Friends In High Places

David Cameron, as the UK Prime Minister  likes to portray himself as a "man of the people", but he organises an elite Conservative dining club that illustrates that they are very rich people indeed. 'For £50,000 per year, members are promised regular dinners, lunches and drinks receptions with the Prime Minister and other senior Tory figures.' (Daily Mail, 13 November) It was revealed on the Tory Party website that there were 32 individuals who had attended leader group events from 1 July to the end of September and that they had contributed £17 million to the party since 2010. RD

Cold War Heats Up

Whilst the USA and China square up to each other  over quarrels in Asia and the Pacific  the West is also in growing military disputes with Russia. 'Nato aircraft have been forced to carry out more than a hundred interventions of Russian bombers and intelligence-gathering planes this year. "This is about three times more than we conducted in 2013," a Nato official said." (Times, 12 November) Capitalism is based on competition and economic competition often leads to military threats of violence. RD

The Socialist Party's "Plan"

Would you help to abolish crime, disease and despair from the world? Then abolish poverty which is the cause. Would you abolish poverty? Then assist us in abolishing the wages system, the cause of poverty. Revolution and emancipation of labor from its wage slavery could only be accomplished once labor finally realized the capitalist system had outgrown its usefulness. The only system that could solve the plight of abused workers worldwide is socialism. However, socialism is only a valid answer if composed of workers, not leaders. The greatest need of the world today is men and women who can popularise the knowledge that is laid away in musty tomes in the libraries. We want free thinking men and women.

The Socialist Party asserts the current system cannot be patched up so the workers will get what is coming to them. The wage system is a slave system that supports more idlers, and keeps them in greater luxury, than any system of society in the past. Socialists say it must go, to make way for a system based on freedom, on equality, on mutual aid, on cooperation. Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution.

When we speak of the means of production, the wealth of the country, we mean that wealth which is necessary for the production of the necessities of the people. The industries, the railways, mines, and so on. We don’t propose the elimination of private property in personal effects. We speak of those things which are necessary for the production of the people’s needs. Governments are primarily instruments of repression of one class against another. We visualise, as Engels expressed it, a gradual withering away of the government as a repressive force, as an armed force, and its replacement by purely administrative councils, whose duties will be to plan production, to supervise public works, and education, and things of this sort. As you merge into socialist society, the government, as Engels expressed it, tends to wither away and the government of men will be replaced by the administration of things. The government of a socialist society in reality will be an administrative body, because we don’t anticipate the need for the police, jails, repressions, and consequently that aspect of government dies out for want of function.

 Socialism is not some "plan" that the Socialist Party is going to implement. We are often accused of that, but that's utopian system-building. Socialism is a system of society that the working class is going to establish by prosecuting the class struggle to a victorious conclusion. We today don't have to have the answers to everything. We haven't got them and it would be stupid and arrogant of us to think we could have. All we can say with certainty is that the common ownership and democratic control of productive resources would provide a framework within which all the problems humanity faces can be dealt with, certainly a better framework than the present one of minority ownership and control. The rest can only be speculation, interesting and instructive perhaps but not a "plan". Having said that, when the socialist movement is much larger and nearer to winning then, yes, we are sure, groups of workers will be drawing up plans on what to do when capitalism is ended, but we are nowhere there yet. Our role at this point in history is to "make” socialists and to keep the idea alive.

The Socialist Party is to the workers politically what the trades-union is to him industrially; the former is the party of his class, while the latter is the union of his trade, occupation or profession.The difference between them is that while the trades-union is confined to the trade, the Socialist Party embraces the entire working class, and while the union is limited to bettering conditions under the wage system, the Socialist Party is organised to conquer political power, wipe out the wage system and make the workers themselves the masters of the Earth.

