Zero Hours

Thousands of working Scots are on the edge of poverty because of the abuse of zero-hours contracts by some employers, according to Citizens Advice Scotland. The employment agreements enable businesses to vary the amount of hours a person works, week by week, and the system is meant to allow flexibility for both employers and workers.

Citizens Advice Scotland discovered some workers have gone for long periods with only a few hours in their jobs, or none at all, and therefore little or no pay. In a few cases bosses had drastically cut an employee's hours in what seemed like an effort to force them to resign. Citizens Advice Scotland also found some employers don't tell their staff the job is a zero-hours contract when they are taken on.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there were more than 1.4 million zero-hour contracts across the UK in late 2013.

A Corrupt Society

All their life workers are taught at school, in newspapers, in cinema and TV dramas what a wonderful job the British police do in combating crime, but all of that is just another fantasy of capitalism. 'The family of the Brazilian mistakenly shot dead by anti-terror police were allegedly spied on by undercover Scotland Yard officers. Members of the Special Demonstrations Squad (SDS) gathered information on relatives who were campaigning for justice following the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, 27. His family are reported to be among at least 12 spied on by officers from the now defunct unit.' (Daily Mail, 23 July) Far from the fairy tales of Dixon of Dock Green, Inspector Morse or Midsomer Murders the police are just another institution corrupted by capitalism. RD

Crime And Capitalism

Capitalism is a violent society with military conflicts existing all over the world, but even in non-military situations it is a society fraught with murderous violence. 'Two federal agencies, the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, only recently announced plans to send additional manpower to Chicago to assist its police department over the remainder of the summer in the wake of the 4 July weekend which saw a shocking spike in shootings. In a four-day period, 82 people were shot across the Windy City, with 17 killed.' (Independent, 21 July) Even in a weekend supposedly set aside to celebrate the land of the free and the mother of the brave, workers are so infected with notions of rivalry and violence 17 of them die with gun-shot wounds. RD

Poverty Amidst Plenty

The following newspaper description of the desperate plight of the homeless in a shanty town would appear to be one about India or Africa but it  isn't. A rake-thin old man dressed in rags and without shoes staggers up a dirt track. Around him, people are living in tree-houses and caves. 'This is Silicon Valley - home to the digital revolution and one of the most celebrated sites of wealth creation the world has ever known. .... As many as 350 people live here, hidden from the surrounding streets, on the banks of a polluted, sunken creek - only 12 miles from the headquarters of Apple.' (Times, 21 July) Some of the inhabitants have excavated holes in the earth about 15 feet deep, 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. They sling tarpaulins and pieces of scrap-wood over the top. In effect they live underground - like modern-day troglodytes. These people are not living the American Dream they are experiencing the American Nightmare. RD

We Are The People !!

Billions live in dire poverty amid unimaginable wealth, and we hurtle relentlessly towards environmental catastrophe.  We see capitalism as a destructive system that hurts, divides and exploits the vast majority of our people for the sake of profits and power for the few.

There is no shortage of  ready-made blueprints for a fairer society. However, socialism is not something which can be decreed into being by political parties or individuals but must be created by the mass participation of workers ourselves. Many people may think that socialism sounds like a good idea but doubt it would work in practice. However first it is worth asking "does capitalism work?". We believe there is ample evidence that a socialist society would function far better than our current capitalist one for the vast majority of people.

When we speak of socialism we are talk of a way of organising society based on the principle of “from each according to ability, to each according to need”, and secondly how we achieve such a society based on cooperation, solidarity and meeting human needs. Instead of ownership or control of the means of production - land, factories, offices and so on - being in the hands of private individuals or the state, a socialist society is based on the common ownership and democratic control of those means. And instead of production for exchange and profit, socialism means production to meet human wants.

Today workers  produce everything and run all the services necessary for life. We lay the roads, build the homes, drive the trains, care for the sick, raise the children, make the food, design the products, make the clothes and teach the next generation. Examples abound demonstrating that workers can effectively run workplaces themselves. In fact, the bosses hinder us more than they help and we can do so much better without them. Without the profit motive, any technological advancement which makes a work process more efficient, instead of just laying workers off and making those remaining work harder (which happens at present), we can all just work a little less and have more free time. We can instead focus on how to work less, make what work we need to do more enjoyable, have more fun, more happiness and more joy. we can begin to relate to each other as human beings.

Socialism means a moneyless society where our activity - and its products - no longer take the form of things to be bought and sold. There is ample evidence demonstrating that we do not need the threat of destitution or starvation hanging over us in order to engage in productive activity. For most of human history, we have not had money or wage labour. In hunter-gatherer societies, for example, which were overwhelmingly peaceful and egalitarian there was no distinction between work and play. Even today, a lot of work is done for free.  Nearly 10% of people also carry out unpaid care work and 25% of adults in England carry out voluntary work at least once a month. Almost every useful type of work you can think of is also done by some people for free, not as "work" for wages, demonstrating that they are not strictly necessary.

