One working class – one class enemy

In recent years, the spirit of national identity has been reborn in Scotland and elsewhere. Backed by the indignities of the past, fired by an interest in national resources such as oil reserves, it has succeeded in forming an organised opinion which has forced the government of Westminster to once more take notice of the nationalists. But we should always remember, it is not Scotland's oil, it is the capitalists' oil.

The early history of Scotland shows it to be a land peopled by tribes for the most part engaged in inter-tribal disputes. Its ’community of interest' was of clan chieftain self-interest, there being no centralisation of authority which could exist under the prevailing social and economic conditions. The Union of the Crowns then the Act of Union changed the situation and Scotland's clan culture was dismantled.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution saw Scotland as a people exploited by the coal and iron masters, both English and Scot, a situation shared by their brethren throughout the length and breadth of Britain. The Socialist Party has always argued that nationalism has no progressive role left. Marxists realise that Nationalism is the ideology of the capitalist class. The identification of people with the Nation State and the National Interest enables the bosses to present society as a struggle between nations in the interests of the people thus obscuring the real conflict in society between the working and capitalist classes. Nationalism threatens to poison relations between English, Scottish and Welsh workers.

The world is full of leaders claiming to unite their countries while deepening their divisions. Defending the homeland against foreigners is a political strategy that has been played out countless times. Populist nationalist leaders are promising more than they can deliver and looking for scapegoats at home and abroad to blame when things go wrong. Nationalism has always needed real or invented threats. Borders divide the working class more than they divide capital. Global capital flows across borders easily. It uses borders to its advantage, by imposing a race to the bottom. National governments compete for capitalist investment, by offering compliant workers.

Scottish nationalism does not strengthen the movement for socialism, a united, class-conscious working class, but fragments and weakens it. A sovereign Scottish parliament would represent no more than a decorative layer of tartan paint on the capitalist state machine.  It certainly would not impede the workings of the major capitalist institutions.  The perspective of the nationalists is one of the reformist prospect that they can run capitalism better from Edinburgh than from the City of London and Westminster, an illusory one. the SNP rails against London mismanagement and like every opportunist political party promises wealth beyond our wildest dreams. But for whom, exactly, it must be asked. It is the pursuit of a class collaborationist Utopia of palliatives and amelioration, not based on class struggle but passive acquiescence. The left-nationalist's socialist verbiage is buried beneath this nationalist reformism. We do not spread the illusion among Scottish fellow-workers that separatism would be any gain for them. They think that they need to do is change the tune and all will follow. The Left in Scotland is weak and it will not get any stronger by hanging on to the coat-tails of nationalism and pretending they are leading the struggle against global corporations, which are itching to establish themselves, as soon as an independent Scotland re-enters the EU. Capitalists around the world will turn an independent Scotland into a client state and the only opposition to that is to become a vassal state of Brussels and Strasbourg.

We insist that Scottish sovereignty will leave the workers in exactly the same position as before.  The Socialist Party does not support nor encourage the separatist trend in Scotland. We don’t believe that it will improve your condition one iota. Only class struggle and ultimately socialism can do that. However, the Socialist Party does not, of course, defend the present centralised British state. We do not defend the unity of the UK in any way.  To do so is simply to line up with the British nationalists.  We know that most of our fellow-workers will vote for reformism but we have to say to them, “See what good it does you!”

The goal of the Socialist Party is one of a world in which the working class organises and controls its own destiny.   Socialism cannot be imposed from outside – it can only be made by, and for, the working class where it lives and works. It is the question of who owns and controls the means of production which matters, not whether our exploiters have an English, Welsh or Scottish accent. The lesson to be learned is that to resist we require unity with our class brothers and sisters throughout this island. We have to make the ruling class’s divide and rule inoperable by our unite and liberate. The task before us is a vast one. Working class unity makes it impossible for the capitalists to go on in the old way of divide and rule. Working class unity enables us to combine our tactics for defending our class with the strategy of liberating our class.  Working class unity is where revolution is on the agenda. Working class unity is revolutionary.

