No. 1308 August 2013
Whole issue as print ready pdf:
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Food for thought
The Brazilian saviour of the poor, Lula de Silva, a mineworkers' leader, rose to become president of Brazil. Although he put in reforms to help the poor, not out of poverty, of course, and presided over a period of economic prosperity that made Brazil the new economic miracle for a while (surely a curse for developing
nations) people are demonstrating in massive crowds that overshadowed the event, the Confederations cup of soccer. This shows again that no matter who gets control of power, if you are going to run capitalism, you are going to do it in the interests of the capitalists. John Ayers.
nations) people are demonstrating in massive crowds that overshadowed the event, the Confederations cup of soccer. This shows again that no matter who gets control of power, if you are going to run capitalism, you are going to do it in the interests of the capitalists. John Ayers.
1937: The Clydeside apprentices’ strike
Another page in the Scottish workers history can be read here on the Libcom website.
http://libcom.org/history/articles/clydeside-apprentices-strike-1937
The 1937 apprentices strike transformed the status of apprentices from separate individuals with practically no employment rights, to unionised workers. The apprentices were not forced back to work on the employers’ terms; they succeeded in forcing major concessions on earnings and trade union rights from the employers.
http://libcom.org/history/articles/clydeside-apprentices-strike-1937
The 1937 apprentices strike transformed the status of apprentices from separate individuals with practically no employment rights, to unionised workers. The apprentices were not forced back to work on the employers’ terms; they succeeded in forcing major concessions on earnings and trade union rights from the employers.
The Dark Truths
The capitalist class have traded their soul for the accumulation of profit. The world is not ruled by justice or morality, it is ruled by power. Capitalists control presidents and parliaments. They disdain the opinions of the common peoples of the world. They ridicule the organisations that have been established to protect the Earth and promote peace. Their end determines their actions; their laws supersede all others.
Tadeusz Borowski was a Pole who survived Auschwitz and Dachau. In his writings Borowski painted a picture of the concentration camps where humankind was without benevolence, without compassion; lacking empathy, lacking mercy; inexorable, ruthless, and malevolent; a savage, brutal animal devoid of morals but obedient to laws. Borowski believed there was no crime a man would not commit to save himself:
“The world is ruled by neither justice nor morality; crime is not punished nor virtue rewarded, one is forgotten as quickly as the other. The world is ruled by power and power is obtained with money. To work is senseless, because money cannot be obtained through work, but through exploitation of others. And if we cannot exploit as much as we wish, at least let us work as little as we can. Moral duty? We believe neither in the morality of man nor in the morality of systems.”
For Borowski Auschwitz, in contrast to the myths that sprang up immediately in the war's aftermath, is not a place of martyrdom or heroism. It is a place where inmates higher up in the camp hierarchy, the Polish political prisoners and others with special privileges, jeer at the Jews and Gypsies lower on the totem pole; where even a minor offense will be brutally avenged; where a prisoner, wondering if his girlfriend might have been sent to the gas chamber, muses, `So what, what's gone is gone.’ The most terrifying thing in Borowski’s stories is the icy detachment.
Borowski explains “You know how much I used to like Plato. Today i realize he lied. For the things of this world are not a reflection of the ideal, but a product of human sweat, blood and hard labour. It is we who built the pyramids, hewed the marble for the temples and the rocks for the imperial roads, we who pulled the oars in the galleys and dragged wooden ploughs, while they wrote dialogues and dramas, rationalized their intrigues by appeals in the name of the Fatherland, made wars over boundaries and democracies. We were filthy and died real deaths. They were 'aesthetic' and carried on subtle debates. There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice, nor truth that passes over injustice in silence, nor moral virtue that condones it.”
Time to take control and make a change. The capitalists have the power to-day and the working class gives them that power at every election. When workers raise themselves to the position of ruling class, by capturing political power, with that power in their possession they will set about the task of building a new order of society which will conform to the interests of all.
