Wednesday, April 05, 2017

The Battle of Bonnymuir

The oft-forgotten Battle of Bonnymuir took place on the 5th of April, 1820, during the ‘Radical War’ of the early 19th Century. It wasn’t much more than a skirmish. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten in the annals of Scottish labour history. 

Sixteen Hussars and sixteen Yeomanry troopers routed a band of twenty-five, poorly armed, striking weavers. The leaders were captured, tried and sentenced, with the outcome being a judicial murder and the martyrdom of John Baird and Andrew Hardie, two men who came to be known as the ‘Radical Martyrs’. 

In the early 19th Century revolutionary discontent increased amongst the working class with the underlying ideals and economic circumstances, which helped to create the French and American revolutions, spreading in Scotland at that time. The workers were suppressed and despised by the ruling classes and their pay and conditions deteriorated drastically. Between 1800 and 1808, the earnings of weavers were halved and this trend continued up to 1820. In 1816, weavers in Kilsyth were working for just over £1 per week and, by 1820, their weekly income was down to between eleven and twelve shillings. This widespread discontent came to a head with a two-month long strike in 1812. 

Also, as a legacy of the government persecution of Scottish reformers, agitators and martyrs, such as Muir, Mealmaker, and Palmer, in the 1790’s, dissidence was stimulated and the United Scotsmen movement was formed. That underground organisation campaigned for universal male suffrage, vote by secret ballot, payment of MPs and annual general elections – things we take for granted today. A precedent for Bonnymuir had taken place at ‘Peterloo’, St Peter’s Fields, in Manchester, in the August of 1819, when a radical reform meeting was attacked and dispersed by the military. That event provoked widespread protest and rioting. In one incident, in Paisley, the cavalry was called in to reintroduce order and there were other mass meetings in Scotland, with many weavers from Kilsyth being involved in forms of agitation.

Events neared a climax, when, on Sunday, the 2nd of April, 1820, a Proclamation was issued calling for a general strike. Most of central Scotland, especially in the weaving communities, came out the following week. The proclamation began:

 “Friends and Countrymen! Rouse from that state in which we have sunk for so many years, we are at length compelled from the extremity of our sufferings, and the contempt heaped upon our petitions for redress, to assert our rights at the hazard of our lives.” 
And, it called for a rising:
 “To show the world that we are not that lawless, sanguinary rabble which our oppressors would persuade the higher circles we are, but a brave and generous people determined to be free.”

Taking a lesson from Manchester and Paisley, one party of strikers decided that attack was the best form of defence. With the purpose of increasing their puny arsenal of weapons, a collection of about twenty-five weavers from Glasgow, led by Andrew Hardie and John Baird, marched on the Carron Iron Works near Falkirk to capture the munitions there. Tragically for that group, its movements didn’t go unnoticed. The secrecy of societies like the United Scotsmen had caused the government major concern and its spies and informers were ever active. Those clandestine infiltrators, who were the real traitors in the whole sorry business, were the reason why the march on Carron was anticipated.

Having received the intelligence of the undercover government agents, the Army was given its own marching orders. Lietutenant Ellis Hodgson, of the 11th Hussars, quartered in Perth, set off for Kilsyth, via Stirling, in order to protect Carron. By breakfast on the morning of the battle, Baird, Hardie and their followers had reached Castlecary Inn. That same morning, Lt. Hodgson left Kilsyth with his even numbered force of sixteen Hussars and sixteen Yeomanry troopers, intent on encountering the weavers. At Bonnybridge, they left the main road and made for Bonnymuir to intercept the rebels. The two forces met and the radicals began firing. After a few volleys on both sides, the cavalry flanked the rebels and the inevitable end was swift, albeit not so bloody. Lt. Hodgson and a sergeant of the 10th Hussars were wounded, with four of the radicals being also injured. A haul of five muskets, two pistols, eighteen pikes and about one hundred rounds of ball cartridges were taken. Thus ended the Battle of Bonnymuir. Nineteen of the weavers, including the leaders, were taken prisoner and brought to Stirling Castle.

Coincidentally, at some stage in the aftermath of the battle, a number of prisoners from Paisley were being taken separately under escort to jail in Greenock. That escort came under attack from a different group of strikers and the soldiers retaliated by opening fire. The result of that tragic reaction was the killing of eight people, including eight year old James McGilp, and the wounding of a further ten. Later, angry rioters stormed the jail and set those prisoners free. A series of dramatic trials then unfolded as a total of eighty-eight charges of treason were brought against men from across West Central Scotland. Hardie and Baird were condemned, hung and beheaded, and twenty men, including the fifteen-year-old Alexander Johnstone, were transported to the penal colonies in Australia.

On the day of his execution, Hardie spoke saying:

 “Yes, my countrymen, in a few minutes our blood shall be shed on this scaffold…, for no other sin but seeking the legitimate rights of our ill used and down trodden beloved countrymen.”
At that, the furious Sheriff stepped forward and ordered him to stop, “…such violent and improper language”. 
Hardie’s last words in riposte were:
 “What we said to our countrymen, we intended to say no matter whether you granted us liberty or not. So we are now both done.” 
Hardie and Baird then embraced each other at the last, before a callous murder in the name of justice took place.

Peter Mackenzie, a Glasgow journalist, campaigned to have the weavers pardoned and eventually, in August 1835, an absolute pardon was granted. Today, you can find a monument to John Baird and Andrew Hardie in Sighthill cemetery, in Glasgow’s Springburn district.


From here

Wage Slaves Unite

 
The Socialist Party frequently encounter people who claim to be socialists, but who cannot understand that when Socialism is established there will be no wages system. They argue that, without wages, chaos would ensue

Wage-slavery is a fact. The most barbarous fact is the jobs market. They who buy and they who sell in the labour market are alike dehumanised by the inhuman traffic in the brains and blood and bones of human beings. Without this commerce in human life, this sacrifice of manhood and womanhood, this barter of people, the capitalist system of all lands and all climes would crumble to ruin and perish from the earth. The workers have but the one issue, the overthrow of the capitalist system and the emancipation of the working class from wage-slavery. The capitalist system is no longer adapted to the needs of modern society. It is outgrown and fetters the forces of progress. 