Studies show that socially useful reason for doing something is the best motivator and that money is not an effective motivator for good performance at complex tasks than people having the freedom and control to do what they want how they want, and having a constructive. The free software movement demonstrates that people don't need wages to be motivated to produce.
 a socially useful goal and can be superior to traditional organisation for profit.

We are socialists because we see capitalism as harmful to the vast majority of  the world’s people. The system we live under, by its very nature, grinds the poor and working people and sets one group against another. We see in socialism a more just, more cooperative and more peaceful society. Socialism can offer an alternative which can meet the basic needs of people and provide productive and fulfilling work. Socialism offers a future free from the fears of poverty, sexism, racism, dog-eat-dog competition, joblessness, and the loneliness of old age. It will be a society that allows each person to create and produce according to her or his ability and to obtain what she or he needs.

We advocate and work for socialism – that is, common ownership and collective control of the means of production (factories, fields, utilities, etc.) . We want a system based on cooperation, where the people build together for the common good.

The task of The Socialist Party is the organisation and the building of a mass movement of the working class to fight for socialism. We have deep criticisms of the practice of all the various groups calling themselves Marxist-Leninist vanguard parties. Only a conscious socialist movement of the working class can provide the organisation capable of struggling for and ushering in the new society.  Parliament grew out of feudalism and after the capitalist revolution developed as the natural custodian of the interests of Capitalism. It was founded on private property foundations. Its laws are the laws of private property. The modifications that have taken place, the extension of the franchise and the growth of social legislation for the working-class are the reflection of the growing strength and power of the working-class. The more Parliament reflects the class struggle in its work, the more the capitalists attempt to use it as the means to regulate capitalist economy, the more they are impeded by the increasing claims of the worker. The “safety valve” of bourgeois democracy thus becomes no longer “safe” for private property. We call upon the workers to make the machine of Parliament effective for economic change. The way to defend the democratic gains won by years of struggle is to use those gains on every field for working-class advance day in and day out. It must by using the machine of Parliament, by adapting it and changing it to serve new purposes, to win power so that it shall transfer into the hands of the exploited the land and the industries. It must wage the class struggle if class domination is to end. By winning that fight real democracy will supplant capitalist democracy, genuine social democracy will take the place of the sham democracy that hides the dictatorship of Capital. Then, and then only, on the basis of the social ownership of the means of production will there be a government of the People, by the People, for the People.

A New Politics is Needed

The capitalist class have no thought for the future; with eyes only for immediate plunder and with their dreams of avarice they plunged into the gamble of casino capitalism. They build up recklessly and without plan. They always assume that their winnings will continue for ever. Any attempt to organise the growing productive power to meet human needs is a question which does not even enter into their heads; it cannot arise within the conditions of capitalism.

Millions seek employment in vain, and have to struggle to exist on a grudged and bare subsistence rate of the minimum wage. The wages of the other workers who are still able to keep their jobs are cut and cut again; exploitation is increased. The parasitic burdens of capitalism grow ever greater. The attacks of capitalism, to maintain its profits, grow ever more sweeping and ferocious, ranging over every field, against both employed and unemployed, against working conditions and social services, for new forms of intensified labour to drive down the workers. All the capitalist parties, Conservative, Liberal Democrats and Labour, speak of new policies of this, that and the other to improve the economy. They appeal to the workers to make sacrifices in order to do this. They imagine that if only business  organisation and production techniques can be  could be modernised and improved all will be well. Do not imagine that the crisis is to be solved by some form of re-organisation of capitalism. Not only do these so-called remedies fail to deal with the root of the problem capitalism, they often worsen the situation.

The capitalists  can only look for the solution in fiercer competition, in reducing their own production costs, in cutting wages against their competitors, in increasing their own competitive edge, in fighting to enlarge their own share of the market. But these measures are pursued by every other capitalists in every other country. Although one set or another set may gain a temporary advantage for a short time. Within the conditions of the capitalist system there is no harmonious solution possible.

The crisis is not a crisis of natural scarcity or shortage. Goods of all kinds are stocked high. The power of producing wealth is greater than ever. Millions of workers are willing and able to work; but existing society has no use for their labour. The crisis is a crisis of capitalism alone.This position cannot last. The battle between the workers’ needs and capitalism grows ever fiercer. It can only end in revolution. The basis of reformism, palliative measures to amerorate the misery of people can no longer be conceded by the ruling class The Welfare State is ended. The only path before workers is revolution.

