Capitalism Is To Blame.

As all of you are aware racist attacks have, recently, become rampant. The worse place being Germany where an influx 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 have caused a backlash and a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. There were 3,500 attacks in 2016, which led to 560 people being injured; 43 of them were children. 

Capitalism is a divisive system and there is no reason to think it will stop. As long as members of the working lass blame each other for their misfortune they will not organize for the solution of a great world-wide co-operative commonwealth called socialism. 

Steve and John.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY

“Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat".  Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme,

“Dictatorship of the proletariat” was a phrase used by Marx. The phrase was not intended for, and not used in, one of his books or major pamphlets, but was merely a remark used in passing in the course of correspondence. This however has not prevented the phrase being analysed and dissected ad nauseam. But never with the meaning given to it by either the Left or the Right. Marx derived the language from the constitution of the Roman Republic where there was provision for one of the magistrates in times of crisis to be nominated dictator, which meant that he was invested with plenary powers to deal with the situation. Proletarii was the word used to describe the poor Roman citizens who were regarded as contributing nothing to the State but children (in Latin proles means ‘offspring’.) At the time of the French Revolution, the leaders and thinkers of which modelled themselves on the Ancient Roman Republic. The Jacobins were in favour of a ‘dictatorship’ by a minority of revolutionaries to crush the resistance of the nobility. The term proletaire came into use to describe ordinary, poor people. The ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ was for Marx, the exercise of political power by the working class in their own interest. This Marx equated with a complete political democracy in which the working class — the majority in capitalist society — would rule. His references to the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ all show that he understood it to be the exercise of political power by the working class within a democratic framework. n speaking of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ rather than simply of a ‘revolutionary dictatorship’, Marx made a decisive break with the Jacobin tradition. The idea of ‘dictatorship’ was given a democratic content, since the plenary political power it implied was to be exercised by the majority class in society and not by some revolutionary minority.

Engels in his introduction to the German edition of “The Civil War in France” writes:

“The German philistine has lately been thrown once again into wholesome paroxisms by the expression “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Well, gentle sirs, would you like to know how this dictatorship looks? Then look at the Paris Commune. That was the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

The Commune was an instance of majority control based upon democratic elections. There was no suppression of the newspapers or the propaganda of the minority, and no denial of their right to vote. The Communards, having once obtained control of the State, set about democratising the machinery of legislation and administration. For example, they filled all positions of administration, justice, etc., through election by universal suffrage, the elected being at all times subject to recall by. their constituents. They also paid for all services at the workmen’s rate of pay.

Marx used the word in an explicit sense to mean the domination of society by one class through its control over the state machine. He often, for example, referred to Britain as a "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", though he was freely allowed to write and work in the country. 

DICTATORSHIP  OF THE PARTY

Capitalism is the dictatorship of the bosses

Working people should not be content to remain wage slaves of the capitalists.  Higher wages will solve their problem, when the problem is the wages system itself which condemns workers to be wage slaves and to continually struggle for a living wage. The principal lesson is that another year from now, workers will be forced to fight precisely the same struggle again, just to keep close to their present standard of living. It is necessary to take the struggle forwards, to fight for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system of exploitation. There are no solutions within the capitalist system. The choice is between Left-wing capitalism on one side and the Socialist Party on the other. The Left is for the wages system; the Socialist Party for its abolition. The Socialist Party curries no favours of the employing class and grants none.  It panders to no-one, relying only upon the awakening working class to muster beneath its banner carry it to victory. The Sociaist Party's goal is to raise the consciousness of fellow-workers to the level of a socialist understanding.

