The Cease-Fire That Wasn't

More optimist noises about the deal arranged by Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Francois Hollande yesterday. They said the truce starting on Sunday could end Ukraine's conflict with Russian-backed separatists, in which more than 5,300 people have died. It is a strange cease-fire however. 'Ukraine witnesses reported heavy shelling in the east of the former Soviet state. Dozens of tanks, missile systems and armoured vehicles crossed the border from Russia, they said.Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and Kremlin forces began military exercises in 12 regions on the Russian side of the border.' (Daily Express, 12 February) RD

Profit And Pollution

Details released at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science show that about eight million tonnes of plastic waste find their way into the world's oceans each year. 'The new study is said to be the best effort yet to quantify just how much of this debris is being dumped, blown or simply washed out to sea. Eight million tonnes is like covering an area 34 times the size of New York's Manhattan Island to ankle depth.' (BBC News, 12 February) In the battle between profit and pollution there is a clear winner. RD

The world can function without money

Many different political groups and thinkers have given the word socialism many different and often conflicting definitions. The term is loosely defined. Perhaps the worst one being Hitler's national socialism which no advocate of socialism would associate with. Still, sadly, today, socialism is often associated with state ownership or government regulation. When members of the Socialist Party speak the phrase ‘Abolition of Money’, people look at us as though we are mad. Someone who has no money cannot live. This is the way the world is at present. Even in today’s corrupt society, no-one could say that this is right and proper. The Socialist Party describe socialism in terms of free access to all the social wealth of society. The term ‘resource based economy’ was coined by Jacque Fresco in The Venus Project as the name for what kind of economic system he envisions in the future.

There are some criteria of a socialist society that the Socialist Party apply to its meaning and those include that it uses no money and possesses no market system, that all goods are freely accessible to everyone, and that work is voluntary. Socialism does include the idea of a society controlled by everyone, instead of elites. Such a society would ultimately be lacking a state, political leaders and classes. Even Karl Marx realised that the idea and system of the state is wrong, and opposed it.

Thus we would therefore claim that a "real" socialist system has never been established before. Socialism carries ideals, and a theoretical strategy, but factual plans backed by hard proofs are not laid out in blueprints of the future. Everything would be different. This brings us to socialist principles of common ownership and systems without money. Money will become unimportant through the availability of advanced technologies to provide all the means to obtain a good life. To put it simply, money is a commodity and commodities exist because property exists. I make something (property) and you make something I need, but you don't need what I make, so a universal equivalent has to emerge to facilitate this movement of value from one person to another. "Ah ha!" someone might say "this is overcome by labour vouchers". Wrong. Substituting a piece of time-chit for a dollar isn't going to change the nature of the money-form. It can exist as wheel barrows for all that it matters. This is really where the majority of so-called "socialists" fall down, they don't know what property is and they don't know what capitalism is. Money in a post-capital society would not exist because property would not exist, which is the fundamental constituent of capitalism, even if this is state-owned property. No one is selling their labour-power commodity for a wage (money) to buy more commodities produced by people, institutions, corporations, etc that are separate from them.

Billions of us go to bed hungry every night and despite considerable advances in science and technology. We've been accepting widespread poverty, famine, disease and war as part of life. If the economy doesn't serve our needs, then why do we serve the economy? Why do we continue to give our consent to the rule of the few? Why do we vote for our own continued enslavement? Why do we do these things when we know that there is an alternative? The economic system we choose does have a large influence on how we treat each other and the way we think about life in general. It defines much of who we are.

Imagine a world where all property other than personal possessions is held in common, for the benefit of all. Consequently, there is also no money. If you are hungry, you eat. If you want to work, you work. When you are sick or old or too young, society takes care of you. The vast majority of us would like to live in a global community where neighbours help each other and none get left behind. Imagine if we eliminate the very concept of money from our society. This does not mean going back to bartering. It doesn't mean violence to overcome the wage slave system. It only requires that we realise that that together, the people, which includes everyone, have the power to run our own economy.  Implementation of a cooperative commonwealth would establish the basis for a more egalitarian relationship with the values of sharing and caring among the members of society.

Socialism envisions an attainable democratic society in which workers have direct control of their work and environment. It is based on the production of goods and services that meet the needs and wants of the society as a whole - it is not one that merely enriches an elite. Therefore, creative individuals would be free to do what they do best. The engineers could design their idea of the best car, the chef could create and convince people to eat his or her newest dish, the clothing designer could put his or her newest creation on the runway for consumers to see and choose. In a socialist society, the individual's creativity, desires, and talents are at the heart of a socialist economy. Socialism essentially levels the playing field by clearing the economic and educational hurdles that prevent individuals from fulfilling their dreams and their potential. In short, Socialism seeks to ensure that everyone reaches their full potential. Human society existed for many millennia before the advent of money, and it would eventually be rendered redundant in a socialist economy. It is a myth that socialists seek to do away with all personal property. Socialists have no intention of taking away your house, your car, your material possessions, etc. What socialists do desire, however, is common ownership of the means of production, the factories and work-shops, communication, and transportation.

