Thieves Falling Out

Please permit Socialist Courier a moment of schadenfreude.

A court's upheld an eviction notice from its landlord at a distribution warehouse in Gourock, Inverclyde. The site is owned by the M7  Real Estate which owns 800 industrial assets in 13 countries on behalf of its investors, with a fund worth more than £4bn. 

It is claimed the rent is as much as 60% below the market rate and last February, the  M7 Real Estate gave Amazon six months' notice to quit. It believes its action was the only way to get Amazon to respond to its demand for a rent increase, and those discussions are now under way. M7 is now seeking not only to evict Amazon but it also wants damages from the retailer for remaining on the site since August. 

Retail chains have been putting immense pressure on commercial landlords to lower rents. Although Amazon relies on a different type of commercial property, it is known for its muscular use of bargaining power. But the property investor is warning that there are no other similar sites in central Scotland to which Amazon could move at short notice.

Social Liberation

The supposed obstacle placed by unchanging human nature in the way of work and progress is a myth. Human knowledge and understanding and with them human conduct have changed, are changing, and will continue to change. With the development, through human agency, of mankind's control of natural forces and the power of producing wealth in greater abundance the potentialities of human co-operation have been more and more understood and consciously fostered. Co-operation was never entirely absent, though in the past much of the work of human beings was individual and it was possible to think and act in terms of individual effort and personally benefit from it. Now that the productive powers of co-operative effort have reached gigantic new levels it has become a possibility for each individual to benefit enormously from the conscious reorganisation of society on a socialist basis. All that will be needed is that the individual shall intelligently appreciate the place he will occupy in the life and work of society as a whole. The worker to-day who understood nothing of political organisation might refuse to take part in an election on the plea that one vote counts for nothing in an electorate of tens of millions. So also under socialism he might lack incentive to work if he knew nothing of the part he or she plays in co-operative production and the benefit he and every other person will derive therefrom. Yet the understanding voter uses his or her vote and the understanding worker will gladly and enthusiastically play his part under socialism.

“Liberty” has ever been the cry of our rulers, but the cry for “ Liberty ” is to exploit and plunder the workers. Clear the fog from your minds and study socialism. You cannot have “Liberty” within a system that enslaves you, neither can it be benevolently bestowed upon you. It is the power which private ownership gives to a handful of men over the remaining millions of society—our class. Whether we shall work or not, and consequently whether we shall have enough to eat or not or house ourselves, depends the capitalist: and, being at work, we expect with certainly that at every opportunity our wages will be forced down, our hours extended, our pace sped up. If the capitalist pleads that he himself is in the grip of circumstances, that competition in the world market makes it necessary for him to dispense with men wherever possible, and get the utmost out. of those who remain, we know that it is just because things are privately produced, with a view to sale, that this scramble for orders is possible. Here are we, on the one hand, needing all manner of things to keep us alive and make life happy; here, on the other, are the land, the factories, the transport systems that could satisfy these needs. We could produce in such abundance that no one need go short. We do produce even now enough to give us all such a standard of life as no worker enjoys. Why aren’t we getting it? Why are multitudes of us not working at all? Why do those who are in work live so meagerly? And how is it that such an enormous part of what we make goes to the upkeep of the masters, who did not work in its making?

We know why. We don’t create goods out of nothing. We work upon raw materials, and they come from the earth, and the masters own it. We work with tools and machines in workshops; and the masters own them. Consequently, the products when they are finished belong to them too. The only condition on which we are permitted to work is that this product can be sold at a profit. A profit can only be made when the goods fetch a price which will pay wages and leave a margin for the employer. In order to compete with his rivals, the capitalist will always try to fix his price below theirs; and since he is naturally unwilling to reduce his rate of profit, he will always reduce costs when he can.

