Stormy Weather

Politicians can often be relied upon to talk the most awful nonsense. Religious zealots can also be relied upon for a fair amount of piffle. When they mix politics and religion they are hard to beat though. A UKIP councillor has blamed the recent storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government's decision to legalise gay marriage. 'David Silvester said the Prime Minister had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel". In a letter to his local paper he said he had warned David Cameron the legislation would result in "disaster". ........ In the letter to the Henley Standard he wrote: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war."' (BBC News, 18 January) A "natural disaster" seems a fair description of Mr Silvester. RD

A Party of Principles

 The principles of the Socialist Party are fixed in a declaration. The object aimed at, the end to be attained, remains ever the same. The means to be adopted to give practical effect to those principles change with time, and place, and circumstances and the policy to be followed to attain that end requires to be frequently revised, and sometimes modified, as circumstances change. We cannot say when or how the decisive struggle may be fought, but if we keep our faces ever towards the goal, our ideal ever before us, no step taken will be wasted. Scientific socialism, historic materialism, exists precisely for the purpose of foretelling things. Of what has not yet been experienced it cannot, of course, make an exact forecast, but if we know generally what exists and in what direction it is changing then science must draw the conclusions as to what it will change into. Socialists must draw these conclusions in order that men and women may adapt their actions to circumstances, so that instead of wasting their efforts by working against the future and retarding the development of new forms, they may consciously work to hasten and assist such development.

The Socialist Party is agreed upon their object and that being the social and economic freedom and equality for all, and the realisation of the highest individual development and liberty conceivable for all, through the social ownership and control of all the material means of production. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. This can bring a qualitative improvement in the lives of all. Socialism does not mean mere governmental or municipal ownership or management. State-owned businesses are run for profit just as other businesses are.

Socialism implies the social ownership of all natural resources.  It involves co-operation between individuals and groups of individuals and  the conservation of wealth. In a system of universal co-operation for production for use, all destruction of wealth, all waste, would be sheer loss. Under the present system of capitalism – with its class ownership and control of all natural resources and all means of production – with universal competition and production for profit, waste means gain, and is not only inevitable but necessary. What is blocking the way to economic and social progress? The Socialist Party reply: The system of profit-making, the ownership and control of industry by a few for their own gain and not for the benefit of the people.

Socialism is not some utopian scheme. There will be no overnight miracles inside socialism, but the way will be cleared to achieve a decent, meaningful and productive life for all working people. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership.  This is perfectly certain, the economic forms are fully ripe for the transformation to complete social ownership and control. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production.  What, then, is it that stands in the way? Nothing but the want of education and organisation on the part of the people themselves. Our work, therefore, is still that of agitation, education and organisation. Socialism will be won through the overthrow of capitalism and the seizure of political power by the working class. The people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society.

Production for profit involves the production of a surplus of wealth over which those who have produced it, and who most need it, have no control.  Our concern is with substituting the common social ownership of the means of life for the present system of class ownership.  The demand of the Socialist  Party is for such a complete change in economic conditions as will secure work for all, wealth for all, leisure for all, pleasure for all.  We do not, however, put the cart before the horse.  We believe that changes in religious belief and in social relations will be the consequences, not the causes, of economic changes. Therefore, we are directly concerned in attacking existing economic conditions, not the outward expression of those conditions.

Private ownership of the means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximization. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will benefit the people. Workers will be able to manage democratically their own work places through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society’s.

Socialist democracy would be far broader than what is presently possible since the people’s actual voices will be heard, not simply those of the rich. Socialist democracy will destroy the power of money over politics. The people will elect officials and representatives at all levels of administration. There will be the right of recall and referendum. Classes will disappear, the state will “wither” away. Socialism will realize the ideal “from each according to one’s ability, to each according to one’s need.”

  Our critics urged us to drop our socialist 'dogma’ for the sake of unity. But the object of a Socialist Party is the realisation of socialism and the emancipation of the working class not to reach the best terms with capitalism. The Socialist Party have often been told that we are not practical, that our ideas are of a visionary character, and that we lack knowledge of political affairs. Socialists must explain their aim and the essential characteristics of socialist society clearly, so that we can be understood by every one. We must do away with the many misunderstandings created by our adversaries. The workers are accustomed to organising for defence in to-days trade unions, for instance.   We suggest that just a change in tactics from mere defence to a vigorous attack is all that is required.  It is not enough to strike, the bosses can sack you and then starve you into submission  It is not to build the barricades  and start a street-corner insurrection, in which only the workers' blood is shed and a capitalist can only get hurt by accident! These, of all policies, are the least practicable. But our policy is to seize the political machine which is the source of the ruling class’ strength. It is for the control of parliament that they tell you all kinds of lies, make all kinds of false promises, and bribe the most despicable scoundrels. Don't be misled by those ‘radicals’ who tell you a vote is simply a piece of paper. Behind the ballot paper is real power.

The Impossiblists

Capitalists were always happy to call the old USSR socialist or communist, because it allowed them to say, “Look, there is no alternative to capitalism, see what a mess communism was in the Soviet Union.” They can argue that capitalism is obviously detestable – but is not socialism more detestable? Was it not socialism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that plunged the common people of Russia into the most unspeakable poverty and deprivation? Is not socialism, on the evidence, a system of society which is even more bureaucratic, unfair and irresponsible than capitalism? If socialism is what the people of Eastern Europe have overthrown in favour of capitalism, should we not accept that capitalism is here to stay, and try to reform it a little?

And, of course, capitalism in the Soviet Union was just as rotten as capitalism in any other capitalist country. But real socialism is something all together different.  Socialism means that all the wealth created by the workers became the common property of the working class. Under capitalism, workers have no control over what is produced and how. All that is decided by how much profit some capitalist will gain. But socialism enables the working class to decide how to organize itself and the resources of society to meet the needs of the people. Socialism is the opposite of capitalism and therefore entirely different. Socialism, real socialism, is the only alternative to capitalism.