The so-called Left proclaim their “opposition” to the Labour Party policy and to advocate so-called “socialist” alternatives. But on examination their policy will be found to be only the old policy of the traditional Labour Party dressed up in new clothes. Many on the Left urge that if only employers would pay higher wages to the workers, enabling them to buy more of what they produce, there would be no crisis. This is economic nonsense, which ignores the inevitable laws of capitalism — the drive for profits, and the drive of competition. The drive of capitalism is always to increase its profits by every possible means, to increase its surplus, not to decrease it. Individual capitalists may talk of the benefits of high wages but always for the other employer’s workforce in the hope of securing a larger market for their goods. But the actual drive of capitalist class as a whole is the opposite. The force of competition compels every capitalist to cheapen costs of production, to extract more output per worker for less return, to cut wages. The most the capitalists can do is to wait amid the general misery until the universal stagnation, destruction and stoppage of production has produced such a vacuum that a feeble “demand” will again arise, beginning a new trade cycle, and leading to a new and greater crisis. Although they speak of “anti-capitalism,” they do not propose the overthrow of capitalism and the expropriation of the capitalists. Their basis is still the same basis of capitalism, of the capitalist State. Their only proposals are for the reorganisation of capitalism by a system of regulatory control boards, by which they promise a minimum wage for the workers. But in fact, capitalist reorganisation in the present recession can only, if the capitalist burdens are maintained, be at the expense of the workers.

 Those on the Right such as UKIP want  to “protect” home industry and native workers and thus secure more employment and better conditions for the workers. Capitalist prosperity is to be built up anew in Britain,  fenced-in or “insulated” against the EU and the world. It endeavours to appeal to the workers with promises of immigration curbs. This is lying deception. The enemies against which indigenous workers needs to be “protected” are the capitalist exploiting bloodsuckers, who are intent upon making better conditions for the working class impossible.

Many workers in the past have placed their hopes in the Labour Party to bring the solution. People have recognised the urgent need of social change; the Labour Party spoke of social reform, and at times even of socialism, and promised to realise it. Swift disillusionment always followed each time a Labour Party was elected. Always their Third Way is the Old Way. The condition of the workers didn’t improve and  there is no sign of the advance to socialism. The Labour Governments merely continued to act as a representative of capitalism against the workers. This was not a question of a lack of personal integrity a personal question (although there were many cases of such). It is a whole system of reformist politics —  the supposed “alternative” to revolution — that stands exposed in the record of the Labour Governments. The Labour Party cannot act other than it has acted, does act and will continue to act, as the representative of capitalism — because its basis is capitalism.

 Many sincere political activists profess the aim of socialism as an ideal for the future. They hope to reach their aim without the necessity of overthrowing capitalism, but on a basis of co-operation with capitalism, on a basis of winning for the workers gradual gains within capitalism, on acceptance of the capitalist State, on administering capitalism the best way they can, helping to bolster their national capitalists. This they term the “practical” policy for the working class to follow. What has been the outcome of this approach? Certainly there were gains for the workers, some unquestionably substantial such as a “free” health service and education system. But this has ended. Capitalism to-day is no longer willing to grant concessions to the workers. On the contrary, it finds itself compelled to take away existing entitlements and to impose more stringent conditions. The servants of capitalism still posture as reformers  although their role is now to assist capitalism to attack the workers, to enforce wage-cuts, to suppress workers’ resistance -  all in the name of “practical” politics. Workers should neve  bind their organisations, the trade unions, to capitalism and to the capitalist state, in the shape affiliation to the Labour Party. In elections union members who voted for the Labour Party have abstained with discontent widespread. Millions of workers are turning from the Labour Party and seeking a new direction and sadly not always a positive path. The only way forward is the path of struggle against capitalism, the path that leads to the social revolution, to socialism.

 Only real socialism can bring the solution. Only by ending capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the working-class revolution. Only the organised working-class can fight and destroy the power of the capitalist class, care drive the capitalists from possession, can organise social production.

“But these inventions and discoveries, which supersede each other at an ever-increasing pace, this productiveness of human labour, which increases day by day at a hitherto unheard of rate, finally creates a conflict, in which the present capitalist system must fall to pieces. On the one side, immeasurable wealth and a surplus of products which the purchasers cannot control. On the other, the great mass of society proletarised, turned into wage workers, and just on that account become incapable of taking possession of that surplus of products. The division of society into a small over-rich class and a large propertyless working-class, causes this society to suffocate in its own surplus, while the great mass of its members is scarcely, or, indeed, not at all, protected from extreme want. Such a condition of things becomes daily more absurd and unnecessary. It can be abolished; it must be abolished. A new social order is possible, wherein the class differences of to-day will have disappeared, and wherein — perhaps, after a short transitional period, of materially rather straitened circumstances, maybe, but morally of great value-through the systematic use and development of the enormous productive forces already in existence (with equal obligation upon all to work), the means of life, of enjoying life, and of developing all the physical and mental capabilities, will be at the equal disposal of all in ever-increasing fullness.” (Engels: Introduction to Marx “Wage-Labour and Capital,” 1891.)

What is its meaning for us?

