No Cuts Here

At a time when the government seems especially keen on making welfare cuts, witness the NHS, Old Folk's Homes and libraries there is one area that seems untouched by any cuts. SNP ministers have been accused of enjoying a luxurious lifestyle at some of the world's grandest five-star hotels. 'Among those to enjoy top treatment while on government business are Humza Yousaf, the minister for Europe  and international development. He stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Qatar - which boasts its own inclusive island and the Middle East's largest chandelier, decorated with 2,300 crystals The stay cost almost £1,400.' (Times, 29 December) RD

An Unpredictable Society

Capitalism is an unpredictable society only a couple of years ago it was predicted that there was going to be an oil and gas boom, but this has turned out to be a complete fallacy. 'The oil and gas industry is set for a year of mergers and takeovers as a result of the plummeting oil price, a business consultancy has predicted. PwC said 2015 may bring the first hostile takeover in the sector in living memory. It warned of "uncertain times" for the estimated 440,000 people employed in the UK's oil and gas industry. The oil price has fallen from $115 a barrel in the middle of the year to about $60.' (BBC News, 29 December) Market forces dictate slumps and booms not the "experts". RD

A Dire Future

'Almost 7,000 homes and buildings will be sacrificed to the rising seas around England and Wales over the next century, according to an unpublished Environment Agency (EA) analysis seen by the Guardian.' (Guardian, 29 December) It is reckoned over 800 of the properties will be lost to coastal erosion over the next 20 years. The properties, worth well over £1bn, will be allowed to fall into the sea because the cost of protecting them would be far greater. But there is no compensation scheme in place for homeowners to enable them to move to a safer location. RD

The Goal of the Working Class

Slavery existed long before capitalism. When members of competing tribes were captured, they often became slaves. A form of slavery still predominates today. It is called wage-slavery. Workers are forced to sell themselves (actually, their labour power) in order to survive. Economic necessity prevents the overwhelming mass of humanity from being truly free. The corporations and businesses own the economy — the factories, the transport, the retail stores, etc. Workers own only their ability to work and the few personal possessions they have been able to accumulate in a lifetime of toil. When some read the word slavery, they think it couldn't possibly be that people are literally slaves today - slavery seems like an outmoded form of life from previous centuries. They blithely assume that "wage slavery" is merely a metaphor. Whatever we feel, slavery is very much a fact of life for all people in the world today. A person is a slave if he has lost control over his life and is dominated by someone or something--whether he is aware of this or not.

The reason why workers sell their labour to capitalists in the first place is that they have no other choice. In a capitalist society one needs money in order to purchase the essentials of life, such as food, shelter and clothing. Thus in order to avoid starvation or at best extreme poverty one must accumulate money. In order to accumulate money the vast majority of people in a capitalist society sell their labour to capitalists in exchange for a wage. This is because most people do not own capital or receive a large inheritance with which to start a business. It is true that some workers manage to create their own businesses and become self-employed but in order to do this they must accumulate the money required to buy the necessary capital and means of production for their business and thus at some point must partake in wage labour. Therefore the vast majority of individuals who engage in wage labour do so because if they do not they cannot purchase the goods and services required to survive. Since workers engage in wage labour because they have no other choice it follows that wage labour is not voluntary, a choice lacking a meaningful alternative is no choice at all. Workers are dependent on the bosses to live. They must sell their ability to do a job of some type to a capitalist, day after day, month after month, year after year. If the bosses won’t hire them or business falls off, then the workers are out of luck. They work at the will of the owners. A wage slave can't quit an oppressive job to find a less slave-like job, because in our present society, almost all jobs involve wage-slavery. So the options are obey and stay, die of starvation, or become a vagrant, which is illegal.

