership and their control and administration of the new social structure a reality. A world of peace, liberty and abundance for all stands within our grasp. The potential to create such a society exists, but that potential can be realised only if workers act to gain control of their own lives by organising, politically  for socialism.

 Accordingly, the Socialist Party calls upon the workers to muster under its banner for the purpose of advocating this revolutionary change and building class consciousness among workers  towards this end. Join us to put an end to the existing class conflict  by placing the land and the instruments of social production in the hands of the people  in a cooperative socialist society. Help us build a world in which everyone will enjoy the free and full benefit of their individual faculties. 

THIRST, STARVATION AND EXPLOITATION

More than 2,000 people have died of dehydration or malnutrition while in a care home or hospital in the last decade, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics. 'The figures show the "underlying cause of death" in 2,162 recorded cases since 2003 was dehydration or malnutrition. They do not include the death toll in 2013. Campaigners said the figures were an "utter disgrace". "How can we call ourselves civilised when people are left to starve or die of thirst?  It is an utter disgrace that they are ever left without the most basic care," Dr Alison Cook, a director at the Alzheimer's Society, told the Daily Telegraph.' (Guardian, 2 December) After a life time of exploitation producing profits for the owning class this is the awful fate for many older workers. RD

One World-One People-One Class-One Struggle

Workers of the World Unite

The problems of black and brown people are not caused by whites.  It is the social system that people the world over live under, that make poverty and other miseries a part of a person's life. There is only one race, that is the human race so let us realise that we must all work together or the enemy may never be destroyed. Coloured workers, take notice, when it is a question of exploitation you are in the same position as your white brothers and sisters. Skin colour is no safeguard. Black capitalists are just as brutal as white ones. Humans can only be united by their belief in a set of principles. The colour of a man's skin can never be the basis of unity. The black liberation movement although it take different form in each country is set on the premise of the unity of black  against white and  often express the false assumption, that all white people are united against black. The truth is that any black and white capitalist, have more in common between them than all the white workers with the white capitalist, or the black workers with the black capitalist. Race have now become a very damaging factor towards working class unity. IT IS THE SOCIAL SYSTEM THAT WE LIVE UNDER AND NOT OUR RACE THAT MAKE POSSIBLE THE PROBLEMS WE FACE. Racism only serve to obscure the real enemy, world capitalism, and in fact help to keep it going that much longer. A man's economic interest determine his action. The capitalist as an individual is not our target, it is the system that we hate and want to change. The choice facing us today, is not black, against white. but whether we want to continue with this strife ridden system capitalism, or replace it with a system of common ownership socialism. The racial issue in our present time have been described as the most crucial in the world today. This view have been expressed by leaders in government, to the man in the street. To these people there will be some massive explosion sometime in the future, with the races lined up against each other.

As socialists we do not see the racial issue as the major problem in the world. We see the world divided into those who possess the means of production, the capitalist class, and those who seek work in order to live, the working class. It is because of this class division in society that give rise to racism in the first place. When capitalism goes through one of its frequent bad period, some of the workers of the dominant race usually blame their condition, on some other race. Observe how racial feeling run high in Britain during a period of high unemployment. It serve as an easy excuse for people who look around and can see nothing in their frustrating existance.

Nationalism, which serves as encouragement to racism, is preached from the highest level in society. They tell us that we should love our country. Capitalism is a system of exploitation, humiliation, and degradation for the working class. These features won’t go away because the people who administer the system are "your own kith and kin".

Look around the world and observe, how in some countries, racism is actively supported by governments. Racism only serve to divide and confuse the working class and lead them away from the important question of how they produce the wealth of the world, and share so little of it. It is our position as working class people that we should consider, and throw away the idea of race. In the words of our declaration of principles "the emancipation of the working class will involve the emancipation of all mankind without distinction of race or sex."

Migrant workers rules

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

Nearly 37,000 foreign nationals are said to have settled in Scotland in 2012, with migrants from Poland the largest group. This is followed by nationals from India and Spain, where youth unemployment is on the rise. There are about 150 languages in use in Scotland, although many of these have only a few speakers. The General Register of Scotland estimates that 11,000 people from outside the UK now live in Dundee, while as many as 9,000 live in Perth and Kinross and a further 17,000 in Fife.

Tayside has been the cultivation of soft fruit and field vegetables, for many years and have had to depend on non-UK migrant workers. Their importance was highlighted in the summer of 2008 when a real shortfall in migrant workers meant that farms struggled to bring in certain harvests.

These are the rules that the Cameron government wish to remove or amend.

People coming to Scotland from an EU member state have every right to be here in the same way that  we have the right to go to their country or to other member states to work or retire. Migrant workers often fill jobs in the manual labour  workforce that are poorly paid or seasonal, and which  will not attract local people who want greater stability. The majority of the migrants come over from their country where there are either no jobs or very poorly  paid employment. Migrant workers come to Scotland  to earn money for themselves and their families before  returning to their own country. Sometimes migrant  workers will settle on a permanent basis and their  families will join them over here. If migrant workers are members of the EU they have every right to be  here as we have the right to go to their country or to other member states. Migrant workers have the same rights to  minimum pay, holidays etc as everyone else and pay taxes etc like everyone else. All foreign nationals must have a NI number to claim  benefits. Some EU citizens are entitled to claim as  long as they are working or actively seeking work and  have a NI number. People from other countries must have special work permits and cannot generally claim  benefits. They get no extra benefits. Nationals from EU member states who were part of  the union before 1 May 2004 and are employed or  self employed will be eligible to register for housing. Nationals who are not working have to establish that they have the right to reside before being admitted onto the housing register. A8 (new member states that were accepted in 2004) migrants who are employed or self employed enjoy the same rights after  one year providing that they have been in continuous employment with a Home Office registered employer. Once admitted onto the housing register all EU Nationals are considered for housing in the same way and no differently as for UK residents. Council housing is in short supply in and priority is given to  people in the most need of housing. Housing needs are assessed against the categories of medical need, unsuitable accommodation, lack of or insecure  housing, social/welfare need, and unsatisfactory accommodation Generally migrant workers have the right to register as  an NHS patient with a doctor. If migrant workers are  here for up to 3 months they can attend the doctor as a temporary resident without having to register. If emigrant workers are planning to be here for more than 3 months they can go and register with a practice.