Despite relative gains for some workers, the rate of exploitation continues to increase. Each year, a larger share of production goes for profits, a smaller share for wages and other workers’ income. For the reformists, the citizen's wage or universal basic income has become a siren song. The prophets of the future predict a social order of robots in which only a relatively small handful of workers will be required to operate an automated new technology capable of producing a super-abundance of all requisite commodities. Under this order, they argue, the wages system would become obsolete. Work would of necessity, have to be separated from income, for there would otherwise not be enough purchasers for the ever increasing product of the cybernetics. To avoid total collapse, they contend, it will be necessary to provide a guaranteed income for all without regard to who actually performs the little work involved. Most of these experts do a useful service in criticising and exposing the utter insanity of the present capitalist system. Their analysis of the possibilities of abundance for all under a rational system of distribution of the product of modern technology serves to buttress the socialist critique of the capitalist system – that under capitalism, goods and services are produced, not to meet the needs of the people, but for profit. There can be no argument against the proposition that given time and an uninterrupted development of the tendencies inherent in the technological revolution, the amount of labour required to produce an economy of abundance could be reduced to a minimal quantity. Labour-saving machinery is not objectionable in themselves, for in the long run they produce more goods for people to enjoy. What is objectionable is the way in which capitalism introduces new machines, their use to increase profits at the workers’ expense, to bring on unemployment and depression and hunger. One class—the capitalist class—owns and controls the social necessaries, to wit: the economic resources of the world. That class, for its own protection and perpetuation in power, subjects all institutions to its own interests. 

For the capitalists run things for their own profit. They don’t have to pay wages to machines, and the workers not replaced by machines have to produce more than ever. For the workers, automation mean insecurity, and often disaster. Traditional skilled and semi-skilled occupations become useless in many cases. Workers are removed farther and farther from the commodities they produce; they have less and less reason to take pride in their work. In those factories made obsolete by new methods of production, employers intensify speed-up in an effort to compete. If they can, they cut wages and make jobs and working hours “flexible”. Eventually, such factories modernise or have to be closed down. That is the way capitalism operates, the only way it can operate.  Socialism will use new technology not to produce unemployment but to produce more goods in less working time. The labour power set free by automation will be used for more science, research, education, health measures and other social services, and to promote wider participation in cultural life and recreation. Thus, with socialism the workers will get all the benefits of robotics. So our main job is to kick out the capitalists and establish socialism, not introduce some half-measure.

The time has arrived to come together and build an economy which benefit workers and communities, not industrialists and financiers. It’s time for people to come together for the battles ahead.

Protecting the Planet

Will capitalism lead the world to ecological disaster? It is certainly having a good try. Socialists have for decades railed at capitalist market production for being on a relentless collision course with the environment, and have frequently used clichés like 'profits of doom' and 'merchants of menace'. Now, rarely a day goes by when our attention is not drawn to the various issues of environmental degradation and how the increase in human activity is impacting on large areas of the natural environment globally.

It is time to stop the rape and pillage of the Earth. It is time to protect the environment and to enjoy its bounties in a sensible and sustainable way. The world has the technology and the human expertise. It just needs the political will to make the change. Democracy has been reduced to a tiresome routine that involves electing the rulers once in five years. They have become election machines with their own vested interests. These machines are designed to gather votes and use them as fodder to convert money into power, and power back into money. Substituting one party for another, or making a change of administrative power is not enough; we need an entire new politics. This cannot be done leaders or by a political party but instead if everyone joins together, understanding that this is their work, then a dream becomes a reality. People’s movements need to come together.

The fact that more and more people are becoming concerned about the way the environment is abused is encouraging. But campaigning for increased legislation is not the answer. We need to get rid of a society where a small minority can manipulate nature for their own ends and replace it with one where we all have a real say in how nature is used. While the non-violent direct action policies of the environmentalists may achieve limited success against government policies by lobbying for better regulation, at the end of the day, they will never be able to overcome the profit motive which is the root cause of the problems they wish to ameliorate and are destined to struggle endlessly against capitalism.

The built-in rivalry between vying sections of the capitalist class always results in collateral damage in some form or another. At one end we have the everyday casualties of austerity measures and redundancies. Whilst at the other end extensive damage to the environment. When confronted by barriers of environmental legislation which are designed to diminish the rate of expected profits and the accumulation of capital, the capitalists will do what they have always done in their search for short-term profits: finding or creating loopholes, moving the goalposts, corrupting officials, trying to bribe the local population with empty promises, or shifting the whole concern to an area or region where a more favourable reception is expected and profits maintained.

