Our Marxism, Our Socialism

Karl Marx wrote Capital essentially as an explanation of how the capitalist system will destroy itself. Marx had already set out his ideas on class struggle - how the workers of the world would seize power from the ruling elites - in the Communist Manifesto and other writings. Capital is an attempt to give these ideas a grounding in verifiable fact and scientific analysis. It was the product of 30 years of Marx's study into the condition of workers in English factories at the height of the industrial revolution and it is part history, part economics and part sociology. One of Marx's biographers, Francis Wheen, has pointed out, it reads at times like a Gothic novel "whose heroes are enslaved and consumed by the monster they created".

In simple terms, Marx argues that an economic system based on private profit is inherently unstable because it relies on the exploitation of workers. Workers are not paid fairly for their efforts and they don't own the products of their labour, making them little better than machines. The factory owners and other capitalists hold all the power because they control the means of production, allowing them to amass vast fortunes while the workers fall deeper into poverty. This is an unsustainable way to organise society and it will eventually collapse under the weight of its own contradictions, Marx argues. Marx was radicalised by the enclosure of commons, when peasants in Germany who had been collecting fallen wood from forest commons were treated as thieves for under taking customary rights they had enjoyed for hundreds of years. Chapter 27 of Das Kapital examines the enclosure of the English commons by the rich and the powerful. Marx believed in commons as democratic common ownership, where associated producers would co-operate. Central to the meaning of common ownership of resources, is the free access to services/goods This would end the need for buying, selling and even money. The concept of free access to socially produced goods is summed up in the famous socialist phrase, "From each according to abilities, to each accordingly to needs."

The Socialist Party argues that the Soviet Union, for many the ultimate example of a Marxist state, was really just a form of state capitalism, where the factory owners had been replaced by government bureaucrats. Socialism is the common and democratic ownership of the means of production, to be used in the interests of people instead of profits. It is thus incompatible with a state- owned or controlled command economy. The centre point of socialism is common ownership. Instead of society being run for the benefit of a minority and production being based on profit, property is owned collectively and short-term greed is rejected.  Common ownership goes beyond national borders; it means that all resources are owned by the entire global population. This means that nobody can take personal control over resources. Every decision about how to use resources should ideally be made with the participation of all people, or the representatives of every group of people. The socialist value of democratic control means that all people have a right to participate in any decision that impacts them. This is not limited to political decisions; it also extends to decisions about the production of goods and services. Individuals would not need to pay for access to goods and services under socialism. Work is done on a voluntary basis and produces products for the immediate needs of people. This means that all work aims at the ideal of direct usefulness.

The class division and profit motive of capitalism is at the root of most of the world's problems today. This includes everything from starvation and war, to alienation and crime. Every aspect of our lives is subordinated to the worst excesses of the drive to make profit. In capitalist society, our real needs only ever come a poor second to money. Socialism means a global system of social organisation based on common ownership, democratic control by all, production for use, and free access. With the natural and technical resources of the world held in common and controlled democratically, the sole object of production would be to meet human needs. This would entail an end to buying, selling and the use of money.

At present, industry is ruled by the owners of the machines of production and distribution, who have literally the power of life and death over the subjects. Socialism is a political movement that can make it so no one who wants to do productive labour can be deprived of the opportunity of doing it, at any time. Socialism can make it possible to banish want from the face of the earth and make it possible for every family to have a home and to be immune from the fear of want for themselves and their children. These are part of the ideals that the Socialist Party holds and are not mere visions but are things that can be brought to life whenever men and women shall have free access to the means with which things are produced and distributed. It should be stated here that work under socialism will be completely voluntary, and should have no need to be enforced as under capitalism. Goods must be free to all in addition to the required services, and since people will be able to work jobs in which they have a personal aptitude, work will be a pleasure under socialism, and not the unmitigated burden that people try to avoid under capitalism. Hence, virtually all individuals will be happy to do their share of the useful work required in society, and much leisure in which to enjoy it will be available (there is a saying that goes "those who love their occupation never work a day in their life", a saying very applicable to what our life will be like under socialism concerning our jobs). voluntary labour would be implemented and power would be given to local and production councils, which would be democratically elected and ultimately be the foundation of socialism.

 Socialism will be totally emancipatory in all areas of life and will be self-managing, ecologically-friendly and pluralistic, qualitatively extending democracy. The producers must hold the real decision making power over what they produce. This power must be exercised in a completely democratic manner. It is impossible without a radical reduction in the daily and weekly work load. Socialism is a society where the individual no longer needs an elaborate system of government to force him to give way to the will of the majority of his equals. There is no longer criminal nor civil law, but obligations arrived at by mutual consent and based upon commitment to a communal ideal. It is a society without a market as it is understood today, and without money. It is a world of free access where cut-throat competition has been replaced by voluntary co-operation and people give to the common pool according to their abilities and take from it according to their needs. 

The Socialist Party distinguishes itself from the left-wing parties who attempt to be popular by putting a “smiley face” on capitalism. Promoting capitalism can never work and benefit the working class. Although one public official can tweak a few little things in government, if you want real change then you have to remove capitalism entirely in order to have a society that is viable, equitable and worth living in. For the sake of humanity, the future is socialism.

Militant and Triumphant

It is not an exaggeration to stay that to-day "Marxism” is becoming almost a household word. Unfortunately, this does not mean that millions of people have become thoroughly acquainted with the fundamentals of Marxian doctrines.  To put it bluntly, when a person professes to be a “Marxist”, they have little or no idea of the real meaning of the word they are using.  As members of the working class concerned with the social evils of the world we cannot afford loose thinking. We must ascertain exactly what we mean by the term.

