Labour-Tory

Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, has suspended every Labour councillor in Aberdeen after they ignored orders to abandon a power-sharing deal with the Conservatives. Dugdale said the nine councillors, including the newly elected lord provost of Aberdeen, Barney Crockett, would now be disciplined for refusing to tear up a coalition deal with the Tories in a bid to prevent the Scottish National party from taking power. The Tories had helped to get Jenny Laing, the Labour group leader, elected as council leader on Wednesday, and allowed Crockett, a former council leader, to become lord provost.

Meanwhile, in West Lothian Scottish Labour's ruling body has told councillors in West Lothian not to do a coalition deal with the Conservatives. Tory councillor Tom Kerr was reappointed as Provost with support from all but one Labour member.
 SNP group leader Peter Johnston said his party had been prepared to work with Labour in West Lothian. "It is now clear that Labour prefer to sacrifice our services and our communities in return for Tory votes to put them jointly into control. Today it became clear that whilst Labour were pretending to talk with us they were doing a shabby behind-the-scenes deal with the Tories – now thrown out by the Labour National Executive.”

If we wanted Tory policies - we'd have voted Tory. It is so often said by ourselves that it is Tweedledum and Tweedledee relationship between the Tories and Labour. Regular readers of the Socialist Courier remember the days when the Labour Party used to denounce the SNP as "Tartan Tories". Not now, it seems.

Be a socialist

share the world
spare the planet

Socialism is a society where all the members of the community determine their conditions of life and their way of living. In order to do so, people must own in common and control collectively, technology, factories, raw materials – all the means of production. The socialist goal is the humanisation of work. Unless the means of production are effectively in the hands of the whole society, not as today where the 1 per cent of the population owns all, there can be no question of the collective control of the conditions of life.

Technology and the massively expanded use of machinery, the application of science to production, the endless rationalisation and growth of output, are matters which belong to the history of capitalism. Capitalism emerged before the systematic use of machinery and then – as it developed – seized upon and transformed the instruments of men’s material production, destroying traditional ways of working and substituting its own. As a by-product of its development, capitalism vastly expanded the collective control of men over nature, creating the material possibility of a world of abundance for all.

The labour process under capitalism is not something ‘neutral’, but is shaped by its central’ purpose: the accumulation of capital. It is accumulation of capital which has made capitalist society the dominant form of society in the world. In order to produce commodities for the market, every capitalist must buy other commodities which he uses in production. The things he buys are mainly: machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods, and labour-power. Machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods, although an item of expenditure on the part of one capitalist, are commodities sold by other capitalists and appear as part of their incomes. Those capitalists also spend money on machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods and labour-power, the money spent on machines, raw materials and semi-finished goods being the income of yet another group of capitalists who spend money on ... and so on indefinitely. Whenever one capitalist spends money on machines, etc., that money is part of the income of other capitalists who then hand it over to yet other capitalists for machines, etc. If all the capitalists belonged to one great trust these transactions would not take place and the only buying and selling that there would be is the buying of labour-power by the capitalists and the selling of it by the workers and technicians in exchange for wages and salaries. Taken all in all, the capitalist class (not the individual capitalist) has only one expense – buying labour-power. Whatever remains to that class after its purchase of labour-power is profit (surplus value). Where does profits come from.

That part of the capitalist’s expenditure which is spent on machines, raw materials and unfinished goods goes the rounds from one capitalist to another in a perpetual circle – this is the social wealth that has already been created. If the productive forces of capitalism were to remain static and not increase, this expenditure would appear like a constant, fixed fund thrown from hand to hand in an endless relay race of production, each capitalist handing on to the next the exact amount required to renew his stock of machines and raw materials. No profit would be made on such sales as each capitalist would swap exactly that amount of machines, etc., for an equivalent amount, and, when all the exchanges were done with, everyone would be where he started. There is, however, one item of expenditure which makes all the difference, namely, wages and salaries – the expenditure on labour-power. This expenditure is the only one which is not a transfer of goods already produced from one capitalist to another. It is the only item of expenditure which is productive in the dual sense of producing the wealth of society and in the sense of producing profits for the capitalist. Labour alone produces wealth. The capitalist’s problem is, always and everywhere, to squeeze out of the labour-power he has hired the fullest use he can.

The capitalist controls the physical means of production; the workers control nothing but themselves, the capacity to work. They are driven to work, to sell their labour–power to the capitalist, in order to keep themselves and their families. When they sell, they demand a ‘living wage’ for their labour-power, and, if unions are strong and there is not much unemployment, they usually get it. Of course there are exceptions, but by and large, for the working class as whole, this is true.

If the worker produced exactly that amount of products which he could buy for his weekly wage plus what would replace the raw materials and machinery used up in its production, the capitalist would clearly not make a profit. Profit can only be made when the workers produce more than their wage bill and the depreciation of machinery and the depletion of stocks of raw materials put together, i.e. when they produce surplus value, value over and above the wages necessary to maintain themselves and their families.

