Saturday, May 13, 2017

What Does Trump Care About?

The US-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre said Arctic ice is at a record low for the third straight year and is at its lowest level in the 38-year history of satellite record-keeping. The median figure for 1981 to 2010 was  15.6 square kilometers, which is now down to 14.5. Recent research has suggested that most of the loss is due to climate change and is expected to increase as carbon dioxide continues to build in the atmosphere.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which partly funds the Snow and Ice Data Centre, is threatened by proposed budget cuts from the White House, so it can't afford to piss 'em off.One glaring thing about Capitalism is that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse and to prove it we have Scott Pruitt, Trump's top environmental official, calling for an exit from the Paris climate agreement of 2015. 

On April 13 we have this worthy saying,'' Paris is something that we really need to look at closely. It's something we need to exit in my opinion. It's a bad deal for America.'' What he really means is it will affect the extent to which Manufacture in the US can make a profit.

Trump had previously shown he doesn't care about the policy of climate change Obama had pursued, but the question is what, except for the needs of US Capitalism does he care about? This isn't to say that if every signatory stuck to the accords of the Paris agreement it would solve the problem, though it would be better than nothing. The only sure way to solve it is to get rid of the cause, the pathetic apology for an economic system we live under. 


Steve and John.

Skinned Alive!

A Chinese friend told me that in the fur industry in China animals, including dogs and cats, are skinned alive for their fur. This is because the skinners are on piece rates and killing an animal without damaging the skin takes skill and time. The animals, he said die very unpleasantly - what a surprise! Their bodies probably stink too, in fact. 

Steve and John

Nationalism – His Masters' Voice

SUPPORT
WORLD SOCIALISM

Capitalism has nothing to offer but barbarism. All too often, the employing class have resorted to nationalist flag-waving to defend “native” business enterprise against "foreign" competition - conflating the interest of the bosses with those of workers. The Socialist Party rejects all nationalism this is not the case with the many on the Left who support nationalist struggles. Every barbaric anti-working class nationalist movement with its attendant policies of genocide has found supporters within the left-wing. Apologies are made for death, rape, torture and human misery on the specious grounds of “your enemy is my friend”. 

The working class has a difficult, but urgent task: to gather all its resources to try to stop the attacks being waged against it. What is on offer is not ‘independence’, but the division of the working class into hostile camps, alongside the continued unity of the exploiters. Business as usual for British Bosses, in fact, nationalists should not imagine that they are ridding themselves of the exploiting class.  Just as in the case of Westminster rule, the real decisions will continue to be made by the British billionaire class behind the scenes in their board-rooms. The SNP will simply be what all other British politicians are and have been for centuries – the public face of a very old, very experienced and very cunning ruling class. The reality, far from being the socialist paradise that is painted by the Left-nationalists, in Scotland it will simply be a race to the bottom, as the government compete to attract investment by lowering wages, lowering corporation tax, restricting workers’ rights, to prove their subservience to capitalist class. This is a law of economics under capitalism, and especially in times of crisis, when unemployment is climbing ever higher and workers are becoming desperate for whatever they can get. Better conditions for workers, higher taxes for improved social services will be seen as less ‘attractive’ to ‘investors’ (capitalists), since anything that benefits workers cannot help but impact levels of profitability. So the capitalist will invest in the more ‘flexible’ side of the border, and the cry will go up on the other side … “we, too, need to be more flexible”. Down will come the wages, the corporation taxes and other ‘barriers’ to profit-taking. Back will come the exploiters to reap the rewards … until the workers on the other side of the border can be forced to accept even worse pay and conditions in the interests of ‘job creation’ and ‘competitiveness’. The Scottish nationalists such as Salmond and Sturgeon are showing they are more than willing to play their part. Such a future has appeal to the ruling class, but it is hardly the manifesto of a left-wing liberation struggle!

