Democratic Socialism

A common criticism on the Socialist Party is that it succumbed to utopianism and imagined that socialism will bring an end to the class struggle and usher in a new classless and stateless society of free brotherhood. We stubbornly clung to the basic concept of Marx, that only the working class, i.e. those forced to sell their labour power in exchange of wages, unites the objective and subjective conditions for building a socialist, i.e. classless society. We have defended that idea throughout our existence and through times that such views were unfashionable.  We have maintained steadfastly that the socialist reconstruction of the world can be accomplished only through conscious, collective action by the workers themselves. The Socialist Party does not intend to lead the masses towards a free and classless society because we adhere faithfully to the motto of the First International: “The emancipation of the workers is an act of the workers themselves.” If the people wait for a revolutionary vanguard to lead them to the classless society or the free society, they will neither be free nor classless. Socialism is rule by the people. They will decide how socialist society is to work. The task of the Socialist Party is to help and guide the transfer of power from capitalists to the people. We cannot build a strong socialist movement until we overcome the confusion in the minds of workers about the real meaning of socialism.

 To use the word “socialism” for anything but people’s power is to misuse the term. Nationalisation of mines, railways, steel, etc. in a capitalist class society is not socialism, nor does this constitutes the socialised sector of a “mixed economy”. Such nationalisation is simply state capitalism, with no relation to socialism.

Nor is the “Welfare State” socialist. A socialist society will certainly give high priority to health, education, art, science, and the social well-being of all its members. But welfare and social services in capitalism, to improve the efficiency of workers as a profit-makers, is not socialism but again a form of state capitalism. It can be an improvement in capitalism, just as a 40-hour week is an improvement on a 60-hour week. But it is not socialism. We should always remember that “state socialism” is about as close to the real thing as a poisonous toadstool is to an edible mushroom.

Workers are, and have been for many decades, in a position to capture the state machine and establish socialism, on the one condition that they themselves wish to do so, i.e. that they understand that this is both necessary and possible. Unfortunately, almost the whole working people today are capitalist-minded. Why is this? Because they have been capitalist-educated in a capitalist society. However, the world around us is falling to pieces. The need for revolution is beginning to be widely realised. Mankind for the first time will be taking charge of its own destiny. We will no longer have things happening to us. We will be deciding what is to happen. The problems of the world are not technological ones. The difficulty is a social one – that man has so far been incapable of taking charge because of the class divisions that make it impossible to take decisions for the development of mankind as a whole. Socialism is the society of the free and equal, a democracy defined as the rule of the people. Its misrepresentation has been facilitated for the capitalists by the paid retainers, those academic and media boot-lickers who promote misunderstanding and prejudice against socialism.

The Socialist Party is completely devoted to the idea that socialism cannot be realised other than by democracy. Our task, as socialists is simply to keep restating what socialism and democracy means. The Communist Manifesto said:

“All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.”

 Marx and Engels linked socialism and democracy together as end and means.  The “self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority” cannot be anything else but “democracy” -  the rule of the people.

 “The first step”, said the Communist Manifesto, “in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy.”

“The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves”. That Is just another way of saying—that the socialist reorganisation of society requires a workers’ revolution. Such a revolution is unthinkable without the active participation of the majority of the working class, which is itself the big majority of the population. Nothing could be more democratic than that. To make the workers the ruling class is the same thing as  to establish democracy. The socialist task is not to deny democracy, but to expand it and make it more complete. That is the true socialist tradition.  Democracy is necessity to assure the harmonious transition to socialism.

All the great Marxists defined socialism as a classless society—with abundance, freedom and equality for all; a society in which there would be no state, not even a “workers’ state”, which have been bureaucratic dictatorships of a privileged minority. Capitalism, under any kind of government is a system of minority rule, and the principal beneficiaries of capitalist democracy are the small minority of exploiting capitalists or party functionaries.

The Industrial Workers of the World used to give a shorthand definition of socialism as “industrial democracy”;  the extension of democracy to industry, the democratic control of industry by the workers themselves, with private ownership eliminated. We never hear a “democrat” say anything like that today.

We are assailed by those who claim  socialism has failed Which raises the question: What is socialism? The socialist society was to be classless, democratic and worldwide.  The things upon which human life and civilisation are based would be produced in abundance, the very need for distribution according to work no longer applies and the actual possibility of distribution according to need comes into existence. “To each according to his need”. By reason of technologica development and the vast extension of leisure, work itself will have become a pleasant pastime instead of dreary drudgery; mankind will have learned to work for society according to ability. The other half also of the slogan descriptive of communist society becomes translated into reality – “from each according to his ability.”  Socialism will be a society of associated producers. Property will no longer belong to individuals or be state-owned but to the community, which is now classless; and the state itself will be concerned not with the government of men but the administration of things. The need for the apparatus of force, the “state,” which protects the earlier form of distribution also disappears. That is to say, “the state withers away” completely.

That is the Marxist conception of socialism, and so if we then proceed to say that socialism has been tried and found wanting, we cannot. For, to begin with, it has not been tried at all.  How can a society fail which has not yet come into existence?

When Marx spoke of the “inevitability” of socialism, he meant, that, given correct human action it could come into being and that he anticipated that this human action would be taken. He did not mean that socialism was bound to come, mechanically of itself, independent of human action. On the contrary, he expressly stated that the destruction of capitalism could lead to socialism – or mutual destruction of both the capitalist and working class - barbarism. Marx did not say or imply that if you somehow destroy capitalism socialism must dawn. That is a fatalist idea.  What Marx did teach and demonstrate was that if you destroy capitalism IN A CERTAIN WAY the road to socialism would be opened. In what way? In the revolutionary way. If socialism is to be the outcome of capitalism’s downfall, it is necessary that mankind take conscious democratic action in that direction. The socialist revolution is no ordinary revolution. The victory of the working class in its fight to bury the capitalist class will be the last class conflict. It is the war to end all wars, the class to emancipate the whole of mankind.

Allah, The Pope And Karl Marx

The New Statesman commenting on recent persecutions and murders by various Islamist groups takes the Pope to task for his recent whitewashing of the Quran as far as violence is concerned. 'Even today's Pope - as the Christian faithful were being harried, persecuted or put to the sword in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq and beyond - told the world in November 2013 that "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence". But read the text yourself, and you will see that jihadists can find plenty justification for the acts they commit, even if most Muslims are pacific.' (New Statesman, 8 May) If such a conservative journal attacking the ideas of the Pope seems unusual, even more startling is their further comment. 'Karl Marx was wiser than the Pope. In March 1854, he wrote that for "Islamism" - the word was already in use - "the Infidel is the enemy" and that the Quran "treats all foreigners as foes". RD

A Socialist World

We are fighting to end once and for all the exploitation of man over man and to build a completely new society. Socialism will be won and built by the working class. The aim of the international working class is to replace the world capitalist system with world socialism.  Production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle of labour will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally and private property will be eliminated. With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and intellectual labour will disappear. As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will wither away. Humanity has not always been divided into classes. In the primitive communal societies all the members cooperated together to assure their survival.

The interests of the working class are the same in every country. After we have overthrown the capitalists we will establish socialism. Socialism will mean the rule of the working class. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history.  The resources of society will be distributed according to the needs of the people, not to satisfy a few capitalists’ hunger for profits as is the case today. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. Starvation in the midst of plenty is the distinguishing mark of the capitalist system of production. It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today. It is the way society is organised, with a minority of people owning and controlling the wealth and industry and excluding the vast majority of the people from any real say in the running of society.  It is this that must be changed. The working people who have produced all the wealth around us must come into ownership and control, so that they can then build the society and produce the things they want. The vast majority of the people gain nothing from capitalism and would lose nothing with its passing. This capitalist society demands, not bandaged up and blood transfusions, but the death blow to enable the introduction of socialism, an order of society that can manage the technological revolution to the benefit of the working people. With the ending of capitalism the people would also decide how industry was to be run.

