The cause of socialism

ABOLISH WAGE SLAVERY

Working people are waging and will continue to wage struggles on many issues, including wages, health, industrial accidents, social services, unemployment, political rights, etc. These struggles put them in direct opposition to various sectors of the ruling class– this or that capitalist, manager, government minister, municipal politician or whatever. Workers know very well who their immediate enemy is and where their immediate interests lie in such conflicts. It is not the job of the Socialist Party to substitute itself for the peoples’ protests. Its role is to point out what all these struggles have in common, to point out that the cause of these problems and the misery that workers have to endure under capitalism is one and the same, to identify the class enemy hiding behind each specific, individual enemy and to indicate the only path that will enable us to solve these problems once and for all. In opposition to those who promise “socialist” reforms as a way of eliminating the exploitation of man by man, the Socialist Party puts forward the revolutionary struggle, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the socialism. We defend the slogan, “The emancipation of the workers will be accomplished by the workers themselves”. This is how we carry out our tasks associalists; not as reformists, but as conscious revolutionaries who go against the tide – against the nationalists divisions between immigrant workers and indigenous workers maintained by the ruling class; against the idea that capitalism can be gradually improved until it becomes a society free from exploitation. These are the ideas that we sow and cultivate. Experience has proven that unless our ideas triumph in the working-class movement, socialist revolution is impossible.

The aspiration of Marx and Engels was a society based upon free association of completely free men and women, where no separation between ‘private and common interest’ existed: a society where ‘everyone could give himself a complete education in whatever domain he fancied’. For ‘man’s activity becomes an adverse force which subjugates him, instead of his being its master’ when there is ‘a division of labour’; everyone must then have a profession, that is a ‘determined, exclusive sphere of activity’ he has not chosen and in which ‘he is forced to remain if he does not want to lose his means of existence’. In their socialist society, on the contrary, a man would be given ‘the possibility to do this today and that tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to go fishing in the afternoon, to do cattle breeding in the evening, to criticise after dinner’, as he chose (‘The German Ideology’.) It is clear that there is not the slightest relation between their vision and the conception of Lenin’s Soviet Union. The future world of Marx and Engels is a world where will be no exploiters or oppressors, no landlords and capitalists nor will there be any oppressed and exploited people, or any of the darkness, ignorance and backwardness resulting from the system of exploitation. In such a society the production of both material and moral values will develop and flourish mightily and will meet the varied needs of all its members. Today, our task is constantly to advance the cause of socialism so as to make it a reality as soon as possible. It is the greatest cause in human history, for it will eliminate exploitation and classes once and for all, emancipate mankind and bring humanity into a world of happiness such as it has never known before.

The aim and purpose of the Socialist Party is to replace the world capitalist economy by world socialism which will abolish the class division of society, i.e., simultaneously with the abolition of anarchy in production, it will abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression of man by man. Society will no longer consist of antagonistic classes in conflict with each other, but will present a united commonwealth of labour. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its energy to the struggle against the forces of nature, to the development and strengthening of its own collective might. After abolishing private ownership of the means of production and converting these means into social property, socialism will replace the global market, competitive and blind processes of social production, by consciously organised and planned production for the purpose of satisfying rapidly growing social needs. With the abolition of competition and anarchy in production, devastating crises and still more devastating wars will disappear. Instead of colossal waste of productive forces and spasmodic development of society-there will be a planned utilisation of all material resources and a painless economic development on the basis of unrestricted, smooth and rapid development of productive forces.

The abolition of private property and the disappearance of classes will do away with the exploitation of man by man. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy: instead of being merely a means of livelihood it will become a necessity of life: want and economic inequality, the misery of enslaved classes, and a wretched standard of life generally will disappear; the hierarchy created in the division of labour system will be abolished together with the antagonism between mental and manual labour; and the last vestige of the social inequality of the sexes will be removed. At the same time, the organs of class domination, and the State in the first place, will disappear also. The State, being the embodiment of class domination, will die out in so far as classes die out, and with it all measures of coercion will expire.

The development of the productive forces of world socialism will make it possible to raise the well-being of the whole of humanity and to reduce to a minimum the time devoted to material production and, consequently, will enable culture to flourish as never before in history. This new culture of a humanity that is united for the first time in history, and has abolished all State boundaries, will, unlike capitalist culture, be based upon clear and transparent human relationships. Hence, it will bury forever all mysticism, religion, prejudice and superstition and will give a powerful impetus to the development of all-conquering, scientific knowledge. In socialism no social restrictions will be imposed upon the growth of the forces of production. Private ownership in the means of production, the selfish lust for profits, the artificial retention of the masses in a state of ignorance, poverty-which retards technical progress in capitalist society, and unproductive expenditures will have no place in a Communist society. The most expedient utilisation of the forces of nature and of the natural conditions of production in the various parts of the world, the removal of the antagonism between town and country, that under capitalism results from the low technical level of agriculture and its systematic lagging behind industry; the closest possible co-operation between science and technique, the utmost encouragement of research work and the practical application of its results on the widest possible social scale; planned organisation of scientific work; the application of the most perfect methods of statistical accounting and, planned regulation of economy; the rapid growth of social needs, which-is the most powerful internal driving force of the whole system-all these will secure the maximum productivity of social labour, which in turn will release human energy for the powerful development of science and art.

“From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs!”

Our Economy?

There is another climate change conference coming up in December in Paris. Some countries appear to be getting more serious. Perhaps they see that eventually it will cut seriously into profits, especially when half the world is under water! However, there are still plenty of idiots trying to deny the science. The New York Times (Oct.11) contains an article entitled, "Stuff Happens, Like Climate Change". In it they quote Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, "We're not going to destroy our economy the way the left-wing government that we are under now wants to do." Meanwhile, Governor Christie said about George Schulz (Reagan's secretary of State who now proposes that Republicans start to come to terms with climate change), "Listen, everybody makes mistakes once in a while." Hurricane Sandy caused $36 billion in damage in Christie's state! John Ayers.

A Continuous Grind

So now it is back to school and for parents it means dipping deeper into their pockets, especially if the kids want whatever is considered 'cool', hence expensive. A Fraser Institute paper said, "Between lunches, clothes, extra-curricular activities, and birthday parties, parents are likely to spend $3,000 to $4,500 a year. Furthermore, fifty per cent of secondary students will end up asking their parents for additional support because they've run out of money. 

Another example of how life is getting harder for every one under capitalism. 

John Ayers.

Slaves to the Left

The absence of a viable socialist movement today is an indisputable and depressing fact. This is hardly a profound observation. It has been noted by many others. Those who do acknowledge the problem have offered differing explanations. Some blame sectarianism. Dozens of other explanations abound. Obviously, history has not unfolded as Marx envisioned. The absence of a strong socialist political party has driven some on the Left to delude themselves into pursuing a strategy that envisages capturing the Labour Party and transforming it. Suffice it to say, those who advocate such a strategy are hard-pressed to provide one shred of evidence of the Labour Party’s receptivity to a socialist agenda. Such a strategy is an exercise in futility. The bulk of the Labour Party MPs do not even seem willing to defend what’s left of the welfare state. The trade union movement affiliated to the Labour Party is also an embarrassment. The TUC slavishly accept the capitalist labour laws that severely constrain and restrict overall union activity. They have essentially capitulated and proved themselves to be incapable of defending the interests of working people. To say this is not to argue that all work within the unions should be abandoned, that need is undeniable.