Since the downfall of feudalism, there has been going on a struggle between the two classes of which it is composed, i.e., the capitalist or master-class and the wage-slave or working-class. Up to the present, the initiative in the struggle has lain with the masters and the efficiency of their organisation is correspondingly greater than that of the workers, whose lot has in the main consisted of a series of defeats resulting in increased poverty and exploitation. There is an urgent need for improvement in the workers’ organisation, hence the propaganda of the Socialist Party. No one is more determined in the prosecution of the fight than the Socialist Party. What does need emphasising is that victory cannot be obtained within the limits of the wage system. So long as the master-class possess the means of life so long will the workers be condemned to poverty and slavery? The first essential then is a change in the outlook of the workers, in the goal of their struggle. They must become class conscious and take the initiative. They must determine to attack the system which deprives them of the fruits of their labour.

It is impossible to lay down in advance a detailed programme to be adopted in the hour of the social revolution. Nevertheless, certain fundamental features of the existing order make it both possible and necessary, to outline the general character of the policy to be pursued. It is important to realise that the existing social order is maintained by political means, i.e., by the machinery of government in the hands of organisations of the master-class. A consideration of industrial conditions soon reveals why this must be so. To-day those who toil in all the various industrial plants and offices are not the owners; if they were, there would be no social problem, i.e., no class struggle. Ownership to-day consists of the legal title, recognised and upheld by the forces of the State. The overthrow of capitalist ownership, therefore, and the establishment of common ownership, involves the capture of the State by the working-class. Dispossession necessitates disarmament of the owning class. The organisation of the working-class must, therefore, be a political organisation, i.e., a socialist party and the nature of its object and the circumstances of its origin compels a socialist party to oppose all other parties at all times and without exception, since these parties can exist only to preserve in some shape or form the system which the socialist party is out to abolish. The organisation of the workers must be based upon class interests.

Many radicals of various shades spend valuable in spelling out detailed plans so to map out in advance but not being prophets, we cannot foresee what circumstances will exist. They forget that society is an organism and not a piece of architecture that they build a model; that organisations only develop as the need for them arises. The function of social administration in the fullest sense cannot pass into the hands of the workers until they have secured possession of the means of life in the manner through political action.  The world we are striving to obtain is not a pipe dream. In a world of sordid nationalism and political reformism, the cause we stand for is world socialism. The energy of the workers must not be frittered away, as it has so often been, in futile demonstrations for utterly hopeless reforms. Their enthusiasm and heroism must be reserved for occasions worthy of them, for the policy that will benefit their whole class, not for a day, but for all time

One thing above all others must inspire them—the need for the conquest of the world by the working class. The wealth of the world is produced by the workers, but the capitalists, by their ownership of the means of production, own the product of the workers' labour. In return for their productive labour the workers receive in the form of wages only sufficient, as a rule, to keep them living and producing. The wealth remaining enables the capitalists to enjoy their lives of ease. The capitalists are in control of the political machinery and use it to keep the workers in their condition of subjection. The workers by their votes put the capitalists in possession of this political machinery at election times. The problem for the workers is how to get rid of their subject condition. The solution is to abolish the present private ownership of the means of production and substitute for it common ownership. This can be accomplished by the workers sending delegates to Parliament for the purpose, the delegates to act as their servants to carry out their instructions. The workers would then obtain control of the political machinery and be able to break the power of capital. The position is just as simple as this and does not need a fanfare of trumpets to demonstrate it. It speaks the same language in every land and to every race. It has neither a religious nor a nationalist outlook. It points out the unity of interest of the workers of the world and their common antagonism to capitalism. On their backs, society is built. By their intelligence is its production carried on. And by their labour alone is its wealth produced. Today they are the only necessary class, and upon them must the ownership and control of social wealth devolve. Once the worker's victory is complete classes disappear, and all find health and joy in participating in the needful but immensely lightened labour of the socialist commonwealth. Consequently, on the working class alone does the future of the whole human race depend. As it has been wisely said: “militant, the workers' cause is identified with class; triumphant, with humanity.”

Wishy-Washy Ideas

The March - April issue of, ''Tough Times'', which is the journal of the Peel County Poverty Action Group, (PPAG), was full of brilliant ideas. These included a basic income plan, less costly child care, increased welfare payments, an appeal for help from the Mississauga Food Bank, an ad for the help available to those suffering from anxiety and depression, suggestions conducive to helping the homeless and, under the heading, ''Needed, more work, better wages, more homes,'' an article on affordable housing. There was also an ad saying, ''Candidate wanted for the Ontario Election, June 2018. A person who is outgoing, involved in social issues, energetic, ethical. Apply at the Brampton NDP office."

All this would be hilarious if the situation wasn't so tragic. The aims of all these wishy-washy ideas is simply to reduce poverty; we of the Socialist Party of Canada want to abolish it. 

The bitter irony of it all is that when socialist ideas spread like wildfire the capitalist class will be passing reform measures too numerous to count - they'll have reforms up the wazoo, whatever the wazoo is. It's been clearly shown that no reform or program of reforms, aims at attacking the most fundamental aspect of capitalism - the ownership of the tools of production by a small minority, therefore all reforms inevitably fail to provide a full and happy life for all. Let's have done with reforms and have a society where they won't be needed.

Steve and John.

Nationalism - the falsest of all false paths.

