Scotland's 1%

Scotland's top earners have increased their income at a greater rate than the rest of the nation's workers in the past decade, according to a report. Scotland’s highest earners have pulled away from the rest of the country’s workforce, after increasing their share of total incomes by nearly 50 per cent in a decade. The top 1 per cent – made up of 25,000 people earning more than £120,000 a year – are estimated to earn a tenth of all income in Scotland,

It said those in the top 1% income bracket could expect to earn 20 times more than someone in the bottom 1%.  The richest 1% of earners contribute a fifth of income tax raised in Scotland.

It says the explosion in “superstar” wages – typically for company chiefs and financial executives – has led to an overall increase in wage inequality over the past 20 years, with wage growth among low and middle earners failing to keep pace. Much of the increase in wage inequality in Scotland has been driven by increased part-time working. This was particularly the case in lower-paying occupations, and although this has increased inequality, the authors noted that some workers may prefer shorter hours. The report also suggested that another important factor has been the changing job market. The share of higher-paying and lower-paying jobs increased between 2001 and 2010, while the share of middle-wage jobs fell, which was as a result of technological change and globalisation.

David Bell, professor of economics at Stirling University, said: "Though an independent Scotland would have more powers to address inequality, its room for manoeuvre would be constrained by these wider forces. Inequality in Scotland, like in many developed nations, is partly being driven by technology, by trade, and even by how we decide to form households. So, there are likely to be limits to the extent that a small open economy can reduce inequality. Scottish independence would provide opportunities, but the constraints that already exist would not go away."

The report lists 35 OECD countries, and it ranked the UK seventh in terms of income inequality, behind Chile, Mexico, Turkey, the United States, Israel and Portugal. Scotland was ranked 18th, below Ireland, Spain and Italy but ahead of France, Sweden and Norway. Iceland was ranked the most equal country of the 35. While the taxation system means the UK is not rising up the list, the report says income inequality is increasing and being driven almost entirely by the wages of the top earners. Those in the top 2 per cent were ranked as those earning more than £86,000, while those in the top 1 per cent were earning more than £119,000. The report found that, in 1997, the top 1 per cent earned 6.3 per cent of total pre-tax incomes. By 2009, that had increased to 9.4 per cent – a rise of 49 per cent.

Buying a nationality

Malta set a price tag for acquiring citizenship: 650,000 euros (£548,000)
Spain grants residence to foreigners who spend at least 500,000 euros on real estate or invest at least 2m euros in Spanish government bonds.
Hungary grants residence to foreigners who invest at least 250,000 euros in government bonds.
Cyprus cut the amount of investment required to be eligible for citizenship, from 10m euros to 3m, in its existing "citizenship by investment" programme.
The UK also offers a fast-track residence scheme for foreigners prepared to make a big investment.
Wealthy foreigners can settle permanently in the UK if they have been officially resident for at least two years. The continuous residence requirement is two years for individuals who have at least £10m in personal wealth in the UK; three years for those with at least £5m in the UK and five years for those with at least £1m.
Netherlands plans to give residence to foreigners with more than 1.25m euros in their bank account.

Rich people who want to get abroad and can 'buy' a residence permit for Canada, Singapore or the USA [and Thailand.]

What immigration problem?

From here

Food for thought

The Toronto Star published photographs of children working in Bangaldeshi garment factories. The captions read, " A young boy sleeps at his sewing machine after a long shift in an open-air garment factory…" and , " Twelve –year-old girls glue on sequins at the AT garment factory", and how about, " Shakil Khan, 10, has worked for four months as an unpaid trainee. When he finally gets a salary, it will be $4 a day." Capital doesn't care, the human race should! John Ayers.

