The People's Perth

Towards the end of the 18th century, inspired by the American and French Revolution and the publication of Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, political reform societies were established across Scotland.

In April 1792 a group of young Whigs founded The Society of the People, Associated for the Purpose of Obtaining a Parliamentary Reform. Its purpose was the extension of the franchise as well as some parliamentary reform. An earlier created society, The London Correspondence Club (25 January 1792) was more radical than the Friends of the People and unlike the latter which was dominated by the wealthy, was composed of artisans and workers. By November of 1792, 87 branches of the Friends of the People were operating in Britain and many were far more radical than the original group created by the Whigs – this led to division in the Whig Party. Amongst these groups are included the Glasgow-based Associated Friends of the Constitution of the People (September 1792) and The Sons of Liberty and Friends of Man operating in Partick.

In July 1792 the Friends of the People Society of Edinburgh came into being. This group set its subscription rates lower than its English counterparts and so allowed for a far wider membership base. Members came from many professions including: shopkeepers; artisans; weavers; tailors; cobblers; brewers; bakers; tanners; butchers; and, hairdressers. Soon other groups were set up in Scotland. Branches of the Friends of the People operated independently but came together in conventions.


The earliest known reform movement in Perth was the Perth Society for Parliamentary Reform. The Friends of the People Branch in Perth was formed on 14 August 1792 with a meeting at the Guildhall. The purpose of that society was to achieve “A free and Equal Representation of the People (and) A Short Duration of Parliaments”. Weavers, hatters and other workers and tradesmen flocked to join the society so that by October of 1792 it could claim 1200 members and send 9 delegates to thre first Scottish Convention (Edinburgh); it is worth noting that Dundee only had 3 delegates to that same convention.

Between December 1792 and October 1793, three general conventions took place in Scotland. The last one was a British-wide convention. At the first convention (December 1792) Thomas Muir a Glasgow lawyer spoke eloquently and was a key figure. He was soon to be sentenced by Lord Braxfield after a corrupt trial and transported (14 years) to the convict colony of Botany Bay in Australia for what the state described as stirring up discontent amongst workers. The second convention saw a Unitarian Minister, reverend Thomas Fyste Palmer come to the fore – he too was transported (7 years). Whilst he was in prison he took visits from thirty-two of the Perth radicals – Palmer was locked up in the Tolbooth in Perth awaiting trial which began in Perth on 12 September 1793.. The all-British convention of October 1793, issued a manifesto demanding universal male suffrage with annual elections. It even expressed solidarity with the French Revolution. This was too far for the government, which broke up the convention, arrested many leaders and transported them along with Thomas Muir (1765-99).

The societies grew more radical and in the summer/autumn of 1792 many riots and demonstrations were seen across Britain. Perth and Dundee were the scene of some of these demonstrations. In Perth on 26 November 1792, ‘A Tree of Liberty’ was erected in the town and demonstrators cried for ‘Equality and Liberty’and for the end of monarchy and aristocracy – huge meetings were held on both Inches.. The inspiration for the action came from the news that General Dumourier had entered Brussels as the French Revolution progressed onwards. Radicals implored the people of Perth to celbrate and to illuminate their windows accordingly. The Duke of Atholl caught up in the demonstrations was forced to join the radicals and shout for liberty and equality. That night the steeple bells of Perth kept up a chorus until the next day.  In Perth, the ruling class attempted to organise counter-demonstrations of government support – this backfired. At these meetings, pro-reformers managed to get debate going and pass reformist resolutions. 

Whilst many in the Perth society were happy just calling for reform, others began to correspond with the National Assembly in France and look to more radical methods. In Perth, some of the radicals (Walter Miller, Grant and others) advocated the raising of funds to buy arms and so seize what they demanded by force. These different approaches led to tension within the Perth Friends of the People. Spies and police informers kept the authorities abreast of the developments and those in power began to fear the potential for rebellion in Perth. Despite the climate and repression, the radicals expanded in number. One figure for government scrutiny was James Wylie. Wylie was the president of the Friends of the People in Perth and a leading campaigner for parliamentary and burgh council reform. He was marked down by the authorities as a trouble maker who needed a spy on his tail and his mail intercepted. His mail was intercepted and the Lord Advocate described Wylie to the Home Secretary as the “most intemperate revolutioner in Scotland“.