A great deal of nonsense has been written about the way in which the most advanced forms of capitalist technology enable the worker to rediscover responsibility and skill. In practice, the chief skill required in the most highly automated plants is the skill of staying awake till the end of the shift. ‘Automation’, ‘modernisation’, ‘rationalisation’, ‘scientific management’, and the like have the effect, above all, of displacing from one sector of production after another great masses of workers, who ‘become available’ for hire in other, more labour-intensive branches of capitalist work. Whole new ‘services’ are now provided for large urban communities, ‘services’ which suck in to employment great masses of ‘surplus labour’, both the labour ‘freed’ from manufacturing industries by machinery and labour ‘freed’ from housework. Office work, like factory work, has been de-skilled to a vast extent, and the office worker turned into as much of a labourer as his or her counterpart in overalls on the shop-floor.

State capitalism was originally a term to refer to government ownership of economic enterprises. But nowadays its meaning has widened to include state intervention in economic activity to aid capitalism to overcome the contradictions and antagonisms which increasingly torment its being. Many on the Left still consider state capitalism a progressive unfolding of a new social order. The theory envisages an organized regulated capitalism which leads to state capitalism and socialism: the theory is of a gradual “growing into” socialism on the basis of the capitalist state. State capitalism is not a form of transition to socialism. State capitalism tries to “unify” the nation and “balance” class-economic antagonisms. State capitalism may make minor concessions to workers, within the limits, but the aim is to restrict workers from acting as an independent class in their own interests.

Money has the magical power of turning things into their opposites. “Gold! Yellow, glittering, precious gold”, can, as Shakespeare said, “make black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward, valiant.” Under capitalism, where everything enters the field of exchange and becomes the object of buying and selling, a man’s worth comes to be estimated, not by his really praiseworthy abilities or actions, but by his bank balance and credit rating.

The liberation of mankind can only be brought about through the world socialist revolution which will concentrate political and economic power in the hands of the working people. A rational planned economy will enable mankind to regain mastery over the means of life and abolish the conditions permitted, and even necessitated, the subjugation of man to man, the rule of the many by the few.

Once everyone’s primary needs are capable of satisfaction, abundance reigns, and the labour time required to produce the necessities of life is reduced to the minimum, then the stage will be set for the abolition of all forms of alienation and for the rounded development of all persons, not at the expense of one another, but in fraternal relation. The abolition of private property must be accompanied by the wiping out of national barriers. The resultant increase in the productive capacities of society will prepare the way for the elimination of the traditional antagonisms between physical and intellectual workers, between the inhabitants of the city and the country, between the advanced and the undeveloped nations. These are the prerequisites for building a harmonious, integrated system. When all compulsory inequalities in social status, in conditions of life and labour, and in access to the means of self-development are done away with, and when individuals no longer are at war with each other—or within themselves then the manifestations of alienation will wither away. Such is the socialist revolution and its reorganisation of society as projected by Marxism.

Property Prices

East Ayrshire has the most affordable housing in Scotland with an average salary of £24,700 and house prices averaging £90,371 – the cost of buying a home in the local authority area is 3.66 times the average wage.

 Edinburgh is the lowest in the affordability stakes. Annual salaries in the capital average £30,800, while the average house price is £227,928 – giving a wage to price ratio of 7.4.

Across Scotland, the affordability count comes in at 5.07.

In upmarket Kensington and Chelsea wages average £123,000 per annum. But, based on a mortgage approval rate of 4.5 times annual salary, an aspiring home-owner would actually require a wage of £285,086 to raise the £1,425,428 needed to buy the average house.

However, it is in poorer areas of London that houses are least affordable. Worst is Hackney where wages and house prices average £33,800 and £575,511, respectively. This means that house prices are 17.03 times the average salary .

The emoov research is based on a single purchaser putting down a 10 per cent deposit.

Neither Union Jack nor Saltire but the Red Flag

An independent Scotland would be neither better nor worse than any other capitalist state, however, the Scottish Socialist Party and Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity have painted it in pseudo-socialist colours, portraying the SNP as progressive. Scottish nationalism represents the interests of a faction of the capitalist class as represented by the SNP, hoping for a greater share of Scotland’s assets, including oil and tax revenues, plus welcoming multinational corporations by offering low business taxes and a subservient working class. Only 10% of whisky is Scottish owned and 80% of salmon production is owned by firms based outside Scotland. As for ‘Scotland’s oil’, of the 20 firms investing to increase oil production only 5 are based in the UK, none in Scotland. Companies owned and registered in Scotland account for one-third of the financial services revenue generated by the financial and banking sector.

The left-nationalists are doing the dirty work of the capitalists of duping our fellow-workers. The Socialist Party calls upon working people to reject nationalism and separatism and instead adopt the perspective of world socialism. We are for human solidarity and oppose false divisions. Real solidarity is not based on keeping the Union Jack flying or replacing it with the Saltire. Solidarity is more crucial than ever in an era of globalised capital in which transnational corporations shift their capital across borders and into tax havens. Separatism creates an illusion of democratic control while leaving the power in the hands of the financial elite.

There are those who see the constant globalisation of production and life as a threat to "national sovereignty". This reactionary position has been officially adopted by most of the left-wing parties thus showing that they have no right whatsoever to call themselves "socialist" or "communists". Socialism can only be a world-wide system and socialists do not defend capitalist national independence. On the contrary, one of our criticisms of capitalism is precisely that it has divided the world into competing "nation-states". What we want is not national independence but a socialist world without frontiers.

