Our anti-nationalism

Labour Party should allow Scotland to hold another independence referendum if the Scottish parliament votes for one, the second most powerful man in the party said, Labour’s John McDonnell told an event at the Edinburgh festival fringe. 

“We would not block something like that. We would let the Scottish people decide. That’s democracy,” McDonnell was quoted as saying. 

The Socialist Party does not, of course, defend the present British state. But we offer no support to a separate sovereign Scotland. The Socialist Party must tell the workers the truth even if it is unpopular. And the truth is that nationalism, no matter how it is dolled up with patriotic progressive phrases and skilfully disguised by socialist terminology, represents no way forward for working people. On the contrary, we fight against it. We resist every effort to divide the organisations of the working class along nationalist lines. It is entirely wrong for socialists to sentimentalise their ideas and parrot their prejudices. We bear the message, even if it is unwelcomed and unpalatable, nothing very much would change in an independent Scottish state. The Socialist Party have a responsibility to our fellow-workers to warn them of their mistaken course. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. The Socialist Party will defend our class point of view and expose the false and dangerous demagogery of the nationalists. It is an obligation upon the Socialist Party to stand firm in defence of the fundamental ideas and principles of Marxism.

An independent Scotland within a capitalist world would not solve a single problem facing the working class and would have grave social and political consequences by weakening the unity of the working class. The cause of the British working class would be put back as national and regional rivalries return. The Scottish working class cannot succeed in a socialist revolution alone, nor can British workers win in isolation. What is required is a world revolution. The oppression and exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nationality or gender or race. That is why the idea of workers' unity is vital.

We must resolutely struggle against nationalist movements or parties while campaigning for the ideas of socialism. We must constantly press upon our fellow-workers that nationalists ally themselves with the ruling class. We must do education work and popularise Marxism in order that working people shall not forever become side-tracked. Scottish nationalism present itself as a progressive movement and many sincere people become involved with it but in some years’ time, they discover they have been most cruelly misled and have been wasting their time in a diversion which they will then have most fiercely to destroy. Socialists are not deceived by the progressive facade of nationalism. Those who believe nationalism to be progressive, and can therefore be used either do not understand, or opportunistically refuse to accept the negative role of nationalism.

The remedy can only be socialism. There is no intermediate transitional stage. Socialism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Nationalism is a horrendous condition that has been used by the owning class to turn worker against worker in wars and has led to millions of death. If it wasn’t so tragic it might be called comical that workers, many of them without a job, should take to the streets to support ‘their’ country. It is our business in the Socialist Party to develop class “patriotism.” o love your country, and be willing to sacrifice and battle for it, that is patriotism. To have no home, to be unable to provide self and loved ones with food, clothing and shelter, that is poverty.

Someone who owns no part of the country, yet is prepared to fight and die for it is called by the media a patriot yet a person who is prepared to fight to protect family, friends and neighbours against the curse of poverty, is called a rebel. While patriotism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart, exploits and corrupts those sacred things called tradition, the socialists says this further proof of capitalist class ignorance.

Capitalism offers no future

There are fools who still tell us that since workers has not revolted against capitalism so far, we cannot expect them to revolt in the future. Our aim is to replace capitalism with “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

In a revolution, the power and wealth of society change hands. They are transferred from one class to another. In our time, there are two fundamental classes in society, the working class and the capitalist class. The minority class owns the wealth, profits from it, keeps down the standard of living of the majority class which has no wealth. In order to protect its wealth from competitors and to secure new sources, the capitalist class is compelled periodically to go to war. The workers are propagandised and cajoled to fight the war in behalf of “their country” – whose wealth is owned by the ruling class. If the enormous wealthy of society, controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people under a government representing the majority, poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to the mass murder of war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. This kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale.