We should take those things that are indispensable to the life of the community out of private hands, and make them the common property of the workers. That done, the task of supplying food for the hungry, or houses for the homeless, will have become relatively simple. The fine details do not matter. The particular working out of each part of the plan will no doubt be best done by the workers concerned in our farms, factories, offices, and so on, as the case may be. In its general outlines, the scheme of production can be shaped by the general legislative assembly, elected, as it will be, by workers, for the supreme purpose of co-ordinating all the varied activities of social life. This new character of the legislative assembly will be the reflection of the new character of society—a community of workers with full ownership of their means of livelihood. Many means will suggest themselves by which each worker, having performed his or her share of the necessary labour, will receive what is needed from the common store. There might be depots, similar to shops, where people would make their choice of goods. If so, the actual machinery for distributing goods would not differ greatly from that of to-day : the difference—the revolution—will be in the basis of production. The goods which are made will be made for the direct and sole purpose of satisfying the needs of the makers. Society will have organised itself for co-operative production. It will be the day of the workers, taking possession of and controlling the vast instruments of wealth production which all this time we have operated for the benefit of the masters.

When the means of life are socially owned, the State, which grew up with private property, will give way to something better. Direct control by the workers, all officials being elected, responsible to those who elected them, and capable of being recalled if they prove inefficient or unscrupulous. Needless to say, under capitalism the world is turned upside-down. Instead of being ordered and driven by taskmasters appointed from above, and rewarded at the end with a fraction of the value they produce, they should be able to decide by vote their working conditions, elect their officials, and have their needs richly satisfied, that is very midsummer madness! To the revolutionary worker it is a sane and obvious thing: the righting of a world which is already upside-down. The time has gone for both the private ownership and the state ownership control of industry. It is only on the basis of common ownership and direct democratic control that we can build the free and comradely life for which we have waited too long.

Sylvia Pankhurst's Socialism

So-called “socialists” hold that the idea of socialism consists in various reforms of the capitalist system: Parliamentary legislation to secure such things as more social services for the poor, higher taxation or taxation to pay for the upkeep of the State, subsidies to various businesses. Such policies amount to what is termed “state-capitalism.” Such aims from the Left differ little if any from those of the most confused and vague of the reformists. Programmes and policies are proposed in numerous platforms and soon become Holy Writ, as the accepted formula for social progress. Yet without discovering for ourselves what our aims really are, without defining them so that they may be understood by others, how shall we work for them, how shall we sow the seed that shall create a movement to achieve them? There is no hopeful vision of the new life socialism is meant to usher in.

Our goal is socialism and it is not a Party affair. It is a theory of social organisation. It is where property is held in common; in which the community produces, by conscious aim, sufficient to supply the needs of all its members; in which there is no trading, money, wages, or any direct reward for services rendered. It aims at the abolition of the State. It emphasises the interdependence of all members of the community and the need that the common storehouse and services to provide an insurance against want for every individual. We aim at the common storehouse, not the individual hoard. We desire that the common storehouse shall bulge with plenty, and whilst the common storehouse is supplied we insist that none shall go without. Let us produce in abundance; let us secure plenty for all; let us find pleasure in producing in lavish measure, plenty for all - in material comfort, in art, in learning, in leisure. In the socialist society at which we aim, all will share the productive work of the community and all will take a part in organising that work. Under capitalism the masses are as a flock of sheep driven by their owners. Socialism, on the contrary, there will be free co-operators, producing, inventing, studying, not under the compulsion of law, or poverty, or the incentive of individual gain, but from deliberate choice and with an eager zest for achievement. Socialism will provide the material and spiritual conditions which will make voluntary co-operative labour possible. Only by willing service and intelligent initiative can a true socialist society develop.

With socialism, all shall satisfy their material needs without stint or measure from the common storehouse, according to their desires. Everyone will be able to have what he or she desires in food, in clothing, books, music, education and travel facilities. The abundant production now possible, and which invention will constantly facilitate, will remove any need for rationing or limiting of consumption. Every person, relying on the great common production, will be secure from material want and anxiety. There will be no class distinctions for all such distinctions will be swept away. The desire for freedom will be tempered by the sense of responsibility towards the commonweal, which will provide security for all. Co-operation for the common good is necessary, but freedom, not domination, is the goal. 