First, all the means of production, the land, the factories, mills and mines, the system of transport and the methods of distribution, are the collective property of the community. The class of social leeches of employers and landlords no longer exist. Through their own elected workers councils the actual producers control the process of work and its administration but the product of labour belongs to us all. The workers are free to organise production for the needs of the consumer rather than the pockets of the capitalist. There is no longer the capitalist anarchy of production by competing businesses for an unknown market, with the consequent gluts and slumps. Instead, a socialist society is able to determine how much steel, the amount of energy required, so much agricultural machinery to cultivate so much land with such and such crops, etc., — all planned to satisfy the wants of the people. All production is directed solely to supplying the workers’ needs. It is for use, not for profit. Therefore every expansion of production means greater abundance and leisure for all.

 We are not speaking of some utopia, but only of what is immediately and practically realisable so soon as the workers are united to overthrow capitalism and enforce their will. It is evident that, on the most immediate practical basis, and leaving out of account the enormous increase in production which will result from universal socially organised production, the workers’ rule will be able immediately, so soon as the change is achieved, to realise the most enormous advances in standards, hours, conditions of labour, social conditions, health, housing, education, cultural facilities, etc. We can immediately banish poverty. Capitalism already begrudges us a bare subsistence.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow workers against capitalist oppression. Workers can by social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone, rapidly reconstruct society. We need to prepare for this. We need to prepare new forms of struggle.  Only by uniting all the workers in a  conscious fight for socialism, spreading throughout the working-class, throughout the factories, docks, mines, railways, drawing everybody together into the struggle and carrying it forward, in a thousand forms of mass activity, can we be assured victory over capitalism.

The Scottish Police State

Police in Scotland carry out nine times as many ‘stop and searches’ as New York police. The comparison between the Scottish and New York forces was left out of the Scottish Police Authority’s final report as it was deemed irrelevant. The Scottish police also conducted three times as many searches per 10,000 people as London police.

The figures show a 400 percent rise in searches in some parts of the country, including Fife, since the creation of the single national force in April 2013, and a spike in the number of children under the age of criminality being search illegally.

Should the future have a name?

The path to socialism is long. The task is to develop a new politics. For the up-coming generation there will be a vastly expanded terrain of initiatives to be active upon. We must construct an authentic socialist strategy, to be seen as  realistic in its objective, the transformation of capitalism into a classless society. To begin with the ends is the proper starting point for a socialism of our times. Our purpose in the Socialist Party is to sketch the reality of our goal and vision in its general characteristics. To transform capitalism, we must transform its representation of the world.The socialist perspective is no longer to be treated as an ideal for the future, but very resolutely refers to the everyday. We must dream, not in the manner of losing ourselves in fantasy, but in the way that prepares us to picture our goal, what Marx describes in the Manifesto the "real movement that supersedes the current state of things".

The terms socialism and communism  implies solidarity and collectivity. To begin with the ends is the proper starting point for a socialism of our times. Class war in the traditional sense of the term is no way obsolete. Exploitation persists, and is as ferocious as ever; the class struggle remains entirely on the political agenda. The extraordinary changes in conditions  and with the people’s relationships with them since Marx's time, far from rendering the idea of socialism superfluous, has made these ideas more contemporary than ever. Social revolution is not  seeking simply another way to regulate the market, but to move toward a post-commodity economy; not simply to prepare a better future for individuals but to make their full development an immediate object; not simply to develop democracy further, but to undertake the disappearance of the state through the appropriation of decision-making whereby humanity is beginning to have the power to decide what it will be.

Workers individually, as a class, and as part of the entire society are not moved by economics alone. Competition among workers, sectional and selfish interests, short-term favors, plus social pressure and nationalist and racial chauvinism have often diverted various groups of workers from a revolutionary role. Divide and rule, is still th rulers’ basic strategy and best tactic. A big part of keeping these workers in their place is the sex, colour and age discrimination and ethnic division tactic. This is enforced not only by the individual boss, but by the whole system.

Revolutions are made by facing problems, not by denying that they exist. Changing society is a big job and the working class is still the prime mover.  If we prove incapable defining, much less resolving, new facts and problems, or relate to new people with new ways, it can in no way further the cause of social change and revolution. There is nothing to teach unless we are first willing to learn. Action is aimless without the purposefulness which comes from understanding and knowledge.  Many political activists are wrong on a lot of things, but their contempt for distorted “socialism”  justified with its worthless programmes of cure-it-alls, with their road to socialism full of false turnings. Against this, the only weapon of the workers is their political awareness and class solidarity. What workers need is organisation with a class outlook and fighting muscle. Workers are inevitably concerned with immediate conditions – both to hold whatever they have and to make gains if they can. But petty reforms or even substantial gains of themselves to not change the system in the slightest. The only way to break through the vicious circle of reformism  is basically a mass understanding that working people cannot beat the system at its own game but must end the game and system completely. People have everything to gain in this universal struggle.