The separation of Scotland from Britain will fix the problems of our fellow-workers. The SNP present themselves as the progressive party but in truth all they promise slightly-less-inefficient hospitals and slightly-less-inefficient schools. We deserve a lot better  and there is little evidence that this is anything more than wishful thinking on the part of those who assert it. The Scottish capitalist parties will do what the capitalist ruling class requires them to do, no matter how people vote or how many of them take to the street to express their opposition. What we are witnessing in Scotland has its echoes all over Britain. The outward appearance may seem to be more progressive, since many left-wing workers support the call for independence, but it is essentially a mirror of the rise of those on the left who supported Brexit and call for increased immigration controls to gain support among impoverished and misguided English workers. As the recession bit ever deeper, workers have been suffering the same demoralisation and the same frustrations and have been asking themselves what the solution is. As independence has been used to dupe workers, elsewhere immigration has been blamed for the mounting misery. In Scotland nationalism has been offered up as the ‘answer’ to the problems of capitalism. But its effect is the same – it gives workers a scapegoat for the ills of capitalist society. “Don’t blame capitalism, blame the immigrants!” say the the British nationalists to discontented and disillusioned workers in England. “Don’t blame capitalism, blame the English!” say the SNP. 

Capitalism has shrunk the planet. The internet and other social media have brought the whole world into contact with one another. Communication and transport networks have made global production and distribution easier. Socialists do not envisage cultural uniformity but there is more that unites human beings than divides them. There is a universal need for shelter, food, housing, creativity and so on. Human beings are both social and co-operative and can work together to produce and distribute goods to meet human need. We cannot trust the capitalist system to be run in the interest of workers. Everything we win in the course of class struggle can be taken away again if we let down our guard. The only way to keep hold of the gains we make is to get rid of the capitalist system and establish socialism. A lack of local power is not an argument for nationalism; it is an argument for socialism. In the Socialist Party,, our job is to promote understanding in order to help workers discard popular yet harmful prejudices. If we don’t do that, then there’s really not much point to our existence, since it is only through discarding the prejudices that keep us shackled to ruling class ideas that we will be able to build a movement capable of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism. When we in the Socialist Party argue against Scottish nationalism, we do so not because we wish to endorse the rule of Westminster, but because we wish workers to understand that it is not ‘the English’ who are their enemies, but the British ruling class. And because we wish to create a movement that is as strong and unified as possible that will have a fighting chance of displacing our exploiters. Say no to nationalism, which ties workers to capitalists and turns us into tools of our own oppression. Say yes to working-class unity, yes to revolution, and yes to a socialist future.  
   

SPGB ON TV

The time has come for solidarity.

 People feel powerless – locked out of decision-making, by-passed by real governance – So they turn to protest. Especially for the disenfranchised and oppressed, protest is often the only way to exert power and affect policies and practices that impact their lives and communities.
TOWARDS WORLD SOCIALISM

Socialism involves such a complete change in the way in which the world is organised that it can only be put into practice when all the factories, mines, transport systems, shops, and so on are owned by mankind and used for the benefit of the entire world population. The whole system of employment, of a class of bosses buying our energies with wages and then setting us to work for themselves, will be replaced by voluntary, co-operative effort by all members of society. This means that, just as there will be no buying and selling between individuals.   One of the first priorities in a socialist world will be to get rid of the boring and repetitive tasks which today make so much work unpleasant and replace them with alternative methods. Socialism must be a world community without frontiers. It can not be set up in one country or even in one part of the world.  In Socialism, so there will be no trade between different countries. Production in socialism will involve a worldwide effort to make what is wanted and since every region will be working towards this end and will participate in the democratic processes used to decide what is needed and in what quantities naturally every group of people will have free access to what is produced. Socialism is not just a good idea but also is urgently needed to solve many of the serious problems which now plague the world.

There can be no politics of socialism without challenging the concept of property rights over the land, capital and intellectual ownership. Rights of use rather than rights of property must be the juridical axis for the transformation of society. The liberation of work from capitalist control will only be possible if the enterprise becomes an institution of a democratic society. Any workplace democracy is incompatible with capitalism’s control of what it considers to be its exclusive property. Yet state control is not the way forward.  So-called public-ownership is unable to practice anything other than a centralized, bureaucratic form of management. The politics of common ownership aims to return the control of the institutions of reciprocity and solidarity to society.

