Pollution or Profit - Cause And Effect

On September 27 The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new report that 92 per cent of people worldwide live in areas with excessive air pollution, contributing to problems like strokes, heart disease and lung cancer. A similar report in May said one in nine deaths worldwide is linked to indoor and outdoor pollution. The latter is estimated to kill 3 million people per year. There is no evidence that face masks help.

 It's also evident to anyone that as long as they can make a profit capitalists don't care about anyone or anything else which is a good reason to strip them of their property ownership of the means of life. 

John Ayers.

Peace, Plenty and Prosperity

We want socialism. We want the land and the means of production and distribution held in common. We want a society free of the State—a society without rulers and ruled. We want political institutions created out of free association and not coercion. We want autonomy and self-government for all peoples and for all people. We want local, regional and global solidarity and mutual aid. We want the means of development provided to all. We want a society free of classes.

We are opposed to capitalism. The economic system based on private property and production for a profit literally creates poverty by depriving the poor of the means of subsistence. The poor are then exploited by the rich as a source of cheap labour. As long as there is capitalism, there will be poverty, misery, and exploitation.

We are opposed to war. Wars are fought to expand empires and to protect the interests of the rich in one country. Those who suffer and die are the poor in all countries involved. Nevertheless, we are not pacifists.

We are opposed to borders. Borders are artificial barriers that divide us and facilitate our exploitation. They allow the rich and their investments to pass easily while impeding the free movement of people. Borders allow humans to be labeled “illegal” and exploited as cheap labour.

The problems that make living so difficult today—problems of poverty, crime, unemployment, air and water pollution, and much more—have been with us for a very long time. These problems exist in varying degrees in every country in the world. Every politician who has stood for election has promised to do something to alleviate or eliminate these evils. Despite the promises, these problems have not only remained but often have gotten worse.  Recall these promises and ask yourself, has the general quality of your life improved or deteriorated? The truth is that these social ill evils are still present. In fact, conditions have gone right on getting worse and worse. Despite the best of intentions, no politician can prevent conditions for workers from worsening. Politicians persist in dealing with effects and ignoring the cause.

So great is our capacity to produce an abundance that we can easily ensure that our youth will be educated, the aged provided for, and the sick given the finest care possible. All this will be done without depriving anyone of a fair and more than adequate share. It will not be charity but the rightful share of every human being in the affluent socialist society. In the socialist abundance and cooperation, we shall achieve the highest standards of mental health and physical well-being. We shall enjoy great material well-being individually and collectively, but it will not be at anyone else’s expense. We shall be secure, healthy, happy human beings living in peace, harmony, and freedom, in marked contrast to the capitalist jungle of strife, misery, and insecurity in which we live today. In a socialist society, there can be no poverty or involuntary unemployment. The more producers, the better for all. Technological improvements will be a further blessing. The greater the number of workers, the better the tools, the more modern the methods, the greater and more varied will be the wealth we can produce, and the shorter the hours each of us will have to work. We shall all be useful producers, each contributing his or her fair share to the total product. In return, each of us will receive directly and indirectly all that we produce. 

 Socialism is a society of peace, plenty, and universal freedom.

Duped and Doped

Socialism is shared abundance. We've got the abundance - we just have to transform the way we distribute it.

Capital is simply money and commodities assigned to create a profit and be reinvested. Profit is made by the "magical" addition of surplus value to the value inherent in the product. The "added value," the profit, is produced by workers. And this capital is born to expand or die. The value of a commodity comes from the labor invested in it, including the labor that manufactured the machinery and extracted the raw materials used to create the item. And the boss' profits do not come from his genius or his capital investment or his mark-up, but from the value created by labor - specifically, surplus-value. Surplus value derives from unpaid wages. The worker is never paid for the value of the product, only for the value of her or his labor time, which is considerably less, and which meanders widely depending upon the historical, cultural and social conditions of a country. Labor-power is miraculous. You get more out of it than you put in. Workers produce a commodity which has more value than what they get in wages to keep them functioning. This differential is surplus value, which is the source of capital. The secret of value, the labor theory of value, was unearthed by the classical economists and by Marx is what the money barons fear and hate. It is the secret that will set the world free. People will learn how to control the supposedly sacred, eternal, and inscrutable method of production and distribution that now controls us. Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all. That's a fact. The global human family will arrange its standard of living as easily as affluent families do today.

It was Marx who pointed out the truly anarchistic nature of modern industrial capitalism - an irrational, disorganized hodge-podge operation that enormously rewards price-gougers, crooks, banksters, con artists, gamblers, speculators, stock manipulators, and all manner of corruption. It's a crazy and ruthless economy that survives by inflicting anguish on untold billions. Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all, the global human family.

Proponents of socialism are bombarded with the objection that cooperative and mutually supportive relations among people are a fantasy and that homo sapiens are intrinsically individualistic, competitive, and egotistical. They tell us it's just the way we're genetically programmed. Survival of the fittest and all that. This knee-jerk response from apparently thoughtful folk is nonsense. The overwhelming historical evidence about our true nature amounts to an incredible chronicle of humankind's endless struggle to make life better - for everyone. Early humans lived in clans in which everybody contributed to the group welfare. The norm was the collective ethic. Things changed because different kinds of economic and social organisation create different kinds of people. Today, in a system designed to produce profits for the few at the expense of the many, we compete with each other for money, jobs, education, love, food, a place to live, recognition, self-esteem, everything. The poor rarely understand that they lack the basics because of the way capitalism works. They think they suffer because other cultures, races, religions and countries deprive them of what is rightfully theirs. So they resort to nationalism, patriotism, racism and xenophobia – all substitutes for revolutionary action on a global scale to remove the root cause of all the terrible division and in-fighting. The "we" is replaced by the "me".  For sure everybody loves to win on merit talent. But few like to beat others by cheating and unfair advantage. Nobody wants to degrade and impoverish millions in order to be a success.

All the evils - war, pestilence, poverty, religious bigotry, class and caste divisions are produced by a social machine that runs on exploitation. Capitalism poisons human ‘nature’.  Given the proper social system and access to the technology, we can write our own destinies. A shared and planned socialist world provides the material pre-conditions that impel us to do this.

Why have people not united and rebelled to make change?  Many don’t think it’s possible. Many have no clear image of a goal, of a different kind of social structure. Many are divided by fierce hatreds. Ruling classes have always promoted disunity in order to divide and conquer (through racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and caste distinctions). Many are demoralised, despairing or just plain exhausted from the sheer effort of trying to survive. It takes energy and time for thinking and planning to achieve change. Many are bought off with few crumbs flung to the hungry to keep them pacified with, as John Lennon sang, “Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V., And you think you're so clever and classless and free”. Fellow-workers desperately need to be liberated from their self-imposed chains.

It remarkable that we have actually found the ways and means to overcome all these hurdles and achieved solidarity to engage in struggles against the established order.  

