Socialism From Below

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we actually striving for? These days many activists are busy rethinking their idea of socialism. It is a sign of the times that more and more people are discussing the meaning of socialism. They are not content with the reiteration of  generalisations and want to know how socialism will be applicable in contemporary conditions. Some socialists stress finding the correct definition in the writings of Marx and Engels, who, however, failed to offer up a detailed picture. The label “socialist" is not particularly informative. The range of conflicting and incompatible ideas that call themselves socialist is a wide one. The nearest thing to a common content of the various “socialisms” is a negative: anti-capitalism. Even anti-capitalism holds little meaning when it too lacks any clear definition. Blurring the terminology so much that vague varieties of “socialism” and capitalism are indistinguishable from one another.

There has always been different kinds of “socialists”, reformist or revolutionary, peaceful or violent, democratic or authoritarian, anarchist or statist. There has been the “socialism-from-above”, a conception that “socialism” must be handed down to the working class in one shape or other, by an elite which is not subject to their control. The opposing view is “socialism-from-below.” that socialism can be realised only through the self-emancipation and action of the majority of workers. Socialism, without a doubt, is the doctrine of revolutionary action. But it has nothing in common with violence practiced by individuals or direct action by minorities. It is important for socialists to analyse the past so that future action will not be impeded.

Marx steadfastly refused to supply a blueprint for socialism. The question “what is socialism?” is, he argued, inextricably entwined with another question: how can socialism be achieved? No socialist Utopia s worth the paper it is written on if its authors expect the workers to be passive while the Utopia was achieved. The only way workers  can be emancipated from capital is from below – and the struggle from below cannot be set in motion from above.  By changing the means of getting socialism, reformists changed the meaning of socialism itself. When socialism became a “reformed capitalism” – a different goal-  it ceased to be socialism, and became something completely different.

Socialism, as it was understood by Marx and Engels, would be a society that would have no need for repression and oppression because it had overcome economic scarcity. Marx and Engels envisaged a society in which the social productive forces had developed to a point that they would be capable of producing such a surplus of goods and services that the majority of people would no longer have to spend the greater part of their lives in work. The planned allocation of resources and human labour, in such a future society, would also ensure that no one would have to degrade themselves by working for another human being in order to survive. Instead of work being something we all try to avoid, it would gradually be transformed into one of a wide range of creative activities people engage in to make their lives meaningful. It would be foolish to abandon hope in the promise held out to humanity by the socialism of Marx and Engels.

For centuries the wisest minds and the most far-sighted of our thinkers had thought about and tried to work out plans for a human society not dominated by exploiters, be they slave-owners or factory-owners; a society in which human beings could enjoy the fullness of life without the need to make others their servants, or to be servants of others. People have dreamt of a world where there would be no oppression but where people would live in peace without being robbed. Marx and Engels predicted that the development of the productive forces under industrial capitalism would for the first time in human history build the material basis for such a fundamental transformation of society.

Socialists have always stood opposed to the proposition that it is the destiny of most human beings to live an unfulfilled life. Human progress and social evolution has relied on the grossest forms of oppression and misery. But such economic exploitation, oppression and repression, though regrettable, are unavoidable features of human history as long as the combined output of human labour, science, the machines and technology people have created, is not large enough to provide sufficient food, shelter, recreation, education and necessary luxuries for everyone. Socialists call this condition “economic scarcity.” Economic exploitation, oppression and repression therefore, pose not an unchanging human problem, but are historical problems which could disappear when our productive forces have developed to an extent that nobody goes without what they need for a fully human life.

We will not put the socialist movement on the right track and restore its rightful appeal to the best sentiments of the working class of this country and above all to the young, until we begin to call socialism by its right name as the great teachers did. Until we make it dear that we stand for an ever-expanding workers’ democracy as the only road to socialism. Until we root out every corruption of the meaning of socialism and democracy, and restate the thoughts and formulations of the authentic Marxist teachers. Socialists should not argue with workers when they say they wants democracy and don’t want to be ruled by a dictatorship. Rather, we should recognise this demand for human rights and democratic guarantees, now and in the future, is in itself progressive. The socialist task is not to deny democracy, but to expand it and make it more complete. That is the true socialist tradition. Socialists throughout the long history of our movement, have always valued and defended bourgeois democratic rights, restricted as they were; and have made use of them for the education and organisation of the workers in the struggle to establish full democracy by abolishing the capitalist rule altogether. Socialism cannot be soundly built except on a foundation of trust in the capacity of ordinary people to manage their own affairs which requires methods of administration on a scale not so large as to deprive them of all possibility of exerting any real control over what is done.

Our challenge is to ourselves, to study what went on before, by standing upon the shoulders of the earlier working-class fighters and applying the discoveries of our predecessors to the problems of our time. It s up to the exploited class – the working class – to seize the means of production in a revolution. No one can do it for them. It certainly is no good just thinking about a new society, or trying to attract others to it by example. A socialist economy cannot be planned for workers. Socialism depends upon control from below, and control from below can never be brought about from above. Our task is to persuade the many members of working class  that their interests and aspirations are bound up with the struggle against capitalism. This socialist project is  grounded in the growing awareness of vast numbers of men and women that the capitalist system cannot deliver on the promises which its apologists so generously dispense. Our priority as a socialist party is to convince our fellow workers that there exists a feasible, achievable socialist alternative to capitalism. What is badly needed, is a reaffirmation of the principles and values which make up the socialist objective, and an insistence that there are radical, rational and viable alternatives to the ways of life dictated by a system whose own needs are ever more sharply in conflict with human needs. No piecemeal reforms or partial solutions can bring an end to this state of things. We must resist the efforts to sow illusions about “reforming” capitalism, and instead build our movement with the perspective of overthrowing it. When the Socialist Party climbed up and spoke on soapboxes in almost every town this was the meaning of socialism we were teaching. Part of the lesson naturally consisted of casting aspersions upon the validity of rival political parties and de-throning others’ ideological saints.

The socialist movement has felt obliged to abandon the use of an important word because it had become too corrupt. After the First World War, “Social-democrat” became a dirty word, and as a self-description was dropped. Many socialists who would have been quite happy to call themselves “communists” in the days of Marx or Morris, would now be reluctant to do so. When these words were abandoned as favourable descriptions,  it was not just a matter of changing a label, but of establishing the identity of a valid idea, which would otherwise be confused with a degenerate idea. The same procedure may well have to be adopted again if we cannot successfully reclaim the terms socialist/socialism and if its social vision cannot be assimilated as one coherent piece into the body of a modern social protest. 

Onward and upward towards socialism

The Socialist Party is fighting for the abolition of class society. The state machine, as an instrument of class domination, will no longer be necessary, and the state will disappear, in the words of Engels, “wither away” and be replaced by a “administration of things.”  When we talk about the inevitability of socialism we assume that the workers will continue to struggle for their rights. Were they to accept, sit down tamely and wait till socialism came to them, they would soon lose all the rights that they have now and become mere slaves. Socialism can only come when there is no longer a willingness among workers to allow themselves to be exploited. Were the workers, both politically and economically, are so class conscious and so well organised as to make their exploitation impossible then capitalism would have reached the point what we understand by social revolution.

