Know Where You Want To Go

All around us are the signs of a world in crisis, yet men and women seem unable to do anything about it. Homelessness, unemployment, inadequate education and health care, and mass alienation have become facts of life. For the first time in history, present and future generations are confronted with the reality that they will be worse off than their parents.  No wonder many are in despair. But all is not lost. Those fellow-workers who seek a way out of a world of poverty and environmental destruction must look to socialism. Under capitalism, a small section of the population controls production and is not answerable to the rest of the community. This section is competing within its own ranks and with similar classes abroad. We are living in the most revolutionary period in the history of mankind. We are now entering an epoch in which the course of history has to take a decisive turn towards world socialism for planetary survival. So long as workers resist alienation and oppression they will revolt. And these revolts will emerge, as they always have, with remarkable power and suddenness. But those class explosions that are still to come are likely to have the appearance of new revolutionary forms, organisations which are not simply organs of struggle but organs of control of production. They are a sign of the future. Rest assured, whatever new organisations emerge, the struggle will continue. 

Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution. However, to use the word without explanation is to get one’s self and one’s cause seriously misunderstood. We need to distinguish us as socialists from those who merely wish to patch up the present system and keep it. The other political parties, every one, old and new ones, really do advocate mere reform measures. All reforms that stop short of overthrowing the capitalist system become co-opted by that system and turned to its advantage (but not necessarily to the advantage of any particular capitalists). If the system isn’t overthrown it continues to function. We are not reformists — we are revolutionists.  The Socialist Party stands opposed to joining in a demand for palliatives, and assert that such a line of agitation is liable, to obscure the higher ideal, the complete overthrow of the wage system.

Let it be clearly understood everywhere that by revolution the Socialist Party does not mean violence or bloodshed. If any violence should arise, it would be not the result of the teachings of socialists, but rather the result of the refusal of the rulers to accept the will of the majority. For the Socialist Party offers a possible peaceful solution through the ballot box and the capture of political power. Socialism is not government ownership or control of industry. Socialism struggles for the abolition of the state, not the enlarging of its functions. Socialism is a struggle to place the management and control of industry directly in the workers through the overthrow of capitalism. Socialism, in the words of Engels, is not the government of persons, but the administration of things.  The Socialist Party holds that the economic emancipation of the worker requires the conversion of the means of production into the common property of all society.

Capitalism is tremendously wasteful and destructive of men and women, goods, energy, land. The ultimate destiny of all useful goods is to be consumed. Yet under capitalism goods are not produced to be consumed, but for profit, and if a greater profit can be made by destroying the goods, the destruction takes place. While production is a social act, the appropriation of the product, under the present system, is individual. As capitalism develops, larger and larger factories are built, thousands of laborers co-operate in the production of a single article, yet the article does not belong to them but to the owner of the means of production. The laborers are merely paid wages for the use of their labor power, wages which constantly grow less and less a part of the total product as the total product ever increases. Within the factory a rigid dictatorship, a terrible “rationalisation” where the dead machine rules living labor, where the man is transformed into a cog of the machine, where labor becomes wage-slavery. Outside the factory dictatorship is replaced by economic chaos, man is ruled by prices which he cannot control, by the wild forces of the market of which he can be only the victim. It is only through the hectic fluctuations of supply and demand, it is only through the frantic rush of “successes” and bankruptcies that society “decides” and “plans” the division of its labor. Simultaneously the owner of the industries becomes progressively more divorced from the productive process. As small partnerships become big corporations or are driven out of business by the trusts and monopolies, the original entrepreneurs and organisers become mere rentiers, mere dividend receivers. The corporation also develops, becomes more and more a public utility. The state begins to take a hand, and to run the industry. The former individual owner now becomes a purely parasitic hanger-on, his dividends paid regularly by the state apparatus which he controls. While the productivity of man is unlimited and increases in geometric ratio, the markets are limited, increase in arithmetic ratio, later do not increase at all and even decrease. The greater the productivity of labor, and the greater the amount of production, the greater becomes the surplus product in the hands of the owners, the greater the need for markets, the greater, therefore, the competition among the capitalists, and the greater the tendency to lower the rate of profit, the greater the lowering of the wages of the workers, the larger the army of unemployed and paupers, the more vigorous the drive for foreign markets and colonies for exploitation, and the more violent the military struggles to control the world. The greater the globalisation of markets, the greater the need to have a military machine to defend the market interests, the greater grow the oppressive burdens of the state apparatus. The only solution for capitalism is another world war greater than the preceding one. The motto “Bigger and Better” certainly prevails for capitalist wars and crises.

Is capitalism able to find the way out?  What solutions do the capitalist leaders propose?

The Socialist Party takes the attitude that what's necessary for the working class is to understand the world we liv in; the working class is faced with the problems of poverty, insecurity, and war, and the working class could not remove these problems until it understood the cause of them. Unfortunately, at the present time, the overwhelming majority of the workers did not understand the system of society in which they lived, and in which they were exploited.

Under capitalism, wealth took the form of commodities, articles which are produced solely for sale on a market with a view to profit The means of producing wealth—the land, factories, railways, etc., were owned by a small minority of the population, the capitalist class. The working class owned none of the means of production and consequently, was forced to work for those who do own. The worker, in order to live, had to sell the only commodity which he possessed—his power to labour. However, the commodity labour-power had a peculiar characteristic not possessed by any other commodity—it could produce a value greater than its own. That value which was produced by the working class, over and above what it was paid in the form of wages, was appropriated by the capitalist class and distributed in the form of rent, interest, and profit.

