Downward pressures on wages

American and Japanese firms are welcomed into Britain. They provide earnings for unemployed workers, can’t be bad? However, when they decide to move their business to another part of the world, questions get asked, we have dealt with some of them on this site. Sprawling Prawns and THE ROAD TO HELL are worth a read.

Workers may not have noticed that overseas capitalists maybe think the lower wages paid in Britain were the attraction, even if they were aware of this, a wage is a must have and certainly better than social insecurity.

The dismissal of 650 workers by NCR means The fall-out could put as many as 1000 out of work as smaller companies dependent on the American firm shed staff.

Attempts will be made by some to blame the foreign worker and use nationalistic propaganda as a solution, however. I’m sure you will be aware of local bosses doing the same sort of thing when they are not making a profit; it’s a class thing, no profit, no employment.
The bosses struggle against each other, here in East Kilbride at the end of this month, the CO-OP will close its main shopping mall. All the staff will be redundant because of the competition from outlying areas such as Kingsgate.
Not a lot is made of this closure, no big number, these things are happening all the time; the result is the same, anxiety, uncertainty and worry for many members of the working class.

Industrial and financial experts may be called in to help the hundreds of jobless make a profit for someone.
There will be no end to this until the working class think globally and act globally in their interest, by establishing common ownership of the means of production, i.e. Socialism.

A distasteful flavour of the menu presented to the Dundee workers follows.
Just over a year ago management gave assurances that manufacturing in Dundee would be unaffected by the new plant in Budapest.

NCR’s president and chief executive, Bill Nuti said he was “one million percent” committed to the Dundee operation.

These are the assurances given to the workers in this Dundee factory. However, the profit motive evidently overrides the promises. Caring and Sharing? No way!

Dundee operations director Allan Valentine said, “This is a very difficult but necessary proposal in response to changing market conditions. Our competition is also moving its manufacturing operations to lower cost areas.”

The production of automatic teller machines, the ubiquitous “hole in the wall” cash dispensers whose development was pioneered in Dundee, will now go to Hungary, China and India.

“The proposed re-alignment of our manufacturing operations will help create a level playing field that will enable us to become more competitive by lowering costs and freeing up resources to invest in new product innovation.”

Well are they thinking of your welfare?

Paid too Much

The name Martin Gilbert cropped up in a previous blog on Socialist Courier for being an over-paid fat cat parasite . Seems as if we aren't the only ones who question his worthiness .

Pirc, which advises largely public sector pension funds has singled out Aberdeen Asset Management for criticism in its latest review, branding as "excessive" last year's £4m pay package for chief executive Martin Gilbert. The company's annual report revealed at the end of December that Gilbert was paid a £2.6m bonus during the year, on top of a basic salary of £435,000, and also received pension contributions of £890,000. The total of £3.95m compared with £1.2m the previous year.

Pirc is urging its members to vote against Aberdeeen's remuneration report at the annual meeting next week claiming that its chief executive annual bonus equivalent of 656% of salary and an LTIP (long-term incentive plan) award of 312% of salary is indeed extravagent .

Pirc is very welcome to contact the Socialist Party and we will gladly furnish them with a further list of overpaid capitalist bureaucrats .

The State of the Welfare State

Councils in England are restricting access to social services such as home care, day services and respite care. The Commission for Social Care Inspection warned this was happening by default, and without debate.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection chairman Dame Denise Platt said many people were being left to make their own arrangements because access to services was being tightened to include only those deemed to be in the most serious need.

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said the system was in crisis, and accused the government of being unwilling to provide sufficient funds to help people with serious medical conditions.

Age Concern's director general Gordon Lishman said: "This is a damning indictment of a social care system that is failing older people. Not providing services for people with so-called moderate needs causes much anguish for the individual - but can also result in much higher and more expensive care needs in the future."

Dame Denise said: "In some cases people rely on family and friends, in others they pay for their own care. Some people have no option but to do without. "
Nearly five million people are classed as carers, with 1.5 million of those providing over 20 hours of care per week.
Dame Denise said: "They are doing this without the proper infra-structure in place. It is a complex sector, but they are often given no help navigating through it."

The promise of care from the cradle to the grave was one that was boasted of by the social reformers of the Labour Party - A promise that can be broken and forgotten , as we see .
And as Dame Denise states , it is not the power of the Capitalist State but mostly actual people-power who look after family and friends . Another reason to forgo this forlorn society .

THE ROAD TO HELL

Michael Moore, American TV programme and movie maker, is a compassionate guy who hates what capitalism does to people and strives to right what he sees as wrongs. Sadly, he hasn’t a clue about how capitalism works and is a prime example of the idealist who fights effects but leaves causes untouched.

He thinks that corporations and the filthy-rich should be content with less wealth and should share profits with their workers. What a hope, but here in Scotland we have our own version of Michael Moore in showbiz personality in Elaine C. Smith.

In her column in the SUNDAY MAIL (December 31st) Elaine, having applauded “the risk-takers” and endorsed the capital-labour relationship, lambastes business fat cats who pocket huge sums of money and asks, “Do they really need all that money? Couldn’t they have just put a couple of hundred quid in the pay packets of their workers?”