Before anything constructive can be done, capitalism must go and, with it, the artificial division of the world into separate, competing states. The Earth, and all its natural and industrial resources, must become the common heritage of all humanity. A democratic structure for making decisions at global as well as at local levels must come into being.  When such a united world has been established (or is about to be established) we can decide how to repair the damage capitalism has done to the biosphere. Then what scientific consensus already know should be done can be done, and humanity can begin to organise its relationship with the rest of nature in a genuinely sustainable way. The world's resources are owned by a small minority who use nature to produce goods to be sold in order to make profits. Production for profit means that costs must be kept as low as possible. In this atmosphere the cheapest methods of production must be used and the cheapest methods are rarely those which have a minimal impact on nature. As long as production is carried on for making profits and not for needs the same problems of pollution, resource depletion and species extinction will remain.  Capitalism is simply unable to run on green lines, as its motive force is expansion and domination, with no thought for the consequences for the people or the environment. 

You Have No Stake In This Matter.

The American Government said, on March 7, it had begun deploying an advanced missile defence system, (if one can call it defence], in South Korea, prompting the Chinese to warn of a new atomic arms race in the region which is on edge over North Korea's drive to build a nuclear stockpile. The US announcement came the day after the launch of 4 missiles by North Korea into the waters just off the Japanese coast which they said was a drill for striking American bases in Japan.

 Tensions are mounting as capitalists on both sides want to control the South China Sea. 

 Though we don't know how things will play out, we do know that the working class in North and South Korea, China and the US have no stake in the matter. 

Steve and John.

What It Boils Down To.

Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, demanded, on March 7, to be informed by Education Minister, Mitzie Hunter, exactly how many Ontario schools are going to be shut down. He believes more than 600 schools across Ontario are being threatened with closure. Hunter replied, "I'm not going to provide you with an arbitrary number based on the question you asked." Patrick said, "After thirteen years of waste and scandal after scandal, the Wynne Liberals are trying to balance the books on the backs of our students by fast-tracking school closures." 

Once again, it boils down to money, or lack of. That's capitalism, folks.

 Steve and John.

Hold high the red banner

Fellow-workers, political parties are the expression of economic interests, and in the last analysis are carried to victory or defeat by the development or retardation of economic classes.  It is private property in land and in machinery that creates the division of classes into slave-masters and the enslaved.  To quote the words of Ernest Jones, the Chartist activist:

"The monopoly of land drives him (the worker) from the farm into the factory, and the monopoly of machinery drives him from the factory into the street, and thus crucified between the two thieves of land and capital, the Christ of Labour hangs in silent agony."

We appeal to you then, fellow worker, to rally around the only banner that symbolises hope for you.  Cast off all your old political affiliations, and organise and vote to reconquer society in the interests of its only useful class – the workers. Let your slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, your weapons the industrial and political organisation to conquer your own emancipation. The Socialist Party remains revolutionary, not in the sense that policemen and politicians understand the word, but in its true historical significance, for it is the conscious expression of the working people’s will, to strive for a radical transformation of society and to enable fellow wage-slaves to substitute socialism for capitalism. The emancipation of the working-class is a historical necessity, and it can only be the work of the workers itself. Wherever folk are drudging under the yoke of capitalism, the organised working men and women will demonstrate for the idea of their social emancipation. This conviction is the keynote of the Socialist Party's message.

Neither regulatory legislation nor the resistance of the trade unions removes the main thing which needs abolishing: capitalist relations, which constantly reproduce the contradiction between the capitalist class and the class of wage labourers. The mass of wage labourers remain condemned to life-long wage labour; the gap between them and the capitalists becomes ever deeper and wider the more modern technology prevails. The reformists would gladly convert wage-slaves into contented wage-slaves, so they must hugely exaggerate the advantageous effects of piecemeal palliatives, etc.  Reforms may sometimes ameliorate the situation of the working class by lightening the weight of the chains labour is burdened with by capitalism, but they are not sufficient to end capitalism and to emancipate the workers from the tyranny of wage-slavery. Fellow members of the working- class declare that they are done for ever with the myth that liberty, or even an effective amelioration of the most cruel evils and sufferings of capitalist exploitation will be granted by the benevolence and justice of the ruling class. Only the action of the working people themselves and organised in a class party for the political struggle, can change wage-slaves into equal citizens of a free commonwealth.