No individual, no political party can do the job for the people of ending capitalism and building socialism. This can only come about when the mass of the people engage in action themselves. It is in the course of taking part in the continuous struggles against the capitalist class that people learn the need for the fundamental change, the revolution that will end capitalism. Against  the ruling class, the working class has the potential weapons of unity and organisation. No power on earth can stop their advance if they are united and have the understanding of how a socialist world can be achieved. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the mass of the people, making it possible to meet their needs in food, clothing and shelter. Men and women will be able to develop their own personality and talents to the full. With the harnessing of science and technology to industry, boring and repetitive work will be eliminated. Work for all will become as it is today for only a very small minority—interesting and satisfying. Life for all will be plentiful, secure, happy and interesting. It will may not mean the end of all problems, but the end of those worries about wages, housing, poverty, peace that dominate our lives today.

The building of this new society in our country is the aim of the Socialist Party. The interests of the exploited cannot be brought into harmony with the interests of the exploiters. We see the goal of socialism not as far-off, ultimate aim but rather as our immediate objective. We visualise a social system that would be based on the common ownership of the means of production, the elimination of profit in the means of production, the abolition of the wage system, the abolition of the division of society into classes. When we speak of the means of production, the world’s wealth, we mean that wealth which is necessary for the production of the necessities of the people. The industries, the railroads, mines, and so on. We don’t propose the elimination of private property in personal effects. We speak of those things which are necessary for the production of the people’s needs. They shall be owned in common by all the people. We hold that  workers in every country must collaborate in working toward that goal. We advocate the international organisation of the workers, and their cooperation in all respects. We believe that the wealth of the world, the raw materials of the world, and the natural resources of the world are so distributed over the earth that every country contributes something and lacks something for a rounded and harmonious development of the productive forces of mankind. We visualise the future society of mankind as a socialist world system which will have co-ordination between the various regions, a comradely collaboration between them for the  production of the necessities and luxuries of mankind according to a single universal world plan.

Workers United

The capitalists have intellectuals of all categories to praise and exalt its benevolence. Scarcely anybody but socialists  retain a belief in the anti-capitalist strivings and sentiments of working people or trust that they can in time participate in a movement  toward socialism. For adhering to these convictions and being guided by them, the Socialist Party of Great Britain is looked upon  political fossils, relics of a bygone era and dogmatists who cling to outdated views. As Marxists we hold no religious-like faith. Our views are derived from a reasoned analysis of the decisive trends of our time, and an understanding of capitalist development. Marxism has clarified many problems in philosophy, sociology, history, economics, and politics but its achievement is the explanation it offers of the key role of the working class in history. No sooner has the prospect of working class revolution been dismissed for the umpteenth  time than it returns to haunt its sceptics. Some see the seeming omnipotence of the ruling class and succumb to sentiments of hopelessness.

All over the world  industrialisation and urbanisation is causing the working class, that is, those who sell their own labour power to the owners of capital, to grow in size. We do not misled ourselves. They are a working class which has not cut loose from subservience to the capitalist parties and established a political organisation of their own. We witness its conservatism with a small c at every election.  Most have not even organised industrially and even those who have, receive criticism from some “radicals” who  appear to deny labour unions any progressive features. They ignore the fact that the mere existence of trade unions act as a shield against lowering wages and working conditions and check the aggressions of capitalist reaction, albeit with limits and frequent set-backs. These “Left-communists”  leave out  the working conditions before unions, the fourteen or sixteen-hour days, and they neglect to point out what happens when unions are made exceptionally weak or actually destroyed by dictatorships.

What will change the working class from being a prop to capitalism? The resurgence of labour radicalism may well come from the flagging of the long-term postwar capitalist expansion and an extended downturn in the industrial cycle.  Under intensified competition, corporations will be increasingly pressed to shave their costs, beginning with the cost of labour. As the unions engage in defensive actions against such attacks, sharp tension can quickly replace the prevailing toleration between the bosses and the workers. It could be provoked by anger against anti-labour legislation. The possibilities are so diverse that it is impossible to foretell where or how the break in the dyke will come.

Workers in the past have far more passive, helpless, and poorly organised than today. The workers then as today were divided against themselves: native against foreign-born, white against black, skilled workers against the unskilled workers, men against women. The anti-union forces of the employers associations and the government were powerful. The magnates of capital had the workers at their mercy. They controlled the police, the courts, the State and the press. They used the blacklist, union spies and strikebreakers. Moreover, the privileged  union leadership was complacent and more interested in maintaining industrial peace. In America De Leon, Debs , the Wobblies, despite sacrifice failed to achieve fundamental change. Then, the 1929 Wall St happened and appeared to be a knock-out blow. With industry’s  recovery, workers morale and fighting spirit also revived. Labour went on the offensive against corporate capital, independent of its union bureaucrats.

It is ironical that many intellectuals who reject Big Business mimics its low estimation of the working class potential and capabilities. Although they fancy themselves as progressive, they remain captive to the political backwardness of capitalist apologists. They view workers as sheep, who cannot look beyond their filling their stomachs bellies. The disparagement of the workers reinforce the indoctrination  of the ruling class and weakens the self-reliance of the workers. They do not see the working class as the producers of wealth but simply consumers of it. Capitalist production cannot do without an ample labouring force, no matter how many are unemployed, because profit-making and the accumulation of capital depend upon the extraction of labour power which creates value in the form of commodities. The industrial work force as such is not expendable, no matter how fast or how far automation proceeds under capitalist auspices.

During the lulls in militancy, people come to believe that the social contradictions of capitalism will never generate insurrectionary moods and movements in their time. It results from an over-estimation of capitalism on the one hand and an under-estimation of workers on the other. Beaten down in so many ways, workers seldom suspect that they are capable of resistance. Necessity  forces individuals, groups, classes, and whole peoples to perform prodigious feats. The working class  has displayed considerable fighting spirit, initiative, and stamina in the past. If the workers can produce all kinds of commodities for the market, if they can build and maintain powerful industrial unions for themselves, why can’t they go beyond all that? What prevents them from organizing a mass political party of their own, being won over to socialist ideas, which can challenge the existing order and lead the way to a new society? Why can’t workers, who make  make history and remake society, remake themselves? If they perform all kinds of jobs for the profiteers, why can’t they do their own jobs? If they wage and win wars for the imperialist rulers, why can’t they conduct a class war in defense of their own interests?

The will to win is an indispensable factor in the way to win. The working class can go forward to victory only as they become convinced that the ruling class are not born to command, that they are leading the world to catastrophe, that they are not omnipotent and unbeatable, that their system of exploitation is not everlasting but has to go and can be abolished. This is the message of Marxism. It teaches that the workers can and must supplant the plutocrats and oligarchs as the directors and organisers of economic and political life and become the pioneers of the first truly human society. Nothing less than the very survival of the world depend on the achievement of socialism.

A Happy Childhood?