It is time to openly attack and expose capitalism and advocate for its opposite, socialism. People suffer from the law of the maximisation of profit, which drives capitalism. The management want to introduce new technology and put in automation because they want to lower their labour costs by laying off workers and then extracting more out of the workers who remain on the job. Everyday life itself is more and more forcefully presenting workers with the question: capitalism or socialism? The intensifying exploitation of the working class is the inevitable product of capitalism. Socialism is the way out. The necessity for socialism arises, in the first place, from the struggle of the working class for emancipation from capitalist wage-slavery. Under capitalism workers are looked upon solely as a means for enriching their employers.  The working class can only emancipate itself by abolishing the capitalist system, stripping the tiny minority of capitalist owners of the "right" to monopolise the economic lifeline of society and of the "right" to exploit the labor of the workers. By turning the means of production into the common, social property of the whole society, socialism at once eliminates the exploitation of the workers and creates the foundations for genuine social, economic and political equality.

Economic inequality is at obscene levels. Mass suffering is increasing as the stock market reaches new highs — despite its ups and downs. Working-class debt of all types goes up as bank profits soar. People are living in a state of financial insecurity, unable to meet an unexpected bill without borrowing money or selling something. Millions are working at low-wage jobs, are forced to work part time or are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet. Student loans debt indentures the new generation to the banks. All television networks, mainstream newspapers and major politicians  leave out what the working class needs to know above all, and it is that the problem is the capitalist system of wage slavery — and the solution is socialism. The struggle against capitalism and for socialism requires knowledge of the system of exploitation. Understanding our enemy is a basic necessity for the working-class. Anyone who thinks even for a minute about the enormous productive capacity of our society cannot but ask: why is a world with such modern means of production unable to guarantee the economic rights and well-being of the people? Why is the curse of unemployment and the plague of falling wages and living standards undermining the lives of hundreds of millions? We must work hard to understand just what has led to our enslavement and what kinds of actions will be necessary to free ourselves from these insidious chains of servitude. We first need to understand the basics of our present economic situation. We must realize that our economic situation at present--a very few obscenely rich people owning companies and corporations and having illegally seized state and federal political power--is one which we can and must change. Our current economic and political circumstances are not written in stone; humans have lived under very different political and economic conditions throughout our history. We must begin to overthrow this present state of affairs where all workers suffer under capitalist wage-slavery. The political system and the economic situation should be directed toward the welfare of all, not just a few. We can bring about these changes; it is not impossible.

The necessity for socialism is arising from every pore and cell of our society. The most fundamental fact is that everywhere the social character of our society is forcing itself to the surface, demanding recognition but the capitalist system is blocking the way forward. It is the capitalist system which is denying billions the right to secure a livelihood. It is the system of private property in the means of production which exploits human labour and creativity and turns society into an arena in which the rich live off the labour of the poor. It is the system of private property in the means of production which refuses to plan for the health of the population and instead produces health care as a commodity available on the basis of who has the most money. It is the capitalist system which is poisoning the air we breathe and the water we drink. Even though modern science is able to know the effect of human action on nature, capitalism – based on the anarchy of production – willfully destroys the natural environment in the pursuit of maximum profit.

"Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you—

Ye are many—they are few."

Shelley

Winter Of Discontent

It is difficult to imagine a more disastrous Christmas occurring. 'AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 travelling from Indonesia to Singapore goes missing with 162 people on board, the company says.' (BBC News, 27 December) Snow and ice in the French Alps have stranded 15,000 vehicles, snarling up holiday traffic to and from ski resorts. Rail passengers have been told to expect delays at some London stations after thousands faced major disruption on Saturday. Overrunning engineering works meant trains in and out of King's Cross and between London Paddington and Reading were cancelled on Saturday. A fire has broken out on a Greek ferry leading to the forced evacuation of 460 passengers and crew. A far from Merry Christmas. RD