Tadeusz Borowski was a Pole who survived Auschwitz and Dachau. In his writings Borowski painted a picture of the concentration camps where humankind was without benevolence, without compassion; lacking empathy, lacking mercy; inexorable, ruthless, and malevolent; a savage, brutal animal devoid of morals but obedient to laws. Borowski believed there was no crime a man would not commit to save himself:
“The world is ruled by neither justice nor morality; crime is not punished nor virtue rewarded, one is forgotten as quickly as the other. The world is ruled by power and power is obtained with money. To work is senseless, because money cannot be obtained through work, but through exploitation of others. And if we cannot exploit as much as we wish, at least let us work as little as we can. Moral duty? We believe neither in the morality of man nor in the morality of systems.”
For Borowski Auschwitz, in contrast to the myths that sprang up immediately in the war's aftermath, is not a place of martyrdom or heroism. It is a place where inmates higher up in the camp hierarchy, the Polish political prisoners and others with special privileges, jeer at the Jews and Gypsies lower on the totem pole; where even a minor offense will be brutally avenged; where a prisoner, wondering if his girlfriend might have been sent to the gas chamber, muses, `So what, what's gone is gone.’ The most terrifying thing in Borowski’s stories is the icy detachment.
Borowski explains “You know how much I used to like Plato. Today i realize he lied. For the things of this world are not a reflection of the ideal, but a product of human sweat, blood and hard labour. It is we who built the pyramids, hewed the marble for the temples and the rocks for the imperial roads, we who pulled the oars in the galleys and dragged wooden ploughs, while they wrote dialogues and dramas, rationalized their intrigues by appeals in the name of the Fatherland, made wars over boundaries and democracies. We were filthy and died real deaths. They were 'aesthetic' and carried on subtle debates. There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice, nor truth that passes over injustice in silence, nor moral virtue that condones it.”
Time to take control and make a change. The capitalists have the power to-day and the working class gives them that power at every election. When workers raise themselves to the position of ruling class, by capturing political power, with that power in their possession they will set about the task of building a new order of society which will conform to the interests of all.
The World Commune
Today we are in a global recession and governments everywhere are engaging in reducing spending and imposing austerity cuts. But why should it always be the workers, the actual producers, us poor wage-slaves, and never the real scroungers, those in the City of London and on Wall St, who are called upon to sacrifice themselves for the common good? The answer to this question is perfectly simple. It is because we are living in a capitalist world, a capitalist system, and the Government and all the political institutions of which it represents, exist to maintain, capitalist interests. To make profit is the sole object of all production. Investors and hedge-fund managers are not concerned with supplying human needs. All they are concerned about is making profit by the exploitation. It is truly absurd that a mere handful of plutocrats should be masters and owners of the wealth of the world. All misery, all injustice and disorder, results from the fact that one class monopolises the means of production and of life, and imposes its laws on another class and on society as a whole. We are seeing signs that the working class wakening up to the fact and is beginning to rouse from its long slumber. The Socialist Party of Great Britain has always maintained that the working class should jealously guard the right and the power to strike; that they should refuse to be shackled by any sort of compulsory arbitration, or any other restriction on their right to withhold their labour; and we have always given support to workers who have been on strike. Victory will come to the working class only if it is conscious and willing to struggle.
Socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have some idea of what it is. If the people who vote for a socialist do not do so because he or she is a socialist but because they do not know that he or she is a socialist, of what use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness of the working class and not upon their lack of knowledge. The idea that we should first be elected to office and then teach socialism to the masses is so utterly absurd that it should not even be discussed. It can be stated with the greatest of assurance that a party described as a socialist which refrains from teaching socialism with the idea that they will do so after elected will forget all about socialism once in office.
The first condition of success for socialism is that its adherents should explain its aim and its essential characteristics clearly, so that they can be understood by every one. We must do away with many misunderstandings created by our adversaries. The work of the SPGB is to help to educate the people by every effective means; and the knowledge we have to help them to is threefold--to know their own, to know how to take their own, and to know how to use their own. Part of our function is to educate the people by criticizing all attempts at so-called reforms, whose aim is not the realisation of equality, but the hindering of it. State capitalism’s or nationalisation, or by whatever name it may be called, aim is to make concessions and administrative changes to the working class while leaving the present system of capital and wages still in operation. With state ownership exploitation will continue as in private enterprise. Class relations which leaves the working class as a subject class is not socialism.
