What is this system?

The working class is not a small, narrow class. The working class constitutes the majority of the population composed of the industrial and agricultural workers, and non-production workers such as clerical, transportation and service workers. The working class is defined as all those who:

1) Do not own the means of production;
2) Have to sell their labour-power to the capitalist class to make a living;
3) Directly, or indirectly, create surplus value... which is expropriated by the capitalist class. 

This exploitation, or expropriation of surplus value, creates an irreconcilable, antagonistic class contradiction between the employees and the employers. Only the emancipation from capital itself can liberate workers. Their mission, therefore, is to overthrow their masters. 

In order to keep power, the capitalists teach the idea that capital and capitalism have always existed. In this way, they seek to convey the idea that capitalist class society and capitalist exploitation will continue to exist forever. In other words, that it is a system of society that is natural and eternal, and there is no use anyone thinking of making fundamental changes in it or replacing it with any other social system. This idea is completely false. It has been developed only to maintain the capitalist class in economic and political control. To live, capital must accumulate. To accumulate, capital must yield profit.

Socialist society will be a class-free society, in which all the means of producing wealth are owned in common. Instead of being divided into workers and employers, rich and poor, society will be an association of free people, all making their special contributions to the well-being of society, which in return will supply them with what they need in order to live full and happy lives. Such a society can be summed up in the slogan: “From each according to ability, to each according to needs.”

For this to be possible, socialism must be based on abundance. Production will be organised in such a way that there is plenty of everything for everybody: not only food, houses, and so on, to satisfy material needs; but also schools and theatres, playing-fields, books and concerts, so that people can lead full, physical and cultural lives.

Socialism will be worldwide. It is not something which can be fully completed in one country, isolated from the rest of the world. On the contrary it must eventually embrace all the peoples of the world; and in so doing it will put an end to war. Because no wars can take place in a truly international society there will be no need for armies.

Many institutions which we accept today as essential, such as police and prisons, armies and civil servants, will have disappeared. Because it will be a community of plenty, where there is enough for all and therefore no advantage can be obtained by theft or other forms of crime, all need for courts of justice and police will have disappeared. In other words, the State, which is the sum of all these institutions and organisations, will itself disappear. Instead of one section of society ruling and oppressing another, men will have grown accustomed to living together in society without fear and compulsion. Thus, for the first time, mankind, united in a global family.

It is often argued that, however desirable such a communist society may be, it could never be made to work, because, whatever changes are made in the form of society, human nature will always remain fundamentally the same: there must always be rulers and ruled, rich and poor, employers and employed. This argument springs from ignorance of the facts. 

The study of history, and the observation of primitive communities still living in the world, prove that in the earliest kind of society not only were the land and the tools (what are called the means of production) regarded as the common property of the tribe, but everyone shared in the common tasks of production and defence, as well as in the product of their labour. Because of the low level of technique such communities were necessarily extremely primitive and poor, but because there was common ownership, and therefore no classes, they are correctly described as “primitive communism.” 

The World-wide Plague. Capitalism Compelling Use Of The Cash Nexus.

So now we are mired down in what, to call a spade a spade, is a world-wide plague. It began in an illegal animal market in China and the world was not told about it before it was spreading quickly. Putting those two facts together means only one thing: money. An illegal market means money and why wasn't the world told?; probably because of the problems it would cause China's business towards its competitors. 

It all relates to money which of course is the very death blood of capitalism. However, it is all to easy to blame capitalism, which would not be the point. Capitalism is the atrocious system the worlds working class has seen unfit to abolish and now they are paying for it.

Perhaps this co-vid 19 business will aid additional workers seeing the stupidity of capitalism compelling use of the cash nexus to get what folk need; with such a mass interruption in the circulating rate of global capital wiping out profits, and now governments, loath(!), subsidizing workers to buy the things they need, like food, rent, mortgages, (even in Conservative parasite-heavens of America and UK!), perhaps a bit of sense may get knocked into people's heads what a madhouse things were and are, but do not have to be . . . 