The general conception of socialists has been that they are a bunch of agitators, with a great preponderance of good-for-nothings, advocating a highly-colored exceedingly fanciful and totally impractical economic scheme. Opponents of socialism frequently say as an objection that there are different kinds of socialists and different kinds of socialism. At one time, even genuine socialists accepted that proponents of nationalisation could be termed state-socialists. Yet such a designation is a contradiction in terms for the state is the representative of the ruling class. State rule always has meant class rule. Words still count largely in the formation of ideas. The state regards reforms as little more than temporary ameliorations of deplorable and often unendurable conditions. The state is used to introduce such palliatives on the behalf of the capitalist class as a whole, rather than just one section of it. The state merely furnishes  better wage-slaves and better organisation for the profit-takers. State control of the economy may be better or it may be worse than private control, but brings with it no change from competition to co-operation such as we are striving for.
State -socialism’s aim is to make concessions to the working class while leaving the present system of capital and wages still in operation. No number of merely administrative changes, until the workers are in possession of all political power, would make any real approach to socialism.  The capitalist class over the years have shown that can happily reconcile themselves to state ownership.

If we socialists do not impress on to the minds of our fellow workers that we are working and fighting for a complete social revolution, which shall abolish the present state and establish a new type of society in its place, we will mistakenly lead them to think we, too, are merely tinkerers with present forms of social development. To allow the term  state-socialist to pass  without demur is to convey a false idea  which causes confusion and hamper our cause to which we have devoted ourselves. We should  refuse to let the word socialism to be hyphenated with state when socialism is about  best sweeping away the state.

Socialists have argued that state ownership takes all control away from the workers and leaves them at the mercy of government ministers and their advisers. State control can never be democratic control but has been shown to be the degrading and despotic control of bureaucrats.

The horrors and problems of capitalism are immediate effects caused by the contradictions which the system has developed. Thus reforms, palliatives, and patches will not rid capitalism of its problems. It must be replaced with the new system of socialism. Socialism is, therefore, not a reform movement. It means a transition from capitalism to a higher system. And that is a revolution. Our political declaration is to aim at the capture of the political machine in order to tear the state, along with its armed forces, out of the hands of the capitalist class, thus removing the murderous power which capitalism looks to in its conflict with the labour movement. The value of political action lies in its being the instrument specially fashioned to destroy Capitalism. The Socialist Party believes in the political weapon as the instrument by means of which the workers can capture the state in order to uproot it. Our repudiation of the concept of state-socialism earned us the title of “Impossibilists.”

Food for thought

 Ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank last year to its lowest levels since satellite Observations began in the 1970s and many experts expect that by mid century the ice will vanish in the summers due to climate change. As the ice thaws, ships are using a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and competition is intensifying for arctic oil and gas. US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, said, " US military will evolve its infrastructure and capabilities and will keep defending US sovereignty in and around Alaska." The US has around 27,000 troops there with ski-equipped C-130 aircraft and nuclear submarines. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has described the arctic as crucial to Russia's economic future and said that Russia will re-open a Soviet-era military base. This is part of a drive to make its northern coast a global shipping route and secure the region's vast natural resources. Here we have a conflict in the making and a clear cut example that wars are caused by the competition for resources by the capitalist classes of various countries. A cooperative world would share the resources for all mankind while safeguarding the environment. John Ayers.

Power to Destroy - Power to Create

The social revolution is the end towards with every step the Socialist Party of Great Britain takes. It is our immediate objective.  The hour is late and urgent action is necessary. The only viable way forward is to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment.  To create a socialist world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution.  The working class  must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society.

All recorded history is the history of class struggles and consequent evolutionary changes in the form of society; the class divisions and institutions varying from age to age according to the current economic basis, and each form being superseded by another when its mission is fulfilled. Today this is more true than ever. An emancipated world of economic and social equals wherein class divisions and privileges will for the first time in history be no longer possible; a system of social ownership of the means of production administered coordinated by communities themselves in harmony, ensuring from everybody contributes according to their  ability and receives according to their needs, under the motto “All for One and One for All”.

We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humanity.  It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars, steals the resources and causes the devastation to our natural environment. People know that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society.  Either we get rid of this outmoded and decrepit system or it will destroy mankind.

It is time for the labour movement too to heed the call of the Socialist Party to discard its futile reformism. We seek a change in the basis of society - a change which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities. The profit-grinding system is maintained by a veiled war, not only between the conflicting classes, but also within the classes themselves: there is always war among the workers for bare subsistence, and among their employers, for the share of the profit wrung out of the workers; lastly, there is competition always, and sometimes open war, among the nations of the world for their share of the world-market.

Moreover, the whole method of distribution under this system is full of waste; for it employs whole armies of clerks, retailers, advertisers, and what not, merely for the sake of shifting money from one person's pocket to another's; and this waste in production and waste in distribution, added to the maintenance of the useless lives of the capitalist class, must all be paid for  and is a ceaseless burden on workers lives.

The people alter the foundations of the economy: the land,  the machinery and factories, the mines. All the means of production and distribution of wealth, must be declared and treated as the common property of all and the waste now incurred by the pursuit of profit will be at an end. The amount of labour necessary for every individual to perform in order to carry on the essential work of the world will be reduced to something like two or three hours daily; so that every one will have abundant leisure for following intellectual or other pursuits congenial to his nature. This change in the method of production and distribution would enable every one to enjoy a decent life, free from the sordid anxieties for daily drudgery which at present weigh so heavily on us all.

Co-operatives would merely increase the number of small  capitalists and would intensify the labour of its participants by the  temptations to overwork and exploit themselves in the competitive struggle to survive and be a viable success.

No better solution would be that of state-capitalism or by whatever name it may be called. Nationalisation, leaving the present system of capital and wages still in operation, would be useless so long as labour was subject to the fleecing of surplus value inevitable under the capitalist system. No number of concessions or administrative changes would make any real difference.

The Socialist Party therefore aims at the realisation of the social revolution, and well knows that this can never happen in any one country without the help of the workers of all the world. For us neither geographical boundaries, race, nor creed makes rivals or enemies; for us there are no nations, but only varied masses of workers and friends, whose mutual sympathies are perverted by different groups of our masters whose interest it is to stir up hatreds between the dwellers in different lands. We are working for fraternity for all the world, and it is only through brotherhood that we can make our work effective.

a world e-waste map !

