Letting capitalism off the hook.

In a 2018 report the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation suggests that “If the rate of population growth slows down, there will be more resources to invest in each African’s health, education and opportunity for all.” 

 A common misconception today is that there are too many people on this planet and that we need to do something about it. The Socialist Party has always insisted that capitalism and not overpopulation is what causes poverty. It is in the parts of Britain which have a low population density which has the lowest living standards in the UK.  Thinly populated Canada boasts one of the world's largest economies. Likewise, Singapore which accommodates millions of people within 50 sq. miles is similarly one of the richest economies in the world. Poverty and population are not linked in any way whatsoever. Capitalism, not people, causes poverty.

Nor is  ‘overpopulation’ the root cause of climate change. It is not people who are are the problem, but society. Not human beings per se, but the way our social life is organised: capitalism. We should be condemning capitalism, not women and the number of children they bear. 

Socialism will very likely improve people's life expectancy, leading to population increases, but rising living standards lead to lower birthrates and longer-term population stability. Once we are living in socialism, the release of human creativity to solve the problem of a finite planet and potential ever-expanding population will provide many strategies that we can't even begin to imagine. New technologies of food production and medicine will be able to do more and more to remove the 'problem' in the first place. The priority is the re-organisation of society and with that in place, any necessity to have a strategy to cope with 'too many people' is actually very distant.  There is no real problem in a socialist society that has its resources rationally planned. Nor is it side-stepping the issue by stating the problem exists only for capitalist society and would not occur in socialism.

The standard non-socialist explanation for world hunger is that there are too many people. In other words, that not enough food can be produced to feed the world's present population. This is just not true. Enough food (in terms of calories and proteins) is already being produced which, if evenly divided, could eliminate hunger and starvation tomorrow. In short, the problem is one of distribution or, rather, of maldistribution. World food production can also be increased well above its present level. Under capitalism, production is for sale on a market. Only those who can pay have their needs met, those who can't pay don't have theirs met. If you've got no money, or not enough money, you're not part of the market, and production ignores you.

The total land area of the planet is about 12 billion hectares, but only 1.3 billion hectares can currently be used as arable land. Even with a population of 10 billion, this would mean 0.13 hectares per person or something over a third of an acre. If farmed by means of intensive horticulture a plot this size could feed dozens. The average yield in England is about eight tonnes of wheat per hectare per year, enough to feed a couple of dozen people; so the 0.13 hectare per person available once global population settles down would be plenty to feed three or four. The conclusion of such calculations is inescapable: even without genetically-modified crops, the Earth can produce more than enough to feed likely future populations.

No doubt, it will be argued that food is not a finite resource but in regards to those the excessive consumption of both renewal and non-renewable resources and the release of waste that nature can’t absorb that currently go on are not just accidental but an inevitable result of capitalism’s very nature. Endless “growth” – and the growing consumption of nature- given materials this involves – is built in to capitalism. However, this is not the growth of useful things as such but rather the growth of money-values.

Socialism is about eventually creating what some call a "steady-state economy" or "zero-growth". A situation where human needs are in balance with the resources needed to satisfy them. Such a society would already have decided on the most appropriate way to allocate resources to meet the needs of its members. This having been done, it would only need to go on repeating this continuously from production period to production period. Production would not be ever-increasing but would be stabilised at the level required to satisfy needs. All that would be produced would be products for consumption and the products needed to replace and repair the raw materials and instruments of production used up in producing these consumer goods. The point about such a situation is that there will no longer be any imperative need to develop productivity. In a stable society such as socialism, needs would most likely change relatively slowly. What it means is that we should construct permanent, durable means of production which you don’t constantly innovate. We would use these to produce durable equipment and machinery and durable consumer goods designed to last for a long time, designed for minimum maintenance and made from materials which if necessary can be re-cycled. In this way we would get a minimum loss of materials; once they’ve been extracted and processed they can be used over and over again. It also means that once you’ve achieved satisfactory levels of consumer goods, you don’t insist on producing more and more. Total social production could even be reduced. This will be the opposite of to-day. Society would move into a stable mode, a rhythm of daily production in line with daily needs with no significant growth which would reconcile two great needs, the need to live in material well being whilst looking after the planet.

On scarcity, it's the same. We deny there will be a problem. Well, not the degree that's being claimed by critics.

First, we have to define what scarcity is. Orthodox economics argue it is limited supply - versus- boundless demand. Our wants are essentially “infinite” and the resources to meet them, limited, claim the economists. They claim that without the guidance of prices socialism would sink into inefficiency. According to the argument, scarcity is an unavoidable fact of life. And that's what the text-books describe economics as - the allocation of scarce resources.

However, outside the class-room and in the real world, abundance is not a situation where an infinite amount of every good could be produced. Similarly, scarcity is not the situation which exists in the absence of this impossible total or sheer abundance. Abundance is a situation where productive resources are sufficient to produce enough wealth to satisfy human needs, while scarcity is a situation where productive resources are insufficient for this purpose. Abundance is a relationship between supply and demand, where the former exceeds the latter. Achieving abundance can be understood as the maintenance of an adequate buffer of stock in light of possible future demand. The relative abundance or scarcity of a good would be indicated by how easy or difficult it was to maintain such an adequate buffer stock in the face of a demand trend (upward, static, or downward). It will thus be possible to choose how to combine different factors for production, and whether to use one rather than another, on the basis of their relative abundance/scarcity.