What Elaine doesn’t realise that those fat cats get their wealth by trying to ensure that their business MAXIMISE their profits and keep shareholders happy. What investors want is not smaller but bigger profits and dividends.

It’s not just fat cats and shareholders who want more: everybody does, even working class savers with, say, building societies look for the highest rate of interest. That’s what capitalism is all about.

Michael Moore and Elaine C. Smith want a caring, sharing capitalism and although they mean well they should remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. V.V.

Burnt out at 50

Scotland's ageing population does not represent a "crisis" according to a Holyrood think tank.
A year-long study by the Scottish Parliament's Futures Forum says the nation can afford to grow old, if it rethinks its approach to retirement.

"An awful lot of people are peeling out of the workforce at 50, burned out," said Lord Sutherland "That shouldn't happen. There's something wrong with the way that we're operating in society if that's the case."

Indeed there is something wrong with this society - it's called capitalism . A social system that does indeed use and abuse people , prematurely sending them to the poverty of Invalidity , Incapacity and Sickness Benefits , then on to an early grave .
That is the real crisis - we aren't able to age long enough and enjoy it long enough .

Just some local news

The second 'Social Atlas' of the Borders just published by Scottish Borders Council.
Earnings in the Scottish Borders are about £80 a week below the national average .

Average income is just over £355 a week compared to £436 across Scotland.

SCOTTISH Executive defines households being in fuel poverty when they have to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on all household fuel, and while there are varying degrees of fuel poverty across the Borders it is generally widespread across the region.

The percentage of the population suffering chronic mental health problems continues to increase and over a twelve year period between 1992 and 2004 the percentage of the population taking prescribed anti-depressant drugs increased from 1.9% to 8.3%."According to Scottish Executive statistics, the Scottish Borders has the second highest rate of the population prescribed drugs for anxiety, depression or psychosis in Scotland, after Dundee City.

And talking of Dundee , data from the Tayside Economic Review 2005 showed that wages had fallen by 1.2% across the region, while the Scottish average increased by 3.1%.

So are we one Scotland ?

Gates and Profits

Mailstrom , has posted an interesting blog concerning Bill Gates and his charitable foundation based on a recent article in the L.A. Times . How the hunt for profits is often the primary motivation for the fund managers investment policy . And how the need to protect Microsoft profits leads to the defence of the drug companies monopolies over medicines by use of patent rights .

It is of interest because at the end of the month Edinburgh Branch of the Socialist Party will be hosting a public meeting later in the month that is in many ways directly related to this subject .

SSP tames Capitalism!

Reformist political parties in opposition always claim how much better everything would be if only they were in power and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is no exception.

One of their policy documents tells us they would provide free public transport and that this, on it’s own, would bring fabulous benefits in just about every area of life.

Everything would be better: the NHS, the environment, the economy, business efficiency, productivity, road safety, more tourists, etc. On top of all this there would be savings of many millions, even billions, of pounds, giving us all more spending power as well as big savings for businesses.

And how is all this to be achieved? By two old leftist illusions; taxing the rich and nationalisation (disguised as public or social ownership). Apparently, nationalisation would be more efficient and cheaper, despite the evidence of past experience, and taxing the rich must mean that we’ll still have them. The source of their riches is the surplus value wrung from the working class but the SSP seem not to have noticed this.

We are grateful that the word “socialism” isn’t mentioned once in this document because its contents have nothing whatever to do with socialism. The SSP’s aim is really just the same as all the other reformist parties – they try to solve capitalism’s problems by merely re-organising it. If all their proposed reforms were adopted – nationalisation, the multitude of changes in the tax system, defence budget cuts, etc., we’d still be living in a money-driven, buying and selling economy, still working for wages and salaries, still insecure, being hired and fired, in short, in capitalism.

Free transport for all can really only be achieved in a worldwide, moneyless, production for use society in which ALL goods and services would be freely available to everyone. That’s what genuine socialists campaign for and what the SSP NEVER does. V.V.

Unpaid overtime

Workers put in £23bn of unpaid overtime last year, losing out an average of £4800 each, according to a study which highlights Britain's long-hours culture.

Scottish employees who do unpaid overtime lose £79.82 a week for the extra six-and-a-half hours they work. This is the equivalent of £4151 a year in lost earnings.According to figures released yesterday by the Scottish TUC, Scots worked £1728m worth of unpaid overtime last year.

A survey by the TUC found employees work an average of seven hours and six minutes extra every week and if they did all their unpaid work at the start of the year, the earliest they would be paid would be February 23.

On February 23, employees will be encouraged to take a proper lunch break and go home on time. Employers will be asked to use the day to thank their staff by buying them lunch or taking them out after work.

Is this really going to be the response of the STUC ? To request a free meal from management for us working for our bosses for nothing ?