We want socialism which is a free and voluntary society that abolishes exploitation and oppression of man by man, that is, the abolition of private property and government. It is the end of misery, of superstitions, of hatred. Under capitalism war is inevitable. It is characteristic of capitalism to justify all the robbery and misery and terrors of its system by seeking to create the impression that they are caused by basic traits in human nature, or even by “acts of god.” Thus   preventable disasters are made to appear as natural phenomena over which mankind has no control, like tornadoes and earthquakes. The same general attitude is taken with regard to war. War is put forth as arising out of the very nature of humanity. Man is pictured as a war-like animal, and therefore capitalism escapes responsibility. This is all nonsense, of course. Man is by nature a gregarious and friendly animal. He does not make war because he dislikes others of his own species, differing from him in language, religion, geographical location, etc. His wars have always arisen out of struggles over the very material things of wealth and power. This is true, whether he has obscured the true cause of his wars with a religious garb or with slogans about making the world safe for democracy. The cause of modern war is the policies of the capitalist nations to rob each other in the struggle for markets, raw materials and territory. In a society in which there is no private property in industry and land, in which no exploitation of the workers takes place and where plenty is produced for all, there can be no grounds for war. If you desire to abolish war, we say: Abolish capitalism with all its misery and replace it with a system of production for use and not for profit – all over the world. The distribution of life necessities—food, clothing, shelter, education, etc.—will be free, without let or hindrance. Production, carried out upon the most efficient basis and freed from the drains of capitalist exploiters, will provide such an abundance of necessary commodities that there will be plenty for all with a minimum of effort. Industry, freed from capitalist anarchy and exploitation, will develop a high efficiency and lay the basis for genuine mass prosperity.

Apologists for the capitalist system declare that socialism destroys individualism. But when they speak of individualism they have in mind the right of freely exploiting the workers. With socialism no one will have the right to exploit another; no longer will a profit-hungry employer be able to shut the factory gates and sentence thousands to the poverty of unemployment; no more will it be possible for a  clique of capitalists and their political henchmen to plunge the world into a blood-bath of war. Changed social conditions develop different human “natures”. For the first time in history, freed from economic and political slavery, people will have an opportunity to fully develop and express their personalities. Theirs will be an individuality growing out of and harmonizing with the interests of all. It will not have the objective of one’s getting rich by robbing the toilers, but will develop itself in the direction of achievement in science, industrial technique, art, sports. The defenders of capitalism boast  about the equal opportunity which their meritocracy affords It is a tissue of lies. What equality is there between a millionaire and a miner to enjoy life and to develop their talents? Capitalism manufactures a standardised, uninteresting world, everything made for profit’s sake. Socialist society will  know how to develop diverse, artistic products, its creativity no longer hamstrung by  by the profit-making motive. We need have no fear of new technology that we will become robotised. It is capitalism which is transforming us into machines. Instead our lives will be varied and interesting and the world will become a place well worth living in, but what is the more important, its joys will not be the monopoly of a privileged ruling class but the heritage of all.

Socialism will be a new era for the human race, a new world. The overthrow of capitalism will bring about the immediate or eventual solution of many great social problems. Gone will be war, religious superstition, prostitution, famine, pestilence, crime, poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, illiteracy, racism and national chauvinism, the abuse of woman, and every form of slavery and exploitation of one class by another. The objective conditions, in the shape of scientific knowledge and the technical means of creating material wealth, are already at hand in sufficient measure to do away with these menaces to humanity. But the trouble lies with  the capitalist order of society and the subjective factor. Capitalism, based upon human exploitation, stands as the great barrier to social progress and capitalism continues to exist because people permit it to remain. By abolishing the capitalist system, people will release the productive forces strong enough to provide plenty for all and it destroys the whole accompanying capitalist baggage of ignorance, strife and misery. Among the benefits of the re-organisation of the economics of the world on a rational and planned basis will be the systematic conservation and increase of the world’s natural beauty. Congested conurbations will vanish as the  conveniences of country and city merge.

Socialism frees humanity from being little more than beasts of burden and opens up before it new horizons. For many generations the long list of Utopians have dreamed ideal societies.  They sensed mankind’s capacity further social evolution. But their weak point was that they did not understand  the objective or subjective conditions necessary for social revolution.Their Utopias, were mere speculations, disconnected from actual life. Today, the objective conditions exist, the revolution no longer appears as an abstraction but still lacking is the confidence of the working class in their own capability of conducting social change. The capitalist undermine any belief in the possibility of working class  consciousness growing by insisting “it can never happen.” It is true the advance of the revolution is difficult, its progress is slow, and it varies from country to country, but its direction is sure and its movement unstoppable. Our children or perhaps our children’s children will look back with horror upon capitalism and wonder how we took so long to replace it.

Profits Before Principles

Governments like to make make statements about democracy and human rights, but when it comes to profits such high-sounding sentiments mean little or nothing. 'Human rights should not "get in the way" of expanding trade ties with China, a minister said yesterday. ....... Michael Fallon, the Tory business manager, said that concerns about human rights should not obstruct efforts to increase British exports. "These things get raised but we should not allow them to get in the way of a very important trade relationship," he said.' (Times, 17 June) The suppression of democracy or any sort of political dissent carries harsh penalties in China but that means nothing to the British government if there is a lucrative trade deal in the offing. RD

What is nationalism?

The SNP have now released a draft constitution for a possible independent Scotland. As a left wing group also critical of nationalism explained, Scotland is to be offered a choice between two ‘Yes’options in the independence referendum: “ ‘Yes’ to an ‘independent’ Scotland under the British crown, NATO and  austerity policies; or ‘Yes’ to the current UK state under the British crown, NATO and economic austerity.” In this referendum you can choose capitalism...or ...ermmm...capitalism.

The Socialist Party lends no support to the ‘Yes’ fantasies about ‘national independence’. Nor do we endorse the “No” campaigners for the continuance of the status quo. We advocate a socialist change. We stand for a united working class not a class divided by nationalities or borders. Unlike some on the Left, the Socialist Party follows the advice given in the Communist Manifesto and disdains from “concealing their views and aims”, particularly by hiding behind the cloak of nationalist patriotism.

Nationalism first appeared during the rise of capitalism, in the struggle of the emerging capitalist class to establish the nation state as a framework for the expansion of private property, freedom of enterprise and trade. The bourgeoisie was then the revolutionary class, and capitalist ideology, including nationalism, was progressive.

Identifying with the country and nation-state you live in creates the ideology of nationalism. This entails loyalty to its state; its economic and military interests, its flag, respect for its institutions (and the perceived obligation to support its national sporting teams, whether they be good, bad or indifferent!) The nation-state defines itself geographically and politically and if you define yourself primarily as its supporter, whether qualified or unqualified, you subscribe to a nationalist ideology. Socialists see things completely differently. For us, the human race is divided primarily on the basis of social class, and as we have seen, the division is between the employing class and the working class.

A nationalist outlook 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 ruling class of its nation. It says: “We’re all Scots.” The Socialist Party say that working people’s destiny around the world must not be tied to the capitalists. If the working class holds nationalist ideas, it is allowing its destiny to be determined by the capitalist class. Marxists no longer differentiate between the nationalism of the reactionary or progressive. Socialists do not fan the flames of nationalism that divides the working class and instead we promote working class internationalism to unite the workers of the world. Therefore, we reject the ideology of nationalism, as it unites the worker with the capitalist, the oppressed with the oppressor and makes it harder for the exploited to throw off their oppression. Our reply to nationalism is to support working class internationalism. For us, the class war is central. The working class has no country.

Every nation is an integral part of the world capitalist system. Capitalism can neither be fought nor weakened through the creation of new nations but only by opposing capitalist nationalism with working class internationalism. Socialists should not hitch their wagon to nationalism for the former invariably lose.

“If you remove the English army to-morrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs. England would still rule you to your ruin, even while your lips offered hypocritical homage at the shrine of that Freedom whose cause you had betrayed. Nationalism without Socialism – without a reorganisation of society on the basis of a broader and more developed form of that common property which underlay the social structure of Ancient Erin – is only national recreancy.[a disloyality to a belief]” – James Connolly, “Socialism and Nationalism,”

The columnist Torcuil Crighton in the Daily Record writes:
"There have been 29 general elections to the Dàil, Ireland’s parliament, since independence. Ireland’s Labour Party have won precisely none. When socialism goes up against nationalism in a country where all civic politics is about the nation, then Labour doesn’t stand a chance....Eamon de Valera’s specific strategy – was to smother the Labour movement in the embrace of Fianna Fáil. His nationalist party talked the language of social democracy with enough rhetoric to rob Labour of a distinctive voice, while never delivering the goods.”