Because the working class was tied to the wages system, it received only the value of its labour-power, which was determined by what was required to maintain it as an efficient working class and to reproduce the next generation of wage-slaves. Hence, the worker’s lot was one of poverty amidst plenty. Moreover, the worker was only employed as long as the capitalist could make a profit from his employment. If there was no profit, there was no production, and the worker was out of a job. In order to realise the profits on the wealth produced by the workers, the capitalist class was brought into conflict with the capitalist class in other parts of the world and periodically, therefore, the capitalist world was plunged into war.

The only solution to these problems lay in the abolition of their cause, which was the class ownership of the means of life. Socialism is defined by the Socialist Party as being a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means of producing and distributing wealth by and in the interests of the whole of society. This would enable society to produce things solely for use and thus, remove the exploitation of the working class and the social problems which flowed from that state of affairs. Socialism could only be introduced when the working class understood and wanted it. They would act upon their understanding by, first, gaining a majority in Parliament. There had been people, including the so-called Communists, who had denounced Parliament as useless. However, Parliament controlled the forces of repression, and any alternative action in defiance of the capitalist control of the armed forces was suicidal and doomed to failure. Socialists, in Parliament , would be controlled by a socialist working class which knew what it wanted and how to get it. When the working class understood its position in society, it had no need for leaders, and could not be misled or betrayed.

Until capitalism was removed the working class could not solve its problems—and where the wages system existed, capitalism existed.  

A New Annual Record

About 100 people were missing in December and feared dead after two shipwrecks off Italy raised the total of deaths among migrants on the Mediterranean Sea in 2016 to 5000 - a new annual record, United Nations Agencies said on December 23. 

Deaths linked to Mediterranean crossings by migrants spiked in 2016. In 2015 more than one million crossed the sea, with 3771 deaths recorded. In 2016 about 360,000 people have crossed, most between Libya and Italy, but there have been far more deaths, probably due to overcrowding on unseaworthy vessels. 

As long as capitalism lasts folks will always flee from its more troubled spots, hoping to find a place where they can be exploited without a war raging around them. 

Steve and John.

A Two Edged Sword

Regular readers of this column may recall an item some while back about the claw on garbage collection trucks which can be operated by the driver making it unnecessary for a guy to lift and unload bins. At the time there were still a two man team on the truck.

 Recently, in Mississauga, Ontario, this writer noticed there was just one guy. Under capitalism progress is a two edged sword. 

Steve and John.

Drug Related Deaths

On January 18, on the CBC news, they provided the statistics of drug related deaths, recently in BC. 142 died in December and 914 in 2016, which is an 80 per cent increase from 2015. 

What a sick, empty, meaningless society we live in that would make anyone turn to and get hooked on narcotics. Its time to get rid of it. 

Steve and John.

Capital versus Humanity

A new danger is threatening the domination of the bourgeoisie – workers are resolutely adopting the path of international class organisation. The down-trodden, submissive slaves humbly bowing before the omnipotence of the modern Moloch of capital are, under the reviving influence of socialist ideas, lifting their heads and raising their voices in defence of their common class interests. The capitalists once could breathe freely when they still had under their power an inexhaustible supply of compliant workers, always ready obediently and selflessly to enrich by their labour the happy owners of the instruments of production. The employing class availed itself of the advantage offered by this state of affairs to set one half of the proletariat against the other, shattering any unity, compelling the newcomer migrant workers to appear as the menacing rivals, sapping the class solidarity of the workers. With malicious smugness it, the bosses fostered a more ignorant working class to thwart the struggle waged by the organised elements of the working class. But now the owners of capital and property do have something to worry about: new successes are being achieved in the organisation of the working class. Yesterday's silent slave is now a courageous fighter for the liberation of the working class.

The advance of scientific knowledge and the use of scientific method are of primary importance to man because, through enlightenment, they free him from the blind forces of nature, and through labour and struggle enable him to master his environment. Technological progress in recent times has extended man’s control over nature, to the point where it is possible to provide for all normal material needs. This is the economic base on which the good life for all citizens can be built. Such a life involves the creation, in the broadest sense of a cultured community — a community providing the maximum opportunity for the development of the potential of all its members.

Socialists hold a lofty view of human powers — mental, moral, and physical: a view of mankind changing itself and the environment through the exercise of those powers in collective labour. The promotion of culture involves the all-round development of the whole community, including the care of physical health and welfare, and preparation for working life, as well as the things of the mind and spirit, the sciences and arts. Socialists seek their synthesis in the production of complete humanity, the all-sided personality, for whom all life and experience form a unity. Marx was concerned with education for life, for useful people, not education for a leisured class, and he saw the need for maintaining the organic connection between labour and culture. Socialism sees all labour, physical and mental, as a unity, and sets out to end the distinction that exists between them in a class society, by seeking the end-product of the worker-intellectual. Socialist men and women are all-round persons, at home in physical labour, with technical skills, and a scientific understanding of nature and man’s place in it. A cultured life in socialist society includes physical welfare and an interest in the world of spirit and mind as reflected in the arts and sciences. Under capitalism, both worker and intellectual tend to be one-sided, partially developed. Socialism sets out to achieve a synthesis in personality, to produce people for whom both productive labour and intellectual life are requirements for satisfactory living. With socialism, the distinction between mental and physical labour, essentially a class distinction, will have disappeared. The collective, co-operative spirit of living is part of the lifeblood of a socialist society.

Profit Before The Environment.

Indian chiefs from Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. said, on January 11, that environmentalists everywhere were impressed by Justin Trudeau's comments at International talks in Paris, in late 2015. To quote activist Jane Fonda,''we all thought, what a cool guy, what a disappointment. He talked so beautifully of the need to meet the requirements of the climate treaty and to respect and hold to the treaties with indigenous people. Such a heroic stance he took there and yet he has betrayed every one of the things he committed to in Paris." Last year Trudeau approved plans to triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain Line between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C. And approved plans to replace Endbridge's line between Edmonton and Superior, Wisconsin, but he pushed ahead with a national carbon price and rejected Endbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. The compromise did not please Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C, Indian Chiefs, ''I share the bitter disappointment. He failed to restructure the National Energy Board or environmental assessment hearings into major resource projects''. Fonda added,''There's going to be more poor people if the likes of your Prime Minister and our President-Elect have their way - a lot of poor sick people''.

