“Arise, ye prisoners of starvation” (1/3)

Food and its production is one of the most important issues of the anti-capitalist movement. The lack of access to sufficient quantities of food to satisfy minimum human need the quality of the food we consume and its impact on our health, and the control of the world’s food resources, have all been the focus of attention for many. Even in the developed world with supposedly ‘adequate’ levels of nutrition, the food we eat has become a major cause of ill health and early death, especially among the poorest in society who consume the foods with the least nutritional quality. Capitalist food production and Big Business lie at the heart of these issues. Human and animal welfare violations are shocking with food products devoid of nutrients. The extent of corporate power frightening. The world's population is larger than ever before - but so is world food production. Indeed the surplus potentially available is greater than it has ever been. Some claim that the equivalent of twice the minimum nutritional level for everyone in the world is already being produced. And with world transport and storage better than ever, it should be easy to overcome any local shortages, or even out shortfalls in one year with stocks accumulated in good time (and we have known how to do this since Old Testament times)

It is clear now that climate change and the increase in extreme weather events such as flooding, and drought – will impact on food production. Global warming is becoming an issue for food production on a global scale. While climate change is likely to increase world hunger, it is not the cause. The problem is capitalism. The motivation for big business to produce food is profit, not to provide for people. Despite the great strides the progress of technology and increased food production, this system cannot provide the most basic necessities for the world’s population. Advances in nutrition and agricultural science could allow us to produce abundant, healthy, safe, and tasty food for everyone. Humanity could produce an enormous variety of foods, both to guarantee food security against pests, disease, and climate change through agricultural diversity, but also to keep meals appetising. In short, the knowledge, technology, and collective potential to completely transform the way the world eats exists now. What doesn’t exist is a social structure that allows for a rational and balanced approach to food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption.

People cannot fill their bellies and go hungry or feed their families. It is not a question of there being too many people or not enough food available. We currently grows enough food to feed 10 billion. Hunger and malnutrition today is a result of structural and political conditions, not the inability to grow enough food. Our food production and distribution is not planned but is at the behest of the anarchy of the market and the exchange economy. This dysfunctional relationship with food is regularly lamented but the reasons are rarely explained. Today, capitalism is unable to feed the world. The future, under capitalism tomorrow, will mean this will get worse. Socialism is the only solution to stopping and reversing climate change – and for providing everyone with the necessities of life.

Many people want to do something about food and the closely related problem of the environment. But virtually all the proposals are limited to tinkering with the existing system or appealing to the good will and reason of the rich and powerful. This is utopian. In a system driven by and defined by commodity production and money, what matters to the capitalists is not food quality or the benefits to human health, but maximising profits. The solution is not to be found in blaming individuals for their “personal choices,” or in changing this or that aspect of the status quo. The solution can only come from abolishing the dysfunctional system of capitalism itself.

A central problem in the food system is one of exploitation of small producers and landless labourers by the more powerful corporations. The market control they seek is through the domination of supply chains and processing. It is here that they believe ‘value adding’ and product differentiation can be achieved. The development of large transnational firms has given rise to a system of production whereby their size and dominance have provided them with an ability to structure the food market. In the food chain, close linkages between large-scale farmers, manufacturers and retailers are used to regulate competition. The key players in the industry are the manufacturers and the retailers who dominate the individual sectors and in doing so attempt to determine the prices and profits in the industry as a whole. Most of these companies operate as dominant firms in their respective market sectors. That provides them with the opportunities to establish prices and profits within the supply chain and ensure governments introduce rules which benefit them and help them dominate small producers. Free-market ideology suggests that prices are determined by the interaction of demand and supply. In the food industry nothing could be further from the truth. Farmers receiving subsidies provide manufacturers and retailers with the ability to purchase low-priced raw materials and sell them at high prices to consumers. A system of import tariffs and subsidies from governments provides subsidies throughout the industry. Dwayne Andreas, the boss of Archer Daniels Midland - one of the global giants - said in 1995, "There isn't one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians."

To reiterate, there is currently the ability to produce enough food to adequately feed the world’s population plus extra. The primary problem facing the developing world is the distribution of food and its control. There exists the concern that current farming techniques, factory-produced meat, and fertiliser-reliant techniques for crop production are unsustainable in terms of wasting the earth’s resources and damaging the environment. Certainly we should seek methods of production which are sustainable, but that does not rule out all industrial or intensified forms of agriculture. For sure, a move away from monoculture farming heavily dependent upon chemical fertilisers and herbicides is necessary. Local food movements have sprung up but capitalism has created the conditions in which commodities can be transported around the world. Specialisation in production can be beneficial and can be more efficient for many products but again monoculture farming encourages the spread of disease and increases chemical use. The debate between localisation and globalisation in food production needs to start from considerations of satisfying human need rather than a value judgement on the benefits or otherwise of rival systems. Any rational food production system would certainly lead to higher levels of localised production, certainly to greater diversity in the food we consume and certainly not a world in which millions starve while food is left to rot. Nor would a rational food production system see millions being made ill from the poor quality of the food produced or a world in which the food produced was determined by the needs of big business to maximise profits. But equally it would almost certainly involve the continuation of some forms of large-scale agricultural production and not solely organic and international trade in food, but at a level which is sustainable, rational and aimed at satisfying the needs of all.

"The global food system is broken," say Oxfam. They are right. But what makes it this way, what stands between production and consumption. Our answer is capitalism and the drive for profit. What we need is to take control of the food system. Change will only come when those in power running the system for the purpose of profit are dethroned. This will enable us to deal with the wasteful and wilful system of buying and selling. Socialists look forward to a world of plenty.

United States of Anger!

A snippet in The Toronto Star recently focused on the United States of Anger. In 2011 there were one thousand and eighteen hate groups operating there, an increase of four hundred and eleven in that year. There was a thirty-five per cent increase in prosecutions of hate crimes during the first three years of Obama's administration, according to the justice department. That's what we like about capitalism – it brings people together in peace and harmony! John Ayers.

It Makes One Wonder.

 Actress Halle Berry has been ordered to pay ex-husband, Gabriel Aubrey $240 000 a year to support their four-year old daughter…"in the comfortable surroundings she has become accustomed to." How many starving children would that feed. It makes one wonder if there isn't something wrong with the system under which we live! John Ayers.

We Need Socialism

THE CLASS STRUGGLE

“I’m not against capitalism; I just think it should be regulated and controlled more” is an opinion shared by many. Capitalism, no matter how much legislation is passed to rein it in, is intolerable; it must be dismantled. Here’s why:

The hallmark of capitalism is that the means of production are privately owned by some individuals, while others do not have this ownership. In other words, some own the means of production others are using. So it’s a system in which the ones using the means of production must sell their labor to these owners in order to have a relatively decent life.  The owners can then make a profit from other people’s work by just owning. This happens when the value of the worker’s pay is less than the value that was added thru his/her work in the paid hours. That creates a profit for the owner of the means of production who did not create the value, but still gets paid in the form of profit. This profit is hence capital for future investments and more profits. So, the capitalist is making money simply by just owning, not adding or creating value. Since a capitalist economy is based on the need for growth and profits for the investors and owners, this method of exploitation – profiting on other people’s hard work – is of course used by more or less all of them. This exploitation is in other words just a logical result caused by the capitalist system. Economists who support capitalism may well proclaim how rational and efficient it is, but in fact it is a fundamentally irrational system, perhaps the most irrational in the whole of history. This is the situation: technical progress is greater than ever, but people are working harder and harder and longer and longer. We are not enemies of technology, but we are against the capitalist application of technology which means we see the productivity of labour rise, but that is not done for the benefit of society, nor in order to shorten labour time and the proportion of our life we spend at work. On the contrary, that is getting longer and more intensified.

The financial elite have the overwhelming power in society. They control all the resources and possess the influence and power in the economy, yet we’ve never voted for them. Wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a non-elected minority who make huge decisions that affect the entire society and our lives. This is undemocratic. Capitalism is a global system, and people should co-operate and organise society in common.

