This is Socialism

Our age is one of continuous discovery, yet the problems of humanity seem to be  insurmountable. Our age is full of contradictions. We could send men to the moon, yet many on this world have not enough to eat.  Science serves the ends of the capitalist system. It serves the military, not the community. The scientists are fettered by the prejudices of private property and refuse to recognise that the cause of the many social problems is capitalism itself. The drive for greater technical efficiency is basic to capitalism's insatiable thirst for profits; humanity's real needs are not considered.

Capitalism has engulfed the whole world. Every nation is involved in world trade and cannot escape its influence. Capitalism spreads it its own ideology and culture. Globalisation destroys diverse communities with their rich traditions. Today we all live very similar lives with same social ills. We are all cogs in the machinery of capitalism, and are exploited in the same way. Dress, diet and dialect may vary, but the workers day-to-day worries are essentially the same. Apart from socialism, nothing can stop capitalism. It subjugating greater numbers of people to wage slavery. Under capitalism the privileges of class ownership of wealth dominate community requirements, the needs of the majority take second place. World capitalism as the dominating system of production and distribution can never be rationally organised in such a way that it serves the needs of the community. Private ownership, economic exploitation and the distribution of commodities through a marketing system with a view to making profit from the barriers that prevent man from making the fullest possible use of his labour, technology and natural resources. This is the nature of the problem of poverty. Any attempt to deal with world poverty within the framework of capitalist society is bound to fail, since it accepts all the pre-conditions of the problem. The priorities of capitalist society are privileged property rights and the pursuit of profits. We must constantly draw attention to the contradiction inherent within capitalist society. The problem of hunger cannot be isolated from world poverty maintained year after year by the economic barriers of capitalism. This is not a technical problem: it is not a problem of overpopulation. It is a question of the kind of social priorities that people choose to accept. If it is to be capitalism, it will be production and distribution geared to the private accumulation of wealth by a privileged minority. It will mean economic recessions, unemployment, the curtailment of production at a time when humanity desperately needs more wealth. It will mean that technology will be stifled by the limitations of investment programmes. It will mean that the price mechanism and the market will sometimes result in the stockpiling or destruction of food whilst people are starving. It will mean the waste involved in war and commerce.

Socialism will mean the free application of human labour to the earth's resources with the most efficient utilisation and further development of technology. It will mean a productive system built up on relations of social equality and adjusted to the idea that man matters most. The object of socialism is to unite humanity and to solve social problems by building a society which can satisfy the universal need for co-operation and material security.  Socialism is the form of society most compatible with the needs of man. Its necessity springs from the enduring problems, the economic contradictions and social conflicts of present-day society. Socialist society must be based upon the common ownership and democratic control by the whole community of the means of life.Life will be based on human relationships of equality and co-operation. Through these relationships, man will produce useful things, construct amenities and establish desirable institutions.

Socialism will resolve the conflicts which at present divide man from man. Regardless of ethnic or cultural differences, the whole world community will share a common interest. The building of socialism requires a social reorganisation where the earth's resources and the apparatus of production are held in common by the whole community. Instead of serving sectional interests, they are made freely accessible to society as a whole. Production will be organized at world level with co-ordination of its differing parts down to local levels. In socialism there will be no market, trade or barter. In the absence of a system of exchange, money will have no function to perform. Individuals will participate freely in production and take what they need from what is produced. The fact that socialism will be based on common ownership does not mean that an individual will have no call on personal effects. It means essentially that no minority will have control over or possession of natural resources or means of production. Individuals will stand in relation to each other not as economic categories, not as employers and employees or buyers and sellers, but simply as human beings producing and consuming the necessary things of life. Socialist society will minimise waste and set free an immense amount of human labour. Armies and armament industries with their squandering of men and materials will be swept away. These will disappear together with all the wasteful appendages of trade and commerce.

