Crapitalism or socialism?

You are working for a boss. You are his “hands.” He uses you to make profit. How is this profit possible at all? Because he makes you work more than is necessary to defray your wages. In other words, when you work you are not only reproducing the value of your own up-keep but you are also producing surplus value which goes to the owner. The quicker the pace of your work, the more surplus value you produce within a given time. The capitalist will sell the produced commodity in the market. He will sell it at the price fixed, not by himself individually, but by the market of which he is a part. If he can produce more cheaply than his competitor, his profits will be greater. This is why he drives you on to work faster and faster. This is why he introduces labour-saving new technology which results in increased unemployment or under-employment. This is why he uses efficiency experts of every kind. He calls it industrial progress, but he doesn’t think of progress at all. He thinks of profits. Every other manufacturer thinks of profits. Every other manufacturer speeds his workers ever faster and introduces newer and better machines. The result is that ever greater numbers of workers are being displaced, while the production capacity of the plants is enormously increased. The numbers of actually employed workers grow smaller. The production capacity of the factories and plants grows bigger. It is the madness called capitalism. It is the outcome of an insane system where wealth is owned, not by those who produce it, but by those who do not produce anything, who have amassed it out of the work of others under the protection of the law; a system where production is directed, not towards satisfying human wants, but towards making profits for the owners of wealth. This is capitalism in its modern form. This is capitalism. Progress running amuck, built on crushed human bones and on oceans of blood, sweat, and tears of the many, devouring itself and devouring untold human lives. Expansion made possible by killing and maiming huge masses of innocent people. Scientific advances are made to serve the purpose of destruction. Security for the non-producers; starvation for the producers. The elite parasites held in great esteem and respected; the workers downtrodden and despised.

You have had a job for a number of years. Your pay was not high, but you managed to get along. You were a faithful worker. You never shirked. Perhaps you saved up a few dollar to buy a house, get married and raise a family. You were decent, law-abiding. One fine morning you are told your services are no longer needed. In plain words: you are fired. You are thrown out. There is a recession, they say. Your employer has no more need for you. He is cutting back on production, or he is shutting his plant altogether so to open another factory where operating costs are lower. While he leaves you without a livelihood, he continues to have a good time in plenty of luxury. No cut-backs in his opulent life-style. He no longer cares what will happen to you. A company has no obligations towards its ex-employees.

But think on. You were not a stranger to his factory or mill or shop. You and the likes of you built its success. You and the likes of you have created all the machinery, all the raw material and all the fuel which is necessary to run an industry. You and the likes of you are the real power that puts life into the dead matter of every industrial undertaking. It was your blood, your sweat, your muscle and your brain that produced everything that came out of that factory. You staked much into his establishment — your whole life. It is yours, more than any owner's or investor’s. It was part of your very being.

The solution to capitalism's many problems is socialism, a democratic system of society where the wealth is owned and controlled by the people who produce it. In a cooperative society we can pool our abilities and resources to create more for everyone, and to share it out fairly. Capitalism is the control of the means of production by a small minority who organise the wealth they control to their own advantage, and to the disadvantage of the people who work for them. Capitalism, the rule of the rich minority, is the enemy. The State is an instrument of power in the hands of the big industrialists, bankers and landlords, who by this token are the ruling class. The State is there to effect the exploitation and oppression of the workers and the poor.

The State is the executive committee and the strong arm of entrenched wealthy. There is war. It is class war. It is waged by the representatives of one class, the oppressors, against the mass of another class, the oppressed.  In this war, the State is always and invariably on the side of the oppressors. Some of its representatives may try to achieve the ends of capital by cajoling and wheedling. But they always keep the big stick ready. The State — that is the tool of the owners of wealth, the weapon of the big corporations. Everyone who tries to persuade you that the State is your friend, your defender, that the State is impartial and only “regulatory,” is lying to you. Under capitalism, you cannot protect both “industry” (meaning the capitalists) and labour (meaning the workers)! When you protect “industry” you give it freedom to exploit “labour”. The State may change its appearance. The form changes and the phraseology differs according to time and place but the essence remains. The essence of the capitalist State is service in the employ of capitalism for the preservation of capitalism. It may use the parliamentary system, with a limited freedom of speech to opponents — as long as this opposition is not too dangerous. It tightens the screw and tries to silence the opposition when the situation becomes too threatening to the capitalists.

