It's Everything Change

Workers are not yet class conscious, they have not yet developed even the concept of independent political action, and, on the whole, are permeated through and through with the ideas of capitalism. These incontestable facts are the starting point of our fundamental task: to struggle for the development of class consciousness. The working class can open up the way to a new world. They are the majority. They have the power. All that is necessary is for the working class to understand it—and to use it.

The capitalist system, the system which puts profits above all other considerations, has long outlived its usefulness. Capitalism has exhausted its progressive role; now it must leave the stage to a higher system. Capitalism has done its work. Capitalism now offers no future to the people but depressions, wars, dictatorships, violence and a final plunge into barbarism. To avoid such a fate, the workers must go into politics on their own account, independent of all capitalist politics. They must take power and reorganise the economy on a socialist basis, eliminating capitalist wars, profits and waste. It will be so productive as to ensure a rich living for all who are willing and able to work, and provide security and ample means for the aged and infirm. The economy of the entire world will be united and planned on a socialist basis. This will bring universal peace—and undreamed of abundance for all people everywhere. The real upward march of humanity will begin. Socialists want no part of this current nightmare world. It is true that humanity is confronted with a problem of survival on this planet. But the human species will survive. And in order to survive, it will do away with the social system which threatens its survival. Socialism will win the world and change the world.

 Reformism is a blind alley which diverts the workers from a class advancement and even from any real struggle for their immediate needs. The capitalists, bent on loading the burden of the recent crisis onto the backs of the workers, are preparing thereby the necessary conditions for a labour revolt. In this way they will convince the workers, as propaganda has been unable to convince them, that there is no way out but to fight. Under such conditions the prospect of a series of stormy battles, of which workers have many times shown themselves capable, is by no means unreasonable. The defensive struggle of the workers is gaining momentum, although slowly and in a tentative fashion, although, there is nothing in the facts to sustain those blockheads who describe the situation as a “workers’ offensive”. The theory that the workers are not inclined to strike during periods of wide unemployment receives a certain confirmation from economic history but it is quite false to construct a law to the effect that the workers will not strike during the crisis. They may well do when push becomes shove as in the proposed new Tory anti-union regulations. In the course of these struggles the workers will learn the most necessary lessons from their own experiences. In that event the socialist movement would get a hearing the like of which has not been granted before.

Today industry operates blindly, without a general plan. The sole incentive for the operation of each and every factory in this country is the private profit of the owners. There’s no general coordination. There’s no concern about what’s going on in other industries or in other parts of the same industry. There’s no concern about whether the people need this or that, or don’t need it. The sole driving motive for the operation of each and every individual corporation is the private profit of the owners. The decisions on production are made, not by consumers, what the people need and want; not by the workers, what the workers would like to make; not by scientists and technicians who know best of all, perhaps. The main decisions on production under capitalism—what shall be produced, how, where, and when—are made by financial magnates remote from the factories, remote from the people, whose sole motive is profit in each case.

What are the results of this system, which can be rightly called call the anarchy of capitalist production? One result is wasteful competition. Another result is the preservation of obsolete machinery and methods and the suppression of new technological innovation.

Consider the waste represented by the conspicuous consumption of the capitalist social parasites. That is absolute waste. The huge share of the product of labour that goes to these non-producers furnishing them with luxuries is all pure waste. That’s not all. Consider the waste of militarism and war. Just think of it! Billions of dollars every year wasted on the military budget at the present time, under the present system, which they say is the best in the world and the best that can ever be, wasted on military equipment and preparation for war.

There is the waste of advertising. Only 10% of advertising is useful—that 10% which comprises announcements, explanations of new processes and so on, which will be used under the new society. The other 90% of advertising is devoted to lying, fakery and conning the people, and trying to get them to favour one identical product over another, or to buy something they don’t need and that won’t do them any good, and then buy something else to overcome the effects. That is pure waste. And then, there’s another waste connected with advertising, as with so many other non-productive occupations—the waste of human material, which really shouldn’t be squandered. Just think of all the people prostituting their talents in the advertising racket to deceive and to promote misleading advertising campaigns.  There are millions of such people, engaged in all kinds of useless, non-productive occupations in this present society. Advertising is only one of them. Look at all the lawyers in this country. What are they good for? Look at all the landlords, lobbyists, salespeople, promoters—hordes of non-productive people in all kinds of rackets, legitimate and illegitimate. What are they good for? What do they produce? All that is economic waste, inseparable from the present system.

Costliest of all the results of the anarchy of capitalist production is the waste of economic crises—the periodic shutting down of production because the market has been saturated and products cannot be sold at a profit. This is what they euphemistically call a “depression”—an unavoidable cyclical occurrence under capitalism.

What will a really civilised person in the future think when reading history books that there was once a society, long ago, where the people might be hungry and that workers were eager to produce food but because the hungry people couldn’t afford to buy food, the workers weren’t allowed to feed them?   What will the people of the future think of a society where the workers lived in constant fear of unemployment? He or she can work all his or her life and never be free from that fear. Having a job depends, not on the willingness to work, nor on the need of the people for the products of labour; it depends on whether the owners of the factories can find a market for the products and make a profit at a given time. If they can’t, they shut down the factory, and that’s all there is to it.

Socialists do not conceive of socialism as an arbitrary scheme of society to be constructed from a preconceived plan, but as the next stage of social evolution. Our view of the future socialist society, therefore, is not a blueprint for implementation, but just a broad forecast of the lines of future development already indicated in the present. The architects and builders of the socialist society of the future will be the socialist generations themselves. The Socialist Party refrains from offering these future generations instructions. Auguste Blanqui, the French revolutionist, said: “Tomorrow does not belong to us.” We ought to admit that, and recognise at the same time that it is better so. The people in the future society will be wiser than we are. We must assume that they will be superior to us, in every way, and that they will know what to do far better than we can tell them. We can only anticipate and point out the general direction of development, and we should not try to do more. But that much we are duty bound to do; for the prospect of socialism—what the future socialist society will look like—is a question of fascinating interest and has a great importance in modern propaganda. We are quite justified, therefore, in tracing some of the broad outlines of probable future development; all the more so since the general direction, if not the details, can already be foreseen.

Workers can and must put a stop to this monstrous squandering of the people’s energies and resources. Just by cutting out all this colossal waste—to say nothing of a stepped-up rate of productivity which would soon follow—the socialist reorganisation of the economy will bring about a startling improvement of the people’s living standards. The first condition will be to stop production for sale and profit and organise planned production for use, to eliminate the profit motive; to eliminate all conflicting interests of private owners of separate industries. All science will be pooled and directed to a single aim: production for the benefit of all. There will be a revolution in the production of food when the economic side of it is lifted out of this terrible backwardness of private ownership and operation for profit. One thing is absolutely certain, from a reading of the scientific literature and all the experiments already in progress: The productivity of the farms, of the land, can be increased many times and there can be food in abundance for all.