Cooperation, solidarity and altruism are essential and fundamental elements of our nature, but these things are being suppressed to a large extent in capitalism. In) today’s societies things like greed and consumption are being encouraged. In fact, capitalism requires corporations to only think about the "bottom line". If they don’t, they’re out of business, and corporations that do think profits and greed replace them. A society like this will of course produce a lot of greedy individuals. Capitalism encourages greed and tries to manipulate us into mindless consumption. Corporations spend huge amounts of money on advertising almost everywhere we look, whether it’s TV, radio, internet or newspapers. This propagandistic capitalist system is a highly unnatural phenomenon; it’s been a part of human history for an extremely small amount of time, yet it affects us, many of us in a huge way. Capitalism demoralises humans. The profit-hungry billionaires love “private property.” They love that while the majority of humanity has to sell their labour, renting out their ability to work to someone else in order to survive, they, the superrich, get to “own” the banks, factories, natural resources, and other “commanding heights” of the economy. They are happy that they can live off the work done by those who aren’t lucky enough to be among their small ruling segment of humanity. The billionaires and their governments want people to support and fight in their wars. They also want people to happily accept their massive cutbacks and layoffs. If the people are to do this, the last thing they need to hear is the truth. The ruling class own the media to push its interpretation of the world.

A system that’s undemocratic, tyrannical and exploitative shouldn’t just be fixed or regulated, it should be dismantled. Capitalism must be abolished and replaced by a libertarian socialist society in which the communities and the economic institutions are run democratically by the participants; a society where the people participate in the decision-making and are in control of their own work, life and destiny; a system of cooperative communities that benefit everyone and focus on people’s needs instead of short term profits. It can only come when the majority of people want it. Creating a socialist society is perfectly do-able. We’ve seen examples of socialism working very well all over the place throughout history.

The Socialist Party is anti-capitalist and our aim is to show that all the problems facing people today, such as poverty and unemployment are consequences of the socio-economic system and not of the success of failure of this or that economic policy of particular governments. We live in an age of extraordinary progress. We have more computer power in our smartphone than in the Apollo space programme and we can reach billions of people instantly via the internet. Remember "The Jetsons" cartoon series? It portrayed technologies in the sixties that seemed magical at the time such as videophones, talking alarm clocks, flat screen TVs, a kind of internet connection and even robots to clean your house. All are reality today. Thanks to the decoding of the human genome we are at the verge of medical breakthroughs that can even further extend our life expectancy and we only just begun exploring the human brain to find answers to Alzheimer's and dementia. Science can provide us a new, green, industrial revolution where we no longer burn fossil fuels for our transportation or use oil derivatives for materials. We can develop new green and clean forms of energy and materials with the help of scientists.  

 But think about inequality, or climate change or the fact that still around 800 million people go to bed hungry every day. In order to solve the threat of climate change, hunger and other challenges, we don’t only need scientists and their tireless efforts to help our society to further advance but we require a majority of people who are committed to pushing the boundaries even further in a political social revolution. Because science alone cannot change the world. Only people can. 

Capitalism's Sickness!

In "Rich-Poor Divide in Toronto Hospitals", (Toronto Star, June 13) reporter, Carol Goar, highlights the findings of a recent survey. There are two – "The first is that very low income people are using the parts of the health care system that are in its greatest crisis; the second is that to reduce hospital use, people need the ability to pay for healthy food, buy medicine, and live in a healthy place where they can receive home care." In other words, if you do not have the money you will not get the health care you need. Another example of capitalism's sickness! John Ayers.

Understanding Capitalism

When looking at all of our social problems, from miserable working conditions to poverty to environmental destruction to crime to discrimination to democracy -- when looking at all of this, we struggle with a reason why it must happen. And then it occurs, almost as clear as daylight that this happens because we are not in control of our own world. The farms and the factories, the police departments and the parliaments, the army and the navy, all of it is for the glory, the power, and the benefit of a very few. The only thing that guarantees this is possession of society's productive forces. It is because the wealthy own all of the land and all of the productive instruments that they may cause these problems. It is because the capitalist is given a choice that discrimination occurs; it is because the capitalist is given a profit incentive that environmental destruction occurs; it is because the capitalist cannot profit by well-satisfied working class that unemployment occurs. Our goal is to make revolution, overthrow the capitalist system and build socialism. Reformists projects the idea that the capitalist state can be a shield for the rights of the people against the reality itself which proves that the capitalist state is a class state, serving the employing and promotes attacks upon the working class. Reformists provide an alibi to capitalism that fosters illusions and serve its perpetuation with the claim that the capitalist system can be tamed and could be a benefit to working people. A humanised capitalism is impossible to exist. If our definition of capitalism/socialism is just private/public ownership then we're overlooking so many necessary factors in the economy, namely and most importantly the mode of production.

"But, the transformation — either into joint-stock companies and trusts, or into State-ownership — does not do away with the capitalistic nature of the productive forces. In the joint-stock companies and trusts, this is obvious. And the modern State, again, is only the organization that bourgeois society takes on in order to support the external conditions of the capitalist mode of production against the encroachments as well of the workers as of individual capitalists. The modern state, no matter what its form, is essentially a capitalist machine — the state of the capitalists, the ideal personification of the total national capital. The more it proceeds to the taking over of productive forces, the more does it actually become the national capitalist, the more citizens does it exploit. The workers remain wage-workers — proletarians. The capitalist relation is not done away with. It is, rather, brought to a head. But, brought to a head, it topples over. State-ownership of the productive forces is not the solution of the conflict, but concealed within it are the technical conditions that form the elements of that solution."

Does commodity production, wage labour, the law of value, commodity production for profit, etc, cease to exist freely once that state takes ownership of the means of production? Of course not. Marx and Engels for many people are simply old fashioned and out of date, full of complicated, boring theory with long words which in practice is waste of time and we need something new. How wrong they are. Marx’s ideas can be understood by anyone who takes the trouble to study them. They are not mechanical or needlessly abstract, but contain important truths about history and human society. They are not old fashioned because they explain the world today. They are not boring because they are about revolution. The conclusion Marx and Engels drew was that practice and real action – not just ideas – were the key to the future.

Few people own anything at all, except clothes, furniture and possibly a house. What can you expect from a human being who is starving or freezing to death? In a single word, you can expect desperation. For the capitalist, this is good. It makes the worker accept lower and lower wages -- it makes the individual obedient while watching their children suffer undernourishment.

If the economy of a society is corrupted, then no institution can escape this taint. The oligarchs and the plutocrats determine the hours of work, the rates of wages, the prices of products, whether a factory shall function or stand idle, whether a field shall be harvest or its crops left to rot.  Every politician has been bought and paid for by campaign donations in order to gain votes in an electoral system, must spread their master’s message on the media. Political leaders may be voted upon by the masses, but they are presented to the public by the powerful wealthy interests, and the owners of media. They have a system of checks and balances to ensure the right type of politician is elected.

We are alienated from society. We do not control the elected officials. We do not have the right to dictate the terms of our working conditions. We do not have the right to make or pass laws or to veto or reject those passed against us. It is because we have no control over the economy that we need to live that we become so powerless in the face of such great poverty. And we are alienated, not just from society's productive instruments, but from the very act of genuine life in society itself! Anything wedo, from the organization of our workplace to interacting with others once weleave work, is done in an artificial consumerist society -- we are responsible for producing everything that we experience, but none of it is done by our own will or direction. We are the puppets in the dream of a capitalist, but for us it is a nightmare. If we don't overthrow capitalism, we don't have a chance of saving the world ecologically. All over the world, the struggle of the working class goes on. Socialist ideas hold out the hope of a totally different, exciting future and explain how to make it a reality.

