Spoiling Nature

Lowland raised bogs were among the rarest and most threatened habitats in Europe and took thousands of years to form and so conservationists have criticised councillors for giving the green light to remove millions of cubic metres of peat for compost from Midlothian.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust said it was "incredibly disappointing" peat extraction had been given the go-ahead at Auchencorth Moss, near Penicuik, over the next two decades. The trust said peatlands were important carbon stores and wildlife habitats. It said they could also play an important part in reducing flood risk. Dr Maggie Keegan, Scottish Wildlife Trust's head of policy, said: "It's incredibly disappointing that the destruction of peat bogs continues to be permitted while millions of pounds are being spent on their restoration elsewhere as part of Scotland's commitment to reducing carbon emissions.”

Westland Horticulture is to extract peat from Auchencorth Moss on the Penicuik Estate near Edinburgh. The 3,000-hectare Penicuik Estate has been owned and run by the Clerk family since 1654. An application by estate tenant Westland is seeking to renew a 30-year-old old minerals permission, so can not be rejected. If new conditions are imposed, compensation may be payable. Westland, wants to extract 100,000 cubic metres of peat every year until 2042 from 240 hectares of Auchencorth Moss. Permission was originally given in 1986, and the company is now seeking to renew that under a ‘review of minerals permission’ process. But the process only allows for planning conditions to be updated, and does not permit the original consent to be withdrawn.

A Declaration of Class War

The issue for the Socialist Party is always capitalism versus socialism. The task of the Socialist party is to do battle for the cause of socialism and industrial emancipation. It is all about the question of the right of one class of human beings exploiting another class of human beings to the very point of physical existence. It is a question of human freedom versus human slavery and this question is very old one, but for the first time in human history the issue is stripped of all subterfuge and the exploited class have the political power in their own hands to accomplish by peaceful means their own emancipation. The Socialist Party offers the only remedy, which is socialism. Its advocates are men and women who think for themselves and have convictions of their own and they are in deadly earnest. Do the other parties not all stand for the private ownership of industry and the wage-slavery of the working class? We are not here to play the filthy game of capitalist politics. Capitalism, having its foundation in the slavery and exploitation of the masses, can only rule by corrupt means and its politics are essentially the reflex of its low and debasing economic character. 

The Socialist party as the party of the working class stands squarely upon its principles in making its appeal to the workers. It is not begging for votes, nor seeking for votes, nor bargaining for votes. It is not in the vote market. It wants votes, but only of those who want it - those who recognise it as their party and come to it of their own free will. If its candidates were seeking office for the spoils of office they would be traitors to the Socialist Party and a disgrace to the working class. To be sure, we want all the votes we can get but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office. The workers have never yet developed or made use of their political power. They have played the game of their masters for the benefit of the master class - and now many of them, disgusted with their own blindness are renouncing politics and refusing to see any difference between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling class to perpetuate class rule and the Socialist Party organised and financed by the workers themselves as a means of wresting the control of government and of industry from the capitalists and making the working class the ruling class. 

The aims of the Socialist Party is clearly stated and it is to assist our fellow-workers of the world to shake off their oppressors and exploiters, to put an end to their age-long servitude, and make themselves the masters of the world. To this end the Socialist Party has been organized; to this end it is bending all its energies and devoting all its resources; to this end it makes its appeal to the workers throughout the world.

In the name of the workers, the Socialist Party condemns the capitalist system. In the name of freedom it condemns wage-slavery. In the name of the new technology it condemns poverty, idleness,and famine. In the name of peace it condemns war. In the name of civilisation, it condemns the murder of little children. In the name of enlightenment it condemns ignorance and superstition. In the name of the future, it arraigns the past at the bar of the present, and in the name of humanity, it demands social justice for every man, woman and child. The Socialist Party knows neither colour, creed, sex, nor race. It knows no aliens among the oppressed and down-trodden. It is first and last the party of the workers, regardless of their nationality, proclaiming their interests, voicing their aspirations, and fighting their battles.It matters not where the slaves of the earth lift their bowed bodies from the dust and seek to shake off their fetters, or lighten the burden that oppresses them, the Socialist party is pledged to encourage and support them to the full extent of its power. It matters not to what union they belong, or if they belong to any union, the Socialist Party which sprang from their struggle, their oppression, and their aspiration, is with them through good and evil report, in trial and defeat, until at last victory is inscribed upon their banner. In all the battles of the workers against their capitalist oppressors, the Socialist Party is freely pledged to render them all the support in its power. These are the battles of the workers in the war of the classes and the battles of the workers, wherever and however fought, are always and everywhere the battles of the Socialist Party. 

The Socialist Party is the only party of the people, the only party opposed to the rule of the plutocracy, the only truly democratic leader-free party in the world. It is the only party in which men and women have equal rights and denies membership to any who refuses to recognise another member as a political equal. The education, organisation and co-operation of our fellow- workers is the conscious aim and the self-imposed task of the Socialist Party. Persistently, unceasingly and enthusiastically this great work is being accomplished. It is the working class coming into consciousness of itself, and no power on earth can prevail against it in the hour of its complete awakening. The handwriting is upon the wall. Capitalism is breaking down and the new order evolving from it is clearly the socialist cooperative commonwealth, based upon the social ownership of the means of life and the production of wealth for the use of all instead of the private profit of the few. The Socialist Party stands for the peace which will prevail and plenty for all will abound in the land. The brute struggle for existence will have ended, and the millions of exploited poor will be rescued from the skeleton clutches of poverty and famine will be a horror of the past. The social conscience and the social spirit will prevail. Society will have a new birth, and the race a new destiny. There will be work for all, leisure for all, and the joys of life for all. Competition there will be, not in the struggle for existence, but to excel in good work and in social service. Every child will then have an equal chance to grow up in health and vigour of body and mind and an equal chance to rise to its full stature and achieve success in life.