Socialist society will be voluntary in the sense that all people will agree in its broad principles when it is fairly established. A world socialist society is the only solution for the contradictions in the present capitalist society. Only a socialist society can utilize rationally the natural resources and productive machinery of the earth in the interests of the peoples of the earth. A federation of socialist communities can alone solve the conflict between the efficient development of productive forces and the restrictions of artificial national boundaries. All differences of class must be abolished by transferring the ownership of the means of production and of life, which is to-day a power of exploitation and oppression in the hands of a single class, from that class to the whole community. The rule of the minority must be substituted the universal co-operation of everyone. And that is why the essential aim of socialism is to transform capitalist property into social property. The rights of all individuals are guaranteed to-day, to-morrow and for ever.
Socialism will be an emancipated world, a society of economic and social equals wherein class divisions, privileges and disabilities will for the first time in history be impossible; a system of social ownership of the means of production industrially administered by the workers on an organised and harmonious plan, ensuring from every man according to his capacity and to every man according to his needs, under the motto “All for each and each for All”. The social revolution is the essential objective of the World Socialist Movement when the class war has been for ended, when humanity shall no longer cower under an oppressor and when none shall be called master and none servant. Socialism makes possible a society where there are no national prejudices or racial antagonisms or religious persecutions. It removes the CAUSE of these poisons. It makes possible a free society of human beings.
The Invisible Unemployed
Unemployment may be falling in Scotland in recent months but there is an ongoing increase in the number of people in part-time work and in temporary jobs.
There were 652,000 part-time workers in Scotland in the year to March 2010, but this had risen by 36,000 by March this year. The number of temporary workers has jumped 10,000 since June last year and stood at 128,000 in the year to 20 March. That is near enough a third of all Scottish workers.
Some workers will choose to work fewer hours, it is estimated that about a 250,000 Scottish workers are “underemployed”.
National figures show that 330,000 more people are underemployed in the UK than in 2010, including 200,000 with dependent children.
Keith Dryburgh, policy manager at Citizens Advice Scotland, warned “Citizens Advice bureaux are increasingly seeing people who want to work longer hours but cannot find them in a difficult economic climate. These are people who are struggling to make ends meet, and yet are often ‘invisible’ in the government’s statistics about employment.”
There were 652,000 part-time workers in Scotland in the year to March 2010, but this had risen by 36,000 by March this year. The number of temporary workers has jumped 10,000 since June last year and stood at 128,000 in the year to 20 March. That is near enough a third of all Scottish workers.
Some workers will choose to work fewer hours, it is estimated that about a 250,000 Scottish workers are “underemployed”.
National figures show that 330,000 more people are underemployed in the UK than in 2010, including 200,000 with dependent children.
Keith Dryburgh, policy manager at Citizens Advice Scotland, warned “Citizens Advice bureaux are increasingly seeing people who want to work longer hours but cannot find them in a difficult economic climate. These are people who are struggling to make ends meet, and yet are often ‘invisible’ in the government’s statistics about employment.”
It's not all over yet
The eight-year programme of cuts to budgets for running Scottish public services is only 40% over.
The analysis, by the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) in Glasgow shows 60% are still to be applied between this year and 2017-18. The deepest cuts in that will be towards the last two years of the spending period. A £2.7bn real terms projected cut in resource spending still to come will be increasingly hard to accommodate, especially given the £1.8bn already experienced since 2009-10.
Professor John McLaren, one of the authors of the study, said: "The day-to-day, or resource, budget cuts still to come include some of the harshest annual reductions seen over this period".
The analysis, by the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) in Glasgow shows 60% are still to be applied between this year and 2017-18. The deepest cuts in that will be towards the last two years of the spending period. A £2.7bn real terms projected cut in resource spending still to come will be increasingly hard to accommodate, especially given the £1.8bn already experienced since 2009-10.
Professor John McLaren, one of the authors of the study, said: "The day-to-day, or resource, budget cuts still to come include some of the harshest annual reductions seen over this period".