There will be neither rich nor poor. Money will no longer exist, and none will desire to hoard commodities not in use, since a fresh supply may be obtained at will. There will be no selling, because there will be no buyers, since everyone will be able to obtain everything at will, without payment. The possession of private property, beyond that which is in actual personal use, will disappear. 

There will be neither masters nor servants, all being in a position of economic equality -- no individual will be able to become the employer of another. Stealing, forgery, burglary, and all economic crimes will disappear, with all the objectionable apparatus for preventing, detecting and punishing them. 

Compulsion of any kind is repugnant to the socialist ideal. No-one may make a wage-slave of another; no-one may hoard up goods for him or herself that he or she does not require and cannot use; but the only way to prevent such practices is not by making them punishable; it is by creating a society in which no-one needs to become a wage slave, and no-one cares to be cumbered with a private hoard of goods when all that needs is readily supplied as required from the common storehouse. 

Prostitution will become extinct; it is a commercial transaction, dependent upon the economic need of the prostitute and the customer's power to pay. Sexual partnerships will no longer be based upon material conditions, but will be freely contracted on the basis of affection and mutual attraction. 

With the disappearance of the desperate struggle for mere existence, which saps the energy and cripples initiative, a new vigour, a new independence will develop. People will have more courage to desire freedom, greater determination to possess it. They will be more exacting in their demands upon life, more fastidious as to their choice of a vocation. They will wish to work at what they enjoy, to order their lives as they desire. Work will be generally enjoyed as never before in the history of mankind. 

In these days of great populations with varied needs and desires, people should not be willing to return to an earlier stage of evolution at which every individual or family made its own house, clothing, tools, and cultivated its own small-holding. By discarding useless toil, we desire and expect to see, many workers co-operating in coordinated endeavours. The complicated and complex network of manufacturing and transport are dependent on the worldwide cooperative efforts of incalculable numbers of people. It is probable that developments in new technology and future inventions, will render less the requirement for resources and labour. Moreover, the influence of profit-making being eliminated, the unhealthy urbanisation of people will be checked. Nevertheless for at least a very long time, the large-scale production by many inter-linked workers, will remain a necessary condition of maintaining both plenty and leisure for all.

In order to promote initiative of the individual, as well as for the welfare of the collectivity we emphasise the need for the autonomous workers and neighbourhood councils, co-ordinated along the lines of production, distribution and transport. Everything has to be reorganised and built up on a new basis; production for use, not for profit.

Collated and adapted from various writings of Sylvia Pankhurst

Scottish Poverty

A new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation  says that, "poverty in Scotland is rising, from an already unacceptably high level. More people are facing situations where they cannot afford the basics nor play a full role in society."

According to the latest official figures, just over one million people in Scotland are living in poverty, including 240,000 children - which is the same as one in four children.

The Resolution Foundation, who have also been involved with the study, predict that poverty will rise to 29% by 2023-24. They say this is because of cuts to financial support and help from by the UK government, called social security.

Poverty measured before housing costs (things like rent or mortgage, energy bills and council tax) is very similar between Scotland and the rest of the UK. However, when poverty is measured after housing costs there are significant differences in poverty levels, with lower levels in Scotland than in the rest of the UK overall. This is mainly because, on average, houses cost less in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. The report warns that the Scottish government needs to focus on increasing the amount of affordable houses in the country.

The latest data shows that 20% of Scots are in poverty after housing costs compared with 22% in the rest of the UK. This difference is biggest for children whose poverty rate currently stands at 24% in Scotland compared with 30% in the rest of the UK.

Capitalism mocks all who try to tame it.

Socialists are a minority in all countries at present. We see the establishment of socialism being brought about by a majority of men and women who understand and want it, and who realise that no-one else will bring it about for them. In short, they will be prepared to work for this end. We do not have “faith” in the sense that socialism is something we accept without thinking about it, nor do we encourage this approach from members of the working class. Quite the contrary: it is because we think about it and debate that we are socialists. When the majority of workers also examine the material conditions in the world and how they operate, socialism will be introduced. The majority of the working class, including those who vote for the Labour Party, do not understand or want socialism at present.