The interests of the workers, as the exploited and oppressed, class of society, are the same in all countries. In consequence our must be an world-wide one. Across the frontiers and seas the workers of all nations reach out to each other the hands for a brotherly union; against the global power of capitalism rises the power of the working class as the workers stand up together in unity to affirm the solidarity of our class interests to show that the capitalist exploitation unites the workers without difference of trade, sex, religion, and nationality, into the one revolutionary force, that is going to conquer the world, where labour has all to win and nothing to lose but its chains.

To the fellow members of the working class, the time has arrived when every man and woman will have to choose whether capitalism with all its attendant miseries and horrors is to remain enthroned, or whether we intend to be free. We shall have to choose whether we really believe in self-emancipation, or whether, for generations yet to come, we prefer to remain the tools of the capitalists, and the slaves of profit. We are confident that socialism is the way out for our class from the horrid nightmare of the competitive struggle which sets nation against nation, class against class, and individual against individual. The struggle between individual capitalists to realise profits sets employer against employer. The conflict between national groups of financiers sets nation against nation, and produces war. But despite their individual and national conflicts the whole capitalist class stands united in their common desire to exploit Labour. Hence under capitalism the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy Labour to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities.

In opposition to all other parties—Conservative, Lib-Dem, and Labour— the Socialist Party affirms that so long as one section of the community own and control the means of production, and the rest of the community are compelled to work for that section in order to obtain the means of life, there can be no peace between them. The propertied class controls the State machine, thus our aim demands the capture of the political institutions through the ballot box to afford an opportunity to achieve a peaceful social revolution. Work for the building of the world anew, for the sweeping away of ignorance, for the full physical and mental development of men and women free from class exploitation, and the degradations of poverty. Refuse, and by your neglect you stand for misery, exploitation, greed and war. The eyes of the world are upon you. The choice is yours.

The Decline of the High St

Scotland is losing shops faster than any other part of Britain, according to research. 

Leith in Edinburgh, with a 10.53% closure rate, and Ayr, at 8.3%, were the areas worst affected.

PwC Scotland deals director Mark Addley said: "The average of around one closure per day has been the Scottish average for most years since 2012 - but that will be of little comfort to people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of this. Overall, we are seeing far fewer closures due to outright insolvencies, but more due to the lower key restructuring of store portfolios." Addley said: "Looking ahead, I doubt the figures are going to improve by the end of 2017 for areas like banking as we've seen a number of companies announce branch closures of late

Could It Be A Diversion?

You are all aware of the cock up at the Academy Awards. The media had a field day with it so there is hardly anyone who isn't aware. Yet over the years, there have been approximately 2000 individual presentations and this is the first screw up! That doesn't seem so bad. 

Could it be the capitalist media used it to divert attention from all the terrible things happening these days? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't put it passed them.

 Steve and John

Reforms Just Don't Cut It.

Trump is preparing to roll back one of Obama's policies. His intention is to free big companies from regulations on pollution and climate change. On March 14th, he announced his plan to abandon Barack Obama's commitment on car fuel economy standards. This is not to say that Obama's plan would have solved the problems concerning environmental destruction. However, it would have been better than nothing.

The point being that governments can pass reform measures that do some good, but the next government can rescind or change those measures. So obviously, reforms just don't "cut it".

 No reform ever attempts or ever will attack the most fundamental aspect of capitalism; ownership of the tools of production by a small minority. It's not reforms we need, but revolution. 

Steve and John.

Being more than anti-capitalist

"Anti-capitalism" has become a popular slogan, and a good thing too. But if this is to have a positive impact people have to be clear as to what is mean by capitalism. Unless these anti-capitalists take the time to study what exactly capitalism is and how it operates they risk not advocating a viable alternative. Calling yourself “anti-capitalist” is a bit like proclaiming yourself to be “anti-cancer”. We would all like to see an end to cancer, but the only way to bring that about is to understand how cancer works. In the long run, there isn't any point in just trying to treat the symptoms of the disease. Unless you cure the disease itself, the symptoms will keep on coming back. The same logic applies to capitalism. People have been trying to reform capitalism for as long as it has existed. What have they achieved? A polluted planet, scarred by war and hunger, which is owned and controlled by the McMicrosoft Corporation. Why have things turned out this way? To understand this it is necessary to understand what capitalism is. Hundreds of different organisations are not a movement. They are not even anti-capitalist, in the sense that they haven't yet agreed on a definition of capitalism.