In the 19^th C and for but a short time after, the idea of socialism was fairly agreed upon. The “dream of socialism,” as it was often called, taught that socialism meant a society without classes, without the exploitation of man by man, without a production system operating for the purpose of producing profits for a few. Socialists capably demonstrated how a socialist society could end poverty, unemployment and war by eliminating private ownership of the means of producing the things of life, national and international competition. They mercilessly campaigned for socialism exposing the evils of capitalist society, its brutal exploitation of the workers, its utter hypocrisy in impoverishing of the majority for the enrichment of a few capitalists. Later this socialist propaganda and agitation largely disappeared other than from small principled parties such as the Socialist Party. The paid propagandists of big business, college professors, economics and intellectuals of every variety have failed to convince the Socialist Party that capitalism is a wonderful society and socialism goal remains a mere utopia. The necessity of rebuilding the socialist movement now requires the re-establishing of the task of socialist persuasion and education, to tell what socialism is and how it can be achieved. 

The Socialist Party describes the capitalist system and reveals how thoroughly rotten it is, how it is an outlived system capable of producing nothing but unemployment, poverty, war, the suppression of the will of the people. The importance of the Socialist Party is that it points a way out of this foul system and shows why socialism is necessary. Once it is explained clearly to people, socialism does prove to be one of the most reasonable ideas in the world. The movement for socialist democracy advances against capitalist tyranny. 

The Socialist Party believes working people ought to own and control its industries. It believes that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned instead of being the private property of the few and operated for their enrichment and that it ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all. It is difficult to deny the desirability of such a society because socialism does make sense, and the need for it remains more pressing than ever for working people and oppressed of the world. This way the socialist alternative will begin to appear realistic to millions of workers.

Trouble In Paradise.

Those who regularly read these reports know that whenever Stats-Canada release their monthly figures on unemployment its usually grim. For June, however, it’s very good. On July 5 they said over the last 6 months 248,000 new jobs were added, most of them full time. This sounds a little weird if things were so bad in the first 5 months, but who am I to rain on their parade? The report also said wages climbed to their highest level in over a year, with Quebec being the highest at 5 per cent.

 The Bank of Canada monitors several wage growth indicators ahead of its rate decisions - my, my, what a surprise! But ole' Statsy ain't the only ones to say all is hunkry-dory. Brendon Bernard, an economist for jobsearch website Indeed Canada, said, ''When we take a look at the trend over the past year, job growth still looks to be chugging along at a pace that's even stronger than population growth.'' 

Now we all know that good times under capitalism don't last for long, nor can they in a market based economy. So it was no surprise to hear, on July 10 that Bombardier is laying off half of the 1,100 workers at its Thunder Bay plant and that, furthermore it may be more than that when their contracts with the union expire. 

So already there is trouble in Paradise.

 Yours for Socialism,
 SPC contributing members 

Disabling Funding Cuts For Disabled Cut Off From Legal Aid.

The Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic (IWC) is laying off 40 per cent of its staff and will stop taking new cases after Legal Aid Ontario announced funding cuts to several legal aid clinics in July. This is an agency that funds Ontario's 73 legal aid clinics. It announced the cuts in response to the provincial budget, which slashed 30 per cent from a previous budget of $456 million. 

John McKinnon, the director of IWC, said, ''People come to our door in distress, disabled from working, cut off worker's compensation, depressed, broke and in the biggest crisis of their lives. We are all very worried about what will happen to them when we can't help.'' 

The good folks at IWC may all be very caring people, but that doesn't cut much ice under capitalism.

Yours for Socialism,
 SPC contributing members . . .

Our message as socialists is clear

Under the capitalist system basic goods and services are produced for the market, to make profits. In mature capitalism, the workers who supply our goods and services are market-dependent because they generally live by selling their labour-power for a wage. In other words, labour-power has become a commodity. Workers are paid for their work. But do workers in capitalism really get paid for all the work that they do? What are they actually paid for? They’re paid for their labour power for a certain period of time, not for what they actually produce during that time. Whatever the workers produce belongs to the capitalist, and the capitalist appropriates the difference between what the workers are paid and what their products or services will fetch on the market. So capitalists appropriate the surpluses produced by workers in the form of profit, just as landlords appropriate surpluses from peasants in the form of rent. Workers aren’t legally dependent on capitalists. They’re not slaves or serfs. They’re not in conditions of debt bondage or peonage. They’re obliged to work for capital not because they’re compelled by the capitalist’s superior force, but because they need to sell their labour power for a wage just to get access to the means of subsistence.