“ I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” - Thomas Paine,  The Rights of Man 

The Socialist Party is opposed to nationalism in all its forms. Instead of thinking in terms of nations – and hence in a necessarily “us and them” manner –  we would be better to embrace our global citizenship. From the “blue planet” view from outer space, we clearly are only an “us.” The poison that is extreme nationalism, often linked with overtones of racism, is indeed one of the major sources of much human discord, past and present, both locally and globally. Extreme nationalism’s tunnel-vision has also been a net negative force in world history. Nationalism encourages people to believe that their responsibilities towards their fellow man are restricted to their nation's borders. This is exacerbated by homilies which appear reasonable, but when thoughtfully considered, have a quite sinister message, such as "charity begins at home". Nationalism is a key means of obscuring class differences. As well dividing the working class internationally, it is also used within a nation state to turn working class people born in a specific nation against immigrants. By getting native-born workers to blame newcomers, the capitalist class weakens the resistance to their power. Nationalism makes xenophobes even of generally tolerant liberals. nationalism is used as a tool for controlling people. Nationalism creates xenophobes. It creates the idea that outsiders are different and of lesser importance.


Nationalism's function is to persuade people to be loyal to a state or to a government. Nationalism is the idea that makes people who live in a state think of themselves as citizens of that state. The function of British nationalism is to make people loyal to the British government. People who are loyal to a government do what the government tells them. Governments need nationalism to make people obey them. They use nationalism to make people think that they are not just obeying a particular group of men - the government. It tries to persuade them that they are doing something more important. This important thing is called the person's 'duty' to the nation. You must ask yourself, who is in charge of instilling national pride in a nation of people? It is, of course, the government. Consequently, the powerful tool of nationalism will be used to satisfy their agenda. The problem with nationalism is that it is used to manipulate the thoughts of the population. Nationalism was used as a tool by the government, to suppress rational thought, in order to meet a political agenda.



To win people's support the state uses all sorts of symbols and myths. These are called national symbols or national tradition. For instance, a state will have its own cloth design. This is called a national flag. Sometimes on such occasions, they will sing a special song which says how great and good their nation is. Whenever they hear this song people are supposed to stand up straight.


The reason that nationalism has become common since the start of capitalism is that the capitalist classes in different parts of the world wanted to protect their home market. To do this they needed to set up capitalist governments. These governments would then put up customs barriers that would protect them from foreign competition and pass various other laws to help the development of the industry. These governments would be made up of business men and other professional men such as lawyers. This is why the nationalist idea became necessary. People were to be taught that obedience to the government was their duty to the nation. By the use of fake history and symbolic rituals, the nation is made to seem some supernatural entity. You can just exchange the belief in a "God" for the belief in a "nation" . Nationalism is the biggest among new gods, the one who wears it shrouds humanity This is why from a socialist standpoint nationalism is - always - an illusion. There is no good and bad nationalism, it is as Daniel de Leon called it, the falsest of all false paths.

Nationalism is loyalty to real estate. To quote the comedian George Carlin: "I could never understand ethnic or national pride. Because to me, pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn't a skill, it's a fucking genetic accident. You wouldn't say "I'm proud to be 5"11". I'm proud to have a predisposition for colon cancer." So why would you be proud to be Irish, or proud to be Italian, or American or anything?"

Socialism Against the State

The Socialist Party is convinced that the only hope for the world lies with world socialism. In a world of sordid nationalism and populist opportunism, the cause we stand for is the world socialist cooperative commonwealth. We have noticed the spread of socialist ideas amongst the people. Yet there remains a lack of knowledge and clear thinking. There has been an influx of academics whose purpose is to cram into the heads of students at schools and universities all sorts of fallacious economic and philosophical theories and to discourage independent thinking.

On the economic battlefield, the hopelessness of the endeavour to reduce exploitation is abundantly plain. Increases in wages confessedly fail to keep pace with the rise in prices of necessities. Decreases in hours utterly fail to keep pace with the speeding-up of production and the more rapid exhaustion of the toiler. Consequently, there is as little hope in reform. We do not, however, counsel non-resistance. Far from it. That would be suicide. It would place us even more completely at the mercy of our unscrupulous exploiters. We do not preach passive acquiescence to the employing class any more than to any of the other evils for which capitalism is responsible. We preach the struggle for socialism. And that struggle is not for a Utopia of a dim and distant future. For in its development we can play a more and more effective part. As the Socialist movement extends its influence to an ever-widening circle of the working class, so will we be able to actively interfere with the machinations of the capitalists

But it must be recognised that even though we slacken the inevitable increase in exploitation under capitalism, we are, nevertheless. still losing ground, and that victory lies not that way. Discontent is as strong now as ever it was, but it is still politically ignorant discontent. The future of humanity depends upon the revolution for socialism.   The energy of the workers must not be frittered away, as it has so often been, in futile demonstrations for utterly hopeless reforms. One thing above all others must inspire them—the need for the conquest of the world by the working class.

All the technology created by the genius of mankind is not applied for the benefit of mankind as a whole but used for the few. A socialist commonwealth would liberate the individual from all economic, political and social oppression and provide the basis, for real freedom and for the full and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth of the creative mind. Common ownership of the means of production and distribution means the end of all social oppression by dissolving the hostile classes into a community of free and equal producers striving not for sectional interests, but for the common good. Marx said: “The proletarian movement is the self-conscious independent movement of the immense majority in the interest of the immense majority.”

 The Russian Revolution revealed the grave dangers of State capitalism. By concentrating overwhelming power in the hands of the state, it places the citizen completely at the mercy of the State. The development of State capitalism brought in its train a new ruling class – the all-powerful bureaucracy. Under State capitalism, the government derives its income automatically from the economic enterprises of the State. It thus has a tendency to escape democratic control. The State, as the owner of banking industry, agriculture and transport become the universal employer, the universal landlord. It controls everything on which the fate and happiness of the individual citizen depend. The citizen is dependent on the State as regards employment and education, food and energy, leisure and amusement, housing and transport. Under State capitalism, the State would become employer and his or her landlord, and the misery ensuing would become boundless. A system of State property, production of commodities, buying, selling, wages – in a word, State capitalism is simply labelled socialism!