Just as capitalism is a world system of society, so too must socialism be. There never has been, and never can be, socialism in just one country because its material basis is the world-wide and interdependent means of production that capitalism has built up. The bulk of the wealth produced in the world today is produced by the co-operative labour of the millions employed to operate these means of production. What is needed now, to establish socialism, is a conscious political decision on the part of these millions across the world to run society in their own interests. But this does not rule out local democracy. In fact, a democratic system of decision-making would require that the basic unit of social organisation would be the local community. However, the nature of some of the problems we face and the many goods and services presently produced, such as raw materials, energy sources, agricultural products, world transport and communications, need production and distribution to be organised at a world level. Corresponding to this, of course, there would be a need for a democratic world administration, controlled by delegates from the regional and local levels of organisation throughout the world.

When the working class becomes socialist there is no reason to assume that this will be confined to those in one country. Quite the contrary. First, because the conditions and problems which face wage and salary earners everywhere are essentially the same. And so, of course, is the solution. Second, because Socialism is the concept of a world society so that, even if it did happen that the Socialist movement grew more quickly in one country than in all others, then the Socialists in that country would take action to correct this imbalance by helping the movement in other countries.

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. 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. He or she may espouse a particular set of beliefs or principles - for freedom or democracy; against communism - but this will not stop him or her trading with or investing in South Africa, Russia, Chile or Korea, providing the price is right. In other words the capitalist class, in practice, recognises the world for what it is - a global village. 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. 

Perhaps then the destructive nationalist rallying cry of “Come on, Scotland" will be replaced by the socialist call of "Workers of the world unite". 

The Planetary Socialist Movement

The idea that climate change is a vast global conspiracy -- involving everyone from NASA and the British Met Office to Chinese government scientists and – has persisted to an alarming degree. Scientific issues can be vulnerable to misinformation campaigns. Plenty of people still believe that vaccines cause autism and that human-caused climate change is a hoax. So much information about climate change now abounds that it is hard to differentiate fact from fiction. Scientific reports appear alongside conspiracy theories. Corporate lobby groups urge governments not to act. Correcting misinformation, however, isn't as simple as presenting people with true facts. When someone reads views from the other side, they will create counterarguments that support their initial viewpoint, bolstering their belief of the misinformation.

The dream of a just and class-free society has long stirred the hopes of women and men, shackled by exploitation, poverty, oppression, and war. The early 19th century labour movement envisioned a cooperative community of producers and many constructed intricate blueprints for egalitarian societies. So we can’t claim that Marx and Engels invented the idea of a society defined by common ownership, mutuality, freedom. Climate change in particular has radicalising potential, as more and more people are beginning to question the prevailing economic system’s detrimental effect on the environment. But mainstream environmental groups aren’t offering a coherent critique of capitalism’s ecological consequences or doing the work of presenting alternatives.

Capitalism has inflicted incalculable harm on the inhabitants of the earth. Tragically, the future could be even worse for a simple reason: capitalism’s destructive power, driven by its inner logic to expand, is doing irreversible damage to life in all its forms all around the planet. Capitalism can sell everything; but it can’t sell “less.” Capitalism knows no limits, it only knows how to expand, creating while destroying. Rosa Luxemburg famously said that humanity had a choice, “socialism or barbarism.” In these days of climate change, her warning has even more meaning. One way or another, the coming decades will be decisive for the fate of human civilisation. Almost daily we hear of species extinction, global warming, resource depletion, deforestation, desertification, and on and on to the point where we are nearly accustomed to this gathering catastrophe. Our planet cannot indefinitely absorb the impact of profit-driven, growth-without-limits capitalism. Unless we radically change our methods of production and pattern of consumption, we will reach the point where the harmful effects to the environment will become irreversible. Even the most modest measures of environmental reform are resisted by sections of the capitalist class. This makes the establishment of a socialist society all the more imperative. We are fighting for the planet. People may not care much about a few islands disappearing or even various animals. But untold millions of people will face the need to escape coastal cities worldwide that will not be able to cope with and survive many feet of higher oceans flooding their infrastructure, streets and housing. Where will those millions of people go?

For sure, to address climate change, we clearly need massive development of solar, wind and other clean energy. And we need improved and expanded public transit, energy-efficient housing. A "divest and reinvest" strategy is being advocated. Selling fossil fuel shares will not significantly hurt fossil fuel companies financially. Buying solar company shares may lead to small increases in the price of those stocks but that’s all. A divest-reinvest strategy is not likely to lead to the clean energy economy we need. We have evidence. Ethical investors have failed to end the arms trade or the tobacco and alcohol industries.  Such campaign gives a legitimacy to the capitalist system by focusing on money rather than politics undermine the rationale for capitalism’s existence.

Imagine, though, an alternative society where each individual has the means to live a life of dignity and fulfilment, without exception; where discrimination and prejudice are wiped out; where all members of society are guaranteed a decent life, the means to contribute to society; and where the environment is protected and rehabilitated. This is socialism — a truly humane, a truly ecological society. With socialism our work would engage our skills and bring personal satisfaction. Leisure time would be expanded and fulfilling. Our skies, oceans, lakes, rivers and streams will be pollution free. Our neighborhoods would become green spaces for rest and recreation. Communal institutions, like cafeterias, will serve up healthy and delicious food and offer a menu of cultural events.

Slumps By Trump!

U.S. hotels say they've seen a wave if cancellations since Trump's first attempt to restrict certain overseas travellers and demand for U.S. flights has fallen in nearly every country since January, according to Hopper, a travel-booking app.