In what the Toronto Star calls "the dirty underbelly' of electronics (Dec 15) it is revealed that a world e-waste map has been produced and the results are staggering. In Canada, for example the average person generated twenty-four kilograms of e-waste in 2012, 860,000 tonnes for the country or the equivalent of 1,700 fully loaded Boeing 747s. The biggest producer of e-waste was the US with twenty-nine tones per person or 9,359,000 tonnes nationally. These figures are expected to increase 33% by 2017. The map also delineates rich and poor countries. Haiti and Afghanistan, for example are the lowest e-waste producers with just 8,000 and 19,000 tones annually. This is another disaster waiting to happen that is typical of the current economic system. The mantra is to rush out every new device possible and grab all the sales you can without regard to what is going to happen at the end of the line. Just like manufacturers and the mining industry, when you have finished, just walk away and leave the problems to someone else! John Ayers.

Liberate minds not lands

 Without doubt, the world is ripe for socialism, so far as its objective economic development is concerned. What delays the coming of socialism is not the lack of carefully worked out schemes of socialist reconstruction (these can easily be elaborated after the capture of power by the working class), but the absence of the most elementary means for overthrowing our capitalist masters. Short cuts and illusory quick and easy paths to socialism will only lead the movement to setback and defeat. There can be no substitute for the basic ideas of socialism.

The Socialist Party aims at the overthrow of capitalism, not its reform. This system cannot ensure the harmonious growth of the economy, cannot avoid economic crises cannot ensure the well being for all the people.

The capitalist class demands sacrifices from the workers in terms o further reduction in real wages, increases in productivity, cuts in welfare services etc., as the condition of ensuring recovery. But in reality the bosses has no control over the course of the crisis;It is simply a demand that the workers accept the burden of the crisis on their backs so as to ensure the recovery of profits which is the real concern of the employers. The motive of capitalist production is profit and the only issue of “recovery” for the investor class is recovery of profits. Such “recovery” will not alter at all the condition of the working class as wage slaves, or change the conditions of the exploited in relation to the exploiters. In fact, the recovery of the profits of the bourgeoisie can only take place on the basis of the further intensification of exploitation, the further impoverishment and ruin of the masses of the people.  It is a lie to get the workers to make further sacrifices, to accept still more of the burden of the crisis on their backs so that the bourgeoisie can achieve the recovery in profits it is seeking.

Crisis is an inherent feature of capitalism and cannot be eliminated without eliminating the root, the capitalist system.  The anarchy of production and crisis will not be eliminated without putting an end to the capitalist system, thereby removing the contradiction which is at its root, the contradiction between the social character of production and the private capitalist appropriation.

The motive of capitalist production is the securing of maximum profits. Production of goods is in fact an incidental aim of capitalism, as is employment. The bourgeoisie organises production for the purposes of increasing profits. When conditions are such that profits can be increased by increasing production, the bourgeoisie does so, and when conditions are such that profits can only be increased by cutting back production to keep up the price, then that is what the bourgeoisie does. Thus if it serves to increase profits to increase the numbers of workers in production, then this is done; but if profits can only be increased by intensifying exploitation, getting more or the same amount of work out of fewer workers, then this is done instead. These fundamental features of the capitalist system cannot be eliminated without removing the capitalist system itself.

Reformists keep urging workers to use the vote – which is a potential class weapon – to further the interests of British capitalism. In the absence of genuine socialist candidates a policy of abstention or spoiled or blank ballot papers would seem to be how Socialists should act. This would at least be a class-conscious act, a determination not to vote for capitalism whoever runs its political affairs, Labour, Conservative or Liberal. All the capitalist parties, all the parties dedicated to the continuation of the capitalist system of wage slavery, are against the most basic rights and interests of the working class. The workers can only wage their struggle in opposition to these forces. In particular the struggle cannot be one simply to remove the Tory government and replace it by a Labour government. The working class must be prepared for putting an end to the capitalist system.

The so-called left-wing  pretends that crises are not the result of the capitalist system but merely a result of “erroneous policies” of this or that individual manager or government. Through this it strives to divert the working class away from the struggle for its economic and political liberation into parliamentarism, into a struggle to change such and such a policy or government. They preach reformism to the workers. The right wing reformers, the class- collaborationists, advocate de facto submission to the capitalist, giving way to all the demands of the capitalists for the sake of “recovery” that will bring “jobs” and “prosperity for all”.  But, in reality, means recovery of the bourgeoisie’s profits at the cost of increased unemployment and impoverishment of the workers. The “left-wing” representatives criticise the measures of this or that capitalist government while calling on the workers to limit their struggle to one for reform of the capitalist system and  putting faith in the Labour Party.

The working class cannot realise its strategic mission to put an end to capitalism, without the most determined struggle against capitalist apologists and their class-collaborationist politics. The working class cannot achieve its goals and build its unity without the most determined struggle to get rid of this influence of the reformists from  the working-class movement and to break its hold which has been established over the movement. This task can never be reduced to a struggle  to a question of “removing” this or that individual  trade union chieftain. It is a struggle to build the unity of the class in action against the class enemy, opposing their nationalist chauvinism and organising the class to end the capitalist system of wage slavery. The workers can and do fight the encroachments of capital, but they cannot restrict themselves to addressing only the symptoms; they must in the course of their class struggle, prepare for removing the source of the disease, the capitalist system of wage slavery, that is the source of all the problems facing the people, and all that is happening around the world show the urgent necessity to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism through revolution. The working class   engages in powerful mass struggles against the capitalist, in defence of its rights and interests, in the course of this fight, it needs to be  acting with the perspective of preparing the conditions for the success of the revolution to transform society from capitalism to socialism.

The pro-capitalists politicians dismiss this as “unrealistic”. They pretend it is so laughable as not to deserve serious discussion, but behind this stance there lurks the very real consciousness that is precisely the danger facing the wealthy and their exploiting capitalist system. The media do everything to try to ensure that the idea of the transformation of the social system is not even discussed precisely because that is the real danger to the capitalist system. The Socialist Party of Great Britain takes the position that socialists should be organised into an independent political party with only a ‘maximum’ programme: socialism.