Why don’t people who want to improve the human condition and the ways of the world stop their petty squabbles and put their efforts into achieving socialism? If they did this, it would be the quickest way for them to achieve their objectives. We can speak up for our planet as one community with intertwined interests that can only be satisfied through mutual respect and cooperation. We can replace capitalism with a system based on social ownership, equal human entitlement and workplace democracy. We can exist in harmony with our environment if we get rid of capitalism and promote respect for nature and understanding the interdependence of all forms of life. We can work together in organizations that exist in local communities, but which also connect with like-minded regional, worldwide groups to accomplish the changes we need. Through our words and actions we can demonstrate that the realistic alternative to capitalism is an expansion of democracy. In order to build the peaceful, ecologically sane world we desire, our tactics are non-violent

Desperate Workers

According to the UN at least 300 migrants are feared to have drowned after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa this week in rough seas. 'UNHCR official Vincent Cochetel said it was a "tragedy on an enormous scale". Survivors brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa said they were forced to risk the bad weather on ill-equipped vessels by human traffickers in Libya.' (BBC News, 11 February) Desperate workers are prepared to take enormous risks just to get a job. RD

An Expensive Education

Thinking of sending the kids to a new school this year? How about this then?  'Le Rosy, the £80,000-a-year Swiss Institute is attempting to attract British students.' (Daily Telegraph,26 January) Counting among its scholars the Shah of Iran, Prince Rainier of Monaco and King Farouk of Egypt. Its catchment area was once the glittering palaces that housed the grandest families on the Continent: the Metternichs, the Borgheses and the Hohenlohes.  But Institut Le Rosey is now spreading its net to humble old Britain. RD

Name the Blame

The debate between socialism and capitalism is a battle of ideas that is intensifying. Capitalism’s huge problems have provoked millions to question and challenge it. Socialists offer an alternatives that inspires. Socialism views human nature as co-operative, positive and altruistic. They believe that humans are born equal and that differences in their success are created by society and nurture, not nature. As such they believe that equality within human society is both normal and should be encouraged as humans are collaborative and that co-operation will create the most progress for everybody than individualistic competition. People who have power and wealth oppress the majority and forcing their ideology onto the majority.  This is achieved because the ruling class own the means of production and the workers who actually produce the finished product don't.  Capitalism is a global economic system which has certain intrinsic features which cannot allow full and true liberation to take place as long as it remains. Full and true liberation can only be achieved after destroying capitalism itself first and during the course of building socialism. Its features exist to guarantee its own survival and growth as a system. These are as follows: selfishness; individualism; greed; competition; market forces; wasteful consumerism; planning not based on sustainability but on short-term and maximum private profits and interests of the ruling class minority; militarism; corruption; racism; oppression and exploitation of one class by another; cyclical financial crises; massive and continuous destruction of the environment.

There are advocates of responsible regulated capitalism (some think of themselves as philanthro-capitalists) who are currently in vogue right now for a very good reason - capitalism has clearly got us into a fix, those to blame are rightly unpopular, and there is the strong sense that something must be done. They try to make the case that the bankers and lack-of-regulation have put us in this mess in what could otherwise be a healthy capitalism and suggest that by regulating and mitigating the effects of the profit-motive, a more equal and just capitalism can be obtained. Responsible or ethical capitalism is a vacuous phrase, a slogan smoke-screen, meant to divert attention from the socialist vision for a better future. Those apologists present to-day’s capitalism that can ironed out a few wrinkles by a bit of government legislation and businessmen incorporating a new ethos. They still maintain that capitalism is the best economic system possible, that the market encourages efficiency through competition, and creates an unequaled range of consumer goods, permits people to get ahead if they work hard, respects the individual, and promotes democracy.  It's not perfect, but it works is their case.

Socialists are not just aware of the existence of inequality and the misery it visits on the millions of people across the planet. We propose an alternative way of running society and a strategy to change the world. As unrepentant socialists, we seek to replace capitalism and we claim its nature produces oppression and exploitation whereas a socialist democracy is cooperative and ecological. Socialism offers the best hope for humanity. Socialists can't get there on their own.  A society that strives for equality and participation will only come about through the coordinated action of many people.  Socialism won't solve your personal problems or bring you eternal bliss. The reason to join a socialist organisation is work toward socialism.  The abolition of class rule and establishment of workers' democracy will not come about unless there are socialists organised for it and to win over others. The urgency grows to end hunger, poverty and disease.  Our planet's decaying eco-systems must be rescued before it reaches a point of no return. Never before in history have science and technology provided such opportunities for the all-round development of every human being. Even under wasteful and destructive capitalism, the productive forces exist that could, if planned and utilised to meet human need instead of maximising capitalist profit, ensure sufficient food, nutrition, health care and education for all.