Information taken from here

Not So Glamourous

The following scene is a common one throughout capitalism. ' The line for the soup kitchen starts to form at dusk, and by the time it is fully dark more than 200 people are waiting to be fed. There are toddlers in prams, and military veterans in wheelchairs.' (Times, 29 November)The scene is not all that unusual but this is not happening in Asia or Africa but in modern sophisticated Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood. Every night for 27 years the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition has given a hot meal to some of the 53,800 homeless estimated to live in Los Angeles. Behind the glitz of chauffeur driven limousines and expensive cocktails of the Hollywood cinema dream factory lurks the sordid reality of modern capitalism. RD

The International Brigade

Perhaps as a follow on to the previous post, this video may be apt.



hat-tip to Mike Ballard of Perth Australia, ( not the AF's MB)

The Scottish Scarlet Pimpernel

Ethel MacDonald was born in Motherwell in 1909, into a large working class family. Politically active from a very early age, she was intensely opposed to the political and economic domination of women. She left school at 16 and  joined the Independent Labour Party. In 1931 she joined the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation and became its secretary.

When the APCF split in 1934, she and Guy Aldred left to form a new group, the Workers Open Forum. This subsequently merged with a branch of the ILP to form the United Socialist Movement.

In 1936, the USM sent her to Barcelona to report back for the organisation. There, she became the English-speaking propagandist for an anarchist radio station, listened to in Europe and America. She was behind some of the first reports on the 1937 May Riots, when the Communist Party turned against the POUM, resulting in death squads of Stalinists assassinating prominent anarchists and 400 people being killed in street fights in Barcelona.

MacDonald often endangered her life in support of her cause. When anarchists and POUMists, were rounded Ethel MacDonald visited comrades in prison, smuggling in food and letters. She helped several foreign anarchists escape from Spain, borrowing clothes for their disguise and getting them on board foreign ships. She was finally captured and imprisoned herself. In prison she helped organise a hunger strike in every prison where there were anarchist prisoners.  She was imprisoned by Stalin's secret police, but while the world fretted about her disappearance, she organised hunger strikes among the anarchist prisoners and smuggled out letters. After questions about her absence in the Houses of Parliament and an American newspaper campaign, supporters formed the Ethel MacDonald Defence Committee. International pressure was applied and she was deported to France, eventually returning to Glasgow disillusioned. She told crowds of well-wishers:
 "I went to Spain full of hopes and dreams. It promised the utopia realised. I return full of sadness, dulled by the tragedy I have seen."

She lived in a menage-a-trois with other anarchists in Gibson Street in Glasgow. John Caldwell gives a remarkable testimony." Caldwell recalled: "We were separate individuals who sometimes had it off a wee bit. "When Ethel and I were in public, we were separate people ... sex had nothing to do with other people. "But she believed I could have as many friends as I liked and she could, too." He added: "Her broadcasts went down very well. Some of the American newspapers said how pleasant her Scottish voice was. But Ethel's mother disapproved of her being with [one of her companions] Aldred. Aldred the free lover, the atheist - she didn't want it. After Ethel died, none of the family came near us at all."

'The Word' was produced by Guy Aldred plus John Taylor Caldwell, Ethel MacDonald and Jenny Patrick in Glasgow post World War 2 to the late sixties.

Ethel MacDonald died on December the 1st in 1960 of multiple sclerosis.

Ethel MacDonald was not a member of the SPGB, nor do we claim her as one of our own. In many regards she and the SPGB disagreed but she is part of the history of the Scottish working class and deserves not to be forgotten.

Further Reading
An Anarchists Story: The Life of Ethel MacDonald - Chris Dolan
Ethel MacDonald:Glasgow Woman Anarchist - Rhona M Hodgart

A documentary film "Ethel Macdonald: An Anarchist's Story?" was broadcast by the BBC in 2006

The Left Unity Question

The Left is currently going through a particular transitional stage. Because of the recession and the types of resistance against austerity that sprung up, a fairly wide section of workers are now, under the pressure of reality, and are beginning to give way to a different political perspective. “Left Unity” is at present a growing popular slogan amongst political activists.  Many articles are being devoted to this issue but the more that is written or spoken about the unity, the more this subject is obscured by misunderstandings and confusion. That unity is desirable is not disputed for a moment by the members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain but we are faced with the question of unity at the present time with the existence of divided, parallel organisations and the question even if it is possible to attain unity, of how it is to be brought about.

The capitalists and their State are attacking so it must be counter-attacked. The ever increasing cost of living never slackens and wages cannot keep pace. To gather all the strength of the working class and to render the struggle against the capitalists becomes an imperative necessity. The Socialist Party of Great Britain  want a united working class because unity is the trump card against the bosses and the politicians. Unity is not an aim, but a means to reach the aim. The aim is to offer an effective defence against the rich and then to take the offensive to overthrow the ruling class. The question of defence is a practical question for every worker. Thus among the problems before the worker which must be solved, unity is one of the most urgent.