Nationalistic jingoism, xenophobia, racism, and sexism are well entrenched and permeates all facets of daily life. Appealing for human decency and compassion has clearly been inadequate. People who feel increasingly alienated and disempowered go on the defensive and often into denial. Socialists face a most difficult situation for the problems are many and the solutions so far unknown. Unable to chart a path out of isolation, socialists expend much of their time and energy in tried and trusted activities. Unfortunately, this is further evidence of their impotent state rather than its vitality. Each year activists stage “mass” demonstrations and rallies. While they have some worth, they usually attract only the faithful and have become little more than media events. Moreover, such protests are now incorporated into the legal bureaucracy with the use of police permits and the like and has become almost institutionalised. The lack of unity for the socialist goal has prompted the establishment of numerous organisations of varying forms – loose federations, flexible networks, etc.– without any clear solution to the problem. Socialist unity remains elusive. There are no ready-made answers to the complex questions facing socialists today. At the same time, the lack of such answers is no excuse to throw in the towel. Regardless of the weaknesses, the day-to-day struggle continues, whether it be in the trade unions, civil rights, environmental campaigning or what have you. Socialists must look beyond the immediate situation and be willing to outline a vision of a future society. The issues must be about how goods are produce and distributed, who owns the means of production and how work is organised and administered. Socialists must question the very way we spend our lives in a never ending and environmentally destructive process of expanding production and consumption. Overcoming scarcity, i.e., meeting people’s elementary material needs for food, clothing, shelter, etc., is obviously necessary. A more insidious problem, however, is the mindless consumerism and the ever-expanding creation of “needs”. The fact is that the planet cannot possibly sustain this toxic wasteful lifestyle on a global scale. Besides being ecologically unfeasible, the unrelenting drive for increased growth and production is threatening to permanently subvert the struggle for human liberation itself. A technological faith in expanding production has become synonymous with “progress” and “freedom” is equated with the right to consume. All this turns people themselves even more into commodities, reduced even more into yet another expendable raw material.

Our socialism should be not only democratic, non-exploitative, egalitarian, and internationalist but one that thoroughly replaces the limitless growth model of capitalism. We must keep the ideal alive and struggle to make it a reality to triumph over the present-day insanity and avoid the path of barbarism or collective self-annihilation.

Our Enemy is Capitalism

Capitalism remains the enemy of humanity, it cannot be reformed and the only solution is to build a new social system. Socialism cannot be anything but global. All attempts to make socialism national have failed, because the economy is global and there cannot be a socio-economic solution of the problems within the narrow borders of a country. In this era of nationalist movements who believe that everything can be solved in the own country, the Socialist Party says there is only solution at the global economy level which is socialism. It is not possible to build socialism city by city or government department by government department. The revolutionary heart of the socialist critique lies in the refusal to accept that what is will always be. Marx showed that change was inherent in the very fabric of society. Leftists are well known for putting the world to rights while downing a pint. The Socialist Party does not believe that the world is on the verge of revolution but it does not mean that we consider revolution as a far off dream. The present inactivity of our fellow workers cannot change the facts which Marx exposed, namely the contradictions inherent in capitalism’s very existence: A handful of capitalists still get rich at the expense of the rest of us – those who work for wages who bear the misery of unemployment caused by capitalism’s constant search for profits. So we are not misled by surface appearances - the nature of the system has not changed. The possibilities for change is ever-present. There is massive cynicism and distrust of the system, its inability to provide basic services, its determination to charge us for the necessities of life and to impose unaccountable bureaucracies to rule our lives. The problem is, what course of action can offer a solution? Things never stay the same: opportunities will arise to assert the working class’ interests – peacefully if possible, by force if necessary. There is no socialism but democratic socialism.

We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humankind. It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars to steal the resources of less developed countries and causes the growing devastation of our natural environment. Either we get rid of this outmoded and increasingly decrepit system or it will devastate humanity. The hour is late and urgent action is necessary. The only viable way forward is to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment. To create such a world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through a social revolution.  The working class must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy. People know that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. To achieve this aim we are spreading knowledge of the revolutionary outlook of socialism. It is through political action that we reach out to people with our revolutionary message.  Socialism and the classless society is just as necessary as ever and just as vital an idea as ever. And it is still necessary to organize into political parties to wage the struggle for socialism. Ours is a revolutionary party. It isn’t just trying to improve capitalism. It aims to organise the workers so that they can collectively transform society.

Crime and Poverty

Scotland's criminal justice system punishes poorer people and makes it difficult for them to escape poverty, according to an academicstudy by University of Edinburgh researchers. Report author Prof Lesley McAra said: "Our findings highlight a very destructive dynamic - poverty increases the risks of violence. Contact with juvenile justice system increases the risks associated with poverty. As a result, contact with the very agencies meant to stop offending is inadvertently reproducing the conditions in which violence can flourish."

It found children from deprived backgrounds were twice as likely to face police action than better off children who commit the same crime. Living in poverty also increased the likelihood of violence among both boys and girls. Poorer young people were also about five times more likely to be placed on statutory supervision than their better-off counterparts. They found that a history of being in trouble with the police was the strongest predictor of whether a young person was not in education, employment or training by age 18.

Household poverty was identified as an exacerbating factor that increased the likelihood of young people offending. This was the case even when a range of other risk factors have been taken into account, the researchers said. They found that people who lived in extreme poverty were much more likely to be the victims - and perpetrators - of crime. Girls from poorer backgrounds were twice as likely as girls from more affluent households to be involved in violent crime, the authors said. This was the case even after other factors - such as truancy, substance abuse and poor parental supervision - were taken into account.

 Another study by Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) Research Centre - also based at the University of Edinburgh's Law School - suggested that victims experiencing the most crime continued to be within the most deprived communities. Half of the communities with the highest crime rates were found in the top 20% of areas with the highest levels of chronic health problems, the report showed. A third of the communities with the highest rates of crime were in the top 20% of areas with the highest levels of unemployment.

Lead researcher Prof Susan McVie said: "The findings are important as they suggest that crime tends to be highly concentrated amongst poor people and within poor neighbourhoods, and this has not changed despite crime being at its lowest level for decades.”

