Union Smear Dismissed

In case it perhaps have gone un-noticed considering the initial publicity (and the Scotsman has deemed it not worthy of a follow up story)  but the police investigation of thousands of e-mails released to the Sunday Times by INEOS in its smear campaign against Steve Deans, a trade union official,  were found  “there is no evidence of any criminality." in the words of Police Scotland.

Root out the roots of war

NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR

War tests the will of all whom it affects. War strips bare the pretenders and betrayers within the working class and  separates the opportunists and the patriots from the revolutionists.  On the question of war no evasions, no half-truths can be accepted. The only answer to war is the full answer, with no sugar-coating equivocations, escape clause caveats. Whether they have been frankly waged as wars of aggression or they have been hypocritically represented as wars of “defence" they always have been made by the ruling classes and fought by the working masses

Socialists have always claimed that at the bottom of all war there is an economic cause. This claim is substantiated by a careful study of  the causes and results of all the modern wars that have taken place. “Spheres of influence” is merely an elegant phrase that really means exclusive possession of foreign markets and trade privilege. Kings and capitalists may fight for these things and perhaps benefit— people, never! The interests of the working class are bound up with the maintenance of peace and it is the working people who suffer most severely from the devastations and horrors of war.  Yet it is people that must make wars. So the rulers must find some other means of enlisting their subjects in their fights. Many schemes have been used by them but one effective  means has been found. It is nationalism, inciting patriotic duty in the face of  “foreign aggression.” Economic causes are, of course, still at the root of wars. But today it is easier than ever to obscure this fact. Nationalism is the cloak behind which the economic causes work. Nationalists claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This may have been so in the past, but the development of mankind is making it less so. Increased means of communication and transport have caused nations to exchange not their products but their fashions and tastes until today there is no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Only by the most artificial kind of propaganda that nationalism is kept alive. Nationalism is an unmitigated curse. It leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of dirt on the earth’s surface on which a particular person has been born. It leads to narrowness and bigotry, to national jealousy and petty pride. It serves the machinations of the ruling class.

The guiding principle of capitalism is competition, to strive to make profit out of one’s fellows, and to grow richer at the other fellows’ expense. This  is inherent in all the ramifications of society and  finds its final expression in the contest of great industrial and commercial empires for world dominion. The contest for world dominion, like the smaller contests of capitalism, can never have a permanent solution. Ever new contests will, and must, arise so long as capitalism remains. Capitalism is always at war; its component parts are always contending with each other. So the contest will continue, always growing fiercer, whilst capitalism continues. Science places ever more terrible means of warfare at the disposal of the great combatants, the few rich men behind governments, throw the entire populations of the nations into conflict for their enrichment. It is useless to imagine that a change of parties, a change of diplomatic method, will check the gigantic contest. The United Nations itself  has proved to be used as an instrument in the hands of which ever power can succeed in dominating it.

The capitalists and their generals understand this. They prepare systematically and without compunction, arranging their wars in which the lives of millions will be sacrificed with a detached coldness.

 “Wars will never come to an end,” says the supporters of capitalism with some justification, but we who are socialists know otherwise. We know that wars will cease, but only with the downfall of the capitalist system. We know that no half-measures will suffice, and that the entire fabric of capitalism must be swept away if its evils are to be ended. There is no hope in eliminating merely the big capitalist, for the small capitalist is continually growing with prosperity into the large capitalist. Nor can socialism exist as a half-measure. There must be common ownership of the land, the means of production and  distribution. Money, barter, all forms of payment, buying and selling, and wages must be abolished (rationing of any sort can only be tolerated in case of scarcity). Each shall give according to his or her ability , each shall use according to his or her needs.

When we look around  and see the extent with which a war economy has come into being we wonder why the system cannot mobilise similarly in the wars against poverty and disease. It is for us, therefore, while we endeavour to urge peace to, more importantly, strive for that greater object even than peace—socialism; so that when peace is assured it shall be a peace based upon universal freedom, co-operation and fraternity.

Reading Notes

The capitalists may often feel that they are plying their economic system without the rest of us noticing. It is not the case. In "The Wettest County in the World" by Matt Bondurant, a book about producing illicit liquor during prohibition, he writes, " … the rising tide of industrial greed that pushed man away from their work benches and their craft to become part of the machine. Progress. It turned them into simple parts, expendable, replaceable, cheaply made as if their hearts were constructed of tin with shears." And, talking about the newly rich salesmen of capitalism, " The ambassadors of the new America, the captains of capitalism. Peddling their cheaply manufactured wares while the craftsman stands alone in his garrett, up to his knees in wood chips and no understudy, all the young men moving out of the towns and into the urban meat grinder. The love of trade, the value of the craft; all going, all gone." A time for reckoning will come. John Ayers.

Power to Scotland

The Pentland Firth which lies between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, has some of the fastest tidal currents in the UK.

It could provide enough renewable energy to power about half of Scotland, according to research

We Want to Change the World

Vast changes are taking place in the world, sweeping away old political positions. We cannot remain inactive about issues which affect our daily lives. Calls for unity of the left ignore the fundamental conflict between reformism and socialism and  obscures the difference between reformist politics and class struggle.

