Their Scotland or Our World?

On 6 May, you will have your occasional ration of democracy with the opportunity to vote for the glorified regional council known as the Scottish Parliament.

It's all very well having a vote—but are you normally given any real choice? Let's face it, if it wasn't for the politician's head on the front of the election leaflet, could you tell which party was which?

It's tempting—in the absence of any real alternative—to get drawn into the phoney war that is political debate today. Whether Labour or SNP, Lib Dem, Tory, SSP, ,Respect, they all spout the same promises. And it all amounts to the same thing—they offer no alternative to the present way of running society.

Do you really think who wins an election makes any difference to how you live? And do politicians (whether leftwing, nationalist or rightwing) actually have much real power anyway? OK, they get to open supermarkets and factories, but it's capitalism and the market system which closes them down.

Reality Check

Do any of the political parties address any of the real issues:

+ Why is there world hunger in a world of food surpluses?

+ Why are there unemployed nurses, alongside closed-down hospitals and waiting lists?

+ Why are there homeless people in the streets and empty houses with "for sale" signs?

+ Why do some people get stressed working long hours while others get stressed from the boredom of unemployment?

So what's the alternative?

We in THE SOCIALIST PARTY are not standing at this election ourselves but we still are putting forward an alternative to capitalism and the madness of the market—a society of common ownership and democratic control. We call it socialism.

But real socialism. Not the elite-run dictatorships that collapsed a few years ago in Russia and East Europe. And not the various schemes for state control put forward by the old Labour Party. For us socialism means something better than that. We're talking about:

+ A world community without any frontiers.

+ Wealth being produced to meet people's needs and not for sale on a market or for profit

+ Everyone having access to what they require to satisfy their needs, without the rationing system that is money.

+ A society where people freely contribute their skills and experience to produce what is needed, without the compulsion of a wage or salary.

If you don't like present-day society ... if you are fed up with the way you are forced to live ... if you think the root cause of most social problems is the market system, then your ideas echo closely with ours.

We are not promising to deliver socialism to you. We are not putting ourselves forward as leaders. This new society can only be achieved if you join together to strive for it. If you want it, then it is something you have to bring about yourselves.

If you agree with this, you’ll obviously not want to vote for any of the candidates on offer. But you can show you want real socialism by writing WORLD SOCIALISM across your ballot paper.

WORLD SOCIALISM

Common Ownership: The Only Solution

 The former Soviet Union tried to pass off the regime as socialism to try to deceive the Soviet workers and others throughout the world, just as the exploiters in this country try to pass the USA off as a democracy with “equal justice for all.” American capitalists were happy to call the USSR socialist or communist, because it allowed them to say, when more and more people were discontent, “look, there is no alternative to capitalism, see what a mess communism has made in the Soviet Union.” And of course, capitalism in the Soviet Union is just as rotten as capitalism in this country. But real socialism is something all together different. 

Socialism means that all the wealth created by the workers became the common property of the whole of society, no longer do the working people toil all their lives to enrich a handful of bosses. Exploitation becomes a thing of the past. Under capitalism, workers have no control over what is produced and how. All that is decided by how much profit some capitalist will gain. But socialism enables the people to decide how to organise themselves and the resources of society to meet the needs of the people. As long as profit for the few is the basis of the economic system, that system–capitalism–will continue to go from crisis to deeper crisis, with more misery for the people. Without the common ownership of the means of production, not only does inequality between rich and poor remain, but also, be cause of the competition between workers for jobs, housing, educational opportunities, the inequality inside the working class remains. This is a breeding ground for racism and sexism.  Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of our fellow-workers. The present system of social production and private property converted society into two antagonistic classes — i.e., the capitalist class and the propertyless class.

The Socialist Party declares its object to be:

First — The organisation of the working class into a political party to conquer the public powers now under the controlof the capitalists. 

Second — The abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a world system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members' and the complete emancipation of the exploited from the domination of capitalism.

Third - The solidarity of labour connecting the millions of class-conscious fellow workers throughout the  world will lead to world socialism, the commonwealth of humanity.

We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a society, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy, from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated.  

Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of the people and the planet’s resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation.

 Incapable of turning their technology and organisation to the needs of people, the oligarchs such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are collapsing under the weight of their ever-mounting hoarded wealth. They have distorted the economic development of the world so fundamentally—the resources they have acquired, for instance, could eliminate hunger in the world. There are no new frontiers for their multinational corporations. Their new technology will only intensify massive permanent unemployment, tedious and stressful jobs for remaining workers, and terrifying concentrations of knowledge and control in the hands of corporate CEOs. The socialist option is the only alternative. Socialism relies on the needs and creativity of people. If harnessed to democratic administration and planning, technology could help us achieve an era of abundance for all, and release us from repetitive drudgery. The flaws of capitalism are too basic, the power of the corporations too great, the chasm separating the compulsions of profit and the needs of people too wide, for anything less to succeed.

The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, human appendages of machines. Employers have the power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers if they do not provide share-holder dividends.