In this programme, the trades-union and the Socialist Party, the economic and political wings of the labour movement, should not only not be in conflict, but act together in harmony in every struggle whether it be on the one field or the other, in the strike or at the ballot box. The main thing is that in every such struggle the workers shall be united, shall in fact be unionists and no more be guilty of scabbing on their political party than on their union, no more think of voting for a pro-capitalist party on election day and turning the working class over to capitalist robbery and misrule than they would think of voting in the union to turn it over to the capitalists and have it run in the interest of the capitalist class. To do its part in the class struggle the trades-union need no more go into politics than the Socialist Party need go into the trades. Each has its place and its functions. The union deals with work-place problems and the party deals with politics. The union is educating the workers in the management of industrial activities and fitting them for co-operative control and democratic regulation of industry, - the Socialist Party is recruiting and educating the political force that is to conquer the capitalist forces on the political battlefield; and having control of the machinery of government, use it to transfer the industries from the capitalists to the workers, from the parasites to the people.

On the one side, it is the trade-unionist who is on the firing line of the class struggle. He or she it is who blocked the wheels of the capitalist machine; he or she it is who has prevented the unchecked development of capitalist increase; he or she it is who has prevented the whole labour body of the world from being kept forever at the point of mere hunger wages, he or she it is who has taught the workers of the world the lesson of solidarity, and delivered them from that wretched and unthinking competition with each other which kept them at the mercy of capitalism; he or she it is who has prepared the way for the co-operative commonwealth. 

On the other hand, trade unionism is by no means the solution of the workers’ problem, nor is it the goal of the labor struggle. It is merely a capitalist line of defense within the capitalist system. Its existence and its struggles are necessitated only by the existence and predatory nature of capitalism. The organised labour movement has the instinct that the workers of the world are bound up together in one common destiny; that their battle for the future is one and that there is no possible safety or extrication for any worker unless all the workers of the world are extricated and saved from capitalism together. 

Until the workers shall become a clearly defined socialist movement, standing for and moving toward the unqualified co-operative commonwealth, while at the same time understanding and proclaiming their immediate interests, they will only play into the hands of their exploiters, and be led by their betrayers. It is the Socialist Party that who must point this out in the right way. We do not to do this by seeking to commit trade-union bodies to the principles of socialism. All those ‘revolutionary’ motions put to trade union conferences of this sort accomplish little good. Nor do we take a servile attitude toward the unions , nor by meddling with the details or the machinery of the trade-unions. It is better to have the trade-unions do their distinctive work, as the workers’ defence against the encroachments of capitalism, as the economic development of the worker against the economic development of the capitalist, giving unqualified support and sympathy to the struggles of the union movement in the economic sphere.

 But let the Socialist Party also build up the character and strength of the socialist movement as a political force, that it shall command the respect and confidence of the worker, irrespective of union obligations. It is urgent that we so keep in mind the difference between the two developments that neither shall cripple the other. The world socialist movement, as a political development of the workers for their economic emancipation, is one thing; the trade-union development, as an economic defence of the workers within the capitalist system, is another thing. Let us not interfere with the internal affairs of the trade unions, or seek to have them become distinctively political bodies in themselves, any more than we would seek to make a distinctive political body in itself of a tenants association.

 But let us concentrate upon developing the socialist political movement as the channel and power by which workers to come to their emancipation and achieve their commonwealth. It is of vital importance to the trades-union that its members be class-conscious, that they understand the class struggle and their duty as union men on the political field, so that in every move that is made they will have the goal in view, and while taking advantage of every opportunity to secure concessions and enlarge their economic advantage, they will at the same time unite at the ballot box, not only to back up the economic struggle of the trades-union, but to finally wrest the government from capitalist control of the State.

Hollywood Fantasy

Everybody must be aware of all the old repeated movies that the TV churns out. John Wayne or some such hero performs wonderful acts of bravery against the enemy. It is a complete fantasy of course. This is nearer the truth. 'Jeremy Sears, a Marine who had served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, walked onto a shooting range outside San Diego on Oct. 6, placed a handgun to his head and calmly pulled the trigger. It was a local news story but didn't attract attention outside San Diego for the most tragic of reasons. Military suicides have become so common - since 2001, more active-duty U.S. troops have killed themselves than have been killed in Afghanistan.' (Washington Post, 11 November) War, far from being an ennobling experience is degrading to human beings and leads to these tragedies. RD