A constant feature of many TV ads is the depiction of happy families and contented children, but for many children the reality is far from the advertisers fantasy. 'The prison population has doubled from 41,800 in 1993 to 84,000 today. In our macho times, the courts incarcerate vast numbers of minor offenders - 37,527 served sentence of six months or less in 2013. The judiciary's treatment of women is particularly scandalous. Sixty per cent of all women in prison in 2013 were incarcerated for minor offences. ....... Today, some 200,000 children a year in England and Wales have a parent in jail.' (Observer, 1 June) With a mother or father in jail the lives of many children must be far from idyllic. RD

Socialism is Revolution

The vast majority of people in society to-day are at the mercy of business-men. Capitalism and its agents are governed by the law of production for profit irrespective of the needs of the people. The criteria of all capitalist enterprises are to make a profit. Their calculations are determined by the market. This race for profit ends in a crisis; and then they try to get out of the crisis—at our expense. Throughout the world, without exception, the picture is one of increasing chaos and crisis. The capitalist system is paralysed as never before. Great numbers of workers have been thrown into unemployment and destitution. The standards of living of the most have declined. The ruling class is to try to find a way out of the crisis by throwing its burden upon the shoulders of the working class. If the capitalists have callously forced working people into austerity conditions they have, however, very carefully looked after their own interests. Every appeal of the bankers and industrialists to the government for assistance has met with immediate response and have been shielded from the economic effects of their own bankruptcy.

Workers must face the fact that all capitalism has to offer them to-day is poverty, low wages, and unemployment.  They, nor their families,  have any hope or future under capitalism. There is no need for a single worker to be overworked or in dread of losing his job; no reason why an unemployed worker should lack the necessaries of life. All over the world workers are coming to realise that nothing except the existence of capitalism prevents them building a decent and secure world. But to get this, capitalism must be overthrown. Workers have the power to overthrow capitalism from the very moment that they unite and resist. It will mean that the employers will be deprived of their ownership and control of the factories, mills and mines, shipyards and all the rest of the means of production which they have misused only to make profits for themselves and pile on the poverty for the workers . The workers will end of production for profit and will carry on production for use. The needs of all will be met, and new needs and pleasures now denied to the working class will be created and satisfied by a socialist organisation. We have to-day ample resources for producing all the things we need. Workers will know that greater productivity created by the new technology will no longer be a threat to their livelihood but will make it possible to raise the whole standard of living and shorten the hours of labour.

All over the world there grows a brooding fear of revolution. Oligarchs and plutocrats are busy ensuring that they maintain control of their governments, through financing political parties or imposing dictatorships via “palace revolutions” when elections have failed to go their way. The likes of the Koch brothers tremble with dread at the prospect of revolution. The revolutionary upsurge of the workers is worldwide. It varies in intensity from intensified strike movements to actual struggles for power. Its tempo is greatly increased by the deepening of the capitalist crisis. Workers, faced by worsening conditions are exhibiting the characteristic signs of radicalisation. There is a revolutionary storm brewing. Capitalism has created the objective conditions for Socialism. But it can go no further. It has become an obstacle in the continuing evolution of humanity. Capitalism has provided its own executioners and grave diggers, the  workers. They are freeing themselves from the illusion that capitalism provides the way to prosperity.

Socialism revolutionises the aim of production from production for profitable sale to production for social use. In so doing it frees humanity from the narrow limits of capitalist economy. Socialism abolishes the chaos and anarchy of capitalist production and social organization; it does away with the dog-eat-dog competition of capitalist commerce. It sets up instead a planned system of economy in harmony with social relationships. Instead of a profit-making apparatus to fatten a few while millions suffer, socialism is for the benefit of all. Under capitalism everywhere wealth piles up automatically in the hands of the parasitic owners of the industries, while the actual producers live at subsistence levels. The workers everywhere are beginning to understand and penetrate the lies of capitalism.

Reading Notes

In "1493", author, Charles C. Mann examines the interchange of world cultures, resources, food, people, and more after Columbus. He writes, "Consider the seventeenth century English entrepreneurs who wanted to make money in North America… [They chose tobacco plantations]. To do that, they would have to take down huge trees with hand tools; break up soil under the hot sun; hoe, water, and top the growing plants [and so on]… Where could the colonists acquire it [Labour]? Before answering this question, make the assumption, abundantly justified, that the colonists have few moral scruples [although devoutly religious!] about the answer and are only concerned with maximizing ease and profit." [They chose African slaves, of course ]. How little things have changed in the ensuing three hundred years – same system, same results! John Ayers. [Comments in brackets added by me]

Food For Thought

In the last week of March, the Ministry of Labour ordered the magazines"Toronto Life" and " The Walrus" to shut down their internship programs because, by not paying them, they were in violation of the Employment Standards Act relating to wages. Instead of paying them, the interns were let go, so the choice was work for free or get out! John Ayers.

Attacking The Environment

An article in the Spring Imagine showed how Canada's government has silenced environmental science to suit its own ideology. The Australian government is up to the same game. One day after Tony Abbot became Prime Minister, Tim Flannery, a world- renowned scientist and writer, lost his job on the country's climate commission. Since then, the government has gutted the country's carbon tax, put the Clean Energy Finance Corporation on its hit list, approved development on The Great Barrier Reef's World Heritage Area, and killed the portfolio of science minister for the first time since it was created in 1931. Even the web site of the Climate Commission and its three years of useful information were taken down. It is obvious that little or nothing is being done or will be done to avert climate change disaster. John Ayers.

Charging For Fresh Air!

We always said that one day there would be a charge for breathing in air,but would anyone actually pay? The answer is yes and to make it viable all you have to do is pollute the air so badly that people will line up for a breath of fresh air. Mountain air, in blue pillow-sized bags, has been available on the streets of Zhenzhou, China because the air there is so polluted. Recently, the city's air quality index hit 158. (anything above 100 is considered "poor' and compares with Toronto's air the same week at 19 – Ok, so all of our industry has moved to China!). The Toronto Star article does not mention any payment but in this system, there are costs to trapping mountain air and bringing it to market! John Ayers.

Let's Change the World

‘Something must be done about hunger'…'Something must be done about global warming'…..'Something must be done about war ...Something must be done... And so it goes on, a litany of pleas for something to be done about an almost endless list of social problems.

Socialism, based upon the planned organisation of production for use by means of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production, is the abolition of all classes and class differences. Without production, society cannot live. One class—the capitalist class—owns and controls the economic resources of the world. That class, for its own protection and perpetuation in power, subjects all institutions to its own interests. The Socialist Party appeals to the world’s workers upon the lines of THEIR their class interests.  The Socialist Party counts among the world’s workers all those who labour with hand or brain in the production of life’s necessities and luxuries.  In regards the interests of the owners of industry and commerce the Socialist Party have no concern whatsoever, except to abolish that ownership. People are not puppets in that they are beings endowed with certain wants and impulses, with certain physical and mental powers which they will seek to use in their own interest. Conditions will compel the exploited classes to rise against this system of private ownership.

For hundred of years the possessing classes have been trying to prevent revolution. Social reform is the name they give to their perpetual tinkerings to remove this or that ill effect of private property, without touching private property itself. Cures have been recommended and applied but all the so-called  panaceas of our political quacks which are to heal the old social sores quickly, without pain and without expense, are, upon closer inspection, discovered to be but a revival of old devices, all of which have been tried before in other places and found worthless.

The Socialist Party’s aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede unregulated competition. Our goal is a socialist world based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. The Socialist Party is the party of the dispossessed with the object to build a new world.