How do we tell when something is becoming scarce? We use the tools and systems that capitalism bequeathed us, which will be suitably modified and adapted and transformed for the new conditions. There are stock or inventory control systems and logistics. The key to good stock management is the stock turnover rate – how rapidly stock is removed from the shelves – and the point at which it may need to be re-ordered. So its a matter of simply monitoring the shelves. The maintenance of surplus stocks would provide a buffer against unforeseen fluctuations in demand. In a particular situation of actual physical shortage we can use substitution and by what's described as the law of the minimum - you economise most on those factors of production that are relatively scarcest.

In essence, overpopulation is not a problem. Poverty is. 

Systematic Mental Health Problems

More than 5,800 Canadian children and youth have died by suicide during the past 13 years, some as young as 8, according to data compiled by the Ryerson School of Journalism in Toronto.

Since 2007 emergency department mental health visits for patients aged 5 to 24 have increased by 66 per-cent. One in 12 was given mood/anxiety or antipsychotic medication. Hospitalizations due to intentional self-harm increased by 102 per-cent for girls aged 10 to 17 between 2009 and 2014, which was 4 times higher than boys.

 Nobody seems to know what’s causing this, though bullying is a definite factor, which has increased through social media — in other words through one click of the button.

 As for prevention, Kimberly Moran, the head of Children’s Mental Health Ontario said, ”There needs to be counselling and therapy for moderate mental health issues as well as specialized mental health services for those who may be suicidal and require 24/7 intensive treatment”, which may be alright as far as it goes but doesn’t go nearly far enough.

 An economic system which doesn’t cause people to have severe mental health problems would be a better answer.

For socialism,
 Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC

Price Barriers On Humanity

Numbers released in August by the various transit commissions across Canada, state that since 2007 there have been 1,235 track level deaths on railway corridors in Canada. 

Experts say these numbers would not be so bad if transit agencies installed platform-edge barriers which are a series of sliding doors barring access to the tracks. They open once the train has stopped. 

The head of the Amalgamated Transit Union of Canada, Paul Thorp said,” Such barriers should be in place nationwide. Any transit agency that is not putting in these barriers due to financial costs needs to stop putting a price on humanity”. 

Under capitalism money counts, people don’t.

For socialism, 
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC

We need a socialist party

The Socialist Party is the political expression of the interests of the workers. The Socialist Party seeks to organise the working class for independent action on the political field for the revolutionary aim of putting an end to exploitation and class rule. Such political action is absolutely necessary to the emancipation of the working class, and the establishment of genuine liberty for all. To accomplish this aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the common ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production — to eliminate profit, rent, and interest, to change our class-riven society into a society of equals, in which the interest of one will be the interest of all.

The economic basis of present-day society is the private ownership and control of socially necessary means of production, and the exploitation of the workers, who operate these means of production for the profit of those who own them. The interests of these two classes are diametrically opposed. It is the interest of the capitalist class to maintain the present system and to obtain for themselves the largest possible share of the product of labor. It is the interest of the working class to improve their conditions of life and get the largest possible share of their own product so long as the present system prevails and to end this system as quickly as they can. In so far as the members of the opposing classes become conscious of these facts, each strives to advance its own interests as against the other. It is this active conflict of interest which we describe as the class struggle or the class war. The capitalists control the powers of the state and use them to secure and entrench its position. Without such control of the state, its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the building of the new social system, the cooperative commonwealth.

 Struggle after struggle develops of the workers against capitalism for the needs of life. The Labour Party and the trade unions offer no answer. For if capitalism itself is the cause of our miseries, no policy of patching up capitalism can avail. Policy after policy is desperately tried by capitalism and thrown aside in failure. There is no future on the basis of capitalism. Unless we overthrow capitalism, perhaps only the destruction of the planet await us. The battle between the workers’ needs and capitalism grows ever fiercer. It can only end in social revolution. Capitalism has no solution. Only the working-class, only socialism can bring the solution. Only Socialism can cut through the bonds of capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the Socialist Party. Only the organised working-class can fight and destroy the power of the capitalist class, can drive the capitalists from possession, can organise social production. 

The first necessity is the working-class conquest of political power. Without power, no change. But what do we mean by “power”? Do we mean simply a change of government? No. What is in question is not simply a change of government on top, but a change of class power; since our purpose, is not simply to carry through one or two legislative measures, but to change the whole class-nature of existing society. The capitalists own the means of production; the rest of us live at their mercy, depend on them for the means of life, we are in literal fact wage-slaves in their daily lives. The change from a Conservative Government to a Labour Government does not affect this one iota. What is needed is a change in class power. The capitalists and their propagandists try to frighten the workers from revolution by holding before them the spectre that revolution means “starvation,” that the workers depend on capitalism for their existence. The contrary is the truth. That the workers can by the method of social revolution rapidly reconstruct and extend production and win prosperity for all.

Socialism - a future for all life on Earth.

