Anchored To Poverty

On May 6 the Toronto Star ran an article focusing on the plight of neighbourhood malls, which are in decline. The two most likely reasons are the anchors pulling up anchors and on-line shopping.

Target has been in and out of Canadian malls for two years leaving a trail of debt and unemployment behind them. Sears has closed 11 department store anchor locations across Canada since 2012.

Market research firm IBIS-World issued a report which predicted this trend would continue for the next five years, ''Profit has suffered over the five years to 2016, as many industry operators have slashed their selling prices in order to remain attractive to customers'', the report said.

Mary Mowbray, of group sales for Colliers International, added, ''Malls, used to rely on their anchors and the anchors are changing faster than anyone imagined they would''. This is another indication that under capitalism no one really knows what will happen, but you can bet that with the economy the way it is now it won't be good. It's so bad even mall owners are getting out of the mall business.

Canada's top real estate development and investment firms have reduced their mall portfolios by half in recent years. A spokesman for one real estate consultancy said, ''Retailers don't want to have 600 stores anymore in a country. They are aiming for something closer to 300. The growth of online sales is a major factor. According to an estimate by Colliers, online sales of 23 billion in 2014 replaced 76.7 million square feet of stores. That is roughly the equivalent to the shopping centre inventories of Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa and Victoria, the estimate said. What no report or estimate did say was that these days millions of working class folk just don't have the money to shop for more than their basic needs and some haven't enough to do that.

 Steve and John.

Understand today - Visualise tomorrow

ROBOTS FOR SOCIALISM

Down through the ages, the imagination of mankind has been fired with the great vision of a world free of war and strife, without national rivalries, without racial and religious strife. The ideal of the “Brotherhood of Man” has inspired struggles against inequality and oppression, appearing again and again 

The technology exists to produce all that we need for a peaceful, orderly world and the true flowering of the human intellect and spirit. Our goal is to re-organise society. Our vision is of a new, cooperative society of equality, and of a people awakening. The revolution we need is possible. We invite all who see that there is a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. Only by engaging the hearts and minds of people can we win this social revolution. Our task is teaching people about the nature of this capitalist system and what kind of political organisation we need. We seek to transform people into conscious thinkers who become aware of themselves as indispensable makers of history and participate in the liberation of humanity.

Social revolutions come about can ultimately be traced to the economy. Everyone knows the economy is undergoing a profound change. This change is fundamental and irreversible; it is so great it is causing great change in every aspect of life. The content of the change in the economy is the replacement of human labour by new and ever expanding technologies such as automation. All the necessities of life must be paid for with money. We make money by going to work. If the robots do the work, then how will we get the food, housing, and clothing we need? If there is going to be production without wages, then there must be distribution without money. We must guarantee that the changes result in a better life for the people. We must guarantee the high-tech revolution provides for the common good through common ownership.

The worker's commodity is what he or she sells, their ability to work, is. Like a chair or an automobile, our ability to work is worth the cost of its production. Like the chair or automobile, its cost of production is determined by how much labour went into producing it. The secret of profit is this: Labour produces more than it costs to create. Every worker knows, even if he or she can’t explain it, that labour cranks out more value than it consumes. So a system evolved in which everyone bought and sold. The capitalist buys the elements of production, the worker buys the elements of life. The worker sells his or her ability to produce, the capitalist sells the produce. Every employer understands that the surest way to increase profits is to have the worker produce more for the same amount of wages. Every advance in machinery made the workers more productive and made more of them unemployed in a mad scramble to increase profit by cutting labour costs. Today the machinery are no longer mere labour-saving but labour-replacing. Robots force the worker out of the factory. Expanding sections of the working class are permanently unneeded. The new mode of production no longer needed a reserve army of unemployed. It is now clear that a new society must be built.