The very moment a worker begins to do his or her own thinking he or she understands the paramount issue, parts company with the capitalist politician and falls in line with our own class on the political battlefield. The political solidarity of the working class means the death of despotism and the birth of freedom. the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class struggle, and as the toiling millions come to see and understand it and rally to the political standard of their class, they will drive all capitalist parties of whatever name into the same party, and the class struggle will then be so clearly revealed that the hosts of labor will find their true place in the conflict and strike the united and decisive blow that will destroy slavery and achieve their full and final emancipation. In this struggle the workingmen and women and children are represented by the Socialist Party.

The Socialist Party stands squarely upon its principles and relies wholly upon the eduction of the working class. The Socialist Party buys no votes and promises no offices. All workingmen and women owe it to themselves and their class to take an active and intelligent interest in political affairs. Ignorance alone stand in the way of socialist success. The capitalist parties understand this and use their resources to prevent the workers from seeing the light. Intellectual darkness is essential to industrial slavery. Capitalist parties cunningly contrive to divide the workers. The Socialist Party is uniting them. The ballot expresses the people’s will and the people’s will is supreme. The ballot means that labor is no longer silent, that at last it has a voice, that it may be heard and if united shall be heeded. Centuries of struggle and sacrifice were required to wrest this symbol of freedom from the mailed clutch of tyranny and place it in the hands of ordinary folk as the shield of defence and a sword of attack. The abuse and not the use of it is responsible for its evils.

In every state of society, ancient and modern, labour has been exploited, degraded and in subjection. Civilisation has done little for labour except to modify the forms of its exploitation. Society has always been and is now built upon exploitation—the exploitation of a class—the working class, whether slaves, serfs or wage-labourers, and the exploited working class in subjection have always been, instinctively or consciously, in revolt against their oppressors. Through all the centuries the enslaved toilers have moved slowly but surely toward their final freedom. The call of the Socialist Party is to the exploited class to rally beneath the red flag and put an end to the last of the barbarous class struggles by conquering the capitalist government, taking possession of the means of production and making them the common property of all, abolishing wage-slavery and establishing the socialist co-operative commonwealth. The first step in this direction is to sever all relations with the capitalist parties. They are precisely alike, differing only in being committed to different sets of capitalist interests—they have the same principles under varying colours, are equally corrupt and are one in their subservience to capital and their hostility to labour. and we challenge their most discriminating partisans to tell them apart in relation to labour. The ignorant workers who supports pro-capitalist parties forges their own shackles and is the unconscious author of their own misery. They must be made to see and think and act with fellow-workers in supporting the party of their own class and this work of education is the task of the World Socialist Movement. Working-people who support the pro-capitalist parties are guilty, consciously or unconsciously, of treason to their class. They are voting into power the enemies of labour and are morally responsible for the crimes thus perpetrated upon their fellow-workers and sooner or later they will have to suffer the consequences of their miserable acts. Justice to labour means the end of capital. The capitalist parties can do nothing. They are a part, an iniquitous part, of the foul and decaying system. There is no remedy for the ravages of death.

The Socialist Party is not, and does not pretend to be a capitalist party. The overthrow of capitalism is the object of the Socialist Party. It will not fuse with any other party and it would rather die than compromise. It does not ask, nor does it expect the votes of the capitalist class. Such capitalists as do support it do so seeing the approaching doom of the capitalist system and with a full understanding that the Socialist Party is not a capitalist party but a revolutionary working class party, whose historic mission it is to conquer capitalism on the political battle-field, take control of government and through the public powers take possession of the means of wealth production, abolish wage-slavery and emancipate all workers and all humanity. The old order of society can survive but little longer. Socialism is next in social evolution. Soon that minority will be the majority and then will come the co-operative commonwealth. Society must be reconstructed by the working class. These are the principles and objects of the Socialist party and we fearlessly proclaim them. We know our cause is just and that it must prevail.

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Insecurity Guaranteeed.

McDonald's stated on March 1 that it has lost 500 million customers in the US since 2012, and laid out its plans to get some back. These include allowing them to order and pay on their mobile phones. They also said they will more aggressively market items such as coffee and pastries. The chain said it lost some of its loyal customers to other major fast food rivals, instead of newer ones.

My, My what a surprise - here is this great global giant, the epitome of what can be achieved in this wonderful economic democracy we live under and now even ''it'' is having difficulties. Shades of Eatons going out of business in Canada, which shows that under crapitalism everything is temporary except, except insecurity.

Steve and John.

The Patriotism Disease


Are you proud to be a Scot? Does the hair on the back of your neck rise when they play 'Flower of Scotland'? Do you get goose-pimples when the Saltire flutters and you hear the skirl of bag-pipes and the whirl of kilts. If so, you are suffering from that nastiest of diseases of the mind, known popularly as patriotism — otherwise known as nationalism — and it can afflict people of all countries and even of regions which aspire to become countries.

Only by rejecting the myths of national and racial identity can the world be won by and for all of its inhabitants. As knowledge of the real cause of our problems (capitalism) and the real basis of our strength (class unity) develop, the appeal of the nationalists will evaporate. The whole thing about nationalism is its idiotic delight in some accident of language, accent or local behaviour. The whole horror of nationalism is its resolve to differentiate from others who doesn't share its particular language, accent or local behaviour.The Socialist Party fully understands every person on the planet today community. We all love to sing together. We all love to dance together. Yet we also enjoy differences. That makes us human.  The Socialist Party is without nationalism, religion or racialism. We are socialists. We are in the process of becoming truly human. That is the appeal of socialism. The flag-waving nationalists are not happy about this. As workers, we can have no greater weapon in our struggle against the bosses than knowledge. Understanding the perversion of nationalist sentiment is to us as powerful as all the filthy weapons that our class enemies can muster to defend their minority power. No amount of distortion history by our class enemies will stop socialists from pursuing that task, inspired by fellow class-conscious workers who have struggled before we were born. The capitalist uses patriotism, and national independence as a means of provoking national hatreds and are not concerned at all with the interests of the working class, but only with protecting their own property, markets, investments, and so on. Fighting to gain or protect national independence serves no interest, except that of the capitalist class. It solves no problem, not even that of nationality, for each success by one nationalist movement creates other similar problems. 