Let Technology Liberate Us

 Socialists can bring many important insights to the questions and concerns raised by the environment issue of climate change and global warming. Only in a socialist society democratically controlled by workers will it be possible to rationally assess how energy can be safely produced and harnessed. The primary problem with any technology under capitalism—even nuclear technology, which admittedly poses special problems—is not that it is inherently safe or unsafe, but rather that it is controlled by a ruling-class minority which manipulates technology to serve its narrow economic interests. The task of socialists is to consistently emphasise the need to free all technology from the fetters of capitalist productive relations. Socialists seek to transform society into one based on new social relationships that will allow the majority to become the master of technology, rather than vice versa. Socialist revolution will clearly sound the death knell of the profit-motive and militarism. To socialism falls the task of turning technology from the horror it currently is, into the benefactor of an emancipated working class. In a socialist society, workers could enjoy a material abundance without in any way compromising their health and safety or the well-being of the planet.

In industrialising the world to accumulate profit, the capitalist system carries in its wake environmental degradation and destruction. Scientists explain that the world will need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions but change will require restructuring the world’s energy and transportation systems. Such changes require massive investment and represent a threat to existing capitalist industries, their growth and profits. Capitalism requires profit and economic growth to survive. Capitalists want their profits now. The future has little meaning in a profit-driven society. Environmental reforms are not the answer. Capitalism has eroded even those feeble efforts of the past. The capitalist class and its government will never be able to solve the environmental crisis. They and their system are the problems. Capitalist-class rule over the economy explains why government regulation is so ineffective: under capitalism, the government itself is essentially a tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected “democratically,” but because they are financed, supported and decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist class.

Reformists expect the outmoded, profit-motivated, competitive and class-divided capitalist system that has created the mess it has got us into, to get us out of it. If there are to be any changes they expect them to be made within the framework of the existing capitalist system. Of course, none of these intended cures ever contain a word about the great disparity between the tremendous quantities of wealth enjoyed by the idle exploiters, the tiny capitalist class that owns the means of life, and the hand-to-mouth existence of tens of millions of workers. Not a word will ever be said about the waste and destruction of raw materials and natural resources by the anarchy of capitalist production—its planless, senseless duplication of effort in a mad, competitive drive by each capitalist to “capture” the market—or the bulk of it—for himself. Never a word mentioned about the manner in which every corporation is trying to exploit the existing circumstances to destroy its competition and entrench itself more solidly as one of the few that control the overwhelming proportion of the nation’s resources and wealth. Silence is maintained about the incredible waste and destruction, not only of finite resources but of human life itself, through capitalist wars and continuous preparations for ever more destructive wars.

The issue confronting the workers is not the environmental crisis that threatens to grow worse. The real issue is, shall we continue to tinker with those effects or shall we get rid of their cause—the capitalist system and replace it with socialism—a system of social ownership, democratic management and planned production for use. The issue, literally, is survival. The harm and damage already done to all of us and to our environment by capitalism’s existence long past its progressive evolutionary stage are beyond exact calculation. If it is not abolished and replaced with a viable socialist cooperative commonwealth by the politically and industrially organised working class, it will destroy itself. And there is the distinct possibility that it may destroy humanity and the world in the process. It need not happen if all who understand the need for a socialist reconstruction of society were to join with us to appeal to our brothers and sisters, to organise their latent political and industrial might as a class to accomplish the revolutionary change to socialism and thus guarantee the future safety and well-being of the human race. As the many social problems of capitalism increasingly threaten the lives of workers, it becomes more and more imperative that they recognise the need to organise politically and economically to take control of the economy, abolish class-divided capitalism and administer production through their own democratic bodies.

The Socialist Party urges our fellow workers to organise to abolish capitalism and institute socialist production for use. Workers must use their political power and integrate into one movement with the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production—human needs and wants instead of profit—and to organise their own political party to challenge the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether.

The new society must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would commonly own the industries and transportation, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organisations based in the workplaces. In such a society, the workers themselves would make decisions governing the economy, electing representatives to industrial councils and to a workers’ congress representing all the industries that would administer the economy. Such a society—an industrial democracy and cooperative commonwealth —is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power in the hands of the workers, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to halting global warming, employing the renewable resources we now have available and develop new ones, and clean up the damage already done. It is up to the majority of people who actually produce society’s goods and services and daily operate its industries, to end this crisis.

People Can Build a Better World

The Socialist Party struggles for the overthrow of capitalism and for a socialist society in which the state has been replaced by the self-organisation and self-administration of the people and their communities and work-places where the wages system has been abolished, where class divisions have been overcome, and where production is carried on cooperatively and democratically for social use, in the tradition of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. This can only be instituted through the revolutionary political and economic activity of the working class. Few can deny that the world today is in upheaval and chaos throughout the world. The Socialist Party has repeatedly demonstrated that the capitalist system does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority. It is a social system in which society is divided into two classes—a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority—the wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution. The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of life in order to survive. The relationship between the two classes forms the basis for an economic tyranny under which the workers as a class are robbed of the major portion of the social wealth that they produce.

The defenders of this economic dictatorship never tire of declaring it the “best of all possible systems.” Yet, today, after decades of a host of reform efforts, capitalism continues to present an obscene social picture. Millions who need and want jobs are unemployed. Others are under-employed, working only part-time or temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work. Billions aren’t earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and their families despite the fact that they are working. Thanks to capitalism’s exploitation of workers poverty continue to grow. The malignant cancers of nationalism and racism are pervasive. The educational the health care system, despite improvement campaigns for years, still fails to meet the needs of hundreds of millions. Widespread damage and destruction of our environment are worsening. Capitalism is increasingly incompatible with freedom and democracy. People are losing their democratic rights and civil liberties at an alarming and accelerating pace. Fundamental freedoms are being eroded and taken away. Even the foregoing fails to give a full depiction of the plague of social and economic problems modern-day capitalism is inflicting on society. To save capitalism, its ruling class must destroy freedom and democracy. To save freedom and democracy, the capitalist system, the system of economic despotism, must be destroyed. Social democracy alone can fully guarantee lasting freedom. Against this irrational system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in protest and condemnation. We declare our present society is outmoded and must be replaced by a new social system. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. It must be socialism.

Getting something for nothing is what capitalism is all about. That is what capitalists do best. Indeed, that is all they do. Capitalists do not earn, or create, or build anything. They live by profiting from the work done by others. They live off the labor of the working class. The names these two classes bear tell the story. Workers work and capitalists capitalise on the work that workers do. Capitalism exists and can only exist as a system of exploitation. Capitalists are the exploiters and workers are the exploited. When wages are down, profits are up. Increased profits come from the intensified exploitation of labour. Capitalism condemns millions to lives of poverty and despair just to enhance the worthless lives of a few. It is not the welfare claimants or the scroungers on the dole who bleed you. It is the capitalist vampire that is sucking the blood out of you.

Working people are the victims of an array of absurd contradictions. Basic needs like housing remain unmet while builders and construction workers remain idle. Commodities that could satisfy these needs sit in warehouses or storage lots, inaccessible to the working people who need but can’t buy them. Billions of dollars are being spent on weapons and arms while schools, mass transport systems, and other social services are being curtailed or eliminated for “lack of funds.” People are being told that we demand too much …too much improvement in air quality, too much job safety, too much retirement protection, too much health care, too much racial equality, too much housing, too much pay. Governments discarding their past empty promises that capitalism would provide “more,” and, instead, offer us less. Gone are the days of expansive government spending in the areas of social services and job creation. Austerity and cut-backs are, instead, the order of the day. Less pay for workers, fewer job benefits, less spending for job safety, less investment for pollution control, less spending for education, mass transit, and social services means a lot more in profits for the capitalist owners of industry. Even when a capitalist economy is relatively healthy and working “well”, the needs of workers are never met. This is so because the capitalist economy does not operate to meet workers’ needs. It operates for capitalist profit. That profit is generated through the exploitation of working people—that is, by paying workers’ wages that amount to only a fraction of the wealth they collectively produce.