The mission of the Socialist Party is so to organise the mechanism of production that wealth can be abundantly produced as to free mankind from want and the fear of want, from the brute’s necessity of a life of arduous toil in the production of the brute’s mere necessaries of life. Socialist philosophy has made this clear. The Socialist Party is a is a revolutionary political party of the working class. We do not believe that the social or political maladjustments can be remedied by mere reforms in the manner of exploiting labour, but only by the complete abolition of the system of labour exploitation. When the workers awake to their class position they can by the conquest of the political machinery, recast society as they wish.  We, of the Socialist Party, have no other aim than to give the workers the knowledge that will enable them to act. Because we think that conditions are ripe for Socialism now, and only knowledge is lacking, we are not prepared under any circumstances whatever to divert the workers' attention from the main object; we do not aid the capitalist class, nor do we seek their aid, because we consider these things will not serve any useful purpose; we do not endeavour to interest the workers in the administration, nor in the reform of the capitalist system, because we regard the one as a purely capitalist question, and the other as a means of prolonging the system which we are bent on destroying; we do not formulate immediate demands, because we know that the capitalists will not yield one jot of their position unless they are compelled, by circumstances, or unless the yielding is conceived by them in their own interests. Reforms of the latter type will be introduced by the capitalists and imposed by them, irrespective of our wishes; and when we are strong enough to challenge them we shall formulate the only demand worth making, the final demand. All who are prepared to fight for this are invited to unite with us for that purpose.

Intense Wage Struggle.

JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA

 The Calgary Herald 05.12.2017 tells us "WestJet pilots poised to unionize amid intensifying worker unrest."

Wait, what's going one here? Was there ever a time earning wages under capitalism wasn't intense? Do tell! With Westjet's shares falling 4% over this wee tussle over wages and conditions, it is not surprising to read that WestJet CEO of Canada's budget airline vows to "go down fighting ..." Bully for you, mate! What a blinking hero! Those damn nuisance workers: Take it in the Chin!

Like a feral scourge that must be eradicated, what we see here is no different the world over: when decent working class folk struggle to stay afloat in a sea of swindling buccaneers, buccaneers who use every trick in the book to extract profit via the 'master and servant statutes' of old (labour law!) tipping the balance of power their way to dash the economic brains out the working class almost every time. And why not! It's their system! Those enterprising captains of industry fought hard, lying through their teeth to suck workers into letting them run civilization in their own interests – the interests of parasitical capital.

Good luck to you all fellow workers of Westjet. If you get your deserved gains, let's not forget to knock out the system that lets bosses everywhere exploit and keep us all in positions of senseless servitude! 

Steve and John.

Reforms won't solve our problems

Our society is divided. Our planet is under threat. Our communities are suffering. The interconnected environmental, energy, economic, and inequality crises of the 21st century are posing complex and often-unpredictable challenges to communities around the world.  It’s time to build. Meaningful change will not happen until we adopt a world-view that seeks to change the root causes of the many social ills that afflict present-day society. Hunger, poverty and pollution are not technical problems in and of themselves, since solutions already exist to technically solve and provide for each of these. Our greatest challenge isn’t the technical application of solutions to create abundance for the world’s population. It is persuading and convincing our fellow-workers that these are feasible and socialism is possible. This task of education to instill awareness is so massive and important that it cannot be understated.

Today, there are repetitive occupations which simply do not need to exist given the state of automation and robotics. Not only would automation reduce the mundane burden and allow more free time for people, it also would, more importantly, increase productivity. Machines do not need breaks, vacations, sleep, etc.. The use of mechanization on its own means to create many forms of abundance on this planet, from food to physical goods. However, to do this, the wage-labour system we have must end. The reality is that the wages system is stifling progress in its requirement to make profits for the employing class.

The concept of property is a fairly new social concept. Before the neolithic revolution, as extrapolated from current hunter and gatherer societies existing today, property relationships did not exist as we know them. Neither did money. Communities existed in an egalitarian fashion, living within the carrying capacity of their regions and the natural production built in. It was only after direct agricultural development was discovered, eventually proceeding with resource acquisition by ship traders and the like - up to modern day power establishments and corporations - that property became a highly defined staple of society as we know it today.

There is growing view among environmentalists that the affluent regions of the global economy must dramatically reduce overall resource and energy consumption levels – that is, undergo a process of ‘degrowth’ – if humanity is to bring about a sustainable world order. On the other hand, we have a growth economy that cannot go two steps in this direction without causing huge economic and social problems. As well as there are vast numbers of poor who require to be brought up to decent levels of living standards. If we need to degrow the economy, as it appears we do, how is that done without causing utter social chaos and societal breakdown? The World Socialist Movement say it must be done by creating a rational steady-state economy.