‘Utopians’ are still among us, with their scheme for bringing peace, prosperity, and brotherhood to mankind. The ‘utopians’ aim to abolish the profit system and replace it by a system of production for use. They look forward to voluntary labor of a few hours a day, no poverty – in a word, no capitalism. Revolution is not only a possibility, it is a necessity in order to avert the grave dangers facing people of more destitution and  more misery. The working class  have been taking increasingly militant action in defence of their conditions, wages and livelihood. They have shown increasing resolve and spirited  willingness to defy the bourgeoisie and the repressive forces of the state. People have also become increasingly conscious of the necessity for a determined struggle against capitalism. These struggles must be escalated, deepened and intensified and it is essential to see that the advances which have to be be made come from the workers relying on their own strength, unity and organisation, keeping the initiative all the time in their own hands. Workers must fight each and every attack, bearing in mind that the only way to put an end to these attacks and to bring about any security in life is to put an end to the capitalist system. 

Food for thought

  In December, garment workers in Bangladesh will get a eighty per cent Pay increase as the government tries to end the wave of strikes that has taken place since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in May. The new wage deal includes allowances for food, rent, transport, and medical care. That the employers can grant these concessions and still make a profit shows how intensely the workers were exploited. It also shows what workers can achieve when they stand united. However fine this may seem it is merely an improvement within capitalism, (likely to be lost or diminished in the next recession) a system that condemns the majority to work to make a profit for the minority and live in squalor. Better they stand united for socialism where they can set their own standards. John Ayers.

Seize the Time

Despite times of so-called prosperity capitalism has proved completely incapable of solving the problems of the British and world peoples.  Capitalism has landed the country into a new economic crisis, where the only remedy of the economic witch-doctors is to purge the patient and bleed the victim in an economic squeeze for the benefit of their billionaire paymasters.  Cuts in real wages has hit at the worst-paid sections of the working class, but also big layers of the middle income and professional people as well.  What dictates the development of the economy is not its needs but the profitability to big business of production.  If it does not pay, they will always cut down production, in the language of capitalism, where there is no profitable market, no returns, there is no manufacturing.

 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 large corporate cartels. Workers are merely  pawns in a global game of mergers, shutdowns, and relocations as they rob us of our wealth and of the very power to determine our own future. Massive world-wide unemployment and hunger are the legacy of these profiteering multi-nationals. They have proved incapable of turning their vast technology and organization to the needs of people. The waste on war production, for instance, could eliminate hunger in the world.

We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede unregulated private ownership and competition. Our goal is a socialist world, a new social system based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of our people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. 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 a mixed economy dominated by big business cannot meet the challenge. government intervention—tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate investment and spending—has proven bankrupt. Taxation policies have done nothing to correct deep-seated structures of regional and social inequality. Legislative reforms, aimed at the most blatant abuses of corporate power, are faltered and failed. Even reform- minded ‘progressive’ governments have buckled under this pressure, and passed vicious legislation, slashing social services and trampling the basic rights of workers. Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. The Socialist Party shows how the unalterable vampire-like nature of the capitalist system and the ruling class not only promises oppression and exploitation and, in fact, guarantees increased oppression and exploitation.

The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society.  We believe in the ability of working people to manage their own productive institutions democratically.  We offer an invitation to all workers to join us in our common efforts to eradicate a social system based on exploitation, discrimination, poverty and war. The capitalist system must be replaced by socialist democracy. These are high ideals–but not idealism. These are lofty goals–but not impractical. The two choices for workers are to abandon your hopes and aspirations, for the wealthy’s continued profits, or to abolish their system to make realisable your own hopes and dreams. To do the first is to give up life itself, to do the second is to make life worth living. The future is ours, if we dare to take it.

The Importance Of Trivia

Most workers rely on the daily press to find out what is happening in the world but it is an unreliable source. 'Both the Sun and the Daily Mirror use Coronation Street's latest storyline - which sees long-standing character Hayley Cropper use a drugs overdose to end her life - to highlight serious issues.' (BBC News, 14 January)  Claims that French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair - and was seen being transported to his secret rendez-vous by moped was covered extensively by the Daily Telegraph, Times and Daily Express. We live in a society wherein millions starve, and hundreds of thousands suffer the results of military conflict but the mass media concentrates on a soap opera and the sexual activities of a politician. RD

WW1 and the SPGB

Whereas the capitalists of Europe have quarrelled over the question of the control of trade routes and the world's markets, and are endeavouring to exploit the political ignorance and blind passions of the working class of their respective countries in order to induce the said workers to take up arms in what is solely their masters' quarrel, and

Whereas further, the pseudo-socialists and labour 'leaders' of this country, in common with their fellows on the Continent, have again betrayed the working class position, either through their ignorance of it, their cowardice, or worse, and are assisting the master class in utilising this thieves' quarrel to confuse the minds of the workers and turn their attention from the class struggle.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY of Great Britain seizes the opportunity of reaffirming the socialist position which is as follows:

That society as at present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of living by the capitalist or master class and the consequent enslavement of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced.

That in society therefore there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as a CLASS WAR, between those who possess, but do not produce and those who produce but do not possess.

That the machinery of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken from the workers.

These armed forces therefore will only be set in motion to further the interests of the class who control them –the master class –and as the workers' interests are not bound up in the struggle for markets wherein their masters may dispose of the wealth they have stolen from them (the workers) but in the struggle to end the system under which they are robbed, they are not concerned with the present European struggle, which is already known as the “BUSINESS” war, for it is their masters' interests which are involved, and not their own.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY of Great Britain pledges itself to keep the issue clear by expounding the CLASS STRUGLE, and whilst placing on record its abhorrence of this latest manifestation of the callous, sordid, and mercenary nature of the international capitalist class, and declaring that no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a single drop of working-class blood, enters its emphatic protest against the brutal and bloody butchery of our brothers of this and other lands who are being used as food for cannon abroad while suffering and starvation are the lot of their fellows at home.

Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our goodwill and socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism.