Capitalism, however, does not extract surpluses from workers by means of direct coercive force but through the market. The fact that capitalists can make profit only if they succeed in selling their goods and services on the market, and selling them for more than the costs of producing them, means that making profit is uncertain. Capitalists have to compete with other capitalists in the same market. Competition is, in fact, the driving force of capitalism — even if capitalists often do their best to avoid it, by means, for example, of monopolies. But the social conditions that, in any given market, determine success in price competition is beyond the control of individual capitalists. Since their profits depend on a favourable cost/price ratio, the obvious strategy for capitalists is to cut their own costs. This means above all constant pressure to cut the costs of labour. This requires constant pressure on wages, which workers constantly have to resist. It also requires constant improvements in labour productivity. That means finding the organisational and technical means of extracting as much surplus as possible from workers within a fixed period of time, at the lowest possible cost. To keep this process going requires regular investment, the reinvestment of surpluses. Investment requires constant capital accumulation. So there’s a constant need to maximise profit. The point is that this requirement is imposed on capitalists, regardless of their own personal needs and wants. Even the most modest and socially responsible capitalist is subject to these pressures and is forced to accumulate by maximising profit, just to stay in business. The need to adopt maximising strategies is a basic feature of the system and not just a function of irresponsibility or greed.

Production is determined not by what’s needed but by what makes the most profit. Everyone, for instance, needs decent housing, but good and affordable housing for everyone isn’t profitable for private capital. There may be a huge demand for such housing, but it’s not what the economists call “effective demand,” the kind of demand with real money behind it. If capital is invested in housing, it’s most likely to be high-cost homes for people with money. That’s the whole point of capitalism. Where production is skewed to the maximisation of profit, a society can have massive productive capacities. It can have enough to feed, clothe, and house its whole population to a very high standard. But it can still have massive poverty, homelessness, and inadequate health care. With its emphasis on profit maximisation and capital accumulation, it’s necessarily a wasteful and destructive system of production. It consumes vast amounts of resources; and it acts on the short-term requirements of profit rather than the long-term needs of a sustainable environment. All aspects of life that become market commodities are outside the reach of democratic accountability. They answer not to the will of the people but to the demands of the market and profit.

Capitalism needs intervention by the state in some ways more than any other system, just to maintain social order and the conditions of accumulation. But the economic power of capital is separate from political power in two senses: the capitalist’s power over workers doesn’t depend on privileged access to political or legal rights, and possession of political and legal rights by workers doesn’t free them from economic exploitation. The capitalist system is driven by certain inescapable imperatives, certain compulsions, the economic imperatives of competition, profit-maximisation, constant accumulation and the endless need to improve labour productivity. These really are imperatives. They’re not just choices made by greedy capitalists. They’re conditions of survival for capital. Capitalist democracy in all its forms. There’s no such thing as a capitalism governed by popular power, no capitalism in which the will of the people takes precedence over the imperatives of profit and accumulation, no capitalism in which the requirements of profit maximisation doesn’t dictate the most basic conditions of life. Political rights in capitalism, even though they’re more widely distributed than they ever were before, leave out huge aspects of our lives. 

A Reflection On Capitalism. It Isn't Great Anywhere.

 On July 15 the Toronto Star ran an ad which read: ''Is Now The Time To Renounce Your US Citizenship?-Make the right decision for you and your family.'' It went on to say there was a seminar at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto on July 27, which would provide American citizens living in Canada, with information needed to renounce it. 