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
Food for thought
Thomas Walkom of The Toronto Star in writing about the current recession, quotes Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, referring to Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter who famously called boom and bust capitalism a process of creative destruction, "We've certainly had the destruction. But the creative side of the equation has been delayed" Agreed, but whose destruction are we talking about? The same article gives us a clue, " Employment insurance has become
particularly irrelevant. A new study by the Canadian Labour Congress calculates that only 35% of the jobless now qualify for EI. In Ontario, the percentage is 25, in Toronto 20." (although everyone and their employers contribute!). John Ayers
particularly irrelevant. A new study by the Canadian Labour Congress calculates that only 35% of the jobless now qualify for EI. In Ontario, the percentage is 25, in Toronto 20." (although everyone and their employers contribute!). John Ayers
Begs belief
Glasgow and Aberdeen are pressing for new by-laws to tackle the perceived problem of street-begging. The two city councils hope to enlist support of others to persuade the Scottish Government that new measures are required.
A law already covers begging which is obstructive, or causes fear or alarm.
A Revolutionary Idea
There is no other social power equal to a revolutionary movement in modern society. Armies crumble under revolutionary pressure as soldiers refuse to fire on peaceful protesters; police repression is shown to be powerless, and long-standing status quo political parties are cast aside and made redundant. If successful, a revolutionary movement can fundamentally change society. The Socialist Party of Great Britain endeavours to instill into the minds of our fellow workers the hope of the speedy advent of the socialist revolution.
We are all permeated by an uneasy feeling that all is not quite right with the world. Humanity is divided into two classes — the employers and the employed. We are socialists, and our purpose as a political party is to advance the case for a socialist society, and by socialism we mean the common ownership of wealth production, and this involves the complete replacement of the capitalist system, and the conducting of all industrial relations on a co-operative basis. The interest of each is that of all. The capitalist class, who own most of the land and the tools of production, also own the government and rule the working class, not for the well-being of the working class but for the well-being and profit of the capitalists. It is only by using their political power that the capitalist class make their exploitation of the workers legal and the oppression of their system constitutional. And it is only by using their political power that the working class can make their own exploitation illegal and their own oppression unconstitutional. It is only by the use of their political power that the working class can abolish capitalist rule and privilege, and establish a form of society based on the collective ownership of all the land and the tools of production. Organized in the political party - the Socialist Party - workers can, through the ballot box, abolish the capitalist system of ownership with its accompanying class rule and class oppression, and establish in its place socialism.
The label “revolution” implies that the overwhelming majority of people have decided and are dedicated to a specific path for society. This means that the “masses” are passionately intervening to change society, overcoming fear and repression until their objectives are met. In this sense revolution is the highest form of democracy, since it’s the clearest expression of the people’s will, expressed through ongoing massive deliberate action. Revolution is a display of power by working people, who collectively choose to assert themselves into public life in order to change it. In non-revolutionary times working people do not actualise their power; they aren’t even aware that they have any, as they passively ignore any role in social life as individuals, silently delegating their political power to capitalist-bought politicians. The ultimate sign that a situation has entered a revolutionary period is that the masses directly intervene in social life as an independent, powerful force, through ongoing collective action. The people seek to actualise their power. There is no revolution unless people are massively asserting their power in the streets, workplaces, and neighborhoods. A revolutionary movement is also inevitably a battle for political power.
The revolution can only issue from the masses, and it is only through the masses that it is carried out. Workers cannot be driven, lured, or bulldozed into it. “The mass must learn to fight, to act in the struggle itself.” wrote Rosa Luxemburg. Socialism has come to build, not to destroy.
Monday, August 05, 2013
Food for thought
Eighty-two-year-old Alan Gosling died after being evicted from his Toronto Community Housing Corporation subsidized apartment in June, 2009. He failed to keep up with paper work verifying his low- income status. Locked out, Gosling lived in a stairwell until he was then taken to a shelter where he picked up an infection that killed him. A recent enquiry into the treatment of seniors at TCHC homes found, "The current strategy of sending tenants a constant stream of
letters, some of which use threatening language, needs to change." So it took four years to come up with that little goodie. Under capitalism if you ain't got the money (or you are useless to the production of surplus-value), you don't count. John Ayers
letters, some of which use threatening language, needs to change." So it took four years to come up with that little goodie. Under capitalism if you ain't got the money (or you are useless to the production of surplus-value), you don't count. John Ayers
The Task and Goal of the Socialist Party
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It's a commonplace sentiment that politics is broken. Every week brings more evidence of disillusionment. The debased nature of politics, however, is only the most superficial symptom of our problems. It is clear that we face problems with the capitalist system and not simply political problems. These days, no matter how hard we work, how much we manage to save or how carefully we plan for the future, we are getting no-where.
