The World Socialist Movement

The Socialist Party concerns ourselves with pointing out its defects and advocating the replacing of the capitalist system by the common ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. The success of the socialist movement and the pace of its progress will depend very largely on the education and the political tactics of the Socialist Party. Mere class struggle in itself cannot bring the cooperative commonwealth. We want a world freed of the war-breeding struggle for capitalist markets, a world in which goods are produced for the use of the producers and not for sale with a view to profit. We want a world in which technology and automation will become a blessing to multiply our output and give to the producers leisure in which to study, travel and enjoy the product of our labour. We want to live full lives relieved forever of want and fear of want. Socialism means the abolition of the political State with its hordes of politicians and bureaucrats and instead the establishment of the ownership and operation by the workers of the means of wealth production -- the land, the factories, the transport and communications network. It means an end to exploitation and the inauguration of true democracy, the establishment of industrial democracy.

When automation does all the work, who will own the machines? The answer, of course, is that the capitalist class will continue to own them unless the working class acts to establish an economic democracy in which the means of production and distribution become the property of society. Unless that is done, the modern technology that could be used to provide economic security for all will only benefit a few. It will bring more unemployment than we have ever known, and more economic insecurity and human misery than we ever thought possible. Technology has only accelerated the rate at which labour's share of its product is reduced and the pace at which workers are removed from the productive process. The Socialist Party have long taken the position that the working class must come to grips with this problem unless it is prepared to be reduced to a state of abject poverty and economic ruin unlike anything experienced since ancient times when the majority of people were either chattel slaves or dispossessed entirely from the economy. We refuse to believe that the working class will allow this to happen. To prevent it, however, workers will have to make a conscious effort to organise their economic and political strength to resist capitalism's anti-social misuse of new technology and to assert their revolutionary right to determine their own destiny.

The socialist movement has always been recognised as an internationalist one, despite the most intense nationalist and chauvinist conflicts this spirit of international solidarity remains alive wherever workers raise the banner of world socialism. It is a powerful antidote for some of capitalism's most vicious and virulent ideologies, including racism, nationalism and patriotic chauvinism of all kinds. A clear view of the commonality of interests of the working class throughout the world provides a powerful bulwark against the bellicose, propaganda which issues daily from ruling-class. Recognition of the shared interest all the exploited have in ending the systems of class rule which dominate the world is a big step toward exposing and withdrawing support from the nationalist aims of their respective ruling classes. Nationalism is employed by the capitalist class deliberately to submerge the class struggle and to blind the workers to their own class interests. Even though the calls for "international cooperation" is used by the ruling-class to mask their pursuit of material interests, they reflect an inescapable awareness of the global scope of nearly every major social problem. But reorganising and developing the world's productive forces to solve these problems, to feed its people, to protect its environment and to put an end to class oppression and human misery, are tasks only world socialism can meet. Because the overthrow of capitalist class rule and a socialist reconstruction of society remain the sole solution for the working classes of the world, the resurgence of international cooperation is inevitable. For the internationalist spirit will grow step by step with the march of the workers of the world toward a socialist future. For workers loyalty to one's class is patriotism.

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

"High treason is the veriest nonsense for an international socialist. He knows no hostile power which he could even think of 'aiding and abetting.' He is just as revolutionarily disposed toward every foreign capitalist government as he is against his own. Not 'to aid and abet an enemy power,' but to 'damage all imperialistic powers at the same time in international cooperation with the socialists of other countries' is the quintessence of his endeavors. He fights in the name of the international proletariat against international capitalism. He attacks it where he finds it and can effectively strike it; that is, in his own country. In his own country, in the name of the international proletariat, he fights his own government and his own ruling classes as the representatives of international capitalism. In this logical manner, through the national class struggle against war, the international class struggle against war becomes a reality." -- Karl Liebknecht

"In proportion as the exploitation of one individual bv another .is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to." -- Karl Marx

"The emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries." - Karl Marx

"Past experience has shown how disregard of that bond of brotherhood which ought to exist between the workmen of different countries, and incite them to stand firmly by each other in all their struggles for emancipation, will be chastised by the common discomfiture of their incoherent efforts."-- Karl Marx

"The proletarians in all countries have one and the same interest, one and the same enemy, and one and the same struggle.... Only the awakening proletariat can bring about fraternization between the different nations." -- Frederick Engels

"In a class society, 'the nation' as a homogeneous socio-political entity does not exist. Rather, there exist within each nation, classes with antagonistic interests and 'rights.' There literally is not one social area, from the coarsest material relationships to the most subtle moral ones, in which the possessing class and the class-conscious proletariat hold the same attitude, and in which they appear as a consolidated 'national' entity...The historical mission of the bourgeoisie is the creation of a modern 'national' state; but the historical task of the proletariat is the abolition of this state as a political form of capitalism, in which they themselves, as a conscious class, come into existence to establish the socialist system.... The interests of the proletariat on the nationality question are just the opposite of those of the bourgeoisie. The concern about guaranteeing an internal market for the industrialists of the 'fatherland,' and of acquiring new markets by means of conquest, by colonial or military policies -- all these, which are the intentions of the bourgeoisie in creating a 'national' state, cannot be the aims of a conscious proletariat....Therefore, considering the matter from this point of view, the 'nation'-state, as an apparatus of the domination and conquest of foreign nationalities, while it is indispensable for the bourgeoisie, has no meaning for the class interests of the proletariat." - Rosa Luxemburg

"Workingmen of all countries, unite!" - Karl Marx

Social Progress or the Regression of Civilisation

The Socialist Party is concerned with the future of the whole working class. Indeed, we are concerned with the future of all humanity.

So-called "free” labour is a cornerstone of the capitalist economic system, without which capitalism as we know it could not survive. This follows because "free labour," which is only another way of saying wage labor, is the source of profit, and thereby the source of capital. Without a system of labor under which workers produce an excess of wealth over what they are paid there would be no source from which profits could be drawn, and without profit there would be no way to increase capital. What this system of wage labour amounts to for workers is that they are "free" to sell their ability to perform productive labor on the labor market to the capitalist who is willing to pay the highest wages. Furthermore, this wages system is a cornerstone of the capitalist social order. That is, the ability of the capitalist class to keep its place as the dominant and ruling class in society depends on its ability to restrain its greed for profit to the extent that the dominated and exploited working class can maintain an acceptable standard of living. Otherwise, workers may come to realize that the capitalist system promises only poverty, insecurity and degradation for themselves and future generations.

There are certain indications that the increased ferocity of capitalist competition involved in globalization is leading to conditions in which the ground is being eaten from under the system of free wage labour. As modern technology continues its relentless sweep through all industries, and as capitalism's requirement for human labour declines, the ability of workers to earn a decent living is declining precipitously. Signs of this erosion are becoming increasingly evident around the world. The spread of automation and robotics, the vast displacement of human labour, and the resulting competition for jobs that is driving wages down all over the world is setting the stage for a social catastrophe of enormous dimensions that holds the potential for destroying the capitalist system itself. Indeed, there are indications that apologists for the capitalist system are increasingly concerned that the working class -- as a class -- may come to recognize its situation, and that this could spell real trouble for the system. So they propose such things as the universal citizens income or unconditional basic income to mitigate the potential inequality threat.