In this sense the Socialist non-market case is more timely than ever.

S.P.C. Members.

Machinery That Creates Abundance Leaving People In Want.

On March 7 the Toronto Star ran an article which focused on the potential of robots to cook and serve food at fast food restaurants. 

In a test kitchen at Miso Robotics in Pasadena, Flippy the Robot is doing exactly that. At present Flippy costs $10,000, but cheaper models are promised in future. Flippy can be rented for $2,000 a month in a subscription basis, which breaks down to $3 an hour; a person doing the same job would cost at least $4,000 a month and robots never call in sick. Earlier versions of Flippy are already in use at Dodger Stadium and CaliBurger, a small fast food chain. 

When one thinks of the workers who will be laid off it becomes another case of machinery that creates abundance leaving people in want.

S.P.C. Members.

The New World We Shall Create

Today’s society has the technological ability to give everyone what they need… plus more. Everyone deserves to get what they need, when they need it, and in the form that they choose. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to do its part to make that happen.

Instead of using our production processes to raise living standards for everyone, the capitalists expropriate the wealth for themselves. To prevent the majority from accessing global resources, systematic rationing is used to  force people to compete for necessities. The result is an artificial scarcity, socially constructed to maintain capitalist rule. Yet the majority want a society that meets their needs. We can end thousands of years of class rule, unite on a global basis, and chart a new course for humanity. We have a window of opportunity to salvage a genuine socialist society from this pandemic and the disaster of capitalism response. If we do not end capitalist rule, it could well be the end of civilisation.

Models of cooperative behaviour abound. We already have the tools to connect everyone on the planet. Together, we could devise global answers to global problems and, at the same time, support everyone to organize their lives as they see fit. People are problem-solvers and our story is one of continual change as we replace what does not work with what works better.

The propagandists of capitalism represent it as a social system which is logical and operates with humanity. If that were true there would be none of the problems with which we are so familiar — and there would be no need for a socialist party to argue that capitalism must be abolished because it is a mass of contradictions.

Capitalism has unlocked a vast potential for the production and distribution of wealth—nothing less, in fact than the capacity to satisfy the needs of every person on the earth. Yet at the same time capitalism fails to achieve that potential, or anywhere near it.

Capitalism has developed our technical accomplishments to a high degree, enabling complex tasks to be performed to precision and ending the need for much monotonous repetitive work. But these accomplishments are not reflected in the quality of what is produced. Much of the wealth turned out is of a low standard—jerry-built houses, junk food, rust prone cars destined for  the scrap-heap.

Capitalism finds it necessary to devote a lot—probably the majority — of its effort to things which can only be called wasteful and unproductive. The enormous material and social effort poured into the armed forces, the police, the judiciary, the prisons—and all the hardware of weapons and equipment which they need—is one example of this. Another is the ubiquitous financial and commercial machinery of capitalism — insurance companies, banks, building societies, merchant houses, salesmen and so on. None of these produce any wealth : they only consume and destroy it.

All these contradictions spring from the basic one. which is peculiar to capitalism—the production of wealth as commodities. Capitalism turns out its wealth not for people to consume; that is secondary to the function of its being sold on the market. So people starve, or go without, or accept something below the best, because they cannot afford anything better. They become conditioned to accept their position as an inferior, exploited class who produce everything but own virtually nothing. Wealth is poured into the state machine, into armaments and the like to protect the privileged position of the ruling class, in whose interests this society of commodity wealth operates.

The Socialist Party has something to offer which will end these contradictions. Socialism will be a society of common ownership of the means of production and distribution, in which all wealth will be a use-value. The social relationships of commodity wealth will cease to exist; everything will be made to satisfy human needs, whether these be actual material needs or other, less tangible, fancies.

Removing the restrictions of commodity production will be the setting free of human abilities. Wealth will be turned out in abundance; the amount of it, and the quality will be limited only by the material problems of the time. Socialism will have no social relationships of the sort to hamper production; its relationships will be those of liberation and plenty.