Our present system is the capitalist market economy.  This system has certain defining features that mark it out as unique compared to other economic systems humans have devised.  It is a system in which a) most (if not all) the major means of production are privately (these days corporately) owned by a small minority of the population; and b) where the fundamental economic problems (what, how, and for whom to produce) are solved “automatically”, through the price mechanism, rather than through conscious social decisions. Most importantly the system is also characterised by a growth compulsion, to expand. Due to competition, all firms – particularly large shareholder firms – are under constant pressure to invest in new techniques, methods of production and products, to improve competitiveness and their sales figures. If they fail to do this, they not only risk profits margins but also eventually being taken-over by other firms, or made bankrupt. Since no firm wants to perish, and since all must expand if they want to continue to exist, a general growth compulsion arises, not just for individual firms, but for the macro economy as whole.

So, while almost everyone wants growth, it is also true that the system needs growth for its basic functioning. In fact, the system cannot possibly tolerate even a slow-down in the rate of growth, let alone a contraction. The famed ‘efficiency’ of the market system only works well (if at all) when there is a buyers’ market, leading to strong competition between suppliers to meet customer demand. But in a contraction scenario, most markets would be ‘suppliers’ markets, as there would be, in general, a shortage of supply relative to demand. This would mean even poorly run, high cost firms would be able to survive. And, as with any market economy, you would still have a situation where increasingly scarce resources were tended to be allocated to meeting the money backed demands of the already wealthy, rather than to meeting the vital needs for all – a recipe for social chaos in a context of heightened scarcity. When capitalism approaches a ‘steady state’ of zero GDP growth the outcome for society at large is ugly. The situation is characterised by capital destruction, mass unemployment, devastated communities, growing poverty, foreclosures, homelessness and environmental considerations shunted aside in the all-out effort to restore growth.

Herman Daly argues that we can do so, while retaining a basically capitalist system, on the condition that the state steps in to play a far more active regulatory role than at present. Daly proposes that the state impose escalating resource depletion quotes, that can be traded in a market, while retaining private enterprise and the market system. Socialists argue, however, that this will not work. The contraction of the economies of the world must occur in an orderly way. Otherwise there will be unbearable breakdowns of whole societies. An orderly contraction can only take place in a planned economy, not in a capitalist market economy. A planned economy can consciously use labour-intensive technologies and methods, if necessary, which result in less use of resources. A socialist economic framework will be necessary if we are to contract the economy in an orderly, peaceful and socially just way. In arguing for large-scale industrial planning, we are not saying that we should nationalise family farms, local artisans, groceries, bakeries, neighbourhood restaurants and repair shops, workers’ cooperatives, and so on. Small producers aren’t destroying the world. But large-scale corporations are. If we want to save the planet, the corporations would have to be socialised, and completely reorganised and repurposed. This will be based on the active participation and cooperation of most, if not all, ordinary citizens. Active and inclusive participation by all (or at least most) is a crucial pre-requisite and it simply cannot be imposed ‘top-down’ via the State even if it wanted to. The revolution happens when ordinary citizens take it upon themselves to start building the new world. Unless participants within the socialist movement become aware of, and begin advocating, the eventual need for an orderly process of revolution it will not achieve a sustainable society. Capitalism itself must go onto the trash-can of history. Socialists must doggedly go on raising awareness wherever we can. Even if it does not feel like it, every conversation counts.

The Socialist Party understands the true nature of the challenges we as a society face, what the underlying, systemic forces are at play. Acting without this understanding is like putting a band-aid on a life-threatening injury. The Socialist Party supports the principle, according to one religious idiom, all God’s children deserve a fair share of the Earth’s bounty. Let us openly and loudly declare our commitment to the death of poverty and the birth of socialism.  Onward to the cooperative commonwealth.

Homelessness. A Continual Feature.

 About one hundred years ago the Parkdale neighbourhood was a hang out for Toronto's rich and infamous, but these days it's one for folk who do have a pot but not a lot more. In Parkdale, there are 198 rooming houses, bachelorette buildings, community non-profit buildings that hold 2715 people. Bachelorettes are what are sometimes called micro-apartments. About 60 of these are at risk of being sold or converted into higher cost housing which would mean 818 people would lose their homes.

What has caused this is Toronto's present red hot real estate market which makes any dump that can be gussied up attractive to the developers. We all know its a bubble and like all bubbles will eventually burst, but the question is will it burst it time to save the residents who will be told to.''find a new home''.

For most of them, it won't be easy considering many receive Ontario Disability Support which pays the grand sum of $479 a month towards rent and people on Ontario Works receive up to $374.