 Emancipation from capitalist wage slavery will free the entire human race and put an end to classes and class divisions. The modern wage-slave cannot look to any outside Abolitionist movement for help. They cannot look to any "superior" class to assist them. We are on our own. Historic forces, economic crises,and intensified class antagonisms will arouse today's enslaved class to consciousness and we will resist and overcome our servitude. It is the duty of all socialists to denounce how the producing class is the slaves of the possessing class who perform no useful labour whatever but merely own.

It is increasingly urgent that workers become conscious of what they have in common as the victims of the capitalist system of exploitation and human degradation. More than that, it is urgent that they organise the political and economic power implicit in their vast numbers to abolish that system before it leads the world into a new Dark Age in which the vast majority of humanity is reduced to a hopeless level of enforced poverty and social bondage comparable to chattel slavery. The Socialist Party is the one way in which the working class can organise its potential power in a way to assure that it can resist capitalist greed and exploitation. It is one way that the working-class majority can gain control over the economy and to operate it in the interests of all society. Achieving that goal is indispensable if workers are to become the masters of their own destinies and thereby remove the yoke of economic despotism that is synonymous with the capitalist system. If the working class is ever to succeed in establishing a free and democratic society in which all will enjoy peace, abundance, and security, it must first have a proper understanding of its class status in capitalist society, a correct class perception of the opposing forces it must contend with on the road to its goal, and a precise knowledge of the meaning of the social, economic and political terms of the age.

It is correct to say that the capitalist system will destroy itself but it does not follow from that socialism will be the successor. If the working-class is not sufficiently educated to understand present events, the result will be a social catastrophe brought on by the political charlatans and economic quacks. They shed crocodile tears over the inequities of the present system, they display utmost piety for the most deprived and oppressed victims of capitalism's ruthless exploitation and pay lip-service to democracy. Whether the palliatives proposed by the reformers are direct aids to capitalists in exploiting the workers, or in perpetuating the capitalist system, or in deceiving the workers into believing that their fate can be improved under the capitalist system, the fact remains that their reforms and their "resistance" to ever more reactionary restrictions on workers are generally contrary to the interests of workers. It does not require any profound insight to realise that the hopes for a sane and decent society do not lie with the plutocracy; nor with its governments. Nor do they rest with men and women "of good will," no matter how sincere or commendable their philanthropy may be. Those hopes lie with the working class. They lie in the latent political and industrial might of that working class, the only might that can neutralise and defeat the oligarchy and provide the basis for a new democratic and affluent society.

The welfare state has nothing to do with socialism; yet, it may also be said that they are a result of socialism. The reason neither of social reforms such as social security and the free health service has anything to do with socialism, of course, is that socialism implies an end to the poverty and social insecurity that come from private ownership and control of the economy. Welfare, the benefits system, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, etc., are so many concessions to the socialist contention that capitalism is incapable of eliminating the social ills the system creates. They are so many confessions of wrong-doing by the ruling class, as are all examples of so-called social legislation. Socialism does not strive to lessen the effect of capitalism's evils on the working class: it strives to root out capitalism and the social evils it spawns. At the same time, it can be said that all reforms designed to ease the impact capitalism has on the working class result from socialism. They result from socialism in the same sense that defensive fortifications result from the advances of an aggressive army. They are in the nature of capitalist strategic maneuvers in the face of the socialist challenge. Incidentally, this is literally, not merely figuratively, true. Social security and workers' benefits were introduced by none other than Otto von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor" of Germany. In the 1870s, Bismarck established the infamous Anti-Socialist Laws aimed at destroying the socialist movement. When these failed of their objective, he, in the 1880s, introduced a number of so-called social insurance laws providing some compensation to victims of industrial accidents and old-age pensions. The purpose was not to ease the burden of the victims of the industrial system but to deflect the socialist movement and, if possible, to split it. It was a brilliant piece of political strategy that worked like a charm, as the difficulty the movement has had in overcoming the seductive lure of such reform schemes shows all too well.

The Socialist Party holds that involvement in daily struggles is not inherently reformist. Indeed, such involvement is indispensable to stop the grinding down of the working class. But we argue that such struggles are not the task of a socialist party but of trade unions and many other social organisations. The Socialist Party, nevertheless, does not hesitate to point to the inevitable limitations of any movement that fails to address the capitalist cause.

Remember the Real Robbery

The sad fact is that workers -- those who vote and those who don't -- still buy into the notion that capitalism can somehow solve the problems and miseries it creates and confronts them with. This misunderstanding is no accident. That misconception is nurtured deliberately by capitalism's politicians, and by assorted capitalist agencies of disinformation and misinformation -- the media, the schools, the universities, the churches, the pro-capitalist union leaders, the ever-present reformers and more -- all of which are dominated by pro-capitalist interests. Those interests and their political lackeys are primarily concerned with the preservation of their system -- the source of their wealth and their positions of privilege -- at the continued expense of the useful producers of the nation. They will not and do not hesitate to mouth any promise or resort to any act they think will serve their purpose, no matter how hypocritical or ruthless. They all camouflage and disguise the reality that there can be no hope for a sane and decent society within the confines of the capitalist system. Capitalism cannot be reformed, regardless of how righteous reformers may be. Capitalism is beyond that. Its very nature militates against such efforts. It is the task of the World Socialist Movement to arouse the working class to its historic mission to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism.

It is true that the capitalist class appears to be winning the class struggle. That, however, is because the capitalists are united in their battle against the workers, despite differences regarding strategy and tactics. They have their goal clearly in mind -- the pursuit of ever-greater profits through the continued and ever-intensified exploitation of the workers. The capitalist system prevails by default. It exists because the working class is weak. The working class is weak because it is disorganised. It is disorganised because it lacks a fundamental understanding of the class nature of capitalism and its own class interest. The workers must at come to understand that the hope and future of this planet rest in their hands. They must focus their concerns and political perspectives on themselves, on their collective interests as a class, on their latent economic and political power and its potential for changing society in a manner that will assure economic security and social welfare for all.

It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of the law of value and the theory of surplus value. Upon an understanding of this economic law and its corollary rests the fate of the working class. Recessions, unemployment, working-class insecurity -- all these flow from the working out of the law of value and surplus value. Through an understanding of Marxian economics, we learn how the capitalist class robs the working class on a colossal scale. We learn what causes strikes -- and how the union leaders betray the workers in the settlements they negotiate. The Socialist Party accepts the Marxian law of value as true and works for a society in which the workers -- the useful producers, or everyone in a society without parasites -- will collectively own their collective products. The products will go to the producers. Any other arrangement in which the workers receive back but a part of their product and the capitalists keep the rest, amounts to robbery. This would be true, too, in a phony socialist society in which politicians and bureaucrats, removed from production and therefore not needed for production, received incomes in return for being parasites, and for usurping the power that belongs to the useful producers of society. The Socialist Party does not compromise on this issue, for to do so would be to concede that the parasites -- capitalists or politicians and bureaucrats -- are entitled to the wealth they steal from the workers. The parties falsely calling themselves socialist, that failed to base themselves on the factual correctness of the law of value have disappeared or nullified themselves by being satisfied with reforms. The Socialist Party cannot be so satisfied, for its knows that the collective capitalists steal from the collective workers so that they can keep on stealing into perpetuity, and that both the present and the future welfare of the useful producers of society can be met only by stopping the thievery and assuring the product to the producers.

