Reclaiming the socialist radical vision

The Socialist Party, in accord with Marxist teachings, seek to sweep away the old conditions of production, and prepare the way for the cooperative commonwealth rather than tinker with the old machine and try to foist it on our fellow-workers as something just as good. A society with profitability as the criterion of production is bound to bring along unbearable crisis conditions. The transformation of Capitalism to Socialism meant amongst other things that political power should pass from the hands of the capitalist class into the hands of the working people; That the means of production and distribution, the land, the factories, workshops and mines, the means of communication, the financial system, should pass into the possession of the working people; that production should be developed not by the competition of the various capitalist enterprises for profit, but on the basis of a planned economic system, whose aim was to raise the material level of all the people; that the fruits of production should be distributed in such a way as to raise the standards of the working people and not, as it is under capitalism, to enrich a powerful class of capitalists and their hangers-on. In other words, the working people would collectively own the industries, and work for ourselves and not for the capitalist class. A handful of capitalists make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the land. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few hundred capitalists.

Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and care little about their situation. At the end of the week or month a worker collects their pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street. Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis, plagued by periodic economic crises, such as recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. It is the very nature of each business to try to maximise its profits by pushing production and cutting expenses, especially the pay of workers. Prices tend to go up and wages down. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, and increasingly irrational. In the face of economic crisis, monopoly capitalism has always tried to put the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working people. It has tried wage freezes, cuts in benefits, cuts in expenditure on health and education. For working people the future is less and less certain. Wages fall or remain stagnant while hours increase and working conditions deteriorate. People live in misery so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves.

Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reaction and social decay. The drive for profits holds people hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breath and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence. Working people make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. But in every country they are the oppressed majority, labouring to support the luxury of a handful of exploiters. Millions of people are on the verge of starvation, and the gap between rich and poor is widening.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private hands. In place of private control of social production there must be social ownership if society's problems are to be addressed. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, anarchy of production, speculation and crisis, oppression of nationalities and women, and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self interest of the tiny group of capitalists. Socialism will be won through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism - the seizure of political power by the working class. Having overthrown the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests in society.

Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. The means of production - the large factories, mines, forests, big farms, offices, transport systems, media, communications, big retail chains will be taken into common ownership. The economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit and luxury consumption by the rich. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion in useful production and the wealth of society will become useful. Rational planning will replace anarchy. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people and steadily advance. Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and experiments. There could be a combination of central planning, local coordination, strict price control or use of the market mechanism to set prices. Various policies might be used with changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of social ownership, production for the people's needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Factories and other productive facilities will be modernised to eliminate backbreaking labour and ecological damage. Regional disparities will be addressed. Productivity gains will be used to shorten the working day and improve living standards, rather than create unemployment.

Construction of housing, schools, medical, cultural and sporting facilities for

working people will be a priority. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. No longer will industrialists, landlords and financiers live off the labour of others. Every person will get the opportunity to contribute to society as much as they are able. Transforming the main productive enterprises from private to social ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own work places through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of supervisors and consultants today. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can serve their own interests as well as society's. To protect and govern socialism, the people will establish a socialist people's democracy, a genuine democracy for the masses of people. The people will elect officials and representatives at all levels. There will be the right of recall and referendum. Socialist democracy would be far broader than what is possible today because the voices of the people would be heard, not simply those of the rich.

Speed the Social Revolution!

The Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1904 to organise and to prepare the conditions for the overthrow of the capitalist system in order to establish the socialist system, a system which guarantees the genuine emancipation of the working class. Thus the Socialist Party fights against the rich and against those who are their servants and to build socialism, ending the exploitation of man by man with the creation of a class-free society as the next stage in human social development. We have always considered our enemies our best teachers. The Socialist Party declares that its final purpose is a social revolution. A social revolution means nothing more or less than adoption of a system of production, distribution, and consumption which is based on common ownership in place of the present inconsistent and anarchistic system of private ownership based on the brutal power of capital. Democracy, i.e., the equality of rights can be fully realised only when a social revolution has abolished the privileges of private property and the wage-slavery of the working class. The Socialist Party does not confuse revolution and violence with one another. Violence and bloodshed do not make any movement revolutionary, and essentially they have nothing in common. Being a party which stands for the brotherhood of humanity, and directing its activities toward the attainment of general happiness and well being, the Socialist Party hopes that its victory will be accomplished by systematic and peaceful organisation. But in its attempt to capture political power the working class cannot reject any weapon and the form of its revolution will finally depend upon prevailing conditions, and especially upon the opposition directed against it.

