Fact of the Day

One in three Scots has saved nothing at all in the last three months.
http://www.scotsman.com/

A Cancerous System

Capitalism is a ruthless social system wherein profit is more important than human life. 'Older cancer patients are being "written off" because of their age, a leading charity has warned. Macmillan Cancer Support said some patients were being deemed as too old for treatment and were not assessed on their overall fitness.' (Guardian, 24 January) The figures showed more than 130,000 people in the UK have survived for at least 10 years after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 65 or above, so why this lack of care? The answer is simple. Young workers produce the surplus value that the owning class depend on, so when they are productive they get health care but as they age they no longer produce wealth. Goodnight, granddad!

A Good Year for Some

Last year was another tough one for members of the working class. Welfare cuts, wage freezes and homes re-possessed was the order of the day. For members of the owning class though it wasn't all doom and gloom. Christie's, the world's largest auction house announced that it had made £4.54 billion from auctions and private deals around the world last year, up by 16 per cent on 2012. 'The auctioneer sold 58 works for more than £10 million each and more than 731 works for more than £1 million apiece last year. Chinese buyers fuelled the boom, spending nearly two thirds more on art than they did in 2012, as sales of Asian art rocketed by 44 per cent to £600 million.' (Times, 23 January) RD

Muster under our Banner

"A uneducated worker in revolt is infinitely wiser than the learned philosopher who tries to forge an apology for his chains."

Blessed will be the day that we do away with wage labour. Wage-slavery is the fact. They who buy and  sell on the labour market are alike in that they are brutalised by its inhuman traffic in  human beings. Without this commerce in human life the capitalists of all lands  would  perish from the Earth.

The union movement has proven itself to be a powerful instrument of a defensive character and as a force that poses the possibility of a fundamental transformation in socio-economic relations  from wage labour to a free association of labor and common ownership of its product socialism.  labor has won through battles on the picket lines and through the enforcement of the contractual But what benefit have been gained has often been lost, due, not only to the operation of the laws governing the capitalist system itself, inflation for instance, but to counter attacks by the employers as a class and those it controls in parliament. The employing class, through their agents in control of the entire state apparatus, have erected a whole network of laws and regulations designed to hamstring the labor movement. The result being a reduction in  union membership. Organised labor is not only weaker in relation to the growth of the work force but it is weaker from a strategic point of view. Trade unionism hasn’t yet really broken out of the basic industries or state sector into the service industries.  Large layers of these workers, poorly paid and helpless before the onslaughts of inflation, the dangers of sickness, all the insecurities that are products of capitalist society, have fallen prey to the capitalist- inspired propaganda that the union movement is a narrow, a sectional power bloc, insensitive to their needs and concerned only with its own welfare. Labour has suffered a series of setbacks.There is an element of truth in the claim that current unions have alienated the younger workers and failed the youth. The situation has led some to see the key problem as being largely organizational and to project structural changes as the solution. However, regardless of largeness or smallness or whether expressing an syndicalist, anti-political-orientation, has had little bearing on union success.

As Big Business attempts to narrow the area of collective bargaining, the trade unions must fight to widen it and to open up the entire process of capitalist production and distribution to their scrutiny. The workers have the right to know the secrets of a factory, of the corporation , of an entire industry, of the whole economy, built by their labour.

The working class and the employing have nothing in common. One class does all the work, produces all, suffers all the hardships necessary to accomplish the task. The other class owns, but does not know, nor cares to know, how to produce wealth, yet persists by rights that it labels “legal” and otherwise to live upon what it does not produce. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people, and the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life. One class works long hours under conditions generally and necessarily established by and suitable to the masters of industry, receives low wages, so that there may be high dividends and profits for the masters. For it must be borne in mind longer hours mean greater wealth produced, low wages mean greater profits for the capitalists. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system. As long as one class performs no function in production only as parasites and social sponges, is too lazy and impotent to work, but lives in plenty—and our class, the wealth producers—produce all, makes all, mines all the minerals; in a word, makes life worth while and brings into being by its labor and travail all that life necessitates, and yet lives in want, is paid wages which at best and highest only represents a part of the entire product; a struggle is inevitable.Those who are serious and who respect themselves and their education will not dispute that labor with its hands and brains produces all wealth. As stated labour produces all wealth. Capitalism is based on the robbery of the workers. Those who own industries but do not work in them, pay wages to the workers and keep profits to themselves. But both, profit and wages, are only the product of Labor. Wages are part of the total product paid to labor. Profit, generally the biggest part, capitalists appropriate to themselves and call it their “legal share.” Socialists know nothing of “legal share” nor of “reasonable profits,” as all wealth acquired through capitalism is robbery.