The study on real estate speculation, upscaling and conversion, conducted by the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust, was given the hilarious title,''No Room For Unkept Promises - Parkdale Rooming House Study'', One can bet if they promise to kick you out on the street they will do exactly that.

One resident said, ''We are hanging on by a thread, I have this feeling that in 10 years Parkdale will be unrecognizable and I won't be here and I want to be here.'' It could well be that Parkdale will go back to being what it used to be, a residential area for capitalists, which will be another example of how little things change under capitalism despite its technological advances.

Another thing that won't change is people being made homeless. 

Steve and John. 

It is time for a world without money

There’s no doubt that everyone wants to live in a better world. Almost everyone you speak to today senses that big changes are coming to our way of life.  We are now seven billion people yet there is no common goal, and no coordinated administration to manage our society and environment in a fair and sustainable way. The capitalist exchange economy with its production for profit prevents this from happening. Our current system is clearly not working. With socialism humanity unites in common purpose – to create a better life for everyone and a better life for ourselves. You probably think a world without private property, prices, money or even a government sounds crazy, right? We have been brought up to believe that we must compete to survive, and that life is a constant struggle. But does it really still have to be this way? We need a whole new system. The old system don't serve us anymore and we can do much better now. Why not try?

New technology and robots mean more people are losing their jobs and struggling to earn enough to survive, resulting in more poverty. Meanwhile, capitalism demands constant growth, which results in companies ravaging and polluting the environment, making shoddy products that are designed to break The 1% own half of all global wealth today, while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet. Improved and better technology is not the problem but part of the solution as we can use it to automate the production of pretty much everything, meeting practically all our needs with minimal effort. Just people helping each other and using technology to provide abundance for everyone. We can now automate the production of most things we need, so scarcity needs no longer be an issue, thus neither will greed be a problem. Why do people work in the first place? To enable them to meet their basic needs, ie. food, shelter, etc. What if those needs were already met? By working together for the benefit of each other, automating the production of many things with today's technology, and rotating certain community tasks amongst its members, you'd then be free to do whatever you want. People who already work in jobs they're passionate about would carry on because that's what they love. All of us, using the internet, online referendums, community voting, the appointment of project managers and delegates to committees will collectively administer society.

It is time for humanity to evolve; to rise above the limits of money and borders. We have the technology now to create an efficient hi-tech and abundant society, with all of us working together, connected, for each other, if we choose it. Now is the time for the next chapter in human existence. It’s time to make everything free.  it’s the only rational and logical way to proceed.  Just think about our world today: Because of capitalism, we have wars, poverty, greed, corruption, inequality, and injustice; our air, rivers, lands and seas are poisoned; we can’t access good healthcare or a decent education. Most of us are hard-pressed to make ends meet, we work in jobs that we hate or don’t get paid enough for, or we are unemployed, homeless and on the periphery of society. While life may be difficult for us in the developed world, remember, it is literally impossible for many millions of people every year in developing nations. We have tens of thousands of children dying every day in the world of hunger and diseases, even though we have the food and the cures to prevent it! How on Earth did we come to accept this as normal? Our planet has become a hostile place to live in.  Companies need a constant turnover of products in order to be profitable. It just doesn’t make financial sense to build products to last. It is better for business to keep producing disposable or sub-standard goods, despite the waste of natural resources and pollution that this causes. Many companies spend millions on advertising every year ‘creating a market’ for unnecessary products to justify manufacturing for profit. This is not just wasteful and polluting but has also created a culture of consumerism and a dangerous illusion of ‘limitless’ growth – an illusion that is slowly poisoning and choking us.


  Human beings are becoming more and more obsolete in the workplace. Our increasing global unemployment has nothing to do with incompetent governments. It is merely the growth of technology, and it’s going to get worse. Machines are taking over. Technology is a major contributing factor to unemployment. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we’re doing a lot of things wrong in our society. Everywhere you look – greed, corruption, crime, poverty, financial stress, our health system, climate change – all of it links back to the way we do business on this planet. This simply must change. With the establishment of free access production-for-use socialism, there would be no more poverty or social inequality for example. There would be no more reckless destruction of the environment in the name of profit. All the associated problems of greed, corruption, and crime would become almost non-existent. We would each be able to live richer, happier and more connected lives while reaching our fullest individual potential. There’s no doubt that the rewards of a money-free world would be immense. Socialism is no longer a futurist utopian dream. A money-free world of true abundance, peace and fulfillment are attainable today. What are we waiting for? Whose permission do we need?