 These are the ideals of the Socialist Party and to these ideals it has dedicated all its energies and all its powers. The members of the Socialist Party are the party and their collective will is the supreme law. The Socialist Party is organised and ruled from the bottom up. There is no boss and there never can be unless the party deserts its principles and ceases to be a Socialist Party. Each member has not only an equal voice but is urged to take an active part in all the party committees. Each branch is an educational centre. The party relies wholly upon the power of education, knowledge, and mutual understanding. 

It’s time to come together for the battles ahead

"Tell people that patriotism is bad and most of them will laugh and say: ‘Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but my patriotism is good!’ " - Leo Tolstoy

 Many accuse members of the Socialist Party's branches in Scotland of being unpatriotic. We are, in fact, proud to be anti-patriotic. But just because we are not prepared to back the efforts of Scottish nationalists to break away from the United Kingdom does not mean that we are a Unionist party. We don’t support the Union. We simply accept it under sufferance. The Socialist Party are just is much opposed to British nationalism as we are to Scottish or European.

Once more the nationalists seek the people's approval on the matter of independence and as before our counsel to fellow-workers is don’t be fooled by constitutional reform as a benefit to us. Once again our members won’t be voting “yes” or “no”. We’ll be writing the words “world socialism” across any future referendum voting paper.

This time around, the outward reason for a second referendum is Brexit where most regions in the UK voted to leave but Scotland chose to vote remain. Those on the first referendum who suggested a No vote because of the threat of breaking the labour links with fellow Britons must now re-evaluate whether a Yes will restore the labour relationship between Scottish and European workers. Our view is that the state or a bloc of states such as the EU ultimately exists only to defend the property interests of the owning class at any given point in history, to protect the interests of the capitalists and their businesses at every turn. Capitalism is not a system that can be humanised or reformed or transformed into something better. It is a profit system subject to economic laws which can only work in one way: as a system of profit-making and accumulation of capital in the interest of a tiny minority of profit-takers.

Scottish separatists see themselves as visionaries but they cannot see beyond the narrow confines of the nation-state, conceived in pre-medieval times and as outmoded as the clan system it replaced. It is the Socialist Party who are the true men and women of vision, who look forward to and struggle for a new world of common ownership and democratic control of society's resources. Socialists recognises the essential unity of the human race and the urgent need to celebrate it by building society on that basis. In a socialist society the traditional knowledge and expertise held by small communities will be respected, especially where this relates to local ecology and sustainable systems of land use, and hence priority given to local decision-making over whatever has to be delegated to wider regional or global democratic control. In a socialist society communities, towns and cities will have the opportunity to thrive – and people will no doubt feel an attachment to places that are real and tangible – but the nation states will be consigned to the history books where they belong. We will recognise ourselves, not as Scottish, British, or European but as members of humanity. Then nationalism will have been well and truly buried.

The world-wide working class to end its exploitation and solve its problems has to join together to establish a world without frontiers in which the resources of the planet will have become the heritage of all, so that there can be production to meet needs and not for profit, where cultural differences will still be celebrated, but where we'll all be citizens of the world. The Socialist Party supports only working-class unity to establish a socialist world. Socialism will be a global co-operative commonwealth, a free world for a free people.

Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor

Fellow-Socialists and Fellow-Workers, the existing order of things appears to be breaking down. And it seems that the old order has had its day and all the signs point to an impending change. The struggle in which we are engaged today is a struggle of economic classes. The supremacy is now held by the capitalist class, who control the powers of government. Any disputes between capitalists for supremacy in their own class and the issues arising from it, the working class should have nothing to do with it and if they are foolish enough to allow themselves to be drawn into these disagreements of their masters, as they have so often done in the past, they will suffer the consequences of their folly. Parties but express in political terms the economic interests of those who compose them. This is the rule.

The Socialist Party represents the working class. There is no fundamental difference between the Republican and Democratic, the Tory or Labour, parties. Their principles are identical. They are all capitalist parties and stand for the capitalist system, and such differences as there are between them involve no principle. Each reek with corruption in their servility to the capitalist class, and are torn asunder with strife in their mad scramble for the spoils of office. The vital issue before the world is not touched, nor even mentioned in their manifestoes – capitalist wage-slavery, the legalised robbery of the workers of what is produced by their labour. It is the fundamental crime against modern humanity, but there is no room for the mention of this vital fact, in the platforms of the ruling class parties. They continue to babble on about inconsequential matters to obscure the real issue and wheedle the workers into voting them into power once more. Their speeches are filled with empty platitudes and meaningless phrases, but they are discreetly silent about the millions of unemployed, about the starvation wages of factory slaves, about the women and children who are crushed, debased and slowly tortured to death by the moloch of capitalism, about the people- trafficking of migrants, about the bitter poverty of the masses and their hopeless future, and about every other vital question which is worthy of an instant's consideration by any intelligent human being. How many more years of power do they require to demonstrate that they are the parties of the capitalist class and that they never intend to legislate in the interest of the working class, or provide relief for the suffering people?