The law of value leads therefore to two vital conclusions:

1. The wealth in the hands of the capitalist class is plunder - wealth created by labor and stolen (albeit legally) from labor.

2. The capitalists play a completely useless role. Were their class status and privileges eliminated through the outlawing of private ownership of the means of social production, the workers of brain and brawn could produce all the good things of life for the benefit of the producers. The logic of the law of value is that those who produce the wealth should have it. Production for use and production democratically administered is socialism.

It is very easy for workers to become fixated with the tax deductions on their paychecks, believing that the amounts listed show the wealth that is stolen from them. The real and far greater robbery, however, lies in the huge surplus values that they create with their labour but never see or enjoy. The truth of the matter is that taxes, directly or indirectly, are paid out of surplus value-the share of the value, contained in the products that the working class creates, that is taken by the employing, capitalist class. That is why taxes are not an issue for the working class. They are a distraction from the real issue that should concern them: the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class.

The key to understanding how the working class is robbed is to recognise that wages do not reflect the value of the workers' product. Wages are the price of workers' labor power, or ability to work. Under capitalism, workers, in order to make a living, must sell their labor power, as a commodity, on a labor market, in which the capitalists are the buyers. Under capitalism, there are certain economic laws -- principally, the law of value -- that govern the price of commodities. Like other commodities, labor power has a definite exchange value, around which the price (wages) will tend to gravitate, despite the fluctuations of supply and demand. Basically, the economic laws of capitalism operate such that workers, on average, receive a "living wage." There are variations for different kinds of labour power, of course -- an engineer will tend to command a higher wage than a farmworker. But on the whole, workers, when employed, receive just enough to support themselves and raise a new generation of workers. However, the value of workers' labour power and the value of workers' product are two different things. Under capitalism, workers create much more value than they receive in the form of wages.

Typically, in an 8-hour workday, the value of the products that workers create in about the first 1-1/2 to 2 hours of work will equal their wages. For the other 6 to 6-1/2 hours, workers are creating surplus value -- value, in the form of real wealth, which goes to the capitalist class, not for working, but for "owning." That is what socialists mean when they say that the capitalist class exploits the working class. It is out of this surplus value that the capitalists make their profits, after they pay off any other capitalists owed rent, interest, advertising fees, etc., and pay the taxes needed to support the government. Exploitation is not something that exists only in theory. The robbery of the working class can be measured.

Workers should continue to battle deteriorating living standards on the economic front, by uniting with their fellow workers at the workplace and not by becoming involved in capitalist tax debates. However, for a real solution to exploitation, workers must educate themselves as to the real nature of capitalism, and then build the appropriate organisations to bring about the necessary social change. They should become aware of several concepts: that they, as a class, produce all social wealth; that they are exploited by the capitalist class at the point of production; that their condition can only deteriorate as long as capitalism continues, and that their long-term goal must be social ownership and workers' control of the means of production and distribution.

Remember: The real battle facing the working class has nothing to do with taxes. The real battle is to put an end to the robbery of the working class by the capitalist class. 

For Workers' Emancipation

Why haven't we had a socialist revolution? How much longer can capitalism last? How bad must conditions become before workers take action? These questions trouble ourselves and our fellow class-conscious workers. Capitalism long ago developed the material conditions prerequisite for socialism. It has created production on a scale sufficient to banish forever want and the fear of want. Moreover, necessary production is carried out by socialised labour - by a working class organised at the point of production by the very nature of capitalist production itself. At the same time, capitalism is no longer a progressive social system. Instead, its inherent contradictions stand in the way of further progress and disrupt the workings of the productive forces already developed. Yet there has been no revolution.

Capitalism can be counted on to produce recurring economic crises. However, an economic crisis is not a sufficient condition of revolution. Even if the economy should utterly collapse, the result may not necessarily be socialism. For in the absence of class consciousness and a revolutionary organisation, the ruling class would readily impose its own totalitarian alternative.

If capitalism continues to exist, the likely results are environmental destruction or an unthinkable world war, either that could end human civilisation. Faced with such dangers, workers cannot afford to wait for capitalism to collapse. Because socialism is not an automatic affair, workers as a class must play an active role in the socialist revolution. Capitalism will remain until it is overthrown. And capitalism can be overthrown only as the result of class-conscious mass struggle. Promoting class-consciousness and advocating radical change, however, is no easy matter. People are bombarded daily with capitalist propaganda by the media. Politicians and economists obscure the capitalist roots of the economic crisis and falsely predict a better future after a painful period of "adjustment." And many union leaders tell workers that they need to make concessions and reach compromises with their employers instead of fighting back. Even worse, many so-called “socialists” confuse workers by talking about myths such as "immediate reforms" or by raising false hopes that workers can force the political state to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty. Such notions can only help convince workers that they have a future under capitalism and that capitalism is, at this late date, somehow capable of being reformed. In truth, ending the effects of capitalism requires ending their cause -- the capitalist system.

It is imperative that workers come to recognise that there is an alternative to capitalism. For the sooner the working class understand that the misery imposed by capitalism need not be endured, the sooner will workers turn to socialism. Workers already hold in their collective hands the potential power capable of restructuring society. Workers need to transform that potential power into an active force –political organisation- that is needed to establish socialism. Workers need to form a mass socialist party to challenge and defeat the political state for the purpose of dismantling it. That will clear the way for the workers' on the economic field to administer the socialist society by ousting the capitalists from economic power and by operating the economy in workers' interests.

An economic crisis produces the discontent, the social unrest and the objective need for change that provide opportunities for effective socialist agitation and education, for raising class consciousness and for creating the working-class organisation required for a victorious ending of the class struggle. It is up to us, the working class. The Socialist Party considers itself as the political party of the working class. This is so because it is the sole advocate of the principles which the working class must adopt if it is ever to achieve its complete emancipation from wage slavery and, at the same time, save society from catastrophe. The Socialist Party is the only organisation demanding the abolition of capitalism and advocating the socialist reconstruction of society. It has been doing so for well over 100 years. It is, in short, the organisation through which the workers can establish their majority right to reorganise society. The Socialist Party provides a way for workers to organise their potential political power as a class so that they can replace the capitalist system with a democratic class-free society. Such a socialist party is also needed to convince the working-class majority of the need for socialism and to recruit the forces for carrying out the revolution. We believe that the Socialist Party's position on electoral activity offers the best -- indeed the only realistic -- chance to achieve socialism by non-violent and peaceful means. We know that we are in a race with time. We will either succeed or fail in our mission to penetrate the consciousness of the working class before all avenues for peaceful change are sealed off. No matter which way it eventually turns out, however, the need for change -- for socialism -- can only increase.

We live in a world of increasing chaos and violence, as the conflict now raging in the Middle East attests. We aim for a world in which cooperation and peace will be combined with prosperity and freedom for all. The longer it takes to wake up the working class to accomplish the change in a non-violent way, the longer the working class tolerates ruling-class despotism, the more difficult it will be to achieve our hopes and aspirations. Accordingly, we work hard to get our message across now, knowing that if we fail the chances for a nonviolent and peaceful transition to socialism will diminish and eventually disappear. Let the working class allow themselves to be fooled and led by the nose much longer by the politicians, and they will be confronted with the alternative that confronts their fellow wage slaves in many other countries: either absolute submission and slavery or the need for armed rebellion. Where the ballot is silenced, the bullet must speak. Peacefully if possible or forcibly if necessary as our Chartist forefathers declared. 