Understanding Wage Slavery

END EXPLOITATION 

The majority of people are disillusioned and have deep questions about the prospects of life under capitalism. Our aim is to create an independent, mass workers movement for socialism.  Building up a mass workers’ movement for socialism does not mean that every person must be an expert on Marxist economics but only to be clear on the basic principles of socialism. People make revolution out of necessity, not out of a theory, but out of a practical, understanding of the need for revolution. The working class must emancipate itself. No one can do it for them. The Socialist Party are not made up “social workers” who try to patch up the problems of capitalism and make life “better” for the workers, but  instead are workers organising with fellow workers to fight for our interests. We want the workers to take possession of the means of production and abolish the wage system. The Socialist Party’s task is to explain every aspect of the worker’s situation, every aspect of their exploitation without exception. Our propaganda must reach out to the majority and explain why socialism is the only solution. We must start from the appearance of things and patiently explain again and again why capitalism is the source of the workers’ misery. Capitalist society is built around the idea that some people should profit off of others. We think that this is why there are so many people living in poverty right now at the same time that there are a few people with incredible wealth. Part of why capitalism continues to exist is that we can’t get a lot of what we need and want unless we have money. Most of us can’t get money unless we work for someone else. This means our bosses have a lot of control over our lives. If we lose our jobs and can’t find new ones, we risk losing our homes, losing access to health care, let alone being able to spend money on the things we enjoy. Bosses know that if they fire us we won’t have an income anymore. Many bosses use this to push people around on the job. We basically give up our democratic rights on the job. We don’t have a right to free speech at work, for instance. The boss can tell us what to say and what not to say. We think that’s wrong too

We are not utopians. The struggle for reforms is a labour of Sisyphus. Every gain extracted from capitalists and their state they will try to take back. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It must be destroyed. We think that all people should have their basic needs met – people should have enough food, and safe secure homes, access to medical care, access to entertainment and the arts, and so on. We think it’s terrible that our society wastes so many resources on the lifestyles of a few super rich people while so many poor people go without the bare necessities. We think if we did away with capitalism this wastefulness would go away and there would be plenty for everyone. We want to replace capitalism with a world that is more democratic. The very essence of capitalism is slavery: the enslavement of workers by the capitalist class. Today, all workers suffer under capitalist slavery: either wage slavery or physical, chattel slavery. There are currently more than 35.8 million people physically enslaved as chattel. Approximately 95% of the 6.4 billion persons now living suffer under capitalist wage slavery: 6.175 billion. When you read the word slavery, it may seem as though it couldn't possibly be that people are literally slaves today--slavery seems like an outmoded form of life from previous centuries. Whatever we feel, slavery is very much a fact of life for all people in the world today. A person is a slave if he has lost control over his life and is dominated by someone or something--whether he is aware of this or not. Wage slavery is the condition in which a person must sell his or her labor-power, submitting to the authority of an employer, in order to merely subsist.

A capitalist slave is:

1.      Forced to work at a "job" owned by a capitalist (owner of jobs, the means of production, and the profit from the jobs) through necessity or through mental or physical threat

2.      Owned or controlled by a capitalist "employer" (wages, hours, working conditions)

3.      Dehumanised, treated as a commodity: a faceless entity filling a slot, a hired hand

4.      At the mercy of the capitalist: the capitalist can--and now does so with a vengeance--destroy jobs by "staff reduction," mechanize jobs (e.g. robots welding automobiles), or take jobs to a cheaper labor location

5.      Without a voice as to how much profit the capitalist can make from the worker's labor and cannot bargain for higher wages or safe working conditions

6.      Unable to support himself and his family when he cannot find a job

7.      Reduced to poverty or destitution or death by an ever-reduced job "market"

Just as plantation owners in the American South and the capitalists who made millions from the international slave trade in earlier decades of our history brainwashed most Americans into believing that chattel slavery was a "fact of nature." In the same vein, capitalists have programmed most contemporary people into believing that the evils of capitalist slavery are necessary to the smooth running of society. The capitalist system of greed, selfishness, subjugation, and exploitation has camouflaged itself the illusion of equal opportunity for all and has seduced people into ignoring its contradictions, injustices, and malevolence. Just as the world attempts to rid itself of chattel and debt slavery with the realization that slavery is not "natural"—but in fact evil and unnatural-- workers throughout the world must now free themselves from capitalist slavery. We must replace capitalism with a socialist cooperative commonwealth society that ensures that all people can live free from slavery of any kind and assure that every person has the means whereby they can sustain themselves and lead a free and productive life.

To overthrow capitalism, we must work hard to understand just what has led to our enslavement and what kinds of actions will be necessary to free ourselves from these insidious chains of servitude. We first need to understand the basics of our present economic situation. You have already endured the subjugation of a "boss" or "director" or "committee," and you know that the coercion, even if masked as "job description," "supervisor evaluation," or "company directive" can be as repressive as if there were literal chains fastened around your arms and feet.  Under the "wage slave" system you don't receive the full compensation for your work. By the very nature of the employer-employee relationship, you get less compensation than you should, because the employer takes excessive profits. Let's take a look at how this happens by examining a very simple example of an exchange:

The raw material to produce a sack of ground wheat, let's say, costs $1.00. The means of production for this job costs $1.00. The owner of the means of production (the capitalist) pays you $1.00 for your labour-power. The capitalist sells the sack of ground wheat for $8.00. Your labour has turned $1.00 dollar of wheat plus $1.00 in production costs plus $1.00 for your labour-power, into a commodity which is sold for $8.00. The profit is $5.00. The owner of the means of production (the capitalist) makes 5 times more in profit than you do in wages, plus he owns and can sell the means of production whenever he wants. And he can select cheaper labour as he pleases. A wage slave can't quit an oppressive job to find a less slave-like job, because in our present society, almost all jobs involve wage-slavery. So the options are obey and stay, die of starvation, or become a vagrant, which is illegal. Yet another reason why to oppose capitalism is because this economic institution acts as a parasite. Every worker, no matter how much they must produce to feed themselves, must produce extra to feed their boss, employer, or group of stockholders. The income is split between the costs of industry, the employer, and the employee. Fourth, fifth, and sixth cuts are taken out by the state, the middleman, and the final distributor. Each one of these groups take their toll on the product but contribute nothing. They simply stamp it as approved, living off of the proceeds from the sales without producing or creating. If there is an initial displeasure with capitalism, it is this: the many who work receive very little, while those few who do not labour receive the greatest income. In a single word, we socialists have called this exploitation, justified solely by legal possession.

The ravages of wage slavery are becoming clear for all to see and feel. We either overthrow this new slavery or we will continue as slaves. We must realise that our economic situation at present--a very few obscenely rich people owning companies and corporations and having illegally seized state and federal political power--is one which we can and must change. Our current economic and political circumstances are not written in stone; humans have lived under very different political and economic conditions throughout our history. We must begin to overthrow this present state of affairs where all workers suffer under capitalist wage-slavery. The political system and the economic situation should be directed toward the welfare of all, not just a few. We can bring about these changes; it is not impossible. We must first make all workers aware of our present plight and then begin in all possible ways to overthrow the new slavery, producing material changes leading to political freedom and economic equality of opportunity through building the cooperative socialist commonwealth

Change is Taking Place Whether We Like It Or Not

FREE ACCESS AND COMMON OWNERSHIP

It’s the system. A world of afflicted human beings, nearly half of whom struggle to survive on less than $2 a day. Capitalism is designed to profit a privileged few, not to nourish a humane and sane society. Unbearable conditions are causing upheavals globally, and rulers are desperate to suppress them. Capitalist barbarities are global and workers organising across borders vital. It’s going to take a revolution to abolish this system. The owners of capital have zero interest in such a radical change of ownership. It doesn’t take a genius to see that we live in a deeply destructive world.