In socialism human beings will be able for the first time to realise their potential—and the world will witness a veritable flowering of talents and productive capacity such as dreams are now made of. In this will be expressed a new unity of people. Socialism will bring human beings together, in the common task of producing the best and the most humane society of which we are capable.

The Socialist Party, alone among political parties in this country, stands for this new. basically different society. We argue that the working class does not need to waste their abilities in the continual production of the sub-standard. They do not need to suffer the indignities and the suppressions of poverty. They do not need to stand and watch a world which could be beautiful, abundant and satisfying stagnate into an ugly, impoverished nightmare.

Socialism is ours for the taking; materially the world is ready for it. All it needs now is people. 

Coronavirus. A Catalyst for Change?

 People are running out of food, they are without jobs and have no income, and many are growing scared, millions living in poverty, millions more on the verge of poverty, and stagnating wages. Deindustrialisation, privatisation, and deregulation, has created millions of working-poor who live on credit are who are deep in inescapable debt. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, capitalism was already in dire straits, and entering another recession.

People were barely surviving before this crisis and now they will be lucky to survive the unfolding crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on this capitalist system. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the brutality of capitalism. We are seeing the things as they really are and the smoke and mirrors of the capitalist apologists are being removed. The multitude of injustices and  inequalities that existed before the pandemic are now being exacerbated. If theworld struggles to handle this pandemic, how is it going to cope with the climate emergency when it fully impacts. How can we expect the capitalist elite to behave in the context of rapid ecological collapse? If the State is only capable of providing the minimal assistance to working people, how can we expect the State to respond in the context of multi-layered crises unfolding at a rapid pace over a short period of time, crises that will undoubtedly require massive state intervention in the economy?

Without question, capitalism will survive the pandemic. The real question is will working people permit it to return to business as usual , will we allow normal service to resume. There is another direction, a different path to choose that leads to collectivism and cooperation. For socialiats we must ask ourselves how can we can take political advantage of the contradictions within the system, how we can expose the inherent limitations of the profit system and capital accumulation? Time is running out. Now is the time for alternatives. The stakes couldn’t be higher. If we hope to survive the pandemic, society must redirect the resources it’s currently spending on weapons and the waste of consumerism, and instead provide what people need - for free. Every single aspect of our society is under extreme stress. Even the most passive populations can only take so much. Human beings can only take so much. The living world can only take so much. Eventually, things will explode. 

Another question is will the poor respond with despair and apathy or react with righteous anger and rage? And if so, who will be the target of anger and rage be directed toward? Each other? Or the powerful elites?

The peoples of the planet are ripe for radical political change, but that change doesn’t necessarily have to be progressive in nature. It could also be reactionary and fueled by religious extremism, xenophobia, racism, and tribalism. That’s up to us socialists to present a positive vision of a possible future.

We must think about the permanent solution to the problems of the world. To try to fix a broken system with broken tools simply doesn’t work. By virtue of the present system itself society is unsocial in every aspect of the word. No reforms or palliatives can possibly improve the condition of the working class for any period, it is the wages system that is the cause of all the ills which are rampant to-day, and until that system is abolished the Socialist Party can confidently predict that the condition of the working class will gradually become worse. Socialism is the only system yet advanced which claims to offer humanity a world devoid of poverty. The Socialist Party does not desire to impose any rules or conditions on society. All he asks is that society will consciously apply principles for the benefit of society as a whole.

History has been tales of misery, exploitation and oppression, barbaric cruelty, repression and the horrors of war. These have not been the exception but the rule. On the one hand a tiny minority have lived in all the luxury. On the other the majority who have waged a life-long struggle simply to survive. From our experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic we no longer need the Marxists to tell us that it working people who are the source of wealth. We make society run smoothly.