The Socialist Party is the only party which honestly represents the working class. We are not asking you to give your votes blindly to this party but only that you read its case for socialism, study its statements and declarations, and satisfy yourselves as to what its principles are, what it stands for, and what it expects to accomplish. The Socialist Party being the political expression of the rising working class stands for the absolute overthrow of the existing capitalist system and for the reorganisation of society into an industrial and social democracy. This will mean an end to the private ownership of the means of life; it will mean an end to wage-slavery; it will mean an end to the army of the unemployed; it will mean an end to the poverty of the masses, the prostitution of womanhood, and the murder of childhood. It will mean the beginning of a new era of civlisation; the dawn of a happier day for the Children of Man. It will mean that this earth is for those who inhabit it and wealth for those who produce it. It will mean society organised upon a co-operative basis, collectively owning the sources of wealth and the means of production, and producing wealth to satisfy human wants and not to gorge a privileged few. It will mean that there shall be work for the workers and that all shall be workers, and it will also mean that there shall be leisure for the workers and that all shall enjoy it. It will mean that women shall be the comrades and equals of men, sharing with them on equal terms the opportunities as well as the responsibilities, the benefits as well as the burdens of civilised life.

The Socialist Party is the party of human emancipation. It stands for a world-wide democracy, for the freedom of every man, woman, and child, and for the civilization of all mankind. The Socialist party buys no votes with promises of reforms. It scorns to traffic in ignorance. It realizses that education, knowledge and the powers these confer are the only means of achieving a decided and permanent victory for the people. It is essentially educational and an appeal to intelligence. The workers are opening their eyes at last. They are beginning to see the light. They are taking heart of hope because they are becoming conscious of their power. No longer can the workers be pitted against each other in capitalist parties by designing politicians to their mutual undoing. They have made the discovery that they have brains as well as hands, that they can think as well as work, and that they do not need politicians to advise them how to vote, nor masters to rob them of the fruits of their labour. Slowly but surely there is being established the economic and political unity and solidarity of the workers of the world. The Socialist Party is the political expression of that unity and solidarity. appeal to the workers assembled here today in the name of the Socialist party. We appeal to you to unite and make common cause in this great struggle. To the extent that you have made progress, to the extent that you have developed power, and to the extent that you have achieved victory, to that extent you are indebted to your own class-conscious efforts and your own industrial and political organization. To the extent that you lack power, to the extent that you are defeated and kept in bondage, to that extent you lack in economic and political solidarity. Rightly organised and soundly disciplined on both the economic and political fields, the working class can prevail against the world. The economic organisation and the political party of the working class must both be revolutionary and they must work together hand in hand. Let us rise to our full stature, summon our united powers, and strike a blow for freedom that will be felt around the world!  

The world is awakening and the sunrise is approaching

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.”

All capitalist governments and all ruling and exploiting classes are alike to the Socialist Party. Our fight as world socialists is against them all and we have no preference among them. We have not one iota of nationalist pride or jingo patriotism. Our only interest in is the preparedness of our fellow-workers through sound education and revolutionary economic and political organisation, to overthrow the world’s ruling classes and sweep their robber regimes from the face of the earth. The Socialist Party takes its stand staunchly in favour of the class war, the only war that can put an end to all war, and quite as staunchly against every war waged by the ruling class to rob and kill and enslave the working class. It means war, but war against WAR and not against HUMANITY. It means war against slavery and for emancipation. It is of little use to cry out against war while we tolerate a social system that breeds war. Capitalism makes war inevitable. Capitalist nations not only exploit their workers but ruthlessly invade, plunder, and ravage one another. The profit system is responsible for it all. Abolish that, establish industrial democracy, produce for use, and the incentive to war vanishes. Until then men may talk about “Peace on earth” but it will be a myth — or sarcasm. Let us show the people the true cause of war. Let us arouse a sentiment against war. Let us teach the children to abhor war.

There may well be still room for reform and betterment in the present social system, but this is of minor consequence compared to the world’s crying need for industrial and social reorganisation and revolution. Privately owned industry and production for individual profit are no longer compatible with social progress and have ceased to work out to humane and civilised ends. With all its marvelous progress and monumental achievements through invention and new technology this world of ours - has not yet learned how to feed itself. There is no longer the shadow of an excuse for a hungry person.  All the resources and all the forces are at hand and easily available for the production of all things needed to provide food and shelter for every man, woman, and child, thus putting an end to the widespread poverty and appalling misery, which now shocks and sickens humanity and impeaches our vaunted civilization. But these tools and materials and forces must be released from private ownership and control, socialised, democratised, and set in operation for the common good of all instead of the private profit of the few. A privately owned world can never be a free world and a society based upon warring classes cannot stand. Such a world is a world of strife and hate and such a society can exist only by means of militarism and physical force. The day of awakening is at hand. The workers of all the world are breaking away from statecraft and priestcraft.

The Socialist Party challenges the right of capitalism to exist, and it proclaims the socialism as the legitimate successor of the present status quo order. Socialists appeal to the world’s workers upon the basis of their class interests. The Socialist Party make no pretense of attempting to serve both capitalists and workers. That is a political sophistry which socialism leaves a monopoly in the hands of the political spokesmen of capitalism. Socialism counts among the world’s workers all those who labour with hand or brain in the production of life’s necessities and luxuries. Socialism appeals to the self-interest of every man and woman so employed. With the interests of the owners of the great machines of modern production and distribution, the Socialists have no concern, except to abolish that ownership.