The whole society orients the worker toward competition in accumulating things, doing his job, taking orders and allotting all responsibility for major decision making to bosses and politicians. Poverty and affluence exist at the same time side by side. The existence of poverty is a spur to insure a supply of loyal and industrious labour.  It is also a source of profit for slum landlords, and sweat-shop slave-drivers. Why should the system eliminate if it could, anything so useful and indispensable? Even the better-off live in life-styles that are always fragile and subject to change. The only way to win is to fight the entire system. Since time is not unlimited, we have to start doing this now.  The waste and junk products which are poisoning our lives and our environment,  indicts one of the biggest of the crimes of capitalism. The big corporations make the profit and the environmental costs are paid mostly by the government.

No one denies that planning in a future socialist society will always be smooth-running and that no snags will ever arise. But there is no reason to suppose that they will be insurmountable. The premise of abundance, on which socialism is founded, is not utopian in the technological sense. We can assume that for many  items production will be reduced, for example, armaments, and other products’ manufacture will be increased, medical equipment, for instance.  One of the  advances brought about by capitalism is that there are now a great deal of statistical data on consumption patterns that are remarkably similar across a large sections of the population. These reveal an order of priorities common to hundreds of millions of people, over many decades. There are fundamental needs. There are secondary needs. There are also luxury needs. It finds expression in spontaneous or semi-spontaneous consumer behaviour itself. We now have the computing power to do countless calculations in determining the general pattern of what people want. We have scientific market research procedures trusted by the capitalist class itself. We have consumer feedback to judge efficiency and  highlight improvements either to the product or its distribution. There need not be any dictatorship of central planning committees. Bar-code scanning can direct us to where there are shortages on the shelves or a glut of unwanted goods.  Everything that can be done better socially should be done collectively, co-operatively and without waste and polluting by-products. There is no other socialism except democratic socialism.

People should not console themselves with illusions. The system is running on over-time to conceal the fact that we’re running out of time. What the system needs to hide is exactly what we need to expose to speed up our common liberation. We must bring socialist ideas anew to the various social movements. We must provide the theoretical tools for people to analyse their own situation. As a socialist party we have the collective responsibility to ensure that our experience, the lessons we have learned, our human and material resources, and our political convictions continue to serve the cause of socialism. We are not in a position at this juncture to predict what forms of organisation would be most appropriate to the concrete conditions which exist for the fight for socialism.  More modestly than others, we have come to see ourselves as the embryo of a future mass party.

Mucky coal and electric

Longannet power station has been named as one of the top 30 polluting power plants in the EU,  ranked 21st on the list. Longannet is the second largest coal power station in the UK, and the third largest in Europe.

The report shows the top 30 polluting power plants in the EU, ranked according to their total carbon dioxide emissions in 2013.

The UK and Germany came joint first, with nine of the dirtiest coal plants each. The nine UK power stations produced just under a third of the UK's electricity supply last year but were responsible for nearly two thirds of carbon emissions from the power sector. The UK's coal plants produce air pollution in the form of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, particulates and mercury, which have significant negative impacts on human health and the environment. Air pollution caused by UK coal power stations is estimated to be responsible for 1,600 deaths per annum in the UK.

A Billionaire's Plan

It is always interesting to hear what our masters think we should be doing in the workplace. When that particular member of the owning class happens to be "worth" over $75 billion his views are worth noting. 'Mexican billionaire tycoon, Carlos Slim, has called for the introduction of a three-day working week, offset by longer hours and a later retirement, as a way to improve people's quality of life and create a more productive labour force. ........ He said current retirement ages come from a time of lower life expectancies, and should rise to 70 or 75.' (Guardian, 21 July) Owning a mere $75 billion you can understand why he wants "a more productive labour force" and having you toil until you are 75 years of age must seem reasonable to him. RD

Karl's Quotes

Marx described the process of globalization of production one hundred and fifty years ago and saw the direction it would take…"And instead of producing for the individual merchant or for particular customers, the weaver now produces for the entire world of commerce…Trade now becomes the servant of industrial production, for which the constant expansion of the market is a condition of its existence. An ever- increasing mass-production swamps the existing market and thus works steadily towards its expansion, braking through its barriers. What restricts this mass production is not trade (in as much as this only expresses existing demand), but rather the scale of the capital functioning and the productivity of labour so far developed. The industrial capitalist is constantly faced with the world market; he compares and must compare his own cost prices not only with domestic market prices, but with those of the whole world. Previously, this comparison was almost exclusively the task of merchants and ensured commercial capital its mastery over industrial." (Capital, volume III, pp 454/455). In other words, in order to exist, production must be constantly expanded. When capitalism consisted of small pockets of industrialization in Western Europe, expansion was indeed manageable but as the scale of capitalism covered the whole world, such expansion necessarily has great and irreversible impact on our environment, totally unnoticed by capital.

Reading Notes.