THE MODERN CLASS STRUGGLE

Politicians like to portray themselves as modern and progressive in their political outlook unlike the harsh Victorian politicians of the 19th century. Modern and progressive are hardly the words to describe this statement however. 'Feckless fathers should be put in chains and made to work to pay back the costs of bringing up their children, David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, said. (Times, 13 November) Davies views perfectly reflect how many of the owning class view the modern working class. RD

We Won't Be Fooled Again

Today, despite all the promises that the likes of the Depression of the 1930’s would never happen again, the world is in the grips of economic and political crisis. Mass unemployment is already a reality. Workers rights and a whole range of health and social services are under fierce attack. Never have we stood in greater need of fundamental solutions. As a result of this recession workers in the country are in fear of losing their jobs. Every self-employed sub-contractor is in fear of bankruptcy looming ahead. The way to win workers away from Tory, Labour and Liberal is to tell them the truth.  And the plain fact is that the continued existence of capitalism will bring unemployment, wage cuts, poverty and insecurity to most people. The productive capacity of the country, which could produce an decent  standard of living for all, is not being utilised. Industry is being run not for use, but for the profit of the big banks, financial tycoons, multi-national corporations and the big land and property owners.

In fact, from the point of view of some Big Businesses the economic recession such as this was not at all unwelcome, provided it did not turn into a political revolution. A crisis furnishes an excellent challenge in the game of competition in which Big Business can emerge the winner by an overwhelming margin through bull-dozing Little Business into the ground. These far-flung business empires, of a scope and size unimaginable to previous generations, treat the entire planet as their domain. They are a law unto themselves, free to roam the globe in search of cheaper labour, more exploitable resources, more pliant governments and greater profits.  Governments have put themselves at the service of these giant corporations. They now hold the power of life and death over every region and industry. Workers are their pawns in a global game of mergers, shutdowns, and relocations. Simply look at the examples of INEOS and BAE. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, extentions of machines—as long as they provide dividends. Employers use their power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers through layoffs, shutdowns and purposeful neglect of health and safety. Unions, despite their brave efforts, have difficulty eliminating even the worst abuses of management power.

The recession and slump in company profits mean the capitalists can no longer make the old concessions and the fate of us all is now at stake, as the government continue to add their austerity cuts to our woes. The Conservatives and Labour offer nothing but wait-and-see-and-hope platitudes with policies that punish the population for the crimes of an economic system.

It is a law of capitalism that capital moves to wherever the profit is highest. Capitalism is a system of production for profit: for the accumulation of more capital. Companies therefore produce only the products that give them the greatest profit, and they try to set up their enterprises whenever the most favorable conditions for making maximum profits are to be found. The welfare of the people is simply trampled on by the profit-hungry monopolies: their search for profits is a ruthless rampage that leaves a trail of misery, ruin, hardship and poverty. This is how capitalism works. There is no way to preserve security of employment (let alone full employment) or decent living standards for the people under capitalism. The only way out is socialism. There can be no peace in the class war until the workers organise as a class, take possession of the resources of the earth and the machinery of production and distribution and abolish the wage system. The needs of people, not profit, are the motivating force of a socialist society. We believe in the ability of working people to manage and control their own productive institutions democratically.

Socialism promises more than an ideal. It promises to be the only answer to the pressing challenges before us. The Socialist Party is dedicated to a cooperative commonwealth. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social system from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede the anarchy of the capitalist market and its wasteful competition. Our goal is a socialist world, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. A world where along with our friends and neighbours we work to create all that men and women may need. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. Only socialism is capable of turning technology and globalisation to the needs of people. Socialism is the only option. The flaws of capitalism are too basic, the power of the corporations too great, the chasm separating the compulsions of profit and the needs of people too wide, for anything less to succeed. The half-measures of the reformists cannot meet the challenge. Government intervention—tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate investment and spending—has proven as bankrupt as the failed companies they have strived to protect. Regulatory reforms, aimed at the most blatant abuses of corporate power, have proved impotent. The Welfare State, won by hard struggles, is dismantled and emasculated.  Governments have passed vicious legislation, slashing social services and trampling the basic rights of workers.

Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts the campaign for the socialism once again on the immediate agenda. 

Fact of the Day

Research has found that almost nine million households across the UK would collapse in a week if they suddenly lost their income. One in three UK households or 8.8 million have less than £250 in savings set aside as a financial safety net, and they would be brought to their knees if they lost their income.