In socialism there will be a common interest in the planning and smooth operation of production. Work will be a part of human co-operation in dealing with practical problems. Work will be one aspect of the varied yet integrated life of the community. With the change in the object of society, that is human welfare instead of profit, man will freely develop agriculture and housing, produce useful things and maintain services. As well as material production, man will freely develop desirable institutions such as libraries, education facilities, centres of art and crafts and centres of research in science and technology. It will be a problem of social planning, statistics and research to ascertain the requirements of the community. Although these techniques are used for different ends, there is already wide experience of them. With experience of Socialist production, these planning techniques will gain in accuracy. Once produced, goods will be transported to centres of distribution where all will have the same right of access to what is available according to individual need. It will be a simple matter of collecting what is required. As well as tradition and geography, it will be a matter of organization and practicality as to which things will require a complex world division of labour for their production and which things will be produced regionally.

Socialism will establish a community of interests. The development of the individual will enhance the lives of other men. Equality will manifest attitudes of co-operation. The individual will enjoy the security of being integrated with society at large. The establishment of socialism does not call for the complete destruction and reconstruction of society. Techniques of production and some of the machinery of administration which can be transformed already exist. The task is to allow their free use and development by and for the community. With the change in the object of society from profit to human welfare will come a change in the function of social institutions Socialism will continue those institutions necessary to its own organisation. For example, the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organisation could be expanded to submit plans and execute decisions concerning world food production and global healthcare

The schools and universities will no longer be concerned with the training of wage and salary workers for the needs of trade and commerce. Education will be a social amenity for life, providing teachers and a storehouse of all accumulated knowledge and skill. Education will not be rigidly separated from other aspects of life. The provision of education facilities will call for some permanent specialists, but knowledge and skill will to a much greater extent be passed on by those actively engaged in their practical application. Education will be tied more closely to the whole process of living.

Socialism will end national barriers. The human family will have freedom of movement over the entire earth. Socialism would facilitate universal human contact but at the same time would take care to preserve diversity. Variety in language, music, handicrafts, art forms and diet etc will add to all human experience. Socialism will be democratic. World policies will be subject to the control of the world community. The most complete information relevant to all issues under discussion will be made fully available. Elected delegates will carry local viewpoints to a world congress where the broad decisions on all aspects of social policy will be made. From that point, the social machinery would be implemented to carry out these decisions, subject to democratic control through both local and world bodies. Decisions affecting only local interests would be made democratically by the local community. The elimination of vested interests will mean that men will have no ulterior motives influencing their decisions.

Within present capitalist society, people and resources serve profit. On all sides it can be seen that commerce and trade – the exchange economy - are preventing mankind from expanding production on a scale necessary to serve the community’s needs. Socialism will provide a social framework that will enable humanity to get on with the job. The initial task of producing enough goods for the whole human family will be a huge one. We do not underestimate the problems of organization and production involved, but to eliminate world poverty must be one of the first tasks of socialist society. It is the glaring contradiction of our times that wealth is socially produced but possessed by a minority. Whereas in science, technology and in the development of the means of production man has brilliantly asserted his genius, in his relationships man suffers an abiding failure. It is this failure which is expressed in war, nationalism, racism, world hunger and poverty, unemployment, industrial chaos and social disunity. In all history, man has never suffered such universal frustration whilst having so close at hand the means of building a better world.

Will Oprah Be Better?

After Oprah Winfrey's speech about sexual harassment at the Golden Globe awards there is speculation, as you may have heard, about the possibility of her running for prez. in 2020. Reaction has been different, as one may expect. Some say she couldn't do worse than the twit who has the job now, but then who could? Obviously Oprah has no experience in public service, but some who have screw up. She may be a well meaning person, but then we all know the paradigm about good intentions.

So in the interests of cutting the crap and calling a spade a spade, lets take a look at this woman. The differences between Oprah and Trump, besides the obvious ones of gender and colour are those of intelligence and couth; there is no way she would publicly refer to another country as a ''s...hole''.

 But one must seriously ask how different are they? She became famous through her show which catered to an audience mostly of women who wanted to lose weight and people who ate up the ''anyone can get rich quick'' apology for a philosophy. The most pathetic event of all was when she gave everyone a car and they later found it was taxable! In other words Oprah and Trump are a typical by-product of capitalism - hucksters.

The main question is, ''does it matter who is elected? and the answer is 'yes' in matters of detail. One politician may be more inclined to pass a much needed reform than another. However it doesn't matter who is elected as far as the fundamentals are concerned, meaning we live under capitalism a system that, by its very structure, divides society into haves and have nots and no amount of ''good laws'' will change that. So let's have done with the Trumps and Oprahs of this world, and the best way to do that is having done with the system that has created them.