Workers constantly compete with each other. We are taught to do so from a very early age.  We also engage in the competition of "our" country against all the rest.  The media persistently refer to “us” and “them”. We learn while we are still young that “my” country is never wrong and is always right; the pernicious sentimentality of nationalism. The capitalist class may claim allegiance to the country of his or her birth but will nevertheless move investments from one part of the world to another according to the potential for profit.  The ideal world for the capitalist class is one where national boundaries are only political boundaries posing no serious obstacles to the movement of money.  Despite national boundaries, different cultures and languages, we are all part of the world system of capitalism whose lifeblood is competition. The capitalist class recognise the global character of capitalism and despite the competition between individual capitalists or between sections of capital, in the final analysis they act as a class with common interests. Workers would also do well to recognise not only the global character of capitalism but the necessary consequence of that - the common class interest that unites workers wherever they happen to have been born. The Socialist Party awaits the time that destructive nationalist ideas will be replaced by the socialist rallying call of "Workers of the world unite". We are the international working class and we have a common interest. To unite against ruling classes everywhere and to establish a world community based on the Earth s resources being the common heritage of all humanity where every human being will no longer be a subject of one or other artificial state but where, wherever we live or work or whatever our language or culture, we will all be citizens of a united world. What sort of narrow-minded nationalism is this in a world where over half of our fellow human beings are destitute and eight hundred millions of them are starving? Are we to check that they are "our” people before we think of positive policies to end their, and our, common poverty?

It is the socialist contention that human beings, wherever they are from, are much more similar than they are different. All of us have certain needs and socially produced desires which, by co-operating as humans, we can satisfy. Socialism, which can only be established worldwide, presents the possibility of people from different backgrounds and with different cultures (many of which they may want to retain in a world socialist society) combining our abilities to jointly provide for our common needs. To do this we must socialise the means of producing and distributing wealth by placing them in the hands of the democratically organised world community. Within a socialist society decisions will be taken at various geographical levels, depending on the nature of the decision to be made. Whatever difficulties the organisation of world society, based on production solely for use, will create, it will be a far more harmonious society than capitalism can ever possibly hope to be. Ending capitalism, with its national frontiers, is a matter of urgency.  World socialism offers a temptation to the political imaginations of those whose minds have been narrowed by the ideology of nationalism. There is no way to obtain a world with no borders without creating a world which is united by the common interests of its inhabitants and there is no way to achieve such an identity of interests except by establishing socialism.

Life of Marx (2000 - Book Review)

Book Review from the April 2000 issue of the Socialist Standard

Karl Marx by Francis Wheen. Fourth Estate, London.
Journalist Wheen has performed a staggering feat. In just over 400 pages, he has traced the action-packed life of Karl Marx from childhood in Triers in the Moselle valley to university life in Bonn and Berlin and political exile in France, Belgium and finally London.
In the hands of Wheen the story is one of almost cinematic action. The heady student days of feverish philosophical debate fuelled by too much wine and beer are vividly portrayed. His foray into political journalism, his jousts with state censors and his eventual political banishment, leading to the life of a stateless person trekking through the capitals of Europe in poverty and constant harassment by state authorities and police spies are dealt with in a lively and readable fashion.
The real strength of this book, however, does not rest on the colourful biographical detail, but on its depiction of Marx as a human being, rather than (as has been too often the case in the past) as a god or a devil. Interestingly enough Wheen mentions in his introduction a book, written by an American evangelical preacher, entitled "Was Karl Marx a Satanist?" The other side of the coin, of course, are the books that are nothing less than hagiographies. As the jacket cover says, "Karl Marx emerges as a flamboyantly unmistakable individual, not the stony head of a monolithic, faceless organisation."
Socialists might have wished for more emphasis on Marx's ideas, but when Wheen does this he does an excellent job. Considering that his intention was to deal with Marx more as an individual rather than as an economist, historian, philosopher or revolutionary, the author's discussion of the works of Marx is generally speaking difficult to quarrel with and easy to admire. He distances the writings and actions of Marx from his so-called supporters like Lenin, Stalin and Mao. He has a pop at Karl Popper's criticism and absolutely devastates the attacks on Marx by the likes of Paul Samuelson. The role of Marx in the International Working Men's Association is particularly well documented and his jousts with Michael Bakunin and the anarchists are vividly drawn.
A lot of people are going to hate this book. Left-wingers who see every industrial dispute or petty social unrest as the harbinger of a transformation of society will be reminded (if they ever knew) that Marx's view was that a long period of education and organisation was necessary before the working class could establish socialism. Anarchists with their 19th-century romanticism about conspiracy and direct action will be less than pleased at the reporting of the antics of their anarchist heroes in the International. The academics who have dismissed Marx's views as outdated are not going to like Wheen's view that Marx's criticisms of capitalism are still valid today.
Even if a lot of people are going to hate this book, this socialist loved it and advises readers to get down to their local library immediately. If you are going to buy only one book this year, then this is it.
Richard Donnelly

The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism


One political party that stands uncompromisingly for the working class and human emancipation is The Socialist Party. For the present, the political ignorance of the workers stands in the way of their solidarity, but this can and will be overcome. Steadily the number of class-conscious toilers is increasing. The enlightened workers demand the ownership of the tools of industry and they are building up the Socialist Party as a means of getting them. The working class alone made the tools; the working class alone can use them, and the working class must, therefore, own them.