The findings show a household with average monthly outgoings of £1,500 would only last five days before running out of funds. But, for a quarter of people, it would be almost immediate as they have no savings at all to fall back on

Food for thought

The Toronto Star is examining clothing manufacturing and the retail sector in Canada. Retail is "a job where workers face low wages and part-time hours; it is the largest employment sector in the country; a business where many employers compete by cutting labour costs (only here, I ask); a growing part of the country's economic future." Capitalist apologists keep telling us that growing poverty of the working class was a mistake by Marx. As wealth to the capitalist class continues to soar, it seems Marx's analysis is getting harder to disprove.
The same series reported on Cambodia, a growing player in the garment--making world. Cambodia was touted as a model for fair labour practices. Right now that means starting work at 7am and sewing T-shirt sleeves until eight or nine at night, six days a week with one hour for lunch and sewing 950 shirts per day, with 25 cents extra for every one hundred shirts above that quota. With all that work, a young woman can expect to receive $130 per month. Now that's fair, by nineteenth century standards that capital hastens to reproduce wherever it can get away with it. John Ayers

Organise for Civilisation

WORLD FOR THE WORKERS

Organisation means getting together with a common understanding and a common end in view, and working systematically for the attainment of that end. For the workers to organise effectively, they must have an understanding of their position in society and of the conditions under which they live and work. If they fail to understand these things, they will organise in an ineffective manner. The effectiveness of their organisation depends on the correctness of their understanding. The better they understand conditions the more effectively they will organise.

The capitalist system  push working people down the economic ladder and concentrate wealth at the top. But promoters of capitalism, who dominate the media debate, simply blame the poor for poverty. Most of poverty is artificially manufactured. It is poverty created in the pursuit of market ideals expressed in recent times by the imposition of neo-liberal economic policies – the sort of policies that cut taxes on the wealthy, do away with fiscal and other business regulations, shred the social safety net, and erode middle-income stability – all while singing the praises of self-reliance and individual responsibility. As a result it has done very well in making the rich richer and the poor both poorer and more numerous. However, the working class is beginning to awaken from its long slumber. Slowly we are waking up. The people — the great "common herd" — are finding out what is wrong with the social, political and economical structure of the system of which they are a part. Slowly but surely the lesson is being learned that capitalists are not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world . They are interested only in profits.

If the productive forces in the world were to be used for providing for the needs of people, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Despite the hunger and famine in dozens of countries, crops in millions of bushels have been destroyed because there was a “surplus”. It was not profitable to feed the starving peoples,  therefore the capitalist class preferred to plough it into the ground. Capitalism preys upon the life-blood of the poor, its ethics are expressed in beastly gluttony and insatiable greed, and whose track of conquest is strewn with the bones of its countless victim.

While the capitalists revel in luxury and riot in extravagance, the workers are condemned to lives of poverty, ignorance, toil and privation. They lack economic security. Poverty and the fear of poverty render their lives miserable. The average worker is not more than a few pay-days removed from a state of dependency. If he or she  should become sick or injured, they would soon become a burden to friends or relatives or to public charity. Thousands are killed annually in the industries. Hundreds of thousands die from occupational diseases. Having little standing before the law, workers are hounded by the police, victimised by the courts and subjected to all kinds of abuse, injustice and tyranny. Millions of children around the world are deprived of education and are stunted and dwarfed physically and mentally by slavery in factories and farms. Millions go hungry to school and suffer from countless diseases brought on by malnutrition.

 Only the unity of the workers can produce that “One World” which can abolish want and oppression, dictatorship and war. Capitalism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart; it ruthlessly sweeps away old traditions and ideas opposed to its progress, and it exploits and corrupts those things once held sacred. The structure of a society built upon such wrong basic principles is bound to retard the development of all people, even the most successful ones because it tends to divert a person’s energies into useless channels and to degrade his or her character. The result is a false standard of values. Trade and material prosperity are held to be the main objects of pursuit and conquest, the lowest instincts in human nature — love of gain, cunning and selfishness — are fostered. Nevertheless, although, crushed, stupefied by terrible poverty, people demand that they shall have some of the beauty, some of the comforts, some of the luxuries which they have produced. Socialism means plenty for all. We do not call for self-denial but for a great production that will supply all, and more than all the people can consume.Such a great production is already possible, with the knowledge already possessed. The majority of the population is not engaged in productive work. The greater part of the non-producers is employed in the buying, selling and advertising of the commodities.