The Socialist Party is the party of the dispossessed and the oppressed. We support the struggles against the injustices of capitalism. We offer a better future to build a new world. We invite all fellow-workers to eradicate a social system based on exploitation, discrimination, poverty and war. The capitalist system must be replaced by socialist democracy. That is the burning issue of our era, the only hope of humanity.

What the Future Holds

 

"The great appear great to us only because we are on our knees; LET US RISE."

The Socialist Party see that there is a way to the fraternity of all humanity, to the different people’s merging into one, to the end of battles and wars, which so far has stained the path of mankind. It is the reorganisation of our present conditions of production and to organise the association of workers to unload the heavy burden of labour by the wage slaves, and instead make the means of production the common property of the whole society, rather than the present and unfair randomly distribution of wealth with its unavoidable consequences, wealth for a few privileged and misery and poverty for the majority. Our revolution  can have no other goal and no other result than the realisation of socialism. The working class must above all else strive to get the entire political power of the state into its own hands. Political power, however, is for us socialists only a means. The end for which we must use this power is the fundamental transformation of the entire economic relations. All social wealth, the land with all its natural resources  and all factories and must be taken out of the hands of the exploiters and taken into common property of the people and place them under the control of society.

In  socialism the private employer will disappear and  no longer production aims towards the enrichment of one individual, but of delivering to the public at large the means of satisfying all its needs. Accordingly the factories, works and the agricultural enterprises must be reorganised according to a new way of looking at things. Production is to have the aim of securing for everyone a dignified life, plentiful food, a comfortable dwelling and providing all other means of existence. Just as the private ownership of one person by another had to be abolished years ago, so the socialist revolution of our time will have to abolish private ownership of property. All peoples began with  common ownership and with socialism we shall return to a far better form of it, up-rooting all the abominations of class society but cultivating anything worthy in the techniques and knowledge taken over from capitalism. Mankind can resume its upward climb once humanity is rescued from capitalist barbarism.

Socialism is a system of a free people, by the people for the people, solely in the interests of the people. Private ownership, by a class, of the land and instruments of production and distribution is opposed to this vital principle of justice, and is the fundamental basis of all oppression, political and social. Our goal in the Socialist Party is the conversion of the means of production and distribution into the common property of society, to be held and run by a various expressions of democratic control in the interests of the entire community. 

The Socialist Party, stands committed to abolish wage slavery by making common property of all the means of wealth production where all enjoy all the fruits of a liberty that knows no master, when chains of the mind and shackles of the body disappear. It is the political party of the working people and is opposed to all others which are parties of the rich and which work for the continuation of capitalist exploitation and wage-slavery. Our principles express genuine socialism, the system which guarantees the genuine emancipation of the working class. Our Party fights against the rich of the country and against those who are their servants, to overthrow capitalism and build socialism, end the exploitation of man by man and, build a society class-free society as the next stage in human social development. We demand that the land, the instruments of production (machines, factories, etc.), and all the products of labour become the common property of the whole people; and, that all production be organised cooperatively, and be carried on under the direction of the commonwealth; as also the cooperative distribution of the products in accordance with the service rendered, and with the just needs of the individuals. And to realise our demands, we strive by all proper means to gain control of the political power. The Socialist Party recognises the existence of an oppressed class of wage-workers as its fundamental truth, and the emancipation of this oppressed labouring class as its foremost object.

Socialist Standard No. 1401 May 2021

 

• Editorial

• Pathfinders

• League Intrigue

• Cooking the Books 1

• Gig Economy

• Material World

• The Green New Deal

• Educating our sons

• Human Nature: What Is It?

• Paris Commune 1871

• Would you Adam and Eve it?

• Cooking the Books 2

• Air Pressure

• Proper Gander

• Book Reviews

• 50 Years Ago

• Obituary

• Meetings

• Rear View

   MAY 2021 PDF

Remember May Day

 

As we commemorate May Day, a day when workers of the world celebrate their unity and solidarity, in a few days time, in the Scottish Parliamentary elections, there will be nationalists, some even describing themselves as socialists, calling on a vote to endorse dividing Scottish workers from their brothers and sisters in other parts of this island. Today is the workers’ festival, a pledge of fraternity and internationalism,  not a day that should be wasted by the workers in begging scraps from the bosses table. 

Our message to Scots, English, Welsh and all other workers is to recognise our mutual interest in fighting the employing class and seek control of the political machinery to establish socialism. Nationalism means merely that workers get new masters instead of the old ones. Capitalism does not change by switching management personnel. Political control may well re-locate but multinationals on Wall St, Shanghai stock-market or the City of London will still maintain their economic stranglehold on any nation.

The task confronting us is not to focus any attention upon  diversionary constitutional arrangements but to build up a real union, one of the working class, organised to put an end to the property system that divides and oppresses us. In today’s capitalism to free ourselves from capitalism we need the world commonwealth of humanity.

INTERNATIONALISM NOT NATIONALISM

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE UNION…IT’S CAPITALISM

 

Workers in Scotland suffer the same exploitative conditions imposed by capitalism as they do in other regions of Britain and they united through the trade unions to protect one another. Workers on any side of any border, wherever it is drawn, all face the same fundamental problem - capitalism. Referendums are designed to give apparently simple solutions to complex problems, they are the chosen way of despots and demagogues attempting to garner some semblance of popular support of their self-serving programmes. No referendum can solve problems for the working class in Scotland.

