Can Robots Free Us?

With capitalism once again running into choppy waters, its administrators, of whatever party, will be casting about them for policies to keep it on an even keel. But, as usual, the problems which have always baffled them continue to do so. There has been a stagnation of wages and a stubborn increase in insecure employment, and after all this time they are still talking about urgent measures to solve the housing problem.

Lacking knowledge of the real cause of these problems, workers will cast their vote in despair from one capitalist party to the other. It is only the Socialist Party which says “a plague on all their houses” and works on for the day when the alternative of common ownership will be known on a mass scale and capitalist society will be no more.

We are in the middle of a technological revolution. Once, the craftsman had to give way to the factory worker. Now, the factory worker has to give way to the programmer. Eventually, the penny will drop that we possess the means of producing and distributing wealth which can belong to everyone. This will mean that computers will be used to satisfy the needs of everyone. It is not possible to predict exactly the uses to which computers will be put, because it all depends on the will of the majority of people at the time and none of us is a mind reader. But it is useful to think about what computers could be used for, because this gives us an insight into what socialism could be like. The possible uses are:

• matching production to needs;
• “electronic democracy”
• automation of dangerous or unpleasant work;

Matching production to needs:
If you want to know what people need, you ask them, or better still, arrange for a computer to ask them for you. It saves you travelling all over the world, asking monotonous questions such as: "Do you use aftershave?" — useful information for someone who does his/her bit by brewing aftershave. In turn, the aftershave manufacturers could enter into the computer the raw materials that are needed and in what amounts. The computer would transmit this information to the suppliers.

“Electronic democracy”
If a computer can count aftershave users, it can also count votes cast for and against any proposal presented by any person, such as "Should we continue making aftershave?" It is likely that the system will be polycentric, a local computer counting votes for local proposals, a regional computer counting votes for regional proposals and a world computer counting votes for world proposals. Bigger decisions affect more people and so would be decided by delegated democracy. This system could be implemented today. Ask yourself why governments which spend millions on supposedly defending democracy are not willing to spend even thousands implementing it.

Automation of dangerous or unpleasant work:
There will always be dangerous or unpleasant work that needs to be done. It will be possible to automate work that produces essential goods and services. The technology to do this has existed for several years. Robots can now assemble cars, manufacture computers. make furniture and so on. More recently, computers can mimic workers that make decisions according to rules, such as quality control inspectors, lawyers and doctors. The reason some work is not automated yet is because it is still unprofitable to do so. But the technology is there, waiting to be used should society decide to use it. For example, if our aftershave producer decides to grow bananas for a change and no replacement was immediately available, he/she could see an expert systems programmer. This programmer would write a programme that would instruct the computer to operate the aftershave brewery. Should the ex-aftershave brewer get nostalgic, he/she could always return and pull the plug on the computer.

The building blocks for constructing the computer systems described above have been available for decades. What you have read is not science fiction. It is fact. computer networks are used by companies, especially multi-nationals, in order to co-ordinate their activities and to communicate with each other. The hardware is already in place. All that is necessary is to reprogramme the computers to perform the tasks described in this article, should that be the wish of the majority of the people at the time.

Defenders of the capitalist status quo tell people that socialism is not workable. They think that workers are not intelligent enough to run a system of production for use, one where there are no followers and leaders but a system where everyone co-operates in decision making. They forget that workers are intelligent enough to perform the tasks necessary to run a capitalist society. It is workers who design, build and operate computer systems. When the wage and salary earners of the world, the working class, want socialism they will have it.

Work in 2030

 A think tank has warned skills system reform is needed to deal with a forecast gap of more than 400,000 workers by 2030.

IPPR Scotland research found the current 29 pensioners per 100 workers is expected to increase to 32 by 2030.

To offset pressure on public finances, protect living standards and maintain the current ratio Scotland would need an extra 410,000 workers by 2030 or an equivalent increase in productivity. The impact of ageing population will be felt as automation brings sweeping changes to the jobs market. 

The IPPR said almost half (46%) of jobs in Scotland face high automation potential. A large reduction in jobs is not seen as likely as 5% of current roles can be fully automated but one in six have a “significant proportion” of automatable tasks.

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/national/16890037.scotland-faces-410000-worker-shortage-by-2030/

Political Parties in (In-)Action

We have no quarrel with any individual whatsoever: our quarrel is with the capitalist system.

A class is a body of people united by a common economic interest: the existence of one class presupposed the existence of at least one other and consequently a conflict of interests or a class struggle. When Marx spoke of the increasing poverty of the workers he was relating their position to that of their masters, poverty and riches being relative. Many believe the people with real power to-day were not the capitalists, but the rising managerial class, who were neither capitalists nor workers. Managers are not capitalists, and capitalists do not need any special capabilities of knowledge to attain their superior social position. It was very strange that despite the privileged position to be the lot of the managers, no capitalist wanted to suffer the social fall to a manager, but many managers wanted to rise to capitalists. There is a necessity for the working-class first understanding and desiring socialism before that system of society could be established.