In socialism, the workers’ condition would be the reverse of what it is today. Production would be for social use instead of for private profit. Through delegates democratically elected they would administer the neighbourhoods and industries and make all economic decisions. Resources would be allocated and production would be carried out on the basis of social needs and wants. A socialist economy would thereby free society of the limitations now imposed by capitalism. Such a society will not, of course, come into existence by itself. Nor will it come about if workers seek by turning to the Democrats, who also represent capitalist-class interests. If the working-class majority is to become masters of the nation’s economic forces, rather than its victims, workers must organise to wrest control from the capitalist class and to lay the foundation for a socialist society. Specifically, working people must break with the political parties of the capitalist class and organise politically around their common class interests.

Capitalism Must Be Abolished

The Socialist Party lays great stress on the need for the working class to understand what socialism is and the role the people must play in establishing it. In fact, promoting an understanding among workers of both what capitalism is and what socialism is and convincing them of the need for their explicit rejection of the former in favour of the latter is the main content of the Socialist Party’s political activity. Despite the poverty and misery afflicting billions of workers and their families, a world of peace, liberty, security, health and abundance remains within our grasp. The potential to create such a socialist society exists. However, that potential can be achieved only if workers act to gain control of their own lives by organising for socialism. The Socialist Party’s task is to convince workers of those facts. To do so effectively, it requires the conscious and active involvement of its members in widespread agitational and educational activities among workers. A political party that presumes to speak and work for a revolutionary socialist reconstruction of our society must have members who are convinced of the correctness and timeliness of that objective; who are dedicated to that cause; and who are willing to work for it. Accordingly, among the fundamental requirements for membership in the Socialist Party are the recognition and acknowledgement of the existence of the class struggle, a perceptive understanding of its social, political and economic implications, and a meaningful commitment to support the workers in that struggle. Aside from that, the Socialist Party’s membership requirements and admission policies, while specific in several respects, are minimal.

The Socialist Party’s goal is a class-free society based on common ownership and control of the industries and services, to be administered in the interests of all society. This revolutionary change from capitalism to socialism can only be achieved through the class-conscious action of the working class itself. The Socialist Party is the political party of the working class because it is the sole protagonist of the principles that 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. The Socialist Party purpose is to serve and advance the interests of the working class. The Party has no meaning, no reason for existence outside that fact. As such a party, the Socialist Party embodies a Declaration of Principles that it is convinced fellow-workers must adopt if they are to emancipate themselves from wage slavery and the related economic and social horrors to which the present social system—capitalism— subjects them and their families. the Socialist Party is a working-class revolutionary party, a class-struggle party, an organisation of individuals who have come to a common understanding and conclusion regarding the cause and cure of our present society’s persistent social problems and have freely joined together for the common purpose of convincing our class—the working class—of the need to organise their latent political and economic powers to accomplish a socialist reconstruction of society. To pursue that objective in an effective manner, they have adopted a set of organisational policies and principles and agreed to be bound by a collective discipline. We not only want socialism for our class and for humanity, we also seek it for our families and for ourselves.

Deprived of ownership of land and the tools of production with which to work the lives, liberty and the fate of the workers are in the hands of the class that own those essentials for work and production. Ownership of the means of life is today held by a tiny minority in society, the capitalist class, a system of economic despotism that is essentially destructive of the happiness of the majority. Against such a system the Socialist Party raises the banner of revolution and demands the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class. While supporting the working class in its day-to-day battles with the capitalist class, at every appropriate opportunity we also insist upon the urgent need for workers to organise for a revolutionary change to socialism.

It should also be clear that the Socialist Party rejects the concept that socialism can be established by “socialist” politicians taking control of and operating any or all of the political state apparatus, or by gradually reforming capitalism. It should be equally clear that the Socialist Party just as firmly rejects the Leninist/Trotskyist concept that socialism can be established by a “vanguard party” of elite revolutionaries substituting itself and its own political state apparatus for the capitalist class and the capitalist state apparatus. It should be clear that the Socialist Party’s concept of socialism had nothing in common with the so-called “socialism” that was once proclaimed to exist in various parts of the world. The fact is that no nation in the world today is a socialist nation. That is to say, there is no nation in the world where society itself owns the economy and where the workers control and administer it in the collective interest. That to accomplish the socialist goal the worker majority must form its own political party to advocate the change from capitalism to socialism; to articulate the need for workers to organise into a class-wide economic organisation; to challenge the political power of the ruling class; and, finally, to capture the existing state machinery in order to dismantle it.  Neither nationalisation, The Welfare State, kibbutz-style communal living, cooperatives, party-run bureaucracies nor reforms are socialism or even stepping stones on the path towards socialism. Our understanding that socialism means the elimination of the wages system, the elimination of economic or social classes, the elimination of the state, the complete abolition of capitalist economic relations, and the transfer of all social power—political and economic—to the workers.

Socialism - Leisure and Pleasure in Ample Measure

According to the basic principles of socialism, a "workers' state" is a contradiction. The socialist’s sole mission is the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement by a free, classless society without any form of a state. The natural resources and the means of production now in the hands of the few and which are the source of their economic and political power must be taken from them to become social property owned in common by all. The grip of the employing class by means of their ownership and control of the means of life, their domination of government to maintain their power to rob and rule can, must, and will be broken. Since there is no difficulty whatsoever in creating wealth far in excess of our requirements, with the application of labour-saving technology the motto, “From each according to ability, to each according to needs,” has ceased to be utopian and has become a reality. The problems of society no longer need be affected in any way by money values. Work, after all possible amelioration, that remains dangerous or difficult will be shared by all of the community who are fit, instead of being relegated to a class. Leisure where there is no more toil means, not idleness, but an agreeable exercise of mind and body. The standard of life for each and all will be far higher than anything ever yet attained or suggested. The best possible conditions will be so obviously to the general benefit that the elevation of the level of society will be the aim of each individual as of the whole community. Nearly all crime are property crimes. Remove the incentive and the crimes will vanish.

The aspiration for socialism grows within the working-class movement. Our every step will be in the direction of the co-operative commonwealth. If people go hungry it is a not a result of the shortage of food, but of its distribution. The problem for humanity human numbers, is how existing society determines the allocation of the planet’s wealth. This world of ours can easily sustain twice its present population if our technology is deployed to meet real human needs, rather than its subordination to the blind accumulation of capital. Social reorganisation is the work we are called upon to begin and carry out.

Some people believe that the struggle over ideas is a waste of time, that this is a harmful intellectual exercise. They argue that what really counts is building the mass movement and not debates carried on with “abstract” Marxists that will only isolate us from the masses as dogmatists or sectarians. The failure of capitalism to meet the needs of all society creates questioning, dissent, and socialists. Socialism, therefore, is not dependent on the small number politically active in the Socialist Party. There is no inevitability about the establishment of socialism but capitalism can never be made to work in the interest of the working class. Without socialists, there can be no socialist political organisation and no socialism. There are no intellectuals in the Socialist Party, only better informed men and women who share the same class interests. The case for Socialism against capitalism is a reasonable case directed at the working class majority of the world who do not own the means of production. Time and time again socialists come against a wall of political ignorance in the form of ruling class ideas like religion and nationalism.

