Who We Are

People need to survive and so we all need air, food, water, etc. It is human nature to eat when you are hungry, to drink when you are thirsty, and to sleep when you are tired. Nothing can alter this.

We also have sexual and emotional needs. To live happy lives we seek out physical contact, affection and love. All these features of human nature will be met in socialism and be much better than they are now under capitalism.

Our present social system is poorly equipped to grant happiness.

Too often we must do somebody harm in order to do a good deed for another, and vice versa.

Socialism does not require us all to become altruists, putting the interests of others above our own. In fact socialism doesn’t require people to be any more altruistic than they are today. The coming of socialism will not require great changes in the way we behave, essentially only the accentuation of some of the behaviours which people exhibit today (friendliness, helpfulness, co-operation) at the expense of others which capitalism encourages.

We will still be concerned primarily with ourselves, with satisfying our needs, our need to be well considered by others as well as our material and sexual needs. No doubt too, we will want to “possess” personal belongings such as our clothes and other things of personal use, and to feel secure in our physical occupation of the house or flat we live in, but this will be just that – our home and not a financial asset.

The socialist solution to the problem is by making the conditions and circumstances of our daily life humane by re-organising the entire network of economic and social relationships so that the problem itself disappears, so that no-one ever has to choose between the demands of the “conscience” and the dictates of “reason”.

We don’t need to change human nature; it is only human behaviour that needs to change. While our genes can’t be ignored, they only intervene in our behaviours in an indirect way, by programming the development of our brains. Therefore, to understand the complexities of our behaviour, it is to our brains, not directly to our genes, that we have to look. When we do this we find that our brains allow us, as a species, to adopt –  a great variety of different behaviours depending on the natural, economic and social environments we have found ourselves in.

“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.” Jimmy Reid

Socialists For the Planet

Enthusiasm is an excellent and valuable thing when rightly applied, but when it is wasted in fruitless directions it only leads to disheartenment and apathy. It is partly on this account that we are sometimes critical of demonstrations and protests. It is not with any desire to deride the genuine enthusiasm of participants. We hope one day they will be aimed at ending the system that exploits them, for then, they will understand the real cause of the many problems we face and the only way to end them. It is tragic to see during such demonstrations the number of sincere, eager young people being deluded by the false hope of government legislation and regulation when it comes to solutions.

The permanent and effective solution to climate change is to be found in a new society. We think the only way is for the vast majority of us who are excluded from control of their own society to organise consciously and collectively to remove the tools of political power from the hands of the exploiting class so we can go about running society in our own interests, not those of a tiny few. The way out of the environment crisis is simple and obvious. The majority, acting in an organised and orderly fashion, must assume possession of the means of life in the name of society as a whole. Society must take them over from the few whose private ownership stands in the way of the general welfare. That is where we want to get.

Global warming the very name show us the task that we are faced with. Think globally. If global warming is to be solved, then world structures must be created to deal with them. We must act globally. 

The resources of the Earth must stop being the property of multinational corporations, national states and rich individuals and become instead the common heritage of all humanity. Within the framework of a world socialism, a society without frontiers, appropriate institutions can be set up at world, regional and local levels to tackle the problems that are caused, not by globalisation as such, but by the fact that globalisation is taking place under a system where the uncontrollable economic imperative is to make profits and accumulate more and more capital, regardless of the effect on people or the environment.

For or Against the System?

The object of a Socialist Party is socialism. To that end the education and organisation of our fellow-workers and their persuasion to socialist principles is essential. We cannot have socialism without socialists. Therefore, the first duty of the Socialist Party is propaganda, in order to make socialists. In doing this the Socialist Party also champions every movement of the working class towards improving its condition such as through their trade unions even under present circumstances. When our men and women go to Parliament they want to go with a direct socialist mandate, and if they cannot go with that they will stay outside. It is of no matter to us that this personality or that individual should be elected. It is of importance however, that a socialist should be elected and a seat won for socialism. It is the case not the face, as we often say. From our standpoint, therefore, it is better for a socialist to fight and be beaten as a socialist than to fight and win under any other manifesto or election promise. However successful we may be at the polls we must necessarily be in a small minority for some time to come in Parliament. While that is the case our most important work is to be done, not in the House of Commons but in the constituencies and country at large. The value of our presence in Parliament would be agitational than legislative. We shall not regard ourselves as statesmen and politicians , elected to take part in the government of a country that is not ours. Rather than advocating legislative palliatives, Parliament will become our forum for agitation, appealing to people outside it, a platform for publicising the socialist case and, when necessary, helping to defend and protect working class interests. We will not ally with non-socialists, opposed to our aim.

