A Better Tomorrow

 We all aspire to freedom. Deep down in the source of our being, we all want to live free in a society where we can thrive, where we can work passionately at something to improve the human condition, and at the same time be able to take care of our children, give them a solid education, have quality medical care and keep a roof over their head in a healthy environment. That’s what we want from life. And with modern technology that is now something we can all truly achieve. Sustainable prosperity for all is within reach. Social evolution is a process of the transformation of humankind toward a just, and future, and is happening. It is time to move to a post-growth society, where working life, the natural environment, our communities, and families, are no longer sacrificed for the sake of capital accumulation and market growth.  Socialists envision a more decentralised human-scale economy and a more egalitarian organisation of society taking shape upon the removal of exploitation and cancerous capitalism.

It’s easy to play on people’s fears and prejudices and to point fingers at certain groups. In the past, it has been ‘the Jews’, ‘the Irish’, ‘the blacks’, ‘the Poles’ or some other easily identifiable target that was blamed for society’s ills. Capitalism, though, thrives on poverty. It’s integral to the system. The increasing concentration of power, ownership and wealth and the mounting impoverishment of the masses is one of capitalism’s greatest contradictions. It’s not some kind of conspiracy to keep the masses in poverty or in fear of falling into it.  It’s built into capitalism. In capitalism, the compulsion to compete, dominate and pursue profit casts long shadows over virtually every social and cultural institution. It can be easy for conspiracy theories to overlook the pervasive unintended consequences of political and social action and assume that all consequences must have been intended. Unpredictability abounds within the capitalist structures. A nefarious power, inimical to human well-being, manipulates the course of human events from behind the scenes, seeking the total control of every human being. Rather than an evil Illuminati, could that power be the profit motive? Our current system of power and domination is built on manipulation and deceit.

A socialist society would eliminate work deemed difficult, dangerous, or tedious through automation or simply through the sacrifice of unnecessary goods (of which there are plenty in capitalism). In addition, work would not be coerced and the jobs which were only necessary to maintain capitalist functionality would be eliminated (banking, investment, accounting, etc.; not to mention the standing army). The amount of work necessary to keep society functioning would be reduced drastically due to the resultant expansion of the labor force and the abandonment of the profit motive. After the dissolution of capitalist production for profit rational production for human need would be instituted and environmentally destructive technologies, that continue to exist merely because they are profitable and heavily invested in, would be abandoned in favor of safer, sustainable technologies. Liberty can only be achieved when all people are free to realize the life they want to live, free from coercion and privation; a society in which one is forced to sell themselves as a commodity, as is the case under capitalism, is a society which is antithetical to the concept of liberty. It is a society where we’re in control of our lives. The system depends on willing acquiescence and obedience by the majority of its subjects. That there are winners and losers in society isn’t primarily a matter of luck or skill. It’s a consequence of market exchange a reflection of how the ruling class captures the state machine, using it to gain more power and more wealth. Opposing this class thus means opposing the state. Socialists say that decision-making should be decentralised and people should be able to participate to the maximum feasible degree in shaping decisions that affect their lives. Top-down, forcible decision-making is likely to be marred by the fallibility of decision-makers. Hierarchical workplaces are disempowering and stultifying and limit the ability of workers to use their knowledge and skills to respond flexibly and efficiently to production and distribution challenges and to meet consumer needs. Socialists are committed to a model of social life rooted in voluntary cooperation and associations of all kinds structured in all ways.

World Socialist Revolution

In order to maintain their rule, the capitalist class must exploit national, ethnic and racial divisions. The ruling class continues to impoverish the world’s masses, engage in constant war and re-division of the world markets in order to prop up profits. A victory for the socialist movement on a world scale would place unimagined material abundance at the service of human needs, lay the basis for the elimination of classes and the eradication of social inequality based on sex and the very abolition of the social significance of race, nation, and ethnicity. For the first time, mankind will grasp the reins of history and control its own creation, society, resulting in an undreamed-of emancipation of human potential, and a monumental forward surge of civilisation. Only then will it be possible to realise the free development of each individual as the condition for the free development of all. The success or failure of the working class to achieve victory depends upon the education and awareness of working people. Through its acquisition of political consciousness, the working class ceases to be merely a class in itself and becomes a class for itself, conscious of its historic task to capture the state machine and reorganise society.

The two basic classes in our society, the workers, and the capitalists are locked in a bitter conflict. The working class has always fought against the capitalists. A handful of capitalists control our planet and make fabulous profits off the sweat and toil of working people. All the major means of production - the factories, the mines,communications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of a few thousand capitalists who employ millions of workers. For the workers, the exploitation and oppression gets worse every year. All this misery is created so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can continue to fill their pockets. Every bit of capitalists’ vast possessions was stolen from the people. It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. At the end of a work-week, the worker collects his pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. The bosses get rich, not because they have “taken risks” or “worked harder,” as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and reduce the number of employees with speed-ups, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. And if the boss thinks he can make more profit somewhere else, he just closes his factory and throws the workers out on the street. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight to end it!

The World is rich in natural resources. It is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. How is it possible to have scarcity so abundant in resources, manpower and technology? Yet poverty and hunger are an integral part of capitalism. They are rooted in the capitalist class’s insatiable thirst for profits. There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker. The working class cannot eliminate exploitation and poverty unless it overthrows the capitalist system. It must wipe away the nightmare of capitalism. After we have overthrown the capitalists we will establish socialism. Socialism will mean the rule of the working class. It will put an end to the exploitation of man by man. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history for working people. With socialism, the workers will administer the vast riches of our planet, its lands, forests, mineral resources, lakes and rivers as well as the means of production, for the common benefit of all. There will be an end to all exploitation. The wealth will be the property of the people and not of individual capitalists or even the state. Planning will guarantee the well-being of all the people and guide the process of socialist economic construction. Through planning, we shall build up and modernize the factories and other productive facilities and eliminate backward and backbreaking labor. We will construct new houses and medical, cultural and sports facilities for the working people. The quality of everyday life will improve vastly. Gone will be the anarchy of capitalist production. Gone, too, its resultant economic crises which today bring so much misery to workers. The workers will distribute the resources of society according to the needs of the people, not to satisfy a few capitalists’ hunger for profits as is the case today. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. We will eliminate the terrible waste of human resources as is the case today with millions of unemployed. It will be impossible for idle parasites to live off the backs of the workers as the capitalists do today. Working people will participate in all aspects of society.

Socialism is the future of humanity, a radically new society where classes and the state will have been completely eliminated. Humanity has not always been divided into classes. In the primitive communal societies, all the members cooperated together to assure their survival. The state is simply an instrument by which one class dominates another. It became a necessity when society split into classes. Just as the ancient slave state served the slave owners to suppress the countless slave rebellions, so too the modern capitalist state is a tool of the bourgeoisie to maintain its dictatorship over the working class. Throughout history, there have been many revolutions where the oppressed classes have broken the fetters that bound them and overthrown the reactionary decadent ruling classes. However, in previous revolutions, the new ruling class which rode to power on the backs of the masses eventually substituted itself for the old exploiters, and in turn had to be overthrown. In this way the bourgeoisie who fought along with the workers and peasants to overthrow feudalism set up its own exploitative system – capitalism. But now the development of society has created a class more revolutionary than any yet known in history – the modern working class. It has provided us with the opportunity for a revolution that will not just replace one exploiting class with another but will open the way to the final abolition of all classes and an end to all oppression and exploitation.