Nationalism gives the false idea that workers have an interest in the country they live in. They believe it is “their” country, and are periodically willing to kill and be killed in its wars.

Nationalism is a false set of ideas and beliefs. And for a number of reasons. The working class does not own trade routes, they do not own means of production, they do not have spheres of influence to control and they do not have any raw resources to protect. As Marx pointed out the working class has no country. The working class is made up of men and women throughout the world who do not own the means of production. Workers are forced into employment to sell their ability to work for a wage or salary. Workers in India, Pakistan, and China, for example, have identical class interests to workers in France, the US and Britain. Workers share the same class problems of class exploitation no matter where they live in the world. A world working class faces a world capitalist class over the ownership and control of the means of production. Under capitalism, workers have to compete for jobs, housing, and other necessary goods. It is easy to blame other workers for particular social problems like loss of jobs and poor housing but it is wrong and only benefits the capitalist class. Immigrants, economic migrants, workers in foreign countries belong to the same exploited class and all are potential socialists. In fact, workers faced a shortage of housing and hospitals before large-scale immigration; these social problems have their root in capitalism and exist all over the world, whether a country loses workers as emigrants or accepts them as workers.

Religion is an intellectual poison. It is degrading and infantile to worship an abstraction created by men and women to further class control. Religion gives the false impression that there is a better world after death. In reality, workers should be looking to changing society to create a better world on Earth. Materialism means that Gods, Angels, all spiritual manifestation and anything “beyond nature” are myths. You cannot be a Socialist and hold religious ideas. To hold religious ideas is mental slavery. Socialists reject leaderships of all kinds whether leaders are politicians or priests. Socialism can only be established by a politically conscious working class. Spiritual leadership is just as debilitating as political leadership. A socialist is not a person on their knees to God, Allah, Buddha or Krishna. A Socialist thinks and acts in their own interest. When workers understand and desire Socialism they will act in their own interests and will not need leaders to tell them how to think and what to do. This includes religious leaders. Religion supports capitalism, as it has supported other property societies. Religion can either offer reaction or reform, but not socialist revolution. Religion is conservative because it encourages workers, who are oppressed and exploited, to suffer social problems while placing their faith in heaven. This is a confusing doctrine because it diverts workers’ attention away from gaining the necessary understanding and knowledge to establish socialism.

Scotland and Robotics

Automation may threaten 88,000 (one in every six jobs) Scottish public sector jobs within 14 years, says report.

Business advisory firm Deloitte said administrative and operative roles were at greatest risk.

Much has been made in the past that robots would create more leisure time for society in general but outside of the automotive industry, little of this has come to fruition. Unfortunately, in this economic system, the benefits of automation accrue to the profits of the employing class at the expense of the laid-off workers rather than it being an asset to society as a labour-saving device that would lessen the work-load of all.

For humanity's sake, the future is socialism

Socialism is the only alternative system of society that can meet the essential needs of the people and humanity as a whole, provide the basis for ending all forms of exploitation and oppression. Billions lack adequate nutrition, sanitation, healthcare and education. The world faces a catastrophic environmental crisis. Wars continue to devastate the lives of millions. The Socialist Party hold capitalism responsible, for taking the planet and its peoples towards the edge of the abyss. Capitalism denotes the type of society in which the few who own industry and commerce shape the economic, social, cultural and political developments and uses its power to extract surplus value from the working class. The capitalists, who own the means of production (industrial and commercial plant and machinery, land, energy and raw materials, etc.), pay workers a wage in return for their labour power. But human beings have the capacity to produce more value through their labour than the value of the wage they need to buy life’s essential commodities. This ‘surplus’ value accrues to the employer when the products of that labour are sold as commodities at normal market prices. It is the source of capitalist profit, which funds share dividends, loan interest, commercial rent, expanded investment, etc. The extraction of surplus value is the essence of capitalist exploitation. In their drive to maximise market share and profit, capitalist employers fight to raise productivity and hold down wages. The same drive also takes place in the public sector in order to minimise taxation of private sector profits and wages. Here is the primary economic basis for the class struggle: between the monopoly capitalists and their state striving to maximise profit on the one side, and the whole working class striving to maximise wages and improve living standards on the other.

Capitalists invest where they can get the biggest profits. In its quest for maximum profit, capitalism threatens humanity. Our planet must be rescued before it deteriorates beyond repair. The productive technology which exists could, if planned and rationally utilised, lift everyone out of hunger, poverty, sickness and ignorance. It could meet human needs and ensure sufficient food, nutrition, healthcare and education for all rather than maximising capitalist profit. For as long as capitalist ownership of the economy exists, whether or not it is the ‘free market’ or state-operated, it will produce crises, destruction, inequality and waste on an enormous scale. Capitalism’s drive to maximise profit leads it to turn every area of human need – food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, leisure, even sex – into a market for the production and sale of commodities for profit. However, when sufficient profit cannot be realised, even the products and services to meet society’s most vital needs will not be produced. Capitalist competition invariably means unnecessary whole economic sectors are created that perform little or no useful function in society, except to promote the interests of and, ultimately, to transfer income to it from the working class - advertising, property and management consultancy. Pointless and wasteful competition and duplication would be eliminated with socialism. The development and deployment of society’s productive forces would be planned in order to meet people’s real needs and aspirations. Jobs, houses and vital useful goods and services would be created as the primary purpose of planning and production, not as the incidental consequence of maximising profits for shareholders. Social ownership of economic property puts an end to the exploitation of the working class, whereby surplus labour is performed for the benefit of the capitalist class.

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace capitalism with socialism. The liberation of the working class can only be achieved by the action of the working class and the people themselves. The emancipation of the people cannot be bestowed from outside or above - it has to be fought for and won by the overwhelming majority of the population. Socialism will have to be built with the maximum participation of people at every level. Workers must have real powers in workplace decision making. It will be essential that new forms of popular participation and direct democracy arise in the workplace, localities, and regions.

With the end of private ownership and the exchange economy, wages and money lose their usefulness, as more of life’s essentials become free. Of course, the production, distribution and deployment of society’s economic output will have to be planned to ensure that needs are met and the environment and eco-system are safeguarded. Without exploitative capitalists and landowners, the division of society into antagonistic social classes will cease to have any material basis. In place of class conflict and social discrimination, social cooperation and equality will predominate. As the amount of human labour required to produce society’s needs decreases, every citizen will have the time and facilities to develop her or his skills and talents to the full. The basis for many social problems and tensions will be removed, while resources of every kind are devoted to solving or alleviating individual problems and incapacities. The Socialist Party does not accept that such a society is impossible to achieve or that there is a ‘human nature’ too negative to allow the development of socialism. People’s thoughts and behaviour have been shaped by their existence in class-divided societies. Even so, human beings have always displayed an enormous capacity for compassion, cooperation, courage, and commitment to the creation of fairer and more just human societies. There is no reason why people should not comprehend that we share this Earth in common, that we are interdependent, that the individual good of the vast majority requires the collective good and that cooperation and unity are better than conflict and division. It is capitalism that seeks to make a virtue of greed, egoism, exploitation and inequality while claiming that these are the ruling characteristics of ‘human nature’. It is capitalism that creates so much misery, destroys so many lives and now threatens the very future of human existence on this planet. In a socialist society, the social relations between people will be collective care and concern for every individual and for the full, all-round development of the human personality. For the sake of humanity, the future is socialism.