And of the working class ?? It is one of the cornerstones of Marxist economics that unpaid labour is the source of the Capitalists' profit - the Labour Theory of Value . It is why we in the The Socialist Party call the Capitalists thieves for appropriating this unpaid labour . Now , to actually do even more extra unpaid work beyond our contractual hours of employment , that's an act of the greatest charity by workers - and the Capitalists go laughing all the way to the bank . Indeed we are truly the ragged trousered philanthropists .

FUNNY SOLUTIONS FOR NOT SO CHEERY PROBLEMS

Elaine C Smith is an entertaining woman; she has a full page in the Sunday Mail
(31st December 2006).
Among her solutions for the alcoholic problems that are filling the accident and emergency departments are dearer prices in supermarkets for alcoholic drinks. I agree drunkenness at time leads to anti-social behaviour but does this apply to old age pensioners? Not the pensioners that write to her complaining their quiet pint is to dear, because they are the ones who don’t arrive at the A&E on Saturday and Sunday she thinks they should get their pint at a cheaper rate.
Well I did say she was an entertaining woman; I was thinking of asking her if raising the price of food with cheaper rates for slim people could solve the obesity problems plaguing the NHS.

Social problems need a lot more thought than that expressed in the Sunday Mail. Pensioner’s poverty and anti-social behaviour are an expression of an anti-social system called capitalism; I think socialism is worth a thought.

Hypocrisy Over the Death of a President

" The nation honoured Gerald R. Ford ...a man whose name was a synonym for integrity..." eulogised one newspaper -

The President of the United States of America , who in 1975 gave Indonesia and the dictator Suharto the green light to invade East Timor that has left perhaps 200,000 dead . Ex-President Gerald Ford can rightly be held partly responsible for the death of one-third of the population of East Timor . General Suharto briefed US president Gerald Ford and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger on his plans for the former Portuguese colony hours before the invasion .

"We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action," Suharto told his visitors

Ford replied: "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem you have and the intentions you have."

While some may pay homage to Gerald Ford , we in the Socialist Party will remember and mourn his victims .

Inside the Bolshevik Cul-de-sac

Another article from the Socialist Standard archives which once again ( but in a slightly more theoretical depth ) demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Socialist Workers Party ( then the International Socialists ) and their kindred Trotskyists. Although dated from 1970 and discusses a Russia that has now changed , not too much has actually changed .

Inside the Bolshevik Cul-de-sac

Those who still cling to the basic Bolshevik premise - that the Russian insurrection of October 1917 amounted to a Socialist Revolution - are caught inside a trap of their own making . Whichever way they turn , they are landed with an uneasy antagonism between their theory and reality …

IS Group

However most of the people who have recently come round to the view that Russia is capitalist have not adjusted all of their political views accordingly , but have merely corrected this one point, failing to notice the inconsistencies which then emerge in the remainder of their ideas. For example the group known as International Socialism ( IS) is basically a trotskyist group except that it holds Russia to be state capitalist .

The growth of working -class understanding is a contradictory process. With their emphasis on violence and minority action IS are peddling dangerous deceptions. Yet these are more advanced deceptions than those marketed by the “Communist” Party 20 years ago - more advanced in the sense that they recognise the impracticability these days of equating nationalisation and the Russia with Socialism . True , the incorporation of the correct view that modern Russia is capitalist into the fundamentally mistaken and anti-working-class doctrine of Bolshevism , allows this doctrine to gain greatly in immediate appeal. But only at the expense of yet more glaring inconsistencies within the doctrine itself. For instance , the IS claim that capitalism sprang into being in Russia in 1928 after 10 years of transition towards Socialism is breathtaking in its lack of connection with any kind of reality [ In case the point is missed , this is not only an exercise in labelling the past . So long as IS maintain that the 1917 revolution was Socialist they will be unable to seriously criticise all the garbage that comes in its train, Lenin’s ignorant theory of Imperialism ; the concept of the vanguard party and “transitional demands” etc. So long as they fail to do this , they are an obstacle to the establishment of Socialism .] Even the Bolshevik leaders ( with the exceptions interestingly enough , of Trotsky and Stalin ) conceded that state capitalism existed in Russia following 1917.

Kidron and Mandel

There has recently been a controversy between Michael Kidron (IS) and Ernest Mandel (orthodox trotskyist) [ Kidron in International Socialism 36; Mandel’s pamphlet The Inconsistencies of State Capitalism ; Debate between Kidron and Mandel at Hull University , 4/11/69; Harman in International Socialism 41 ] which is interesting to Socialists since it shows Kidron failing to draw reasonable conclusions from his view that Russia is capitalist 9 in fact failing to fully comprehend what this means 0 , and Mandel taking advantage of Kidron’s confusion to discredit the whole theory of state capitalism .

Mandel points out that if they were consistent , IS would adopt a position of hostility towards the “Communist” movement . If North Vietnam is state capitalist , how can IS support the Vietcong? If the “Communist” parties are capitalist parties , the potential nuclei of future ruling classes , and if these ruling classes would not be historically progressive , why do IS co-operate politically with them ? Mandel might well ask.