We need socialism because 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. Half-measures of government intervention—tampering with monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate investment and spending—has proven bankrupt. Legislative reforms, aimed at the blatant abuses of corporate power, have failed .Welfare-state policies although won by hard struggles, have done little to correct deep-rooted structural social inequality. Even well-intentioned governments have buckled under economic pressure, and passed vicious legislation and  slashed social services to trample the basic rights of workers. Capitalism has failed us, and so have efforts to fix it. From the ruling class  the cry is “to cut.” Everything is to be “to be cut.” What is everything? Is it to be the military adventures abroad, the luxuries of the rich, their mansions, their private healthcare, their Public Schools? No. What is to be “ to be cut ” is the worker’s education, the worker’s housing, the workers hospitals. Above all, wages are to be cut. Reforms have now become “impossible” and even past achievements and gains are being  rolled back. “We can’t afford these luxuries any more” is the complaint from the rich. As people find themselves suffering hard times, it is “everyone for themselves”. We begin to blame eachother, turning on one another.

The socialist revolution is, however, the struggle for the overthrow of the system which allows profit to monopolise the supply of the community’s needs.  Everything has to be reorganised and built up on a new basis; a basis of production for use, not for profit. Everyone has new hopes and desires, new claims upon life and the community, more pleasure, more leisure.  Everyone, too, is demanding a new share in deciding how things shall be done. The only people who could deal with revolutionary change and its new requirements are the people, all interlinked by bonds of family, friendship and fraternity as they are, who are actually engaged in the making every product. It will be by the co-operative effort of the countless members of the community that our world will be transformed.

Fact is, the capitalist system and its various layers of control and exploitation will not stop until we make it stop! While issuing demands and raising voices is necessary, the harsh reality is the needs of the people have continued to be ignored.  Capitalism couldn’t care less about the needs of the oppressed. Capitalism in all its manifestations must be abolished.

The Patriotic Illusion

Deluded workers in the USA might puff out their chests and with patriotic fervour sing "Home of the brave and land of the free", but this is complete nonsense. 'Americans are born free but everywhere they are in chains. More than two million are locked up - making America easily the world' biggest jailer, with a quarter of all incarcerated human beings on earth.' (Times, 30 May) That is the fate for many of those patriotic Americans - exploitation and incarceration. RD

Hookers And Pushers

Usually governments are eager to point to any economic growth in any industry and make claims that their wise governance has led to this growth, but the present government has remained strangely quiet about two recently booming industries. 'Drugs and prostitutes to boost economy by £10bn. ..... After an overhaul of the national accounts to meet a diktat from Brussels, the Office for National Statistics will for the first time this year include drugs and prostitution in its estimate of the size of the economy.' (Times, 30 May) The increased productivity of illegal drug pushers and hookers is one area that the government  makes no claims about. RD

Understanding Capitalism

We cannot understand the world and our part in it with the education we receive. Our ideas have to correspond to reality if we are to organise to fight against this brutal capitalist system. We have beliefs based on our understanding and analysis of the world situation and we put those ideas forward for debate.

Capitalism is built on deliberate misinformation and strange fantasies. Capitalist apologists deny inconvenient facts to justify their beliefs, and outright lie, if it suits their agenda. A private property world can never be a free world. A society based upon warring classes is a world of strife and hate. To set the working class thinking for themselves, and to hold before them the ideal of mutual aid  based upon mutual interests, is to render real service to the cause of humanity. Our political platform demands from society the satisfaction of all reasonable human needs. Our opponents want us to elaborate clearly the practicalities of that idea. They don’t like our critical attitude. We should  show how it could be done but of course, not in a serious, not in a palpable and practical way, but on paper, by means of harmless theories and ideal descriptions. Our constant propaganda, our clearing away of prejudices will effect much more than all speculation about the future state of society. Its general outline is already given by the present actual nature of things. The determination of its specific forms and details must be left to future times.

Capitalism is a system in which there are different classes—exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. The interests of these two classes are clearly opposed. The exploiters try to increase the exploitation of the workers as much as possible in order to increase their profits. The exploited try to limit this exploitation, and to get back as much of the wealth as possible of which they have been robbed. The ending of the exploitation, the cruelty and injustice caused by class society in its various forms, has long been the dream of men. It found expression in the, in the writings of men like John Ball, the Levellers and Gerald Winstanley, the co-operative movement and Robert Owen and the Chartists. But so long as modern, large-scale production did not exist, the  end of the exploitation of man by man could remain only a dream. It was capitalism, in the search for greater profits, which mastered natural forces expanded the production of goods on an enormous scale, united the scattered, individual production of men into highly developed, large-scale factory production, thus establishing the basis on which socialism can be built. The age-long dream of the thinkers and the fighters of the past can only be transformed into reality when the working class wages the struggle to take political and economic power from the capitalist class and sets about building a socialist society.

The means of production—the factories, mines, land, and transport are taken away from the  capitalists. They are transformed into social property. This means that they belong to and are worked by the whole of the people, that the fruits of production likewise become social property, used to advance the standard of life of the people. No longer can some men (the capitalists) by virtue of the fact that they own the means of production, live off (exploit) the labour of others (the working class). No longer are. the workers compelled to sell their labour power to the capitalists in order to live. The workers are no longer property-less proletarians. They now collectively own the means of production and work them in their own interests and in the interests of society. Socialism is organised on the basis of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. This means the greatest advance in human history of all time.Socialism cannot be imposed on the people from above. It develops from below.

Common ownership ends exploitation of man by man because it is through private ownership of the factories, mills and mines, and land that the wealthy minority exploit the people. The solution is to end the private ownership of the means of production and replace it with social ownership and production planned to meet the people’s needs, that is, socialism.

The Earth, the Sun, the soil and seas, and the people are power enough to satisfy all reasonable needs of the masses. Socialism does not seek to establish eternal laws, permanent institutions or unchangeable forms; it seeks in general the salvation of mankind. The indispensable means toward attaining that object is mental enlightenment.

There can be no question that every socialist should defend every democratic right won in the course of the long years of struggle. There can be no question of every socialist to defend everything within the constitution of whatever country which will facilitate a peaceful revolution on the basis of popular consent to majority rule. But does this mean that the similarity of socialist and capitalist constitutions is such that there is no difference? That capitalist and socialist democracy are the same? The most basic proposition of socialists is that capitalism, even in its liberal democratic forms, remains a system of domination and exploitation. It is a system which involves a concentration of economic power, based on the private ownership. A fear exists amongst the moguls and magnates of capital that a democratic onslaught of the working class against their privileges and powers of exploitation may dispossess them.

Unable to break up organised labour by a frontal assault, Big Business is seeking to weaken and undermine the unions by legislative means. The main front of the war upon the labour movement is now concentrated on the political field where the capitalist rulers are strongest and workers are so pitifully weak. It is clear to every realistic observer of politics that the post-war era of reforms is dead and buried. The political agents of the employers are today driving in the opposite direction. Their programme, dictated by the needs of capitalism to master the world and to degrade the living standards of workers must become increasingly  dictatorial. Instead of conceding new concessions to the people, the capitalists have resolved to withdraw the old ones wherever they can. Added to this, the submissive attitude of some union leaders makes the capitalists more arrogant and contemptuous and all the more determined to crush the workers’ organisations. And it helps sow confusion and demoralisation in the ranks of the workers.