  

Socialism is the remedy

Nationalism is one of the most powerful props of capitalism. As long as the ruling class can continue to obscure the lines of class struggle, the policy of divide and rule will pay dividends to the small class that remains unchallenged. The capitalist system is inherently nationalistic, imperialistic and militaristic. Its ruling class has material incentives to divide workers by race, ethnicity and religion.  There are a thousand ways the profit system keep workers fighting each other, competing for scraps. It keeps workers whose children go to bad schools fighting with workers whose schools are worse. It pits low-paid workers against lower-paid workers, those with bad housing against those with terrible housing. In each case it is workers who suffer when they fight each other instead of the system that is their common enemy. To fight nationalism effectively requires two things -- a clear exposure of the capitalist roots of nation-states and a class-conscious unity of workers to oppose it. Only a class-conscious position can cut through decades of propaganda.  It is impossible to work for a socialist society without fighting against divisions among workers. But it is equally impossible to mount any really effective campaign against xenophobia that is not at the same time a fight against its capitalist cause.

The Socialist Party advocates the organisation of the working class for the capture of the political machinery in order that a new social order may be established in which the means of life will be owned in common by all.  Our method, and the only effective method of building up a genuine socialist party, is to base our organisation on socialist knowledge, and the clear grasp of socialist principles by each member.  the Socialist Party advocates a world of free access to all goods and services with everyone giving according to their ability and taking according to their need.  It recognises that there are two classes in society: the ones who need to work and the ones who don’t; the ones who make the profits and the ones who take them; the ones who can say "This world belongs to us" and the rest of us — the overwhelming majority who have world to win. What is needed to achieve the socialist alternative is a socialist party composed solely of convinced socialists, a party which does not go in for reforms of capitalism. When the majority of wage and salary workers become socialists and are organised, they will be able to use their votes to send to Parliament and to Local Councils delegates with a mandate to use their political power for the single revolutionary act of dispossessing the capitalist class through converting the means of wealth production and distribution into the common property of the whole of society.

The system of production for profit can never operate in the interests of the majority. Many workers have a sense that this is the case, even if they are not yet conscious of production solely for use as a feasible alternative. But there is still workers who are deceived, not least by their own illusory ambition, into thinking that capitalism will allow them a place in the sun, those who trust in the “reality” of the American Dream. The harsh fact which they must learn is that the difference between the most affluent "middle-class" worker and the poorest of wage-slaves is smaller than the difference in power, security and privilege which divides the richest worker from the poorest capitalist. It is of vital importance that the antagonism between socialism and reformism should be made clear to the workers.

What, then, is the remedy? It is so plain and reasonable that the slowness of the workers to accept it is a matter of constant amazement. Abolish the capitalist ownership and control of the means of production and distribution. Rid society of this institution which has now become a fetter for the mass of the population. Let society itself, through its own democratic control, utilise the land to produce food for the needs of the whole community, and the factories and railways, etc., likewise. Let us have our means of life turned into means of producing the requirements of humanity, not the profits of a class. Let us turn our two hostile communities into one real community, freed for ever of the rivalry of interests between those who own and those who do not own, a rivalry which restricts the production of useful and beautiful things, condemns vast masses to sordid poverty, excites class hatred and international war, and poisons human relationships in a war of the jungle instead of a co-operative endeavour to enrich life.

A Wonderful Sense Of Fairness.

Airlines seem to be making news these days and not in a positive way. Another big stink about them in April was Bombardier making plans to lay off 14,000 workers worldwide, 5,000 of them Canadian while awarding its six top executives bonuses totalling $32 million. All this is after the Quebec and federal governments gave the Montreal-based company $1.4 billion to develop and build a new line of aircraft. 

That's what we like about dear old capitalism - its wonderful sense of fairness. 

Steve and John

The First Law Of Capitalism.

Most of you will have seen the video of the disgraceful incident of a man being ejected from a United Airlines flight. But what was it all about? United, like other airlines, overbook, so if there are cancellations, they can still make a profit from a flight. It's quite simple isn't it? Except it's not so simple when a passenger objects to being told to leave! 

It's easy enough to criticize the company, but what are were they really doing? - just obeying the first law of Capitalism, which makes a profit no matter how! 

Steve and John.

From national separatism to planetary unity

“Marxism rejects the theory that a man is a clam wedded to the rock of his nativity.” —Daniel De Leon

Ever since Marx and Engels gave voice to the interests of the working class, the socialist working-class movement has been recognised as a worldwide one and this spirit of internationalism remains alive wherever workers raise the banner of revolutionary socialism. De Leon once wrote, "There are but two nations in the world today -- the capitalist class nation, which exploits and lives upon the sweat of the brow of the working class nation, the sweat of whose brow, through unrequited toil, feeds, clothes, houses and fattens the capitalist class nation."