When the Socialist Party speaks of the “inevitability” of socialism, it is only in the sense that capitalism creates all the conditions which make the advance to socialism possible; and secondly, in the sense, that the advance to socialism is a necessity for the further progress of society itself – even more, the only way in which to preserve society. We speak of the historical necessity of socialism, since without it human society cannot continue to develop. If society is to continue to develop, socialism will inevitably come. We are no shepherds bringing our sheep to the promised land. We are no Moses delivering our people to the land of milk and honey. 

Our goal is for mankind to take that step necessary for that “association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Our choice is not one just merely between between capitalism and socialism but between socialism and barbarism. It may be fashionable for liberals and progressives to talk of a new capitalism, a compassionate capitalism, a regulated capitalism, different from our predatory capitalism, but no new version of old capitalism will exempt it from the merciless laws of capital accumulation, market expansion and insatiable drive for profits. Such idealised hypothetical models of a “better” capitalism need not be treated seriously. The foundations of capitalism remain the same despite various cosmetic and superstructure changes capitalism has undergone but without profound effects upon the foundations themselves.

Working people are presented with two doors one of them opens into socialism and the other into the a catastrophic apocalypse. Regardless of nationality, race, colour and political and religious creeds, the working class has always been inspired by one idea—the overthrow of capitalist society, built on slavery, exploitation and violence. In this struggle of labour against capital, the working class can win only by mustering all their forces against the common enemy, the capitalist class. So long as the capitalist system continues there is the merciless struggle for supremacy between the conflicting vested interests of competing groups of exploiters will, as in the past, eventually evoke a new crisis, plunging the workers of the world into another disastrous war. There is but one power that can save mankind from being plunged into another universal catastrophe. There is but one power which can defend the workers of all countries against political and economic oppression and tyranny. There is but one power which can bring freedom, welfare, happiness and peace to the working class and to humanity. That power is the working class if well organised and determined to fight all who would oppose and prevent its complete emancipation. 

Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid

Scientists have typically feared being labelled as alarmist or of being accused of campaigning if they express personal views on the issue. They’re alarmed that global warming of just over 1C so far has already created a new normal in which historic temperature records will inevitably be broken more often. Few of the scientists contacted by the BBC had faith that governments would do what was needed to rescue the climate in time. 

The UK's ex-chief scientist, Prof Sir David King says he's been scared by the number of extreme events, and he called for the UK to advance its climate targets by 10 years.

The physicist Prof Jo Haigh from Imperial College London said: “David King is right to be scared – I’m scared too." 

The polar scientist Andrew Shepherd from Leeds said: "I would not use the term (scary) in general, but it is certainly surprising to see record (or near record) losses of ice. The year 2019 has been a bad year for Earth's ice."

Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, said, “I have a sense of the numbing inevitability of it all. It's like seeing a locomotive coming at you for 40 years - you could see it coming and were waving the warning flags but were powerless to stop it.” 

Prof John Church from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia told the BBC "Some things appear to be happening faster than projected. This may be partially related to the interaction of climate change and natural variability as well as the uncertainty in our understanding and projections. In my own area of sea level change, things are happening near the upper end of the projections. What is scary is our lack of appropriate response. Our continued lack of action is committing the world to major and essentially irreversible change.”

Petteri Taalas, who is secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said he criticised radical green campaigners for forecasting the end of the world. Dr Taalas agrees polar ice is melting faster than expected, but he’s concerned that public fear could lead to paralysis – and also to mental health problems amongst the young. 