 

A conflict with the State might affect the citizen as an employee, tenant, etc. This enormous power of the State over the individual citizen must needs call forth or strengthen tendencies towards a despotism. State capitalism does not solve any of the deep-rooted social problems. It does not abolish crises, the classes, the wage system. Under State capital, sm there is production of commodities for exchange, not production for use. Between production and consumption there still remains the wall of buying and selling. In the one-party state the elections are a mockery. There can be no other candidates except those put forward by the one party. The word “election” loses its meaning as there is no selection, no choice. All the elector is called upon to do is to endorse the official candidate. He or she may decline to do so by abstaining from voting or by spoiling the ballot paper. When Marx coined the expression “dictatorship of the proletariat,” he had in view a democratically-elected body using coercive measures against an obstructive minority during a short transitional peril after a Revolution. Lenin perverted this clear meaning into dictatorship of one proletarian party. In the course of events in Russia party dictatorship narrowed down into the dictatorship first of the Executive Committee, then of the latter’s political bureau, finally of its general secretary – Stalin.

The mission of upholding human culture and rebuilding society on a basis of social justice to-day rests with the global socialist movement.

RBS Exporting Jobs

The  Royal Bank of Scotland plans to cut 334 jobs and offshore more jobs to India, the Unite union said.

 The bank plans to cut jobs within technology in areas including Finance Solutions, Risk Solutions, Natwest Markets Technology and Digital Engineering Services, among others, Unite said in a statement calling the cuts "unjustified".

"Unite cannot understand how RBS, which continues to be taxpayer backed, can justify hundreds more staff cuts and continue transferring important work out of the country," Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said. "Unite has called on RBS to halt the offshoring announcements and impose a moratorium on the offshoring of jobs."

In February, chief executive Ross McEwan ordered a £2bn four-year cost-cutting drive involving job losses and branch closures. Last month the bank, which is 72%-owned by the UK government, posted its first quarterly profit since Sept 2015. RBS said then that its cost-cutting plan for 2017 was ahead of schedule, with 37% of the planned £750m of cuts achieved.

The love for the land of your birth is absurd

"There is nothing more absurd and at the same time more harmful, more deadly, for the people than to uphold the fictitious principle of nationalism as the ideal of all the people's aspirations. Nationality is not a universal human principle; it is a historic, local fact. ... We should place human, universal justice above all national interests."  Bakunin

Nationalism remains one of the main features of the capitalist societies. The capitalists have used the tool of division many times. Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realise that nationalism is too narrow and limited a concept to meet the necessities of our time.  Presently, people are divided into “nations” and “peoples.” Our goal is to make all people see that these separations distract them from uniting with each other. There is only one humankind. The love of one’s “own” nation—for any reason—is the exact opposite of the political solidarity amongst all people we want to achieve. Patriotism and international solidarity are mutually exclusive. Nationalists will, sooner or later, turn out to be our opponents as their goal is, in the end, not the liberation of all. For people without a passport of the country they live in, stateless asylum seekers, for instance, the concept of “nation” is all the more repressive,

Instead of promoting the unity of all working people against the entire capitalist class – English and Scottish alike – the SNP and their left-wing fellow-travellers play right into the hands of the native capitalists. Instead of working towards class unity, they pushed the collaboration of Scottish workers with “their” capitalists. The Socialist Party rebuts all manifestations of nationalist ideology and at the same time we expose the hypocrisy of the SNP and show fellow-workers that their real friends are their class brothers in England and Wales and around the world and not Scot's capitalists who are after more political power just to get richer off the backs of the working class. Through our work, we are showing working people of all nations that the only way to end oppression and exploitation is to unite in the fight for socialism. Only when the socialist and working class movements become fused into one indestructible whole, a world socialist party, can a conscious class struggle for the emancipation of the working class be waged. The central issue of politics in Scotland today is how to shackle the powerful organisations workers have built up to the priorities of Scottish capital by enlisting the leaders of workers’ organisations to the cause of the ‘national interest’. Did we not in the 2014 referendum witness Colin Fox, moderator of the SSP, collaborate with a hedge fund manager in a demonstration of class collaboration?

 The Socialist Party offers up a vision of a future for a humanity free of national prejudice and chauvinism. All the talk in the world about “unity” is so much clap-trap, unless it is clearly stated what the workers are to unite for.  Let all those who talk so glibly about “unity” take note that, as the fundamental problem confronting the workers is how to get rid of their exploitation and poverty, the basis for the organisation of the workers, must be the ending of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. The Socialist Party insists that the first step to unite the working class is to teach the workers that socialism is their only real hope. The Socialist Party believes in waging a class war — fighting for the working class against the wealthy classes who exploit their labour for profit, and ultimately fighting for a society where class does not exist. Most of the time, this is not a literal war and does not involve physical violence, but rather involves other forms of actions, a battle of ideas. We link our support to the emancipatory aims that we fight for with arguments.  We don’t have anything in common with people whose critique of capitalism consists of making bankers personally responsible for all evils caused by it, nor with those who want to sustain an imaginary “purity of race,” or those who only dislike dominance when it is exercised by the wrong people for we have no problem with “foreign” domination, but with domination per se.  Why confine our discussion within the borders we fight against when we feel a lot closer to a trade-unionist in Korea than to a religious bigot in Kilmarnock? Capitalism’s influence is a global one. The socialism we struggle for, which will finally have production follow needs, is unthinkable to establish in a single country. It would take little time any attempt at setting up conditions for a better life for all to be thwarted. And in a world economy based on the division of labour, one would have to support the policies of competition and exchange to gain access to things one could not produce or harvest in one’s own region.