The only way to abolish capitalism is to strike at the root. This is radical action.  The word "radical" is derived from the Latin word "radix," a root and radical means "pertaining to a root." Radical action means action that deals with causes instead of tinkering with effects.  Lacking wealth, workers lack power, and the wealth they produce constitutes the power of the capitalists which is used to hold them in subjection. he workers have a power infinitely greater than that of the capitalists - numbers.

 In socialism the land, the means of production and transport belong to all the people. The title to be one of the joint owners of the earth and its products and the inheritance of collective human labour does not rest on any question of inheritance or purchase; the only title required is that one is alive on this planet. In Socialism no one can lose the right to a share or the common possession. In socialism a comfortable, cultured and leisured people will produce artistic and scientific work for pleasure, and will have the ability and the desire to paint, to carve, to write, to play, and to compose music. They will adorn their dwellings with their arti, and will share them freely to whoever admires them.  There will be no buying and selling, no money, no barter or exchange of commodities.

There can be no organisation without action, and it must be systematic, not haphazard action. Getting together is not enough, we must get together and act systematically, otherwise we are not an organisation but only a herd. When the workers get together to demonstrate or protest they are only making of themselves a target for police-clubs and tear-gas. The power of the workers is not on the street but at the ballot box. If the workers are not  organised, they may easily become a blind force of destruction, unable to check their own momentum, their cry for justice drowned in a howl of rage.

When workers come together and join the Socialist Party, some will be speakers, some others will be writers, some arranging and advertising meetings, some distributing literature, all taking part in its administration, discussing and exchanging ideas, making decisions by the combined intelligence and experience of all, then we are organised and are using our power to the best advantage. Every worker can take part in this activity. Every member being valued equally.

Let us study the social and economic conditions that we may understand them and agree on a common end, and all work as one for the attainment of that end, which can be none other than to take over the means of production and distribution and operate them for use instead of profit. Whatever is good and beneficent in our civilisation can be saved only by the workers.

Cash before Nature

Socialist Courier has reported how the huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ lobby has had a devastating effect on Scotland’s natural wild-life by slaughtering any threat to their grouse. It now transpires that they are also guilty of over-stocking deer herds to the point that they and the environment suffer.

Scotland’s sporting estates must be forced to cull thousands of deer, the country’s most powerful environmental groups have told MSPs. Deer numbers had spiralled and they were damaging the country’s moorland, peatland and “fragile populations” of other native species like capercaillie. The group, the membership of which includes the National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said a voluntary code of conduct has failed to tackle the scourge. But the group suggested that landowners were unwilling to take action because the value of Highland sporting estates is partly based on “the number of sporting stags available to shoot”.

The group argued estates want to keep deer numbers as high as possible to help stalking and called for them to bear the financial burden of culling under a “polluter pays” principle.Landowners warned about the harm this would cause the £105 million stalking industry and the 2,520 jobs it is estimated to support. Scottish Land & Estates, the body representing landowners, said: “Red deer stalking attracts relatively high-spending visitors who come outside the peak tourist seasons. These visitors are willing to come to our more remote areas where employment and other economic activities are scarce.”

Food for thought (updated) - Brazil's Deforestation

Deforestation in Brazil is increasing and that means a decline in the Rainforest. Environmentalists blame farming, mining, and infrastructure projects that are consistent with the Brazilian government's (lack of) environmental policies. 2, 776 square kilometres of the rainforest has been cleared in the last year, a thirty-five per cent increase over the previous year. The city of Los Angeles could fit twice into the cleared areas. One third of all plant and animal species on earth I found in the Amazon rainforest. It's only too obvious what the government's policy is – bring in the profits and to hell with the environment and that is tantamount to saying to hell with the future of the planet. Capitalism must be stopped! John Ayers.