Adapted from Freeworlder website

  https://freeworlder.com/blog/

Sounds Nuts Doesn't It?

A buddy just bought a fresh off the assembly line Ford Escape, which he calls, ''a computer on wheels''. Actually, there are four computers which help run it, one of which breaks the speed down if it's too close to the vehicle in front. Many may think its great since it prevents accidents and also saves the insurance capitalists a lot of money, but let's not kid ourselves, it's a step towards driverless vehicles which will inevitably cause more unemployment.

This may not mean that in a socialist society one will be able to program his/her car and take a nap on the trip. Maybe yes, maybe no, though it could also mean that in socialism we wouldn't need cars so badly. The automobile is both a product and a symbol of capitalism. For millions of us, a car is a necessity; we need it to get to work so we can make the money that will pay for the car. 

Sounds nuts doesn't it? But don't expect sanity and capitalism to go hand in hand, cos if you look for a connection you'll be looking longer than it will take you to pay for your car.

 Steve and John

Spoil the Ballot

SPOIL THE BALLOT
WRITE "WORLD SOCIALISM"

Our emancipation can only be achieved by turning the machinery of production into the common property of society so that they can be used to produce the requirements of life in abundance for all; in a word, socialism must be established. The Socialist Party is the only party in this country that consistently works towards this end to hasten the day when the fratricidal warfare of capitalism is replaced by the fraternal co-operation.

Until the time arrives when our fellow-workers rally to the Socialist Party in greater numbers and enable it to take its proper place in electoral contests as the only working-class political party in this country, it has no candidates standing in Scotland. Hence all candidates before you at this election stand for the maintenance of capitalism. Your duty to your class is plain. Go to the polling station and write “WORLD SOCIALISM” upon your ballot paper. 

 Afterward, the task before you is to join in the fight for socialism, for only that alone can deliver you from the misery and drudgery which to-day you experience and endure.

Chaos or Sanity - the election choice

Once more we are faced with a bunch of politicians who can only be distinguished from one another by the colour of their rosettes, but there are many thousands of people not prepared to support any of them. This is no ordinary election manifesto. We make no promises; we do not ask for your support. Indeed, the Socialist Party does not want your support unless you are convinced that the case for socialism is a sensible one and is in your interest. Most of you will not know much about the Socialist Party. Many people have heard the word “socialist" and imagine that it was something to do with the dictatorship that used to exist in Russia. It is understandable that many people regard “socialism" as nationalised industries or as just another political cliché, used to win votes for Labour politicians, but has very little meaning. The Socialist Party stands solely for socialism because we do not think that capitalism can ever be made to work in the interests of the people. Capitalism always puts the needs of the minority who own and control the factories, farms, offices, the transport, the media, the means of wealth production and distribution, before those of the vast majority — we, the working class — who produce the wealth, but own little more than our ability to work, which we have to sell for wages.

No political party — not even ourselves — can humanise capitalism to make it run in the interests of the wage slaves. That's why it’s time for you to stop giving your votes to politicians who stand for the profit system. None of them possess recipes for economic success. None of them will provide decent housing for everyone. None of them will prevent people from starving to death. None of them will end the threat of wars. None of them will effectively halt climate change. Why waste your vote on parties that cannot solve those pressing problems? Why keep hoping that a miracle will happen and the insanity of capitalism will be put right?

 The Socialist Party says that the resources of society must be taken into the hands of the whole community — and by that, we don't mean the state, but all of us, organised together, consciously and democratically. In a socialist society, we will produce for use, not profit. Producing for use means ending the colossal waste of resources on armies, armaments, trade, banking and insurance, and all the other social features which are only necessary within capitalism; it means devoting human energies and natural resources to producing the best of what people really need and want. By running society on the basis of common ownership, democratic control and production for use we can all have free access to all goods and services.

Socialism can only be established when a majority of workers understand and want it, so there is no point in seeking support on any other basis. Secondly, you will have noticed that what we are advocating is different — it has never been tried. That gang of political has-beens, the Lib-Dems have nothing to offer. The Labour Party, if elected, will continue its futile exercise of trying to reform capitalism. The Tories will pursue their vicious policy of dancing to the tune of austerity. This is the only election appeal which is making a proposal to transform world society from the chaos and waste into the co-operative democratic commonwealth.

