Japanese Hypocrisy

270,000 have signed a petition to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for Japan to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. The article states that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or the use of force as a means of settling international disputes", and promises "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained". 'Japan actually has one of the biggest military forces in the world, although it operates under strict constraints. These were relaxed earlier this year when Mr Abe's government reasserted the "right to collective self-defence", which would allow Japanese troops to fight side by side with allies overseas.' (Times, 25 August) So the constitution renounces war but they have one of the biggest military forces in the world. RD

Guardian Letter

Discussing the referendum earlier this week, Sir Tom Hunter said, "whatever the people decide we'll just get on with it" (Report, 20 August).  And the "we" Scotland's first billionaire is referring to is really the few who own the country.  "That's democracy", he concedes, generously.  In fact it is the opposite, but he neatly exposes the irrelevance of the referendum and the sham that is democracy within capitalism.

Brian Gardner

Glasgow Branch

Socialist Party of Great Britain

A Rose by any other Name

There is no such thing as politics without projecting ideas about the future. The only difference is that those who predict that things will always remain the same do not know that they are making a prediction. The reformists dream of the establishment of social peace between the classes, between exploited and exploiters, without abolishing exploitation but instead by exercising self-restraint  and by the giving up of all “excessive” and “extreme” demands antagonisms which exist between the worker and capitalist would disappear.  It is impossible for a socialist to share this illusion of the reconciliation of classes. Social harmony shall come about by the ABOLITION of classes. The leading principle of socialism is the overthrow of the capitalist system, and the establishing in its place of a Co-operative Commonwealth.

The words socialist and communist are changing their meaning just as the change in definition of the word christian meant heretics were burned by thousands in the name of the love thy neighbour. Lenin abandoned the word socialism and invented the belief of making socialism mean a “first stage” in the development of communism, thus elaborating the smoke-screen and making it possible to put over in the name of “socialism” the Bolshevik policies of state capitalism.

We wish to make it quite clear as to our exact aim and object. We are socialists, wishful above all things to advance socialism, and by socialism we mean the common or collective ownership of all the wealth production, and this involves the complete ABOLITION of the capitalist system. Socialism means a classless society, and a classless society means that a privileged minority of the population are not in a position to enjoy the national wealth, while the majority live only on their labour to produce it. It means especially that privileged individuals who do have excess income cannot invest it in the instruments of production with which others work, thus reducing them to a position of fixed subservience. It means an end of rent, profit, and interest on stocks and bonds, an end of “surplus value”, an end of the exploitation of labour. This economic change is regarded by socialists as pre-requisite and fundamental.

Being socialists, we are therefore for the labour movement and as trade unionists we value unions very highly, but we should never side with unions who adopted an anti-socialist attitude.  Effective unions will never exist till the workers are revolutionary socialists, just as effective political action can never come till the people are thoroughly class-conscious and are fully determined to stop all robbery by moulding present-day capitalism into the co-operative commonwealth.

One of the early criticisms of syndicalism the Socialist Party had was that it was a continuance of private ownership albeit sectional ownership. The coal mines do not belong to the coal miners merely because they work in them. The road-builders might as well claim the streets if that was the case. It would be of small gain to expropriate the present individual owners of the means of production merely to put them in the hands of other groups of individuals, who would be actuated by the same motive of making the most out of them which was permitted. It is only in the name of and for the benefit of the people as a whole that the present possessors can be rightfully expropriated. This common  ownership of wealth by all people is the economic cornerstone of  the brotherhood of all men. We ask the working class to organise with us to end the domination of private ownership — with its poverty-breeding system of unplanned production — and substitute in its place the Socialist Co-operative Commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties.

 Individual production makes individual ownership necessary. Large-scale production, on the contrary, means co-operation or social production. In mass production the individual does not work alone, but a large number of workers work together to produce a whole. Accordingly, the modern instruments of production are extensive and powerful. It has become wholly impossible that every single worker should own his own instruments of production. Ownership by the workers in common of the instruments of production means a co-operative system of production and the extinction of the exploitation of the workers, who become masters of their own products and who themselves appropriate the surplus of which, under our system, they are deprived by the capitalist. To substitute common, for private, ownership in the means of production, this it is the economic development we are urging.

 If all the machinery and technology at the disposal of mankind  to-day were applied co-operatively to the supply of useful goods and social luxuries, in Robert Owen’s words “wealth might easily be made as plentiful as water.” Non-arduous, enjoyable labour by all members of the community would thus produce plenty for all, and wages and prices would disappear. The object is not the enactment of palliative reforms under capitalism, nor the obtaining of higher wages under existing circumstances, but the immediate establishment of a co-operative commonwealth. That is, in fact, the emancipation of the whole wage-slave class.

When you join the Socialist Party you enjoy the thrill of a new aspiration; you are no longer a blinkered wage-slave. You begin to understand your true and vital relationship to your fellow-workers. You are a person and you have a brain, and if you do not use it in your own interests you are guilty of betraying yourself. When we unite and act together, the world is ours. Together we shall form a world wide Co-operative Commonwealth and when the world-wide co-operative commonwealth having been established, mankind for the first time be ensured the material and mental and moral requisites of a grand and noble existence.  The Co-operative Commonwealth that has been the aim of generations of working-class will attain its full meaning and realisation only with the ending of capitalist rule. The needs of all will be met. It will mean the beginning of  peace and plenty for all the inhabitants of the Earth, the beginning of co-operation between the peoples of the Earth.

D-I-Y - Build A Sane World

The Socialist Party is the only organisation with a "Do It Yourself" plan for changing society. We have been almost alone have warned of the dangers of depending upon "leaders" who want to do your thinking for you. For years we have explained that since the working class is intelligent enough to plan, design build and operate the complex and complicated industries throughout the world, it is also intelligent enough to collectively own and administer those same productive forces through the democracy of socialism.

Instead of workers being divided into hostile groups competing for jobs that will pay enough to keep a family until next payday, we will work in harmony, cooperating to produce most efficiently the best possible products, since we will all directly benefit from each improvement in quality and quantity of the goods and services we have made available. Socialism is not a paternalistic society in which the good things are handed down to you. It is a society of economic equality, which is to say, equality of economic opportunity. You will have full say in the industrial democracy of socialism.

 The Socialist  Party calls upon the majority to vote for the change from private ownership to social ownership. You can "Do It Yourself" at the ballot box.

 It is important that we restate in definite terms what the Socialist Party is and what it stands for, at the same time pointing out the anti-socialist character of such political parties as the "socialist" and "workers" parties. Socialism will have no private ownership in the necessaries of life, i.e., the industries and the system of communication and distribution, as well as the social services. Second, there will be no political State, no political parties, no politicians, and, accordingly, there will be no State ownership or bureaucratic control of these necessaries of life. Third, there will be no wage system, hence, no exploitation. In place of private and/or state ownership, we shall have social ownership of the necessaries of life. Socialism is a social system under which all the instruments of production, distribution, education, health, etc., are owned, controlled and administered by the people, for the people.

We do not advocate a hodgepodge of state ownership or municipal ownership all of which would make necessary the retention of the political state and give politicians positions of power as the ruling bureaucrats making meaningless promises in the name of "socialism." They pay lip service to "social ownership," "industrial democracy," "production for use," and then in the next breath advocate higher minimum wages, expanded unemployment and old-age benefits, free maternity care, equal pay for women, and the like. Their "ace-in-the-hole" is "a Workers' State. These political hucksters have no right to the title "socialist," but unfortunately there is no way to stop them from using it. These reformists opportunistic outfits while the Socialist Party is a political party whose aim is, and always has been, the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism.