Crime And Capitalism

TV programmes and the national press are fond of depicting the police as dealing successfully with the problem of crime, alas that is a complete fallacy. The advent of cheap heroin in Chicago has led to an increase in crime undreamt of by Al Capone and his contemporaries. 'In the 1920s, 227 gangsters were said to have been killed in the city in the space of four years. Last year there were 424 murders in Chicago, most of them said to be gang-related.' (Times, 9 February) An increase of almost double in a quarter of the time. Some progress. RD

A Modest Lifestyle

Jeff Greene is a billionaire who took a private jet to this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, along with his wife, children and two nannies, and then told Bloomberg that "America's lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence." (Yahoo Homes, 23 January) His idea of a "smaller better existence" is difficult for a worker to understand as Green owns a $195-million palace in Beverly Hills with 23 bathrooms and a rotating dance floor, two other Los Angeles mansions, a mansion in Palm Beach, a mansion in the Hamptons, and a 145-foot party yacht.  RD                    

Socialism Changes Everything

Capitalism has failed. Across the entire world increasingly desperate conditions exist for the vast majority—mass unemployment, poverty, indebtedness, ever declining wages—are combined with the most fantastic levels of wealth. CEOs make more in a day than their workers make in an entire year, and hedge fund managers make more in an hour than most Americans make in their entire lives. At the root of all the problems of modern society is capitalism, in which everything is subordinated to the interests of a tiny elite. Under capitalism, this tiny capitalist class dominates society by dividing the working class and derives its vast wealth from the extraction of profit by paying workers less than the value they produce. Every capitalist is committed to raising productivity – increasing the amount of capital that can be squeezed from each worker and confiscated by the employer. As more wealth is extracted from the working class and concentrated in the hands of the one percent, society becomes increasingly unequal. Counter-measures can slow the twin process of capital accumulation and growing inequality, but it can be stopped only by eliminating capitalism. Individual capitalists might see the value of a fairer society, but any who chose to slow the rate of capital accumulation would be replaced by others with no such concern. Capitalism has socialised production and distribution i.e. commodities are produced socially by many people, while the products and the value from their sales are privatised, appropriated by the owners of the means of production. Socialism merely balances out the situation, that is to say, production is still socialised, but the appropriation of the value that is produced, including surplus value, is also socialised – all people have a claim upon the goods. Thus society benefits as a whole from common ownership.

Socialism means the extension of democracy to the foundation of all of society for the general improvement of humanity. Many today wrongly assume that the struggle for democracy in much of the world has been won. States that claim to be democratic are taken at their word, or at least those with universal suffrage and ‘free’ elections of representatives. This is because democracy is conflated with elections, which are equated with democracy (while occasionally paying lip service to referendums.) If people cannot gather in assemblies to act directly, they can at least elect representatives to act on their behalf: this is called “representative democracy”. The reality is quite different. It replaces the rule of the people, by the people, for the people with the rule of the self-proclaimed representatives of the people. Neither the expansion of the electorate through universal suffrage nor electoral reform (of the voting system, campaign finance, nomination rules, ballot access, media access, etc.) changes the underlying oligarchic logic of elections. This does not mean that socialists should oppose it but take cognition of its flaws. Socialists argue that capitalism undermines democracy.

Human beings in a given society produce wealth, in various forms, and this wealth is distributed among the members of society via various institutions, laws and mechanisms. However, to speak about how and to whom wealth is distributed inevitably leads to asking questions as to who produced that wealth in the first place. Speaking about distribution without mentioning production is simply useless. Capitalism is an exploitative mode of production in which the capitalist class extracted "surplus value" from the working class. For the first time in human history, labour power itself was sold as a free commodity on the market. Workers are free to sell their labour power to whatever capitalist chose to employ them. But the asymmetry of power in this alleged "free exchange" is that while the capitalist class owns the means of production, the working class only has their labour power to sell. This asymmetry means that while capitalists pay labour a "living wage," the value of this wage (the value of labour power) is always less than the value of the commodities produced by the workers' labor -- if capital could not make a profit it would not employ labour.  Under capitalism, private ownership of the means of production such as factories, machines and raw materials is what determines the ownership of not only the commodities produced via those means of production, but also the proceeds of the sales of the commodities. In other words, shareholders and proprietors appropriate commodities they did not produce, and pocket the profit from their sales. Workers' needs under capitalism are always subordinate.