Mamma Its Cold Inside

MAMMA ITS COLD INSIDE                                        

The headline announced the chilling fact that an elderly person dies every seven minutes due to fuel poverty. The article goes on to explain that millions of pensioners are worried that they will not be able  to keep warm this winter. 'Every winter 25,000 old people in England and Wales do not survive the bitter weather - 206 death a day. Those living in the coldest houses figure most in the excess winter death rates and illness statistics according to Age UK.' (Daily Express, 11 November) Needless to say this problem does not affect the owning class. RD

Some Emergency Service

Workers have to suffer all sorts of indignities. As if a life of exploitation and poverty was not enough a poor 89 year-old woman had to suffer this further calamity. 'A great-grandmother was left in agony on a rain-soaked pavement after suffering a fall because emergency services were too busy to come to her aid. Despite being called only moments after Evelyn Davey slipped and broke her arm, paramedics failed to get to the pensioner for two hours.'  (Daily Mail, 11 November) This incident is not unique the same North East Ambulance Service failed to aid a 15 year-old boy with a broken leg for two hours the previous week . Under funded, under staffed that is the NHS for you. RD

A Bleak Future

Despite government claims about an economic recovery they are planning for major financial cuts. 'An analysis on Monday suggested that spending cuts in the next parliament would be deeper than expected. The Financial Times said cuts would be closer to £48bn between 2014-15 and 2018-19 rather than the £25bn mentioned by Cameron, partly because the prime minister had excluded cuts required in 2014-15 and 2018-19.' (Guardian, 10 November) It is worth noting that Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister speaking at the CBI conference in Birmingham yesterday, hinted at the fragile state of the public finances and that it would lead to cuts in social care. It would also penalise the working-age poor. No surprise there then. RD

Abundance and Freedom

A green socialist world

For today’s growing population, such a world of abundance will require more, not less, energy, and in order to deal with climate change, that energy must be renewable and non-polluting carbon-free.

Some on the left today, and in the much broader Green and environmental movements, consider the expansion of production as a “bad thing.” It causes pollution, ecological collapse, and climate change. No doubt, the expansion of industry under capitalism has caused these terrible changes. But it also has allowed humans to develop solutions through techniques that could alleviate these problems were such forms of production placed under the democratic control of society, that is, what we call socialism.

Engels in his  1847 essay The Principles of Communism writes:

“Instead of generating misery, overproduction will reach beyond the elementary requirements of society to assure the satisfaction of the needs of all; it will create new needs and, at the same time, the means of satisfying them. It will become the condition of, and the stimulus to, new progress, which will no longer throw the whole social order into confusion, as progress has always done in the past. Big industry, freed from the pressure of private property, will undergo such an expansion that what we now see will seem as petty in comparison as manufacture seems when put beside the big industry of our own day. This development of industry will make available to society a sufficient mass of products to satisfy the needs of everyone.

The same will be true of agriculture, which also suffers from the pressure of private property and is held back by the division of privately owned land into small parcels. Here, existing improvements and scientific procedures will be put into practice, with a resulting leap forward which will assure to society all the products it needs.

In this way, such an abundance of goods will be able to satisfy the needs of all its members.”

Capitalism has no way to lift the masses from poverty. Consider the following:

There are 1.6 billion people with no electricity.

Billions of people have no access to energy efficient mass transportation.

Billions of people have little or no access to education and health care.

Increasingly vicious wars and privatization continue to cause grinding poverty, dislocation and environmental destruction.

Capitalism is the cause. Capitalism produces only when there is a profit for the owner of capital. When there is no profitable market for his product, the capitalist will not produce, no matter how great and urgent the need of the people for work, for food, for clothing and shelter, for a decent living standard, for security. Capitalism robs more and more people of their most elementary right, the right to govern themselves.