The Tory Party began as the defender of landed property, that was its conscious purpose. In the course of time, it has become the conscious defender of capitalist property as a whole. The Tories only became interested in the working class, in the first place to the extent that working-class discontent threatened to upset the system, and later on to the extent that the workers had votes and were therefore potential supporters of Tory candidates. In its essence, as the defender of property against the propertyless the Tory Party has never changed. Every move, every reform measure sponsored by them has been designed with the object of strengthening property interests and helping them to power. Socialists certainly want to see the Tory Party die, but for a purpose, the purpose of achieving socialism. Capitalism is the removable evil from which the working class has to rid themselves, Therefore all who defend capitalism are the enemies of the working class. This includes the Labour Party even though their defence of capitalism arises not from a conscious aim, but is forced on them by the fact that they have taken on the administration of capitalism and can do no other than defend it.

The Socialist Party insists that nothing less than the conversion of the means of production and distribution into the common property of society could achieve emancipation. The Labour Party, however, promise by means of social reforms, taxation, and whatnot to make gradual but increasing inroads into capitalism until, imperceptibly, socialism would be here. We have had the reforms, and Labour governments. And socialism has not been introduced nor is it in process of being introduced. We still confront the same ruthless, exploiting, war-producing capitalist system. The task of achieving socialism still remains to be done and the method set out by the Socialist Party is still the way to go. Labour Party supporters will contest the Socialist Party charge that capitalism has not been essentially changed yet the concentration of wealth remains still in the hands of the small minority. Capitalism, which the Labour Party has never understood. has made nonsense of their well-intentioned but misconceived programmes. The class struggle still goes on, as it will forever under capitalism. The only cure for capitalism is its abolition. The only road to emancipation is that proclaimed by the Socialist Party.

Every now and again in the radical movement there crop up attempts to think out afresh the foundations of socialism and its implications in the modern world. The alleged “fresh” thinking always turns out to be a rehash of earlier attempts to bypass the obstacle of universal working class understanding; each attempt also overlooks or is ignorant of, the fact the old ground is covered again in much the same way as it was covered in the past. Always the world of production and distribution is supposed to have thrown up some aspects that merit a change in outlook—but the outlook does not change; it is just the same reformist outlook attempting to iron out some of the wrinkles that mar the smooth running of the capitalist social system. The fruit of their work has always boiled down to the oiling of the machinery of capitalism to reduce some of the squeaks. There has been a plethora of this refurbishment of stale ideas. But the basis of their discussions, like the “new" thinking of the past, will get them nowhere because, like their forbears, they accept commodity production. Their concept of revolution in America must be accomplished as the Grand Central Station was built tearing down the old, building up the new, and keeping the train service on schedule, all at the same time, the little by little bit attitude of all reformists. It has no effect worth talking about on the fundamental basis of capitalism—on the class cleavage between workers and capitalists. They are windy purveyors of stale ideas and tools of the ruling class —even if unconsciously.

First, let the Socialist Party point out that the problems faced by people are inseparable from the system of society in which we live. This system produces poverty, insecurity, disease, and all the vicious things that stem from those, and it gives rise to the wars for which governments are constantly preparing. The Socialist Party doesn’t raise these points just to be awkward, or to be academically correct. We fully comprehend that the stakes are very high: in fact the possible extermination of many of us.

But expressions and resolutions of disapproval of capitalism have all been passed before. They have all had no effect. Time and time again the Socialist Party has demonstrated that war stems from capitalist struggles for markets, trade routes, sources of raw materials, and places of strategic importance. All these springs from the production for sale, with a profit motive for a small section of society, the capitalists. This in itself works against the interest of the overwhelming majority of society, the working class. This working class is in every nation and faced with exactly the same problems as the working class of the UK or US. So it is at this level that international conferences must take place, and it must be international conferences for socialism. We have a job to do, in this century, the establishment of socialism. To do that we must explain the basis of capitalist society, its commercial rivalries, its anomalies, its inhumanities. That is the task of workers throughout the world. So long as they blame their leaders' mistakes for the problems of capitalism, they will be content to try to put things right merely by changing the headers, or by something else equally futile. Which means that they will not consider socialism as the only way out of their nightmare. And that is the biggest mistake of all. 

Is Marx out of date?

The insatiable drive for profits, which is fundamental to capitalist society, damages health and destroys lives. Though the capitalist system is inexorably doomed to perish as other systems have perished, its longevity is considerably aided by the ignorance and gullibility of the working class. The capitalist class, naturally enough, are only too ready to seize upon the undiscerning working-class brain and to chloroform and cloud it with hype worked up by the media. The main object of the worker should be to achieve his or her emancipation. Defenders of the capitalist status quo tell people that socialism is not workable. They think that workers are not intelligent enough to run a system of production for use, one where there are no followers and leaders but a system where everyone co-operates in decision making. They forget that workers are intelligent enough to perform the tasks necessary to run capitalist society. It is workers who design, build and operate computer systems. When the working class, want socialism they will have it.

  So many things have happened, they say, that Marx could not know about; capitalism has undergone such unforeseen changes. Unaccountably the questioners forget to put it to themselves. If Marxian theories have long been disproved and discredited why do the opponents of socialism go on, year after year, making new attempts to disprove and discredit them? The answer is that capitalism has not changed in its essentials: it is still a system of society in which the means of production and distribution are class owned, in which commodities are produced for sale and profit by a non-owning working class which lives by selling mental and physical energies to employers. When we come to economic theory, Marx’s analysis of capitalism in operation, value, prices, unemployment, banking, crises and so on is more valuable in depth and scope than anything done by his detractors. One sphere in which Marxian theories hold their own is in the explanation of price changes, including the prices of individual commodities, the price of labour-power (wages), the general upward movement in booms and the downward movement in slumps, the general movements related to changes in the value of gold and finally the general movements related to the volume of currency.