We are living under a system which is more and more clearly revealed as the enemy of humanity. It has vast productive potential, but only means poverty and oppression. It brings hunger and deprivation to the working people. It imposes draconian cuts in living standards on the already suffering poor  simply in the interest of still greater profits for the capitalist class. Capitalism is responsible for the thoughtless destruction of the environment. The profit motive is incompatible with safeguarding the world’s resources. So long as it is profitable, environmental destruction is perfectly ’logical’ under capitalism. There is destruction of indigenous people and their sustainable ways of life; hijacking of fertile land for cash-crops and clearance of forest for cattle ranching. Humanity’s problem is not limited resources but the waste of resources which is an essential part of the process of capital accumulation.

 Its armaments industry monopolises most of the world’s research and development and cynically profits from a series of local wars of unparalleled destructiveness. The root cause of all this is capitalism’s guiding principle, the quest for profit, which takes precedence over any human interest. Capitalism as a system undermines the future of humanity. Today more than ever capitalism brings nothing but misery and exploitation. It is an obsolete system, and the productive forces and technology it has created will be turned to the benefit of humanity as a whole under a new social system.

Capitalism cannot be reformed. Today the destructive threat of capitalism is so acute that humanity cannot afford the luxury of tinkering with palliatives. It has undergone many changes in its history, but these have simply meant finding new ways to exploit the labouring people. The only solution is to end it and build a new social system. Worldwide, an upsurge of socialism is bound to come. It is more and more apparent that profit is an absurd principle by which to organise the world’s resources.

The socialist society of the future will draw its strength from the new organisational forms thrown up by the workers’ movement.

The most vulnerable members of society will suffer the worst consequences, of the COVID-19 and accompanying economic crises particularly those who live in the places which lack even basic health services. How can a billion people dwelling in over-crowded slums with minimal sanitation practice social distancing or to wash hands . 

The pandemic prospects are terrifying for the millions of migrants and displaced people, those in prison, the homeless and those who already live in disaster-prone areas. Not only are they most exposed to infection, but they are least able to access quality healthcare, and who will most impacted by the loss of income because of a lock-down. No government support packages can be expected by the world’s millions of refugees left to fend for themselves in camps. 

For many developing low-income countries, the current coronavirus crisis could become a ‘double whammy’ that exacerbates existing humanitarian challenges, such as conflicts, droughts, the locust plague or endemic poverty. Healthcare systems are already overburdened in such countries, especially where austerity cuts have been imposed on government public services. Scores of countries have endured waves of fiscal cut-backs and curtailed labour rights for those in the informal work sector. The consequences are predicted to be devastating for under-resourced governments that are reeling from other humanitarian catastrophes.

The journalist, John Pilger, has reminded us, deaths from Covid-19 still pale in comparison with the 24,600 people who unnecessarily die from starvation every day, or the 3,000 children who die from preventable malaria. Not to mention other diseases of poverty like tuberculosis or pneumonia, or the cholera crisis in Yemen, or the countless daily deaths due to economic sanctions in countries like Venezuela and Iran. No pandemic or global emergency has ever been declared for these people.

Will Covid-19 therefore awaken us to the stark inequalities and injustices of our world, or will it simply represent a new cause of impoverishment for vast swathes of humanity who have long been disregarded by the public’s conscience?

The developing world is already in turmoil due to the drop in price of commodity prices and fall in foreign direct investment, a collapse in tourism and the weakening of their own domestic economies.. Already heavily indebted to global lenders, with reduced exports, lack of foreign currency reserves and now an expected increase in borrowing costs, raising the prospect of a new debt crisis for south-east Asia, Latin America and Africa these regions could descend into chaos. 

We have created abundance for all but capitalism has manufactured scarcity.

Campaigners of every type are rolling out their agendas, envisioning the crisis as potentially kick-starting a more just and sustainable economy. The reasons for optimism are that major economies are now subject to state interventions on a colossal scale which have directly contradicted the prevailing ideology of the neo-liberal free has operated across the world for several decades now. 