But capitalism cannot be abolished and replaced by socialism by a political party despite claims of such phony "socialists". That is a task that only the workers as a class can do for themselves. The social revolution cannot be accomplished unless the working class becomes conscious of its class interests  The Socialist Party demands, via the ballot box, the unconditional surrender of capitalism, "locking out" the capitalist class and continuing production and social services under the direction of a workers and community councils.  Together we shall do the common-sense thing; make the means of production our collective property, abolish exploitation of the many by the few, and use our productive genius to create leisure and abundance for all. Society must be reconstructed and workers of hand and brain must build this new world and emancipate themselves through their own class conscious efforts and they can apply their collective strength to the task at hand only through organisation. Politically workers must draw together in a party that stands for their own collective interests. For too long workers have relied on capitalist politicians to speak for them. They must build their own political organization, to challenge the domination of the capitalist class and help all workers realize how socialism serves their needs, and how it can be won. But a political party by itself is not enough. Socialism means more than a change in ideas, or a different set of political figures in government. It means that the masses of working people must build the new forms of socialist administration.

Saying like it is

You've read the misinformation about SOCIALISM ... now read the FACTS!

Socialism means the common ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, railroads, land and all the other means of wealth-production. Socialism means production of things to satisfy human needs, and not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means free access. Socialism, by eliminating the scandalous waste resulting from capitalist anarchy, and by accelerating the adoption of new techniques and inventions, will greatly increase the wealth available for the people's consumption and enjoyment. Improved technology, especially automation, has greatly increased the productivity of American workers. And while, under capitalism, the workers are denied the fruits of technology, under Socialism it will insure material well-being for all beyond the dreams of avarice.

For you, as an individual, socialism means a full, happy and useful life. It means the opportunity to develop all your faculties and talents. It means that, instead of being a mere chattel bought and sold in the labour market, an appendage to a machine, you will take your place as a human being in a free society of human beings.

Your job in socialism will not be dependent on the caprice either of a private employer or the capitalist market. When things are produced to satisfy human needs, instead of primarily for sale and profit, forced unemployment will be an impossibility. The "demand," instead of being limited to what people can buy, will be limited only to what people can use. Nor will technological unemployment be possible in socialism. Instead of kicking workers out of their jobs, the improved methods and facilities will kick hours out of the working day. "Jobs for all" under capitalism is a hypocritical slogan, except possibly when capitalism is preparing for, or engaged in, an all-out war. Socialism alone can give jobs for all and open wide the doorway to economic opportunity. Your hours of work in socialism will be the minimum necessary to fulfill society's needs. Work is not the end and aim of man's existence; it is the means to an end. We do not live to work; we work to live. Socialism will, therefore, strive in every way to lighten the labor of man and give him the leisure to develop his faculties and live a happy, healthful, useful life. It is estimated that, with the facilities we now have, by the elimination of capitalist waste and duplication, and by opening jobs at useful work to all who are now deprived of them, we could produce an abundance for all by working four hours a day, three or four days a week, for half a year. In socialism, the workers would operate and manage the industries themselves. In each factory and plant, they would elect their own foremen and management committees.

You’ve read that socialism would result in the loss of individual liberty; that all power would be surrendered to the state or the government, and a harsh bureaucracy would regulate our lives and enforce blind obedience. The fact is that socialism rejects the state! Socialists hold with Karl Marx that "The existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery." How then, in the name of common sense, could socialists wish to glorify the state and surrender to it? On the contrary - where there is socialism, there can be no state, and where there is a state, there can be no socialism! Socialism rests on democracy. All power will reside in the hands of the people. Socialism does not mean nationalisation, or government ownership and control of industry. Socialism rejects nationalisation or government ownership of industry! For the workers, government ownership is merely a change of masters - it brings no solution to their problems.  Nothing was changed except that, instead of being exploited directly by the capitalists, the workers were exploited by the state for the benefit of the capitalist class. Socialism is not bureaucratic management. Socialism means complete control by the workers and their community, in other words, social ownership and control by the people.

In a socialist society, there will be no wage system. No longer will workers live under the fear of being laid off, or be compelled to spend their lives at some job they hate or are unsuited for.  With socialism we will produce for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. Under capitalism, the industries operate for one purpose-to earn a profit for their owners. Under this system, food is not grown primarily to be eaten. It is grown to be sold. Cars are not manufactured primarily to be driven. They are made to be sold. If there are enough buyers here and abroad, then the capitalists will have their factories turn out cars, TV sets, and everything else for which buyers can be found. But if people lack money, if the domestic and foreign markets cannot absorb them, then these factories shut down, and the country stagnates, no matter how much people need these commodities. Inside socialism, the factories and industries would be used to benefit all of us, not restricted to the creation of profits for the enrichment of a small group of capitalist owners. Inside socialism, our farmlands would yield an abundance without great toil; the factories, mines and mills would be the safest, the most modern, the most efficient possible, and productive beyond our wildest dreams- and without toil and drudgery. Our natural resources would be intelligently conserved, our schools would have the finest facilities, and they would be devoted to developing complete human beings, not wage slaves who are trained to hire themselves out for someone else's profit. Our hospitals and social services will create and maintain the finest health and recreational facilities.

 Automation and our technological  and scientific knowledge have so vastly increased ability to produce what we need and wants, that there is no longer any excuse whatsoever for the poverty of a single member of society. Today, we have the material possibility of abundance for everyone, and the promise of the leisure in which to enjoy it. But under capitalism, automation and computers are used to replace workers and increase profits. Instead of creating a society of abundance, capitalism uses machinery to create unemployment and poverty. But it is not new technology that threatens us at all. Improved productivity is not an evil. It is a blessing. It is under capitalism that automation is used for anti-social purposes. There is nothing threatening about labour-saving machinery. The only threat is the fact that this machinery and industries are the exclusive property of a small minority of people -- the capitalist class; and the fact that these industries are used for the private profit of their owners and not for the benefit of the vast majority. When the  means of production and distribution belong to all of society, then everyone in that society will share and benefit. Socialism will produce an abundance for all.

A truly green world can be had by all

ECO-SOCIALISM

How long can people go on pretending that nothing is amiss with the world's weather? Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Not to be outdone, the present ruling class is fiddling while the Earth burns up.

 Capitalism's profit motive is the culprit for this, as well as many other unthinkable environmental disasters in the making. The profit motive and capitalism are bringing civilisation to the brink of disaster, and time is running out to take corrective actions where it is still possible or to lessen the effects where the damage is already too advanced to be undone. It ought to be clear by now that the system primarily responsible for bringing humanity such peril and which even now continues to ignore the warnings of scientists is not about to spend the hundreds of billions needed to avert or mitigate the dangers. Socially harmful decisions are made because, in one way or another, they serve the profit interests of the capitalist class. Capitalist class rule over the economy also explains why government regulation is so ineffective: under capitalism, government itself is essentially a tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected "democratically," but because they are financed, supported and decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist class, democratic forms are reduced to a farce. The capitalist class and its government will never be able to solve the environmental crisis. They and their system are the problem.

Freed from any restrictions imposed by private-ownership interests and operating only for the good of humankind and the world, and in sharp contrast to the feeble and timid actions of the environmental activists tied to the capitalist system who are perennially preoccupied with garnering political influence among politicians and trying to raise the monetary funds to carry on their work socialists find themselves in the task of rebuilding our world. The action workers must take is to realise their  political power with the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production -- human needs and wants instead of profit -- and to organise their own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether.

