The money system must be abolished

All over the world, we feel that there is something deeply wrong with the way we live. Capitalism mindlessly consumes resources, exhausts our soil, deplete fish stocks, pollutes the rivers and seas, and poisons the air. Human labour is just one more resource to be consumed and then discarded. Globalised capitalism is vampire-like web, parasitically sucking the blood and life-force of the planet’s peoples. The Socialist Party's mission is to cast some light on the darker side of capitalism. Our vision is of an abundant, peaceful, sustainable and cooperative society that to some may seem impossible. The socialist solution appears 'utopian' and not practical and for many the efforts to realize this vision should be abandoned in favour of more short term, pragmatic but insufficient remedies. But this is the goal we must aspire to if we seek a sustainable economic system because the one we have now is no longer viable. The mainstream media are doing everything they can to convince us that the solution to our social and environmental problems is going to be found in the very same policies that have created them in the first place. Their T.I.N.A. [There is No Alternative] narrative continues to dominate the debate and the result is that it is infecting people with cynicism and apathy. Rather than accept present day logic the Socialist Party seeks to navigate societal life away from the destructiveness of constant economic growth.

Murray Bookchin possessed a vision of democracy and majority voting, which he considered as the only equitable way for a large number of people to make decisions. According to him consensus, in which a single person can veto every decision, presents a danger for society to be dismantled. However, all members of society possess knowledge and memory, and thus the social collectivity does not have an interest in depriving “minorities” of their rights. For him, the views of a minority are a potential source of new insights and nascent truths, which are great sources of creativity and progress for society as a whole. Through the electoral processes, Bookchin strives at “liberating” the people from politics, and no longer leaving it in the hands of professional “representatives”. Although the system enables people to vote for their representatives, we don't have to look far to see that election campaigns are funded by wealthy elites, that elections only partially or superficially address important issues, and that politicians consistently abandon campaign promises. Politicians are professionals whose careers depend on obtaining power. Regardless of the intentions of the politician, he or she soon learns that for their career to remain and prosper they must serve economic interests, rather than the people who they are supposed to represent. Representative governments and the bureaucracies that sustain them are fundamentally opposed to popular democratic power. Whatever power the State gains is at the expense of popular power, and any power that people gain is done at the expense of the State. It is thus futile to turn to the State with major appeals for change, for these appeals would only be subverted by the State in an attempt to strengthen its own power. To be sure, there are reforms that are necessary and valuable. But if we only work for the completion of these minor reforms, then the root causes of social and environmental problems will persist, and worse, grow and intensify. As long as we live under the State’s power, we cannot expect to have full control over our lives, to fulfill all of our needs, and to be free from oppression altogether. No decision is democratically legitimate unless it has been proposed, discussed, and decided upon by people in a face-to-face assembly. Professional politicians cannot handle social decision any better than “amateurs” everyday people, who reflect a range of perspectives and possess detailed knowledge of the experiences of daily life.

Unlike the widespread current acceptance of nature as a commodity, as something separated from society, Bookchin viewed it in direct link with social life, relationships, and values.  His essential premise is that all environmental problems are rooted in social problems. He supports Peter Kropotkin's argument that mutualism is as essential, if not greater, a component of evolution than what is commonly referred to as competition, that a participatory and cooperative outlook focused than a “struggle for existence”. Capitalism is an economic system that necessitates continuous expansion, exploitation, and the concentrated ownership of wealth. The driving force of capitalism is the competitive market. The market economy's essential purpose is to sell commodities for profit. Profit has to be realized, regardless of the broader effects the commodity has on the environment or society at large, or the capitalist will go bankrupt. In order to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses, the capitalist is compelled to eliminate all social constraints on the exploitation of labor, and to reinvest a large portion of accumulated profits into technologies that will increase productive capacity, thereby lowering the cost of production through its economy of scale. A slow process of cannibalization occurs in which businesses must fail thereby causing wealth to be concentrated into the fewer hands of those who succeed. Due to the “grow or die” imperative imposed by the market, economic growth cannot be contained by moral persuasion, it must continue to expand without any regard for human needs or environmental impact.

Thus, capitalism should be seen for what it is, a malignant cancer. It will continue to grow. The rich never have enough. The more they get, the more they want. Under capitalism, people get rewarded according to their profitability, and economic decisions are put into the individual hands of those who control land, money, machinery, and technical knowledge. Each actor must do what it takes to keep their sales going or else face bankruptcy or unemployment. Due to the market imperative to sell, every aspect of life is eventually assigned a price tag. Not only is this system undemocratic, it is also dehumanizing. Community relationships and the whole orientation of society are reduced to business relationships while individuals are fixated on egotism and conspicuous consumption. Capitalism also has a destructive effect on the urban environment. Instead of humanly communities, industrial capitalism has created mega-cities and urban sprawls. People have become anonymous in their environs.

History has shown that there is ever growing potential in what we can achieve. The socialist concept of freedom is twofold, freedom from exploitation and the freedom to realise one's own individual potential as a human being. A socialist society would seek to minimize anyone's suffering while enabling everyone to fulfill their creative potentials. Socialism is a society of empowered individuals freed from an exploitative market and freed to participate in an economy based on the common-good. Socialists maintain that there are no technical impediments to achieving a “post-scarcity” society of relative abundance. Modern technology, for instance, holds the potential of producing a sufficiency of goods for all people, while reducing the hardships of human labour. The fact that robotics and automation can be used to provide for everyone's needs gives people a choice of what extent to utilize such techniques. What is important is that these technologies can be decentralized and placed under the direct control of a community. Today, capitalism creates an artificial scarcity of goods, while the mass media is used to generate artificial needs in our minds. A post-scarcity society is made possible by rejecting the notion of limitless needs, and replacing it with a commitment to enhance the welfare of all individuals and our environment.

The move from our current society to the free society necessarily involves convincing a majority of the population to support these ideals. To do this, we must build a movement that is organised around the socialist vision. The Socialist Party’s electoral attempts are never be engaged for the purpose of gaining a large following. Losing by a large margin is desirable if people are not yet educated on the ideas being promoted. If a socialist campaign ever surrenders its far-reaching goals to gain a large following, it will inevitably become ineffective, demoralized, and corrupted. It is desired that educated individuals, not propagandized voters, come to accept and join the socialist movement. A different kind of society is truly possible for us to achieve together. Let us begin to take the steps necessary for collectively freeing ourselves from the irrational system that enslaves us.

We oppose nationalism.

Scottish nationalism did not go away with the referendum. Repeated calls are being made for a second referendum. The starting point of any nationalism is the assertion and appreciation of a particular group: “we”. Scotland as a nation was taken for granted by all sides arguing over Scottish independence. The British State considers Scotland a nation and itself a country of four nations. Consequently, Scottish nationalists did not have to agitate for its recognition as a nation. The taken-for-granted starting point for all separatist and unionist agitation was Scotland and the referendum simply presupposed Scotland and the Scots as a collective who now decide on an important aspect of their lives. The referendum could happen because the British State, which asserts absolute authority over its citizens, gave a part of itself — the Scottish Government — permission to subjugate a part of the British population in the case of “Yes” vote.