Capitalism puts the profits of the few before the needs of the many. Proposals to reform the profit system cannot bring socialism. When a majority of workers, disillusioned with the old parties understand and want socialism, the new system can be established almost immediately. Have the millions of workers who were fooled by the bogus promises in previous elections learned not to trust their destinies to the professional politicians? Capitalism is the cause of poverty, unemployment and environmental destruction. As open defenders of the capitalist system, the Tories undoubtedly belong in the political museum of bankrupt ideologies. They stand before the working class with a bag of vague, stale and unworkable policies which we are supposed to believe will make capitalism decent and pleasant. So, is Labour the only alternative? Desperate Labour canvassers plead for working class votes on the basis that anything would be better than the Tories. Socialists do not want something better than the Conservative Party but something better than capitalism! Workers must make clear to the Labour mis-leaders that never again will a Labour government receive the support of those over whose exploitation it presides. Socialists have clear memories of when Labour ministers used all the power they could muster to attack the striking public service workers. The workers must put the reformists of the Labour Party where they belong: on the political scrap-heap.

If you are a convinced socialist you should vote for your principles whether there is a socialist candidate in your constituency or not. The Socialist Party is contesting  three seats:

Islington North (Bill Martin)

Battersea (Danny Lambert)

Swansea West (Brian Johnson)

Where there is no socialist candidate, write “World Socialism” across your ballot paper.

In this election, the choice, as always, is simple: capitalism or socialism; chaos or sanity. We know which side we are on. Do you?

Socialist Party Election Video

SPOIL THE BALLOT PAPER
WRITE "WORLD SOCIALISM"

The hour is late. Join us now

The immediate future does not look especially bright. It will grow darker still until the workers rise to the task of removing the curse of capital from the means of production, thus clearing the way for a better, a more decent civilization. The problem of production has been solved by the working class. The task now at hand is the solution to the problem of how to so handle the means of production and dispose of the product as to best conserve the interests of all. The control of the resources of the earth and the instruments of labour must be taken from the hands of the capitalist class and these means of production dedicated to the service of the whole people under the administration and control of those who, by doing the world’s work, make any sort of civilisation possible. You workers of the world constitute the only useful part of human society. You have long fed, clothed and sheltered your masters in comfort and luxury while ekeing out a slavish existence yourselves.

To put an end to the present system of capitalism, where the first and last issue is profit and more profit is the aim of the Socialist Party. Today profit rules, not the needs of the people. Capitalism is a system where those who have ownership of the factories, the mines, the mills, the land, the machines, and so forth have everything. It’s a system where those who have no other way to make ends meet except to sell their ability to work to the bosses, must labour to enrich the capitalist and can work only so long as they do so. When the capitalist finds no further use for a worker, when he finds it unprofitable to continue paying his workers, the wage slaves are thrown out into the streets as additional figures on the unemployment lists. Under their system, democracy is for the rich, justice is for the rich, a good education is for the rich, and medical care is based on your pocket book. The Socialist Party clearly targets the capitalist system as the problem, and points to the solution, socialism, where the working class rules and completely changes society in their interests. The most important thing for people to understand is that the only way to do away with the misery and oppression which capitalism breeds is to build a united and organized movement against the capitalist class and for a socialist revolution.

We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humankind. It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous imperialist wars to steal the resources of less developed countries and causes the growing devastation of our natural environment.  Either we get rid of this outmoded decrepit system or it will devastate humanity. The hour is late and urgent action is necessary. The only viable way forward is revolutionary struggle to achieve socialism, a class-free and state-free society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment. The working class must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society. From the already existing capitalist-created world economy, a planned and unified world economy will be brought into being, and not merely the productive forces (as under capitalism) but also production itself will be developed to levels hitherto unknown.

As production increases producing an increasing abundance, distribution according to need comes into existence. “To each according to his need” And as the possibility of distribution according to need grows, pari passu [with equal pace], the need for the apparatus of force, the “state,” which protects the earlier form of distribution also disappears. That is to say, “the state withers away” completely. Human nature itself will have undergone a transformation; and since also, by reason of technical development and the vast extension of leisure, work itself will have become a pleasant pastime instead of a laborious task; mankind will have learned to work for society according to ability. The other half also of the slogan descriptive of communist society will thus have been translated into reality – “from each according to his ability.” And this self-acting society of associated producers will also be classless inasmuch as its members will have no differential relation to the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Property will no longer belong to the state, which is the instrument of a class, but to the community, which is now classless; and the state itself, if the term be permissible for an apparatus of the nature that it will be, will be concerned not with the government of men but the administration of things. The producers themselves, the workers, will decide what to produce and how – not “the market”. Production will be planned on the basis of what serves society, not what yields the most profit for the owing employing class.