Socialism means that there will be unrestricted free access by all to whatever is produced, because the means of production will be owned by all. Socialism does mean equality and freedom. It is the only condition on which they can be obtained. The spread of Socialist knowledge has been hindered by the widespread mis-use of the term 'socialism'. When it is used to describe everything from state-capitalism to Labour Government it is hardly surprising that workers have only attempted to solve their problems through reforms. For with the exception of a small minority they are unaware that there is an alternative to capitalism. We have every confidence in the ability of the working class to understand the simple and sound proposition that is socialism. It is after all the working class which runs capitalism.

If it would be wrong to say that poverty is an old friend of the working class, it is certainly a companion from the womb onward. Nowhere in the world are there any wealthy people starving. But even in the wealthiest countries there are poor people who go hungry. Poverty is an inherent part of class society. Under capitalism, the means of wealth production are concentrated into the hands of a minority class, or their state machine (which comes to the same thing). Wealth, the goods and services of society, is produced for sale with a view to profit. The vast majority are employees. By definition, they are propertyless. They must sell their working abilities for wages in order to live. They spend their lives as appendages to the factories, offices, mines and machinery owned by those who employ them. They are hired and fired at the dictate of the world market and the profit margin. They are alienated from life in any meaningful sense of the word. The wealth they are able to obtain, either through wages (if employed) or so-called Social Security (if unemployed or sick) is generally enough to keep them in working order and maintain themselves and families between pay-days.

Poverty leaves a terrible imprint upon all who suffer it. Not only in the physical struggle to get by, but even worse are its mutilating effects on the personality and the mind. There is nothing so brutally pathetic, as a worker with a job who counts his “prosperity” in terms of hard work and rails against other workers who live on social security, without working. Poverty of the mind can be seen in the acceptance by most workers of the perverse ideology of their capitalist masters. It is this which anchors them to capitalism so that the whole ridiculous set-up keeps going.

It is not uncommon to hear workers in this country argue that if places like India, and other starving areas in the world, were brought up to the standard of living in Western Europe “we” would have to make sacrifices. This reflects the capitalist ideology, in that it glibly looks to solutions within capitalism. Whilst it is true that poverty is a relative thing and that the degree of poverty among workers in most of western Europe is not so extreme as that of many people in India, this becomes a convenient argument in favour of workers here being content with their lot.

We are often asked why we do not supply details of economic and social organisation in Socialism. From time to time articles have indicated lines on which affairs might be conducted. We can say there will be no money; everyone will have free access to everything produced; the problems of capitalism — crises, wars, inequality and poverty and their consequences — will be entirely absent. There are two important reasons why we cannot go further. The first is that we do not know. There are a few hundred of us now, and we are working for a society which will be wholly democratic; how then can we anticipate the ideas and preferences of millions in the future? Many of us have our own speculations, but (and this is the second reason) to try making a policy of them would do no-one any good.

Most scientists, like other workers, are socially and politically ignorant about the state of society. Some are religious, spiritualists, reformers, etc., but they are trained thinkers and should recognise the existence of social science which is fundamental to a true understanding of the scientific method. Darwin was able to solve the problem of how there originated vegetable and animal species in the struggle for existence. Marx succeeded in solving the problem of how there arise different types of social organisation in the struggle of men for their existence. The spirit of research was the same in both thinkers despite the different fields. The capitalist has enjoyed the fruits of Darwinism; let us move quickly to the application of the science of Marx. The introduction of scientific Socialism will mean the freedom of all science to develop and fulfil its true social function — as a practical tool for society’s benefit

Our impatience is with those fellow workers who profess sympathy with our case but will not join us because they think others are not capable of doing the same. The point is do YOU understand the meaning of socialism and are YOU prepared to work with us in the Socialist Party in order to accelerate the spread of this understanding.

Scotland Needs Newcomers

Scotland faces future shortage of workers. Given Scotland’s peculiarities, including a lower birth rate than in all other parts of the UK, it needs immigration.