 For our part we we are against empty phrases about left-wing unity. The differences as to ends and means, objectives and tactics, methods and traditions are too deeply rooted unity to be a realistic objective. Nevertheless, this yearning for unity is still a healthy yearning.  Unity can only be for definite and limited aims, e.g., trade union rights, defence of the health service and so on,where there exists some agreement on the Left, irrespective of political differences on other issues. Unity is about uniting in defence of the gains workers have already made and which are now being removed. It is about saying to workers that the capitalists are intent upon lowering our wages — prepare and be ready to resist. Our wages cannot keep up with the cost of living so let’s close our ranks and let’s stop isolated action to better our chances of victory. We are suffering from unemployment — let the employed organise with the unemployed and compel the government to give to maintain our welfare benefits.

The conduct of class struggle is not a party affair but one for the trade unions. We propose that the trade union movement be left to the workers themselves, who form the organisations and have a direct stake in the attainment of trade union unity. We remain convinced that those workers who hold dear the unity of the trade union movement will help to overcome any splits in the trade unions and do not require political parties to impose unity. To mobilise our class for unity is the most important task at the present moment. It is removing the type of society that imposes the class struggle upon us which is the responsibility of a socialist party.

 Reformism accomplishes many things, but unfortunately the one thing it doesn't accomplish is to end the wrong-doings. One form of terrible oppression may end only to be replaced by another form. Despite mass demonstrations against war, one war just follow another.  Men and women won the right to vote but what good has it done them? Economic inequality has grown to obscene levels. In a world with billionaires, billions of people suffer poverty and worry if they'll have food and shelter and health care. The ruling class destroy the environment if it gets them more wealth. Piecemeal reform, which many hoped would eventually change the world, has not done so and it appears not likely to do so.

Do you want an egalitarian world? One in which everyone is treated as true equals? We can create a new society with no rich and no poor where all people who work reasonably (as they are able) to contribute to  society (be it economically, artistically or otherwise)  share (not buy and sell) the fruits of their labor according  to need. Our task is to make a revolution and to build a  movement (hundreds of millions strong) that has the explicit goal of removing the ruling elite from power in order to make society be the way those hundreds of millions of people want it to be. It involves introducing millions to the revolutionary vision. This unity we desire, this unity is why we were founded. However, the meaning of all this talk over the unity theme is that they turn to us and say: “Become reformists and then we can unite!” The Socialist Party has no intention of  transforming themselves into reformist corpses, and whoever believes that we will deviate even a hair’s breath from our principles in arriving at unity does not understand anything of our organisation .

The Socialist Party has always been inspired by one idea — the overthrow of capitalist society, built on slavery, exploitation and violence. In this struggle of labour against capital, the working class can win only by mustering all their forces against the common enemy.  This is why for the working class, in order to save itself from economic enslavement —unity is imperative  but only a unity of purpose.

AJJ

Poverty to blame for bad health

Poverty and not Scotland's lack of sun is mainly to blame for a catalogue of illnesses associated with low levels of vitamin D, a new scientific study suggests.

Previous findings identified links between Scotland's lack of sunlight and conditions such as multiple sclerosis and depression. However, a study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Scotland and the Scottish Government claims the country's inhabitants do get healthy levels of sunlight.

According to the researchers, the study gives added credence to other documented links between vitamin D levels and wealth, with those from deprived areas and with the lowest incomes exhibiting lower levels of the vitamin. The researchers said that "There is a link between vitamin D levels and socioeconomic status, with those deprived areas and with the lowest incomes exhibiting lower levels of vitamin D,"

A 'Greed Is Good' Mentality

Politicians like to portray themselves as humane caring people who desire a more caring society, but from time to time the mask slips and they reveal their real goals. Here is an obvious example when the Mayor of London was addressing businessmen. 'Boris Johnson has  launched a bold bid to claim the mantle of Margaret Thatcher by declaring that inequality is essential to fostering "the spirit of envy" and hailed greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity". In an attempt to shore up his support on the Tory right, as he positions himself as the natural successor to David Cameron, the London mayor called for the "Gordon Gekkos of London" to display their greed to promote economic growth.' (Guardian, 27 November) RD

Yours For the Revolution

We must remember that society as it is today does not mean that it was always so. Capitalism distorts the vision of a future society and we can only see a different system in terms of our present one. Socialists advocate a system of society where each will contribute to production and partake freely of need. Sounds too fantastic to be true ? We have heard that before but just think for a moment of the fantastic things we have come to accept as normal under capitalism. It is now quite normal for thousands of people to starve to death as food is destroyed.

Knowledge is power. Only as the workers have knowledge and intelligence can they solve the problem of their own political and industrial freedom. The capitalists have educated the workers to their advantage to-day, but for their undoing tomorrow. Education of the workers for the benefit of the capitalist class means gain and profit only for the few, the upper class of to-day. Education of the workers for the benefit of the working class means gain and profit for the working class and ultimately for the whole human race. The thing that makes for the triumph of capitalism ultimately makes for its own downfall.

The more we understand about capitalism, the less we should sacrifice our own  life or anyone else’s for the benefit of any politician. We would be aware that this is a social system that operate to the benefit of a minority. That the problems of hunger, unemployment, war, are a direct result of the inadequacy of the system. The survival of capitalism rest entirely on the division of the working class. Capitalism have made us its casualties and victims.