The word “socialism” is so loaded with negative connotations, being linked to totalitarian regimes and brutal repression of freedom and rights from Stalin to Pol Pot where everyone suffers under the oppressive the heel of relentless state control. Socialism, then, is vilified as a fundamental danger to human freedom. Socialism that envisions a significant reorganization of society is seen as merely an anachronism. It is time that those of us shake off our fear of being branded as wild-eyed radicals who espouse long-discarded Marxist pipe-dreams of sharing the planet’s resources and proposing a society controlled by membership in that society, not by accumulated wealth whether individuals or corporate. If socialism were as anachronistic and as irrelevant as those who oppose it say it is, then why such a reaction to it? There are those who see change as absolutely necessary for survival and they are doing all they can to bring it about, no matter how the ruling minority’s media and political servants act to the contrary or some Left critics insist it’s ineffective or even hopeless for capitalism’s apologists are paradoxically joined by many of its critics in seeming unity of belief that there is no chance or need for change. This is understandable as we experience an almost endless loop of bad news about everything, along with a political system that offers a choice between cholera or plague every election day with no seeming hope for ending the disease. Nevertheless, while the danger to humanity is greater than ever, so are the possibilities for success. The rise of resistance to dictatorships, corporate rule, military occupation and corrupt politics brings new hope for humanity.

The current ecological and economic problems facing the world have happened precisely because we live in a political and economic system that puts profits ahead of people and the planet—capitalism. To save ourselves and our planet we need a sharp change of direction towards a new people-centred form of social organisation—socialism. Imagine a society where each individual has the means to live a life of dignity and fulfilment, without exception; where discrimination and prejudice are wiped out; where all members of society are guaranteed a decent life, the means to contribute to society; and where the environment is protected and rehabilitated. This is socialism—a truly humane, a truly ecological society.

The goal of the big corporations is to secure the greatest possible profits for their share-holders —regardless of the consequences to the planet and its people. More and more people are realising that society needs to be liberated from the rule of capital. Under capitalism, a tiny handful of people—the capitalist class, “the 1%”—control the means of production, distribution and exchange. They own the corporations that own the mines, factories, banks, transport networks, supermarket chains, media empires, and so on. The economy is a social enterprise. We all depend on it and the labour of working people keeps the wheels turning. But because the capitalists control it they get the profits and workers’ wages never reflect the full value of what they produce. The fight for a decent wage is a constant struggle against entrenched corporate power, backed by the state. The market-based system is represented in the media as all-powerful and constant. Any possible alternative is excluded. But our economic and social relationships are a human creation, and as such, they can be changed. Our economy must be socially owned and controlled. We need a radically different political system: a system of grassroots, participatory democracy that empowers the big majority of people who are currently excluded from genuine decision making power. This would be based on organisations of popular democracy in localities and workplaces which could directly make decisions affecting their respective communities. Any administrators or officials elected by these bodies would be subject to recall through a simple process if their electors are dissatisfied. Centralised decision making bodies need to be accountable to their local counterparts. Real democracy is impossible if one part of society (the capitalist class) owns the main levers of the economy and can run them autocratically in their own private interest and at the expense of the workers who are compelled to work for them. By contrast, social ownership makes possible democratic decisions about the main goals and targets of economic activity including environmental, labour and human rights standards. These goals and targets should be popularly decided. Workers should be able to elect their own administrators and collectively direct their workplaces.

We need revolutionary change. Revolution doesn’t mean a violent coup by a minority: a revolution can only come about when the majority of people see the need for radical change, and are actively involved in bringing it about. A revolution is a mass struggle to create new and far more democratic forms of political power and a new social system. While this seems a long way off at present, deepening economic, environmental and political crises can create a situation where people are looking for solutions and are open to revolutionary ideas. An important step in the struggle for such change is winning political power and capturing the machinery of the State within the current parliamentary system. History also shows that we will have to mobilise in the workplaces and neighbourhoods to defend any the political majority. If we can overcome capitalism—if the economy is socially owned and controlled and we have a system of popular power—then we have a framework for dealing with the ecological and social problems that we face. The guiding principle of a post-capitalist society would be placing the welfare of all people and ecological sustainability first. No one would be abandoned to their fate, as is the case under capitalism.

Ten Years After

Ten years ago, the G8 summit was held at the heavily fortified Gleneagles Hotel and  Make Poverty History movement came to Edinburgh with churches and the charities at the forefront with over a quarter of a million marching in the streets, Bob Geldof was hosting a rock concert at Murrayfield for LiveAid and the anarchist Black Bloc was futilely endeavouring to make their presence felt. What did it all accomplish? Not a lot.

What the Socialist Party said at the time in our effort to bring home some unwelcomed truths and spoil the self-congratulating media personalities presentation:

“What is now clear is that the anti-globalisation/pro-development movement, however well-meaning, does not seek to replace capitalism with any real alternative social system. At best it attracts a myriad of groups, all pursuing their own reformist agenda. Some call for greater corporate responsibility. Some demand the restructuring of international institutions like the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. Others call for the expansion of democracy and fairer trading conditions, debt cancellation and more aid. All, however, fail to address the root cause of the problems of capitalism and promote the damnable system they are critical of by applauding any meagre reform.

One thing is certain: no amount of high table reform is going to legislate poverty out of existence as the MHP coalition believes. Capitalism cannot be reformed in the interests of the world’s suffering billions, because reform does not address the basic contradiction between profit and need. Moreover, reform can be so packaged and camouflaged as to be acceptable to protestors whilst leaving their real grievances unaddressed. The world’s leaders simply cannot be depended upon to implement real change because they can only ever act as the executive of corporate capitalism.

The protesters at the G8 might think they are united in common cause, but in truth they are only united in supporting capitalism and in their mistaken belief that poverty can be legislated out of existence, They have no blueprint for change other than the three demands put forward by the Make Poverty History campaign – Fair trade, more aid and debt cancellation. – and this is about as radical as it gets. In mirroring in their objectives the overseas goals of Blair and Brown they are anything but the modern day revolutionaries they claim to be.”

There can be little doubt that the world can still be described as one motivated by greed through the ruthless exploitation of natural and human resources. The main players are still governments, multinational corporations and corrupt local politicians running gangster regimes. The G8 made gestures such as the partial cancellation of Third World debt but the write-off of these dollars will only be a means of continuing their grip on African countries whilst dressing their actions with the phoney rhetoric of care and concern. There was no outcome that solved the problems of the desperately poor of Africa, and no matter how well-meaning were their slogans, campaigners in the developed countries still became involved in the machinations of interest groups whose basic concern is profit and the economic strategies of ruling elites. The G8 protests demonstrated a great strength of feeling but it also demonstrates a great weakness; the lack of control of those who take part and their dependence over the decisions and actions of present power structures. The Make Poverty History marcher were victims of a seductive but deadly process. The capitalist system constantly throws up issues that demand action amongst those who are concerned and by many people who think of themselves as ‘socialists’. As a result, protest tends to become a demand for an “improved” kind of capitalism which leaves the long-term reasons for protest intact.

Given the number of people currently still suffering and dying from the effects of world poverty it should be obvious that we must go far beyond mere reform campaigns and instead organise to abolish the profit system and replace it with a world of common ownership, democratic control and production solely for needs. Such a socialist world would be able to stop people dying from hunger immediately and rapidly increase world food production to reach a point where every person on the planet would have free access to sufficient good quality food to maintain good health. The shortest distance between capitalism and an alternative society is a straight line.  Let’s campaign for the abolition of capitalism and not misdirect our energies in trying to humanise capitalism, which can only – as many now recognise – put profit before people.

This blogger recalls that it was only the Socialist Party that was conveying this message when volunteers from our various branches also gathered in Edinburgh and Gleneagles to distribute leaflets and literature. 