If the capitalist class and governments which maintain the status-quo consider the extraction and transportation of certain raw materials to be profit yielding they will go ahead and to hell with the environment and all who live there, indigenous or not. Protests won't accomplish anything - Revolution will. 


Steve and John

Bias Is Not Necessary A Bad Thing

On December 18 the Toronto Star focused on insurance claims made against General Electric in Peterborough, Ontario. Over the last ten years more than half of the 660 occupational disease claims, including brain, bowl and lung cancer, have been denied. Workers at GE are exposed to high levels of cancer causing substances such as Trichloroethylene, Asbestos and Lead. When they try to prove their cases to Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board they are confronted with delay, bureaucracy, callousness and disappointment.

One can hardly expect a Board, created by a government which is there to protect the interests of the Capitalist Class, to be unbiased. This is not to say bias is necessarily a bad thing. Some bias in the direction of a society where the above situation could not exist would be welcomed. 

Steve and John.

WORLD SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

The Socialist Party has no interests other than those of the working class. Capitalism has shown more and more clearly its inability to serve the needs of the people.  Wars, poverty, hunger, recessions and unemployment have been the lot of the people. But the millionaires and the industrialists have made their fortunes out of the people’s sweat and blood. The capitalists have done exceptionally well; indeed, they have never been better off. Fellow-workers have paid for all this in low wages and worsening conditions while the employing class has conducted a ceaseless offensive against the workers. Collective bargaining has been turned into a farce. The failure of the Labour governments and the failure of reformism is not the failure of socialism. Concerned only to defend capitalism and profit, the political leaders openly betray workers' interests. Only by the establishment of Socialism can workers' problems be finally solved and people guaranteed a good life, lasting peace and steadily rising living standards. Socialism means an end to capitalist profit and exploitation, for it will deprive the capitalists of their ownership and control of the factories and workshops, mills and mines, and land, shipyards and transport, and ensure that production is organised for the use of the people and not for the profit of the tiny minority of capitalists. The capitalist class is not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world or even their “own” people. They are interested only in profits. If the productive forces in the world were to be utilised for the purposes of construction, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Plenty under this system can only produce crises of over-production, slumps and unemployment, because of the basic necessity of the capitalist class to make profits. Economists openly forecast a new economic recession in the imminent future. This springs from the economic laws of the system, not the desires, good or bad, on the part of the capitalists.

Socialism means peace and an end to the danger of wars because in socialism there are no longer capitalists who want to conquer new markets, to capture raw materials and to exploit other people for cheap labour. Socialists have always taught that war was not a question of the wickedness of individuals but the result of the conflicts caused by private ownership and profit and the existence of separate national states. There is only one class which loses in war and that is the working class. Workers in America, in Russia, in China and in Britain, like the workers everywhere, have their class interests in common. End the system that leads to war. 

Socialism ends the gulf between poverty and plenty and frees the creative energies of the people for gigantic strides forward in economic, social and cultural advances. Socialism means an end to slumps and unemployment. Socialism means freedom for the people—freedom from poverty and insecurity, freedom for men, women and children to develop their capacities to the full, without fear or favour and the opening of new opportunities for the family and new respect for the individual. Socialism means the abolition of capitalism. The way forward lies through the united action of the working people. The power of the working people, uniting all sections who recognise the need for social change and participate in carrying it through create the conditions for the establishment of socialism. The ownership and control by the people of all the main productive and distributive resources of the country will provide the means necessary for the reorganisation and extension of all social services, and the direct participation of the people in administering them.

The Socialist Party is out to change the whole system throughout the whole world. We, socialists, refuse to join the reformists in leading the workers into the camp of capitalism. Only a socialist revolution can prevent the outbreak of more global wars and the relapse of humanity into barbarity. To this inspiring task, we summon the workers of city and country – all who are oppressed by capitalism. The myriad evils of capitalism will disappear only with the destruction of capitalism and the building of socialism. The struggle for socialism will be an arduous one but only by wresting the state power from the capitalists can we begin the task of building a new society made to serve a truly human civilisation. The only road is the socialist road. End capitalism that breeds war, suffering, and oppression. Forward, workers of the world, forward to the new world that awaits us. Use the ballot against capitalism. Vote for socialism.” Vote for the Socialist Party, the only party that keeps the revolutionary banner unfurled and engages in the unremitting struggle for a socialist world. 

The Thanks One Receives

On December 23, three Canadian soldiers said they had endured years of racist abuse, including slurs about Aboriginals and Blacks that were ignored by their superior officers. The three have filed a lawsuit against the military in Federal court in Halifax. They claim they were exposed to verbal taunts, racial epithets and insults to family members. A Black soldier claimed someone threw bananas at his wife. Their officers brushed aside their complaints and told them not to file any suits. 

If all this is true, it goes to show that even when one is prepared to fight to defend and advance the interests of the capitalist class he is still treated with contempt. If anything is contemptible it's the capitalist system. 

Steve and John.

A Typical Capitalist Situation

In Toronto, unionized city garbage collectors said they would fight Mayor John Torys efforts to outsource 200 of their jobs. Matt Figliano, Vice-President of CUPE local 416, which represents the affected workers, said they have an anti-privatization,''Kicked To The Curb'', lobbying campaign. Before Toronto amalgamated in 1997, Etobicoke outsourced its garbage. In 2012 the then Mayor, Rob Ford, convinced council to contract out the rest of the city's west half, which saved them $11 million a year. 