For socialism,

 Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Rethinking Socialism

What we want is what the people all over the world want.

We want peace, instead of bloodshed.

We want security, instead of insecurity.

We want comfort and prosperity, instead of unemployment and deprivation

We want to raise our families in decent homes instead of slums.

We want to give our children a good education.

We want democracy and freedom, instead of regimentation and authoritarianism

These are the simple things which you and I and all the people everywhere seek for ourselves and our children. Yet we don’t have them. We have undreamed-of natural resources. We have millions of trained and skilled workers running vast industrial complexes. We can produce in one day, what our fathers took years to produce. Yet we do not have prosperity. It is the capitalist system that stands in our way. Under capitalism, a handful of capitalists control all the wealth and power. They own the means of production and distribution. They own our jobs. Whoever owns all these things, controls our lives, the lives of you and me and every other person.

Capitalism works very well indeed to wage war, to kill and maim, to destroy and devastate. Capitalism is at its best when it is at its worst. That is what capitalism offers you. If that is what you want, you don’t even need to vote in favour of it. You can just stay at home and await your fate. But we in the Socialist Party believe there is an alternative. The alternative to a capitalism is socialism. We can have prosperity, peace, and liberty controlled and operated by YOU, working men and women. We want to take over the industries built by us. We want to take over the wealth produced by us. We want to, and we can, run all of society for the needs and comforts of the people, and not for the profits of the capitalist class. We are interested in production only to the extent that it provides all of society with the good and decent and comfortable things of life, that it provides them all the time, and provides us all with the opportunity to enjoy them.

Without capitalism and its markets, we can put an end to war, to poverty, to disease.  We can provide plenty for all, homes fit to live in, self-respect and human dignity. Those are the things we all want. They are the things socialism stands for. They are the things that we in the Socialist Party stand for. All that socialism sets itself to do is to achieve plenty for all, along with peace and freedom. There are jobs for all – but not within the profit-grabbing restrictions of capitalism. There can be plenty for all – but only by socialising the means of production. There is a new and full life to be built – but not by capitalist politicians.  For an economy of abundance, the means of production must become the common property of all the people. Socialism means getting the parasites off the workers' backs.  The Socialist Party has this crazy idea that workers are not machines. We think that they are human beings and entitled to the same right to live and enjoy life as the capitalist. As long as capitalism exists, the capitalist and the worker will never see eye to eye on this question. Regardless of what the capitalist may want to do, the laws of the capitalist economy drive him to regard the worker as a wealth-producing machine. As long as workers are not slaves they will fight to live as human beings. Capitalism, as Karl Marx pointed out long ago, separated the producer from his tools. The owner of the tools (plants, machinery, railroads, etc.) buys labour power (or hires workers, as we would say) to operate them. The more they produce, the higher his profit. When it is not profitable to produce, he lays off the workers.

Capitalism has made of labour power a commodity to be bought on the labour market. As with any other commodity, the cost of labour power (wages) is determined by the cost of production. The cost of production of labour power is in the main what it takes to maintain the worker at his accustomed standard of living. It is, therefore, the cost of living which determines wages under capitalism. The working class will become the owners and operators. The separation between the worker and the means of production introduced by capitalism will be ended by socialism. Until such a socialist system prevails, wage labour will remain a commodity to be bought on the market by capital.

Nature Doesn't Creatate Homeleassness. Capitalism does.

As anyone who has been in Toronto recently knows, it has been hit with a harder than usual winter. Its been a case of heavy snowfalls, bitterly cold weather or freezing rain; mild days have been rare. In the last week of December, the City opened a shelter at the appropriately named Better Living Centre but reported it was half full. On the night of Dec. 27, only 55 of its 110 cots were occupied, whereas other shelters had a 95% occupancy rate.

Cathy Crowe, a street nurse, and advocate for homeless people blamed the empty cots on the lack of awareness of the new shelter. She added, ''The city does a lousy job with communication and the city staff and local media should do outreach work with images showing nice cots, blankets and hot food being served, like you would in a natural disaster.'' 

The city did not comment. 

More than 5,000 people are staying in shelters in Toronto. 80 homeless people died in Toronto in 2017. 