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITEE.
August 25th 1914

Only World Socialism Can Save Humanity

All the main parties claims it can solve the country’s problems. But who can believe that the Tories, or the LibDems, or the Labour Party can have any solution to the problems of workers? In elections the Socialist Party of Great Britain takes the opportunity and  occasion to criticise the capitalist parties and defend our alternative of socialism. In our election leaflets we  expose the Labour Liberals and the Conservatives as the parties of the ruling class. Throughout our campaign, Socialist Party candidates insist that socialism is the only solution for working people. It is only by ending the system where a handful of parasites benefit from that the working class will emancipate itself from exploitation once and for all. Our aim is not just to collect votes but above all it is to popularise our views and draw people into the fight for socialism.

Capitalism is kept alive not by coercion but by ideas and these ideas it instills into the minds of  people from the day they start thinking. The schools, the newspapers and books, the tv, radio and cinema are all the means by which the thoughts of people are shaped. They are used by the ruling class that controls them to argue that the society we live in is fundamentally good and correct and by and large, the working class accepts these ideas. If it did not, capitalism could not exist very long. All the organs of ruling class propaganda are mobilised to deceive the masses. They want to sidetrack the workers from the struggle to end the capitalist system and establish socialism. The ‘progressives’ seek only to reform the system, content to defend the capitalists’ profits so long as they aren’t excessive. If the left-wing parties are fundamentally anti-capitalist movement, you’d expect that they would, be weaker when capitalism was doing alright, and stronger when capitalism was doing badly and when an alternative, was clearly necessary. But, it’s the other way round. That suggests the Left is not a fundamentally anti-capitalist movement, but a progressive movement within capitalism, able to grow when capitalism is able to accommodate social progress, but with no alternative to offer when capitalism forces a retreat.

The Socialist Party is not like the other parties which make fake promises they will never keep in order to win workers votes. Most people are not attracted to negative criticism, so they don’t become politically active. Even when life is getting more and more difficult, many believe you can do more to improve your own lot by looking out for yourself than by agitating against the authorities. If you’re unemployed for example, you’ll do better looking for a job, than taking part in protests about it. Often people on the left are even reduced to defending capitalism when trying to persuade others to become active. For example, they want people to take to the streets against the government’s austerity policies. So they say those policies are the cause of all our troubles.

Politicians and economists appear on television and in the press explaining basic principles of Marxist political economy that in not so many words that there’s a world wide capitalist economic recession and there is nothing the or any other government can do about it. In that situation, people have no choice but to put up with lower real wages and welfare benefit cutbacks. After all, it’s happening everywhere, not just in this , so it can’t be the fault of the government. Unlike the leftists, the Socialist Party agree that capitalism doesn’t work and suggests that therefore we ought to get rid of it.  But instead the left-wingers insist that it’s all David Cameron’s fault. They pretend that if only the government followed different policies, it would be possible to have rising real living standards, improving health, education and welfare, and what have you. They’re lying. They know they’re lying, their opponents know they’re lying and most important, the people being  asked to take to the streets know they’re lying, so naturally they won’t come.

If slaves go on demanding that their masters improve their rations, they deserve to remain slaves, because they accept having masters and they therefore accept slavery. We have to build a movement to overthrow our masters, and run the world ourselves, and solve its problems ourselves, instead of demanding that our masters find some solution for us.

The alternative, as everybody already knows, is socialism, a practical alternative that can really work. But if that’s what we’re fighting for, why can’t we spell out (at least in broad outline), just what it means, and how we propose getting there? Why do we always avoid the issue and just talk about how bad things are now? Are we afraid that Socialism isn’t very attractive and we need to paint a even more grim picture of the way things are now, so as to persuade people to opt for the alternative? And that is perfectly understandable when one looks  closely at the sort of “alternative” most people on the Left really want. It is not surprising they don’t want to talk about it and much  prefer just denouncing capitalism.

 A few on the Left actually want to go backwards to a life of low technology rustic simplicity, described sometimes as primitivism but better portrayed as a regression to the more backward neo-peasant society. Then other left-wingers who once looked favourably towards the state-capitalist systems of Russia and Eastern Europe which is now rapidly disappearing from China, Vietnam and Cuba but still clinging by fingernails to the North Korean workers’ paradise. Yet it doesn’t stop them from nostalgically advocating a return to those types of  “socialist” countries, seeking new bosses in a new restrictive regime. But mostly, the majority on the Left simply just want some of the most glaring injustices of capitalist society to be resolved. They want better jobs, housing, education and so forth,. Some believe they can get it without some major upheaval, others argue it needs uprisings.

The Socialist Party has a vision of a better world with fundamentally different social relations. But even we need to rethink the whole approach and really come to grips with the world we’re in and how to change it. As a first step, we need to talk seriously to each other and examine and criticise each other’s ideas in a comradely way. Being united against Cameron and capitalism is not a particularly strong point of unity. We need something deeper to unite us - socialism.

AJJ

The Profit System Kills

Capitalism in its relentless search for bigger and bigger profits cares little for the plight of the working class. A particularly awful example of this surfaced recently. 'Campaigners say 29 retailers had sold or ordered clothing made in the Raza Plaza factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which collapsed in April last year killing 1,127 people. Yet only four have signed up to a £24m fund to compensate injured  survivors and the families of victims.' (Sunday Times, 12 January) The blaze was so severe that in addition to the deaths 2,500 were injured. The reason that retailers like Matalan, Mango and Benetton favoured the Raza Plaza factory? The average salary in Bangladesh is £1,150 per year. Lower wages mean higher profits. RD

Society V Individual

Simple as it may seem to demand the right to good housing, good clothing, good food, good education and good health-care these simple demands cannot be met without the complete overthrow of our present competitive society.  We are socialists out of conviction – because we see capitalism as harmful to the vast majority of the world’s people. This system we live under, by its very nature, sets one group against another. We see in socialism the way of achieving a more just, more cooperative and more peaceful society. Socialists can offer an alternative which can meet the basic needs of people and which is based on cooperation. Socialism offers a future free from the fears of poverty, sexism and racism, free of the rat-race and dog-eat-dog competitive system. As the socialist movement grows in strength, the nearer we will be to creating a society that allows each person to create and produce according to her or his ability and to obtain what she or he needs.