By 2041, Scotland’s pensionable-age population is projected to increase by 265,000, while the working-age population is seen rising only by 38,000. Since 1998, there had been an increase of 31 per cent in the number of people aged over 75 in Scotland, and a decline of 8 per cent in those under the age of 15.

Net migration from overseas, or inflows minus outflows, is forecast to decline substantially in the next few years. Experts commissioned by the Scottish government predicted in February that Scotland’s working age population would actually decline by 3 to 5 per cent over the next 25 years if the UK proceeded with proposals to end free movement of EU nationals.

EU migration to Scotland has to some extent offset the effects of an ageing population and one of the lowest birth rates in the developed world, says the paper by The David Hume Institute, titled ‘Wealth of the nation: Who will do the jobs?’. But overseas immigration, already lower than to England, has dropped sharply in recent years.

Jane-Frances Kelly, director of the David Hume Institute, said increasing immigration is important to sustaining the health of Scotland's economy.

"We are sounding a warning signal for Scotland's politicians and policymakers," she sad. "We need to get to grips with the coming demographic crisis or Scotland's economy will be severely affected.

“Now that net migration is falling and we face the coming challenge of Brexit, we find ourselves once again facing a major demographic challenge,” the authors write. The report says part of the solution will come from future technological change and from encouraging more people of working age to enter the labour market. “But even together these will not be enough to cover expected shortages. Immigration must, therefore, be a priority,” it notes.

Some parts of Scotland’s economy depend heavily on foreign workers. One example is the shops, hotels and restaurants sector. Another is what is known as the caring, leisure and other services industry.

“Given the ageing population, the health and social care sector is likely to be particularly affected by labour shortages,” the authors write.

The ageing of Scotland’s population will be partly determined by immigration, since foreign nationals living in the country are on average considerably younger than the domestic population.

WE ARE ALL JOCK TAMSON'S BAIRNS

The Socialist Party and Equality

Socialism implies that all will have free and equal access to the means of living. Anything else, whatever it may be, is not socialism. Social equality, we are told, is a dream. A vague, utopian concept with no place in practical politics. Unfortunately, that view is also held by the majority of the working class. It is not surprising that the ordinary, average working man believes that existing inequalities are eternal and inevitable, when the self-styled intellectuals who offer themselves as his leaders, share the same misconception who repeat the same old refrain “if we all started from scratch it would be the same all over again. Some would have, and others would not. The brainy and the thrifty would become rich, the dull and lazy would be poor." 

We, too, are also aware of physical and mental inequalities in men, but we also know that these differences are greatly exaggerated. What those “thinkers” fail to understand is that all men and women are equal in one overwhelmingly important respect. The individual, no matter what his or her physical and mental development, is entirely dependent upon the efforts of the whole of society for one's existence and comforts. Socialism is a recognition of the interdependence of men and women all over the world. It is not a sharing-out process where everybody will start off with equal shares. Human society is not a race-track, nor is it a jungle, even though it may give that appearance to superficial observers. 

The equality of Socialism does not mean that we shall all be obliged to eat exactly the same quantities of food, and wear exactly the same kind of clothes, or even work exactly the same number of hours It means that every member of society will receive what he requires for his own personal needs, and of the best that can be provided for him. And in return, he would be under the obligation of working in whatever capacity he was able to work, in line with his abilities, taste, or health. It would put an end to the existence of a class of property owners enabled to live without working by the exploitation of those who work. The very clever, the ordinary and the foolish, will have the same social standing. There is no absolute law of nature which lays it down that a very clever man must eat more food, or wear more clothes, than a less gifted man, or that he needs a larger house, and an army of servants to wait on him. Very clever people do not get these things to-day by mere virtue of their cleverness; they can only have what opportunity and social conditions allow them to take, and capitalists only pay for those “clever” qualities which enable them to pile up more profits.

We know that men and women must work together, and in working together they are equals. Socialism is a system of ownership which is consistent with the existing method of production. We say, that as wealth is produced in common it could be owned in common. Social equality is now a necessary condition for the fuller development of society, and this can only obtain with the common ownership of the means of production.