Governments are forced to undertake economic planning in order to avert a public health and economic catastrophe, particularly by rolling back punitive austerity measures and the privatisation of public services. State-imposed lockdowns have necessitated welfare safety-net policies that were previously unthinkable. But there has been little alternative to governments stepping in to secure the livelihoods of millions of people. It has de-bunked the myths that the State cannot afford to implement radical social reforms. The question is when the worst of the pandemic is over, what will be the response of working people when such State protection, albeit limited, is withdrawn. Beyond this emergency relief, will people recognise the urgent need to transform the global economy in the longer term.

The burden of paying the price of the 2008 recession was not shouldered by the elite and the wealthy but landed upon on the backs of the poor and the vulnerable. Will this be different with respect that many of us have now learned our place in society - as essential key workers?

The Socialist Party envisions a society where the evaluation what should be produced and be allocated the necessary resources should be based on what is essential and what is actually needed. 

 In many ways the lockdowns and self-isolating restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic means this is happening right before our us.

 The Socialist Party suggests that this rational approach to producing for peoples needs rather than the socially superfluous drive to simply make a profit for owners or share-holders in businesses must be made permanent. The capitalist market system has been revealed to hold fundamental weakness which does not serve the welfare of the people and even now it is being haphazardly made to be fit for purpose by identifying those key workers which makes the world run smoothly and directing supplies, equipment and personnel to those vital services and industries by what can be described as ad hoc improvised socialistic solutions. 

The Socialist Party is saying is that society should be organised in this planned way all the time. Ignore those who claim the transition to socialism takes decades - it can be achieved very quickly. From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs right now.

It turns out that we can function without stock-brokers , but we really cannot function without nurses, doctors, care workers, delivery drivers, the stackers of supermarket shelves or good neighbours. The chaos, panic and the human cost caused by the coronavirus has exposed the deep faultlines of the capitalist system. 

Not only is COVID-19 killing people but it is also killing the trust and faith in the current world order. For sure in some countries this is being seen in the rise of populist authoritarian nationalism. Yet the pandemic is showing that none of us is safe until all of us are safe. Walls and fences may give the protectionist populists a few more votes, but cannot ensure safety and security for all. No one country can win this fight on its own. International cooperation and solidarity is proving it is saving lives. This compassion and altruism is spreading to every street, every neighbourhood, every city and every country. If capitalism continues its carnage we will suffer more and more “natural” disasters.

While acknowledging the benefits of what environmentalist describe as localism, many socialists are still sceptical that it a complete solution to the problems of production, for example, they view scales of economy as important determinations of where and what is produced, as well as climate differences. Off-shoring and out-sourcing has been the trend of capitalism’s development.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of depending upon multinational global supply chains to produce manufactured goods with the absence of reserves due to the lean logistical “just-in-time” supply systems which can’t cope with sudden disruptions. As supply chains are disrupted through factory closures and border closings, shortages in household items, medications, and food will begin surfacing, leading to rounds of panic buying that will only exacerbate the situation. When machine tool manufacturer is in one country, the textile industry in another, the steel industry in yet another, the whole thing becomes much more fragile and inefficient.

Capitalists through their control of governments, finance, business, and media,have succeeded in transforming the world into a globalised market-based system, loosening regulatory controls, weakening social safety nets, reducing taxes, and virtually demolishing the power of organsed labor. The triumph of world capitalism has led to the greatest inequality in history, where the world’s twenty-six richest people own as much wealth as half the entire world’s population. It has allowed the largest transnational corporations to establish a stranglehold over other forms of organisation, with the result that, of the world’s hundred largest economies, sixty-nine are corporations.