Leaving aside the day to day fluctuations of price caused by market fluctuations of supply and demand and the fact that some commodities normally exchange above or below their value, Marx postulated that the basic element in the exchange of all commodities in capitalist society is value, measured by the amount of socially necessary labour in all the operations required in the production of a given commodity. From which it follows, firstly, that if one commodity requires twice as much socially necessary labour as another, its value will be twice as great, and secondly, that in gold all other commodities find their “universal equivalent”, again related to value. This explains what is behind the value of gold coinage; the coin is a weight of gold representing the value of gold. In concrete terms the Pound or sovereign which circulated in Britain in the nineteenth and into the present century was, by law, a fixed weight (about one quarter of an ounce) of gold.

The next proposition is that in order to carry on the sales and purchases of commodities and other payments a certain amount of gold coin (and subsidiary silver, copper etc., coinage) would be needed. A number of factors enter into the determination of what volume of currency will actually be needed; the volume of transactions, the prices of commodities and the rapidity of circulation etc., for a description of which the reader is referred to Marx’s Capital Vol. 1. Chapter 3. “Money, or the Circulation of Commodities”.

The next stage in Marx’s explanation is that a circulating gold coinage can, without any alteration of the proposition, be replaced by a convertible paper currency, that is freely convertible into a legally fixed and unchanging weight of gold. In 19th century Britain, Bank of England notes, which circulated alongside the gold coins, were by law convertible on demand into gold.

Then comes a completely different situation, the replacement of gold coin and convertible bank notes by an inconvertible paper currency—the situation in Britain today. The Marxian proposition, still based firmly on the concept of value, is that if the inconvertible paper currency exceeds in amount the amount of gold coinage that would be needed, the general price level will correspondingly rise.

 If the quantity of paper money issued is, for example, double what it ought to be, then, in actual fact, the pound, has become the money name of one-eighth of an ounce of gold instead of about one-quarter of an ounce. The effect is the same as if an alteration had taken place in the function of gold as a standard of price. The values previously expressed by the price of £1 will then be expressed by the price £2. (Capital Vol. 1 page 144 Kerr edition).

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The economists who reject Marx have to explain why events are explicable on the lines of Marx’s proposition about the effects of an excess issue of currency, but quite inexplicable on their theory that the amount of currency can be disregarded.

Socialism - Pure and Simple

The Socialist Party has always insisted upon two things. Socialism is the only final solution to the problems of modern society. And socialism can be established only by a working class who consciously opt for it because they understand it. This insistence has doubtless hampered our numerical growth. How many applicants have we turned away because, on examination, we have discovered that they were religious or held nationalist attitudes to politics? It might make it easier to gain more support if our attitude were more flexible; if we campaigned for higher pensions. Easier, perhaps; but futile beyond a doubt and In any case, there are enough organisations doing that already and probably making a better job of it. Our achievement, in political terms, is that we have kept out of it. We have kept the only worthwhile issue clear: Socialism versus Capitalism. 

Socialism is a reaction against capitalism and because of this, it is often described in what may seem negative terms. It is often described as a world of withouts—without money, without national barriers, without social classes, and so on. Yet each of these negatives is, in fact, a positive, active element of the future socialist world.

Socialism will be a world without money. This is so because money is essential to Capitalism; in what we are pleased to call an advanced society, it is a convenient method of exchanging wealth. Nobody escapes this. Everyone who works for a living exchanges his labour power for the things he needs to live, and this exchange is carried out by money, in the form of wages.

Money is essential to capitalism because all wealth, in one way or another, is produced for exchange, or sale. This is an inevitable development from the basis of capitalism, which is the class ownership of the materials and apparatus which are needed to produce wealth.

But money is one of capitalism’s symbols of restriction. Most of us never seem to get enough of it; even if we earn a bit more—if, say, we get a rise in wages—we usually find that this is wholly or partly wiped out by a price rise. Money is convenient for capitalism but for most people, it is anything but a good idea.

The end of money, then, also means an end to the restrictions which money entails.

This will not leave an economic vacuum, with no method of circulating goods. Socialism will replace money with a system of free distribution. This will spring from the basis of socialism just as money does from the basis of capitalism.

Socialism will be based upon the universal ownership of all the things which go to produce and distribute wealth. One of the consequences of this will be production for use and free access which all human beings will have to whatever is produced.

No more massive effort will probably be needed for this than is needed to turn out Capitalism’s wealth today. The administration of it will be largely a statistical exercise of finding out where each sort of wealth can best be produced and where it is needed, and arranging production and transport.

There will probably be points of distribution, specially designed to hold and to pass out particular types of goods; bread, for example, will need different facilities from clothing. From these distribution centres people will simply help themselves.

Nobody will go along with a pocketful of metal discs or paper notes. Nobody will have to sign any cheques or surrender any coupons. Because human beings need certain things, they will make them and distribute them. Society will devote its knowledge and energy to the task of satisfying its own needs.