 “If we’re all doing well and living good, producing more than we really need in an eight-hour day—then why the hell should we work so long?” will be the first and most natural reaction of the workers. This question will arise in the councils of the workers in the shops at the bottom, and will be carried up via their delegates throughout their industries. And the logical answer will go along with the question: “Let’s shorten the working day. Why should we work eight hours when we can produce all we need in four?” That may appear to be a simple answer to a complicated question, but many things will be simplified when the anarchy of capitalist production for profit is replaced by planned production for use. That will be a very simple and natural and easy thing to do, because socialism will have the means, the abundance, the productivity—and all this will be produced for use, for the benefit of all. The system of planned economy will provide the people with abundance, and what is no less important, the time to enjoy it and get the full good out of it. I have spoken of the four-hour day, but that would be only the beginning, the first step, which is more than possible with the productive machinery as it is today. But the productivity of labour under the new, more efficient system will be expanded all the time.

And since there will be no need to pile up profits for the benefit of non-producers; since there will be no need to find ways of wasting the surplus—the natural, logical, and inevitable conclusion will simply be to cut down the hours of labour to the time actually needed to produce what is needed. The greatest boon, and the precondition for changing the way of life into a truly humane, cultured, and civilised way of life, will accrue from the progressive shortening of the working day. That’s only the beginning. You can count on a shorter work day, and there will still be abundance and super-abundance. When people get accustomed to leisure, they soon learn what to do with it.

Workers will also decide, freely and voluntarily out of the generosity of solidarity and a world outlook which the vision of socialism has given to them, to work, say, an extra hour or two a day, for a certain period, to produce the tools and machinery and other things to raise the living standards of the undeveloped countries. And this will not be a loan or foreign aid with strings attached. They will simply say to their kinfolk in less-favoured lands: “This is a donation from other workers to help you catch up with us and firm up the foundations of world socialist cooperative commonwealth.

When there is plenty for all, there is no material basis for a privileged bureaucracy and the danger, therefore, is eliminated. From the very beginning, we will go in for real workers’ economic democracy. Democracy is not only better for ourselves, for our minds, and for our souls, but is also better for production. Democracy will call out the creative energy of the masses. When all the workers participate eagerly in the decisions, and bring together their criticisms and proposals based upon their experience in the shops, higher production will result. Faults in the plans will be corrected right away by the experience of the workers; misfits and incompetents in the leading bodies will be recalled by the democratic process; officious administrators will be given the boot. An educated and conscious working class will insist on democracy. And not the narrowly limited and largely fictitious democracy of voting every four years for some big-mouthed political faker picked for you by a political machine, but democracy in your work. That’s where it really counts. 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 he or she is directing it properly or not. Democracy in all spheres of communal life from A to Z. A self-conscious working class that has made a revolution will not tolerate bureaucratic tyrants of any kind. Counterrevolution will not be tolerated but outside that society will keep its nose out of people’s private affairs. Counterrevolution can hardly be a serious threat because the workers are an overwhelming majority, and their strength is multiplied by their strategic position in the centres of production everywhere. How is there going to be any kind of a counterrevolution with such a broad and solid social base? The Socialist Party doesn’t think the capitalists will try it. The real exploiters are a very small minority. They couldn’t get enough fools to do their fighting for them, and they are opposed in principle to doing their own fighting. The little handful of recalcitrant capitalists who don’t like what is happening could easily be given an island or two, for their exclusive habitation. Let them take their bonds and stock certificates with them—as mementos of bygone days—and give them enough caviar and champagne to finish out their useless lives while the workers get on with their work of constructing a new and better social order.

When socialists propose a future along these lines, there is always someone who will say: “Utopia! It can’t be done!”

The Class Struggle (1975)

The Class Struggle (1975)

From the July 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard

The major problem that most people face today can be summed up in one word — poverty. They are denied access to the wealth of society which would enable them to develop and enjoy themselves to the full. They have to make ends meet and make the best of it. The result is a life-style of frustration and boredom — getting up in the morning, the buses, the trains, the traffic, the shop, the office, the factory, the boss, the canteen and so on ad nauseam. 

Not everybody has the life of a battery human. There are a small minority who have a life of wealth, ease and luxury. In a recent divorce case, the counsel for a textile magnate's wife who was claiming maintenance, explained to an incredulous judge: "The wife of a millionaire is liable to go to Paris at any time and spend £1,000 on a dress." (Glasgow Daily Record, 19th March 1975) Doubtless, she would leave dinner in the oven and do the washing-up when she got back. 

There is no natural reason for this division between rich and poor. Both classes include every biological and psychological facet of humanity — you find the black and the white, the jew and the gentile, the lazy and the industrious, the aggressive and the timid, the intelligent and the dull, and the philanthropist and the skinflint. The only difference between them is one of ownership. 

The vast majority of people own practically nothing but their ability to work and the little that they do own — some clothes, some furniture, perhaps a house and a car — is dependent on their continuing to possess and exercise that ability to work. Unable to do so through sickness, old age or unemployment, they will quickly be reduced to the level of pauperism. They are the working class because they have to sell their working power to live and to such an extent that they are virtually living to work. 

This lack of ownership among the many is paralleled by the immense wealth of the few. In fact, they own practically all the means by which the wealth of society is enabled to be produced and distributed. They are the capitalist class because they live on the income from their capital which, as well as the means of production and distribution, includes the labour-power, the mental and physical energies, of those workers hired to operate them. 

The capitalist class do not give workers jobs out of charity. If they did not make a profit out of the deal, they would soon be left in the same position as the workers. They only employ you if your abilities can be exploited to provide some of the wealth which secures their life of ease and luxury. If not, your much vaunted "right to provide for home and family" becomes your right to whistle for it. This is what is happening in many industries just now. All over the world, there are large stockpiles of unsold goods with many either wholly or partly unemployed. 

These situations give the lie to the false notion that Hard Work will solve all the worker's problems. If the people in these industries worked any harder they would just be out of a job so much the sooner. The market that they produce for is on the downturn, their masters cannot profitably sell all they are capable of producing, and so there is no work for the wage-slaves. 

This is all happening despite the fact that the commodities they produce — cars, houses, electrical appliances, etc. — are still needed by many workers. This is because, in capitalist society production does not take place for the purpose of satisfying the community's needs but for the purpose of satisfying the needs of the capitalist class at the expense of the rest of us. 

The working class produce all the wealth of capitalist society but they only get back a part of it. The rest goes to the capitalist class — first, to provide for the continuation of production and the maintenance of the conditions by which the working class are exploited, and second, to keep them in the manner they are accustomed to. This is the basis of the class struggle in capitalism. It is the real Socialist struggle which has hardly started due to the lack of class consciousness on the part of the working class. They are divided against each other and can only dimly react to the actions of their class enemies. 

Politically, the capitalist class are supreme but, economically, they need the working class. Much is made of the wealth of the capitalists "providing" jobs for the workers. The only way that they can put their wealth to effect is by hiring the labour-power of those with no wealth. 

In terms of playing a social role in production, the capitalist class are redundant. At the dawn of their epoch, they were instrumental in razing to the ground the anachronistic restrictions of feudalism and developing the means of production and distribution on an enormous scale in their drive for bigger and better profits. Today, they only take part on a small, individual basis and have been replaced by paid managers and various other hired hands. The only role left to them is that of consuming the finest fruits of a society run by the working class. 