There has been a 40% decline in searches for U.S. flights from China and Iraq, since Trump's inauguration: a 15% drop in US. hotel bookings from Mexico, according to Marriott International: there will be 4.3 million fewer people estimated to visit the United States this year, according to Tourism Economics, this represents 7.4 billion in lost revenue.

Isn't it ridiculous that one of the greatest believers in capitalism, who has the number one job in the world looking after capitalism's interests, should be screwing up one of America's greatest industries? The fact that this is happening only goes to underline the fact that capitalism is a crazy system. 

Steve and John.

Housing Insecurity In Ontario.

When rents on two condo buildings in downtown Toronto doubled from $1,650 a month to $3,300, Ontario. Premier Kathleen Wynne was forced to take a stand. There is rent control on properties built before 1991; the trouble is these were built after. Wynne put a $31 cap on monthly increases on all rental buildings, but to those who had already received notices of rent increments.

Wynne and Housing Minister Chris Ballard also announced that $11.2 billion would be funded over eleven years to housing. This includes $3.2 billion for affordable housing initiatives and repairs to existing housing. There is also $2.1 billion for the Homeless Partnering Strategy, a program that aims to reduce homelessness. The funding doubles the present commitment and extends it from 2019 to 2022. A total of $5 billion will go toward a National Housing Fund which will help finance direct lending for new rental housing.

As impressive as all this may seem, it only concerns rental property, but for those who want to buy it's a different nightmare, especially in Toronto, which has seen double-digit percentage increases in the past year. The average home price there is $916,000 and $1.6 million is the average price of a detached house.

One can imagine the fear of not making rent or mortgage payments this will, and has, caused. Better a society without rent or mortgages. 

Steve and John.

Scottish nationalism looks much like any other nationalism

The World Socialist Movement was created in recognition of the fact that the world was not a patchwork quilt isolated national states, but a chain of interlinked nations in which events in a single country could have worldwide consequences. The capitalist class has faced up to the historical obsolescence of the nation-state by, for example, forming international trading blocs and global alliances. From an opposite class standpoint, socialists also strive to overcome national barriers as we strive towards our ultimate goal of a new world based on international socialist cooperation. We rightly reject any political ideology which preaches solidarity on the basis of race, language, culture or geography as incompatible with socialism and instead promote solidarity on the basis of class, irrespective of nationality, religion or ethnic origin. For socialists the objective is the unity of the working class across nations.  If it is not united, by definition it cannot act on behalf of its interests as a whole.  National divisions often prevent this unity. 

 For the Socialist Party, the struggle for national sovereignty can never be elevated over and above the struggle for socialism. While there has been a heightening of Scottish nationalism and a growth in support for independence, the Socialist Party has been prepared to swim against the tide of popular sentiment, declaring support for Scottish independence is essentially backward, an isolationist or xenophobic development, and it is incumbent upon us to stand against it. If the Socialist Party were to abandon the principles of class struggle, internationalism and workers' unity in favour of independence, that would amount to political surrender to the ideas of nationalism. We have, to be honest at all times and explain that it is not possible to build and sustain an oasis of socialism in the middle of a worldwide capitalist desert. Even the most industrially advanced countries in the world would be unable to survive as isolated outposts of socialism, shut off in permanent. quarantine from the rest of the world.  is vital, therefore, that the socialist movement avoids any appearance of timidity or confusion on the question of independence: our slogans and policies have to be clear, unambiguous and powerful.

Of all the nations to achieve ‘independence’ how many of the workers in these countries have had their basic needs and interests resolved by the ‘independence’ of the countries they live in? The interests of the working class, however, lie in an international unity of the class irrespective of nationality.  While those who wish to reform capitalism seek to get their hands on governmental office through operating the levers of the capitalist state, and sometimes see opportunities to achieve this more easily by making the state smaller – by having a separate Scottish state for example – this is not socialism. Solutions to unemployment and poverty; to insecurity and stress; to ignorance and powerlessness cannot be found in any nationalist programme, either left or right. They arise from the nature of the economic system not the nationality of the politicians and employers who preside over it. Class grievances are portrayed as those of a people, of Scots against ‘London’. Through nationalism, the class exploitation of workers either disappears or is rendered secondary to the more immediate demand for national ‘freedom’. At a certain stage, the true class character of nationalism becomes clearer when the new nation trumpets its cause as competitiveness with other nations in the battlefields of lower wages, lower business taxes, and willing workers.

The bigger sections of the capitalist class support the UK state, and also the European Union, because it provides the widest area within which they can advance their interests of accumulating capital with minimum obstacles to this process. While capitalism needs the state to defend its interests, and small capital might favour small capitalist states because they appear to better fit its narrower horizon (represented politically for example by the SNP or UKIP), it also seeks to internationalise its activities and have international state bodies that can support it in a way that a small nation state is less able to do. The SNP positioned themselves as the party of national interest.

The Socialist Party accepts the UK state because it is the widest area within which the working class can currently organise relatively freely without the divisions caused by national borders and the attendant nationalist politics and ideology which divides it and its organisations. Nationalism, no matter how left it is, always confuses action by the state for socialism, so it calls upon the state to redistribute wealth and take control of resources ‘for the people’, whereas socialism calls upon workers to take ownership of production itself and build the power of its own organisations so that one day these can replace the state.  Internationalism is not the solidarity of one progressive state with another but is the international action of workers – from organising in parties and unions internationally across borders, not favouring the population within certain lines on a map. Nationalism acts as a permanent brake on the aspirations of the working class. Independence will not advance the cause of socialism.