And do we not detect the same electoral tactics within Salmond’s SNP? Dividing the workers’ movement on national lines is allowing us to be played off against each other which can only serve the interests of employers on both sides of the border.

It is a terrible pity that the memory of a great labour agitator – who was motivated by internationalism, a hatred of injustice, poverty, the class system, and inequality – has been hijacked by both the Irish State and Sinn Fein, thanks to Connolly’s ill-judged and ill-fated participation in the 1916 Rising. As a student of Esperanto, he hoped the synthetic language would transcend linguistic differences and help unite the world’s workers. He co-founded the Irish Citizen Army – an organisation formed to protect Dublin workers from the brutality of the police during the 1912 Strike/Lockout - when they were engaged in bitter struggle with the bosses’ class. This class was personified by bourgeois Irish nationalist and leading advocate of independence, William Martin Murphy; owner of the Irish Independent newspaper, Clerys, and the Dublin United Tramway Company.

The reasons for Connolly’s participation in the nationalist 1916 Rising are contested. One school of thought goes that he was demoralised by the defeat of the Dublin workers in the 1912 Strike/Lockout and the capitulation of the 2nd International to war jingoism, and thus threw his lot in with the Irish nationalists; envisaging a common front that would first tackle the existing British State in Ireland, leading on to a socialist revolution. Sadly, Connolly did not live to explain his motives, as he was executed. Whatever the reasons, his legacy has been claimed by socialists, internationalists, anarchists, nationalists, Irish Republicans, and – even more ironically – the capitalist State he despised so much. Connolly’s portrayal as an Irish independence hero has led many potential socialists up the blind alley of nationalism - so making the dawning of a socialist world, united by class, all the more unlikely.

Rosa Luxemburg understood that the problem of nationalism could not be solved as long as capitalism existed. Only socialism can resolve national antagonisms. Workers everywhere are beginning to rise from their knees to their feet again. They have unprecedented latent power. But the gap between their objective power and their subjective consciousness has never been wider. At no time in their history have they been so silent politically. Their struggles are diffuse and uncoordinated. There is no world party, no mass movement  to change society. Socialists have always understood that without international unity The creation of a worldwide party of the working class is not at all an abstract or unrealistic idea, as the World Socialist Movement demonstrates but it i still merely a work in progress. The internet and social media have made the present generation incomparably connected and informed. The world has drawn together and a new global consciousness has arisen. Unity and democracy depend upon each other. Each is impossible without the other.

“Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for” sang John Lennon. He was singing about a socialist world. Such a world becomes possible once capitalism has been defeated, when social classes have finally been abolished along with the competing nation states and inequality that have accompanied them.

Socialism - the Aspiration of the Workers

The world is rich in natural resources. It is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. But today the great majority of our people are faced with poverty, food insecurity and lack of health-care. Suffering and misery is created so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can continue to line their pockets. A handful of capitalists control our country and make fabulous profits off the labour of working people. All the major means of production - the factories, the mines, telecommunications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of these few capitalists who employ millions of workers.The two classes in our society, the working class and the employing/investing class, are locked in a bitter struggle. The capitalists represents the system of exploitation and oppression. The working class represents the progressive force to eliminate capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on exploitation by a small minority of parasites who leech off the blood of the workers.

Every bit of capitalists’ vast possessions was stolen from the people. It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. At the end of a working-week the worker collects his pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. The bosses get rich, not because they have “taken risks” or “worked harder,” as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and reduce the number of employees with speed-ups, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. And if the boss thinks he can make more profit somewhere else, he just closes his factory and throws the workers out on the street.

The state apparatus – parliaments, the army, police, etc. – is in fact an instrument which the ruling bourgeois class uses to maintain its domination over the people. No matter which party is in power, the state’s role is to protect capitalist private property and defend its interests. The police will not attack scabs to block them from entering a factory on strike. The government has a thousand ties with the big capitalists. Government consultation committees are made up of industrialists and financiers. Politicians meet daily with the leading employers, and many politicians have their own personal fortunes.

The state is also used as an economic tool by the ruling class. When the capitalists need to develop certain sectors  of the economy that require large initial investments, when they need to protect certain industries that are essential to serve the entire capitalist class (like transport), when they face bankruptcy or produce too little profit (health care and hospital services), the state just steps in with subsidies and bail-outs and, if required, nationalises them. At the same time, no political party can offer real convincing solutions to the problems facing the country.

The world is presently in the throes of a serious economic recession. How is it possible to have such a crisis in a planet so rich in natural resources, manpower and technology? Crises like these are an integral part of capitalism. They are rooted in the capitalist class’s insatiable thirst for profits. Economic crises break out regularly. Some, like the Great Depression of the ’30s and the present crisis, are particularly serious. Each capitalist is out to make the most profit, and to achieve this he produces as many goods as possible. The different groups of capitalists, the sections of the bourgeoisie, are engaged in deadly competition each trying to seize more  profit and control over the economy. The employers  are wracked with divisions and contradictions.This is the anarchy of capitalism. These crises spread around the world to all the capitalist countries. The system as a whole is plunged into crisis. Governments has tried everything over the years to put an end to these crises. It has resorted to massive government spending to try to stimulate the economy. It has given huge gifts to the big business and the banks. But ir will be spending cutbacks , the wage freezes and all sorts of attacks against working people, which will  transfer the weight of the crisis onto the working class and restore the employers profitability.

As people lose hope and their lives become meaningless, families fall apart and crime, drug abuse, violence and sexual violence increase. The working class’s anger, its struggles for its demands and its refusal to pay the price of the crisis intensify daily. Workers can either submit to wage slavery or fight it. The working class has always fought against the capitalists. There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker. The working class cannot eliminate exploitation and poverty unless it overthrows the capitalist system. It must wipe away the nightmare of capitalism. It must destroy the State, its Parliament, its courts of “justice”, its prisons and its army. Only socialism can respond to the just aspirations of the working class. 

Unpaid Overtime

Unpaid overtime has become a fact of life for one in four British employees, who clock up at least seven hours over their contracted working time each week. 'The culture of staying late has become so common that more than a third of those questioned in research by health insurer AXA PPP said they felt guilty if they left the office on time. ......... More than one in 10 (11 per cent) of those workers questioned said they remained in the office because they were afraid they might lose their job if they didn't clock up extra hours.' (Daily Mail, 13 June) So much for the common illusion about so-called lazy workers. RD

The Socialist Plan

In capitalist society, the capitalists own the means of production and engage in production for the sole purpose of making profits and satisfying their private interests. Therefore, though there may be planned production in a few enterprises, competition is rife and lack of co-ordination prevails among the different enterprises and economic departments as a whole. A socialist economy is a planned economy. The establishment of common ownership of the means of production and the  identity of the interests of the working people in socialist society make it possible to arrange the whole society’s labour force and means of production in a co-ordinated way. Socialist planning and control is not a command economy by the State or technocratic bureaucracy. When we socialists speak of planned economy we do not mean schemes similar to that of Stalin’s FiveYear Plans. When we socialists speak of a society organised on the basis of planned production and distribution we mean something entirely different. What we have in mind is very simple. It is clear-cut. Do away with production for profit.

Capitalism has evolved a system of economy - the anarchy of the market, within political conditions guaranteed by the capitalist state, the accumulation of capital, money, property, etc. This system is the fundamental basis of the maintenance of rule by the capitalist class, and the oppression of the working class. The control exercised by capitalism over production comes chiefly from two different directions - from the top-down diktat of the owner or whoever holds the purse strings; and from the outside-in, via the constraints of the market, with or without the active intervention of the capitalists. The liberation of the working class and the achievement of socialism is of course synonymous with the abolition of this system. Once the idea of the exclusive right of the owners of capital to exercise control over the means of production is set aside, the concept of workers control extends over the whole range of social activity. Initially, it must express the class struggle of the producers to wrest control of production away from the capitalists.