Councillor Joe Mihevc said, ''Respite centres are really a bandage on a bandage.''

 Of course, he is perfectly right, especially when a major operation is necessary, one that requires abolishing a system where people are forced to live on the street.

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC. 

Doomsday Worries

A survey conducted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes it plain that tensions between the US and North Korea and severe weather, such as hurricanes are causing many Americans to prepare for doomsday. 65.5 % respondents have stockpiled materials to survive a political or natural disaster; 36.4% spent up to $400 on survival kits in 2017; 9.2% bought materials because of recent political events; There were a 700% increase in orders for bomb shelters.

So, obviously, plenty of folks are worried and what is more obvious is the world is falling apart. Don't look for the answers within capitalism folks, because it is capitalism that's causing all this crapola.

For socialism,

 Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Poor Results

University application rates from 18-year-olds from the poorest parts of Scotland have fallen. The application rate for those in the most affluent communities has increased.

The report stated: "The application rate for applicants living in the most advantaged areas in Scotland increased by 1.9%, widening the gap between the most and least."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-42938097

Shattering illusions

“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

Implicit in the membership of the Socialist Party is an understanding of socialist principles. In fact, membership is conditional upon this. Exploitation gives the key to an understanding of capitalism. Today the workers as a class are born, and remain, propertyless; they, therefore, do not own capital which is a form of wealth. Capital is the accumulated wealth of the capitalist class. It is useful for further production, but with only one object — that it may absorb the further unpaid labour of the workers, and thus produce . . . surplus value, the source of rent, interest, and profit. Not the means of wealth production in themselves, but the class relations under which they are used to obtain the surplus value, realised through sale in the world market — make them capital. The Labour Party and the Left do not stand as we do for common ownership, which would mean the abolition of such class relations. If the workers are to enjoy the fruits of their toil and drudgery, they must own and control the means by which they produce them. The land, factories, railways etc. must be made the common property of all to meet the needs of all. That is what we mean by socialism.

The conventional wisdom assumes that in order to motivate people to action or to win elections, leaders have to project optimism about our ability to cure all evils and create a world free of hardship.  The Socialist Party, on the other hand, risks popularity by revealing the harsh truths and hopelessness of politicians promises. We do not cling to painless delusions to capture votes because such a position alienates us from the authentic experience of conditions around us. When we deny our pain, doubt, and despair, we deny the opportunity for solidarity with others who feel the same thing.   We end up convinced that we are weak and isolated. Given the massively powerful forces that we must overcome there is nothing more hopeless than thinking of ourselves as atomised individuals. By building that sense that we are part of something much bigger and more powerful than our individual selves, we help expand what is possible. We can reconnect with what we truly value.   Abandoning the dream of some sort of ideal capitalism allows for a broader public discourse about what the purpose of an economy should be and who it should serve.

Socialism cannot be crafted from a diverse variety of groups focusing attention on their own issue at the expense of a universal project all can share. Anytime you support a political party that can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you still continue to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your class.

The question often occurs when socialists explain the Materialist Conception of History how is it that in identical environment some are socialist-inclined and some are conservative-minded, if economic conditions determine, in the last resort, the views of men? The matter of this “identical environment ” can be illustrated by a simple analogy. Suppose a hundred soft clay balls were put in a bag and sat on, these balls would all be in an identical environment, like men in any class in society subjected to economic pressure, so what would happen? Some balls would be squared, ' some, slightly flattened, and some utterly squashed, as determined by their position in this so-called identical environment. In society, different classes have a different environment. In a given class some would be slightly modified Conservatives, and some revolutionary: as pressure increases so all would become entirely altered. All, then, would be affected, but slightly unequally, since no two balls, or two persons, could possibly be in exactly the same environment. So in society men picture the future from what they see and feel in the present. Some by hereditary fitness and actual environment would more easily and clearly comprehend the needs of the present and the tendency of things; others in conditions less violently affected would find it more difficult to see clearly, or would from the materials in their hands or inherited weakness, form false pictures which would lure them in wrong directions.

