Promises and Reality

The NHS faces a "financial crisis"next year as a budget freeze imposed by the Coalition risks pushing most hospital trusts into deficit, a leading think-tank has warned. 'In a grim message to all three major parties,  the King's Fund said that whoever wins next May's general election will need to find more funding for the NHS or face up to the reality of "significant cuts to services". ..... Two-thirds of NHS trust finance directors were concerned that their hospital would go into deficit in 2015-16.' (Independent, 15 April) In all the rosy promises of the next election we can well imagine none of the reformers will mention forthcoming NHS financial cuts. That's not what electioneering is about.  RD 

A New World

 Any person with a heart will agree when he or she looks at this world of misery, that our life is not happy. It is often heard said that the idea of socialism, fine and true in itself, is unfortunately unrealisable. Exploitation has  become more refined over the ages and has become more inhuman since nowadays the more we are forced to sell ourselves willingly. We cannot escape from this traffic in men and women. It is now universal. We peddle our ability to work for others  on the labour market. Money is the mark of slavery. Those who can be paid, those who buy and sell each other, are they anything but slaves? We are separated from each other, each one of us lives and works only for himself, yet none of us can for an instant do without each other.

Although Marx did not leave us with a detailed description of a socialist society, his viewpoint was  that this new mode of social production would in essence be an “association of free and equal producers”.  The State is not conceived as being the administrator of production and distribution, but rather it is the producers and consumers themselves to whom these functions would fall. Nationalisation has nothing at all to do with Marx’s conception of socialism, neither the gradualism of the social-democrat Labour Parties or the so-called peoples’ revolutions of the Communist Parties. Sadly, in the course of years his theory was completely turned upside down and many socialists have spent their years trying to put it upright again. In their texts Marx and Engels  used the terms “socialism” and “communism” more or less interchangeably. These terms are often deliberately confused.

The desire for socialism as a just social system runs deep among workers but, nevertheless whoever wishes to see an end to capitalism and state capitalism must replace these realities of social life with other realities and other economic organisations. That can be done only by the producers themselves. And they can do this only collectively, in and through their own organisations. Collectively in the factory, collectively in industry, etc. They must organise themselves in order to administer the means of production through their federated industrial organisations, and so organise the whole of economic life on an industrial and federal basis.

The call for socialism is a strongly held and very encouraging hope among the people. But it is a hope in rather vague terms. The way to achieve it is not yet clear. Sooner or later these questions will be solved by people, in whom there can be infinite confidence. They will be impelled by social necessity to find the correct way.

The people as a whole own the means of production (factories, mines, etc.). Production is for people’s use, not for private profit. The principle is “from each according to ability, to each according to needs”. Production is of such a high level that there are abundant commodities for every member of the community and each member helps himself according to his or her needs. This is the goal of the Socialist Party, the achievement of socialism, a new social system based on the elimination of all classes and class differences. Socialism is the most revolutionary and rational system in human history, a system without exploitation or oppression. The abolition of classes makes possible the enormous development of the productive forces and the production of abundant social wealth. This high level of development and the changes in  consciousness of the people enables each individual to work voluntarily according to the principle of free access to te world’s wealth. The state machine will have withered away. The working class will control and administer production and distribution inside socialism. It will replace the anarchy of capitalist production with planned socialist production, unleashing the great productive and creative capacity of the producers.

Whereas each person needs the production of the whole accessible human world, from China to North America, in order to live and act as a human, they are limited to their own isolated force to obtain all that they need. We  often hear the objection that much work is so hard, so repulsive and even so harmful to health that nobody would undertake it unless he was forced to do so by necessity. This remark which is thought to be the greatest objection to communism is rather the most conclusive argument in its favour. Consider, the high levels that technology has attained today and ask yourself if you can think of any work which men could not perform comfortably, provided that we really wanted to and would not shrink from any cost to make it so.

But suppose that despite all the resources of mechanics there should still remain work that was difficult for men, by what right would you impose the burden of this work on some and not on others? Rather, would not our right and our duty be to mutually lighten such tasks by undertaking them together? Have we then the right to treat as pariahs those who have the misfortune to have been born poor and to assure to others the privilege of an easy life? In a society for which the common welfare will be worth more than all the treasure of the world, in a society which will spare no cost to ensure that work is carried out in such a way that men can do it without harming their lives, in a society which will prefer not to have work done which is not justified from the overall human point of view, in such a society, such inhuman work as exists in our society based on robbery with murder, slavery, unreason and injustice will no longer exist. The more you find in our society such work which man only carries out through necessity, which in other words only a slave does, the more you ought to consider socialism, without which this work will neither be changed nor abolished, to be the indispensable condition for freedom, justice and humanity.