Let us suppose it is possible, while preserving the capitalist system, to reduce unemployment to a certain minimum. But surely, no capitalist would ever agree to the complete abolition of unemployment, to the abolition of the reserve army of unemployed, the purpose of which is to bring pressure on the labour market, to ensure a supply of cheap labour. Planned economy presupposes increased output in those branches of industry which produce goods that people need particularly. But you know that the expansion of production under capitalism takes place for entirely different motives, that capital flows into those branches of economy in which the rate of profit is highest. You will never compel a capitalist to incur loss to himself and agree to a lower rate of profit for the sake of satisfying the needs of the people. These people see nothing but their own interests, their striving after profits. The capitalist is riveted to profit; and no power on Earth can tear him away from it. Without getting rid of the capitalists, without abolishing the principle of private property in the means of production, it is impossible to create a planned economy. The State is an institution that organises the defence of the country, organises the maintenance of "law and order"; it is an apparatus for collecting taxes for the upkeep of the infrastructure and to ameliorate poverty. The capitalist State does not deal much with economy in the strict sense of the word; the latter is not in the hands of the State. On the contrary, the State is in the hands of capitalist economy. The capitalists will say: “Presidents come and presidents go, but we go on forever; if this or that president does not protect our interests, we shall find another.”

The Socialist Party propose, in brief, that all resources, all land and buildings, all manufacturing establishments, mines, railways and other means of transportation and communication, should be, not private property, but the common property of all people. Socialist economy on the basis of common ownership without any class division will avoid anything resembling the crises in capitalist society. Experience has proved that planning under capitalism is impossible. The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists and to their predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed. When private profit is the main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between periods of feverish prosperity in which the main benefits go to speculators and profiteers, and of catastrophic depression, in which the common man's normal state of insecurity and hardship is accentuated. We believe that these evils can be removed only in a planned and socialized economy in which our natural resources and principal means of production and distribution are owned, controlled and operated by the people.

Socialism encourages scientific advance on a colossal scale. It reduces human labour to the easy task of maintaining machinery a few hours a day. It leaves mankind free to engage in the higher intellectual pursuits. It makes everybody responsible for the welfare of all. It inscribes on its portals: Let everybody work according to his ability; let everybody receive from the common stock of goods according to his needs. There is no exploitation, no oppression, no insecurity, no poverty. Life is made humane. People receive dignity and respect. As a species we can do better if we believe in the human family and in ourselves.

Against the Vanguard

We say our revolution will set everybody free.

“World socialism?  Every country that used to be communist is now capitalist. We have democracy and freedom of choice. We say what we want, go where we want, and buy what we want. Nobody tells us what to do or how to think.” argues our anti-socialist critics.

We all heard it said as we campaign for socialism. All that much vaunted free will and freedom of choice quickly disappears when the person’s money does. What we reply is that socialism has never before been tested.

The development of technology and the productivity of labour have become such that it is now possible to relegate scarcity to the past. Humanity now has the possibility of developing civilization on the basis of an economy of abundance. A new era of production is possible a system of almost unlimited productive capacity, automated and self-regulating, which requires progressively less human labour. The only way to turn technological change to the benefit of the individual and for the service of the general welfare is to accept the process and to utilise it rationally and humanely. Production would not be organised on the basis of the blind capitalist market, but in accordance with the needs of the people. Production for profit would give way to production for use. Economic life be democratically managed and controlled carried out to satisfy the needs of the people. Production for use, by its very nature, demands constant consultation of the people, constant control and direction by the people. No matter how  wise they might be, specialist planners could not design production for the needs of the people.

Society no longer needs to impose repetitive and meaningless (because unnecessary) toil upon the individual. Society can now set the citizen free to make his own choice of occupation and vocation from a wide range of activities. People will not live primarily to work; they will work primarily to live. It offers a life-style qualitatively richer in democratic as well as material values. A social order in which men and women make the decisions that shape their lives becomes more possible now than ever before; the unshackling of people from the chains of unfulfilling labour frees them to become citizens, to make themselves and to make their own history. Mankind would no longer be the slave of the machine. The machine would be the  slave. It is clear that the distribution of abundance in a socialist society will be based on criteria different from those of an economic system based on scarcity. Democracy, as we use the term, means a community of men and women who are able to understand, express and determine their lives as dignified human beings. Democracy can only be rooted in a political and economic order in which wealth is distributed by and for people, and used for the widest social benefit. With the emergence of the era of abundance we have the economic base for a true democracy of participation, in which men no longer need to feel themselves prisoners of social forces and decisions beyond their control or comprehension.

Socialism is a practical necessity for freeing all the people from class rule. The idea of a stable society on this basis of peaceful co-operation of classes is an illusion. An educated and conscious working class will insist on democracy. And not the narrow limited democracy of voting every few years. Every day you will have something to say about the work you’re doing, how it should be done and who should be in charge of it, and whether its being directing properly or not. Democracy in all spheres of communal life from A to Z.

Many political groups fancy themselves as ‘leaders’ of the working-class. We do not. The relation of the ‘party’ to the masses plays a large part in Left discussion. The importance and indispensability of the vanguard party is taken as said. The militants who call themselves the vanguard believe that one or other of the myriad parties must direct the class struggle. The Left may remix the song all they want over and over again but the tune remains the same: the cadres of the ‘revolutionary’ party can find the answer yet the mass movements of the people cannot liberate themselves. Repetition doesn't make things true.

The Socialist Party do not see ourselves as yet another leadership, but merely as an instrument of the working class. We function to help generalise workers’ experience of the class struggle, to make a total critique of their condition and of its causes, and to develop the revolutionary consciousness necessary if society is to be totally transformed. What we want people to come to the realisation that they should take over their workplaces, communities, and put themselves in a position to control all of the decisions that effect them directly, and to run things themselves. If we were to be leaders in a vanguard, in the sense of an enlightened minority seeking to gain power over others, we could never achieve this aim, because WE would have the power, rather than people having power over their own lives, collectively and individually. We would also be assuming the arrogance to think we have a monopoly of truth, rather than certain views which we debate with others including among ourselves, coming to a better viewpoint at the end of it. There is a big difference between an organisation that produces propaganda and so on, and helps promote the popular will where people accept decisions because they have been convinced by the case and have freely chosen to do so and a vanguard in the common sense of the word, meaning a party seeking to gain power over the masses. A global revolution is coming that will sustain the environment and ensure basic needs are met for all.

Revolution will be a process of self-education. The 19th Century worker-cum-philosopher Joseph Dietzgen put it this way:
 ‘If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself.’

For Ourselves

Marxists do not fall back upon what Marx said here or there, but apply his principles to each set of circumstances as it arises. “Thus spake Marx” is not the Marxist but the anti-Marxist method. No Marxist, therefore, attaches any importance to the clever method of quoting “Holy Scripture”. The method of Marx is to examine whether the issues in question are fighting in the interest of the wage-earning class.

The word  “socialism” still carries the distortions of those who usurped the term. There are people still fearful of the word. But anyone can see that huge numbers agree on what should be the fundamental elements of a decent society: guaranteed food, housing for all, medical care for everyone; bread and butter rather than guns and bombs; democratic control by all citizens; equal rights regardless of race, gender, and sexual orientations and  the rejection of war and violence as solutions to tyranny and injustice. We can now reintroduce the genuine meaning of “socialism” to a world feeling the destructive consequences of capitalism - nationalist hatred, perpetual war, riches for a few, and hunger, homelessness, insecurity for everyone else. Now is the time to recall that socialism is production for use instead of profit, a social and economic system for liberty and equality offering solidarity with all our brothers and sisters all over the world.