The workers in capitalism are in a similar position to that of the bourgeoisie in feudalism. Economically, they are the most important class but their efforts on their own behalf can only reach fruition by taking political power from the class who seek to maintain an order built to work in theirown particular interests. To achieve their ends, the bourgeoisie had to become revolutionary and set out for the complete overthrow of the whole structure of feudal society. In order to do this they had to gain political power — control of the bureaucratic, military and legal apparatus of the state. The working class, to achieve their ends, will have to follow the path of the bourgeoisie and declare for revolution. But there the similarity ends. 

The Socialist Revolution will be fundamentally different from all previous revolutions. What was at stake before was the freedom of one class to exploit the rest of society. Today, working class emancipation from the bonds of capital will mean the emancipation of all mankind. The production of wealth is the cooperative effort of untold millions and the potential capacity of that production is unprecedented. No person need go short of anything. Under capitalism, productivity has increased dramatically but the fruits for the producers have only been slow and grudging: for this is a capitalist world and the ruling class can only be expected to look after their own interests. We must look after ours, by working for Socialism.

Con Friel

Glasgow Branch

Do you Live in Poverty? (1974)

Do you Live in Poverty? (1974)

From the February 1974 issue of the SocialistStandard

Poverty is an emotive word which must be carefully defined. It cannot be defined by any given quantity or quality, whether of possessions or things freely available. Truly, it can only be defined as a relationship between the actual state of things and the potentiality. The native of a primitive tribal society who is free to help himself to the simple food, clothing and shelter of his environment does not live in poverty. As far as he is concerned he could not be richer because everything that he knows is there to be taken. The moment he becomes poor and dissatisfied is when he develops a greater knowledge of the world and discovers things previously unknown to him. He would develop new needs in response to his changed environment as he found new ways and means to satisfy his physical and social desires. If they were not satisfied he would consider himself deprived and living in poverty. 

The above process would occur if our primitive tribesman were suddenly transported to modern-day New York, London or Belgrade. Once he had found an employer (a euphemism for "user") he would now have a vastly greater standard of living but would be living in poverty. He would be denied access to most of the immense mountain of wealth which would be displayed, advertized, and given the hard-sell wherever he went. Despite the motorcars, colour TV, holidays abroad, etc., which provide the illusion of increasing social status, the various forms in which these and all other commodities are marketed shatter that illusion. They range from the cheap imitations and bare utility models (or futility if you expect them to work) and then gradually upwards to the top-class de-luxe models made for jet-set oneupmanship rather than use. This fact shows clearly the poverty that exists in capitalist society. The production lines of capitalism are geared not to producing good quality but to producing the poor quality that workers can afford. 

The popular theory of why workers live in poverty (i.e. the capitalists, Tory government, shopkeepers etc., putting up prices). is an indication of support for capitalism rather than opposition to it. It implies that if we only had such things as "fair" prices and "fair" wages we could all live in splendid affluence. Without inflation the working class would still live in poverty as they did before inflation "became" the cause of all our economic woes. The poverty of the working class is caused by the exploitation that takes place at the point of production and not by any robbery at the point of distribution, and Marx's Labour Theory of Value explains clearly how the exploitation occurs. 

The legalized, and in that sense perfectly "fair", robbery takes place when the worker, having sold his labour-power (ability to work) to some member or section of the capitalist class, gets to work with the machinery and raw materials already purchased by his employer and produces a new commodity. This new commodity has a greater value than the sum-total of its original components—the raw materials, the machinery, and the labour-power that produced it. This surplus value which is created comes solely from the unique character of labour-power which creates new value in the course of its use by the purchaser, the capitalist. The basis of exploitation lies in the fact that the value of all commodities is determined by the quantity and quality of labour required in their production. 

Surplus value is created because the capitalist does not pay for the workers' labour but for his ability to labour. Once the worker starts to labour, the work that he does no longer belongs to him; the capitalist has already bought his labour-power for a contracted period of time, and everything produced in that time is the capitalist's property. The value of the worker's labour-power is, like all other commodities, determined by the quantity and quality of labour needed for its production. This, simply stated, is the food, clothing, shelter, etc., that allows the worker to keep himself reasonably fit in mind and body for his work and also allows for the raising of children to eventually be fit for this purpose. The result of this is that: 

The worker receives means of subsistence in exchange for his labour power, but the capitalist receives in exchange for his means of subsistence labour, the productive activity of the worker, the creative power whereby the worker not only replaces what he consumes but gives to . . . [the capital laid out, on men, machinery, and materials] . . .  a greater value than it previously possessed,  (Wage Labour and Capital. 1970 Moscow ed. Page 30). 

This means that the working class must always live in poverty. Having no access to any means of production of their own, in order to live they must sell their ability to work to the owning class and produce a surplus. The increasing of this surplus is the inexorable motive-force of all capitalist production. It determines which sections of the capitalist class will best be able to expand and crush their competitors, and inevitably leads to the constantly increasing rate at which this surplus is extracted from the working class. No matter how high their living standards may increase, the workers' relative poverty only increases (profits, which give a deceptively low indication of the true rate of exploitation, increased at approximately double the rate of wages during the past year). 

To end this exploitation, whereby the working class gets ever poorer and the idle class ever richer, a revolutionary transformation in the whole basis of society is needed. The present class ownership of the means of life and the relations resulting from it must be completely abolished. Everything in the earth and on it must become the common property of the people of the world to be used to satisfy their needs and wants. Only by this can poverty be ended. 

The resources, the organizational ability, and the technology to do this exist today. What is lacking is the social organization that could control and utilize the productive forces in the most effective way. In capitalism a large proportion of these forces are used in the negative capacity of maintaining the divisions in society. The money system, which regulates exchange between owners and non-owners, would be totally unnecessary in a society where all the means and instruments of production and distribution would be commonly owned. The police forces, armies, navies, air forces, and all their expensive ironmongery which is used to maintain the ruling class's supremacy at home and abroad, would have no place in a society without classes or borders. 

Finally, the profit motive of capitalist production ensures that many of society's productive forces are never even used. All production is geared to what economists call "effective demand" which is not what people want but what they can afford to buy. This is why factories are closed, men made redundant, and automation plans shelved while people are still obviously still in need. In fact, one of the greatest problems of capitalist production is to avoid producing so much that prices will fall to unprofitable levels and warehouses and stores start to fill with unsaleable goods, 

The popular conception of Socialism (or Communism) is of sharing-out poverty by retaining the present social organization but dividing up the existing wealth equally among everybody. This idea is a moralistic fantasy that would probably end up in more vicious divisions than before. The poverty that exists today can only be ended by a real revolutionary transformation — the establishment of a world-wide community of free men and women in total control of the productive forces of society. This is what Socialism means, and it can only be established by your active participation in a world Socialist movement that accepts no compromise with poverty.

Con Friel

Glasgow Branch 

National traits?

Research published by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found Scots are actually a little more right-wing than the English. Scots wrongly believe their fellow countrymen hold more Left-wing views than is actually the case. 

They were less likely to agree with statements such as “ordinary people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth.” Scotland more often than not promote the status quo on tax and spend. The report said: “We have not found evidence that there are significant differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK.” They added: “…there is relatively limited evidence that the Scottish electorate wants to see radical change to the system of taxation or benefits, supporting the notion that the demand for decentralisation is driven by the desire for local accountability.”