There Is Only One Enemy

Posters calling for the formation of a white students' union at the University of Toronto have been removed after student union reps called them "triggering". The poster featured the pictures of two blond white guys staring into the sky flanked by the CN Tower. They directed people to a web site supporting students for a western civilization. A post on the site calls multiculturalism an undemocratically imposed immigration culture policy that is rapidly reducing white people to minorities, and calls for a students' union that promotes white people's interests. This is just another incident of racism and emphasizes to all who can see clearly that a society based on private property interests will always turn people against each other until they realize they only have one enemy – the economic system that creates racism and other divisions. How else can the one per cent rule the ninety-nine per cent? John Ayers.

The Message

Grosvenor Cinema in Glasgow was due to screen  the Oscar-nominated The Message, on behalf of the Islamic Society of Britain. But it pulled the screening after an anonymous petition with 94 signatories – largely from Scotland but also from people registered in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia – criticised the film as being “inappropriate and disrespectful” to Islam. Complaints against the film on the petition included the “inappropriate material such as music and dancing” as well as supposed historical inaccuracies and non-Muslim actors portrayed some of the prophet’s closest companions.

The ISB called for the cinema to overturn its decision taken after such a “small number of objections” and said: “These protestors demonstrate the worst elements of our community, as they are imposing their beliefs on others.” The ISB said it “has worked for decades to promote the rights of people to make Islam relevant to British society” before adding: “We will not be bullied by these people and challenge them to make themselves known. We are also appealing for the Grosvenor to stick to the original agreement and show the film.”

SNP MSP Humza Yousaf was “appalled” the cinema had caved in to “a few narrow-minded imbeciles”.

The National Secular Society (NSS), has condemned pulling the screening as “contributing to the climate of censorship”. Stephen Evans, a campaign manager for the NSS, said: “Incidents like this have a real effect on free speech. The limits on what is deemed to be acceptable are constantly shrinking and there is a real fear of causing offence.” The NSS has written to the cinema urging it to think again. “This is an Oscar-nominated film from the 1970s. This shows you how regressive this incident is. Too often people capitulate to the reactionaries; it’s dangerous.” In the letter the NSS said it was “surprised and extremely disappointed to see a cinema capitulate to reactionaries who wish to deny freedom of expression, and we are keen to learn the rationale behind your decision”.

                                             

We need change

It is often argued that no matter how desirable socialism may be, it could never be made to work, because, whatever changes are made in the form of society, human nature will always remain fundamentally the same: there must always be rulers and ruled, rich and poor, employers and employed. This argument springs from ignorance. The study of history, and the observation of primitive communities still living in the world, prove that in the earliest kind of society not only were the land and the tools (what are called the means of production) regarded as the common property of the tribe, but everyone shared in the common tasks of production. Because of the low level of technique such communities were necessarily rudimentary, but because there was common ownership, and therefore no classes, they are correctly described as “primitive communism.” Gradually, however, as mankind achieved greater mastery over the forces of nature through increased society the exploitation of the vast majority by a small privileged section, and the class struggles resulting from that, were unavoidable because of the low technical and productive development. Now, however, capitalist society has led to such a tremendous improvement in technique and to such a vast increase in the productive forces that there is no longer any need for the division of society into classes. Moreover, by explaining how the capitalist class exploits the working class, socialists are able to show that the very existence of the capitalist class, instead of helping forward the development of the productive forces, is now increasingly hindering such development. It follows, then, that the next step forward in the development of human society can only be taken by the working class. By taking this step, the socialist revolution the working class, being itself the great majority of the people, will end the exploitation of man by man.

 Capitalist society is a society divided into two main classes: the capitalists, (or bourgeoisie); and the working class, (or proletariat.) The former own the land, the factories and the machines, and all the means by which wealth is produced (the means of production), and are therefore the ruling class, though they do no productive work themselves. The latter though they do all the real productive work of society, own neither the means of production nor the wealth they create; and, therefore, are forced to sell to the capitalists their ability to work and produce. Numerically, the capitalists are an insignificant minority, while the workers constitute the vast majority of the people. Capitalism is not based on plenty. Though it has developed, for the first time in history, the possibility of providing enough for everybody, it has always condemned a great part of the people to live in poverty and insecurity. This is because the capitalist class, who decide what is to be produced, base their decisions not on what people need but upon how much profit they will make when the goods are sold in the market. Capitalist society is not a peaceful, international society, but, on the contrary, nationalist in a narrow, selfish way. Just as within each capitalist country the various capitalists and groups of capitalists compete with each other in order to sell their goods at a greater profit, so capitalist countries as a whole enter into competition with other capitalist countries. This competition inevitably leads to wars: on the one hand to enslave more backward countries; and on the other, to re-divide the countries which have been enslaved between the different capitalist countries. Such wars are not in the interests of the working class, but only of the capitalists. Because capitalism is a class society, in which the small class of capitalists exploits the great majority of the people—not only the manual workers, but also the professional and technical workers and the small farmers it is necessary for the capitalists to impose their will upon the people. It does this, partly by filling all the key posts in the armed forces, the Civil Service and all legal institutions (that is, in the State) with members of its own class; partly through its control of the media and so on, by which public opinion is influenced. Thus, while in a capitalist democracy it is true that the majority of the people have the opportunity of taking part every few years in the election of the Government and of the local authorities, and in addition have won a number of democratic rights such as the right to organise in trade unions and political parties, freedom of the press, etc., nevertheless the real power of the State remains in the hands of the capitalists. The strength of this power has been shown in fascist countries, where the capitalists, threatened by the growing strength of the working class, were able to sweep away all the people’s democratic rights. Under capitalism human society is condemned to a series of bitter struggles; class against class, nation against nation, and individual against individual. Inevitably, therefore, the great majority of the people, instead of being inspired by a common social purpose, are forced to struggle for their own individual and selfish interests. Moreover, since capitalism condemns the majority of people to poverty or insecurity, there is a continual waste of human talent and ability.

The first and fundamental contrast between socialist and capitalist society is that under socialism all the means of production—the land, factories and mines—are owned in common. Thus the exploitation of one class by another is ended. Instead of one small class being able to live on the labour of the majority of the people, everybody is obliged to undertake some form of productive or administrative work on behalf of society as a whole. In socialism, production is organised to meet the needs of the people and not to provide profit for a single class. It will, therefore be possible to plan production; and so to increase enormously the amount produced.  With the ending of exploitation people’s attitude to work will change; instead of being merely a means of living it will become a necessary part of a new kind of social living. Similarly their attitude to property will change, family life will take on a new significance, etc.; and with these changes a new code of morality will develop. 

Rate Of Progress!