The employers well realize that once the workers begin to seriously organise as a class, with class hopes and ideals, and look out for themselves as a class, with interests distinct and opposed to all other classes, that once the spirit of solidarity takes firm hold in the hearts and minds of the workers, their (capitalists) occupation as parasites will be gone. The danger and fear of having to go to work to live is an ever recurring night-mare that occurs to them ever in their hours of great revelry and riot. They would if reduced to extremes, be willing to make any concession always with the feeling that they can successfully juggle matters so as to keep their privilege. Compromise and reform to maintain power has been the one great weapon of the capitalists. It is a weapon and a means whereby they seduce the rebellious spirit of the workers. A time serving policy. They have much to fear and dread from a workers movement that declares ‘No Quarter’. You,  members of the working class, have witnessed the blood of your fellow workers spilled , it seems,  to grease and spur the machines in the mills of our masters. Their lives sacrificed all because human beings are cheaper than the application of health and safety which cost money and would reduce profits. Human life destroyed.  It is now time lose our chains, to end our miseries, and to  gain the world for all the workers, a world fit for men and women to live their lives in freedom of love and leisure.

The Socialist Party bids all workers rally to its standard.

Profits Before the Planet

For years, European governments have tried to set the global standard for climate-change regulation, creating tough rules on emissions, mandating more use of renewable energy sources and arguably sacrificing some economic growth in the name of saving the planet. But now  European politicians seems to be hitting their environmentalist limits. 'High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation. On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. Instead, it substituted an overall European goal that is likely to be much harder to enforce.' (New York Times, 22 January) After all the fine words and political posturing the representatives of the owning class are putting the profit motive as their priority and to hell with the environment. RD

Donations Gratefully Received

Great play is made by defenders of British capitalism about how democratic the system is even though we learn that members of a dining club with private access to David Cameron and other Cabinet ministers have given £43 million to the Conservatives in just two years. 'The details were revealed following criticism over Downing Street's refusal this week to say how many "secret" guests David Cameron has hosted at his grace-and-favour country home, Chequers. The Leaders Group is made up of donors who each give at least £50,000 to the Conservative party ever year and are rewarded with private dinners, lunches and drinks parties with the Prime Minister and other influential ministers.' (Daily Telegraph, 23 January) So the whole thing is quite democratic - if you are an unemployed worker all you need to do is fork out 50 grand and you can have a word in the ear of the policy makers. RD

The Socialist Object

There is a real question of confidence. The confidence of the organised labour movement and of the working class in socialism, producing for themselves and for the needs of the people. The only solution for the working class, the only way they can attain all their political and economic objectives is by the overthrow of the rule class and not by palliatives. Our aim is to rally workers who aspire to socialism. The day for social reform has passed, if it ever actually arrived. The capitalist class are far more thoroughly organised and far too powerfully entrenched not to be able to yield the few concessions demanded of them. The language of the Socialist Party dwells expressly and uncompromisingly, on revolution. Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution. Therein is the difference between the Socialist Party and all others. Or principles declare our object to be the formation of a working class party; the abolition of wage slavery; severance with all capitalist and reform parties; abolition of class rule; the establishment of the brotherhood of man.

What is the meaning of capitalism? It is an economic term applied by economists and sociologists to the system of our civilisation, by means of which men achieve economic independence and have the privilege of living idly upon the labour of others, who produce a surplus value above that which they receive for their own sustenance. A capitalist is one who profits by this system. If he works himself, it does not alter the fact that he has an income apart from his labour sufficient to sustain him for life without working for a living, and therefore his is economically independent. The working class under capitalism live in hope of creating an income and of increasing it through the appropriation of the surplus products of others who labor. They would like to achieve economic independence in the same manner as the capitalist class. Capitalism divides society into two antagonistic forces, because it is based upon two sets of conflicting economic interests. They each desire economic independence. One of these forces believes that it is justly entitled to the economic independence which it has, but which it manifestly did not create; the other force believes that it is being unjustly deprived of that which it creates and which it never possesses. Private ownership of the means of production and distribution is the seed of capitalism, of which wage slavery is the most degrading feature. This seed brought forth a bitter fruit in the class struggle, but the Socialist Party declares its intention to be the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members and the complete emancipation of the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism. In socialism, private ownership and exchange being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be redundant.