For a revolution to be any good, you have to be FOR something, besides being AGAINST capitalism. Any person can be against capitalism and some people are just against big capitalism (the banks and the corporations) as if somehow 'small' capitalism is a completely different thing, and perfectly nice. It's not. They're the same. Capitalism is commodity production for sale on a market and instead of that, we could have co-operative production for use and free distribution on the basis of need. This would involve no markets, no money, no commodities, no private property, no rich class and poor class, no ecological destruction, no famine, no war and virtually no crime. Anti-globalisation is supported by many. It is a movement that is hard to pin down and impossible to characterise in a few words. The proponents seek to constrain the global financial system; restrict the behaviour of corporations; stop the privatisation of public resources such as land and water, among other ameliorations of the world order. Unfortunately, the thinking is stuck very much within the blinkers of capitalism.

We cannot hope to understand world events unless we view these from a class, rather than national, perspective. We live in a world where the dominant world economic system is capitalism, a system that has organised all people into two opposing classes with conflicting interests. The owning or capitalist class lives on profits by virtue of its ownership of the means of producing and distribution wealth. It is their class interest to depress wages and benefits to increase profits. The working class everywhere has nothing and therefore is forced to sell its labour power for a wage or salary in order to live. But the source of all wealth is the product of labour applied to nature, and the very people who produce this wealth are denied access to it by laws and ultimately the state. Government's function is to protect the capitalist class and its legal 'right' to accumulate the wealth created by ordinary working people. The two classes thus have opposing and conflicting interests. The central imperative of capitalism is to expand and to seek new ways of extracting more profit from ordinary working people by seeking out raw material and markets and imposing itself on the people of other countries; transforming indigenous self-supporting people into wage and salary workers. People everywhere are compelled to join the ranks of the world's working class to face the same class struggles as their fellow workers in the industrialised countries. We share a common interest.  

It cannot be denied that capitalism has entered a particularly pernicious phase in its development – euphemistically called 'globalisation' – in undeveloped countries as large corporations viciously compete globally to secure markets and relentlessly exploit labour in countries where they reputedly earn 75 percent of their profits. But exploitation is not just confined to undeveloped countries. Working people everywhere are on the defensive against the class whose imperative is to maximise its profits and perpetuate their mastery over all working people. There can be little doubt that the wages and salaries of the majority of people in industrialised countries have stagnated or declined, working hours and job insecurity have increased and conditions of life have deteriorated. The correlation between economic growth and improving social welfare has been cut as corporations seek to introduce 'Third World' standards into the established industrialised countries. We share a common interest.

The real enemy is class society engendering the domination of ordinary working people by the class who live by making profits. Countries don't dominate or exploit other countries; the capitalist class who own the companies and corporations assisted by their respective governments exploit the working class everywhere, regardless of their geographical location. Working people don't benefit from the ruthless exploitation of undeveloped countries; companies and corporations benefit by maximising their profits for their shareholders. Ordinary workers don't import or export commodities; companies and corporations owned by the capitalist class export commodities in order to release the profit generated for them by the world's working class. Ordinary workers don't make trade rules; governments working to further the interests of companies and corporations draft these rules. Ordinary workers don't invest in other countries or claim 'free trade' is an impetus for global prosperity; companies and corporations invest in order to generate 'super-profits' and it is they as a class who prosper, not ordinary working people. Ordinary working people don't live on profits; instead, they struggle on a wage or salary. We have a conflict of interests.  

When anti-capitalist protesters demanded less corporate exploitation of developing countries they were intimating that the indigenous population would be better placed if left to its own devices. This is a delusion; less interference from 'foreign' capital would simply“Read! Think! Study!” allow the indigenous capitalist class or even the state to take over the exploitation of the indigenous working people. The same is true of struggles against colonialism, demands for national liberation, independence and the right of national self-determination. These movements are no more than the struggles of an indigenous capitalist class, striving to gain the right to exploit ordinary workers in their own country. Worker support for such movements is based on the misapprehension that it is somehow less painful to be exploited by someone born in the same country than by a foreign corporation. Workers have no country, just a place where we struggle to live, work for a wage or salary and make profits for the owning class. We have a common interest; we are all wage slaves.