We urge the workers to rid themselves of their slavish notions. Wage-slaves they are, but they also have the power to free themselves. They are only held in subjection with their own consent. When they decide to establish a social order which is consistent with their interests there will be no power on earth to stop them. A world of wealth, as yet relatively undeveloped, is awaiting their strength and ingenuity. Its almost incalculable resources will never be extended to their fullest whilst allowed to remain in the hands of a minority.

Force and violence are not revolution. Revolution to the Socialist Party means the complete change from capitalism to socialism, achieved by the control of political power by an organised and informed working class. Not a revolution of a section of workers; not a seizure of government by a few intent on dictatorship, but an organised action on the part of the majority of the workers who see the necessity of becoming politically supreme in order to transform the economic system. The revolution is made necessary by economic development, and it can only be successful if the working class understands the socialist position. Hence, the educational work of the Socialist Party.

Workers have a world to win, not a nation to fight for

Yet again Scottish separatists are on the march, this time through the Edinburgh. It is the latest in a series of similar marches through towns and cities all across Scotland, organised by All Under One Banner. One of the speakers featured is that Tartan Trotskyist and known liar, Tommy Sheridan.

Workers in Scotland need socialism, not independence. Nationalists do not want to abolish capitalist exploitation. A sovereign Scotland can only serve capitalism. To pretend that the Union is the cause of all the problems is to deliberately fool the people. Scottish nationalism is an attempt to rally the working class behind the cause of the local bosses seeking better profits or a more secure market. 

Nationalism does not oppose capitalism. Nationalists acts in the interests of an aspiring ruling class. There are no shortcuts to the socialist revolution, and those who followthe nationalist path set back the revolutionary movement by chasing fake enemies. Nationalism is predicated on the myth of a common identity uniting all the citizens of a given country. This has been cynically and opportunistically promoted by the Scottish nationalists.

The Socialist Party wants to abolish the private ownership of the means of production and expropriate the capitalists. Workers fight each other instead of attacking the system itself. Nationalism emasculates the workers. It is used to divide the workers among themselves so they can ignore their real enemy. Separatism would divide the workers of Scotland from their fellow-workers in England. National divisions are a hindrance to working-class unity, and national jealousies and differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends.

It is nationalism that divides the workers so that the workers of one nationality struggle against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. If the working class divides its forces, this can only seriously hold back its victory. But if it remains unified, it will be able to triumph.

In the struggle to win the hearts and minds of the working class the Socialist Party has to contend with sacred beliefs and obstacles such as nationalism, the loyalty and patriotism felt by many for "their” country. Nationalism is at the top of the list of political illusions used to blind capitalism's victims. For the Socialist Party nationalist movements represent the interests of the capitalist class but politically they can take on a "right-wing" or a "left-wing" form.

The Scottish nationalists choose to present themselves as the latter. However, once the native ruling class has captured and consolidated its power, then nationalism becomes a conservative force. Workers should reject the nonsense idea of nationalism and should unite for their common good to abolish capitalism and work for socialism.

The Socialist Party opposes all nationalist movements recognising that the working class has no country. Feelings of loyalty to a nation-state are purely subjective, having no basis in reality. The working class in Scotland has more in common with the workers in other countries than it has with a land-owning laird. We resolutely oppose the politics of capitalism in which some people support the British version of nationalism against the Scottish brand of nationalism. Since we hold that workers own no country, why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world? Workers own no country, so why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion of the world?

You don’t enhance the power of workers in their economic struggles against the capitalists by taking the same side as those sitting opposite you at the negotiating table and fraternally regarding them as your 'fellow citizens'. Yet depressingly large swathes of the Left have opted for a course of action that effectively submerges and obliterates working class identity in favour of national identity. We witnessed the Scottish Socialist Party convener, Colin Fox, sit alongside a hedge-fund manager in the 2014 referendum.