The Socialist Alternative

Amongst  the million words that have been spewed over the airwaves during the recent elections it is good to report at least one sensible message amongst the usual reformist nonsense. 'The leaderless Socialist Party of Great Britain wants "real socialism" and claims mainstream  parties break promises and accept an unfair society. Candidate Brian Johnson said: "What the Socialist Party stands for is a stateless, classless, leaderless world, a world without money, free access to the means of living and production for use on a global scale. "Such a system is not going to operate just purely at a national or European scale. We're looking far beyond Europe, we're looking at the globe in its fullest perspective."' (BBC News Wales, 5 May) RD

A First Class Flight

Next time you and your family cram yourself on to a cut-rate cheap flight to Spain for your family holiday remind yourself that it doesn't have to be such a grim experience. There are better ways to travel. 'Etihad Airways has unveiled an ultra-elite new class of service that includes The Residence - a lavish seven-star cabin on the A380 - scheduled to launch in December in addition to First Apartments (which are exactly what they sound like). The Residence contains three rooms (living room, bedroom, and bathroom), a butler trained by the Savoy in London, and a dedicated VIP concierge team.' (Yahoo Travel, 5 May) There is one small drawback we should mention. The above flight from  Abu Dhabi to London start at $20,000 one way. RD

Same old story from 1925

Confusion in Scotland From the October 1925 issue of the Socialist Standard A correspondent sends us the Manifesto of the Scottish Workers' Republican Party, and asks for our opinion of it. The object of the Party, founded by the late John Maclean is a Workers' Republic for Scotland. The Manifesto sets out the slave position of the working class, and urges that the workers must carry through the Social Revolution. The chief fallacy of their position is their insistence upon a Scottish Workers' Republic. This demand is both reactionary and Utopian. The struggle of the workers of the United Kingdom must be a united one. The workers are under the domination of a class who rule by the use of a political machine, which is the chief governing instrument for England, Scotland, Wales, etc. To appeal to the workers of Scotland for a Scottish Workers' Republic is to arouse and foster the narrow spirit of Nationalism, so well used by our masters. Economically the demand is Utopian, as the development of capitalism has made countries more and more dependent on each other, both through the specialisation of industry or agriculture, and also by the force controlled by the Great Powers to suppress or control the smaller nations. The history of "independent" Hungary, Poland, and the Balkan States shows that the realisation of "political independence" by a country leaves the workers' conditions untouched and actually worsens them in many cases. The appeal to the worker in this Manifesto to "rally to the cause of a Workers' Republic for Scotland" is made "so that we might win you away from the service of the imperialist gang who direct their activities from London." If the worker is to be won for Socialism, it is by getting him to understand the principles of Socialism, and not by appealing to him to concentrate on Scottish affairs. Socialism is international. The uselessness of the Manifesto is shown by their anarchist attitude towards Parliament :- "We claim that no useful working-class purpose can be served by sending men to Parliament." They advance no arguments to support their claim. They offer no other method. They ignore the fact that the political machine is the instrument whereby capitalists wield power. Their simple statement is that the workers can exercise "governmental power" because they are the only necessary class in society. It is very simple. But what are the obstacles to this necessary class exercising the power of government? The first obstacle is working-class ignorance, which is used to vote capitalists and their agents into political supremacy. The second obstacle is the force which is used by the capitalists in control of Parliament to keep the workers in subjection. The stupidity of preaching that because the workers are necessary to Scotland they can exercise governmental control is to invite the butchery of the workers. Socialist education demands that besides advocating the establishment of Socialism, the obstacles that stand in its path must be pointed out, in order that the workers can march along the road to their supremacy. This Manifesto does not explain how the workers are kept in slavery, and it offers no road out of it. The meaning of the class struggle has yet to be learned by the Scottish Workers' Republican Party, The Manifesto closes with this gem: "Scotland for the Scottish Workers; the World for the World's Workers"! A. Kohn

For Working Class Independence

We accept neither the Union Jack nor the Saltire,
For the workers unity grow stronger everyday.
One weapon that we need is the peoples’ unity,
And we’ll build socialism from sea to sea.

 Nationalism is indeed reactionary because it serves the preservation of existing power relations once they have been successfully implemented. The rise of nationalism was the capitalist class way of routing feudalism during the rise of capitalism. Capitalism was the great integrating force that broke down the barriers of feudalism. From the very beginning, therefore, the nation was a particular development of class struggle. In its origin, the fight for the nation was fundamentally a question of whether political power would rest in the hands of the new class of merchants in the sea-ports or remain with the aristocratic land-owners – could the rising capitalist class overthrow the feudal state, replacing it with their own particular state form, ruling over a creation that was essentially their own: the capitalist nation.

Marx and Engels supported certain nationalist struggles on the basis that it would help further development of the capitalist mode of production and opposed others which would retard that development. However, capitalism has now spread to every corner of the globe and every country is ruled by the laws of capitalism whether they like it or not.

 Every country is a capitalist country in this day and age for the simple fact that to survive, they must play by the rules of the capitalist system. If a nation is no longer exploited, in order for the national bourgeoisie to continue existing, they must exploit other nations. The fact that an oppressed nation is no longer dominated by American capital (lets face it, in most cases anti-imperialism is actually often another name for anti-Americanism) doesn't make the socialist revolution closer by one single step. Organising around "the nation" instead of your class is inherently class collaborationist, and doesn't advance working class liberation a single step. Whether foreign or local, all employers have the same interests and their relationship towards the workers is no different. Foreign or local, it is the same struggle.

Nationalism is a crucial means of suppressing the animousity between workers and employers so that the working class would put aside its “sectional” class interests and instead identify with the business and the nation’s interests. The unity of the nation becomes the lofty goal to which all special group and class interests have to be subordinated. We are lectured that what is good for the economy is good for the worker.

Capitalism, due to its competitive nature, breeds the narrow and intolerant spirit of nationalism. This is caused by the fact that the capitalist class of the various nations, in seeking profits in foreign markets, have to depend upon their national States to back them up. Capitalism created the nation-state and the interdependence of world economy as one single unit  but in a contradictory fashion. On the one hand the capitalist nations are dependent on one another. But on the other hand they compete against one another. America doesn't invade and make war on countries or overthrow foreign leaders to replace them with leaders favourable to American capital because America is mean-spirited. It is because America is the home of the greatest concentration of capital, especially finance capital, and in order to survive the ruling class MUST do these things. China is the biggest threat to American imperialism today not because of its supposed Maoist socialist ideology but as a capitalist competitor in the control of cheap labour, raw materials and world finance.

It is the propaganda of the employers and their allies that promotes national chauvinism, the idea that people of one nation are superior to the people of other nations. This is the same national chauvinism that, along with male chauvinism, is used to promote divisions among workers in this country. It is national chauvinism, a false patriotism, that in effect advocates that workers from the various nations should compete with one another for the sake of profits ... profits that go to the very people who exploit all workers! We oppose those ideas that seek to divide the peoples of the nations! The worldwide struggle for socialism is also a worldwide struggle. The unity of all workers, across national boundaries, is truly celebrated with the Internationale not the Flower of Scotland.

Nations and the concept of nationhood are not eternal phenomena that have always existed. New ones have arisen, old ones have disappeared. National states did not exist before or under feudalism, for feudal conditions were not conducive to the development of large national communities. Oh, we know the instant response - What about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the Wars of Independence (wars are named by historians many years later to fit in with a desired image). The power in these times was the king and he demanded the fidelity of the nobility. The Scottish peasantry that made up the foot soldiers of any Scottish army fought not for the king, certainly not for his nation, but his clan chief. A look at Scottish civil wars will demonstrate that loyalty to ones clan came before obedience to the crown.