Brexiteers

Capitalist democracy is government in the interests of a parasitic minority class OVER you.

The recent referendum was a battle between members of the parasite capitalist class. The sad thing is that so many workers were led to back this maverick section of the capitalist class in the belief that they were protesting against the ‘elite’, while in fact they were being duped into pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for a part of it.

The notion that it is YOUR country is YOUR nightmare which helps produce cannon fodder for the capitalist parasite class, whenever it suits them to go to war over trade routes, raw materials, spheres of geo-political interest. You are only of consequence to the real owners of this country, while they can extract surplus value from your employment or use you to further their interests in a bloody conflict with your fellow workers of other lands and none. They will promise you ,"Homes built for heroes" or welfare, "From the cradle to the grave" in order for your continual slavish attention to their bidding, but withdraw any reforms when they feel the purpose of this, to buy off potential social discontent, has been served

After the EU referendum, the Electoral Commission released figures on the funds received by the two sides. They showed that the Leave side spent about £17.6 million and the Remain only £14.3 million. These were not contributions from grass-roots supporters but, on both sides, from individual capitalists. Since staying in the EU, and especially the single market, was in the overall interest of the majority section of the British capitalist class, how come that capitalists gave more to Leave than Remain? In fact, who were the capitalists who funded the Leave campaign, and why?

Among the dozen largest Leave donors were: Peter Hargreaves (£3.2m), Arron Banks (£1.95m plus a loan of £3m), Jeremy Hoskins (£980,000), Lord Edmiston (£600,000), Crispin Odey (£533,000), Jonathan Wood (£500,000), Patrick Barbour (£500,000), Stuart Wheeler (£400,000), and Peter Cruddas (£350,000).

What all these have in common (apart from most of them appearing in the Sunday Times Rich List) is that they are involved in hedge funds and other such financial activities.

It might seem strange since the City stands to lose from Brexit, that those who funded the Leave campaign should be financiers (other financiers funded the Remain campaign). But there are financiers and financiers. The City establishment tends to see some hedge fund managers as cowboys engaging in practices it doesn’t regard as entirely above board and which it is prepared to see regulated. It is precisely such regulation that the Brexit financiers wanted to avoid.

One of the Brexit supporters, the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, let the cat out of the bag when, in an article in the Daily Mail (12 April), he painted a picture of what a Brexit Britain would look like in 2020:

“London, too, is booming. Eurocrats never had much sympathy for financial services. As their regulations took effect in Frankfurt, Paris and Milan – a financial transactions tax, a ban on short selling, restrictions on clearing, a bonus cap, windfall levies, micro-regulation of funds – waves of young financiers brought their talents to the City instead.”

That was their main aim, then, their manifesto for the referendum: allow all these practices which enhance their profits to continue. To achieve this, they in effect hired politicians, not just lightweights such as Hannan but also national figures like Boris Johnson and Farage, with a remit to go out and get a vote to Leave by any means. They didn’t really care about the NHS or immigration but left it up to the politicians to deliver. Which, against expectations, they did.

The rest of the capitalist class are furious with them but are going to have to adapt to the result. Most of them will want a deal with the EU that allows them continued free access to the vast tariff-free single market with common standards and its coming extension to services, even if this involves accepting some free movement of labour and a payment to Brussels. Some of the Brexit funders might well be prepared to go along with this as long as there is no regulation of their activities.

The sad thing is that so many workers were led to back this maverick section of the capitalist class in the belief that they were protesting against the ‘elite’, while in fact they were being duped into pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for a part of it. Workers of the world have more in common with each other than with their home-grown, local, regional or global capitalist class. Real equality comes from common ownership, production for use and equal access to the social product rather than a parasite class gleaning profits from a wage-enslaved one.

Technology has been used to tighten the screw on us instead of freeing us. We can have the world to run by ourselves, using the technology to produce a superabundance of necessities along with a self-regulating system of stock controls, access based on need, rather than priced demand, allied to production for use and not for sale, without elites, political or otherwise.

All wealth comes from the workers.

Workers have no country but a world to win.

It is not and never was OUR country.

A plague on all nationalisms.

Wee Matt

Onward, fellow humans

Something is happening in our world that you are not going to read about in the newspapers or see in on TV. We all know there is a crisis that threatens our planet and our existence. Economic insecurity is everyone’s nightmare. It sucks the life out of us all. Inequality and mass poverty are integral design features of capitalism. Divide-and-conquer is a very effective strategy to enslave people’s minds into habits that guide them toward system preservation. Nevertheless, the thought of people co-owning everything is growing. Millions of us are waking up to the reality that the political and economic system is thoroughly rigged. Control of the political state combined with the ownership of the means of production and distribution gives the capitalist class mastery over the workers. Being poor and powerless means we are reliant on people who don’t give a damn about us. We need to change it. This means we need a political revolution. Not barricades and petrol bombs but a revolution of consciousness. The primary purpose of the socialist political party is to challenge the political apparatus of the capitalist class and its domination of state power while promoting worker class-consciousness. A revolution is when we no longer accept or wish to perpetuate the status quo. The Socialist Party, although still comparatively minute, we are confident will strengthen, grow and ultimately prove decisive. Our aim is a simple one: to avoid the mistakes of the past and build a movement based upon democracy.

Too often socialism is described in the context of austerity and of self-sacrifice. We see socialism as something much different, of a whole lot of possibilities – imaginative and creative. Socialism as enhancing one’s pleasure and enjoyment and rewards in life. Our case for socialism is that there is a phenomenal human potential which is being squandered every single day this wretched system persists. We are talking about an enormous human potential that is being at the moment wasted.  

 Co-operative commonwealth is another name for socialism. With the aid of socialists all over the world, we will replace competitive capitalism by the human co-operation of Socialism. Socialism does not presuppose any radical change in individual character at all, or that it has anything necessarily to do with what is known as selfishness or unselfishness in the present condition of society. It is said that in socialism all property is abolished. That is a lie. All property is not abolished. The form of property abolished is that in the hands of industrialists, but personal property for use is not abolished because the aim of socialism is to increase the personal property available to the highest possible point. We desire to see the maximum amount of personal property in existence so that people will be able to enjoy the highest standard of living. Socialism means, not equality in personal requirements and personal life, but the abolition of classes. Socialism starts out with the assumption that people’s tastes and requirements are not, and cannot be, equal in quality or in quantity “from each according to ability, to each according to need ”

The revolution that is coming will place the working women and men full command over its vast resources. To-day’s production and distribution is at the mercy of the banks and the corporations, whose aim is to make profits. It is no good talking about the need for decentralisation and building up cooperatives unless we are willing to get at the very root of the evil. The Socialist Party asserts that the basic cause of social and economic problems are to be found in our present system of society that we call capitalism, that is, a system in which the financial institutions and most of the means of production are in the hands of a relatively small number of people, a system in which production is carried on primarily for profit and in which when profit ceases production ceases, whether or not the people require what is being produced. It is a system under which production is carried on at the will of individual capitalist groups and not in accordance with the needs of its people. The Socialist Party asserts that many social problems we suffer shall never be solved so long as capitalism endures. We accept that some temporary reforms and limited improvements can be won from time to time within the present system through the organised political and industrial action, but we contend that no final solution can be won unless we change the whole social system from top to bottom, unless we change from the private capitalist system for profit to the social co-operative system of production for use; in other words production and distribution must not be left dependent the blind forces of capitalism.