The aim of the Socialist Party can be described as the "liberated human being". Our task is not to convert the workers to socialism if conversion means manipulation to introduce consciousness into the working class. Our activity is to affect the practice of the workers, not just their thought, so they themselves begin to organise and take action, to take their own steps in their self-emancipation. Education without action is fruitless. We must get the people to act.

The capitalist class and the working-class stand openly opposed to each other. The class lines are clearly defined. There is no mistaking who is a capitalist and who is a worker, who is rich and who is poor, who has power and who is powerless. The capitalists are banded together in their Chambers of Commerce and trade associations. Working people are organised in our trade unions. Who can deny the existence of the class struggle? Social revolutions are not called into existence by organisations. Social revolutions are not the same as coups d’etat, mere alterations at the top of state and society. They alter the fundamental relations of people in social production, and they alter the very goals of that production. We may not be on the threshold of revolution, but the fact that the idea revolution simply refuses to go away even when we are not in a pre-revolutionary situation speaks volumes.

Working class self emancipation lies at the heart of socialism which teaches people to rely upon themselves, and upon themselves alone, and teaches them also that dependence upon forces outside themselves is emasculating in its tendency, and has been, and will ever be disastrous in its results. How long will it be until workers realise that the socialist movement is a movement of the working class as whole? Workers have to trust in their own power to achieve their own emancipation. If the class must rely on itself, it must be united. Hence its internationalism. Socialism from below can only be achieved if working people themselves inspire it, create, develop and strengthen it. Their own consciousness and self organisation is the only possible basis for socialism. Socialism must be democratic, involving the mass of workers in taking over and running society in their own interests, under their own control. Socialism from below is the only socialism worth fighting for. And, of course, it is the only realistic socialism. A weak working class looks to an agency outside and above them to solve their problems for them. We argued that socialism is not about a  leader or a vanguard party doing things on behalf of the masses. The agency for socialist change can only be the working class and not the existing state apparatus no matter how benevolent it may appear nor how dress up in the language of socialism the ‘progressive’ rhetoric may be.

Socialists strive for a world without exploitation or oppression, in which men and women developed their human potential as free individuals in a free society, without the distortion of money or state power. We support the liberation of humanity and hold that the working class will liberate itself. Socialists have no time for any centralised, hierarchial political organisation, operating behind the backs and over the heads of working people. We utterly oppose the idea of self-appointed leaders, regardless of how well-intentioned, setting up a strong state. The socialist movement is beyond the parties which want to lead. Social revolution – great masses of people in motion, in a spontaneous, forward movement – is not something that can be implemented from above.

The Socialist Party’s goal is to end the present system of capitalist ownership of the land and the means of producing wealth and substitute in its stead the common ownership and democratic control of these means of production. At a certain stage of development all human communities  had common ownership of land. Common property is the foundation of every early social organisation. Only by the rise and development of private property and the forms of rulership connected with it, has common property been abolished and usurped as private property, and as we have seen in history, not without severe struggles. The robbery of the land and its transformation into private property formed the first cause of oppression. This oppression has passed through all stages, from slavery to “free” wage-labour of the capitalist system. Now is the time for the oppressed to again convert the world’s wealth into common property.

In the present society people are haunted by insecurity. Their mental well-being is undermined by fear for their future and the future of their children. They are never free from fear that if something happens, if they have a sickness or an accident for which they are not responsible, the punishment will be visited upon their children; that their children will be deprived of an education and proper food and clothing. In the socialist society of shared abundance, this nightmare will be lifted from the minds of the people. They will be free from fear. The present over- crowded, soulless cities will be no more. With socialism people will not fear to love their neighbour lest they be taken advantage of, nor be ashamed of disinterested friendship, free from all self-interest and calculation. The softer, kindlier side of men will no longer be known only to their wives and children. The dependence of one sex upon another for livelihood, which now poisons love and gives lust its opportunity, will be forever at an end.

 There will be no more private property, except items for personal use. Consequently there can be no more crimes against private property—which are 90% or more of all the crimes committed today—and no need of all this huge apparatus for the prevention, detection, prosecution, and punishment of crimes against property. No need of jails and prisons, policemen, judges, probation officers, lawyers, social workers, bureaucrats; no need for guards, bailiffs, wardens, prosecutors.

The natural wealth of the land, the heritage of the people, is being wasted by the recklessness of corporate greed. The forests are ravaged, the fisheries of river and sea destroyed, the fertility of the soil exhausted.  With the establishment of socialism, the despoilation of the people's heritage will cease, the forests will be re-planted, the rivers and seas re-populated, and fertility restored to exhausted lands. The natural resources of the country will be cared for and preserved as a common estate, and one to which the living have title only as trustees for the unborn.

Work in socialist society will not be warfare, but fraternal co-operation toward a treasure house in which all will share. Human effort, no longer wasted by class conflict, will create an abundance previously impossible. There will be neither rich nor poor; all will be equal partners in the product of the  industrial organisation. Wage slavery will be replaced  by free access to all the goods necessary to the satisfaction of the needs of the producers. Only in a society which ensures to humanity such an abundance of goods can a new social consciousness be born. “Free access”, not only to certain health or educational services, but to all needs in foodstuff or clothing and housing. Such abundance of goods is in no way utopian but is emancipated from the contests of competition, the hunt for private enrichment, and the manipulation by advertising intended to create a state of permanent dissatisfaction among individuals.

The people will explore the universe and unlock its secrets. The new knowledge and new resources will be for the betterment of all the people. Socialism would be the realisation of the essential, creative powers of human beings.

A Strange Sort Of Recovery

Politicians and the national media proclaim it in banner headlines. Britain is on the road to an economic recovery. The Office for National Statistics said  that employment figures had surged by 345,000, the largest quarterly rise since records began in 1971 and drove unemployment down to a five-year low. There is one aspect of this surge in employment figures that politicians are a little less likely to boast about though. 'However, pay fell below inflation. Average annual wage growth dropped to 0.7 per cent in the three months to April, less than half the 1.8 per cent rate at which prices are rising.' (Times, 12 June) It is an economic recovery for the owning class. More workers to exploit, less unemployment money to fork out - but for the working class it is a drop in real wages. RD

Child Labour In The USA

Stories abound about the exploitation of young children in Asia and Africa but this story is from the USA. 'Children as young as 7 years old are suffering serious health problem from toiling long hours in tobacco fields to harvest pesticide-laced leaves for major cigarette brands, according to a report released Wednesday. New York City based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed more than 140 youngsters working on tobacco farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, where most American tobacco is sourced.' (Time Magazine, 14 May) The report goes on say that HRW is asking the tobacco firms to introduce legislation to curb this use of children but as the global tobacco industry generates annual revenues of around $500 billion there is little chance of that happening. RD

Abundance For All

The objective of the Socialist Party is to achieve wealth for all. Plenty of the good things of life for everybody. A fine house to live in, nice furniture in it, and a garden  about it. A table set with good things to eat. A wardrobe of quality clothing, comfortable and elegant. Opportunity and means to travel  the world. Leisure to read and play and work. No poverty anymore. With all these things, socialism will get the consequences of all these things, a natural human development, healthy men and women, a happy people. You of course say all this is a utopian fantasy but no, it’s not a dream but an immediate possibility. By means of the vast array of technology at our disposal we can produce wealth enough for all without any trouble whatever. By means of the new automated machinery a person can produce a hundred or a thousand times as much wealth as in the times of our fathers. There is no doubt at all about this. Modern inventions have so increased the productive capacity of mankind that all could have an abundance of wealth by working only 3 or 4 hours a day. Abundance under capitalism would indeed be a ‘‘miracle”. In fact, it is impossible. The idea of abundance has no place in capitalism. It is socialism that proposes to get this abundance for all.