Poverty is a violence inflicted by capitalism upon the working class. It brings, as we all know, economic distress, malnutrition, sexism and family disruption, racial divide, national chauvinism and above all demoralisation. Capitalism has only one function and that is to employ and exploit workers for profit.  To exact the greatest amount of profit from workers more and more is the worker made the appendage of the machine and the machines become more costly as the employers vie with each other and their foreign counterparts for a greater share of the markets which depends on production costs being competitive. Thus productivity levels and new technology has become something to be almost worshipped. Technology is, in fact, the creation of the working class. It derives from the skill and the labour of workers whether they be employed in tool-room, drawing office, laboratory, computer departments, or production lines. But the employing class owns it and appropriates the benefits for itself. The manner in which this technology is used in the form of ever more sophisticated machines and plant, the competition to be ahead in the never-ending struggle for markets and hence profit has led to what goes along with increased technology, the growth of giant companies brought about by takeovers and mergers which concentrate capital in fewer hands and put more and more machinery behind fewer and fewer workers. When the term “automation” was coined the social theorists of the capitalist system pontificated about the problems confronting the workers in the greater use of leisure time. In fact the problem has been quite different.

Parliament is an instrument of capitalist class rule. This holds true regardless of the incumbent in Downing Street. To say otherwise is a denial of all historical fact. Whichever party is set to treat the ill they use the same medicine, only varying to some degree the manner of administering it. Were their motives of the highest, and they are not, it would make no difference.  They have no faith in the working class to solve their own problems. 

There will be no future for any of us, socialist or otherwise if global warming is permitted to drastically change the climate. The planet may well not survive environmental collapse before socialism can be established and begin to counter-act its effects. Capitalism cannot save the planet because it sees its natural resources only as commodities to make profits.  But it is not a foregone conclusion that socialism will not be achieved before all the tipping points arrive. Undoing climate change means undoing the commodification of Earth. Capitalism is not a system designed for meeting the needs of human beings. Capitalism is a system that serves capital, and nothing else, certainly not humanity's.  It is possible to meet all the needs of humanity and still allow for the needs of nature, as well. Capitalism cannot do it because it must continuously expand its markets to create new needs for people, in order to extract profit from them. We can protect the planet while maintaining our electricity, medicine, learning, and leisure. Calls to abandon civilisation entirely are doomed to failure.  Those who seek solutions in anti-human and usually racist calls for population control are denying that resources are available for all sections of the population. A socialist society has the capacity to create a  future for all life on Earth. 

Most people used to expect that life in capitalism would inevitably get better: incomes would grow, jobs are more secure and safety at work improve, yet the opposite is happening. Those expectations simply didn’t take into account capitalism’s built-in drive for profit and the competition it brings in its wake. It is the Socialist Party's argument that working-class problems can only be solved by abolishing capitalism, and capitalism can only be abolished after a majority of the population have been won over to want it abolished.  Capitalism masquerading as socialism is a fruit which the workers will find less enticing in future. We seize the opportunity to show that capitalism’s contradictions can only disappear in socialism. Chaos and capitalism go together because of the anarchy of the market mechanism.  At the moment the capitalist economy is in a period of profound disequilibrium and most of the indicators show that it will get worse before it gets better. There is still too much capital seeking not enough profit, leading to unsustainable and potentially catastrophic flights into speculation in the stock and currency markets. The stock markets are in particular danger with another crash a definite possibility, which would see masses of unprofitable capital go to the wall and huge liquidation of existing debts, the primary conditions in fact for a sustainable recovery. The immediate prospects for wage earners pinning their hopes on a recovery don't look good. It would be far better for them to work for the complete abolition of booms and slumps, together with their cause — capitalism. 

The Dark Side Of Capitalism In It's Lack Of Glory.

This item is of no profound significance, but I’ll mention it to be boring and because the subject matter is a welcome break. As some of you may know TCM, recently has been showing many movies in the Film Noir genre. The announcer said, in effect, that whereas mainstream Hollywood movies depict a world where if one works hard and has what it takes that person will make a fortune, but Film Noir movies say, ”it doesn’t work that way for everyone”. 

Though some have happy endings and none suggest that society should be radically changed, nevertheless it’s refreshing to watch the dark side of capitalism being shown in all its lack of glory.

For socialism,
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC

Life Under Capitalism At Any Age Is Very Insecure.

A study conducted by McMaster University in Hamilton and the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario surveyed 1,189 employed young people in Hamilton and concluded it was an accurate picture of what it is like for most workers under 35 in Canada.

 They see the lack of full-time jobs, permanent jobs and affordable housing as the greatest causes of depression and anxiety.

 Only 44 per-cent have found full time, permanent jobs. The majority reported not having jobs that have health benefits, pension plans or employer-funded training, while 38 per cent said they expected to be worse off than their parents.

 There is no escaping the conclusion that whether one has a job or not, life under capitalism at any age is very insecure.

For socialism,
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC

Fighting for equality means the fight for socialism

The process of concentration is part and parcel of capitalism. Behind it lies the relentless drive for greater and still greater efficiency, and before it the all-important quest for profit. Marx saw it operating in its very earliest stages over a hundred years ago and foresaw that its effects would become more and more profound. Each time someone comes along to advocate a new scheme for reducing inequality he or she has to explain why earlier schemes failed. After all those years and all these “cures”, capitalism exhibits just the same “two nations" that the Tory Disraeli described over a century ago. 