Of course , he regard such a position of hostility as unthinkable . But this is precisely the standpoint of the Socialist Party of Great Britain .We have at no time combined with the “Communist” Party or ceased to expose it, and we have always adopted a policy of opposition to both sides in every capitalist war. Unlike IS , we unite theory and practice .
In order to combat Mandel’s argument that Russia is a “transitional society,” Kidron says that there can be no transitional society between capitalism and Socialism . Quite correctly , he states : “The only possible transition is a sudden , revolutionary one.” This promising statement ( astonishing coming from IS ) is somewhat undermined by the fact that Kidron hasn’t the foggiest clue what Socialism is;

“ Socialism is a total system. It cannot grow piecemeal within the interstices of a capitalist society . How does workers’ control of production coexist with the control by the ruling classes when the means of production in dispute are one and the same? How does self-determination and consumer sovereignty ( ‘production for use’ ) coexist with the external compulsion and blind accumulation that results from capitalist dispersal”

This is one of several instances where Mandel ( who has read Marx) has a field day demolishing Kidron ( a mere Keynsian-eclectic mouthing misunderstood Marxist phrases). Socialism , of course , has nothing to do with “workers’ control of production” . Socialism means a classless world society , without commodities , without the state , without frontiers . It is therefore interesting to note that Mandel realises what Socialism is , but relegates it to the distant beyond , whereas Kidron wants “Socialism” as quickly as possible , but his “Socialism” isn’t Socialism at all ! Mandel’s “transitional society ” is basically similar to Kidron’s “Socialism” and both are actually models of capitalism, since both envisage the retention of the wages system.
Marx argued that wage-labour and capital were quite inseparable . And in a reply to Mandel , C. Harman of IS comments:

“Nowhere…is there a single mention of the working class or a single reference to the wage labour/capital relationship. Now this is curious . For it was not Michael Kidron but Karl Marx who wrote ‘The relation between wage labour and capital determines the entire character of the mode of production’ And this is not an accidental aside….”

But later we find Harman flatly contradicting this , as he must because wage-labour is to remain a feature of the “worker’ state” which is the avowed aim of IS . Harman argues that Russian industry from 1917 to 1928 was not capitalist , though presumably he would not deny that it featured wage-labour.

Neither Mandel nor Kidron seem unduly aware of modern Russia’s realities . Both seem to believe the Russian economy is “planned” full stop.
What then is the situation of the Russian worker ? He is free to move from factory to factory , from town to town , or occupation to occupation , in pursuit of higher wages , or under pressure of unemployment. And he is forced to do so , since he owns no means of production (except a substantial but dwindling number who have small plots of land , and indeed , need them to keep starvation at bay ). He is therefore “doubly free” in Marx’s phrase . He sells his labour- power to a state enterprise for a wage which is less than the price of his product . The surplus is mostly reinvested for his further exploitation, with a small proportion going to keep his rulers in the manner to which they are accustomed . In any circumstances ( except general forced labour) it would be quite impracticable for the state to plan wages with any accuracy , but this is impossible in Russia where most workers are on piece rates ( described by Marx as ‘the form of wages most in harmony with the capitalist mode of production’ ) It has been a pretty constant feature of Russian state capitalism that the actual total wages bill has exceeded (sometimes vastly) the amount foreseen in the plan. In Russia , labour power is clearly a commodity .
A popular view of the Russian economy is that a plan is devised at the top , orders are issued , and enterprises promptly fulfil the plan. The goals of the plan are , first , making an overall profit , second , catching up with the West . Yet to possess any effectiveness at all , the plan must be based on reports from the enterprises which as well as being concerned to fulfil plans , also have their own profit or loss account, with plenty of incentive to get their profits up .
In fact , the long-term ( five-year and seven-year) plans are always drastically modified in practice . They are merely guidelines for the annual ( and quarterly and monthly) plans . Even so , several of the long-term plans could not be decreed until long after they were supposed to have started , and one ( the 6th five-year plan ) had to be abandoned altogether .

In the process of adapting the long term plan year by year , all sorts of unforeseen factors have to be take, many of which are even by Mandel’s account , unambiguously the product of market forces . Much of the Russian state’s “planning” is thus a matter of anticipating , or even subsequently conforming to , these market forces . It is , however , true that they can exercise considerably “arbitrary” influences . Any capitalist state can do this to some extent ( development grants , SET , etc ) The Russian state has much more power , mainly because , with the state monopoly of foreign trade functioning as a protective tariff , and with prevailing internal scarcity , the Russian capitalists have a seller’s market . In relation to the peasants they have a buyer’s market . It is exactly in such monopolistic situations that commodities can sell consistently above or below their values [ If Mandel reasoning was correct and Russia lacked some of the essential features of capitalism , this would show not that it was transitional between capitalism and Socialism , but “transitional” between Asiatic feudalism (tsarism) and capitalism . The peculiarities of Russian capitalism are the outcome of an unprecedented combination of backward peasant production and advanced industry ]

But what happens as the disappearing peasant reserve strengthens the workers bargaining power ? As consumer good production is increased to raise the worker’ productivity ? As consumers ( workers and capitalists) get greater choice in their purchases , so that enterprises must become more responsive to the market , hence freer of central direction? What happens as the era of telescope development passes , so that Russian industry must imitate less and innovate more ? The Russian capitalists are compelled to abandon by degrees the system of planning with material targets , which served them well as a method of rapid industrialisation , but has now outlived its usefulness .