The  aim of the Socialist Party of Great Britain is to replace the world capitalist system with world socialism, the end of the end of classes, private property and nations. Exploitation, and oppression will not exist in socialism. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally.  As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will wither away. Only when men and women are freed from the pressure of economic necessity by socialism will individual liberty properly speaking begin.

It should be clear that socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have some idea of what it is. If the people who vote for the Socialist Party do not do so because it is socialist but instead vote for it out of ignorance of what socialism means, of what  use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness understanding of the people and not upon their lack of knowledge.  So long as the ballot box, the right of representation and civil liberties are maintained the Socialist Party will depend upon education and organization of the working class.  Our doctrine tells us that socialism cannot be built on the wreckage and  ruins of the existing society by a revolt of desperate starving beggars .

The Socialist Party also declares it holds that socialism cannot be achieved as a result of a series of reforms within the framework of the capitalism. Socialist society is not merely the quantitative extension of the “public’ ownership features of capitalist society, but instead is a qualitatively new form of society. Another name used in the past for socialism was an  association of free and equal producers.  It will be up to the workers to organize work and to regulate their reciprocal relations. Force can do nothing here; agreement is necessary. It will occur through free pacts and contracts that are always modifiable among all associations, and through pacts that associations will contract among themselves. Free associations can differ much among themselves. In an association workers will reciprocally commit to a certain number of hours of labour, in another to accomplish in a given amount of time a given task. Free pacts contracted by associated workers as the basis of organisations of labor and  the federation of associations more or less extended world-wide.

Emancipation of the workers can begin only when the workers capture political power.  Workers must unite with workers in all countries to win socialism. Once the revolution has broken out our first concern must be production. Socialism will be victorious only when the working people take possession of all the means of production. The Socialist Party will remain the servants and will not become the masters.

Our immediate goal is the social revolution. We only see one solution: the revolution. We cleanly separate ourselves from reformists. We fight against everything that slows it down and all that  reconciles us to the current order of things. We are above all socialists, i.e., we want to end the cause of all iniquities, all exploitation, all poverty and crime: private property. The workers must take possession of their tools, of the means of labour and life without paying tribute and without serving anyone. The revolution we conceive of can only be made by and for the people, without any false representatives. We believe that the new organization of society will be from the bottom up not from top down, by the decrees of a central authority served by an army of functionaries. Simple relations of reciprocity is the final and visible end of the revolution, because it is the highest expression of human solidarity. The revolution obviously can’t be the work of a party or a coalition of parties that will take the direction of the movement and take control: it demands the assistance of the entire people. Without them we can carry out a coup d’etat, a party putsch but not a revolution. Vanguardism smothers the revolution and necessarily prepare its own domination. The workers have no need of a leadership cadre: they are quite capable of charging one of their own with a particular task. Their society must be their home. They should gather together like a family, consecrate their leisure hours to it and deal there with all their interests. This is a new phase into which working class societies must enter in order to prepare the completion of the great transformation of society. Everyone, instead of thinking of its own interests, will fraternize, practice solidarity on a vast scale.  A true pact is one that has as its basis common aspirations and a community of ideas. It is only through this that workers unite, when workers place the general interest above every particular interest and aim for total emancipation, doing without bosses and exploiters.

The existing political parties  pay too much attention to interests, and too little to principles. A party  with convictions will never betray its own kind. It is necessary that in each socialist party there be a means of raising the great social questions, that all ideas be discussed, that the workers be intellectually prepared for the task incumbent upon them: that of renewing society.

When the workers demand improvements, wage rises, reductions in working hours, abolition of work rules; when they go on strike to defend their dignity or to affirm their solidarity with other workers, we have to say to them that none of this resolves the question. We may gain from the occasion to advocate more widely and effectively the need for the revolution, for the abolition of private property and the state. The Socialist Party will be with the workers, fighting alongside them. To stay aloof from the labour movement would mean appearing to be friends of the capitalist class , rendering our ideas  hostile to the daily struggles of the people and consequently renouncing the medium indispensable for materially making the revolution: the participation of the people.  Even if the economic effects of strikes are partial, transitory, and often non-existent or actually disastrous, that doesn’t change the fact that every strike is an act of dignity, an act of revolt, and serves to get workers used to thinking of the boss as an enemy and to fight for what he or she wants without waiting for grace from on high. Strikers are already no longer slaves who blesses their boss with submission: they are already rebels,  already engaged on the path of socialism and revolution. It is only up to us to sign-post that road. This then is our only programme: the social revolution as immediate goal, agitation among the working class as principal means.

Now a few words about ourselves, the Socialist Party.  We have argued the need in the future society for organisation among all  and for all needs, and the necessity in current society for the workers to struggle against their exploiters. It would be absurd if we were to admit the need for organisation for everyone, but not admit or practice it ourselves. This party is naturally anarchist i.e., without leaders. Demanding the revolution, and wanting it completely and seriously, with all our being, we will choose the means that seem most apt to bring it closer. In pursuing our goal, dedicating the party to the cause of the social revolution we think that the moment has come to gather together our forces, to leave behind vagueness and to give battle to the ruling class, in mutual confidence and solidarity. We must act. We must demonstrate our principles in action. We must prove to the world that socialism is not an abstract concept, a utopian dream, or a distant vision, but a vital and living principle, destined to renew the world and establishing it on the imperishable foundations of well-being and human fraternity.

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.