A Poverty -Stricken Society

Politicians are quick to assure workers that either we are experiencing an economic recovery or that good times are just around the corner, but a YouGov poll suggests otherwise.'Millions of families are in such a perilous financial state that they are just one pay cheque away from losing their home, research shows. Nearly four million families who pay rent or a mortgage have so few savings that it would take only a month's missed salary to lose their home, YouGov polling for Shelter reveals. Of these, 2.4 million have no savings whatsoever and would not be able to survive a full month.' (Independent, 14 April) Hardly an economic recovery, is it? RD

A Belligerent Society

Of all the millions of words that have spewed from the mass media about the centenary of the first world war it is probably those of the humorous writer of  the Horrible Histories Terry Deary that get nearest the truth. 'Soldiers on both sides were brainwashed  by propaganda. They were told to go out and kill for their country. All these arguments over who started it are pointless - they all joined in enthusiastically.' (Sunday Times, 13 April) The inevitable outcome of a social system based on economic competition is military violence. RD

A Better World

The basis of socialist society must be the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. The factory floor and the fields on the farm must be under the control of society as a whole, and not as at present under the control of individual capitalists or corporations.  What do we mean by 'society as a whole'? We mean that ownership and control is not the privilege of a class but of all the persons who make up society. No longer will one enterprise compete with another. The organisation of production shall be a cooperative organisation of all the members of society. Nationalisation or state ownership is where a small group controls everything; production has been organised, so that capitalist no longer competes with capitalist; conjointly they extract surplus value from the workers, who have been practically reduced to slavery. There may exist planned production against the anarchy of competition but also retained is the exploitation of one class by another.  There is a joint ownership of the means of production, but it is joint ownership by one class, an exploiting class that is in control of the State. Socialist society does not merely organise production; in addition, it frees people from oppression by others.

In socialism it is no longer the individual manufacturer who produces; the work of production is effected by the gigantic cooperative as a whole. In consequence of this change, we no longer have commodities, but only products. These products are not exchanged one for another; they are neither bought nor sold. They are simply stored in the communal warehouses, and are subsequently delivered to those who need them. In such conditions, money will no longer be required. There will be an ample quantity of all products, our present wounds will long since have been healed, and everyone will be able to get just as much as he needs. A person will take from the communal storehouse precisely as much as he or she needs, no more. No one will have any interest in taking more than he or she wants in order to sell the surplus to others, since all these others can satisfy their needs whenever they please. Money will then have no value. Some socialists suggest because of the history of capitalism and the shortages it has imposed upon vast numbers of people in the first days of socialist society, products will probably be distributed (rationed) in accordance with the amount of work done by the applicant but as a short half-way measure until manufacturing levels are suffice that all can be supplied according to the needs.

In a socialist society there will be no classes and as there will be no classes, this implies there will likewise be no State. The State is a class organisation of the rulers. The State is always directed by one class against the other. A capitalist  State is directed against the workers, whereas a ‘Workers’ State is directed against the capitalist. In the socialist society there are neither l capitalists, nor wage workers; there are simply people. If there are no classes, then there is no class war, and there are no class organisations. Consequently the State has ceased to exist. Since there is no class war, the State has become superfluous. There is no one to be held in restraint, and there is no one to impose restraint.

Administration and planning of production will be entrusted to various kinds of appointed and accountable committees. There will be no need for special ministers of State, for police and prisons, for laws and decrees - nothing of the sort. Just as in an orchestra all the performers watch the conductor's baton and act accordingly, so here all will consult the reports and will direct their work accordingly, or as sailors follow the advice of shipping forecasts and farmers heed the frost warnings of the meteorological offices. The State, therefore,  ceases to exist. There are no groups and there is no class standing above all other classes.

Moreover,  those working in these specialised co-ordination centres  one person will not be a  the permanent bureaucracy.

Socialism is organised throughout cooperatively. There will not be permanent strata of managers, nor will there be persons who do one and the same kind of work throughout their lives. Under capitalism, if a man is an assembly worker, he spends his whole life tending a machine; if he is the manager of a department, he spends his days in issuing orders and in administrative work; if he is a mere labourer, his whole life is spent in obeying orders. Nothing of this sort happens in communist society. With socialism people will enjoy a many-sided culture, and find themselves at home in various branches of production: one day in an administrative capacity, another  working on the shop-floor, One year perhaps in a hospital, tending the needs of the sick, another year in the forests planting saplings and chopping down trees. This will be possible when all the members of society have been suitably educated.

The class war now swallows up vast quantities of resources. In the new system this will be liberated and people will no longer struggle one with another.  How much, again, is lost to society through the competitive struggle of sellers one with another, of buyers one with another, and of sellers with buyers. How much futile destruction results from commercial crises. How much needless outlay results from the disorganization and confusion that prevail in production. The energy and the materials which now are wasted in wars will be saved. If we consider how much is squandered upon armaments alone, we shall realise that this amounts to an enormous quantity.