Equality cannot be attained except by the abolition of the whole present system of wealth ownership and production. The working class should give up following futile schemes for achieving the impossible dream of an equalitarian capitalism. Their interest lies in establishing socialism.  Capitalism will keep producing the evidence of its own contradictions and inhumanities. Capitalism’s constant search for profitability is a fundamental source of instability that will ultimately undermine all efforts to reform it. There is only one way of cutting through the confusion. The future of society rests in the hands of the people who make it and organise it. The working class of the world can decide whether the waste and destruction of capitalism shall continue.  But when the working class has woken up, when they have realised that false ideas can only be answered with knowledge, when they have decided that they do not need leaders to run their lives and their ideas for them, capitalism will stop rolling on. For the working class will also have realised that socialism is the answer to the problems of property society. 

The Labour Party aims for power to run British capitalism. And no party has yet succeeded in doing that to the benefit of the great majority of the people. Workers everywhere—who are the majority-should see through the false propaganda of the Labour Party and of the other organisations which stand for capitalism. Capitalism can only be run in the interest of the capitalist class. The majority of us—the working class—suffer the brunt of the system’s evils, which only socialism will remove. Conservative and Labour Party delegates at their conferences, full with their pet reform measures, often take no account of the basic facts of capitalism, which contradict the intention of their proposals.   It is not possible for capitalism, with all the commercial rivalries, its diplomatic intrigues, its "defence” secrets, etc., to be administered openly, for everyone to see.  

The needs of capitalism itself often wipe out many of the politicians' promises and those that survive and come onto the Statute Book have little, if any, the effect upon the lives of the people who have been persuaded to vote for them. Capitalism grinds on, leaving the mass of its people to be exploited by a privileged few, who do very well out of the arrangement.

 Sooner or later ignorance will have to yield to the growth of socialist knowledge and the realisation that war is not just a nasty accident but has its roots in the private property basis of modern society. It is an ever-present menace so long as capitalism survives. The sordid squabbles over markets, trade routes, and other considerations, give way eventually to armed conflict, but no working class interest is involved, and no social problem is solved by fighting. When each war is over, all that can be said is that countless workers have died to preserve the conditions for another holocaust later on. Someone once said that the next war really begins where the last one ends. We could not agree more. 

 We, the working class, are the victims of a brutal aggression, renewed day by day in the episodes of the class struggle. We want to be rid of our conquering aggressors, the capitalist class. The Socialist Party has always and rightly resisted the blindly optimistic reformist view which can, against all experience, hope that things will right themselves and life become progressively better without a fundamental change in the basis of human society. That means hoping that the capitalist leopard will change its spots, and we know it will not. Socialists do not consider their task as hopeless but remember that economic forces, as well as human reason, are on our side against the brutal power of the propertied class and their agents. One of the first duties of working-class organisations when they declare their abhorrence of the iniquities of foreign capitalist governments is to show clearly and unmistakably that they are opposed to their own ruling class and free from the suspicion of condoning its actions. Many fail to understand the nature of capitalism—whether governed by dictators or self-styled democrats. That lack of understanding is to be found in every country, and the task of fostering an international working- class outlook and international organisation is made more difficult by ignoring it. Internationalism will only have a sure foundation to the extent to which such illusions are ruthlessly cut out. A first step is to tell foreign workers frankly that with the best will in the world the amount of practical help that can be given is strictly limited, and therefore it is necessary for them not to build great hopes on succour from abroad to make up for their own weakness. The best help that the workers anywhere can give to their foreign comrades is to redouble their efforts to strengthen the socialist movement in their own country and hasten the day when the workers will control social affairs.

There is an alternative to them all. Socialism will bring us a world of peace and plenty. That is a world worth working for because it is a world worth living for. The key to social progress is the level of knowledge and understanding which the people attain. When they begin to see through the promises and the posturing of political leaders, the first gleam of hope for the better life will be on the horizon. 

Lest we forget

Obituary from the July 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

The death of Jimmy Robertson after a short illness came as a shock to his comrades in Glasgow.

He was such a regular attendee at branch and propaganda meetings that any absence had the rest of us wondering what could have happened. He served the Party in whatever way he could, and, whether it was as branch treasurer or taking care of the literature table, every task was done cheerfully.

Jimmy’s political activity began in the Communist Party and he was one of the thousands who left it over the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956. Later on, he came in contact with Glasgow branch of the Socialist Party and became a member in 1962.

But there was another side to Jimmy. He was to the very end a keep-fit devotee who hiked, ran, cycled and swam. Indeed his swimming ability earned him a medal from the Humane Society for saving a drowning man in the River Clyde, but, true to his nature, he would never do any of these things competitively, only for the enjoyment they brought.

Jimmy Robertson was one of those members who form the essential core of the Party and his passing is a grievous loss, especially to Glasgow members. We extend our deepest condolences to his family.