Though we hear a lot about people trying to get into the US, nevertheless there are plenty wanting to get out. Is this a reflection on the US itself ?, or is it a reflection on capitalism, bearing in mind the US is the greatest manufacturing power in the world and the most prosperous? At least it suggests that life under capitalism isn't great anywhere.

Yours for Socialism, 
SPC contributing members . . .

To be a nation again...so f-ing what?

Scottish voters would vote for independence from the United Kingdom, according to a new poll. 46% voters said they would vote for independence and 43% against.

The appeal of Scottish nationalism to some working people in Scotland is, of course, a result of the failure of reformism. In no sense does it offer a way forward for Scottish workers. It is simply another cul-de-sac. The Socialist Party attitude to a sovereign Scotland, is that no fundamental problem facing working people can be solved, or even seriously alleviated, by tinkering with the constitutional status of the state structure.

A nation-state as a goal in itself, such as the establishment of an independent Scotland, has no place in socialism. The Socialist Party demands are common with our fellow-workers of all countries. Scottish nationalism is not resistance to oppression; rather it is the reaction of a section of Scottish business that seek to be the beneficiaries of a Scotland separated from British capitalism. Nevertheless, Scottish economy is fully integrated into the British economy and it is why most businesses oppose independence so as the lure for votes, radical policies are proposed by the nationalists as panaceas to the problems of the Scottish working class. 

Nationalists fish in troubled waters, and will betray and abandon these workers later on. Regardless, though, of the status of Scotland, the ruling class in the transnational corporations are interested in maintaining their power and whatever structural form is unimportant to them. This does not mean that they enthusiastically embrace independence but that it would not be an insurmountable obstacle problem for them to adapt to as they have the world over. Scotland would be no exception. A sovereign Scotland is something that the capitalist class can live with. It is necessarily incompatable with the interests of the capitalist class. Scottish secession will not pose a serious challenge to capital.

We refuse to spread the illusion among Scottish workers that separatism would be of any real permanent gain. The issue of independence threatens to poison relations between English and Scottish workers. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. An independent Scotland would not solve a single problem facing the working class. The problems of the Scottish workers does not stem from a constitutional connection to England as the nationalists argue, but arise from the existence capitalism which weighs just as heavily on the workers and their families south of the border. The economic exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nationality they perceive themselves to be. For that very reason, it is why the Socialist Party presses for class unity and opposes any attempt to divide the workers' movement along national lines. Class unity is about solidarity, which recognises no borders.
 

Nor does the Socialist Party defend the unity of the United Kingdom status quo in any way. To do so is to line up with the equally repugnant British nationalist ideology.

Our postion is that we abstain but that does not mean we evade answering the arguments. Far from it. Our members in Scotland will be saying to our fellow-workers that the only solution is socialism. There does not exist a "Scottish Road to Socialism." A "Scottish Workers Republic" belongs to the never-never land of the left-wingers.

Answering the opposition

It is one of fundamentals of the Socialist Party that capitalist governments represent the interests of capitalism, not the “sentiments” of the citizens. Left-wingers are quick to claim upon seeing state-owned industries that this is socialism. But nationalisation does not lead to establishment of socialism nor gradually advancing towards socialism. This is a huge hoax.

 Nationalisation does not mean social ownership. People are exhorted to tighten their belts and accept hardship in the interest of national wealth -- because this wealth belongs to the nation. And who owns and controls the nation? The emancipation of working people from the capitalist yoke will be impossible to achieve through change of government a thousand times or through attempts to rewrite the law. The only way to achieve emancipation is to gradually build up the united strength of the people through a democratic movement based on sound political lines. There is no other way for emancipation of the people besides this. All other ways entail only wastage of time and self-deception. If you are worker, if you comprehend that your 8 to 16 hours of work represent exploitation without limits, understand that neither you nor society will ever receive the earnings of your labour, if you comprehend that despite all the strikes you will always be exploited, become a socialist. The fear of Wall Street and the City of London is that the people will stop simply demanding higher taxes on the rich, but will demand political and economic power.