From Taylor Caldwell's "Captains and The Kings" about the American Civil War, "My dear Mr. Francis, who do you honestly believe rules the nation? The apparent rulers, or the real ones behind the scenes who manipulate a nation's finances for their own benefit? Mr. Lincoln is as helpless as you and I. He can only, unfortunate man, give his people slogans, and slogans, it would appear, are what people want. Tomorrow you will meet some of the gentry I have spoken of, most congenial and tolerant men, who have no nationalistic prejudices at all, and no allegiances even to their own countries but only to each other and their banking interests."

The Plain Brutal Fact.

On May 23rd, 150 employees of the Heinz Ketchup factory in Leamington, Ontario, were let go. At the end of June, another 350 were forced to leave. This will leave 250 working for substantially lower wages. This has come as a shock to many because the company has been there for 105 years and many have spent their whole working lives there. Ever since Warren Buffett and the Brazilian private equity firm, 3G Capital, bought Heinz in 2013, there was talk of downsizing but no one suspected how bad it would be. The plain brutal fact is that no matter how long a company may exist within capitalism, change is the constant factor according to the market and profitability and it will always be the worker who gets the worst of it. John Ayers.

The Devil And His Evil Ways?

Recently, pope Francis has been ranting about the devil and his evil ways, "Look out because the devil is present." His holiness is concerned because satanic cults are spreading like wildfire on the net. Vito Mancuso, a Catholic theologian, complained that, " He is opening the door to superstition." As if the more 'respectable' religions aren't based on superstition. "The sad truth is that there are many bishops and priests who do not really believe in the devil", commented reverend Gabriele Amorth, a priest and exorcist. The sad truth is that while people look to any cult, including Christianity, to solve their problems, they are deceiving themselves. Only in throwing overboard all forms of superstition including belief in an afterlife and a supreme being and organizing for socialism and sense, and security for all can they accomplish that. John Ayers.

No Mean City - book review

From the November 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

During the thirties, a Gorbals bakery worker and a journalist by the names of McArthur and H. Kingsley Long wrote a novel describing the Glasgow slum area — the Gorbals — as it appeared to them in the 20's and 30's.

Basically, it is the story of a slum hooligan named Johnnie Stark, nicknamed Razor King, and of the gangland violences which were regular features of Glasgow life at that period. The gangs in Glasgow were not organized for criminal purposes and were hooligans trying to overcome the boredom and monotony of a sordid existence. Most lived in squalor — ten and eleven to a room — most were unemployed.

The authors concentrate their story round the Gorbals area (McArthur lived there), but the social conditions they described could be found in all working-class slums in Glasgow; Bridgeton, Anderson, Plantation, Calton, Townhead. All that these misguided hooligans could hope to gain from their inter-gang wars was permanent facial disfigurement as a result of razor-slashing, or a cracked skull as a result of being hit on the head by a beer bottle. But the excitement and anticipation of the fight relieved the boredom, and this was a major factor in making their miserable social condition tolerable.

This perverse way of looking at life could not, nor cannot, be explained if the slum background is ignored.

The Gorbals became part of Glasgow in 1846. Situated in rather a pleasant area on the banks of the Clyde, it was originally a fishing village. (Glasgow, in fact, specialised in salmon fishing up until the 18th century). The Clyde was a fordable stream about three feet deep at the Broomilaw (eventually deepened to take ships of 25-foot draft).

The commercial development of Glasgow was due to the tobacco trade. Ships took manufactured goods, leather work, saddles, clothing materials, etc to the American colony, Virginia, and returned laden with tobacco. The Glasgow "tobacco lords" made huge fortunes.

The more pleasing architectural parts of Glasgow owe their origin to the wealth and largesse of the tobacco lords. The tobacco trade collapsed with the American War of Independence in 1776, and the heavy industrial development of the Clyde valley (coal, iron and steel) began a few years later, and started to intensify in 1815 when George Watt designed the first steamship. Glasgow became a huge immigration centre for Eastern Europeans, mainly Russian and Polish Jews, Italians, Germans, Belgians, and of course Irish (the New York of the 19th century). All came to seek employment in the mills, mines and shipyards.

Scotland generally had no large indigenous labour force, and needed immigrant labour. Glasgow probably had the highest proportion and the least time in which they could be absorbed into the meagre social background which existed. Tenement houses were literally thrown up in the immediate areas of the factory or mill. Mile upon mile of these social abominations still form the bulk of working-class housing in Glasgow. Most consist of two rooms with no bathroom or hot water and outside W.C. on each of the four floors.

A slum is a product of overcrowding and through the lack of proper washing facilities, the house usually becomes verminous. Engel's descriptions of the slums of Manchester and Salford apply with more force in Glasgow. Overcrowding, lack of privacy, and domestic discomfort forces the slum-dwellers into the streets and eventually into the pub. It is no accident that Glasgow had, or had up until recently, the highest number of pubs per square mile than any other city in the world.