Cancelled Operations

The worsening of the NHS can be gauged by these alarming figures. 'More than 300 patients a day are having operations cancelled as the National Health Service runs out of beds, official figures show. Surgeons were forced to delay planned, "elective" procedures 3,113 times in the first two weeks of this month.' (Sunday Times, 27 December)This is an average of 311 each working day and a rise of almost 50% on the same period two years ago. The numbers are up 16% in the last year alone. Cancelled operations - it is difficult to think of anything more severe. RD

Boast Of ThenYear

"You've been driving a cab for ten years. I've been in the Cabinet, I'm an award winning broadcaster, I'm a Queen's Council. You think that your experiences are anything compared to mine?" Modest and charming David Mellors effortlessly alienates the UK's driving fraternity." (Independent, 26 December) Mellors sums up politicians' opinion of their all-consuming importance. RD

The Spirit Of Christmas

'A major in South-Western France has been accused of a shameful lack of Christmas spirit after banishing homeless people from the city centre by placing metal cages on public  benches.' (Daily Telegraph, 26 December) It seems  that 34 year-old Right wing major Xavier Bonnefont, Angouleme's major has little sympathy for the homeless. He believes the homeless will just use the facility for drinking alcohol. This sums up the contempt that many officials have for the working class. RD

Which side are you on?

Why can’t we ensure that everyone has good food to eat, that everyone can access medical services, that all youngsters get the education they desire, that our elderly live in security and dignity, that working conditions are safe and that the environment is protected. The answer is that we live under CAPITALISM – a global system based on the exploitation of the majority by the minority. And the solution to all these problems is SOCIALISM – a global system based on mass democracy. Socialism has nothing to do with state control. The governments of the United States and China control a similar proportion of their economies – about 30 percent – and neither nation is socialist. Both the U.S. and China are capitalist nations with economies based on the private ownership of production. Socialism is based on the collective and democratic control of production. There are no socialist economies in the world today, no nations where the working-class collectively controls production. Not any – not even close. Socialism is not possible in one workplace, one city, one state or one nation because only one class can rule.

The capitalist class and the working class have opposite goals and conflicting values: Bosses want workers to produce more and faster. Workers want to slow down to preserve their health. Bosses want lower wages so they can boost profits. Workers want higher wages so they can pay their bills. The drive for profit shapes values of the capitalist class – greed, corruption, and the hunger for power. Mutual dependence shapes the values of the working class – solidarity (an injury to one is an injury to all) and self-determination (what we wish for ourselves, we want for all). The capitalist class and the working class are like oil and water.

Who is better qualified to meet human needs: the capitalist elite that produces only for profit; or the working people who produce the goods and provide the services we all need? Who is more cooperative: the bosses who compete for profit; or the workers who must pull together to get the job done? Humanity has spent the vast majority of its history in cooperative, sharing societies. Class-divisions appeared only about 10,000 years ago. Modern socialism would differ from primitive socialism in two important ways: it would be organized on a global scale; and it would be based on abundance, not scarcity. It’s time that we organized to take back our world. The current crisis is opening a space to discuss genuine socialism, a democracy where ordinary people take collective control of the economy and direct it to meet human needs. The material conditions already exist for such a society. Because socialism is based on sharing, there must be more than enough to go around. That is not a problem. Between 1800 and 2000, the amount of wealth produced grew eight times faster than the global population. Only a few have benefited.

Most people do not view socialism as a viable alternative, because they have been bamboozled into thinking that there is no alternative to capitalism. This makes no sense. Human beings create society. We have changed it many times in the past, and we can change it again.  Most people would be much better off in a cooperative society. However, capitalism cannot tolerate demands for a society based on cooperation. The people in power must make “socialism” a dirty word because, if the majority realized that they could solve their problems and meet their needs without bosses and rulers, they would abandon capitalism in a heartbeat. To make socialism a viable alternative, we must build socialist organizations where workers can break free of the lies that bind and blind them to capitalism, including the lie that they are too stupid or lazy to run the world for themselves and one another. Where the capitalists divide in order to rule, socialists connect individuals, causes, past events and future dreams into a unified struggle for majority rule. Where the capitalists infect workers with fear, pessimism and a sense of powerlessness, socialists link workers’ experience of individual suffering with their collective power to eliminate that suffering.