Socialism can only be achieved by the working class and that we, the majority can now change the system to one more in harmony with the problems of the world.  Unless we know ourselves we cant even begin. Until workers want and understand socialism, it is impossible. Thus only conscious, majority, political action can achieve socialism. Minority action, whether on the industrial or political fields, cannot. The way to political power lies through the ballot box. A socialist working class can use the vote to win power just as today they use it to hand over power to capitalists. A Socialist party can have only one aim: Socialism. For a socialist party to seek support on the basis of a reform programme can only lead to compromise with capitalism

Every recession is in a sense a crisis of capitalism. The necessity of government action to prop up the economic order to insure “prosperity”, formerly was promised by the working of “free” capitalist enterprise but now the need is for increasing use of government to manipulate economic forces, for state capitalism, because capitalist industry is unable to function as of old. Recurrent breakdowns of prosperity are a typical spectacle of capitalist civilization. Men, women, and children starve or agonizingly approach starvation while wheat and corn rot, vegetables perish, milk and coffee are destroyed. The wheels of industry slow down while millions of workers eager to work are condemned to unemployment. Wants go unsatisfied on an enormous and oppressive scale, although all the means exist to satisfy the wants. Even in periods of the most flourishing prosperity, when there are also millions unemployed; their wants and many wants even of employed workers are unsatisfied. Capitalism has survived many depressions: they have, in fact, been the starting points of new shoots of growth. Always, in one form or another, capitalism creates an ideology to mask and justify its predatory character: it is a necessary device of class domination. But when as it must, and the hopeless reality it disguises is revealed, the economic crisis of  capitalism will become a class and political crisis, a lapse of faith in the old order and the belief in the Capitalist Dream crumbles. 

Then and now

From the June 1986 issue of the Socialist Standard

In March, I went along to the Dundee Rep to watch the world premiere of They Farily Mak Ye Work, a play based on the life of Dundee's jute-mill workers from the First World War to the early Thirties. The play covered some of the important events of the period such as the Mill Workers' Strike of 1922 and the Means Test demonstration of 1931 but what impressed most was the quite remarkable resilience displayed by workers enduring quite dire poverty in their day to day lives.

When I left the Rep. I wondered if there were many people who had been left thinking, "Ah great, another fine play about the inter-war depression . . . I'm glad things are very different now". While in some respects life has become more comfortable for working people in the 1980s, it would be mistaken to suggest that there have been fundamental changes since the 1930s.

Exploitation

Today we are again witnessing record levels of unemployment: workers are laid off and those who remain have to work harder as their employers try to retain their share of the market. Commenting on this practice at the newly-opened Eagle Jute Mill in 1930, the Dundee and District Jute and Flax Workers' Guide (June/July 1930), stated that:

. . . a number of women were sent from the Labour Exchange on Monday morning, 30th June, and were told they had to do the work of four women. And as they declined to be "preyed upon", they left.

Unemployment 

The large reserve of young unemployed workers proved a useful source of cheap—or even free—labour in the Thirties, as one annual report of the Association of Jute Spinners and Manufacturers noted:

. . . the Ministry of Labour Trade Boards Divisional Office, Edinburgh, drew attention to two recent cases in which Dundee Jute firms had had juveniles on their premises without paying wages. The matter appeared to have arisen through permitting the juveniles to "look round" for a few days on the understanding that no wages would be paid unless, and until, the juvenile was taken on in a regular capacity. It was stated it was understood the practice was not uncommon in Dundee. (Association of Jute Spinners and Manufacturers, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Committee, 1933, p. 10)

Is today's YTS a great deal better? Employers may claim that they are taking on youngsters for social reasons, but they cannot deny that young workers are receiving pocket money for a week's exploitation.

Charities

The soup kitchens that were synonymous with the Twenties and Thirties have disappeared. So too have other features of capitalism's charity. Commenting on the dire poverty faced by some workers in Dundee in the 1920s, Mary Brooksbank recalled that:

Even the police had their Bootless Bairns Fund, for bootless bairns were a common enough sight in those days. (No Sae Lang Syne: A Tale of This City, p.29) 

Today you just have to stroll through the centre of any city to be confronted with numerous charities all with their collecting tins hoping that you will donate to the cause of Help the Aged, Shelter, Dr Barnado's and so on. All of them signs that workers suffer a great deal at the hands of this society that asks for payment before human needs are considered.

Since the 1930s, we have witnessed the proliferation of new generations of "luxury" consumer goods among working people. In the 1950s, workers increasingly began to possess televisions, cars and washing-machines—wow, the "affluent society" had really arrived! In the 1970s colour TVs and digital quartz watches went from being status symbols to commonplace items and the video seems to be heading the same way. The question is, can we really say that things have got better just because there are more consumer goods around? Often you will hear people claim that a new car is a sign that, "there must be a lot of money about" when in fact many people are up to their ears in debt as the home, the car and the household items are paid for on the never-never - mortgage or HP payments. The increase in consumer goods should not be related to what workers had in the 1930s, for it should be remembered that they then had more items than workers in, say, the 1850s. If we make comparisons we should be looking at the proportion of wealth the workers received then and receive now, from the total that workers in society have created. Now, as then, workers only receive a tiny fraction of the wealth they produce and while the employers reap the profits of our labour we are expected to be grateful for the tiny slice of the cake that is our wage or salary.