Vic Vanni

USA: The fallacy of the free market (1999)

From the February 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard and how appropriate the theme of the article is today when we are confronted by Donald Trump's Americ First protectionism

The illusion that is peddled by sharp-suited government spokesmen on television about the benefits of the free market system is just that—an illusion. Every government in the world is in favour of free trade when their owning class is in a favourable position to compete and in favour of protectionism when some competitor from another country has the drop on them.

The British toadies of capitalism are bad enough but, in the USA the hypocritical posturing of the worshippers of the market system is truly nauseating. As the foremost industrial and commercial power in the world, the USA is loud in its praise of free trade as the cure-all for social problems. In practice, though, it often favours the strictest protectionism and some recent examples from the Press starkly prove this.

The notion that it is the soundest economic wisdom to “buy in the cheapest market” may be all very well for American academic economists to expound in the ivory towers of university and business schools, but in the USA when they find that their home produced commodities are being undercut in price the capitalists appeal to their government to protect US products from “unfair” competition. They call any competition at which they are losing “dumping”:

“Anti-dumping duties are a frequent recourse of the US government when faced with a trade problem. As the US trade deficit has mounted, pressure for duties has mounted, pressure for duties has increased rapidly and 36 petitions for anti-dumping have been received by the government so far in 1998, compared with 16 for the whole of last year. Most concerned imports of steel products . . . Ominously, William Daly, the US Commerce Secretary, has invited US manufacturers to make his anti-dumping staff ‘the busiest people in town’ . . . .” (Independent on Sunday, 22 November.)

The US exporters of Chiquita bananas, produced in Central America, used their political muscle to combat the European Union’s favourable trade terms for Caribbean bananas, and got the US government to slap 100 percent duties on such products as sheep’s cheese from the EU to the US. The American Financial Group, who own Chiquita, have recently given $1 million to Democratic and Republican politicians to fight the Caribbean preference which the they claim has lost Chiquita $1,000 million in earnings since the EC ruling of 1983 in favour of Caribbean bananas.

Behind the threats and counter-threats of a trade war the US and the EU are playing for higher stakes than are represented by bananas and sheep’s cheese:

“Andrew Hughes Hallett, professor of economics at Strathclyde University, believes we need to peel back the skin on this row to understand it. ‘I suspect it isn’t about bananas at all and it isn’t about protecting poor farmers either in St. Lucia or Honduras. It’s about political pressure in Washington and Brussels . . . In the EU this dispute is tied up with the power of the agricultural lobby. It’s like a bargaining chip. France is prepared to support Britain which is keen to get a favourable deal for its former colonies, so Britain will be more supportive of France on other issues affecting French farmers’.” (The Herald, 24 December.)

All over the world the US government pursues a policy of free trade or protectionism, whichever is most beneficial to US economic interests, but it is from New Zealand that we learn of the naked power of the US being used to force its products down the throats of unsuspecting consumers.

As the world’s biggest producer of genetically modified food, the US does everything in its power to protect the global ambitions of the agri-chemical firm Monsanto. It is increasingly concerned about European reluctance to accept genetically modified foodstuffs without proper labelling and testing.

In reply to criticisms of the British government that it was being pressured to accept US-produced genetically modified foodstuff, Tony Blair hid behind the cloak of secrecy when he replied:

“By convention it is not the practice of governments to make information on such meetings, or their contents, publicly available.”

In New Zealand no such convention applies and it was revealed in cabinet minutes that economic pressure was being applied to the New Zealand government to accept genetically modified food:

“The Cabinet Minutes, dated 19 February 1998, state: ‘The United States, and Canada to a lesser extent, are concerned in principle about the kind of approach advocated by Anzfa [part of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council], and the demonstration effect this may have on others, including the European Union. The United States have told us that such an approach could impact negatively on the bilateral trade relationship and potentially end any chance of a New Zealand-United States Free Trade Agreement.'” (Independent on Sunday, 22 November.)

So there you have it. Blatant economic threats, undisguised self-interest, and no recourse to such fine rhetoric, so beloved by US politicians, as the “free world”, or hypocritical cant about “democracy and the freedom of choice”.

Capitalism is a horrible society—let’s get rid of it.

The late Richard Donnelly

Glasgow Branch

Rent Arrears Rise

Demand for advice on rent arrears has increased by 40% over the last five years, according to a new report.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) blamed changes to the social security system for the rise in the number of people facing problems paying their rent. It said the increasing demand matched the period in which Universal Credit has been rolled out.

The CAS report - Our Rent Arrears - Causes and Consequences - found:

• The growth in rent arrears advice coincided closely with changes to the social security system;
• Almost a quarter of those living in rented accommodation have experienced rent arrears in last five years;
• CAB clients with rent arrears are more likely to be in part-time employment or unemployed;
• They are more likely to be single person or a lone parent, to be aged between 25 and 44, and to live in the 20% most deprived areas.

It also discovered that the most common reasons for rent arrears were a benefits issue, loss of income or unexpected costs.

Borrowing money or cutting back on essentials were among the most common ways people tried to resolve their problem.

And it claimed the incidence of rent arrears is far higher among tenants receiving Universal Credit.

CAS spokesman Rob Gowans said: "The rise in rent arrears is one of the most worrying trends we see across the CAB network at the moment. While there are a number of factors driving this, we have no doubt that the flaws in Universal Credit are one of the main ones. For the past 18 months we have been calling for a halt and fix to Universal Credit."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-45894810

Fishy Denials

Scotland's No. 1 food export is fish-farmed Atlantic salmon.