Reformists are often dissatisfied with the functioning of the State. They sometimes see and point out its “shortcomings.” They do not close their eyes to the fact that there is inequality. But what do they propose to do? They propose a little tinkering here and there. But propose nothing to do with the very nature of the State as a bulwark of private property and capitalist exploitation. The reformist does not touch upon the fundamentals of the capitalist State, namely, it being an instrument of power in the hands of the big owners of wealth. Radical reformists sometimes wax eloquent in denouncing the evils of the capitalist system. But what do they propose? They propose to “improve” the capitalist State. Improve the State to make it more flexible, more adaptable to circumstances and you have made it a better instrument of oppression. The reformists say there is no need of a revolution, no need for the expropriation of the exploiters. Our dispute with the reformists is not a dispute in words and policies. It is a clash in class politics. Do not call us vindictive when we say that the reformist politicians are traitors to the working class. We merely call a spade a spade. We are realists. They spread illusions among the workers to the effect that by using the instrumentality of the capitalist state, they can abolish the evils of capitalist oppression. Their palliatives are not harmless, but a poisonous theory. It is a smoke screen behind which cruel capitalist exploitation is hiding.

The Socialist Party never for a moment loses sight of the goal of the movement — the destruction of the capitalist system. The Socialist Party says the huge waste of human energy and human resources under capitalism, this colossal amount of human suffering, this humiliation of starving in the midst of plenty, this living in the dumping grounds of big cities at a time when humanity knows already how to build palaces, this debacle which is worse than war and pestilence, can be avoided. Life can be made liveable. Life can be made a continuous and uninterrupted stream of cultural growth. This can be achieved only by the working class rising to take over and organise society on a new basis. This basis is socialism.

Struggling For Global Control

Vladimir Putin is seizing on Trump's pledge to reverse US policy on Syria to press for a military victory that could mark Russia's return as a great power rival in the middle east. Assad's military backed by Russian firepower and Iranian-trained soldiers had, by late November retaken Aleppo. 

This shows that the fall of the Soviet Union didn't change anything fundamentally. 

There are still two Capitalist superpowers struggling for global control and there is no reason the working class, anywhere, should support either. 

Steve and John

Rising Prices In Canada

A typical Canadian family will spend about $420 more on groceries next year, suggests a report by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, which was released on December 5. Food inflation will increase in 2017, driven by a falling loonie and Donald Trump's first year in office. Food prices are expected to rise between 3 and 5 per cent, with meat, especially chicken and pork, vegetables, fish and other sea food among those that are projected to jump by 4 to 6 per cent. 

So, obviously life 'aint getting any easier under crapitalism is it dear friends? So why not chuck it into the trash can of history.

 Steve and John.

Drug Overdosiing Rising Numbers

Overdose deaths in the city of Toronto have leaped 77per cent in a decade, to 258 in 2014, from 146 in 2004. 

The deaths have been driven by the rise of Opioids like Fentanyl and Heroin, according to the Board Of Health, which plans to improve monitoring the places where overdoses occur and ease access to Naloxone, an antidote. Councillor Joe Cressy, the chairman of Toronto's drug strategy, wants to see drugs brought into supervised injection sites. Cressy said,''We have a rapidly escalating overdose crisis facing the city of Toronto, the province and Canada. Traces of Fentanyl which can be very deadly in very small doses are turning up in other drugs and many users don't know exactly what they're taking. 

The issue received national attention earlier this year when a Kamloops, BC, man died after overdosing on Cocaine laced with Fentanyl, at a wedding. ''If we are going to prevent the scale of an overdose crisis we've seen in Western Canada, we need to move quicker now'', said Cressy. Toronto City Council has approved three injection sites and is awaiting for Federal approval and Provincial funding.

 Notice, nowhere does any one suggest there may be something wrong in a society that drives people to drugs and that just maybe needs changing - no way Jose! No Sir - intellectual giants like Mr. Cressy and his buddies on the Council try to contain the problem within society as it exists which is self-defeating 

Steve and John

The Death of Liam Tumilson - No Surrender

From http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/14/the-death-of-liam-tumilson-an-irish-anti-fascist-in-spain/

The Death of Liam Tumilson, an Irish Anti-Fascist in Spain

by PAULINE MURPHY

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Approximately 30 Belfast men went to Spain in the 1930s to fight against the spread of fascism. It marked the first time since the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion that Laganside Catholics and Protestants came together to fight for a common cause. One of those was Liam Tumilson whose life expired March 14, 1937 on the Jarama Front during the Aragon offensive.

Tumilson arrived in Spain in 1936 on the Winter solstice December 21st. Back home in Belfast he worked as a Crane Driver, in Spain he was a driver of revolution.

William James Tumilson was born and reared in the mainly Protestant East Belfast but religion didn’t matter to him, the only side he was interested in was the side of the working man.

In 1929 he joined the Short Strand IRA and in 1934 followed the left wing of the organisation into the Republican Congress. That same year he was one of those who carried the banner of the ‘Shankill James Connolly Socialists’ at the Wolfe Tone commemoration in Bodenstown. This caused controversy when some members of the east Tipperary IRA tried to grab the banner. There had been a rule on ‘no banners’ at Bodenstown.