Propaganda by the system’s apologists is an old proven means to modify the consciousness of population. It has been practiced under the disguise of “objectivity” - data are selected, articles are written and fed to the press, “balanced" TV programmes are delivered. In addition to mere skilled disinformation we are plain old lied to deceived.
The struggle for political supremacy is not between political parties , as it merely appears on the surface, but it is a struggle between two hostile economic classes, the capitalist and the working class. Deny it as they may or ignore itif they so choose, the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class struggle, and as more and more come to understand they will rally to the political standard of the workers’ party to find their true place in the conflict and strike a united blow against wage-slavery and achieve full and final emancipation. Nothing can stop the march of a popular socialist revolution. Our revolution will not be the fruit of a lucky chance but rather of bitter prolonged struggle. Our revolution will not be the work of a minority for one does not make the revolution for the masses; it is they who make it. The working class must be emancipated by the working class.
The ballot expresses the people’s will. The ballot means that workers have a voice to express its wishes. Centuries of struggle and sacrifice were required to acquire this freedom and we should use it wisely. The first step in this direction is to sever all relations with the capitalist parties. Labour, Tory, and the Nationalists alike, differing only in being committed to different sets of capitalist interests. They however have the same principles under varying colors, and are equally corrupt united as one in their subservience to capital and their hostility to the working class. It is an ignorant worker who supports any of these parties for he forges his own chains and is the creator of his own misery. Workers who support the capitalist politician are guilty, consciously or unconsciously, of treason to their class. They are voting into power the enemies of labour.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain is not a capitalist party. Its mission since its foundation in 1904 it is to conquer capitalism on the political battle-field, take control of the State and take possession of the means of wealth production, abolish wage-slavery and emancipate all workers and all humanity. In the world, today, reformism dominates the workers’ movement. The overthrow of capitalism is the object of the Socialist Party and on this principle we shall not compromise. The Socialist Party is honest, both in its statements about what socialism is, and in its desires to have within the Socialist Party only socialists. Reformists conceive of political action in terms of a modification of the political and economic regime of capitalism. The Socialist Party, on the other hand, regards political action to capture the state power in its entirety.
The working class constitutes the majority of the population, however, they are unable to marshal their strength because the class is divided and disunited. Nevertheless, the working class has a militant history of fighting for improved wages and working conditions, for union organisation, for recognition of political rights. Once again, we see an upsurge in the working class as the economic conditions worsen with the current crisis. But not only must we unite to defend our basic democracy, our wages and our working conditions we also have to struggle towards socialism. The working class has to organise itself as a united fighting force to achieve a decent living and working conditions and destroy the capitalist system of wage slavery and establishing socialism. At present, the objectives of the workers are on the economic and not on the political level. They seek to protect wages and working conditions rather than fighting for a better world.
The Socialist Party’s task is simply to help the workers march faster and without faltering toward the socialist goal. We decline to advocate palliatives or as Thomas Paine put it, “administering medicine to a corpse.” The Socialist Party defiantly challenges the capitalist class, relying upon the awakening working class to muster under its banner.
It is as Eugene Debs said:
"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked and clubbed into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but, notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as the setting of the sun.”
Remembrance
Sixteen million people died in the First World War. No fewer than one in 40 of the nine million British and Commonwealth troops came from the single city of Glasgow. 200,000 men from Glasgow fought, 17,695 were killed and many many more were wounded with lasting injuries and lost limbs. We should remember the futility of their deaths in “the war to end wars”
16,000 British men are recorded as being conscientious objectors. The Richmond Sixteen were 16 men taken from Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire where the Non-Combatant Corps was based, to an army camp in northern France, refused to unload supplies. They were court-martialled and, as an example to others, sentenced to death by Lord Kitchener. They were only saved from this fate by Kitchener’s own sudden death and the prime minister, Asquith, who their sentence to 10 years’ hard labour. We should remember the social stigma these heroes had to bear for the rest of their lives.