The revolution is socialist or it is nothing

The Socialist Party is not a Leninist organisation, nor Stalinist or Trotskyist. It is not anarchist. It is not Left nor Right. It is just socialist. Plain and simple. The Left consists of those parties or organisations, usually describing themselves "socialist" or "communist", which claim to represent the interests of the working class, but are in fact simply the left wing of capitalism. How does the Left support capitalism? The Left's objective function for capitalism is as a kind of safety net to catch those of us who have seen through the usual bourgeois con tricks, and thus lead us into supporting capitalism in a more radical form when we think we are supporting our own class interest. The Left, from the Labour Party (including all its Old Labour factions) or the "Communist" Party to the SWP, SPEW etc ad nauseam, whether Stalinist, Maoist or Trotskyist, is totally counter-productive and counter-revolutionary and is the enemy of the working class. To all militants who honestly wish to fight for proletarian class interests, but who have illusions in Leftism, we say: Abandon these ideas. Socialism a society without classes, in which we all collectively control our own existence, in which we run the world for our own needs and desires, in which humanity can fulfil itself as the conscious agent of its own history, and no longer be an enslaved mass toiling for the benefit of a parasitic ruling class. The Left is a barrier in the way of the acceptance of a revolutionary view of society, and a revolutionary struggle leading to the establishment of socialism. The sins of omission and commission of those who call themselves progressive has for so many years helped to frustrate every attempt to build up an authentic genuine world socialism movement. What can we do in the meantime?

1) Keep our principles intact. There's no point in diluting the proposals of revolutionary socialists in order to artificially inflate our numbers;

2) Continue to point out and explain in our literature and other campaigns the underlying cause of social problems;

3) Describe how a socialist society could be organised to solve these problems; and

4) Avoid any actions or words that suggest that our class can improve its condition in a meaningful way without abolishing the capitalist system.

We need to form a more clear and definitive anti-capitalist movement which unequivocally has as its aim to abolish capitalism and the political state and which seeks to replace it with a classless, moneyless, democratically worker-run society of free access. As a socialist party we do not mean one which is reformist, nor one which seeks state power in order to maintain state power as in Leninism. Both are inimical to the socialist vision of a stateless, moneyless, society of free access. The Socialist Party is leaderless without a hierarchy, totally democratically structured, one which has as its sole objective to gain a majoritarian vote at the polls so that once elected it may set about the immediate dismantling of the state and the capitalist system. Working in conjunction with revolutionary socialists on other battlefields, it may then help to usher in a production-for-human-use society. No-one can predict which revolutionary method will work the surest, but even if the electoral method does not turn out to be the unequivocal deciding factor in dealing with state power, it will work well in combination with other initiatives. By no means though should party organising be seen as a passive substitute for other forms of organising outside the electoral process. In order to build a majoritarian movement, it will be necessary to get our ideas more effectively transmitted into the mainstream consciousness of people. Having competent socialists publically debate with capitalist apologists, putting forth the socialist position will work well towards this end. In fact, working in concert with other initiatives it will help to build the revolutionary momentum that makes socialism truly an idea whose time has come.

The system has no answers to its current crises – there is no light at the end of the tunnel of capitalism. Capitalism, as an economic system, and its chief weapon, the state, are dedicated to one thing - maintaining the ascendancy of a minority over the majority. The ever recurring problems of the system are driving a new generation into struggle against it. These changes provide a real opportunity to raise the challenge of the overthrow of globalised capitalism, which is hated by the vast majority of humanity. Socialism has its roots in the inability of capitalism to solve humanity's problems. Working people gravitate toward a radical critique of society out of necessity, out of a sense that the existing arrangements of society fail to fulfill their material and psychological needs. Real ownership and control of social property, through a democratic and participatory society are the foundational aspects of socialism. But frustratingly the problem is that people don't see any alternatives, or dismiss those they are presented with as utopian and unreachable. But this does not mean that people's minds are totally closed to radical ideas. Capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. It brings workers together into workplaces, forcing them to organise collectively, and the relentless drive for profit constantly reminds workers that they have collective interests, diametrically opposed to those of the ruling class. This means that, even when the confidence of the class as a whole is at its lowest, there will still be areas where people are fighting back. There exists a recognition that there are problems in the way society is run, though it may be focused on one issue initially. People get involved because they know that things have to change. This can lead people to realise that tinkering with the system isn't enough, real improvement requires real change - revolutionary change. Struggle is inevitable, revolution is not.

No revolution can ever succeed as a factor of liberation unless the means used to further it be identical in spirit and tendency with the purposes to be achieved. Marx and Engels’ vision of the future society began not from a moral conception of a “good society” juxtaposed to the present “bad society” but rather from a study of the present and what potential it offers us for making change.  Under capitalism, virtually all poverty is artificial.  Poverty and hunger in previous societies was typically the resulted from natural disasters like a flood or a drought.  But today, these things are the result of a society that is organized strictly for the purposes of enriching the few at the expense of the many. Alongside unspeakable poverty, unimaginable wealth enough is produced to feed, house, educate, clothe, and care for everyone in human society. We can take advantage of technology and productivity and these resources and use them to meet everyone’s needs, but doing that requires overthrowing the power of the ruling 1% and taking control of the tools of production to meet our own needs.  That is what socialism is. This movement has to be by the working class, not only because we’re the largest class in society but also because we have a material interest in taking the fight all the way. The capitalists sow the seeds of their own overthrow.  Since they rely on the exploitation and oppression of the working-class and oppressed people they create conditions for ongoing resistance and struggle.  While there are periods of relative social stability, as long as the capitalists continue to exploit and oppress, people will want to organize to fight back—trade unions, community organizations, and other formations. Through these struggles—no matter if they’re for better wages, against police brutality, or to stop sexual assault—people can start to sort through the various contradictory ideas and develop a revolutionary worldview.

If our aim was just a political reform then we would like many others attempt to channel discontent into support for a platform of palliatives but for us, we seek a social revolution. Self-confidence and self-activity is the key to socialism, to do what needs to be done without looking for leaders to step in and take over. For this reason our role is to work with people and not for people. Our aim is educate, agitate and organize - to inspire. The revolutionary party does not exist as “the embryo” of the future society or future state, but rather, it exists as a tool. Only the working class can win a socialist society.  Nobody can do it for them.  As the American revolutionary socialist Eugene Debs said: “I would not lead the workers out of bondage if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again.”  Therefore, a premium has to be put on those things that actually unite the working class, raise the people’s political consciousness, their self-confidence and their participation in struggle. Socialists need to be vigilant in arguing against racism, nationalism, sexism or any other bigotry. Socialists need to argue against undemocratic practices in movements since these harm people’s ability to control the struggle themselves, debate their strategies and tactics, and learn lessons from their own struggle and therefore grow politically. Socialists in general, should oppose violence as a strategy since it’s needlessly provokes state repression and therefore deter people’s political radicalization. The means we use in struggle are selected on the concrete conditions of the struggle we face here-and-now. We organize ourselves based around how the world is rather than around how the world is ought to be.

We revolutionaries must come together to tear away the curtains of capitalism’s camouflage that hide the absurdity and truly horrendous perspective of continued capitalist rule, and to hold a mirror to fellow workers: see clearly, see the danger, see yourself, see your power. Recognise the necessity and the possibility. They're here. Now.

OUR DAY WILL COME!!!

We are The Socialist Party

The Socialist Party purpose is straightforward, and we do not hide it. We want to re-establish the genuine meaning of socialism. The socialist movement is a project for revolutionary change. Socialists want to overthrow today’s society based on exploitation, and build a new world where ordinary people have control over their lives and communities. The agent for this change is the working people themselves. Socialists seek to empower working people to change the world while trade unions are organisations for working people to defend their interests. An overlap of purpose is obvious. Capitalism is a system that serves to exploit. This exploitation changes and develops over time. To challenge capitalist exploitation, it is important for trade unions to be in all sectors of the economy. When workers are organised they can exercise their collective power by going on strike or refusing to over-time or working-to-rule to combat low pay, long hours, or bad working conditions. Socialists support trade unions as organisation for workers to fight for their interests. Therefore, socialists do not support practices that undermine unions. However, socialists have a vision that looks much further than limiting the forms of exploitation that working people submit to and socialists strive for the overthrow of capitalism and building a new world based on co-operation and social ownership. Socialists support unions because we believe in the power of ordinary people. The role of a socialist in a union can be varied. Socialists will always try to be good unionists at their work, but this can take different paths, depending on a range of factors. Being a union radical can mean assisting with initiatives in the union and building organisation for the next fight with the boss. It could mean opposing a corrupt leadership and building rank and file networks to challenge an entrenched union bureaucracy. Sometimes socialists may work for unions to contribute to building the organisation as an official. But always, socialists union activists seek to build the capacity for the working class to fight against their oppression.