Tumilson was a well-known face to hold banners and flags at events and was seen at the annual May Day trade unionist rally in Belfast proudly holding up the banner with the words ‘break the connection with capitalism’ emblazoned across it.

In October 1932 10,000 unemployed men held a protest in Belfast against the low relief paid in distress schemes but the protest quickly turned into a riot which went down in Belfast history as the Outdoor Relief Riots and of course,  Tumilson was in the thick of it! The Outdoor Relief Riots pushed many working class protestants towards socialism and would lay the foundations for many of them supporting the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War.

Tumilson emigrated to Australia where he joined the Communist party. His migration was a brief one and he would return to his home on Thurndyke street in Belfast.

In 1933 Tumilson was in Dublin where he joined his fellow comrades in defending Connolly House from a contingent of rightwing blueshirts who were hell bent on besieging it. The defenders of Connolly House won out but this minor event would play out in a much larger scale three years later when opposing ideologies would clash in the Spanish Civil War.

In early December 1936, Tumilson left his Belfast home for the last time and made his way to Dublin from where he departed to Liverpool on a ferry. His intended destination was Spain and the fight against Francos fascists. His comrades in Belfast had a slogan associated with him for years: "Wherever the fight is, Tumilson will be there.!”

By the time he reached Liverpool Tumilson found he did not have enough of money to get to London and only had enough for his passage to Spain so he decided to hitchhike to London. Such was his determination!

In Spain, Tumilson showed tremendous character on the battlefield, it was a hardy steadfast one built on the streets of working-class  Belfast, and he rose to rank of adjutant in the famous Liam Mooney machine gun company.

Tumilson had left a fiancé back in Belfast, Kathleen Walsh, but wrote almost everyday to her. In his last letter, dated March 11, he informed Kathleen: “we are still driving the fascists back and still confident of victory.”

Three days after writing his last letter home to Kathleen, Tumilson and his comrades entered the hellfire of the Jarama front and would fall in the Aragon offensive. On March 14, 1937 fierce fighting occurred between francos forces and the International brigades for possession of the Valencia Road. Supreme pressure was being put on the International Brigades as the Francoists were closing in.

In a break in machine gun fire, Tumilson stood up on a hill to view the situation. He needed a clear view of where he could get his men out safely from the advancing enemy. As he turned to give orders a Ffrancoist sniper shot him in the head.

The33-year-oldd Tumilson was buried in  Morata town, just south west of Madrid. By the time his last letter to his fiancé Kathleen reached her, Tumilson was already dead and buried in Spanish soil. His last words written to his fiancé eexudes his steadfast character: “I’m still determined to stay here until fascism is completely crushed. Impossible to do other than carry on with the slogan of Cathal Brugha– no surrender!”

Socialism is a new society

The Socialist Party is primarily concerned with analysing the capitalist system, pointing out its defects and advocating the replacing of the capitalist system by the common ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. The success of the socialist movement and the rapidity of its progress will depend very largely upon the method of education and the political tactics of the Socialist Party. Mere economic development in itself cannot bring the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism does not advance necessarily in response to or because of great industrial distress. These crises may point out the fact that something is wrong, but the suggestion of the remedy and the cure for these ills is quite a different problem.

The objective conditions for socialism, the productive capacity of society to produce an abundance of goods - have been long over-ripe; the subjective prerequisites for a decisive social change – the class consciousness and the political will are, however, absent. Too many of our fellow workers are conservative They hold to a tendency to adhere to old ideas which is far stronger than the desire for change. Some say the world has changed so fundamentally and produced too many new problems for the socialist movement to answer. If socialism is about creating and modifying an amazing array of manifestoes, then perhaps the charge is true. Has our world changed drastically over the past years? Undoubtedly. Has it changed socially? No doubt. Culturally? That also. And psychologically? True. But has the world changed socially, culturally and psychologically enough to invalidate the socialist analysis? That is the question.  Every epoch in capitalist development has ushered in new problems, demanding new criteria. Marx and Engels furnished the working class with a tool of criticism, the materialist conception of history.  We adhere to the basic conceptions of Marxism because they have proved again and again to be the most efficacious tools of social understanding. Socialist consciousness lies in the awareness in which the worker realises that he or she is the creator of the revolution and socialism. The Socialist Party does not believe socialist consciousness arises automatically but recognises the class struggle as a school of socialist education, in which the working class, by its own experiences and also by the introduction of socialist ideas reach the level of socialist consciousness. So long as capitalism exists, so long as an exploitive society resting on industrial production exists, so long as a working class remains indispensable to modern production, the necessity of socialism will remain. And if that is true, then there are no other means by which the working class can emancipate itself except through its own organisations, economic and political.