In order to get this abundance for all, we must take these new inventions and use them for producing new wealth for all to share instead of producing it for a few. The only reason we are not all well off now is that a few people own these great machines and refuse to let us work at them except when they can make a profit for themselves. If we collectively owned these factories and railroads and mines and mills ourselves and all of us worked at them to produce wealth for our own use an happiness, all the troubles of poverty would disappear. The only thing that lies between us and the promised land is this private ownership of the means of producing wealth.Therefore, what socialism proposes to do, in order to get wealth for all, is to take possession of the instruments of wealth production and run them for the use of all. Just how do we do that?

The workers who are deprived of their right to the machinery shall come together in a political party and vote the current owners out! We say to the worker “Come join our party, vote yourselves into power, use that power to capture back those means of wealth production which the capitalists have stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which modern life entitle you to.” The Socialist Party appeals to your self-interest. We are practical and indulge in no dreams or false hopes. Your real interests lie in abolishing the private ownership of the means of production.

Socialism has unfortunately been presented in the past as a system not of abundance but of scarcity, as a system not of increased leisure and comfort, but of sacrifice and back-breaking toil, not political and industrial democracy and a wider freedom, but of less freedom and increased labour discipline. But socialism is not the politics of poverty but of abundance. Socialists presupposes the abundant availability of material goods to ensure full satisfaction of human needs. Sciene and technology has worked wonders in today's world by creating the necessary material conditions for humanity's march towards a socialist society. The development of automation has the potential to obliterate the difference between manual and mental labour. The grounds are being laid, all we have to do is to wrest control of the means of production from the capitalists so that productive forces can grow unhindered and undistorted.

 Always the paradox of poverty amid abundance faces us. The productive capacity of the world, which could produce an abundant standard of living for all, is not being utilised. Industry is being run not for use, but for the private profit of the banks, the business tycoons and the big landowners. It is this that tears society apart. Bosses, when they fire workers, do they worry whether or not they or their families are  going to suffer? There are some who out of charity give assistance, but they are powerless to relieve all those in need and who will either die prematurely because of privations of various kinds, or voluntarily by suicide in order to put an end to a miserable existence and to not have to put up with the rigors of hunger, with countless shames and humiliations, and who are without hope of ever seeing them end. We see fathers and mothers who kill their children so as not to see them suffer any longer, and women who, in fear of not being able to feed a child, don’t hesitate to destroy in their wombs the fruit of their love. These things happened in a country abundance reigns, where butcher shops are filled with meat, bakeries full of bread, where clothing and shoes are piled up high in stores, where there are unoccupied houses. There are many people who will feel sorry for the victims, but who’ll tell you they can’t do anything about it. let everyone survive the best they can. And all these things happen in the midst of an abundance of all sorts of products. If only all those in need, instead of waiting - took.

Even the environmentalists do not have the confidence that the world can produce sufficient  in a sustainable manner to provide for all. We are cautioned against unlimited growth and warned that the planet’s resources are finite and to this we answer, we know. Our reply to the  many well meaning environmentalists is that they have accepted the false premise of capitalism that people possess limitless wants - or in plain language, people are greedy. Yet right in front of their eyes, exposing the lie, exist the vast advertising industry that capitalism requires to create demand all and around us the hierarchial society where ones status is expressed by a display of conspicuous consumption that we are all taught to try and emulate.

 Socialists declare that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all,democratically administered in the interest of all. There will be no money, and there will not even be any bookkeeping transactions or coupons to regulate how much one works and how much a person gets. People will work without any compulsion and take what they need. So said Marx. Does that still sound like an unrealistic vision? Once again, we say lift yourself out of the framework of this present society, and do not consider this conception absurd or impractical. For in the socialist society, when there is plenty and abundance for all, what will be the point in keeping account of each one’s share, any more than in the distribution of food at a well-supplied family table? You don’t keep a tally as to who eats how much. Nobody snatches food when the table is fully laden. If you have a guest, you don’t seize the best choice of meat for yourself, you pass the plate and offer it. We've got the abundance - we just have to change the way we distribute it.

No, what’s absurd is the ethic of capitalism: “From each whatever you can —to each whatever he can grab.” The socialist society of universal abundance will be regulated by a rational standard. It will be “From each according to his ability—to each according to his needs.”

The Socialist Dogma

Our revolution has not yet been made and we will make it when we will lay down the foundations of the egalitarian society we desire. The Socialist Party is accused of being dogmatist. We are dogmatic in so far as we hold ideas that make us strive to end capitalism. We are dogmatic because we talk about surplus value, another expression for rent, interest and dividend. We are dogmatic because we preach the class war. We are dogmatic because we are asking workers to cut themselves from the capitalist parties and form one for themselves in opposition to them. The Socialist Party case for socialism remains unaltered since 1904, a sign of its truth and not of its dogma. It is also said that the Socialist Party is too purist and that we fight for nothing short of socialism because we believe that nothing short of that will save the workers. To that dastardly crime, we bow our heads with shame and plead guilty. As workers who have joined the Socialist Party, we accept its claim that its political position presents a satisfactory solution to the evils of capitalism.

Capitalism has failed miserably to provide the basic necessities of life for hundreds of millions of workers around the world. Millions of workers are in poverty, hungry and homeless. Many of our younger workers will never find steady, secure work in capitalist society. Our older workers are thrown out like garbage when they no longer have value to some boss. Like all thieves, the capitalists have no honour among themselves. They are constantly plotting against one another for more plunder. To make themselves more money, they will fight to the last drop of OUR blood. The only solution is a socialist revolution. Otherwise, we will suffer capitalism's endless wars and conflicts. Capitalism means the ruination of our class, our families, our friends. Only world socialism offers an alternative to the misery of capitalism.

We want a society whose workers run everything in the interests of the world's people. We want a system that encourages every person to become involved in running society; that educates and trains everyone to act for the common good and does not indoctrinate people to look out for number one; that opposes placing selfish interests above the social needs. We want society to help each individual grow and fully develop their personalty and potential. In capitalist society, only the ruling class are free - free to hire and fire, free to pillage and plunder, free to make our class fight for their profits. Socialism will abolish the wage system and the principle "to each according to need" will be as basic as the principle "every man for himself" is to capitalism. In socialism, the principle of work will be: "from each according to ability". People will work because they want to, because their brothers and sisters around the world need their work. They will share in decision-making, including the distribution of goods and services according to society's needs. To consume the wealth created by society is a right given to citizens at birth and, against that, what is required of them is to contribute to society as best as they can. There must be no economic connection there. In the capitalist system there is an absolute economic relation. If you are put in a certain position in terms of production, your lifestyle and your consumption is already decided. No matter what you do, if you appear in production as an unskilled worker, then it is already decided that your children will not have proper education, that you might die of diseases that don't kill other people and you might live in houses that stink. That is already decided by the way they have made you contribute to social production. If they prevent you from contributing to production, if they make you unemployed, it is even worse. Your place in production decides your place in consumption. In socialism that is not the case. When you are born you have a right to live like everybody else and socialism assumes that you have the common sense to get up and contribute something to society according to your creative ability.There must not be any economic or political connection between people's contributions to production and their enjoyments of its fruits.

 So-called specialist workers will not receive more money for work that is supposedly "more important". The measure of work will have nothing to do with what people receive. People should and will get what they need, within the limits of what everyone can produce. The elimination of wages causes the social basis for privileges and a new class of bosses to disappear. For the first time in history, workers will receive a fair share of society's wealth, regardless of the work they do. We hold a socialist economy must be an economy without wages, in which needs are somehow registered and conscious working units decide on meeting them.  Using many of the currrent techniques of logistics and the great advance in computer and communications systems it will not be very difficult for human society to know in advance what it needs.  It is not difficult to organise given the fact that social needs can be consciously registered by individuals, by collectives and by consuming units and so on.