The most common objection we hear to our position of being anti-nationalist is that, in the end, this is “our country” as well. Part of this is true: people as residents of a certain country do own the respective country’s passport or other official documents, making them “legal” residents. So when they don‘t manage to find a job, it is the authority of “their country” that harasses or even criminalises them. It is “their” country which offers a world full of competition, which provides education in schools either in an understanding way, or just by hammering it into you that to make it in this society you have to struggle. All because your “own state” must compete against other nations, and unfortunately, you are all dependent on its economic success on the world market. And when times are tight, like in the current crisis, you are called upon to sacrifice “for the good of the nation,” which has in fact never done you any good. And once “your country” decides another country be the “enemy,” you will be the one to shoot others or be shot.  Thank you very much for the privilege of belonging to a country! We don’t need a nation. We think the logic that “our enemy’s enemy is our friend” is illogical.

Nationalism is a choice: You may either follow the national government blindly, or you may think for yourself. You may embrace the flag in times of war and peace when the army marches in defence of “national interests”. Or you may look behind the flag and see who is trying to pull your strings and manipulate your emotions. As to defence of “our” country, we should consider, before we side with the oil barons and arms dealers who helped shape the Middle East as it is today who ultimately are responsible whether our interests really lie with them, or whether they are just as much our enemy as the Islamic fanatics.

NO WAR BETWEEN NATIONS, NO PEACE BETWEEN CLASSES!

What Is A Nation?

Throughout April there has been a ton of patriotic vomit spewed out by the media while they "commemorated'', the centenary of the battle of Vimy Ridge in which 11,285 soldiers in Canadian regiments died. They call it, ''The Birth of a Nation'', oblivious to the fact that most of the troops were British born, and justify it on the grounds it ended Canada's status as a junior partner in Britain's economic scheme of things. What it really meant at the time was the Capitalist Class in Canada proved they could be useful to their British overlords and were upgraded. After all, what would all those deaths mean if they died pursuing the interests of the Great God Profit?

So this is what has to be done to become a nation. This begs the question, ''What is a Nation? - the answer being in the political sense, it is a means whereby a minority of the population in a given area do well at the expense of the minority. Since that is the case, and events like Vimy Ridge is the way to becoming one, is it worth having nations? 

How about a world where the weren't any. 

Steve and John.

Let it blossom

We need little proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Capitalism is the enemy of nature and of labour alike. Its sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for constant growth. It wastefully creates unnecessary products, squandering the environment's limited resources and returning to it only toxins and pollutants. Under capitalism, the only measure of success is how much more is sold every day, every week, every year – involving the creation of vast quantities of products that are directly harmful to both humans and nature, commodities that cannot be produced without spreading disease, destroying the forests that produce the oxygen we breathe, demolishing ecosystems, and treating our water, air and soil like sewers for the disposal of industrial waste. Capitalism's need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by militarist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labour and new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive, but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated. Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically, leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the norm. Air, water, and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria, cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most vulnerable members of every society.

Ecological devastation, resulting from the insatiable need to increase profits, is not an accidental feature of capitalism: it is built into the system's DNA and cannot be reformed away. Profit-oriented production only considers a short-term horizon in its investment decisions, and cannot take into account the long-term health and stability of the environment. Infinite economic expansion is incompatible with finite and fragile ecosystems, but the capitalist economic system cannot tolerate limits on growth; its constant need to expand will subvert any limits that might be imposed in the name of “sustainable development.” Thus the inherently unstable capitalist system cannot regulate its own activity, much less overcome the crises caused by its chaotic and parasitical growth, because to do so would require setting limits upon accumulation – an unacceptable option for a system predicated upon the rule: Grow or Die! Mankind cannot serve two masters – the integrity of the planet and the profitability of capitalism. One must be abandoned. History leaves little question about the allegiances of the vast majority of present-day policy-makers. The reforms over the past thirty-five years have been a monstrous failure. Isolated improvements do of course occur, but they are inevitably overwhelmed and swept away by the ruthless expansion of the system and the chaotic character of its production. In order to affirm and sustain our human future, a revolutionary transformation is needed, where all particular struggles take part in a greater struggle against capital itself. This larger struggle cannot remain merely negative and anti-capitalist. It must announce and build a different kind of society, and this is socialism.

Socialism is not a utopia with which reality should comply. It is the reasoned human answer to the social problems in which humanity is now locked because of the modes of production and consumption of our times which are exhausting human beings and the environment. This calls for radical thinking and political action, in the sense that we must go to the root causes.  Capitalism imposes the commodification of everything for new sources of profit. It is, therefore, responsible for poverty, the widening gap in inequality and the environmental damage to ecosystems.  Socialism is all about founding a new economy based on real needs and not the accumulation of capital and expanding growth to make increased profits. Socialism has always sought the emancipation of the human being. This implies the sharing of the wealth produced and the democratisation of power. This remains the project of the Socialist Party. We reject the deception of an economics that advocates reform of capitalism by legislation and regulation. Socialism wants to put the economic and productive systems at the service of human needs. Socialism challenges the dictatorship of the private and state ownership of the means of production. Socialism involves a revolutionary social transformation, which will replace exchange-value with use-value.