The city is in debt, therefore it wants to save money, but workers don't want to lose their jobs - a typical capitalist situation. Years ago when the economy was buoyant, a job in the government usually meant job security, which today no longer exists. 

Steve and John

It's Obvious Nothing Changes Under Capitalism

On December 16 Venezuela became a country without cash. The most widely used banknote, the 100 Bolivar, which had previously been worth 2 American cents, went out of circulation. Higher denomination bills which were meant to replace it had not arrived at the banks and no explanation was given. This meant people looking to buy groceries were out of luck as banks had run out of lower denomination bills like 20 and 50 Bolivar notes. There were no political protests as people scrambled to figure a way of fulfilling their needs in a country operating without money, but with a price tag on everything they would want. 

And this in a country that claims to be a Socialist one - how ridiculous can it get?

 It's shades of the runaway inflation in Germany in the early 20's, when workers were paid four times a day.

It's obvious nothing changes under Capitalism, so why don't we all work for its abolition?

 Steve and John

Eugene Debs' Demands

Water and Waste-water

The United Nations is to issue a call for the world to stop simply throwing sewage away, arguing that it is economically valuable and warning that fresh water is a finite resource.

More than 80 per cent of the world’s wastewater is currently discharged into the environment untreated, causing diseases that kill 842,000 people every year, including about 300,000 children under the age of five.

Blooms of algae, which grow rapidly in sewage-rich sea water, have also created vast ‘dead zones’ where most marine life cannot survive. And less fish in the sea means less food for humans at a time when the global population is climbing rapidly.

Change is on the horizon

The worker is the slave of the possessing class. She or he is sold in the market like a commodity whose price is subject to rise and fall like that of any other commodity. If there is an increased demand for workers, their price goes up; if there is a decreased demand, the price goes down; if the demand has so decreased that a certain number of workers find no buyer of their labour-power, as ‘surplus stock’, then they have to lie in reserve, and thus earning no livelihood, and suffer deprivation. A chattel slave is sold once and forever but the worker has to sell him or herself each and every day and hour. 

Capitalism signifies the supremacy of the markets and the capitalists who wield their social power through these markets and who rule the world to even a greater extent than ever before.  The social power of capital is enforced through the so-called rule of law, which exalts the sanctity of private property and negates the sanctity of human life. Workers don't just replace their wages; their unpaid labour is the source of all of the capitalists' profits, and also pays for economic activities that do not add to social wealth, such as advertising, security, finance, etc. In other words, the exploitation of living labour is fundamental to capitalism. The capitalist class uses all forms of division and disunity amongst working people in order to reap their profits and to bear down on the wages of all workers. As a result of this unmitigated war on the working class, wages have fallen, the “middle class” has shrunk, and job insecurity has become the norm.

Since hunger for cheap labour is the main force driving the global shift of production, it's no surprise this is manifested in a preference for the cheapest labour namely that of women (and children) in countries such as Bangladesh. In societies that had hitherto excluded women from life and labour outside the home, globalisation is conferring the status of wage-workers and bread-winners on young women and concentrating them in large numbers in factories which is now transforming their social status and self-image, never more so than when fighting street battles with baton-wielding police and company security-guards.  Many women who have previously been uninvolved in politics are suddenly becoming active. 

  Unions were established because workers quickly discovered that as isolated individuals they have no power when confronting their employers. Without a union, individual workers can be fired at will; their wages can be reduced; they can be forced to work unreasonable schedules; they can be denied benefits; the list is endless. But when workers unite and act collectively, the balance of power shifts. If workers decide to strike, for example, they can bring the employers to their knees, provided their picket lines are impregnable. This means that unions must reject the culture of capitalism that atomises people by forcing them to compete against one another. To operate effectively, unions need to embrace socialistic cooperative values where an injury to one is an injury to all, and everyone works for the common good.

What we are up against is the power of the plutocrats and their servile State-servants. They sow discontent and fear among the people, fear-mongering the people into believing that dangerous foreigners are preparing to invade. You teach them to passively accept whatever is told them by the corporate media or a government spokes-person. They endeavour to brainwash us into believing that everything the government does is for our own good and anyone who opposes the “benevolent” government is an enemy. They create a state of martial law, carried out militarised police officers. They polarise us so that we can never unite and stand in unity against the ruling class. Those who speak up are shouted down by propaganda lies and the rhetoric of politicians. We are coming to a crossroads. Either we join together now and attempt to gain political and economic freedom or all will be lost.  Resistance must also be accompanied by an alternative vision of a socialist, anti-capitalist society. Because the enemy, in the end, is not Trump, May or Merkel but capitalism, itself. 

When It Comes Down To Money

The province of Ontario ''officially'' gives $61 million a year in grants to help marginalized students in Toronto. A report released on January 12, by ''Social Planning Toronto'', claims that half of that money isn't being spent on them and is instead diverted to cover other expenses, as the cash strapped Toronto District School Board struggles to balance its budget. According to Sean Meagher, director of Social Planning Toronto,''This is the first time we've had absolutely rock solid numbers that no one can refute because they are the TDSB's own numbers''.

 So as always under capitalism it comes down to money, which is another good argument in favour of a society without any. 

Steve and John.

More Crapitalism

Canadians who want to meet Justin Trudeau during his road tour of town halls are being asked to register their personal details with Liberal M.P.s. To quote Conservative M.P. Candice Bergen,''Do not call it open town hall when its actually a Liberal rally. Its not at all the back-to-the-people tour the Prime Minister described.'' 

That's what I like about Crapitalism - its so open and democratic.

 Steve and John.

Need I Say More?