The restrictions and poverty of capitalism, negatived by socialism’s basis, will be replaced by the positives of free availability of goods. Socialism will be man's culmination to his search for control over his environment. It will negative each aspect of capitalism with its own positive. It will replace poverty with abundance, fear with security, repression with freedom, strife with brotherhood. In countless ways, we have kept our political honour. We have not urged workers out to slaughter each other on battlefields. We have not broken strikes, nor planned the production of weapons. We still want now what we wanted when we were formed in 1904—Socialism, simple and, yes, pure. We have seen many upheavals in our time, wars, revolutions, strikes. Our analysis has not faltered and in every basic requirement has been proved correct. This is not to say that we have not made mistakes. We did not envisage what the Nazis did to the Jews with their death-camps.

But perhaps as a political party, our gravest mistake was our optimism in thinking socialism nearer than it was.

Glasgow University - An apology

A study by the university into thousands of donations it received in the 18th and 19th Centuries found some were linked to slave trade profits. It included sums for bursaries and endowments.

In total, the money it received is estimated as having a present day value of between £16.7m and £198m. Donations to the 1866-1880 campaign to build the university's current campus at Gilmorehill found 23 people who gave money had some financial links to the New World slave trade.

It acknowledged that the university received "significant financial gifts and support from people who derived some, or occasionally much, of their wealth from slavery."

Glasgow University Principal Prof Sir Anton Muscatelli said: "The university deeply regrets this association with historical slavery which clashes with our proud history of support for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery itself."

What do you owe capitalism? Your chains.

We are a species in deep trouble. No matter how much our politicians dismiss the reality of global warming, minimise its impact or offer false solutions to climate change, the intensifying weather events and their unpredictability are happening here and now.  The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.  The future looks grim.

Things are not produced today to meet people’s needs. They are produced to make a profit. And that’s the cause of the problems we face. Under the profit system profits always come first, before providing basic services like health care and transport, before improving conditions at work, and before protecting the environment. At the same time, it encourages a get-rich-quick climate where competition to make money takes over from cooperation and community values. Everything is reduced to its cash value and people are judged, not for what they are but by how much money they have.

Look at the results. The health service is crumbling. The transport system is in chaos. Schools have become testing centres. Pollution is rife and the environment under attack. The poor have got poorer. Begging and homelessness have spread. Crime is rising. Racism is reviving. Business culture reigns supreme, with "market forces", "competition" and "profit" as the buzzwords. Life is becoming more and more commercialized and empty. People are becoming isolated from each other, with drug abuse and mental illness on the increase. The standard of living may be going up, but the standard of life is going down.

The health and welfare of the workforce and the effects on the environment take second place. That’s what minimising costs means. This is why at work we suffer speed-up, pain, stress, boredom, overwork and accidents. This is why we have to work long hours, part-time work, shiftwork and zero-hour contract work. This is why the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe are all polluted. This is why the Earth’s non-renewable mineral and energy resources are plundered. This is why natural balances are upset and the environment destroyed. This profit system can’t help doing this. It’s the only way it can work. Which is why it must go.

Under capitalis,m there are no "good times" for the working class, but just so long as the working class does not see through the capitalist "work hard now and wait for reward" fairy story, there will always be Tories and Labourites,. Only the Socialist Party keeps to the sound working class position that the only remedy for the evils of capitalism is socialism, and that the time for it is now.  Our present system cannot be made to function efficiently no matter which government holds office, crude attempts to shuffle off the blame for the current state of affairs onto disaffected workers using the media of broadcasting and the press to do so reveals a blatant and cynical determination on the part of the capitalist class to hide this truth from the only other section of capitalist society which has the power to put things right: the 90 per cent of us who constitute the world's working class.

The Socialist Party has always said that under this capitalist system the most decisive factor in production is the profit motive, and that production itself is geared to a marketing system that does not take any account of the real social needs of the community. We have said that capitalism channels all men's efforts down the narrow inhibited path of commerce and reduces his vast potentialities in the field of production to within the bounds of profit making. What is needed is a system of society wherein the means of production shall be held in common ownership by all of humanity instead of a privileged few. Wherein production can be consciously regulated to meet human needs and requirements. Wherein commodities are not produced for sale to the highest bidder, but are produced for the benefit of all mankind. Only in socialism can there be found the answer to the problems of the working classes of this world. 

What then is to be done? If the working class realise that political action need not consist of a repetitive switching from one futile government to another, what else is open to them? First, they must grasp that politicians have only a limited relevance. They are prevented by something outside their plans and claims and deceptions from organising society as they say they would have it. That “something” is the capitalist social system, which from its basis outwards can only be run in the interests of the parasitic minority who own the means of wealth production and distribution. Just a couple of weeks ago we saw two representative members of this minority dress up and parade through the streets to get married. Everything about that event—the opulence, the cynicism, the ballyhoo in the media emphasised the class division of capitalism into those who own but do not need to labour and those who must labour but do not own. The workers, who made all that went into the wedding, owned none of it. Their part in the cruel farce was to stare and wonder and to cheer, to testify to their own degradation.
And in that fact there is the reason for the impotence of capitalism's politicians. Workers are ready to blame MPs for their problems, overlooking the fact that they themselves vote for these leaders and all that they stand for. It is the working class who choose their own repression, who respect and admire their exploiters and who are therefore responsible for their own plight.

We are arguing here, as always, for another approach. The Socialist Party insists that workers need to examine the basis of capitalism as the cause of the world’s problems and to act to change society from that basis. We are arguing here, as always, for a social revolution to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism—a social system based on common ownership of the means of wealth production and distribution. Socialism will be a classless society, without privilege and poverty, a society in which all human beings will stand equal in their freedom.