The Left-nationalists justify their support of the SNP as some way similar to the capitalist state being ‘smashed’ (the usual term used), but setting up two capitalist states where one previously existed is clearly something entirely different. It is not even that smashing the capitalist state is the primary goal of socialists.  What socialists want is not to replace one state with another, even a workers’ one.  What socialists want is a society where the state withers away and all the functions that are carried out by the State are carried out by society itself through mechanisms of workers’ and popular self-organisation.

The Socialist Party holds no interest in any nationalism and certainly not in the preservation of the Britain Ltd or the creation of Scotland Plc.

Why the Socialist Party?

Throughout history, the rich always looked down on the poor and denigrate their so-called inferiors as a way to justify their own privilege. They found all kinds of ways to distinguish themselves from everyone else to ensure they got preferential treatment and respect. They were either intellectually or morally superior from the rest of society, and so they deserve their higher status. Those who were poor, those who were of the wrong race or nationality, were considered morally reprehensible, if not outright criminal. High society saw their social inferiors as a potential menace, to be kept in check, and the wealthy had law and order on their side to keep themselves in power. But those who were truly criminal and deplorable were the rich elite in society who abused and exploited the poor. Never before has the capitalists provided such favourable conditions for the spread of industrial education, organization and agitation.

We in the Socialist Party hold the interpretation of society which can help the people to crystallise their many scattered isolated acts of rebellion into coordinated political action for radical change. The thinking of the workers’ movement is searching for answers. We must focus on the special contribution we can make – education about why our society is in crisis, what can be done to solve it and a vision for the future. Our organisation must be a place where both our members and the movement can learn what they need to explain, persuade and prove to the people the dangers and possibilities of the situation today. With this knowledge and understanding, the Socialist Party can participate in political activities in a way that elevates the consciousness of those around them. Ideas are our main weapons in the fight for the hearts and minds of the people. Together, education and agitation, are a mighty weapon in the Socialist Party’s revolutionary arsenal. How else can thesocialist message and the lessons of struggles waged by working people be propagated worldwides? How else can class struggle be waged in the crucial arena of public opinion against the ruling class–whose ideas also are the ruling ideas in society and who spend millions and millions yearly to produce a deluge of their own indoctrination spreading confusion?

 Our Party’s journals pamphlets and websites contain important articles which present an overall picture of our society and indicate the need for a political revolution to overthrow the present order and establish socialism. Fundamentally what is hidden and covered up by capitalism are the basic laws and class character of the contradictions in society which the Socialist Party strives to expose. Our task is to lay bare the truth about today’s economic system and its exploitation. Communists have always disdained to conceal our views. It requires a clear-cut stand. Our agitation must aim to hone, sharpen and intensify basic class anger at the injustices of today’s capitalist system.

The Socialist Party is composed of men and women organised to assist the working-class movement by a dissemination of its literature, to educate the working-class Irish in the knowledge of socialist principles and to prepare them to co-operate with the workers of all other colours and nationalities in the emancipation of labour. Such is our aim. Our method is political organisation at the ballot box to secure the election of representatives of socialist principles to all the elective governing public bodies to establish the principle of common ownership. The socialist revolution will not be accomplished by the action of a minority, but by the will of the immense majority of the citizens. Whoever depends on physical force to bring about the revolution rather than of winning over the immense majority of the citizens to our ideas, gives up on any possibility of transforming the social order. Socialist education is vital in nourishing the seeds of the future in the movement of today.

Better our cuts than their cuts

The fakery of social democracy is that first, it is still democracy for the capitalist class, not the working class and that it is hidden behind nationalist ideology to do the will of the capitalist class. The Labour Party has a long history of betrayal of workers in supporting BOTH world wars and supporting the wars for oil in the Middle East. Their main goal to stave off a socialist revolution by filling the worker's minds with reformist notions.

A “social democracy” under the Labour Party will be nothing more than "reformed" capitalism -- the very system that has oppressed and exploited the working class for several hundred years, all smoke and mirrors that protects and benefits the capitalist ruling elites while throwing just enough socialised benefits to the working class to keep them docile and subservient to their capitalist masters. The very idea of being able to reform capitalism to be more humane is absolutely ludicrous.

• Capitalism serves and protects capital.
• Socialism serves and protects society.

There is no common ground. Capitalism and (real) socialism are extreme opposites. As such, they cannot co-exist.
The Socialist Party will expend its resources and energy on supporting and working towards real socialism -- not reforms to capitalism that are here today and gone tomorrow at the will of our capitalist overlords.

“The basic law of capitalism is you or I, not you and I.”  - Karl Liebknecht

Trade Deficit Surprise!

Just look at the headings in the Business section in the Toronto Star of April 5, ''Banking boss talks housing crises, ''Downsizing is packed with plenty of barriers,'' Collapse of car demand in US jeopardizes auto factory drive'', ''Canada posts surprise trade deficit'', "Province continues to deal with debt load.'' Ralph Lauren to close flagship store, cut jobs." 

Is something rotten in the state of Denmark? Maybe, but not just Denmark.

Steve and John.

Warfare And Welfare.