We constantly hear that we live in a globalised world, yet national sovereignty still resonates with many people. As socialists we reject the concept absolutely. The delineation of national boundaries within a system of world capitalism is just a reflection of the nationalist consciousness that currently prevails amongst the people of this planet. This is a false proposition. The problems of the Scottish people will not be solved by independence.

Do the working class have any interest in whether or not the United Kingdom remains intact? Or should they, as the Left urges them to, support an independent Scotland? We say no on both accounts as, wherever the boundaries are drawn, workers will still be subject to the vagaries of the global market system and will continue to experience problems such as unemployment and low wages. Workers will need to organise for a socialist society which will abolish borders rather than rearrange them. 

 Real political change has never come through leaders, and it never will. We have the potential to make real change rather than just tinker at the margins. So, let’s start to end capitalism. Otherwise it’s the same old same old. As we have always considered the right to vote as a benefit and a possible tool to end capitalism we will be going to the polling station, to cast a write-in vote for socialism by writing “WORLD SOCIALISM” across our ballot paper. If you agree with us, we urge you to do the same.

Imagining A New World

 

Let us face the facts. Capitalism is strong, and the capitalists are growing wealthier. Even if American capitalism is fated  to lose its place in the front rank, does that signify a collapse of capitalism? If China ousts America is the system itself any weaker? If European businesses become dependents on the investments of the Chinese billionaires is it any less necessary for the workers to overthrow capitalism? The transfer of the supremacy from Europe to America and now to China may well be a cause of strength to the capitalist system; it is certainly not any evidence of any systemic collapse. A particular country’s capitalists might suffer financial pain but capitalism itself is not undermined.

The confidence of the capitalists in the stability of capitalism rests on the docility of the working class. Capitalism continues because the workers unthinkingly accept it. Capitalism will  end when the workers organise to bring it to an end. To educate and organise the workers for that purpose is the only problem with which socialists should concern themselves. Economic independence for the worker depends upon their free access to the land, factories, workshops, machinery, etc., and all other means of production.

 The Socialist Party does not propose putting capital into the hands of the State, but that the producers should own the means of wealth production in common, and with the abolition of private or class ownership the State would die out. The State is not at the back of the capitalists. The State is the central committee of the capitalist class and carries on the executive affairs on their own behalf. All private property society needs a State to rule the subject class and to conduct and regulate the affairs of government in the interest of the ruling class.

Rent, interest and profit are three parts into which the surplus taken by the industrial capitalist is divided. These three forms result from private ownership and can only be abolished when the producers own the means of production. Rent, interest and profit are not the fundamental causes of poverty, but these three forms of stolen wealth are effects of capitalist ownership of the means of production. Modern methods of producing involve large-scale production and associated labour, the means of wealth cannot be owned individually by each worker. They are too vast and beyond the means of any producer. As they must be co-operatively worked, so they must be commonly owned. There is no other solution. Individual ownership by the few rich non-producers, with the resulting poverty of the many—or common ownership by the producers themselves for their own comfort and enjoyment. That is the position our critic has to face. We do not expect our masters to point out the cause of our poverty; their privileges as landlords, shareholders, and dummy directors are based upon our exploitation as producers. Obviously, then, it must be the workers’ task to convert those material means of providing comfort and security for others into the common property of all.

The Socialist Party holds that the people ought to own and control its own industries, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned, that the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all.

We propose, in brief, that all resources, all land and buildings, all manufacturing establishments, mines,  means of transportation and communication, should be, not private property, but the common property of all. We propose that production be made to serve the needs of those who work, rather than to serve the needs of a few parasites. We hold with science that production and distribution of goods can be planned to avoid anything resembling the crises in capitalist society, a planned economy on the basis of common ownership without any class divide. Experience has proved that planning under capitalism is impossible.

When we speak of a society organised on the basis of planned production and distribution what we have in mind is very simple. Do away with production for profit. Make a survey of all available resources, plant and personnel. Figure out how much of the products of each industry can be produced, say, in a year. Fix the annual consumption of the population at this rate. When you do so you are sure that nobody will go hungry or without a roof over his head. But this is not sufficient. Our purpose to increase production and to utilise the best services of scientists to improve our technology and methods of work to advance science for the purpose of improving life, not only to industry and agriculture but to all realms of life. The output of industry is sure to increase. Distribute the fruits of increased production among all the members of society. Improve their well-being. Increase production still more by further improving machinery and methods according to the latest data of science. Distribute the benefits of the increased production again among the population without exception, always heightening the technique of production to enrich the economic and cultural life of all the members of society and to ease their labour. Continue this process indefinitely. When you do so there will be no crises, no unemployment, no exploitation, no wars, no fear of the future. Everybody responsible for the welfare of all. 

You have nothing to lose, but everything to win. Join together under the red flag of socialism and go bravely and energetically forward, the future belong to you, on this you can be sure. This is the way and the means to the big goal. Let no one forget to walk it.