Socialists believe in the working class, even when it does not believe in itself. No one can know when the next struggles will erupt, or what their outcome will be. One thing is certain. The needs of the capitalist class will continue to clash with the needs of human beings. We have a choice. We can continue to accept the insanity of capitalism, or we can organize a socialist future. The time is now. Let us all go forward to build a global mass democracy to end the rule of the few and the misery of the many – because working people create all social wealth and have the right and the ability to produce it for the benefit of all. As long as the working-class majority does not believe in itself, it will accept the rule of the capitalist class. But as soon as that changes, capitalism will torn asunder. The working class will build a completely new society, a socialist society based on real democracy, solidarity and self-determination. In the battle between capital and labor, one must take sides. Which side are you on?

NHS Legal Costs

MPs are demanding that the NHS complaints system should be "completely overhauled" in   the face of rising litigation costs that now take up a greater bill for clinical negligence claims. 'The NHS complaints system should be "completely overhauled" in the face of rising litigation costs that now take up a quarter of the annual £1 billion bill for clinical negligence claims, an MP is demanding. The amount paid out by the NHS Litigations Authority has already doubled in five years, with legal costs of £250 million. In 2009-10 the total bill for claims was £650 million, with £150 million of it going to to cover legal costs.' (Times, 26 December) The incompetence of the NHS is leading to an immense legal bill. RD

A Depressing Future

Failures in giving people with mental health problems the treatment they need are a significant factor in the growing pressure on accident and emergency departments, a minister has said. 'The care and support minister, Norman Lamb, who has long championed the rights of those with mental health problems, said patients with conditions such as depression and anxiety often still faced discrimination and often did not get the help they needed. As a result they added to the strain on hospital A&E departments, which have seen record numbers of patients waiting more than four hours for treatment, he said.' (Guardian, 25 December) Depression and anxiety should be easy targets for treatment in todays medical atmosphere. RD

Queuing For Treatment

A picture in the Daily Mail summed up the perilous state of the NHS. It depicted thirty patients standing shivering in a queue outside their GP surgery in the cold at dawn, in the desperate hope of getting an appointment. In the wake of our front page picture yesterday, readers have come forward with their own experiences of trying to visit a family doctor. 'In total, there were 37.4million failed attempts to book an appointment last year, affecting 4.7million people. Others are getting consultations lasting two minutes!' (Daily Mail, 24 December} RD

The Cost Of Cuts

As part of their cost-cutting the government have a completely inadequate nursing home for the elderly programme. One patient waited a full year to be discharged despite being well enough to leave hospital."Elderly people are being trapped in hospital beds for up to eight months after they have recovered because nursing homes places are unavailable. One patient waited a full year to be discharged despite being well enough to leave hospital. (Daily Telegraph, 24 December) Capitalism's cost-cutting leads to crazy situations. RD

A World in Common – A Future We Can Have

The co-operative commonwealth, common ownership, and the sharing of the commons are overlapping and sometimes poorly understood concepts. Socialism is one of the most complicated political ideas out there, not because it is so hard to understand, but rather because there are so many variety of interpretations of it. Private property is very different from personal property. People have always had personal-use items (homes, clothes, toys, tools, etc.) that they keep, share or trade, and this will always be so, regardless of the type of social system. The important question is who owns the natural resources, tools and technology that people need to survive. Is it privately owned or commonly shared? Common property is also confused with public property. Common property is not property at all, because no one owns it. It is shared or “owned in common.” In contrast, public property is private property that is owned by the State. Because the State claims to represent all the people, State or public property is assumed to be commonly owned. It is not. Common ownership means that common people are in control. Public ownership means that State officials are in control.