The central concept of the post-scarcity economy is that technology gets better and better, so things that are mass produced and rationalised get cheaper and more abundant. Under the circumstances nobody needs to work to survive and there's really no point in maintaining a cash economy. People have unrestricted free access to the fruits of society’s collective labour. Given the absence and the uselessness of money for obtaining consumer goods, and the social stigmatization of wealth accumulation achieving one’s peer admiration and appreciation concentrates on the contribution to the community one makes. Socialism was once looked upon as a noble ideal, but today it is more than an ideal, it is an urgent necessity. Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production and exchange and their democratic organization and management by all the people in a society free of classes, class divisions and class rule. Socialism is the democratic organisation of production for use, of production for abundance, of plenty for all, without the exploitation of man by man. Socialism is the union of the whole world disposing in common of the natural resources and wealth of our Earth. Capitalism has already established the highly-developed machinery of production and networks of distribution. It is only necessary for the working class, in the name and interests of society as a whole, to take it out of the hands of the capitalists and place them into the hands of the people as a whole. Every new invention, every improvement and advance in the field of production, would mean not only a higher standard of living for all, but a lessening of the working-day, that is, a reduction in the work-share that every member of society needs to contribute to the community. The technology, the resources , the and the human skills required to produce abundance for all, is already available. It is only necessary to free them from the paralysing hand of capitalism and production-for-profit in order to organise them in a rational and democratic manner. 

Where there is abundance for all, the psychological terror and living nightmare of insecurity vanishes. Where there is abundance for all, and where no one has the economic power to exploit and oppress others, the basis of classes, class division and class conflict vanishes. When there is plenty for all, there IS economic equality, therefore social equality. Where there is abundance for all government of repression, police and thieves, prisons and violence disappear. Where there is abundance for all, and where all have equal access to the fruits of the soil and the wealth of industry, the mad conflicts and wars between nations and peoples vanish and with them vanishes the hideous national and racial antagonisms.

 ABUNDANCE FOR ALL MEANS FREEDOM FOR ALL.

A Crazy Society

A CRAZY SOCIETY                                           

Like many South American countries Brazil has many social problems. Not least amongst them is the crippling poverty of many of its workers, but this contrasts with the immense wealth of its owning class. 'The Gherkin, one of the most distinctive buildings on London's skyline, has been bought by a Brazilian billionaire. Joseph Safra is reported to have paid more than £700m for the 180 metre tower, which is officially known as 30 St Mary Axe, its street address. ...... Joseph Safra, 75, is thought to be personally worth about $15bn.' (BBC News, 10 November) Can the production for profit system get any crazier? RD

Global Warming

Wikipedia makes no secret  of global warming caused by the increase in the burning of fossil fuels and the exploration for oil and other resources. 'United States Geological Survey and many leading polar bear biologists have expressed grave concerns about the impact of climate change, including the belief that the current warming trend imperils the survival of the species. The key danger posed by climate change is malnutrition or starvation due to habitat loss.' As various countries scramble to claim their ownership of the Arctic  region and grab the potential mineral resources little heed will be paid to the future of global warming whose impact will not only affect the wildlife in the area but future generations of humanity throughout the globe. To hell with the future, profit today is the mantra of capitalism. RD

Cyber Warfare

In a review of Shane Harris's book @War: The Rise of Cyber Warfare Toby Harden is very straight-forward in describing the ruthless way government agencies utilise the web to destroy their enemies. 'What is more startling is the capability of America, which views the cyber area as the "fifth domain" of warfare (after land, air, sea and space), to use online to kill as well as jam and hack. Harris, a writer at Foreign Policy magazine who has specialised in cyber warfare for a decade, details how US forces in Iraq became the "the vanguard of a new cyber war", sending fake text messages to insurgents that directed them to places where they would be met by US troops or a Hellfire missile." (Sunday Times, 9 November) Inside a socialist society the cyber network would be utilised as a valuable source of knowledge, education and entertainment inside capitalism it is used as a massive destructive force. RD

Another Empty Boast

The government recently boasted that unemployment figures had fallen beneath 2 million but what they were more reluctant to advertise was that the number of workers in low-paid jobs had reached a new record of more than 5 million, according to the Resolution Foundation.  'The think tank found that that the proportion of employees in low-paid work across Britain has risen from 21 per cent last year to 22 per cent, or 5 million people.' (Sunday Express, 9 November) When they say low-paid they mean low-paid as Resolution defines low paid as those earning less than £7.69 per hour, which is two-thirds of the UK medium hourly rate. Hardly boasting material is it? RD

Work and wage slavery

Nearly 36 million people worldwide, or 0.5% of the world's population, live as slaves, a survey by anti-slavery campaign group Walk Free says. Bondage and slavery are supposedly over but enslavement continues for the majority of people throughout the world. We are all enslaved economically yet blindly and unknowingly accept it. That form of servitude is called wage slavery.