It cited research conducted for the British Social Attitudes survey that also found Scots are more “authoritarian” than the “libertarian” English as they are more likely to concur with views such as “people who break the law should be given stiffer sentences”.

Professor David Bell and David Eiser of Stirling University concluded that the SNP’s electoral success in Scotland cannot be explained by Scots having different preferences from people in the rest of the UK. Instead they said that support for greater devolution was driven by a desire for more local accountability and a belief that decisions made in Scotland were automatically better.

Scottish residents who describe themselves as British has increased “quite markedly” since 2001, from 23 per cent to 32.5 per cent. Although this remains lower than among people south of the Border (47 per cent). 

What do we mean by free access

Socialists often describe socialism as a society where there will be free access, but what could this mean in concrete terms? Socialism will be a society of free access to what has been produced. This does not mean alcohol being made available to children or anyone being able to get hold of guns. But there’ll be no money, credit cards or cheque books, no artificial barriers to people having what they’ve decided they want. But how would free access work, and would it lead to a free-for-all and chaos as people just took more and more?

It doesn’t matter whether they’ll be called shops, stores or warehouses, but there will be places where people will go to collect goods. Whether it’s food, clothes, electrical gadgets or whatever, these places will in some ways be like the shops that exist nowadays but in other ways will be rather different. There will be no price tickets, check-outs or security guards. There’ll be no ‘buy one get one free’ offers, no brightly-coloured promotions trying to pressurise you into buying certain goods. There may well still be shop assistants, whose task it really will be to assist people rather than talk them into purchases. There will still be plenty of choice, and probably more real choice than exists today, when you can ‘choose’ among masses of near-identical products. If you want food, no doubt you will go with a shopping list and make sure that you load what you want into the shopping trolley. And then you’ll just leave, since you won’t have to pay for anything.

Another big difference between the shops of today and the warehouses of the socialist future will concern the quality of what is in them. Everything will be the best quality, as production for use means there would be no point in producing cheap food or shoddy goods. Nowadays, the cheap and tacky are for those who cannot afford to buy the best, an idea which will be completely alien in socialism. A ‘prestigious’ brand name or logo will not be used to inflate the price of something or to make the consumer fit in or feel a cut above the rest.

Having only the best doesn’t mean that we’ll be eating caviar all the time, just that — even if you’re having bangers and mash for tea — you’ll be having the best of its kind. Furniture or TVs won’t be designed to wear out: a sensible use of resources would involve making things to last and recycling as much as possible.

The standard objection to the socialist account of free access is rooted in a view of human nature. People would take and take, it may be claimed, irrespective of what they actually wanted. But a bit of thought should show that this objection does not hold water. For one thing, the people who live in socialism will be convinced of the superiority of this way of organising society and will not act against its interests. And further, think about the things you consume and whether you would really benefit from hoarding them. Most people can only consume fairly limited amounts of milk or bread or toilet paper and won’t need to keep cupboards full of any of them. Even in these days of home freezers, where people do stock up on some foods, they don’t keep massive amounts of anything. In a society of free access, you’ll always be able to get more butter or dog food from the local warehouse, so you won’t need your own mountain of either.

But aren’t there other goods for which these considerations won’t apply? Well, again, people won’t need several cars or ten dining-room tables. There probably are some items which people may well want a lot of: no doubt it will vary from individual to individual, but clothes, books, CDs and DVDs might be good examples. In some cases, producing extra copies (say of a CD) requires very little extra resources. There might well be first-class public libraries or comprehensive book-recycling schemes, which would obviate the desire to own individual copies of some books. And clothing won’t be subject to the whims of fashion as it is now, so people won’t want new outfits each year. In general, the whole idea of consumerism, of possessions making you happy, won’t apply.

The point is not that we can explain in detail now just how the demand for every item will be realised in socialism. Rather, we can just set out some general principles about how free access would function and suggest that the human nature objections to it are based on a very narrow view of how human beings behave under capitalism. The combination of socialist consciousness and good old common sense will ensure that people will take what they need rather than all that is available or all they can carry.

A society of free access, then, will mean what it says. People will select their weekly food needs and take home what they’ve chosen, without anyone asking them to pay for it. They will choose clothes, furniture, sports gear, lawnmowers in the same way. And they will know that none of what they’re eating or using is dangerous or nasty, that none of it has been produced in an environmentally-unfriendly way or to make a profit for a few rather than to satisfy the needs of the many.

We say that socialism will be “a society of free access”. However, one obvious but rarely clarified question is: free access to what? Even if everything produced is made freely available to people, how will the range of goods and services to be supplied be determined?

One answer might be: if producing a thing is technically possible and if someone somewhere wants it, then it will be supplied. But most people might feel that a single individual should not have so much leverage over others’ work. A rule might be established that a new product will be supplied once a certain number of people have registered a request for it. The number of requests required could vary, depending (say) on the difficulties involved in providing the new product, but also on how essential it was to those asking for it. Thus, specialised medications and prosthetics would surely be prepared even for very small numbers of people suffering from rare conditions – something that capitalist firms are reluctant to do because it is unlikely to yield a profit.

However, it is possible that socialist society may decide, either by a formal procedure or spontaneously, not to produce certain things even if quite a few people want them. Such decisions might be made for a variety of reasons, good and not so good.

Dangerous products

First, majorities may vote against producing certain goods on the grounds that they endanger the consumer and/or other people. Examples might include guns for hunting, explosives for demolition, porn, and highly addictive substances (which might be made available only through treatment programmes). Conceivably, majorities might go too far and refuse to authorise some goods and services on vague and inadequate grounds such as being “inconsistent with socialist values.”

Second, the production of certain goods may be judged too unpleasant or dangerous, to producers or to local residents, even after all possible safety precautions have been taken. Consider bird’s nest soup, a delicacy treasured by gourmets for its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. Collectors stand on bamboo scaffolding to harvest swifts’ nests from high up on cave walls, at considerable risk to their lives. Capitalism resolves such conflicts of interest in favour of the consumer because people will do just about anything to survive. But members of socialist society, like the wealthy of today, will be free of economic duress: their needs will be met as of right. This will not undermine their willingness to work, but they are likely to be rather picky in choosing the work they do.

Few miners (to take a more important example) will be keen to go on working underground. Whether or not society adopts a formal decision to abolish the most unpleasant kinds of work, people will “vote with their feet”. The issue is how society reacts. Unless people can be gently persuaded to continue temporarily with work they want to leave, society may have to accept the situation and adjust to the resulting change in the range of products available.

Free access to outer space?

What about goods that may not be dangerous to consume or produce but do incorporate large amounts of labour, energy, and materials, with a correspondingly large environmental impact? Will socialist society ensure free access to luxury goods like those currently consumed by the wealthy – for instance, the “off road vehicle” sold as a boys’ toy by Harrods (see http://www.harrods.com)?