“We” is also the assertion of an accordance between the people of the nation (“Scots belong and fit together”). When nationalists speak of “us”, they do not simply mean to describe a group that is somehow distinguished from the rest of humanity like “all people with brown hair” or “all people who like tea”, instead “us” characterises a community. Nationalists think that their personal interests and the interests of other members of the community — and hence of the community in total — are somehow aligned. Not necessarily perfectly so but at some level. Nationalists think that somehow the national community is the place where they fit in, where their purposes have a place, where people accomplish their respective goals somehow with each other. They believe that there is a connection, some accordance, some cohesion even, that “we” are “better together”. Nationalists differ in where they see the basis of this accordance. Some see the basis for why “we” fit and belong together in a presumed common biology (“Celtic blood”, “Aryan race”), some in a common culture (language, customs, cultural values) and some even in a common conviction (constitutional patriotism). None of these reasons holds water. There is no “Celtic blood”, language does not preform thought but ideas can be expressed in any language, a habit of drinking tea makes for a tea drinking society, not an all-encompassing community. For example, Cornish nationalists invoke a wide range of historical, political, linguistic and cultural reasons to illustrate that Cornwall does constitute its own nation.

Nationalists identify with their nation. Nationalists assert that belonging to a certain nation is not a lifestyle choice, a conscious, calculated decision or a particular interest, it is an identity. To nationalists, being Scottish or English is not something you decide to do, but it is something which claims to define your being. For an English nationalist when eleven English players win a world cup, we won the world cup in 1966. Thus if the British State goes to war, we go to war and its soldiers are fighting for us. The assertion “we” is as much an invitation as it is a demand. Firstly, “we” is an invitation to look beyond the day-to-day competition and to recognise the needs of the community as being greater than mere individual materialism and calculated decisions for personal gain. Secondly, “we” is also a demand that this unity is not up for debate, it is an invitation you cannot refuse, it is essential.

A lot of energy is spent by professional nationalists — politicians, journalists, teachers, etc. — on educating the population about “their” national customs, culture and history. Students learn the national language, learn about national history, about their “cultural heritage”. National holidays encourage the celebration of the nation. Nationalists hold that a national community requires actualisation in a state. Nationality — in the eyes of nationalists — is an identity which requires a political authority. The nationalist proposition is “the right of nations to self-determination”. Or rather the right of their nation to self-determination, e.g. “Scotland should be an independent country”. Even if the “Yes” campaign had won the independence referendum, it would not have been “the Scottish people” who would have given themselves a state. The Scottish independence referendum was an attempt of a nationalist movement — around the Scottish Government — to subjugate Scottish people under a new state. If the “Yes” agitation had been successful, then the Scottish Government would have subjugated those it defined as Scottish under a new Scottish state, regardless of whether they voted “Yes” or “No”.

The “Yes” campaign and the Radical Independence Campaign argued for independence by listing many nice things which could be done in an independent Scotland: better health care, higher benefits, greener energy … None of these policies were actually on the ballot. The ballot did not ask voters what they think of the welfare state, citizenship laws or where government spending should be directed. The question was if the authority ruling over Scotland should be Scottish and this is the first standard by which nationalists judge it.

Nationalists judge all and sundry from their nationalist standpoint, also other nations and their states. On the world stage, nation states confront each other with their demands and compete for power. They compete economically, threaten each other with their military might and engage in open war. Nationalists observe these conflicts in a peculiar way. To nationalists, their own nation is the home of the decent and universal, the guarantor of everything that is good in the world. In contrast, other nations are merely French, Russian, American etc. The respective national standpoints are merely their particular standpoints. This does not necessarily make them foes, but every nationalist can identify base motives driving other nation states’ policies. Watching a BBC report on Russia compared with RT provides ample material of this kind. From this perspective then, it only makes sense for nationalists to wish their own the best of luck in every endeavour, even the most contemptible ones.

Adapted and abridged. Full original article can be read here

Sheep No More

To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we must shift from a thing-oriented society where the profit motive and property rights are considered more important than people, to a community and person-oriented society. A world without capitalism and its hierarchies and domination, its environmental destruction is often depicted as “utopian” and “unrealistic” by the mainstream media but it is what the Socialist Party strives towards as an achievable and attainable goal. It is not some future mirage from the books but our capacity to imagine real radical change in society which inspires us. There’s no time for self-doubt and despair. Our political activism goes beyond the “either/or”. We need a revolution that establishes new foundations. We need a revolution of solidarity that benefits all. This revolution will not be achieved by switching political power from one party to another. We reject the politics of lesser-evilism. After decade after decade of failed reforms, we are well aware that existing institutions are not up to the task of carrying through system change. The actions of businesses are limited by their adherence to the profit imperative and the pressure to grow shareholder value, while governments are constrained by short-term political imperatives and their commitment to economic growth above all other concerns. Change ‘within-the-system’ changes are not succeeding, and often do not even generate the small wins or incremental improvements that they seek. Time for ‘outside-the-system’ change for a sustainable future society. The problems of the world are so immense and interrelated, and the need for a global revolution and social transformation is urgent. The Socialist Party is drawing the battle lines worldwide. The nationalist call for separate nation-states results from the interests of the ruling class but does not reflect the interests of the people, since another state would only involve the creation of additional injustice.

We live in tumultuous times. Who knows what possibilities still lie ahead? Faced with a relentless austerity assault, protesters seek to secure some of the most elementary ingredients of a just, humane and democratic society. The one solution is to unite people throughout the world, which is our only hope for social transformation on a planetary scale. The only solution is the power of the people united. Politicians don’t like it when people come together because then they are threatened with losing their power and privileges. No other solution will work until the people across the globe rise up in unison and in doing so, we recognise that we are one humanity. The millions of people who shout for justice are standing for a better world. The politicians may decry these spontaneous uprisings as leaderless or unstructured, but they do not understand. Ordinary men and women are shouting out with the people’s voice on behalf of all the human race. It may please the populists who blame the bankers for all of society’s problems, but it will never bring a solution to social injustice as long as the system itself is based on the interests of privilege and wealth.  Imagine if there were millions of people demonstrating for sharing across the world, not for a redistribution of tax revenue, but saying ‘The food in the world belongs to everyone.” All for all. Each person in the world is family.

Socialism is the only humane alternative to capitalism. The role of the working class is the most critical. Only workers —labour in the broadest sense of the term that would include both the so-called blue-collar and white-collar workers—can bring an end to the rule of capital. Transforming the world economy in the interests of the majority of the people is not easy. It is clear, however, that to change the world economy in the interests of the majority of its inhabitants, workers need a new politics and new organisations to articulate the struggle for change. This requires a new independent labour movement to represent the interests of the entire working class and to challenge the logic of the profit-driven market.

Not The Way To Go

While the French authorities were busy dismantling the migrant camp at Calais, scores of migrants attended the final service at their makeshift church. They squeezed into it and prayed for a place to go. It's really pathetic how little the working class has learned. 