Many people think that socialism means government ownership. It is not true. With socialism, all social decisions will be vested in the people. Industry will be administered democratically from bottom to top by those elected directly by the workers in each industry and subject to their control. All delegates will be subject to recall at any time by those who elected them. In each workplace (and in each school, hospital, etc.), the workers will collectively determine workplace policies and will elect a committee to plan the overall plant operations. In each sub-division of a plant, the workers will participate in determining how best to implement the plans of the committee and assure the efficient running of their economic unit. Bourgeois (parliamentary) democracy fails to deliver such freedom, predominately because capitalism subordinates the mass of society through the process of wage slavery.  These capitalist relations not only create material inequality but also inequality in terms of political influence.  Political power is stacked at the feet of capitalists who control production.  The capitalist wage slavery relationship inflicts a physiological effects, conditioning the working class to a submissive mentality in the workplace.  This submissive mentality then manifests into passive behaviour in the political lives of the working class.

The State’s role in the socialist project is not and never was to nationalise industry and create a vast bureaucratic state-owned economy. Rather, the workers parties were to be elected to the national government and would expropriate the big capitalist enterprises. Political power would then be decentralised and direct democracy introduced, the “withering away of the state” that Marx and Engels talked about. Socialists seek a better world founded on common ownership, equality and democracy. In this we see the means to meet all mankind’s material needs and to personal and individual development to the greatest possible height. Yet in the name of socialism we see common ownership changed into state wage-slavery.

William Paul, a member of the De Leonist Socialist Labour Party, and later member of the Communist Party of Great Britain explains in his book, The State: Its Origins and Function, published in 1917:

"The revolutionary Socialist denies that State ownership can end in anything other than a bureaucratic despotism. We have seen why the State cannot democratically control industry. Industry can only be democratically owned and controlled by the workers electing directly from their own ranks industrial administrative committees. Socialism will be fundamentally an industrial system; its constituencies will be of an industrial character. Thus those carrying on the social activities and industries of society will be directly represented in the local and central industrial councils of social administration. In this way the powers of such delegates will flow upwards from those carrying on the work and conversant with the needs of the community. When the central administrative industrial committee meets it will represent every sphere of social activity. Hence the capitalist political or geographical State will be replaced by the industrial administrative committee of socialism. The transition from the one social system to the other will be the social revolution. The political State throughout history has meant the government of men by ruling classes; the Republic of Socialism will be the government of industry administered on behalf of the whole community. The former meant the economic and political subjection of the many: the latter will mean the economic freedom of all – it will be, therefore, a true democracy. Socialism will require no political State because there will be neither a privileged property class nor a downtrodden propertyless class; there will be no social disorder as a result, because there will be no clash of economic interests; there will be no need to create a power to make ‘order’. Thus, as Engels shows, the State will die out…In the last analysis State ownership is more a mean of controlling and regimenting the worker than of controlling industry ... The attempt of the State to control industry is therefore the attempt of the ruling class to dominate Labour”

Engels himself, in his "Anti-Dühring", specifically warned against any vulgar equation of socialism with state ownership:

"... since Bismarck adopted state ownership a certain spurious socialism has made its appearance here and there even degenerating into a kind of flunkeyism which declares that all taking over by the state, even of the Bismarckian kind, is itself socialist. If, however, the taking over of the tobacco trade by the State was socialist, Napoleon and Metternich would rank among the founders of socialism. If the Belgian state, for quite ordinary political and financial reasons, constructed its own main railway lines, if Bismarck... took over the main railway lines in Prussia, simply in order to be better able to organise and use them for war, to train the railway officials as the government’s voting cattle, and especially to secure a new source of revenue independent of immediate votes - such actions were in no sense socialist measures. Otherwise the Royal Maritime Company, the Royal Porcelain Manufacturer, and even the regimental tailors in the army, would be socialist institutions."