Socialism cannot be imposed upon the people by a minority. It is a movement in the interests of the vast majority and will come into existence only when a majority of the people want it and are organised sufficiently to obtain and maintain it.

The ghost of Highgate cemetery

We know full well the class that is not conscious enough to struggle for its interests is not fit for emancipation. The economic forces at work in society are bringing about conditions that impel the mass of the people to think and to realise that capitalism is bankrupt and unable to function any longer to ensure peace and to guarantee a civilised existence, not to mention survival, for humanity. 

The Socialist Party offers rational answers and a workable solution for the problems besetting our fellow workers. Socialist education is certainly essential and absolutely necessary, but it embraces more than the direct teaching of socialist principles to the individual. This process of awakening to the facts of economic and political life is seemingly imperceptible, but it is cumulative and eventually crystallizes to the point of impelling action.

The Socialist Party stands as the rallying point, and as the guide, pointing the way to ensure the success of the revolution which terminates capitalism and establishes socialism. Our task is to agitate unceasingly and to educate as many of our fellow-workers as possible. The strength of the Socialist Party’s case does not depend solely on the membership of the Socialist Party. Its strength lies primarily in the fact that it is the logical resolution of the class struggle. Its goal, strategy, and tactics are intended for the working class as a whole, not for a revolutionary party alone. One does not become a socialist because socialism comes with an iron-clad guarantee of success. One becomes a socialist because socialism is necessary to attain freedom, security, and well-being for our class; it is necessary if society is to progress rather than revert to barbarism; and, for many members of our class, if not for all humanity, it is necessary for survival. The better organised and better disciplined the working class, the better the chances will be of completing the revolution quickly and with a minimum of disruption -- and the less opportunity any recalcitrant element of the ruling class will have to commit violent or other culpable acts or engage in a “slave-owners rebellion” as Marx puts it.

For decades, belittling, deriding and vilifying by journalistic lick-spittles, ignorant politicians, pompous intellectuals, renegade "Marxists," and a host of others of Karl Marx has been an international "sport." Why do his defamers have this compulsion time and time again to prove him wrong? Why not simply ignore and forget him, if Marx was the failure and fool that they paint him as. His distractors attack him because of fear. Marx's popularity is not due to his alleged personal faults and supposed character flaws. He challenged and exposed the basic cause of the social evils -- the poverty, the misery, the conflicts -- that afflict the class-divided capitalist system. For the ruling-class they recognise the threat of truth. For the working-class they acknowledge a bearer of truth. Marx established conclusively that the capitalist class subsisted and survived by practicing and perpetuating an evil for the exclusive benefit and protection of a privileged class at the expense primarily of the wage workers Hence, the frenzied and repeated efforts to disparage Marx, imputing all sorts of petty and personal motives to him in their hopeless and ever frustrated efforts to 'prove' Marx wrong, to pick flaws in his words and to misrepresent his principles. But all the efforts to demean his work have failed. The spectre from Highgate cemetery continues to haunt the employing owning class. Each day, the soundness of his basic premises, the correctness of his conclusions and the validity of his principles are demonstrated. Under such circumstances, capitalism’s apologists cannot ignore Marx or Marxism and so they constantly train their academic and literary guns against Marxist ideas. But to no avail. Events refute his critics and reconfirm his merits.  Marx and Marxism stand fully vindicated today, having withstood every attack.

Marxian socialism constitutes the hope of the world. The only hope. The important thing to bear in mind is that, powerful as it is, the capitalist propaganda machine is not invincible. The class struggle continues, and the capitalist system continues to generate growing social problems, regardless of whether or not the capitalist media and other institutions choose to acknowledge them. Sooner or later, material conditions will push masses of workers to seek out alternatives to the present social system. That development, combined with the steadfast, energetic educational efforts of socialists, will ultimately permit the truth to prevail.

Why socialism works

In a socialist society, as in capitalist society, there would be both material and  ideological incentives for workers to be productive. However, the character of both kinds of incentives would change -- for the better. It should be understood that by "socialist society," we are not referring to the class-ruled bureaucratic state-capitalist system of the former Soviet Union nor to any system with nationalised state-run industries. We are referring to a genuine socialist society based on social ownership and workers' collective, democratic control of the means of production. We underscore that because of the widespread view that socialism "doesn't work in practice" since "there's no incentive to produce" stems from the wrongful association of socialism with the Soviet centralised command economy. From our perspective, it is no surprise at all that workers' incentive to be productive was been crippled under the oppressive and exploitative system of one-party dictatorship.

In the capitalist society, the material incentives to be productive are mostly of a negative character: the worker is driven mainly by an underlying fear of being fired and falling into poverty and starvation. The motive is survival. The workers' only material reward is a living wage, with the bulk of workers' product, and the gains of improved productivity, going to the benefit of the capitalist owners.

True, workers are also motivated by the promise of getting promoted and "getting ahead," but that is more of an ideological than an actual material incentive. The great mass of workers do not "get ahead" no matter how hard they work, and the few who are promoted to managerial positions are but slightly better rewarded wage slaves, in charge of directing and pushing the other wage slaves. The people who really "get ahead" are the capitalists, most of whom were already "ahead" at birth, and whose enormous material rewards come not from productive labor but from owning capital and exploiting those who do perform productive labor.

Moreover, it is a fact of economic life under capitalism that more productive workers are, the more easily market demand can be surpassed and the more quickly some workers will have worked themselves out of a job.

Considering the poor material rewards workers receive under capitalism, the amazing thing is that they are as industrious as they are. But there is another, instinctive and moral incentive involved that capitalism did not create: the desire to be a productive member of society, to contribute something to the social good. Coupled with that is the natural desire to be creative - a desire that is trampled upon under capitalism, which demands tedious, repetitive, strictly channeled and intensive laboir from most workers.

In a socialist society, the natural and creative incentives to be productive would not only be preserved; they would be strengthened along with vastly improved material incentives and working conditions.

When every member of society is a co-owner of the means of production; when every able-bodied member of society is a worker, and the workers collectively administer the means of production and control the distribution of their collective product; when the workers no longer have the vast majority of the value of their product stolen from them by a class of idle owners but enjoy the full fruit of their labor - then the material incentive to be industrious will be far greater than it is today.

So too will be the incentive to improve productivity through better machines and methods. In a socialist society, when productivity is improved, no one loses the opportunity to work. Rather, each improvement in productivity lessens the amount of socially necessary labor time needed to acquire goods and services; the result is hours kicked out of the workweek, not workers being kicked out of jobs.