It may be objected that the members of socialist society will not want to ape the lifestyle of the idle rich under capitalism. However, a demand for highly intricate products need have nothing to do with frivolous self-indulgence. It may arise from a spreading interest in artistic self-expression and scientific exploration. There may be numerous amateur scientists clamouring for the latest sophisticated equipment for their home labs. Will socialist society provide free access to electron microscopes? Or to space travel for the millions of people who dream of venturing into outer space? (At present the Russian Space Agency offers trips to the International Space Station for $1 million.)

There is also a class of “locational” goods that can never be supplied in abundance because they are tied to specific locations. Whatever precautions are taken, for example, the number of tourists allowed into nature reserves must be restricted if ecologically sensitive habitats are not to be degraded.

Another knotty question is how the principle of free access is to be applied in the sphere of housing. One of the top priorities when socialism is established will be to replace substandard housing stock so that everyone has access to spacious and comfortable housing. Presumably certain standards will be set for new residential construction – quite high ones, no doubt. But surely the new housing will not be as spacious and luxurious as the most expensive residences under capitalism. People will not have free access to their own marble palaces.

Restricted access?

In short, for certain categories of goods and services free access is bound to be infeasible, certainly in the early stages of socialist society and possibly even in its maturity. The real choice in these cases is between non-provision and restricted provision. So alongside free access stores, there may be restricted access outlets for various kinds of specialised goods, perhaps using some sort of coupon system.

It is conceivable that socialist society will decide that things that cannot – for whatever reason – be produced in abundance should not be produced at all. Such a decision would have obvious disadvantages, but it would preserve the principle of “free access to what has been produced” and avoid the difficult problems associated with restricting access, such as enforcement.

However, we can envision restricted access arrangements that socialist society is much more likely to find acceptable and on which it may, indeed, extensively rely. People may have free access to many facilities at local and regional centres but without the option of taking equipment home. Museums and art galleries that do not charge for entry exemplify this kind of arrangement. Similarly, there could be community centres equipped for specialised cuisine, exercise and sports, arts and music making, and scientific exploration.

There could also be depots where people have access to specialised goods – for instance, do-it-yourself and gardening equipment, and also motor vehicles – on a borrow-and-return basis, as in libraries. The staff at these depots would also maintain the equipment in good working order and provide advice and assistance as needed. This would be much more efficient than keeping machines like lawn mowers at home, where they stand unused 99 percent of the time.

The solution to everything?

To sum up, it would be wrong to play down the scope that socialism offers for the solution of our problems. Enormous resources will be freed up when we get rid of the waste inherent in capitalism. But the new society will face urgent tasks that will also be daunting in their enormity. It is hard to judge which enormity is likely to be the greater. Socialists do not assume that socialism will solve all problems at once, and prefer to think about socialism – and especially about its crucial early stages – in a practical and realistic spirit.

Who Owns the Land

Burning the moors is allowed at certain times of the year to aid heather growth and is done to help increase numbers of red grouse on sporting estates.

The RSPB said its study, which used aerial photography and satellite images, showed conservation areas were being damaged. Burning was detected in 55% of Special Areas of Conservation and 63% of Special Protection Areas assessed in the study, said the conservation charity. Such sites are designated by the EU for their conservation importance, and governments are charged with protecting them from damage and ensuring they are restored. In Scotland and England, the study found a third of burning took place on deep peat soils, an important carbon store. These upland areas are also a vital water source, supplying around 70 per cent of drinking water and burning has been linked to poor water quality, requiring large sums of money to treat.

Dr David Douglas, senior conservation scientist at RSPB Scotland and lead author of the study, said: "Upland ecosystems are highly sensitive to burning practices.” 

Martin Harper, the charity’s director of conservation, said: “Many of our uplands are in poor condition, due to intensive land management practices. It’s very worrying that burning is increasing, given the damage it can cause and that it occurs in many of our conservation areas. Governments and statutory agencies across Britain need to take action to reduce burning in our uplands rather than allowing them to be increasingly damaged year on year.” 

The Committee on Climate Change’s 2015 progress report to parliament notes: “Wetland habitats, including the majority of upland areas with carbon-rich peat soils, are in poor condition. The damaging practice of burning peat to increase grouse yields continues, including on internationally protected sites.” They are home to a diverse range of wildlife and up to 8,000 years old. And, according to a damning analysis by an independent government advisory body, the UK’s upland peat bogs are facing a sustained threat from the shooting classes’ desire to bag grouse.

With clients paying more than £150 to bag only a single brace of grouse, estate owners know that delivering a plentiful supply of targets makes sound business sense. It also adds to their considerable net worth because the capital value of a grouse moor is based on its grouse population. The birds are valued at anything between £2,500 and £5,000 a brace.

“It probably is fair to say there has been more burning in recent years compared to the preceding decade, and a lot of that is to do with reinvestment in estates because new entrepreneurs are coming in,” said Amanda Anderson, director of the Moorland Association. “A lot of the estates are getting back to their prewar potential. They’re possibly at their optimal level now [in terms of burning].”

According to the RSPB, some 76,000 hectares, or 27% of the UK’s blanket bog, have already lost peat-forming vegetation due to regular burning. In a briefing produced last year, the society claimed: “If we don’t restore upland peatlands, CO2 emissions from degraded peatlands are likely to increase by 30% for every 1C rise in average global temperature. Peatlands with healthy ecosystems are by contrast expected to be relatively robust to climate change.”

Pat Thompson, senior uplands policy officer at the RSPB, said it was time to rethink the burning of Britain’s countryside: “It is utterly perverse to me that we are degrading our uplands in a way that benefits the minority rather than society as a whole.” 

What we mean by common ownership

The Socialist Party defines socialism as a moneyless society based on common ownership of the means of production, production for use, and social relations based on cooperative and democratic associations as opposed to bureaucratic hierarchies. Common ownership means resources and property that are owned in common by the people and administered according to the will of the people. Everyone must have a right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. It is through democratic control that the people express their will. There are some items, however, that are impractical to common ownership for various reasons such as personal care items and clothing. For example, you would not want to share a used toothbrush or underwear with others. Personal ownership of items such as these does not contradict the principle of common ownership. Socialist production is undertaken to meet human needs rather than producing goods for profit. Under socialism the people generally determine what those human needs are through democratic control. In this way the people control production. In a socialist society everyone has free access to the products and services intended to be used to meet people’s basic needs.

Capitalism reaches into every nook and cranny of our lives and society. It is in process of conquering those few parts of the world that have not yet been exploited, privatised and commercialised. Capitalism is only five or six centuries old, but increasingly it causes serious problems, destroys or distorts many lives --- yet it remains virtually unchallenged. It has seen off two sham 'opponents': Soviet state capitalism (wrongly called communism) and Labour nationalisation (easily contained within reformed capitalism).

Quite simply, the common ownership of the world’s resources and productive capacity is the basis for a reorganisation of society that would ensure plenty of the necessities of life for everyone on the planet – no more starving, malnourished people, no wandering homeless, no senseless deaths for the want of easily affordable medical care and medicine, no more poverty, unemployment, or inequality. How can this be so? Surely, if it were possible to eliminate these scourges we would have done it long ago. Aren’t we working on these problems anyway?