Realistically, there’s only one way to achieve workplace democracy across the whole of society – a global working-class revolution that takes collective control of production and eliminates the two-class system of capitalism. Socialism is something far more comprehensive than a simple redistribution of wealth but entails the expropriation, the seizure, of the means of production by the working class. Then we could build a truly cooperative society in which everyone is equally worthy to share life’s work and life’s rewards.

Our Aim is True

We live surrounded by inequality. Some have wealth, health, education, satisfying occupations. Others get poverty, ill-health and drudgery. Social mobility scarcely exists. Wealth is funneled to those on top. It is not so much true that “power corrupts” as it is a fact that easily corruptible persons gravitate toward exercise of power. Is this the type of society we want? What does it mean to fight against inequality? The problem of gross inequality in capitalist society is not fundamentally a problem of inequality within our class, between the unemployed and destitute workers and the so-called ‘middle-class’ in relatively more secure jobs and on higher pay. The fundamental problem of inequality is inequality between the capitalist ruling class and the working class.

This inequality between the employing class and the wage workers is taken for granted as a given and is rarely questioned. The income of the capitalist class comes from the unpaid labour of the workers in the form of profit, or surplus value. Everything created by the workers belongs to the bosses. And everything created by the workers contains unpaid labour time in it. The bosses sell goods and services and get the money for the unpaid labour time of the workers — that is, profit. They keep part of it for themselves and become rich. The other parts they pay their banker his interest or their land-owner his rent, the rest they re-invest so that they can get richer in the next cycle of production and selling.

The income of the workers, on the other hand, comes from the sale of their labour power to his or her employer. The workers receive wages or salaries and the amount is always kept somewhere within the range of what it takes to survive. Some workers are paid somewhat more than that and can have a certain degree of comfort, even luxury. Many workers, more and more these days, receive just about enough to get by on in a life of scrimping and saving while others barely get enough to survive. Wages under capitalism are basically what it costs a worker to subsist and to keep the family going so that the bosses are assured of the next generation of workers to exploit. Workers have to struggle to preserve whatever they can through the ups and downs of capitalist crises and periodic unemployment.

No worker can ever get wealthy on wages, no matter how high-paid he or she may be. But the capitalist class as a whole automatically grows richer, (even if a particular capitalist goes bankrupt.) The employing class continuously reinvest their capital and keep alive the ongoing process of the exploitation of more and more labour. The capitalist’s children and grand-children, as a rule, get richer and richer from generation to generation and become family dynasties.

It is in this context, that socialists ask those who are for genuine equality, the question what exactly are you fighting for. If the ultimate goal is to reform the tax code, or to reduce corporate money in politics, or to regulate the predatory capitalist class and the greedy bankers  then it may reduce the obscene excessive levels of inequality a little but most definitely, these palliatives won’t end inequality itself. Class inequality is built-in to the system of class exploitation. The profit system spreads misery and it is time to expose capitalism.

Under capitalism, products and services are only produced and distributed if they can make a profit for the capitalists – those at the top of the system who own the means of producing and selling goods and services, like the factories and the shopping malls. Even when the capitalist system is “working”, when it’s “fine”, it creates massive inequalities between rich and poor. All profit generated by the capitalists always has to be reinvested (as “capital”) to make more profit. Capital never sits still – it’s always moving. Products are made in factories, then sold on the market (exchanged for money), then some of that money pays the workers their wages, while the capitalists pocket the rest as profit. And then the “circuit of capital” begins again. Workers are always short-changed, they never realise the full value of their labour power that they put in because the capitalist always takes out the profit. All the capitalists bring to the table is their legal ownership of the factories, companies and private property in general. Thanks to this or that piece of paper – a share ownership certificate or credit note in their possession – the capitalists are able to make “legal” claims on the profits generated by working people’s labour. The rule of capital is the rule of a crazy market, which creates massive wealth at one pole only to create misery at another.

There is an alternative. If only the system wasn’t run for profit, if only it was democratically controlled by working people, then we could run it on the basis of the need of all – not the profit of a few. That’s socialism – and it is really worth fighting for. 