They appealed to an invisible, non-existent being to solve their problems when, like the petitioners in ''The Wizard Of Oz'', if only they realized it, they have the power to do that for themselves. 

John Ayers.

A Strange Anti-poverty Plan

The trauma of many in matters concerning the Toronto Transit Commission continue. Advocates for the poor are attacking the city administration for dragging their feet in creating a discounted transit pass for them. They say this is not consistent with Mayor Tory's anti-poverty plan - what a joke. A debate on the matter scheduled for October 26 has been delayed till December, and to think this is something the council voted to study in July 2014. Tory made it clear that it's unlikely any low-income fare policy will be implemented until late 2017 at the earliest. 

Under capitalism, if your poor don't expect politicians to bust their buns to help you. 

John Ayers.

The Battle-Field of Ideas

We are a movement of ideas; ideas cannot be imprisoned, they cannot be killed, and they do not require leaders. Across the world, it is becoming clear that the capitalist system is in its death throes, and that it must be put out of its misery before it takes us down with it. The acceleration of environmental destruction is unimaginable and it's happening quicker and quicker. We increasingly understand our responsibility in its dismantling. Whatever your particular campaign — be it the environment, food sovereignty, labour rights, or simply wanting the world to be a better place— it’s time to link up. Socialism needs to be an open and diverse movement. Many different people have contributions to make. Radical grassroots movements are the groundwork for the new world we carry in our hearts.

People refer to the 99%, The Socialist Party prefers to refer to the working class. When they hear the term working class, some people think simply of factory workers, but this is not what we mean. The working class is not limited to blue collar workers in factories, but instead, it includes all of us who are forced to sell our labour power to survive. This includes people who are in paid employment, whether in a factory, office or retail store. It also includes those who are unable to find paid employment, who provide a vast potential pool of labour that enables the ruling class to further keep wages down. The working class includes stay-at-home parents. It includes people who are too sick or unable to work for other reasons and their carers. In short, if you don´t own a business or if you aren't independently wealthy then chances are you are a part of the working class. It is necessary to understand how society is structured and how capitalism actually functions, in order to know where our collective strength comes from. One thing, from looking at this history, is abundantly clear. Mass action is vital for mass change. If you look through history, time and time again, it is when large groups of people have got together and shown themselves to be a threat to those in power that concessions have been granted. This happens on a small scale as well as a big one – when employees at a small business go on strike and refuse to work until their boss gives them a pay rise, the boss is forced to listen. Capitalism is not a static system, it is ever changing and adapting in response to situations. The threat of working class power has resulted in a number of changes to the functioning of capitalism over time. As workers, we create wealth for the bosses each and every day at our jobs. Some of this wealth is returned to us in the form of wages, but much is stolen. This stolen wealth is often called ¨surplus value¨. It is the accumulation of surplus value, stolen by our bosses, that forms the wealth of the ruling class. But because the goods and services that create this surplus value ultimately come from our hands and our brains, through collectively withdrawing our labour, we can force the bosses to give in to our demands. Taking collective action the workplace is one way we can impose our power on the bosses to help us better meet our needs and desires. It is important to recognise that this collected voice of engaged workers who are aware of the need for world reconstruction and renewal can be sufficient to challenge the immense forces of profit, greed, and control that stand in the way of transformative change. For global citizens who identify themselves as part of an emerging world community, the starting point is recognising our common humanity. When accept that the world is ‘one human family’ with the same needs and rights, as ourselves, the first priority must be to provide the very basics to those in a life-threatening state of deprivation. This may sound like utopian thinking but it assumes that the precondition of curative world change is goodwill from ordinary people towards the most deprived and marginalised people of the world. It assumes nothing more than redirecting public attention towards immediate human need, a fundamental reordering of global priorities in favour of securing the most basic necessities of food, water, healthcare and housing for the majority poor. For the necessary social transformation to come about by democratic means we will have to want these changes for ourselves. Few people are likely to oppose the restructuring of modern societies if it leads to less formal working hours, more recreation time, a less frenetic pace of life and greater well-being for all. Nonetheless, the desirability of a new way of living has to be recognised by a majority of people. Can we foresee masses of ordinary people who genuinely identify themselves as brothers and sisters of one human family, and who therefore demand that all the resources, technology and scientific know-how of the world are freely shared among everyone? It is a revolution of people coming together for the first time in human history, the united voice of the people, consciously mobilised in all lands towards a common set of principles and aims – world socialism.

Humanity’s Big Bang

We live in a world filled with loving and caring people. We all crave a world of compassion. Yet most of us cannot experience such relationships beyond our own private lives and homes. Why? Because the ethos of the capitalist marketplace places the greatest value on money and power. The truth is that most of the suffering in the world is directly attributable to capitalism. If it were not for the capitalist system, most of the social ills in the world could be eliminated, hunger, ignorance, homelessness, environmental destruction, congestion, warfare, crime, insecurity, waste, boredom, loneliness, and so forth. Capitalists are not merely thieves; they are murderers. Their theft and murder are on a scale never seen before in history. In the capitalist economic marketplace, we are taught to look out for ourselves, maximize our profits, and do what we need to do to get ahead, even at the cost to other people. Even much of the suffering caused by hurricanes, floods, droughts, and earthquakes can be laid at the feet of capitalism because capitalists prevent us from preparing for and responding to these disasters as a community, in an intelligent way. And capitalists are to blame for the increased severity of some of these events due to global warming, which capitalism has caused. The current economic and political system has created an unprecedented environmental crisis that is wreaking havoc on peoples’ lives and has the potential to destroy the life-support system of the planet. As the crisis intensifies and the system shows signs of degrading, the ruling class, rally support for their system by undermining democratic rights and imposing authoritarian rule.

It is now too late to avoid some of the impacts of climate change and the possibilities of worse to come is more than a little troubling. We simply don’t know how bad it will get but capitalism was well warned of the impending catastrophes. But because more and more are becoming aware of an approaching apocalypse there exists a chance for meaningful change. People are beginning to understand that minor tinkering with the current system is not the answer and they are engaged in re-thinking their previous assumptions. The “bottom line” is always of money and power and we are increasingly realising it. People everywhere are recognising that the current system is built on manipulation and deceit and is now obsolete. Everyday more and more people are more and more aware of the human potential. People are beginning to conceptualise something massive on a global scale that envisage new ways of living that will make our modern age like look the Dark Ages.

We have been so conditioned to believe that the world we want is impossible. Popular culture promotes this view and makes it seem true. But the Socialist Party strives to help to create a world in which we see and value each other’s humanity where compassion and kindness can flourish in our communities and our workplaces. Rejecting the “common sense” of capitalist society that human beings are primarily motivated by their narrow material self-interest of greed and selfishness is a central message of the Socialist Party. We envision a new kind of political movement that could actually win majority support for transforming our world, a fundamental reshaping of our economic system, political system, and societal practices.