Inequality is no accident. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 argued that the privileges of the elite were attained by “the first person to fence in a piece of land and to say, ‘this is mine,’ and to find people gullible enough to believe him.” We must give more attention to the “rules of the game” that maintain inequality.  In its analysis of the Oxfam report, the Guardian noted: “Booming global stock markets have been the main reason for the increase in wealth of those holding financial assets during 2017. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saw his wealth rise by $6bn (£4.3bn) in the first 10 days of 2017 as a result of a bull market on Wall Street, making him the world’s richest man.”   

Not all Jock Tamson's Bairns?

Urgent action is needed to address the “gross racial inequalities” in Scotland, according to a major study.  The Scottish Government, politicians and employers have been urged to tackle the country’s racism problem by the authors of a new book challenging the “myth” that Scotland is a more egalitarian country than others.

The book, No Problem Here: Understanding Racism in Scotland, warns that the job situation for black and minority communities is “bleak” and “in some cases” is getting worse. The book highlights discrimination in the workplace and the harassment suffered by the black and minority ethnic (BME) population. Davidson and Virdee accuse the SNP of creating a “dominant story”, through a more positive attitude towards immigration, that Scotland is more “egalitarian” than England. This, they argue, reinforces “the myth that Scotland does not have a serious racism problem”.

Jatin Haria, Executive Director of the Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights writes “Urgent and major action is needed to address the gross racial inequalities in the Scottish labour market if Scotland is truly to become the equal, egalitarian nation it wants to become.”  Haria said data revealed that after interviews for local authority jobs, white applicants are three times more likely to secure a position than non-white applicants. He also quoted the latest official figures which showed that just 1.6 per cent of Scottish Government employees identify themselves as BME, a statistic that showed no improvement since 2014.

According to the latest census figures, the percentage of people from minority ethnic groups stands at four per cent of the population, but the BME population is rising steadily. The Asian population is the largest minority ethnic group, representing three per cent of the population or 141,000 individuals. The BME population is proportionally larger in Scotland’s cities, accounting for 12 per cent in Glasgow and eight per cent in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Haria said: “You have a BME population in Glasgow of over 12 per cent and that’s from the census, so it has probably increased since then. And you have a Glasgow City Council workforce of about two per cent from their own published figures. “It just wouldn’t be acceptable south of the border. I would have thought there should be a greater outcry here. In Scotland it is allowed to go..." He continued, “The disparity in employment is so obvious, but there is so little action around it. Because employment is a long-term process, you won’t get promoted to headteacher for another 20 years or so – if we don’t do something about this now we are going to have a long-term problem.” He writes: “The real need is to deal with institutional, structural and direct racism by organisations and individual employers…

Elsewhere in the book, personal experiences of racial harassment are outlined, which the authors contrast with the inclusive image of Scotland promoted by politicians.

Last week Sarwar claimed a Labour councillor had told him “Scotland wouldn’t vote for a brown Muslim Paki” when he was standing against Richard Leonard in the Scottish Labour leadership contest. Councillor Davie McLachlan, leader of the Labour group on South Lanarkshire Council, has been suspended by the party. McLachlan denies the claim.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/gross-racial-inequality-belies-scots-myth-say-experts-1-4682102

The Ups And Downs In Capitalism.

On Jan 5 Stats-Canada revealed that the Canadian economy had added 80,000 jobs in December owing to an increase in part-time employment. The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 per cent, its lowest since 1976. 

However, it ain't time to celebrate yet folks, statistics can sometimes be misleading. They don't include people who are out of work and have used up their,''benefits'', and how can part-timers make enough to pay the bills? 

Furthermore, if things on the employment front were as hunky-dory as the apologists for capitalism claim, there is, nevertheless a downside. Since everything is going so well, economists are predicting the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates.

That's life under capitalism; what you gain in one way, you lose in another. 

Boy what a system!

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Socialism – Empowering the Powerless

Capitalism is spiralling ever deeper into an abyss. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realise that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour.