At present we live in a world where the resources of the Earth and the products made from them, the processes needed to make them, and the transportation systems to get them to you, are all owned by private individuals. A company proposes to extract resources or manufacture commodities. It needs money in order to do this. Wealthy people loan the company the necessary capital, but they don’t do it for nothing. They will expect a healthy return on their money every year of say, 10 percent, or 100 000 on every million pounds loaned. If this return is below expectations, then the lenders will withdraw their funds and look somewhere else to invest.

This puts every enterprise in a competition for capital to fund their operations and for expansion. Thus all companies must compete and strive to do whatever is necessary to create profit to pay dividends to lenders. If a company fails in this, capital will dry up and production will stop, rendering its physical assets as junk or sold at a fraction of their value, and its employees will be out of work. In other words, commodities are only produced for the purpose of profit or they are not produced at all.

The profits go to a tiny minority of big investors of capital to enhance their already vast fortunes that allow them to live in luxury while contributing no work whatsoever.

We believe that the Earth’s resources are the common heritage of all mankind and should be managed for the benefit of all. Those resources are easily abundant enough to feed, clothe, and house everyone on earth and provide medical care, education and everything else necessary to ensure a full and happy life for every one.

The establishment of common ownership would eliminate the competition for resources and for capital. It would eliminate production for profit. It would eliminate the need for states and their central governments that exist to serve today’s competitive system. It would even eliminate the need for money and trading as goods and services would be produced solely to meet the needs of humans who would have free access to those goods and services, taking them as needed. Competition would be replaced by cooperation, eliminating conflict and war and because everybody and therefore no one person or group would own the means of producing wealth, everyone would stand equal to the powers of production – no owners and non-owners, no exploiters and exploited, no employers and employed, and therefore, no classes.

Today, this is quite obviously not the case. We have constant conflict and war, vast inequality, poverty, malnutrition, starvation and deprivation amid wealth and plenty. Workers produce all the wealth in the world and perform all the work, yet are only allowed to take home a small share of that wealth to enable them to exist so they can show up at work the next day to produce more profit that goes to the already wealthy. And they are only allowed to do so at the whim of that tiny minority of owners.

Today, nobody starves or goes hungry because we lack food. Nobody is homeless because we lack building materials or builders, nobody lives in poverty because we lack wealth. People suffer theses scourges because they are unable to pay and thus realize a profit for some enterprise or other. In one fell swoop, in one simple action, production for profit could be replaced with production to satisfy the needs of all.

Socialism - The hope of humanity

Human beings have an inherent drive to care about one other and the levels of human misery in our world today demean us all. Socialism began as a quest for community with the utopian socialists wanting to restore what industrialism was taking away. Defining socialism often required defining what it was not. It never meant mean the tyrannical rule of a bureaucratic class in the Soviet Union (or China or Cuba) but even with the fall of the old Soviet Union the identification of socialism with centrally planned, state capitalism seems as strong as ever after.  Many still view socialism as the nationalisation of major industries when the experience of nationalized industries shows that it was not a model of social enlightenment even if they do add on caveats that it is nationalization “under workers control.” The task of the Socialist Party is to open up thinking about what socialism truly is and provide the necessary revolutionary vision. Many pro-capitalist seek to prove the idea of socialism is dead or that it is impossible because of some ‘human nature’, yet, how could socialism possibly be dead, or against human nature, if they're so concerned to keep killing it off? The argument that socialism can't work is akin to the person behind the wheel of a car who refuses to change direction as he or she drives towards the cliff. Divide the workers to maintain mastery has long been the tactic of the ruling classes the world over. They stir the embers of religious bigotry long after the musty creeds have lost whatever justification they had for emerging in the first place, and they fan the flames of patriotism, of so-called nationalism, long after the disappearance of the historical basis for narrow chauvinism and provincialism. Capitalism will not change its drive for profits at the expense of our existence as a species. Socialists hold that the exploited will not let themselves be passively dragged towards the catastrophes that threaten our future and survival.

The knowledge and technical means exist to conquer hunger and disease and to satisfy the basic social and cultural needs of our whole planet. But, inequalities grow and catastrophes threaten us. The idea that self-sacrifice and sensible reforms are enough to ward off these dangers is an illusion. Reformist preaching have never prevented crises, avoided wars or contained social explosions. Resignation has always been infinitely more costly than struggle. It is delusional to imagine capitalism without economic crises, without unemployment, without poverty, without discrimination against women, young people, the aged, immigrants and national minorities, without racism or xenophobia. Capitalism cannot be judged simply by looking at the comfort of – the small elite while closing one’s eyes to the living conditions of the large majority of people. Over-population’ and the hunger and misery associated with it, are not products of nature but products of men, or rather of social relationships which preclude such a social organisation of production and of life generally as would abolish with the problem of hunger that of ‘over-population’.

The socialist movement will not advance again significantly until it regains the initiative and takes the offensive against capitalism. Our task, as socialists is simply to restate what socialism meant to the founders of our movement but  the expansion and development of the socialist movement will not be overcome unless and until we find a way to break down the misunderstanding and prejudice against socialism. We are passionately devoted to the idea that socialism cannot be realised other than by democracy. All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The socialist movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority, as stated in the Communist Manifesto. Socialism and democracy are linked together as end and means. Socialism cannot be anything else but democratic, if we understand by “democracy” the rule of the people, the majority. The socialist reorganisation of society requires a workers’ revolution. Such a revolution is unthinkable without the active participation of the majority of the working class. Nothing could be more democratic than that.

Socialists do not argue with workers when they say they want democracy and doesn’t want to be ruled by a dictatorship. Rather, we should recognise that 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. The Marxists, throughout the century-long history of our movement, have always valued and defended bourgeois democratic rights, restricted as they were; and have utilised them for the education and organisation of the workers in the struggle to establish full democracy by abolishing the capitalist rule altogether.

Marx and Engels never taught that the simple nationalisation of the forces of production signified the establishment of socialism. That’s not stated by Marx and Engels anywhere. Marxists define socialism as a classless society—with abundance, freedom and equality for all; a society in which there would be no state, not even a democratic workers’ state, to say nothing of a state in the monstrous form of a bureaucratic dictatorship of a privileged minority. The Communist Manifesto said: “In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association.” N.B. “an association”, not a state—“an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all”

Capitalism, under any kind of government—whether ‘bourgeois’ democracy or police state—under any kind of government, capitalism is a system of minority rule, and the principal beneficiaries of capitalist democracy are the small minority of exploiting capitalists; scarcely less so than the slaveowners of ancient times. To be sure, the workers have a right to vote periodically for candidates selected for them by the capitalist parties. And they can exercise the right of free speech and free press. But this formal right of free speech and free press is out-weighed rather heavily by the inconvenient circumstance that the small capitalist minority happens to enjoy a complete monopoly of ownership and control of all the big presses, and of television and radio, and of all other means of communication and information.

In the old days, some socialists used a shorthand definition of socialism - “industrial democracy” - the extension of democracy to industry, the democratic control of industry by the workers themselves, with private ownership eliminated. That socialist demand for real democracy was taken for granted. Capitalism created a top layer of people who are the owners of peoples’ lives. Socialism will end that.