The socialist revolution is a revolution of revolutions. It does not come top-down from the predetermined theory of one man (despite the contribution of many like Marx) or one party, which creates followers and dogma. Instead, it will come from the awakening political consciousness of each of us, igniting a critical mass of spontaneous transformation. It will come from the very grassroots, affecting all forms of social relations, the political and economic structures and our ecological approach. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to help catalyze this movement’s emergence—to articulate it and help put it into action—by gathering and joining together with others inspired by the same revolutionary spirit of cooperative synergy. Socialism is all about redesigning the decision making of human systems. Socialist ideas empower people. The achievement of workers’ control alone would leave no way for the community as a whole to allocate its resources (e.g., to decide whether to phase out a project or start up a new one), whereas the achievement of community control alone, without simultaneously controlling the means of production, is meaningless, empty.

There are thousands of organisations seeking to resist some aspect or other of what is an unjust or environmentally destructive world. All too often, these groups know what they are against but fail to offer a vision of the world they are for. These movements try to avoid anything that sounds “too ideological” out of fear of splintering the group or losing funding. They believe they will be more successful if they focus on just a specific struggle without trying to educate people about how the global system works or connect the disparate parts.  When success inevitably fails to materialize this leads to exhaustion, burnout, and cynicism about any possibility of transformation and they become deeper immersed in the swamp of reforms. The Socialist Party strategy is to show people from all different struggles to see their common interests and the need to work together to build socialism. Without this, we have little chance of heading off the disasters that face humanity in the coming decades. It may take a long time of commitment until we reach a tipping point, but at that point, millions of people will suddenly realise that they would not be alone in acting on their yearning for world socialism based on solidarity. At that point, a non-violent transformation of our world becomes possible. It is the contention of the Socialist Party that every human being is capable of living in harmony with one another and with the planet. This potential is systematically thwarted in a society in which people are encouraged by the dominant culture to focus primarily on their own needs without simultaneously putting equal energy into developing a world which supports the actualization of everyone else’s needs. We can’t be who we need to be without everyone else being able to achieve his or her fullest human capacities. It is the frustration of these needs, as much as the denial of material well-being and political rights that underlies the suffering of much of humanity today.

Some might ask “Why don’t they tell us how we are ever going to achieve all this?” We don’t pretend to have the full step-by-step strategy and tactics all worked out and can offer only a guide-line and sign-posts, not an actual blueprint. Our main point is that our case for socialism is enough of a contribution to help unify and bring together the various strands and organisations of social change, a sufficient vision to the people in the world who have never even heard these kinds of ideas so that they can be taken seriously in the public sphere. We are not about winning this or that election so much as we are about fostering a new way of thinking and winning the battle of ideas. You can help by popularising these ideas. The Socialist Party is a consciousness-raising movement, so our primary task, like that of the other major movements that have had a lasting impact, is to refuse to compromise our ideals for the sake of short-term political gain. We must instead advocate for our fullest vision and insist on why it makes the most sense as the path to heal present-day society. You can never know what is possible till you struggle for what is desirable. The socialist vision, needless to say, is “unrealistic” and “not feasible” in the sense that it does not conform to the assumptions of politicians and the mass media. But we all know inside of us that our well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet and on the well-being of the planet itself.

Humanity on a deadline

'When it comes to climate change, there’s precious little time for lesser evils; the physics—as scientists are quick to tell us—has put humanity on a deadline.' - Kate Aronoff, political commentator

If current economic, social, political, and environmental trends continue, as they seem set to, the future seems ominous. There has been rapidly worsening decline in living conditions for many: poverty, inequality, unemployment, sickness, pollution, and the erosion of social and political rights. There is a tendency to perceive these and other ill-effects as separate problems when, in fact, they are all connected. They can all be traced to a single source – the capitalist system. As George Monbiot explains capitalist liberty is, “Freedom from unions and collective bargaining means the freedom to suppress wages. Freedom from regulation is the freedom to poison rivers, endanger workers, and charge iniquitous rates of interest. Freedom from taxes means freedom from the distribution of wealth that lifts people out of poverty.”  Governments around the world have allowed corporations to continue their iniquitous behaviour, further impoverishing billions, worsening inequality, and eventually wrecking the planet.

Our world is being ravaged for the profits of the few. We are poisoning of soil and seas. Wars are instigated by elites for interests that only benefit themselves. Isn’t it ridiculous that when the financial system slumps millions go poor and hungry, while there is enough food, manpower, and means to provide for everyone? Everything is economised, which means if you don’t increase profit to the system, read are old, sick or unemployed, you are a burden to society – non-earning humans. Rather than provide cures politicians sell us palliatives to treat the symptoms. Why aren’t enough people doing something about it? Perhaps because people are willing, collaborative, positive kind people, we trust the promises. Changing leaders changes little. Others take their place and nothing really changes. So don’t expect any new prime minister or president to be a solution. Throughout the world there is discontent and the dissatisfaction is growing.

If you hope to have more control over your own life and not be exploited by others, you owe it to yourself to learn about the principles and vision of socialism. The Socialist Party introduces you to the idea of a society based on common ownership. It is a society beyond capitalism. For socialists, it is a dilemma in that we are aware how much the world is in trouble and yet be hopeful about the future. We don’t have to sit back and watch the world collapse around us. Socialists voice the truth in a world where almost everyone is living in self-deception and that means confronting the herd mentality of our fellow-workers. Socialists desire to live the way we want to live and not the way our masters seek to impose upon us. We require that we be in community with and make connections to others of like heart and mind. Our shared awareness of our problems means we can create solutions for them. In order to maintain our sanity, we need to not only understand our potential but also recognize that we are not responsible on our own for fixing the world. Ask any psychologist about the human mind and they will tell you we are wired for human connection. We feel a strong foundational need for belonging. This need is so fundamental. Similarly, the fundamental unit of human existence is the group and not the individual. Power goes to the people that see their personal happiness and security is bound up with all people meeting their common needs for happiness and security. There is unity in recognising that our problems are one and the same.

Socialist question all beliefs that have been handed down to you from tradition, no matter how back in time they go. This will help you see the world with differently and will allow you to better understand it and your relation to it. Socialists challenge those who want to keep humanity enslaved, the politicians and the capitalists. Never forget that this economic and political system is not for us. Party platforms and campaign promises are routinely violated is undeniable. The only route to a better world is through mass movements articulating clear goals. But instead of settling for reforms, the only way out of our present crises is to push beyond what is possible in the world’s present political systems.

Some day we will have Socialist Party candidates who we can vote for rather than the lesser evil who we presently vote against, but there is much work to do before we reach that day. Socialism is something we have to build it together and fight for. The Socialist Party accept that common ground is not always possible or even advisable. Some things need to be argued over because our class interests, our ideological understanding, our political projects are not simply different; they are often in opposition to each other. Sometimes we need to stop talking and just do what we believe we have to do. If people know why they believe what they believe, and have already considered the arguments we make and reject them, so be it. Time will be better spent engaging those who are more receptive to our ideas. The reason people don’t act on the crises humanity is now facing, is simply they don’t have confidence in how to do it.