Automation only happens when machines are cheaper to run than people. Automation should both require fewer people to work as well as  enable people to work less. Unfortunately this isn’t the case: the owners of automated industry use reduced production cost as an opportunity to take more profit which leaves us with increasing inequality alongside increased unemployment. And in a world where the capitalists own the physical means of production like factories, robots and patents this will also result in greater inequality as labour becomes less and less important as an economic factor. The owners of capital will be able to produce to satisfy market demand with little labour input.

There is an optimistic vision of the future. Physical work may become totally obsolete. If every house has a decentralised energy source like solar panels and reliable energy storage, as well as an advanced 3-D printer or molecular assembler that can produce almost physical object imaginable from a few basic recyclable chemicals then human poverty will essentially have been abolished. We can just spend the vast majority of our time doing things that we enjoy, while spending only a few minutes or at most hours a day programming our machines to fulfil our material desires.

However, there exists a more possible but less optimistic vision, that only a small minority of people will have access to such technologies as while the technology may exist, the costs of mass distribution remain too high. The masses, will be stuck in impoverished material conditions — dependent on welfare, and charity — without any real prospect being able to climb the ladder through selling their labour. Only a lucky few — who have a creative skill that cannot be replicated by a robot — will have a prospect of prosperity and security. Perhaps as the reformists hope the government will take a larger chunk of the capital-owning class’s income or wealth, and redistribute it to the poor to avoid social breakdown or even revolution.

The optimistic vision of a world of abundance without exploitation, hunger and war must galvanize the working class into a movement for socialism now that the global capitalist system has reached a stage where goods can be produced with little or no labour. The transition of industrial capitalism by new technology and computer is forcing an economic change and reorganization of society. A level of production has been achieved that makes communism possible. This is the turning point at which we stand today. Humanity today faces the choice: will we do away with private property and build a future for all to share in. Attempts to do no more than blunt the worst effects of capitalism may be well-meaning, but they divert energy from the real tasks ahead.

More and more are joining the ranks of those dispossessed by capitalism world-wide. A class that has nothing to gain from private ownership of the means of production has to take the reins of power and construct an economic system that can sustain a better world. The struggle today is not the struggle of the last century to expand industrial production. Nor is it the reformist’s struggle to increase the crumbs that fall from the table of the world’s billionaire plutocrats. Though people may have different ideas about and different ways of describing it, at this moment in history, the essence of every struggle for a better life is objectively the struggle for socialism which is no longer just an ideal, but the practical resolution to immediate problems.

If we remove scarcity from our vocabulary and replace it with abundance, we would also see dramatic changes in the way we live. We have been programmed to believe things are scarce when the opposite is true. We have an abundance of resources and should not be influenced to think different. The only reasoning for wanting the people to believe in scarcity is to increase profits for the rich. Let us plainly re-state this, we live in abundance and little is scarce. We should be here to enjoy life, not to overwork, to stress out, get sick and then die. We should spend the majority of our time, doing what we enjoy. Spending time with family, loved ones, vacationing, fishing, gardening, building new relationships, or whatever it is we enjoy. Let us start focusing on uplifting everyone, from the bottom upwards. The big picture is, we are all connected and we stand and fall together as humanity. The system of working everyday and barely making enough to pay for basic living expenses is not the way life should be yet it’s a system crafted by design to keep the masses earning meager wages.  The rich and powerful want the masses to remain enslaved and living on the skirts of poverty and completely beholden and indebted to them. We are too busy concerned about paying bills and having the basic necessities to live, then we don’t realise how the system we live under is corrupt and continues to enslave us all.  We are still enslaved regardless of your ethnicity or sex.  It’s not about color or gender, it’s about money.  Those in power want to keep us divided and believe that every man or woman should defend for him or herself when that certainly should not be the case. Think about capitalism and how many who actually benefits from it, go back and think of all the people you know in your life and be honest with yourself.  How many of your friends own several houses in multiple states and countries, yachts, cars, and get million dollar bonuses for running and even ruining a business? Capitalism has created an illusion to us all, leaving the majority thinking that they can one day become rich while knowing that the system of capitalism only allows those with money to keep on making it and those that don’t to keep dreaming and thinking that they can one day become rich and wealthy. The curse of capitalism is starting to be revealed and guess what?  The people don’t like what they are beginning to see.