Some of the radicals anger was directed to individual politicians such as Henry Dundas. His effigy was put on trial in Crieff and subsequently burned. At Scone his effigy was hung up on a gibbet, while in Perth the effigy was blown up with gunpowder – those involved probably included William Bissett a local surgeon and James Wylie, a merchent – both members of the friends of the People. It has already been mentioned that the Duke of Atholl was intimidated by radicals in Perth, but that was not the only attack on him. On 6 November 1792 at the Perth Hunt Ball, demonstrators at that event, upon seeing the Duke of Atholl were recorded as calling for him to be sent to the guillotine.

The Friends of the People opposed war with France and in Perth after a meeting at the Guildhall (January 29 1793) printed a pamphlet, A Solemn Protestation Against War. Slowly the changing climate led to a reduction in political activity so that in October 1793 only one delegate (Robert Sands) went from Perth to the All-British Convention.

“The triumph of liberty and reason over despotism, ignorance and superstition.”

The Napoleonic War brought economic stagnation, widespread unemployment, and growing political discontent. War with France led to an increase in state repression of the reform groups, whilst at the same time the government ignored reformist petitions.. Nevertheless, many radicals continued their work. These activists suffered attack, arrest and imprisonment. Notable figures like Thomas Hardy, John Tooke and John Thelwell were even sent to the Tower of London. Slowly the suppression of the movement had effect and the Friends of the People was wound down as a society. Still, the radicals continued, now in more clandestine ways – secret societies ofUnited Scotsmen (and United Irishmen) were formed. The United Irishmen were more radical than their Scottish counterparts, but after a delegation of the former arrived in Scotland, the United Scotsmen too became revolutionary. Support for theUnited Scotsmen was strong amongst the working classes in Scotland. As well as electoral reform the United Scotsmen advocated a Republic. By the mid-1790s there were more members in the United Scotsmen than the actual Scottish electorate – about 3000. The United Scotsmen for security and safety operated in cells or groups of 16 or less.

One of the aims of the United Scotsmen was the attainment of Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage. Those joining the United Scotsmen pledged:

“that I will preserve in my endeavours to obtain an equal, full, and adequate Representation of All the people in Greta Britain.”

In Perth, the radicals also set up a cell structure. Nevertheless, governemnt spies and informers saw to it that individuals and groups were attacked and prosecutions arranged. David Sangster and the reverend Geary (Methodist preacher) were both subject to attacks. One of the government spies (known as J. B.) gave details to the authorities of a plot by Walter Miller and others to acquire arms. Miller’s home was searched for guns and bayonets that he was supposed to have obtained from Birmingham for the purposes of sedition. Five fouling pieces were found and despite interrogation, Miller refused to speak.

It is clear that many of the radicals were looking to armed revolution as the means for the advancement of society. Reports circulated around Perthshire of one group of twenty men secretly drilling with guns in Auchterarder. Similar reports concerned other areas. Perthshire and Scotland was a volcano of revolutionary activity. As the ruling class became more concerned so did their repression – in Perthshire and across Scotland the class war was being fought on a daily basis.

Walter Miller, Robert Sands were amongst many radicals arrested and implicated in what became known as the ‘Pike Plot’ . This involved the ordering of some 4000 pikes. Sands spent 7 months detained in Edinburgh awaiting trial for the ‘Pike Plot‘. Another Perth-born activist, Robert Watt, found himself arrested and stood trial for high treason. Mass arrests and trials gradually led to the radicals pursuing more cautious approaches.

In 1797 the Militia Act was passed. This act which allowed for the conscription of young men into the British Army was opposed strongly in Scotland. August 1797 saw many protests against the act in Scotland – several protestors were killed during this period.

The United Scotsmen increasingly looked overseas for support. A plan for 50,000 Dutch troops to land in Scotland and occupy the central belt was only thwarted when the British Navy defeated the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Camperdown in October 1797. France might have had more luck if it looked to Scotland, instead it attempted to assist a rising in England which never came.