UPDATE

Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July. Environmentalists say the controversial reform of the forest protection law in 2012 is to blame for the upwards trend. The changes reduced protected areas in farms and declared an amnesty for areas destroyed before 2008. The reform, a long-standing demand of the country's farmers' lobby, known as the ruralists, was passed after several vetoes by President Dilma Rousseff. "If you sleep with the ruralist lobby, you wake up with deforestation," Amazon expert Paulo Adario from Greenpeace wrote

Support our troops?

NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR

Among men and women it is commonly held that we should support our troops because they’re protecting our country, they’re protecting the world, and we wouldn’t have freedom without them. It is no wonder such beliefs are widely held since those claims are continually repeated by politicians and the media. The undercurrent of  that “support” and “gratitude” for the military and those who serve in it is intrinsically apolitical. Often, the spectacle of public gratitude to the troops reaches absurd proportions. Recently we witnessed at Ibrox, soldiers chanting and singing along with the hard-core Protestant supporters in a celebration of Armed Services Day.

If our freedom is bestowed on us by soldiers the implication that people should feel boundless gratitude to the military as an institution and all the men and women who serve in it. But it also follows that if our freedom exists only at the pleasure of the military, of course, is that the same military can revoke said freedom if it so desires.

Supporting the military and expressing gratitude for what the military is actually doing around the world, are nothing if not explicitly political sentiments. It reflects the highly effective propaganda that has convinced generations of people that there is virtually nothing for which we should not thank the troops.  There is seemingly no limit to the scope of human activity that many of us sincerely believe would not be possible were it not for the military’s selflessness. We reduce our entire existence as free people to something that only exists at the whim of themilitary, and suffocate critical thought about the military and what it’s actually doing in the world such as the murder of wound prisoners in the name of freedom.

Adapted from here

One Planet, One People, For the Common Good

CLASS WAR

History is forever repeating itself without us learning much from it. The halo of capitalism has been smashed by the recession. The halo of our industrial system is gone. It is no longer a sacred thing, which must not be meddled with because of fear of the consequences. For years the working-class has been silent, a sleeping giant lulled to sleep by its own victories and the ability of capitalism to expand and provide a gradually rising standard of living. The working-class has had to struggle to realise these gains, but this struggle has been contained within the limits and rules established by the system. Now the system has been unable to raise real wages for the majority of workers or to prevent a drop in the living standards.  All sorts of estimates are made of the number of unemployed. One thing is sure. The number is not getting any smaller, but instead, it grows larger as each year passes by. The future looks as black as the past. The workers are beginning to ask: Will unemployment ever end? What is the world coming to? Capitalism’s instability and the growing crisis affects every aspect of life.

The lives of the workers are made up of worry, anxiety, insecurity, and hardships. There is the monotonous grind of uninteresting drudgery, the constant penny-pinching to make ends meet, and the continual necessity of learning to do without things. Workers are  abused like dogs by tyrannical foremen, pauperised by low wages, destroyed by piecework systems, crushed to death by faulty equipment. All this misery is created so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can continue to line their pockets. The only protection the workers have had from the most savage exploitation, the sole thing that has kept us from sinking into complete degradation is our trade unions. These organisations have achieved results entirely upon the basis of the amount of power they have been able to exert.

Profits and wages clash, and profits beat down wages. The two basic classes in our society, the working class and the capitalist class, are locked in a bitter struggle. A handful of capitalists  make fabulous profits off the labour of working people.  All the major means of production - the factories, the mines, telecommunications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of  capitalists who employ millions of workers. Every bit of capitalists’ vast possessions was stolen from the people. It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. At the end of a work week the worker collects his or her pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he or she produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. The bosses get rich, not because they have “taken risks” or “worked harder,” as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and reduce the number of employees with speed-ups, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. And if the boss thinks he can make more profit somewhere else, he just closes his factory and throws the workers out on the street.