Free our minds. Now is our time.

We must learn to think in new ways. We must dream in new ways and hope in new ways. We must envision a new way of living our lives. Every day more and more people are becoming more and more aware of the forces that limit human potential. Becoming a socialist is a consciousness-expanding process. We all aspire to freedom. We all want to live free in a society where we can thrive, where we can work at something to improve the human condition and be able to take care of our children, give them an education, have quality medical care and keep a roof over their head in a healthy environment. That’s what we want from life. And with modern technology that is now something we can all truly achieve. Sustainable prosperity for all is within our reach. We are a political party with determination, and consciousness to fight for true freedom and justice for all, regardless of one’s gender or nationality. Our struggle is not local, regional, or even national. It is universal. Because exploitations are universal.

Our ecological systems are ravaged for the profits of an elite who’ll do anything to keep their profits rising. The rich continue to loot the natural riches of the entire world, everything that gives us life like water, land, forests, mountains, rivers, air; and everything that is below the ground: gold, oil, uranium and other minerals. They don’t consider the land as a source of life, but as a business where they can turn everything into a commodity, and commodities they turn into money, and in doing this they will destroy us completely. It doesn’t matter what colour they paint it, what ideological garb they clothe it in, what name they give it, what religion they dress it up as, what flag they raise; it is the capitalist system. It is the exploitation of humanity and the world we inhabit. It is the system that persecutes, steals and murders.

Corporations consciously produce stuff be deliberately outdated, to break, or to go out of fashion just bringing new products to the market for fast profits. They advertise and sell consumerism. The question of what gain will we get from this? What is clear is that a small minority are willing to lie, cheat, manipulate all others for power and riches. Changing leaders change little, others take their place and nothing really changes. Basically, it is the same old same with more empty words. In government offices and corporation board rooms are people who are self-serving psychopaths who deny that the system is broken or they admit the system is broken, but claim it has nothing to do with them. We live in radical times and our answer must be to move together. We must aim to reclaim the world in its entirety. In all of the corners of the planet, there are people who suffer and people who resist. That is why we understood that it was necessary to build our life ourselves. Where others hope that those above will solve the problems of those below, socialists build our freedom from below.

We do not sit and wait for the understanding of those who don’t even understand that they don’t understand. We do not sit and wait for the ruling class to repudiate their plundering and looting and become repentant. We do not sit and wait for a useless list of pledges and promises that will be discarded and forgotten after they are made. The offer us recipes, as one more commodity, to resolve problems, but they aren’t. Saviours vow to deliver to our liberation. But it is our own path that we ourselves make which is our teacher. We will do what we must do ourselves. Too many of us believe that democracy is an easy thing, not requiring too much effort. It is just raising one’s hand, marking an X on a ballot, filling out a membership form of a political party, shouting its slogans and cheering its leader, simply voting one party out and another in. We have learned that there is only one possible way of organising for real change and it is with a collective voice doing own thinking and action, directing our own destiny. Absolutely no one else is going to come and save us, help us, resolve our problems, relieve our pain, or bring us the justice that we need and deserve.

 We have to organise ourselves, prepare ourselves to struggle to change this life, to create another way of living, another way to democratically conduct ourselves as people. If we don’t get organised, we will always be enslaved. There is no hope in capitalism. We have lived with this system for hundreds of years, and we have suffered dispossession, exploitation and repression. No-body is safe from the capitalist hydra that will destroy our lives. As workers, we struggle to survive the hardships of daily life, caught in the clutches of the bosses.

 It is now time we all have trust in each other, in ourselves. And we know how to create a new society, a new system of politics and economics to give us the life that we want. There is no salvation within capitalism. No one will lead us; we must all be leaders, thinking together about how we will resolve each situation. We have already seen how our “betters” lead under the capitalist system; it didn’t work for us, the poor, at all. It worked for them, the employing owning class, not us. They told everyone to “vote for me and I will put an end to exploitation,” but as soon as they take office they automatically forget everything they said and begin to create more exploitation. That is why we must organise ourselves better. We have no other possible path but to unite ourselves and organise ourselves to struggle and defend ourselves from the effects and threats of the capitalist system. Capitalism threatens all of humanity. Our weapons of struggle and resistance are our words, which no border can block. The socialist message will reach the ears and hearts of brothers and sisters all over the world. Every day more people around the world will come to understand our cause and our struggle against the capitalist system. We must not forget that we are the heirs of years and decades of class struggle and workers’ resistance. Their blood runs through our veins. But it is not enough to just remember. We must continue the work that they left us and create the change that we want.

Achieve our potential

The Power of the Workers

Most people who agree with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders believe it is possible for both capitalists and the working class to coexist in a system where capitalists can still make lots of money, but where workers are afforded security and a decent standard of living. Socialists who are Marxists espouse a theory that poverty, unemployment, and class oppression are not side effects of capitalism but a vital part of it. Socialists hold that the idea that capitalists and workers can work together for the common good is simply not possible for their interests are irreconcilable. Often dismissed as a dirty word, the influence of socialism and socialists ebbs and flows. Capitalism has cloaked itself in a libertarian guise by proclaiming that the freedom of the market and the individual as the only realistic ways to achieve liberty. But this cloak is very quickly shed for most people as their labour power is reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold, and subject to the profit-seeking whims of a boss. From its early days, capitalism’s claim to represent the only realistic human freedom has been challenged by socialists. To suggest that power is not concentrated in one class is to completely misunderstand the nature of capitalism. Today, wealth and power is concentrated in even fewer hands – the owners of the major banks and corporations –more than when Marx was writing. To say that social relations in modern society are capitalist relations is not to take an ‘economic determinist’ view of society: arguing that every aspect of the ‘superstructure’ of society – the state, politics, culture, social attitudes and so on – are rigidly determined by the character of the economy.

Nonetheless, it is clear that as long as we live in a capitalist society, where wealth and power rest with the tiny elite who own and control industry, science, and technology, then the superstructure of that society will also ultimately reflect and act in the interests of that ruling elite. No amount of demands for checks on their privilege will eliminate the social power of the capitalist class. A determined struggle can force capitalism to adapt to a certain extent but any permanent and deep-rooted change, particularly where it threatens the functioning of capitalism, will only be achieved by the socialist transformation of society. Pointing out the need for fundamental change in society does not in any way downgrade the importance of a combative workers’ movement while we live in this society. But it is utopian to try and create cooperatives and so on when we all live within the constraints of the capitalist system and are all affected by it. Turning inwards rather than turning out to build a movement capable of winning real change is doomed to frustration and failure.

Capitalism shapes the outlook of all of us from the time we are born, with all of the distortions of the human personality that creates. It is not possible to prescribe exactly how human relations would flower in the future when freed from the rigid straitjackets imposed by capitalism. The crucial issue for anyone determined to end oppression, therefore, is how to end capitalism and begin to build a world that is free of oppression for all. The working class is not ‘disappearing’. In fact, it is potentially stronger today as countries where workers were a tiny minority of society a century ago now have large and powerful working classes. In the economically advanced countries many are driven into low paid, temporary work, often in the service sector, while at the same time, large sections of the population –the so-called professionals – who would have previously considered themselves middle class have been forced into the ranks of the working class in their living conditions and social outlook.