One of the most common criticisms used against socialism is the claim that it is against human “nature” and that inequality is “innate” in the human species. Rich and poor have always existed and will always exist. Homo sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years without private ownership of the means of production, without a market economy and without a class-divided society. In fact, private property and classes have probably existed only among a tiny fraction of the time human species has been on the planet. The fact also remains that class-divided society has been challenged repeatedly for thousands of years and the vision of a class-free society projected as an aspiration. History abounds with slave rebellions and peasant revolts. Religious imagery has been employed to reflect the longings of the ordinary people. Even defeated revolutions have been able to influence the course of history, their goals of the vanquished growing resonating with increased popularity, producing egalitarian ideas enriching the oppressed's heritage. 

The fact is that the exploited have rebelled, are rebelling and will rebel against their masters. The duty of every socialist, of every man and woman who loves humanity and seeks liberty, is to fight with our fellow-workers and try and increase to the utmost their lucidity and chances of success. The only alternative would be to tolerate exploitation as a lesser evil to the emancipation efforts of their victims.

Our policy on reforms and reformism is set out briefly here:

1. We are opposed to reformism, or the futile policy of trying to make capitalism work for the good of all.
2. We are opposed to political groups which pursue reformist policies.
3. We are not opposed to all reforms of capitalism.
4. We do not advocate or propose reforms. .
5. Reforms will be offered by capitalist governments when the Socialist Party grows stronger.
6. We urge workers to resist the downward pressures capitalism always exerts on their living standards.

In regards to the last point we appreciate that as long as workers are not socialists, this resistance will often be carried on in a disorganised and ineffective way usually involving support for reformist policies and parties. As long as socialist numbers are small (as now) there is little we can do to remedy this save urging workers to recognise the futility of reformism and to become socialists and wage the class struggle in an organised and conscious way. There is a difference between giving support to the general aim of working class resistance to capitalism and giving endorsement to any and every specific method a non-socialist working class might use. 

Our object is socialism.

The Socialist Party contends that there is no solution for the workers’ problems except Socialism. It is not possible for the Labour Party or any other party to administer capitalism in such a way that the workers’ problems can be solved within the framework of the existing system. The failure of past Labour government is not an accident. It is not due to mistakes in tactics, or to the failure of the personal qualities of its leaders.

Before the productive power of modern technology can become a beneficial advantage to the whole of society the instruments of production must become common property. They are socially operated; they have yet to become socially owned and controlled. This of course involves the abolition, through political action, of the “rights” of the capitalists to own and control the land, factories, transport, etc. It implies the conscious assumption by the working-class, organised for the purpose, of complete control of the machinery of government so that they may obtain control of the entire industrial resources of society. This abolition of classes is the equality at which socialists aim; but an equality of access to the means of living. Such an equality would render the term “wages” a meaningless one, as no one would be in the position of having to sell their energies in order to obtain a bare subsistence. Our object is to get socialism.

Under such a system it would be to the interests of all to expand the material resources of society as rapidly as possible in order to increase the common stock of necessities and amenities. For so long as these resources are fettered by capitalist ownership, whether in the form of private capitalism or nationalisation, the workers will be restricted to the consumption of such a quantity of goods as is sufficient to enable them to go on producing a profit. Hence we find everywhere that the capitalists, faced with a quantity of goods which cannot be sold, are compelled to take steps to restrict production. Socialism will abolish the need for such restriction and while, even with the present resources of production, it would immediately increase the wealth available for the workers' enjoyment, it would also render possible a considerable expansion of those resources in order that the free development of every individual should be translated from a dream into a reality.

Wages are paid only in order that employing concerns may squeeze out of the workers that profit which it is the object of their existence to obtain. The enthusiasm of even the staunchest Labour voters has been undermined by instance after instance of successful attacks on their wages and working conditions. Knowing that socialism is the only solution and that it can be brought about only when the electors become socialists, we have consistently opposed the Labour Party and its left-wing hanger-ons. We urge our fellow-workers to abandon their illusions and oppose capitalism, including its Labour Party supporters. 