The Glasgow Pooor

The Scottish Government definitions of poverty and income inequality to identify who needs support.

Living in poverty means two adults with an income after housing costs are met of £243 per week or £12,700 a year is in poverty.

For a couple with two children it is £393 pw, £20,500 a year.

A single parent with £291 pw or £15,200 a year is living in poverty and a single person with less than £141 pw or £7,300 per year is in poverty.

The statistics for Glasgow show:

*One in three children in poverty

*More than three quarters of children in poverty in households where someone works.

*One in five people earn below the Living Wage of £8.25 an hour.

*One in eight adults do not have access to a bank or building society account.

* In the poorest parts of the city more than 55% of children live in poverty.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/14807537.Challenge_Poverty__City_devises_People_Make_Glasgow_Fairer_anti_poverty_strategy/

Socialism is Common Sense

The Socialist Party is made up of working class men and women -- some might say "ordinary folk." That the Socialist Party is not as large and influential as we would like, and as it should be, is a fact, and there's no doubt about it. Does that mean that the Socialist Party has been wrong for all these years? The Socialist Party is based on principles. If principles reflect facts then it is true and ought to be heeded. If it does not correspond to facts -- then it is false and misleading. The principle the SPGB bases itself on is the class struggle. That principle is as old as history itself. According to Marx “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In today’s times never have workers been asked to do so much for so little. We live in a world where one person's misfortune is another’s  opportunity. Through miseducation the working class suffers from charlatans, who arrived one after the other to set up movements that bred hope in the hearts of the people; yet movements that in the end had to collapse, for a movement must be perfectly sound in principles or it cannot stand. A falsely based movement is a lie, and a lie cannot survive for very long. All these social movements came to grief, and what was the result? -- disappointment, despair, diffidence, hopelessness. Hence the political apathy, the popular cynicism, and general despondency expressed by our fellow workers.

The Socialist Party cannot stop world capitalism from creating ever more misery on a global scale than it already has. Only the working class can do that. What it can do, however, is hasten the day when workers will come to the realisation that they must act to end capitalism and build socialism. The Socialist Party is a political party to promote class-consciousness among workers by advocating a complete revolutionary change from capitalism to socialism. The Socialist Party exists to challenge the power of the ruling class, to capture the state machinery and to turn the reins over to the various democratic bodies of the people. However, just as class-consciousness will not grow of its own accord, neither will the Socialist Party. That responsibility ultimately rests with those who we can reach. Just as it is the responsibility of a revolutionary movement to promote class-consciousness, it is the responsibility of all those who grasp the socialist message to step up and join the Socialist Party to enhance its ability to reach our fellow-workers.

Many of us understand that capitalism has outlived its usefulness and that it is time for humanity to move to the next stage of civilization. We want to create a sane and productive world. The Socialist Party principles are based on workers acting with workers for workers. No enlightened leader nor condescending saviour from high is going to come along and set things right. It is useless for us to wait for deliverance from the pains caused by capitalism. We will have to deliver ourselves. No "vanguard" political leadership or dictatorship by any name can be a substitute for the people as a whole. When the SPGB has enough members and active supporters, it will offer political candidates for us (the working class majority of the population) to elect as our delegates, NOT to run the capitalist political government of today but to dissolve the current system of government that only serves to preserve the capitalists' hold over the rest of society.  If we workers stopped cooperating with the political parties of capitalism and actively took part in controlling our world through our own political organisations, capitalism would be doomed. We can join together and we can change our world for the better rather than maintain it for the better-off.

Common sense should tell workers that the cause of declining wages, spreading economic insecurity and unemployment has nothing to do with who lives in the White House or sits in Parliament.

Common sense should tell workers that politicians don't decide when factories will close down or how many workers to lay off.

Common sense should tell workers that in a capitalist economy those decisions are made by those who own the factories, mills, mines and other means of wealth production.

Common sense should tell workers that capitalists make those decisions in their own interests, not in the interests of the working class.

From these and other facts the Socialist Party draws certain conclusions:

First: Increased productivity, declining wages, massive elimination of jobs, spreading economic insecurity and the congestion of wealth proves that the capitalist system of private ownership and profit production is based on the exploitation of the working class.

Second: As long as this foundation of society remains this trend will continue regardless of the claims and promises of politicians.

Third: That the only solution to such fundamental problems stemming from the very nature of the system under which we live must also be a fundamental one. As long as the working class of the country tolerates the private ownership and control of the economy, workers will be used for the profit whims of the tiny capitalist class.

We have seen that capitalism means either suffering for the majority or the threat of total annihilation. A small section of the population controls production and is not answerable to the rest of the community. The capitalist class has shown that it is unable to handle the means of production and distribution in any way to the advantage of the community. In the capitalist world, a competitive struggle between countries goes on, with enslavement by others in the unbridled pursuit of maximum profit.  Capitalism expresses class-ownership and production for profit. Its destruction only involves the change of the individual or corporate ownership to the ownership of the community at large. Wage-slavery being done away with by the abolition of capital, the cooperative commonwealth will at once take its place.

History's Largest Drug Dealer.

Would matters concerning Britain's beloved Queen Victoria, come under the heading of current affairs? Well, maybe- sorta - kinda, considering the old broad was in the news indirectly, a little way back when the present parasite in Vicky's old job had been counting the loot she's stolen from the working class longer than Vicky-baby.

According to James Bradley in his well-researched book, "The Imperial Cruise" (Little, Brown, 2009),"Victoria ordered the British government to: enforce the illegal drug, Opium, on the Chinese". This resulted in the two 'Opium Wars', from 1839 to 1842 and, 1856 to 1860. "Opium production and smuggling not only paid for imports from China that England could not afford in silver, but the drug trade also provided the easy money that sustained her empire." The British Empire grew fat on Chinese Silver drained from the formerly richest country in the world.

The sums were so enormous that Queen Victoria stands as history's largest drug dealer."

The point, dear friends, in case you're wondering, is the capitalist class, through their organs of propaganda, try to make you think Vicky and her like, are very worthy people and they're right in one respect - they are worth looking down on. John Ayers.

Industrial feudalism?

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

The goal of the Socialist Party is to replace capitalism with the economic and social democracy of socialism. The fact the goal is a lofty and ambitious one should not discourage people from seeking a better life. Socialism was born in response to the grave social problems generated by capitalism's uses of technology. Socialism grew out of the profound disruption of society capitalism caused. It was the pitiless and inhumane uses to which capitalism put the technology at its disposal to exploit human labor that made the socialist movement necessary. Socialism is not an idea that fell from the skies, but a natural response to the material conditions and social relations that took shape as the capitalist system of production developed. While technological advances have brought and will continue to bring profound changes to the manufacturing process, they are being used to increase the quantity of manufactured goods, but doing it by intensifying the exploitation of a dwindling number of workers. It is absolutely certain that capitalism will continue to introduce new and increasingly sophisticated technology into industry. It is a certainty that millions more workers will be forcibly evicted from the economy -- and not only workers in the manufacturing and extractive industries but millions who now hold service and so-called "white-collar" jobs. Indeed, that process is already well underway. Promises that "post- industrial" capitalism would create new and "high-paying" jobs to replace those that have been eliminated have proven hollow. A capitalist future of profound social dislocation and human misery is an absolute certainty because of the economic laws on which capitalism is based -- laws which compel every capitalist concern to strive for the greatest possible profit at the lowest possible cost. That can only mean one thing. It can only mean that permanent joblessness is the only future that millions -- perhaps the majority -- of workers can look forward to as long as capitalism survives.