Socialism is the struggle for the fullest achievement of freedom in all spheres, the end of the state, of capitalism, of classes, and of all other oppressions. People sit around and complain about the fat cat corporations, but fear acknowledging that we must end the entire capitalist edifice. 

The Wages System

Every once in a while you may hear the demand for a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Can a worker receive the full equivalent of the work he performs in a capitalist society? The answer is no; it is entirely impossible as it would leave no surplus value and thus no profits for the capitalist class, and thus render their existence impossible. It would become obvious that they are superfluous parasites, feeding off of the blood and sweat of the working people and living on the unpaid labor of others. The wealth of a selected minority is based on the exploitation of the majority’s hard work. To expect fair wages under this system is like expecting the abolition of slavery in a slaveholder society. In capitalism, workers must ultimately face exploitation if this system of profit and the reaping of surplus value is to be maintained.

People who praise the great “free market” would say that wages and working conditions are fixed by competition between the buyers, the capitalists. Supposedly, capitalists are all competing for workers, so that competition inevitably leads to fair wages and working conditions. After all, the seller—the worker—theoretically has several options of employers to choose from. If a buyer doesn’t offer a price that a worker thinks is fair for her labor, then she can look for another job that pays better. By agreeing to the prevailing wage, so goes this line of argument, workers have essentially made the statement: “We think this is fair.”

One problem with this “logic” is that workers and bosses do not start on equal terms when they are buying and selling. For most of us, if we don’t have a job, we can’t pay our bills, feed ourselves and our families, or heat our homes. Having employment is a life or death issue. It may not be life or death in the short term, but eventually if you can’t find a job or someone with a job who will help you out financially, you will not be able to buy the things you need to live, let alone the things you need in order to be happy and fulfilled. It’s a very different story for the owners of the companies we work for. They have money in the bank, and if they don’t get employees tomorrow or even this month, they might be severely inconvenienced. Although their companies might take a hit in profits, they won’t risk anything like the consequences workers do. Their worst case scenario is far better than ours, so the free market lover’s idea of an “even playing field” is, in reality, a sick joke.

Today, there is a massive pool of unemployed workers and the capitalists, as a class, use unemployed working-class people against the rest of the class. If business is good and jobs appear, then unemployed people are immediately ready to take those jobs. Until every single one of those unemployed workers has found a job, capitalists will use desperate job seekers to keep wages down. The mere existence of this pool of unemployed workers strengthens the power of the bosses in their struggle with workers. Anyone who has ever heard a boss say, “If you don’t like it here, there are 10 other people I could hire to do your job,” will know how this plays out in terms of respect on the job. In the foot race against the capitalist class, the working class has to drag an anvil chained to its ankle—but that is “fair” according to a free market economist.

Now let’s take a look at how bosses pay their workers. Where does a capitalist get the money to pay our very “fair” wages? He pays them from his capital, his stored up funds from all the business he’s done, from all the goods or services his company has sold. Where did those goods and services come from in the first place? They came from the workers. The employees are the ones who worked to create those products or services that were then sold to consumers. The boss doesn’t do any work—he might oversee some of the workings of the company, but for the most part he sits on his ass watching as the work takes place. So we can say clearly the workers created the value that built the fund that they get paid from—a worker’s wage is paid from the product of her own work. Now, according to common fairness, you should get out what you put in, your wage should be equal to the value that you have created for the company through your work—but that would not be fair according to the values of a capitalist economy. On the contrary, the wealth you have created goes to the boss, and you get out of it no more than the bare necessities of life—a wage as low as the boss can get away with paying. So the end result of this supposedly “fair” race is that the product of the working class’s labor gets accumulated in the hands of those that do not work, and in their hands, it becomes the most powerful means to enslave the very people who produced it.

This isn’t the worst part of it. Bosses lay off workers when they develop new technology to replace employees and they lay people off when their profits plunge, as is the case in the current recession. As a result, workers lose their jobs way faster than they can be absorbed into other jobs. Today, there is a massive pool of unemployed workers and the capitalists, as a class, use unemployed working-class people against the rest of the class. If business is bad and there are few jobs for those of us who find ourselves out of work, some of us can collect a meager amount of unemployment money, while some turn to stealing and some lose their homes and are forced to beg for money on the street. If business is good and jobs appear, then unemployed people are immediately ready to take those jobs. Until every single one of those unemployed workers has found a job, capitalists will use desperate job seekers to keep wages down. The mere existence of this pool of unemployed workers strengthens the power of the bosses in their struggle with workers. Anyone who has ever heard a boss say, “If you don’t like it here, there are 10 other people I could hire to do your job,” will know how this plays out in terms of respect on the job. In the foot race against the capitalist class, the working class has to drag an anvil chained to its ankle—but that is “fair” according to a free market economist.

Now let’s take a look at how bosses pay their workers. Where does a capitalist get the money to pay our very “fair” wages? He pays them from his capital, his stored up funds from all the business he’s done, from all the goods or services his company has sold. Where did those goods and services come from in the first place? They came from the workers. The employees are the ones who worked to create those products or services that were then sold to consumers. The boss doesn’t do any work—he might oversee some of the workings of the company, but for the most part, he sits on his ass watching as the work takes place. So we can say clearly the workers created the value that built the fund that they get paid from—a worker’s wage is paid from the product of her own work. Now, according to common fairness, you should get out what you put in, your wage should be equal to the value that you have created for the company through your work—but that would not be fair according to the values of a capitalist economy. On the contrary, the wealth you have created goes to the boss, and you get out of it no more than the bare necessities of life—a wage as low as the boss can get away with paying. So the end result of this supposedly “fair” race is that the product of the working class’s labour gets accumulated in the hands of those that do not work, and in their hands, it becomes the most powerful means to enslave the very people who produced it.

“A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work”. The “fairness” of the market is all on one side—the side of the capitalist class. So let‘s bury that old motto forever and replace it with a better one: “Abolish the wage system!”

Nevertheless, without rebirth, without a stronger labour movement, there will be little hope for socialism.

Adapted from here, an IWW article

Beyond Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that, inherently, benefits a select few while everyone else struggles to make ends meet or survive. Capitalism rewards capital … not effort (work). Capitalism not only survives, but thrives on the exploitation of human labor and talent, and the limited natural resources of Earth. The primary objectives under capitalism are the never-ending growth of profit and increasing the accumulation of capital assets … money and otherwise. Basically, there are two ways a capitalist can increase profits: sell more, make more or reduce costs (expenses). The problem with selling more and making more is that both require additional spending, an expense. Reducing costs (expenses) has a better short-term chance of improving bottom-line performance. Every dollar spent on an expense is a dollar that isn't available in profit. Historically, reducing the expense item that results in the most and immediate profit is suppressing/reducing worker (employee) wages. In other words, the ruling class capitalist believes that every dollar paid to workers (employees) that is over and above what is absolutely necessary or required is a dollar lost. Under capitalism, there is absolutely no reason for an employer to pay a single penny more than what is needed to keep the worker (employee) coming back to work day after day. Capital doesn't produce any products or provide any services … the working class does. Yet, it is the capitalist class that reaps the profits generated by the working class. There is no economic justice or equality under capitalism … only tyranny and wage slavery. Capitalism is inefficient and will most certainly destroy the planet left to its own cancerous devices.