All these energies, which now run to waste, will be saved in socialism. The organisation of industry on a purposive plan will not merely save us from needless waste, in so far as large scale production is always more economical. In addition, it will be possible to improve production from the technical side. Under capitalism, there are definite limits to the introduction of new machinery. The capitalist only introduces new machinery when he cannot procure a sufficiency of cheap labour. If he can hire an abundance of cheap labour, the capitalist will never instal new machinery, since he can secure ample profit without this trouble. The capitalist finds machinery requisite only when it reduces his expenses for highly paid labour. Under capitalism, however, labour is usually cheap. The bad conditions that prevail among the working class become a hindrance to the improvement of manufacturing technique. This causal sequence is peculiarly obvious in agriculture. Here labour power has always been cheap, and for that reason, the introduction of machinery in agricultural work has been extremely slow. In communist society, our concern will not be for profit but for the workers. There every technical advance will be immediately adopted. The chains which capitalism imposed will no longer exist. Technical advances will continue to take place under communism, for all will now enjoy a good education, and those who under capitalism perished from want - mentally gifted workers, for instance - will be able to turn their capacities to full account.

Socialist production signifies the enormous development of productive forces. As a result, no worker in a socialist society will have to do as much work as of old. The working day will be  shorter, and as soon as mankind is enabled to spend less time upon feeding and clothing, it will be able to devote more time to the work of mental development. Human culture will climb to heights never attained before. It will no longer be a class culture, but will become a genuinely human culture. with the disappearance of man's tyranny over man, the tyranny of man over nature will likewise vanish. Men and women will for the first time be able to lead a life worthy of thinking beings instead of a lives of unthinking robots. “The needy man, burdened with cares, has no appreciation of the most beautiful spectacle.” said Marx. Socialism brings the sense of wonder and marvel to the minds of individuals

Socialists must never weary in our proofs and explanations, in order to convince our fellow workers that their hopes for a better life under capitalism are the outcome of fraud by others or are due to their own self-deception. We must patiently and clearly demonstrate that they ought unhesitatingly to enter the socialist party and despite all difficulties fight shoulder to shoulder with all those who work, to make common cause against the bosses.  The position of the worker  under capitalism is quite hopeless. We must tell people that as long as capitalism lasts there will always be a businessman riding on his or her back.  The Socialist Party must draw into our ranks all those who labour, all those to whom the new life is dear, all those who have learned to think and to fight.

Marxism is sometimes described as “the science of the working class movement”. Marxism is the doctrine of the class struggle. Marxism cannot be regarded as a system of abstract theories unrelated to real life but as a developed science verified and enriched by the acid test of experience. Marxism holds that the leading force in transforming society from capitalism to socialism is that class which is itself a product of capitalism, the working class or, as Marx more precisely defined it, the proletariat, i.e., wage workers who earn their livelihood through the sale of their labor power and have no other means of existence, all toilers and all working people working people is meant all who work for a livelihood and do not exploit the labor of others; a category which includes a large section of the farming population and of the middle class of the cities. Marxism constitutes a “guide to action” for the working class to follow in the struggle to achieve political power and to build socialism. Marxism maintains that the interests of the working class (the proletariat) and the interests of the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) are irreconcilable and that therefore, the interests of the working class can not be served through collaboration or alliance with the capitalists but in opposition to them. From these conflicting interests of the two basic classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, capitalists and workers, arises an antagonism, a struggle, between the two classes: the class struggle. The class struggle is not an invention of the Marxists but something which has manifested its existence in all countries of the world without exception. What Marxism does do is recognize the class struggle as the motive force of history, as the means by which society moves forward and achieves higher forms of civilization. Consequently, the strategy and tactics of Marxism are also the strategy and tactics of the class struggle of the working class. To give direction and guidance to this struggle, which is essentially a political struggle, the working class must of necessity develop its own Marxist political party, apart from and independent of all other political parties. Without such a Party, free from opportunism, irreconcilable towards compromisers seeking conciliation, in opposition to the capitalist class and its state power, the interests of the working class under capitalism cannot be served nor socialism eventually realized.

War Is Not A Normal Condition Of Man

We are all aware of the mental illnesses leading to breakdown and suicide of soldiers who have been in combat. In fact nine Canadian soldiers have committed suicide in the last few months. Another, related problem has arisen – the silence of those who suffer with mental illness. They worry that by coming forward to seek help they may be declared medically unfit and discharged from the forces. 4,500 soldiers leave the army every year and about 1,700 of those are considered medically unfit. So here we have a situation of people with a genuine need of psychiatric help remaining silent through fear of unemployment. As we keep saying,war is not a normal condition of man and a system that demands such barbarity must be terminated as soon as possible. John Ayers

Understanding socialism

Socialists visualise machinery and technology, created by the genius of humanity, being used, not for the few, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole. Based on the common ownership of the means of production and distribution, a new system is to be built, raising production and ending all social division by dissolving the hostile classes into a community of free and equal producers striving not for sectional interests, but for the common good. This socialist commonwealth, liberating the individual from all economic, political and social oppression, would provide the basis, for real liberty and for the full and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth of the creative faculties of the mind.