Great Transition

 The theme of the July issue of Popular Science is all about building a better world. One article examines four futures – Market forces (or business as usual); Policy Reform (governments take action to meet UN climate targets); Fortress World (overwhelmed by environmental and social problems, governments become authoritarian and the rich retreat behind walls); Great Transition (Society's values change radically to prioritize environmental preservation, social equality, and cooperation). Looking at seven broad topics - land use, purchasing power, water shortage, hunger incidence, income disparity, environmental impact, and the year when oil and natural gas will run out, the article has Great transition in front in every category except purchasing power. Great Transition is obviously a reasonable description of socialism although, of course, that word never comes up. What is certain is that we will never survive with Market Forces or Fortress World. Cooperative action is necessary now but impossible with the scramble and competition for the world's resources that we have today. John Ayers.

Socialism - A World Community

“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family.” Gandhi

The profit-driven capitalist system—marked by the anarchy of production and the furious chase for markets, the division of the world into nation-states and the accompanying rivalries—will remain a fundamental barrier to addressing climate change. The goal of socialists is not to reduce people’s wants to some preconceived minimum. Rather, it is to realise and expand those wants. In a socialist society, everyone will have access to the great variety of material and cultural wealth accumulated over the course of civilisation. Consider what is required to do research in particle physics or to investigate the archaeological remains of ancient civilisations. Socialists aspire to a future society in which all can pursue the creative scientific and cultural work hitherto restricted to a privileged few. Progress in human development, i.e., ending misery and want, will not result from curtailing production but from raising it to unparalleled heights. Socialism is a society of material abundance.

Before the rise of capitalism, trade was simpler. Say you’re a bread maker, but you need shoes. So you swap the commodity you have for another commodity of equal value, and you use money as a simple intermediary to make that exchange possible. With capitalism rather than the purpose of exchange being a utilitarian one (I make such and such commodities, I need something else), the sole purpose of exchange is money. In this case commodities become nothing more than the intermediaries to make more money. Which commodities are made in order to increase capital, are completely incidental. As one magnate said “We’re not in business to make steel... We’re in business to make money.”

Every capitalist, in order to survive and out-compete others in the industry has to worry about just one thing: How to make some amount of money into more money. Whether or not the products are useful, rational, fulfill needs, or whether they create landfills full of crap, exists nowhere as a policy in corporate budgeting strategies.  So, for instance, mass production of any commodity is generally the most efficient way for capitalists to turn a profit. In the case of agriculture this leads to monoculture farming, which is a disaster of a system. It both depletes the soil and creates a need for artificial pesticides, basically poisoning both the earth and us at the same time.

Even if one company were to spend the resources necessary to cut down on pollution, carbon emissions, and waste, it would be competing with companies that don’t do this and can therefore sell their products more cheaply and in greater numbers, and the responsible company would quickly find itself pushed out of its necessary market share. Capitalism therefore promotes a built-in focus on short-term profitability to stay ahead of the game, with regard only to the money at the end of the process, rather than the utility or rationality of what is produced.

Of course a focus on short term gains is deadly for the environment, which by definition is a long-term issue. As Marx put it: “The way that the cultivation of particular crops depends on fluctuations in market prices and the constant change in cultivation with these prices—the entire spirit of capitalist production, which is oriented towards the most immediate monetary profits—stands in contradiction with agriculture, which has to concern itself with the whole gamut of permanent conditions of life required by the chain of successive generations.”

There has to be constant growth for individual capitalists in order to stay competitive. The more they make at the end of the production cycle, the more they can invest in the next round of production and the more they can invest in newer/cost-saving technologies to beat out their competitors. This process then also feeds a system-wide growth in which more and more is constantly being produced. Capitalism goes into crisis if it isn’t constantly growing.

What do we all want? We want to be all that we can be. And we want this not only for ourselves. We want our families and our loved ones to be able to develop all of their potential—that we all get what we need for our development. To each according to her need for development. If we are going to talk about the possibility of human development, we have to recognize that a precondition for that development is sufficient food, good health, education, and the opportunity to make decisions for ourselves. How can we possibly develop all our potential if we are hungry, in bad health, poorly educated, or dominated by others? Secondly, since we are not identical, what we need for our own self-development obviously differs for everyone. Engels asked, “What is the aim of the Communists?” He answered, “To organise society in such a way that every member of it can develop and use all his capabilities and powers in complete freedom and without thereby infringing the basic conditions of this society.” Marx summed it all up in the final version of the Manifesto by saying that the goal is “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Our goal, in short, cannot be a society in which some people are able to develop their capabilities and others are not; we are interdependent, we are all members of a human family. The full development of all human potential is our goal.

The moment we realise that a society based on money and profit has become counterproductive we have reached understanding. The moment we realise that our task and mandate as a human family is to build a world based explicitly on cooperation we have acquired consciousness. A cooperative commonwealth (or human family, if you prefer), our global society, and its economy, would be controlled by everyone, together, not just a small group, whether that group was the tiny corporate "ruling class" of the capitalist nations, or "the party" of the totalitarian nations (Cuba, China, North Korea, former Soviet Union, etc.). Economic activity as one human family would occur cooperatively, to satisfy human need and want, not to allow a tiny group of owners or power-holders to accumulate vast riches. It would be a dramatically new and different society, offering a way of life we can only dream of under our present system. The reality is, every problem we face as human beings is either caused by the normal operation of our money-and-profit system (i.e. "capitalism"), or exacerbated by it. In fact:  it is the natural, normal operation of our money-and-profit-based system that causes, or worsens, each and every social (which includes economic) problem we face. Thus, if we really want to eradicate these problems, we must begin to work toward ordering our society in a manner that reflects the reality of who and what we are: brothers and sisters in one human family. This would create a whole new framework that would allow for the solution of many problems that are simply unsolvable under capitalism. The new socialist cooperative framework would be broad and flexible, while our present capitalist framework is obviously and undeniably rigid and constraining.

Socialism will establish a community of interests. The development of the individual will enhance the lives of other men. Equality will manifest attitudes of co-operation. The individual will enjoy the security of being integrated with society at large. Socialism will end national barriers. The human family will have freedom of movement over the entire earth. Socialism would facilitate universal human contact but at the same time would take care to preserve diversity. Variety in language, music, handicrafts, art forms and diet etc will add to all human experience. Socialism does not try to "make everyone of the same." Quite the opposite. Socialism advocates more freedom and individual expression for people, not less. Whether it's freedom of expression or sexual freedom, socialism advocates increasing freedom.

The negative inter-related consequences of living under such a perverse system as capitalism are many and varied plus painful: disharmony, depression, anxiety, and loneliness are some of the effects of the resulting dis-connect – with ourselves, with others, and with the natural environment. Worldwide, according to Psychology Today, the numbers suffering from loneliness are at epidemic levels, and, with an aging population throughout the west, are expected to continue to rise. John Cacioppo, author of ‘Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection’ relates that in the 1980s “scholars estimated 20% of people in the US felt lonely at any given time, now it’s thought to be over 40%”. According to Cacioppa can cause lonely people to “feel others around them are threats rather than sources of cooperation and compassion.” Like many associated mental health illnesses, loneliness is stigmatized and seen, Cocioppo relates, as “the psychological equivalent of being a loser in life, or a weak person.” In a world where being tough, successful and ‘driven’ are championed, weakness (particularly in men) and other such inadequacies are frowned upon. As a result people deny loneliness, which is a mistake, as this suffocating condition can increase the risk of an early death by a staggering 45%, higher than both obesity and excessive alcohol consumption.