Last year, almost $786 million worth of Scottish salmon was exported globally, with the United States as its largest market. The aquaculture industry, which already contributes $2.85 billion to the U.K. economy, has ambitious targets for growth. The Scottish Salmon Producers' Organization, the main industry group, aims to more than double production to as much as 400,000 tons by 2030.

That growth, however, comes with high costs for Scotland's environment according to a government report, which echoes the concerns of environmental and community groups. The report, part of an ongoing inquiry by the Scottish Parliament's Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, found that the country's farmed salmon sector is reaching a critical point in which "the status quo is not an option."

"If the current issues are not addressed," the report says, plans for expansion "may cause irrecoverable damage to the environment."

The link between Scotland's wild fish declines and the rise of salmon farms is one of the many points of contention between pro- and anti-fish farming interests.

On the one side are the aquaculture businesses, and the supporters of the 2,472 jobs that the sector brought to the Scottish Highlands in 2016. On the other side are wild fish advocates, environmental organizations, and coastal community groups concerned about the sector's environmental impacts.

Government reports lay out the environmental issues — as well as responses to them — such as sea lice infestations, disease outbreaks, fish escapes, feed sustainability, and biological and medical waste. Because Scottish salmon farms consist of large, open metal cages that sit above the seabed, everything that goes in or comes out also affects the marine ecologies surrounding them. The reports note that the issues in this year's review are not new; they were in fact highlighted in an earlier government inquiry from 2002 and, according to the new data, the sector has made little progress in addressing them since then. Instead, the salmon industry has continued to grow, with each new or expanded fish farm amplifying the negative impact on the environment. This year's reports conclude that the industry's ambitious growth targets fail to "take into account the capacity of the environment to farm that quantity of salmon."

Pro-aquaculture interests, such as the Scottish Salmon Producers' Organization(SSPO), the largest industry group,contend that "any potential impacts on wild fish are not understood, and the science is particularly lacking for Scotland." The SSPO says that many of the studies rely too heavily on data from Norway and Ireland, but "Scotland is different in many regards, for example, in its regulatory framework, farming environment, and scale of production."

For Dr. Richard Luxmoore, a conservation advisor for the nonprofit National Trust for Scotland, SSPO's questioning of the science is just "mental acrobatics" in an attempt to "highlight uncertainty and undermine the overwhelming evidence."

"It's the same species of fish in both places. Ireland is south of Scotland and Norway is north," says John Aitchison, a documentary filmmaker who led a successful community petition against a planned farm site in the Sound of Jura in western Scotland.

Aitchison continues, "And it's the same fish that go to the same places. All their life cycles are the same, so you could turn that question on its head and say, on what basis do you think this wouldn't apply to them if it's close to those two countries with oceans straddling Scotland?"

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/17/657539821/scotlands-2-billion-salmon-industry-is-thriving-but-at-what-cost

A Conscientious Objector's Letter

Postal worker Robert Climie had been a lifelong activist in the international peace movement before he was conscripted in 1916. A tribunal hearing initially backed his case, but a retired army officer pursued the matter and saw it overturned.

Like hundreds of other Scottish objectors, he was imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubs, before being moved to a labour camp by Loch Awe in Argyll and Bute to work on forestry. He wrote to his daughter Cathie for her first birthday, while at the camp.

The letter says: “The first year of your life … will in later years be known as one of the worst years in the History of the World.” It continues: “A most fearful war is raging. The World is just now divided into nations and the people of each nation believe themselves to be fighting on behalf of their own particular country. However, there are men and women who believe that all men and women are brothers and sisters. These people are known as Pacifists.”

University archivist Carole McCallum said: “When Robert Climie was put to work in the labour camp, he befriended a fellow pacifist called Sandy Stewart.

“The men stayed in touch, and Robert’s daughter Cathie went on to marry Sandy’s son – who she supported when he became a conscientious objector in the Second World War.

Actor Gary Lewis has now recited a letter Mr Climie wrote to his daughter Cathie for her first birthday, while at the camp. Mr Lewis said: “Men like Robert Climie were victimised and persecuted because of their stance, but it was a principled stance. It wasn’t that they were cowards – it was because of their very firm conviction that men should not fight.”

We are THE Socialist Party

The Socialist Party has capably demonstrated how socialism could end poverty, unemployment, and war by eliminating private ownership of the means of producing the things of life, competition, and the struggle for existence by the overwhelming majority of the population in this and all other countries. We have mercilessly exposed evils of capitalist society, its murderous exploitation of the workers, its utter hypocrisy in human relations, and the most evident feature of its class character: the impoverishment of the majority and the enrichment of a small class of capitalists. The necessity of building the movement for socialism requires the establishment of the art of socialist campaigning and agitation, to tell millions what socialism is, its relation and comparison to capitalism, and how it can be achieved. 