The Socialist Party advocates the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. We propose a steady-state economy where is no point in working longer than necessary to produce what we need. The time thus freed could be usefully allocated to activities now considered as unproductive which are nevertheless essential to good living by working less and working better. Our goal requires that the largest number of people be involved in political action. It is a question of gathering and acting together. We stand alongside the workers and those excluded by the system. The struggle of labour – workers, farmers, the landless and the unemployed – for social justice is inseparable from the struggle for socialism.  Economic planning requires the control of citizens, workers, and consumers. The problem is not industry, research or the technology in

themselves, but the lack of choice and control by citizens. Socialism cannot emerge from decisions dictated from above.  We want neither an enlightened intellectual avant-garde nor a vanguard political elite. This requires that the socialist parliamentary majorities combine their efforts with popular movements involved in all domains of life in society. A people's revolution is needed to conquer this capacity of control.  Decisions taken on one side on the planet have repercussions everywhere else.  This reclaiming of political and civic initiatives by every person, in order to determine where the general interest lies, everywhere and on every issue, is what we call a social revolution. It is a social revolution because it intends to change the forms of ownership, the institutional system and the hierarchy of legal, social and environmental standards which organise both society and the economy.  Only collective decision-making and common ownership of production can offer the perspective that is necessary for the balance and sustainability of our social and natural systems. It intends to empower every person, not in the interest of a particular class but for the good of all humans.

If capitalism remains the dominant social order, the best we can expect is unbearable climate conditions, an intensification of social crises and the spread of the most barbaric forms of class rule, as the imperialist powers fight among themselves for continued control of the world's diminishing resources. At worst, human life may not survive. Humanity today faces a stark choice: socialism or barbarism. 

Dig For Victory

During WWII Edinburgh embraced the wartime Dig for Victory campaign to combat food shortages. By the height of WWII, the city had given over almost 300 acres for cultivation. War had a big impact on the world’s food.

 Before the Second World War Britain imported approximately 55 million tonnes, or 3/4 of the country's food by ship each year. In England and Wales arable acreage was about 9 million; whereas 16 million acres were under grass and a further 5 ½ million was “rough grazing” (once reasonable pasture). One acre of permanent grass (for animal fodder) fed 1 or 2 people; one acre sown with wheat fed 20 people, and one acre sown with potatoes fed 40 people. Nationally, some 6 ½ million new acres were ploughed up between 1939 and 1944. Harvests of wheat, barley and potatoes increased by over 100%; milking cows increased by 300,000; other cattle by 400,000. This was at the expense of fewer sheep, pigs and poultry but enabled the country to completely reverse its reliance on foreign food. In terms of calories, the net output had been quadrupled by 1943-44. By the end of the war, food imports had been reduced from 22 million to 11 million tons and Britain was producing well over 60% of its food. This was despite losing nearly 100,000 skilled male farm workers, who went off to fight, and thanks to the 117,000 women who replaced them. From 815,000 allotments in 1939 the number rose to 1,400,000 by 1943. allotments were estimated to contribute some 1.3 million tonnes of food produce.

Experts from The Botanic Gardens were dispatched to issue advice to growers. 512 allotments sprung up across The Meadows, with a concentration of gardeners working on the east side of the park. Allotments also appearing in Balgreen Park, Bruntsfield Links and Joppa Quarry with parts of Craigentinny Golf Course also turned over to vegetable production. Allotment holders were encouraged to grow crops such as leeks and kale, with a drive for gardeners to plant potatoes in 1948 as wartime rationing continued to pinch households.

The number of allotments fell away in Scotland following the end of WWII from around 90,000 at the peak of the Dig for Victory campaign to 36,000 plots.

A key part of a socialist society would be a serious reduction in the working week and there would be the release of land from commerce. This would free up large quantities of time for participation in newly available allotments.

McGovern is Amazed (1937)

In the recent by-election at Springburn, Glasgow, at which the Labour Party candidate, Mrs. Hardie, was elected, Mr. McGovern, M.P., advised the members of the I.L.P. to refrain from voting. One of his reasons was that, although the Labour Party claims to be Socialist, the word "Socialism" was never mentioned once in Mrs. Hardie's election address (The Times, September 7th, 1937). Now, it would indeed by remarkable if a Socialist Party were to run candidates on a non-Socialist programme. Actually what has happened is not at all remarkable since it comes from the Labour Party, which is not Socialist. Where can Mrs. Hardie have learned this trick? Perhaps she learned it from her old acquaintance, Miss Jennie Lee. In 1928 Miss Lee was elected at a by-election at North Lanark. She was the I.L.P.’s nominee and they financed her. Her election address not only contained no reference to Socialism, direct or indirectly, but she did not even mention the I.L.P. or her membership of it. Mr. McGovern should see her about it.

Incidentally, he should also recall that it was the I.L.P. which reduced to a fine art the practice of pretending to be Socialist but running as candidates of the Labour Party on a non-Socialist programme. How else does he suppose that some 200 of its members got themselves into Parliament at the 1929 General Election? Mr. McGovern himself first got into Parliament as the candidate of the Labour Party, which he knew was not a Socialist Party.

It is true that Mr. McGovern and his associates in the Independent Labour Party now include at least the words “Socialism" and “Socialist” in their election addresses, but they have made little other change. Votes are still solicited on every kind of reform; which means that the candidates know quite well that they are dependent on the votes of non-Socialists.

It is reported that Glasgow members and branches of the I.L.P. are returning to the Labour Party because they disapprove of Mr. McGovern’s action in advising them not to vote for the Labour candidate.

We are all migrants.