Another great cause of confusion has been a misunder­standing of the nature and significance of the regime which followed the Russian Revolution of 1917, a regime which has probably done far more to retard than advance the cause of the socialist movement as a whole as it has been assumed that because the October Revolution was led by socialists who had, by what­ever means, retained state power, the society which resulted was in some way a socialist one, and, as a result, an example, even a mandatory one, for others to follow. The Russian economy nor that of its satellites in Eastern Europe were not in any sense a model for the organisation of a socialist society but shows how the job should not, in fact, be done.

The opposite of private property is socialism, or common control of society. There are no genuinely socialist societies in the world today, nor has there been. Not any.  Real socialism (as opposed to what the Bolsheviks erected under Lenin’s direction in the former Russian Empire after their coup d’etat known as the October Revolution) is not the end of democracy but the beginning of true democracy.  Without economic democracy, political democracy is meaningless. Lenin never made any attempt to introduce socialism to the Soviet Union.  By his own declaration, he and his disciples set up what he himself called state capitalism. Leninism and all of its offspring (Trotskyism, Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism, etc.) are an aberration from, not the fulfillment of, Marx and Engels. The socialist movement found itself stunted in growth from the splits within its own ranks caused by the hands of Lenin and his inner circle reaching out to control the whole international movement with as iron a hand as they controlled Russia. Until Lenin and his clique removed their cloaks and showed their true colors, praise for their accomplishment in the October “Revolution” (coup d’etat) was well nigh universal among socialists world-wide. Once news began to trickle out about the lack of real democracy, the increasing centralized control by the highest organs of the Party with no input from below appreciated, various atrocities, and the emasculation of the soviets, the councils of the people in whose name Lenin & Co. ruled with an iron heel, genuine socialists became more vocal in their criticisms. Rosa Luxemburg was one of the first, as, of course, was the Socialist Party. 

There are times when social and economic problems become so bad that people are forced to choose between the social system that makes their lives difficult and a new one that will make their lives better. We face that kind of choice today. Capitalism—the social system we live under—no longer serves the interests of the people. It creates countless problems that it cannot solve. It uses technology to throw people out of work and to make those who keep their jobs work harder. It creates hardship and poverty for millions, while the few who own and control the economy grow rich off the labor of those allowed to keep their jobs. It destroys the cities that we built up. It is destroying the natural environment that is the source of the food we eat and the air we breathe. Technology that could and should be used to lessen the need for arduous toil and to enhance our lives is used instead to eliminate jobs and increase exploitation. Poverty is as widespread as it has ever been. Wages go down even as productivity rises. Joblessness, homelessness, helplessness and despair are spreading. Economic insecurity and social breakdown place an unbearable strain on our families, our children and ourselves. Emotional stress, crime, prostitution, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and many more signs of unhappiness and hopelessness, are on the rise. Is this what we want? Should we keep a social system that is destroying the lives, the liberties and the chance for happiness that our work and productivity make possible? Is it really worth the price to keep a small and despotic class of capitalists living in obscene wealth?

World socialism could stop the dying from hunger immediately, and provide the conditions for good health and material security for all people across the Earth within a short time. It would do this by producing goods and services directly for need. World socialism will operate with one simple and ordinary human ability which is universal: the ability of every individual to cooperate with others in a world-wide community of interests. For too long has indignation at human suffering been dissipated by useless causes. How much longer must the price of failure be the misery of countless millions? Only useful labour applied through world cooperation in a system of common ownership can solve the problems of world poverty. We live in a world which has the potential to adequately feed, house and provide clean water and decent medical care for every single man, woman and child on Earth. The resources exist to banish material want as a problem for members of the human race. Yet millions throughout the world are malnourished, live in squalor or are actually dying of starvation or starvation-related diseases.