The world cannot be made 'fair' by rewriting trade rules. The WTO together with the IMF and the World Bank and all the other institutions exist only to serve the needs of the companies and corporations owned by the world's capitalist class in their pursuit of profit. Their abolition would not alter the underlying conflict of interests between ordinary working people and their capitalist masters. It is only with the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialist society that worker servitude everywhere will end. This is achievable not by demonstrating for reforms to institutions of capitalist society but by a majority of the world's workers understanding the need for socialism and working together to capture political power to abolish capitalism and build a socialist society.

“Read! Think! Study!”

The Socialist Party is the revolutionary organisation of the working class that aims at the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of the co-operative. Socialism comes not as a remedy for the evils of existing society, but as principles for a new society. The Socialist Party strives for a new world, a class-free world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery, a genuine brotherhood of mankind. Workers of all nationalities, immigrants, refugees, political exiles, from every foreign land and native-born must make a common, determined demand: Socialism. It teaches the class struggle where every victory is a step towards the social revolution. Socialist Party, has as its aim is the emancipation of labour and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. There is a fighting class spirit today among the people. It aims at the overthrowing of the present system, it aims to take possession of the tools of production from the capitalist class and operate them for the benefit of the working class, which will be the whole of society. It aims is to change the foundation of this society from an exchange of commodities to the cooperative commonwealth.  The Socialist Party is the political expression of the interests of the workers. For socialism is in the hearts, in the minds, on the lips of millions around the world. The future is ours.

The capitalist state, by controlling the old political parties, controls the powers of the state and uses them to secure and entrench its position. Without such control of the state, its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the building of the new social order, the cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party seeks to organise the working class for independent action on the political field, not for the betterment of their conditions but for the revolutionary aim of putting an end to exploitation and class rule. To accomplish this aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the common ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production — to eliminate profit, rent, and interest. Political action means participation in elections for public offices to gain control of the powers of government in order to abolish the present capitalist system. Such political action is absolutely necessary to the emancipation of the working class, and the establishment of genuine liberty for all. We have slavery as part of the market-place worldwide. Serfdom. All kinds of brutality in the name of buying and selling goods. 

We all in common depend upon the same common resources of nature. Since all people in common depend upon the sources and tools of production, there can be no individual liberty save these sources and tools belong to the people in common. The private ownership of the common sources and machinery of life is nothing less than ownership of human beings. If a man owns my brea or owns that which I must have in order to get my bread, he owns my whole being. He who sells his labour-power for wages sells himself; for his labor-power is his life. The wages system is merely an advance in the slave-system, but it is no fit system for free men; and there can be no true freedom for all men until there is not another hireling left under the sun. The labour of the world is essentially slave-labour. There is not a wage-earner who has not in some degree debased his soul, even in spite of himself, by his dependence upon the private buyer of his labour. So long as some men own that upon which all men depend, the owners and the dependents are alike corrupted, enslaved, and robbed. Our capitalist system rests upon this power of the employing and the owning class to legally appropriate the fruits of the labour of society.

The Socialist Party calls upon all people who seek the emancipation of the working class from the chains of wage slavery to join it and through it and to work for the overthrow of the present capitalist system in all its social and economic ramifications, and for the establishment in its stead of a worldwide socialist cooperative commonwealth. The materials for the building of a socialist world are here, but the creation remains to be undertaken. The task of creating a coherent and free society is the mightiest to which mankind has summoned itself. We build on a sure foundation only when we build a system that has for its end the commonwealth, the common freedom and the common abundance for all men and women. The class-conscious appeal of the Socialist Party is not for strife or antagonism, but for constructive purposes. The aim of socialism is the abolition of all classes and parties and the coming in of but one class, the people. The Socialist Party is not appealing to you for support on the grounds that we socialists are better than other men, but on the basis that socialism is better than capitalism. Socialism proposes to bring forth and educate the best that is in men and women; capitalism and competition are bringing forth and educating the worst. Socialism comes not to destroy, but to fulfill.  