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

One of the weapons of the master class in its armoury is its ability to camouflage the reality of the exploiter/exploited class relation, disguising it with religion, race, gender, and nationalism. Nationalism is manufactured to provide the pretence that we are all “free.”  Nationalism was created to reinforce the state by providing it with the loyalty of a people of shared linguistic, ethnic, and cultural affinities. And if these shared affinities do not exist, the state will create them by centralising education in its own hands, imposing as “official” language and attempting to lessen any deep cultural differences from the people's within its borders. This can clearly be seen in Scottish history. The state pre-empts the autonomy of localities and peoples and in the name of “nation”.  The nationalism in Scotland is as artificial as anywhere else.

When the capitalists tell us we are “all in it together” they are duping us into defence of their material interests. The SNP plays to different audiences, in one role they are the populist socialist opposition and in the other, less public, they are the friend to big business.Scottish independence is just a diversion from the real struggle – the class war. The nationalists mislead us with romantic myths that ‘We’re different up here’; that Scotland as a consequence of distant historic struggles for power involving medieval robber barons like Bruce and Wallace supposedly imbues its inhabitants with something meaningful, something that transcends the reality of a working class that alone produces all wealth and is international, and a capitalist class that expropriates most of that wealth. Workers in Britain, Brazil or Bangladesh have their exploitation and real interests in common, and nothing in common with the capitalist interests and functionaries and land owners that exploit them. There is only one socialist response to nationalism – Stuff it. The real issue for the world’s workers is that they face an increasingly dire future under whichever capitalist regime rules us. The world capitalist crisis has seen living standards falling across the planet since the 2008 recession emerged. It is not surprising that there has been a rise of nationalist and populist movements who all claim that the “old parties” are to blame. They want us to believe that they can manage capitalism better, that they can magically escape the effect of the global economy. Our only hope lies in getting rid of the capitalist system that produces misery and such abominations as hunger, disease, and war.

Would an independent Scotland be much different for most people who would still be powerless economically and socially? Look around the world at all the many nation-states in existence, and see the same differences in power, influence, and wealth restricting self-determination for working class people, even if they are free “nationally”. The formation of new nation-states can no more put an end to imperialism than the formation of new businesses can put an end to capitalism. "Dominate or be dominated" is as much the logic of competition between nation-states as between corporations.  The logic of the nation-state system is similar to that of competition in the sphere of production. The world's productive forces are divided into competing businesses where each can survive at the cost of another. Nationalism is nowhere a recipe for the well-being of the masses.

A society where 'profits' are the main driving force and the gap between rich and poor keeps widening is unstable.  So the employing class has to come up with a strategy to push through their cuts and at the same time deal with our anger and discontent. Therefore it is no coincidence that in this situation we witness the re-emergence of nationalism: to divide-and-rule, politicians of most parties blame the 'immigrants' for the miserable situation, but at the same time they announce that they will squeeze 'their local workers' even harder (e.g. through more zero-hours contracts and making it even more difficult to go on strike) Nationalism plays a role where we work. Many of us were not born in the UK, we speak different languages. On the job some of us might feel closer to our 'English', 'Polish' or 'Indian' manager, than to the 'foreign' person who works next to them - also because we hope that by sticking to 'our' manager we will get an advantage over other workers. BUT companies are able to use divisions and stereotypes to make us compete against each other and ultimately make more profits for themselves. We need to keep our eyes on our real class enemies.

Working people turn towards the nation (state) mainly to 'protect our jobs'. But we have to question why there are 'jobs' and 'a limited number of jobs' in the first place. 'Jobs' are created by those with money and resources, only if the jobs create more money for them. They and their market decide what jobs we do - and most of these jobs only relate to money-making: advertising, financial services, securing the wealth of the rich. If we would all just work to produce what we need for a living (houses, nice clothes, good food, funny little gadgets), then we could just share out the work equally. If we didn't have to sell our time and energy to them for money, a lot of 'unemployment' would actually be a good thing. Why? Because it would mean fewer people are necessary to produce what we need: everyone could work less and we'd have more time to do other things that make us happy. But here and now we just look and compete for jobs, because we need money, and they create jobs only if they can make more money off us. Down with their jobs, down with their unemployment. Today in the capitalist system, the introduction of new technology and its higher productivity creates the unemployment, the increased competition, and the pay cuts. The bosses keep the threat of unemployment over our heads to keep us obedient and divided. It does not need any migrant workers for this to happen - it is the normal functioning of the system. Closing our borders would not help. When the steel industry in Scotland began to close down, Scots followed the work to Corby. We are all migrants.

Socialism is the self-liberation of working class people, by their own efforts, creating and using their own organisations. There can be no separation of political, social and economic struggles. Socialists do not disdain cultural diversity nor confuse it with nationalism or patriotism. That various peoples should wish to celebrate their own traditions is not merely a right but desirable. The world would be a drab place indeed if the rich mosaic of different cultures did not replace the homogenised world created by modern capitalism. 

They Are Rich Because We Are Poor

Protest is not enough. We need a vision.  Is now the time to retreat on our big ideas? Is it time to soften our demands? Now is a moment that calls for a radical imagination of what’s possible. Let’s turn protest power into political power and people power. The days of accepting the lesser-of-two-evil politics are over. We have to build a class-conscious movement if we want to win. And they know if we do that, they will lose – and that is exactly why those in charge work so hard to divide us. It is time to move the struggle from defence to offence. In the shadow of every current catastrophe, forces of global renewal and creating a non-violent planetary society are taking shape. We have a realistic chance to make this happen in the near future.  Human beings are able to manifest whatever they believe in, whatever they can envision. This applies to every area of life. Why not apply this power to establishing world socialism? 