 I sometimes, shamefacedly enter the premises of crowd that 'ain't exactly famous for tolerance,' the Legion. My excuse, however weak, is to participate in karaoke. 

A member of it, which I am not, gave me a leaflet headed,''Advocating for Life-Long Financial Security for Canada's Ill and Injured Veterans. The 4-page document can be summed up by, ''We vets have done our bit for our country and now it proverbially urinates on us.'' It lists various demands; a typical one being, ''Increase The Earnings Loss Benefit (ELB) to provide 100% of pre-release income and provide ELB for life (not terminated at 65, as is currently the case). The projected earnings of a Canadian Forces member should determine the minimum ELB.'' Even Vets who don't suffer from PTSD are adversely affected in other ways. 

So even if one isn't politically opposed to any, or all, wars, it just isn't worth fighting. 

Steve and John.

The delusion of independence

Nationalist intoxication won’t be able to mask the reality of class antagonisms forever. Workers need to rebuild their class strength in order to oppose the ruling class, regardless of nationality, language or ethnicity. Scottish independence would result in the creation of another minor capitalist nation and no matter what the SNP promise there will be no return to a golden age welfare state Nordic capitalism.  Left-nationalists are promoting the agenda of Scottish capitalism. Rather than painting rosy pictures of an independent capitalist Scotland. The Socialist Party irreconcilably opposes it. We give no support whatsoever to nationalism, whether it be the great power chauvinism of the oppressor countries or the nationalism of the oppressed.  We oppose Scottish nationalism and warn against illusions that an independent capitalist Scotland will shelter working people from the cuts of capitalist austerity, or that it will provide an opt-out from capitalism's wars. The nationalists’ ability to portray independence as progressive depends above all on the myriad fake-socialists, such as the Scottish Socialist Party or the Radical Independence Campaign and individuals such as Tommy Sheridan and Colin Fox. In opposition to all forms of nationalism, the Socialist Party calls on fellow-workers to join it in a world movement for the abolition of capitalism.

Socialism by definition is international and there is no such thing as socialism in one country – so why create new capitalist states to make the process of breaking out of nation states more difficult? The Socialist Party has no allegiance to any capitalist state formation and wouldn’t shed any tears if a UK state was replaced by a European one that made the political and organisational unity of British, Irish, German, French and Polish workers etc. easier. The strength of the working class internationally is primarily a function of the united organisation and political consciousness of the working class itself.  On both counts Scottish nationalism weakens it and both organisationally and ideologically weakens the internationalism on which working class politics must be built. Just as the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend so it is that the political position of the enemy does not require us to take up an equal and opposite position. 

Scottish nationalism represents an attempt not so much to turn its back on Empire as to give a layer of the capitalists direct access to the fruits of state activity, its taxation and expenditure.  To the working class the SNP promises fairness while to big business it promises a lower rate of corporation tax.  It doesn’t particularly matter what this rate is as long as it’s lower than that set in London; as the Tories lower it the SNP say lower still. The role of the Socialist Party is to warn workers about the futility of national separation. Its role is to draw out the class nature of working class exploitation and warn that nationalism has no solution to these. It would warn that a new capitalist state will not address working class needs, will not empower it but will be set up to enforce the power of the native capitalist class. The SNP does not challenge business because their whole case is that an independent Scotland would benefit it Scottish nationalists are not anti-business, nor anti-capitalist.  They are pro-capitalist and the capitalists who support the SNP and independence are generally small sized and there is nothing more progressive about small business with its more parochial political outlook and big business with its more global concerns. The last thing the SNP want are threats to business in its campaign for a business-friendly Scotland. Independence would offer no way out under capitalism and would only serve to foster divisions in the working class.  On the basis of continued capitalism in Scotland and the rest of Britain, Scottish and English workers would be placed in direct competition. This is especially true if we consider SNP plans for a more “business friendly” environment, with lower corporation tax and other incentives, in an attempt to encourage businesses to relocate from England to Scotland. The whole approach would be to drive down costs, i.e., wage to become more competitive. They would encourage a race to the bottom and pit worker against worker. Such competition between Scottish and UK businesses would result in a driving down of wages on both sides of the border. Historically the way Scotland was able to compete by exporting was to lower wages, which retarded the development of the domestic Scottish market and made the economy highly vulnerable to falls in international demand. A loss of jobs or fall in wages would also be used by the British ruling class to stoke up resentment south of the border, and vice versa.

Rather than seeking a new capitalist state as the answer, instead of falling in behind any variety of nationalism working people should set out to advance and develop their own power so that one day it is their own independent power that becomes the alternative to build socialism. Rosa Luxemburg pointed out in the early years of the 20th century, the idea of an abstract ‘right’ to national self-determination has nothing to do with socialism, because it obscures the reality that every nation is divided up into antagonistic social classes. The workers' sole future lies in the international class struggle not only across nation states but for their revolutionary destruction.  We need the unity of a British and world working class armed with a revolutionary ideas fighting fighting for sociaism.

Brexit and real sovereignty

The Brexit question that was framed in the referendum as having supreme importance (‘a once in a generation chance to set the future course of the country’) was yet again a debate about which particular version or configuration of capitalism should be selected. In this case, the specific question of whether a trans-national system of capitalism or a more traditional national organisation of capitalism, should be chosen. Only when we collectively realize that what are presented as contentious issues such as immigration, taxation, etc. are not the real defining issues of our lives, can we plan a much better society. It's only when workers across the world discard all notions that countries and national identities are a central part of the political landscape that real changes can be made to all our lives.