 These days there is a tendency to reduce the meaning of socialism to the introduction of planned economy on the basis of a state-controlled life. The idea of socialism has been divorced from the idea of liberty. State capitalism has been regarded as a stage on the way to socialism and at present there prevails a great confusion of thought where various forms of state capitalism are referred to as socialism. The experiences of the Russian Revolution have revealed the grave innate dangers of state capitalism. State capitalism concentrates an overwhelming power in the hands of the State, and places the citizen completely at the mercy of the State. This State is not run by the working-class and its ruling class use their tremendous power to subjugate the people. Under State capitalism the government derives its income automatically from the economic enterprises of the State. The State becomes the universal employer, the universal landlord. It controls everything on which the fate and happiness of the individual citizen depend. The citizen is dependent on the State as regards employment, housing, supplies, amusement, educational and transport facilities. This enormous power of the State over the individual citizen must needs call forth or strengthen tendencies towards a dictatorship. Therein lies the chief danger of State capitalism. State capitalism does not yet solve any of the outstanding problems. It does not abolish crises, classes, the wage-system. Under State capitalism there is production of commodities for sale, not production for use. Between production and consumption there still remains the partition wall of prices.

 The scramble for profit has wasted and despoiled our world’s rich resources of soil, water, forest and minerals. A lack of social planning results in a waste of our human as well as our natural resources. Socialism offers the maximum opportunities for individual development and the satisfaction of human needs. Many call to “smash” the corporations, we socialists point it is not the  multinational monopolies but the capitalist system which is at fault.  The question for the workers is how to combine industrially and politically to got hold of these industrial giants and distribute their products throughout the whole community, according to the needs of those who have worked to produce.

What are we organised for? What is our chief bond of unity? What is our avowed object? The welfare of the working class and the abolition of capitalism.  We aim at a new society – the socialist commonwealth. Our aim is the commonwealth without State, without government, without classes, in which the workers shall administer the means of production and distribution for the common benefit of all. Industrial slavery is as old as capitalism itself, and before that there were other forms of slavery for the workers. So long as the capitalist system exists, some men will be mking money out of the labour of others. All reforms of the present system of society simply fool the worker into believing that he isn’t being robbed as much as he was before. Class-conscious workers of the world must attack and destroy capitalism and root it out of the world. The State is used to defend and strengthen the power of the capitalists and to oppress the workers. In order to destroy capitalism the workers must first wrest the State power out of the hands of the capitalist class. They must not only seize this power, but abolish the state apparatus entirely. The capitalist State is built to serve capitalism, and that is all it can do, no matter who is running it. propose to overthrow the capitalist State and to establish in its place immediately the industrial commonwealth. Socialists are also opposed to the State and wish to abolish it – to substitute for the government of men the administration of things. The State can only exist as long as there is class struggle. The private property of the capitalist class, in order to become the social property of the workers, cannot be turned over to individuals or groups of individuals, not to sectional owners such as syndicalist unions or cooperatives. It must become the property of all in common. Industries, too, which supply the needs of all the people, are not the concern only of the work-fore, in each industry, but of all in common, and must be administered for the benefit of all.

Much has been said and written about the new radicalisation yet for all the optimism it has not yet transmitted to a broader spectrum of the working class. What we are witnessing is indeed changing of attitudes, a shifting of beliefs, rejecting previously accepted ideas nd values. It is the response to the economic and social crises we re facing. This radicalisation is measured by the the search for new methods and new standards of social behavior, the desire for a complete change to something better. Who needs the “new” left today when it means trying to emulate the “old” left? What good is “participatory democracy” if it is only to lobby capitalist politicians?

Social forces do not arrive and marshal themselves in movements without some common factors being at work. There is no need to repeat the numerous issues and campaigns that have been conducted in current politics. People are seeing the  callousness of governments in subordinating the alleviation of poverty to the needs of capital accumulation. We have witnessed massive attacks on the working and the poor. People are angry at the attacks on their basic living conditions. A mass movement has never been more necessary but the left has not, except in isolated incidents, been able to rally masses of people. Protest groups in general have not been able to capitalise on the situation. The Left has failed to develop a significant political movement at a time when the need for such a movement is great. What has been the problem? Why has the Left failed?

When the crisis hit, the trade union movement responded in the same manner as it always had. That is, each union fought the cutbacks and layoffs on economic lines as any union would with its employer. This basic response is one of trying to win concessions and compromises. There is but one power which can bring freedom, happiness and peace to humanity. That power is the working class if well organised and determined to fight all who would oppose and prevent its complete emancipation. Socialism seeks to solve the  problem of human misery by revolution. We must always keep in mind that our goal is socialist revolution. Our agitation and propaganda is to help raise the level of class consciousness and understanding of what socialist revolution means. We must be above board and honest rather than manipulative.