Socialism is the free association of completely free men and women, where no separation between ‘private and common interest’ exists. A socialist economy is a planned economy. Marx saw socialism as implying, in the economic field, ownership of the means of production by society as a whole; a rapid increase in the productive forces, planned production. The entire world's production and distribution in socialist society develops in a planned and proportionate way.  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.  Although 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.

Nowhere in Marx’s writings is there to be found a detailed account of the new social system which was to follow capitalism. Marx wrote no “Utopia” of the kind that earlier writers had produced – writings based only on the general idea of a society from which the more obvious evils of the society in which they lived had been removed. But from the general laws of social development Marx was able to outline the features of the new society and the way in which it would develop.

Under capitalism, where everything enters the field of exchange and becomes the object of buying and selling, a man’s worth comes to be estimated, not by his really praiseworthy abilities or actions, but by his bank account. A man is “worth” what he owns and a millionaire is “worth” incomparably more than a pauper. A Rothschild is esteemed where a Marx is hated. In this cesspool of universal venality, all genuine human values and standards are distorted and desecrated. The person without artistic taste can buy and hang pictures in his mansion, or put them in a safety vault, while the creator and the genuine appreciator cannot view or enjoy them. The meanest scoundrel can purchase admiration from sycophants while worthy individuals go scorned and unnoticed. 

Charity And The Working Class

An SPCer recently met a lady who asks people for eye-glasses they no longer use. She gives them to the Lions' Club which finds senior citizens who can't afford glasses and can use them. This shows how nothing has changed.

 Engels, in his 'The Condition Of The Working Class In England' makes it clear that when it comes to charity the working class looks after its own, because, let's face it, the capitalists don't give a crap.

 Steve and John.

Trudeau's Worry?

On December I, Justin Trudeau, understandably, had a meeting with some fellow reformists, the editorial board of the Toronto Star. Among the pearls of wisdom the PM spoke we find this little goodie,''Unless we make significant changes around who gets the benefit of economic growth - unless we are much better about including everyone in the success of the country - then people will start to lash out.

We Socialists know who gets the benefit of economic growth and it sure as hell 'aint the working class, they should be the ones to lash out, and they can start that by working for Socialism.  

Steve and John.

You can't beat something with nothing

“Labour cannot emancipate itself in the White while in the Black it is branded.” (Marx)

WORKERS! Why do you live in slavery? Why are you not free? Why are you kicked and spat upon by your masters? Why do you toil hard for little money? And again thrown into prison if you refuse to work. WHY? Because you are the toilers of the earth. Because the masters want you to labour for their profit. Because they pay the Government and the police to keep you as slaves to toil for them.

Let there be no longer any talk of different nationalities. You are all labourers. Let labour be your common bond. Wake up! And open your ears. The sun has risen, day is breaking. For a long time, you were asleep when the  rich man was grinding and breaking the sweat from your work for nothing. Deliver yourselves from the chains of the capitalist. Social Revolution is the objective of the World Socialist Movement. Unity is our strength. Workers of all lands unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have the world to win.

The Socialist Party speaks to our fellow-workers, and above all to those workers who look forward to the emancipation of labour from wage slavery. There can be no appeal to any other section of society outside the working-class, as their interests are opposed to labour and their opinions therefore of no account to us. One section of the workers cannot benefit itself at the expense of the rest without betraying the hope of the children. Those who receive favours from the master class may lift themselves out of the propertyless proletariat: but their children will inherit the fear of the abyss which their fathers helped to create.The power of labour lies in its ability to stop or to control industry. All the workers are needed for this. Labour, not race, nationality nor gender, is the watchword of solidarity. If all those who labour cannot share in the emancipation of Labour, none can be emancipated.

Speed the Social Revolution!

 

The economic emancipation of the working class will be achieved only by the transfer to common ownership by all the people of all the means and products of production and the organisation of all the functions of social and economic life in accordance with the requirements of society. The modern development of technology in civilised societies not only provides the material possibility for such an organisation but makes it necessary and inevitable for solving the contradictions which hinder the quiet and all-round development of those societies. This radical economic revolution will entail most fundamental changes in the entire constitution of social and international relationships. Eliminating the class struggle by destroying the classes themselves; making the economic struggle of individuals impossible and unnecessary by abolishing commodity production and the competition connected with it; briefly, putting an end to the struggle for existence between individuals, classes and whole societies, it renders unnecessary all those social organs which have developed as the weapons of class oppression during the many centuries it has been proceeding. Without falling into utopian fantasies about the social and international organisation of the future, we can already now foretell the abolition of the most important of the organs of chronic struggle inside society, namely, the state, as a political organisation opposed to society and mainly in the interests of the ruling class. Society is divided into two classes: the working class, doing all the labour; and the idle class, living on the fruits of labour.  