In face of that, the posturing, impotent leaders of capitalism fade into their true proportions. It is not they who will change human society into one of abundance but the mass consciousness of the working class. Socialism is something for the workers of the world to get excited about and then act to achieve.

Revolution can’t be outsourced to some sort of heroic leader who will come to the rescue. As the Internationale says:

No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear

The only real saviors are the people themselves. We are going to win this war—the CLASS War. Join up and do your bit. 

What is the socialist revolution

The liberation of mankind must be the work of mankind itself, must be majoritarian and democratic. No elite, whether violent or non-violent, can substitute. Peasant-based insurrections do not and cannot lead to the establishment of a democratic, classless society since the peasants, being incapable of ruling society, must hand over power to some minority. Such insurrections bring to power a new ruling class as has been shown in China and Cuba and Vietnam. Contemporary revolutionists claiming the Marxist label are not really Marxists at all. In different ways, they all represent rule by an elite, but they use Marxist language and peasant revolution (consciously or not) to justify their present or future rule. This may not be the intent but it does seem to be the objective function of the contemporary peasant revolution and of its ideologies.

In modern industrial countries, an insurrection can only succeed if the vast majority of the people support it (or are at least neutral) and if the government's machinery of suppression has broken down. In the absence of these conditions, an isolated urban insurrection will be crushed with great bloodshed. This was demonstrated in Paris in 1871, in Dublin in 1916, in Shanghai in 1927, in Vienna in 1934 and many places since. A possible alternative strategy for an active minority in a modern industrial country is to wage a protracted campaign of sabotage—or even of non-violent civil disobedience—in a bid to bring about the collapse of the machinery of government. This would probably rather lead to the rise of a fascist dictatorship and, even if successful, being the work of an active minority only, could easily lead to the rule of a new privileged class as in peasant-supported revolutions.

To succeed the revolution must be essentially non-violent and democratic involving the vast majority of the population, especially white and blue collar workers for they are the only class which, due to their relationship to the functioning of modern society, have both the potential for making a revolution and the capability of carrying it through on a democratic basis. To attempt a revolution without such majority support is almost inevitably bound to result either in a counter-revolutionary fascist society or in a revolutionary dictatorship which destroys the goals for which the revolution was undertaken.

 A socialist party must be democratic and open and so reflect the society it wishes to achieve. It must not get involved in conventional politics or seek to form the government. We cannot agree however that it should engage in the day-to-day struggle as well as agitate and organise for Socialism. To do so runs the great risk of becoming yet another conventional political party since engaging in the day-to-day struggle of people under capitalism necessarily involves advocating reforms. A reform programme would attract people who want reforms rather than Socialism. In a democratic, open party such people would come to dominate it and turn it into an instrument for trying to get reforms rather than for carrying out the social revolution. We look back at the fate of the German Social Democratic Party. The best way to avoid this danger is for a socialist party, while not being opposed to reforms and always being on the side of the oppressed against the oppressors, not to advocate them.

We are able to see that existing more or less democratic institutions can be transformed into instruments of the socialist revolution. Given that there is effective universal suffrage, local councils and some central elected body like Parliament or Congress it seems pointless not to use them both to register majority support for the revolution and to co-ordinate the measures needed to carry it through. Why bother to set up also institutions that would parallel existing structures of government? No doubt as the socialist revolution approaches people will be organising in all kinds of informal bodies ready to take over and run society after the end of class rule, but as long as democratically-elected councils and parliaments exist winning control of them through the ballot-box must surely be central to the strategy of any socialist party in a modern industrial country. The socialist revolution cannot take place on a national scale but must be international and lead to the establishment of a world society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of life with production solely to satisfy human needs.

Socialism is the result of social development and is seen as evolving from capitalism in much the same way as previous forms of society have evolved, that is, growth and development up to the point where change, a complete change, is essential — a revolution. Capitalism, by its own development of large-scale organisation and high technical efficiency, its production of a working class owning no property in the means of production, has performed its historical task and must give way to its successor, a system of society based upon the common ownership of the means of production — Socialism.

No social system, however, has ever disappeared in a mechanical fashion, out of recognition of historical necessity as it were, and there is no evidence that suggests capitalism is an exception. The class position of the capitalists generally make it impossible for them to understand that their social usefulness has ended; they are deaf to all socialist appeals because such appeals are in essence appeals for them to commit social suicide. The poverty and destitution of a large portion of the world’s population, wars, economic crises, and financial panics contain no lesson for the capitalists who will use all the power they possess to keep the present system in being. Expecting only opposition from the capitalist class, the Socialist Party is compelled to turn to the working class, the class which produces all the wealth, performs all the necessary services in modern society yet suffers all the social indignities of to-day, the class which has nothing to lose by a change in the system, but everything to gain. The only class which can make a revolution. The working class is always in conflict at numerous points with capitalism. In this conflict, however, the working class lacks the understanding of its basic cause. It is and must be the work of present-day socialists to place such understanding at the disposal of their fellow workers. Workers do not need convincing of the necessity to establish socialism by Utopian experiments or plans, as capitalism itself gives many practical reasons as to the need to change society. The details of the future society on which Utopians love to dwell, fade into insignificance in face of the importance of gaining political power.