Tax Dodgers

If a worker tries to dodge tax or fiddles his expenses it is a terrible crime, but the old adage "never steal anything small " seems to apply when the owning class rip-off millions in tax dodges.  According to a huge cache of leaked secret bank account files HSBC's Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities,. 'The files "obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama - and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - reveal that HSBC's Swiss private bank routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland.' (Guardian, 8 February) RD

China And USA Conflict

Newspaper reports of the proposed visit of the President of China Xi Jinping to the USA portray it as a friendly journey, but in fact beneath the surface it is anything but friendly. 'International relations experts expect the international community to watch how the two powers work through thorny issues in the Asia-Pacific region and reduce, if not eliminate mutual distrust. (CHINADAILY.Com.CN, 9 February) It is expected that hot-spot issues such as disputes about cybersecurity and shipping and trade in the Western Pacific region will be discussed. Whenever capitalists rivals have "friendly meetings" - beware. RD

A Deadly System

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed plans to  reduce the number of "avoidable deaths" in English hospital. 'Mr Hunt said an annual review of 2,000 cases of patients who later died would allow hospitals to be ranked according to avoidable mortality rates. Mr Hunt said there were about 1,000 avoidable deaths in the NHS per month.' (BBC News, 8 February) 1,000 deaths per month in order to save expenditure on medical care. That is how capitalism operates. RD

Beyond a dream

Imagine ALL humans living in peace and in harmony with nature in a world of plenty.

As long as capitalism has existed there has been a movement in opposition to it known generally as socialism. Socialism is based on the maxim “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” – in other words, a society in which people cooperate voluntarily (without coercion in the form of wage or monetary systems) to produce what is necessary to live and enjoy life, and in turn all would be free to take what they need from what is available. Production would be carried out to provide for human needs, not to make a profit, as is done under capitalism. The first task at hand for us is the education of all working people, the raising of political consciousness; we must all become teachers and teach our brothers and sisters until we develop a class conscious critical mass, i.e., a majority. To accomplish this goal we must utilize all forms of media and spread our ideas – that is the essential first step. Also agreed upon is that systems of organization must be in place before the revolution – industrial unions and worker’s councils, community and solidarity networks.

Socialism is money-less economy, an economic system for the world. Socialist economic system would consist of an organization of production to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs, so that goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit driven by the accumulation of capital. Accounting would be based on physical quantities, a common physical magnitude,( or some others suggest a direct measure of labour-time) in place of financial calculation. In this system there will no kind of money. All products and services will be available for free. That means you will work free to give your services and you will get everything free, whatever you want. One of the goals of socialists is an economy in which all goods are available to all regardless of family, wealth or occupation. The goal of such an economy is an entirely money-less society in which goods are free for all. Socialists wish to replace the State with a society self-managed by the people, and replace capitalism. Socialism is a money-less system in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the workers and the people of the community, rather than by capitalists. The creation of a socialist society would mean that production would be carried out for human need, instead of for capitalist profit; and that every person would have access to that which is necessary for a happy life. In today’s world production is carried out to make money, not to provide for all the people with needs — this is why millions of people starve when there is plenty of food. The end of capitalism would mean the end of poverty, hunger and of economic strife between nations – the root cause of war.

In socialism all people will be cared for and provided with what is necessary to live a good life; all will be free to pursue happiness and their life’s fulfillment in any way in which they choose. A socialist society would have the immediate goal of doing away with all forms of hierarchy: and classes. Socialist society would eliminate nationalist concepts like borders and nation-states, instead being made up of inter-connected communities. Socialists not only advocate democratic self-management of society, rather than state control, but also place a emphasis on the freedom of the individual. As a general rule socialists feel that one should be free to do as they wish as long as they are not harming anyone else. Additionally, association with any community would be completely voluntary and one would be free to dissociate oneself if they chose to do so. As Peter Kropotkin wrote: “Anarchist communism maintains that most valuable of all conquests, individual liberty – it does not ask the individual who has rejected god the universal tyrant, god the king, and god the parliament, to give himself a god more terrible than any of the preceding – god the community – or to abdicate upon its altar this independence…No society is free so long as the individual is not so.” Socialists, however, believe that some sort of administrative body is necessary to direct production and distribution so as to enable the workers to achieve the full material benefits and leisure that modern scientific advances allow us.

In a socialist society work would not be compulsory and no one would be required to work away much of their day as they are forced to do under capitalism. Workers are required to toil for 8 or more hours a day under capitalism because capitalists need them to do so in order to generate surplus value, i.e., to make a profit for the capitalists. This also entails employing the fewest number of workers possible to maximize profits for the capitalist owners. In capitalism many workers produce nothing of value or provide no service of real value, instead they are managing buying and selling and other relations that are only necessary under capitalism. That means under socialism the workforce would enlarge drastically as this unproductive work is eliminated. Socialism could handle unpleasant or dangerous work in a number of ways: it could be incentivized in order to compensate workers; it could be shared between many individuals, so that degrading work is minimized; it could be automated – done by machines; or it could be done away with completely. Automation and the inclusion of more workers in the workplace would greatly shorten the workday. Capitalism, and not socialism, encourages laziness, by forcing us to perform work that is often only "necessary" to capitalist interests. Work under capitalism is very often irrelevant to our personal interests and talents, and is done merely because we have to do so to survive. We have many socially useless jobs that serve no other useful function to society at large or purpose. Considering the nature of work under capitalism, is it any wonder at all that so many people choose to avoid work under such conditions, and that people often hate their jobs even if they are lucky enough to find a job.