For left nationalists, though, independence and “socialism” go together and that this struggle must be waged simultaneously. But if they speak so often of independence it’s because, according to their logic, independence is essential to socialism and in fact, some rank it high above socialism. They put the question of socialism on ice. They shelve the question of socialism and replace it with immediate struggles and demands for reforms. Many of the Trotskyist groups, for example, have become Scottish separatists. The Trotskyists say they want to “radicalise” the movement for independence yet the SSP convenor sits alongside business leaders in the Yes campaign. One telling characteristic of Trotskyists is that, though they are forever dividing, they always end up uniting to divide the working class movement. They become in favour of Scottish independence because this point of view is currently quite popular among Scots but also because they believe that it is an easier way that they can enter through the back-door of various organisations, a favourite technique of taking control. As far as they are concerned the working class is too retarded to take up the socialist struggle. It needs a transitional programme of wishful promises. When they recommend national independence they merely pass a capitalist tool of exploitation from the hands of a foreign corporations to those of a Scottish boss.

The argument that the Scottish people will benefit more from independence is a fallacy. It is as if the folk in Edinburgh’s Niddrie or Pilton benefit by having the financial centre of Charlotte Square on their doorstep. It is the question of who owns and controls these resources which matters: otherwise the argument becomes one of whether we want our exploiters to have an English or Scottish accent, or a mid-Atlantic drawl. A Yes vote at the referendum is simply handing the keys of Scotland Inc. to its Edinburgh offices. We should not over-look the fact that the savagery of establishing capitalism in Scotland were perpetrated by Scot upon their fellow

 None of our natural resources will be put to a sensible or beneficial use until the working class itself has gained control of the use of these valuable and irreplaceable resources. No socialist would suggest that the idea of one world state/government would be desirable or practicable but a network of cooperating yet autonomous geographical local communes, districts and regions with bottom-up structures alongside federated industrial unions of workers’ councils is a feasible possibility beyond the concept of nations.

Food For Thought

On Monday, March 24, an Egyptian court sentenced 529 people to death because of an attack on a police station that left one policeman dead. The court held two sessions. In the first, the judge shouted down requests for defence lawyers to review the prosecution's case. In the second, security guards barred lawyers from the court on the orders of the judge. About 150 people were tried in absentia. The accused were said to be supporters of ousted president, Mohammed Morsi. Meanwhile, the Egyptian foreign ministry said, " The country's judiciary is entirely independent as it is not influenced in any way by the executive branch of the government. This shows that a change of government has changed nothing and human rights are still being trampled on. A fundamental change from the capitalist relations is the only change that is needed, not more of the same, John Ayers.

Bloated Prisons

"Among the casualties of a failed war on drugs that has spanned more than three decades are bloated prisons that cost the nation nearly $90 billion a year. With only five per cent of the world's population, the United States holds twenty-five per cent of its prisoners; more than two million people are locked up in this country" (Toronto Star, March 29). The proposed solution is to reduce sentences for non-violent crimes. The real answer, of course, is to take the money out of the equation and have a sensible policy for dealing with the drug problem – can't happen in this system. John Ayers.

Political Hypocrisy

Politicians love to portray themselves as great lovers of the family and never avoid the chance to be photographed by the press kissing babies, but behind this comforting image lurks a grim reality. Five million children in Britain could be "sentenced to a lifetime of poverty" by 2020 because of welfare reforms, according to research from Save the Children. 'Cuts to benefits, the rising cost of living and years of flat wages have created a "triple whammy" for children, the charity said. It argues that children have borne the brunt of the recession in Britain, and now represent the "face of poverty" in the UK. Policies such as the "bedroom tax"combined with the slashing of tax credits and council tax relief mean "the social safety net no longer acts as a sufficient backstop for poor families", claims the Save the Children report.' (Independent, 28 May) RD

Against Nationalism

Socialists are internationalists. They understand that national oppression is just one particular aspect of the outrages of capitalism and that national oppression cannot be ended until the elimination of class exploitation. It is nationalism that can divide the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. It is nationalism that can pit groups of workers against each other, while their mutual oppressors make off with both their purses for sun and fun. Nationalism means exclusiveness and implies that ones own people are better than all others. Nationalism is part of the capitalist ideology which developed with the emergence of nations and the rise and development of capitalism. The concept of nationalism is a historical category. It grew up in the epoch of the rise of capitalism and the overthrow of feudalism. The ascending capitalists were then the revolutionary class, and bourgeois ideology, including nationalism, was progressive. This ideology played a progressive role essentially in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, i.e., in the classical period of bourgeois-democratic revolution of the pre-industrial era. It was a powerful ideological and political weapon against reactionary feudal forces, the native or foreign absolute monarchs and their retainers, who resisted their emergence.

Nationalism preaches to the people of a nation or national group that regardless of class they have more in common with one another than they do with the people of other nations Nationalism helps bind the working class to the employing class of its nation. Nationalism serves the capitalist in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods, and their national market is always primary. And nationalism serves to secure to the native business-man his domestic market. “National interest” is called upon to stifle class struggle. The universal idea of independent organisation of the working class, of the autonomous class goals followed by workers in the class struggle, of international class solidarity of the workers of all countries and all nationalities, is opposed to the idea of national solidarity. Nationalism is a thoroughly deceptive and mystifying ideology to prevent or retard independent class organisation and class struggle by the workers.

Ironically nationalism ultimately does not serve the real interests of the mass of that nationality or serve the nation. Experience has repeatedly shown that the national bourgeoisie will betray the people every time. This is true and has been proven correct over  and over again. Nationalism delivers the people into the hands of the exploiters of their own nationality.

The growth of Scottish nationalism has been born out of frustration. The programme of the SNP is blaming the problems of the Scottish people on "the English".  The fact that it has certain "radical" policies is neither here nor there. The idea that Scotland would be able to enjoy a genuine independence under conditions of international capitalism is false, so much so that the SNP have long talked of "Independence in Europe". All national states, no matter how big and powerful, are subordinate to the world market.

Since when is the working class worried by the trade problems of its own native employers? Since when do socialists counterpose solidarity with the business interests of their own employers to international solidarity of the workers of all competing capitalist countries, against all capitalist competitors?  Is the “independent” capital accumulation by Scottish employers a “lesser evil” as against English or European or American owners appropriation of workers surplus value?

The role of socialists is to defend and promote the interests of  the working class. The destruction of capitalism is the workers struggle and its victory is a new world not a new nation. While supporting the aspirations of people for greater control over their lives, the task of socialists is to combat the divisive nature of nationalism. Socialists must tell the workers the truth. And the truth is that nationalism (no matter how it is dressed up in "socialist" garb) represents no way forward for the working people. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. An independent capitalist Scotland would not solve a single problem facing the working class. The problems of the Scottish workers flow not from being linked to England, as the nationalists argue, but because of the crises of capitalism which weighs just as heavily on the workers and their families across all borders. The exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nation, colour, creed, sex or language. It is essential to struggle against any attempt to divide the workers' movement along national, religious or sectarian lines. One cannot fight nationalism by pandering to nationalist and separatist prejudices. It is the task of socialists to sweep away the national barriers, not erect new ones.

We oppose all the agents of the ruling class and all the policies that are designed to help the ruling class. Left nationalists capitulate to nationalism and say “revolutionary parties” should represent only a section of the working class and be organised along national lines, and not united class lines. The Left nationalists deal with the question of Scottish nationalism exclusively from the point of view of political forces as they are – or more correctly: as they appear to be – to-day. But in the coming years, there will be many shifts and upheavals in Scotland’s and Britain’s political life, some of momentous character, as the class struggle sharpens and the crises of capitalism deepen. The main purposes of the Socialist Party’s education is to raise the level of class consciousness of the working class, not to fix the Party’s position by the present level of workers’ consciousness. Our Party case must reflect our socialist aspiration not the current backwardness of the working class.