Anything that can be used to generate "surplus value" (also known as profit), income or wealth is considered private property. Private property is what anarchists want to eliminate because it is used for exploitation and control over others. Personal property (possessions) includes the house you own and are living in, your cars and all of your personal belongings.   These items are considered your possessions and are not subject to common/collective ownership. Land and, buildings, machinery or any capital asset that is currently used to generate profit or an income will be commonly owned by the people.  "The Commons" such as utilities, communications, roads, bridges, parks and other similar items available for use by all people will also be commonly owned. The workers and/or the community will collectively own and manage the workplaces as well as the distribution of their products and/or services.  Production (the combined effort and labor of goods produced and services provided) will be for the use and benefit of all people and will be readily available based on the needs of the individual or family.

We see the state as the means (tool) by which the ruling class rules. We believe that we have the ability to live collectively, productively, cooperatively and peaceably based on our common interests that are inherent to mankind. We don't need to be ruled or dominated. Collectively, we have enough intelligence and common sense (based on our experiences) to determine what is right and what is wrong in our relationships with others. The main function of the state is to guarantee the existing social relationships and their sources within a given society through centralised power and a monopoly of violence. The state, therefore, is the political expression of the economic structure of society and, therefore, the representative of the people who own or control the wealth of the community. The state ensures the exploitative privileges of its ruling elite by protecting certain economic monopolies from which its members derive their wealth. The nature of these economic privileges varies over time. Under the current system, this means defending capitalist property rights. This service is referred to as “protecting private property” and is said to be one of the two main functions of the state, the other being to ensure that individuals are “secure in their persons.” However, although this second aim is professed, in reality, most state laws and institutions are concerned with the protection of property.

Socialists desire a society, based on free association.

Adapted from here, Beyond Socialism website.

We only win, when everyone wins.

We cannot begin the work of building new economic systems until we take off the mental shackles of the old ones. Anthropologists tell us that for most of human history we lived in small egalitarian societies that rewarded co-operation and sharing and punished selfishness and accumulation. No one is saying we should return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but it’s an indicator of what’s possible for human nature – in fact, we have over 90,000 years of inspiration of what is possible. All we lack is the confidence to see beyond the constraints of the education and indoctrination we have received. There are new ideas arising all around the world that point to a better way. Ideas abound. The decision is ours to reclaim our past and our future. Will we continue with the status quo, regardless of the inevitable destruction it will guarantee? Or will we create the better world we know is possible? If we are to fight back, we must bring together diverse movements working for social change and set ourselves upon an agreed goal. Connecting issues and social movements and organizations to each other has the potential to build a powerful movement of movements that is stronger than any of its individual parts. This means educating ourselves and in our groups about these issues and their causes and their interconnection. We don’t need calls for repairing the system; instead, we need a new system

Wealth inequality has reached truly epic proportions. In 2011, 110 of the 175 largest global economic entities on earth were corporations, with the corporate sector representing a clear majority (over 60 percent) over countries. The revenues of Royal Dutch Shell, for instance, were on par with the GDP of Norway and dwarfed the GDP of Thailand, Denmark or Venezuela. In other words, more economic power is in private hands than public. Most corporations started the globalization process by exploiting human labor where it was cheapest and the rules were the slackest. The rich are rich because they grab land and natural resources, and exploit the human labor of the poor.  We will only be able to eliminate poverty once we stop this plunder. We are told that as the rich get richer the rest of us will get richer too.  But we know now that this is a lie. Average wages are lower today than they were in the 1960s, and household incomes are stagnating while the 1% are growing richer than ever before.

We believe that governments run the world and that those governments are democratic.  But the most powerful entities on earth are corporations, not governments, run for private profit, not for public good.  And these corporations exercise undue influence over government policies.  It is a system where money buys votes. The hopes and desires of the majority are rarely considered. Capitalism driven by the relentless search for profits is destroying the environment. The truth is that our current system allows pretty much every corporation to externalise both environmental and social costs. Capitalism turns natural resources into commodities in order to attract more capital. That’s its sole purpose. The hallmark of capitalism is poverty in the midst of plenty. Capitalism has generated massive increases in productivity and extravagant wealth for some, yet many people still struggle to make ends meet. The idea that capitalism can be rendered a benign social order in which ordinary people can live flourishing, meaningful lives is ultimately an illusion because, at its core, capitalism cannot be reformed. The idea of taming capitalism does not eliminate the tendency for capitalism to generate harm; it simply ameliorates their effects. This is like a palliative medicine which deals with symptoms rather than with the underlying causes of a health problem. The idea of eroding capitalism supposes that cooperatives and worker-owned businesses have the potential, in the long run, of expanding to the point where capitalism is out-competed and supplanted from its dominance. It is far-fetched and implausible that within an economy dominated by capitalism an alternative could ever really displace capitalism, given the immense power and wealth of large capitalist corporations. If so-called non-capitalist emancipatory forms of economic activities and relations ever grew to the point of threatening the dominance of capitalism, they would simply be crushed on the very uneven playing field of commerce and by the State. The only hope is to sweep capitalism away and then build an emancipatory alternative.

Imagine an economy without bosses. It’s not a utopian vision. The Socialist Party are people who do not resign ourselves to the fate we are so often told is inevitable. We are people who refuse to continue as slaves. We are people who are remembering how to be human beings. We are people who are ready to reclaim our own lives. We are people who have realised that unless it is stopped, capitalism will kill everything on the planet. We are ready to fight back. And we are going to win. The greatest problem we have is that we can’t imagine any alternative to capitalism. And that is our challenge, to make a post-capitalist society tangible. The Socialist Party aim to build a peaceful, people-powered revolution. Our objective is to help shift public perception towards true progress, creating the framework for a society that benefits the many and not the few. It will take a collective effort of shared resources and ideas to restructure our world.

A Solidarity Society and a Livable Future

When you begin to realise that something’s wrong with the world, the first step is educating yourself about it. Mankind has constructed an economic system we can’t control. We are its slaves and victims. We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. We are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the humanity family or the planet. There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. Divided, global issues are overwhelming. United, our collective strength is unstoppable. If we put our future into the hands of some new messiah, what will happen when those leaders betray us or imprisoned or who are discredited or otherwise disempowered? Do we put our future on hold? It is we, the people, who are making the future. We have to fight without any guarantee that we are going to win. We have waited too long to get started and have a long way to catch up.

Capitalism is a coercive economic system that creates economic deprivation. Capitalism is a ruthless economic system that rates everything in terms of its monetary value and sees everything as nothing more than a source of financial profit. If capitalism makes workers’ lives miserable, those who can’t work are treated even worse. Our civilisation is dominated by a profound fear. We have grown accustomed to horror.

With a growing awareness of mounting ecological, economic and social problems people are realizing that humans are social animals, encompassing identity that connects us with the whole humanity of the world - not just our friends and family, not just our city, our country, but every living being on Earth. It is a new understanding that sees everyone on this planet as one family - that everything is interconnected. There is no "us" and "them." For millions of people on the planet, the problem and suffering of the world are our problems. We stand at a critical moment in history, a time when humanity must choose its future. To move forward we must recognize that we are one human family and one community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on economic justice. We urgently need to share a vision of a world community and embrace a spirit of human solidarity and kinship.