The most widespread image of a so-called ‘socialist’ regime is one of state ownership and planned economy, directed by the ‘revolutionary’ party. This meant the virtual fusion of State and party, with the trade unions reduced to the role of a transmission belt for the State's requirements and  subordinated to purely a nominal role. Since the State was to be defined as ‘socialist’ and the party designated as ‘revolutionary’ the conclusion was that this was the same thing as power to the people. Of course, this was never the conception of Marx.

Reformist  generally accepted, without discussion, that the State represented Society as a whole; that its parliamentary institutions provided the means for popular opinion to express itself; and when that opinion became Socialist, or at least the majority of it, the State would become Socialist automatically. The State is not an autonomous, self-determined structure above the social and property relations of a particular regime. It is the fully conscious expression of the collective interests of the dominant class in a particular society, and takes the form of an articulated series of institutions.Therefore, to bring something under state ownership does not mean to ‘socialise’ it,  in the sense ,where ownership is transferred to the the whole society. To bring something under state ownership, simply by having the workers get their wages from the state rather than from private bosses, is not to transform social relations in a socialist sense. And genuine socialist planning  is to satisfy the real social needs of the working people and citizens, with decisions made democratically from the bottom up and vice-versa, in a process of interaction which is constantly readjusting. The path to Socialism is not through public ownership but through a fundamental change in class relations.

What socialism proposes is wealth for all and plenty of the good things of life for  everybody. A fine house to live in, nice furniture in it, and a lovely garden about it. A table spread with good things to eat. Abundance of clothes, comfortable to wear. Opportunity and means to travel all over the world. Leisure to rest, work and play . No poverty anymore with its filth and disease and crime.  With all these things, socialism assures a natural human development,  healthy men and women, a happy, energetic, progressive people.

You say all this is a dream? No, not dream at all, but an immediate possibility. By means of the vast new technology of this modern world, we can produce wealth enough for all without any trouble whatever. By means of  new machines  mankind can produce a hundred or a thousand times as much wealth as in the times of our fore-fathers. There is no doubt at all about this. Modern inventions have so increased the productive capacity of civilisation that there could be an  abundance of wealth by working only 3 or 4 hours a day. Socialism proposes to get this abundance for all.

In order to get this abundance for all we must take control of this vast new technologyand use them for producing new wealth for all instead of producing it for a few. The only reason we are not all well off now is that a few people own these great modern tools and refuse to let us work at them except when they can make a profit for themselves. If we collectively  owned these factories and mines and mills ourselves and all of us worked at them to produce wealth for our own use and happiness, all the troubles  of poverty would disappear at once. The only thing that lies between us and a world of abundance is this private ownership of the means of producing wealth. Therefore, what socialists intend is to take possession of the means of production and run them for the use of all. The Socialist Party seeks the abolition of wage slavery and establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. In every country, capitalism makes life harder for the workers to endure. Therefore, it generates the workers’ resistance. The world should be thought of as a combination of communes and regions that will  be self-administered  by its peoples. Upon socialism, depends the happy future of humanity and of civilization. The working class is called upon to save society from barbarism, the only alternative to socialism.

It is of no use to talk about what we propose to get nor even what we propose to do to get it, unless we know just how to do it. We say that people should come together in a political party and vote the capitalists out of power. It is easy as that. The Socialist Party appeals to our fellow workers on the ground of their self-interests, the ground on which all practical persons base their appeals to others. Being a very practical lot, we  indulge in no dreams or false hopes. We say to the worker - Come join our party, vote yourselves into power, use that political power to take back that which the capitalists have stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which modern inventions entitle you to. This is the object the Socialist Party,a  political party of the class conscious working class,  to gather together all those workers whose real interests lie in abolishing the private ownership of the means of production.

Making profits and leaving folk cold

Energy giant and Perth-based SSE, has revealed it expects profits to soar to £1.5 billion this year and that it will increase payouts to shareholders.

Just two months after a major price rise came into effect for its nine million customers, the Perth-based firm said it was on course to deliver a pre-tax profit increase of 8.8 per cent for the year to the end of March and would be likely to increase dividends handed out to its shareholders by 3 per cent. A price increase of £104.48 for SSE’s dual-fuel customers came into effect in November. The typical annual bill for SSE customers will be £1,304 by March, £13 higher than the UK average, according to comparison website uSwitch.com. Across the board, industry experts have calculated that the typical household utility bill has gone up by 168 per cent in the past decade.