Not unnaturally, the people became heavy drinkers. Unlike the slum dwellers of Calcutta and Bombay, who at least have the warmth of the sun for an ally and can even sleep in the open air, the Glasgow tenement and slum-dweller is not so lucky. Living in a soot-laden atmosphere in a cold, wet and windy climate, he becomes dominated by his living conditions and the tedium of work (and the lack of it). Such is the urgency of immediate existence they become aggressive, argumentative, and intolerant. Directed along Socialist lines this would be an advantage, but as it is these only serve to perpetuate a narrow conservatism and a suspicion of any new ideas, including those of the SPGB.

Much has since changed since 1932. For one thing Glasgow, far from being the second city in the British Empire with over 1 million inhabitants, now has a population of 816,000 (1972 estimate) — a reduction of 18 per cent in the last twelve years. Many of the slums have gone, but many more remain. In fact, the slum reception housing areas built in 1933-37 like Blackhill and Shettleston are rapidly becoming slum areas as overcrowding grows afresh. It should not be assumed that it was socially enlightened planners and politicians who were responsible for demolishing the slums. A far more potent reason was the appalling health hazards which these slums produced. Apart from inevitable poverty diseases like TB and rickets, infectious diseases like scarlet fever and diphtheria were quite common in the 'twenties and 'thirties in the Gorbals in the south, Calton and Bridgeton in the east; Cowcaddens in the north and the highest infantile mortality rate of any industrial county. The infant mortality rate for the city as a whole in 1935 was 110 per thousand.

The tower blocks rise in the Gorbals — whole streets have been demolished. The Irish and the Jewish immigrants of the old Gorbals have been socially assimilated, but the Pakistanis and Indians and other Asian immigrants now take their place. The same old squalor plagues these newcomers and racial tension has now become a new element in gang warfare. The post-war slum reception areas like Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Possil have produced their own gangs and vandals, and little wonder. These cheerless cellular dormitories could only inspire in the young the urge to get out of them as quickly as possible.. Miles from the city centre, poor transport services, little or no amenities; in fact, pubs were not allowed in pre-war housing schemes. They present such a desolate prospect that many wish they were back in the slums again with its intensive social life based on the camaraderie of poverty.

Full employment after World War II eased the worst rigours of poverty. The Bingo halls and the betting shops are full. The pubs are now catering for women (a post-war innovation), and more whiskey and less "red biddy" is being drunk.

The creation of an industrial sore such as Glasgow in the heady days of unrestricted exploitation in the 19th century has taught the capitalists a very expensive lesson. The scale of re-housing, health and welfare services, were and are far higher than any city of comparable population in the UK and possibly Europe. And yet Glasgow, it is claimed, is the success story of the social reformer! Low rents, good Council housing, health centres, new schools and hospitals. The poverty of the past, we are told, is so much water under Jamaica Bridge. The drunks and the derelicts still sleep it off in the Glasgow Green, but a newer phenomenon, the prostitutes and drug addicts, are now to be seen in George Square. Truly a sign of the affluent society, as nobody could afford either in pre-war Glasgow.

Politically Glasgow has had more than its share of prominent Left-wingers. A stronghold  of the ILP for many years, it certainly did not lack advocates in Parliament — Maxton; McGovern; Campbell Stephen; Kirkwood; MacLean and others. But still Glasgow does not flourish. As unemployment re-emerges, as prices rise, and the threat of redundancy becomes more imminent, the old feeling of apprehension returns. Have the good times gone — will slump and poverty return?

The Socialist knows that we cannot have capitalism without these for very long. There is no permanence in social reform. It all has to be done again and again.

Why should the working class in Glasgow and elsewhere gamble on poverty or capitalist prosperity? This choice need not be made. Glasgow has allowed itself to be wrung dry of surplus-value by the rapacity of capitalism. Its sons became undersized, undernourished, under-housed and over-worked in order to build massive fortunes for a race of arrogant parasites. There is absolutely no reason why they should continue to do so.

If they will look beyond the sponsored parochialism of local politics to the broader issues of Socialism and consciously associate themselves with a working-class movement intent on the abolition of capitalism, then and only then will Glasgow flourish.
Jim D'Arcy

This Is Progress?

One of the illusions spread by supporters of capitalism is that although it has a dire history of exploitation and poverty it is gradually improving. Try telling that story to the half million Bolivian children who are still suffering from near-Dickensian conditions. 'Bolivia has lowered the legal working age to allow children to work from the age of 10 as long as they also attend school and are self-employed. The law also permits 12-year-olds to be contracted to work for others. But they need parental authorisation. ...... More than 500,000 children already work to supplement the family income in Bolivia according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).' (BBC News, 18 July) RD

Desperate People

They are not the only desperate people. Many from North Africa are trying to flee poverty and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. 600,000 are waiting to make the journey and so far this year 42,000 have reached Italy. The risks they take to escape their poverty are high, often using unseaworthy boats causing the deaths of 170 so far this year. Such a system that causes and allows this to happen should be trashed and soon. John Ayers.