Let us keep our eyes on the real goal. The great issue is not raising taxes on the rich or achieving a better regulation of banks. It’s economic democracy. If the debate isn’t about economic power, it’s irrelevant. The problem isn’t just a few “bad apples.” The crisis is not the result of the selfishness of a few investment bankers; it is the inevitable consequence of an economic system that rewards cut-throat competition at every level of society. Capitalism consumes everything, transforming the world into profit. The answer is not to advocate another version of capitalism or even reverting to some earlier stage of capitalism such as returning the gold standard. Tinkering with the corporate state will not work. If we do not wrest power from the corporations' hands we will be plunged into neo-feudalism and environmental catastrophe.

Virtually all of humanity lived by hunting and gathering before about 12,000 years ago. We realise more and more that the cultural beliefs surrounding capitalism do not reflect any universal "human nature." Assumptions about human behavior that humans are naturally competitive and acquisitive, and that social stratification is natural, do not apply to many hunter-gatherer peoples. The very existence of societies living adequately, even happily, with no industry, no agriculture, and few material possessions offers a challenge to the concept of human nature held by most economists. Many cultures have very different ways of organizing production and distribution. Among the Hadza, for example, there are elaborate rules to ensure that all meat is equally shared. Hoarding, or even having a greater share than others, is socially unacceptable. Apart from personal items, such as tools, weapons, or smoking pipes, there are sanctions against accumulating possessions. Accounts by early European explorers and anthropologists indicate that sharing and a lack of concern with ownership of personal possessions are common characteristics of hunter-gatherers. Sharing is the central rule of social interaction among hunters and gatherers. There are strong injunctions on the importance of reciprocity. Generalised reciprocity, the giving of something without an immediate expectation of return is the dominant form in face-to-face groups. Its presence in hunting and gathering societies is almost universal.

No radical action without radical thought

The Socialist Party has thought long and hard about the state and its repressive forces. Many assume that bringing capitalism to an end will require violence. But workers can paralyze the capitalist class without armed insurrection or riots in the street. The Socialist Party embraces a vision of a non-violent society. In our literature, we have laid bare the roots of violence in our capitalist society. Socialists are not worshippers of violence. Above all do they try to guard against the sporadic, meaningless and inevitably self-defeating violence that suffering and resentment are so likely to prompt.

Civil resistance does not succeed because it melts the hearts of dictators and secret police.  It succeeds because it is more likely than armed struggle to attract a large and more diverse base of participants and impose unsustainable costs on a regime. Nonviolence allows a movement to mobilize a greater number of participants and supporters. In other words, there are fewer barriers to participation than in an armed conflict, so a wider stratum of society is more likely to take part. And, needless to say, the larger the movement, the more difficult it is for a government to forcibly suppress it. when large numbers of people engage in acts of collective nonviolent resistance, a regime’s repressive apparatus becomes overstretched.  Nonviolent movements can initiate a wider variety of tactics than is possible in an armed movement; not only demonstrations and strikes but other forms of non-cooperation that make it clear that the legitimacy of the rulers has dissolved. What was necessary to defeat a police-state is not greater violence, as some seem to think, but the mass power of workers to effectively disarm that apparatus of violence: overwhelming it with numbers, dissolving its legitimacy, and winning over fellow-workers, particularly those from the “establishment” such as security forces.

 Even the most repressive regime relies upon a degree of cooperation and consent from the population. When that legitimacy among the citizenry has dissipated, the state’s use of violence becomes increasingly difficult or even counterproductive. When large sectors of society withdraw their cooperation from the opponent government, it's extremely difficult for that government to maintain its hold on control. When the majority of the working class withdraws its cooperation from the capitalist class, it would be extremely difficult for that class to maintain its hold on power and its pillars of support will begin to crumble. The capitalist class in such a situation hardly lacks firepower as they always outgun the workers. But unleashing that coercive armed force against a rebellious working class could backfire, adding fuel to the fire. The police and soldiers (workers themselves and with family and friends on the other side) might refuse to carry out the orders or even turn their guns against the rulers.

Non-violence can play an important role in moving forward from limited political democracy we possess now to the full social democracy. Not as a substitute for electoral and constitutional action, but as an additional guarantee that the socialist majority will achieve its goal under any conceivable circumstances. Socialists are convinced that the success of a revolution depends on a majority of the working class coming to have an understanding of and desire for socialism. This is the key issue; much more important than the specific tactics socialists employ to surmount this or that obstacle along the way. Our own our strategy for achieving our own goal of a new class-free, border-free, money-free society of common ownership society is for more and more of our fellow workers to understand and consciously aim for this new form of society, until the point of critical mass is reached where replacing capitalism with socialism is a real, concrete task for the working class. At that point, the question becomes how best to take that final step. And we believe that, once socialism has majority backing, a nonviolent, democratic transformation is possible and preferable. Violence is an effective means for a minority to hold on to power, or for another minority group to topple them and become the new rulers. When the majority of workers are moving steadfastly toward socialism, the violence of the minority ruling class would be unable to stem the tide, at least not for long. The Socialist Party does not advocate violence because it is inconsistent with the end in view—a classless society of free labour and production for use. The end itself determines the means. The Socialist Party does not seek to impose its object on unwilling participants but aims rather at facilitating our fellow-workers to freely arrive at ideas.

Socialist society cannot begin until the vast majority of the dispossessed realise that capitalist property relations and the division of labour which arises from it are the real barriers which hamper and frustrate the development of the individual in the widest sense, out of the energising of their knowledge and experience they will act accordingly. In a fundamental sense, the abolition of capitalist property relations is merely the necessary condition which makes possible the releasing of men and women's energies, capacities and will to re-integrate themselves in the new society. But there will be no enlightened few, politically and economically directing the uninitiated many, because the many will have gained the social experience to direct society along the path it wishes to go. There may be in the building of socialist society much to learn, and some things to unlearn. One thing history will have taught, however, is that love, goodwill, the rights of the individual, can only have real meaning in an equalitarian and humanist society. It is only through peaceful means that we can develop better understanding between people.

The Socialist Party is not specifically a pacifist organisation. We consider that a socialist majority that has won control of political power democratically should reserve the right to use armed force, if necessary, to deal with any armed resistance to the establishment of socialism by some recalcitrant pro-capitalist minority should this occur. After the majority have democratically declared their intention to abolish capitalism, it is just conceivable that a minority might take up arms to prevent the introduction of the new social relations in some small localities. In such circumstances, the majority may democratically decide to use force. The Socialist Party is not pacifist.

We are all related

The world is changing quickly and there is a great need for people everywhere to visualize why and how it is happening. If we can see our place in the process, we can consciously and intentionally help it happen faster. Capitalism is characterized not just by inequality that’s always been a feature of class society. In 2015, the richest 1 percent of the world’s population owned as much as the remaining 99 percent combined and just 62 individuals owned more than the poorest three and a half billion people on earth. Capitalism uses a legal framework of private ownership to extract value from the labour of others. The end game is a system that hoards wealth, stifles innovation, and ultimately destroys the value created by cooperation among those who seek to do things that cannot be done alone. The Socialist Party is devoted to building a new political and economic system that is equitable and democratic. It is a challenge that brings the different peoples of the world together, to build something better together for the benefit of all people. We cannot afford not to try, nor to fail. If we can all connect the dots to see capitalism as the root cause of the problems we all face, it could give rise to a global movement powerful enough to halt the profit-driven juggernaut.