We live in a world where there is an abundance of everything but scarcity allows the powerful to have control and make lots of money.  What if we abolished money and our political system that supports those privileged few?  What if we lived from a resourced-based society where everything was in abundance and there was no need for money? 

Fix Bayonets

Governments face many harsh decisions when running capitalism and this is especially true when confronted by economic problems like business slumps. 'David Cameron opposes cutting the number of British soldiers after the next election, the head of the Armed Forces has said, as he pledged to "fix my bayonet and fight to the last" against further redundancies. General Sir Nick Houghton admitted financial pressures would remain when the next government takes office but pledged to oppose cuts to army numbers from "inside the system".' (Daily Telegraph, 10 November) Welfare cuts may be unpopular but they are a lot easier for the government to contemplate that cutting Houghton's bayonets. RD

Future Conflict?

FUTURE CONFLICT?                                          

The US President's official visit to China highlights the tension between the two nations. 'We've seen indications that Xi Jinping has an ambition to increase China's influence in east Asia, central Asia, and the western Pacific, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing. Many statements and actions imply that this will come at the cost of American predominance in the same regions. I think that this is already raising concerns in Washington.' (Guardian, 10 November) Political commentators would like to portray this as a conflict between two different social systems or at least two different outlooks, but it is not. Both the US and China are capitalist nations and as such they are in fierce competition over markets, sources of raw materials and political influence. Potentially it is a frightening scenario. RD

Piety And Profit

The government used to restrict the sale of arms to countries with poor human rights records, but former Tory defence minister Sir John Stanley, who chairs the Commons committees on arms export controls, says this is no longer the case. "He said in a recent parliamentary debate that the government has not acknowledged that such a change has taken place, and it "should consider most carefully whether they should now offer an apology to the committees". The government used to reject arms export licences where there was concern they might be used for "internal repression", but now a licence will be refused only if there is a "clear risk" that military equipment might be used in violation of international law." (Observer, 9 November) Why has there been this change in policy? One consideration may well be that sales have already hit £60m this year. RD

Poppies And Poppycock

Under the headline 'Joy and song bloom with poppies at the Tower', the following piece of news appears. 'As the last of the poppies was planted in the Tower's moat .... most of the attention has concentrated on the extraordinary crowds that have queued patiently every day to see the display of 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for every British and colonial life lost in the First World War.' (Times, 8 November) One spectator is reported as saying it was fantastic and when the crowd burst into song the crowd absolutely loved it. It is understandable that newspapers are "celebrating" the event, after all it is their job to promote mindless patriotism, but why are workers doing the same? They must lead particularly dull lives if the death of millions of workers in their master's quarrels lead them to this outlandish behaviour. RD

Why Work? (2)

Long ago, technology promised that it would free us from the mundane tasks of life and work so we would have more free time to enjoy ourselves. It was long heralded the imminent arrival of the "post-industrial society" in which automation will have done away with work and our main problem will be how to cope with an excess of leisure. But it is only in a rational (i.e., socialist) society, where the means of life serve the community as a whole, that higher productivity will equal less work and capitalism is not a sane society.

Capitalist production is not primarily about supplying needs it is about making profit and accumulating capital. It can only work with a constant market pressure to renew its capacity for sales. Under capitalism a surplus of commodities, in excess of market capacity means they cannot be sold for a profit. This can bring about recession, workers thrown out of jobs, governments having to pay out more in doles when strapped for cash trying to finance a reasonable health service, it means companies going bankrupt. It means the whole mad market system being thrown into yet another crisis simply because the goods cannot be sold. These are some of the destructive features of a money-driven economy which is long past its sell-by date.