The Socialist Party is the only party in this country that has never betrayed the workers’ interests by supporting reform programmes or capitalist parties. We are at present necessarily a propaganda organisation, working to make socialist principles better known. Political leaders thrive not on the knowledge of the workers but on their ignorance. Whether they are honest or dishonest these leaders cannot bring about socialism for the working-class—that the workers have to do for themselves. Which means that they, and not merely their leaders, have to acquire knowledge. It is the purpose of working-class education to give the workers the knowledge. Until the workers rid themselves of their trust in leaders they will continue to be misled, defeated, and betrayed, whenever suitable occasion offers. 

The assumption that the Socialist Party attaches no importance to action is grotesque. What we want is sound action, the action of socialists who want socialism. Of course we reject the unsound action of the “something now” parties. Would our critics have us participate in their actions, such as protecting the capitalist system, and—most important of all—preaching the false doctrine that the workers’ problems can be solved by the “something now” policy of reforming capitalism? Our slow progress is merely a reflection of the success of the propaganda efforts of the capitalist parties, including the parties of capitalist reform. But not even their most skilful propaganda will serve permanently to cover up the woefully inadequate results of their “something now” actions. No member of the Socialist Party, proposes to give up our action directed towards the attainment of socialism, in order to perpetuate the endless, useless and dangerous mistakes of the ‘‘something now” parties. In due course the workers, disappointed with that policy, will join us and make socialism a reality. We are optimistic enough to believe that. 

The evidence of capitalism's decay, its redundancy, is persistent and overwhelming. The working class, who now run capitalism in every way, need only to see this evidence for what it is and then to opt for the social system which they can run in the interests of the entire human race.

Capitalism Condemned

In the name of our fellow-workers the Socialist Party condemns the capitalist system.

In the name of economic freedom it condemns wage-slavery.

In the name of new technology it condemns poverty.

In the name of peace it condemns war.

In the name of civilisation it condemns famine. 

In the name of rationality it condemns superstition and religion.

In the name of the future 

In the name of humanity it demands social justice for every man, woman and child.

The Socialist party knows neither colour, sex, nor race. It is first and last the party of the workers, regardless of their nationality. The Socialist party is pledged to educate, encourage and support fellow-workers to the full extent of its ability. 

The Socialist party sprang forth from the class struggle. In the battles of the workers in the war of the classes, in the unceasing struggle of the workers against their exploiters every where and wherever and however it is fought, they are always and everywhere the battles of the Socialist Party. 

The Socialist Party is the only party of the people, the only party opposed to the rule of the plutocracy, the only truly democratic party in the world, the only party that is pledged to strike the fetters of economic and political slavery. The education, organisation and co-operation of the workers is the conscious aim and task of the Socialist Party. The writing is upon the wall for the downfall of the capitalist system. 

The time is now clearly for the cooperative socialist commonwealth, a society based upon the common ownership of the means of life and the production of wealth for the use of all instead of the private profit of the few, for which the Socialist Party stands for and where peace will prevail and plenty for all will avail. The billions of exploited poor will be rescued from the clutches of poverty and hunger. Society will have a new birth, and its people a new destiny. These are the ideals of the Socialist Party.

 The Socialist party is organised and run from the bottom up. There are no leaders and there never can be unless the party deserts its principles and ceases to be a Socialist Party. Each member has not only an equal voice but is urged to take an active part in all the party activities. 

The Socialist Party relies solely upon the persuasive power of education, knowledge, and mutual understanding so workers are enlightenment and aroused everywhere to the necessity of socialist revolution.

Socialism has been the goal of the working class political movement since the time of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. If the modern working class is destined to transform society, as Marx explained, then it must create its own political party within the framework of capitalist society to fulfill its historic mission. Education is essential.