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and author of "Lean In" released a women-in-the-workplace study of one hundred and eighteen companies and 30,000 employees and concluded, "At the current pace of progress, we are more than a hundred years away from gender equality in the C-suite." If capitalism lasts that long it's a good bet that she (or somebody) will be saying the same thing then

As proof of the above, tens of thousands African Americans converged on Washington calling for justice and equality. It came twenty years after the Million Man March and fifty-two years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Anyone taking bets that it will be necessary to do it all again? Maybe it's time to drop performing the same experiment and getting the same results and try a new experiment! John Ayers

To the people belongs the world

There is an alternative to the system we live under. Capitalism is not eternal and just as it succeeded feudalism, capitalism can be replaced socialism. Many in the mass media defend the capitalist system. Their aim is to discredit socialism, claiming it is no longer relevant. This means that Socialist Party must redouble its efforts to show that socialism is indeed a valid and necessary option. By using our traditional institutions and rights, we can transform Parliament into the effective instrument of the people’s will to end the rule of capitalists. Basing itself therefore on the interests of the working class and the oppressed toilers, the Socialist Party is not a mere parliamentary party, capturing and using the State machine for the exercise of its own class power for the building of socialism. When the working class has power it can build socialism  and, for the first time in history give the majority of the population, equality of opportunity, control over their daily lives and power to build the future. We can change capitalist democracy, dominated by wealth and privilege, into social democracy. Real democracy means the people being at once voters and administrators, collectively participating in the conduct of their own affairs, the running of industry and the organisation of social life. Working class power is the essential condition for far-reaching social change. It is possible to have a better world if we ourselves make it possible. Parliament is an instrument of capitalist class rule. This holds true regardless of the incumbent in Downing Street. To say otherwise is a denial of all historical fact. Whichever party is set to treat the ill they use the same medicine, only varying the manner of administering it and the dosage. Were their motives of the highest, and they are not, it would make no difference. Parties that claim to serve the interests of the working class are being increasingly shown up for the frauds that they are.

The Socialist Party is the enemy of capitalism and capitalist parties. It has as its aim the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a society in which the means of production will not be the private property of the few, a society which will not be based upon profit, will not be based on class division, will eradicate wars and abolish poverty forever. Socialist society will be very different from the society we know.  In the first place socialism will be a classless society, in which all the means of producing wealth are owned in common. Instead of being divided into workers and employers, rich and poor, society will be an association of free people, all making their special contributions to the well-being of society, which in return will supply them with what they need in order to live full and happy lives. Such a society can be summed up in the slogan: “From each according to ability, to each according to needs.” For this to be possible, socialism must be based on abundance. Production will be organised in such a way that there is plenty of everything for everybody: not only food, houses and so on, to satisfy material needs; but also schools and theatres and playing-fieldsso that people can lead full, physical and culturally rich lives. 

Socialism will be a worldwide society. It is not something which can be fully completed in one country, isolated from the rest of the world. On the contrary it must embrace all the peoples of the world; and in so doing it will put an end to war.  It is obvious that by the time such a stage of human development has been reached many institutions which we accept today as essential, such as policemen and prisons, employers and workers, armies and civil servants, will have disappeared. Because no wars can take place in a truly international society there will be no need for armies. Because it will be a community of plenty, where there is enough for all and therefore no advantage can be obtained by theft or other forms of crime, all need for courts of justice and police will have disappeared. In other words, the State, which is the sum of all these institutions and organisations, will itself disappear. Instead of one section of society ruling and oppressing another, men will have grown accustomed to living together in society without fear and compulsion. Thus, for the first time, mankind, united in a world-wide family of nations, will be free to devote all its creative energies to completing the mastery of nature. Such a society implies tremendous changes in people themselves; not only in their economic position, but also in their whole moral and intellectual outlook. For instance, work, instead of being simply a means of earning a living, will have become the natural expression of men’s lives, freely given according to their abilities. Moreover, the nature of work will itself have changed. Through the development of science much of its drudgery will have disappeared and every man and woman wild develop their mental and physical capacities to the full.

Severe Consequences

On September 13, twenty-eight people seeking a better life in Europe drowned as they attempted a wind-swept crossing from Turkey to Greece. The Greek coastguard said the twenty-eight, including four infants and ten older children, died when their wooden boat collapsed near the island of Farmakonissi, which is one of the favoured places for smugglers sending thousands of people daily to the Greek islands. From the beginning of time people have wandered the earth searching for a better life, but today the consequences are more severe than they have ever been. Better a world where people can wander at their leisure in security. John Ayers

No Relief In Sight

Statistics Canada revealed that for the second quarter of 2015, household debt hit a record high. The ratio of debt to disposable income reached 164.4 per cent as debt loads grew faster than incomes. This means that for every dollar Canadians earned, they owed nearly $1.65 in credit debt. This included mortgages and other kinds of consumer loans. So things are not getting better, nor does there seem to be any relief in sight. It's a case of abolish capitalism and the money system, or suffer under it.

Organise for socialism

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

The world needs socialism and automation and the new technology gives added weight to the argument for socialism. In the hands of capitalism it can only bring social chaos but with socialism it would bring immeasurable benefits. Yet there are a majority in the labour movement for whom common ownership holds little appeal, and they are content to follow orthodox labour leaders' paths and by-ways of social reform. In part, this contentment stems from a simple failure to grasp the fact that socialism without common ownership is an absurd contradiction in terms. It is surprising that the notion of common ownership, of the planned and rational use of society’s resources for the greatest good of the greatest number, should not exercise a powerful appeal to workers. There is no point in socialists thinking that the present indifference to our society’s economic base is going to change miraculously and overnight into a mass enthusiasm for its transformation that will suddenly make common ownership the policy of the labour movement. This is not to say that more favourable circumstances for the propagation of the socialist case will never occur but what it does mean is that it will take time. Socialists are in r the politics for the long haul. There is the need for socialists to make clear why common ownership of the means to life is the key to social change. This demands more than a pious repetition of the ‘common ownership of the means of production and distribution’ formula. The other task is to carry this clarification to the workers themselves. In other words, to make socialists.

Socialism is that form of society in which there is no such thing as a property-less class, but instead the whole community owns the means of production—the land, factories, mills, mines, transport and all the means whereby wealth is created and distributed to the community. Socialism is also the name given to a body of scientific and philosophic thought which explains why the socialist form of society is now a necessity, the forces upon which its achievement depends, the conditions under which and the methods whereby it can be achieved. Socialism is not a particularly complicated doctrine. Socialism stands for social (property owned in common.) Capitalism stands for private property. Socialism is a society without classes. Capitalism is divided into classes—the class owning property and the property-less working class.

It is impossible to provide more than this basic picture now of what socialism will be like, for it will depend in the particular details on the actual conditions at the time. For as long as anyone can remember, the ruling class have paraded one political representative after another before the people promising a lifetime of “peace with prosperity,” while they have subjected millions here and hundreds of millions around the world to agony and waged wars of plunder.

Most workers accept capitalism, believing it cannot be changed, and they view socialists who want to change it as idealists. We can easily understand, therefore, why the great majority of landlords, employers of labour, financiers and the like are opposed to socialism. Their very existence as the receivers of rent, interest and profit is at stake. They do not merely reject the theory of socialism, but actively and bitterly fight any movement which is in the slightest way associated with the struggle for socialism. But how do we account for the support of workers for a system built upon the exploitation of workers? The basic premise of socialism is that the development of capitalism itself drives workers into revolt against the system and in a revolutionary situation, workers change their ideas very, very quickly.