 Too often environmentalists are limited in their world view and understanding of the capitalist system, imbued with notions of the "evil men [or corporations]" theory of history, are prone to divorce their specific environmental cause from the whole socio-economic fabric. These environmental warriors of capitalist society endlessly flounder, winning, at best, only a delaying action against the disintegrating effects of capitalism on the natural world. Government regulations pose no threat to capitalism, and never have, regardless of how they may affect or place certain restraints on specific capitalist interests. The real threat to capitalism and the crimes that capitalism commits against nature and humanity is an informed and active working class. Only socialism can satisfy our needs while operating all the industries in harmony with the best interest of the whole planet. However, until the working class decides that it must take control of the economy and establish a new form of democratic government based on collective and democratic ownership of the economy, all creatures on earth will continue to suffer under the capitalist dictum of "business as usual."

The best capitalism can do is to substitute one set of risks for another. Every time capitalism "solves" a problem it creates a new one. It will take a fundamentally different type of social and economic system to even begin to rationally address the problem of global warming-- a socialist society, freed from what Marx once referred to as "the furies of private interest" that now control energy sources and its uses. As always, the moneyed interests come first, and people last. The fossil-fuel industrial complex spends millions of its ill-gotten profits on a persistent campaign of disinformation that is readily augmented, amplified and widely disseminated by the capitalist media. Despite all warnings, the situation will continue to deteriorate as long as the capitalist system continues to exist. The capitalists will defend their source of profits by every means in their power and we will near ever closer to the brink of social disaster. We'll be taken over the edge of the abyss unless the workers awaken to the danger, recognise that capitalism is both the cause of the problem and the obstacle to its solution, and take steps to abolish capitalism and establish socialism.

 There exists mountains of studies, reports and research papers that amount to indictments of capitalism as the culprit for the destruction of the environment. University libraries are bulging,  publishers are glutted and periodicals are saturated with facts and figures. Hardly anything seems to have escaped the scrutiny of those scientists who have produced  findings that Nature and the planet’s eco-system is in deep trouble. Rare indeed are explicit condemnations of the capitalist systems operations. These scientists have drawn conclusions, without the essential inference that environmental degradation is inherent in capitalist development. Such an inference would, of course, have led to only one conclusion: that meaningful action to repair our world can only be taken when the competitive pressures of capitalism, indeed the capitalist system itself, is abolished and socialism established.

Among the most serious problems facing society today is that of environmental pollution and
 destruction. Air pollution, acid rain and acidic seas, tainted and toxic water, poisonous industrial pollutants in our rivers and oceans, cancer-producing pesticides on the food we eat, unhealthy hormones and antibiotics in meat and dairy products, nuclear waste leakage and accidents like Japan’s Fukushima, ozone depletion and last but by no means the least, global warming -- the list of bad news on the environment is seemingly unending.

Marx and Engels perceived enormous squandering of society's resources, a fact that caused Engels to observe: "When one observes how here in London alone a greater quantity of manure than is produced by the whole kingdom of Saxony is poured away every day into the sea with an expenditure of enormous sums, and what colossal structures are necessary in order to prevent this manure from poisoning the whole of London, then the utopia of abolishing the distinction between town and country is given a remarkably practical basis." (The Housing Question.)

The world in which we live does not belong to this generation, or even to the human species so is it reasonable, then, to permit its ongoing destruction -- not by the humanity, but by that tiny minority of the human species that is befouling the nest of all -- the capitalist class? There is no reason whatsoever  that prevents mankind from living in harmony with its natural surroundings. Indeed, humanity is itself an integral part of the total environment and no more at odds with it by nature than any other animal. Pollution is not an inevitable by-product of modern industry. Methods exist or can readily be developed to safely neutralize, recycle or contain most industrial wastes. Less polluting forms of transportation and energy CAN be built. Adequate supplies of food CAN be grown without deadly pesticides. The problem is that, under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make these kinds of decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and controls the industries and services -- the capitalist class. And the capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve, first and foremost, one goal -- that of maximising profit for themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins  and offer  grim testament to the anti-social character of capitalism.

Capitalism was at one time a necessary development of the human species  humanity must continue to progress its social development -- to socialism.  It seems all too obvious that every move ruling classes make is calculated to increase their profits or consolidate their power over the peoples and the countries they control. The clean up of polluted waters, the reclamation of toxic land, and the restoration of the natural environment generally will have to wait for the advent of socialism. That is the only sane, logical and practical way to eliminate all such unnatural disasters because it is the only way to take control of the economy away from an impervious ruling class and place it under the direct control of society as a whole. A socialist industrial democracy  is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power  in the hands of the people, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favor of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to stop pollution at its source and repair the damage already done. Socialism, of course, could not immediately halt the use of coal, oil and nucclear power as energy sources; nor could it immediately clear the atmosphere of the already accumulated greenhouse gases. Socialism could and would set corrective processes in motion by eliminating the anarchy and duplication characteristic of capitalist production; by putting an end to the massive production of nuclear arms; by decreasing the use of fossil fuels wherever possible; by the elimination of a host of other wasteful industrial activities and polluting practices that are part and parcel of the capitalist system and the mad drive for profits that it engenders. It would, thereby, provide time and resources to our researchers and scientists to enable them to discover and/or develop alternative non-polluting and renewable energy sources, even as nature begins to clear the atmosphere.

History cannot stand still. If we do not move forward we must either stagnate or regress. It is time to choose. 

Who Owns the North Pole (part 74)

“Our government is … expanding our economic and scientific opportunities by defining Canada’s last frontier,” said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq in a Canadian government statement. “This is important to Canadians, especially those in the North, as this is their future and prosperity at stake.”

Russia's growing military presence in the Arctic is a concern and Canada should not get complacent about it, Canada’s  Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.  Russia is busy rebuilding former Soviet-era military bases in its north, and has a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers patrolling its waters. Russian planes have also tested the boundaries of Canadian airspace, Harper said. "I just think we should not be complacent, because we have seen over the period that President Putin has been in power just a gradual growing in aggressiveness of his government toward neighbours and the gradual military assertiveness of that country, and I just think it's something we should never be too at ease about."

In the coming days, the prime minister will take part in a series of military manoeuvres in the Northwest Passage meant to assert Canada's Arctic sovereignty.  Harper is scheduled to observe the Canadian Armed Forces’ annual military exercises near Baffin Island. Operation Nanook, now in its seventh year, is meant to demonstrate Canada’s ability to respond to threats and emergencies in its northern waters — including working with Denmark, the United States and territorial governments.

The Canadian Forces will develop a network of sites throughout the Arctic in order to stockpile equipment if needed and move troops and gear quickly into the region in case of emergency, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News. The military hopes to have the sites in place by 2018. “A series of Northern Operations Hubs will be created with the view to facilitate initial rapid deployment and up to 30 days sustained operations in the North,” wrote Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare in outlining his plan. Beare is head of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, responsible for military operations both at home and abroad.

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced that the CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent and CCGS Terry Fox were heading north to conduct scientific surveys in support of a claim to the North Pole. Like all waters more than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from shore, the ocean at the North Pole is international. The only sovereign rights that could possible exist concern seabed resources. Yet according to Mr. Harper, claiming the North Pole is central to defending Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.

Although Canada has rights over extensive areas of seabed elsewhere in the Arctic Ocean, it has no basis for a claim at the North Pole. This is because international law uses the “equidistance” principle to delimit maritime boundaries. According to this principle, boundaries between adjacent coastal states are drawn along a line, every point of which is an equal distance from the respective shores.