The “disappearing working class” thesis in unsupportable. It was fashionable in the past to say it had been “bought off”, become “middle class” etc. etc. but hasn’t this recession exposed that myth. What is disappearing is the false idea that those in the middle class are not actually members of the working class.  It's true that waged industrial manual workers has shrunk in size and significance but you don't cease to be working class because you're serving burgers in a McDonalds rather than a factory worker. “Working class” denotes a position within the social relations of production. Socialists see the working class as the agents of revolutionary change not because it suffers a lot (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't), but because it's so placed within the capitalist system as to be feasibly capable of taking over. Who else but the men and women who create the system, whose livelihood depends on it, who are capable of running it justly and collectively, and who would most benefit from such a change, should take it over?

The central place of wage workers in the productive process gives them the social power to overthrow capitalism. No other social class or group has the power to achieve this. Because the system of private property is the source of its oppression, the working class can liberate itself only by abolishing this system and replacing it with a system based on social ownership of the means of production. The working class re simultaneously at the root and source of the capitalist system and incapable of being wholly included within it. Only another of the contradictions of capitalism.

The point Marx made over and over again is that the working class is revolutionary or it is nothing. Worldwide the labour and socialist movements appear to have been in retreat for several decades. Yet it is a mistake to see the workers movement as merely that section of the working class organised within the trade unions or worse still the union leadership. The predominance of racist and sexist ideas, the whole-scale belief in religion, and other socially conservative ideas that seem to belie any possible revolutionary role for the working class. Despite the rout of the traditional working class organisations, the class struggle continues unabated.

If our vision of socialism is simply a slightly modified version of what exists, don't expect it to embraced. The market cannot coexist with socialism because socialism means that society owns and controls both the means of production and the goods which result from productive activity. For the market to exist, some sectional interest (an individual,  a joint-stock company, a nationalised concern, a workers' cooperative and so on) has to be in control of part of the social product, which it then disposes of by entering into exchange relations with others. Exchange cannot take place when society, and none other, controls the means of production and the social product. Far from socialism being compatible with exchange and the market, the generalised production of goods for exchange on the market is the hallmark of an entirely different type of society - capitalism. We are not saying that absence of the market is the sole defining feature of socialism. On the contrary, socialism is not merely a market-less society; it is also a stateless society, a classless society, a moneyless society, a wage-less society. The fact that social democrats, Leninists, Trotskyists and other supposed “socialists” or “communists” accept a role for the market, tells us that they represent forces for maintaining capitalism, not for achieving socialism. Haven't they all had their share of power, and haven't they all proved totally ineffective in ridding the world of the problems which capitalism continually recreates? Other contenders for the privileges which accompany the administration of capitalism such as the 'Greens' are waiting in the wings, and are having some success in turning themselves into mass movements because of the illusory attractiveness of their promises to reform the market system. Like previous attempts at reform, these latest efforts directed towards making the capitalist system function in a manner which gives priority to human interests are bound to fail. As long as the world market remains, human beings will be forced to dance to its tune. Market forces cannot be tamed; only eliminated. The very existence of humankind is now threatened by the rivalry and the fixation on profit which are inherent in the market system.

In the society envisaged by non-market socialists, the people of the world would own the global means of production in common and would operate them communally for the benefit of humankind as a whole. Socialism in one country, or even one part of the world, is impossible. Since capitalism today is a global society which encompasses all parts of the world, the socialist alternative to capitalism must be equally global in its scope. Socialism is as relevant to the plight of those who are starving in Africa and other parts of the world as it is to the inhabitants of London or Paris. It is true that non-market socialists have generally seen the wage workers of those advanced, industrialised areas of the world which act as the power-houses of international capitalism (Europe, North America and Japan) as the force which is likely to initiate the revolutionary change from world capitalism to world socialism. Yet the establishment of non-market socialism could not be accomplished without the active cooperation of the majority of the population in those parts of the world which capitalism has consigned to underdevelopment. In contrast to the hopelessness and destitution which afflict the majority of the people in backward countries under world capitalism, the prospect of dignity and sufficiency which world socialism would open up for them would be overwhelmingly attractive. It is also worth mentioning that several of the non-market socialist principles closely resemble the principles of social cooperation found among hunter-gatherers and other supposedly 'backward' people. People in their social position would take much less convincing of the desirability of non-market socialism than would many of those in 'advanced' countries who are currently steeped in the values and assumptions which capitalism encourages. Socialism would be a global solution to the global problems which have accompanied the rise of world capitalism.

If Socialism is worth struggling for, it is precisely because it will be based on the principle of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". And capitalism, with its reliance on exchange, utterly fails to satisfy the real needs of the vast majority of the humanity.  

Change your minds - Change your world

The Socialist Party stands for the transformation of human society, from its current basis of exploitation and oppression to a commonwealth, a classless society based upon a worldwide system of democratically planned production to meet human need and social ownership in harmony with our planet’s ecosystems. The working class is the only social class that has the potential to replace capitalism with socialism, not only because its organisation and centrality to production under capitalism give it the ability to do so, but because it is the human embodiment of socially cooperative labour.  Capitalism has “united” the world, but to maintain its exploitation of the working people, the capitalist class creates numerous inequalities that work to prevent the exploited uniting — racism, sexism, discrimination based on national or ethnic or religious origin, persecution on the basis of sexual orientation. Exploitation and oppression cannot be finally overcome while capitalism continues to exist. But partial victories against them can be won, and can contribute to the weakening and eventual overthrow of capitalism.

Revolution is seen as being impossible. People are told we are too apathetic or ignorant—we’ll never fight back. They tell us the working class has been bought off, so forget change and instead, relax and enjoy life the best you can hope for. Workers are brought up to believe that capitalism is normal. Society tells us that anyone who believes the status quo can be changed is simply extremist, utopian or unrealistic. This leads people to believe that capitalism cannot be brought down by the mass of working class people, and that we have to rely on parliament for reform. Nevertheless, over and over again, people unexpectedly, out of nowhere erupt and engage in radical struggles. Then we are told such momentous events cannot happen here. But they do. The working-class struggle for socialism is prepared by and grows out of the contradictions of the capitalist social order.

Large numbers of people want change - radical, revolutionary, real socialist change. They don’t just want to elect a different government but to do away with rulers and ruled, to do away with rich and poor, to entirely do away with bankers and bosses. They want to run their own lives, in what is called participatory democracy, the idea that we should have the right to make the most important decisions that affect our lives, and that we should determine the conditions under which we live. As people begin to see that there could be change, new movements that had not previously existed arise. We expect that the future will bring many new experiences, which we must think about, learn from, and incorporate into our theory and practice. The Socialist Party want people power and an end to our exploitation and oppression. All of us are called upon to make a decision. There’s nobody who can liberate you but yourself. The first thing you have to do is liberate yourself; liberate your mind. Decide that you will not put up with injustice, oppression, exploitation and war that you’re not going to go quietly being processed to put up with all they want you to accept. You have to know who you are, and which side are you on. You have to know is that you cannot liberate yourself by yourself; you can only do it with other people. There’s no way to end your own oppression and exploitation without collective action, collective struggle, joining with other people to change this world. And so all of you have to start thinking through what that means; how you’re going to educate yourself, to raise your own and other peoples’ consciousness, to create the sort of effective organization that can lead to a successful liberation. The historian Howard Zinn said it is who’s “sitting in the streets, occupying, protesting and demonstrating” who are more important that who is sitting in the White House. No socialist president alone can change the system. That is a job for the people themselves. We need to build a mass movement for revolutionary change. Socialists aim to change the world and have always sought to organise themselves as effectively as possible in order to achieve this goal. The lessons are that we should be preparing now for the future explosion by building revolutionary working-class politics and organisation. More important than what we have done in the past, is what we will do together in the future to build a society that makes possible the full development of all human beings: the socialist society.