Capitalists disagree from time to time. They argue about tactics and squabble over their ill-gotten gains. But in the face of workers’ resistance, they join ranks and coordinate their forces. If the workers are to prevail, they have to organise. 

Sharing The Benefits? No Chance!

Socialists say the war is endemic to the capitalist mode of production, stemming from its competitive nature. One example is that of the Philippines who expelled the Americans from its naval bases twenty-five years ago but is contemplating inviting them back as China lays claim to lays claim to almost all the South China Sea in some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. China is currently putting military installations on many of the islands there even though many nations claim the same territory. Sharing the benefits, not surprisingly, is not an option. John Ayers

For world socialism!

A WORLD TO WIN,
 A PLANET TO SAVE 

 For world socialism! To this inspiring task, we summon the workers of the world, all who are oppressed by capitalism. Only a socialist world can give us peace and plenty. Look how the capitalist world totters on the brink of destruction. The capitalist parties are as rotten and bankrupt as the system they uphold. They can maintain themselves and that system today only by piling additional burdens upon the people with continued insecurity and increasing hardships. The myriad evils of capitalism will disappear only with the building of socialism. The only road is the socialist road. The word “socialism” still carries the stigma of the distortions by those usurping the name. There are people fearful of the word, all across the political spectrum yet socialist principles are the values and aspirations that most people share. The change from capitalism to socialism, from capitalist dictatorship to rule of the working class, is a revolution, the most far-reaching revolution in human history. By socialism we understand the transformation from ownership and control by a few capitalists to ownership and control by the whole community of all the industries and services essential for the satisfaction of the people's needs. Capitalists are not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world. They are interested only in profits. If the productive forces in the world were to be used for the purposes of construction, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Capitalism promises the people not amelioration of conditions but austerity, oppression, and the environmental destruction of mankind. Only through an irreconcilable struggle against capitalism, towards its elimination and the establishment of socialism, will the people of the world find the full freedom, equality and democracy for which they aspire.

The Socialist Party says that all the problems people experience in our present society — war, poverty, pollution, economic crises— flow from a cause, the nature of this profit-oriented society. We see that there are no real solutions to these problems until the entire society is changed. We should be very clear about the kind of change that we are talking about. When we say that we are revolutionaries we are not talking about a change in society that would take place when a small group takes over Parliament and runs up the red flag. We are talking about a change that will involve the vast majority of workers consciously acting to change the entire society and all the relationships in it, from the way people relate to each other to the way that people relate to their jobs. We're out to change the whole system. A few workers see the need for socialism yet many more don't see that need. They think their problems can be solved by electing a government to enact reforms in their interest. Despite the campaign of lies and distortions about the socialist viewpoint we are confident that developing realities, together with the conscious participation of all who consider themselves socialists will bring a powerful leap forward on the march to a socialist society.

The Socialist Party, if it is to fulfill its mission, must be uncompromising so far as its principles are concerned, true to the interests of the workers in every phase of the struggle, clean and above-board in all its methods. Support the Socialist Party, the only party that keeps the revolutionary banner unfurled. Forward to the Social Revolution!

‘Banish gods from the skies and capitalists from the earth.’ 

No Cry For Abolition Of Wages System

In an article on income inequality (Toronto Star September 26) a columnist reveals that "overall, CEO pay climbed 937 per cent between 1978 and 2013, while the pay of the typical worker rose just 10.2 per cent" (quoted from "Saving Capitalism" by Robert Reich) and in Canada the one hundred highest paid CEOs made 195 times the average Canadian income of $47,358. Unfortunately, this just leads to the call for a slightly more equitable split instead of the cry for the abolition of the wages system. John Ayers.

This is what socialism is

The state – the police, army, courts, bureaucracy and similar institutions  – is set up and controlled by the capitalist class. These big businessmen consistently use the police, army, and courts to break workers’ strikes and generally to put down the rebellions of the poor who own little or no means of production. You yourself can decide how often the police and state officials are against the bankers and corporation executives when they break the laws of the land. Banking fraud, company bribery, tax-evasion...all gone unpunished by the courts. A tiny handful of profit-makers rule society and uses the state as their machine to protect their interests. The ruling class goes to great lengths to cover up their dictatorship under the mask of democracy, for it is extremely difficult for a minority of exploiters to rule by force alone. The capitalists are no more willing to “share” political power with the majority of people than it is to share the ownership of the means of production and the wealth that comes from this. For them to function as a capitalist class, they must exploit the working class; and to exploit the workers, who constantly resist this exploitation and oppression, they must use the state to suppress the workers. For sure, the ruling class has been forced to grant the workers some democratic rights such as the right to vote, free speech, free press, etc. But these freedoms mean one thing to the ruling class and quite another for the workers. For the capitalists, freedom of the press and free speech, as examples, mean the right to fill the air-waves and daily newspapers with their propaganda and lies and to use them freely to debate with each other. For the capitalists, elections are a way to settle differences among themselves, while making it look like everybody has equal say. For the working class, democratic rights are the fruits of previous struggles, and we fight to preserve them for they make it easier to organise and mobilise for the day when the capitalists will be overthrown. Nevertheless democratic rights for the masses are primarily a sham, a mask, to cover the real dictatorship of the capitalists. This becomes especially clear when democratic rights come into conflict with the most basic “freedom” of bourgeois society–the right of the capitalists to their “private property” and to exploit the labour of the workers.  In the final analysis all their talk about democracy boils down to one thing. The ruling class decides by struggle and compromise within its own ranks, and among its paid politicians, how it will maintain its system of exploitation over the people.

Socialism will replace capitalism, creating a new society and ending the old dog-eat-dog social system. Everyone in society will share equally in mental and manual work, in producing goods and services and managing the affairs of society; where the outlook of the working class, putting the common good above narrow, individual interests, has become “second nature” to members of society; when goods and services can be produced so abundantly that money is no longer needed to exchange them and they can be distributed to people solely according to their needs. Classes will have been completely eliminated, and the state as such will be replaced by the common administration of society by all its members. With socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. This will bring a qualitative improvement in the lives of the people.

Our vision of socialism is that the  means of production – the factories, mines, mills, offices, agricultural fields, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, retailers, etc., will be transformed into socially-owned common property. Private ownership of the main means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people, and steadily advance.

Socialism is not some Utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Because capitalism already has a developed and centralised economy, socialism’s main task will be to re-orient this structure towards social needs. Although there may be a period of economic reconstruction after the revolution, we will not face the problem of building a modern economy. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. It is the next step in the further development of this world. Because the working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. Socialism is not more government control. Under capitalism the state serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. Government ownership and control is a form of state capitalism. When the government intervenes in the economy, it does so to help, not hurt, capitalism. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and some experiment. There could be a combination of local and central planning and coordination. Workers will be able to manage democratically their own work places through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society’s. Various policies might be used, depending on what will be appropriate to changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy will uphold the basic principles of collective ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. The protection of the environment would be ensured.