On Jan. 12 incoming secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, promised a hard-line stance towards Russia, which conflicted sharply with Obama's and Trump's approach. Tillerson, a former CEO with Exxon Mobil, called Russia a danger to the U.S. and said he would keep U.S. sanctions in place and consider new penalties related to Russian meddling in the election, (if they did). 

He criticized Obama's sanctions on Russia, which cost Exxon hundreds of Millions of dollars - need I say more?

 Steve and John.

Refugee (music video)

Socialism - Human Liberation

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace world capitalist economy by a world socialism as mankind’s only way out from the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system which threaten to degrade or destroy the humanity. A socialist society will end the class division of society, i.e., simultaneously with the abolition of anarchy in production, it will abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression of man by man. By abolishing private ownership of the means of production and converting these means into social property, the global system of socialism will replace the elemental blind forces of the world market and competition by consciously organising production for the purpose of satisfying social needs. With the abolition of anarchy in production, devastating crises and still more devastating wars will disappear. Instead of a colossal waste of productive forces, there will be a planned use of all material resources and a painless and sustainable economic development of productive forces.

Society will no longer consist of antagonistic classes in conflict with each other but will present a united cooperative commonwealth of labour. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its energy to the development and strengthening of its own collective welfare and well-being. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy.  The State, being the embodiment of class domination, will die out in so far as classes die out, and with it all measures of coercion. Capitalism distorts human individuality, subordinates men and women to the needs of the profit system sets them against each other. Socialism aims to develop their individuality by creating a society in which exploitation and poverty are ended, and the resources of science and technology used to reduce the time spent in monotonous and mechanical jobs to a minimum, and vastly increase the amount devoted to leisure and creative work.

 Socialism will arise as a result of the conscious creative activity of the many millions of working people. There exists no force in the whole world capable of holding back the advancing movement of society on the path to socialism. Capitalism has outlived its time and the future belongs to socialism. The Socialist Party wants only a society in which people’s needs are provided for by an abundance of goods and services. It seeks to create the conditions in which human beings will be able to realise their full potentialities and work together for the common good, instead of being divided by class, sex, race or creed. New relations, based on co-operation instead of domination and exploitation, will come into being. A flourishing socialist economy will be able to meet the social needs of the people and improve the quality of life for all. With socialism, the process of production is no longer a process of capital expansion, but only a labour process in which society only draws from nature the means of consumption which it needs. No longer are exchange values produced, but only articles for use. 

White Shite

A group of racists will try to march in Edinburgh next week to mark “Global White Pride Day”.

 Neo-Nazi propaganda was discovered at several bus stops in nearby Dunfermline. The material encouraged local people to "reject multiculturalism", while some posters bore the slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

Reflections about Trump

 Trump is obsessed by Islamic terror but has given no details how to deal with it. If he moves the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Palestinians will go ballistic, both figuratively and literally. Trump has made no secret he doesn't give a 'rat's behind' for the threat of global warming, which is increasing, becoming less of a threat than a reality. So we can't expect anything positive there. On the home front, Trump said he will reduce crime, but again, gave no clear indication how. He said he will reduce unemployment, but if he scraps free-trade, he will make it worse.

 Trump, like other presidents, has his advisors, but any advice from them will be within the framework of what they consider best for U.S. capitalism. The moot question, is, "To what extent do individuals make a difference?" A smarter guy than me, once said, "Men make history, but from the conditions to hand." Or, something to that effect. Put it this way - the tailor makes the suit, but, not the cloth. Our comrades in the U.K. are only too well aware of this. 

 During WWII, Britain's Interior Minister, Herbert Morrison, could have shut down the British party. They wouldn't have been able to do anything about it and no one would have protested. Morrison was a humane man, attempting to administrate an inhumane system. As a WWI conscientious objector, there was a certain empathy there, so he allowed the SP to propagate and attack both sides in the war. Though individuals make a difference concerning details, they make none concerning fundamentals, nor can they.

No one knows exactly what will happen under Donny baby, maybe he doesn't, but we do know what won't. There will be no change in the class basis of society. The capitalist class will continue to own the tools of production, while the working class continues to be exploited by them, (that is, those who still have jobs) with all the consequent misery this causes. Nor, would it have been different if Hillary had won. Trump's ranting "America First", is so much hot air to convince the American working class they have something in common with those who exploit them.

The time is long overdue for the working class to stop saying 'let's vote for this or that candidate.' How about making things a whole lot better? This can be done by "not" voting for individuals as such, but electing a majority of socialist deputies, with a mandate to make the tools of production the property of all. Then we could have done with war, poverty, unemployment, planned obsolescence, famine, preventable diseases, epidemics and destruction of the environment. Also, no one would think of electing goofball politicians, or even smart ones, who's sole intention is to keep us exploited. 

Steve and John

Trump Tweets "This won't happen" Thanks Donny

As we are all aware, the dominating event in recent months is that the good citizens of the Divided States of America have seem unfit to elect as president a great brain, who is loaded down with couth and charm. This brief article was written on January 25th; by the time you read it, he may well have done many more stupid things. "Exactly" what will occur, we don't know, because capitalism is an unplanned, anarchic system where sanity is proverbially told to get out of town.
 

 Be that as it may, we can make a vague forecast of what decisions Trump may make and what problems he will have to deal with. He may well, as he said, abolish NAFTA and kill the proposed Trans-Pacific partnership, which, since Canada is a big trading partner with the U.S, will cause loss of jobs here.

 Furthermore, a trade war will harm the interests of American capitalism. Will that stop our lad? Perhaps, even he isn't crazy! Or is he? We'll have to wait and see. There's been plenty of talk about the Trump-Putin mutual admiration society, but Russia is reemerging as a global super-power and economic realities must, inevitably, hit home. Didn't that old lush Winnie Churchill praise Hitler to the skies during the 1930s? Again, we'll have to wait and see. No relationship is more important to the interests of U.S capitalism than China. Yet, no country has been attacked more by Trump. Why? Only he knows that. 