The campaigns to improve our lot under capitalism are endless. Once one form of oppression is dealt with, there’s always another left to tackle, but while engaging in that new fight, the former is bound to return because no progress is ever permanent under capitalism. Rights are won, and the next day they’re under attack. We put much of our energy into defence instead of offence. The fight against oppression is never-ending, but does that serve to focus our attention away from the larger fight; from the fight to overturn capitalism and the oppressive structures it perpetuates? We seek to reverse inequality, reduce poverty, achieve equal rights; but why must we fight so hard for basic human decency? The culture of over-work and over-competition is driving us crazy and turning us against each other. Our minds are stuck in a frame of capitalist realism where instead of challenging the very core structures that create the problems against which we fight, we target their products individually; but until the structures that create this oppression are dealt with, the fight will never be over. Racism, sexism, and the class system will always return unless the structures responsible for them are destroyed. We cannot fix the unfixable, or engage in an endless struggle for social justice in a system where justice isn’t on offer. Nor is the opposite of capitalism to be centralised state-ownership and control.

 All the while, those in control of the system get to do what they please. They make us believe we live in free societies when only they have true freedom. They set up sham democracies to make us think elected representatives will represent the will of the masses. They propagandize about the importance of a “free” media when they own the outlets through which the masses are informed, and use them to frame the discussion by distorting facts to fit their narrative and excluding stories they don’t want people to hear. They claim property ownership to be the ultimate freedom, allowing themselves to buy up vast tracts of land, while the masses have to spend a lifetime in debt just to buy a home, requiring them to submit to the wage system for the entirety of their lives in order to pay it back. Instead of placing the focus on the battles for rights and regulations that will eventually be overturned, the fight needs to be brought to the system as a whole. Instead of accepting the usual prescriptions of capitalism, let’s look beyond the horizon to formulate alternative modes of social and economic organization. These new ideas aren’t simply an update of the ideologies of old, but something new that takes inspiration from modern developments and the mass desire for a better world. Much needs to be done to open the minds of the masses to new possibilities beyond capitalism, and to redirect the energies of mass movements from remedial campaigns to political revolution, but after a long period where the pathway to such a goal was narrow, it has expanded in the post-recession era and must be seized if the oppressive structures of capitalism are to be finally overthrown. So if you want to live in a world where people come together cooperation capitalism must end.

Now imagine what kind of future most people do want. We would like to be healthy and happy, have time to pursue our passions, become skilled at doing things we love, and bestow a legacy to be remembered with admiration by our children and their children when we are long dead and gone. People enjoy leisure and developing human contact and friendships. It is in our nature to be social, to make music and art, to make love and seek pleasure. Nowhere in our DNA are we wired to indulge in the destruction of the world and our fellow human beings. Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists all conclude that we don’t seek to dominate and oppress or to take more than our fair share. Which begs the question: Why is it that wealth and power inequality are the norm today? We have been told a great lie about capitalism — that everyone who works hard in life will be successful, make a lot of money, and have a good life. So why is it that most of us wake up in the morning and go off to jobs that make money for someone else?  Billionaires’ money get comes from the hard work of other people. They just sit back and let their stock portfolios “do the work” for them.

Imagine how the world would look if we revived the fight for beauty. We would care more for the world around us. We’d build our cities, towns, and infrastructure beautifully. We’d protect nature and the countryside, while still producing enough food. We’d care for our cultural inheritance and focus on improving our quality of life rather than striving for unsustainable levels of growth. John Muir, the environmetalist, said the fight for beauty is “not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress”. The Socialist Party is are focused on reclaiming our “common wealth” in both the economic and political sense and end the unsustainable market behavior. In the struggle for a more just society, we will be aided, not hurt, by our shared nature.

An Honorable Man!

A recent program on TV Ontario focused on the career of the Right Honourable Gentleman Winston Churchill, during WW1. It mentioned as it could not fail to, his enormous cock-up at Gallipoli. 

The significant thing is what it didn't say, which was that 30,000 young men died in the Right Honourable Gentleman's attempt to advance his career. This was something he was very open about during his early years in ''public service''. 

Nor was it mentioned that Navy head Jack Fisher and war minister Kitchener told him it was a hare-brained scheme that would not work. ''Yet Churchill was an honourable man''. 

Would it perhaps be better if we lived in a world where there were no great men, but instead a great society?

 John Ayers.

Quote Of The Month

 Voltaire said,''Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities''. 

Like making workers kill each other believing they are enemies, for example.

 John Ayers.

How do we move toward planetary prosperity?

"In virtue of this monstrous system, the children of the worker, on entering life, find no fields which they may till, no machine which they may tend, no mine in which they may dig, without accepting to leave a great part of what they will produce to a master. They must sell their labour for a scant and uncertain wage." - Peter Kropotkin (The Conquest of Bread)

The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease." - Helen Keller

We are living through unprecedented global change. Capitalism transformed lives by wiping out millennia-old livelihoods that were ways of life with no sharp division between work and leisure, and replacing them with dreary factory assembly line jobs where we wait desperately for weekends and holidays. For the poor, we face either no employment at all, or insecure, exploitative and unsafe jobs at construction sites, mines, and sweat-shops. Even the vast majority of those in modern sectors of work, such as the IT industry, are mere cogs in a vast assembly line stretching across the globe. During times of uncertainty and hardship, it is well known that people look for simple answers and strong leaders. The polarization of our communities divides us into “us versus them” against the very people who should be our allies.

There are a lot of people spreading false stories about what it means to be human. They tell us we are greedy and selfish, that our primary motivation is to “maximize self-interest”, and that the world is made up exclusively of individuals seeking profit for themselves. If humans are selfish and greedy, the best bet then is to let loose our greed, deregulate financial markets so the rich can “invest” in ways that bring them more wealth. Cut taxes and neglect schools, roads, hospitals (anything that benefits society) so that everyone feels like they have to go it alone. Then divide these suffering people against each other using all the tools of wartime propaganda. However, people are profoundly social. We feel inequality as a physical stress and seek fairness in our dealings with others. We are hard-wired for empathy. Nearly all of our problems are rooted in the massively unequal ownership of land, wealth, and power that exists among the 7 billion human beings on earth. These problems are rooted in the majority of the planet's population being stripped of its ability to satisfy the most basic of human needs. The crises we are going through was a direct consequence of the wealth hoarding, social inequality, and environmental harms inflicted upon the world so a tiny few could accumulate massive profits. If we are to ever establish a free and just society, mass expropriation of personal wealth and property will be a necessity. In other words, the few dozens of families who have amassed personal riches equal to half the world must be forced to surrender this wealth. Expropriation is not theft. It is not the confiscation of "hard-earned" money. It is not the stealing of private property. It is, rather, the recuperation of massive amounts of land and wealth that have been built on the back of stolen natural resources, human enslavement, and coerced labor, and amassed over a number of centuries by a small minority.

The pro-capitalist apologists argue their entitlement on the grounds:

(1) that capitalism equals freedom; or, at the very least, is the only alternative,

(2) that capitalism naturally produces "winners" and "losers,"

(3) that capitalism is as meritocratic as possible, and thus everyone has an equal opportunity to become a "winner" or "loser," and your individual outcome is based solely on your "hard work" or lack thereof, and

(4) that "winners" have earned their wealth through their own exceptionalism, and thus deserve it; while, in contrast, "losers" have earned their impoverishment through their own shortcomings, and thus deserve it.