Sunday, August 04, 2013
Food for thought
A recent story on The Guardian website claimed the US Foreign Intelligence (?) Surveillance Court granted the FBI unlimited authority to access data on phone calls from April 25 to June 19. They are now collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon communication customers. In other words, privacy laws can be
subverted any time the powers-that-be want. Of course, nobody other than those giving the orders likes it. There is a solution to a world of snooping on each other but it won't be found in capitalism. John Ayers.
subverted any time the powers-that-be want. Of course, nobody other than those giving the orders likes it. There is a solution to a world of snooping on each other but it won't be found in capitalism. John Ayers.
No Old Bangers Here
The present economic crisis in the UK has been so severe that many workers face unemployment, wage freezes and in some severe cases repossession of their houses. No such problems exist for the owning class. 'Wealthy Britons have spent £91 million buying new Ferraris this year, making Great Britain the biggest European market for the Italian car company. According to Ferrari's global sales figures for the first six months, 415 models have been sold in the UK, an increase of 6 per cent, with the average purchase price standing at £220,000.' (Times, 2 August) RD
Capitalist Civilisation - An oxymoron
We pride ourselves on our system, which we call “civilised,” and compare it with those primitive forms of society which we call “barbarian.” We point to our great works of art, our wondrous discoveries in science, our massive buildings and our machinery of all sorts.
Yet our “civilisation” has a class of people called capitalists – those good, kind, benevolent employers, to whom we go cap in hand, cringing for the privilege of being permitted to work for them. His place in our social system is to extort a profit out of the worker by buying our services as much beneath their true value as he can possibly procure them. The more extensive his trade, the greater will be his power over his employees. The wealth he has accumulated from his labourers gives him the power to regulate commerce. He has so much wealth he can live in idle leisure if he so wishes. This the labourer cannot do, for our earnings have nearly all gone within a matter of a few days.
These grand works of art exist, true enough but rather than enjoy their beauty, they are bought and speculated as an investments. Wondrous scientific discoveries are constantly being made, but the reward is to the owner of the patent and not to the people. No sooner is a thing produced than it passes into the hands of others. The builders do not live in the fine houses they construct, but live in wretched inner-city tenements or tiny suburban boxes.
We are engaged today in a class war; and why? For the simple reason that society has been mainly divided into two economic classes—a small class of capitalists who own practically everything and workers who possess very little. Between these two classes there is an irrepressible conflict. Unfortunately, the worker has not fully understood the nature of the conflict, and for this reason has failed to accomplish any effective unity of his class. It is a vain and hopeless task, wasting time and energy, to endeavour to harmonise the interests of the boss and his hired hand. Nor is it part of the mission of the Socialist Party to conciliate the working class with the capitalist class. We are organised to fight that class.
War and strife of all kinds mark this civilisation’s success and regardless of government they all rest upon appropriation and exploitation. All law is made to protect property and proprietors and there is no law for the poor. The exploitative employer is the economic master and the political ruler in capitalist society. Plutocracy rules.
The average worker imagines that we must have a leader to look to; a guide to follow. We have been taught to be dependent. We have relied too much on leaders and not enough on own self-reliance. As long as we can be led by an leader, we can be betrayed by a leader. Not all leaders are dishonest or corrupt. That would be a too sweeping a statement but we should not place our trust in any and instead take responsibility for own decisions.
We are engaged in a barbaric competitive struggle in which workers are fighting each other to sell themselves into slavery and fighting each other to keep soul and body together. And this is called civilization! What a mockery! There is no real civilisation in the capitalist system.
Surely, the present system cannot go on for ever. The present system is destroying us and the planet we inhabit. We, wage-slaves have to emancipate ourselves. It can be done. It must be done. It shall be done for the last day of the capitalist system and the first day of the socialist commonwealth is in our own hands. Today there is nothing so easily produced as wealth abundance wealth enough for all. Today there is no excuse for poverty. And, today, we can begin to change this.
Saturday, August 03, 2013
Fact of the Day
The 10th Duke of Buccleuch - a title created in 1663 for the illegitimate son of Charles II - is now Europe's largest landowner with holdings valued at more than £1bn, according to the Independent
Throw off the chains!
Many are not in trade unions and many in their desperation have turned on the union as the cause of their misery. Why should they side with their employers? Why enrich the boss who has the power to dismiss you at will?