In socialism, however, rewarding work would be available and people would work in jobs that they possess a talent for. The unpleasant jobs would be shared by all. For example, there would be no professional garbage workers forced to do the drudgery all of the time. Everyone would have to occasionally get their "hands dirty", though much of such work could be completely mechanized. Furthermore, the purpose of work would not be personal enrichment, but the betterment of the society we live in, and to produce and distribute all of the things that we need and want. Everyone would have to work, no one would be allowed to "earn" simply by "owning" as in capitalism, but the amount of work we each had to contribute would be a fraction of what it is today, since everyone would be employed all of the time. As a result, work and leisure under socialism would be indistinguishable, unlike under capitalism, where we very often hate our jobs and look forward only to our time off.

Many will argue that socialism won't succeed because of "human nature?" because human beings are naturally selfish and amoral. This is perhaps the most common attack made against the viability of socialism. This is also one of capitalism's most effective social myths in making people believe that socialism is simply “pie in the sky”.

Actually, psychology, sociology and anthropology believe that human “nature” isn't inherantly bad. People are naturally pro-social, not anti-social. Our violent, aberrant and anti-social behavior stems from our living in a socio-economic system that encourages malevolent selfishness, competition, and makes the majority of us live in constant want and anxiety.  Human behavior is known to be adaptable, and the environment we live in greatly influences our thoughts and actions. Human beings do not possess natural "instincts" in the same sense as other animals do. Rather, we possess the ability to reason, to adapt, or consciously modify our behavior according to need or according to what our immediate environment demands of us. When the social framework for greed, violence and competitiveness is removed, our correspondingly aberrant behavior will likewise vanish. It should be pointed out that human beings lived in peaceful cooperation for hundreds of thousands of years in humanity's first economic system, often called primitive communism.

Now thanks to modern technology of production, we will have an opportunity for relative abundance. With modern technology now able to produce an abundance for everyone, and not just a fortunate few, thus making it possible for everybody to contribute to the advancement of society, the ruling class has now become obsolete, and has now become a completely idle class that does nothing whatsoever to benefit society but simply lines its own pockets with the vast majority of the wealth produced by the working (i.e., slave) class. Hence, it's these specific economic conditions, and not some nebulous notion of human nature, that created class-divided societies. When socialism is brought about, human nature (i.e., behaviour) will adapt itself to these changes, and anti-social attitudes such as greed, violence and criminal inclinations will be all but excised from the public mindset.

Genuine socialism has NEVER been tried in any country. In fact, socialism is a system that will be worldwide, and isn't intended to function in just one country. Furthermore, socialists firmly believe that socialism will be brought about by working class organization, and by no other means. It will never be brought about by politicians, whose purpose is to control the working class on behalf of their capitalist masters, not to liberate the working class from oppression, or to meet the needs of the working class. Anyone who states that genuine socialism has been achieved in any country is either seriously misinformed or an outright liar, usually the former.

Socialism can only be established through a world-wide revolution led by a majority of the working class. Socialists categorically reject the position known as reformism, that is, the position that capitalism can be reformed into a humane system or that socialism can be established through gradual reforms. We view reforms as offering only temporary and partial solutions to capitalism’s endemic problems. While certain reforms which benefit the working class may be a worthy short-term goal, they are never a solution. Therefore our ultimate goal will always be the establishment of libertarian socialism, as soon as possible. We also reject Leninism or vanguardism – the view that a professional revolutionary elite must establish a self-serving hierarchy and lead the revolution. Only the organized working class fighting together in solidarity, without leaders or rulers, can win freedom for all people.

Is it really possible to consider the democratic control of something as complex as society? The answer to this question of course is 'Yes it is' - by the democratic principle of delegated authority which a self-managed society would use without having to go to meetings all the time just to keep things going. 