 The goal of the World Socialist Movement has been to educate working people in order to create a new society of the free and equal. Democracy and education must go hand in hand. Whether within the confines of a small organisation that seeks to transform society such ourselves and in the future society we aspire towards.

The voice of the people

The socialist revolution is the process, on a world scale, through which the socialist mode of production is established and supplants the capitalist system. The goal of the socialist revolution is the abolition of capitalist private property, the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the social ownership of the means of production and their planned use for the benefit of the whole of society, leading to abundance and universal brotherhood and sisterhood. The Socialist Party does not put forward this goal as a utopia, as a mere vision but as a goal the practical attainment. Socialism is a practical objective where the contradictions of capitalism are solved and the great technological forces of production be fully applied. Socialism will only be gained by waging the class struggle by the working class and the conquest of political power by the independent party of the working class. The aim of socialism is in accord with democracy and liberty – indeed, the only way in which socialism can be fulfilled. Socialism means the ending of exploitation of man by man, a society without class antagonisms, in which the people themselves control their means of life and use them for their own happiness. Ideas cannot be produced to order; they must achieve their own growth in the minds and hearts of men. Fostered and allowed to grow, they will truly and adequately express the experiences and aspirations of the people.

Socialism is not inevitable. What we call ‘inevitability’ consists solely of this, that only through socialism can humanity progress and social evolution continue. What course lies open for us to choose. The simple fact is that most workers are not socialists and most accept capitalism, believing it can’t be changed. Capitalist ideas appear to make sense because they reflect the world as we experience it and so to believe these things are ‘natural’ and ‘true’ seems simple common sense. It is this view the Socialist Party seeks to challenge. It presents, articulates and generalise socialist ideas to provide a deeper understanding of the workings of the world, to win those battles of ideas. If workers do not hold that the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves, then they will look for salvation from above, or, worse still, come to the conclusion that no emancipation is possible at all. They are destined to disappointment. The party cannot substitute for the working class. It must be part of the class struggle. Socialism can only come about when the working class itself takes control of the means of producing wealth and uses this to transform society. Socialism is a theory of a system of human society, based on the common ownership of the means of production and the carrying on of the work of production by all for the benefit of all. In other words, socialism means that the land, all mass transportation, the mines, the factories, and all such things as are necessary for the production of the necessities of life should be collective property, just as our public roads, our public parks and our public libraries are examples today, so that all these things should be used by the whole people to produce the goods that the whole of the people require to live a decent life.

A revolution is coming that will place the working women and men around the world in full command over its vast resources. From combating individual capitalists or alliances of capitalists over immediate economic issues such as hours, wages, and conditions, the workers have been compelled to move out onto the political arena as an independent class force against the capitalists organised as a class and through their political parties in control of the state apparatus.

In terms of organisation and social influence, the Socialist Party has accomplished relatively little. Yet terms of developing socialist ideas it has been of importance which explains why it has struck a responsive chord and been able to maintain itself a veritable socialist institution. The Socialist Party struggles against economic slavery.

For a better world

Socialism means a world without nations and passports, borders and barriers. By replacing production for profit with a society based on production direct for human needs, socialism will do away with prices and profits, buying and selling, money and markets. In the process, socialism will remove war — not by deterring it with ever more destructive weapons, nor by futile attempts to ban the weapons — but by removing capitalism, the cause of war.

In the world today we have the resources, the technology, the skills and the knowledge to satisfy everyone's needs — in food, housing and everything else — several times over. No informed person can deny it. But we cannot fully apply that capability in a society where the aim of production is achieving a profit. We can only use them in a society where the purpose of production is human needs.

This means establishing a society without money — where we don't needlessly ration ourselves.

This means a society without wages — where we aren't forced to work for an employer just to survive. but where we can choose the work we want to do for our own satisfaction and for the benefit of the community as a whole.

This means a society without frontiers and nations — where the world's resources and knowledge are used rationally and not in the irrational manner determined by "market forces" or governments, condemning millions to hunger while food and other essentials are available in huge quantities.