In a socialist society, with the workers in democratic control of the production process itself, ample labor and resources could be devoted to make workplaces safe and pleasant. With the emphasis placed on improving the machinery and methods of production, the pace of production itself could be regulated at a constructive, but not oppressive or unsafe, level.

Jobs could be rotated or redefined to make them less repetitive or tedious. Of course, with exploitation eliminated, and, consequently, workers able to live well on something on the order of a 15-hour workweek, tedium would be less of a problem. Moreover, with education and job training freely accessible to all, people would be able to experience different occupations far more readily than is the case today.

When all these things are considered, it is evident that the natural and moral desire to contribute to society would be enhanced, for in contributing to society, the worker under socialism benefits himself or herself at the same time. Under capitalism, the worker is constantly tempted to think, "Why work hard? I get paid the same lousy wage anyway." With socialism, the worker realizes, "If I work conscientiously, society benefits and I benefit." Furthermore, the opportunities for applying oneself creatively, both on the job and in one's expanded leisure time, would be greatly increased.

With the capitalist no longer controlling the distribution of workers' product, and with the flourishing of a cooperative spirit emanating from cooperative production, workers would take unhindered pride and pleasure in their ability to fulfill the needs of others. As Marx put it:

 "In your joy or in your use of my product, I would have the direct joy from my good conscience of having, by my work, satisfied a human need ... and consequently, of having procured to the need of another human being his corresponding object."

Isn't socialism against human nature?

Much of what is believed to be "human nature" is actually the product of the material conditions and social environment under which people are raised. We live in a social system and culture that teaches us that the way to survive, and "get ahead" materially, is to compete for positions of power, gain dominance over others, and, ultimately, become an owner of productive property and exploit others. Not surprisingly, many people come too greedy and competitively crave power and wealth above all else.

But such behavior is not a fixture of human nature. People clearly have the capability of being cooperative as well as competitive, supportive and helpful as well as antagonistic, egalitarian as well as selfish. All of these qualities are part of "human nature." We can and do choose to employ one quality or the other, depending on how our material circumstances and interests affect us, and how we perceive our own self-interest. It is also part of our human nature to think, to evaluate our circumstances and change our behavior when we conclude that doing so is in our self-interest.

Accordingly, socialism is not contrary to human nature. For the vast majority of the people who belong to the working class today, it does no good to be greedy, competitive or power-hungry; capitalism rewards them with hardship. Sooner or later, a majority of workers can and will come to the realisation that their own self-interest demands the creation of a new social system based on social ownership of the industries and cooperative production for the common good. Once a socialist society is established, the material and other rewards of that system will continue to reinforce cooperative behaviour and nullify selfishness, greed and the desire for power over others.

The idea that there would be no incentive for workers to be productive in a socialist society is a myth. In a genuine socialist society, workers would have strong incentives to work conscientiously and improve the means and methods of production. The social incentive to be a productive and responsible member of society would be reinforced by the knowledge that one's efforts would truly be benefiting all society, and not merely an idle class of social parasites.

The material incentives to be productive, and to improve productivity, would be strengthened as well. With capitalist exploitation abolished, workers would receive the full social value of their labor. The rewards of their own labor, and of improvements in efficiency, would accrue to them, and not to a separate class of owners. Thus, they would have "the possibility" of becoming well off materially -- a far greater possibility than they have today -- from their own labor. And the more efficiently they produce, the more they could enjoy, with a shorter and shorter workweek.

Workers would have strong incentives to be productive in a socialist society because they would be working for themselves and the social interest, simultaneously. With no ruling class in existence, the workers' interest and the social interest would be one and the same.

A proposed social change would be too idealistic or utopian if it depended on people following an ideal that was contrary to their material interest. But that is not the case with socialism. Socialism is grounded in material realities. It is grounded in the reality that it is now objectively and physically possible for society to meet the basic human needs and wants of all the people -- and more. It is grounded in the reality that capitalism stands as an obstacle to society realising this potential to meet the needs and wants of all. It is grounded in the reality that society's sole useful producers -- the working class, which includes all who do productive work, mental or physical -- are increasingly being denied their material needs and wants under the present system. Thus the modern working class has both a motive and the potential power to replace the present system with socialism. All that's missing is for workers to recognise their true interests as a class, understand the socialist goal, and begin organising as a class to establish it.

Thus, socialism is realistic. The workers already collectively occupy the industries every day and operate them from top to bottom. The only thing they don't do is own them, control them, and control their product. Properly organised, they can rectify that, and build an economic system that will truly serve the social interest. And given the serious and growing problems that the capitalist system has created, socialism is not only realistic, it is essential to human survival and social progress. To build socialism, workers must organise on both the political and economic fields.

Workers, Bosses and Exploitation

Socialists maintain that the capitalists' profits are a theft from the working class because the working class produces all social wealth. Capitalists say they take risks when they invest their money in a business -- and therefore are entitled to profits as a reward for their risk-taking. Yes, some capitalists do take some "risks", a few venture capitalists, for example, in the sense that they may, in making a certain investment decision, risk losing their ownership of productive property and their position as a capitalist. That is, they "risk" having to join the other 95 percent of us in the working class, and having to work for a living. Actually, however, the concentration of wealth under capitalism is such that most top, established capitalists, with their massive and diverse stock and bond holdings, rarely face even that sort of "risk." Most of that "risk" is borne by the small-scale or petty capitalists operating in the margins of the economy, and by those workers who try to make it as capitalists by starting up a small business. That such "risk" exists on an incidental basis cannot justify the ongoing process of theft through which capitalists accumulate the capital they risk and continue to accumulate more capital after it is risked. Nor is the fact of exploitation altered by the occasional worker who risks his or her life savings in a (usually failing) bid to become a capitalist.

To say that the "risk" justifies the profit-making operation of that system is circular logic, for neither the system or the risk are necessary. In a socialist society, new products could be developed, tested, introduced, and if a certain threshold of interest in the product was shown, produced on a mass scale -- all without risk to anyone. Not only are the capitalists' "risks" unnecessary; so too are the far greater risks that the capitalist system imposes on the working class. For every day that they continue to accept living and working under this system, workers risk losing their jobs and livelihoods, their ability to feed, clothe and shelter themselves and their families, their health and even their lives. The fact that the likes of a Donald Trump may "risk" losing part or even all of their fortunes gambling on a particular business venture is no defense of the system that subjects the working class to these far graver risks.

Defenders of capitalism say it's the capitalists' entrepreneurial abilities and skills which organise the means of production in such a way as to make the most efficient use of labour and create the most wealth. Capitalists do have an interest in squeezing the greatest possible productivity out of each worker. But capitalists themselves no longer have much to do with the organization of production. More importantly, the overall social impact of productivity increases under capitalism doesn't exactly make an argument in favor of preserving the system.

Historically, capitalist "entrepreneurs" did play a vital role in bringing together the forces of modern industrial production. But the successful capitalists were those who were most "efficient" at accumulating capital, which means that they were most efficient, not merely in making the most productive use of labour, but in reaping surplus value through the ruthless exploitation of wage labour. Frequently, they were also among the most efficient at scheming against, swindling and otherwise robbing each other, the most successful of them in this country earning the epithet, "the robber barons."