However, the socialist movement has always recognised the tremendous material possibilities technological advances offer for eliminating the poverty, misery and suffering it has engendered -- not of its own accord, but as a direct result of the capitalist system of private ownership of the productive forces created by human labor and ingenuity. The whole purpose of the socialist movement, therefore, is to solve the grave social problems resulting from the march of technology monopolized by a numerically insignificant capitalist class so that the magnificent possibilities modern advances in new technologies hold out may benefit all of humanity. Accordingly, the socialist movement also sees in robotics and automation the productive instruments for the attainment of its goal.

At some stage in the mass displacement of workers by modern technology the fear that already touches millions of workers will mature into the awareness that they must act in their own defense. The understanding will grow that there is no solution to the problem within the capitalist system. Thought, discussion, enlightenment will produce action. The real question, therefore, is: At what stage will this occur? It is, of course, possible that the workers may remain apathetic even while the ranks of chronically unemployed grow to massive proportions. We do not think that they will, and we shall do all in our power to ensure that they won't. Nevertheless, it is possible. In this case, society would move into an era of what could be described as industrial feudalism which, while it would not last forever, might keep the workers in a state of industrial servitude for decades and decades to come. It is to avert such social regression that the Socialist Party works so hard to urge the organisation of the workers in accord with their class interests, and the consolidation of their power as society's producers.

A SOCIETY WITHOUT A STATE

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. The Socialist Party pledges itself to the overthrow of the whole profit-making system and the extinction of privileged classes. The Socialist Party declares war upon the wages system. Socialism is the common ownership by all the people of the factories and offices, transportation, communications, and all other instruments of production. Socialism means production to satisfy human needs, not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means direct control and management of the industries and social services by the people.  Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a society based on the most primary freedom, economic freedom. For individuals, socialism means an end to economic insecurity and exploitation. It means workers cease to be commodities bought and sold on the labor market and forced to work as appendages to tools owned by someone else. It means a chance to develop all individual capacities and potentials within a free community of free individuals.

Socialism does not mean government or state ownership. It does not mean a state bureaucracy as in the former Soviet Union or China, with the working class oppressed by a new bureaucratic class. It does not mean a one-party run system without democratic rights. It does not mean nationalisation or state capitalism of any kind. It means a complete end to all capitalist social relations. The Marxian socialism upheld by the Socialist Party, however, is completely different from the Soviet or Chinese systems, or any existing system. It has nothing to do with nationalisation, a welfare state or any kind of state ownership or control of industry whatsoever. On the contrary, it would give power not to the state, but to the people themselves, allowing collective control of their own economic future. Far from being a state-controlled society, socialism would be a society WITHOUT A STATE. Marx once said that "the existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery."

The capitalist economic system lies at the root of all of modern society's major social and economic problems. Abolish strife-breeding capitalism and those problems are either eradicated or left to wither on the vine. The Socialist Party has long contended that only socialism can solve the major social and economic ills plaguing our society today. Socialism means a class-free society. Unlike under capitalism, where a tiny minority owns the vast majority of wealth and the means of producing it, everyone would share equally in the ownership of all the means of production, and everyone able to do so would work. There wouldn't be separate classes of owners and workers. The economy would be administered by the working-people themselves through democratic "associations of free and equal producers," as Marx described it. Communities collectively would decide what they wanted produced and how they wanted it produced. They would control their own workplaces and make the decisions governing their particular industry. With the abolition of the capitalist expropriation of the lion's share of workers' product, everybody would receive, directly or indirectly, the full value of the products they create, minus only the deductions needed to maintain and improve society's facilities of production and distribution. As Engels once described it, socialism would be a system in "which every member of society will be enabled to participate not only in the production but also in the distribution of social wealth." Under capitalism, improved methods and machinery of production kick workers out of jobs. With socialism, such improvements will be blessings for the simple reason that they will increase the amount of wealth producible and make possible ever higher standards of living while providing us with greater and greater leisure in which to enjoy them.

Socialism can only be built in a developed, industrialized society with a working-class majority. The Bolshevik and Chinese revolutions weren't socialist in character. They occurred in pre-industrial societies. Without a majority working class and the ability to eliminate scarcity of needed goods and services, the creation of a class-free society was impossible. Material conditions there bred conflict and made the continuation of the class struggle inevitable in such countries. In a socialist revolution, the workers take possession of the means of production, abolish capitalist class-rule and supplant the state with an administration of people formed by "associations of free and equal producers." In the Bolshevik and Chinese revolutions, an elite "vanguard" party seized control of the state and used the state to control the means of production. Instead of establishing a classless society, the party-state bureaucracy became a new ruling class.

Socialist society will be a society of secure human beings, living in peace, in harmony and solidarity. We shall produce everything we need and want in abundance under conditions best suited to our welfare, aiming for the highest quality. We shall constantly strive to improve our methods and equipment in order to reduce the hours of work. We shall provide ourselves with the best of everything: the finest educational facilities, the most modern and scientific health facilities and adequate and varied recreational facilities. We shall constantly seek to improve our socialist society. Purposeful research, expansion of the arts and culture, preservation and replacement of our natural resources, all will receive the most serious attention. It will be a society in which everyone will have the fullest opportunity to develop his or her individuality without sacrificing the blessings of cooperation. Freed from the compulsions of competition and the profit motive that presently hurl capitalist nations into war, socialism will also be a society of peace. This all may sound too good to be true. Yet the world has the productive capacity to provide a high standard of living for all, to provide security and comfort for all, to create safe workplaces and clean industries. The only thing keeping us from reaching these goals is that the workers don't own and control that productive capacity; it is owned and controlled by a few who use it solely to profit themselves.

To win the struggle for socialist freedom requires enormous organisation and educational work. It requires building a political party of socialism to contest the power of the capitalist class on the political field and to educate the majority of workers about the need for socialism. A socialist political party is needed to educate the working class and to recruit workers to the socialist cause and to engage the ruling class on the battlefield of politics in a war of ideas. Find out more about the Socialist Party and join us to help make the promise of socialism a reality.

No condescending saviours

It requires a lot less mental effort to condemn than to think. The emancipation of the workers is an act of the workers themselves. The liberation of the working class is the task of the working class itself; it is a task to be carried out in opposition to “condescending saviors.”  If people wait for a revolutionary vanguard to lead them to the classless society or the free society, they will neither be free nor classless. There is enough evidence in support of the foregoing statement. Workers that they should only expect their total emancipation and any improvements in their lot from themselves, from their own efforts and initiative, and not from the miraculous intervention of a third party, their elected representative, whoever he might be, whatever party he might belong to, and whatever principles he might hold.

Reformism regards socialism as a remote goal and nothing more and, actually, repudiates the socialist revolution. Reformism advocates not class struggle, but class collaboration. Reformism is not a moderate or too slow form of socialism, but its mortal enemy. We, socialists, refuse to join the reformists into the camp of capitalism. Reformism is trickery used to keep the working class under wage slavery. Reformists maintain that we can arrive at a certain “socialism” by winning reforms one after the other. What they don’t say is that whatever the employing class has to give up with one hand, is just taken back with the other. The myriad evils of capitalism will disappear only with the destruction of capitalism and the building of socialism. That capitalism will waste and misuse resources is not seriously in dispute.