It is an ahistorical theory that human beings, as we exist today, have just appeared in our current state, and that this state (which is rife with inequality, impoverishment, hunger, homelessness, joblessness, etc.) is justified merely by its being, because it was not shaped by history, as history does not exist. With this blank-slate approach, investigation is not necessary. Inquiry is not necessary. For the world is as it is, the systems we live in are the best we can do. However, we ultimately learn that "other people's money" is really not justifiably theirs to begin with. Instead, things like personal wealth, land, and power are accumulated in only one fundamental way: through the murdering, maiming, coercing, stealing, robbing, or exploiting of others. This is not only a historically-backed truism but it is also a fundamental truth rooted in human relations. There simply is no other way to amass the obscene amounts of personal wealth as have been amassed on earth. Whether speaking of caste systems, nobility, aristocracy, feudalism, indentured servitude, chattel slavery, or capitalism, all modern socioeconomic systems have carried one common trait: they all amount to a minority using the majority through exploitation as a source of wealth, and thus have enforced and maintained this causal relationship by the threat and use of physical force and coercion in order to protect their minority interests. From slavery and the industrial robber-baron era to the modern forms of corporate and finance capitalism, each epoch has continued seamlessly by constantly replacing and rebranding forms of human exploitation - peasant, servant, slave, tenant, laborer - as sources of concentrated wealth.

One of the basic mechanisms of capitalism is the relationship between capital and labor. No matter what argument one may make in support of capitalism, this fundamental relationship can never be denied. Everything from entrepreneurship to small, family-owned businesses to corporate conglomerates must rely on this foundational interaction inherent to this economic system. Whether branded as "crony-capitalism," "corporate-capitalism," "unfettered-capitalism" or any one of the many monikers used to distract from its inherent flaws and contradictions, proponents can't deny its lifeblood - its need to exploit labor. And they can't deny the fundamental way in which it exploits labor - by utilising property as a social relationship. It is in this relationship where masses of human beings are commodified, essentially transformed into machines, and forced to work so they may create wealth for those who employ them. This fundamental aspect of capitalism is not debatable.

The prevailing mindset within capitalist society has been to place property above all else. Consumerism equates self-worth with the accumulation of wealth, land, and other material goods, has conditioned us to view our lives and the lives as others as being secondary, or at best equal, to the value of property. Our property becomes our identity, and for this reason, it becomes as sacred and revered as human life itself. Property means dominion over things and the denial to others of the use of those things. It is the private dominion over things that condemns millions of people to be mere nonentities. The use of private property as a way to exploit others is unique to capitalism. For example, in contrast to feudalism, capitalists only allow workers access to their property during times when said workers are laboring to create wealth for said owners. In feudal times, peasants were allowed to live on this land, and even use it as a means to sustain themselves and their families, as long as this personal activity was done after the lord's work had been completed. Now, with capitalism, workers "punch in," proceed to labor for a specified amount of time in exchange for a fraction of the wealth they create, "punch out," and then are left to find their own means of housing, food, clothing, and basic sustenance with only the wage they receive. This latter task has proven to be difficult for a majority of the world's population for the past number of centuries, even in so-called industrialized nations, which is why welfare states have become prominent as a means to facilitate the mass exploitation of the working class. Capitalists and their governments learned long ago that workers must be able to survive, if only barely, so that they may continue to labor and consume. Private property is lauded by right-wing theories of "libertarianism" as the basis of liberty and freedom. In reality, private property accomplishes the opposite and makes any semblance of human liberty obsolete and impossible.

The wealthy few have stolen from the world; and have enslaved, impoverished, and indebted the rest of us (over 7 billion people) in the process. They have no right to their wealth. It belongs to us - it belongs to global society. Not so we can all live extravagant lifestyles, but rather so we can satisfy the most basic of human rights and needs - food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education - and thus carry on our lives as productive and creative human beings. Righting centuries of wrongs is not "theft," it's justice.

"In actual history, it is notorious that conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, and force, play the great part." - Karl Marx

"I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence." - Eugene V. Debs

The money system must be abolished

All over the world, we feel that there is something deeply wrong with the way we live. Capitalism mindlessly consumes resources, exhausts our soil, deplete fish stocks, pollutes the rivers and seas, and poisons the air. Human labour is just one more resource to be consumed and then discarded. Globalised capitalism is vampire-like web, parasitically sucking the blood and life-force of the planet’s peoples. The Socialist Party's mission is to cast some light on the darker side of capitalism. Our vision is of an abundant, peaceful, sustainable and cooperative society that to some may seem impossible. The socialist solution appears 'utopian' and not practical and for many the efforts to realize this vision should be abandoned in favour of more short term, pragmatic but insufficient remedies. But this is the goal we must aspire to if we seek a sustainable economic system because the one we have now is no longer viable. The mainstream media are doing everything they can to convince us that the solution to our social and environmental problems is going to be found in the very same policies that have created them in the first place. Their T.I.N.A. [There is No Alternative] narrative continues to dominate the debate and the result is that it is infecting people with cynicism and apathy. Rather than accept present day logic the Socialist Party seeks to navigate societal life away from the destructiveness of constant economic growth.

Murray Bookchin possessed a vision of democracy and majority voting, which he considered as the only equitable way for a large number of people to make decisions. According to him consensus, in which a single person can veto every decision, presents a danger for society to be dismantled. However, all members of society possess knowledge and memory, and thus the social collectivity does not have an interest in depriving “minorities” of their rights. For him, the views of a minority are a potential source of new insights and nascent truths, which are great sources of creativity and progress for society as a whole. Through the electoral processes, Bookchin strives at “liberating” the people from politics, and no longer leaving it in the hands of professional “representatives”. Although the system enables people to vote for their representatives, we don't have to look far to see that election campaigns are funded by wealthy elites, that elections only partially or superficially address important issues, and that politicians consistently abandon campaign promises. Politicians are professionals whose careers depend on obtaining power. Regardless of the intentions of the politician, he or she soon learns that for their career to remain and prosper they must serve economic interests, rather than the people who they are supposed to represent. Representative governments and the bureaucracies that sustain them are fundamentally opposed to popular democratic power. Whatever power the State gains is at the expense of popular power, and any power that people gain is done at the expense of the State. It is thus futile to turn to the State with major appeals for change, for these appeals would only be subverted by the State in an attempt to strengthen its own power. To be sure, there are reforms that are necessary and valuable. But if we only work for the completion of these minor reforms, then the root causes of social and environmental problems will persist, and worse, grow and intensify. As long as we live under the State’s power, we cannot expect to have full control over our lives, to fulfill all of our needs, and to be free from oppression altogether. No decision is democratically legitimate unless it has been proposed, discussed, and decided upon by people in a face-to-face assembly. Professional politicians cannot handle social decision any better than “amateurs” everyday people, who reflect a range of perspectives and possess detailed knowledge of the experiences of daily life.

Unlike the widespread current acceptance of nature as a commodity, as something separated from society, Bookchin viewed it in direct link with social life, relationships, and values.  His essential premise is that all environmental problems are rooted in social problems. He supports Peter Kropotkin's argument that mutualism is as essential, if not greater, a component of evolution than what is commonly referred to as competition, that a participatory and cooperative outlook focused than a “struggle for existence”. Capitalism is an economic system that necessitates continuous expansion, exploitation, and the concentrated ownership of wealth. The driving force of capitalism is the competitive market. The market economy's essential purpose is to sell commodities for profit. Profit has to be realized, regardless of the broader effects the commodity has on the environment or society at large, or the capitalist will go bankrupt. In order to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses, the capitalist is compelled to eliminate all social constraints on the exploitation of labor, and to reinvest a large portion of accumulated profits into technologies that will increase productive capacity, thereby lowering the cost of production through its economy of scale. A slow process of cannibalization occurs in which businesses must fail thereby causing wealth to be concentrated into the fewer hands of those who succeed. Due to the “grow or die” imperative imposed by the market, economic growth cannot be contained by moral persuasion, it must continue to expand without any regard for human needs or environmental impact.