The obsession about Scottish independence is one which socialists meet all the time. We encounter it from Leftists who divide their time between paying lip service to the idea of workers of the world uniting and endorsing the nationalism of the SNP. Nationalists have always argued that Scottish workers would be better off in their own country, free from British rule. Socialists regard it as an irrelevance whether local capitalism is ruled by a Scottish capitalist state or by a British capitalist state or the multinational corporations. That modern nationalities are mere artificial devices for the commercial war that we seek to put an end to, and will disappear with it. Because of the economic interdependence of nations, the Socialist Party has always held that socialism must exist on a world scale. It has been an axiom with all socialists that the working class of one country should cooperate with the workers of all other countries. A class-conscious worker does not consider himself an American or British or Russian first, and a member of the working class second, but considers him or herself, first and always, a member of the working class interested in the struggles of the workers the world over.

For the worker in Scotland there is but one hope. It is to make common cause with the workers of other countries for the end of all forms of exploitation: saying to both English and Scottish capitalists: “A plague on both your houses."

For the true battle-cry of the working class is broader, more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rallying cry is:

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

WORKERS FOR THE WORLD!

Look to the Future

The Socialist Party seeks to help build a workers movement. This

kind of movement cannot be instituted from the top-down, and cannot be led by party bosses. All those who think themselves powerless in this capitalist society must work together to forge a new one. We must move towards a common vision of a new social system. The Socialist Party rejects the panaceas of the reformists and stands for the establishment of a socialist society

Capitalism's inequality, unemployment, overwork, poverty, lack of democracy and environmental degradation are necessary results of its structural features. A differently structured system which we can call socialism, communism, social democracy, cooperative commonwealth, or industrial democracy is the viable, practical alternative to capitalism. As long as capitalism dominates people will suffer from all the manifestations of the anarchy of production under the capitalist system. The Socialist Party understand that the real solution to the economic and political difficulties of society lies in overthrowing capitalism. Although capitalism faces a serious crisis, it will not collapse on its own.

The question arises as to how the worker who has been transformed into a wage-slave and taught to obey the orders of his or her masters can develop class-consciousness. After all, there is not an inevitable development of such consciousness. A worker may live in extreme misery, yet the experience will not make oneself conscious of his or her own social status and of the necessity for class action. These ideas can be brought through labour organisations, education and propaganda.The development of the subjective factor of class-consciousness seems a hopeless task under capitalism. For how can an enslaved worker develop class-consciousness?

The working class must be sufficiently unified, and guided by the common goal of socialism, in order to overthrow this obsolete system. More and more people are coming to realise that the present society offer no hope for the future. Day by day it is becoming increasingly clear that capitalism is incapable of solving the most basic human needs. But the consciousness of the need for socialism, and the spread of Marxism will not come about solely as a result of people’s disillusionment. It is the task of the Socialist Party to continually educate and promote the socialist alternative. We argue for socialism not as a Utopian alternative to the evils of capitalism, but as the next step in human development. We continually try to show now the people’s problems are rooted in capitalism and that only a rationally planned economy can overcome the present difficulties.

Poverty, homelessness, joblessness, crime, illiteracy, ill-health, ecological rape, racism, sexism, homophobia, domestic and random violence, addictions, ad nauseam. There is less of everything for everybody except stress. Reformers preach the hope of a world dedicated to sustainability without preaching the necessity of the revolutionary transformation to achieve such a condition.

There is a group of people who propagate the view that the working class are an ignorant lot, incapable of deciding what form of society is best for them, or, in the event of a new form of society coming into existence, running such a society. To such people leadership is an essential idea. Knowledge is the only safeguard for the workers against trickery and false advocates, and it is also the only doorway by which society can pass through to a society based upon common ownership. If those who seek a new arrangement of social affairs do not possess knowledge of what they want and how it is to be attained, then a new society can only be a new chaos.

Scottish Wildlife on the Decline

The abundance of species in Scotland is falling at a faster rate than the UK as a whole, according to a detailed study, 'The State of Nature 2019 Scotland' which found that average numbers across 352 species of mammals, birds, butterflies and moths had fallen 24% since 1994. Centuries of habitat loss through development and a rapid increase in climate change are being blamed.