This is the revolutionary demand of the World Socialist Movement. The propaganda is one of education and is perfectly orderly and peaceable. The workers must be taught to unite and vote together as a class in support of the Socialist Party, the party that represents them as a class, and when they do this the government will pass into their hands and private ownership will give way to social ownership, and production for profit to production for use; the wage-system will disappear, and with it the ignorance and poverty, misery and crime that wage-slavery breeds; the working class will stand free, and a new era will dawn in human progress and in the civilisation of mankind. The World Socialist Movement's mission is to win the world — the whole world. The capitalist regime is but a mere passing phase. The capitalist era will be remembered in history, not so much for its own achievements as for what it has made possible after it has passed away. The historic mission of capitalism has been to place the forces of Nature at the service of man. The mission of Socialism is to release these imprisoned productive forces from the vandal horde that has seized them, that they may be operated, not in the interest of a privileged elite class, as at present, but freely and in the common interest of all. Then the world — the world the socialist movement is to win from capitalism — will be filled with wealth for all to have and to enjoy in its abundance. The earth is one vast mass of raw materials. Hidden in every passing breeze, in every wave, in river and ray of sun, are the energy to transform natural resources into wealth, and in such fabulous abundance as to banish for all time the spectre of want, and make the planet fit for humanity. The era of technological invention and transformation has brought us to this view. To realise this great social ideal is a work of education and organisation. The working class must be aroused. They must be made to hear the call of socialism. Economic solidarity and political solidarity. The working class are going to unite, economically and politically, for their emancipation. The unity of labour, economic and political, upon the basis of the class struggle, is at this time the supreme need of the working class. The prevailing lack of unity implies lack of class consciousness; that is to say, enlightened self-interest; and this can, must and will be overcome by revolutionary education and organisation. We are engaged today in a class war; and why? For the simple reason that in the evolution of the capitalist system in which we live, society has been mainly divided into two economic classes—a small class of capitalists who own the tools with which work is done and wealth is produced, and a great mass of workers who are compelled to use those tools. Between these two classes, there is an irrepressible economic conflict. Unfortunately for themselves, working people do not yet understand the nature of the conflict, and for this reason has hitherto failed to accomplish any effective unity of their class. The exploiting capitalist is the economic master and the political ruler in capitalist society, and as such holds the exploited wage worker in utter contempt. No master ever had any respect for his slave, and no slave ever had, or ever could have, any real love for his or her master. We are organised to fight that owning employing class. The capitalists are perfectly willing that you shall organise, as long as you don’t do a thing against them; as long as you don’t do a thing for yourselves. 

When enough have become socialists — A new power will be in control! The people! For the first time in history, the working class will be free and no class will be in subjection. The average person imagines that he or she must have a leader to look to; a guide to follow, right or wrong, and therefore instinctively looks to a leader. We have depended too much on that leader and not enough on ourselves. The Socialist Party wants you to cultivate self-reliance, to rely upon yourselves. As long as you can be led by an individual you will be betrayed by an individual. That does not mean that all leaders are dishonest or corrupt. The most dangerous leader is not the corrupt leader, but the honest yet ignorant leader. This world only respects as it is compelled to respect, and if you workingmen and women would be respected you must begin by respecting yourselves.

In this barbarous competitive struggle in which we are engaged, the workers, the millions, are fighting each other to sell themselves into slavery; fighting each other to other to keep soul and body together. And this is called civilisation! What a mockery! What a sham! There is no real civilisation in the capitalist system. Whatever may be said of the past, there is no excuse for poverty today. And yet it is the scourge of mankind. Tens of millions are in a state of chronic poverty. Millions more have been sunk into pauperism. The whole working class is in a sadly dependent state, and even the luckiest wage-worker is left suspended by a single thread. He does not know what hour a machine may be invented to make his or trade superfluous and useless.

Monday, April 03, 2017

North Lanarkshire Poverty

The number of hard-up North Lanarkshire residents who continue to live on the breadline has been laid bare in stark council figures.
The local authority’s Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) have shown there were 8897 applications for a crisis grant, which provides a safety net in a disaster or emergency situation, from April to December last year. The fact that almost 9000 families in North Lanarkshire have had to apply for these crisis grants just to survive is completely unacceptable. The Tory welfare cuts are an attack on the poorest in our community. The fact that more and more people are being forced to go to the local council for grants and use our foodbanks is a direct result of this attack.
The council’s finance convener Bob Burrows told the Wishaw Press that the situation could get even worse over the next two years. He said: “As a result of Scottish Government changes to the funding arrangements for the Scottish Welfare Fund which took effect from April 2016, North Lanarkshire Council will see a reduction in funding in each of the next three years culminating in a total reduction of £411,000 per annum by 2019. This means less money available for local people who apply for grants to support them and their families. Although North Lanarkshire has high levels of deprivation and a higher than average number of applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund, we are receiving proportionately less funding.

A Glaring Contradiction.

An SPC'er recently made friends with a couple who spent many years in impoverished countries and had seen many children starve to death, (not that it doesn't happen in supposedly affluent ones), but I'll let Graham tell it: ''Pam and I were on a cruise and observed a wealthy couple help themselves to the buffet. Twice they filled their plates and each time took a couple of bites, groaned and threw the food into the garbage. I was so angry I felt like shouting, ''how can you waste food when countless millions are starving?''

The couple might have said they'd paid for the food, therefore could have done what they wanted, but nevertheless it does suggest there is something seriously wrong in an economic system where such glaring contradictions exist.

 Steve and John.

Another Capitalist Cock-up

Though I haven't been to any comedy clubs lately, I would think comedians would be having a field day cracking jokes about the Toronto Transit Commission. They put machines called The Presto System in subways so passengers can buy their tickets from them and they can lay off workers.
The trouble is it ain't exactly, ''Hey Presto I got my ticket'', co's ten per cent of 'em aren't working. On February 22, Toronto's Deputy Mayor, Denzil Minnan Wong, called Presto,''A horrible disaster.'' He didn't call it,''Another capitalist cock-up,'' which would've been closer to the truth. 