MP John Robertson, who sits on Westminster’s energy select committee, said: “This is a disgrace. How can SSE possibly have another boost to their profits after losing so many customers? These energy barons are ripping off their customers and lining their pockets with the hard-earned cash of people struggling to pay their bills.”

Claire Osborne, an energy expert at uSwitch.com, said SSE’s announcement was “like waving a red rag at a bull”. She said: “This will come as a shock to customers who have been told they must wait until the end of March for their prices to be cut in line with the government’s levy reductions.”

Citizens Advice Scotland spokeswoman Sarah Beattie-Smith said: “At a time when so many households are still struggling with high bills and public confidence in the energy companies is so low, it’s very disappointing that SSE have chosen to put their shareholders ahead of hard-pressed consumers.”

Socialist Courier wishes to inform Ms Beattie-Smith but making profits is what capitalism is all about.

SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said It is encouraging that SSE is on course to deliver real growth in the dividend and increases in adjusted earnings per share and adjusted profit before tax.”

 Npower chief executive Paul Massara claimed prices were high because the country’s “old and draughty houses” waste so much gas and electricity. His house won’t be, we wager!

Fantastic? For Some Maybe

Many members of the capitalist class weep salt tears about the plight of the working class but here is one who more accurately reveals their real view about the gap between rich and poor in capitalism. Kevin O'Leary, an investor on the US version of Dragons' Den, Shark Tank, was shockingly upbeat about the world's poor during a TV interview this week.'Acceptable responses to an Oxfam report stating that the world's 85 richest people hold the same amount of wealth as it's 3.5 billion poorest include 'shocking', 'despicable' and 'probably ought to do something about that'.But not for businessman O'Leary, who responded during US show The Lang and O'Leary Exchange: "It's fantastic, and this is a great thing because it inspires everybody, gets them motivation to look up to the one per cent and say, 'I want to become one of those people, I'm going to fight hard to get up to the top.' (Independent, 22 January) No tears from Mr O'Leary then!

Everything is possible

We live in a world controlled by a system which allows a small minority to oppress the great majority. This is capitalism which brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars and steals the resources of less developed countries while all the time causing perhaps the irreversible devastation of our natural environment. Either we get rid of this outmoded and decrepit system or it will destroy humanity. People know that capitalism is now useless  but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. The only viable solution is to achieve socialism, a classless and stateless society on a world scale where people do not exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our  environment. To create a socialist world it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution.

All the capitalist parties, even those who call themselves socialist or workers’ or left-wing parties are dedicated to the continuation of the capitalist system of wage slavery and  are against the interests of the working class. The struggle cannot be one simply to remove one government and replace it by another government. The working class must  struggle for putting an end to the capitalist system. It is the capitalist system of exploitation and oppression, the system of wage slavery, that is the source of all the problems facing the working class. Revolution is not only a possibility, it is a necessity in order to prevent the continued destitution of the people.

The present economic crisis has shown that workers can take taking increasingly militant and powerful actions against the attack on their most basic rights and in defence of their conditions, wages and livelihood. This struggle must be deepened strengthened and escalated with workers workers taking the initiative in their own hands and relying on their own strength, unity and organisation. What millions and millions of men and women are calling for from the depths of their collective consciousness is an immediate radical change in the political and economic situation. They don’t worry over complicated doctrinal considerations, but with a sure instinct they call for the most substantive solutions: they expect much. They won’t be satisfied with a modest  concessions.

We proceed from an understanding that history is going somewhere. This separates us from most people who seem to think that history is going where the strongest social or political force is taking it. Where history is going depends on what is possible. What is possible, in the final analysis, depends upon the tools with which people create their means of life. This is historical materialism. The point is that although decent people may long for a better life and strive for a better life, they cannot get it until the material conditions, especially the tools, change and thus allow for it. The capacity to produce abundance for all is here, it is now. The struggle of the new world has broken out.