It found that of the 6,413 species known to exist, 11% have been classified as threatened with extinction in Scotland. Overall, 49% of Scottish species have decreased in number and 28% have increased.

Bird numbers are broadly stable but seabirds in particular are continuing to substantially decline. Kittiwake populations have fallen by 72% since 1986 while Arctic Skua numbers have dropped 77%.

Anne McCall, director of RSPB Scotland, said nature was being lost across Scotland "at a deeply concerning rate". 

Jo Pike, chief executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, added: "To reverse the loss of biodiversity and address climate change it is vital that we increase our investment in nature.

"This means taking urgent, strategic action to protect and restore natural habitats on land and sea, green our towns and cities, and transform our relationship with the natural world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49920899

Common Ownership in the Cooperative Commonwealth

Labour politicians the world over have discredited the very name of socialism. Our aim is a cooperative commonwealth without a State, without leaders, without classes, in which the workers shall administer the means of production and distribution for the common benefit of all. We appeal to fellow-workers to rally to the World Socialist Revolution. 

The private property of the capitalist class, in order to become the SOCIAL property of the workers, cannot be turned over to individuals or groups of individuals. It must become the property of ALL IN COMMON. The industries, too, which supply the needs of all the people, are not the concern only of the worker, in each industry, but of ALL IN COMMON, and must be administered for the benefit of all. We seek a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilisation. Together we shall form a worldwide Co-operative Commonwealth.

The basic fact is that capitalism does not produce food for people to eat: it produces only what can be sold at a profit, regardless of what needs exist. If the starving, or the homeless, found themselves able to pay after all, they would no longer be faced by a shortage. The case against capitalism is not that it distributes wealth inequitably, but that it cannot develop the productive powers. Socialism, by removing the monumental restriction of production for profit, will enable man to produce to meet the needs of the world’s population. Socialism will be world-wide, with full access by everyone to everything which is produced, and therefore no money. There will be no parliament “to govern the people”, because government is required only in class-divided societies to maintain the monopoly by the owning class and keep the subject class in restraint.

Capitalism covers the globe and must therefore be replaced on a worldwide basis. Socialism is by definition a worldwide social system. It would not be possible to replace the market economy, with production solely for use and free access to goods and services, in one country. Ideas do not develop in isolation. The conditions which give rise to the need for socialism are experienced by workers in every country. It is extremely unlikely that socialist understanding will reach maturity in only one country. An immense majority of the worldwide working class ready to implement socialism will constitute an irresistible social force. A small time lapse between the final voting for it in different areas would be of no consequence.

Our object is socialism. A social system based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means for production requires the active participation of all of its members. It cannot therefore be achieved until the vast majority of the working class are organized consciously and politically for that sole purpose. When the working class wants socialism it will use the vote, a powerful weapon, to gain control of the machinery of government. Socialist delegates will go to Parliament with the clear mandate to dispossess the capitalist class, so that the means and instruments for production can become the common property of all. We will then have democracy in the fullest sense. Socialist ideas alone hold the solution to the problems, nothing can prevent their growth and ultimate triumph.

There can be no intermediate stage between capitalism and socialism. We either have class-owned means of production and capitalism, or common-ownership, which is socialism. There is nothing between the two, which is neither one or the other. Marx was over-optimistic in thinking that Socialism would be established in his lifetime. This led to the view he expressed in The Critique of the Gotha Programme, that during a transition period the means of the wealth production would have to be rapidly developed. But all this was more than a century ago. Today advanced technology spans the earth. The potential for abundance exists. This leads to what you imagine is a paradox, “why bother about Socialism if capitalism raises production to such a level as to allow free distribution?” It is the continuation of class-ownership with its restrictive profit-motive and antagonistic market-economy, which bars the way to free distribution. Only from the basis of world-wide common-ownership, can modern science and industry be geared to free-access and production solely for use. The property relations of capitalism are obsolete and form a barrier to social progress. When working-class thinking catches up with the implications inherent in these facts, they will remove the barrier.