Better to have a system where the profit motive is removed and things are run properly even if the laughs are fewer. 

Steve and John.

One People - One Home


Across Europe and elsewhere, we have witnessed an explosive mixture of economic collapse and a resurgent nationalism. The political virus of nationalism is spreading. This feeds on historical divisions and the need of the new ruling classes in alliance with the remnants of the old to legitimise their rule through appeals to xenophobia and racism. These ideologies gain their strength through the hard struggle for survival experienced by workers in everyday life under state capitalism, and these struggles are set to become even harsher.


Nationalist independence is a capitalist business. Feuding factions of the self-same class that win and control territories for profit, their politicians, media chiefs and paid hacks. Politically, nationalism is ambiguous, in that it can take on a "rightwing" or a "leftwing" form. The Socialist Party urges fellow-workers t\to forget the crumbs from the dishes of their masters’ feast, but instead organise to take the whole feast for themselves by replacing the capitalist logo: "One Nation—One State" with the socialist one: "One World—One People". The obstacle only lies in our minds—the "fear of freedom". Remove fear. Be free to be one to the Movement. Don’t feel you need to be led by the nose. When the workers understand socialism they will take the direct and simple steps necessary to give them control of the political machinery of society for the purpose of introducing socialism. Until that time, the only useful action possible is the act of speaking and writing about socialism. The strike is the workers’ only weapon under capitalism, a useful weapon but strictly limited when it meets the power of those who control the State. The emancipation of the working class will not come by industrial action but only by gaining control of the machinery of government, through the vote, for the purpose of abolishing capitalism and establishing socialism. We recognise that there is no reason for deluding the workers into the belief that nationalism is anything but a capitalist movement.  Those organisations in this country which support any nationalist movement are deceiving the workers if not themselves, and are demonstrating their unfitness to claim to speak in the name of socialism. Let Scottish and English capitalists quarrel about their profit-seeking interests. Let British workers set an example to their fellows in all lands by proclaiming that the interest of the working class is in internationalism.


It will be argued that Marx and Engels supported nationalist movements and that therefore Socialists should do so today. Such an assertion is based on a faulty understanding of the materialist conception of history. Marx and Engels were living in an era when the bourgeoisie was engaged in a struggle to assert itself against the old feudal regimes. The victory of this class was a historically progressive step at that time in that it brought about the re-organization of society on a capitalist basis, the essential precondition for the establishment of Socialism; and it created an urban proletariat, the only class which can bring about socialism. This was why Marx supported the rising capitalist class in their bid to capture political power. However, once capitalism reaches the point where Socialism is a practical proposition, there is no need for socialists to advocate the capitalist industrialization of every corner of the globe; they can concentrate fully on the task of establishing socialism. Hence we give no support to any nationalist group, and in place of the opportunism and hypocrisy of the myriad groupings in advocating "national self-determination".


Socialism is a global solution to a global problem. The problem is that the Earth and all its abundant resources belong to the minority, not to the human community as a whole. The minority abuse the planet Earth for the purpose of making profits. Socialism will end minority ownership and control, place the world in the hands of everyone and produce goods and services solely for need. This will require global organisation and not national fragmentation. Socialism will put an end to every border; nation-states will be abolished immediately.
The working class has no countries. The British do not own Britain any more than the Scots own Scotland. We, who produce the world’s wealth, must cast off the chains of nationalist illusion. We have a world to win.

The message of the Socialist Party is world-wide. It reaches across the artificial national boundaries erected by man. Despite its shameless perversion by a robber class the great impulse to human solidarity is by no means dead.  Even the hellish system of capitalist individualism, with its doctrine of every person for oneself and the devil take the hindmost, has been unable to kill the struggle for the the great principle of human solidarity.
The Socialist Party raises the rallying cry of Marx and Engels, "Workers of All Countries, Unite!" That is our hope and aspiration. For the present, however, we are surrounded by the horrors of exploitation, added to the horror of war and famine while subjected to the operation of open repression as well as to the arts of hypocrisy and fraud. With the weakening power of religion to keep the workers obedient, the false cult of nationality and patriotism is being exploited to the full. Like religion, patriotism has its vestments, its ceremonies, its sacred emblems, its sacred hymns and inspired music; all of which are called in aid of the class interests of our masters, and utilised desperately to lure millions to the shambles for their benefit and the furtherance of the damnable policy of the slave-holding class: to divide and rule.




Capitalism on the road to extinction


The Socialist Party is the political expression of what is known as the class struggle. This struggle is an economic fact as old as history itself, but it is only within recent generations that it has become a conscious and well-organised political fact. As long as this struggle was confined to its economic aspect the ruling classes had nothing to fear, as, being in control of all the means and agencies of government, they were always able to use their power effectively to suppress uprisings either of chattel slaves, feudal serfs, or free-born and politically equal capitalist wage-workers. But now that the struggle has definitely entered the political field it assumes for the present ruling class a new and sinister aspect. With the whole power of the state -- the military, the courts, the police -- in possession of the working class by virtue of its victory at the polls, the death knell of capitalist private property and wage slavery is sounded. This does not mean, however, that the workers will wrest control of government from the capitalist class simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new plane, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places, as many poorly informed persons undoubtedly still believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of industry, in which the exploitation of man by man will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear. If the Socialist Party did not have any higher political ideal than the victory of one class over another it would not be worthy of a moment’s support from any right-thinking individual. It would, indeed, be impossible for the party to gain any strength or prestige. It is the worth of its ideals that attracts adherents to the World Socialist Movement even from the ranks of the capitalist class.