Capitalism is founded upon production for profit. Socialism is postulated upon production for use. Whenever the owners of the world’s machinery of production and distribution fail for any reason to realise profits, it is in their power to cease production or distribution and the world’s workers may starve. Again, if the owners of the world’s machinery of production and distribution permit it to be operated, they dictate the terms upon which the world’s workers may use that machinery. In other words, the only function of the modern capitalist is to own that which his brother man must use. The worker has naught but his labour-power, of hand or brain, to sell, and if he must sell his labor-power upon terms dictated by another, he is a slave. He who controls my bread controls my head, and so the contest between modern capitalism and socialism resolves itself into the age-old question of human slavery.

The corporate wealth of the nation controls the capitalist government of the nation and will to the end of capitalism. Corporate wealth is the result of economic and industrial evolution. Until corporate wealth is supplanted by common wealth, it will continue to write the laws and to enforce them or now, as best pleases its owners. Control of corporations and the enforcement of regulation of capitalist legislation, by capitalist politicians, are twin frauds in the programme of capitalism’s efforts to fool the people. No capitalist politician or party dares to hinder business growth or profits. Such an eventuality is a possibility, but not a probability. The Socialist Party wastes little time in dwelling upon these fleeting fantasies of the capitalist reformists. We realise that the issues which divide the capitalist political camps are merely quarrels between rival groups of capitalists over the division of the spoils which they have expropriated from the workers. The Socialist Party is no more interested in the outcome of these political quarrels than it would be in the result of a quarrel between two hold-up men who had robbed someone of his wallet and who had fallen out over splitting the contents.

Instead, the Socialist Party concentrates on the monumental corruption, the hypocrisy and the shams of capitalist politics as an indictment of capitalism. Alongside it, is the inexcusable impoverishment and prostitution of fellow-workers, the destruction of his families in the mines and sweatshops of capitalism. The Socialist Party calls upon his brothers and sisters to join in the overthrow of capitalism through capturing the powers of government and transferring the ownership of the world from capitalism to socialism. We point out the staggering burden of militarism, the colossal fraud of capitalist courts, the indescribably corruption of capitalist business, the cant, the chicanery, and the hypocrisy of capitalist society, and We urge workers to join in the struggle to usher in a better day. For the first time in the world’s history a subject class has it in its own power to accomplish its own emancipation without an appeal to brute force. This is the appeal which the Socialist Part makes to the workers of the world. It invites them to seize political power in the name of the working class, and to decree their own economic emancipation proclamation.

Out soon April's Socialist Standard

Out soon April's Socialist Standard

The Socialist Standard is a monthly socialist newspaper published without interruption since 1904 by the Socialist Party of Great Britain. The newspaper is written in a simple, direct style and focuses mainly on socialist advocacy and Marxian analysis of current events, particularly those affecting the United Kingdom.

 It was placed on a secret list of papers and magazines banned for export during World War I, for its call for workers to refuse to fight for their countries and instead join the class war. In 1915 it published an article written by a member of the Bolshevik party calling for a socialist solution to the war.

 In 1918, however, the paper voiced the first doubts of the SPGB regarding the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

In the 1930s it drew on the reports from Spain to produce articles on the looming menace of aerial warfare.

 During World War II the magazine evaded the censor largely by producing a series of articles on the Peloponnesian and similar ancient wars as a cover for the Party's opposition to the current one.

 The SPGB maintains that it is not a left-wing organisation nor its journal, The Socialist Standard a left-wing journal. 'Left-wing', it contends, has simply become an umbrella designation for protest groups and organisations demanding amendments and reforms to capitalism. The SPGB and the World Socialist Movement (with which the SPGB is associated) contrary to the views and aspirations of these myriad groups and organisations that would claim to be left-wing, affirms that capitalism is incapable of meaningful reform;that quintessentially the basis of the exploitation of the working class is the wages/money system.

ARCHIVE

The Day of the People is Arriving

While there is a lower class I am in it; While there is a criminal class I am of it; While there is a soul in prison I am not free. Eugene V Debs

Men and women who have dreamed dreams have led in the world’s progress toward higher and better things. The exploitation of man by man, of nation by nation, fabulously enriches the favoured few and impoverishing and degrading the toiling and producing masses. The few have the power to rob and enslave the many. 5 percent privately own our natural resources and our industrial machinery. In virtue of which they have the power to rule nations and rob the people. The Socialist Party says it will put an end to private ownership of social necessities. The issue — the one and only issue — is socialism. There is no other. Stick to it! Proclaim it everywhere! Socialism or capitalism. Freedom or slavery? Which? That is the issue and the only issue and the only issue that appeals to the intelligence of the working class. The end of private ownership means the end of exploitation, and the end of exploitation means the end of war and the beginning of worldwide peace. Trade wars must be backed by machine guns and missile. The war of blood follows the war for trade. Put an end to it all by replacing capitalism with socialism, and industrial despotism with industrial democracy, wherein the people, the whole people, shall own and control their common means of life, produce all things for their common use and enjoyment, and not for gorging parasites, and then, exploitation having ceased, competition for trade being ended, the incentive to war vanishes and for the first time in history the mankind is at peace. We are socialists, world socialists, and we have no use, not one bit, for capitalist wars. We have no enemies among the workers of other countries; and no friends among the capitalists of any country; the workers of all countries are our friends and the capitalists of all countries are our enemies. The class war is our war and our only war. We have no interest in national wars for ruling class conquest and plunder. In all these wars the workers are slaughtered while their masters grow fat in the spoils of conquest. The time has come for the workers to cease fighting the battle of their masters and to fight their own; to cease being slaughtered like cattle for the profit of the ruling class and to line up in the class struggle regardless of race or nationality for the overthrow of class rule and for the emancipation of their class and humanity. Permanent peace, however; peace based upon social justice, will never prevail until national industrial despotism has been supplanted by international industrial democracy. The end of profit and plunder among nations will also mean the end of war and the dawning of the era of “Peace on Earth and Good Will among Men.”