 

 Trump, recently, spoke directly to the leader of Taiwan and indicated he would scrap the "One China Policy", if the U.S. doesn't get a better deal with China. Challenging China over Taiwan would risk war. Just how gung-ho is our lad? Far right political parties in Europe will probably make election gains by propagating racism. How this will affect the U.S. we don't know but these populist movements may lean towards him, considering he won by playing up to the same sentiments.

 

 Trump said, he will scrap America's nuclear agreement with Iran. He obviously doesn't trust Iran and who can blame him? Could this result in a nuclear war? Who at this time can tell? But we can't rule out the possibility. If there is one, it may be started by the North Koreans. Kim Jong Un said, on January 1st, that soon they will be able to fire a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead into the U.S.- and a very happy New Year to you, sir! Trump's response was a tweet, saying, "This won't happen". Thanks Donny, you're so reassuring.

Steve and John

Migrant Solidarity

Migrants should not to be held to blame for Britain's economic difficulties, Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, warned. “Syrian refugees did not trade in credit default swaps and crash the economy. East European builders and technicians did not slash funding for children's centres and libraries. What we need is leadership that does not stoop to preying on those anxieties and blaming people who look differently, talk a different language or dress differently, for the mess that we're in.”

The immigration debate has become mired in myths, falsehoods and half-truths, with little clarity among liberals or conservatives alike. Conservatives think there’s nothing wrong with defending the border because, after all, every sovereign nation should have that right. Liberals concede the point, but modify it a bit by claiming exception for the good immigrants such as bonafide asylum seekers. Both like to say, “I’m for legal immigration, but against illegal immigration.” What is going on? Why have so many countries turned so anti-immigrant despite often being nations of immigrants.

There is nothing new or exceptional about human migration. The earliest humans ventured out from Africa to populate the planet. Today, there is one fact that stands out: A growing number of desperate people are fleeing violence and starvation. According to a 2015 UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) report, 65.3 million people were forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution in 2015, the most since the aftermath of World War II. It is the highest percentage of the total world population since UNHCR began collecting data on displaced persons in 1951. Of those currently displaced outside their countries of origin, Syrians make up the largest number, at 4.9 million.

Most who have no direct experience with the immigration system are easily misled by xenophobic claims that often sound commonsensical, such as the false notion that immigrants drive down wages and make natives lose their jobs. They passively accept the myths. What many don’t realize is that each time a right is taken away from immigrants, with implied consent, it eventually affects citizens’ rights too. To remain distant from the issue is no longer an option for any of us. Once we go down that path and create two regimes of law, one for citizens and one for everyone else, then it is inevitable that the regime created for immigrants will start affecting citizens as well, and constitutional rights will become restricted for all, as indeed has been the case in the last few decades. We cannot pretend anymore that what happens to “them,” as immigrants, does not affect “us,” as citizens. In every area of law, from the rights of consumers against corporations to the rights of citizens against the police, we have seen a drastic diminishment. Much of that has to do with our callousness toward immigrants. Migration is a human right. A person anywhere in the world has the right to migrate, just as there is a right to free speech or association. In fact, most other rights follow from the right to migrate. If governments are allowed to lock people up behind walls, then it’s only a matter of time before other rights will dissipate too. If we do not recognize migration as an inviolable human right, and if we do not give up the idea of the wall, we are bound to lose human rights for all of us.

Many people often compare the nation to a house, arguing that immigrants who enter without permission or overstay their visas are like trespassers (Netanyahu's Israel describe migrants as infiltrators) whom we have every right to detain and expel. But a country, or even a state or a city or a neighbourhood, is not a house (just as it is simplistic to compare a country’s budget to a household’s). The nation is an abstraction.

Today immigrants are treated as criminals for their violations, with deportation as the ultimate life-altering penalty, and yet immigrants are not provided the rights due to a criminal defendant. Immigration is and always has been a civil matter; it is not a crime to be present without authorization. We have in essence two sets of laws, one for immigrants, who do not have the rights of defendants when charged with “crimes,” and one for everyone else. The only solution to this anomaly is to cease treating immigration violations as crimes, and for there to be a complete end to detention for immigration. If an immigrant commits a crime, he or she should be prosecuted under normal laws, as a criminal defendant, not as a “criminal alien.” Ultimately, the only solution is to reduce the complexities, to end the web of regulations and exceptions — which, just as in corporate law, favor the powerful at the expense of the weak — and finally to do away with immigration laws altogether. Immigration should become a purely voluntary affair. As soon as a person steps on our soil, he or she should have full constitutional rights, so that he is not subject to exploitation. Why can’t we visualize immigration without government regulation? We certainly did very well with that regime before the introduction of passports and visas.

 Why scapegoating is common and why it works is that it is easy to distract people from what is truly harming them by pointing to the obvious outsiders. Scapegoating immigrants absolves the true culprit—neoliberal capitalism 

As long as open borders for capital to move freely exist, taking jobs and bringing predatory capitalism wherever it wants with total freedom, then labour should have the freedom to move freely between borders in response. If capitalism leads to people losing jobs, and immigrants being discriminated, and hated…then why not do away with capitalism?

Gustav's Gems

Continuing with selections from the works of the Marxist historian Gustav Bang's The Rise of Capitalism, there is a section in which he analyses the aftermath of the capitalists' capture of political power in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century:

"The proletariat had been betrayed and they knew it. They began to perceive that only through independent action could they make any progress. For obviously any cooperation with the bourgeoisie ran counter to all common sense, since the interests of the two classes were diametrically opposite. The capitalists were given added political power without the slightest gain to the workers – the circumstances attending the latter would be no less oppressive and slave bound.The capitalists, with the aid of the workers, had acquired new, powerful political means that could be used with equal effectiveness against the workers below and the landed aristocracy above. The emancipation of the working class must be its own class conscious work."