The capitalist was originally a socially useful individual, but the evolution of our economic system has rendered him a parasite, an entirely useless functionary that must be eliminated if civilization is to endure. He is no longer useful. He is now merely an obstacle to social progress and must be abolished, just as the feudal lord and chattel slave-owner have been abolished. From the point of view of the corporation owners, the workers are simply an extension of the machine of profit production. The workers are not regarded as having human attributes. Their labour is trafficked in as a commodity, like iron and steel, and the only interest the capitalist retains in production receiving his dividends. Society can get along without the capitalist; it refuses longer to support him in idleness and luxury.  Industrial and commerce has now evolved an organization, co-operative in character, whereby industry may be carried on without friction for the benefit of the whole people instead of for the profit of the individual capitalist. It is not the mission of the Socialist Party to speculate concerning the manner in which the workers will conduct their affairs when they have come into possession of their inheritance which the ages have prepared for them but there exist ample indicators on how enterprises will be democratically administered and decisions made. “Without rights there shall be no duties; without duties no rights.” What will be the practical interpretation of this Socialist axiom? Obviously, social parasitism must cease; every man must be a producer or perform some socially useful function, in order to procure title to any share in the product of the collective industry. The only citizenship held honourable will be economic citizenship or comradeship in production and in the sharing of product. Is there is a single thing you can think of that cannot be produced in abundance? The spectacle of strong men walking the streets idle and hungry, vainly begging for a chance to work for the pittance that will suffice to ward off starvation from themselves and their loved ones, will be no more. The cruelty of children of tender years being forced hungry to school will disappear. No longer will there be a problem of the unemployed. The class struggle must necessarily cease, for there will be no classes. Each individual will be his or her own economic master, and all will be servants of the collectivity.

The struggle for working class emancipation, which finds its expression through the Socialist Party, must continue and will increase in intensity until either the ruling class completely subjugates the working class, or until the working class entirely absorbs the capitalist class. There is no middle ground possible, and it is this fact that makes ludicrous those sporadic reform movements.  It is so easy to agree with the ignorant majority. It is so easy to make the people applaud an empty platitude. It takes some courage to face that majority, and tell the truth to their faces. Nature’s storehouse is full to the surface of the earth. All of the raw materials are deposited here in abundance. We have the most marvelous machinery the world has ever known. Mankind has long since become master of the natural forces and made them work for us. Now we need only to touch a button and the wheels begin to spin and the machinery to whirr, and wealth is produced on every hand in increasing abundance. Why should any man, woman or child suffer for food, clothing or shelter? Why? Don’t tell us that some are too lazy to work. Suppose they are too lazy to work, what do you think of a social system that produces men too lazy to work? If a man is too lazy to work don’t treat him with contempt. Don’t look down upon him with scorn as if you were a superior being. If there is a man too lazy to work there is something the matter with him, He wasn’t born right or he was perverted in this system. You could not, if you tried, keep a normal person sloth-like and inactive, and if you did he or she would go stark raving mad. Go to any jail and you will find the convicts there begging for the privilege of doing prison-work.

The material foundation of society determines the character of all social institutions—political, educational, ethical and spiritual. In proportion as the economic foundation of society changes the character of social institutions changes to correspond. Half of America was in favour of chattel slavery, and half was opposed to it, geographically speaking. Why was the church of the South in favour of chattel slavery? Why was the church of the Northern states opposed to chattel slavery? The Northern capitalist wasn’t a bit more opposed to chattel slavery from any morality than was the Southern plantation owner. The South produced cotton for the market by the hand labour of black slaves. On the other hand, the North wasn’t dependent upon cotton—could raise no cotton. In the North it was the small capitalist at the beginning of capitalism, who, with the machine, had begun to manufacture, and wanted cheap labour; and the sharper the competition the cheaper he could buy his labour. Now, chattel slavery to the Southern plantation owner was the source of his wealth. He had to have slaves, and what the plantation owner had to have in economics the preacher had to justify in religion. As long as chattel slavery was necessary to the Southern plantation owner, as long as that stage of the economic condition lasted, the preachers stood up in the pulpits of the South and said that slavery was ordained of God, and proved it by the Bible. (We don’t know of any crime that the oppressors have not proven by the Bible.) The free soilers came to Kansas, despised, hated and were persecuted. They were the enemies of the human race. Why? Because they looked with pity upon the black slave who received his wages in lashes applied to his naked back; who saw his crying wife torn from him and his children, pleading, snatched from his side and sold into slavery, while the great mass looked on just as the great mass is looking on today, and the preachers stood up in their pulpits and said: “It is all right. God knows best.” And whenever an abolitionist raised his head he was hounded as if he had been a wild beast. All of the slave catchers and holders, all of the oppressors of man, all of the enemies of the humanity, all have spoken in the name of the Great God and the Holy Bible.

We are today the abolitionists, intent upon ending wage-slavery. Our conduct is determined largely by our economic relations. If you and I must fight each other to exist, we will not love each other very hard. Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy all human wants. According to the American Declaration of Independence, man has the inalienable right to life. If that be true it follows that he has also the inalienable right to work. If you have no right to work you have no right to life because you can only live by work. And if you live in a system that deprives you of the right to work, that system denies you the right to live. Now men and women have a right to life because we are here. That is sufficient proof, and if he or she has the right to life, it follows that he or she has the right to all the means that sustain life. But how is it in this outgrown capitalist system? A worker can only work on condition that he or she finds somebody who will give him or her permission to work for just enough of what his or her labour produces to keep him or her in working order.

No man can be for labor without being against capital. No man can be for capital without being against labor. Here is the capitalist; here are the workers. Here is the capitalist who owns the mines; here are the miners who work in the mines. There is so much coal produced. There is a quarrel between them over a division of the product. Each wants all he can get. Here we have the class struggle. Now. is it possible to be for the capitalist without being against the worker. Are their interest not diametrically opposite? If you increase the share of the capitalist don’t you decrease the share of the workers? Can a door be both open and shut at the same time? Can you increase both the workers’ and the capitalist’s share at the same time? There is just so much produced, and in the present system it has to be divided between the capitalists and the workers, and both sides are fighting for all they can get. and this is the historic class struggle.