We should be filled with gloom and doom in the midst of the economic recession where the eventual ‘recovery’ will be for the bosses only but nevertheless there should be optimism and enthusiasm for the future.  The current economic crisis is incapable of showing any kind of real “recovery,” “boom” or even a distant light at the end of its tunnel for most people. For the working class hardships and suffering are only one side of the picture. The more important side is the growing resistance and struggle  for liberation, freedom and socialism that is promising a better day ahead. The past years certainly demonstrated this fact. For every act of repression and oppression by the capitalists there were dozens of examples of rebellion, resistance and revolution on the part of the people. For every effort to divide our struggle, there were new steps taken toward unity. The ruling class has been shaken by a new awakening on the part of workers. The realisation that the crisis is real and is here to stay for a long time was burned into the minds of many. The bosses’ attempt to make the workers pay for the crisis was increasingly met with strikes and other forms of rebellion  which often reflected the rank-and-file distrust with both the union leadership as well as the bosses.

The whole of society is being affected culturally, politically as well as economically. These are the things that are shaping the consciousness of millions.  we are not blindly optimistic. We can see that all is not rosy and that the road ahead is a tortuous one. Every class battle gives new hope  that the labour movement itself will change. From essentially a trade union struggle, it will change into a politically conscious movement against the capitalists and into a revolutionary socialist movement. The dawn of socialism, created by the workers and for the workers, is rising on the horizon. Turn toward it and let the socialist dawn inspire the final struggles ending forever all misery, dictatorship and war.

Co-ops Hopes

 Work is set to begin which could transform this former potato farm in Lanarkshire's Douglas Valley, into Britain's first new garden city for nearly a century. Owenstown is named after the visionary philanthropist Robert Owen whose New Lanark model village, now a Unesco World Heritage Site, is close by. Owenstown, could one day be home to 5,000 co-operative pioneers drawn by the promise of living and working in a society that is being described as "a new international benchmark for utopian living".  It is hoped that the £500m project will eventually yield more than 4,000 jobs – helping revitalise an area ravaged by the decline of coal mining and other traditional industries.

One of the objectives of the town is to provide affordable housing, with the community founders hoping to offer high-quality, environmentally friendly homes – many built at a factory on site – at 60 per cent of the market value. Bill Nicol, the project director, said this would be achieved by adopting Owen's principles and the garden-city ethos of minimising the land, labour, capital and entrepreneurial costs and passing the benefits on to the user. Whereas mainstream developers would concentrate on building in honeypot areas around Edinburgh and Glasgow, Owenstown will create quality housing in an area that would otherwise continue to decline, it is claimed."Surplus funds will be reinvested into the community instead of being sucked out by property developers or landowners as profit," Mr Nicol said.

The community's would-be founders, who intend to live in Owenstown, say it will bear little resemblance to unloved Scottish new towns such as Glenrothes and Cumbernauld, which were assembled around the needs of the motor car. Instead, it will be designed on a human scale, under the democratic control of neighbourhood committees, with leisure and work needs given equal priority. The seven quarters, radiating out from a civic core, will be built in the Scottish vernacular style. There will be three schools (two primary and one secondary), sports facilities, generous allotment spaces for residents to grow – and trade – their own food and thousands of acres of open countryside. As well as provision for children and families, there are plans to create living space for the elderly close to the civic core. It is also intended that there will be a hotel, cafés, restaurants and shops, land and buildings for industry, and an electric bus service.

"We have had 1,500 applications with very limited publicity. What we do get is a lot of young families – couples in their twenties with children. Both might have jobs but they still cannot afford to have somewhere to live," said Martyn Greene, co-ordinator of the Hometown Foundation, the charity set up to make the vision a reality.

We are also minded of Red Clydesider’s, John Wheatley, ambition for workers cottages which turned into council housing schemes.

Making capitalism anything more pleasant than merely endurable is a forlorn dream. But certainly the proposed planning outlines what can be achieved to make socialism a nicer place to live.

Scotland: the police state

Between April and December last year, the police conducted almost 520,000 stop-and-search procedures on members of the Scottish public, almost 2,000 a day and twice as many as are carried out by London's Metropolitan police.

 The SNP in 2007 committed itself to providing the country with an extra 1,000 police officers. Last March, the numbers of police officers in Scotland reached a record high of 17,496.

The Offensive Behaviour at Football Matches legislation introduced in 2012, which sought to target young, working-class men from Glasgow's poorest districts for espousing tribal sentiments in support of Celtic or Rangers.

Scots police were much more likely to go after people using mobile phones in their cars than those who had committed a sexual assault.

 we have learned that several hundred police officers actually have serious criminal records or been accused of serious criminal offences. Among the allegations are rape, sex attacks, violence, wife beating, theft, fire attacks, abduction, stalking, football disorder, racism and data breaches.