Hope is an essential ingredient for change. Let’s be clear about what hope is not. Hope isn’t blind confidence that things will, somehow, work out. Hope possesses power. It takes courage to speak out and demand change. It requires that we not allow ourselves to be side-tracked from our goal. Our task remains the same: organise and mobilise as never before for socialism. Cynicism and despair are among socialism’s worst enemies that dilute our creativity and energy.

Falling Costs In Winter

A recent report from the Toronto Public Health Department stressed the need for the city administrators to do more to protect people, especially seniors, from falling on the ice in the winter. The report suggested the city should lower the threshold for sidewalk snow clearing from eight centimetres to two.

 During the last ten winters, almost 30,000 people went to emergency rooms and 2800 were admitted, because they fell on the ice – 225 had life-threatening injuries. The average age of the injured was 51, prompting Antony Quinn, a director of CARP to say, ''It can make them afraid to venture outside. Fear of falling causes them to be less active which increases their chances of falling again.'' The report emphasized this costs the City of Toronto $6.7 million annually in claims.

 In other words, it would be cheaper to do a better job - another lovely aspect of capitalism - to put a price on people's well-being. 

John Ayers.

Dreaming Beyond Capitalism

Things are changing and a lot is at stake. It is even possible that civilisation may collapse in our lifetime. We need a revolution that builds new foundations for humanity. We need a revolution of solidarity. This revolution will not be achieved by switching government from one party to another.

For much of the last million years, human beings have lived in communities; in fact, the era in which we have not is only a tiny fraction in the entirety of human history. Making our human existence compatible with nature again may well be our only opportunity to secure ourselves and our children a future worth living. We need a revolution. Poverty is a tremendous waste of human resources. The human potential that is lost is massive. Real political change is a revolution of social consciousness. We need to be unified. For that, we have to heal the divisions the elite fuel within the working class: the antagonisms of white vs. black, men vs. women, young vs. old, native vs. newcomer. This requires being organized. Just being angry isn’t enough; unless we actively join with others, we won’t be able to build a successful alternative to the capitalist parties. Working together is an antidote to the isolation that can afflict those who try to go it alone. Bonds of comradeship and solidarity sustain us in difficult times.

Reformism hasn’t yielded any lasting changes. Reforms have had only a temporary impact. A kinder, gentler capitalism is impossible, and the hopeful rhetoric of progressive reformists isn’t going to change this economic reality. Their program is designed to divert potentially revolutionary energy into the dead-end of tinkering with the system, trying to fix it. But capitalism isn’t broken; this is how it functions. We have to junk it, not fix it. It needs to be replaced with socialism. The two systems are mutually antagonistic, and the struggle between them can’t be comprised. From the 1950s to the ’70s unions were able to force through higher wages and better working conditions in many industries. Back then capitalists could afford this because the main market for products was the home country, and higher wages stimulated consumption. This Keynesian approach created a bubble of prosperity in North America and Europe that has now burst and can’t come back. The hard-fought gains of those days are being reversed because the world market has become more important than the home country. To compete globally with low-wage countries such as China, India, and Brazil, corporations here have to slash their labor costs. The pressure of international competition is being shifted onto us, the workers. These conditions will inevitably intensify; capitalism needs ever more profits to keep growing. It finances its expansion through bonds and bank loans, so it needs increasingly more money to pay the interest charges. And it must invest more in plant and equipment to stay competitive. Its rate of profit is always under pressure. And if it stops growing, it dies. The rival capitalist blocs are fighting among themselves in a dog-eat-dog struggle for survival. To lower costs and hold on to its markets — to remain top dog — the elite are pursuing repression at home and war abroad.

The Socialist Party is opposed to capitalism. The economic system based on private property and production for a profit literally creates poverty by depriving the poor of the means of subsistence. The poor are then exploited by the rich as a source of cheap labor. As long as there is capitalism, there will be poverty, misery and exploitation. We are opposed to borders. Borders are artificial barriers that divide us and facilitate our exploitation. They allow the rich and their investments to pass easily while impeding the free movement of people. Borders are the inhuman laws that allow humans to be labeled “illegal” and exploited as cheap labour. We want economic equality and industrial democracy. We want the land and the means of production and distribution held in common. We want a state-free society—a society without rulers and ruled. We want political institutions created out of free association and not coercion. We want autonomy and self-government for all peoples and for all people. We want a class-free society, where people are free to define themselves and interact as equals. We want local, regional and global solidarity and mutual aid. Those who profit off of misery will do everything in their power to maintain the world as it is. Only through struggle on the part of the poor and exploited, against their exploiters can we ever hope to bring about an end to exploitation. A global socialist organisation is our link to the future. It gives us assurance that knowledgeable and committed people will be there to make it happen: to overthrow capitalism and build socialism, in which the resources of the world are used to meet human needs rather than to generate profits for a few owners.

It may already be too late. Much environmental and social harm has already been inflicted.

How we became slaves

“You wretches are detestable both on land and on sea. You seek equality with the lords, but you are unworthy to live. Give this message to your fellows: rustics you are, and rustics you will always be. You will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example to prosperity.” Richard II

Despite what you might have learned, the transition to a capitalist society did not happen naturally or smoothly. The peasants didn’t want to give up their rural communal lifestyle, leave their land and go work for below-subsistence wages in the factories being set up by a new, rich class of landowning capitalists. And for good reason, too. Using Adam Smith’s own estimates of factory wages being paid at the time in Scotland, a factory-peasant would have to toil for more than three days to buy a pair of commercially produced shoes. Or they could make their own traditional brogues using their own leather in a matter of hours.

In order for capitalism to work, capitalists needed a pool of cheap, surplus labour. Adam Smith’s proto-capitalist colleagues complaining and whining about how peasants are too independent and comfortable to be properly exploited, and trying to figure out how to force them to accept a life of wage slavery. Over time, they enacted a series of laws and measures designed to push peasants out of the old and into the new by destroying their traditional means of self-support, forcing the peasants off the land such as the enactment of so-called Game Laws that prohibited peasants from hunting.

Daniel Defoe, the novelist noted that in the Scottish Highlands:

“people were extremely well furnished with provisions. … venison exceedingly plentiful, and at all seasons, young or old, which they kill with their guns whenever they find it.’’

 If having a full belly and productive land was the problem, then the solution to whipping these lazy bums into shape was obvious: kick them off the land and starve them into the new towns and rising cities by fencing off the commons.  

John Bellers, a Quaker “philanthropist” saw independent peasants as a hindrance to his plan of forcing poor people into prison-factories, where they would live, work and produce a profit of 45% for aristocratic owners:

“Our Forests and great Commons (make the Poor that are upon them too much like the Indians) being a hindrance to Industry, and are Nurseries of Idleness and Insolence.”

Arthur Young, a popular writer and economic thinker respected by John Stuart Mill, wrote in 1771: “everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.”

Sir William Temple, a politician and Jonathan Swift’s boss, agreed, and suggested that food be taxed as much as possible to prevent the working class from a life of “sloth and debauchery.” Temple also advocated putting four-year-old kids to work in the factories, writing:

‘‘for by these means, we hope that the rising generation will be so habituated to constant employment that it would at length prove agreeable and entertaining to them.’’