There is one fact, and a very important one, that the Socialist Party would impress upon you, and that is the necessity for revolutionary working class political action. No one will attempt to dispute the fact that our interests as workers are identical. If our interests are identical, then we ought to unite. We ought to unite within the same organization, and if there is a strike we should all strike, and if there is a boycott all of us ought to engage in it. If our interests are identical, it follows that we ought to belong to the same party as well as to the same economic organization. What is politics? It is simply the reflex of economics. What is a party? It is the expression politically of certain material class interests. You belong to that party that you believe will promote your material welfare. Is not that a fact? If you find yourself in a party that attacks your pocket do you not quit that party? Now, if you are in a party that opposes your interests it is because you don’t have intelligence enough to understand your interests. That is where the capitalists have the better of you. As a rule, they are intelligent., and shrewd. They understand their material interests and how to .protect them. You find the capitalists as a rule belonging only to capitalist parties. They don’t join a working-class party and they don’t vote for the Socialist Party. They know enough to know that socialists oppose their economic interests. The inequality question, which is really the question of all humanity, will never be solved until it is solved by the working class. It will never be solved for you by the capitalists. It will never be solved for you by the politicians. It will remain unsolved until you yourselves solve it. As long as you can stand and are willing to stand these conditions, these conditions will remain; but when you unite all over the land, when you present a solid class-conscious phalanx, economically and politically, there is no power on this earth that can stand between you and complete emancipation. As individuals you are helpless, but united you are an irresistible power.

 This whole system is based upon the private ownership by the capitalist of the tools and the wage-slavery of the working class, and as long as the tools are privately owned by the capitalists the great mass of workers will be wage-slaves. You may, at times, temporarily better your condition within certain limitations, but you will still remain wage-slaves, and why wage-slaves? For just one reason and no other – you have got to work. To work you have got to have tools, and if you have no tools you have to beg for work, and if you have got to beg for work the man who owns the tools you use will determine the conditions under which you shall work. As long as he owns your tools he owns your job, and if he owns your job he is the master of your fate. You are in no sense a free man. You are subject to his interest and to his will. He decides whether you shall work or not. Therefore, he decides whether you shall live or die. And in that humiliating position any one who tries to persuade you that you are a free man is guilty of insulting your intelligence. You will never be free, you will never stand erect in your own manly self-reliance until you are the master of the tools you work with, and when you are you can freely work without the consent of any master, and when you do work you will get all your labour produces. As it is now the lion’s share goes to the capitalist for which he does nothing, while you get a small fraction to feed, clothe and shelter yourself, and reproduce yourself in the form of labour power. That is all you get out of it and all you ever will get in the capitalist system. Can you be satisfied with your lot? Will you insist that life shall continue a mere struggle for existence and one prolonged misery to which death comes as a blessed relief? How is it with the average worker today? I am not referring to the few who have been favored and who have fared better than the great mass, but I am asking how it is with the average workingman in this system? Admittedly many still possess a job. What assurance has in twenty-four hours? Robotics and automation is conquering every department of activity. It is displacing more and more workers, and not just the unskilled, and making the lot of those who have employment more and more insecure. Admit that a man has a job. What assurance is there that if some workers engage in any industrial action and gains a temporary advantage, that the employer invests in new machinery to make his workers redundant. The moment workers are dismissed they have to hunt for a new buyer for their labour power. They owns no tools; the tools are great machines. There is only one condition under which they can work and that is when they sell their labour power. They are not sold from the block, as was the chattel slave. They sells themselves by the hour, by the day, by the week and by the month in exchange for just enough to keep themselves and their families in that same slavish condition. You are a worker, you live in capitalism, and you have nothing but your labour power, and you don’t know whether you are going to find a buyer or not. It is in the nature of capitalism to turn every human disaster into an opportunity to make profit.

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Clydebank's demise

Researchers have identified Clydebank as the perfect case study to demonstrate the impact of globalisation, the shrinking of the welfare state, the decline of manufacturing, unemployment and poor health.

Study author Dr Lisa Garnham, public health research specialist at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH), saidWe were interested in exploring what had happened for people and their lives - the loss of industry created unemployment and poverty, so you can see as you look through the history that people who had once had really secure well-paid work and fantastic skills found themselves really struggling financially. Over the coming years lots of publicly funded services that could have protected them were withdrawn or removed or reduced. So the worst effects of poverty were pushed down on people who were living in that area. It is not just Clydebank, it is a similar story across other deindustrialised parts of west central Scotland.”

Garnham said the definition of ‘neoliberalism’ varied, but in this research it was being used as a shorthand for policies seeking to shrink the welfare state – including services such as benefits, social housing and the NHS. There is a reliance on the private market, which is expected to take over providing those services,” she said. “So those who can afford to pay for things like unemployment insurance or private housing or healthcare get better quality services. Those who are struggling financially end up not being able to afford the basics for a decent standard of living. It creates a cycle which perpetuates inequality.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15197913.The_Scottish_town_that__39_s_become_a_crucible_for_our_modern_social_ills/


Our world is a shared world


The Socialist Party is opposed to the system of society in which we live today, there are millions upon millions who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under capitalist ethics that man’s business upon earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle. Look after yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilised society. yes, I am my brother’s keeper. What would you think of me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow-beings starving to death? Nature has spread a great table bounteously for all of the children of men. There is room for all, and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of society that denies a single one the right and the opportunity to freely help himself to Nature’s bounties is an unjust and iniquitous system that ought to be abolished in the interest of humanity. In every age of this world’s history the kings and emperors and tsars and the potentates, in alliance with the priests, have sought by all the means at their command to keep the people in darkness, that they might perpetuate the power in which they riot and revel in luxury while the great mass are in a state of slavery and degeneration, and he who has spoken out courageously against the existing order, he who has dared to voice the protest of the oppressed and downtrodden, has had to pay the penalty.