There are many defenders of western capitalism who assert that “Socialism” has failed in Russia which is therefore “returning” to capitalism . Mandel plays into the hands of these people by describing the current decentralisation of profit -seeking initiative as “degeneration” when it is clearly necessitated by advancement . He also thereby gives ammunition to those who argue that “Socialism” is suitable only for backward countries.

What has failed in Russia is not “planning” , much less Socialism , but the attempt to plan a capitalist economy . It is not impossible to operate a technologically advanced society according to a common plan , but it is quite impossible to do this if there are competing economic interests , and if all those working for the plan have to be provided with a monetary incentive for everything they do . In a Socialist economy , with all work entirely voluntary and the price system abolished , it will be entirely feasible to plan all production according to democratically decided criteria .

Between capitalism and Socialism there cannot exist a stable , lengthy transitional period . This point seemed to have dimly penetrated the brain of Trotsky , who recognised the silliness of a transitional society which stably maintained itself for generation after generation . He therefore described Stalin’s regime as a pyramid balanced on its head , and predicted it would be toppled in a major war. When the war came , it demonstrated the Russian system to be rather a pyramid stood firmly on its base .[ It is revealing that Mandel doesn’t dare use Trotsky’s long-since shattered argument that a state bureaucracy cannot constitute a ruling class . Trotsky was prepared to concede that state capitalism could in theory exist provided there was individual ownership of shares in the state ]

Far from Russia being on the road to Socialism , workers there still have to win elementary political and trade union rights already gained by western workers . Capitalism continues to exist throughout theory because workers put up with it , and can be abolished as soon as the majority of workers desire Socialism , though this is most strikingly evident in countries , unlike Russia , have effective workers’ suffrage . It is quite wrong to believe , as Mandel does , that we should support Russia or China against America . It is not worth a single workers’ life of limbs to advance the interests of the Russian rulers against their rivals. Neither does it matter whether Russian enterprises remain formally , legally state-owned or not . This has no bearing on workers’ interests and is beside the point anyway - a nationalised industry can be as free from de facto central control as some “privately-owned” firms.

Mandel’s view would have slightly more plausibility if all his “transitional societies” were politically united under one state . But they compete economically and militarily , and if the whole world owned by them alone , the danger of our species being exterminated in a war would be no less than it is today - “transitional” indeed !

Russia must of course be seen in its international context . It is here that the IS arguments against Mandel are strongest . As Harman rightly says , there is no such thing as the “inner logic” of a plan . The goals of Russian national planning have been fixed by international competition .

But the force of the IS attack here only throws into more startling relief their position on the national question ( especially now that they have taken to supporting , not only the Vietcong, but also the Chinese state which they admit to be capitalist) . It is no get-out to proclaim , as Harman does , that they also supported the Kenyan anti-colonial movement , or the “ the Cypriot struggle led by the cleric Makarios and the fascist Grivas” That is nothing to be proud of . Neither is this justified by calling it “ the Marxist position” What conceivable excuse can there be for people supporting the slaughter of workers which is a side-effect of the rival capitalist powers’ perennial jostling for a place in the sun?

By S in the Socialist Standard April 1970

Further reading :
SPGB Education Document (1995) WHERE THE SWP IS COMING FROM

From the Archives - Debate with the I.S.

This is a report of a debate between the SPGB and the International Socialists ( now the Socialist Workers Party ) that took place in Edinburgh in 1970 to an audience of 70 . Whereas , the principles of the Socialist Party has remained steadfast , we can see that the opportunism of the SWP has also remained consistent . Whereas , we still await the rise of socialist consciousness within the working class , the SWP are still waiting for that mythical revolutionary situation to arise . They seek it here , they seek it there , they seek it everywhere .
In contrast , the Socialist Party of Great Britain , as a party of socialists , as a party for socialism , will continue with the distinct unrelenting task of education , agitation and organisation for socialism and nothing but socialism .

Speakers for the SPGB were Jim Fleming and Vic Vanni from Glasgow branch . For the IS the speakers were S. Jeffries and B. Lavery . There was no objections raised by the IS to the report .

Comrade Fleming opened for the SPGB by pointing out that the SPGB was an international organisation that was democratically controlled by all its members; that it was opposed to leadership and the idea of an elite or vanguard leading the working class to Socialism . The muddled policies of the IS and other romantic left-wing groups only confused the working class.
S. Jeffries opened for the IS by saying that he agreed with the SPGB’s Marxist theory but that there was a failure to link up theory with practice. He went on to quote Engels on the need to build the revolutionary movement within the trade unions . It was stupid to rely on the vote . He preferred the overthrow of the system by non-parliamentary means , and said that Marxists should always be prepared for the revolutionary situation when this overthrow would be possible .