Work has been "rationalized" as well as increased. That means greater intensity of effort and reduced opportunity for rest, social interaction, and even going to the toilet during the workday. It means "variable" or "flexible" schedules flexible for the boss, not the worker with more night and weekend work to keep costly machinery in nonstop operation. Many couples now meet only to hand over the kids as they change shifts. And while some are mercilessly overworked, others are thrown out of work altogether, all in the name of profitability.

In socialism, with the abolition of the market, and acting with voluntary co-operation, people will produce goods and distribute them to stores without any of the barriers of buying and selling. The cash tills will disappear, shoppers won't be held up and the operators won't have to do their boring, meaningless jobs. What it also means is that for the production of component parts of machinery or household goods, etc, intense production runs using automated systems could supply not just sufficient components for immediate use but also stocks for anticipated future demand. These could be distributed as and when required and this would be an economical use of production facilities which could then be either shut down until when required again or with different tooling used for other production runs. The important point being that in socialism this could happen without any of the problems and chaos that an oversupply of commodities for the market causes under capitalism.

The problems of unemployment are huge – worldwide problems affecting millions in some countries and billions globally if we include the massive numbers of 'informal' workers, those recognised as outside of the system, many of them non-persons living on the very edge of existence with no access to even the basic services. Many are suffering the misery of unemployment while much useful, necessary work remains undone. One of the contradictions of capitalism. We want free time, to reduce the working day so that we can move beyond the tyranny of survival into free and creative mutual activity. Both employment and unemployment are capitalism preventing our human development in this direction.

If we were to approach the problem from a different angle we could see how to turn something totally illogical into something that would work better for everybody wherever they are in the world. Doing this would entail ridding ourselves of useless work and wasted time and effort and result in getting the work that is widely recognised as necessary to be done for the good of the people done, by the people. Useful includes the production and distribution of material goods and food, scientific research and development, aesthetic and artistic endeavours, service of all kinds including installations, communications, infrastructure, maintenance, health, education, recreational, technological and social; producing and providing the goods and services required and needed by society as a whole on an ongoing basis. Work that offers no product, service or benefit to society must surely be considered useless work. What cannot be considered useful or necessary includes all the jobs currently involved in the huge financial industry; jobs which are tied to the movement of money from one place or person to another. Being considered unnecessary because they produce nothing of use, provide no useful service and are of no benefit to society a large number of institutions would be redundant. All banking establishments, insurance companies, tax collection, benefits and pension offices, to name a few, would no longer be required and, as a consequence, many buildings would be freed up for use to be decided upon by civil society whilst technicians, office and other associated staff would be available for more people-beneficial work schemes.

 In socialism everyone would have the opportunity to contribute to the community for as long as they could. Their contributions would not have to be strictly rationed nor controlled and all would be able to share in the common produce. The creation of second class cast-off workers known as pensioners would cease to be and in its place we could have a fair share for all. The struggle for such a society is in our immediate practical interest.

Another Cunning Plan

Governments like to claim that they are in charge of the capitalist economy and by skilful manoeuvres can turn a slump into a boom, but further evidence that the UK economic recovery is losing some momentum came from the dominant service sector this week. 'The latest Purchasing Managers Index survey for the sector showed a score of 56.2 for October, down from 58.7 in September and the weakest reading since May 2013. The sector is still expanding rapidly, any score over 50 indicates growth, but the slowing pace adds to the sense of the UK's 'escape velocity' beginning to wane.' (Investors Chronicle, 7 November) In addition,despite previous optimistic forecasts, PMI data from the services sector in Europe remains anaemic with France's service sector shrinking at its fastest pace in four months and German service sector growth at a seven-month low. Politicians don't control capitalism's markets - it  is the other way about.  RD

A Corrupt Society

Capitalism corrupts everything it touches - even sport. 'An American baseball star is alleged to have paid nearly $1 million to a cousin in hush money to cover up his use of performance-enhancing drugs. After securing a ten-year contract in 2007 worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars, Alexander Rodriquez of the New York Yankees, became the highest-paid player in baseball.' (Times, 6 November)  Now it seems his cousin has been charged with conspiracy to distribute testosterone and human growth hormone. The old dictionary that described sport as a pleasurable exercise for amusement has been superseded by the awfulness of capitalism. RD