Capitalism cannot be reformed. If any capitalist reforms have some slight advantage to the working class it is merely an incidental by-product of a measure designed to strengthen and maintain capitalism. The advantages to the capitalist class far outweigh any to the working class. Go and read up what socialism is before you attribute it to any other capitalist experiments. Low wages or higher wages are not a solution. It is in the very existence of waged slavery at the point of production where all exploitation takes place. Governments are merely the puppets of the parasite capitalist class.

Socialists have always wanted working people to ‘take control’ of their collective destiny. That’s what socialism is all about. This is not possible under capitalism because it is a system governed by uncontrollable economic laws which impose themselves on people whatever they want or decide.

The only way to take control (‘back’ is out of place since the majority class of wage and salary workers has never had any control) is to take control of the places where we work and where wealth is produced and run them for the benefit of all. We need to abolish the wages system and establish a priceless commonly owned society with production for use. The politicians are powerless to do anything other than attempt to manage us in the interests of the global parasite class. All government is over us.

Credit Suisse have produced their Global Wealth Report for 2016. It notes, for instance, that 'the 33 million millionaires comprise less than 1% of the adult population, but own 46% of household wealth.' There's lots more data there.
https://www.credit-suisse.com/us/en/about-us/research/research-institute/publications.html

All wealth comes from the world's working class. The capitalist class, liberals or neo-cons, are an economic parasite class. That class is easily removable when the workers of the world aspire to a free access, democratically controlled, commonly owned world where production is for the use of everyone to satisfy all human needs, where the organising principle is, "From each according to their ability to each according to their needs".

Resisting change may indeed be a good and appropriate option for unions at a particular junction. The parasite capitalist class can run away with the loot they have amassed from the exploitation of workers, at or below the market rate. Unions can sabotage this 'quick getaway' of the industrialist to get some settlement for the workers who will be thrown onto the scrapheap. They are not the cause of any meltdown as all unions know the market rate sometimes above in good times or below in downturns is the best they can do.

The parasitic economic class income is in the millions or billions from exploiting their ownership of the means of production and distribution. In any case trade unions are a part of capitalism and its wage bargaining and nothing to do with a free access socialist society.

It is not a moral question of who are saints or sinners. Workers have no choice upon where raw materials or coffee beans or their shoes come from. It is a question of class interest. They do indeed have more in common with those overseas workers being exploited than with their home grown employers and require ot make common cause with them, to overthrow capitalism and to usher in the post-capitalist society, to end all waged slavery, whether highly or lowly paid.

The supply of cheaply consumer commodities from abroad are intrinsically linked into depressing wages here. The wage is only so much food, clothing, shelter, etc. so cheap produce, built upon waged slavery overseas is incorporated into reducing wage costs here also. Hence wages here have been successfully depressed for many years. The capitalist class can only exist through extracting surplus value from the waged working class. It is irrelevant how highly or lowly paid the worker is. All is economically relative. Nor is it a question of being envious. A much bigger and essentially global question.

It is one of ending a system of ruthless exploitation of human beings and natural resources though intense competition for the benefit of a minority parasitic class in whose interests all governments govern over us, all wars are fought for them, 'business by other means' over trade routes, raw materials and spheres of geopolitical interests even to extent of war science upon hapless civilian populations at Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the 'good guys' and all profit accrues to.

Crocodile tears for workers sufficiently distant in Africa and elsewhere, blind you to the causes of their immiseration both there and here, war by deed or proxy and poverty both absolute and relative, twin concomitants of the system you support and will have you sleep walk into the next world conflagration.

It is at the point of production you exploited your workers and creamed off surplus value. The future of your workers is not your concern, but the profit of yourself is. You may have had sleepless nights wondering how many to get rid off, to maintain your profitability, but I don't think any capitalist goes into business motivated by a desire to create a stable future for a labour force. Codswallop and bollocks to that notion. Capital accumulation is the raison d' ệtre of all capitalists.

Most capitalist revolutions have indeed been minority led ones. In the move from feudalism to capitalism the state often was used in this way forcing state capitalist development in emerging capitalist economies which were trying to leapfrog into the advanced stages of capitalist development in the absence of a large enough domestic capitalist class or sufficient capital is to industry, employing Taylorism etc.

Capital develops unevenly through concentration and centralization. And for that matter capital is still going on accumulating globally whereby one capital kills many giving rise to gigantic conglomerates. Accumulation is going through destruction and annihilation. This is reactionary. This is decadence

Productive forces have developed to the stage of both actual and potential abundance for all. But the working class consciousness and organization have remained subdued under the domination of capitalist ideas and interests – constantly and crushingly campaigned by all pervading 'right', 'left', or 'centre' chronicles and ideologies.

Now capitalism has developed the means and an educated workforce to run things, as they do now from top to bottom, we can proceed to the post-capitalist era.