Comrade Vanni replied that revolutionary phrase-mongering did not make a socialist and invited the floor to look at the dismal history of the IS . Using back numbers of the Labour Weekly ( now Socialist Worker ) he drew attention to their lack of socialist understanding giving instances such as IS having urged workers to vote for the Labour Party in the 1964 and 1966 elections instead of fighting the real enemy - capitalism . It was not a Leninist elite that would bring about the revolution but capitalism itself by the contradictions inherent in it . IS far from being a vanguard , were in reality politically backward .They considered the workers too dull to learn from history but instead that they have to be taken through the struggles and learn from strikes. He went into some detail on the bankruptcy of their political theory , such as the permanent arms economy and their belief in the collapse of capitalism .IS did not understand what Socialism was , as they saw a need for money banks and the like , saying that instead of being sacked by a boss you would be made redundant by a “Workers Council”. In reality , it all boiled down to a sophisticated state capitalism .
B. Lavery (IS) said the SPGB had made a few mistakes , but this was only because they had always stood to one side of the real struggles . The SPGB’s ideas were grossly oversimple and he could not see that how , when Labour MPs inevitably became corrupted by parliament , socialist representatives would not also become corrupted . There were not only two classes in society today but many , one of them being the peasant class . Whole areas of the world , Africa , Asia and South America were predominantly peasant . The peasants outnumbered workers on a world wide basis and the SPGB was wrong in not taking this into account . He realised the IS support of the Labour Party was a mistake but at least it had raised the consciousness of some workers .

The first question from the floor was to the IS asking how soon after Socialism was established , money could be done away with .

The reply from IS was : only when we had eventually gone through the transitional stages and reached Communism .

The next question to the platform was asking for a definition of Socialism .

Comrade Fleming answered and first pointed out what the “revolutionary” demands of the IS were ( again quoting the Socialist Worker ) i.e. bringing the British forces back from overseas bases and five days work or five days pay in the car industry .This had nothing to do with Socialism . In contrast , the SPGB did not concern itself with petty reforms . The SPGB wanted the whole world , everything in it and on it , to be the common property of all mankind regardless of colour or sex; all people would take according to their needs and give according to their ability .
The IS then said that a utopian vision was pointless; what was needed to get the workers on your side was a realistic demand.

The next question was about the class structure of society , especially as regards the small shopkeeper.

Comrade Vanni pointed out that in modern society there were two basic economic classes , the capitalist class and the working class . Most small shopkeepers were of the working class as they had to work for a living . The small fringe of people who could not be definitely placed as workers or capitalists was diminishing all the time due to mergers and was relatively unimportant .
B. Lavery (IS) pointed out again that the SPGB was forgetting the peasant class , who were in a majority in Africa and Asia . Although small shopkeepers may be workers they usually supported capitalism . You cannot afford to ignore the people who come between capitalist and workers .

The next question regarded the role of parliament in the revolution .

Comrade Vanni started by quoting Engels on Parliament and the vote, about universal suffrage being one of the sharpest weapons of the working class had. ( Introduction to Class Struggles in France ) . If universal suffrage allowed nothing else at least you knew how many workers were politically conscious . This would prevent the likelihood of the revolution coming about when socialists were in a minority .

The next question referred to Lenin’s role in the Russian Revolution .

The IS began by saying that the revolution depended on smashing the state machine . It was crucial that workers should set up soviets and workers councils The real power was in the factories and once the workers got control of them they would easily smash the state machine . A lot depended on the conditions prevailing e.g. whether sections of the army would desert to fight on the workers side .
Comrade Fleming said it was a grave mistake to think that the working class was capable of smashing the state machine . It was ludicrous to assume that because the workers had occupied factories they would be capable of resisting tanks and bombs . It was essential to make sure the state machine was in the hands of the working class and not leave it in the control of the capitalist class . He concluded by stressing that parliament had tremendous power.

The next question was about the danger of fascism and what were the to parties doing about it .

Jeffries for the IS said the SPGB were not interested in the real problems facing the working class . Socialists should concern themselves with things such as incomes policy and productivity deals.
Comrade Fleming replied by saying that capitalism had played its historic role in solving the problem of production . Now that an abundance of wealth was capable of being produced the only meaningful struggle was for the overthrow of capitalism, which would result in the major problems being solved .

The summing up then followed with Jeffries (IS) saying that only the middle class and small businessmen were interested in parliament. The power of the big capitalists was concentrated in the factories, boardrooms and monopolies; they did not bother with parliament . Working within the Labour Party had produced some results such as the political strike against the government’s white paper on Trade Unions . The IS had left the Labour Party along with the politically conscious workers . The revolutionary party must always be where the workers were and must try to generalize their struggles . It was essential to fight for reforms while pointing out that capitalism was the real enemy . He concluded by saying that it was essential to fight within the labour movement because that was where the action was .