In 2012, Canada and Denmark used the equidistance principle to delimit a boundary 200 nautical miles into the Lincoln Sea, north of Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Denmark’s Greenland.Although the boundary does not extend beyond 200 nautical miles, the principle of equidistance will serve as the basis for an eventual agreement separating rights beyond this point. Like it or not, the North Pole falls on the Danish side of the equidistance line – it will never be Canadian.  Harper knows that Canada’s claim will fail. But he also knows that the failure will emerge only after he leaves office. In the meantime, the North Pole presents him with an opportunity to rehabilitate his image as a champion of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.

 A separate issue concerns the extent of Canada’s rights along the Lomonosov Ridge. This underwater mountain range runs from Ellesmere Island and Greenland toward Russia’s New Siberian Islands. The Lomonosov Ridge passes near but not over the North Pole, which remains off to the Danish side of the Arctic Ocean. According to international law, Canada, Denmark, and Russia may assert rights over this submarine structure if they are able to scientifically demonstrate that the formation is a “natural prolongation” of their land mass. Canadian and Danish scientists believe the Lomonosov Ridge is a prolongation of both Ellesmere Island and Greenland, while Russian scientists believe the Lomonosov Ridge is a prolongation of Asia. Scientists on both sides may well be right, since North America and Asia were once a single continent. Consequently, Canada, Denmark, and Russia could all have legitimate claims over the Lomonosov Ridge.

From here and here

With God On His Side

With the murder of an American journalist in Iraq the President of the USA burst forth with an eloquent tirade. 'In a riposte to militants' claims to be flying the flag of Islam, he added "No just God would stand for what they did yesterday." (Times, 21 August) President Obama and his supporting countrymen would probably imagine the same imagined god gave his approval to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wow, it must be great to have a political leader with an insight to the morals of god. RD

For world socialism from below

"The nationality of the toilers is neither French nor English nor German; it is toil, free slavery, sale of the self. His government is neither French nor English nor German; it is Capital. His native air is neither French nor German nor English; it is the air of the factory. The land which belongs to him is neither French nor English nor German; it is a few feet under the ground.” -- Karl Marx

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl and Frederick declared:
"The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world's market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood." Ever since Marx and Engels gave voice to the interests of the proletariat, the socialist working-class movement has been recognised as an internationalist one. Capitalism is international; so is socialism to be.

Today, it leaves no vestige of reason for the continuance of the spirit of nationalism among the working class. Workers do not own the state or the industries, and they have no meaningful say over either of them. That is as true in Scotland as it is in the United Kingdom, or anywhere else in the world.

Common sense should tell workers that the cause of declining wages, spreading economic insecurity and unemployment has nothing to do with who rules in Westminister or sits in Holyrood.
Common sense should tell workers that politicians don't decide when factories will close down or how many workers are laid off.
Common sense should tell workers that in a capitalist economy those decisions are made by those who own the factories, mills, mines and other means of wealth production.
Common sense should tell workers that capitalists make those decisions in their own interests, not in the interests of the working class.

Increased productivity, decreasing wages, the massive loss of full-time jobs, growing economic insecurity and the widening of the wealth gap proves that the capitalist system of private ownership and profit production is based on the exploitation of the working class. As long as this foundation of society remains this trend will continue regardless of the claims and promises of politicians, Scottish nationalist or British nationalist. As long as the working class tolerates the private ownership and control of the economy, workers will be used and disposed of at the profit whims of the tiny capitalist class.

 The internationalist nature of the socialist movement has its roots in the common oppression experienced by all workers and in the international character of the capitalist system itself. Internationalism is a powerful antidote for some of capitalism's most vicious and virulent ideologies, including racism, nationalism and divisive chauvinism of all kinds. A clear view of the communality of interests of the oppressed class throughout the world provides a powerful bulwark against the propaganda which issues daily from ruling-class sources. Recognition of the interest all exploited peoples have in ending the systems of class rule which dominate the world is a large step toward exposing and withdrawing support from the nationalist aims of their respective ruling classes. Scottish left nationalists can use all the sophistry they wish by disguising their objectives through the invention of such phrases as “internationalism from below” but it simply won’t hide the fact that they offer succor to the section of the Scottish capitalist class who consider their vested interest is having more control in the local economy and international trade.

In their practical dealings, the capitalists renounce nationalism. The multinational corporations stand today as monuments of their class cosmopolitanism. Nevertheless, when the need arises to promote their national capitalist interests they have their political lackeys fan the fires of nationalism. "National" interests are said to be in danger. These, of course, are the material interests of the capitalist class, but by identifying them as "national" interests the fact is obscured. Even paupers are made to feel that they have a stake in defending these interests, for they too are part of the nation. The nation is held up as the embodiment of a higher authority to which all owe allegiance. But behind the "nation" is the national capitalist state, and behind the state the ruling class for whom it acts as executive committee.

Nationalism is employed by the capitalist class deliberately to submerge the class struggle and to blind the workers to their own class interests. Internationally it is used to keep the working classes of the world divided against each other, and to blinker them to their common struggle and common aim. Nationally it is used to make the demands of the workers seem in conflict with "national interests," and their efforts to enforce these demands as threats to "national unity."

 Socialist internationalism means that workers' real interests and loyalties lie in supporting the efforts of workers worldwide in the class struggle; in supporting all workers' efforts to resist their exploiters and defeat their exploiters through the establishment of socialism. It means rejecting nationalism and the efforts of ruling-class nation-states to pit workers against each other in economic competition or set them at each others' throats in war. It means holding up international working-class solidarity in opposition to ruling-class nationalism. At a time when Scottish workers are now grappling with the effects of intensified global capitalist competition, and have just been assaulted with nationalistic propaganda in an effort to win their assent to constitutional change the need for socialist internationalism is greater than ever.

The media, the politicians and other mouthpieces of the capitalists have done their job well. In the referendum Scottish workers are being  caught up by the "patriotism" of both Yes and No camps. The Socialist Party cannot stop world capitalism from creating even more misery on a global scale than it already has. Only the working class can do that. What the SPGB can do, however, is hasten the day when workers will come to the realisation that they must act to end capitalism and build socialism. The Socialist Party can do that, PROVIDED it receives the support of those who appreciate the urgency of the times and the need to spread the socialist message. To fight nationalism  effectively requires two things -- a clear exposure of the capitalist roots of nationalism and a class conscious unity of workers to oppose it. Only a class conscious position can cut through decades of propaganda and expose the inadequacies of reformist or separatist approaches to this fundamental problem. It is impossible to work for a socialist society without fighting against divisions among workers. But it is equally impossible to mount any really effective campaign against nationalism that is not at the same time a fight against its capitalist cause.

“ There are but two nations in the world today -- the capitalist class nation, which exploits and lives upon the sweat of the brow of the working class nation, the sweat of whose brow, through unrequited toil, feeds, clothes, houses and fattens the capitalist class nation." --Daniel De Leon

Loads Of Money

Religious groups put all their emphasis on what happens when you die and disdain having wealth whilst you are alive, but beneath that con trick they do very well for those at the top of their organisations. The Islamic State (IS) is likely the world's wealthiest terrorist organization thanks to a large-scale racketing scheme that the organization has adopted in the 1990s, Yahoo Finance reported. ISIS [IS] has always been a very wealthy terrorist movement because it's been running very large scale Mafiosi protection rackets all across Iraq for around five years now, Yahoo Finance quoted Washington Institute's fellow Michael Knights as saying. 'Knights, who has been studying Iraq since the 1990s, estimates the Sunni group makes $2 million to $4 million per day. Reports of bank robbing are a disproved exaggeration according to Knights, and the real money is coming from oil operations.' (RIA Novista, 13 August) RD

Protect the Vote! Use it Wisely!