The importance of the Socialist Party is that it points a way out of this foul system. It not only shows why socialism is necessary but describes what it is and how it can be achieved. This is a  beginning. But it is not nearly enough. What has to be done, is to increase the spread of the message of socialism. To many, we have become naggers of the working class. The world is teeming with millions of able hands willing to build and operate new technology for the production of abundance. That the peoples of the world are today exchanging bombs and bullets instead of the good things of and for life, is not a necessity. It is the outcome of capitalism standing in the way of the peoples of the Earth. Only the working peoples of the world can end war.  For the peoples of the world to arrive at the longed-for destiny of humanity to produce the things of life in plenty, they must rid themselves of the motives of capitalist profits, saying that capitalism is their enemy. Humanity needs a socialist world. The profit-grubbing obstructionism by the capitalist class must be ended. The working people must take increasingly militant and revolutionary measures to oust the capitalists and establish working class power.

Capitalists are the most class-conscious people in the world. Despite their family squabbles over how to divide the wealth that is produced by labour and appropriated by capital, the capitalists all stand shoulder to shoulder when they sense any danger to their system of robbery. One thing finds all capitalists standing united, regardless of politics, race or creed. That is the defence of their “sacred” system of “private enterprise,” as they hypocritically call it or the system of capitalist exploitation, as socialists call it. All profits come from the exploitation of labour. It is no myth that there is plenty for all. More food can be raised today than we could, possibly eat. Yet people starve in the midst of plenty and food is dumped overboard in peacetime when people cannot buy for they may not have the jobs or the money. We have the resources, the technology, and the labour which has made comfort and leisure possible for all. Who will deny the great potentialities for good inherent in our advanced economy? The owners of production have at their disposal all these wonderful opportunities, but have they used them to end poverty, maintain security and a high standard of living and keep the peace? No, for they have flagrantly and wilfully mismanaged.  That the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is always true under capitalism. When the capitalists realize there is no profit in selling their goods, there are lay-offs and slashing of wages. Food is left to rot in the granaries and storage houses, and hungry people starve in the midst of plenty. The capitalist system won’t work, for the very root of capitalism is all wrong. It is based on a contradiction, namely, that the man who owns the tools of production (the capitalist) does not work them, and the man who works them (the worker) does not own them. 

The working people themselves should own and operate the industries cooperatively. This would end production for profit and the waste of competing corporations. There would be planned production for the first time, increasing the output of wealth so that there would be plenty for all. We have today more workers, more efficiency, more productivity, and more technology than ever before. We have more of all the means necessary to raise the standard of living, shorter hours and certainly full employment for every able-bodied person. Yet today the workers are now experiencing cutbacks,  lay-offs and under-employment. The kind of planned production we envisage would, for the first time, make possible an end to wars between nations.  The aim of the working class would be to end capitalism and all forms of exploitation everywhere. Its aim would be to create a socialist world.  
Capitalism is a wasteful and inefficient system. It cannot plan on either a national or an international scale. It deprives the mass of the people of products. Socialism could plan better, provide the people with all necessities. 

In socialism, there would be no shortages or unemployment created by the greed of a few owners of the means of production, because the people would own the means of production. And even more important, in a socialist world, that crowning and the most damnable instance of capitalist greed and inefficiency –  war – would be a thing of the past. Socialism could take the vast resources which are available and use them for constructive purposes. The inefficiency due to capitalist competition; the wars due to rivalry; the inefficiency and economic inequality due to the impossibility of constructive economic planning under capitalism – all would be things of the past. In their place could arise the new society of peace and plenty. That is why socialism is the burning need of the hour.

The Socialist Party has always contended that capitalism should be abolished because it mismanaged the means of production so that a very few – those who own the means of production – reaped great profits while the masses of the people were deprived of a secure standard of living. We often prove this by demonstrating the tremendous capacities which the modern industrial machine has; how it could satisfy the needs of everyone if it were run for that purpose; and how capitalism, instead, ran the industrial machine for profits. 

Winter's Blues

The number of people who died in Scotland last winter hit a 18-year high, new statistics have revealed.

There were 23,137 deaths between December 2017 and March 2018, according to the National Records of Scotland - the highest figure since 1999/2000.

It also revealed that the seasonal increase in mortality - the number of "additional" deaths in winter - was 75% greater than in 2016/17.

The main underlying causes of the deaths were influenza and pneumonia.

Age Scotland's head of policy, Adam Stachura, said: "These figures are staggering and a real shock to the system. The large increase in deaths due to flu and pneumonia should be setting alarm bells ringing. We know that during winter months the homes of many older people are insufficiently heated, as a result of high fuel costs and poor heating systems, and can lead to a greater risk of ill health and even death."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-45876204

Class Conflict

There is no need for the food we eat. or the clothes we wear, or the houses we live in, to be restricted by the size of our pay. There is no need for the output of factories and farms to be restricted by having to make a profit. The productive resources are sufficient to make it possible to abolish buying and selling and thus money and to go over to free distribution of the things people need. The world's resources are not used to provide abundance because, being privately owned or taking the form of state and municipal capitalism, they are restricted by the limitations of production for sale at a profit. Modern technology cannot be used to serve human interests until the Earth, and all that is in and on it has become the common property of the whole of mankind.