A Fortune In Stamps

Capitalism is a crazy system that can condemn working men and women and their families to starvation for the want of a few pounds while this madness occurs. 'A few stamps which lay together in a cigar box in a dusty attic for a century are set to fetch £250,000 when next auctioned.' (Sunday Express, 8 February) Scraps of paper worth more than human existence. Crazy! RD

London Homeless

London may have some of the most expensive housing imaginable but that doesn't stop scores of people sheltering in doorways every night.'But as temperatures dropped below zero over the past week, conditions on the street became  life-threating for the UK's homeless population, and emergency measures, known as homeless people sheltering Severe Weather Emergency Potocol (SWEP), were triggered across London. This is to ensure that no one dies on the street due to the severe weather.' (Independent, 8 February) Many of the homeless are shivering outside beautiful houses that lie empty. Madness! RD

We can have what we need

The Socialist Party holds no hope that those who endeavour to try and manage capitalism will ever get in touch with their supposed sincere better selves to build a world free of exploitation and injustice. Capitalism cannot be reformed or changed into something beneficial. It has to be destroyed to permit human progress. In many ways, the Socialist Party is the messenger who bring the bad news that nobody wants to hear. We try not to deal in fantasy but in facts. People don’t read anymore, don’t learn anymore. History and the knowledge of our past is disappearing. People talk about living for the moment as if it is a virtue. History is something boring that you had to endure in school and then you go on to college you drop to study business management. The Socialist Party purpose is straightforward, and we do not hide it. We want to re-establish the genuine meaning of socialism. It is politics which determines how words are used and abused. Over the last hundred years or so, the word, socialism,  has been drained of all utopian content and no longer serves, as it once did, a catalyst and inspiration. The struggle for justice, for true freedom, and above all, for the survival of humanity, is becoming increasingly urgent. Language and terminology has been totally perverted or at least thoroughly confused. Authoritarian governments are called ‘democracies’ while terms like ‘socialism’ are constantly smeared.

If socialism means the social ownership of the means of production and the fruits of production, so too does communism. The terms 'socialism’ and 'communism' are used interchangeably on this blog. For the market to exist, some sectional interest (an individual, a joint-stock company, a nationalised concern, a workers' cooperative and so on) has to be in control of part of the social product, which it then disposes of by entering into exchange relations with others. Exchange cannot take place when society, and none other, controls the means of production and the social product. Far from socialism being compatible with exchange and the market, the generalised production of goods for exchange on the market is the hallmark of an entirely different type of society - capitalism. The word 'socialism' has taken on the spurious meaning of state enterprises employing wage-earners in order to produce goods for sale on the market. The mere absence of the market is not the sole defining feature of socialism. On the contrary, socialism is not merely a marketless society; it is also a stateless society, a classless society, a moneyless society and a wageless society. Socialism would necessarily be on a world scale. In the society envisaged by non-market socialists, the people of the world would own the global means of production in common and would operate them communally for the benefit of humankind as a whole. Socialism in one country, or even one part of the world, is impossible. Since capitalism today is a global society which encompasses all parts of the world, the socialist alternative to capitalism must be equally global in its scope. Socialism is a global solution to the global problems which have accompanied the rise of world capitalism.

The aim of socialist planning by what Marx calls “the society of associated producers”, is not just to socialize the process of exchange and distribution of goods but to develop the productive forces to the degree that the necessary labor-time for all workers can be reduced to a minimum. This leaves maximum time for and all those good things in life which is the birthright of humanity. There is no known process of the market that can achieve this aim, for the logic of the market is blind to the process of production, and concerns itself exclusively with private accumulation and consumption. As long as we are subject to the coercive pressure of competition and accumulation, each other’s eternal counterparts, we cannot fully realize our talents and potential as individuals. Socialists do not seek to socialise capital, but not abolish it. We do not wish socialised exploitation, but its abolition.

The socialist vision is one of people working together, cooperatively, to build methods of production, service provision, and create well-being while integrating ecological care, justice, and long-term planning to the best of diverse communities’ abilities. The key for the socialist  movement is to mobilise now. If people join together and take action, we will win. This is a battle between people power and capitalist power. It is essential for every issue we care about that we do win. It is a class war the people have to win, and that’s the plain truth of the matter. 

A Strange Sort Of Communism

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2015 the world now has a record 2,089 billionaires - and for the first time, India has more of them than Britain or Russia. 'The  list charts every dollar billionaire currently living in the world. It shows an additional 222 billionaires were created last year, almost a third of whom were in China. The US still holds the crown for most mega-wealthy residents, at 537. But  China is not far behind with 430, having acquired 72 new billionaires in   2014.' (Daily Telegraph, 5 February) Somewhat comically the Chinese government still claims to be communist. RD

Socialism Will Be A Far Better World

At one time, economists and politicians were intoxicated by illusions of an ever expanding capitalism, which guaranteed full employment and a continuous rises in real wages yet still permitted growing profits and increasing dividends. The world possessed the knowledge and the technical means existed to conquer hunger and disease and to satisfy the basic social and cultural needs of our whole planet. Yet science has been subordinated to the narrow imperatives of short-term profit expectation. Humanity does not need less science or less technology. It needs more science that is in harmony with an awareness of long-term social interests, technology that is subject to conscious decision-making based on the knowledge of men and women, the collective understanding and control of the associated producers. But now, social inequalities have erupted and ecological catastrophes threatens to engulf us all. The convulsions of capitalism grow ever more chaotic. There is no viable cure and ever more reformers are resigned to failure. We are bombarded with the idea that there is no alternative, that capitalism is the natural order of things. We are told that as much as capitalism has problems, any attempts to get rid of it will make things far worse.