Must Man Starve? (1974)

From the April 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

For six months the peasants of the drought-stricken regions of Wello and Tigro in Ethiopia have been suffering from famine . . .  In the five months from April to August between 50,000 and 100,000 died. (Guardian 18 October 1973)
Malnutrition in the Bangladesh villages has reached near-starvation levels among the poor and landless. “I have seen village children who look like Biafro babies”, said a senior official. (Guardian 19 October 1973)

In large parts of Africa, Asia, and South America malnutrition is the norm and starvation common, while even in industrially developed countries considerable numbers eat badly and too little. In Britain’s “affluent society” it is reckoned that 50 to 60,000 old age pensioners die each year through lack of food and warmth.

Most experts estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population are undernourished — and that the situation is getting worse.

Is It Inevitable?

Yes, say many. It’s a popular view that there are just too many people and too few resources for everyone to eat well. This is demonstrably false.

At the Second World Food Congress (June 1970) United Nations experts stated that if present technology were used to the full the world’s population could certainly be fed. Then years ago the International Agricultural Centre at the Hague announced that the earth could support a population of 28,000 million if food production were organised on lines then known to be practical (Times 24 July 1962) (Present-day population is under 4,000 million).

The many studies undertaken by various food production experts leave us in no doubt that it is possible to produce enough good-quality food for everyone.

Why Then Hunger?

Simply because in this society food is not produced to feed people but to make a profit for the farmers and other investors in the food industry. This results in: —

• People starving amidst a sufficiency of food — because they’ve not got the money to buy it. “The problem in Bangladesh, as elsewhere on the subcontinent, is not that the food is not there but that the poor (and especially the landless) cannot afford to buy it” (Guardian 19 October 1973).
• Food being produced, then either left to rot in warehouses or deliberately destroyed — because it can’t be sold profitably. 300,000 tons of “surplus” butter are considered a "grave problem” in the EEC while in Britain perfectly good fish and apples have recently been destroyed.
• Quotas being set to limit foodstuffs production and farmers being paid to keep perfectly good land unused. "It is a known fact that to avoid overproduction of grain, an attempt has been made in various parts of the United States to apply the principle of subsidizing farmers to leave a percentage of their arable land fallow. The same method has been used with other agricultural products”. (Hugo Osvald, The Earth Can Feed Us All).
• Land that could be brought into production by irrigation, and new methods (such as underwater farming) that could be employed, not being used due to the general effort to keep production below a certain level to maintain high prices.

What's The Solution?

Since it’s the basic economic structure that causes the problem all petty reforms merely tinkering with the superstructure are bound to fail. The land and the means of food production, along with all the natural and man-made resources of society, must come under the democratic control of the whole world community. The sole aim of food production must be to satisfy the food requirements of the world and to provide satisfying work for those involved. The buying and selling of food, and the other needs of life, should be abolished and a system of free distribution adopted. Eating is a natural function, not a privilege. In a world based on the common ownership of the means of wealth production, food production would be merely a technical problem — and we already have the technology to meet the task. With the fetters of profit-making removed, today’s potential plenty would be made a reality.

How Can This Be Achieved?

No leader can usher in such a society on your behalf. Its establishment depends on YOUR understanding and effort. Nothing less than conscious political action by a majority of the working class can create World Socialism. The Socialist Party of Great Britain and its Companion Parties overseas are striving to this end.

Aberdeen Socialists

Waiting To Be Burst.

Toronto Housing prices continue to soar; February prices were 27.7 per cent higher than this time last year, and there seems no end in sight. The average cost of a detached home has reached the 1.5 million mark. Be that as it may, a stress test done by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation found that house prices could fall as much as 30 per cent if mortgage rates were to rise by 2.4 per cent over the next two years. This is what happened between 1989 and 1996 when Toronto house prices fell by 40 per cent. 

It's a bubble and like all bubbles, it's just waiting to be burst and after it is those who bought homes at inflated prices will be very upset. So why go through all this nonsense?

 Why not opt for a world where all will have a nice place to live without any price tags on them? 

Steve and John

The Time To Rejoice.

On March 10 Stats-Canada said 15,300 new jobs were added last month and the Unemployment rate is down to 6.6%. Economists were quick to mention it was a sign the economy has picked up steam. As Ben Reitzes, senior economist at the BMO said, ''One more piece of evidence the economy has turned the corner''.