Why haven't we had a socialist revolution? How much longer can capitalism last? How bad must conditions get before workers take action? There has been no revolution, but rather the working class, while angry, has been mired by confusion, uncertainty and despair.

Socialism is not a predestined inevitable development. Socialism is not an automatic affair, workers as a class must play an active role in the socialist revolution. Capitalism will not vanish. It will remain until it is overthrown. And capitalism can be overthrown only as the result of class conscious mass struggle.

Promoting class conciousness, however, is no easy matter. Workers are bombarded daily in the media with capitalist propaganda. Politicians and economists obscure the capitalist roots of economic crisis and falsely predict a “recovery” after a painful period of "adjustment." And some union leaders tell workers that they need to make concessions to their exploiters instead of fighting back. Worse still, many on the Left confuse workers by talking of  reforms or by raising false hopes that workers can force the political state to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty. Such notions can only help convince workers that they have a future under capitalism and that capitalism is, at this late date, somehow capable of being reformed. In truth, ending the effects of capitalism requires ending their cause -- the capitalist system.

The sad fact is that workers -- those who vote and those who don't -- still buy into the notion that capitalism can somehow solve the problems and miseries it creates and confronts them with. This misunderstanding is no accident. That misconception is nurtured deliberately by capitalism's politicians, and by assorted capitalist agencies of miseducation and misinformation -- the media, the schools, the universities, the churches, the ever-present reformers and more -- all of which are dominated by pro-capitalist interests. Those interests and their political lackeys are primarily concerned with the preservation of their system -- the source of their wealth and their positions of privilege -- at the continued expense of the useful producers of the nation. They will not and do not hesitate to mouth any promise or resort to any act they think will serve their purpose, no matter how hypocritical or ruthless. The hope for a sane and decent society can never be realised within the confines of the capitalist system. Private ownership of the means of life, coupled with the exploitation of wage labour, make it impossible. Furthermore, the system cannot be reformed, regardless of how moral or how ethical reformers may be. Capitalism is beyond that. Its very nature militates against such efforts.

It is important that workers come to recognise that there is an alternative to capitalism. For the sooner the working class realises that the misery imposed by capitalism need not be endured, the sooner will workers turn to socialism. Workers need to form a mass socialist party to challenge and defeat the political state for the purpose of dismantling it. That will clear the way for the workers' organisation on the economic field to administer the classless socialist society by ousting the capitalist class from the seat of its economic power and by taking, holding and operating the economy in the peoples’ interests. It is inconceivable that socialism would win at the ballot box by a number so small that the outcome would be in doubt. Indeed, even if the formality of vote counting was dispensed with completely at such a juncture, the social atmosphere would be charged with the electricity of impending change that the will of the people could not be concealed.

Capitalism can be counted on to produce economic crises in abundance. However, economic crisis is not a sufficient condition of revolution. Even if the economy should utterly collapse, the result would not necessarily be socialism. For in the absence of revolutionary working-class organisation, the ruling class would readily impose its own totalitarian alternative. There is much evidence that the capitalist class lives in fear of widespread social unrest and is at work to either contain or to defuse it and channel it off into harmless dead ends. We are in a race with time. We will either succeed or fail in our mission to penetrate the consciousness of the working class before all avenues for peaceful change are closed off.  Many are aware that the avenues for achieving peaceful change in our democracy are being closed at a frightening rate of speed. The ballot is more and more reserved to the major parties, financed by capitalist funding, the mass media are essentially sealed off from organisations like the Socialist Party. If the ballot cannot be brazenly taken from the workers, laws may well be passed to accomplish the same thing by a back door.

 If indeed we lose the race -- if all means for peaceful change are eventually closed -- socialists will not abandon our efforts and the struggle will continue but the alternative is not a pleasant one to contemplate. Accordingly, we work hard to get our message across now, knowing that if we fail the chances for a nonviolent and peaceful transition to socialism will diminish and possibly disappear. We live in a world of increasing chaos and violence, as the conflicts now raging in the Middle East attests. We aim for a world in which cooperation and peace will be combined with prosperity and freedom for all. The longer it takes to wake up the working class to accomplish the change in a nonviolent way, the longer the working class suffers ruling-class violent oppression, the more difficult it will be to achieve our hopes and aspirations for a new world worth having. Where the ballot is silenced, the bullet must speak.

Monaco Madness

The  small city state of Monaco has been attracting the fabulously wealthy for decades. 'But now Monaco could become quite literally the playground of the rich and famous after developers announced the arrival of a five-floor penthouse with giant infinity pool and its own slide overlooking the sea.  The luxury flat at the top of a new skyscraper could set its new owner back more than 300 million euros (£240,000,000) making it the world's most expensive penthouse.' (Daily Telegraph, 19 August) This obscene display of riches shows the arrogance and contempt the owning class feel towards the working class. RD

Campaign for Socialism

"While theologians are disputing the existence of a hell elsewhere, we are on the way to realizing it here: and if capitalism is to endure, whatever may become of men when they die, they will come into hell when they are born." - William Morris

Only socialism can solve the major social and economic problems plaguing our society today. But many people have been taught all their lives that "socialism" means the state-controlled system that existed in the Soviet Union, exists today in China or Cuba.

Socialism is the common ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, railroads, land and all other instruments of production. Socialism means production to satisfy human needs, not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means direct control and management of the industries and social services by the workers through a democratic worldwide economic organisation. Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a society based on the most primary freedom, economic freedom. For individuals, socialism means an end to economic insecurity and exploitation. It means workers cease to be commodities bought and sold on the labour market and forced to work as appendages to tools owned by someone else. It means a chance to develop all individual capacities and potentials within a free community of free individuals. Socialism does not mean government or state ownership. It does not mean a state bureaucracy with the working class oppressed by a new management class. Far from being a bureaucratically controlled system, socialism would bring democracy -- the rule of the people -- to the most vital part of our lives, the economy. It does not mean a closed party-run system without democratic rights. It does not mean nationalisation, or state capitalism of any kind. It means a complete end to all capitalist social relations.  Socialism gives power not to the state, but to the people themselves, allowing collective control of their own economic future. Far from being a state-controlled society, socialism would be a society WITHOUT A STATE. Marx once said that "the existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery."

Socialism means a classless society. Unlike under capitalism, where a tiny minority owns the vast majority of wealth and the means of producing it, everyone would share equally in the ownership of all the means of production, and everyone able to do so would work. There wouldn't be separate classes of owners and workers. The economy would be administered by the workers themselves through industrially based, democratic "associations of free and equal producers," as Marx described it. The community collectively would decide what they want produced and how they want it produced. The Socialist Party doesn't call on the workers to take over this or that individual plant; it calls on them to take over the entire economy, which is to say, ALL the factories, mills, mines, railroads, retail outlet stores, warehouses, etc.

 In a socialist society, we shall produce everything we need and want in abundance under conditions best suited to our welfare, aiming for the highest quality. We shall constantly strive to improve our methods and equipment in order to reduce the hours of work. We shall provide ourselves with the best of everything: the finest educational facilities, the most modern and scientific health facilities and adequate and varied recreational facilities. We shall constantly seek to improve our socialist society. Purposeful research, expansion of the arts and culture, preservation and replacement of our natural resources, all will receive the most serious attention. It will be a society in which everyone will have the fullest opportunity to develop his or her individuality without sacrificing the blessings of cooperation. Freed from the compulsions of competition and the profit motive that presently hurl capitalist nations into war, socialism will also be a society of peace.