In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels insisted that ‘the working men have no country’. They argued that the nation state was alien to the interests of the proletariat and that in order to advance their interests workers must ‘settle matters’ with the bourgeoisie of each state, that workers must challenge the power of their ‘own’ capitalist class directly.  This opened the possibility of internationalism – assertion of ‘the common interests of the whole proletariat, independently of all nationality’. Internationalism implied uncompromising opposition to the local state and its dealings with the rulers of other capitalisms – other members of the ‘band of warring brothers’ that constituted the bourgeoisie at a world level. It also implied practical activity by workers to organise in mutual solidarity across national borders and in solidarity with those subordinated by colonial powers. This was not a merely a matter of abstract identification with the oppressed. Marx maintained that workers must free themselves of patriotism and national superiority in their own interests, for without discarding these aspects of ruling class ideas they would never themselves be free. Marx and Engels maintained this approach throughout their political activities.  It was also the position taken by others who made a major contribution to Marxist theory such as Rosa Luxemburg.

Nationalism ties the working people to their own ruling class; world socialism unites the working people of the world against their rulers. Class unity must be established between the oppressed and exploited regardless of nationality and race. Marx said “labour in the white skin can not be free as long as labour in the black skin is branded.” And in referring to the need to overcome the hostile attitude of the English worker towards the Irish workers, Marx wrote: “He...turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself.”

Socialists do not fan the flames of nationalism that further divisions between the working class. The Socialist Party promotes working class internationalism to unite the workers of the world.

Recession What Recession?

A couple of recent news items illustrate the immense wealth of the world-wide owning class even in a period of so-called economic recession. 'The world's most expensive flat has reportedly been sold in London for £140m. According to Property Week, the penthouse in the One Hyde Park development was snapped up by an eastern European buyer.' (International Business Times, 2 May) 'A hedge fund manager has plunked down the most money ever paid in the U.S. for a residential property to land a massive seaside estate in the Hamptons. The East Hampton property was bought by Jana Partners hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein for a staggering $147million smashed the previous record of $120million paid for a Greenwich, Connecticut home only two weeks ago.' (Daily Mail,3 May) No worries about a "bed room tax" here! RD

The triumph of socialism

The revolutionary hope of our class has once more found an awakening, with stirrings of renewed struggle. But an opportunity must be grasped or it will not be realised. People require revolution. But revolution needs organisation. Two paths are open to the workers. One is the path of class struggle; the other is the path of class collaboration. Common among people are a number of illusions preventing them from seeing the underlying cause of their problems and from looking toward a socialist solution. One of the most dangerous of these illusions concerns the idea of national interest, which in reality is the interest of the capitalists and their servants, not the people and  designed to protect the money and property of Big Business.  

People are coming to understand things, but their understanding proceeds slowly in the face of the almost total control of the press, radio, and television by the capitalist class. Socialists refute the lie that capitalism can provide individual freedom. What is called bourgeois democracy is the only exploitative system in which the political power (to form political parties, right to vote, to stand for election) are not the monopoly of the ruling class. Theoretically, the working class have the legal right to use their majority of ballots in any way they choose. Therefore, it is even more essential for the capitalist class than it was for the ancient slave-owners or medieval nobility to convince the masses of people that the state rules on behalf of all citizens. The more potential political power the oppressed possess, the more urgent it is for the ruling class to insure that that potential power is not transformed into actual power. In many countries this is assured chiefly by the myth that fundamental differences exist between and divide the two major parties. 

Many dismiss the revolutionary potential of the working class and advance false notions such as workers because they have secured a high level of wages and because real wages continue to rise steadily have acquiesced to a capitalist existence (which the recent recession and downturn in living standards has now disproved); that union leaders have been bought off and turned into  partners in plunder who head-off industrial struggles (again events around the world have exposed that this is an exaggeration); that automation, technological change is constantly reducing the work force and thereby destroying the working class as a vital revolutionary force (the impact is simply re-focusing the participants involved in struggles, presently fast-food and the low paid sectors); that poverty is not a real factor and, at best, afflicts only a small section of an underclass; that, in any case, impoverished people are too downtrodden and demoralised to play an important revolutionary role (and this too is shown to be mistaken as the so-called skilled  workers and “middle class” are hit by austerity cuts.) 

These ideas have led many radicals to believe that the working class is thoroughly corrupt, or completely dominated by the ruling class through the collaboration of the union bureaucrats. They have also led many to think that the workers are essentially stupid or dulled by society. The conclusion is that the struggle for social change must center on the “more enlightened sections” of the working class and on its “revolutionary" leaders, rather than the broad masses of working people. For sure, the media are busy spewing forth the line of the ruling class  to brain-wash the oppressed of the omnipotence, and invincibility of the oppressor. When members of the Left demand to be the vanguard leaders of the workers’ movement the status quo supporters, the professors and journalists, are only to happy to reinforce the misconceptions and undermine workers self confidence in their own capabilities and power. 

The capitalist class has done a magnificent job of obscuring the facts about poverty and about the actual conditions of the working class in general. It has fostered the illusion that there are only isolated pockets of poverty, and that poverty therefore is a personal failing. It has convinced a large section of workers to believe the tale that other workers, particularly in the state sector are for the most part, over-paid and privileged parasites because of powerful union protection. But slowly but surely these attitudes are changing. People are recognising aordinary average workers are suffering equally in this recession while the wealthy and powerful are benefiting. Unskilled and skilled are being replaced by new technology or finding their work out-sourced abroad. Millions are finding through short periods of unemployment that is growing longer in duration, and millions who once worked full time with company benefits are being told to work part-time with no sick or holiday pay that they have more in common than they previous held. They are discovering that the government, regardless of who is in office, is not a neutral arbitrator but the representative of the employers. The capitalist class, locked in a competition battle on a world scale with other employers, are forced more and more to refuse concessions to its workers. This creates the conditions for wider and wider sections of the working class to lose their illusions about the role of the State. The intensification of the class struggle leads to a greater politicalisation of the working class. Independent political movement on the part workers for freedom will lead to direct conflict with the ruling class. The working class is the only class that has the potential power for defeating capitalism. 

The Socialist Party will encourage every  tendency among the people to defend and resist employers. The Socialist Party will attempt to unify working people into a mighty avalanche that can unite with their fellow workers the world over to final victory over capitalism.

Thirteen Avoidable Deaths

At a recent meeting of a US government sub committee, General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, was asked why it took the company ten years to fix a defective ignition switch that caused thirteen deaths and would have cost 57c to fix. A small spring inside the switch failed to provide enough force causing engines to turn off when they went over a bump. Since February, General Motors has recalled 2.6 million cars over the faulty switch. Mrs Barra hesitated to give a definitive answer but the truth is obvious – as long as capitalists are selling products for profit, making money is more important than safety. We need a society that puts safety first. John Ayers

Human rights mean the right to be human

The Socialist Party strives for the triumph of the social revolution and argues that advances of human society in economy, science, technology and standards of civic life have already created the material conditions necessary to set up a free society without classes, exploitation and oppression, i.e. a world socialist community. It is useless attempting to confine socialism to its bare economic formula. People insist on knowing what its outlook is on the other aspects of human life.

 Apologists for capitalism claim that respect for individual and civil rights is a hallmark and a lynchpin of their system. The truth is that out of the  billions of people who live under the rule of capital today, only a fraction, and that only in a handful of countries, can be said to enjoy any sort of stipulated and fairly stable individual and civil rights. The lot of the overwhelming majority of people in the capitalist world is a more or less absolute lack of political rights, despotic regimes and organised state terrorism and violence.