To Hell With the Environment

Volkswagen sold 50,000 diesel cars with software that automatically cheated on air pollution tests leaving the company vulnerable to billions of dollars in fines and criminal prosecution. The company sold Volkswagen and Audi cars with a sophisticated algorithm that turns on full pollution controls only when the car is undergoing official testing, the Environmental protection Agency reported. During normal driving the system does not operate so that the cars pollute ten to forty times the legal limit. The company's purpose for using this sophisticated technology is because it was cheaper to install than producing low emission vehicles, so the bottom line is higher profit and to hell with the environment. Just another day in capitalism! John Ayers.

Help build a new world

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

The defenders of the capitalist economic dictatorship never tire of declaring it the "best of all possible systems." Yet, today, after decades of reforms, wars on poverty, civil rights legislation, government regulation, government deregulation and a host of other palliatives, capitalist society still depicts an obscene social picture. Millions who need and want jobs are still unemployed. Millions more are underemployed, working only part-time or temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work. Millions aren't earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and their families despite the fact that they are working.  The education and health-care system still fails to meet the needs of most folk. Slums homelessness abounds. Racism and nationalism is on the upsurge with its contemptible discrimination against foreigners.

When the Socialist Party was founded, there was no particularly great concern regarding pollution of the land, air and water on which all species—humanity included—depend on for life. But there was widespread poverty, racial prejudice and discrimination, urban decay, brazen violations of democratic rights, and the material and economic conflicts that are the seeds of war, plus a host of other economic and social problems. All of those problems still plague the working class—but have grown to even more monumental proportions. These long-standing problems and the failure of seemingly unending reform efforts to solve or even alleviate them to any meaningful degree have imposed decades of misery and suffering on millions of families. Against this insane capitalist system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in emphatic protest and unqualified condemnation. It declares that if our society is to be rid of the host of economic, political and social ills that for so long have plagued it, the outmoded capitalist system of private ownership of the socially operated means of life and production for the profit of a few must be replaced by a new social order. That new social order must be organized on the sane basis of social ownership and democratic management of all the instruments of social production, all means of distribution and all of the social services. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. In short, it must be genuine socialism. Accordingly, the SPGB calls upon the workers to rally under its banner for the purpose of advocating revolutionary change and building class consciousness among workers.

 Despite the growing poverty and misery that workers are subjected to, a world of peace, liberty, security, health and abundance for all, fully in harmony with the needs of the environment, stands within our grasp. The potential to create such a society exists, but that potential can be realized only if workers act to gain control of their own lives by organising for socialism. Help build a world in which everyone will enjoy the free exercise and full benefit of their individual faculties, multiplied by all the technological and other factors of modern civilisation. Join in the effort to put an end to the existing class conflict by placing the land and the instruments of social production in the hands of the people as a collective body in a cooperative socialist society.

The accursed capitalist system

Socialism is rule by the working people. They will decide how socialism is to work. With the abolition of capitalist exploitation there is also end of the managerial despotism inseparable from it, and representing all-powerful capital, the arbitrariness of the owners and the employers. Under capitalism the working people look on those in charge such as directors, managers and supervisors as enemies, since they direct production in the interests of the capitalists and of their profits. In socialist society those who administer enjoy the trust of the people, since they execute the decision of the entire community in the interests of everybody, not for capitalist profits.

 In a socialist society there is production is not for profit but for use, socially planned production. A socialist economy is a planned economy. In capitalist society, the capitalists own the means of production and engage in production for the sole purpose of making profits and satisfying their private interests. Therefore, though there may be planned production in a few enterprises, competition is rife and lack of co-ordination prevails among the different enterprises and economic departments as a whole. Cyclical economic crises which break out in capitalist society are the inevitable result of anarchy in production. Engels pointed out: “With the seizing of the means of production by society…Anarchy in social production is replaced by plan-conforming, conscious organisation.” Socialism has freed the workers from exploitation and has replaced work in subjection to the exploiters by free labour for oneself, for the whole of society. Labour in socialist society has a creative character, and is organised in a planned way.

Nationalisation in a capitalist class society is not socialism, nor is the “mixed economy”. Such nationalisation is simply a degree of state capitalism, with no relation to socialism. The “welfare state” is not socialist as “welfare” in a capitalist state is to improve the efficiency of that state as a profit-maker and is another form of state capitalism (aka the means test State). It can be an improvement on capitalism with no welfare, just as a 40-hour week is an improvement on a 60-hour week. But it is not socialism. Social production is aimed at meeting the ever increasing needs of the entire society in the interest of all the people, instead of catering to the private interests of the few. The establishment of common ownership of the means of production and the fundamental identity of the interests of the working people in socialist society make it possible for a socialist society to arrange the whole society’s labour force and means of production in a unified way. Capitalism makes the worker an appendage of the machine and stifles man’s abilities. Socialism, on the contrary, liberates labour from exploitation and gives all citizens free access to the fruits of society’s collective production. Socialism heralds a new and higher stage development of co-operation of labour, compared with preceding forms of society. Socialist co­operation is the co-operation of workers freed from exploitation, and linked with each other by relations of comradely mutual aid.

To use the word “socialism” for anything less than “from each according to ability, to each according to need” is to misuse the term. Members of the Socialist Party capably demonstrate how socialism could end poverty, unemployment and war by eliminating private ownership of the means of producing the things of life, national and international competition, and the struggle for existence by the overwhelming majority of the population in this and all other countries. They merciless expose of the evils of capitalist society, its murderous exploitation of the workers, its utter hypocrisy in human relations, and the most evident feature of its class character: the impoverishment of the masses and the enrichment of a small class of capitalists. The SPGB understands the necessity of building the movement for socialism requires the the art of socialist campaigning and agitation, to tell millions what socialism is, its relation and comparison to capitalism, and how it can be achieved. We need to reveal how thoroughly rotten capitalism is, how it is an outlived system capable of producing nothing but poverty, war and suppression of the will of the people. The Socialist Party is pledged to over-turn this accursed capitalist system, with its wars, its reaction, its vileness, brutality and savagery so that in the memory of people in future times of capitalism will remain only as a ghastly nightmare.

No Security Here.

One thing nobody hears about today is "Freedom 55", a smart financial way to retire early, though I did hear someone joke about having "freedom 95". People invested in it believing they would retire at 55 and live comfortably for the rest of their lives, but when the economy went belly up, so did their illusion. This shows that there is no such thing as security under capitalism. John Ayers.

Build the socialist commonwealth

The Socialist Party always makes it quite clear as to our exact aim and object. We as socialists, wish to advance the case for socialism, and by socialism we mean the common ownership of all the agencies of wealth production, and this involves the complete supercession of the capitalist system, and the conducting of all production on a co-operative basis. We seek to overthrow capitalism, and build the socialist commonwealth. Socialism is the highest stage of human society, economically, socially, and intellectually. All the accumulated treasures in machines and technical appliances created by the genius of man, all that science and art had given to the human race in generations is to be utilised, not for the few, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole. This socialist commonwealth, liberating the individual from all economic, political and social oppression, will provide the basis for real liberty and for the full and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth of the creative faculties of the mind.