As long as a relatively few men own the transport, the media and the communications; own the oil and the gas and the steel, own, in short, the sources and means of life, they will corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working class, they will impoverish and debase society, they will do all things that are needful to perpetuate their power as the economic masters and the political rulers of the people. Not until the means of production and distribution are owned and operated by the people can the people hope for any material improvement in their social condition. In this system, we have one set who are called capitalists, and another set who are called workers; and they are at war with each other over the division of the product.

Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy human wants; that every person shall have the inalienable right to work, and receive the full equivalent of all he or she produces. Every man and every woman can be economically free. They can, without let or hindrance, apply their labour, with the best machinery that can be devised, to all the natural resources, do the work of society and produce for all and then receive in exchange a certificate of value equivalent to that of their production. Then society will improve its institutions in exact proportion to the progress of invention. Whether you work in the city or on a farm, all things productive will be carried forward on a gigantic scale. All industry will be completely organised. Society for the first time will have a scientific foundation. Everyone, by being economically free, will have some time for oneself.


We are not going to abolish private property. We are going to increase private property — all private property that is necessary to house people, to keep them comfort, and to satisfy all their physical wants. Too many people in this world have no property of any kind today. A privileged wealthy few have got it all. They have dispossessed the people, and when we get into power we will dispossess them. We will reduce the workday and give everyone opportunities and a chance. Mankind has many attributes. They are in a latent state. They are not yet developed. When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other’s throats when we have stopped enslaving each other, then we will stand together, hands clasped, and we will be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers and sisters, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilisation that the humanity has ever known.  

Saturday, April 01, 2017

Dispelling the myths


We live in the capitalist system, so-called because it is dominated by the capitalist class. In this system the capitalists are the rulers and the workers the subjects. The capitalists are in a decided minority and yet they rule because of the ignorance of the working class. The capitalists are the upper classes. That is because they are riding on your backs. So long as the workers are divided, economically and politically, they will remain in subjection, exploited of what they produce, and treated with contempt by the parasites who live out of their labour. The Socialist Party is the party of the workers, organised to express in political terms their determination to break their fetters and rise to the dignity of free men. In this party the workers must unite and develop their political power to conquer and abolish the capitalist political state and clear the way for industrial and social democracy. Socialism is merely an extension of the ideal of democracy into the economic field.

 At present, industry is ruled by the owners of the machines of production and distribution, who have literally the power of life and death over the subjects.  If socialism, does not stand staunchly, unflinchingly, and uncompromisingly for the working class and for the exploited and oppressed masses of all lands, then it stands for none and its claim is a false pretence and its profession a delusion and a snare. Let us stand squarely on our revolutionary, working class principles and make our fight openly and uncompromisingly against all our enemies, adopting no cowardly tactics and holding out no false hopes, and our movement will then inspire and arouse the spirit, and develop the fibre that will prevail. Socialism proposes to put industry in control of the people so that they may no longer be dependents on others for a job, so that they may be freed from the tribute of profit, and so that they may manage industry in their own way, as seems best to them. Socialism holds as its great ideal that freedom of action which shall make the making of a living a simple, easy thing, possible to all; and beyond this lies the greater hope of being able to live, to really live.


If Socialism meant the solution of the bread-and-butter problem alone then it would be the most wonderful idea ever, for with all our technological knowledge and with all our machinery we have not yet accomplished this. Modern technology is to civilise the world in spite of itself and make it possible for us all to work together and have competition begin after every animal want is satisfied. Socialism means good to all and evil towards none. If it meant the solution of the bread-and-butter problem only, even then it would surpass all other movements the world has seen, because it would mean an end of the slums and the sweatshops, of child labour, of the worries that kills and the anxiety. But it will mean infinitely more than this. When the bread-and-butter problem is settled and all men and women and children, the world around, are rendered secure from dread of war and fear of want, then the mind and soul will be free to develop as they never were before. We shall have a literature and an art such as the troubled heart and brain of man never before conceived. We shall have beautiful and happy homes such as want could never foster or drudgery secure. The socialist wants a free world making everybody's lives better and sweeter. If the working-people are to be emancipated, they must emancipate themselves. The hour workers unite, that hour they will become the masters of the Earth. Many imagine that socialists are going to take all you have and divide it among the undeserving. We don’t want your paltry little capital. It would do us no good. We want the earth. Do not say that there is a large number who are unwilling to work. If that is so, what do you think of a system that produces a large number who do not like work? It is not work that a man shirks from, it is slavery. No human being is willing to be a slave. He may be apparently submissive, but in his heart of hearts he protests. We workers make everything and the capitalists have everything. 

You argue that you don’t want to throw away your vote for the Socialist Party. That’s right. Don’t vote for freedom — you might not get it. Vote for slavery — it's a cinch you get that. Socialism comes because nothing else can come. The competitive profit system has become disastrous; it was useful, for it paved the way to the socialist cooperative commonwealth. When Socialism comes, we shall not live to work, but work to live; we shall create no surplus value; wage slavery will be abolished, the class struggle will be ended forever. Workers should not and will not be satisfied until they get all they produce. We no more need owners of capital and other great industrial barons than we need a king. There is machinery enough to produce wealth for all. There is no necessity for poverty or the fear of want. Shall this country be owned by the few, or shall it be owned by all and operated in the interest of all? Some people say that we are free-born, but we must work for the man who owns the tools, and the man with the tools is the working-person’s master. Under this system he is no longer a man. He is a “hand” — and he is often reduced to a hand-out. All men, women and children can have all the beautiful things of life if the men, who have the votes, once understand that there is machinery enough to produce all the necessities and luxuries for all. When the working class rules there will be no beautiful thing destroyed. On the contrary, homes will increase in beauty, and the cities that now boast of their attractions will seem poor and ugly when compared with what they are under socialism. There will be no trouble about the necessities of life when the working class takes over the machinery. They will have all the best food they need, the best homes that can be built, the best schools — no child labor, no grinding toil — and all the beautiful things will be for everyone. 

Socialist Standard No. 1352 April 2017