Socialism will abolish socially useless forms of work that exist now only for capitalist profit. Socialist society will not need millions of lawyers, advertisers, or sales-people. In one stroke, it will do away with layers of needless government bureaucrats, as well as the hordes of petty supervisors and administrators who oversee and manage us for the employers. It will free everyone to perform socially useful work, which is the source of true creativity. Ending the wage system will reduce the problems capitalism causes inside the working class. Racism, one of
capitalism's greatest evils, exploits one worker to a greater degree than another. Marx said over 100 years ago that, "the worker in white skin can never be free as long as the worker in black skin remains in chains." The Socialist Party opposes all nationalism by which the ruling class demand that workers must respect capitalist borders. These borders are artificial; they exist to divide workers and keep different sets of bosses in power. Workers need no borders. Workers in one part of the world are not different from or better than workers in another. Nationalism creates false loyalties. Workers should be loyal only to other workers, never to his or her oppressor. We endorse the revolutionary slogan: "Workers of the world, unite!"

As you can conclude a socialist organisation of the world requires the active commitment of millions of workers. Socialism will not succeed unless people understand it, agree with it, and decide to make it happen. The revolution starts when you begin to make it happen. Nothing dogmatic about that. 

We can change it

We live under the shadow of capitalism, a political/economic system, which promotes individual success over group well-being. It is a model of civilisation that is making us miserable and ill. Dependent on continuous consumption, everything and everyone is seen as a commodity, and competition and ambition are extolled as virtues. Capitalism encourages short-term artificial goals: goals that strengthen greed and dissatisfaction, pre-requisites for encouraging consumerism and the perpetual expansion of the ubiquitous ‘market’.  “All for ourselves and nothing for other people.” as Adam Smith put it.  A study  by Berkeley University that seems to confirm Smith’s truism. “The higher up the social-class ranking people are, the less pro-social, charitable and empathetically they behaved…consistently those who were less rich showed more empathy and more of a wish to help others.”  Graham Music a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London, makes the point that our “monetised western world is going to make us more and more lose touch with our social obligations.”

It is a system that denies compassion and social unity. Unhappiness and mental illness, as well as extreme levels of inequality (income and wealth) flow from the unjust root, causing social tensions, eroding trust and community. Mental illness, including anxiety and depression – a worldwide epidemic claiming 5% of the global population – are further consequences of this dysfunctional social model. Millions are hooked on pharmaceuticals (legal and illegal), much to the delight of the multi-national drug companies whose yearly profits in America alone nestle comfortably in the trillions of US $. Suicide, according to a major report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is the third highest cause of death amongst adolescents (road accidents and HIV are one and two), and the primary cause is depression.

People in unequal societies are suspicious of ‘the other’ – that’s anyone who looks thinks, and/or acts differently – and generally speaking don’t trust one another. A mere 15% of people in America confessed to trusting their fellow citizens, compared to 60% in less unequal parts of the world. The resulting divisions aggravate social tensions, fueling criminality and a cycle of mistrust and paranoia is set in motion. A capitalistic value system with its focus on the individual as opposed to the group, inevitably feeds a consciousness of separation and alienation. We are one, brothers and sisters of one humanity,  one undivided and indivisible family. Our nature is to be unselfish, socially responsible and helpful. Children love helping, and they do not need a reward. Actions, which are inherently selfless, offer an intrinsic reward because they facilitate relationship with our true nature.  In fact, when material rewards were introduced the children’s focus shifted, they lost interest in the act of kindness and became fixated on the object of reward. Graham Music concludes that “studies have shown that toddlers feel happier giving treats than receiving them”.  Studies undertaken in San Francisco found that those members of the community who “volunteered and engaged in other forms of giving when they were adolescents were much less likely to become depressed, even as they got older.”

With reward and punishment come desire and fear, desire for the reward and fear or anxiety over possible punishment if we fail. The effect is individual discontent and collective disharmony. Reward and punishment are major weapons of capitalism. Goals, meeting targets, bonuses, commission, perks: these are the language of business, the motivating force for, and of, activity. The present unjust economic model has fostered a value system that is a major cause of unhappiness, anxiety and depression. The capitalist apologists may hold that mankind is naturally selfish, and that competition, reward and ambition are necessary and good. They may argue that without them we would do nothing and society would grind to a dysfunctional halt. This is conveniently cynical view of man’s nature (usually one held by those who are more or less economically and socially comfortable) and it is fundamentally wrong and is used to perpetuate the divisive class society we live under. The ancient message that human kindness, selflessness and community service are not only positive attributes to aspire to, they are the healthy, natural and peaceful way for humanity to live. Change is urgently needed. Change rooted in the well being of the group and not the individual. Change which sees the economy as a way of meeting  and addressing human needs.

 The pollution of our water, food and air is caused by the greed for profit. This could be abolished if the resources of the countries of the entire planet could be organised rationally to produce a healthy environment. It is not a technical problem. It is a class and political problem. While capitalism remains, the resources produced by the labour of the workers will be squandered. All the resources for a world of abundance, without pollution, disease and squalor, exist at the present time in skill, technique and science. They are the same resources used to produce pollution and destruction. They cannot be used for constructive purposes till the capitalist system of profit-making is overthrown. Grim reality teaches that the alternative posed by Marx of democratic socialism or barbarism has been transformed into a world socialism or annihilation.

Adapted from an article by Graham Peebles that can be read in full and unabridged here

Grim Future for many

One in seven working-age adults and children could still be living below the poverty line by the mid-2020s, according to new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Scotland’s employment rate currently stands at 73.5 per cent and, on rates of growth achieved in the 10 years to 2007, it could reach 80 per cent by 2025. They found that if the 80 per cent employment rate was reached by the creation of only part-time jobs, poverty among working age adults and children could fall from 800,000 (19.4 per cent) to 670,000 (16.2 per cent). If most of those extra jobs were full-time, the number in poverty would fall further, to 600,000 (14.6 per cent).

Old Nick In The Middle East

Many theories have been put forward to explain the conflicts that have affected the Middle East but his holiness has come up with a different one. The Pope blamed the Devil for the conflict in the Middle East as he hosted the Israeli and Palestinian presidents for a unprecedented "prayer for peace" in the Vatican garden. 'In remarks prepared for the ceremony Pope Francis said: "More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one has succeeded in blocking it. It is my hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of a new journey.' (Times, 9 June) All this time socialists have been blaming capitalism for modern wars while his holiness has come up with a much simpler answer. RD

Solidarity is the socialist's strength

Marx designated the working class the ‘grave-diggers of capitalism’ and that the emancipation of the working class would be the act of the working class itself. Capitalism has created the material basis for a classless society based on plenty.

Our world’s resources are wasted while people’s basic needs remain unsatisfied. Land is despoiled, misery mounts, and poverty spreads. Prisons are being built. Factories are closed. National chauvinism, racism, and religious strive are growing at an alarming rate. The capitalist economy remains in the grip of the crisis. The employers pretends that it has the solution to the crisis and promises “recovery” provided  workers accept the responsibility of the crisis. But in reality the bosses have no control over the course of the crisis and the demand that the workers accept more un- or under-employment, further reductions in real wages, and increased cuts in social services and welfare benefits, is simply a demand that the workers take more of the burden of the crisis upon their backs so as to ensure the recovery of profits which is the real concern of the capitalist class. The working class must not harbour any illusions about “recovery”. The motive of capitalist production is profit and the only issue of “recovery” is recovery of profits. Such “recovery” will not alter at all the condition of the working class as wage slaves, or change the conditions of the exploited in relation to the exploiters. This “recovery” can only take place on the basis of the further intensification of exploitation, the increased impoverishment of the people, a higher level of immiseration of the working class.

The Socialist Party asks: why is this and why is it that we have to put up with these conditions?  How can things be changed? Workers are told that oppression, exploitation and inequalities have always existed and will always exist. The supporters of the capitalist class invoke the laws of nature, they proclaim it divine law from the gods. Reality, however, is quite different. It shows that these are the explanations of those who profit from this misery and whose power depends on maintaining the present conditions. The reality is that, despite diversity in political regimes, in language, and in culture and beyond differences in race and nationality, the vast majority of the people of the globe share a common condition: that of living in a society where the owners of the means of production impose their will over those who possess nothing or little. In other words, the vast majority of people live in a society divided into social classes where the propertied classes, the merchants, the industrialists, the financiers and the landowners, dominate the class who have little or no property, the working class. The economic base of this social regime is the capitalist system.