Wait And See.

California State government recently passed tough clean air rules mandating that Auto-Makers sell only nonpolluting vehicles there. Nine other states have followed suit. This means that GM stands to lose $9,000 on every Chevrolet Bolt that leaves its showroom once the all electric sub-compact starts rolling out.

 So here we have a contradiction - a government has passed a law which makes it difficult for capitalists to make a profit. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 Steve and John

Do The Maths.

First the good news, the Canadian labour market added 10,700 jobs in November and the unemployment rate dropped from 7 per cent to 6.8., according to Stats-Canada. The bad news is the economy added 19,400 part time jobs, but shed 8,700 full time ones - do the math. So more and more workers have to exist on part time work, the equivalent of a pay cut. Nor is the 6.8 per cent figure accurate.

Many have used up their unemployment insurance and have given up searching for work. So don't expect things to get better under capitalism 'cos they won't. 

Steve and John

Partners In Your Own Exploitation?

Drivers and cyclists who work for Uber Eats in Toronto received E-mails on November 29 that the company will cut their wages from 30 to 50 per cent.All Uber delivery people are contractors. Prior to the changes cyclists would get $6.50 when they picked up an order, a fee that added up if they picked up multiple orders from the same restaurant, and $1.85 per kilometer of distance travelled. Uber would then take 35 per cent of the total delivery fee as its cut. Now they will get $2.90 for a pick up regardless of how many meals the cyclist may pick up. The distance rate is now $1.05 per kilometer, but (big surprise) Uber's 35 per cent cut remains the same. 

The only funny thing is the company refers to the contractors as ''partners''- yes the working class have soooo much in common with their exploiters.

 Steve and John.

Where we stand

Capitalism, by its method of production, has brought isolated workers together and constituted them as a class in society. Capitalism has made the workers a class in themselves. That is, the workers are a distinct class in society, whether they recognise this fact or not. Historical development calls upon this class to reorganise society completely and establish socialism. To do this, the workers must become a class for themselves. They must acquire a clear understanding of their real position under capitalism, of the nature of capitalist society as a whole, and of their mission in history. They must act consciously for their class interests. They must become conscious of the fact that these class interests lead to a socialist society. When this takes place, the workers are a class for themselves, a class with socialist consciousness.

How are the workers to acquire this consciousness – a clear understanding of capitalist society, their position in it, and the need to replace this society with socialism?

Workers try to get better wages and working conditions from their employers and soon learn the need for a union to defend themselves from attacks by the employer. They learn also the need for political action in order to influence the government in their interests. Workers are forced by capitalism to engage in the class struggle.

The thinking of the workers, which guides their fight, is based upon the ideas of the capitalist class, acquired directly from the capitalist press, schools and the like.What the workers still lack is a fundamental and thorough understanding of their real position in society and of their historic mission to establish socialism. This lack of a socialist consciousness reduces the effectiveness of their struggle and prevents them from accomplishing their mission in society.

To imbue the workers with this rounded-out class consciousness, or socialist consciousness that is the specific function of the Socialist Party. It is composed of those workers who already understand the nature of capitalism and the task of the working class. Their aim is to develop the same understanding among all the workers so that they no longer fight blindly. They and their party, therefore, have no interests separate from the interests of the working class as a whole. They merely represent its more conscious section.  It makes clear to the workers the full meaning of their fight. It shows how even the local struggles, against one capitalist, are really class struggles against capitalism; how the local struggles must be extended if the workers are to win a lasting victory. It points out the political meaning of the economic struggle. It shows how the workers must organise as a class to take political power, and use it to inaugurate socialism. It combats the open and the insidious ideas of capitalism so that the working class as a whole may be better equipped to fight its enemy. It aims to improve the position of the working class, to strengthen it, to clarify it and supply it with the most effective weapons in the struggle, to lead it in every battle in order that it may most speedily and successfully win the final battle for socialism. Against the ideas of capitalism and reformism in the working class, the Socialist Party works for the goal of socialism. The Socialist Party needs to win the working class to the principles of socialism, to socialist methods of struggle against capitalist exploitations and oppression. Socialism will never come by itself. It must be fought for. Without an organised, conscious, disciplined, active global socialist movement, the triumph of socialism is impossible.

The Socialist Party represents a long and rich tradition. It is proud of the fact that its principles and program are founded on the teachings of the greatest thinkers and writers of the working class, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and William Morris, even anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin.