Socialism will be a world community without frontiers. Based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production where goods will be produced, not for sale or profit, but solely for people to use. Within this framework, we can end once and for all the problems that are built-in to capitalism — the problems of housing, education, transport, health, pollution. racism and the others the orthodox parties and politicians are forever promising to solve. We can create a world of plenty where, as free men and women, we can co-operate to produce an abundance of wealth to which we can have free access according to our needs.

The only barrier to the immediate establishment of Socialism is that most of you, for various reasons, would not accept that it is really practical and prefer to keep capitalism in being in the vain hope that it can be made to serve human interests. Even though the politicians share the responsibility for keeping capitalism in being, it is no use you blaming their failures on dishonesty or incompetence since it is capitalism itself that sets the limits to what they can do. The national and local governments you elect have to work to a set of priorities which lay down, as we have shown, that profit must come before human need. We suggest you stand aside from the petty squabbles of rival leaders (which is about all conventional politics amount to) and realise that if this world is to be improved it can only be by the actions of ordinary people like yourselves. First, however, you must understand what socialism means and how it can be established.

Trying to reform capitalism in this way has proved time and again to be futile. Capitalism is a class society that can work only for those who live off rent, interest, and profit. Capitalism simply cannot be made to work in the interest of the other class in society (there is no middle class), those who have to work for an employer in order to live — the working class properly called. It is to you. our fellow wage and salary workers, that this statement is addressed since it is you who in the end are responsible for the continuance of capitalism and its problems.

Socialism is a society based on the common ownership by the population as a whole of the means of production (land, industry, transport, etc). It will be a money-free society because this means that what is produced is also commonly owned and so the question that arises is not that of selling it but how to distribute directly among those who already own it in common, i.e. the members of society.

Separate enterprises with their own accounts which they have to try to at least balance won’t exist, not just because money and what it reflects (capitalist economic value) won’t exist but because, all industry being commonly owned, wider considerations such as pleasant working conditions and not harming the environment, will be able to be taken into account. Individual productive units will of course have to keep records of the materials they use and try not to waste them, but these records will be kept in physical amounts (tonnes, kilowatt-hours, metres, labour time, etc) not money. Similarly, hospitals, schools, etc will be built and maintained out of the physical resources available to society. Calculation in socialism will be calculation in kind.

Why cannot capitalists provide plenty for all? Why is wealth piled up on one side and poverty on the other? Why are “boom” years followed by years of “depression”? Why are people pitted against other people,  class against class, nation against nation?

Because the very root of capitalism is wrong.
Because the basic idea of capitalism is unsound.
Because the foundation of capitalism is illogical.
Because the capitalist system is founded on a CONTRADICTION.

What is this contradiction?
It is the system in which the man who owns the tools of production does not work them and the people who work them does not own them.
This is the basic contradiction of capitalism.
The product no longer belongs to the producer – the worker. It belongs to the capitalist owner of the machinery. He sold it for the best price the market would pay. And he gave the worker the smallest wage he would work for.

The less the wage for the worker, the bigger the profit for the capitalist.
The bigger the wage for the worker, the less the profit for the capitalist.
The capitalist was interested in longer hours, speed-up, and low wages?
The worker was interested in shorter hours, easier work, and high wages.

Capitalism created a class of owners pitted against a class of workers – at war with each other – engaged in a CLASS STRUGGLE with each other.

The capitalist owner of industry has only one reason to run his factory – profit. Under capitalism, the needs of the people for various goods are not the PRIMARY purpose of production. The capitalist will just as soon make bombs as medicine.  All he asks is: “Which will pay more?” The fact that the millions of people depend upon industry for food, clothing, housing, furniture, transportation, communications, and amusement is of interest to the capitalist only as the “market” in which he can realise a profit. He is the dictator over his plant. He can run it or shut it down as he pleases. If there is profit in production he hires men, works overtime, night shifts. If profit falls off, he throws his workers into the street. His only god is the Almighty Dollar – the sacred word is, “Dividends.” That is why capitalism is more destructive than all the earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, cloudbursts, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions ever visited upon earth from the beginning of time.

Capitalism kills and cripples millions in its wars and civil wars, in hunger in industrial accidents and disease, in malnutrition and child labour, in poverty and crime. It destroys the wealth of society and wastes the labour potential of millions of idle hands. Capitalism pits worker against worker in bidding for a job. It pits capitalist against capitalist in fighting for profits. It pits workers against capitalist in a class struggle. It pits capitalist nation against capitalist nation in war. It pits producer against consumer, landlord against tenant, farmer against city dweller, white against black WHY? All in the mad race for a crust of bread, for survival, for security. In an age when plenty is possible for all.

It is the system of COMPETITION – It is the system of dog eat dog, of each one for oneself and the law of the jungle. And in the mad scramble of capitalism, the era of potential plenty is trampled afoot. Capitalism stands before us indicted as a system of criminal madness, dripping with blood. And the capitalist class stands before us as over-lords in control of a system heading towards destruction.

When a majority of us are equipped with socialist understanding, we can use our votes to win control of political power so that class property rights can be ended and the means of production belong to the community as a whole. If you agree with us. we invite you to join us. You would be protesting against capitalism and its parties. Please get in touch with us. We urgently need your help in convincing more and more of our fellow workers of the need to organise for world socialism, the society of abundance.