Humanity stands at a crossroad. The knowledge and productive capacity that already exist could, if used rationally, enable all people not only to be supplied with the material means for a full and ample life but also provide for a vast advance in humanity’s social and cultural development. The alternative is also already visible around us. It is the further intensification of human misery and environmental destruction. The threat of extinction of the species homo-sapiens from the increasing pollution of the planet’s air, water and land looms over the whole of humanity. Socialism must give priority to sustainability, not growth without limits, not growth that degrades the natural conditions that make the production and reproduction of life and human society in its infinite variety of forms possible. Humankind now faces changes in our planet's climate that could not only make socialism a mere dream, but make the Earth itself uninhabitable. We are approaching tipping points which if reached will give global warming a momentum that human actions will have little or no control over. These dangers must be confronted now. Only a determined socialist movement stands a chance of defeating an entrenched and powerful economic and political bloc and, in doing so, taking a first and absolutely necessary step to protect and sustain Earth and life on it - and the possibility of a socialist future. The problem is not that there are “too many people” or that our living standards are “too high”; the problem is the completely irrational nature of capitalism, arising from its basis in private ownership and production for profit. There is no reason why we couldn’t massively raise the standards of living for the whole population, whilst at the same time greatly reduce society’s impact on the environment. The productive forces have reached the point where life without starvation and homelessness is within reach, for all. The technologies exist to do so; what is needed is a rational and democratic plan of production to integrate and implement these technologies. Only the rule of one class over the rest prevents it. Clearly the world faces a choice between socialism and an increasingly apparent barbarism. There is no room left for any alternative but revolution. Yet the bulk of the world’s leftists remains dedicated to “realism”, ‘pragmatism”and populist “nationalism”.  In short, what is really needed is the revolutionary socialist transformation of society. The task facing the Socialist Party is to explain the common cause of capitalism behind the various problems facing both people and the planet; to link these struggles together by fighting for a revolutionary socialist change in society.

Only through a revolutionary change in the system of ownership and management of society’s productive wealth can working people guarantee themselves — and humanity as a whole — a future. Ownership and control of society’s productive resources must be taken out of the hands of the capitalist minority and transferred to society as a whole, and subordinated to democratic planning in order to meet humanity’s rational needs. Such a change is not only possible; it is long overdue. It will bring about the next great step forward in the evolution of humanity — the creation, through the transfer of political and economic power to the working class, of the classless socialist society. If our vision of socialism is simply a slightly modified version of what exists, don't expect it to embraced. Only a vision that is modern and forward looking will capture the imagination of the people. It is evident that people are gravitating toward a radical critique of society. Economic crisis alone, however, is not the sole cause of revolutionary change. The ground is prepared via the cumulative impact of many different issues- economic, political, social, and moral - taking place over time, during which people's understanding gains in sophistication going beyond "them and us" and "the system sucks". The “revolution" is a more protracted and complicated political/historical process. Socialism, it is correctly said, must be the product of an engaged, united, and politically sophisticated majority. But it doesn't follow that such a majority will simply emerge out of everyday struggles. It is also mistaken thinking that socialism will be the product of a radical minority. The struggle for democracy (economic and social as well as political) is at the core of the struggle for socialism. It's not a diversion or a second-order task. The point of political engagement isn't to feel righteous or conjure up "get socialism quick schemes." It is to change the world.

The spectre of communism does not haunt the world today and elementary socialist principles have been abandoned. Across our planet, in recent decades the working class has risen up time and again against the murderous and exploitative rule of capitalism. But its struggles have not resulted in socialism. The working class does not need “condescending saviors” in the words of The International. Leaders have been a big part of the problem and not the solution. The working class is capable of achieving socialist consciousness through the lessons it learns in the course of struggle. Under the banner of authentic socialism, in open and defiant hatred of the ruling class, The Socialist Party is dedicated to the struggle to overthrow the employs. In the spirit of the Communist Manifesto, we disdain to hide our political identity. We means what we say. Trickery and opportunism will not advance the cause of revolution – working class consciousness and therefore the truth about what must be done, will. The working class alone has been created by capitalism itself to be its gravedigger and the independence of the working class is a prime necessity for class consciousness. Only the proletariat can make the socialist revolution. In our efforts, the Socialist Party is devoted to exposing, not hiding, the vacillations, capitulations and betrayals of the reformists who have stood as a major prop for the preservation of capitalism. Whichever road reformists choose, they promote class collaborationist populism.

The full development of the forces of production, the achievement of abundance for all and the flowering of humanity and human culture, require the establishment of socialism, a classless society. The Socialist Party proudly tell the truth as we see it to our fellow workers. Capitalism destroys human beings and nature and that we desperately need a vision of the socialist alternative. Our party is committed to destroy the cancerous capitalist system by revolution, nothing less than the complete dismantling of the system. Socialism will foster a society where humanity will organise their economy in accordance with peoples’ needs and environmental demands. 

PEOPLE POWER

Monbiot's one step beyond

‘Tartan Stalinists”, the “Highland Stasi”, “Scottish Nazi party”. The mild proposals in the Scottish government’s land reform bill, published last week, provoke much fulminations among the proprietorial class. David Cameron’s stepfather-in-law, Lord Astor described Scotland’s proposals as “a Mugabe-style landgrab”. He owns, among the other properties he was enterprising enough to inherit, the deer-ravaged Tarbert estate on the isle of Jura, run by a trust patriotically registered in the Bahamas.

Much of this fury is caused by the plan to cancel the business rate exemption (granted to the aristocracy by John Major’s government in 1994) for deer-stalking estates, grouse moors and salmon fishing. Talk about a culture of entitlement.

As a result of the Highland clearances, which dragged much of the population off the land destroying their houses and replacing them with sheep ranches or deer and grouse estates, Scotland vies with Brazil for the world’s highest concentration of ownership. (It’s hard to tell which comes first as the ownership of many estates has been kept secret.) One estimate suggests that 432 people own half the country’s private rural land. No other rich nation has so excluded its citizens from their common heritage.

Given these circumstances the bill is, if anything, too timid. It gives local people consultation rights over how land is used, strengthens the ability of communities to buy land, improves the position of tenant farmers, removes the business rate exemption, tries to discover who the owners are, seeks to reduce the ridiculous densities at which deer are maintained for stalking, and creates a land commission to keep the issue alive. That’s all.

It seems that two things are missing from the bill. While there are new opportunities for families and communities, there is no designation of land for the nation as a whole. There is also little that will alter the ownership pattern where it is most extreme: in the rocky Highland cores, which are likely to be unsuitable for community buyouts. As the Scottish minister Aileen McLeod concedes, “community ownership may not be appropriate for all land: it’s not a panacea”. 

But perhaps there’s a way in which both issues could be addressed.

 With the possible exception of the western side of the Cairngorms, there are no nature parks in Britain that meet the international definition: places protected mainly for their wildlife and habitats. When the International Union for Conservation of Nature sought to classify Britain’s national parks, of which there are 15, it had to invent a new category. Ours are not set aside for nature. They are, strictly speaking not parks. There are good reasons for this and bad ones. When the parks were designated, many people were living within their boundaries. It’s essential that they can make a living and keep their communities alive. (Unfortunately the industries covering most of the land offer neither possibility: though lavishly subsidised, they still bleed jobs and money.) But on the rare occasions when the private owners are not wrecking the land with sheep, overstocked deer and scorched-earth grouse shoots, the park authorities step in to finish the job.

With a few exceptions the ecological management of our existing national parks is irrational, anally retentive and scientifically illiterate. They remain subject to a 19th-century worldview in which the natural world is seen as a garden to be pruned and trimmed rather than as a thriving, living system in which we could escape from the management and control that surrounds us everywhere else.