Political power is centred in governments as is demonstrated in the ability to make and enforce laws by means of the judiciary, police and armed forces. This power is used when necessary to protect the interest of one national group of capitalists against a competing foreign group. This can and often does, lead to war. In this modern capitalist world, the educational system is under the control of the central power and in many parts of the world the whole medium of propaganda and communication is included. This form of power which exists in all those countries where the capitalist mode of production prevails can only be maintained by the active or passive consent of the majority of the population, that is the working class. This consent must be withdrawn and replaced by the deliberate and conscious act of taking over this power in order that the basis of society can be transformed from a capitalist one to a socialist one. The refusal to continue capitalism and the readiness to replace it with the new form of society presupposes that a class which has become revolutionary has at its disposal the requisite organisation to carry out its purpose. In those countries which have developed a political party system, a party which has for its object the establishment of Socialism, with a built-in refusal to compromise with capitalism, will if not already in existence, have to be formed. In those parts of the world which have developed a different political form, the struggle for political power must take place in line with such development.

As it becomes imperative for society to progress and remove the last form of slavery, the state which is a barrier in its present form must be taken over, altered and shaped for the task of social revolution. Once this has been achieved it can fade away. The taking of political power and transforming it from a means of oppression to one of emancipation is the historical mission of the working class. This mission requiring as it does the conscious understanding by that class places the responsibility on present-day socialists for creating and maintaining the organisation which can be used by the revolutionary class. Also to make available political knowledge to speed the development of revolutionary consciousness. The false and dangerous notions about barricades and armed risings must be exposed and the difference between revolts and revolution understood and explained. For modern capitalism has been compelled to provide the weapon which can be used for its destruction. The ballot used by a sophisticated working class can make possible the use of political power to establish a world society where the problem of access to food and shelter will be solved by making these freely available to all.

The Solution is Ending Capitalism

Away with all the quack remedies for patching up capitalism—the sugar-coated pills of reforms, and let our fellow-workers prescribe the only scientific treatment for the ills of society—socialism. So long as capitalism remains, so long will doctors be overworked in the thankless task of patching up people, whose chief affliction is not the ravages of some viruses, but overwork, anxiety, and poverty. In these times of the internet and global cable news services, we are given the advantages of knowing fully and almost at once what the other half of the world is thinking. We find that they are thinking very much the same as we are. They are thinking that life is very hard, and the outlook very cheerless for the humanity. If they are workers they are wondering why it is so difficult to get and to keep employment; why there is food and the means of producing food alongside idle men who lack a sufficiency of it; why it is that work is so drab, tedious and exhausting when obviously it could be made very much more agreeable; why the ingenuity of craftsmen, scientists, inventors and so on is being devoted so largely to producing and perfecting weapons of destruction; why the world’s statesmen all proclaim their brotherly sentiments, but cannot translate them into the practical form of abolishing or reducing the military. These and many other questions flow through the minds of the world’s workers as they set off to or return from their employers' factory, mine or office, or line up at the Labour Exchange or its equivalent, in New York, in London, in Tokyo, and in Berlin.

The Socialist Party can look at the world without pessimism or despair. We in the Socialist Party never built up false hopes, and have not been disillusioned. Seeing the world as it is we know how great the task is, but we know what can be done by determined, organised work towards a clearly-outlined goal. The world is out of joint because the social system is faulty at the foundation. The private ownership of the means of production and distribution is no longer necessary or desirable. It produces the evils of poverty, unemployment, competition, war and class hatred. It has got to be abolished. Instead of an anarchistic war of private owners seeking profit and permitting the workers to produce wealth only when profit is to be obtained by so doing, the social system needs to be refashioned on the new basis of common ownership. Society must assume possession of its means of life. The private owners must be dispossessed. Their private interests and their class privilege must not be allowed to stand in the way of social progress and the welfare of the whole community. The Socialist Party has taken on the great task of organising for that end. We concentrate on the one vital question, capitalism to be replaced by Socialism, private ownership to give place to common ownership, privilege to give place to equality. Our aim is one to which the workers of the whole world can rally, ‘without distinction of race or sex’. The World Socialist Movement is the one movement able to face the present global worries and troubles with understanding and confidence. Socialism can only come about when a majority of the working class want it

Workers should reject the nonsense idea of nationalism and should unite for their common good to abolish capitalism and nationalism and work for socialism.

 Capitalism is the pursuit of profit maximisation - the thing that underpins capitalism. Socialism is an economy which nurtures our capacity for solidarity, cooperation, reciprocity, mutual aid, altruism, caring, sharing, compassion, and love. Increasingly, research across many disciplines has shown that we are hard-wired to cooperate—that in fact, the survival of the human species has depended on our ability to work together.  The Socialist Party holds no blueprint but possesses a broad framework which aligns with the values of humanity - solidarity, participatory democracy, equality in class, race, and gender, with sustainability and pluralism, which means that it can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. Nevertheless, the idea of living well and in harmony with nature and each other permeates everything the World Socialist Movement advocates. The idea of the socialist solidarity economy is to build and knit together all of these practices in order to create a new society.  We need to build an economy that provides social solidarity. We will all be engaged in the valuable social and economic work of providing for our children, elders, neighbours, and communities—not for money, but from our innate capacity for companionship and compassion. Two roads lie ahead before humanity. The first road leads to annihilation. The second road leads to a new world.  The onus is on the creation of people’s movements, grasping growing political power to change the fixation on profits and markets rather than on an economic system that understands the rhythms of life.