Meanwhile, despite almost 150 police officers being reported to prosecutors for alleged corruption, only six have been convicted. The alleged corruption included serious assault, bribery, blackmail and gangland activity. Unlawful access to secret files and lying in statements were the least of it. Strathclyde police, Scotland's biggest force, refused to provide figures on the pretext of cost.

According to the Independent, we learned that secret groups of Freemasons have been used by organised crime gangs for years to corrupt the criminal justice system. This echoes a chilling declaration by Strathclyde's deputy chief constable recently that 27 organised crime gangs were attempting to infiltrate the force by planting recruits in the ranks and grooming others. Yet, in Scotland the government has always resisted calls for membership of secret societies to be deemed unacceptable for all serving police officers and judges.

The establishment of  Police Scotland has resulted in a change of the Lothian and Borders approach to prostitution. Witness now the  treatment of the women who work in Edinburgh's previously tolerated brothels, the saunas and massage parlours, where condoms are no longer be allowed on the premises.

We have moves for  the removal of corroboration in trials - probably the single reason why miscarriages of justice are less in Scotland.  It has become a Scottish  parliamentary habit to trust prosecutors and trust police. Endorse criminal laws drafted in remarkable breadth which you'd baulk to see enforced, soothed by the idea that constables and procurators will only apply them to the really suspicious or mischievous or malignant characters caught by it, whoever they are. Will it be legal for a court to convict someone on a criminal charge, exclusively on the evidence of one witness, and without any external evidence supporting their claims? The short answer is yes: this law will make that possible.

From this article by Kevin McKenna, a former deputy editor of the Herald and executive editor of the Daily Mail in Scotland.

Panic In The High Street

The poverty and desperation of many members of the working class is summed up by this news item. 'Police were called to the 99p Store on Wrexham's Regent Street this afternoon due to large numbers of shoppers chasing a 50p discount. The store had advertised a 50p sale via a window poster, however had forgotten to state it was time limited causing word to spread around Wrexham with hundreds turning up at the shop. ..... Local residents took to twitter amazed at the scenes, with one saying "Only in Wrexham do you get a half price sale in a 99p shop, and police presence is necessary! Who are these people that are so desperate?' (Wrexham.COM, 20 January) The local resident of Wrexham was wide of the mark - such desperation and poverty is universal inside capitalism. RD

Upper Class Arrogance

The arrogance of the owning class knows no bounds. Take the case of Yevgeny Chichvarkin the Russian reputed to have a fortune of £150m, who now lives in London and has opened a wine store in Mayfair for the super-rich called Hedonism. He currently offers a bottle of wine priced at £120,000 and has on offer a bottle of 55-year-old Glenfiddich whiskey at around £123,000. He blithely boasts of his customers. "It's a present for somebody who has seen everything in this world. For some people who have been rich for a long, long time. It is quite hard to make an impression." (Guardian, 28 December) RD

Neither Democracy without Socialism, nor Socialism without Democracy

To urge the workers to rely upon their own organized strength does not mean to neglect political action. Socialists differentiate themselves from the reformists in their conception of the state and the road to power. The Socialist Party has never accepted the concept of gradualism where we shall introduce one good law after another; and one fine day the workers will wake up pleasantly surprised to find themselves in the midst of a socialist world. We take it for granted that socialism cannot be introduced by legislative changes. Socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism. The working class always tends to take what appears to be the easiest path.

 Needless to say the supposed shortcuts and detours offered only constant disappointments. It is folly to struggle for anything less than  socialism. Our campaign has one fundamental purpose which is to teach the necessity of the destruction of the capitalist system and the substitution of a socialist society. We make no promises of immediate reforms. Of necessity we make criticism of every other party asking for the support of the working class. It is necessary to tell the truth about every group and party misleading the working class and as our party represents a campaign of education for socialism, then it follows that we must show why every other party is wrong and cannot solve the problems of the working class. We must distinguish ourselves from those parties that claim to represent the interests of the working class as well as those parties that are openly against the idea of socialism.

The Socialist Party is the only party that points out that there is no alternative for the working class other than socialism and that  the problems confronting the working class cannot be solved in a fundamental manner except through this destruction of the capitalist system. Simply put,  it is socialism versus capitalism. One can abstractly argue that socialism is necessary and that it is better than, capitalism but our task is to educate the workers by explaining  the significance of great events that agitate the minds of vast numbers of people. Knowing the basic cause of society's illnesses, we are in the position of a doctor who knows the cause of the sickness of a human being. We can prescribe the cure. The cure is socialism.