What is a social revolution? It is the replacement of one ruling class by another. History is filled with such revolutions and in almost every case they made possible the progress of society. The socialist revolution is simply the overthrow of capitalist despotism and the establishment of democratic workers’ rule. The Socialist Party says that socialism can be established by the workers gaining a majority of the votes for their candidates to public office. Once they have been elected in sufficient number they will possess the political power to establish socialism relatively painlessly. Those who advocate armed struggle and insurrection are not genuine socialists and foster illusions that are fatal to the working class. The workers cannot possibly rule by means of a governmental machine. It will have to be replaced from top to bottom by an entirely different form of administration. The Socialist Party favours active participation in election campaigns. It does not deceive people into believing that socialist freedom can be achieved by nothing more than a casting a ballot. But it seeks to use every election campaign to acquaint workers with political action and to elect the greatest number of workers’ representatives who can use their office to work for labour’s interests and to tell the truth to wider masses of people. Once the State machine is captured the capitalist class can be appropriated of their property and ownership.

Socialism cannot be achieved, and the workers cannot effectively promote their interests, without class consciousness. Class consciousness means an understanding working class, a self-confident and self-reliant working class.  Socialism means peace and freedom for the entire world. The Socialist Party, therefore, gives no support to any wars and opposes them at all times. It is the party of peace, not war; of the brotherhood of the peoples, not the slaughter of the peoples. However, we are not and cannot be pacifists, except in so far as pacifism means the advocacy of peace. The class-free socialist society cannot be established within the framework of one country alone.  Socialism is world socialism, or it is not socialism at all. Just as socialist economy could not exist side by side with a capitalist economy in one country, so a socialist nation could not exist side by side with capitalist nations in one world. one or the other would have to win in the end.

The Socialist Party is the staunchest and most consistent champions of democracy. They are the opponents of capitalist democracy only because it is a class democracy, because, at its best, it is only a political democracy which cloaks the economic dictatorship of capital. Genuine democracy is possible only on the basis of economic democracy. But it does not follow that we are indifferent to democracy under capitalism. Nothing of the sort is true. The struggle for socialism can best be conducted under conditions that are most favorable to the working class. The most favourable conditions are those in which the working class has the widest possible democratic rights. Hence, it is to the interests of socialism and of the working class to fight for the unrestricted right to organise, the right to free speech, free press and free assembly, the right to strike and the right to vote, the right of representative government, and against every attempt to curb or abolish these rights.

Race For Profits

The Trudeau government has approved a major pipeline project to transport Alberta's bitumen to British Columbia's coast. The 6.8 billion Trans-Mountain project would add 980 kilometers of new pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby to open a new route to the Pacific for the Alberta oil sands.

This project faces strong opposition from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Liberal MPs from BC and First Nations representatives on the grounds (no pun intended) that it is unsafe.

 As if that will stop them. The capitalist class in its voracious race for profits has been stealing and destroying Aboriginals lands since the days since the days of Columbus - it 'aint gonna stop now!

Steve and John

Ignore The Problem - IT Might Go Away.

In Georgia and Tennessee there seems no end in sight for the drought. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said about 300 of the states 480 water serving systems are suffering moderate to exceptional drought. Watering lawns and washing cars is restricted in some parts of the south and more severe water limits will be imposed if the drought continues.

In some areas Beaver dams have been demolished to increase water flow. About 10.000 skiers go to Beech Mountain, North Carolina, on weekends, but now there is no snow, there are no skiers, so the economy of the town suffers.

Kevin Chambers of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said he wasn't sure they will have enough water to get through the winter - yet still the highly paid mouthpieces of the capitalist class in the U.S. declare in their infinite wisdom that there is no global warming problem.

Steve and John

Educating The Bishops

Tommy Sheppard, SNP MP for Edinburgh East, has upset the Catholic Church in Scotland by suggesting that the country should have a secular educational system and that faith schools should gradually disappear. The Socialist Party unlike the SNP who distanced themselves from Sheppard's remarks, are not fishing for votes and thus need not soften their criticism of religion.

Religion must be subject to the same scrutiny as any other belief and cannot hide behind the idea that they are personal. Religion is a social, not a personal matter and the Socialist Party holds that religion is incompatible with socialist understanding. For socialists, the struggle against religion cannot be separated from the struggle for socialism. Our criticism of religion is part of a struggle against the ideas that hinder the socialist movement. We need to remember that. 

Religion is not simply a jumble of confused ideas. It is a powerful weapon in the hands of the capitalist class. It divides us and blinds us to the class action that is required to overcome the menace of capitalism. Our position on organised religion is that religion is debilitating to the mind of the worker and thus to the progress which we wish to make as workers in advancing our interests. 