It is time for action and the time left is short

On the political field the Socialist Party has no common ground with any other political party; being a working-class organisation, we have all the “sympathy” in the world with members of our class. This "sympathy” is shared by many members of the capitalist class, who are always prepared to shed a tear for the underdogs of that class and to throw charity at them. But our “sympathy” finds practical expression as a political body in seeking to show the way out through socialism. Anything short of that leads to muddle-headedness; it delays understanding and therefore is detrimental to socialism. To be told this may hurt the feelings of the enthusiastic young leftist lad or lassie; it may bring painful surprise to the conceited old fools who were a “socialist” long before you were born.

The Socialist Party holds that the material factors in the capitalist world have ripened to the point of plucking the unexpected fruit of socialism; the harvest awaits reaping; the banditry of a decayed feudalism, glorified Banksters and Factory Robber Barons are now stage- at the gates of the Socialist Paradise. The really effective enemy barring the way is the slimy monster wooing Eve with the deadly apple of Reform.

A socialist organisation cannot seek alliances with groups dominated by, or subordinated to, a capitalist ideology. The Socialist Party is right in its insistence that socialism will come, not as the result of impersonal economic processes, not in consequence of the manipulation of the masses by astute demagogues, but only when the majority of the workers consciously desire socialism. One of the main arguments of the opponents of the Socialist Party is that which accuses us of being "dreamers" because we claim that the working class are astute enough to establish socialism without the use of leaders. True, the Socialist Party not only denies the necessity of leaders in the socialist movement but declare that socialism cannot be established until workers have dispensed with the notion of leadership.

Throughout the ages, men and women in their struggle for survival have continually turned to the strongest and the wisest among them for inspiration and courage in their battles with nature and with each other. To-day, however, when everyone has access to the knowledge needed for the achievement of socialism, and the necessities of life are produced in abundance, there is no longer any need for "chiefs". The minimum knowledge that a wage slave requires before he or she is fitted to take his or her place in the revolutionary struggle is easily obtained, and well within the range of proletarian comprehension. Workers must know they are poor and why, and must then find the solution to their economic problems. What does this imply? The knowledge of a Marx and Engels or comprehension of Hegelian philosophy? Certainly not!

It is sheer impudence and indeed megalomania when leftist vanguards claim that by trusting them, the workers will, in consequence, become free men and women. The Socialist Party has continually attacked and exposed these "pseudo-socialists," who are among the working class's greatest enemies. We have stated that the workers must emancipate themselves, and establish the new society, not with the aid of “leaders," but in spite of them!

Workers must learn that they are poor because they sell their labour power to a master for wages; which at all times are at a subsistence level. They must understand that in a capitalist society wealth is produced for sale at a profit. They must realise that the capitalists are able to live in abundance because of the poverty of the masses and that the latter are dispossessed of the goods they produce by masters who in the main take no part in the production, but who nevertheless own and control all wealth.

When we all assimilate that basic knowledge we will then have the mental capacity to immunise ourselves to the false slogans mouthed by nationalist and religious leaders. We will treat with contempt the rogues and who said we were too ignorant to know the solution to our own social problems. The conclusions we will draw are socialist conclusions, and we will realise the necessity of organising for political action within the workers' own party, the Socialist Party. By capturing control of the State machine, workers will abolish private property, and convert the means of producing wealth into the property of society as a whole. This will end for all time poverty, social degradation and war. Such, then, is the minimum knowledge that the exploited class need to acquire. With it, socialism will be something easily understood, enthusiastically acclaimed; and the worker will laugh disdainfully at the futile and absurd idea of the necessity of leaders.

Taxing Empty Homes

More than 15,000 empty homes were charged double council tax last year in a bid to reduce the number of unoccupied properties in Scotland.

Since April 2014, Scotland's local authorities have been allowed to charge 200% council tax on properties that have been unoccupied for more than a year. The aim of the law change was to reduce the estimated 37,000 homes lying empty across the country and was intended to encourage owners to bring empty properties back into use and reduce the blight of unoccupied homes.

It does not apply to second or holiday homes, where the owner can prove they are used for more than 25 days a year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-45476146

The poor face dying alone

People in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more likely to die alone at home, according to research that reveals the significant impact of health inequalities on end-of-life care.

Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University discovered found that, in the last 12 weeks of their lives, 37% of those in the least deprived areas lived with a family member or friend who was a carer, compared with 28% of those in the most deprived areas and that elderly people in those areas which were most deprived were 37% less likely to die in a care home or hospice than those living in the least deprived areas.

Higher deprivation was connected to a greater chance of living alone. In the last 12 weeks of their lives, 23.3% of people in the least deprived areas lived alone, as opposed to 38.4% of those in the most deprived areas.

The researchers found that, of those who died in the most deprived areas during the research period, 13% did so in a care home, 6% in a hospice, 53% in hospital and 28% at home. They died on average aged 72.5, 6.3 years earlier than someone in the least deprived areas.

For those in the least deprived areas, 22% died in a care home, 8% in a hospice, 20% at home and 50% in hospital. On average, they died aged 78.8.

Scotland continues to have some of the lowest life expectancy rates in western Europe, with the country also trailing behind the UK as a whole. The average male life expectancy north of the border is 77.1, compared with 79.2 for the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/sep/13/scotlands-most-deprived-more-likely-die-alone-at-home

Auld Reekie's Child Poverty

About 22% of children in Edinburgh live in relative poverty - defined as their household income being below 60% of the average income. It can be as high as 35% in some areas.