This means a society without wars or the threat of wars — because wars in the modern world are caused by economic and trade rivalries between nations, and in a world that is united there won't be such rivalries to fight over. Every day inside this society erupt some new battleground opens somewhere in the world. Every day capitalism puts lives on the line to fight over land or minerals or markets. Capitalism produces many conflicts between nations. It produces many strategies, alliances and rivalries which cannot be ignored. But whatever the battles are fought over, it’s not in the interests of the vast majority that are at stake. There's only a few people who stand to win or lose in times of war. Simply read the business pages of the newspapers to learn who. Of course it's not the shareholders or the CEO's who do the fighting, who encourage nationalism, who profit from war-mongering. They stay safe in their board-rooms, sabre-rattling while letting others do the dying.

A lot of people say to the Socialist Party “all that this sounds very nice but people are lazy, greedy and belligerent, and you can't change human nature".

We reply to this that human beings may well be lazy, greedy and aggressive, but that they can be and they usually are in their daily life co-operative, generous and caring. If we organise society — and we can do it easily — so that everything we need to live comfortably is there (in other words we have free access to all goods and services), then we are more likely, in these circumstances, to behave in an altruistic and amicable way. So we're not asking people to be "saints" or “angels". We're simply asking them to see that a fundamental change in the way society is organised — which we call socialism — is in their individual interests, in their children's interests, and in the interest of society as a whole.

The simple fact is that given access to natural resources and new technology, one worker can produce the basic material necessities for one person in a fraction of each day, or week, or year. In a sane system of society this would happen, and the remaining time could be spent in improving the quality of life, safely and happily guaranteeing decent food and housing for every human being.

But the Socialist Party doesn't exist to bring about this state of affairs for you. We exist to spread the ideas we've outlined and to be used, if people want to use us, to vote out the present system of buying and selling and production for profit and vote in a new system of common ownership, production for use and free access to all goods and services. And just as it must be voted in democratically. this new system can only be run democratically — by everyone — with all having equal access to everything it produces.

The Chartists did not struggle for democracy to be turned into a television reality show. The Chartists fought for the right to vote and campaigned for the chance to participate in democracy. They knew that once they had the vote as a weapon, they possessed a means to power in society. Our fellow workers today in dictatorships must recognise that when the electoral process has been appropriated by unelected, unaccountable media chiefs who take it upon themselves to dominate what workers read, hear and view before they vote. This is an erosion of meaningful democracy by the arrogance of the media bosses in full collusion of the major capitalist parties who have decided to abandon real debate and opted for stage-managed sound-bites. Theatricals have replaced politics. What we are saying is that the media has taken it upon themselves to lay out the electoral agenda, excluding all reference to the revolutionary socialist alternative, a threat to the rights which workers have fought for, a threat to socialists. The Socialist Party is interested in ideas, not photogenic personalities.

If you put your faith in the media, place your trust in politicians, and surrender your reason to the the imaginations on Twitter, the next thing you could find yourself giving up is your life.

Socialist Standard No. 1380 August 2019

Britain's oldest Socialist journal (1904)



August-2019.PDF

• Editorial: Syriza: Greek capitalism’s repair crew
  
• Pathfinders
  
• Living on Low Wages
  
• Cooking the Books I: Monopoly money
  
• Wood For the Trees: Same Difference?
  
• Material World: Nobody should own the Earth
  
• ‘king’ Boris: The Wages of Duplicity
  
• Socialism and Planning Part 2: ‘Feedback’
  
• The Police: Bourgeoisie’s Boot boys?
  
• Hong Kong: Extraditing Extradition
  
• Cooking the Books II: Use value and exchange value
  
• The Destruction of Nature: A Ghost in the Forest
  
• Proper Gander: Mistaken Identity
  
• Reviews
  
• Party News : Yealand Conyers Social Weekend
  
• Obituary: Frank Simkins
  
• 50 Years Ago: The Moon and Progress
  
• Meetings
  
• Rear View
  
• Free Lunch