Dennis Hartmann from the University of Washington in Seattle told the BBC: “I do not use the ‘scary’ word. I prefer to talk about moving on to an economy in harmony with the natural world, but still providing a better life to humans. This is entirely possible. It is disheartening to me personally that we are moving faster in the opposite direction in most of the world. Much of what we are doing in increasing atmospheric CO2, extinction of species and destruction of ecosystems is nearly irreversible. So maybe it is time to be frightened.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49689018

The time has come for a new beginning

The most fundamental of all human activities is material production. If we did not produce, we could not live - politics, law, religion, philosophy, literature, recreation would all be impossible if we didn't have food to eat and shelter over our heads. For this reason the method of organising production has long been the most contentious of all problems faced by society.

 Society is characterised by the division of people into classes according to their role in the production and distribution of social wealth. The capitalist class and the working class are the two basis classes. The capitalist class owns the means of production and holds state power. They are the our main enemy in the fight for socialism. Through their ownership and control of the means of production they control the economic life and live off the profits they squeeze from the working class. Through the Conservative and Labour parties the capitalist class uses the government for its own ends. The working class is composed of all wage-earners - mental and manual, urban and rural - whether in basic industry, manufacturing, service, farm, sales, domestic, clerical, public or other jobs. The working class is composed of skilled and unskilled, employed and unemployed. Through well-organised struggle and education workers will realise that their interests lie in the overthrow of capitalist private property and the establishment of socialism. 

To make revolution and put an end to capitalism, the working class must have a clear strategic plan. Against the capitalist minority stands the vast majority of the rest of the population. The conditions of life for 98% of the people cannot fundamentally improve without the overthrow of the ruling class of capitalists. The working class is daily thrown into conflict with the capitalist class. Because of its social position, it is the revolutionary class. In building up its strength, in welding an alliance of all working people and in taking power, the fundamental method of struggle that the working class must use is mass political organisation.Whatever the tactics adopted at any particular time, whether it be strike action, demonstrations, delegations, petitions or the election of members of parliament, the working class must rely on its vast numbers and its ability to organise. Although the capitalists rule, they do not do so through open violence and terror. Working people in the UK enjoy a wide range of democratic rights - we can vote in regular elections, we can organise in trade unions and political parties, we can set up pressure groups, publish newspapers and leaflets, go on strike, hold meetings and demonstrations, and travel freely around the country. If we get arrested for anything, we are not held in detention without trial and we have the right to legal defence. These rights are vital for the working class to defence and promote its interests. Without the rights to form trade unions and to strike we would be at the absolute mercy of every whim of the employers. But these rights have not always existed. Nor were they generously granted by the employing class. They have been fought for with great effort and sacrifice by many generations of working people in a struggle that goes back to Peterloo and Chartism.

 Despite the importance of the democratic rights that we have won over the years, the working class can never achieve complete political freedom under capitalism. In this society only the capitalists have the money, time, knowledge and influence to use capitalist democracy to the full. We can publish newspapers, but the best technology is controlled by the capitalists and funded by business advertising. We can say what we like, but the rich can buy time on TV and radio, and the journalists listen to them because they are powerful. We can form unions, but the government can legislate against them at any time. We can buy all the property we want, except that capitalist have far more wealth than us. We can vote for a change of government, except that all the major political parties support capitalism. In all these ways, the formal equality that exists for all citizens is undermined and restricted by the power of capital. 

Until the working class gains control of the means of production, democracy can never be more than a partial achievement. From media to the education system, the state spreads an ideology of respect for private property, individualism and the law, that the rich are entitled to their wealth and that the government should be left to govern.

No matter which party is in power, the state apparatus - parliament, government departments, the courts, prisons, police and armed forces - protects capitalist private property and administers the capitalist economy. The government serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. The state dampens down class struggle by diverting it.

The Socialist Party are internationalists. We are carrying out socialist agitation to make our contribution to the struggle of the world workers.

Gandhi Comes to Scotland

Scotland's first statue of Indian civil rights campaigner Mahatma Gandhi has been unveiled at Ayr Town Hall to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Gandhi's birth. It was gifted to South Ayrshire by the Indian government's council for cultural relations.

South Ayrshire Provost Helen Moonie said: "We are proud of many similarities between South Ayrshire and India and a special link between Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Burns. Both fought against social injustice and used their unique gifts to carve out their place in world history."