The Covid-19 disaster represents an opportunity for humanity to progress and advance. From an evolutionary perspective, a defining characteristic of humanity is our set of pro-social impulses—fairness, altruism, and compassion—that cause us to identify with something larger than our own individual needs. The compassionate responses that have arisen in the wake of the pandemic are not surprising—they are the expected, natural human response to others in need. If we can change the basis of our global civilisation from one that is capital accumulationto one that is life-affirming, then we have a chance to create a flourishing future for humanity. The whole world is reeling from the COVID-19 disaster that is affecting us all. Yet mutual aid and self-help groups are emerging everywhere to help those in need. People are rediscovering that they are far stronger as a community than as isolated individuals and Covid-19 is bringing people closer together in solidarity than ever before. This rediscovery of the value of community has the potential to be the most important factor of all in shaping the trajectory of the next era. New ideas and political possibilities are critically important on which everything else is built.

Teachers Teaching Hate.

Ontario Minister for Education, Stephen Lecce, leaned heavily on the Board of Education for Peel County March 13, because of the ''Deeply disturbing systematic racism, discrimination and dysfunction'' uncovered by provincial reviewers. Peel County comprises the cities of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. Black students make up 10.2% of high school students, but make up 22.5% of those suspended.

 Reasons for suspensions ranged from wearing hoodies, dorags and hoop earrings. Black students were also the target of racist comments made by teachers and principals who allowed other students to use the N word without punishment. Islamophobia was cited as a concern as well as the presence of white supremacists at a board meeting. Mr. Lecce is demanding the board apologize and maintains tighter supervision to prevent such behaviour. 

It is a horrible thing to think students are being taught to hate by their teachers, but nevertheless capitalism is a divisive system and will remain so for as long as it lasts.

S.P.C. Members.

The Messy Hell Of Daily Capitalism.

Women's shelters are in crisis; there just isn't enough and they're starved of money.

 A recent CBC report said that women who have been beaten by husbands or boyfriends have been turned away from shelters 19,000 times in February, all over Canada. 

In Ontario, Doug Ford doesn't seem to be their best friend. Last year his government cut $17 million in support for women's shelters. On March 6 Ford killed a $1 million grant for Ontario rape crisis centers. After protests he gave in and gave them $2 million. His push for more alcohol everywhere, sold in grocery stores and corner shops, available at all hours of the day, is bad for recovering alcoholics and worse for women. 

There is a direct link between alcohol, drunk men and violent attacks on women. Everywhere one looks daily life under capitalism presents itself as one hell of mess.

S.P.C. Members.

Towards a World of Plenty

Capitalism is a system based on private property of the means of production from which profit is made through the exploitation of labour. We are slaves to capitalism. The market doesn’t care about our health in the long run, it cares about share prices an hour from now. 

Many of us nurture the hope of a worldwide revolution during which capitalism is overthrown and people are able to live together as equals in a society where there is no systematic hierarchy and no exploitation, where we can decide ourselves what to do and when to do it, where community is the bond that ties us together instead of money.

The private ownership of the means of production threatens society, in “peace” and in war, with disruption so violent as to overwhelm it in chaos. Surely it must be apparent that the task which inexorably faces the working class is the overthrow of private ownership and the establishment of common ownership of the means of living. The only hope of the workers lies in the establishment of socialism. The necessity for a new society is clear. Socialism, of course, can only be brought about by socialists.

Each passing day illustrates the need to uproot a vicious and vile capitalism that places value on human life only as far as it can profit from it, We can replace it with a society where all of its members are valued regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality or ability.

The cure for the evils suffered by the workers under the present system is—SOCIALISM. Don’t be afraid of the word. The alternative to capitalism means ending production for profit, establishing a new non-state form of administration.

CAPITALISM, a system of private ownership and control of the things necessary for you to live by, leaves you, the actual producer of all that is useful in the world, at the bottom of things—never sure of to-morrow’s food, without any security of right to live.

SOCIALISM, a system of common ownership and control of the means of life, would put you on your proper plane in life, without a “superior,” sure of food, clothing, shelter, and the very minimum of hours of labour.

When the means of life are commonly owned, do you think for a moment that you will fight each other for oil wells or for anything else? NOT SO BLOODY LIKELY!