Around the world today, there is a suffering that compels us to make a profound change in our own ways of thinking. 250 million children are currently living in war zones. 50 million children are refugees, searching for a new home. Humanity is faced with an apocalyptic situation. We stand on the brink of global catastrophe, or, on the other hand, the beginning of a new civilisation. The lives of billions of human beings will depend on your choice. We can offer our children, and our children’s children, a future worth living, if we take an active part in the transformation of the economic structure of the planet. Can we imagine new communities that might arise where people a grow up where there is no fear and no hostility among human beings, a world where people practice solidarity and care for one another?  Can we imagine a world, in which the concept of class enmity has been made obsolete? We already possess the knowledge to put it into practice.

A global network is arising with the goal of bringing these thoughts into reality – the World Socialist Movement. We feel that such a world could exist and that we could manifest it if we agree together to do so. We’re talking about planetary system-change - in every community and in every individual. Every rural commune and every urban neighbourhood, will transform themselves into a network of interconnected and interdependent but basically autonomous communities. A bottom-up democratic based society waiting to happen.  All that's missing is the will and determination to usher in a whole new way to live in peace without all of the demonic trappings of capitalism. The time's now.

 The remedy is so simple, and the method more simple still. The cause of poverty is the ownership of the means and instruments of wealth production by the capitalist class. The remedy, therefore, is to dispossess that class of its ownership. It maintains its ownership by virtue of its political control. Its economic domination would cease the moment that the working class captured the political machinery that sends the police and the soldiers against them. Curiously enough, the working class never seem to discover that it is they who gratuitously give the capitalists the power to enslave them every time they go to the ballot-box! It is obvious, then, that the method of recapturing political control is going back to the ballot-box and voting for socialists. 

Homes for Holidays but not for People

Research suggests that about half the homes in the EH1 postcode will be holidays lets by 2050.

There is now a growing trend in Edinburgh for people to buy up properties which they will never live in themselves but instead, use them for holiday lets.

Dundee - Scotland's Orchard City

Dundee is undergoing huge changes culturally and socially. To younger generations, berry or tattie picking may be an alien concept, but the practice was once a key part of seasonal life locally as well as across Scotland. The area has an existing connection to orchards — which originated in the Carse of Gowrie around 800 years ago as part of farms and granges owned by monasteries — and you have a rich heritage of food cultivation upon which to build.

 Slessor Gardens is where Dundee Urban Orchard (also known as DUO) is encouraging everyone to forage in their edible garden and orchard – for free. Anyone can come here and enjoy the herbs and fruit free of charge. The small-scale orchard is one of 25 across the city, all planted by DUO in a project which began three years ago. The idea behind the project is to raise awareness of “food sustainability” and “food justice”.

“Food poverty is a huge issue in Dundee,” explains Jonathan, as he tends an apple tree, sporting stunning pink and white blossom. “In an ideal world, there would be no food banks; there’d be more community gardens and orchards like this, so we’re doing what we can to make changes and bring awareness to these problems...we’re trying to support the social and emotional well-being in the city by offering a celebratory response to the local and global problem of food poverty. It’s an open invitation to everyone to come here and enjoy the space and when the fruit is ripe, to harvest and eat the produce.”

Three of DUO’s orchards supply fruit and vegetables to food banks, including the Giving Garden project at Menzieshill Parish Church, which grows lots of vegetables and has eight apple trees. Other sites DUO work with include Ninewells Community Garden, Maxwell Community Garden, Camperdown Wildlife Garden and the “Art-Science Orchard” linking the DCA and Dundee Science Centre.

“A large proportion of the food available in Dundee has travelled long distances and is purchased in packaged or processed form from supermarket shelves,” says DUO co-founder Sarah Gittins , “When we lose our connection to food, we lose a sense of what sustains us and this effects our care for one another and the planet.”

An Epidemic Waiting To Happen.

March 22 was clean water day, in which UNICEF brought to peoples attention that more than 3 billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation systems. Globally at least 1.8 billion use a drinking water source contaminated by faeces and half of the world's population will be living in water-stressed areas by 2025. The water problem is particularly serious in Africa's largest City Lagos, Nigeria, a City of 21 million. According to one community leader, "when we fetch water it foams and smells like petrol and detergent were poured into it." Obviously, the problem is compounded by one of the most disgusting aspects of life under Capitalism in the 20th and 21st centuries, the growth of Mega-cities. In cities such as Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Cape Town and Lagos, millions live in shanty towns, where there is no sanitation and clean drinking water. Somehow we can't imagine the capitalist class using the wealth they've worked so hard to steal, putting in sewers and water lines for the residents of a shanty town.

Be that as it may, nevertheless they wouldn't have to. In 2011, the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, announced a competition to invent a toilet that did not need a sewer connection, or electricity and cost less than 5 cents per user per day. The winner was an entry from Caltech that uses photovoltaic cells to power an electro-chemical reactor that treats human waste, producing clean water for flushing or irrigation and hydrogen that can be stored in fuel cells. The system is entirely self-contained; it has no need for an electrical grid, a sewer line or a treatment RiverBlue2016 2 facility. The only input the toilet requires, beyond sunlight and human waste, as simple table salt which is oxidized to make chlorine to disinfect the water. 

So once again, capitalism rises to the technical challenge, but will the toilets be used in shanty towns? It's doubtful because it will still cost the capitalists money to put them there; money they won't see a return on, no matter how cheap they are to use. So once again, capitalism fails the social challenge. It should be obvious to anyone that a shanty town is an epidemic waiting to happen and sooner or later it will. 

Steve and John.