The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! As long as the wages system continues, part of the wealth which the workers create will be kept back from them. The share which is withheld from the workers is the larger share, and, as machinery increases and improves, the share will grow larger. The things necessary for the production of wealth must be made the common property of the workers, and must be controlled by them. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, therefore, advocates the organisation of the workers for the purpose of taking control of the means of production. The Socialist Party is not a political party in the sense that other parties are because it has no reform to advocate. Can reforms help the workers? Reforms are the trade of politicians. Reforms invariably result from economic pressures on the employers and so far as the workers is considered, their sole effect is to render tolerable if not beautiful the capitalist or wages system. The revolution comes about because of the economic experience of the working class, and has for its accomplishment the abolition of the wages system and the entire overthrow of capitalism to the end waste and want. We shall not compromise with the capitalists.

There exists a false belief and trust in the Labour Party, which is often considered a working-class party. The majority of its supporters are drawn from the workers.  This party cannot, and will not, free the workers; the workers must free themselves. We workers would be more than foolish to help one section of the capitalist robbers against another section. The capitalist robbers as a whole rob the workers and the robbers’ division of the spoils is not our problem. Rather, our problem is to expropriate the expropriators.

 The World is rich in natural resources. It is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation.  There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker.The working class cannot eliminate exploitation and poverty unless it overthrows the capitalist system.

Quote of the Day

Dennis Skinner: "Half the Tories opposite are crooks"

Speaker: "Please retract"

Dennis Skinner: "Okay. Half the Tories opposite aren't crooks"

Food for thought

As always, the Canadian Communist Party never flags in its efforts to Improve life under capitalism. An article in the September 16-30 issue of "The Peoples' Voice" lists some of their achievements – "such as fighting against fascism, organizing industrial workers into unions, initiating movements to win unemployment insurance, public health care and other social programs, to campaign for peace and disarmament, fighting for the full national rights of aboriginal peoples and Quebec, and to defend Canada's sovereignty." Upholders of capitalism should admire and respect the so-called communist party, whereas we, of the SPC aim for creating a society where none of the social evils the Communist Party is working hard to reform will exist. John Ayers.

COOKING THE BOOKS

Capitalism has elevated book-keeping and accountancy into a near-religion and while this is perfectly understandable in the realms of business it is completely inappropriate when it comes to treating ill-health. 'The scandal over cancer treatment at a leading hospital has widened after it emerged that its own officials now fear that at least 6,000 patients may have had their records falsified to meet treatment targets. Investigations by the Observer into the crisis at Colchester general hospital have also established that inquiries into whether staff were bullied into changing records will include the questioning of the hospital's chief executive, Gordon Coutts.' (Observer, 10 November) Needless to say these 6,000 patients would all be members of the working class. The owning class could afford to pay for first-class treatment. RD

Real Eco-Socialism or Green Reformism

CHANGE THE SYSTEM NOT THE CLIMATE

“It’s blindingly obvious that our economic system is failing us,” said economist Tim Jackson, a professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey in the UK. “It is a travesty of what economy should be. It has absolutely failed to create social well being and has hurt people and communities around the world.”

Jackson and number of ecological economists say the current self-destructive economy must be transformed into one that delivers a shared and lasting prosperity. This kind of Green Economy is far beyond business as usual with some clean technology thrown in. It is what Jackson calls a “fit-for-purpose economy” that is stable, based on equity and provides decent, satisfying livelihoods while treading lightly on the earth. The current growth-worshiping consumption economy is “perverse” and at odds with human nature and our real needs, he said. “Prosperity isn’t just about having more stuff,” he said. “Prosperity is the art of living well on a finite planet.”

With powerful vested interests in the current economy, making this transformation will be difficult but it is already starting to happen at the community level according to Jackson and co-author Peter Victor of Canada’s York University.

Sadly these well-intentioned academics' proposed alternative is another form of capitalism which is not capable of superseding the current system.  Community banks, credit unions and cooperative investment schemes that enhance local communities, creating local currencies and community-owned energy projects simply cannot prevail against the power and dominance of an alliance of corporations and governments. And even if they were to, it would be only a matter of time before in the search for profits to sustain their existence , these enterprises will revert back to the inherent base nature of exploitative capitalism. 