In every revolution of the past the false and cowardly plea that the people were “not yet ready” has prevailed. Some intermediate class or political party invariably supplanted the class that was overthrown and “the people” remained at the bottom where they have been since the beginning of history. They have never been “ready” to rid themselves of their despots, robbers, and parasites. All they have ever been ready for has been to exchange one brood of blood-sucking leeches for another to drain their veins and fatten in their misery. False prophets of the people and traitors to the working class delude followers. But themselves people are ready for their day. The people are the working class, the lower class, the robbed, the oppressed, the impoverished, the great majority of the earth. They are THE PEOPLE, and they who exploit the working class, and the mercenaries and lackeys who aid and abet the exploiters, are the enemies of the people. Working class solidarity must be the watchword. Industrial unity and political unity the revolutionary solidarity o the working class, will give us the power to conquer capitalism and emancipate the workers of the world. Beware of capitalism’s politicians and preachers! These are the real betrayers of the people, the hypocrites. They are the descendants of the hypocrites of old who all down the ages have guarded the flock in the name of patriotism and religion and secured the choicest morsels for themselves by turning the sheep over to the ravages of the wolves. Beware of the liveried hypocrites of the landlords, the usurers, the money-changers, the stockmarket-gamblers, the exploiters, the enslavers and despoilers of the people; beware of the ruling class politicians and preachers in every form who are so profoundly concerned about your “patriotism” and your “religion” and who receive their 30 pieces of silver for warning you against socialism because it will endanger your morality and interfere with your salvation. They are the slimy, oil-tongued deceivers, who traffic in the slavery and misery of their fellow-beings.

Capitalism is the same everywhere. Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will socialism, born out of misery, fed by blood sweat and tears and animated by agitation and proclaiming its mission of emancipation. The Socialist Party is intent upon building up a working class party for independent political action. The Socialist Party stands upon a sound platform, embodying the principles of world socialism, clearly expressed, and proclaims its mission of conquest on the basis of the class struggle. Its tactics are in harmony with its principles, and both are absolutely uncompromising. The mission of the Socialist Party is to awaken fellow-workers to a consciousness to be a socialist. We are not after office, we want socialism. We care nothing about office except in so far as it represents the triumph of socialism. Our goal is the “brotherhood of man,” and the tenet “Each for all and all for each”. It is no utopian dream, not the product of imagination, nor a mirage of the desert to allure and vanish, but a world-view of life and labour in which the humblest individual secures life, liberty, and happiness. 

We know that day by day, nourished by the desperation and vitalised by the aspirations of the working class, the area of its activity widens, it grows in strength and when the final hour of capitalism and wage slavery strikes, the Socialist Party will proclaim FREEDOM TO ALL MANKIND.

Dirty Scotland

Which? analysed 32 local authorities using data submitted to Food Standards Scotland and ranked them. Authorities were judged on the number of medium and high risk premises meeting hygiene requirements, the total premises rated for risk and the amount of planned interventions, such as inspections or follow up actions.

The results found Edinburgh is ranked bottom in Scotland, and is the eighth lowest ranking local authority area in the UK, while Glasgow achieved the second lowest score in the country. Five other local authorities in Scotland - Aberdeen, Moray, Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Perth and Kinross - were ranked in the bottom 10% across the UK.

The Orkney Islands were found to have the best food safety standards in Scotland and finished seventh in the UK overall. The second highest-ranked council area in Scotland was North Lanarkshire.

Another day is dawning

“Give us imagination enough to conceive; courage enough to will; power enough to compel; and then I say, the thing will be done.” - William Morris

“We want no condescending saviours to rule us from their judgement hall. We workers ask not for their favours, let us consult for all.” These verses of the Internationale  echo Marx’s saying that “the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves.” Do heroes create history or do slaves create history?  Another version explains, “No saviour from on high delivers, no faith have we in prince or peer. Our own right hand the chains must shiver, Chains of hatred, greed and fear.” The Internationale tells us that there is no great men who know everything. It is we the labourers who create world history, and not those leaders who style themselves 'saviours.'  All the intellectuals and academics have convinced themselves that the workers are too ignorant, and too undeveloped to do any such thing as rule but we do know how to transform the world. We have no interest in oratory games between “big leaders”. As the Communist Manifesto says our goal “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”  Socialism demands the liberation of humanity.

Socialists fully understand that the members of a socialist community will have to perform certain functions in many ways similar to those performed today under capitalism. In every society men and women have to produce in order to live. In every economic system, there must be some balance between production and consumption. Every society, if it is not to stagnate and decay, must produce a surplus of goods over and above the sum total of the goods necessary for the upkeep of the producers, the maintenance and replacement of productive equipment and so on. Yet the social relationships within which these functions are performed are so different in various systems that it is useless to search for common historical and sociological denominators for these functions. The surplus produce of a capitalist economy takes the form of rent, profit and interest; and this determines the entire mode of life of the capitalist world. In socialism, the surplus produce, belonging to society as a whole, would cease to be profit. The function of that surplus and its impact upon social life would be altogether different from what it was under the old order when the scale and the rhythm of any nation’s productive activity were normally determined by whether that activity was or was not profitable to the capitalist class. In the same way, the emulation in which men would engage under socialism (or communism) would have little or nothing in common with their ancestors’ competition. Under capitalism, men compete for profits or wages. There is a hierarchy to oppression under capitalism. It begins with the most vulnerable then works upward.