Anyone would think we should all go out, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. 

There is still unemployment, which there will always be as long as Capitalism lasts, as to what extent isn't a moot point because even a low level of it means hardship for some. Furthermore, the real figure will always be higher than the official ones. There are always people who have used up their EI allowance and others who can only get part-time work. The time to rejoice will be when a majority of the working class has eliminated the cause of unemployment. 

Steve and John.

We aren't all Jock Tamson's bairns

MORE than a third of Scots children have suffered racism, shock new figures have revealed.

The study by charity Show Racism the Red Card shows 37% of young people had experienced racism in a year up to February. The numbers have rocketed 19% since the same study took place last year and experiences recounted by youngsters in the shock study included terrible racial insults, with one child even being told they shouldn’t wear a kilt because of they weren’t white. The charity said their figures revealed that 29% of the young people they worked with had been victim to vile racist abuse. That is 11% higher than stats for last year and an increase of 8% in just two months.

Ude Adigwe, a GMB regional organiser who experienced first hand racism is Scotland’s education system, said: “These shocking figures show any idea Scotland is a haven of tolerance compared to the rest of the UK is absolute nonsense. Brexit and increasing levels of poverty have created fertile breeding ground for divisive racist poison.

“The irony is that, as a child growing into adolescence and then into my adult years, I have always been in love with the inclusive sentiments encapsulated by the wonderful, old Scottish proverb, ‘We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns'. Given these depressing figures, it seems that not all bairns are welcome in the land of Jock Tamson.”

Nicola Hay, campaign manager at Show Racism the Red Card said: “The figures sadly indicate a notable rise is young people’s experiences of racism. It is likely that the spike in racist experiences is a result of Brexit almost legitimising racist and xenophobic views. In addition to this, people living on the poverty line are likely to blame migrants, however, we are losing more jobs to automation than migration – but you can’t deport a driverless truck."

Our lives, their profits

We live today in a world of potential abundance. Yet, while millions are in want and many starve, part of the world's resources are consumed in producing weapons of war and preparing millions of men and women to use them. Modern technology and production, which by its nature can be operated only by the labour of millions of people all over the world yet these millions do not work alone. They work together. No man makes anything by himself but only plays some part in the co-operative labour by which things are today produced. Factories and farms, mines, mills and docks, though spread throughout the world, depend upon each other like strands of a cobweb. They are but parts of one world-wide productive network. 

Commonsense would, therefore, suggest that to derive full benefit for all from this worldwide productive unit, it should be owned and controlled by all humanity; that it should belong in common to all mankind and be controlled by them to satisfy their own needs. In Capitalism, however, the means of production belong to a small capitalist class, and are used to make things, not primarily to satisfy needs, but to be sold to realise a profit on the world market. Those who own the world and its implements of production compete against each other to buy raw materials and in selling products. But competition is not only economic; political means are also used. The competing capitalist groups have at their disposal massive armed forces which exist to protect and further their interests. Capitalist economic conditions make them necessary. Any owning group which controlled no armed forces would be in dire peril and would go under. Not only would it be unable to protect its own wealth, it would also be unable to take and hold sources of raw materials, keep others out of a market, and to control ports and trade routes around the world. The owners, therefore, compete politically and economically for raw materials, markets and trade routes. When other political means fail, all that is left is brute force—organised, scientific killing and destruction— War. Owning groups are always under pressure to equip their armed forces with ever more destructive weapons. In this "arms race" enormous resources are now devoted to research into nuclear physics, biochemistry and space travel. In addition, millions throughout the world are conscripted or enticed into the armed forces and trained to kill, wound and destroy. This is what is behind the paradox of waste amidst want. 

The problem of war militarism and armaments is one of the many which arise from capitalism, from class ownership and production for profit. Militarism is the inevitable outcome of commerce, of the buying and selling that goes with the private ownership of the world's resources. To abolish militarism we must abolish commerce. To abolish commerce we must replace private property by common property; that is, we must establish socialism. This means a worldwide change which will harmonise social production with social needs. Only then will the resources of the world be able to provide the plenty they are capable of. instead of being wasted on such things as arms.