Winston Churchill said of Gandhi Churchill on Gandhi

“Ought to be lain bound hand and foot at the gates of Delhi, and then trampled on by an enormous elephant with the new Viceroy seated on its back. Gandhi-ism and everything it stands for will have to be grappled with and crushed.”

During the 1943 Bengal famine when the Secretary of State for India’s telegram requesting food stock to relieve the famine, Churchill replied:

“If food is scarce, why isn’t Gandhi dead yet?” Up to 3 million people starved to death.

Gandhi was not a socialist, preferring to believe that he could use moral force to achieve a more equitable society where capitalists would become trustees over the labourer and a levelling of incomes. 

However, a few pertinent quotations that are worth posting.

"According to me, the economic constitution of India and for that matter of that of th world, should be such that no-one under it should suffer from want of food and clothing. In otherwords everybody should be able to get sufficient work to enable him to make the two ends meet. And this ideal can be universally realised only if the means of production of the elementary necessaries of life remain in the control of the masses. These should be freely available to all as God's air and water are or ought to be; they should not be made a vehicle of traffic for the exploitation of others. Their monopolisation by any country, nation or group of persons would be unjust. The neglect of this simple principle is the cause of the destitution that we witness today not only in this unhappy land but in other parts of the world too." 

Elsewhere, Gandhi says:-

"The real implication of equal distribution is thateach man shall have the wherewithal to supply all his natural wants and no more. For example , if a man has a weak digestion and requires only a quarter of a pound of flour for his bread and another needs a pound, both should be in a position to satisfytyheir wants. To bring this ideal into being the entire social order has got to be re-constructed."

And again he said:-

" The elephant needs a thousand times more food than the ant , but that is no indication of inequality. So the real meaning of economic equality was: "To each according to his need" .

That was the definition of Marx.

Also he is said:-

“There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.”

“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family.

Capitalism destroys life

A handful of capitalists control our world and make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the land. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few hundred capitalists. The people at the centre of the corporations possess huge personal fortunes accumulated from the backs of the working class. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. Every bit of the capitalists' vast wealth was stolen from the working people The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour. At the end of the week a worker collects their pay. 

The capitalists and their apologetic flunkeys claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalists and their flunkeys. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street.

 Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and ecological crisis. This anarchic system squanders a great deal of social wealth. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust and irrational. For working people the future is less and less certain. People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reaction and social decay. The drive for profits holds thousands hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breath and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence, drugs, crime and social devastation. 

Working people make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. But in every country they are the oppressed majority, labouring to support the luxury of a handful of exploiters. More than 800 million people are on the verge of starvation, while the gap between rich and poor is widening. 

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production there must be common ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, anarchy of production, speculation and crisis and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self interest of the tiny group of capitalists. 

Socialism will be won through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism - the seizure of political power by the working class. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests in society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a liberating and transforming force.

 Socialism will not mean government control. Under capitalism the State serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class. When the government intervene in the present economy, it does so to help, not hurt, capitalism. The economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit. . A great expansion in useful production and the wealth of society will arise. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of centralised planning and local coordination. 

A socialist economy upholds the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. Regional disparities will be addressed. Productivity gains will be used to shorten the working day and improve living standards, rather than create unemployment. Construction of housing, schools, medical, cultural and sporting facilities for working people will be a priority. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. 

Every person will get the opportunity to contribute to society as much as they are able. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to social ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own work places through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of supervisors and overseers today. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can serve their own interests as well as society's. Working people will be form cooperatives and work together to raise their standard of living and improve efficiency. 

Socialist democracy would be far broader than what is possible today because the voices of the people would be heard, not simply those of the rich.

A Livable Future for All

A primary task for the Socialist Party is that it should explain its aim clearly, so that they can be understood by every one. We must do away with many misunderstandings created by our class enemy and some created by those who are mistaken for socialists. The main idea of socialism is simple. Society is divided into two classes by the present form of private property. One of these classes, the wage-earning, possess nothing except their ability to work. They can only live by their work, and since, in order to work, they need an expensive equipment, which they have not got, and raw materials and capital, which they have not got, they are forced to put themselves in the hands of another class that owns the means of production, the land, the factories, the machines, the raw material, and accumulated capital in the form of money. The other class, the owning and employing class, the capitalists, exists and lives off the labour of the workers. All this misery, all injustice and disorder, results from the fact that one class has ownership and control of the means of production and of life, and imposes its will on another class and on society as a whole. 