The Socialist Party is a political party, and it is not its business to what tactics workers shall apply in their trade union struggles. We are all socialists. We all stand for the same one thing. If we mean to destroy capitalism we must develop the power of our class, and we can only do that through the class-conscious unity. To this end the Socialist Party must stand fearless and uncompromising for the working class upon the basis of the class struggle and wage the war against capitalism for the liberation of labour from its age-old bondage. The sound education, of the workers alone can fit and prepare them for the herculean task before them. It is only through the education of the workers that they can come to clearly understand the necessity of not only organising, but for the kind of organisation required to give them the power to carry on their struggle, to fight their everyday battles, and finally to conquer capitalism and come into possession of their own. of the world. The world of capitalism is today in a state of collapse and bankruptcy where only socialism can save civilisation from lapsing into the barbarism of the dark ages. How important that we should muster all our forces and conserve all our energies for the Herculean task that confronts us. The political parties of capitalism are disintegrating from their own sheer rottenness and corruption. Decent voters are deserting both in disgust and seeking another fit for their allegiance. That other has to be the Socialist Party. Let us as a party stand staunchly for the industrial organisation of the workers and aid them in every way in our power, not only to achieve their industrial solidarity but by standing solidly behind them in every fight they have with their draconian bosses, in every struggle with their exploiting masters. We are their fellow-workers, their interest is our interest, our party is their party, and we are bound to fight with them in every battle they wage everywhere and every day in the year. 

Gustav's Gems

In his work "The Rise of Capitalism", Dr. Bang analyzes the collapse of the Chartist Movement. This was the great movement for universal suffrage in Britain in the 19th century.

"That happened which had to happen. Chartism had to terminate. It had to do so because, historically, it was not in consonance with the evolutionary stage of the period. Capitalism was not sufficiently ripe for overthrow. It was in its ascendancy, both as regards inner and external development. It had barely put the first lap behind, and it was to pass through a series of phases before the germs of its dissolution could manifest themselves. Preparations for its coming collapse could be made, the collapse could be hastened, but this could be done only by the workers gaining in strength, organizationally, tactically, and in consistent progress, and in the measure that the bourgeoisie became weakened.A big victory that in itself, meant a definite step toward a new social order, could not yet be won." 

Today, capitalism has developed to the extent that it is ripe to be overthrown. Has the world's working class themselves become more educated about how it should be overthrown? Or indeed, do they think it needs to be overthrown?

They need to wake up PDQ, before the effects of capitalism destroy life on this planet.

 For socialism, 

Steve and John.

Too Little Too Late

The Earth heated up to a third straight record hot year in 2016, with scientists blaming man made global warming - no kidding! Figures released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration revealed that the average global temperature was 14.84 Celsius, beating the previous year by 0.04,Celsius. 

This shows that what has been done to decrease global warming is too little too late. 

As long as profits are made capitalism rushes pell mell to its own destruction and that of the rest of us. 

Steve and John

Dysfunctional Capitalism

Capitalism is at war with life on earth.  - Naomi Klein

  Our species is capable of great compassion, kindness and tolerance; it is also capable of cruelty, selfishness and hate.  Capitalism's market forces act blindly and indiscriminately and its goal is limitless growth – no matter what the human or environmental costs may be. The global consequences of capitalism are great, long-term and far-reaching. The prospects for the planet and humanity are bleak. The profit-motive is the life-blood of capitalism. It is overwhelmingly responsible for global crises, and yet despite repeated warnings, little of substance has been done and it’s getting worse. All around the world people are suffering. Leaving behind this unjust economic system would create the possibility of progress. The capitalist class is a useless, dangerous, parasitic minority that can be dispensed with. In a society in which private ownership of the means of production has existed for thousands of years, the exploiting class through their rule have built up great power in all fields and have grabbed everything under the sun. Their long rule has given rise to backwardness, ignorance, selfishness, mutual suspicion and deception, mutual injury and slaughter in human society. It has exerted a most pernicious influence on the exploited. This is the inevitable result of the efforts of the ruling class to preserve their class interests and control. For they cannot maintain their ruling position unless they keep the masses backward, unorganised and divided.

 Surely, every thinking man or woman realises the capitalist system fails to supply the needs of the vast majority of the human race, and that it must be overthrown before people can have freedom. Capitalism's short-sighted hunt for profit has nothing to offer the majority but economic uncertainty for tomorrow, environmental disasters, poverty, disease and war. It is time for the workers of the world to learn their own power and use it for their own benefit. Socialist production will be planned on the basis of what serves society, not what yields the most profit. The producers themselves, the workers, will decide what to produce and how – not “the market”. The class-free society is the goal for socialists and the state will have ceased to exist, and people have attained full and unlimited freedom where the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is fully realised. Those things which are necessary for the production of the people’s needs shall be owned in common by all the people.