We see the primary task of the organisation to be the fight for socialism. Without unity on essentials, no serious practice is possible. We advocate and work for socialism – that is, common ownership and collective control of the means of production (factories, fields, utilities, etc.) We want a system based on cooperation, where the people build together for the common good.

Socialists are often asked the question, ‘what would you do if you found yourselves with power in your hands tomorrow?’ The Socialist Party does not profess to possess a ready-made detailed scheme for the future of human society. All it proclaims is a system of laws of social evolution which shows the development of society in the past and deduces from that the main principles of the next stage of social progress. As to the details of the arrangement these no human being can see. All we say is, let the organised working class take over the means of production and distribution and run them democratically.  Anything further than this must be left to time and circumstances to work itself out. We cannot hold out a detailed plan of the new society in its complete form.

Socialists are all agreed as to the object for which they are striving – the ownership of all the means of production by the community; that community to be organised on the most democratic basis possible. But, beyond this, socialists are not concerned with the  organisation and administration of the new society; and it is possible that in the conception of what that organisation will be, there may be the widest divergence of view even among socialists. What should be emphasised is that socialists do not wish to impose on the future society a huge bureaucratic system, spreading its tentacles, octopus-like, over all the arrangements of every aspect of social life, crushing all individuality, and reducing every detail of existence to rule and plan. But do stand for social control and regard with suspicion those who endorse absolute individual liberty.

 How far the antagonism between society and the individual will be eliminated or modified by changed conditions only the development of those conditions can decide. We are not called upon to make rules for future society; we can very well afford to let that society take care of itself in that respect, as, in any case, it will have to do, whatever we may say or decide. It is very interesting, no doubt, to speculate on the future arrangements of society, but it is out of our power, and would be impertinent, were it not impossible, to say that these arrangements be thus and so; and any discussion on this matter must necessarily be of an academic character.  Speculations as to the future of society need not of necessity prevent any bodies of men working together for a common object, but when there is a complete divergence of view as to the immediate steps to be taken such co-operation is absolutely impossible.

It is inconceivable that a set of circumstances would always result in the interest of the individual and the interest of the community being absolutely identical. The very essence of socialism, as the word connotes, is that society, the community at large, has interests superior to those of any individual and often antagonistic to the interests of an individual. We are in revolt to-day, against permitting individuals, as landlords and capitalists, to prey upon the community. If any individual stole a book from a public library, or a flowers from a public park, he or she would be enriching themselves at the expense of the community. But if all the individual members of a community did either the one or the other, in the exercise of their equal individual liberty, they would utterly destroy the library or the garden and in endeavouring to enrich themselves individually would despoil themselves collectively. Yet the fear that others might follow this example, and thus cause communal injury may not in itself be sufficient to deter the stealer of a book or flowers. Therefore it is necessary for the community, as a whole, to protect itself from every one of its members, and thus it comes that society has rights and powers and duties superior to those of any individual. No individual has a right to prevent another individual from taking a book or plucking a flower, but society in its collective capacity has such a right, in the interest of the whole of its members, including the individual whose designs may be thwarted by the intervention of the social authority.

AJJ

Class Solidarity

Socialist Courier can do little better than the views on the independence referendum propounded by John Wight, writer and political commentator. Socialist Courier may not endorse all his other political opinions but on his views on Scottish nationalism we can only concur. They reflect the ideas presented by many posts on this blog.

 “ I will be voting ‘No’ in this year's referendum on Scottish independence. I will do so as a statement of solidarity with working people the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

There is undoubtedly much that is regressive – make that despicable – about the British state. The monarchy, the House of Lords, the country’s history of empire, colonialism, and its recent history of sowing carnage and chaos in the Middle East – all of those things add up to a damning indictment of a state formed in 1707 in the interests of a rising mercantile class, committed to colonial expansion and the super exploitation of the planet’s resources.

However, the notion that Scotland and the Scots were not party to this history – or played only a marginal role – is an insult to truth. The ill-fated Darien Scheme of 1698-1700, an attempt by the then independent Scotland to establish a colony in what is now Panama, succeeded in bankrupting the country, which led inexorably to the bulk of the Scottish aristocracy and merchant class – who made up the Scottish Parliament of the day - voting to enter the current union with England in 1707. Thereafter Scots played a disproportionate role in building the British Empire as generals, officers, and soldiers in the army, colonial administrators, slavers, and merchants - in the process creating great personal fortunes, and establishing Glasgow as the second city of the empire.

The unintended effect of the 1707 union was the homogenization of the working class throughout the newly formed British state. This homogenization was based on the common misery they were suffering at the hands of the factory and mill owners who controlled their lives under an economic system of unfettered capitalism. The need to organize collectively in order to resist the brutal conditions of the lives of workers across Britain transcended every other difference – whether on grounds of nationality, race, religion, or gender. This gave rise to the emergence of the trade union movement followed by the Labour Party at the beginning of the 20th century, reflecting the growth in size and consciousness of a British working class. This class identity remains relevant today at a time when the nation is being ruled by the most extreme and callous Tory government in generations. Simply put, it dictates that a bus driver in Glasgow has more in common with a bus driver in Newcastle, Liverpool, or Cardiff than he does with a wealthy fellow Scot.

With this in mind, I have increasingly found some of the arguments being made in support of independence by progressives and socialists within the Yes campaign disappointing. The central of those - namely that voting ‘Yes’ will rid Scotland of the Tories - is not only weak, it is cowardly. Firstly, you may get rid of the Tories but that doesn't mean you will get rid of Tory ideas, a few of which are front and center in the SNP's recently produced independence manifesto (or white paper), titled ‘Scotland’s Future’. The Scottish Nationalist Party’s positions on corporation tax, the monarchy, and NATO membership would sit more than comfortably in the pages of a Tory manifesto.

More importantly, the idea that abandoning millions of people who've stood with us - and us with them - in trade union struggles, political campaigns, progressive movements, etc, for generations - the idea that this can be considered progress is anathema to me. The analogy of the Titanic applies, wherein rather than woman and children, it is Scots to the lifeboats and to hell with everybody else.