John Locke, often seen as a philosopher of liberty, called for the commencement of work at the ripe age of three.

David Hume, that great humanist, hailed poverty and hunger as positive experiences for the lower classes, and even blamed the “poverty” of France on its good weather and fertile soil:

“‘Tis always observed, in years of scarcity, if it be not extreme, that the poor labour more, and really live better.”

Reverend Joseph Townsend believed that restricting food was the way to go:

“[Direct] legal constraint [to labor] . . . is attended with too much trouble, violence, and noise, . . . whereas hunger is not only a peaceable, silent, unremitted pressure, but as the most natural motive to industry, it calls forth the most powerful exertions. . . . Hunger will tame the fiercest animals, it will teach decency and civility, obedience and subjugation to the most brutish, the most obstinate, and the most perverse.”

Patrick Colquhoun, a merchant who set up England’s first private “preventative police“ force to prevent dock workers from supplementing their meager wages with stolen goods, provided what may be the most lucid explanation of how hunger and poverty correlate to productivity and wealth creation:

Poverty is that state and condition in society where the individual has no surplus labour in store, or, in other words, no property or means of subsistence but what is derived from the constant exercise of industry in the various occupations of life. Poverty is, therefore, a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society, without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of civilisation. It is the lot of mankind. It is the source of wealth, since, without poverty, there could be no labour; there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth.

What was true for English peasants is still just as true for us.

From here

Abundance and Scarcity

First we have to define what scarcity is. Orthodox economics argue it is limited supply - versus- boundless demand. Our wants are essentially “infinite” and the resources to meet them, limited, claim the economists. Von Mise claims that without the guidance of prices socialism would sink into inefficiency. According to the argument, scarcity is an unavoidable fact of life .It applies to any goods where the decision to use a unit of that good entails giving up some other potential use. In other words, whatever one decides to do has an "opportunity cost" — that is the opportunity to do something else which one thereby forgoes; economics is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources .However, in the real world, abundance is not a situation where an infinite amount of every good could be produced. Similarly, scarcity is not the situation which exists in the absence of this impossible total or sheer abundance.

Abundance is a situation where productive resources are sufficient to produce enough wealth to satisfy human needs, while scarcity is a situation where productive resources are insufficient for this purpose. Abundance is a relationship between supply and demand, where the former exceeds the latter. In socialism, a buffer of surplus stock for any particular item, whether a consumer or a producer good, can be produced, to allow for future fluctuations in the demand for that item, and to provide an adequate response time for any necessary adjustments. Thus achieving abundance can be understood as the maintenance of an adequate buffer of stock in the light of extrapolated trends in demand. The relative abundance or scarcity of a good would be indicated by how easy or difficult it was to maintain such an adequate buffer stock in the face of a demand trend (upward, static, or downward). It will thus be possible to choose how to combine different factors for production, and whether to use one rather than another, on the basis of their relative abundance/scarcity.

We are seeking what some call a "steady-state economy" or "zero-growth", a situation where human needs are in balance with the resources needed to satisfy them.

Such a society would have decided on the most appropriate way to allocate resources to meet the needs of its members. This having been done, it would only need to go on repeating this continuously from production period to production period. Production would not be ever-increasing but would be stabilised at the level required to satisfy needs. All that would be produced would be products for consumption and the products needed to replace and repair the raw materials and instruments of production used up in producing these consumer goods. The point about such a situation is that there will no longer be any imperative need to develop productivity, i.e. to cut costs in the sense of using fewer resources; nor will there be the blind pressure to do so that is exerted under capitalism through the market. Technical research would continue and this would no doubt result in costs being able to be saved, but there would be no external pressure to do so or even any need to apply all new productivity enhancing techniques.

In a stable society such as socialism, needs would most likely change relatively slowly. Hence it is reasonable to assume that an efficient system of stock control, registering what individuals actually chose to take under conditions of free access from local distribution centres over a given period, would enable the local distribution committee to estimate what the need for food, drink, clothes and household goods that would be required over a similar future period. Some needs would be able to be met locally: local transport, repairs, and some food produce are examples as well as services such as libraries and refuse collection. The local distribution committee would then communicate needs that could not be met locally to the bodies charged with coordinating supplies to local communities.

The individual would have free access to the goods on the shelves of the local distribution centres; the local distribution centres free access to the goods they required to be always adequately stocked with what people needed; their suppliers free access to the goods they required from the factories which supplied them; industries and factories free access to the materials, equipment and energy they needed to produce their products; and so on. Production and distribution in socialism would thus be a question of organising a coordinated and more or less self-regulating system of linkages between users and suppliers, enabling resources and materials to flow smoothly from one productive unit to another, and ultimately to the final user, in response to information flowing in the opposite direction originating from final users. The productive system would thus be set in motion from the consumer end, as individuals and communities took steps to satisfy their self-defined needs.

Socialist production is self-adjusting production for use. It will be a self-regulating, decentralised inter-linked system to provide for a self-sustaining steady state society. And we can set out a possible way of achieving an eventual zero growth steady state society operating in a stable and ecologically benign way. This could be achieved in three main phases.

First, there would have to be urgent action to relieve the worst problems of food shortages, health care, and housing which affect billions of people throughout the world.

Secondly, longer term action to construct means of production and infrastructures such as transport systems for the supply of permanent housing and durable consumption goods. These could be designed in line with conservation principles, which means they would be made to last for a long time, using materials that where possible could be re-cycled and would require minimum maintenance.

Thirdly, with these objectives achieved there could be an eventual fall in production, and society could move into a stable mode. This would achieve a rhythm of daily production in line with daily needs with no significant growth. On this basis, the world community could live in material well-being whilst looking after the planet.

Socialism will seek an environmental friendly relationship with nature. In socialism, we would not be bound to use the most labour efficient methods of production. We would be free to select our methods in accordance with a wide range of socially desirable criteria, in particular, the vital need to protect the environment. What it means is that we should construct permanent, durable means of production which you don’t constantly innovate. We would use these to produce durable equipment and machinery and durable consumer goods designed to last for a long time, designed for minimum maintenance and made from materials which if necessary can be re-cycled. In this way we would get a minimum loss of materials; once they’ve been extracted and processed they can be used over and over again. It also means that once you’ve achieved satisfactory levels of consumer goods, you don’t insist on producing more and more. Total social production could even be reduced. This will be the opposite of to-day's capitalist system's cheap, shoddy, throw-away goods with its built-in obsolescence, which results in a massive loss and destruction of resources.

We have said above that the most urgent task will be to stop people dying of hunger but the supply of decent housing will require a vastly greater allocation of labour than any necessary increase in food production. This means that a great surge of required materials and equipment will flow through the units producing building supplies. A structure of housing production that is generally adjusted to the market for housing under capitalism, which is what people in socialism would inherit, will in no way be able to cope with a demand for housing based on need. So, within the wider context of a democratically decided housing policy, in which questions of planning and the environment would have been taken into account, the job of implementing housing decisions would eventually pass to the committees or works councils throughout the construction industry.