Our party, the Socialist Party, is also aware of the fact that the success of the social revolution is guaranteed only when it occurs at the moment when the minds of the people and the events have matured for it. Therefore, our greatest duty is to educate and organise the working class so that it will become capable of carrying out this historic duty. But just as we cannot define the form of the revolution, neither can we determine the moment. The social revolution is the hope of the oppressed people. Those upon whom the working class has set its faith must not betray this hope. We welcome with pleasure every sign of revolt which represents an independent class-conscious attempt at class liberation.

Recent events around the world have proved once and for all that reforms under the capitalist system will be rolled back by the capitalist class at the earliest opportunity. The hard fought for working conditions of prior generations have been whittled away to such an extent that many workers no longer have sick pay, holiday pay, proper lunch breaks, eight hour working days or even secure employment. Austerity measures have been put into place for the majority whilst capitalists continue to make extravagant amounts of profit. The cuts do not occur randomly because of the narcissistic nature of individual capitalists or because of particular world economic crises, although they do contribute. This phenomenon largely occurs due to the nature of the capitalist system itself. In their drive to continually increase profits the owning class attempt to find new markets and continually strive to find new ways to increase profits, by increasing production, whilst at the same time paying less in on-going costs. To illustrate this point one only needs to look at the enormous profits that multinational companies have made by moving their businesses to poorer communities like Bangladesh. Whilst the cost of materials may be lower in these countries, companies move to the third world because the one production cost they can dramatically alter is an employees’ wage. Capitalists make their enormous profits by paying workers very little and in the third world this wage decreases dramatically with wages being closer to the subsistence level. It is because the Capitalist class continually strive to make a profit, and to increase their profits, that workers find themselves in constant struggles with their employers for better wages and conditions.

It is clear that the only way to stop this continual battle for a meagre existence for basic working and living conditions is to change the system. We need to change the system yet many people still continue to attempt to work within the capitalist system. These people try to change the system from within rather than focus their efforts on changing capitalism towards a new socialist system. If we focus on reforms we condemn the working class to continual struggles for their basic working conditions. In attempts to achieve palliatives workers sometimes unite in ‘left coalitions’ made up of differing groups with different political objectives, into one whole movement. These reform campaigns often mean in reality coalitions with the sections of the capitalist class who have no inclination towards changing the system. The left reformists attempt to replace capitalism with socialism by stealth, from within the capitalist system and by using the capitalist apparatus to do so. This theory suggests that all we need to do to destroy the capitalism is in small steps or stages thereby putting off the need to attempt to replace capitalism with socialism which is seen to occur only in the dim dark far away future. It is not possible to unite these differing groups with differing ultimate aims, differing ideologies and objectives into a united front. In attempting to unite these differing groups ultimately we are forgetting the class we most of all need to attract, the working class. Reformists tail along behind whatever political discussion is trendy at any given time, particularly issues popular in the media, instead of campaigning on the one issue of real significance and importance to the working class – the establishment of socialism. The Labour Party support reforms as palliatives. Reforms are only made by the Labour Party to the extent that they can placate workers by offering them small concessions whilst at the same time retaining capitalism. It is important to understand that the Labour Party have strong connections to Big Business who add to their funding and therefore influence their policies Do the more radical Greens, for example, want to overthrow the capitalist system? The answer is no, many Greens are conservative with a small c and seek to keep the economic system intact. As Marx said it is the workers who are the ‘gravediggers’ of the capitalist system not some group of leftists.  

Lothian Socialist Discussion (27/6)

Wednesday, 27 June
  7:30pm - 9:00pm
The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh,
17 West Montgomery Place, 
Edinburgh EH7 5HA

Class-consciousness is never more needed than now.  Today mankind is under a shadow without precedent. 

The working people of the world have it in their hands to end poverty, fear, hatred, and war. To those in the Socialist Party, class-consciousness is the breaking down of all barriers to understanding. Without it, militancy means nothing. The conflict between the classes is more than a struggle for each to gain from the other: it is the division which reaches across all others. The class-conscious worker knows where he or she stands in society, opposed at every point to those of the capitalist class. Our cause can only be the cause of revolution for the abolishing of classes. 