We tend to think of the various components of the natural world around us as being, quite rightly, the common legacy of humankind. In his famous lament of 1854, Chief Seattle’s chastised the white settlers of North America and their system of commercialised greed in these haunting words:
The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth…All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself”.

The venerable old chief expressed bafflement at the American government's offer to purchase land from the tribe. How can you buy or sell the sky or the warmth of the land, he pondered.

The struggle between those who possess social power and those who do not, between freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed is a war fought with many and varied weapons. It is not an all or nothing case.  It does not say that workers can do nothing to protect themselves short of socialism.  

Our present society is founded upon the exploitation of the propertyless class by the propertied. And it is the goal of the Socialist Party to remove the existing ruling class, by all means, i.e., by energetic, relentless, revolutionary, and international action so to establishment of a free society based upon cooperative organisation of production. The struggle of the working class against capitalist exploitation is necessarily a political struggle.

In Marx’s view, a system run by freely associated producers and their communities, socially unified with necessary conditions of production, by definition excludes commodity exchange and money. As a result, “the money-capital” (including the payment of wages) “is eliminated” although during communism’s lower phase, “the producers may…receive paper vouchers entitling them to withdraw from the social supplies of consumer goods a quantity corresponding to their labour-time” but “these vouchers are not money. They do not circulate.” 

There is a widespread notion that socialism and communism are two different , successive, societies, that socialism is the transition to communism, and precedes communism. However, for Marx (and Engels) socialism is neither the lower phase of nor the transition to communism. Socialism IS communism. In fact Marx calls capitalism itself the ‘simple transitional point ‘ or ‘transitional phase’ ( to the higher form of society (in Grundrisse,Notebook 5;Notebook 18 of the 1861-63 Notebooks). For Marx socialism and communism are simply equivalent and alternative terms for the same society that he envisages for the post-capitalist epoch which he calls, in different texts, equivalently: communism, socialism, Republic of Labour, society of free and associated producers or simply Association, Cooperative Society, union of free individuals based on the Associated Mode of Production, as opposed to the Capitalist Mode of Production. Hence what Marx says in one of his famous texts – Critique of the Gotha Programme – about the two stages of communism could as well identically apply to socialism undergoing the same two stages.

To drive home our point that socialism and communism in Marx mean the same social formation, and thereby to refute the uncritically accepted idea – a sequel to the Bolshevik tradition shared by all the Party-State régimes and their partisans following the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of political power – of socialism as the first stage and being only the transition to communism, we can mention at least four of Marx’s texts where, referring to the future society after capital, Marx speaks exclusively of ‘socialism’ and does not mention ‘communism.’

"Generally a revolution – overthrow of the existing power and the dissolution of the old relations – is a political act. Without revolution socialism cannot be viable. It needs this political act to the extent that it needs destruction and dissolution. However, where its organizing activity begins, where its aim and soul stand out, socialism throws away its political cover”(in his 1844 polemic with Ruge).

The second and the third texts are almost identical, appearing respectively in one of his 1861-63 notebooks (second notebook of the 23 notebooks) and in the so-called ‘main manuscript’ for Capital III. Here is the 1861-63 text, in Marx’s own English:
Capitalist production…is a greater spendthrift than any other mode of production of man, of living labour, spendthrift not only of flesh and blood and muscles, but of brains and nerves. It is, in fact, at [the cost of] the greatest waste of individual development that the development of general men [general development of human beings]is secured in those epochs of history which prelude to [which presage]a socialist constitution of mankind. 

This text is repeated almost word for word in the ‘main manuscript’ of volume 3 of ‘Capital’. Finally, in the course of correcting and improving the text of a book by a worker (Johann Most), meant for popularizing Capital, Marx inserted: "The capitalist mode of production is really a transitional form which by its own organism must lead to a higher, to a co-operative mode of production, to socialism.





Friday, May 12, 2017

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.



Thursday, May 11, 2017

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.”

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

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?"