Religion performs two essential functions. It buttresses the established order by sanctifying it and by suggesting that the political order is somehow ordained by divine authority. Its sanctification of the existing social order makes it a counter-revolutionary force. Yet it consoles the oppressed exploited by offering them in heaven what they are denied upon earth. By holding before them a vision of what they are denied, religion plays at least partly a progressive role in that it gives the common people some idea of what a better order would be. But when it becomes possible to realize that better order upon earth in the form of communism, then religion becomes wholly reactionary, for it distracts men from establishing a now possible good society on earth by still turning their eyes towards heaven.

While religion is no doubt a useful means of dampening social discontent, it would be mistaken to exaggerate how effective it is today. It seems safe to say that the key ideology propagated by capitalists is not religion, but nationalism such as propagated by the SNP, which is more effective in blinding workers to their class interests and chaining them to a system that turns their blood and sweat into profits. 

A Worker’s Prayer
If in this wide-spreading universe, there be a Great God of Justice, hear me!
Stiffen my watery spine: harden and straighten my loose and foolish mouth; put fire into my dull eyes.
Even the beasts of the field, even the despised mule hitched to the plow, struggles that their life may be better.
Redden my blood with the courage of man. Help me despise my own image in the mirror if willingly I clutter up the path of progress with my stupid meekness.
Unstop my ears to hear. Open my eyes to see the glorious earth that can be made by One Big Union, the abundance for all that can replace the private plunder of a few.
The sum of my prayer is: Give me sense enough to want plenty, and grit enough to go after it, for myself, my children, my wife, my fellow workers. Open the windows of my brain to the glory of it.
A Blind Worker

The Socialist Party - For Socialism

A certain section of the Left never tire of hailing all demands for state ownership as a sign of the growth of the socialist spirit among the working class and therefore worthy of support. Reformists generally accepted that the State represented society as a whole; that its parliamentary institutions provided the means for popular opinion to express itself; and when that opinion became "socialist", or at least the majority of it, the State would become socialist automatically. 

The Socialist Party would point out that to call such policies socialist is highly misleading. Socialism properly implies above all things the common ownership and the co-operative control by the workers of the machinery of production; without this the public ownership by the State is not socialism – it is only state-capitalism. Those who worked most and hardest would still get the least remuneration, and the rank and file would still be deprived of all voice in the ordering of their industry, just the same as in all private enterprises. We repeat, state ownership and control is not socialism. The aim of socialism is to take the means of production out of the hands of the capitalist class and place them into the hands of the workers.  Common ownership mplies, first, that the entire community is master of the means of production and works them in a well planned system of social production. It implies secondly that in all shops, factories, enterprises the personnel regulate their own collective work as part of the whole. Socialism is achieved not through nationalised public corporations, but through a fundamental change in class relations. Let there be no ambiguity about the use of the word socialism. We mean by it, and so does every revolutionary socialist entitled to the name, the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution, a class-free society. The unambiguous aim of the Socialist Party is the cooperative commonwealth in which the supplying of human needs and enrichment of human life shall be the primary purpose of our society. Unprecedented scientific and technological advances have brought us to the threshold of a second industrial revolution. But by bringing men and women together primarily as buyers and sellers of each other, by enshrining profitability and material gain in place of humanity and spiritual growth, capitalism has always been inherently alienating.

Socialism will yield the maximum opportunities for individual development and the maximum of goods and services for the satisfaction of human needs. However, if the status quo is maintained the problems of capitalism will be multiplied in the future. The technological changes will produce even greater concentrations of wealth and power and will cause widespread distress through unemployment and the displacement of populations. The challenge facing our fellow-workers today is whether future development will continue to perpetuate the inequalities of the past or whether it will be based on principles of social justice. The Socialist Party holds firm to the belief that our society must build a new relationship among mankind--a relationship based on mutual respect and on equality of opportunity. In such a society everyone will have a sense of worth and belonging, and will be enabled to develop his capacities to the full. The Socialist Party will not rest until every person is able to enjoy equality and freedom, a sense of human dignity, and an opportunity to live a rich and meaningful life as a citizen of the cooperative commonwealth. 

The achievement of socialism awaits the building of a mass base of socialists, in factories and offices. The development of socialist consciousness, on which can be built a socialist base, must be the first priority of the Socialist Party which can be seen as the parliamentary wing of the workers' movement dedicated to fundamental social change. Capitalism must be replaced by socialism. Rather than the current sense of  insignificance and impotence, a socialist transformation of society will return to mankind to its sense of humanity, to replace the sense of being a commodity.

Citizen Wage or No Wages

Every few years, so-called solutions spring up to end the many social problems of capitalism, in particular, poverty. One of those panaceas is called the citizens wage or universal basic income and from Kenya to Finland, governments are exploring its feasibility.