Thus, capitalism should be seen for what it is, a malignant cancer. It will continue to grow. The rich never have enough. The more they get, the more they want. Under capitalism, people get rewarded according to their profitability, and economic decisions are put into the individual hands of those who control land, money, machinery, and technical knowledge. Each actor must do what it takes to keep their sales going or else face bankruptcy or unemployment. Due to the market imperative to sell, every aspect of life is eventually assigned a price tag. Not only is this system undemocratic, it is also dehumanizing. Community relationships and the whole orientation of society are reduced to business relationships while individuals are fixated on egotism and conspicuous consumption. Capitalism also has a destructive effect on the urban environment. Instead of humanly communities, industrial capitalism has created mega-cities and urban sprawls. People have become anonymous in their environs.

History has shown that there is ever growing potential in what we can achieve. The socialist concept of freedom is twofold, freedom from exploitation and the freedom to realise one's own individual potential as a human being. A socialist society would seek to minimize anyone's suffering while enabling everyone to fulfill their creative potentials. Socialism is a society of empowered individuals freed from an exploitative market and freed to participate in an economy based on the common-good. Socialists maintain that there are no technical impediments to achieving a “post-scarcity” society of relative abundance. Modern technology, for instance, holds the potential of producing a sufficiency of goods for all people, while reducing the hardships of human labour. The fact that robotics and automation can be used to provide for everyone's needs gives people a choice of what extent to utilize such techniques. What is important is that these technologies can be decentralized and placed under the direct control of a community. Today, capitalism creates an artificial scarcity of goods, while the mass media is used to generate artificial needs in our minds. A post-scarcity society is made possible by rejecting the notion of limitless needs, and replacing it with a commitment to enhance the welfare of all individuals and our environment.

The move from our current society to the free society necessarily involves convincing a majority of the population to support these ideals. To do this, we must build a movement that is organised around the socialist vision. The Socialist Party’s electoral attempts are never be engaged for the purpose of gaining a large following. Losing by a large margin is desirable if people are not yet educated on the ideas being promoted. If a socialist campaign ever surrenders its far-reaching goals to gain a large following, it will inevitably become ineffective, demoralized, and corrupted. It is desired that educated individuals, not propagandized voters, come to accept and join the socialist movement. A different kind of society is truly possible for us to achieve together. Let us begin to take the steps necessary for collectively freeing ourselves from the irrational system that enslaves us.

We oppose nationalism.

Scottish nationalism did not go away with the referendum. Repeated calls are being made for a second referendum. The starting point of any nationalism is the assertion and appreciation of a particular group: “we”. Scotland as a nation was taken for granted by all sides arguing over Scottish independence. The British State considers Scotland a nation and itself a country of four nations. Consequently, Scottish nationalists did not have to agitate for its recognition as a nation. The taken-for-granted starting point for all separatist and unionist agitation was Scotland and the referendum simply presupposed Scotland and the Scots as a collective who now decide on an important aspect of their lives. The referendum could happen because the British State, which asserts absolute authority over its citizens, gave a part of itself — the Scottish Government — permission to subjugate a part of the British population in the case of “Yes” vote.

“We” is also the assertion of an accordance between the people of the nation (“Scots belong and fit together”). When nationalists speak of “us”, they do not simply mean to describe a group that is somehow distinguished from the rest of humanity like “all people with brown hair” or “all people who like tea”, instead “us” characterises a community. Nationalists think that their personal interests and the interests of other members of the community — and hence of the community in total — are somehow aligned. Not necessarily perfectly so but at some level. Nationalists think that somehow the national community is the place where they fit in, where their purposes have a place, where people accomplish their respective goals somehow with each other. They believe that there is a connection, some accordance, some cohesion even, that “we” are “better together”. Nationalists differ in where they see the basis of this accordance. Some see the basis for why “we” fit and belong together in a presumed common biology (“Celtic blood”, “Aryan race”), some in a common culture (language, customs, cultural values) and some even in a common conviction (constitutional patriotism). None of these reasons holds water. There is no “Celtic blood”, language does not preform thought but ideas can be expressed in any language, a habit of drinking tea makes for a tea drinking society, not an all-encompassing community. For example, Cornish nationalists invoke a wide range of historical, political, linguistic and cultural reasons to illustrate that Cornwall does constitute its own nation.

Nationalists identify with their nation. Nationalists assert that belonging to a certain nation is not a lifestyle choice, a conscious, calculated decision or a particular interest, it is an identity. To nationalists, being Scottish or English is not something you decide to do, but it is something which claims to define your being. For an English nationalist when eleven English players win a world cup, we won the world cup in 1966. Thus if the British State goes to war, we go to war and its soldiers are fighting for us. The assertion “we” is as much an invitation as it is a demand. Firstly, “we” is an invitation to look beyond the day-to-day competition and to recognise the needs of the community as being greater than mere individual materialism and calculated decisions for personal gain. Secondly, “we” is also a demand that this unity is not up for debate, it is an invitation you cannot refuse, it is essential.

A lot of energy is spent by professional nationalists — politicians, journalists, teachers, etc. — on educating the population about “their” national customs, culture and history. Students learn the national language, learn about national history, about their “cultural heritage”. National holidays encourage the celebration of the nation. Nationalists hold that a national community requires actualisation in a state. Nationality — in the eyes of nationalists — is an identity which requires a political authority. The nationalist proposition is “the right of nations to self-determination”. Or rather the right of their nation to self-determination, e.g. “Scotland should be an independent country”. Even if the “Yes” campaign had won the independence referendum, it would not have been “the Scottish people” who would have given themselves a state. The Scottish independence referendum was an attempt of a nationalist movement — around the Scottish Government — to subjugate Scottish people under a new state. If the “Yes” agitation had been successful, then the Scottish Government would have subjugated those it defined as Scottish under a new Scottish state, regardless of whether they voted “Yes” or “No”.

The “Yes” campaign and the Radical Independence Campaign argued for independence by listing many nice things which could be done in an independent Scotland: better health care, higher benefits, greener energy … None of these policies were actually on the ballot. The ballot did not ask voters what they think of the welfare state, citizenship laws or where government spending should be directed. The question was if the authority ruling over Scotland should be Scottish and this is the first standard by which nationalists judge it.

Nationalists judge all and sundry from their nationalist standpoint, also other nations and their states. On the world stage, nation states confront each other with their demands and compete for power. They compete economically, threaten each other with their military might and engage in open war. Nationalists observe these conflicts in a peculiar way. To nationalists, their own nation is the home of the decent and universal, the guarantor of everything that is good in the world. In contrast, other nations are merely French, Russian, American etc. The respective national standpoints are merely their particular standpoints. This does not necessarily make them foes, but every nationalist can identify base motives driving other nation states’ policies. Watching a BBC report on Russia compared with RT provides ample material of this kind. From this perspective then, it only makes sense for nationalists to wish their own the best of luck in every endeavour, even the most contemptible ones.

Adapted and abridged. Full original article can be read here