There are people hankering for an alternative to this system. Who want to do something meaningful for humanity with their lives. Humanity can move beyond exploitation and social division. It can move to a classless society and a world of freely associating human beings—socialism. The apologists for the status quo tell us anything that fundamentally challenges capitalism is a pipe dream and an unworkable utopia. We are told to try and make a revolution and building an economy and society that promote and serve the common good violates human nature, economic logic, and the very flow of history, that capitalism is the end point of social evolution. Capitalism is not the end of society’s development. It is actually the chief impediment to realizing the potential for a different world. Lies and slanders about socialism are repeated endlessly and become accepted as self-evident truths. We live in a world in which hundreds of thousands die each and every day of war, hunger and disease. We live on a planet whose eco-systems are threatened by the blind workings of an economic system. The question socialists pose is this one: Do we have to live this way? Socialists answer we can really radically change things for the greater good of all. If you want to understand and decide whether socialism is an idea whose time has come, first you need to know what it is: its aims and its foundations. Socialism is not a big welfare state that looks after people. It is not the old capitalist economy simply taken over by a state. Socialism is about the great majority of society, consciously transforming the economic structures, social relations, and ideas that perpetuate social and class division. It is about unleashing the creativity and initiative of those who had been on the bottom of society.

Picture a world where people consciously learn about and transform the world, where people are no longer imprisoned by the chains of tradition and ignorance, where people not only cooperatively work to produce the necessities of life, but engage in art, culture and science, where a scientific outlook inspire, where there is a diversity of opinion and far-ranging discussion over the direction and development of society but no longer stamped by social antagonism, where people interact with each other based on mutual respect, concern, and love for humanity. A world that cares about and takes care of the environment. That is socialism, a worldwide society in which all class distinctions have disappeared; all exploitation abolished; all oppressive social institutions and relations of social inequality, like racism or sexism has vanished. Socialism is a world of abundance, where people together hold all of society's resources in common. It is yet to be achieved but it is possible.

Socialism is not some sort of wishful dream or utopia but a feasible and practical choice for people to make. The productive forces of society—not just machinery, equipment, and technology but also people and their knowledge—have developed to a level that can allow humanity to overcome scarcity, to provide for people's basic material needs, and beyond that to have a large surplus left over to devote to the all-around and future development of society. These productive forces of society are highly socialized. They require millions working together to produce the things—whether we are talking about clothing or computers—that are used by people throughout society. And these productive forces are highly interconnected on a global level: raw materials and machine tools produced in one part of the world enter into the production process in other parts of the world. But these socialized productive forces are privately controlled. A capitalist class of owners appropriates the results of production as private, capitalist property. This is the fundamental problem in the world. And this is what socialism solves. Socialism brings about a radically different way of organizing production and society as a whole. The socialist revolution establishes a new economy based on social ownership of the means of production and social planning; on people cooperating to solve problems and to meet social need; and with a whole new set of economic and social priorities. A socialist revolution creates a new kind of economy. The means of production are no longer the private property of a minority of society. They are placed under society's collective control. Social production is no longer carried out without planning or social purpose but is now shaped according to consciously adopted aims and coordinated as a whole, to meet the fundamental needs and interests of the people. With socialism, people are unleashed to run and transform society. The people on the bottom of capitalist society have been locked out of the realm of producing ideas. Capitalism is a  society where a few engage in the realm of thinking, while the great majority of humanity is exploited and prevented from pursuing intellectual activity. Socialist society transforms this situation. It will enable people to take up all kinds of questions and participate in society in an all-around way.

We now have an added urgency that previous generations of socialists were never faced with – the likelihood of planetary disruption and upheaval from global warming. We can change that and another breathtakingly different world is possible but the socialist movement has to accomplish more and go further than ever before. We have to do a lot better than what we have been doing. 

Ukraine Crisis

As the conflict increases US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was is in Kiev, said the US wanted a diplomatic solution, but would not close its eyes to Russian aggression. 'Moscow is accused of arming pro-Russian rebels - a claim it denies. Russia also rejects claims by Ukraine and the West that its regular troops are fighting alongside the rebels against Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Clashes - which have intensified in recent weeks after a rebel offensive - have left nearly 5,400 people dead since April, the UN says.' (BBC News, 6 February) Accusations and counter-accusations, but we still have 5,400 dead. RD