Class division

This, then, is the class divide: a conflict between owners of capital—be they mill-owners, land-owners, or shareholders in private or state-controlled industries—and the rest of us. This is the relationship that compelled our relatives in the 1930s to suffer the treadmill of wage-labour and poverty, to march for the "right to work" and which led to numerous demonstrations and cracked heads in strikes where the police clearly showed that their main function is to protect the capitalists' property rights. Looking back on the Means Test Demonstrations in Dundee on September 24 1931, Sara Craig recalled that:

. . . the policemen came on horseback and they were hittin' folk wi' their batons. They were hittin' the folk wi' their batons and chasin' them and breakin' up the crowds. (Ed. Billy Kay, Odyssey: Voices from Scotland's Recent Past. p. 13)

Only someone who had just crawled out from a hole in the ground, or had been beamed down from outer-space, would suggest that you can have a democratically accountable police force. Yet time and time again, the Labour Party and assorted left-wing romantics advocate precisely that. If anyone believes the myth of Dixon of Dock Green bobbies then they ought to ask themselves why the police's task-force was deployed against striking miners in the recent strike? Did they not defend the interests of the National Coal Board against the miners?

An alternative

The problems of poverty that we face today have led to so called solutions like "Right to Work" marches or voting Labour and expecting nationalisation to solve our problems. These "solutions" have been tried and they have failed and it is a tragedy that they have been repeated decade after decade. The sense of disappointment felt by Labour Party members and voters after 1945 must have been immense, watching the dream of the New Jerusalem fade as the Labour government showed it could not run capitalism any better than the Tories.

It is time we decided to get rid of employment and organise the production and distribution of wealth without the barrier of wages and money and the restrictions that capitalism places on our needs. One by one, this system of society stamps out the dreams, hopes and ambitions that we have at various points in our lives - they are crushed by the need to make ends meet. Common ownership is not some age-old dream of a perfect society but am immediate and realisable means of getting rid of the numerous problems that are our lot as wage-workers. The alternative to organising for socialism is the acceptance of our poverty where employers will continue to "fairly mak us work".

Derek Devine

The Revolutionary Vote

Socialist Party politics is utterly different in nature from all other politics. Its aim is not to improve conditions or gain reforms or stop corruption or accomplish any other end within the framework of existing society. It is the expression of the interests of the working class to overthrow the existing system and to establish a new society.

Conventional politics revolve within the structure of the existing order. Non-socialist political parties, pleading for votes and begging for office, represent different sections of the ruling class vying for their own share of profits and privilege. Different groups of employers and business seek the lucrative control of the government and the state bureaucracy such as local councils. Their various think-tanks dream up different theories of how best to maintain the existing order and keep the support (or at least the tolerance) of the masses by securing this or that reform or a concession for this or that section of the population. But all the non-revolutionary politics presuppose the continuance of the capitalism, that is to say, the exploitation of the majority by the propertied minority and their class domination of government.

The central political issue of our time is the issue of the class struggle for socialism. Every other question is of altogether minor importance, since its answer can be found only in the solution of the central issue. The chief function of mainstream  politics is to deceive the voters as to the real and central issue which confronts them. So long as the people believe that their only significant political choices lie within the capitalist order, capitalism itself, no matter what internal shifts take place, is never threatened. Every device serves: two or more  parties, tweedledum and tweedledumber, splitting hairs over agendas they all agree upon. Whenever that sham is seen through, fringe parties like Ukip hi-jack dissatisfaction into safe channels still within the safe limitations of the capitalist state. These “outsiders" frequently adopt the practice of pandering propaganda and policies to the prejudices of their audience, without regard to the truth or correctness or workability of it, exploiting the electorate’s ignorance.

The baseness, hypocrisy and corruption of Westminster by the City of London speculators and the ruling class cannot be sufficiently expressed in words. There is no depth of dishonour to which they have not descended with their cronyism and greed. We are not here to play the filthy game of capitalist politics. Capitalism can only rule by corrupt means. The Socialist Party of Great Britain stands squarely upon its principles in making its appeal to the workers. It is not bargaining for votes. It is not in the market to buy or bribe votes. The Socialist Party wants votes, but only of those who  recognise it as their party and come to it of their own free will. We want all the votes we can get but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office, claiming MPs expenses and accepting retainers from lobbyists.

The Socialist Party breaks through the deceptions of capitalist politics. Socialist politics are based on principle. We cast aside all secondary reformist distinctions, and pose directly the central issue: the struggle for socialism, unlike the Left parties such as the Greens and the TUSC who enter elections with a programmes solely of “immediate demands”, designed to be acceptable to capitalism. All the Socialist Party’s propaganda, all its discussions, and its only demand, is for socialism. It shall not compromise nor offer concessions. We hold aloft only the socialist idea. The workers have never made proper effective use of their political power. Many have in their disillusionment renounced politics and refuse to see any difference between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling class to perpetuate class rule and the Socialist Party, organised and financed by the workers themselves, as a means of wresting the control of government and of industry from the capitalists.

 There is but one issue for the Socialist Party and it is the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class. Our manifesto is an indictment of the capitalist system which demands the abolition of that system. We  proclaim the identity of interests of all workers and appeal to them to unite for their emancipation. We declare relentless class war upon the entire capitalist regime in the name of the workers and demand in uncompromising terms the overthrow of wage-slavery and the inauguration of social democracy. The time has come for the workers of the world to shake off their oppressors and exploiters and put an end to their age-long servitude.

To this end it makes its appeal to workers and call upon them to vote on the single vital issue of socialism which confronts them and place the X on the ballot paper for the Socialist Party whenever and wherever possible. 

Who owns the North Pole Part 66

The United States warns that it will defend its sovereignty in the face of strengthening international interest in newly opening shipping lanes and natural resource extraction opportunities as the region’s ice disappears.

 US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel says experts now expect a tenfold increase over those numbers along what is known as the Northern Sea Route.