 Standing in the way of social progress is the capitalist class. Some day in the near future that the hungry millions will turn against the overfed few and a fearful retribution will be enacted on the capitalist class as a class. Can you imagine the power of free, unconditional sharing, mulitplied by millions and billions of people? What kind of world would that be? No exchange. No barter. Just everyone sharing their skills. Can you imagine the problems we could solve if we didn't need to buy and sell and trade in order to survive? Can you imagine if the only thing that governed people's behaviour was not the money they had nor the laws they obeyed, but rather the knowledge, respect and appreciation they had for each other and their environment? Soon we will build enough trust and confidence in the idea of world socialism, that we can begin to truly re-organise our society for the mutual benefit of all. We must understand that socialism is the greatest cause in human history, which will eliminate exploitation and classes once and for all, emancipate mankind and bring humanity into a world of happiness, radiating with beauty, such as it has never known before. But we must also understand that it wull be the most arduous undertaking in all history and only through protracted, bitter and torturous struggle will we be able to defeat the exploiting class. Beyond all doubt the socialist's cause will continue to develop and advance, and will win final and complete victory to deliver humanity from the nightmare of religion.


 The 'dictatorship of the proletariat' is a much misused phrase; when socialism is in being there will be no proletariat, as we understand the term today, and no dictatorship. There should be no compulsion; some people may say: “What the majority decide is good enough for me.” Others will say: “I like to have a voice in it.” As a rule, when things affecting a group of people who are working together come up for decision everyone of the group will join in and give his or her opinion, and generally the thing will be decided by mutual agreement. The 'dictatorship', so far as it is genuine and defensible, is the suppression of capitalism and any attempt to re-establish it.  Compulsion of any kind is repugnant to the socialist. No-one may make a wage-slave of another; no-one may hoard up goods for him or herself that he or she does not require and cannot use; but the only way to prevent such practices is not by making them punishable; it is by creating a society in which no-one needs to become a wage-slave, and no-one cares to be cumbered with a private hoard of goods when all that they need is readily supplied as they need it from the common storehouse.

We are brothers and sisters of one humanity.

“The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.” - Eugene Debs

Many people feel a pervasive pessimism. Fear, uncertainty and anxiety prevails which sucks the joy out of life and leads to a craving for endless consumerism, which exacerbates climate change and ecological destruction. We import luxuries from all over the globe, but can’t be bothered to cook or grow our own food. Something is happening, but many don’t know what it is. Many no longer feel as safe and secure as they used to. The meaninglessness and rootless of our lives as become too obvious for most of us to ignore, any longer. As each day passes, we witness how ignorant and mean-spirited our society has become. The division of men, women, and children based on money, privilege and social standing is totally unjust. Such inherent injustice is a cause of tension, resentment and conflict. Is everyone too busy hating to do anything? Unless one closes their eyes and filters out information, ignoring the signs of dramatic pending doom, realistically, what do you expect your future and our futures to be like other than potentially worse? What would you suggest we do to get from here to a better world?

We must be open-minded, ready for change and prepared to listen; we are the ones who will make the needed changes, not any saviour from on high. People who desire a better, inclusive, democratic world can achieve their goals, but only if they understand the forces that are working against them. Social change is desperately needed if we are to eradicate poverty, bring about social justice and save the planet. How can we be content with a mode of production in which millions starve and die in squalor; when the rich parade their wealth before the poor; when every person is incited to view his or her neighbour as an enemy; when no-one trusts another? For how long must we live like this? For how long can you support this degradation?”  The task of the Socialist Party is to create a new framework, which will finally change all capitalist definitions, capitalist perspectives and all the capitalist parameters.

We are utterly dependent on the capitalist system to clothe, feed, and shelter us.  For the privilege of sheer survival, we must permit ourselves to be exploited by capitalism. But capitalism has dulled our senses and disconnected us from any harmony with planet Earth. The socialist vision of granting every human being a share in the benefits of technological progress is a noble one. But if we expect that vision to be fulfilled we require a united voice of ordinary people, fused and directed towards a new economic thinking and the transformation of society towards abolishing poverty and malnutrition through the end of capitalism. Our society is not plagued by war, hunger, misery and oppression because we, the 99%, like to live that way. We suffer those things because the 5%, and their politicians, deliberately choose to inflict them on us. The Socialist Party offers the simplest almost perfect solution – that we should remodel our social system. The working class is the people, all of the people regardless of skin pigmentation, gender, or nationality. The failure to achieve working class solidarity, despite our numerical advantage, has allowed the capitalists, the corporations' board of directors, stock-holders, and their governments, military, police, justice system, education, media, etc. to divide and keep divided the people, so that the 5%-ers can continue their capital and profit accumulation unabated. If we are to find cures to the many crises facing humanity, we must end capitalism. It sounds like a platitude but it’s the simple and urgent truth.

The prevailing economic system has allowed for the concentration of wealth, and with it political power, into the hands of a wealthy elite, whilst condemning billions to lives of poverty and suffering. Income and wealth inequality is greater than it has ever been. A recent report by Oxfam revealed that “ the world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population [3.6 billion people].” There seems to be an assumption amongst the privileged that they are entitled to be as greedy, selfish, rich and powerful as they like, whilst billions live in crushing poverty. The feelings of hostility against our ruling class have been suppressed for generations, but are now beginning to surface as anger and frustration directed towards the capitalist system and governments that have policies for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.   Capitalism is a blind system – devoid of compassion. It promotes the idea that some are more deserving than others; some are entitled to live lives of excess whilst hundreds of millions literally have nothing. It pollutes democracy and it poisons the planet, for its survival.  It promotes atomisation and works in opposition to humanity’s underlying unity.