This all may sound too good to be true. Yet the world has the productive capacity to provide a high standard of living for all, to provide security and comfort for all, to create safe workplaces and clean industries. The only thing keeping us from reaching these goals is that the workers don't own and control that productive capacity; it is owned and controlled by a few who use it solely to profit themselves. In short, socialist society will be a society of secure human beings, living in peace, in harmony and human brotherhood.

Organising to bring the industries under the ownership of all the people, to build a socialist society of peace, plenty and freedom, is the only real alternative workers have. A capitalist future of profound social dislocation and human misery is an absolute certainty because of the economic laws on which capitalism is based -- laws which compel every capitalist concern to strive for the greatest possible profit at the lowest possible cost. To put it another way: Unless the working class becomes conscious of what a capitalist future holds the time may well come when it will be reduced to the beggar’s condition.

The goal of the Socialist Party is to replace capitalism with the economic and social democracy of socialism,  a society in which the means of social production are owned socially and administered democratically by the workers themselves through their own organisations. The chaos and increasing oppression that exists in capitalism today make it clear that socialist revolution is past due. Many of us realise that capitalism has outlived its usefulness, and that it is time for humanity to move on to the next stage in social evolution. We want to create a sane and productive world. The working class is paying a heavy toll in human misery and suffering, which will become more intense unless our class organises its political and economic strength and uses it to establish the socialist alternative. It is the responsibility of all those who grasp the Socialist Party's message to step forward, to join our party and to enhance its ability to reach the working class. When the Socialist Party has enough members and activists to reach large numbers of workers, it will offer candidates for the working class to elect to-- BUT NOT TO RUN THE CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT OF TODAY-- but to dissolve the current government that only serves to preserve the capitalists' hold over the rest of society. If we workers stopped cooperating with the political parties of capitalism and actively took part in controlling our world through our own political organisations, capitalism would soon come to an end. We don't have to turn our backs on politics or passively wait for better days.  We don't have to wander around in search of direction. We don't have to suffer in isolation. We can join together and we can change our world in a manner that is peaceful,workable and within the grasp of working people.

The Socialist Party does not advocate violence. However, neither does it advocate pacifism. What the SPGB advocates is socialism. How to achieve it is the problem. That problem is one of tactics, and tactics depend on the social conditions and atmosphere that exist at the appropriate time and place. Our attitude towards Parliament we believe offers the best -- indeed the only realistic -- chance to achieve socialism by non-violent and peaceful means. We believe it is the only way in which the working class can organise itself for socialism while simultaneously nullifying the ruling class's capacity to resist by means of armed force. We fully understand that this policy can only work under certain circumstances. It presupposes a certain measure of democracy that permits the Socialist Party to advocate its goal openly.

Who Owns the North Pole (part 73)

Russia aims to develop the Arctic as a region of peace and international cooperation, but will always defend its national interests said Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev. The Security Council is Russia’s top consultative body on strategic issues of national importance.

“While Russia is planning to defend firmly its geopolitical and economic interests in the Arctic zone, we also seek to strengthen the cooperation with other member countries of the Arctic Council and to turn the Arctic region into a zone of peace, stability and cooperation,” the message read. 

In April this year Putin announced that Russia was creating a new united fleet of new generation combat ships and submarines permanently deployed to the Arctic. Russia has intensified the development of its Arctic Regions over the past few years, including works on the Northern Sea Route, which is gradually becoming an alternative to traditional transport corridors between Europe and Asia.

Poor Scots

Nearly one million Scots cannot afford adequate housing, a new study claims. More than 250,000 people aren't properly fed, according to the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) project. 800,000 people are too poor to engage in common social activities.

The percentage of households falling below society's minimum standard of living has also increased from 14% to 33% over the last 30 years. 18% of children and adults in Scotland were poor at the end of 2012.

1. Over 400,000 adults go without essential clothing
2. More than 200,000 children live in homes that are damp
3. Nearly one in three people (30%) cannot afford to heat their homes adequately in winter
4. About 350,000 children live in cold homes in winter
5. 50,000 children live in households that cannot afford to heat their home
6. Nearly one in four adults has an income below what they consider is needed to avoid poverty
7. One in every eight (13%) adults in paid work is poor
8.One in five adults has had to borrow in the last year to pay for day-to-day needs.

Prof Nick Bailey, from the University of Glasgow, claimed the study proved Westminster and Scottish government attempts to tackle poverty had failed.

Prof Glen Bramley, from Heriot-Watt University, added: "It is worrying that, in the 21st Century, more than 40% of households who want to use meals on wheels, evening classes, museums, youth clubs, citizens' advice or special transport cannot do so due to unavailability, unaffordability or inadequacy."

Overthrow the System

“From each according to ability: to each according to needs” is our  goal, and we must understand that it can only be reached through struggle against those who are interested in protecting the status quo, because it gives them power and privilege at the cost of other people’s labour and poverty.

 Socialism will mean an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for people. The ending of the exploitation, the cruelty and injustice caused by class society in its various forms, has long been the dream of mankind. It found expression in men like John Ball, Robert Owen, the Chartists and many of the pioneers of the British labour movement.

 Under capitalism the workers are wage slaves, slaves of the employers. Socialism counts among the world’s workers all those who labour with hand or brain in the production of life’s necessities and luxuries. The bosses run the factories in order to maximize profits. This means that they pay workers as little as possible, that they do not hesitate to maintain unsafe working conditions to save costs, and that poor quality products are purposely produced in order to increase profits. History has shown that these conditions are always present under capitalism, and cannot be eliminated as long as there is capitalism. A capitalist has to exploit his workers in order to survive as a capitalist. The government must necessarily be run by and for the capitalists. Each ruling class maintains its power through an apparatus known as the state. While there is class society, the state will continue to exist and exercise its control over society which enable it to impregnate elements of all classes with the ideas which legitimises its power.

The world could be a paradise. Why it is not is because of the way society is organised, the system of society which prevails. Some of the main features of this society are. It is divided into rich and poor—a tiny handful of rich  who do not need to work, and the overwhelming majority who do require to work their whole lives through. This tiny handful of people own the means of production. But they do not work them. The immense majority of the people own nothing (in the sense that they can live on what they own) but their power to work. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages.

By exploitation we mean living off the labour of other people. There have been previous forms of exploitation. In slave society, the slave-owners lived off the labour of the slaves who were their property. In feudal society, the feudal lords lived off the forced labour of the serfs. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor yet a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs. The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists in this — that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in values than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages. In short, they produce a surplus which is taken by the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. The capitalists are united in their battle against the workers, despite internal differences regarding strategy and tactics. They have their goal clearly in mind -- the pursuit of ever-greater profits through the continued and ever-intensified exploitation of the workers.

The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers must own and control all the processes of wealth production. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. By its victory at the ballot box, and its consequent political domination, the capitalists are able to enslave the working class.

As we have said, capitalism is a system in which there are exploiters and exploited, rich and poor. The interests of these two classes are clearly opposed. The exploiters try to increase the exploitation of the workers as much as possible in order to increase their profits. The exploited try to limit this exploitation, and to get back as much of the wealth as possible of which they have been robbed. This is one aspect of the class struggle which arises inevitably out of the whole character of capitalism as a class system based on exploitation. But for a lasting solution of all these problems, it is necessary to end capitalism altogether and to replace it by a new system of society in which the working people rule.

All workers realise the capitalist system fails to supply the needs of the vast majority and that it must be overthrown before the workers can have freedom. But there is considerable difference of opinions as to the means by which this can be accomplished. The Socialist Party advocates using the ballot, or parliamentary action; some others agitate for armed insurrection, and others still suggest industrial action, such as a general strike. Capitalism means production is carried on for profit. This necessitates control of industry by capitalists. The state is only an effect of capitalism. Overthrow of the state would only mean a political revolution which could be of no lasting benefit to the workers. Overthrow of capitalism would mean a social revolution, a complete change in the methods by which production and distribution are carried on. It would mean production for use instead of for profit. This can only be accomplished by the workers taking control of industry out of the hands of capitalists and running it for themselves.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain stand for a democratic and revolutionary vision of real socialism.