We see the technological perfection in modern society – automation. And we see also a productive apparatus capable of producing more than a sufficiency for all. The age-long problem facing man – production – has been solved. The very evolution of capitalism itself has solved the problem of production. The material conditions are now ripe for the establishment of Socialism. The " World of Abundance" referred to by socialists has never referred to the open-ended consumerism encouraged by the advertisers but has rather as its target a stable and more satisfying way of life in which the scramble to accrue things is no longer central. With material survival removed from the marketplace by the abolition of commodity production, we can expect that individuals will calm down their acquisitive desires and pursue more satisfying activities.

For socialism to be established, there are two fundamental preconditions that must be met. Firstly, the productive potential of society must have been developed to the point where, generally speaking, we can produce enough for all. This is not now a problem as we have long since reached this point. Secondly, the establishment of socialism presupposes the existence of a mass socialist movement and a profound change in social outlook.

When we propose different scales of social co-operation such as local, regional and world scales, this is not a question of there being a hierarchy with power located at any central point. What we anticipate is both an integrated and flexible system of democratic organisation which could be adapted for action to solve any problem in any of these scales. This simply takes into account that some problems and the action to solve them arise from local issues and this also extends to the regional and world spheres. Crucial to the question of democracy is not just the ability to make decisions about what to do but also the powers of action to carry out those decisions. But with the abolition of the market system, communities in socialism will not only be able to make free and democratic decisions about what needs to be done they will also be free to use their resources to achieve those aims. Problems are not solved with money resources. They are solved by people using their labour, skills, and the necessary materials and there is, in fact, an abundance of these material resources. But it will take the relations of common ownership to release them for the needs of communities and this will also mean that communities will be free to decide democratically how best to use those resources.

If people didn’t work then society would obviously fall apart.

If people want too much? In a socialist society "too much" can only mean "more than is sustainably produced."

If people decide that they (individually and as a society) need to over-consume then socialism cannot possibly work.

This does require that we appreciate what is meant by "enough"

To establish socialism the vast majority must consciously decide that they want socialism and that they are prepared to work in socialist society. The establishment of socialism presupposes the existence of a mass socialist movement and a profound change in social outlook. It is simply not reasonable to suppose that the desire for socialism on such a large scale, and the conscious understanding of what it entails on the part of all concerned, would not influence the way people behaved in socialism and towards each other. Would they want to jeopardise the new society they had helped create? We think not. If people cannot change their behaviour and take control and responsibility for their decisions, socialism will fail.

Socialism could be like this

THE CAPITALIST PARADOX 

Capitalists – A band of brigands

“At the founding of the International, we expressly formulated the battle cry: The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself. We cannot, therefore, go along with people who openly claim that the workers are too ignorant to emancipate themselves but must first be emancipated from the top down, by the philanthropic big and petty bourgeois.” - Marx

Profits are made not primarily by cheating in the market or arbitrarily adding a “profit margin” to the price of a commodity. Nor is it under-cutting your competitors and stealing their share of the market. Instead, they come from appropriating at the point of production the greater portion of the values labor creates. By measuring things like unit labour costs, output per hour, etc., productivity figures help keep tabs on this process of exploitation. Though usually presented as a simple measure of efficiency and output, productivity figures are in fact yardsticks of labour’s exploitation. The value of any commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor time consumed in its production. Some of this value is already crystallised in the raw materials and other capital goods needed for a new product. For example, if £1,000 worth of steel is used in the making of a car, that value reappears in the price of the automobile. But in the process of turning steel and other materials into a car, another quantity of value is created. The labour expended by workers adds values to the materials used. This added value is the crucial quantity at any given step along the production process. It’s out of the added value that both workers’ wages and capitalists’ profits come. If a capitalist must supply £1,000 worth of steel, he generally has to pay that much for it. There is no new value created in this even exchange and nothing to divide. But if his workers add another £1,000 of value in the course of their labor, the capitalist pays only part of the new value back to his workers as wages, keeping the rest as what Marx terms surplus value. The wages workers receive come as no gift from the boss, but are just a portion of the wealth workers produce.

Technological development clearly dictates the course that must be taken. Modern industry is thoroughly socialised in its organisation and operation. It has outgrown private ownership of industry and production for sale and the profit of the owning few. We are now at a point where we can produce an abundance for everyone. By establishing a new society we can prevent worsening crises and ultimate catastrophe toward which our present society is taking us. What we are saying is that we can and must establish a socialist society. Let us explain briefly what socialism is and the kind of life we can have under it.

The Socialist Party’s task is to build a society called socialism, the co-operative commonwealth. We readily admit that so far the working class has not shown any marked tendency towards such a society. Are we then to abandon the idea as false? By no means, the results so far merely show that our fellow-workers have not yet become politically conscious of their own interests. But will so in the future begin more and more completely to understand his economic and political situation. Many workers are already beginning to show signs of independent life. Events will confirm the need for independent working class political action. The message of socialism, which, for years was spurned by people, falls today upon eager ears and receptive minds. Their prejudices are melting away. They are now prepared to give a hearing to the only political party that proposes a change of system.  The Socialist party is the only party of the people, the only truly democratic party in the world. We are not here to play the filthy game of capitalist politics. The Socialist Party as the party of the working class stands squarely upon its principles in making its appeal to the workers. It is not begging for votes, nor asking votes, nor bargaining for votes. It is not in the vote market. It wants votes but only of those who want it - those who recognise is as their party, and come to it of their own free will. To be sure, we want all the votes we can get but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office. The workers have never made use of their political power. They have played the game of their masters for the benefit of the master class - and how many of them, disgusted with their own blind and stupid performance are renouncing politics and refusing to see any difference between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling class to perpetuate class rule and the Socialist Party organised and financed by the workers themselves as a means of wresting the control of government and of industry from the capitalists. The Socialist Party clearly states that the time has come for the workers of the world to shake off their oppressors and exploiters, put an end to their age-long servitude, and make themselves the masters of the world. To this end the Socialist Party has been organised; to this end, it makes its appeal to our fellow-workers workers.

In the name of the workers the Socialist Party condemns the capitalist system. In the name of economic freedom, it condemns wage-slavery. In the name of modern technology, it condemns poverty and famine. In the name of peace, it condemns war. In the name of civilisation, it condemns the starvation and deaths of children from preventable disease. In the name of enlightenment, it condemns religious ignorance and superstition. In the name of humanity, it demands social justice for every man, woman, and child. The Socialist Party points out clearly to our fellow-workers why their situation is hopeless under capitalism, how they are robbed and exploited, and why they are bound to make common cause with other workers in the mills and factories of the cities, along with the railways, and in the mines in the struggle for emancipation. The education, organisation and co-operation of the workers is the conscious aim and the self-imposed task of the Socialist Party. No power on earth can prevail against the working class coming into consciousness of itself in its complete awakening. In the coming socialist system based upon the common ownership of the means of life and the production of wealth for the use of all instead of the profit of the few, for which the Socialist Party stands, peace will prevail and plenty for all will abound in the land. The brute struggle for existence will have ended, and the millions of exploited poor will be rescued from the clutches of poverty and famine. The social conscience and the social spirit will prevail. Society will have a new birth and a new destiny. There will be work for all, leisure for all, and the joys of life for all. Competition there will be, not in the struggle for survival, but to excel in the common good work and in social well-being. Every person will have an equal chance to rise to its full stature and achieve success in life.