Nationalism, unless rooted in national oppression, is a regressive ideology. It obscures the real dividing line in society - namely class - offering instead an abstracted analysis of the world through a national prism that takes zero account of social and economic factors, thus offering nothing but more of the same under a different flag. It is no wonder that Albert Einstein described nationalism as an ‘infantile disease’.

Our nationality is an accident of birth. It means nothing. You can't eat a flag. A flag doesn't heat a home or put food on the table. Nationalism offers a largely mythologized history in the process of inviting us to embrace a national interest, one that can only relate to the world behind false divisions of national, ethnic, or racial differences. Even when it comes to culture, the terms national culture obscures more than it illuminates. The traditional culture of the Highlands in Scotland, for example, means little to me as a Lowland Scot. I can appreciate it, of course, but not anymore or with any more feeling than I do any culture anywhere in the world.

The concept of the modern nation state is a relatively recent one. It traces its roots to the Treaty of Westphalia in the mid-17th century, which brought to an end the Thirty Years War in Europe. Out of it emerged the concept of national sovereignty, a political concept reflective of the early stages of capitalist economic development, with the resultant growth in international trade and the need to expand and protect both markets and sources of natural resources required to feed burgeoning manufacturing industries in the interests of competing capitalists.

However, much has changed in 350 years. In 2013 economic sovereignty does not lie with national governments as it did at one time. Today economic sovereignty in the West lies with global capital under that extreme variant of capitalism known as neoliberalism - or the free market. The notion that separation from a larger state would allow said smaller state to forge a social democratic utopia without challenging neoliberal nostrums is simply not credible. A patchwork of smaller states plays into the hands of global capital, as it means more competition for inward investment, which means global corporations are able to negotiate more favorable terms in return for that investment. The result is a race to the bottom as workers in one state compete for jobs with workers in neighboring states. In this regard it is surely no accident that Rupert Murdoch is a vocal supporter of Scottish independence.

Support for Scottish independence among progressives in Scotland is rooted in despair over a status quo of Tory barbarity. This is understandable. For the past three decades working class communities throughout the UK have suffered a relentless assault under both Conservative and Labour administrations. The Labour Party, under the baneful influence and leadership of Tony Blair and his New Labour clique, came to be unrecognizable from the party that created the welfare state, including the NHS, the party that once held full employment as a guiding principle of its economic and social policy. The embrace of free market nostrums under New Labour meant that the structural inequality that obtained after 18 years of Tory rule remained more or less intact. The market was now the undisputed master of all it surveyed. The consequence of Labour’s shift to the right has been to give rise to cynicism, disappointment, and lack of faith in politics among large swathes of voters, evinced in ever lower turnouts at elections. Issues such as the lies and subterfuge surrounding Britain going to war in Iraq in 2003, the MPs’ expenses scandal of 2011, followed by the phone hacking scandal - during which the unhealthy relationship between the owners and editors of tabloid newspapers and politicians was revealed - has only deepened this cynical disregard for politics and politicians in Britain, giving rise to anti-politics as the default position of many voters.

In Scotland – for decades a Labour Party stronghold – devolution has allowed a protest vote to make the electorate’s feelings towards this Labour Party betrayal of its founding principles known at the ballot box. Regardless, the most significant protest has been a non-vote, with turnouts at elections in Scotland following the pattern of the rest of the country in remaining low. For example, there was only a 50 percent turnout at the last Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2011, out of which the Scottish National Party (SNP) emerged with an overall majority, the first time any party has managed to do so since the Scottish Parliament came into existence in 1999.

However the argument that Scotland is more left leaning than the rest of the UK is one that seeks to conflate conservatism with England in its entirety, rather than a specific region of the country, which in conjunction with the antiquated first past the post electoral system of Westminster elections has thrown up Tory governments that are unrepresentative of where the majority of England and the rest of the UK sits politically. Scotland is no more left leaning than the deindustrialized North East, North West, and Midlands of England. Nor is it any more left leaning than Wales. The working class in Scotland is not any more progressive than its English or Welsh counterpart.

As a consequence, my ‘No’ vote in September will be both a rejection of nationalism as a progressive alternative to the status quo and a statement of solidarity with all who are suffering under this Tory government – not only in Scotland but throughout the United Kingdom.”

Rather than vote No which will be taken as support for the present status quo and support for the current UK state, the Socialist Party unlike Wight recommends spoiling ones vote by writing World Socialism and if that is not possible - abstention. 

Mutual Aid

FROM EACH ACCORDING TO ABILITY,
 TO EACH ACCORDING TO NEED 

It is a fact that man is a social animal whose existence depends on the physical and psychological bonds between human beings.  Another fact is that human life is not possible without the labour of others, and that there are only two ways in which this can be done: either through a fraternal, egalitarian and libertarian association, in which solidarity, consciously and freely expressed unites all humanity or the struggle of each against the other in which the victors rule, oppress and exploit the rest.

Mutual aid is a fundamental law of nature that causes animals to band together for self-protection. Socialism is the highest expression of mutual aid, because it embodies the idea of mutual protection and advancement for the greatest number of human beings. Mutual aid prompts a person to give and receive help from fellow workers and as such even the secret society of Freemasonry is an expression of mutual aid. It is not the love for a fellow being that causes man to aid one in distress, but the instinct of mutual aid. In winter, animals will huddle together to keep warm. It is not the love of the flock that causes a sheep to run with it, but the instinct of mutual aid.  Wolves band together in packs for mutual aid. A puppy does not cuddle close to the other puppies to keep them warm, but to keep itself warm. It is mutual aid. Workers do not organise unions because they love each other, but because through organisation they are enabled to get more of the good things of life. Acts that are in the interest of the community as much as of the individual, and of the individual as much as of the community, cannot be described either as selfish or as unselfish. They are both and neither.

Socialists want to bring about a society in which men will consider each other as brothers and by mutual support will achieve the greatest well-being and freedom as well as physical and intellectual development for all.  The class-conscious worker full of the class-war spirit could hardly be described as an unselfish since he sees himself reflected in his class, but neither is be selfish in the ordinary sense, since he sees his class reflected in himself.  In a word, he identifies his own interest with that of his class.  While workers try to defend themselves from fatal or crippling health and safety hazards on the shop-floor, while labour takes steps to deal with all aspects of  discrimination,  while workers strike and sacrifice in a thousand ways to defend their standard of living, the capitalist media argues that they are being greedy and selfish and workers’ organisations are all too often viewed as greedy self-interest group concerned  about only a small minority.