We’re fighting the Hun at home

“Your King and Country Need You,
Ye hardy sons of toil.
But will your King and Country need you
When they’re sharing out the spoil?”

When war was declared in 1914, union leaders more or less declared to their members “You must now cease fighting the class war and defend your country.” which had the result of some workers turning away from their union officials.

More

Getting Away With It

Britain's top executives are now paid 143 times the wages of an average employee, according to a study. Executive salaries have increased dramatically in relation to most workers, said the High Pay Centre. 'The think tank has called on the Government to act after it found that in 1998 the average chief executive of a FTSE 100 was paid 47 times the pay of their average employee. The centre's director Deborah Hargreaves said: "Britain's executives have not got so much better over the past two decades. The only reason why their pay has increased so rapidly compared to their employees is that they are able to get away with it".' (Daily Express, 18 August) So much for the notion that there is some sort of morality behind the jungle warfare of the wages and profit system. RD

Flaunting Their Wealth

With rooms costing up to £5,300 a night, they are not the sort of hotels where you'd expect to find many Ford Fiestas in the guests' car park. Vehicles parked outside the five-star Dorchester and Wellesley hotels in Mayfair, central London included Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Bentley. The specific cars models on display included a green 217mph Lamborghini Aventador worth £295,000 and a blue 202mph Ferrari 458 worth £200,000. 'The Dorchester's most expensive room per night is the £5,315 Harlequin suite, while the top one at The Wellesley is the £895 Hyde Park View Suite.' (Daily Mail, 18 August) This ostentatious display of wealth is occurring at the same time as millions of workers are concerned about mortgage payments, rent arrears and bedroom taxes. RD

We’re fighting the Hun at home

“Your King and Country Need You,
Ye hardy sons of toil.
But will your King and Country need you
When they’re sharing out the spoil?”

When war was declared in 1914, union leaders more or less declared to their members “You must now cease fighting the class war and defend your country.” which had the result of some workers turning away from their union officials.

The Engineers had a pre-war demand for an increase in wages of 2d an hour based on the increase in the cost of living during the three year period of frozen wages and the outbreak of war gave the employers ample excuses for refusing to meet the demand. It was also clear that the employers had a valuable asset in the arbitrary powers of the Government, and that they intended to make full use of them. As a result,  the trade union leaders were coerced into signing agreements which bound the men hand and foot, and made “official” action impossible. Alternative means were sought and the shop steward movement grew.

 In February 1915, the Engineers union officials accepted a derisory 3/4 a penny rise in the hourly rate. Deserted by their own officials, the local shop stewards formed a strike committee which couldn’t be called such because strikes had already been declared illegal in the war for democracy so instead they was called themselves a “Labour Withholding Committee.”

The initial dispute overcame coercion and intimidation brought to bear against them, and despite an the equally desolatory compromise of 1d. per hour rise gained, they had demonstrated  their discipline and capacity for organisation, returning to work in a body still united. There had been  no strike pay or support from the national union, but the workers has been 100 per cent and went back unbroken after two weeks. It was decided to continue the strike as a go-slow and work-to-rule. They carried their grievances back to work with them, determined to acquire strength for the next round.

The shop stewards formed the Clyde Workers’ Committee to continue the fight. In a challenge to the trade union bureaucracy, it declared “The support given to the Munitions Act by the officials was an act of treachery to the working class. Those of us who refused to be sold have organised the above Committee, representative of all trades in the Clyde area” and it went on to define its purpose:
"We are out for unity and closer organisation of all trades in the industry, one Union being the ultimate aim. We will support the officials just so long as they rightly represent the workers, but we will act independently immediately they misrepresent them. Being composed of delegates from every shop, and untrammelled by obsolete rule or law, we claim to represent the true feeling of the workers. We can act immediately according to the merits of the case and the desire of the rank and file.” (Willie Gallacher)

In 1915, the government with the “Munitions Act" introduced “dilution of labour” which meant  hiring of new workers without regard to union standards of wages, hours and conditions. To protect union standards and  another upsurge of militacy started. The issue was highlighted in The Worker:
 “ Women in controlled establishments doing work hitherto done by skilled men are to receive a wage of £1 per week. Compared with the wage received by some of these women in other employment, that may mean an advance of from nine to twelve shillings a week. But compare it with the wage of the skilled man whose place she has taken and you find a difference of from 18,/- to £1 per week." It concluded that would mean an actual gain to the employers and a loss not only to the skilled man, but to the entire working class. It means, in fact, a lowering of the whole working class standard.

This movement then received another great impetus from the introduction by the government of a measure for extending the power of conscription, usually referred to as the “Man Power Bill.”

 But to be sure, the union militancy was not as someties presented a preclude to Revolution.  Glasgow was not St Petersburg. Willie Gallagher explained:
 “Let it be clearly understood that we made no claim to power of any kind. Our policy was simply and purely defensive...If the workers are to win out when the war is over sectionalism must go. One organisation for the workers of an industry means strength, and strength means victory. The present multiplicity of Unions spells weakness and the ultimate aim of the Clyde Workers’ Committee is to weld these unions into one powerful organisation that will place the workers in complete control of the industry.”

 James D. MacDougall in The Vanguard wrote: “ The only tactic now open to the workers to adopt is that of the political strike. They have no voice in the House of Commons. The “Labour” members are either too patriotic or too cowardly... the officials are discredited and count for little, the real leaders of the men are to be found in the workshops...the exceptional circumstances at present existing are producing something very like the beginnings of a real industrial union movement. The need for solidarity is breaking down the old craft jealousies, the spread of Socialism is showing to workers their essential unity as a class...the influence of revolutionary Socialism among the Clyde workers has reached a higher point than ever before.”  Overly optimistic, granted but the sentiments were there.

 J.T. Aitken, a ship-worker wrote in The Worker: “Yes; there is trouble on the Clyde. And how has it arisen? It is through a total absence of any sense of fair dealing between employer and employed. The harsh treatment meted out to some workers by unscrupulous firms, taking undue advantage of the Munitions Act has done its work. Hence the revolt.” He describes the aspiration of someone in the midst of war living in a slum were  “The Socialist movement is not actuated by greed for money but is the outward expression of an inner yearning for a fuller and freer life. As Socialists we are out to destroy the present intolerable industrial system, and to substitute a better, wherein the city dwellers shall forget the endless meal of brick and stone, and shall have visions of trees and fields, musical with birds lending charm to the dream-like quiet of the country, where Nature has dealt so bountifully.”

Our own journal, the Socialist Standard, wrote at the time:
"The Clyde trouble of Christmas 1915 is perhaps the best specimen of these sectional and local revolts. The principle of the men was strong, but they were driven down by lies, hunger, victimisation, deportation of their leaders, and, what is more important still, because the strike was local. Instead of abandoning the political machine to ambitious wiseacres and unscrupulous plotters, and letting them, in the secrecy of Cabinet conclaves, everlastingly scheme to set the social changes on you, see to it that those who are now proven the enemies of your class are no longer sent to represent you. Fill their places with class-conscious men of your own ranks, controlled and guaranteed by the political organisation of your own class.Engineers! At an early date you will be confronted with other trouble. We want your demands to be more exacting, and more deep the principles you struggle for. Fight with your brothers of other industries for these bigger and nobler things as earnestly and solidly as you recently fought. Fight politically as well as industrially, then, with the principle of the class struggle to guide your fighting."