The task of the workers is not to substitute one exploiting class for another but rather to rid humanity of all exploitation. When the capitalists drove out the feudal nobles and kings, it did so in the name of all the people; but, in fact, it only replaced the old oppressors with new ones. It couldn’t have been otherwise because the capitalists were  a class whose existence was based on the private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of the labour of others. Thus it only substituted a new form of class exploitation for an old one.

In attacking the foundation of the capitalist system – the private ownership of the means of production and wage labour – the working class undertakes at the same time the elimination of classes themselves. In effect, to eliminate the private ownership of the means of production is to destroy the material basis on which all exploiting classes are founded. Consequently, it is also to eliminate classes themselves. This is why we say that the  aim of the socialist struggle is the classless society, i.e.  a community in which no person exploits the labour of another. The proletariat has no one to exploit because it is the most deprived class in society. After the proletariat, there are no classes to serve as the object of exploitation. To eliminate the exploitation of the workers is to eliminate all exploitation.

Socialist society is a classless and stateless society. While under capitalism, production is done solely in order to make profits for those who own the factories, the railroads, the big supermarket chain-stores, etc., in socialist society, production is planned according to the needs of all people. socialist factories won’t shut down because investors don’t think they’re making enough money from them. Production will no longer depend upon the wishes of a handful of capitalists whose only goal is maximum profits, but on the collective will of all of the workers.

What millions and millions of men and women are calling for from the depths of their collective consciousness is an immediate radical change in the political and economic situation. The most vigorous anti-capitalist offensive can’t be put off till later. People are much more advanced than we imagine. They don’t worry over complicated doctrinal considerations, but with a sure instinct they call for the most substantive solutions: they expect much. Everything is possible. They know that the capitalist world is in its death throes and that a new world must be constructed if we want to have done with inequality, environmental destruction and war. The task of the Socialist Party is to unite and organise all workers and it is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves, who must grow strong.

Child Labour In The USA

Stories abound about the exploitation of young children in Asia and Africa but this story is from the USA. 'Children as young as 7 years old are suffering serious health problem from toiling long hours in tobacco fields to harvest pesticide-laced leaves for major cigarette brands, according to a report released Wednesday. New York City based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed more than 140 youngsters working on tobacco farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, where most American tobacco is sourced.' (Time Magazine, 14 May) The report goes on say that HRW is asking the tobacco firms to introduce legislation to curb this use of children but as the global tobacco industry generates annual revenues of around $500 billion there is little chance of that happening. RD

A Mad, Mad World

If anything could sum up the madness of capitalist society it is surely this. 'A rare violin "hidden in a closet" at the home of a reclusive US heiress for decades is expected to fetch up to $10 million (£6 million) at auction this week. .....  The violin is one of the highlights of the sale from the estate of Huguette Clark, the eccentric heiress to a copper fortune.' (Independent on Sunday, 8 June) A useless parasite possesses a valuable work of art of which she is unaware whilst millions starve and die for the lack of a few dollars. Capitalism stinks! RD

“I’m alright, Jock”

 

A 100 days to go until the referendum vote. Throughout the independence referendum debate the working class perspective has largely been missing.

The Socialist Party counterpose internationalism (technically, that’s the interrelation of nations but in common parlance we take it to mean anti-nationalism), against nationalism. We are internationalists because we believe that the interests of the exploited are the same all over the world, and that socialism cannot be achieved in a single geographic area. The class struggle recognises no borders. We seek a truly free society where all peoples and nationalities shall be united into a universal brotherhood.

 The creation of new national borders is not a step forward in the direction of the unity of the woking class, a pre-requisite for the establishment of socialism.  Independence movements divide workers of different nationalities and push them to line up under national flags  instead of struggling to free themselves from the wage labour and exploitation, imposed by a local ruling class as well as foreign ones. Nationalism is an objectionable sentiment since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity.

Men and women the world over are beginning to realise that nationalism and patriotism are too narrow and limited a conception to meet the necessities of our time. Some capitalists want independence but it should be revolution we, the people, should want. There are but two nations in the world. Do you belong to the nation that lives by working, or to the nation that lives by owning? The Pole, the Indian or the Somali who works belongs to our nation. On the other hand, the factory owner, the share-holding investor and the land-owner does not belong to our nation, no matter where they are born or where they live; no matter where you were born or where you live. No matter what their race; no matter what your race.

Forget your bogus patriotism. Our country is the world. Those who do useful labour are our fellow compatriots. The foreigner, the enemy, is oppressing our co-workers all over the world. They are breaking our backs. They are grinding our lives. We have nothing in common with them. Let us cast off all sectionalism, all parochialism, and sit down as brothers and sisters together. The task of building a socialist movement is not easy and it should include no support whatsoever for either the unionist or separatist factions who represent only different aspects of exploitation and oppression. The workers in Scotland must join the world working class to get rid of a global system which has long outlived its usefulness.

Nationalism finds little expression among the Scottish ruling class which is firmly committed to its junior partner relationship with British capitalism. This is hardly surprising, as the integration of their economic interests has inevitably tended towards what might be described as a social integration of the owners and representatives of Scottish and British capital. Their common outlook is reinforced by an unusual degree of inter-marriage, common club affiliations, common educational background, etc.

We must resist all attempts by one ruling class to play us off against each other. The idea of the "Scottish nation" hides the class character of the capitalist system and gives the impression that their exists the common interest of the "Scottish people".

We have no country but we do have a world to win. The only solution is a society in which money, exploitation and profit have been overthrown and production is in harmony with humanity and the environment. A society in which the means of production are socialised and no longer in the hands of state or private capitalists. It is a question of a new society, an "association of free producers", in which production is for the satisfaction of human needs and not for profit. A society without nations, states or borders.

There is simply no solution to the oppression of many of the world’s peoples within the framework of capitalism – this is clear enough from all that has happened. Capitalism is a world wide system.  Capitalism created the nation-state and the interdependence of world economy as one single system. However, it did so in a rather haphazard and contradictory fashion. On the one hand the capitalist nations are dependent on one another. But on the other hand they compete against one another. Neither nationalism nor pseudo-Europeanism is a solution in the interests of the working class. The solution to the problem lies in the unity of the workers of the world against the capitalists of  the world, the community of interests of the world’s workers.

Although multinationals often have interests distinct from those of the home state and can often frustrate the achievement of its policy aims, this does not entail the conclusion that MNCs are more powerful than the state and can dispense with its protection. Indeed the growth of the power of the MNCs has contributed to the growth of the power of the state and the increasing role of state capital as a counterweight. by internationalizing production, has created a world-wide division of labour. But it has also concentrated ownership and control into fewer and fewer hands. Profits know no nationality, no boundaries. Every new international corporate merger binds the world capitalists together as a class irrespective of nationality.

Should we be surprised at the finding that of 700 oil industry companies polled 18% said they believed independence would be positive for the sector, while 12% said it would be negative and 38% said they did not care either way.

Don't create a new nation - Create a new society. It’s in your hands.

Return Of Nazism

We were told the first world war was a war to end all wars - how pathetic that now seems. We were told the second world war was to end Nazism but that is proving even sillier in Greece. 'SS songs and anti-semitism: the week Golden Dawn turned openly Nazi. Supporters of the far-right party gave Hitler salutes and sang the Horst Wessel song outside parliament last week. ...... Emboldened by its recent success in European and local elections - in which the party emerged as the country's third biggest political force ..... the extremists drove home the message that they were not only on the rebound but here to stay.' (Observer, 8 June) Wars are fought for economic reasons - for markets, trade routes and spheres of influence. Not for high-sounding principles like peace and democracy. RD