The needs, tastes, aspirations and interests of people are neither similar nor naturally harmonious; often they are diametrically opposed and antagonistic. On the other hand, the life of each individual is so conditioned by the life of others that it would be impossible, even assuming it were convenient to do so, to isolate oneself and live one’s own life. Social solidarity is a fact from which no one can escape. The strongest is the one who is the least isolated; the most independent is the one who has most contacts and friendships and thereby a wider field for choosing close collaborators; the most developed is the one who best can, and knows how to, utilise Mankind’s common inheritance as well as the achievements of  contemporaries.

History teaches us, daily observation of life around us teaches, that where violence has no place in human relations everything is settled in the best possible way, in the best interests of all concerned. But where violence intervenes, injustice, oppression and exploitation invariably triumph. In spite of the rivers of human blood; in spite of the indescribable sufferings and humiliations inflicted; in spite of exploitation and tyranny at the expense of the weakest human society represents progressive characteristics, feelings of sympathy, affinity and altruism, the sense of a common humanity. The workers’ environment is basically collective. When workers aim for betterment at work they act together. Benefits gained are for all, not one. Mutual aid is a powerful feature of every-day living. The neighborhood and community, the street gang and football fans are so much part of working class life where experience is shared experience.

Some historians may present the fruits of  their research as sensational events, large-scale conflicts between nations, wars, revolutions, the intrigues of diplomacy and conspiracies; but what is really much more significant are the innumerable daily contacts between individuals and between groups which are the true substance of social life. In the intimate daily lives of the people, one finds that as well as the thirst for domination, rivalry, envy and all the unhealthy passions which set man against man, is also valuable struggle for better working conditions , mutual aid, unceasing and voluntary exchange of services, affection, love, friendship and all that which draws people closer together in brotherhood and solidarity. Since co-operative work and reliance on mutual aid renders organisation necessary, the best possible form of organisation must be chosen: the test of its worth is its efficiency and the scope for freedom and initiative it allows to each. Organisation is, after all, only the practice of cooperation and is a natural and necessary condition of social life.

We deny that socialism presupposes any radical change in individual character at all. We do not anticipate any increase of the saints.  What we contend is that socialism, as primarily an economic transformation, brought about by the class struggle between the worker and the capitalist, will change the character of all who come under the influence of the new conditions  just as the advent of modern capitalism transformed the human character developed under feudal conditions. The transformation into the co-operative commonwealth, involving the greatest change known at least to history, must necessarily result in a corresponding change in the content of mankind’s behaviour.

For the transformation of society we want seek enlightened selfishness not unselfishness. The right to be lazy and the right to be greedy are true revolutionary slogans. The concept good of the people or general well-being require such basics as sufficient food, clothing, and shelter for all, healthy and beautiful surroundings, facilities for education leisure, and culture in the widest sense of the word  If political parties profess to aim at the common good then it is the fulfillment of these bedrock conditions of human happiness that must be their demand. 

Scotland Profits

 Scottish Business Insider Top 500 rankings show that, excluding Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland, the Top 500 saw a 4.9 per cent rise in turnover to £154.8 billion but profits fell by 7.3 per cent to £10.1bn. The table ranks all Scottish registered companies with turnover of more than £20m based on sales and pre-tax profits.

The fall was an improvement on the 13.1 per cent drop in the previous year.

Including the banks, turnover grew from £176.5bn to £180.1bn but profits plunged from £10.2bn to £3.1bn.

Standard Life has retained the top spot in the league table with energy giant SSE moving up from fourth to second. Weir Group climbed from seventh to third position after a strong performance in the year but Lloyds Banking Group subsidiary Scottish Widows slipped one place to fourth position in the listing after seeing its profits fall from £391 million to £205m. Chevron North Sea stayed in fifth position despite a drop in profits from £1.1bn to £879m and John Wood Group rose from 15th to sixth place after a strong rise in profits.

Half of the top ten are subsidiaries of companies with headquarters outside Scotland.

http://www.scotsman.com/business/retail/scotland-s-top-companies-see-profits-fall-1-3264277

The Voice Of Reason

When Peter Higgs and Francois Englert won the Nobel prize for Physics Englert was interviewed by Euronews about their discovery of the Higgs boson. He was asked 'The Higgs boson has been nicknamed the God particle by the media. What does God have to do in all of this?' He replied 'Nothing, nothing! It's simple: I don't think God has anything to do with it. What's more, I don't very well see what God has to do with anything, but that's a separate question.' (Euronews, 9 December) RD

Food for thought

  Following the article in the Fall Imagine re railway safety, the federal Government has new regulations on dangerous shipments. But that information will only get to select information who are sworn to confidentiality and then only after the fact. That means the new regulations are virtually useless. The reasoning is that information cannot be made public for security reasons. Fred Miller, a US consultant on railroad transportation responded, calling the reasoning 'complete nonsense'. He further remarked that Tank cars are already marked to show what they are carrying allowing 'any half-assed terrorist' to find out that information. As usual, the regulations do nothing to rein in companies and make them do the right thing. What would you expect a government to do in a profit system? John Ayers.

concerned with concealing!

 Our federal government under the Harper regime continues so quietly to stifle anything that it doesn't like. Recently, the Toronto Star reported on just two of many (December 22). The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre will shut its doors this month after years of fund cutting by the government. Prime Minister Lester Pearson proposed the first peace-keeping force that moved the world back from war in the 1956 Suez crisis for which he was awarded a Nobel prize. Since that time Canadians have been front and centre in the UN peace-keeping missions. This government has moved our foreign policy more toward armed combat. Secondly the House of Commons recently shocked many Canadians by demanding its employees sign a confidential gag order with draconian sanctions for any breach. This follows funding cuts and similar demands on the scientific community suggesting the government is more concerned with concealing rather than revealing the truth, but that's nothing new to socialists. John Ayers