Socialism is where the differences of class is abolished by ending the power of exploitation and oppression in the hands of a single class. The rule of the minority will be substituted by the co-operation of citizens associated in the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. That is the essential aim of socialism, to transform capitalist property into social property. The socialist revolution, does not rest content after it has abolished capitalism; it must go on to create the new type under which production is to be carried on in a rational cooperative manner. If society was not able to ensure the proper working of a new social system, it would fall into disorder and chaos, and the achievement of the revolution would be lost.

We do not define our conception of the ‘working-class’ too narrowly. As we have explained , we include in the working-class all those who live exclusively or principally by means of their own labour, and who do not grow rich from the work of others. Thus, besides the wage-earners, we should include in the working-class, the lower and even middle management, the small farmers and small shop-keepers, the self-employed and the unemployed, in other words, all those who suffer from our present system of production.

Great social changes that are called revolutions cannot be accomplished by a minority. A revolutionary minority, no matter how well-intentioned or well-organised, is not enough, to bring about a social revolution. The co-operation and adherence of a majority, and an immense majority, are needed. Our socialist revolution will not be accomplished by the action of a bold minority, but by the coordinated will of the immense majority. Whoever depends on a fortuitous turn of events or physical force to bring about the revolution, gives up the chances of winning over the immense majority to our ideas, and at the same time give up any possibility of transforming the social order. A new social system cannot be created and inspired by a minority. It can only function with the acceptance and assistance of the majority. And it is this majority who add and multiply with their own little undertakings from which the new society will arise. It is this majority that will transform the capitalist world into the various types of social communal and co-operative, communal associations. In this task of social construction, the people must voluntary combine and collaborate. The common good will be their object and for the first time in history, a revolution will have for its aim, not the substitution of one class for another, but the destruction of classes, the inauguration of a universal harmony. In the socialism order, the organisation and co-ordination of effort and resources will not be imposed by the authority of one class over another, but will come as the result of the free will of associated producers, a system based on the free participation of all. Such a way of organising daily life can only succeed by the general will and desire of the community, if destined for the benefit of all.

Life Under Capitalism.

One of the most dehumanizing aspects of life under capitalism is sex trafficking.

Stats-Canada recently issued a report on it. Its findings were that in Canada most victims are women and girls younger than 25. Most people charged with human-trafficking crimes are males aged 18 to 35. In 2014, Toronto police laid 365 charges related to human trafficking, with 33 victims. In 2018 it had increased to 2,140 charges and there were 250 victims. The status of women statistics showed that more than 90 per cent of trafficking cases in the city involved domestic cases, and less than 10 per cent involved people being brought into Canada. Carly Kalish, Director of Victim Services of Durham Region Ontario, where human-trafficking is a crisis, said that there are two kinds of victims: individual and systematic.

Individuals may be living at home, but have low self esteem, issues with parents or school, and may have been abused. The systematic cases are those who live in poverty, in proximity to high crime areas, or are victims of racial discrimination. Girls in gangs or the homeless are particularly vulnerable.

Just another, thoroughly ''delightful'' aspect of life under capitalism which no amount of reforms can cure. But when do reforms solve any deep long-term problems for workers under capitalism?

Yours for Socialism, 

SPC contributing members 

No return into barbarism!

The Socialist Party has always criticised the capitalist system because it gives rise not only to poverty, but to recurring economic crises, ever more devastating wars and environmental destruction. The defects of this method can easily be demonstrated; it has, in fact, been done time and time again. What is wanted now is to show that we can carry on the distribution without feeding the hungry maw of these, more or less, useless parasites, who are waiting at every turn to squeeze a profit out of us. People must organise their economic life themselves. The transformation of capitalism to socialism means political power should pass from the hands of the capitalist class into the hands of the working people. That the means of production and distribution, the land, the factories, the mines, the means of communication, should pass into the possession of the working people. That production should be developed not by the competition of the various capitalist enterprises for profit, but with the aim to raise the material and cultural level of the people.