 Our opponents on the left sneer at our insistence on the necessity of capturing political power, but, as Dr. Bang shows, the capitalists found it necessary, and used it against their class above and below.

Steve and John

Poverty Will Last As Long As Capitalism Lasts

The Toronto Star of November 28 focused on an analysis of poverty in Toronto.
This was as a result of a report by social policy expert John Stapleton ad research analysts Alexa Brigs and Celia Lee. This was the first of its kind on a major Canadian city. Their findings were that the cost of poverty to the city of Toronto is between $4.4 billion and $5.5 billion a year. This includes added health care, policing and depressed economic productivity for the city's 265,000 families living in poverty. The annual impact of poverty on crime in Toronto is $436 million. The public health related cost of poverty is $730 million. The cost of hospital stays related to poverty is $237 million. Lost income due to poverty is $2.9 billion to $4 billion. Forgone taxes due to poverty $322 million to $345 million. Though no figures were shown relating to child poverty, the report mentioned Toronto was the child poverty capital of Canada.

  So what does Mr. Stapleton suggest? "The conclusions are clear: investing in poverty prevention would be less costly in the long run than spending to marginally mitigate on-going poverty in perpetuity."

 The city of Toronto has been fighting poverty for years and it's gotten worse. It's as logical as logic gets. If the economy goes down, businesses go broke, taxes aren't getting paid. This is not to say there is no poverty when capitalism has one of its boom periods, but it is to say that for as long as capitalism lasts poverty will too.

Steve and John

A Socialist Lesson

The Socialist Party calls itself scientific for we substituted socialist principles for dreaming.  Long before Marx and Engels, workers struggles had begun. Dissatisfaction with existing conditions had arisen and schemes for a better society developed. These thinkers, among whom the Englishman, Robert Owen, and the Frenchmen, Saint Simon and Charles Fourier harshly criticized the existing system. They saw the root evil of existing society in private property. They understood that because wealth is in the hands of the capitalists, which gives them power to use the labour of other at low wages and under bad conditions, poverty and suffering prevailed among great numbers of the people. They regretted the evil and sought a better society where such misery would not exist. They wished for a society where the means of production would belong, not to the individual, but to the community. They eloquently preached such a society. But they never saw clearly the way a society without private property could be established. The preachers of the ideal society did not believe that the workers themselves could establish such a society. Marxists call such thinkers utopian, the same thing as a dreamer. They see with their mind's eyes a better system, but do not see the road which can lead to their promised land. A utopian can only hope and wish.

 Marx and Engels put the struggle of the workers on a scientific basis. They made a scientific analysis of existing society and saw that it was a society where capitalism rules, and is, therefore, a capitalist society. They studied the forces that operate in the capitalist society. They discovered the laws governing capitalist society. And they pointed out as clearly and accurately, as only science can do, that the laws of development of capitalist society inevitably lead to the workers’ revolution which will establish socialism. Marx and Engels showed the working class what they must do to liberate themselves and the world.  They taught the working class to know itself and become class conscious. They clearly understood and taught the workers that political democracy is not their final goal, that the workers interests is in abolishing exploitation altogether, which means abolishing capitalism. “What was new...was to prove the following: (1) that the existence of classes is connected only with- certain historical struggles which arise out of the development of production; (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat; (3) that this dictatorship is itself only a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.” With Marx and Engels it is not a mere wish. It is the law of social development.

Modern society is divided into classes. By and large there are two great classes: the class of capitalists and the class of workers (proletarians). The class of capitalists owns most of the wealth of the nation. That wealth consists to a small extent of ready-made goods to be consumed. To a much greater extent it consists of buildings, tools, machinery and raw materials. The owners of wealth strive to increase their wealth by hiring workers whom they use to put the machines and materials into motion. Long before Marx and Engels, the utopians spoke of exploitation. But they could not explain the meaning and the driving force of exploitation. Engels and Marx discovered the importance of the law of surplus value.

Their theory reduces itself to these simple propositions. Wealth of modern times consists of commodities. Commodities are being exchanged in the market according to their value. The value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labour used up in producing the commodity. When we speak of labour in this sense we mean social-necessary labor, which is only another word for saying average labour used with the aid of average tools and with average speed. Socially necessary labour is that which determines the value of commodities. When a pair of shoes exchanges for twice as much as a shirt it is because the production of the pair of shoes has absorbed twice as much socially-necessary labour as the production of the shirt. Money is nothing but one of the commodities selected to facilitate the exchange of commodities. A chair worth $3.00 will exchange for $3.00 worth in gold or silver because that amount of gold and silver contains as much socially-necessary labour as the chair under consideration.

The activities of the manufacturer reduce themselves to buying in order to sell. He buys machinery, raw materials and labor power in order to produce commodities which he sells at a profit. His motive is profit. How does he come to get profit? He exchanges commodities according to their value, i.e., according to labor sunk in them. He may cheat here and there (no business without cheating) but on the whole the law of exchange is maintained. When he buys he pays the value of the goods he acquires. When he sells his products he receives according to their value. What then is the source of his profit? The source, say Marx and Engels, is labour which is producing surplus value.

Labour power is a commodity. Its owner is the worker. It is the only wealth he possesses. He is forced to sell it on the open market. He or she sells it to the manufacturer who applies it to the machines and raw materials. (Labour power, machines, raw materials together form the means of production.) When a merchant sells a commodity he does not have to be present while it is being consumed. When the worker sells his or her labour power they have to be present while the manufacturer consumes it, because the consumption of labour power is the process of work. The worker has to work.