Scotland, thanks in part to its dismal feudal legacy, has only two national parks, and less land designated than in the other parts of Britain – 7%, while England has 9% and Wales 20%. Is it not time to augment those with new parks, with a different philosophy. Where Scotland’s deer stalking and grouse shooting provide possibly the lowest level of employment per square mile to be found in any temperate region in Europe, national parks could generate new jobs within an economy built on wildlife and tourism. They would restore both human populations and the other species that were wiped out by the clearances. They would bring life of all kinds to barren lands. Long live the Highland spring.

Adapted from George Monbiot in the Guardian

Socialism is the Future of Humanity – Start Building Now

Anger at capitalism is growing daily. Human beings are losers. We have lost families, friends and our communities. Have we also now lost our will to fight back? Capitalism’s days are numbered. Across the world, millions of people have taken to the streets against austerity, injustice and endless war. Capitalism has far outlived any usefulness. Under capitalism, people have no future beyond wage slavery and poverty. Socialism as a possibility will exist so long as capitalism persists as a reality. To build unity and solidarity, we need a vision for the future. One vision of socialism is the expansion of democratic decision-making into the economy, the common ownership of resources and free access to goods and services based on need. In other words, making the worker and community control over production a reality. It is clear that the world as a whole is becoming one community, or at least needs to be seen and treated as one. The human species needs socialism not only to realise all its potentials but to survive.

Marx used 'socialism' and 'communism' as synonymous terms, both referring to the same kind of society, that is, a 'cooperative society' or 'association' based on 'free associated labour'.  Marx nowhere speaks of 'socialism' as a distinct stage or social formation or of 'transition between socialism and communism'.  For Marx, as the new society emerges from the capitalist society itself, the former is obviously an integral part of the same new society, being its 'first phase' only chronologically, with the specific kind of developments corresponding to it. For him between capitalism and communism lies no stage or stages, only a transition, more or less prolonged according to circumstances.  That there is no fore-ordained model or blueprint of socialism or socialist transition, certainly none suitable for all countries and all times, does not mean absence of general principles. Marx was no determinist. For Marx socialism is nothing inevitable, it is something to be struggled for. Thus there are no guarantees of victory; only alternatives, one being the mutual ruination of the contending classes, the total destruction of humanity summed up by Rosa Luxemburg as 'socialism or barbarism'. Optimistically, Marx gave capitalism a short lease of life, looking forward to an early revolution in Europe and, therefore, Marx never explored the possibility of this imminent threat hanging over the future of humankind. This makes the struggle for socialism all the more imperative and urgent today.

However, capitalism continues to survive, but this, by itself, cannot be seen as an argument for the desirability, or a sign of the progressiveness of the capitalist order. Capitalism is a system that is chronically diseased by pathological inflictions which manifest themselves variously in different places as racism, sexism, anti-semitism, xenophobia, ethnic or national hatreds, fundamentalism and intolerance, even as plain cruelty and criminal aggression.  Poverty, unemployment and insecurity-related crimes and associated phenomena – ill-health and suicides, alcoholism and drug addiction, violence against women and child abuse, etc. -- are on the rise everywhere. The introduction of new technology and communication have become the means of debasing people's understanding and preventing them from looking beyond the capitalist horizon of a consumerist paradise of instant gratification. Gone is the aspiration for a life which would fulfil basic human needs -- decent livelihood, knowledge, solidarity, cooperation with fellow human beings, job satisfaction at work and freedom from unnecessary drudgery and toil. Today’s society is sick and who can deny that diagnosis but it lingers on in its putrefying decay. Socialism will always remain on the agenda wherever capitalism exists, be it 'developed', 'under-developed', 'developing' or any other part of the world. Socialists say surely it is people and not 'economic growth' and GDP that must come first in society.  Socialism is a humane society that fosters cooperation, solidarity and respect and makes for a non-alienated, 'truly rich human life' that Marx spoke of.  Of course, such a world cannot be achieved without basic material conditions being met but to believe that you can assure satisfy the majority of people through greed, private acquisition, competition and rivalry-- the values of capitalism -- and yet still hope for a humane society of cooperation and solidarity is utopianism of the worst kind. As human beings, people simply don't fit into the capitalist market exchange economy. Capitalism has to go. No matter how slowly or haltingly we must strive and struggle for our emancipatory vision of socialism. Just as there is no single model of socialism, one that is suitable for all climes and all times, there is none of socialist politics either.  The specific conditions or demands and the forms of struggle they generate will vary from country to country.  Which, however, also again, does not mean the absence of general principles to guide it. The application of these principles is in fact a must for any successful pursuit of socialist politics today. Socialism is the only just, rational and sustainable future for the people of the world and that this future has to be struggled for here and now.

Socialism is a difficult word to define, especially given the various countries that have called themselves "socialist" at one point or another in time. Many people believe socialism only means government nationalization of the means of production, which is a definition we in the World Socialist Movement distance ourselves from. Socialism isn't something that can be summed up in one sentence. Socialism is about radical democracy. It would give people democratic control over political as well as economic matters, rather than the system we have now that concentrates the control of these areas into the hands of a small group of people at the top of the socio-economic ladder. It means giving you control over your workplace rather than in the hands of some board of trustees, the stock holders, or the bureaucrat official in a government ministry who are only interested in profit and not your livelihood. Within socialism people have the right to a job , decent housing, health care, education, etc.  Socialism means common ownership, and democratic control by the people, of the factories, farms, mines, offices and all other industries and services, a moneyless wageless stateless commonwealth. But if you need just one sentence, there is the old adage: "From each according to ability, to each according to needs." Or in two words – People Power. The workers must prepare themselves for their emancipation by class-conscious organisation on both the political and the economic fields for the establishment of socialism. The Socialist Party never asserted that socialist society would result from the actions of parliamentary delegates alone.

The most common argument against a moneyless society is that money seems to be the only effective regulating force which can prevent wastage. This may be the case in a money-driven society, where everything is evaluated by its price-tag, and the manner in which we deal with things is determined to a big extent by the monetary value. The higher the price, the bigger the value, the more one takes care of it; the lower the price, the lower the value, resulting in indifference and carelessness; this is the mechanism of a money-based society. But in a moneyless society the rules of a money-driven society do not apply anymore. You cannot predict behaviour patterns in a moneyless society by the rules of a money-driven society. In the usual money-based society the individual has the right to do whatever he wants with his financial resources. He sees everything through the perspective of its price. And if he has enough money, why not afford something which makes life more convenient or nice? And if something is cheap or free of charge, why bother about it? In this attitude the typical individual is fully justified in a money-based state of life.

But if we try to install a moneyless society around the world, then this attitude of course has to change, and will change. Once it is clear that electricity, water or food is a common commodity, which is free for all, but which has a cost for the community, then the justification for a non-caring attitude is gone. Today the fact that somebody pays for his electricity gives him the right to use it as he wants. Nobody can say anything, and he may feel himself fully justified in using it carelessly, or with care. This attitude of a money-based approach is of course stillexists within today’s society, since we still have a money-based society. But once we no longer have it, this attitude will change. Even the richest of the rich then won’t be able to treat the common commodities carelessly anymore, because they will no longer be “his electricity”, “his water”, “his food”, etc, that he is using. He will use a collective value and be forced to cherish it. There may be people who won’t like it that their electricity or water or food comes free, because it takes away their justification to use it as they like. Responsibility for the collective is inevitable in a collective based economy.

We therefore do not think that individuals will start wasting common commodities with indifference once he or she no longer feels any personal financial disadvantage in doing so. Some people may claim that a person will leave their light on when they leave the house, their windows open with air conditioners running, etc, once electricity is free. Such a claim can only be based on the assumption that the average-person is a careless, unconscious person who is not interested in anything but their own personal advantage. We do not think that this is true.

.Attempts to install a money-less approach within a money-driven society cannot work. As long as the basic thought and behaviour pattern is still money-based, you cannot expect a consciousness to come up. The basic idea of a money-less economy is that the motivation to work, to care, to make an effort, does not originate from a desire for money. If we want to install a money-less economy on a money-based consciousness we will fail.