The Day of the People is Arriving

The spirit of our time is revolutionary and growing more so every day. The signs of change confront us everywhere. Social changes are preceded by discontent and unrest and we witness that near and far. Fortunately, the workers do not submit passively. If they did, their condition would be a thousand times worse than it is now.

Professional politicians act in the interests of the bosses and this fact has become so apparent that their sham theatricals have lost their magic and now treated with the scorn and derision by working men and women. We are seeing through the con tricks they have been playing with us, setting the agenda, deciding what election “issues”, all of their own making.

The capitalist system is distinguished by the fact that complete anarchy exists in the production of goods for the market. Within a factory everything is planned but the general system works in a plan-less fashion. Many capitalists compete amongst themselves, and they are all producing for a market, the extent of which they do not know.

In the struggle of the working class to free itself from wage slavery it cannot be repeated too often that everything depends upon the working class itself. The simple question is, can the workers equip themselves, by education, organisation and co-operation to take control of the productive forces and manage industry in the interest of the people and for the benefit of society? The workers must organise their own emancipation to achieve it and to control its limitless opportunities and possibilities. Suppose that you and I, and some thousands of others, agree that socialism is the only solution, what shall we do about it? It is possible that the solution is a correct one only in theory, that there is no way in which we can put it into effect. It is possible that the difficulties in the way are so great that all our attempts to bring socialism into actual existence must inevitably fail. It is necessary to convince many more people, than are at present convinced, of the desirability and necessity for socialism.

The workers who have made the world and who support the world, are preparing to take possession of the world. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class.  We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own enjoyment, and we demand the Earth for all the people. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for.

Socialism is a matter of growth, of evolution, which can be advanced by wise methods, but never by obtaining for it a fictitious vote.Voting for socialism is not socialism any more than a menu is a meal.  We seek only the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less. In our propaganda we should state our principles clearly to convince those who should be with us and win them over through an understanding of our party case. We want the support of of those who believe in socialism and are ready to vote and work with us for the overthrow of capitalism. Nature’s storehouse is full to the surface of the earth. All of the raw materials are deposited here in abundance. We have the most marvelous machinery the world has ever known. Why should any man, woman or child suffer for food, clothing or shelter? Why? Because the capitalist  put his hands of the means of production and declared  “This is mine!”

The idea of socialism is that all the means of production and distribution be owned in common by all of the people, and that every person, who is not too young, or too old, or too sick, cooperate in producing those things which every member of society needs and uses. Instead of having individuals or corporations own all the factories and hire workers to produce goods only when a profit can be made from their sale, society as a whole will own the factories, and the workers will produce the things required to feed, house and clothe all of the people, and to satisfy all of their cultural needs. Administrators and co-ordinators elected by the workers using all manner of statistics, facts and figures will  calculate approximately how much of each article will be necessary to satisfy the needs of society and the factories will be set into motion to produce more than enough of each item. Every geographic region will produce that which it is best fitted to produce.

Instead of the anarchy and wasteful competition that prevail at the present,  production and distribution will be thoroughly planned by the participation of the workers. The plans will be constantly subjected to analysis and revision. It is impossible, of course, to furnish a complete blueprint indicating every detail of the functioning of society under socialism, but one thing we can be certain of.The change in the system of property from private ownership, producing for profit, to collective ownership, producing for use, will solve the major problems facing the workers.

We socialists contend that industry has developed to a point where a sufficient quantity of goods can be produced to assure every one a very high standard of living. Eliminate all the waste under capitalism and the present standard of living is immediately raise ten-fold.

There can be no gradual reform of capitalism into socialism. This is because capitalism operates by means of certain economic laws and, if you introduce certain types of reforms into it, those laws will result in economic collapse. A reform that makes the system less profitable will lead to economic downturn and increased unemployment. Therefore, the reformists get tossed out in the next elections and the conservatives come back to promote the needs of capital.