The Socialist Party accepts the view that it is necessary for the workers before they can begin to introduce Socialism to conquer the powers of Government in order that they may control the Governmental machinery and through it the armed forces. The fulfilment of our programme requires that a majority of the workers shall understand and want Socialism. Given such a majority and its reflex in a majority of socialist delegates on local councils and in the House of Commons, the workers will be in a position to impose their will on the present ruling class. Our position is subjected criticism. Our critics deny that the power of the capitalists rests on their control of Parliament. They argue that while political power is necessary it can be obtained only by the workers building up a rival organisation and with it overthrowing the capitalist State. They endeavour to show it is possible that in an advanced and stable capitalist democracy the ruling class are able to throw aside the recognised forms of government, to ignore the institutions which they had proclaimed to be the basis of society, to rule by brute force and to survive, proof that revolutionary Parliamentary action by the workers is futile and a situation requiring the application of methods other than those we advocate such as armed resistance to the ruling class.

The Socialist Party does not minimise the necessity and importance of the worker keeping up the struggle to maintain the wage-scale, resisting cuts, etc. If he always laid down to the demands of his exploiters without resistance he would not be worth his salt as a man, or fit for waging the class struggle to put an end to exploitation.  The class war is far from over. It can only end with the dispossession of the owning minority and the consequent disappearance of classes and class-divided society. Only by recognising the struggle between capital and labour, and acting to bring about the victory of labour, of the working class, can classes once and for all be abolished, common ownership be established, and real human interests and relationships begin.

We have yet to hear a convincing argument how you are supposed to become a "revolutionary" without engaging - and eventually agreeing - at some point with the IDEA of what such a revolution would entail.  All we are doing in the Socialist Party, essentially, is trying to help the emergence of majority socialist consciousness. People can, and do, come to socialist conclusions without us, but they can come to this more quickly if they hear it from an organised group dedicated exclusively to putting over the case for socialism. We can't force or brainwash people into wanting to be free, they can only learn this from their own experience. We see majority socialist consciousness emerging from people's experiences of capitalism coupled with them hearing the case for socialism, not necessarily from us, though it would seem that we are the only group that takes doing this seriously. We depend for the success of our message on people who are prepared to THINK.

Socialism means that people have taken their destiny into their own hands. Socialism can't be created by decree or by force by a minority. It can only be implemented by the majority of the people taking over the economy (taking over their workplaces, streets, and estates) and reorganising them as they see fit. But being against vanguards is not the same as being against organisation. A vanguard is a particular type of organisation, with specific aims and to reject vanguardism is not to reject organisation.

The Socialist Party do not see itself as yet another leadership, but merely as an instrument of the working class. We function to help generalise their experience of the class struggle, to make a total critique of their condition and of its causes, and to develop the mass revolutionary consciousness necessary if society is to be totally transformed. We reject an organisational role. What we want people to come to is the realisation that they should take over their workplaces, communities, and put themselves in a position to control all of the decisions that affect them directly, and to run things themselves. If we were to be a vanguard, in the sense of an enlightened minority seeking to gain power over others, we could never achieve this aim, because WE would have the power, rather than people having power over their own lives, collectively and individually. We would also be assuming the arrogance to think we have a monopoly of truth, rather than certain views which we debate with others including amongst ourselves, coming to a better viewpoint at the end of it. There is a big difference between an organisation that produces propaganda and so on, and helps promote the popular will where people accept decisions  because they have been convinced by the case and  have freely chosen to do so and a vanguard in the common sense of the word, meaning a party seeking to gain power over the masses. Revolution will be a process of self-education. Without the active participation of the mass of the working class in the fight for a state-free society cannot even be contemplated.

 As soon as the revolution has accomplished this task, the state is replaced by the socialist administration of affairs. There is no government in a socialist society. “Capturing” Parliament is only a measure of acceptance of socialism and a coup de grace to capitalist rule. The real revolution in social relations will be made in our lives and by ourselves, not Parliament. What really matters is a conscious socialist majority outside parliament, ready and organised, to take over and run industry and society. Electing a socialist majority in parliament is essentially just a reflection of this. It is not parliament that establishes socialism, but the socialist working-class majority outside parliament and they do this, not by their votes, but by their active participating beyond this in the transformation of society.

 William Morris envisaged that, at some stage, socialists would enter parliament but in his words "...so long as it is understood that they go there as rebels, and not as members of the governing body prepared to pass palliative measures to keep Society alive." 

If It Makes A Buck Sell It.

At the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994, the attention of sports fans, and some who were not were riveted on the clash between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, in the wake of the vicious attack on Kerrigan at the American championships.