The Socialist Party calls upon people to organise with a view to substitute the present state of unplanned production, commercial competition war and social disorder with the co-operative commonwealth for; in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties. Why socialism? Because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The Socialist Party has never wanted to set up anything like a “People’s Democratic Socialist Workers Republic” controlled by a party “vanguard”.  No, our idea is the Cooperative Commonwealth. Much of the history of the past 200 years revolved around a vision that life could be lived in peace and brotherhood if only property were shared by all, eliminating the source of greed, envy, poverty and strife. This idea is called "socialism" and it was mankind’s most ambitious attempt at liberation

“What I mean by Socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man, neither idle nor overworked, neither brain­slack brain workers, nor heart­sick hand workers, in a word, in which all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all - the realisation at last of the meaning of the word COMMONWEALTH.” William Morris, 1896

Imagine World Socialism (video)

Developing Depression Among The Young

Statistics Canada recently issued some interesting information on young people. Only one in five children in Canada who need mental health services ever receives professional help; about 3.2. million young people in Canada aged twelve to nineteen are at risk for developing depression; One in four will experience clinical depression by age eighteen; in Canada 75% of mental disorders develop by age 24, fifty per cent by age 14; suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people, after accident, accounting for almost a quarter of all deaths among 15-24 year olds. The pressures and insecurity of life under capitalism affect parents and children. Psychologists and other mental health workers do help patients to cope with the stress of life better but removing the cause would be preferable. Socialism offers security, stability and fulfillment. John Ayers.

Dying For Work

One of the illusions beloved by the media is that the working class are a work-shy, lazy bunch of parasites, but the facts completely contradict that notion. "At least 15 migrants die in "shameful" Calais conditions in 2014. Guardian investigations reveals death toll over 12 months with many desperate trying risky routes into UK to escape makeshift  camps without sanitation at French port." (Guardian, 23 December) Workers in those Calais camps are so desperate for work that they risk their lives in pursuit of employment. RD

A Twelve Hour Wait

According to a leaked letter a "worrying increase" in the number of patients waiting on trolleys for up to 12 hours before they are admitted to hospital is being blamed by NHS bosses on the vulnerable nature of the health service in winter. Latest figures show a doubling in the number of patients forced to wait up to 12 hours for a bed on a ward, and the head of the NHS in England has warned that any patient forced to wait that long should be classed as a "serious incident". "There should be a zero tolerance of over 12-hour waits for admission and such a wait should be classed as a serious incident, and we would expect a full root-cause analysis to take place, - Prof Sir Bruce says in the letter. It is signed jointly by Dr Kathy McLean, medical director of the NHS Trust Development Authority, and Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor, the medical director of Monitor." (Guardian, 24 December) RD

American Nightmare

When Martin Luther King gave his famous "! have a dream" speech many foolishly thought that was the end of race discrimination in the USA. 'US police have clashed with protesters in St Louis after an officer shot dead a black teenager near where Michael Brown was killed in August, a death that triggered national protests. A crowd of about 100 people gathered at the scene early on Wednesday following scuffles the night before. ..... For weeks there have been protests about alleged police brutality.' (BBC News, 24 December) In fact here a few recent facts about racial discrimination in that country. Only two black billionaire exist in a country of 500 white billionaires. Only 9.8% of over 25 age blacks have a degree and 37% of prison inmates are black. More a nightmare than a dream. RD

We need socialism

The monetary system doesn’t work anymore and is obsolete. Money has outplayed its role on this planet. It turns out that it’s not money we need. We cannot eat money, or build houses with them. Money, private property and the exchange economy is just a hindrance in making the resources available for everyone. The Socialist Party envisages a new worldwide social system where the world’s resources are considered the heritage of all the inhabitants of this planet. It’s not a utopian dream, it’s just a possible direction for society to take. It is the the next step in the evolution and development of society, if we want it to be.