The ideal social unit for the benefit of the ‘Masters of the Universe’, as Adam Smith famously called them, is “you and your television set”, Noam Chomsky has said; in a world devoid of community spirit, where selfishness is encouraged, “If the kid next door is hungry, it's not your problem. If the retired couples next door invested their assets badly and are now starving, that's not your problem either.” Social unity and human compassion are the enemies of the elite and an unjust system, which promotes values of greed and indifference. Such values divide and separate, creating the conditions in which loneliness is almost inevitable. Selfishness and accumulation are encouraged; individual ambition and the competitive spirit, which “destroys all feelings of human fraternity and cooperation,” Albert Einstein said, and “conceives of achievement not as derived from the love for productive and thoughtful work, but as springing from personal ambition and fear of rejection,” pervade and largely dominate all areas of life.

“If humanity is to progress towards a new and peaceful way of living, such values, which creating the conditions in which loneliness is almost inevitable, need to give way to other more positive ideals. Cooperation instead of competition for example, will cultivate tolerance and understanding where suspicion and selfishness prevail, allowing communities to come together, strengthening unity – a primary need of our troubled times… So what is the answer? A strong social network, purpose and structure, and supportive relationships are crucial, but do these address the underlying emptiness, which triggers the loneliness? … The current socio-economic model is a poisonous system based on negative values; it has polluted the planet and is making us unhappy and ill in a variety of ways. It is a system that ardently promotes material success and the indulgence of personal desires. All of which encourages dependence on methods of ‘escape’ of one kind or another – drugs (prescribed, legal and illegal), alcohol, sex, entertainments in all shapes and sizes – including organized religion, to fill the chasm of loneliness, and keep the mind in a constant state of agitation and discontent…” (from here) h

The end of Fukuyama

From the December 1990 issue of the Socialist Standard

A wise and confident-looking face gazes at us from beneath an article in the Guardian (7 September). The face is that of Francis Fukuyama, a consultant to the US State Department and the Rand Corporation. The article is his defence of his own essay 'The End of History', published last December. 

Fukuyama starts by complaining that he has been misunderstood. Critics have pointed to such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait as evidence that he is wrong and history is not over. He explains that what he thinks is over is not "history" but merely "the history of ideas" and that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of "communism" in Eastern Europe only back up his main argument that "liberal democracy is the only legitimate ideology left in the world". 

This type of thinking is not new. During the 1930s fascist and communist parties were convinced that "decadent democracy" was finished and would be replaced by their own creed. Fukuyama is as wrong now as they were then, but at least Hitler only gave the Third Reich a thousand years while he sees liberal democracy lasting for ever.

Ideology and war

We are also informed that the triumph of liberal democracy has been accompanied by "the victory of market principles, of market organisation" and that these two factors will lead to the creation of more and more liberal democracies practising free-market and free-trade economies and all living in harmony. The proof is that 

in the 200 or so years that modem liberal democracies have existed there is not one single instance of one liberal democracy lighting another.

According to Fukuyama the conflict between nations during most of this century 

was due to existence of serious ideological cleavages among the great powers, between liberalism on the one hand and fascism and communism on the other.

If Fukuyama's article in the Guardian had appeared on April 1st then it would have been taken for a joke, but he is serious. He actually believes that different political ideas are what produced World War Two, the Cold War, Korea, and so on. That these events were connected with the disputes between national ruling groups over such matters as control of markets, spheres of influence and vital raw materials has completely eluded him. 

For example, would America and Japan have gone to war if Japan hadn't threatened American interests in the Pacific? Of course not, their different political systems didn't matter one bit. Liberal democracies and dictatorships can co-exist very well so long as their interests do not seriously clash. Look at how Britain could for decades happily describe fascist Portugal as "our oldest ally". 

But even if the liberal democracies haven't fought one another this is only because they didn't need to, having agreed to carve up the world among themselves. Britain, France and the USA industrialised early and needed markets and raw materials for their mighty industries. The first two between them grabbed most of Africa and large parts of Asia while Central and South America were left to the USA. 

This carve-up, and not ideological squabbles, also explains why from 1939 to 1945 the big liberal democracies engaged in war with dictatorships, or to be more accurate, those which felt strong enough to muscle in on them. Italy and Japan were late to industrialise and thus to colonise, while Germany had lost its colonies and markets through defeat in World War One, so each of them had considerable ground to make up. The only way open to them, once diplomacy and threats had failed, was by military means. 

Is liberal democracy secure? 

What has also eluded Fukuyama is the glaring evidence that many nations cannot simply become, or even remain, liberal democracies just because they wish to. This depends on whether or not it is acceptable to the powerful liberal democracies, especially the USA. Remember the fate of Chile, Latin America's oldest liberal democracy, in 1973 when it offended US capitalism. True the US Marines were not sent in to crush it but the local military were. 

Nor are free-trade policies open to all, as Fukuyama supposes. These same powerful liberal democracies often ensure that the exports of under-developed countries are faced with the very trade barriers which they claim to oppose. Chile's Minister of Finance has welcomed George Bush's plan for a free-trade zone covering the entire Western Hemisphere but added

Unfortunately, many countries of the world—including the US—do not always reflect in their actions the free-trade gospel they preach. (The Wall Street Journal 14 September). 

So Fukuyama's vision of the future is of liberal democracies, including the great powers, settling down to "peaceful" competition. Yes, they may well fight with undemocratic countries but will make only economic war on one another. Great power status will depend, he says, not on the ability to move armed forces around the world but on remaining competitive by growing and innovating. The main threat a united, liberal democratic Germany will pose

will take the form of precision machine tools and high-quality Mercedes rather than Panzers.

Isn't that reassuring! But wait, what will be the response of the USA or some other great power if, say, Germany and/or Japan become too competitive? Will they simply accept a disastrous loss of markets and power with a philosophic shrug? History shows that free-trade is something nations support only when it is to their advantage. And what will be the response of the populace in those great powers should mass unemployment and falling living standards come in the wake of economic defeat? Dictatorships can certainly become liberal democracies but the reverse can just as easily happen in a situation such as this. 

Fukuyama's view of the world is a naive and simplistic one as it ignores the Marxist view that capitalism, because of its never ending need for expansion and capitaI accumulation, is rooted in conflict. In the last resort the way for nations to settle their irreconcilable differences must be through armed force or at least the threat of it. This applies no matter what form of government or economics happens to be in vogue. 

The history of ideas has not ended but is, and must be, a continuing process. Ideologies will persist and the old ideas which Fukuyama thinks are dead will probably come round again just as, incidentally, long-discarded free-market economics have done. Indeed only three days after his own article appeared there were two others in the Guardian arguing for more regulation in banking and more government spending! 

In whatever way future events unfold we can be sure that Francis Fukuyama's wise and confident expression will be replaced by one of pained bewilderment as his unsound theory is exposed. We are even surer that far from Marx's socialist idea having been ended, its day has still to come.

Vic Vanni

Glasgow Branch