Also anyone who attempts to convince a group of workers that socialism offers the only solution for the problems of the working class suffers a severe handicap. For he or she is immediately confronted with the task of explaining  the Soviet Union. Most people are under the false impression that socialism existed in the Soviet Union. Despite socialism being confused with the type of society the Soviet Union had, we socialists are convinced that a real socialist society is practicable and will actually solve the problems of mankind. Contrary to the theories and ideals of socialism, what happened in the Soviet Union, instead of disproving socialist theories, actually confirm them.

The basic idea of socialism is that all the means of production and distribution be owned in common by all of the people, and that every person, who is not too young, or too old, or too sick cooperate in producing those things which every member of society needs and uses. Instead of having individuals or corporations or the state own all the factories and hire workers to produce goods only when a profit can be made from their sale, society as a whole will own the factories, and the workers will produce the things required to feed, house and clothe all of the people, and to satisfy all of their cultural needs, Administrators elected by the workers at various levels and in a variety of ways will figure out approximately how much of each article will be necessary to satisfy the needs of society and the factories will be set into motion to produce
 more than enough of each item.  Instead of the anarchy and competition that prevail at the present, production and distribution will be thoroughly planned. The plans will be constantly subjected to analysis and revision. It is impossible, of course, to furnish a complete blueprint indicating every detail of the functioning of society under socialism.

The validity of socialism is based on the idea that technology has developed to such a point that more than enough can be produced to satisfy all the reasonable needs of the population. For it is certain that if, after the industries are taken away from private ownership, not enough will be produced under social ownership to give every one a high standard of living, a struggle is bound to arise between different sections of the population and the stronger elements, and those in more privileged positions will ultimately succeed in gaining economic and political power over the masses and we shall then have the same struggle over again.

If there are a thousand apples to be consumed by ten people with the assurance that more apples will be forthcoming whenever necessary, no one will hoard the apples. But if the number of apples in proportion to those ready to eat them is small, we can be certain of a conflict arising between the would-be eaters. In the last analysis socialism will succeed only if it guarantees a high standard of living to all people. We socialists contend that industry has developed to a point where actual abundance can be produced to assure everyone a very high standard of living. In socialism the forces of production no longer function as before under the system of capitalist private property. They are no longer hampered and chained by the struggle between competitors, vying interests of the different classes and different rival nations. They are released from these fetters. It can be shown that even at the present time enough can be produced in  to enable every person to live in a decent manner. A change from capitalism to socialism, by eliminating the waste inherent in capitalism, would easily raise the standard of living of all people. And what waste there is under capitalism! Eliminate all the waste under capitalism and the present standard of living is immediately raised  without requiring to even increase production.

With the production of goods in sufficiently large quantities, socialism will solve the problem of the standard of living and at the same time solve the problem of insecurity. Since things will be produced for use and not for profit, planning will be possible and feasible, the vagaries and vacillations of the market disappears. Over-production will merely mean more leisure time!

How will socialism actually be realised? Although our theory is the correct one our attempts to bring socialism into being have so far failed.

Firstly, it is necessary to convince many more people, than are at present convinced, of the desirability and necessity for socialism. Throughout the ages those who owned the wealth of society surrounded themselves with guards to protect their wealth against the propertyless and exploited masses. The capitalist class is no exception to the rule. It has created many forms of protection for itself, tangible and intangible, and it will not hesitate one moment to use them all whenever necessary. Ponder the fact that rarely, if ever, is a boss ever arrested during a strike. The duty of the police is to protect the property rights of the owners and not any rights which the workers are supposed to have. The state as Karl Marx said, the executive committee of the capitalist class. The mailed fist of the state says in effect: "I am here to protect the property of my master. I do not care how much misery and suffering the people must undergo; capitalist property must be defended. Dare to touch that property and I will crush you."

It is not possible to have real democracy in a society where one class has all the economic resources at its disposal. In essence democracy under capitalism furnishes the workers no more than the doubtful right to choose between different groups of politicians who, in the end, will protect the property rights of the capitalist class.

If the capitalists were to depend upon force alone to guarantee their privileged position, their situation would be precarious indeed. All the force in the world would not avail the capitalists if they could not deceive and confuse the masses. What the capitalist class must depend upon, more than on force, is deceit.