God Is Not Talking

As an example of the above, California is entering its third year of drought. In many areas farming has come to a standstill and farmers and their workers are suffering economically. The Toronto Star described a scene, " The two field workers scraped hoes over weeds that weren't there. "Let us pretend we see many weeds." Francisco Galvez told his friend Rafael. That way, maybe they would get a full week's work." A Mormon missionary has been visiting Francisco and his family. He says they all say the same thing, "If your mind is right you can talk to God and he will tell you what to do." Given the enormity of the problem it seems like God is not talking. John Ayers.

Gaza Stripped Bare

The siege of the Gaza Strip was imposed in 2007 to induce the Gazans to overthrow the Hamas administration they have elected. Keeping Gaza and the West Bank isolated from direct contact with the outside world is crucial to Israel’s claim to continued sovereignty over the occupied territories and preventing the emergence of a sovereign Palestinian state. Some sections of the Israeli ruling class are prepared to accept a peace settlement based on the “two-state solution”. Peace would give Israeli business unrestricted access to Arab export markets and cheap labour. The present government, however, is tied to the occupation – above all, the military-industrial complex and the settlers’ lobby. Netanyahu’s Likud is loathe to contemplate a genuine Palestinian state. For these people, peace is a danger to be warded off at all costs. This explains Israel’s cold reception to the re-amalgamation of Abbas West Bank Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s Hamas.

The Israeli state oppresses the Palestinians, driving them into the hands of the fanatics of Hamas out of despair at the failure of the secular Palestinian left. In turn the pitiful rocket and mortar attacks provide for the Israeli state 'proof' of the murderous nature of the Palestinians and drives the Israeli public to support harsher and harsher measures against the against the Palestinian people who are all now viewed as complicit in terrorism. This is a self destructive spiral and must be broken. The Israeli state is not shaken by the ineffectual rockets of Hamas. Neither the Israeli army nor Hamas really care about 'their' civilians, except as bloody images for the cameras of the world's press in order to justify their own next atrocity.

Perhaps one of the saddest and longest lasting examples of a working class divided against itself is the continuing factional struggle between Israeli and Palestinian workers. Our appeal is to both Jewish and Palestine workers to shun the political intentions and racial rhetoric of both the rulers of Israel and Hamas. Not every Jewish citizen of Israel is a Zionist at heart -- they are merely workers. Indeed Jews and Arabs can live side by side as 20% of Israeli-Arabs demonstrate, albeit they suffer the discrimination of the Jewish religious lobby and Zionist expansionists. Zealots expounded Jewishness as a separate race while Islamic fundamentalists find fertile ground among the oppressed Moslem population.

Israel/Palestine is today de facto one state. But it is an apartheid state which discriminates against non-Jews in favour of Jews. Currently, the West Bank and East Jerusalem house some 500,000 Jewish settlers living in more than 130 settlements dispersed throughout these areas.

Dr Ghada Karmi, author of ‘Married to Another Man: Israel's Dilemma in Palestine’, writes:
“The Palestinian task now is to fight against this apartheid and mount a struggle, not for an impossible Palestinian state, but for equal rights under Israeli rule. They would need to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, which is now a liability that only camouflages the true situation, and then confront Israel, their actual ruler, directly. As stateless people under military occupation, they must demand equal civil and political rights with Israeli citizens, and apply for Israeli citizenship if necessary. That puts the onus on Israel to respond: either to ignore the five million Palestinians it rules, or vacate their land, or grant them equal rights.”

 Peace will create better conditions for democracy. No longer obsessed with ethnic conflict, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians will be able to refocus on the social, economic and ecological problems spawned by the “normal” peacetime functioning of capitalism. A space for socialist ideas will open up in this corner of the world. We ask that workers set aside the reaction of nationalism, religious bigotry, ethnic hatred, racism and join together to root out the real problem itself — capitalism.

Global Warming Problems.

Global warming can create big problems for animals farmed for food, the experts say. Turkeys are vulnerable to heat that makes their breast meat mushy and unappetizing. Disease can spread through a chicken coop and severe weather can wipe out entire herds of cattle. According to Gale Strasbourg, a professor of food and nutrition at Michigan State University, " Within a day or two after a heat wave you will go from no problem at all to forty per cent of turkey breasts having a problem." Ian Miller, ex-principal climate specialist for the World Bank said," The US Department of Agriculture approach to climate change is like trying to promote driver safety while helping the car industry make faster cars." Scientists who are working to create new breeds of animals that can cope with a warmer climate argue that they too are focused on depleting resources. Of course, nowhere do we see a concerted effort to get to the root of the problem – the way we produce the goods needed for society and the ways in which that is done. John Ayers.