Today there is very little "entrepreneurship" remaining in the capitalist system. New businesses are regularly being started up, but most either die within a few years or are swallowed up by long-established firms. New ways and means of stepping up the rate of exploitation, including, but not limited to, increases in productivity, are, of course, still being implemented by capitalist firms, but this is done by the capitalists' hired executives and management. Established capitalists may "dabble" in such activity; most don't. In any event, they don't have to.

It is important to recognize that the major capitalists who own and control the overwhelming majority of the means of production and distribution today did not become major capitalists by working hard, scrimping and saving. Most of today's top capitalists inherited their class status; historically, many top capitalists acquired their initial block of capital through inheritance or by crooked or illicit means. But however a particular capitalist gained entrance to that class, the fact is that no one can accumulate the large quantity of capital required to become a top capitalist through any means other than the exploitation of the working class. Small business firms exist in a viciously competitive climate. Eighty percent of all new businesses fail within 10 years! Thus, for most small business owners, even if they did get their start by "scrimping and saving," it is capitalism, not socialism, that will take their businesses away.

During their struggle to keep their businesses alive, the petty capitalists, besides putting in long hours themselves, are forced to be among the most ruthless exploiters of wage labor-often exploiting members of their own family. Those that do survive for any length of time do so only by extracting surplus value and accumulating capital through such exploitation. Thus, even if the business was started largely from what the petty capitalist saved when he or she was a worker, it increasingly comes to consist of wealth that was stolen from the working class.

Frequently, the petty capitalists are at the mercy of larger capitalists, and are not really "independent" owners. Many are but adjuncts to larger firms that own or control the "chains" of retail outlets, restaurants, real estate offices, etc. And petty capitalists generally are, at best, left with but a small share of the surplus-value contained in the commodities they sell, after they pay their suppliers, bank and other creditors, landlords and the political state. Thus, even the supposed great "merit" of small business and "free enterprise"- that it permits people to "be their own boss"- is largely a fiction even for the small minority able to start up a business. The only realistic way that workers today can truly become "their own boss," in terms of determining the policies that govern a workplace or industry, is by organizing as a class to establish a socialist society, in which all the people will own, and collectively and democratically control, all the means of production and distribution.

Socialism necessarily means abolishing the private ownership of all means of social production and distribution. However, this will not mean ruin and destitution for small business owners. On the contrary, they will become workers in a society in which all workers would be entitled to work, and to receive the full social value of what they produce. Thus, for most, if not all, of the former petty capitalists, socialism will mean greater affluence and a major increase in leisure time. And for everyone, socialist society means full economic security and the numerous advantages of life in a peaceful, harmonious and healthy social and physical environment.

All told, petty capitalists will be far better off under socialism than under capitalism. Due to the nature of their class position and outlook, only a very few petty capitalists can be expected to recognize this and act accordingly. But then, the socialist movement is fundamentally a working-class movement, more concerned with persuading and organising the vast majority of the people who belong to the exploited class of useful producers than winning over the minority that does the exploiting. When the working class unites politically and industrially to overthrow its exploiters and establish social ownership and democratic workers' control of the means of production, it is only taking back what it, and past generations of workers, created.

Today's top capitalists – many of whom inherited their class status, further indicating that they had little to do with the organising of production -- typically live off the surplus value from a diversified array of stocks, bonds, banking and other investments. They are far removed from the process of production. For example, a capitalist may have a few thousand shares of stock in an airline in the morning, sell it and use the proceeds to buy up shares of stock in a pharmaceutical firm in the afternoon, and sell that stock two days later to buy up shares in an electronics company. It is obvious that such a capitalist will have little or nothing to do with organizing the means of production in any of those firms. For that matter, many capitalists don't even have to involve themselves in such buying and selling. They have businesses such as hedge-funds to "manage their investments" for them too!

One could argue that the capitalists collectively are still ultimately responsible for the efficient organisation of production. But their profits are not the "rewards" of efficient organisation of production. The most efficiently organised production facility in the world wouldn't yield a penny of profit if its owners (or their hired management) did not hold the price of labor power (wages) down below the price of labour's product, i.e., if they did not exploit the workers.

Moreover, to whatever small degree some capitalists may still be "credited" for efficient organization of production within individual firms, the system of capitalist production is marked by anarchy, not efficiency. Separate firms competing for the same markets, with wasteful duplication of effort; the inevitable "crises of overproduction" that arise from that competition and the exploitation of wage labor; the waste of having 20 percent or more of the nations' productive capacity and 10 percent or more of the nation's potential workforce involuntarily idled at the same time; the colossal waste of potentially useful labor being channeled into advertising, real estate, "business services," militarism, regulatory agencies and other institutions that are "necessary" only to capitalism - these conditions are hardly indicative of the most efficient organization of production.

Finally, to whatever small extent capitalists may be responsible for the "efficient use of labor" within a firm, such efficiency, under the capitalist system, does more social harm than good. Productivity improvements under capitalism are used, not to lessen the necessary hours of labor for all, but to eliminate the jobs of many, and frequently entail stepping up the workloads or the pace of work for the workers remaining. All told, capitalists do have an interest in seeing production organized such that it will "create the most wealth"- for themselves. But for the vast majority of the people, who belong to the working class, this is hardly an argument in favor of capitalism.

A class of parasites is not needed for production to be organized in an efficient manner. Production will operate far more efficiently, in the social interest, when the workers themselves are in full control of production and distribution, and there no longer exists another class to "make...use of labor," for its own selfish ends.

It is sometimes argued that capitalists have an incentive to make the working class richer, not poorer? The more money the working class has, the more it will be able to spend on new goods and services, thus fueling the continued growth of capitalism.

Since profits are derived from surplus value, which can be extracted at an increased rate only by reducing the workers' share of their product, capitalists have every incentive to drive wages lower, not higher. The fact that capitalists as a class also must rely on workers to consume a certain portion of the total product in order to keep the economy growing doesn't change the incentive of each individual capitalist firm to push its own wage costs down. Indeed, this contradiction is at the heart of the system's cyclical "crises of overproduction" which periodically rock the capitalist economy. Some capitalists may well be aware of the contradiction, but they cannot resolve it. No individual capitalist firm is going to raise the wages of its own workers in order to contribute to raising the purchasing power of workers as a whole. The profit motive and the force of competition prevent such action. The firm that attempted to do so would have less surplus value than its competitors, would have less to invest in improved means of production, and sooner or later would be underpriced and ruined by the competitors that kept wages lower.

At least one capitalist think-tank, the Brookings Institution, recognised the essence of this contradiction in a book entitled, Income and Economic Progress. There it was argued that it was pointless to rely on a 'Voluntary increase of money wages as an adequate means of increasing the purchasing power of the masses," since "there is immediate gain for the individual business enterprise which can reduce wages below the existing market rate. To pay more than the market rate for wages," the book continued, "appears not only needless but also unstabilising in its effects upon business generally. Moreover, the very essence of competition is to pay what has to be paid and not more. Why should one ignore market considerations when he hires labour any more than when he buys raw materials?"

The idea that the capitalist system as a whole would, hypothetically, be more robust if wages were raised is not enough to cause capitalists to act contrary to their own immediate material interests. And this idea has nothing to do with the limited and qualified improvements in living standards that some workers have gained in this century-improvements that are now being reversed.