Real democracy cannot exist for the workers so long as th basic means of production are owned and controlled by a small minority, the capitalist class. Democracy must of necessity be very limited under conditions where the possession of wealth affords a group all opportunities for the exercise of freedom of the media, while that group, which is composed of poor people, cannot exercise such a right for the simple reason that it has no television or radio or daily newspapers. Day in and day out the capitalist media turns loose a veritable flood of lies and half-truths, the sum and substance of which is that capitalism is the best of all possible systems and that only unreasonable, irrational malcontents  would want to change that system. And there is very little that those of us, who want to establish a new system of society , can do in order to counter-act the propaganda of the capitalist media. Even to just publish a paper or a magazine that can hope to acquire a large circulation requires tremendous capital. The press is owned and controlled by wealthy capitalists and depend for their advertisements on Big Business. They hire the best writers who are willing to prostitute their talents for the highest price.

From early childhood every person is subjected to the influence of ideas which tend to make him or her respect authority, and to believe in things as they are. Obedience is the virtue stressed by religious teachers and by school teachers. Here and there, of course, there are teachers of more independent thought, who influence their students to question accepted doctrines and practices, but they are few and far between, and have no influence in the molding of general opinion. necessary. system. Above all, the educational system attempts to imbue the young people with an intense patriotism. To be ready to fight and die for one's country (which, of course, means the country owned by the capitalists) is regarded as the highest of all virtues. The average student graduates firmly convinced that the economic, political and social ideas and ideals that they have been taught are correct and necessary. They are prepared to fight, not in the interest of their class, but for things as they are, for the benefit of those who exploit them

It is also because of your early learning that you feel religion is necessary  for your peace of mind. Capitalists contribute heavily to the churches and who pay the piper, calls the tune. There are, of course, exceptions to all general rules and at times one finds a minister of a church coming out in favor of the workers, but as an institution it is undeniable that the church is one of the most powerful guardians of the interests of the capitalist class. Almost invariably the same type of people are trustees of the churches as are directors of business corporations.

Influenced by the false ideas propagated by the capitalist class, the workers not only fail to struggle against their real enemies but actually allow themselves to be arrayed against one another. They allow themselves to be divided on racial, national and religious grounds. Prejudices are fostered amongst the workers and thereby the struggle against the common enemy is weakened. False ideas of superior and inferior races or nations are cultivated in their minds, all for the purpose of destroying the solidarity of the working class.

History teaches that when a system of society outlives its usefulness and when the problems confronting a people cannot be solved by the ruling class, when the people are compelled to suffer without getting relief, when they behold an arrogant minority wallowing in luxury, indifferent to the fate of the masses, then they are in a mood to listen to those who propose a radical solution. The ideas which the ruling class pounded into the minds of the masses lose their hold and new ideas are accepted. The  blind-fold the is lifted from their eyes and they realize that they must take their fate into their own hands. No force on earth can stop them. Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come. And once the majority rally around the ideas of socialism, nothing in the world can halt their progress. Neither the state, nor the church, nor the press, will save the present system.

‘Radicals' generally express opposition to corporate and big business. The class-conscious worker has no reason to oppose big business because it is big; there is nothing to be gained and a lot to be lost by splitting up one big industry into a lot of small businesses. It is far easier to convince workers that what should be done is not to destroy the huge multi-nationals but once taken over, use their interlocking structures and supply-chains to operate them for the welfare of the people.

To achieve socialism labour must first gain political power. The workers under capitalism have no economic power (except in the sense that they can bring industry to a halt by withdrawing their labor power) and neither have they political power. Before they can take over the industrial machinery and proceed to construct a socialist society, they will have to capture the power of the government machine. It is a struggle to wrest the political power away from the capitalists, and to establish the political power of the workers, a power which will build socialism. All previous forms of state served the minority of the people against the majority but once the workers' have used the state to expropriate the wealth of the capitalist class, the state as the instrument of class rule is abolished.

Socialists subscribe to the idea of a peaceful revolution which will be best achieved by the democratic ballot, where it exists. In dictatorships other means will be necessary and the method chosen may vary depending on circumstance.

What is absolutely necessary is an oganisation of workers who, regardless of their skill or lack of skill, regardless of any secondary differences, agree upon the necessity of solving the problems of the working class through the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of socialism. Without a party the working class would be like a body without a brain but to co-ordinate actions. Workers can do the thinking for themselves. Our aim is to create a socialist party with sections in every country, for the purpose of guiding the struggles of the working class on a world-wide scale.

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.