Capitalism has nothing to offer the large majority but uncertainty for tomorrow, unemployment, environmental disasters, poverty, and war. Global warming and the environmental crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. The uncontrolled exploitation and gross waste of resources typical of capitalism is the source of this disaster. The answer is not reform, but revolution. Another world is necessary – revolution and socialism are the solution. The working class is the only revolutionary class under capitalism. It is the historical task of the working class to put an end to capitalist exploitation and oppression. Socialism is the power of the working class. This class repossesses and expropriates the people’s property from the capitalists. 

Vote None of Them

We, in the Socialist Party, hold that society needs to be changed fundamentally and we advocate the abolition of social classes through production based solely on meeting people's needs, democratically administered. This goes much deeper than a mere change in government and it also assumes a widespread understanding of what needs to be done. We are members of the working class, which includes everyone around the world who must sell his or her capacity to work to some employer to stay alive. We understand capitalism has gone as far as it can go and now the time has come to put it behind us and build a world that really works for everyone.

It is time to draw some lessons from the past and apply them now. One of the most important lessons concerns class and how many workers fail to act in their own interest. People increasingly appreciate that capitalism is the key problem of our time, but they see no solution that can overcome the limits of the present political discourse. The Left, Centre, and Right haven't solved anything that counts - and they can't. Real solutions require rational thought, not spin or hype.

If our goal is the eradication of capitalism, then supporting the SNP or the Labour Party is just delusional. The object of socialists is to assist in the emancipation of the workers from its enslavement to the capitalist class. To those who support the SNP or the Labour Party we would appeal to reconsider their position. What does their boasted achievements amount to after all? Join the Socialist Party in a refusal to vote for evil, either of the lesser or the greater sort. 

The Socialist Party’s case is that socialism will be established by the conscious democratic political action of a majority of workers using the electoral machinery, which in this country means parliament. The Socialist Party is in fundamental opposition to all other parties. It proclaims that the building of socialism, the re-organisation of the economic life of the whole world, is impossible unless the working class overthrows the capitalist class and asserts its control. The Socialist Party, therefore, is the enemy of capitalists and capitalist parties. The class war is our war and our only war. 

For socialists, the rule of government can never be democratic. Though it may include some incidental functions arising from the needs of people the main work of the State is the running of class-divided society; a system of economic exploitation. In the main governments work for a privileged section of society. They make the laws which protect the property rights of a minority who own and control natural resources and industry. In fact, though, there is a sense in which the government does not run the system at all - rather, the capitalist system runs the government, by limiting the actions that can be taken. The capitalists and their governments can propose what they like, but it is the capitalist economy that disposes. Raising of interest rates, increased unemployment, devaluation - these may not be what governments want to do, but may well be what they are forced to do because capitalism leaves them no choice.

Socialists point out to our fellow-workers that they possess, as a class, all what is needed to build a new social system based upon the common ownership of the means of life where we will no longer sell themselves as merchandise. We will be free to enjoy the fruits of our collective labour. Having arrived at this understanding, our fellow- workers will recognise that their political power must be put to an infinitely better use than that of providing fat plum jobs for nimble-tongued tricksters and instead seek our own emancipation. The vote is not useless if backed by a class-conscious understanding.

Society is run in the interests of those who own the wealth. They argue among each other over Brexit, GDP rates, profits, and exports, because where the borders lie matters to them. Every border is an opportunity to wring cash out of other property owners. They’ll try to sway us one way or another with crumbs (or the promises of crumbs) but we’ll only get what they feel they can spare to protect their privilege and wealth. We will remain dependent upon their investments making a profit for them before we can get our needs and interests seen to

The only way to stop this dependency would be for us to take ownership and control of the wealth of the world into our own hands. We could, together, use the wealth of the world to meet our mutual needs and grant the true independence of being able to control our work and our lives in a free and voluntary association of equals.

Though the outcome of this election is irrelevant, it is an opportunity for us to tell our fellow workers that this is what we want. We don’t have to suffer in silence, we can go to the polling booth and write“WORLD SOCIALISM” across the voting paper. A vote is always worth using - even when there is nothing worthy of voting for.