The capitalist system is the major obstacle impeding the creation of a more equitable society. In the place of all coercive institutions, the anarchist communists seek to establish a system of collaboration between individuals and associations, and instead of accumulation and hoarding of wealth by a minority, they want the workers to be the possessors of the means of production as well as to see a division of the fruits of labor according to individual need. We are fully aware that in order to achieve this aim, we need to re-shape the structure and the goals of production by redefining them as means to ensure the well-being of all mankind, so that all members of a society could have the opportunity to pursue higher intellectual endeavours, and in that way put an end to the unjust acquisition of wealth by a minority at the expense of the labourers. Socialists claim that the innate demand for equity and freedom can only be satisfied through active participation in the production of goods and in the making of decisions which affect the whole society. Democratically-elected councils of workers in every industry and district will manage the factories and public services. Freed from the fetters of production for profit, the splendidly-equipped factories will pour out their products without interruption: the productive forces will leap forward to provide almost undreamed-of plenty. No longer will wheat be ploughed under and foodstuffs dumped to keep up prices!

Socialists argue that cooperation rather than competition is the driving force behind a flourishing society. Mutual aid and social solidarity, rather than unbridled individualism, is what helped our ancestors survive. The Aleoute people of Alaska enjoyed a long established tradition of equally dividing everything they gathered and hunted. If one member showed greediness when the division of resources took place, the other members handed their portion to the greedy man to embarrass him. For Hottentots of South Africa, it was outrageous and disgraceful to eat without having loudly shouted (three times) to see whether there was a fellow tribesman in need of food. These are only a few out of many examples of cooperation that Kropotkin writes about.

The Socialist Party does not campaign on its ability to solve problems like poverty, unemployment, crime etc but, uniquely, calls on the working class to organise for the democratic overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism where every human being on Earth would have the opportunity to co-operate in the production and distribution of wealth and, again, every human being would have free and equal access to the means to satisfy their needs whether or not they had co-operated in production. Obviously, if enough people declined to partake in the productive processes it would be impossible for everyone to avail themselves of the things they need. That is why socialism can only be built upon the conscious democratic decision of a majority of socialists and why the fullest democratic control would have to prevail in a socialist society.

All those people engaged in the wasteful functions that now exist in the world of capitalism, such as buying and selling, banking, insurance, armed forces, advertising, and marketing, together with the unemployed would be available to help in the task of producing and distributing. Problems such as slums and homelessness could be quickly corrected. Whereas today the purpose of food production is the maximisation of profits without regard to the damage caused to the land and the prospects for future generations, in socialism the primary consideration will be producing enough food for all in a manner consistent with the preservation of the land.  Today, it is a relatively small number of human beings who perform the work of providing essential goods and services; the rest of the working class, as we have noted, are engaged in functions that are meaningless outside the wasteful world of capitalism. It follows that, in socialism, the task of producing all the goods and services required by humanity can be accomplished with comparatively little effort. That which we now call employment—workers working for wages—will have ended with the abolition of capitalism so, effectively, there can be no unemployment. Obviously, in a wage-free, money-free world where people are able to avail themselves of their needs and are not required to work long hours for protracted periods of their lives, there will be much time for leisure. Speculating on how human beings might use that leisure, in a frontier-free world where transport and accommodation, like everything else, is free, might well be a further question worth discussing.

Forward to Socialist Revolution

Only a socialist revolution can prevent the relapse of humanity into barbarism. The socialist revolution consists of the entire process, on a world scale, through which the socialist mode of production is established. Marxism is the theory of the socialist revolution. Socialism is in accord with the sentiment for democracy and liberty and where this sentiment can find fulfilment. The word ‘socialism’ is more than the name merely for a new system of economic relationships. Socialism means the ending of exploitation of man by man, a society without class antagonisms, in which the people themselves control their means of life and use them for their own happiness. The socialist revolution is the abolition of capitalist private property, the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the common ownership of the means of production and their planned use for the benefit of the whole of society, leading to abundance. Socialists do not put forward this goal as a utopia, or as a mere vision of what would ideally satisfy people’s needs and make them all happy, but as a practical goal to be attained by the actual conditions of modern society. This is because only with a socialist economy can the contradictions of modern capitalist society be solved and the great technological forces of production can be fully utilised. Socialism will only be achieved by waging the working-class struggle and to wage this struggle and gain political power, the working class must have its own independent political party. The essential message of Marxism that the ruling class are not omnipotent and unbeatable, that their system of exploitation is not everlasting but can be abolished. It teaches that the working class is fully qualified to become the directors and organisers of economic and political life of the first truly human society.

History has already put the task of socialist world revolution on the agenda for today. Socialism can only advance and be won as a worldwide process. This is especially true given the global character of capitalist production and economic organisation. The consciousness, organisation and resources of the working class of different countries are yet far from properly co-ordinated or oriented towards the gigantic task of socialist revolution. But there is hardly any doubt about the fact that they are sure to join forces and merge with one another reaching beyond their national boundaries, and finally, overwhelm the entire world capitalist system. If the revolution comes from the majority then it does not require a party dictatorship.

The duty of socialists at this juncture is clear beyond any scope for misunderstanding. They must unite themselves and move forward in every country. They must actively participate in all forms of mass struggle against capitalist slavery and towards the goal— revolution and socialism. 

Deterioration By Leaps And Bounds

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (T.C.H.) faces a $98 million hole in the budget. The recent council-approved budget requires all agencies and departments to find 2.6 percent in savings. This will definitely impact on the quality of life of the T.C.H.'s tenants. Much of the revenue for T.C.H. comes from rents, most of which are geared to the tenants' incomes. $200, million is provided in city subsidies annually, which covers just less than a third of the budget.

As tenants' incomes and revenues don't increase by leaps and bounds, it's not easy to operate the T.C.H., since operating expenses have increased by leaps and bounds. The cost for hydro within the T.C.H.'s 2,100 buildings has increased 43% since 2012, water costs are up 39%.

The 2.6% reduction in the subsidies is about $5 million in additional pressure, that, with the $96 million existing gap, will certainly mean homes will be boarded up this year and next. The City Council is short $1.7 billion which was expected from the Provincial and Federal Governments and has yet to materialize.

Lack of funding will necessarily cause lack of repairs. One of the worst hit is the Grassway Community at Jane and Firgrove. According to the Vice President of Management at Grassway, Sheila Penny...."People will soon be living in the air. They'll be living in nature". Crumbling brick exteriors, deterioration caused by water damage, has left 22 units uninhabitable. Backyards have been quarantined because of construction fencing being strewn with danger signs. To put it bluntly, lack of money means homelessness or living in a dump.

This has nothing to do with the Toronto City Council and its appointed administrators being incompetent, corrupt or indifferent. Some might be, that wouldn't be a moot point. Capitalism is a market economy, meaning goods have to be sold for a profit in the market. From profits come taxes, some of which pay for the administration of daily life in our cities. If the market goes down, as they all do, given the boom/ slump nature of capitalism, then obviously the taxes will not be forthcoming, the present situation in Detroit being a perfect (if one can use the word) example.

Politicians may do what little they can, but they cannot come up with an answer, because, within capitalism, there isn't one. 

John Ayers.