That same year the United Scotsmen rose against the British government, but troops sent to Scotland from England soon crushed their rebellion. The aim of the rebels had been to set up a republic with Thomas Muir as its President. In the aftermath, the leadership of the United Scotsmen were tried – many were transported or imprisoned. Persecution of the United Scotsmen when on for some time; the last trial before the courts took place in 1802 (Thomas Wilson). The government proscribed the United Scotsmen and tightened up its control of the press as part of their measures to destroy the radicals. Even up to 1820, the struggle continued. With James Wilson in a leadership position, the radicals once again attempted a rebellion – 1820.

The end of the Napoleonic War allowed for the opening up of political activity. In 1816, James Turner’s estate of Thrushgrove, just outside Glasgow was the scene of rallies demanding the widening of political representation. As the British economy moved into a period of distress, so the demands for reform were fuelled. So mush so that radical conversations often moved to armed rebellion. Since many of the reform groups were infiltrated by police spies and informants, numerous court cases arose as a consequence of the radical mutterings. However, in many instances, juries refused to convict those placed before them.

In April 1820 posters appeared across Glasgow declaring the establishment of a provisional government and calling for revolution. Groups of weavers and other workers, armed with pikes, gathered ready for the rebellion. Andrew Hardie led a group towards Falkirk before being put to flight by the military at Bonnybridge. Mass arrests followed, three were executed for treason and others were transported.

Perth later witnessed some activity in relation to parliamentary reform. In 1831 nearly 7,000 people congregated in the short length of Perth’s St John Street; ordered and well-disciplined demonstrators. They walked arm in arm, six abreast, encompassing all ages and comprising mainly of the Perth working class involved in manufacture. In the front of the march was a blue banner supporting the Reform Bill. Such a site put the wind up the local aristocracy and bourgeoisie who feared revolution and sedition was in the air; their response was an attempt through the Liberal Party to direct protestors into more passive and very gradual political activity for reform. In May of 1832 at the Reform Bill rally on the South Inch, the Rector of Perth Academy, Adam Anderson, used the platform to argue this slow ponderous and conservative approach. However, the fact that such loyalists to the state and status quo such as he, were now calling for reform was indicative of the power of the movement begun from below by the British working class.

17 May 1849 – Perth city carters organised a one-day strike to protest against the impact that the railways was having on their livelihood, and to demand that the city corporation provide relief.

2 May 1855 – Masons in Perth went on strike for increase in their wages, which they obtained. They marched through the town led by a piper.

October 1871 – Mill workers in a number of factories across Perthshire became active over the demand for a decent length of lunch-break. At Erich Linen Works, they achieved a 1p per cut rise, an hour for lunch and a 50 minute breakfast period. At McIntyre and Co., the hour for lunch demand was accepted, and at Saunders & Sons of Blairgowrie, workers were successful with their demands.

1870s – Six Perthshire shoemakers on strike were imprisoned for staring at another shoemaker who was still working during the strike. The prosecution was undertaken using the civil offence of conspiracy.

8 March 1872 – The Perth Typographical Association put in a claim for group of their printers, of 2 shillings a week pay rise and a reduction in their working week to 51 hours. The claim took the form of a deputation to the owner of the printing firm, a Mr. Lyall. Although the pay rise was not forthcoming, the reduction in hours was granted. Similar claims were proposed and accepted, as many other Perthshire printing firms, excepting the Perthshire Advertiser, then owned by Samuel Cowan.

22 April 1872 – Ten printers at the Perthshire Advertiser came out on strike for one day and achieved the 51-hour week.

December 1877 – Dyers and Bleachers at John Pullars & Sons achieved a reduction in their working week.

June 1874 – After threatening to go on strike, joiners and masons across Perth were granted a halfpenny an hour pay increase.

1886/7 – The Typographical Association fought a battle at the Perthshire Advertiser to save their 51 hours from the owner he was attempting to raise it to 54 a week. Eventually after a long battle, the owner gave in, but then turned on the machine workers, many of whom were sacked.