In Germany and Austria strikes began on the dire problem of securing of food, but nearly always accompanying this demand, and in some cases forming the sole object, was the call upon the governments to declare an armistice and enter into negotiations for peace. In this country a similar movement spread. A resolution moved at Glasgow at a meeting resolved:
“That having heard the case of the Government, as stated by Sir Auckland Geddes [the manpower Director of Recruiting], this meeting pledges itself to oppose to the very uttermost the Government in its call for more men. We insist and pledge ourselves to take action to enforce the declaration of an immediate armistice on all fronts; and that the expressed opinion of the workers of Glasgow is that from now on, and so far as this business is concerned our attitude all the time and every time is to do nothing in support of carrying on the war, but to bring the war to a conclusion.”

Better late than never the Clyde workers realised that they have nothing to gain but a good deal to lose by the continuance of the war. Lloyd George came to Glasgow to soft-soap the work-force. The first plant he addressed, the head shop steward introduced him to the meeting as “an enemy of the workers”. At the other plants, the stewards refused to gather until he negotiated with the Clyde Workers Committee. On Christmas Day, he tried to address a city-wide meeting of stewards placing the cause for the slaughter of soldiers at the front on the shoulders of the Clyde-workers. When he stopped through sheer exhaustion, Muir of the CWC got up on a seat, instantaneous silence fell, and the workers’ case was presented. Muir repudiated Lloyd George assertions by saying: 
“It is an absolutely untrue and grossly unfair interpretation of our position. Most of us have relatives at the front as well as you, and we are as much interested in their welfare as anybody else can possibly be. What is more, ninety-five per cent. of these men come from our class. They are coming back to our class, and if things continue on the lines they are moving now they are coming back to much worse conditions than they left. We would be traitors to them if we permitted it. We are determined to prevent it if we can, and in doing so we are not fighting for our own hand alone, but also for these men and the workers of the future. The Government is responsible for the slaughter, and you must share the responsibility if you go back to London after having heard our case, and do nothing to further. You need not say it is impossible. The public man who would push it in the House of Commons strenuously would rally the workers of the country behind him. I suggest to you that the next time you have any occasion to refer to responsibility you be a little fairer, and remember our side of the case. We repudiate all responsibility.”

The government naturally retaliated. No less than four papers were suppressed – Forward, The Vanguard, The Socialist, and The Worker. Halls let for meetings were cancelled by the score, and  where public meetings did get held, summonses against the speakers were issued and fines imposed.   Government propaganda denounced the strikers for their self-interest.
"Even now your protest is not on behalf of the working class, but a claim that a small section – the members of the ASE. – should not be placed in the Army until the ‘dilutees’ have been taken. Surely if you did not complain when we smashed agreements and pledges given to the whole working class it is illogical to complain now when a section of that class is being similarly treated.”

This latter fact was indeed a  fatally weak point in the engineers case, and was being used effectively by the capitalist press and spokesmen against them, keeping alive the jealousies and divisions that are so useful to them in their fights with the workers.  A. G. Gardiner, of the Daily News was easily the cleverest of their agents at the game of deluding readers by using a style of seeming honesty and openness to cover up a substance of slimy deceit. A good example of this was his ‘Open Letter to the Clyde Workers’. His articles, while appearing to condemn the government, were strenuous attempts to defend the existence and maintenance of capitalism. Their purpose was to persuade the workers to leave in the hands of the bosses the direction of affairs. And there was a great danger that the workers, so long used to following this course, so long in the habit of following “leaders”, would succumb to this influence. Some of them not daring to trust themselves to manage their own affairs, believe it better to leave management to their "betters" If only half of the blunders and appalling crimes of this war had been brought into the light of day, these timid workers would  have had a rude shock concerning the ability of those “experts.” The Socialist Standard argued that:
 “The biggest danger that confronts them – the biggest mistake they can make – is to place power in the hands of “leaders” under any pretext whatever. It is at once putting those “leaders” in a position to bargain with the master class for the purpose of selling out the workers. It allows the master class to retain control of the political machinery which is the essential instrument for governing society. All the other blunders and mistakes the workers may make will be as dust in the balance compared with this one, and not until they realise this fact will they be on the road to socialism.”

The Fight Against Rent Increases

Class struggle activity also took place outside the workplace and on the streets in general. Many working class women were outraged that while their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers were away fighting and dying for King and Country, they and the children lived in worse conditions and with less money. The  rent increases of 1915 proved massively unpopular. With Glasgow becoming a major centre of arms manuafacture during the war, it was necessary to bring in workers from outside the city, which only added to an already existing overcrowding problem and pushed up rents. With their men fighting at the front, the women left behind were seen as easy prey by landlords, and large increases in rents became the norm. Existing tenants who could no longer afford the rent were evicted, causing widespread alarm. But by October of that year, some 30,000 tenants were withholding rent and huge demonstrations were called whenever bailiffs dared to attempt an eviction. In Govan, an area of Glasgow where shipbuilding was the main occupation, the women organised an effective opposition to the rent increases. When three engineers were arrested for non-payment of rent, some 10,000 workers in Govan downed tools and marched to the court to demonstrate. The initial failure of the government to restrict the raising of rents revealed that the interests of working people in Glasgow were not the real priority of the government. The main figure in the Rent Strike movement was Mary Barbour, later to be elected a Labour Party city councillor, and the protesters soon became known as "Mrs. Barbour's Army".The usual method of preventing eviction was to block the entrance to the tenement. Photographs of the time show hundreds of people participating. If the sheriff officers managed to get as far as the entrance, another tactic was to humiliate them - pulling down their trousers was a commonly used method. The mood of the placards carried by the protesters was that the landlords were unpatriotic. A common message was that while the men were fighting on the front line the landlords were in league with the enemy e.g. "While my father is a prisoner in Germany the landlord is attacking us at home".

In double-quick time the government swiftly introduced rents control to contain the discontent.

Other Events

When Winston Churchill came to Glasgow to speak at a pro-war mass meeting, the affair was organised almost as secretly and conspiratorially in order that only the “right” people might attend. When an attempt was made by reactionaries to organize a strong-arm organization to break up the workers’ meetings, the shop stewards formed defense guards on a factory basis and put a quick stop to it.

On that May Day of 1917 in Glasgow, 80,000 workers marched in the parade itself and its estimated a quarter million lined the street.
“The demonstration declares for the overthrow of the capitalist system of production for profit. It sends its fraternal greetings to the worker’s of all lands,” read the resolution that was passed by the throng massed around the platforms on Glasgow Green. Resolutions of solidarity with the revolutionary Soviets of Russia were cheered and adopted.

The whole of the story of the shop steward movement cannot be given on the blog and we have posted previously cautioning against looking at the political situation as a potentially revolutionary situation, but its romance lives on among workers, not only on the Clyde but  elsewhere, too. There are times when the workers must establish their own legality. There are times when workers cannot accept the “law.” Workers’ organisations cannot always remain passively “law-abiding.” If workers had always been so respectful of legislation there would be no trades unions and  wages would be far lower than now, while working hours would be much longer. Workers have made the gains they have now because they opposed the ruling class and fought every step of the way. Since nothing fundamental has changed in the relationship of the workers to the bosses, there is no reason for the workers to change from the procedure that has brought them their victories.

PUBLIC MEETING

'The Not So Great 1914-18 War' 

8.00pm Wednesday 20th August 2014

Maryhill Community Central Halls, 
304 Maryhill Road,
 Glasgow G20 7YE