Nor is every type of reform incompatible with the health of capitalism. Some reforms, quite desirable in themselves, would improve the functioning of the system at the expense of certain entrenched sections of the capitalist class. An example that comes readily to mind is the proposal for introducing a single payer health insurance scheme in the US. This would result in massive savings for both households and the public sector, as well as a huge improvement in health outcomes for the population. It is resisted, however, for two reasons: Firstly, the private health insurance sector would be virtually wiped out and any sector of the capitalist class faced with annihilation will resist it. Secondly, many other sectors of the capitalist class object to such a reform on the grounds that it would set a bad example, that governments should not put any section of the capitalist class out of business because that would be to legitimate putting the rest of them out of business some time.

The capitalist system is not so delicate an instrument that it cannot handle a few reforms that run counter to the need for profits. It is only once they get to a certain point that they seriously affect the system.

POISONED BY PROFIT

One of the most rapid examples of the industrialised advance of modern capitalism is China. However, the Chinese workers must pay a terrible price for this advancing industrialisation. 'The number of lung cancer cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has soared over the last decade. According to figures published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, they have increased by more than 50%. Beijing health officials say smoking is still the number one cause of lung cancer, but they admit air pollution is also a factor. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently estimated that polluted air kills millions of people every year.' (BBC News, 9 November) In their smog-polluted cities the advance of lung cancer is the inevitable outcome of the mad drive for more and more profits. RD

Cheap hospital food

 Scotland’s biggest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s catering budget was slashed last year by £1million and documents released under freedom of information laws suggest the average daily spend per person is just £4.08.

Critics say patients could end up taking longer to heal because they are not getting adequate nutrients and vitamins at a time when they need them most.

Dr Margaret Richie, of Edinburgh University, said it was unlikely the limited budget could provide a healthy diet, unless patients were served baked beans every day.

Killing nature for profits

Mountain hares are facing extinction in large parts of the Scottish Highlands because landowners are killing thousands of them every year in order to protect the grouse shooting industry, wildlife experts have warned. The distinctive mammals are being shot and snared by gamekeepers on grouse moors due to fears that ticks carried by hares spread a viral disease, which can be fatal to grouse. However, experts have poured doubt on claims that killing hares protects grouse.

“A preventable catastrophe has befallen the mountain hare,” said Dr Adam Watson, a veteran mountain ecologist. “This is a national scandal.” This was “due to deliberate efforts by estates to eradicate them,” he said. “Gamekeepers on several estates have told me that they were instructed to reduce hare numbers and to try to eradicate them.”

Watson condemned the government’s wildlife conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), for failing to protect mountain hares under European law. “SNH has known what has been happening for years and has done nothing about it,” he said. “In my view, this is supine behavior, pleasing to or subservient to powerful grouse-shooting interests, but wholly against the wider public interest.”

Tim Baynes of Scottish Land and Estates claims that even though thousands of hares are destroyed each year, this was ‘less than 10% of the population’. The most up-to-date UK population estimate appears to have been made in a 1995 publication. It’s also ludicrous for Baynes to be referring to a (fairly dodgy) population estimate from 1995 – that was 18 years ago.  Baynes also failed to mention was that the 25,000 culled only related to information provided by 90 estates; a further 102 estates (68 driven grouse estates and 34 walked-up grouse estates) did not provide any information to the survey, so the actual figure culled was likely to be considerably higher.

Alex Hogg of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is also quoted in The Herald article, claiming that gamekeepers have ‘no alternative but to suppress the numbers of mountain hares on grouse moors because of the dangers of Louping Ill Virus, which can infect humans’. However, here is an article that suggests humans are “rarely” affected by the Louping Ill Virus. And here is an article about a scientific publication that suggests there is “no compelling evidence base” that culling mountain hares can stop the spread of Louping Ill Virus. A tick-borne disease that seems to be of more concern to humans is Lyme Disease. And what spreads Lyme Disease? Pheasants, amongst other species. Given Mr Hogg’s concern for human health, can we expect to see him advocating a moratorium on the release of 43 million pheasants, per year, into our countryside?