“With Arctic sea routes starting to see more activities like tourism and commercial shipping, the risk of accidents increases. Migrating fish stocks will draw fishermen to new areas, challenging existing management plans,” Hagel told a security conference in Canada on Friday, where he announced the new strategy. And while there will be more potential for tapping what may be as much as a quarter of the planet’s undiscovered oil and gas, a flood of interest in energy exploration has the potential to heighten tensions over other issues.” He added “Throughout human history, mankind has raced to discover the next frontier. And time after time, discovery was swiftly followed by conflict,”

Currently, the United States stations around 27,000 military personnel in Alaska, and Hagel says the US Navy will offer a new plan for its operations by the end of the year.

Gustavo Ampugnani, Arctic team leader for Greenpeace explained “We are glad that the Defence Department’s Arctic Strategy acknowledges the diminishing of the ice caps in the Arctic. But the approach shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity for business, nor to create better conditions to exploiting its resources. If countries grant leases to open more space for the oil corporations, this will speed up not just the industrialization of the Arctic but also investments in military presence, leading to a military race in the Far North. From our perspective, the best way to keep the region peaceful, stable and free of conflict … is to priorities the scientific work, in a cooperative spirit, to understand more how the Arctic ecosystem is key to regulating the global climate.”

The Terrorist Apologists

Fact of the Day

6 media conglomerates control 90% of what Americans read, watch and listen to.
232 media executives are in control of 277 million Americans main sources of information
The 2010 revenues of the Big Six was  $275.9 billion - which is $36 billion more than Finland’s GDP.
The Big Six control 70% of cable TV, the remaining 30% is shared amongst 3,762 companies

http://occupyeducated.org/2012/05/16/six-media-companies-control-90-of-what-we-read-watch-and-listen-to/

NO RECOVERY FOR SOME

It is often difficult to get up-to-date figures about poverty in Britain but a recent survey backed by public money has come up with some current statistics. 'Nearly nine million people across the UK are living with serious debt problems, according to a new report. The Money Advice Service (MAS) also said very few people were making any attempt to get professional help. The problem is particularly acute in five English cities, where more than 40% of the population is struggling to repay debt. According to the survey, 18% of Britons, 8.8 million people, consider they have "serious" financial issues.' (BBC News, 27 November) These figures give the lie to political nonsense about a so-called economic recovery. RD

Against Reformism

REFORMISM OR REVOLUTION

Socialist are often accused of being opposed to reforms, social legislation ostensibly  designed to ameliorate some more or less intolerable situation such as the NHS or Social  Security. However, to the contrary, the World Socialist Movement is NOT opposed to reforms per se, any more than they ADVOCATE them. Socialist do not support or agitate for  reforms precisely on the grounds upon which they are ostensibly presented, for they  do NOT CURE the ills to which they are addressed. We further argue that the
interest of the ruling powers lies in attracting votes for their various political  programmes. Witness all the reform promises, offered by the politicians in an election  year. They are a necessary policy of governments seeking a broader base of support in  their efforts to maintain a sufficient degree of viability in the capitalist system: to keep  order in a social system whose nature is to engender disorder: to maintain an unstable
equilibrium in a system continually facing crisis. And in time of great stress the  offering of reforms to a restless and dissatisfied populace, helps to provide a  "breathing spell" to a badly harassed government.  As a fretful mother tries to quieten a  howling infant by placing a pacifier in the child's mouth and sometimes sweetens it by  coating it with syrup - so these reforms were offered with promises to do away with  "fear" that of the dispossessed and of those also who own and control.

But they did nothing whatever to help resolve the basic contradictions in the  economic system. The gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" remained and  even widened.

Over a century of reforms, which do not reform, leaves this society more affluent in  the upper levels and more poverty stricken in the lower. The fewer rich become richer  and the increasing many poorer. Despite growth in the Gross National Product,  despite an apparent rise in the general standard of living for some, the gap remains  and widens.

Capitalism cannot be genuinely reformed in the interest of the  whole of the society, socialists contend also that it be superseded by a better, higher,  social order. It is to this end that of changing the world that socialists direct their  efforts.

(l) Distribution of goods and services instead of exchange:"use" not "profit".
(2) Administration of THINGS instead of Government over people.
(3) A complete social body: not one divided into Rulers and Ruled.
(4) An entire economy administered democratically in the interest of the entire
community.

Any socialist with a correct reading of Marx and  knowledge gained from his or her own reasearch into history knows that societies have  passed through various periods, with different social formulations, but ever possessing  rulers and ruled, until today man faces another "Eternal Order", capitalism. This present order, despite its cruelties and oppressions represented social advance and in  its early stages compared to its antecedents, was "liberal" and "progressive". It is no  more "Eternal" than Feudalism, Chattel Slavery. Capitalism's increasing and continual  crises indicate its time of dissolution: as it was with previous social orders: "Where wealth accumulates and man decay".

Growing affluence above among the few, abysmal poverty below the lot of the many. Chaos abounds and confusion reigns. Crime in the streets and warfare abroad. These and one thousand and one other distressing items are featured daily in the news media  and presently exercise more and more minds in the populace. The politicians cry "Reform, Law and Order", and the pity is that so many are thereby fooled.

Labour and Tory are two wings of the capitalist vulture. The choice between Labour and Tory is described as one between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Both are staunch champions of capitalism.  If there is so little difference between the two parties, what is to account for the overwhelming majority of the workers supporting one of them? Are they so utterly blind as not to see what is so plainly before their noses? Politics under any system is a struggle by conflicting groups or classes for control of the state apparatus. The “choice” between Labour and Tory is not a choice between “socialism” and capitalism. Trotskyism is dyed-in-the-wool reformism draped with revolutionary and scholarly phrases, their reformism shines through like a blinding light. Reformism is poison in the socialist movement.