Towards Socialism

Our attitude to reforms under capitalism is clear—we accept whatever useful reforms that can be achieved by the working class, but we do not regard the struggle for reforms as an end in itself, and we do not think capitalism can be “reformed” into socialism. Our revolution against current society is not in the name of an abstract principle of justice (which is quite difficult to establish), but for the effective amelioration of humanity’s lot. We have, on the one hand, the labouring class, more or less poor and enslaved, and on the other the privileged minority. The latter must disappear, not physically (it is neither possible nor desirable to kill all the bourgeois. The workers must take possession of the means of labour and life without paying tribute and without serving anyone. This is the expropriation of the bourgeoisie. To be sure, we possess, even today, sufficient means of production to satisfy all reasonable needs, i.e., to provide well-being to all. Socialism isn’t an abstract concept, a scientific dream, or a distant vision, but destined to renew the world and establishing it on the foundations of human fraternity and solidarity.

The rolling back of the welfare state and the increased resistance to any reforms is not something random because of the whims of individual capitalists or because of particular world economic crises, although they do contribute. This phenomenon is due to the nature of the capitalist system itself. In their drive to continually increase profits the employing class attempt to find new markets. However, more importantly, employers continually strive to find new ways to increase profits, by increasing production, whilst at the same time paying less in on-going costs. To illustrate this point one only needs to look at the enormous profits that multinationals have made by out-sourcing their businesses to poorer communities like Bangladesh. Whilst the cost of materials may be lower in these countries, companies move to the developing world because the one production cost they can dramatically alter is an employees’ wage. Capitalists make their enormous profits by paying workers very little and in the developing world this wage decreases dramatically with wages being closer to the subsistence level. It is because the capitalist class continually strive to make a profit, and to increase their profits,  that workers find themselves in constant struggles with their employers for better wages and conditions.

It is clear that the only way to stop this continual battle for a meagre existence for basic working and living conditions is to change the system. We need to change the system yet most people still continue to attempt to work within the capitalist system. These people try to change the system from within, from within the Capitalist parliamentary system rather than focusing their efforts on ending the capitalist system for a new socialist system. If we focus on reforms we condemn the working class to continual struggles for their basic working conditions and we also transform socialist parties into parties of social reformism and legalistic and opportunistic parliamentarianism. What arises is not a dedicated socialist movement but attempts to unite a so-called broad left coalition made up of differing groups with different political objectives which often mean in reality alliances with openly capitalist organisations who have no inclination towards changing the system, and who associate themselves with various sections of the ruling class. Is a broad left coalition going overthrow the capitalist system? The answer is no, some progressive liberals are profoundly conservative with a small c and seek to keep the capitalist system intact.

Attempts to form alliances with these organisations appear to be for more populist reasons than principled, engaging in numbers games hoping to recruit from those of dubious connection to the working classes. It also leads to a form of top-down style leadership where decisions are made by a small group/groups of people, in secret conclaves away from open scrutiny.

Most politicians support reforms as palliatives. Reforms are only made to the extent that they can placate workers by offering them small concessions whilst at the same time retaining the Capitalist system.

The more radical reformists have formulated a policy that attempts to replace capitalism with socialism by stealth, altering the capitalist system from within by using the capitalist apparatus to do so. This theory suggests that we need to end capitalism in small steps or gradual stages thereby putting off the need for socialism to a dimly distant far away future.

This idea of some sort of left-wing unity coalition with reformists does not strengthen the movement but it weakens it. Ultimately it will mean that we will dissolve our movement for socialism into a movement purely in the pursuit of reforms. Reformism is the deception of the workers, who despite some individual improvements will always remain wage-slaves, as long as there is the domination of capital. Reformism actually means abandoning Marxism.

The revolution we conceive of can only be made by and for the people. It demands the assistance of the entire labour masses. Without the majority of working people, it can only be a coup d’etat or a putsch - not a revolution. The workers have no need of chiefs: they are quite capable of charging one of their own with a particular task. Socialism isn’t a religion, we have no religious faith in the working class. But the laws of capitalism are inexorable; they lead the employing class to increasingly exploit their workers. As Marx said it is the workers, the workers are the ‘grave-diggers’ of the capitalist system not some group of so-called left organisations.

Fighting for the world’s disinherited

The most important principle in socialism contained in the concept that the emancipation of the workers is the task of the workers themselves. The Socialist Party’s idea of politics boil down to this fundamental approach– to teach the working class to rely upon itself, upon its own organization and upon its own ideas, to maintain within the workers’ movement the need for democracy and never to submit to a leadership nor subordinate itself to the interests of another class.  There is no without the working class, without the working class revolution, without the working class in power, without the working class having been lifted to “political supremacy” (as Marx called it) to their “victory of democracy” (as Marx also calls it). No socialism without socialists. We regret that many who assume the name “socialist” fail to abide by such principles. That is what we build the fight for the socialist future on. That is what we’re unshakably committed to. But directly ask the so-called “socialists” if they believe that the working class can ever rule society and usher in a classless socialist regime? Ask if they believe that the working class has that capacity to do so? Not one of them, if honest, will agree because they accept that the working class will always be oppressed and exploited by someone or another. These intellectuals and academics cannot accept the idea that the workers can free themselves but require to be led by their superiors.

Socialists cannot imagine living as free men and women while others are unfree. Socialists understand that without resisting the capitalist system, there is no life worth living – for socialists the struggle against exploitation and social inequity is the essence of life. It is indispensable to the self-realisation of humanity and therefore to the attainment of his or her own dignity. Convinced internationalists as we socialists that we declare there is no cause of quarrel between the workers of the world that the working class has no country to fight for and that the only thing that matters is the class war and our eagerness to fight that particular war to a finish, the nationalist divisions appear alien and puerile to us. We say that the interests of the capitalist class and those of the working class are diametrically opposed to each other. To Marx, the workers when they become socialists do not become different from the rest of the working class. Their change in thought is an evidence of gradual transformation in the working-class movement. They remain of the workers, struggling with them for emancipation. The Socialist Party of to-day cannot bring socialism. The co-operative commonwealth will be inaugurated by the mass action of the workers. To assert the contrary is a denial of the cardinal principle of socialism – “That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves.”

Circumstances compel workers to move along the road towards socialism. Economic laws operate whether they are known or not, but if we understand their operation we can bend them to our purpose and assist fellow-workers on the course they travel. As the Socialist Party, we must bring this knowledge to the workers. Whenever the power of the ruling class asserts itself, then the workers must fight. The State is the political expression of the dominant class, and since that dominant class uses the machinery of the State—law, justice, force—to maintain its own privileges and to impose its will upon the labouring mass, the workers contest their claims by political action. The distinction between political and industrial action is false; they are the two poles of the same movement. All socialists are agreed that their object is the social and economic freedom for all, through the social ownership and control of all the material means of production and existence. They must all agree upon this in order to be socialists. Those who do not so believe are not socialists, whatever they may say to the contrary notwithstanding. General agreement on the object, however, by no means presupposes universal agreement on policy of how to implement socialist ideals and there are wide differences. They are matters to discuss, to argue out, to confer about, and, so far as the practical work of the moment goes, to come to an agreement upon. It is for such purposes that our own party holds its annual conferences.