We are speaking of the immense majority being self-led and using democratic means, the end of governments over people and utilisation of this political awareness to have the people themselves administer over things utilising recallable delegates when necessary. You have to make a leap from considering how things are done today, with standing armies and competing local, regional and global interests allied with anarchic production for sale market allocation for the benefit of 1-5% minority privileged owning groups with the majority in waged enslaved conditions of rationed access to the wealth they collectively produce, into commonly owned production for use cooperative global regional and local endeavours with free access and the situation is resolved into cooperative allocations and sharing of raw materials as opposed to warring competition.
The material productive forces of society have come into conflict with the existing relations of production. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations have turned into their fetters or, in other words, the productive forces have outgrown the production relation.

But nothing will stop an idea which time has come. A world without the twin concomitants of capitalism, war by deed or proxy and poverty absolute or relative, will provide its own challenges when we get there.

Wee Matt

Who are you voting for ?

Class not nation

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

Capitalism is constructed on national lines: nation states, national languages, national education systems and national laws. We have national parliaments and therefore national political parties, national industries and therefore national unions. We are taught about our shared “national” culture and encouraged to embrace “national identity”. We support “our” country, “our” military, “our” national sporting teams. National boundaries are the product of the rise of capitalism, with its need to develop national markets and industry. Each nation was unified with a capital city, a central government authority, a single currency, a single border, and a single army.The problem with nationalism, however, is that it has the corrosive effect of undermining class solidarity and helping to bind us more closely to our own ruling class. Marx and Engels recognised that the working class is “itself national”. But they urged that “working men have no country” and must settle their affairs with their own capitalists. Our fight must be with our own rulers; and to the extent that we wrap ourselves in the same flag as them, we can never be free. Workers have an interest in adopting this spirit, rather than succumbing to nationalist arguments. Nationalism has always been deeply reactionary, racist and imperialist, and there is nothing about it that we should seek to defend.

Capitalism is based on competition – between capitalists in pursuit of profits, between workers as we compete for jobs, university places and so on, and between the states seeking to extend the reach and power of the “national” capitalist class. Workers around the world today more than ever share similar conditions of life: tempos of work, patterns of consumption, forms of recreation and so on, increasingly cut across the old national barriers. Class struggles between workers and bosses in one country often propel and combine with struggles in other countries. if we want to overcome the real divisions between rich and poor, we also need to break down the invented divisions between peoples across the globe. We need to raise Marx and Engels’ call to arms: “Workers of all countries unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”

  Both Scottish and British forms of nationalism are reactionary but the overt anti-immigrant xenophobia stoked by UKIP makes the latter doubly so. With most people worse off than they were in terms of jobs, real wages, and access to health and education services, and yet still accepting a capitalist framework, they will understandably focus their anger on scapegoats and vulnerable targets. Asians and other migrants end up being blamed for health waiting lists, deteriorating education services, lack of housing and so on. Immigration controls are racist, anti-working class measures. They are designed to keep workers divided along national lines and to identify with their own capitalists against foreigners. Immigration controls, by discriminating over who can and cannot work and live in this country, legitimise discrimination against migrants once they are here. Marx used to argue that until British workers learned to solidarise with Irish republicans against the British ruling class, they would never develop the political consciousness necessary to take on that ruling class. British workers would remain tied to their own rulers’ apron-strings on the key political questions. For exactly the same reasons, open borders is a key demand to be fought for by people serious about social change. Workers and leftists who side with nationalism against people from other countries are basically lining up with their own exploiters; they will never be able to mount a serious challenge to the ruling class until they break with them on the question of nationalism and all the issues. In defending immigrants we can make no distinction between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ immigrants. The ‘illegals’ are, indeed, the people in the worst position and most desperately in need of support. There should be no restrictions on entry and work in this country, and full rights should be accorded to all, whether born here or migrant. Defending migrants means declaring war on all immigration controls and on nationalism which has been as much a staple part of the diet of the left-wing as it has of the traditional right in this country. Workers across the world have many things in common. We need to organise together, to help each other .

Nationalism is a ruse to lure workers into supporting the rights of business to make profits at their expense. The ruling class is prepared to allow a certain level of democracy, such as the right to vote and some political freedoms, as long as their right to make profits is not restricted in any way. Universal suffrage has never been a threat to profit-making because big corporations control all the key sectors of the economy, including the media, and they fund the political parties so that they are conducive to policies that make ever larger profits. The increasing nationalism and the rise of right-wing racist groups play on people’s fears about the lack of jobs, affordable housing and diminishing access to public services. They also reflect peoples feelings of powerlessness and anger at the rising cost of living. Nationalism cannot resolve the root causes of the economic and social problems faced by working class people. The capitalist system operates to enrich a tiny, wealthy elite by exploiting ordinary people and creating divisions using nationalism and racism. The idea that native workers are being ‘dispossessed’ by greedy, queue-jumping, newcomers is false, but powerful. By creating an enemy out of tmigrants, and a hero out of the perpetrators - the bosses, people aim their fear and anger over diminishing standards of living at the wrong target.

 The growth of Scottish nationalism has seen more of the Left falling in behind it. The Socialist Party, however, exposes their reformist arguments that independence will better the lives of workers and takes an implacably hostile stance toward the SNP, using every opportunity to expose its cynical tactics to win workers’ votes. Scottish nationalism means its workers are turning away from class unity and joint struggle with their brothers and sisters south of the border, and strengthening reformist illusions that hope lies in a new constitution and a sovereign parliament, one with “their own” SNP politicians and “their own” bosses.

As socialists, we recognise that we have more common interest with the ordinary people of other countries than with our own ruling class. The alternative to nationalism is class solidarity.