The socialist case is that capitalism cannot be reformed in the interest of the  majority, but it can be abolished is reinforced in the language of history. A study of  history teaches that no society ever set itself the task of dealing with any situation or problem without that society having first developed the necessary and sufficient  conditions in process of emergence. Nor can any society be dissolved and replaced by a higher one until it has developed all those forces requisite for its replacement. These forces are now abundantly evident. A high technological perfection is seen in modern society - automation and new technology, which does  not come about automatically (it is often restrained because of the influence of  various vested interest.) Can the workers gain substantial economic concessions within the limits of capitalism? Reformist politics operate within self-imposed limits, the limits of capitalism and its class relations. If capitalism is progressing and increasing production, profits and employment, reformist labor politics have room for effective action.  But when capitalism is declining, and the capitalists are tearing down the concessions they had granted in the past, the limits within which such labor politics can function disappear. The concessions which it can win are mythical because capitalist decline is real. Reformist labor politics, which arise from the economic problems of the workers, are helpless to solve those problems.

It can be seen how the productive apparatus is capable of producing more than a  sufficiency for all. Capitalism does not produce unless it can sell its goods at a profit. The age long problem facing man - PRODUCTION - has been  solved. Poverty, chaos, war, and social strife can de eliminated by doing away vith the  root cause of these horrors. This is socialism's objective: To abolish capitalism, not  vainly attempt to reform it. Think, think, and think again  and join in this great, and only meaningful task.

Partly adapted from Bill Pritchard article
Fulcrum, Socialist Party of Canada

Against the General Strike

“Solidarity for ever,
  For the Union makes us strong.”

The union movement has proven itself to be a powerful instrument of a defensive character and as a force that poses the possibility of a transformation  from wage labour to a free association of workers and common ownership. The labour movement has won through battles on the picket lines but has often been lost, due, to counter attacks by the representatives of the employers as a class in control of parliament, and the state in its totality. The employers, through their agents in control of parliament and the entire state apparatus, have erected a whole network of laws and regulations designed to hamstring the labour movement. Organised labour is weak in relation to the power of the ruling class. Large numbers of workers, poorly paid and helpless before the onslaughts and insecurities that are products of capitalist society, have fallen prey to the capitalist- inspired propaganda that the union movement is a narrow, a sectional power bloc, insensitive to their needs and concerned only with its own welfare. Wage increases, hard fought wage increases to meet the rising cost of living, are being wiped out time and again. Big Business attempts to narrow the area of collective bargaining, the trade union militants must fight to widen it and to open up the entire process of capitalist production and distribution to their scrutiny. The workers have the right to know the secrets of a factory, of  the multi-national corporations, of an entire industry, of the whole economy, built by their labor. For the workers, independent labour political action is the beginning of their intervention into affairs that determine every single aspect of their lives and the future of their children.

It is easy to criticise parliamentarism and to criticise it justly, but criticism does not prevent it from existing. Those who strive to keep the working people out of the field of political action do not suspect that they are thus playing the game of the ruling class. By shouting, “No politics!” they are merely echoing the rallying cry that the capitalists has always given to the working-class. The property qualification for the suffrage and the absence of remuneration for office-holders, such as members of the Parliament, were nothing but means to keep workers out of politics. Even though that failed, we now have those “socialists” eager to accomplish what the ruling class could not.

Some socialists suggest the political struggle is insufficient and in its stead propose  the “general strike.” We must be clear, we are not talking about strikes that are the  inevitable product of a class struggle based on antagonistic interests. Even if  it  wish to, socialists cannot disarm the working class of the strike weapon.  It is the workers only means of defense or attack which it has for the protection of its immediate material interests, the strike is a right which the working people are right in jealously guarding. But while socialists should fully support this right for for all the workers, it is not their business to incite them to make use of it. It is not for them to urge or discourage strikes. It is for those immediately interested, those who will have to endure the consequences of their decision, to decide, without pressure of any kind from the non-interested. When those workers whose interests are at stake have decided upon a strike, we ought to aid them to gain every possible advantage from the situation in which they have placed themselves. That is, generally speaking, what is and what should be the conduct of socialists so far as concerns strikes. We acknowledge the strike as a weapon, but recognise its effectiveness should not to be exaggerated, it possesses limited power. Under the favourable circumstances it may  compel some employers to yield to union demands but it has never been able to produce any  radical change in the capitalist system. Here or there, there have been obtained some ameliorations but they have not been incompatible with the increasing prosperity of capital.

Many left militants think that a general strike of the most important trades would be enough to bring on the social revolution, that is, the fall of the whole capitalist system and the establishment of  socialism. Those militants who still cherish illusions and laud strikes as a panacea should understand that on the economic battle-field, the struggle is too unequal for the working-class despite tremendous strikes carried out with enormous resources and prepared with an incomparable talent of organisers and regardless of the great sacrifices, the self-denial and  energy of strikers, they lose the battle more often than win it, and when there is victory, the advantages that it reaps do not alter the fact that the gains proved very expensive and remain precarious.

Yet still a faction wishes to generalise the strike – a weapon good, at the most, only in particular cases – and to make the general strike the goal for the working class. It is time for such activists to take a reality check. On the political ground the working-class are more numerous than the employing class so it enjoys a real advantage and only a mere matter of propaganda and time for the socialist to convince his or her fellow workers to use their ballot in the right manner. Instead the militants rather confront the military power of the state, facing the provocations and arrests by the police, and risking the genuine threat of a massacre of the workers. But even if all these dangers and difficulties were avoided or overcome, the labour movement would inevitably be overwhelmed for success must be at the first attempt.  A conquered strike would result in an impotent, emasculate union movement. A defeat at the election polls is one thing, but the failure of a general strike is one of real sufferings and discouraged and disconsolate, defeated strikers withdraws from the movement into passivity and apathy.  A general strike is “All or nothing!” Workers should think twice about supporting such a gamble.