Capitalism In Asia

Every day on the TV and press we are made aware of the appalling poverty that exists in Asian countries, but that is only part of the picture.'There are three times more Asian billionaires in Britain than there were five years ago while total wealth of the 101 richest Asians in the country has  risen 14pc to £51.5bn over the past 12 months alone.  The latest Asian Rich List is topped by the Hinduja brothers, Gopichand and Srichand, who have added £1bn to their wealth over the past year and now estimated to be worth £13.5bn.' (Daily Telegraph, 12 April) Millions starve in Asia but Asian billionaires increase their immense wealth - that is capitalism worldwide. RD

A Brutal Society

It is common for the media to depict the USA and its allies as always behaving in a humane fashion unlike its evil opponents who indulge in torture and other brutal tactics. Recent events seem to give the lie to such a notion. 'Senate committee found CIA interrogations and detentions to be 'brutal' and urges administration to release report as quickly as possible. A leak of the major findings of a landmark Senate inquiry into the CIA's post-9/11 torture of terrorism detainees led, on Friday, to intensified pressure on the White House and the CIA to release the inquiry speedily and with a minimum of redactions.' (Guardian, 11 April) Capitalism is a brutal competitive society and all its governments reflect that brutality in their actions. RD

The Passion of Freedom

Socialists keep hoping for the spark that will set a wildfire of workers in motion.  Some believe the worse our situation gets—economically, politically, ecologically—the more we yearn for a vast movement to erupt and transform the landscape. Others argue that it is only in times of a boom that workers have the luxury and confidence of political activity for something new rather than struggling to survive. We have felt the embers still glowing from past class  conflagration. In our lifetimes, we see sparks—but we haven’t seen them spread. We’re more connected than ever before, able to witness each other’s struggles in real time via the internet, yet mostly, the sparks haven’t leapt from one workplace to another,  city to city , one country to another country. The Occupy movement and Arab Spring were possibly the exceptions. Perhaps they were the dress rehearsal for something greater and the foundation for the next battle.

 In our workplaces, our collective task in the unions is to go up against the bosses, getting in fights, and by losing some and by winning some of them, we learn and acquire more experience for the next fight. Every day we must challenge those holding the power: over the daily indignities of pay, hours, grievances and injustices. We should be involved in community issues like pollution of the neighbourhoods we live in . Struggle teaches us that we have our own power—and teaches us how to use it. We begin by working to convince fellow workers that we have each other’s backs against a common enemy. We share the education about who our enemies are and how they’ve held onto power all these years when we outnumber them. We need to break down the fear many of us have come to phold when confronted by the State and employers. People have to create and own the vision and the strategy for power. They have to be the agents and organisers, not the props for professional politicians.  People will participate for things that really matter—things that captures their passion. It will take an immense effort by immense numbers to reverse the giant mess capitalism has made of everything which has brought our planet to the verge of eco-catastrophe.

The Socialist Party is the party of the interests of the working class, and is the enemy of capitalism which brings it into a fundamental opposition to all pro-capitalist parties. Its aim is the establishment of a socialist society in which the means of production will not be the private property of the few, a society which will not be based upon profit but on peoples needs.

 The problem before society to-day is not a financial problem as can be so easily mistaken by the attention given solely to one section of the capitalist class - the bankers.  It is a property problem. The banks belong to the superstructure of capitalism. Private property is the foundation. The financial crises, credit crises and the like are nothing more than the reflections of the fundamental economic crisis arising from the fact that the private ownership of the means of production has become an anachronism in a society where social methods of production have superseded individual methods of production. No amount of financial fiscal regulation, no amount of money supply manipulation which leaves the question of property ownership untouched, can do anything else but aggravate the crisis of capitalism.

Social ownership, which must supersede the private ownership of the means of production, can only come about through the political victory of the class without property over the class with property. The socialist task is one of abolishing capitalism altogether and founding an economy  based on a cooperative commonwealth and by commonwealth, we mean not a form of government rule, but an independent community holding its resources in common.

 The Socialist Party does not seek bloody revolution. But we do want the social revolution, i.e., a complete and fundamental change in the relation of the classes. It is a change which is only possible when a number of historical conditions exist. One of those conditions is that the majority of the workers must be ready to make the change. We foresee the advent of social conditions under which everyone will be relieved of the burden of material difficulty and distress; and under which, in consequence, mankind will be able, because its economic existence is assured, to devote itself to new and higher tasks. In this society of the future, personal freedom and the well-being of all without exception will, for the first time in history, become realities, and the individual will, at the same time, be able to develop fully his personal aptitudes and capacities.

Capitalism In The USA

Official statistics show a US economy in recovery, but 1 in 5 people in a new poll still say that there have been times in the last 12 months when they didn't have enough money to buy food. 'Despite official signs of economic recovery in the US, more Americans struggled to afford food in 2013 than in 2012. Gallup asked a large sampling of US adults if there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their families needed. Some 18.9 per cent of poll respondents said they had struggled to afford food, a nationwide total that compares with 18.2 per cent in 2012 and 17.8 per cent in 2008 (the lowest rate recorded since Gallup began asking the question in that year). By that measure, hunger in America appears to be edging up rather than down.' (Christian Science Monitor, 21 March) The USA is the world's most developed capitalist country yet one one in five go hungry. RD

The Plain Brutal Fact.