Nationalism is employed by the capitalist class deliberately to submerge the class struggle and to blind the workers to their own class interests. Internationally it is used to keep the working classes of the world divided against each other, and to blind them to their common struggle and common aim. Nationally it is used to make the demands of the workers seem in conflict with "national interests," and their efforts to enforce these demands as threats to "national unity."

Convincing workers that their fortunes were intimately tied to the successes of capitalist commercial adventures throughout the world required the whole litany of nationalist rhetoric, for it was working-class well-being that was to be sacrificed in the interest of profits. The 2008 Great Recession hit Europe hard. Unemployment is rampant. The guest migrant workers have apparently out-stayed their welcome as the nationalist virus mixed with deadly strains of racism have fueled resurgent neo-fascism. Suddenly the “guests” are now persona non grata. Various European politicians from fascist ultra-nationalists to social democrats — a narrowing difference as time goes on — have expressed degrees of opposition to the movement of migrant workers. These are the same parties and governments that once encouraged foreign workers to live and move about in the EU and to participate in the economic “miracle” and other high-sounding phrases that mark an ever more intensive exploitation of the working class. They are also the same politicians and governments that have now acquiesced to “Fortress Europe”. Every worker who can see what is at stake had best heed the alarm, rouse themselves and join the struggle to educate and organise our class for socialism -- while there is still time to do so.

A world socialist movement is a powerful antidote for some of capitalism's most vicious and virulent ideologies, including racism, divisive nationalism and blind patriotism. A clear view of the commonality of interests of the oppressed throughout the world provides a powerful bulwark against the bellicose, chauvinist propaganda which issues daily from ruling-class sources. Recognition of the interest all the exploited share in ending class rule is a large step toward exposing and withdrawing support from the nationalist aims of their respective ruling classes.

Seemingly innocuous activities such s sporting events and singing contests have formed nationalistic attitudes. We hear workers speak of national and world events in terms of “we” and “our” when referring to the actions of the government. The media, the pulpits, the schools, the politicians and other mouthpieces of capitalist ideology have apparently done their job well.  In short, many workers were, and remain, caught up by the "patriotism" of the capitalist class.

Socialism and nationalism are incompatible concepts since socialism can only exist when the political state has disappeared, and its shell, the nation, has disappeared along with it.

The nation-state is the political form of capitalism. It was fashioned and adapted to promote capitalist interests in opposition to the interests of the vast majority of the working class. It is a capitalist tool, and it is anathema to the working class. We must not lose sight of the fact that nationalism is a tool of capitalist reaction used to thwart the social unrest within the working class away from tendencies aimed at their emancipation from wage slavery. It is grit in the eyes of the working class to blind them from the conditions of their exploitation and misery under capitalism.

For sure, socialist internationalism understands that each country's working-class movement must adapt itself to the conditions peculiar to the particular country. It also realises that demonstrable signs of internationalist ties between various working classes can surface only in proportion to the growth of the socialist movement in each country. Given the current weakness of socialist forces, overt signs of internationalism are infrequent. But because the overthrow of capitalist class rule and a socialist reconstruction of society remain the sole solution for the working classes of the world, the resurgence of international socialism is inevitable and will grow step-by-step with the march of the workers of the world toward a socialist future. It is one of the touchstones for gauging the real achievements of the workers' movement.  For workers today, class-consciousness -- loyalty to one's class -- is patriotism. International working-class interests are the paramount interests to be served -- not those of any capitalist political state. Class-consciousness is the key to working-class victory in ending the class struggle. It is the mortar that will hold the bricks of human progress together. Socialist solidarity means that workers' real interests and loyalties lie in supporting the efforts of workers worldwide in the class struggle; in supporting all workers' efforts to resist their exploiters and defeat their exploiters through the establishment of socialism. It means rejecting nationalism and the efforts of ruling-class nation-states to pit workers against each other in economic competition or set them at each others' throats in war. It means holding up global working-class solidarity in opposition to ruling-class nationalism.

"He fights in the name of the international proletariat against international capitalism. He attacks it where he finds it and can effectively strike it; that is, in his own country. In his own country, in the name of the international proletariat, he fights his own government and his own ruling classes as the representatives of international capitalism.” Karl Liebknecht

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.