What is the value of the commodity called labour power? The value of the labor power is the value of the worker’s upkeep. It is the value of all the commodities necessary to maintain the worker in tolerable health and to insure the existence of future workers through the raising of a family. For simplicity’s sake let us say that the value of one day’s labor power is equal to the value of the worker’s necessities during a day plus a little addition for his family. Expressed in money, let us say that the value of the labor power for one day is $5.00. Let us assume that these $5.00 can be produced in five hours. Five hours of socially-necessary labor will produce value equal to the value of the labour power for one day.

But once the labor power is sold, it is used by the manufacturer. The manufacturer will use it not five hours but, let us say, eight hours. In five hours the workers will merely reproduce the value of his or her labour power. In the remaining three hours he will produce surplus value. That value is unpaid for. The manufacturer is using it because he is in possession of the means of production and because the worker cannot live unless he sells his labor power. If the worker insisted on working only five hours, the manufacturer would not be willing to purchase his labor power. He purchases it just because he can force the worker to work more than five hours. How much more that depends upon the relation of forces. Here it is where the class struggle comes into play.

The worker is interested in diminishing the surplus value. The capitalist is interested in increasing the surplus value. The worker is interested in receiving for his labor not only necessities but also comforts, security for old age and the possibility of bringing up a family in decency, which means higher wages. The capitalist is interested in paying the worker below the value of his labour power, which means, to cause the worker to starve, to deteriorate physically, to have to send his wife and children to the factory, to have to resort to charity while still on the job. The worker is interested in cutting the hours of work so as to save his own health and to have a little free time for recreation and culture. The capitalist is interested in lengthening the labour hours so as to have more surplus value. The worker is interested in less speed, which means less labor power consumed per unit of time. The capitalist is interested in squeezing into one hour as much labor power as possible.

The capitalist sells his commodities in the market not according to the value produced in his own factory but according to prevailing prices. The prevailing price expresses the value of the commodities not of a single factory but of the average for all the factories at a given time. If one manufacturer can succeed in producing cheaper than the others he can secure a greater profit. He can do so by speeding up the workers, which means forcing them to spend more labour power per hour; he can do so also by introducing labour-saving machinery and improving the methods of production. This is why the entire history of capitalism has been the race to introduce labour-saving new technology for better methods of production. Why is labour-saving machinery useful? Because then the capitalist uses less labour power and naturally has to pay less to the producers. At the same time, however, he sells at the prevailing prices and garners an extra profit until the time when the other capitalists will also introduce the same labour-saving machinery and the same methods of production. But then there will begin a new race for still better machinery and still better means of production, while the workers will be continually pushed out of production into the ranks of the unemployed (they call it “technological unemployment” but it is an old story).

In this mad race, the bigger concern will defeat the smaller concern. The bigger concern will be able to use better machinery and better equipment and to save on labor much more than the small concern. The big fellow will, therefore, eat up the small fellow. Accumulation of means of production will take place at an accelerated pace. This accumulation will proceed in two ways. The individual capitalist will keep on increasing his own business, using part of his surplus value for expansion. In due time his business may grow to gigantic proportions and into a global corporation. This is called concentration of capital. The individual capitalist, on the other hand, may swallow up a number of other capitalists, or many capitalists may combine in partnerships or corporations or trusts. This is called centralisation of capital. Concentration and centralization of capital are the law of capitalist society. The capitalists boast of having introduced mass production which is a boon for the people. But in truth they never thought of the people. They thought of their profits. Profit-seeking is the basic driving force of capitalist production and distribution.

Engels and Marx pointed out that these forces are beyond the control of the individual capitalist or even of the capitalists combined. As long as they are capitalists they cannot help producing for profit. Else they would not be capitalists. As long as the profit motive is moving them they must try to produce cheaper and that means to exploit the workers more and more.

Let us look at the contradictions of capitalism.

Engels points out that the products which are produced in modern industrial establishments are produced socially. They are not like the shoes or the coats or the furniture produced in feudal times by the independent tailor or shoemaker or cabinet maker where the individual producer possessed the tools, the material and the ready-made product. At that time the individual producer could point a finger to his product and call it “his”. Today an automobile or a Grand Rapids table or a Haverhill pair of shoes is the product of hundreds and even thousands of workers combined, working with a division of labor. The mode of production is social. But the products belong to one man or to a group of men who appropriate them for their own private purposes. The mode of appropriation is individualistic. “This contradiction, which gives to the new mode of production its capitalist character" says Engels, “contains the germ of the whole of the social antagonisms of today.”

The higher the development of capitalism, the more glaring is this contradiction, this incompatibility between socialized production and capitalist appropriation. The basic contradiction is that between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Why is this the basic contradiction? Because the proletarian sees his labor appropriated by the bourgeoisie. Because he sees that all of capitalist society is maintained on his surplus value, which is another name for unpaid labor. Because the whole structure is based on the exploitation of those who work by those who do not work. “The contradiction between socialised production and capitalistic appropriation manifested itself as the antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie,” says Engels.

The producer is entirely separated from the means of production. The owner of the means of production is entirely separated from production. He says he “manages”, but he does it through hired men: supervisors, technicians, accountants.

Production in the individual factory is socialised, which means it is run on the basis of a very detailed division of labour, which means, it is planned to the last man, the last rivet and the last ounce of work. But production as a whole is not organized. Each manufacturer, or each group of manufacturers, are producing according to their own lights, which means according to the expected profits. Nobody ever maps out a plan for the industry as a whole or for a branch of industry, for a year or for five years. In the capitalist world, there is anarchy, chaos. Production is haphazard. 

Socialism will come as the result of the class struggle leading to the socialist revolution, creating a class-free society. The Socialist revolution is the only way out of unemployment, misery, starvation, oppression, hopelessness, degradation, despair.