For some years, the apologists of capitalism have touted Sweden as an example that capitalism with a small dash of socialism will work. They mean free enterprise and the welfare state wedded together, that has meant some prosperity, low unemployment and lack of abject poverty in the country. However, the population of Sweden, as elsewhere, lives under capitalism and nothing stands still, so prosperity doesn't last. The Toronto Star of February 22, reports that they now have shanty- towns in the suburbs of Stockholm. Growing unemployment in the last six years has caused at least twenty shanty-towns to spring up. That's in a country that has largely avoided Europe's debt and economic crisis but now has beggars on the streets. The plain, brutal fact is that no matter how good things may get, at times, under capitalism, it won't last. John Ayers.

Canaries in the Coalmine!

 UNICEF is making an unprecedented appeal for $2.2 billion to avert a crisis of 59 million children around the world at risk from war, hunger, exploitation, disease, and natural disasters. The report (Toronto Star, Feb 23) says the children are the canaries in the coalmine pointing to the state of the world and those who will soon inherit it. "Keep on rocking in the Free world" as Neil Young sang. Indeed! John Ayers.

Socialist Democracy

The Socialist Party will defend every democratic right won in the course of the long years of struggle. The Socialist Party will defend everything which will facilitate a peaceful revolution on the basis of popular consent to majority rule. Socialism is the rule (‘government’ if you so wish) of the people, by the people, for the people, based upon the social collective ownership of the means of production. By bringing men together primarily as buyers and sellers of each other, by enshrining profitability and material gain in place of humanity, capitalism has always been inherently alienating. A socialist transformation of society will return to mankind to its sense of humanity, no longer treated as a commodity. A socialist democracy implies man's control of his and her  immediate environment as well, and in any strategy for building socialism, community democracy is as vital as the struggle for electoral success.

To that end, socialists must strive for democracy at those levels that most directly affect us all — in our neighborhoods, our schools, and our places of work. Tenants' unions, consumers' and producers' cooperatives are examples of areas in which socialist must lead in efforts to involve people directly in the struggle to control their own destinies. The struggle to build a democratic socialist world must proceed at all levels of society. Democracy, the achievement of a struggle of generations, has to be safeguarded by the working class. But for the working class defence means extension. This enthusiasm of millions cannot be effectively roused merely of the defence of the status quo existing in democratic countries. The most effective defence of democracy is a clear fight for the improvement of conditions of the people, especially a struggle for the raising of the bottom from the sordid conditions of toil and misery under which he or she subsists.

Socialism is not some utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. In socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will be a higher level of social development because the working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean state control. The exact features of socialism will emerge as our struggle against capitalism develops. Based upon study of society we can visualize some features.

The means of production – the factories, mines, mills, offices, farms, transportation , media and communications, medical facilities, big retailers, etc., will be transformed into public (common) property. 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 scientific planning will replace the present anarchistic system of production. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies (local regional and worldwide) will aim at building an economy that will be stable and benefit the people. Capitalism has already developed an inter-linked economy, socialism’s main task will be to reorient this structure towards social needs. Capitalist planning is not the same thing as socialist planning. Although there may be a period of reorganisation after the revolution, we will not face the problem of building a modern economy. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and some experiment. There could be a combination of computer planning plus local coordination, depending on what will be appropriate to changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of democratic common ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation, as well as the protection of the environment. Socialism will open the door to great many beneficial changes for people.  Workers will be cherished as the builders and masters of society as they assume administration of the economy, managing democratically their own work places through workers’ councils serve society’s interests as well as their own. There will be no overnight transformation of men and women in socialism, but the way will be cleared to achieve a decent, meaningful and productive life for all people so they can enjoy fuller and more complete lives.  People will no longer be viewed as simply dispensable means to accumulate profits. Cultural life, The arts, sports, education, popular entertainment and other forms of leisure will not be determined by worship of money.  Science, freed from patent law and intellectual property rights, would be devoted to spreading the frontiers of human knowledge and not expanding a corporation’s market share.

Only socialists are the true fighters for democracy. The struggle for socialism is in reality the struggle for democracy. Conversely, democracy is the champion of all generous-hearted efforts to attain general well-being and communal interest. The complete victory of democracy, would usher in socialism.

The Real Power Struggle

The Socialist Party endorses the principle of democracy, that is rule for and by the people. Organisation is another principle we stand by in the working class fight for emancipation, hence,  over-riding importance of democratic organisation. Political organisations have grown up, though not everywhere in exactly the same way, because the political conditions are different in different countries, nevertheless, a political party needs general principles for its propaganda; for its fight with other parties it wants a theory having definite views about the future of society.  Socialist parties have the special task of fighting by political means for the needs and interests of the workers.

A political party engaged in discussion of theory in the Marxian sense does not do it for the sake of agreeable mental exercise. It is not performed for scholastic academic purposes.  It is concerned with theory because it needs to know how to act and not act, and avoid a merely opportunistic or adventuristic basis. Elaboration of theory leads to practical application of political ideas.  We cannot abandon the conception of party democracy and workers democracy as did the old Communist Parties. They espoused a mystical un-Marxian belief that the Party could do no wrong and any amount of political trickery and chicanery could be justified to “capture” the trade unions or other political groups. The Socialist Party will does not advocate or employ such methods.