Many believe that socialism means government or state ownership and control. Who can blame them when that is what the schools teach and what the media, politicians and others who oppose socialism say? Worse, some who call themselves socialist say it, too—but not the Socialist Party. Socialism is a concept that neither individuals nor the government, should have ownership of land or the means of production but rather the whole community owns in common and democratically controls the land, goods, and production.  In this system all share equally in the work, to the best of their ability, and have free access to the collective fruits of their labour. Socialism we would produce for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. In 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 or government bureaucrats. Advanced methods of new technology are not social evils as they are under capitalism leading to either unemployment or intensified toil and drudgery but could be a blessing and put to the benefit of the vast majority. Socialism is based on the idea that we should use the vast resources of society to meet people’s needs. It seems so obvious--if people are hungry, they should be fed; if people are homeless, we should build homes for them; if people are sick, the best health-care should be available to them. We could use our technological knowledge to eliminate boring or dangerous jobs as much as possible--and share out equally the tasks we couldn’t automate. The goal would be to free all people to do the work they enjoy--and to give them the leisure time to take pleasure in the world around them.

It is within the power of the working class to establish such a society as soon as we recognise the need for it and organize to establish it. There’s no blueprint for what a socialist society will look like. That will be determined by the generations to come who are living in one. The means of production--the factories, offices, mines, and so on--would be owned by all of society. Under the current system, important economic decisions are left to the chaos of the free market and to the blind competition of capitalists scrambling for profits. In socialism, the majority of people would plan democratically what to do and how do it.

The kindness and generosity of ordinary people is boundless. Even to-day’s rat race society simply couldn’t function without a basic sense of cooperation and sacrifice among ordinary people--within families, among coworkers, and so on. Capitalist society obscures this basic decency. Working people are forced--whether they like it or not--to pit themselves against one another and to compete just to keep their job or maintain their standard of living--much less get ahead. As a result, the idea of people uniting for social change can seem distant and unrealistic. For most people, the experience of their lives teaches them that they don’t have any power over what happens in the world--and that they don’t know enough to have an opinion about it anyway. Powerlessness produces what appears to be apathy among people, about their own future and the future of society.

Fighting back requires unity. Activists committed to the fight around a particular issue have to grapple with questions about their aims. What kind of change do they want, and how do they achieve it? Their answers evolve with their experiences and convince them that the struggle against one injustice can only be won by linking it to the fight against all other injustices--and for a different kind of society completely. People begin to see the connections between the struggles they’re involved in and other issues--and the nature of the system itself. Ideas can change very quickly. An organisation of socialists can unite people so they can share their experiences and hammer out an understanding of how capitalism works. We need these socialists working nonstop on political discussions. Socialists need to show how the current day-to-day fights are part of a bigger fight for bigger political change, putting forward a vision of a society that is radically different from the status quo. Imagine a society where all its members organise production and distribution on a cooperative, democratic basis according not to profit, but solely on the basis of need. Huge wealth is created under capitalism so are we in a state of poverty. We are living under a system that impoverishes the planet. Far from being a society languishing in poverty, a socialist society would be a society of abundance. Such a society has no exploiting minority or exploited majority. All property other than personal property is held in common, for the benefit of all. Consequently, there is also no money. If you are hungry, you can eat from the collective store of food. If you want to work, work is always available, and each contributes what he or she can. When you are sick or old or too young, society always takes care of you. Society's vast wealth would be collectively used to enhance the welfare of all rather than that of a small group. Such a society is not utopian.

The word socialism can be replaced/overlapped by many other terms. Communism. Cooperative Commonwealth, Resource Based Economy, Sharing Society, Gift Economy. It is all the same thing. It doesn’t really matter what we call it, as long as it has the basic notion of an economic system where no money is used, ownership and trade is abandoned and replaced all resources shared and managed properly. People do not “own” anything, but have access to everything. Anything ever needed, like food, clothing, housing, travel, etc. is provided in abundance through the use of our technology. There’s no “state” that is the owner of the resources, and nothing is privately owned. Imagine a world without money, barter or exchange, where everything is provided for everyone, and everyone can pursue their own interests and dreams and live in the way they want. In a society where we don’t have to think about money and profit, we can truly develop ourselves and the humanity into something wonderful.