To substitute common, for private, ownership in the means of production, this it is what economic development is urging upon us with ever-increasing force. The abolition of the present system of production means replacing for production for sale with production for use. In a socialist system the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled workers councils, cooperatives, or other collective groups. The primary goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural opportunities, and social services. The Socialist Party strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and world levels, and is determined democratically with the input of workers, consumers, and the public to be served. Socialism is not government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers control production and community residents control their neighbourhoods, homes, hospitals and schools. Democracy in daily life is the core of our socialism. State ownership is a fraud as decisions are made by distant bureaucrats or authoritarian managers. In socialist society power resides in worker-managed and cooperative enterprises. Community-based cooperatives help provide the flexibility and innovation required in a dynamic socialist economy. The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewed future by not plundering the resources of the earth. The capitalist system forces workers to sell their abilities and skills to the few who own the workplaces, profit from these workers’ labour, and use the government to maintain their privileged position. The inevitable product of the capitalist system is a class society with gross inequality, draining productive wealth and goods of the society into military purposes and war in which workers are compelled to fight other workers. People around the world have more in common with each other than with their rulers. We condemn war, preparation for war, and the militaristic culture. We ally with no nation, but only with working people throughout the world. A socialist society carefully plans its way of life and technology to be a harmonious part of our natural environment. The cleanup of the polluted and contaminated environment will be among the first tasks of a socialist society.

Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. The Socialist Party is democratic, with its structure and practices visible and accessible to all members. It ought to be obvious to every socialist that socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have to understand what it is. If the people who vote for a socialist candidate do not do so because he or she is a socialist then of what earthly use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness of the workers and not upon their lack of knowledge. The idea that we should first be elected and then teach socialism is absurd. It can be stated with the greatest of assurance that a socialist candidate who refrains from advocating and explaining socialism during the campaign, with the idea that he or she will do so after elected will forget all about socialism.  The building of socialism requires widespread understanding and participation, and will not be achieved by an elite working “on behalf of” the people. The working class is in a key and central position to fight back against the ruling capitalist class and its power. The working class is the major force worldwide that can lead the way to a socialist future – to a real radical democracy from below. Socialists participate in the electoral process to present socialist alternatives. The process of struggle profoundly shapes the ends achieved. Our tactics in the struggle for radical democratic change reflect our ultimate goal of a society founded on principles of egalitarian and non-exploitative relations among all people. Our aim is the creation of a new social order, a society in which the commanding value is the preciousness of every woman, man and child.

The Capitalists Are Blood-Sucking Leeches

We in the Socialist Party are not reformers but revolutionaries. We do not propose to change outward appearances. We want to change the essence of society. Reformism skims the surface. The socialist movement cannot exist unless carried on by men and women because in the last analysis it is the human hand and the human brain that serve as the instruments of revolutions. The only path before workers is revolution. Only socialism can bring the solution and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for everyone. This is the aim of the socialist revolution. Only the organised working-class can fight and destroy the power of the capitalist class, can drive the capitalists from possession, and can organise social production to create a free and equal society. All production is directed solely to supplying people’s needs. It is for use, not for profit. Therefore every expansion of production means greater abundance and leisure for everybody. Because production is for ourselves and administered by our own organisations, it will spur on initiative and enthusiasm unattainable under capitalism. Through the rule of the people we can immediately realise the fruits of the revolution and end the present reign of inequality — inequality in respect of every elementary human need of food, clothing, shelter, conditions of labour health, education, etc., and bring the material conditions of real freedom and development to all. In this way we shall immediately banish poverty, offering a new life for all. The capitalists hold up the spectre that revolution means “starvation,” that the workers depend on capitalism for their existence. The contrary is the truth. The workers can by the method of social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone can rapidly reconstruct this redundant social system and win prosperity for all of us.

Everywhere people are waking up and fighting against the oppression and exploitation which is a daily fact of their lives. The lies of the ruling class about “prosperity” are being further exposed everyday. There is prosperity alright – but it is for a handful of rich capitalists – the conditions of the working people are getting worse and worse. The situation in health care, housing and welfare services is rapidly deteriorating. This system of capitalism is set up with one thing only – to make the most profits possible for a few people. It is the system under which we, and our parents and grandparents before us, have done all the work. We mined the mines, built the buildings, manufactured all the products: and then got just enough to live on – if we fought hard enough for it! On the other hand, the capitalist class reaps their huge fortunes from our toil and do no work themselves, except spending the money that we made for them. Class consciousness means that workers come to see that united in action they have enormous power—they can bring the entire economy to a halt and stop profit-making in its tracks. Our class becomes conscious of its true interests and the need for revolution not simply by reading textbooks but through practical action. Mass action is the only way even to defend past gains and to win new ones. Workers learn through experience, through fighting the capitalists in the living class struggle. And whatever the initial outlook of most of the participants, mass working-class action always carries the potential threat of a revolutionary challenge to the system.

There are other parties around that call themselves “communist” or “socialist”. We have important disagreements with them. These parties all have one thing in common – they all dress themselves up with high-sounding revolutionary phrases, but underneath they are defenders of various forms of capitalism. There are many who say that they are for socialism and claim to be in favour of the emancipation of workers. However, we mustn’t be taken in. Many of these “socialists” have abandoned the principles of Marxism.

Socialist revolution will put an end to capitalist exploitation and all the forms of oppression that inevitably accompany it. Since human communities have become class-divided communities through the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a minority of people who constitute themselves as the ruling class, class struggle has been the motor of history, and it will remain so as long as the class division of society has not been abolished from the surface of the globe. The Socialist Party always stand for class solidarity in the course of workers’ struggle. We do not drop our support for the fight against the bosses because we do not like particular trade union leaders or their policies.

It is time no for to turn away from the capitalist system, with its mounting mass misery, exploitation, war and terrorism, and look towards socialism. Socialism abolishes the chaos and anarchy of capitalist production and social organisation; it does away with the dog-eat-dog competition of capitalist industry, breeder of commercial crises and war. It sets up instead a planned system of economy in harmony with the worldwide character of modern industry and social relationships. Capitalism robs the toilers of what they produce. Under capitalism everywhere wealth piles up automatically in the hands of the parasitic owners of the industries, while the masses of actual producers live at the bare subsistence line. But in socialism this is fundamentally different. Production is carried on for the benefit of all those in the ommunity. There are no artificial limits placed upon production by the need to sell. There can be no “exploited” when there is no ruling, owning class, no class to get a rake-off from the worker’s production? With private property abolished (but, of course, not in articles of personal use), with exploitation of the toilers ended, and with the capitalist class finally defeated and all classes liquidated, there will then be no further need for the State, which in its essence, is an organ of class repression. The State will, in the words of Engels, “wither away” and be replaced by a scientific technical “administration of things.” The guiding principle will be: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” That is, the distribution of life necessities—food, clothing, shelter, education, etc.—will be free, without let or hindrance. Production for use, carried out upon the most efficient basis and freed from the drains of capitalist exploiters, will provide such an abundance of necessary commodities that there will be plenty for all with a minimum of effort. There will then be no need for pinch-penny measuring and weighing.