Because you get a wage, and that wage suffices to keep you working for the capitalist and you can pay the rent and get fed. You have been turned into a wage-slave. He belongs to another class, the ruling class, and you belong to the lower class, the subservient class. You are in an overwhelming majority and they only a few yet, they own practically everything and rule the land. And they will keep on owning and ruling the land as long as you allow them to; and you will allow them to as long as you persist in voting for their politicians, instead of uniting and acting solidly with and for each other and against the capitalists. It is because of your ignorance that you don’t understand your own interest and believe you need rulers to control you. But you don’t need them. The working class do all the producing and manufacturing. The bosses could not exist second without you. A capitalist without workers cannot exist. While the capitalist could not exist without you, however, you could do just fine and would actually begin to live without them.
Capitalism is based upon the exploitation of the working class; and when the working class ceases to be exploited, there will no longer be any capitalists. What has the investor of a factory got to do with its operation? Absolutely nothing. They simp1y live off the profits and dividends of what is produced there, because you will allow it to be so. He does nothing and gets everything, and you do everything and get nothing. Some deal! Without you society would cease. Society does not need the idle capitalists. They are parasites. They are worse than useless. They simply take what you make, leaving you in poverty. You make things in great abundance, but you cannot possess them. You can only consume that part of your product which your wage, the price of your labor power, will buy.
If you think that you ought to have a master to rob you of what you produced—if you think that you are so helpless that you would die unless you had a master to give you a job and take from you all except just enough to keep you working for him; if you think that workers ought to fight each other; if you think that unity, the unity of the union would be a bad thing for the working class; if you think that your interest is identical with the interest of the capitalist who robs you; if you think that you ought to be in slavish submission to the capitalist who does nothing and gets what you produce; if you think that, then certainly you are a happy wage-slave. As an individual worker you cannot escape from wage-slavery. It is true that one in a million may become a capitalist but he is the exception that proves the rule. The wage worker in the capitalist system remains the wage worker. There is no escape for you from wage-slavery by yourself.
Having said you cannot alone break out of chains, if you will unite with all other workers who are in the same position that you are;if you will join the organization that represents your whole class, you can develop the power that will achieve your freedom and the equal freedom of all. No matter who or what a worker may be, if he or she works for wages they are in precisely the same economic position that you are, your class; your comrade.
The Socialist Party has declared war upon the capitalist class, and upon the capitalist system. We say: Arise! It is in your power to put an end to this exploitation. Make yourselves the masters instead of being the slaves to the machine. Abolish the wage system, so that you can be free. Build the houses and live therein; plant the orchards and vines and eat the fruit thereof. The workers who sustain and maintain the world, will take possession of the world and turn all into the common property of all. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for. Our demand is modest: We demand the Earth for all the people.
Adapted from here
Health and safety in sport
Recently, Socialist Courier, touched on the fact that health and safety of rugby players are deliberately overlooked. Once again more facts are being produced about the long term health risks of contact sports and once again it focusses on head injuries and concussion.
A brain injuries expert has discovered what he believes to be the first confirmed case of early onset dementia caused by playing rugby.
Dr Willie Stewart said the discovery suggested "one or two" players competing in the Six Nations every year may go on to develop the condition.
He examined sections of brain tissue for abnormal proteins associated with head injuries and dementia.The former rugby player had higher levels than a retired amateur boxer.
The boxer had been diagnosed with dementia pugilistica - more commonly known as punch drunk syndrome - which is thought to affect up to 20% of boxers who retire after long careers. Symptoms, which usually appear between 12 and 16 years after the boxer's career begins, can include memory, speech and personality problems, tremors and a lack of coordination. The condition has been recognised for more than a century, and until recently had been thought to only affect boxers who suffered repeated concussive injuries through being punched in the face.
But Dr Stewart said: "What we are finding now is that it is not just in boxers. We are seeing it in other sports where athletes are exposed to head injury in high levels.Those sports include American football, ice hockey and also now I have to say I have seen a case, the same pathology, in somebody whose exposure was rugby."
Obviously the positives of team sports such as rugby outweigh the negatives they also carry but when sport becomes an industry and the individual participants welfare becomes secondary to that industry's interests than our position is that an injury to one, is an injury to all. That entails all means are used to minimise risk and and eliminate lasting physical damage and the profits and costs be damned!
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