The might of the workers fails because it is not consciously directed against capitalism. The persistent reformist may brush aside this difficulty by admitting it. That we say is true, runs the argument.- “ conditions have changed. The present is better than the past." Those who spread these arguments are either themselves deceived or they plan to deceive others.

 In the thirties workers redeemed their temporary submission to capitalism with increasing challenges to the very foundations of capitalism. The sanctity of property they repudiate with sit-ins.  In response to assaults of police and militia they answered during strikes with whatever weapons at their disposal. The injunctions of judges they disregarded. The very necessities of existence compelled  them, in their economic struggles, to challenge capitalism or sink into submission and poverty.

The chasm that divides capitalists and workers nowadays yawns deeper and wider apart. This is once more filling up with discontent which, once directed and released, will roll like a torrent and shatter with its power capitalism. This is the present and this is the future which confronts capitalism and the capitalists.

 Capitalism must struggle to keep up profits. That is the life-blood of the system. That is the foundation for the dominance of the capitalists. Viewed from their angle, both capitalism and the political dominance of the capitalist class must be maintained even if workers and everyone except the narrowing circle of capitalists, are bent beneath the back-breaking burden of economic exploitation. The one question we pose is: How can they keep the swelling discontent from overthrowing them and their system?

The liberal capitalists think capitalism can best be served by keeping the people quiet with minor concessions. Other capitalists think that concessions that were minor during the period of expanding capitalism are major now because capitalism is in recession and since they cannot be granted discontent is sure to grow therefore coercive measures should be in place to contain any resistance. In the face of growing conflict, liberal capitalists and more authoritarian capitalists forget differences and unite for the maintenance of capitalism and the power of their class. This means dealing out blows against any workers movements that may arise. Occupy was doomed by its isolation from the rest of the labour movement. The class struggle, is a struggle for power. The class struggle itself is a form of war, social war, and class power decides the issue. The power of the feudal nobility lay in landed estates; that of the bourgeoisie in its capital and ownership of the industrial estates; the power of the proletariat lies in its massive numbers. 

Capitalism In Europe

Despite press reports of some sort of economic recovery the job situation is still grim for millions of unemployed workers. Greece, of course, has been hit the hardest: Its unemployment rate is still hovering above 27 per cent, but the whole European situation is still dire. 'In the broader 28-nation European Union, 25.9 million people remain jobless, out of a potential labour force of about 244 million. Data released last week showed no change in the euro zone's 11.9 per cent unemployment rate in February. Spain's jobless figure was 25.6 per cent, and Italy's was at a new high of 13 per cent.' (New York Times, 8 April) This so-called efficient social system is denying potential productive workers of contributing to society. RD

Cover Up Capitalism

Police are failing to properly record crimes as serious as rape to hit performance targets, a damning report has revealed. The Public Administration select committee called for local Police and Crime Commissioners to abolish all targets to  help restore public trust in  crime figures. They also called for an investigation into treatment of a police officer who blew the whistle on corrupt recording practices. 'Former Metropolitan Police officer James Patrick described how massaging numbers to hit targets had become "an ingrained part of policing culture". He exposed how crimes were routinely downgraded, with robberies logged as theft and burglary reclassified as "criminal damage"or even "no-crime" to make them "disappear in a puff of smoke". (Daily Mail, 9 April) So all that prime TV drama about super efficient police is in reality a complete fiction. RD

Power to Destroy - Power to Create

Although the current spirit of the working class is not a revolutionary one, the problems we have today in understanding the nature of revolutionary action do not stem primarily from an insufficiency of capitalist development or a lack of historical experience of class struggle. The Socialist Party analysis does not provide a guarantee of a libertarian future. That depends now as before on the workers' response to their conditions. But we endeavour to  show that such a future is not just a utopian dream but a real possibility worth fighting for. Marxist ideas are, if anything, more relevant today than it was in Marx's time, when large portions of the world were still untouched by capitalism. At the present time, it is true, the workers' movement has reached a uniquely low point even though  the world working class, larger than ever, and more closely than ever linked through their exploitation by the world market, faces the very conditions and necessities that Marx discerned over a century ago. The current recession demonstrated that the capitalist crisis was not something of the past now made obsolete but rather the crisis rendered  obsolete those theories of both the right and left wing economists. If  Marx is now more relevant than ever, the ‘Marxist’ tradition of the Leninists has little to offer us as a guide to understanding, and much to confuse us with.

From the past we draw not only inspiration and still-meaningful ideas but also lessons on mistakes to be avoided. The fundamental idea of the old labor movement, that the working class can build up its forces in large organizations in preparation for the "final conflict" has proven premature, if not false. Whether the organization was that of reformist or of ‘revolutionary; parties, producer or consumer cooperatives, or trade unions, its success has always turned out to be a success in adapting to the needs of survival within capitalism. The Bolshevik vanguard preparing for the day when they would lead the masses to the conquest of state power has also proven useless for our purposes. Such parties have had a role to play only in the unindustrialized areas of the world, where they have provided the ruling class needed to carry out the work of forced economic development unrealized by the native bourgeoisie. In the developed countries they have been condemned either to sectarian insignificance or to transformation into reformist parties of the social-democratic type.