In Scotland, this miracle cure for destitution is being investigated at Holyrood. MSPs on the Social Security Committee were hearing from advocates and experts to see how it could work. The committee heard that there are various models. The models suggested would end the need for Job Seekers allowance but would still need Disability benefits and Housing Benefit because rent levels wary so much across the country. Trials in Gasgow and Fife are at early stages of being devised.

Howard Reed, Director, Landman Economics said a Citizens income would have great benefit. “It provides a genuine social safety net albeit at a low level. If it was unconditional it would stop people having to use food banks and nefarious ways of support like payday loans.” However, MSPs were also warned that there are some who advocate a Citizen's Income in order to reduce the state. Mr Reed said some want to use it to  "destroy the current welfare state, NHS and state education."


This blog has made its view clear, here
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2017/01/ubi-again.html
And here
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2016/11/citizens-wages.html


Whats noticeable is that since these schemes were first suggested as far back  the first Muslim caliph, Abu Bakr (573-634 CE), who introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman, and child ten dirhams annually; this was later increased to twenty dirhams.

Thomas Paine advocated a citizen's dividend to all US citizens as compensation for "loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property" (Agrarian Justice, 1795).

Napoleon Bonaparte echoed Paine's sentiments and commented that 'man is entitled by birthright to a share of the Earth's produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence'.

And in the 1930s and the ILP, i believe, but maybe as far back as the Speenhamland system in the middle ages) no country has actually implemented UBI, the citizens wage, nationally.

It has always been localised pilot schemes or feasibility studies which the media then blow up into a major story.  

The Socialist Party argues for an end to the wages system overall. No citizens' wage but an end to wage-slavery. No mortgage, no bills, no tax, no debt. Production for use, not profit, and free access to the common wealth. Forget the futility of fighting constantly for reforms. 
Support Socialism.

Why the Socialist Party

The aim of the World Socialist Movement is the abolition of class rule and class conflict, with all their detrimental consequences, So long as society is divided into classes, in whatever form, the economics and politics as well as the ideas, culture, etc. of society will be dominated by one class or another–they cannot serve all classes, exploiter and exploited, oppressor and oppressed, master and slave, equally.


Once money becomes the aim of production, labour power has to become a commodity. In other words, a worker’s labour power can be bought and sold. Besides the fact that people must be legally free–that is, not slaves owned by others or serfs tied to the land–the labourer must have lost all means of production and thus all ability to produce either for consumption or exchange for himself. An example of this is peasants being driven off the land. Labour power as a commodity is the necessary complement of the private ownership of the means of production by the capitalists. Only by buying the worker’s labour power can the capitalist make profits. Workers produce more than what the capitalist pays them in wages and benefits. This is the basis of exploitation of the workers. What the workers produce over and beyond the socially necessary labour for keeping themselves and their families alive and working is surplus value. Surplus value is the only source of profits and is ripped off by the capitalists. Inside a socialist society, labour power is no longer a commodity.


To assure plenty, security, leisure, and freedom for all, it is necessary that the existing property system, the existing forms of economic control and distribution of wealth, be so changed as to adapt them to the conditions of modern life. Only by the socialized ownership and democratic control of such productive wealth, doing away with exploitation and making the satisfaction of human wants the ruling motive in production, can the ideal of a classless society be realized. The interest of the wage-working class imperatively demands this change. The choice before us is either to permit the uncontrolled development of capitalism to concentrate all power in the hands of an oligarchy and reduce the people to abject servitude or to assert the right and duty of the people to control and remodel their economic life. Any appeal to revolutionary violence must be repudiated. It is unnecessary and unjustifiable in countries where the orderly and peaceful methods of democracy are available. Our fellow-workers, if they but have confidence in themselves, to transform our society of non-producing owners and non-possessing workers into a socialist democracy in which all shall be all joint-owners (or non-owners) for the common good. Thus and only thus can class rule, with its attendant evils of social strife and international war, of undeserved poverty, of corruption and servility, be transformed into a truly free and democratic society, in which useful work performed by all through far shorter hours and under far more pleasant conditions than now generally prevail, will be able to produce the material basis of a livelihood for all far better than is enjoyed today by any except the very rich.


The Socialist Party takes the political field with one plank upon its programme—Socialism. It emphasises that only socialists must vote for its candidates. Every other vote is useless and dangerous. Alliances, compromises, and arrangements with other parties may easily mean the return of a candidate, but not of a socialist candidate. We do not consider that the strength of any party in the labour movement is determined by the number of individuals which compose it.  The class struggle reflects itself in the domain of ideas. In the name of freedom, in the name of honesty, in the name of civilisation itself, for the good of those now alive and of generations yet unborn, the Socialist Party call upon our fellow- workers of the city and country as a class to join us in winning the good new world which is within our reach.