The city council has set up a child poverty action unit to help reduce the number of young people in Edinburgh living in relative poverty.

Glasgow Branch decides to contest election (1945)

Party News from the April 1945 issue of the Socialist Standard

Glasgow Branch of the Socialist Party of Great Britain has decided to contest a seat at the next municipal election in Glasgow.

Already, candidates have been selected, a campaign committee is busily engaged in the task of organising meetings, and planning the assault on Woodside (the ward to be contested), and a tremendous wave of enthusiasm has enveloped the members of the branch, who are now making an all-out effort to put the S.P.G.B. bang on Glasgow's political map.

Years of unremitting toil by the small group of pioneers who struggled on determinedly against the apathy and political backwardness of the working class, is now bearing fruit; and whatever vote the party obtains at the forthcoming election, in Glasgow at least, our opponents are going to know that the S.P.G.B. is on the march and that we mean business!

Over a dozen young speakers are now in training for the outdoor propaganda season. They will be assisted then, by a number of London speakers who will be visiting Scotland during the summer months.

In the meantime, a series of indoor lectures are being held every Sunday in the Central Halls, and the response here has been encouraging.

We expect to be installed in our own election premises very shortly:—a shop where literature will be sold, and discussion groups, etc., held every evening. Members are resolved that we must make more headway in Scotland this year than ever before in the history of the organisation.

Here is the opportunity of all members and friends to “come to the aid of the party."

We will need money, and plenty of it! How about digging deep into the pocket. Every little donation will help, and you can be assured that it will be made good use of. Address all envelopes to Socialist Party of Great Britain, Central Halls, 25, Bath Street, Glasgow, C.2. And mark envelopes "Campaign."

Every donation will be acknowledged as received.

Do not fail us, in this hour of endeavour. We have the members and the speakers, you can help us obtain the funds!

Fred Crowe (Campaign Organiser).

We, the workers, want change

All of the marvelous complex technology and the scientific methods are under capitalism not for the welfare of the many nor the social good of the majority. It is for the exploitation of working people and for the enrichment of a privileged class. It is a system based upon exploitation for profit making in the interest of a capitalist class. Capitalism is organised for a class purpose. All machines, inventions, processes and scientific knowledge are made subservient to it purpose.


Only working people can act in their own self-interest. The employers will not. The government, controlled by the wealthy, will not. Politicians will not, for they seek to control the power of the many for their own personal gain. To create that new vision there needs to be a foundation to build upon. At the beginning of the labour movement, workers organised into trade unions. When they found that this was not effective, they organised into political parties. What’s good for the capitalists -- poverty wages, freedom to destroy the environment we live in, no protections against abuse at work, no social assistance to those who have been hurt by their policies -- is bad for us. What’s good for us -- control over working conditions, wages, and benefits that let us lead dignified lives, protection against lay-offs -- hurts profit and the employing class will do all they can to increase profitability.   Those in power portray working families as the problem, yet they lead lives of wealth, privilege and power most of us can’t imagine and will never experience.

The self-interest of the working people is a society that is based upon the well being of all, not a society that is designed for the benefit of a few. Think about it; think of your own well-being, and that of your family and your fellow workers. Think about the well being of future generations. If you are tired of working for the benefit of the wealthy few, then think about joining the Socialist Party and start to work for those who really matter to you. The Socialist Party stands in solidarity with workers all over the world who are struggling against capitalism. The ruling class has diverted the minds of working people away from the true cause of their problems. They create the myth that black people are out to take jobs from white workers, that so-called “illegals ” or “immigrant” workers are trying to steal jobs away, or that women are taking jobs from men. In reality, these workers only want what every worker wants, a decent living. Rather than blame each other, working people need to place the blame for low pay and rotten conditions where it belongs, and that is on the employers who profit from our misery. All workers are oppressed by class.


Prevailing society, controlled by the ruling class, is based on a Eurocentric viewpoint. In other words, European or “Western” civilisation is the centre or standard of the “civilised” world. A good example of this is a world map familiar to most of us where Europe and North America dominate the centre and occupy two thirds of the map, with the remainder of the world squeezed onto the edges and the remaining third. The map distorts the world and our perception of it to the apparent advantage of the dominant countries. For example, India appears on this map to be smaller than Scandinavia, even though the subcontinent is three times the size of the combined Scandinavian countries. The Euro-centric ideology often views indigenous peoples as “uncivilised”, even though many of these peoples live in social systems far older and more complex than Western society. Accordingly, the dominant society sets out to “civilise” the native people by stealing their land and natural resources and turning them into wage-slaves or corpses to facilitate the theft. The working class must cast off this Euro-centric ideology and try to develop a more international view, where all people who work within any sort of social system are regarded as being of equal importance and worth, and where indigenous people, like all working peoples, have a right to their land, their lives, and their self-determination. If the labour movement fails to do this, it will be nothing more than a pawn used by the ruling classes to defeat foreign fellow workers and, ultimately, to defeat itself.



When we workers act as a group we are making a statement to each fellow worker involved. This statement is clear; We are willing to stand here with you, if you are here to stand with us. We may win this fight, or we may lose, but that statement always stays with us. It resonates with us as we go through our lives. When we organise and when we take action that effectively challenges our ruling class, we have the power to demand the changes we want to see.