 Though Harding denied prior knowledge of the attack she fooled nobody, especially after notes Harding made about Kerrigan's training times and location were found. Now, we have what looks to be, a successful movie, " I Tonya'', about her turbulent life.

 A two hour documentary, ''Truth And Lies, The Tonya Harding Story'', was aired on ABC, on January 11. So now Ms. Harding, who is hardly an Angel of Mercy has become a media Superstar.

This may seem baffling to some, though it should not, because notoriety sells, in fact, it sells big time. 

It is enough to make any decent person puke their guts out, but it's totally consistent with capitalism's value system - "if it makes a buck sell it!''

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Ulva to be owned by the community

A community trust on the island of Mull will buy the neighbouring island of Ulva for 4.2 million pounds ($5.95 million).

Land is an asset for the many, not the few absent, land-owners whose have hold over Scotland date back to an era when it was a largely agricultural nation run by the wealthy gentry. This had led to about 430 people owning half of Scotland's privately held land.

Ulva, which neighbours Mull on the west coast of Scotland, has been in economic decline for decades and has less than 10 residents, including its owner. The North West Mull Community Woodland Company (NWMCWC), which is behind the plan to buy Ulva, was set up in 2006 to purchase and manage woodlands in the north west of Mull. The NWMCWC said last year it wanted to invest in the 1,860 hectare (4,600 acres) island's infrastructure and local industry to boost its flagging fortunes.

What socialism is not

It is impossible to exaggerate the harm done to the socialist movement by those who, calling themselves socialists, have taught the workers to believe that state-capitalism and social reform are socialism. Millions of workers all over the world have, through this misdirection, been led to support some form of capitalism, trusting that it would solve their problems.  We in the Socialist Party have always been conscientious in explaining what we understand socialism to mean. But being so concerned about being misinterpreted has permitted our critics to ridiculed our principled position as “doctrinaire” or “dogma”. What events have proved is that the Socialist Party's insistence on the need for clear ideas about socialism has been repeatedly justified. What then is Socialism? Socialism is a system of human society of a special kind. Its fundamental is the common ownership of all that is necessary to the common good. This implies the end of buying and selling and the end of the wages system. Now is the time, not for day-dreaming or for getting out plans for reforming capitalism, but for deep thought about the nature of the capitalist system and of its opposite, socialism.

Capitalism moves in cycles of growth and stagnation, boom and bust, job creation and job cuts, increasing and declining investment. It always has, and it always will for as long as it exists. Under the capitalist system, there’s little planning for the ebbs and flows of economic life.  The profits system is not a government-ruled command structure directed by any single state authority – not even that of the president of the world capitalist system’s most powerful state, the United States. If capitalism is in one of its recurring recessions, then the party not in power blames all the woes for the crisis upon the party in office, often including the mess it had inherited. When capitalism is (or seems to be) on an upswing, creating jobs, the ruling government takes the credit for the current state of the business cycle. Whoever is in government would like its citizens to believe it is somehow directly responsible for the economic expansion. Little mention is made by either the ruling party or its opposition that the boom is built on the persistently low wages and weak benefits granted to workers, that the stock-market share prices are inflated in a momentary bubble which will burst eventually, and that the growing prosperity is being concentrated corporate and financial hands, the harbingers of the inevitable crash. One thing we can be sure about is that the next economic crisis is coming.

 Unless a fundamental change in the basis of society is carried out, the world's resources will still be privately owned and utilised for the purpose of profit-making. There will still be two classes with antagonistic interests, one class living by rent, interest, and profit, the other living by selling its labour-power for wages or salary. True, this is “wicked” in the sense that it is unnecessary, but it can only be removed by abolishing its cause, the private ownership of the means of wealth-production and distribution. While there is private ownership (including so-called “public” ownership or State capitalism) it is impossible to have harmony and identity of interest between the classes. The only way to abolish class struggle is to abolish the classes. The post-capitalist world will not just happen. It will correspond to the development of the ideas of the majority. The effort now devoted to thinking out the basic causes of the problems of riches and poverty, unemployment and strikes, will be more valuable than years of scheming to soften the rigours of the capitalist system.