Comrade Vanni wound up for the SPGB saying that it was essential to take parliament into account as there was no doubt as to the power it had over the state machine . Their [IS] meaningless activities centred round demonstrations outside embassies and other buildings usually only succeeded in frightening the caretaker out of his wits . The history of the IS showed their lack of revolutionary understanding ; they always tackled the effects and never got to the root of the problems . The IS might call the SPGB’s vision of the future society a dream but it was much more preferable to the nightmare of the IS with wages and banks and all the paraphernalia of state capitalism . It was the job of revolutionaries not to reform capitalism but to leave that to the people who run capitalism like the so-called Communist Party , Labour Party and Conservatives. The real task to organise and agitate amongst fellow workers for the overthrow of capitalism by the majority of the world’s population using democratic processes if available . “Peacefully if possible , violently if necessary “ was the SPGB’s viewpoint. Instead of fighting for such reforms as “five days work or five days pay” , one should remember Marx when he said “away with the conservative motto , a fair days work for a fair days wage and inscribe on your banner the revolutionary watchword ABOLITION OF THE WAGES SYSTEM”

Socialist Standard July 1970

Climate Change

Climate Change (this is the text of a leaflet distributed recently.)
The Market System Must Go

"Climate change presents a unique challenge to economics: it is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen".

So confirms government adviser, Sir Nicholas Stern, in his report on the Economics of Climate Change published earlier this week. Only instead of concluding that the market system must go he wants to give it a second chance through "green taxes" and especially "carbon trading" (trading in permits to emit carbon dioxide).

But "green taxes" and "carbon trading" are not the solution. These are just tinkering with the market system whereas if carbon emissions are to be stabilised and the consequences of global warming tackled effectively it is the whole market system of competitive production for profit that must go. It has to be replaced by a world without frontiers where the Earth’s natural and industrial resources have become the common heritage of all humanity, and so can be used to produce directly and solely for use not profit. Buying and selling needs to be replaced by giving and taking in accordance with the principle of,
 "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs".
Socialist Party

That's Rich

Continuing our seemingly never-ending posts on those of the capitalist class who have never had it so good , The Herald reports that 15 chief executives earned a basic salary and benefits package of £1million or more in the latest financial year .
Top of the list for the third year running is private Aberdeen housebuilder Stewart Milne. £200,000-a-week package, half of which comprised pension contributions . Then there is
Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, on £3.9million a year .
I won't depress you with the full list .

The TUC reports , the total remuneration for directors of FTSE top 100 companies has gone up by 105 per cent more than the cost of living and has increased 17 times faster than average pay .
In addition , directors of the UK's top 100 companies have amassed pensions worth nearly £1 billion between them . On average they can retire at 60 on a final salary pension worth nearly £3 million. The largest directors' pension in each company is worth nearly £5 million , over 40 times more than most staff pensions.

What pension crisis ??

SCOTLAND THE STONED

When the Scottish Parliament was formed, enthusiasts looked forward to a bright future. History has proven how hollow these aspirations were. Scotland since the advent of the Hollyrood Parliament has still all the same social problems, indeed some of them have grown worse. "The use of cocaine and crack cocaine in Scotland has almost trebled in the past five years, according to new figures. Scottish Executive statistics showed that of the drug users seeking help for their problem last year, 1,250 were using cocaine, up from 982 a year earlier and more than double the number (549) in 2001-02. Those using crack cocaine rose sharply from 190 people five years ago to 484 in 2005-06." (Times, 20 December) RD

Don't go down in the woods today!

I have watched some cooking programs where the Italian cook demonstrates the variety of mushrooms that are available in the woodlands around Britain. He claims it is common practice at certain times of the year to collect them and serve them in his restaurant. Jars of stored mushrooms are shown. The flavours and methods of cooking are discussed.
Some would think this a harmless pursuit, mushroom collection.
Not if a caretaker of the landlord’s estate reports you.
Keen jam-maker and OAP, Ian Blayney, was accused of theft after a wild fruit-picking trip during September.
I felt like a serious criminal, he said, according to the Sunday Mail 24th December 06.page 25.
In a private property society it doesn’t take much to criminalize a citizen. The government say the jails are crowded. The court cases piling up. The police under funded.
Fining, Tagging, imprisonment will always be with us in a private property society.A common ownership society will see the end of jails and courts, you ask, who is most likely to end in jail? The odds are stacked against the working class, don’t you think?

The Alternative Queen's Speech

I'm speaking to you today from Sandringham - or is it Balmoral? No matter, it's one of the big houses or palaces I own and every Christmas Day I intrude on what enjoyment you might be having to foist a boring speech on you which is supposed to strike a thoughtful, humane note among the celebrations. I'm sitting in a sort of study and behind me is a window which opens onto the lush estate where my house stands.

I own these places because I’m a very rich woman – I’m worth about £250 million(1). Although I was born into this wealth and have never known what it is like to be poor, I shall be talking to you as if I’m the sort of ordinary, everyday grandmother you're likely to have a chat with in the bus queue or the doctor's waiting room or at the supermarket check-out. Except that I am the mother of the nation (for my recent ancestors it was of the Empire) unless Sharon Osborne manages to take that bit over as well. So for this broadcast I compose my face into this maternal expression -calm, caring, perceptive, wise.