The members of the Socialist Party are the party and is organised and administered from the bottom up. There is no leader and there never can be unless the party deserts its principles and ceases to be a socialist party. The party is supported by a dues-paying membership. Each member has not only an equal voice but is urged to take an active part in all the party committees. Each branch is an educational centre. The Party relies wholly upon the power of education and knowledge.

Our Immediate Demands

Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of people. We are living under a system which is more and more clearly revealed as the enemy of mankind. There is a crying need for an immediate change in the social system and this necessitates the adoption of socialism which is the common ownership of the means of production for the common good and welfare. The capitalist system has created the potential for a vast abundance, but it brings poverty and hunger to the working people. It imposes draconian cuts in living standards on the already poor, simply in the interest of still greater profits for the capitalist class. From the standpoint of the vast majority, it is already an obsolete system, and the productive forces and technology it has created will have to be turned to the benefit of humanity as a whole under a new social system. Capitalism is responsible for the destruction of the environment. Its arms industry sucks up the world’s research and development and cynically profits from a series of local wars of unparalleled destructiveness. The root cause of all this is capitalism’s guiding principle, the quest for profit, which takes precedence over any human interest. Today more than ever capitalism brings nothing but misery and exploitation. Capitalism threatens the future of humanity. The profit motive is incompatible with safeguarding the world’s resources. So long as it is profitable, environmental destruction is perfectly ’logical’ under capitalism. Our problem is not limited resources but the waste of resources which is an essential part of the process of capital accumulation. Marx and Engels explained that only the working class could be the force bringing about the necessary revolutionary transformation of society. Socialism will provide the opportunity for a society planned for the majority rather than for profit.

The Socialist Party will not confine itself to demanding some demand for improvement of this or that condition. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has undergone many changes in its history, but much of these have simply meant finding new ways to exploit people. The only solution is to destroy it and build a new social system. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to expropriate the capitalists. The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as “the class struggle.” The overthrow of capitalism—that is our DEMAND—it is THE demand. This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of the State from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new plane, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of the government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places, as many believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear. If the Socialist Party had no political ideal than the victory of one class over another it would not be worthy. The struggle for working class emancipation, which finds its expression thru the Socialist Party, must continue and will increase in intensity. There is no middle ground possible. Corbyn and Sanders want to bluff the voters that they can transform the capitalist system into a socialist one. All that is necessary are a few new taxation laws. “Squeeze the rich” with taxes and give to the poor. Many of their reform ideas cannot be successfully carried out inside the framework of capitalism, and if some of them are, they will deepen the recession rather than help to overcome it. We only know that the principles of socialism are necessary to the emancipation of the working class. Social changes are preceded by agitation and unrest. The old system is being shaken to its foundations and its passing is but a question of time. The Socialist Party stands against the present system and for the rule of the people; the only party that boldly avows its purpose the overthrow of wage-slavery. So long as the present system of capitalism prevails and the few are allowed to own all, workers will be struggling in the hell of poverty, as they are today. Private ownership and competition have had their day. The Socialist Party stands for common ownership and co-operation. Capitalism is industrial despotism; Socialism, industrial democracy. The Socialist party demands the overthrow of the wages system.

The Socialist Party demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we demand the earth for all the people.

Our way is better

As socialists, we see the enemy as capitalism, the social system that exists throughout the world. We do not preach hate against individuals who administer capitalism. To do this would only reveal ignorance of how the system function. Capitalism can only be abolished when the majority of people throughout the world desire the change to socialism and take the appropriate action through the ballot box. The only barrier to socialism now is the lack of socialist knowledge among the working class. Our object is the  education of the working class to their real interest in society, and expose the bankrupt social order, under which we live. Our task is to assist our fellow-workers to discover the nature of the capitalist system, realise their problems and that these problems can’t be solved within it.

Understand that it does not matter how clever, or educated your leaders are, they are helpless in doing anything fundamental about conditions. Politicians are not in charge of things as is widely believed. It is capitalism that is in charge of them! They are elected to administer a system rigged with contradictions and not in the interest of the majority. They can do nothing to change this, regardless of their good intentions. There is no political conspiracy against the poor, it is the system that makes poverty inevitable. A socialist party differs from other parties in various ways, one of the most striking difference being the views socialist hold towards the question of leadership. A socialist organisation does not recognise the need for any one person to be regarded as leader. This is based on the fact that within a socialist organisation everyone is conscious of the objective, and therefore there is no need for any special person to lead.

Most political parties start from the premise that the majority of people can't understand the complex nature of society. They, therefore, encourage members that this analysis of society be left to an "educated" elite. No doubt conscious of the fact that if members do examine our social structure they would soon no longer be members. Observe how we hear quite often people expressing their disappointment in a particular leadership. This is partly due to the fact that the leader, and the members don't share the same philosophy, and are in the organisation for different reasons. Few organisations on the political level, ask people to endorse a set of principles before becoming members. They would, in fact, regard this as suicidal, their chief objective being, to gain as much popular support as possible, and not to put obstacles in the way to this end. This in one reason why they need a leader, someone with the personality to unite so many people with different views. The ability to keep alive hopes that can never be fulfilled is regarded as an essential quality for a modern leader. Despite this, however, it is impossible for any political leader to escape conflict within his or her organisation, with members so confused as to goal, and their natural ignorance of the motive of capitalist society.

Every socialist organisation throughout the world demand that each prospective member endorses a set of principles. This eliminates conflict of goal, and the method of achieving it. Members already conscious of the wrong in capitalist society soon grasp the full consequence of its continued existence. This is done through our literature, and lecture programmes, their educational value are very rewarding, extending to a change of one's life-style. Socialists have often expressed confidence in any person of average intelligence, to understand the socialist case. It is really the intelligence of the average worker they attack, those people who accuse us of inaction. Taken in this sense, our activities rightly reflect the amount who join us, in the different countries around the world. Remembering that we don’t engage in marches, and demonstrations, as we regard such methods as useless. While other organisations do everything to create the impression of false strength, to gain recognition, socialist continue to reflect their true influence in society. We regard politics as serious business and proceed to educate people to realise that capitalist society can be changed to socialism, to others it really is a game, with the leader as the chief player. 

The world cannot change to something better until the majority of people in it visualise a new social system, and then set out to make it a reality. This is everyone's responsibility, not for a few to decide. When people have this vision they won’t need leaders, as they will be certain of where they are going. It is in the structure of society that we live under that create the problems of the world, leaders can’t change the system, all of us can. The record of the staggering failure of leadership is proof enough how useless it is. We only help to make capitalism survive by supporting leaders. We need a social system to establish harmonious, relationship for men on earth. When men are moving consciously to this end they will have no need for leaders.