As our goal in the Socialist Party is that of democratic control over social life, our principles must be those of collective action for only successes which have a future are those involving the class as a whole. We see our party as neither leaders nor bystanders but as part of the struggle. We organize lectures and study groups. We publish a journal and pamphlets. We hope to be of some use in making information available about past and present struggles and in discussing the conclusions to be drawn from those. At some point in history the world's working class will  move from resistance to revolution, expropriate the capitalists, and create a society on the basis of "the free and equal association of producers".  It was in order to aid the workers to realize their collective capabilities that Marx wanted to "lay bare the laws of motion of capitalist society" in Capital. He wanted to understand, and so help others understand, the social realities that make possible new forms of social action, and the new forms of thinking that such action involves. The historical process Marx was interested in would consist precisely in people's attempts to change the society in which they find themselves. Theoretical work, in leading to a better understanding of society and so of the tasks involved in changing it, should serve as an element of these attempts. This is the content of Marxist politics of the Socialist Party.

The nature of the goal dictates the form which revolutionary organizations must have. Thus the General Rules for the International Working Men's Association, began with  "That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working class themselves." Its intention, in Marx's words, "to combine and generalize the spontaneous movements of the working classes, but not to dictate or impose any doctrinaire system whatever." Regarding organization, Marx argued against centralism, on the grounds that a centralist structure, "goes against the nature of trade unions," organizations of workers. Typical of his attitude is his remark in a letter of 1868 that especially in Germany, "where the worker's life is regulated from childhood on by bureaucracy and he himself believes in the authoritarian bodies appointed over him, he must be taught above all else to walk by himself." In the same spirit, Marx refused the presidency of the International in 1866, and soon afterwards convinced its General Council to replace the post with that of a chairman to be elected at every weekly meeting. He put his writing skills at the service of the International, in preparing statements of position, official communications, and so forth.

The main task that Marx took on as a revolutionary intellectual, however, as the task- of theory: the elaboration of a set of concepts, at a fairly abstract level, that would permit a better comprehension of the struggle between labor and capital. He prefaced the French serial edition of the first volume of Capital with an expression of pleasure, because "in this form the book will be more accessible to the working class -a consideration which to me outweighs everything else." The function of theory was to help the movement as a whole clarify its problems and possibilities; it did not, in Marx's view, place the theorist in a dominating (or "hegemonic," as the currently fashionable term has it) position vis-a-vis the movement, but was rather what he had to contribute to a collective effort.

Discussing the utopian socialists, Marx observed that:
"So long as the proletariat is not yet sufficiently developed to constitute itself as a class, and consequently so long as the struggle itself of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie has not yet assumed a political character, and the productive forces are not yet sufficiently developed in the bosom of the bourgeoisie itself to enable us to catch a glimpse of the material conditions necessary for the emancipation of the proletariat and for the formation of a society, these theoreticians are merely utopians who, to meet the wants of the oppressed classes, improvise systems and go in search of a regenerating science. But in the measure that history moves forward, and with it the struggle of the proletariat assumes clearer outlines, they no longer need to seek science in their minds; they have only to take note of what is happening before their eyes and to become its mouthpiece.”

 History offers us more than a supplement to the observation of what is happening before our eyes, as it allows for the detachment from it of concepts and models to aid in the interpretation of present-day events. Such utopian concepts and models cannot provide us with strategy and tactics for the situations we face and will face, but they are essential as an education that helps prepare us for the creativity that revolutionary activity requires.

To the extent that a real workers' movement put into existence, the little parties and groups should " merge in the class movement and make an end of all sectarianism." as Marx explained. The reborn protest movement does not represent a new stage in the development of radicalism, but rather an enlargement of what existed before. The workers fought massive and militant struggles to establish the unions against the corporations and won definite advantages.

Forced Marriage for 140 Million Girls!

 "Equality Now", a human rights group, said in a recent report that cultural traditions and a lack of legal protections are driving tens of millions of girls around the world into early marriages, subjecting them to violence, poverty, and mistreatment. The report said that more than 140 million girls over the next decade will be forced into marriage before the age of eighteen. Dividing the working class into races, religions, colours, and sexes is a ploy of the owning class and this is one result, besides the obvious – lack of concerted working class action. John Ayers.

Capitalism In Africa

The development of capitalism in Africa has led to the enrichment of a tiny handful but no such fortune awaits the working class. 'Nigeria's economy is worth $510 billion (£307 billion), by far the biggest in Africa, officials said  after a long-overdue recount that gives it continental bragging  rights but does little for the near 70 per cent of its citizens living in poverty.' (Times, 7 April) This development is typical of how the system works world-wide - affluence for a tiny minority, poverty for the majority. RD