12 October 1897 – The founding meeting of the Perth & District Trades and Labour Council took place this day at the Masons Hall in Hospital Street. Thence after it met every fortnight and took a leading role in trade disputes and local politics within Perth. Its members lobbied the local council on many issues that affected working people in Perth, especially housing and pay levels of council employees. The Perth & District Trades & Labour Council also stood candidates in local elections, and provided strike pay during disputes.

1898 – A strike by joiners employed by the local council, and supported by the Trades Council achieved its desired increase in wages. In the same year there took place a strike by bakers for time and a half overtime and a decrease in the standard working week.

1900 – Local painters struck to achieve a lodging allowance for jobs more than 3 miles from the city centre.

1912 – Strike by certain sections at John Pullars & Sons Limited.

1916/17 – Major strike at John Pullars & Sons Limited.

From http://madeinperth.org/

Trump's Junk.

Trump Junk - You will all have heard, or heard of Trump's speech to the Congress on February 28. To sum it up briefly, what he really said was,'' Look, guys, we're all in this together. If workers and capitalists forget their differences and pull together we will make America great again.''

Whether Trump is sincere or not is meaningless because the fundamentals of capitalism mean that worker and capitalist have nothing in common economically. Workers struggle to improve their conditions, which means winning some concessions from their bosses who are trying to keep down costs to maximize profits – simple, ain't it?

Two more aspects of Trump's trumpeting deserve comment. He proposes a massive $54 billion increase in military spending. The military budget already exceeds the military budgets of the seven highest spending countries combined. Though $54 billion could go a long way if devoted to welfare programs and fighting poverty in general, it won't be, because of capitalism's crazy priorities. Defending their property ownerships and capturing raw materials and markets are paramount to the capitalist class and if the working class have to suffer, so be it.

Trump refers to the press as,''the enemy of the people''. Of course, he's right, but contextually wrong. What he really means is its the enemy of Donald Trump.

Since the capitalist class owns the press and the media as a whole it will reflect the interests of capitalism in a broad general sense. Some newspapers will advocate the particular interests of the owner, but no newspaper, owned by capitalists, will advocate its abolition. The proof of that is the history of the Toronto Star, which has been widely analyzed in these reports. So certainly, the press is the enemy of the people.

When capitalists use the expression "free press", they mean freedom to criticize anyone they perceive to be doing an inadequate job for their interests, which is exactly the case now. The fact that Trump isn't highly thought of by his fellow capitalists should not mean anything to the working class, whose main interest should be the overthrow of a society that creates people like him.

 Steve and John.

Things To Come?

I drive school bus and notice differences between students as they age. The younger ones laugh and chat amongst themselves. The older ones are on their lap tops, playing computer games or listening to their I-pods; there is very little conversation.

More and more the synthetic world is becoming the real world to them. A recent study showed one-fifth of the players in an online game felt the real world was only a place to eat and sleep, that the synthetic world was their true residence.

In one respect both groups are similar, social skills are sadly lacking. A friendly, ''Good Morning,'' receives a blank stare - returning something left behind doesn't get a word of thanks.

It may be that life under capitalism with its advanced technology is making young students alienated. Imagine what they'll be like as adults. 

Steve and John.

It’s Not Complicated

The Socialist Party is the tangible expression of the socialist movement, and the socialist movement is based upon the modern class struggle in which all workers of all countries, regardless of race, nationality, creed or sex, are called upon to unite against the capitalist class, their common exploiter, and oppressor. In this great class struggle the equality of all workers is a foregone conclusion, and he or she who does subscribe to it as one of the basic principles of socialism is not a socialist, and if a party member must have been admitted through misunderstanding or false pretence, he or she should be speedily set adrift to return to the capitalist parties with their racism and sexism. Someone who seeks to arouse prejudice among the working class is not their friend. Someone who advises workers to look down upon others is the enemy of both. Socialism will give all men and women economic and political freedom. The door of the Socialist Party will never be closed against any human being on account of the colour of his or her skin, their nationality, their gender or sexual orientation. When Marx said: “Workers of all countries unite,” he issued the call to all the workers of the globe, regardless of race, sex, creed or any other condition whatsoever. We are the party of the working class, the whole working class, and we will not suffer ourselves to be divided by any specious appeal to prejudice. Socialism must be an inspiration to all in bondage. The Socialist Party, the political wing of the labour movement, is absolutely free from prejudice. We have nothing special to offer minorities, and we cannot make separate appeals to all by identity politics. The Socialist Party is the party of the working class—the whole working class of the whole world.