But even in the industrialised countries of Western Europe and North America these rights are merely a fraction of rights and liberties that people demand and deserve today. Moreover, the economic subjugation of working people by capital and the direct relation that exists between civil rights, on the one hand, and property, on the other, make these rights devoid of any real or serious meaning. Besides, the experience of people in these countries during times of economic crisis clearly shows that the survival of even these nominal rights directly corresponds to the economic circumstances of the capitalist class, and that they readily come under attack whenever they have got in the way of profitability and accumulation of capital.

Genuine individual and civil liberties can only be realised in a society that is itself free. By eliminating class and economic subjugation, the social revolution will open the way for the most far-reaching freedoms and opportunities for the individual's self-expression in the various domains of life.

In this capitalist society religion will never die out. This is, above all, an age of fear, and fear and superstition are age-long twins. Only the social revolution will destroy religion by abolishing its effective causes. Today gods and capitalists stand together: Tomorrow, gods and capitalists will fall together.

Human equality is a central concept and a basic principle of the free socialist society that must be founded with the abolition of the class exploitative system of capitalism. Socialist equality is a concept much wider than mere equality before the law. Socialists equality is the real equality of all people in economic, social and political domains. Equality not only in political rights but also in the enjoyment of material resources and the products of humanity's collective effort; equality in social status and economic relations; equality not only before the law but in the relations of people with each other. Socialist equality, which is at the same time the necessary condition for the development of people's different abilities and talents and for society's material and intellectual vitality, can only be realised by ending the division of people into classes. Class society by definition cannot be an equal and free society.

As long as capital dominates human society, as long as people have to sell their labour power to the owners of means of production and work for capital in order to make a living, and as long as the system of wage-labour and the buying and selling of human labour power survives, no labour law, no matter how many clauses it contains in favour of workers, will truly free labour. They who buy and they who sell in the labour market are alike de-humanised by the traffic of human beings. The workers' true freedom is the abolition of the wages system and the creation of a society where all contribute, voluntarily and according to their abilities, to the production of necessities of life and the welfare of all, and share in the products of this collective effort according to their needs.

Socialism is the enemy of Nationalism

Socialism is the enemy of Nationalism

Book Review from the December 1980 issue of the Socialist Standard

Nation et lutte de classe by Otto Strasser and Anton Pannekoek (Union generale d'editions, Paris.)

Before the first world war, Austria was a multi-national empire in which the Emperor and his bureaucracy ruled not only over Germans and Hungarians but also over Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovenes and others. As a result theoretical discussion of "the national question" became a speciality of Austrian Social Democracy. The problem was particularly acute in Bohemia where Germans and Czechs lived side by side and where a language quarrel raged over schools, jobs in civil service, signs in railway stations, and so on. Even the Social Democratic Party was not immune, the Czech party splitting in 1905 into those who wanted a separate Czechoslovakia and those prepared to work with the German-speaking party within the Austrian Empire.

Orthodox Social Democracy found difficulty in arguing against the Czech separatists since they were too nationalists, regarding the nation not only as a legitimate political form but even as the suitable framework for "socialism". However, within the Social Democratic movement, there were people who insisted on the world-wide nature of socialism and on the incompatibility between nationalism and socialism. They called themselves "intransigent internationalists". Among these were the authors of two pamphlets, first published in 1912, recently translated into French and published together as a single book: Otto Strasser, editor of a local German-language Social Democratic paper in Reichenberg (then in Austrian Bohemia, now in Czechoslovakia and called Liberec) and Anton Pannekoek, a native of the Netherlands then active in the Social Democratic Party in North Germany.

In his pamphlet L'Ouvrier et la nation (The Worker and the Nation), Strasser takes the various arguments of the nationalists as to why workers should regard themselves as part of a nation with a common interest (such as language, land of birth, national character) and demolishes them one by one. He also attacks those Social Democrats who argued that the best way to beat the nationalists was to meet them on their own ground by showing how the Social Democratic programme was in the "national interest". This (which was in practice the policy of the Social Democratic Party) was, said Strasser, self-defeating and should be opposed.

Pannekoek's pamphlet Lutte de Classe et Nation (Class Struggle and Nation) is more theoretical. He accepts the definition of nation given by Otto Bauer, the Austrian party's leading theoretician, viz. "a human grouping linked by a common destiny and a common character". He sees, however, nations as the product of the era of the rising bourgeoisie; at that time capitalists and workers did indeed have a "common destiny" against the forces of feudalism. But, with the development of capitalism, the class struggle more and more breaks out between capitalists and workers shattering their "common destiny".

For the workers the nation then comes to be replaced by the class as the "common destiny". Becoming class conscious, therefore, involves rejecting nationalism. He describes the "national conflict' in multi-national States such as Austria as merely an aspect of the competition between the capitalists within such states, with the different sections using language and nationalism to try to win mass support for their vested interests. He advocates that workers speaking the same language finding themselves divided between two different states (he gives as an example Ukrainian-speakers who were then to be found in both Austro-Hungary and Russia) should not form a single cross-frontier party, but should join the Social Democratic party of the state in which they happened to live, in order to help the struggle to win political power in that state.

Pannekoek emphasises the world, rather than inter-national, character of socialism:

The socialist mode of production does not develop opposing interests between nations as is the case with the capitalist mode of production. The economic unit is neither the State nor the nation, but the world. This mode of production is much more than a network of national production units linked with each other by an intelligent communications policy and by international conventions as described by Bauer on page 519. It is an organisation of world production as a unit and the common affair of the whole of humanity (Pannekoek's emphasis).

For him, "nations" will only survive in world socialism as groups speaking the same language and even then a single world language may evolve.

For all their criticism of the national policy of the Social Democratic parties, Strasser and Pannekoek were themselves Social Democrats and (at this time) shared many of their illusions, particularly that a socialist party should have a maximum (socialism) and a minimum (social and democratic reforms within capitalism) programme. This mistaken belief that socialists should try to combine the struggle for socialism with a struggle for reforms comes out occasionally in the text of both pamphlets. But this does not detract from the fact that both pamphlets put essentially the socialist case against nationalism.

Adam Buick

Barbering Without A Licence!

The militarization of the police, border guards and other agencies in our society is highlighted in the figures published by the Toronto Star (March 29). In 1980, SWAT teams were deployed three thousand times in the US. Now the figure is 50,000. The Homeland Security disbursed $35 billion in 2002-2011 to police forces for heavy weaponry. And the result of all this force? In a Swat sweep in Florida, thirty-four people were arrested for 'barbering without a licence'. In Keene, New Hampshire, $286,000 was spent for an armoured personal carrier to patrol the Pumpkin Festival and other 'dangerous situations'. It would be hard to make this stuff up, but in capitalism, expect the unexpected, especially from the Great Pumpkin in the sky! John Ayers

A Dangerous Society

Capitalism is a dangerous society. If it doesn't kill you in one of its wars, starve you to death in a world hunger it can get rid of you just by breathing. 'Nearly half of all Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to an American Lung Association (ALA) report released Wednesday. Nearly 148 million people live in areas where smog and soot particles make it unhealthy to breathe the air, according to the ALA's annual study on US air quality.' (Guardian 30, April) In Britain the pollution levels cause the deaths of many thousands. 'Ambulance calls for people with breathing problems rose by 14 per cent in London, where pollution levels reached the maximum alert level.' (Times, 26 May) RD