The political expropriation of the capitalist class today, is its economic expropriation tomorrow.  The state  in the hands of the working class the instrument of its liberation and transformation. Whether or not a revolutionary situation is destined to arise, the duty of socialists consists in educating his or her fellow workers, in rendering them conscious of their condition, their task and their responsibility, of organising them in readiness for the day when the political power shall fall into their hands. To win for socialism the greatest possible number of partisans, that is the task to which socialist parties must consecrate their efforts. What is necessary is to make socialists, to make the masses conscious of the economic movement in progress, to bring their wills into harmony with that movement, and thus to lead to the election of more and more socialists to our various elective assemblies.  In ordinary times, such as those in which we live today, any sort of action, except peaceful and legal action with a view to the instruction and organization of the masses, is sure, whether so intended or not, to have a deterrent and reactionary influence, and to interfere with the spread of socialist ideas. But this depends, not upon opinions, but on actual situations and circumstances. What is the use of talking of anything but socialism and to waste time talking about a contingent event that circumstances may force upon us in the future, but the time or character of which no man can define or describe to-day?

Instead of allowing ourselves to be led astray by romantic notions of the general strike, let us  examine the facts and see what conclusions they impose upon us. Socialism flows from the facts, it follows them and does not precede them. Socialism means the socialization of the means of labour and the abolition of classes. Its means, the transference to the political battlefield of the class struggle. Socialists are not worshippers of violence. Above all do we try to guard against the sporadic, meaningless and inevitably self-defeating violence that suffering and resentment are so likely to prompt. 

No way, nae chance

Alex Salmond today announces the SNP policy statement on independence. Socialist Courier makes our own announcement on nationalism and Scottish independence.

Modern capitalism is a highly integrated international system. Production is organised across national boundaries, trade and finance operates on a world scale. No single country can be outside of this system. Contrary to the romantic  dreams of some nationalists, there is no way that Scotland can simply pursue its own economic destiny within its own frontiers. Indeed, many national states are now too small to function adequately in terms of the needs and pressures of modern capitalism. Thus the capitalist ruling class are compelled to think in terms of international cooperation and even planning, hence the importance of the EU to the corporations. There are not many who can deny that we live in conditions of a world economy. Capitalists all strive for world power. Self-determination of any nation can therefore never be a reality of any nation within capitalism.

A socialist economy in one country, say Scotland as many Tartan Trots advocate, would be compelled to act as a single “firm” competing on the world market with others, and, to that extent would be subject to the laws of capitalist economics. That is why “national socialism” or “socialism in one country” are contradictions in terms: they are economic impossibilities. The Socialist Party, however, views the revolution in our part of the globe as one link in the chain of revolutions which will emancipate the world from capitalism and establish world socialism. This conception stands in the center of the system of ideas which binds us together and animates all our propaganda work

We recognise that the peoples of the world have the same interest which is to end the barbaric capitalist system. We offer our support to the class struggles of workers from other countries who are confronting the same enemy. The Socialist Party of Great Britain are not advocates for Scotland’s independence. We are not Scottish patriots. There exists a fundamental difference of interests between the employing class and the workers. The Socialist Party must denounce the capitalist class and struggle against their henchmen in parliaments relentlessly, without exception, including in this independence referendum. We are anti-patriots but we understand a love of the village or town where we were born or brought up in is a natural sentiment. We who hate the existing nations have retained our little soft spots to the localities and neighbours we personally know.

Too often and from too many we have heard the denouncation of the foreign worker. They are the "scum of the earth" we are told.  Perhaps, a few may well be, just as are a few who have been born and bred in our own cities most definitely are. But we do know most migrant workers have never had a fair chance. They have been starved in body and mind, denied, exploited, driven like slaves from job to job. They have endured countless wrongs, injuries and injustices. They have learned the hard way that the law is for the strong, that it protects the class that owns everything and that the employers do not respect the law, but shamelessly break them. So should we cast blame on those who bend the law not to exploit others,  but simply for personal survival, to provide for their needs, to end their miseries and sufferings.

The fundamental struggle in the world is not a nationalist struggle but a class struggle. The class struggle is a political struggle and it is the class struggle that politically moves one social system to the next. Socialists do not support one nation state against another. We do not support foreign nationalist struggles any more than we support the Welsh and Scottish nationalists who want to cede from Britain. Workers must avoid conflating their own interests from nationalist organisations struggling for power and should oppose all other political parties to keep alive the case for Socialism as a separate political proposition in its own right. A SNP government in an independent Scotland as they do in a devolved parliament will try to straddle the class struggle and to represent one at the same time the interests of the owning class and we the people. Nationalist supporters expectantly and hopefully await the outcome. Socialists do not need to wait to prophesy failure. Try as they might no nationalist party can combat the laws of the capitalist system. Nor we do hold that if they are led by other men and women of more radical left leanings the outcome will be significantly different.

We have no enemies among the workers of other countries; and no friends among the capitalists of any country.  The workers of all countries are our friends and the capitalists of all countries are our enemies. The time has come for the workers to cease struggling for the interests of their masters and to fight for their own. Socialism groups men, poor against rich, class against class, without taking into account the differences of race and language, and over and above the frontiers traced by history. Nationalism has indeed proved to be a more potent political force this sad century than class consciousness. But, in face of its results, we re-assert the original socialist position that workers ought to act as a world-wide class with a common interest in working to establish a single world community without frontiers based on the world's resources being the common heritage of all humanity.