One class—the capitalist class—owns and controls the social necessaries, to wit: the economic resources of the world. That class, for its own protection and perpetuation in power, subjects all institutions to its own interests. The capitalists are denying that it is necessary for society to take over production and distribution in order to plan for the welfare of the people (some say that all that is really required is the nationalisation plus some State control) and they are denying that capitalism in its struggle for markets and sources of raw materials, in its struggle to obtain maximum profits, is really the cause of climate change crisis and the underlying reason for wars.

The Socialist Party is clear that democratic thinking and action are positive. For many years the Socialist Party endeavours to persuade fellow-workers to organise and take control of the entire means of production and distribution with scanty results. The onus is on the Socialist Party of demonstrating that the theories it has so long expounded can be translated into a practical method of producing and distributing the wealth of the planet in such a way as to end for ever the exploitation of the many by the privileged few. It is not a question of us condemning capitalism; capitalism condemned itself. Working people are the only hope of the World. Can we do this? Yes, let us capture Parliament. We will then carry through a revolution that will take us out of capitalism into the new world of socialism. We can do it, all we have to do is to capture and organise the industries. We hold a clear conception of the new method of production and distribution, in contrast to the present inefficient method employed by capitalism. We can carry on the distribution without feeding the greed of the useless parasite class, who are waiting at every turn to squeeze a profit out of us. The working class will eventually change the whole system of ownership of the means of production and overthrow of the existing economic system. Social systems are not ready-made products and derive from the achievements and accomplishments of every preceding epoch. In its onward course to a further advanced system, mankind is going to utilise all that present day society has evolved and constructed. Workers will be able to construct and form their own structure of the new society, accordingly. By learning the social relations they can prepare to change society. The change in the ownership of the essentials of life will bring the change in the intercourse and the associations between the human beings upon the globe. Working people alone are interested in the end of inequality, and that can only be accomplished by a revolution. The workers must take over and operate all the essential industrial institutions, the means of production and distribution, for the well-being of all. The life of human beings will not consist only of common drudgery when all the good things created by the workers are available to them.

Socialism is the science of human association reduced to a practical programme. The Socialist Party recognises that life in society as well as in the organic world, is constantly passing through a process of evolution. It declares that labour is the sole creator of value. It teaches that the only way to attain the just distribution of wealth to those who produce it is through the common ownership, control, and operation of the means of production and distribution, such as land, mines, factories, transport, communications. It asserts that this production should be for use and not for sale or profit, thus doing away with all private or State ownership of the means of subsistence. The cooperative commonwealth is its goal.

Cannabis Legal? No Thanks.

Making the buying of Cannabis legal hasn't stopped users going to their previous suppliers. Experts say the price, quality, variety and familiarity are the reasons users don't want to change where they buy it. 

The average cost of a gram of Cannabis from the illicit market continues to drop as legal prices rise, with authorized retailers charging as much as 80 per cent more, according to an analysis by Stats-Canada.

 Furthermore some users objected to a wait of 2 hours at legal store. The main complaint was that the quality of the government’s merchandise was much inferior than what they could get on the street. 

Once again the upholders of capitalism pass a law they cannot enforce.

Yours for Socialism, 

SPC contributing members 

It's Much Later Than You Think.

A Federal government geoscientist, Gavin Manson, has developed maps of Canada's coastlines showing where flooding and erosion caused by climate change will inflict maximum damage this century. Manson has taken into account factors like the disappearance of sea ice, rising waves, and the makeup of the shoreline. 

The fear of rising sea levels has already been documented in the Changing Climate Report Ottawa released in April for large areas of Atlantic Canada, where the ocean is predicted to rise up to as high as a meter before the end of the century. 

Another factor included in the maps is how the melting of ice in the ground below the permafrost leaves coasts open to more erosion. 

Many scientists have also pointed out that climate change caused by global warming is happening at a faster rate than previously expected. 

As the poet Robert Service said, ''It is later than you think, much later than you think.''

Yours for Socialism, 

SPC contributing members