The owning class is necessarily the ruling class. It dictates legislation and in the case of doubt or controversy has it construed to its own interest.

The Socialist Party is a revolutionary party and its basic demand is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and the operation of all industry in the interest of all the people. Economic freedom can result only from common ownership, and upon this vital principle, the Socialist Party differs diametrically from every other party. Between private ownership and common ownership there can be no compromise. One produces for profit, the other for use. One produces millionaires, the other economic equals. One gives us palaces and hovels, robes and rags, the other will secure to every man and woman their full product of his or her toil, abolish class rule, wipe out class distinction, secure the peace of society, and make of this earth for the first time a decent habitable place. Socialism was born of the class antagonisms of capitalist society, without which it would never have been heard of. We count everyone against us who is not with us and opposed to the capitalist class, especially those reformist chicken hearts who are for everybody, especially themselves, and against nobody who are not offend the capitalist exploiters, for their revenue depends upon their treason to the exploited slaves over whom they mourn dolefully and shed crocodile tears. They are “socialists” for no other purpose than to emasculate socialism.

Let the capitalists, large and small, fight among themselves. The working class must get rid of the whole brood of masters and exploiters, and put themselves in possession and control of the means of production that they may get the wealth their labour produces, all of it, and enjoy with their families the fruits of their industry in comfortable and happy homes, abundant and wholesome food, proper clothing and all other things necessary to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ It is, therefore, a question not of “reform,” the mask of fraud, but of revolution. The capitalist system must be overthrown, class-rule abolished and wage-slavery supplanted by the cooperative industry. No sane person can be satisfied with the present system. Corporations are organized purely for private profit; the rights of the corporations to exploit the working class and exact tribute from the people are to be respected, according to the capitalist. On the other hand, the Socialist Party, standing for common ownership of the means of production, declares to the world that there is no other solution.

Socialists are organising for the purpose of securing control of the government. Having conquered the political power upon the platform that declares in favour of common ownership in the name of the people, they will take possession of industry. It will be organised to be cooperation, that is to say, self-operation. It will be cooperative in every department of human industry. The badge of labour will no longer be the badge of servitude. Everyone will gladly do their share of the world’s useful work. Everyone can then honestly enjoy a share of the world’s blessings. Every machine will be a blessing to mankind because it will serve to reduce the number of hours constituting a day’s work, and the workday will be shortened. Labour will no longer be bought and sold in the markets of the world. We will not make things for sale, but will make things to use. We will fill the world with wealth and everyone can have all that they can rationally use. Rent, interest, and profit, three forces of exploitation, will disappear forever. Every man and woman will be economically free; life will no longer be a struggle for bread; then mankind can begin the march to the highest type of civilization that this world has ever known. The abolishing of the capitalistic system does not merely mean the emancipation of the working class, but of all society. It will level all upwards. This planet will be fit for men and women to live in. The existing system is unspeakably cruel. Capitalist society is blotched with the effects of disease. Cooperative industry carried forward in the interest of all the people — that is the foundation of socialism; economic freedom for every human being on Earth; no man or woman compelled to depend on the arbitrary will of another for the right or opportunity to create enough to supply his or her material wants. There will still be competition but it will not be for bread, it will be to excel in good works. Everyone will work for the society in which he lives, and society will work in the interests of those who compose it.

The members of the Socialist Party look to the future with a vision of the cooperative commonwealth, a world without a master and a land without a slave. 

Fact of the Day

Dundee’s foodbanks remain Scotland’s busiest, population-wise, with latest statistics showing that 3,813 people were referred to one between April and September 2016, of whom 1,050 were children.

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.

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.