The road to this social development can only be opened by revolution. This is because the question of power is involved. The capitalist class, like an insatiable blood-sucking leech, clings to the body of the working people and has to be dislodged.  

For the socialist revolution – join us.

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we actually striving towards? This question, long a subject of debate is receiving even more attention today because of the inability of capitalism to address its mounting crises. Nothing less than the fate of humanity hinges upon the speediest implementation of the socialist solution yet hardly anyone nowadays retain hope in the anti-capitalist strivings and sentiments of the working people or believe that they can in time participate in a mighty movement oriented toward socialist objectives. For adhering to these convictions and being guided by them, the Socialist Party is looked upon as a political dinosaur, ridiculed as a relic of a by-gone age, dogmatists to outworn views who cannot understand that the world has changed. Indeed, it may seem odd to argue against the preponderance of public opinion so why not go along with the prevailing mood? Unfashionable and unpopular as it may be, we in the Socialist Party have solid reasons for our principled stand and our convictions are not those of religious-like faith but derived from a scientific conception of the course and driving forces of world history, a reasoned analysis of the decisive trends of our time, and an understanding of the mainsprings and the necessities of capitalist development. Socialist ideas  have clarified many perplexing problems in philosophy, sociology, history, economics, and politics, explaining the key role of the working class in history. Nothing less is at stake than the destiny of civilisation and with it the future of mankind.

Too often, too many radicals place too much importance upon the undeniable shortcomings of the labour movement than by any of its positive accomplishments. They disparage the significance of the sheer existence of trade union organisations which act as a shield against lowering wages and working conditions and check the aggressions of capitalist reaction. They ignore the working conditions of a century ago, before unionisation, the fourteen- to sixteen-hour day, the exploitation of child labor, the early mortality rate for all workers; and they neglect to study what happens when unions are exceptionally weak and fragmented. The widespread under-estimation of the working class comes from a short-term perspective. We are living in a world of rapidly changing events and many unexpected developments. The working class will be roused from its slumber by events beyond anyone’s control. We do not believe that they can be summoned into battle on anyone’s command. The class struggle unfolds with a rhythm of its own, determined by historical conditions. The Socialist Party takes full advantage of opportunities in good times or bad. That is its reason for its existence. We are no idle dreamers. We want to make things happen.

But how was this new society to be achieved? The critical first step, in our view, is taking political power, replacing the government of the capitalist class with the rule of the working class. People should rule society in their own interests. Socialism is a society dedicated to the interests of the vast majority of the population. The basic means by which society produces its wealth – factories, mines and farms – are transferred from private to public ownership, and exploitation is for the most part eliminated. Socialism unleashes the creativity of the common people, who are capable of tremendous advances when not laboring under a system of exploitation. The key to the solution of the problem lies, for us, in a social revolution throughout the capitalist world. There is no other way. Socialism has to become a tool and a weapon again for going to the roots of existing social problems and pointing the way to their solution. If you want to fight the only battle worth fighting, for the socialist revolution – join us.

We are the SPGB

For some people the day for socialist struggle never seems to come around. The time for the struggle for socialism never arrives. Time and time again the struggle for socialism has been sidetracked by the so-called radical parties who have held out the promise of immediate salvation for the people. Again and again people believed in the false prophets and voted him into power, only to reap a heavy harvest of bitter disappointment. It is in the light of this fact that the importance of the Socialist Party must be measured. Not a party of mere patchwork reform, nor a party of sham revolutionary phrases, but a socialist party, rooted in the working class movement, based upon principles of education and organisation, both indispensable for a party that is a socialist party in the true meaning of the term. The soul of our party is to be an effective instrument for the coming social reconstruction. We call upon workers to join the Socialist Party, the party of revolution. We stand before them as the party of the fellow workers, of the poor and oppressed. We stand for no economic, political or social privilege, but consider that the oppressed of the world must act together to gain peace, prosperity, security, equality; with abundance for all but special privilege for none. This is the only way to save the world from the catastrophes unleashed by capitalism. The Socialist Party has never under any circumstances forsaken or subordinated the needs of the struggle in the interests of alliance with class enemies.

Workers’ labour power is purchased on the market by the owners of capital. On average in half the working week it produces value sufficient to cover wages to maintain workers and their families. The value produced in the remainder of the working week constitutes surplus value, the source of profit. The goods and services produced by workers’ socialised labour are privately appropriated by capitalists. They will continue to be produced so long as they can be sold for profit on the market. The system of capitalist production leads inevitably to the alternating cycle of boom and bust and periodical crisis under capitalism. It is inevitable that sooner or later these social conditions will impel people to organise to end the conflict between the socialised labour process and the private ownership of the means of production, the big factories, mines and farms, by the establishment of socialism. With socialism, production is planned and rational, and takes place for peoples’ use. When socialists speak of a society organised on the basis of planned production and distribution we mean doing away with production for profit.

Capitalism is a system based on production for profit, not for human need. This system is driven by the necessity to accumulate profit, which means that capitalists compete with one another, both nationally and internationally. The capitalist class is a ruling class whose ownership and control of the means of production is based on the exploitation of the working class. Thus, a small minority rules society. The contradictions between competing capitalists, produce war, poverty and crisis. The struggle between the classes will produce the overthrow of capitalist society. The working class has the capacity to end exploitation and oppression. It is a law of capitalism that capital moves to wherever the rate of profit is highest. Capitalism is a system of production for profit: for the accumulation of more capital. Companies therefore produce only the products that give them the greatest profit, and they try to set up their enterprises whenever the most favorable conditions for making maximum profits are to be found. The welfare of the people is simply trampled on by the profit-hungry monopolies: their search for profits is a ruthless rampage that leaves a trail of misery, ruin, hardship and poverty. This is how capitalism works. Capitalism needs the working class; the working class does not need capitalism.

Every state is the dictatorship of some class over another. It is a body of armed men organized by the class in power to carry out that class’ will unrestrained by any laws and to suppress the rights of those classes opposed to the continued rule of the dominant class. The present state, which claims to be a “democracy” of all the people, of all classes, is no such thing. It is a special body organized by the capitalist class to protect that class’s property and to keep the workers subserviant in the factories of the rich. All the laws passed have as their purpose the enslavement of the masses and the protection of the unjustly acquired wealth of the wealthy, who produce nothing of value, but appropriate the product of the sweat and blood of the workers. No matter how fine-sounding these laws they were only written to deceive the people rob them. We can count on nothing but their own numbers. Socialism will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society, decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a new foundation. The whole future of humanity rests on the working class.