Anti-Parliamentarians have been disappointed with the meagre results of electoral activity and political action. The function of a Socialist Party is not simply to elect members to Parliament to act as “statesmen” to co-operate with bourgeois politicians in carrying small pettifogging measures of reform.  Political action is not to be despised, nor is any other that will help to break down the domination of the master class and hasten the emancipation of the proletariat. It will be time enough to forswear political action when the master class no longer strive to retain their mastery over the political machine. The Socialist Party’s primary function is to organise a political party, independent, class-conscious, proletarian and socialist. The function of industrial organisation lies with the trade unions. These two functions are not absolutely distinct and separate, they are co-ordinated, and to some extent interdependent. Yet they are not identical. The trade unions can help us, we can help them. The object of a Socialist Party is the realisation of socialism. The object of a trade union is to make the best of existing conditions and to gain the best terms for its members.

Socialists point out the economic basis upon which democracy must stand in order to achieve liberty. It proclaims all liberty to rest back upon economic liberty, and all individuality to be rooted in economic unity. It affirms that there can be no liberty save through association; no true commonwealth save a cooperative commonwealth. It makes clear that democracy in the state is but a fiction unless it is realised through democracy in production and distribution. Socialists offer history as the proof that there can be no individual liberty or social harmony in a competitive struggle which makes every person battle for economic sustenance. The Socialist Party present ourself as an uncompromising and yet harmonious organisation that shall command their enthusiasm and their support. We must give what is asked of us, or perish as a present-day movement. If we stand for the unity of human interests, we must prove our sincerity by uniting. If we stand for brotherhood, we must act like brothers, and not like the so-called Christians who call one another brother and then proceed to devour one another. If we stand for the cooperative commonwealth, then let us begin to cooperate among ourselves. Let us give trust, and we shall receive trust. Let us show confidence in one another, and we shall receive confidence. Divided by strife and suspicion, we fail the world’s disinherited. United by patience, by goodwill and brave comradeship, we shall conquer the world and make it a fit place for free men and women  to live in.

Yet we will let no person take from us one jot or iota of the principles upon which socialism bases itself. Socialism needs no religion imposed upon it from without, and the less it has of such the safer it will be its course. But it does need to be shot through with that spirit of passion without which no great movement ever prevails. Only a factional and divided socialist movement can defeat socialism. There is no power in capitalism that can prevent the consummation of a united and harmonious socialist movement in the cooperative commonwealth.

Unsolvable Within Capitalism

Falling gas prices are prompting Americans to rekindle their love for bigger cars, pickup trucks and SUVs. This is bad news for the makers of hybrids and electric cars. Seventy-five percent who traded in a hybrid or electric car, so far this year, have replaced them with all gas cars, (according to a survey released by the New York Times, August 19/2016.) This is an 18% increase on the figures from 2015 figures and the year's not over. President Obama's aim was that one million electric cars would be sold in 2015, but, in the last nearly two years, it is 442,000. Furthermore, 16.2% of U.S. greenhouse emissions come from SUVs and pickups.

Primarily, it's the working class who are buying the cars that pollute, which proves the problem of too much greenhouse emissions can't be solved within capitalism.

Better wake up folks, before it's too late! John Ayers.

The insane system called capitalism

"One man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a madman; two men with the same idea in common maybe foolish, but can hardly be mad; ten men sharing an idea begin to act, a hundred draw attention as fanatics, a thousand and society begins to tremble, a hundred thousand and there is war abroad, and why only a hundred thousand? Why not a hundred million and peace upon the earth? You and I who agree together, it is we who have to answer that question." - William Morris

We workers are not a nation. The nation state is the collective arm of the capitalist class and the referendum had damn all to do with workers but represents a division in the interests of rival capitalist groups. Workers have more in common with fellow workers worldwide than with their local or global capitalist class. Workers have no country to live or die for, but we do have the world to win. The emancipation of the last great social class, the wealth producing working class will end waged slavery and class divided society. Social evolution suggests that no mode of production is cast in stone and the dynamics of change also affects capitalism as a social system. Studies of social systems with distinct social relationships related and corresponding to their specific mode of production have identified, for instance, primitive communism, chattel slavery, feudalism, and capitalism. All of these societies changed from one into another due to the contradictions inherent in that society and also due to technological advancement which each society found itself incapable of adapting to. Capitalism reached this point over a century ago. It’s time to move on to socialism.

Opponents of the arms trade argue that it promotes war. But they have got it the wrong way round. It is economic competition in which ‘might is right’ that promotes the arms trade. As long as capitalism lasts with this built-in competitive struggle between states over economic matters there will be a demand for arms and so an arms trade. No state which has, as Cameron put it, a ‘comparative advantage’ in arms production is going to renounce this profit-making advantage on ‘ethical’ grounds. This means that, given capitalism, the opponents, despite their sincerity and however justified their objection to arms and arms trading which socialists share, will, unfortunately, be tilting at windmills. The only way to stop it is to join us in campaigning to end capitalism. Removing the international arms trade is a nice ideal but an impossibility within a capitalist social system. It is similar to wishing for lions to become vegetarian. Aggressive competition is the norm.

You should not single out just one capitalist political manifestation for your ire. The Labour Party has just as enthusiastically endorsed capitalist war, with some exceptions in its ranks but Conservatives sometimes do so for different reasons. Opponents of the arms trade argue that it promotes war. But they have got it the wrong way round. It is economic competition in which ‘might is right’ that promotes the arms trade. As long as capitalism lasts with this built-in competitive struggle between states over economic matters there will be a demand for arms and so an arms trade.

 You are not a 'machine head' but a thoughtful, sincere individual. What an indictment on capitalist education when you can only bring the faulty and religious 'human nature' argument to bear upon the much greater prevalence and the evidential fact of socially conditioned human behaviour which is more likely to be cooperative in essence. If this were not so we would have extinguished the human species long ago.

History is a series of class struggles for supremacy. The examples of history which you can cite are all examples of ruling classes fighting within themselves with coercive measures to make workers comply as cannon fodder, so resistant to violence are we in the main and far from typical human behaviour. Still, war-free complex societies are known to go back a long way. Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in Turkey dating from around 7,500 BC, famously lacks any sign of warfare, or of social or gender stratification.

The State, which is an organisation composed of soldiers, policemen, judges, and gaolers charged with enforcing the law, is only needed in class society, for in such societies there is no community of interest, only class conflict. The purpose of government is to maintain law and order in the interests of the dominant class. It is, in fact, an instrument of class oppression. It is irrelevant whether the government is professedly capitalist or allegedly labour.

One of the main criticisms that world socialists have of attempts to reform the insane system called capitalism, is that gains obtained one year may disappear when the economy dips, and you find yourself back at square one again. That looks to be what is happening as we enter a period of recession. A slump is the market's way of correcting a serious failing – that is, the diminishing levels of profit returning to the owning class. That recalibration must occur inside capitalism, regardless of the damage to be incurred by those dependent on the state, such as children, the unemployed and the poor.

So long as the workers are prepared to resign themselves to the evils of capitalism, and so long as they are prepared to place in control of Parliament parties that will use their power for the purpose of maintaining capitalism, there is no escape from the effects of capitalism. The workers will continue to suffer from the normal hardships of the capitalist system when trade is relatively good, and from the aggravated hardships which are the workers’ lot during economic recessions.

The workers just need to get off their knees and tell the politicians including St. Theresa of Maidenhead and Blessed Jeremy, to lead their business friendly capitalist supporting parties out of the way.

Wee Matt