There are many consequences to the daily barrage of lies produced by the capitalist media. The idea of the socialist vision is not pie in the sky.  If you do not desire to continue to live under capitalism you have but one single, simple alternative. How long capitalism endures is a matter for those who suffer under it and who are misled by it—the working class. They have the power to establish a society of harmony. We are talking here about a massive movement of ideas—no less than a majority revolution to overthrow one social system and replace it with another, a historically unique act. This world is owned by a few. Why not consider the possibility of us, the producers in this world, taking it over and running it in the interest of all, with human needs the dominant factor.

The Socialist Party is unique in keeping open platform for the expression of the point of view of opponents. We oppose all forms of suppression, not in response to some abstract principle, but because we recognise that socialist society demands for its operation, as for its achievement, a responsible, intelligent population, used to drawing its own conclusions from the observation of facts and the weighing up of the arguments of opposing schools of thought. We only know our position to be correct because it survives continuous criticism. We do not deny that suppression may be immediately useful to the British governing class. We do deny that it can serve the purpose of the socialist movement.

Refugees left destitute in Scotland

Refugee Survival Trust – which provides emergency grants to asylum seekers and refugees when their support has been stopped – is raising the alarm after distributing more than £100,000 of destitution payments in 2017.

The British Red Cross claimed that seeing people “feeling hopeless and suicidal” as a result of destitution was a now a “routine occurrence”

 Positive Action in Housing, which also helps destitute refugees and migrants, said its own most recent figures were “shockingly high”.

Refugees can find themselves destitute due to administrative delays and errors at all stages of the asylum process, and sometimes have to fight to prove their eligibility. After all appeals have been refused the Home Office insists people should return home and declares them to have no recourse to public funds (NRPF). However many people claim their lives would be in danger, if they were to return.

One refugee family who applied for help had been told it would take 26 weeks to process their claim for child benefit.  Also highlighted was the rise in grants required to pay for travel to Liverpool – as since 2015 those wishing to submit fresh claims or further submissions must travel there. The Home Office does not provide travel expenses even to those who are destitute.

In April 2014 a face-to-face support and advocacy service, run by Scottish Refugee Council and funded by the Home Office, was replaced by a UK phone line run by Migrant Help on a reduced grant from for the UK Government department.

“In an age when information sharing is so incredibly easy, it is absolutely crazy that we are putting people through this journey, which is at best inconvenient and expensive and at worst dangerous and psychologically damaging,” RST Coordinator Zoe Holliday said. 

She claimed that the government had done “a great PR job” of celebrating the successful resettlement of Syrian refugees, supported through the UNHCR’s Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme. However, for an estimated 3,500 asylum seekers housed in Glasgow – whose claims are processed while in the UK – Holliday claimed the experience was “bureaucratic, unpredictable and profoundly upsetting”.

Positive Action in Housing Director Robina Qureshi said: “The [UK] Government appears to be ripping support away when people are fast tracked into refusal, leaving people in a kind of shock as to what to do next. The stress is unimaginable.” She claimed charities were being left to “pick up the pieces” of the failing asylum policy. “This seems to be the growing trend of government,” Quereshi said. She added: “to leave the basic humanitarian needs to be provided by charity and faith groups and ordinary citizens. “We have been charged with the care of very vulnerable groups – children, older people with suspected dementia on the verge of street destitution, [people who are] mentally ill and those who have been trafficked.”

Jillian McBride, Refugee Services operations manager for British Red Cross, said that many people it worked with, relied on hosting schemes, night shelters or ended up on the streets. “Since 2014 we have seen a worsening crisis in Scotland, which increasing numbers of people presenting in our office homeless and or hungry,” she said. McBride added: “Sadly, seeing people who feeling hopeless and suicidal has become a routine occurrence within our services and we’ve had to have all of our staff and volunteers trained in suicide intervention skills.”

Scottish Refugee Council said it was also dealing with upsetting cases. It recently saw a family with two children who had had no asylum support for six months although they were eligible for it."

Its media officer Pauline Diamond Salim explained“Destitution is designed into the UK ‘s asylum system. It is a cruel, punitive policy that absolutely wrecks people’s lives. It is completely unnecessary and inhumane to force people into exploitative and dangerous situations. The UK Government uses destitution – and the threat of destitution – as a central element of its hostile environment policy.”

https://theferret.scot/scotland-refugee-destitution/