A lot of people seem to believe that it's my speech, all thought up by me. Well I do have a say in it but it's really what the people I work for tell me to say. I’m what is called a constitutional monarch - I do what the government tell me -and if I kick over the traces I’ll end up like my Uncle Edward.

Whatever is in my speech the media people will report it as if its really profound, earth-shattering, historical. They'll dredge through the frigid platitudes in the hope of finding some small nugget of humour, or controversy or intelligence. Then they'll blow it up into a big headline -"Queen Says War's A Killer", that sort of thing. I don't blame them; media people are like everyone else - except those like me -they have to earn a living.

In case my speech comes over as too boring and trivial I try to touch on some real problems which you might be experiencing. Like being homeless or struggling with life in a slum or in a high rise or battling to keep up with the mortgage on a regimented semi somewhere. This is a bit of a cheek, coming from someone who owns these big houses but I can't let on about the real housing problem - like shopping at the supermarket or having to queue for the doctor its part of the wider poverty of all who work for their living.

This being Christmas I have to say something about children, to fit in with all that schmaltz about little faces aglow around the tree and so on. I drop hints that childhood is not all like that - about violent, broken families, drugs, crime, dead-end years in comprehensive schools. It wasn't like that for my children and grandchildren; they had the best of everything, their schools carefully chosen and their whole lives based on the confidence that they would never want for anything. Perhaps that's why I get so upset at all those news items about Britney Spears and so on . . .

I often refer to problems abroad which, I say sadly, are casting such a blight across the joys of this great Christian festival. Like war, famine, epidemics - always easy to talk about because they are going on somewhere all the time, wiping out millions every year. I pretend they're like social quirks which would go away if the Christmas spirit -peace on earth, goodwill to all and so on -were allowed to last all year. Some people might be awkward and ask about these problems being knit into the fabric of a social system which awards these great privileges to me and forces degradation onto you. But they're obviously suffering from a lack of that christmas spirit.

And that brings me to Christmas itself. All those singing cash registers. All that rubbish being sold. All that nonsense spouted from pulpits and in programmes like this one. I try to forget that Christmas is only a short break in the routine, year-in year-out, exploitation, poverty, conflict and insecurity which you endure and the wealth and capital accumulation which keeps me so cosy. That's what destroys people's hopes, distorts their lives, represses them, kills them. And I'm one of its most prominent figureheads.

But I mustn't go on like this. My job is to encourage the most massive diversion of your attention from reality into a circus world of noise and colour. Remember my wedding? My coronation? The jubilee? The weddings of my children? You loved them all, they made you forget where you really stand in the social order, what your lives are really like. And that is what I'm supposed to do, in this Christmas Day broadcast for example.

Well it's been nice getting this off my chest -a change from the usual twaddle. I’m off to watch Badder Santa Oh, there's something else . . . Merry Christmas. Suckers.

(Socialist Standard, December 1988)

(1) Latest estimate £271million .

Single Mums - Capitalist Style

The Daily Telegraph today tells us of a paternity settlement .

A businessman whose girlfriend gave birth to their son after a relationship five years ago has been ordered by the High Court to spend £2 million on buying a house for the boy and his mother in Bayswater, central London.
The father, said to have been worth £100 million in 2002, had argued that £800,000 would have been enough to buy a property in a cheaper part of the capital. But District Judge Million, whose ruling this month has just been released, stressed that "the area within London W2 should avoid properties where social problems may make the location less attractive

The judge refused to approve the mother's claim for £48,000 , the cost of her BMW 4x4 but thought that £30,000 "would have given a wide enough choice of good-quality cars suitable for the mother and child and, if necessary, any au-pair or nanny".

Certain single mums just don't end up in the council housing schemes or living on benefit , do they ?

Old and Forgotten - and Starving

The Scotsman reports more than 750,000 pensioners risk being left to starve in British hospitals because they are not properly fed . Age Concern said elderly patients were often abandoned with nothing to eat or given the wrong kind of food. It claimed some patients were too weak to feed themselves and in other cases food was out of their reach .

Gordon Lishman, Age Concern director-general, said: "The reality for many older patients is that they are at risk of malnutrition while they are in hospital...The prevalence of malnutrition in older patients is a disgrace. Being denied basic care should not be something which is overlooked on any ward. It puts health at risk and means longer stays in hospital."

Pauline Ford at the Royal College of Nursing said: "It's unacceptable if elderly patients are not getting the help they need to eat and drink."

The Scotsman previously reported death rates from malnutrition in Scotland continue to rise, with 105 death certificates last year naming the condition as the primary or a contributing cause. But the report also noted: "Death certificates may under-state the contribution of malnutrition to mortality in Scotland and therefore provide only an approximate guide to the extent of the problem."

Earlier this year, The Scotsman revealed that councils in Scotland were spending as little as 92p per meal for elderly people living in care homes .

And a fellow socialist blogger ( well , me , actually ) drew attention to how capitalist society treat our old folk who are past their sell-by date.