 This means we need to design new, social system, which work for everyone; that has as its principle aim, the goal of meeting the needs and addressing the welfare of every human being. What the Socialist Party works towards is a new system that take the fear and uncertainty out of life, and unite people instead of dividing. To achieve this requires nothing more than the common ownership of the world resources, sharing the skills, knowledge and technologies of the people of the world among the people, based on need. The Socialist Party seeks a revolution in how life is organised. When one feels powerless, engaging in action with others can break down the isolation. Stand up and fight back! A better world is possible but time is running out if we are to preserve the planet and protect life on Earth. Capitalism is an abomination. Capitalism is anathema. Capitalism is the destroyer of the environment. Capitalism is the maker of wars and famines and pestilence. Capitalism is abhorrent.

Saving our world is not, it seems, particularly important for the men of power – the possessing class and politicians; their priority is profit growth, economic expansion and the exploitation of everyone and everything through the cancer of capitalism.  Every natural resource is drained and exhausted in the name of the market. Such irresponsible, reckless behaviour by people content to bury their heads in the sands of denial is causing far-reaching, perhaps irreparable damage to the Earth, its diverse eco-systems and to humanity itself. The call is now for revolution. What is required is a revolution. It is an imperative that humanity abolishes capitalism. The revolution must begin.

Scotland's Shame

On Thursday 16^th March, the Scottish Government released two sets of poverty statistics, on how many people live in poverty and on how many people live in ‘persistent poverty’, in other words, have been in poverty for three of the last four years.

The figures are stark.

17% of Scotland’s population live in poverty before housing costs, equivalent to 880,000 people.  When you include housing costs, a further 170,000 people are in poverty – pushing the total figure to over a million people living in poverty and 1 in 5 of the population.

Poverty rates have fluctuated over the past few years, but seem to now be on the rise. More worryingly, poverty among working people is increasing fastest of all, perhaps reflecting the growth in part-time working, zero hours contracts, and low wages that fail to rise in line with inflation and living costs.

More than 1 in 4 children in Scotland live in poverty. And for the first time, we now know that over 1 in 10 children are classed as living in persistent poverty, meaning that they have been growing up in poverty for at least 3 in the last 4 years. The potential impact on the education attainment and wellbeing of each of these children is damning.

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/14550/blog-over-1-million-people-living-in-poverty-in-scotland-the-families-behind-the-figures/#

Who's Watching And Why

In January Toronto officials announced plans to double the amount of cameras at intersections, which is currently at 77. The expansion is part of the city's new $80 million road safety plan, which Mayor John Tory has championed with the aim of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. Methods of surveillance always start in a way the public as a whole find acceptable. In the U.S. it was supposedly to ''combat terrorism''.

All these techniques can and will be used to crush opposition to capitalism, but it won't do them a bit of good when the vast majority vote to end it. 

Steve and John.

Security On Buses?

The Toronto Transit Commission are increasing security on buses and streetcars in the hope that riders won't spit on drivers. In 2016 there were 285 assaults on transit operators in Toronto, a number that doesn't include verbal abuse. 34 per cent of assaults were by spitting, 31 per cent were a slap on the hand and 37 per cent a punch in the face. In a December pilot project called Bus Stop, constables boarded 400 buses on 400 lines.

 Most of the disputes were about fares, but nevertheless it's a clear indication that capitalist society is breaking down more and more every day. 

Steve and John.

The Movie "Hidden Figures"

The recent movie ''Hidden Figures'', which depicts the successful battle of three coloured women for recognition when working on NASA's space program in the early 1960's is excellent. Since one is a mathematician, one an engineer and the other a computer specialist, each have to fight their separate battles. The movie is totally absorbing, especially as it's a true story. 

Though one can applaud the breaking down of barriers and consequently raising the status of people who had previously been dumped on, wouldn't it be better to have a world where there were no barriers to break down because no one was getting dumped on? 

Steve and John.

National Myths

Scotland's national animal is the fictitious beast, the unicorn, which is apt for the fiction of the Scottish nation.

The brutality in much of Scotland's history beggars belief. The Clan Campbell versus Clan MacDonald and the Glencoe Massacre may perhaps be the most infamous that people have read about, yet “only” 38 men, women and children were murdered, (while others died in the snow)  but it was nothing special by Highland standards. 

Bones discovered in Massacre Cave, on Eigg have been linked to a massacre of almost the entire island's population during a clan feud in the 16th Century. Analysis by archaeologists at Historic Environment Scotland has dated the remains to the time of the killings.

In or around the year 1577, about 400 islanders, who were members of the Macdonald clan, were murdered by a raiding party of Macleods from Skye. The islanders had been hiding in the cave for three days when they were discovered. The Macleods blocked the narrow entrance to their hideout with heather before setting the material alight. The Macdonalds were suffocated by smoke and their bodies left in the cave.

The killings happened during a long standing dispute between the Macdonalds of Clanranald and the Macleods of Dunvegan on Skye. A party of Macleods arrived on a small island off Eigg during a storm , helped themselves to cattle and most likely raped some of the girls looking after the cattle so some Eigg Macdonalds crossed over to the island and dispatched the Macleods, reserving the worst fate for the first son of the chief of Macleod of Dunvegan by breaking his limbs and putting him adrift in a little boat without oars, condemning him to a slow and painful death.

The MacDonalds took their revenge one year after the brutal massacre when they landed on Skye, barred up the entrance to a local church, set it alight and killed all but one MacLeod inside.