Class-conscious people need no leaders. The single, simple fact which all working people have to learn is that capitalism causes capitalism's problems so that the remedy – the only remedy – is to abolish capitalism. In that knowledge, they must take hold of the powers of government – for one purpose only: that the rule of class by class shall end. Socialism is not a benevolently-administered capitalism: it is a different social system.

Reform is no answer, even though at times – rare times – it benefits working people. The reformer has not even set out to change the world but has agreed that capitalism shall continue, and is merely trying to alleviate its worst effects. Has poverty been abolished by the reformers? Ask the people on benefits or the slum-dwellers or the sick. 

The Socialist Party has been intractable in its opposition to reformists. Political action must be revolutionary. That is the real message. The workers in Scotland have common cause with the workers of every other country. They are members of a world-wide class, faced with the same problems, holding the same interests once they are conscious of them. There is only one way of realising those interests: the immense productive powers of the world must become the common property of every man, woman, and child.

The need for socialism grows more urgent with each new day. It only awaits the conscious will of the workers of the world, and nothing more; when they desire it, it can be. The voice of the Socialist Party is a small one, but our members will strive for it to be heard. There are many who are with us but not of us. The struggle for socialism requires the help of every class-conscious man and woman. The spread socialist understanding is the great task of our time and every fresh adherent to the Socialist Party Principles is another step towards the liberation of humanity.

Hasten The Day

At the time of writing, May 18, there are further delays on any NAFTA agreement. 
Justin Trudeau said, ''A deal is very close''. 
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, disagreed, ''...there are gaping differences on intellectual property, agricultural market access, energy, labour, rules of origin, geographical indications and much more'', but he promised to continue negotiating. 

At this time there seems no end in sight -- other than the main bozo in American power with his tariffs fettering the 'deal,' and things likely going from bad to worse for many Canadian workers. 

Though for Socialists this is not the point. There are two delays we are concerned about: The more important of the two is the delay in establishing Socialism, which would mean the previous delay, the horror(s) of suffering under capitalism, is moot. 

Hasten the Day!

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

One for all, All for one

The ruling class claim for themselves the mantle of progress, logic, truth, beauty, and knowledge. They represent socialists as deluded, irrational, psychotic, violent and hateful. But just look at these critics of socialism; the militarist and perverted capitalists who would see a world plunged into barbarism before they relinquish a penny of their fabulous profits and the power-mad industrialists who calmly grind the working class to dust beneath the wheels of automation. Socialists are infinitely more rational than our class enemies. The socialist future is clearly within our grasp. And what better life can a person carve out than participation in the emancipation of humanity? What better use to make of one's life than in working towards a new civilisation? We look toward a time when we shall have ceased to mourn martyrs. A time when we are no longer occupied with accepting defeats and explaining betrayals. Not because we will have forgotten the past, but simply because we will be too busy creating a new world rich with freedom, plenty, humane relations between people, and the joy of living. For sure, we are still few and isolated, and the road ahead is uncertain and complex, nevertheless, we are dedicated to achieving human freedom because without it we know there is no freedom for us. People forced to fight on many fronts will begin to wonder about the reasons for having to struggle so often, so hard, and against so many enemies. It will dawn that something obviously must be wrong with the entire system; that our separate struggles have a common enemy, and we must find common cause and mutual solidarity if any of us is to survive. So we arrive at the answers: The problem is capitalism. The solution is socialism. Our task in the Socialist Party is to tell the truth to a disbelieving world. The world is in crisis. Capitalism, the prevailing system of society, is in process of destroying our planet. To the ripening condition for socialism must be added the maturity of the working class. Whenever the working class desires socialism, we will have socialism. It is impossible to have socialism in a country where small production is general as in the case of Russia. A weak ruling class, lacking the means of repression found in highly organized capitalist centres; a peasantry uneducated and consequently devoid of that respect for master class teaching inseparable from well developed industrial communities; a state of war in existence, which spelled starvation, bloodshed, and discontent for the masses; all these circumstances made possible the successful attempt of the Bolsheviks to capture political power. This they did. It is also impossible to have socialism where the vast majority of people do not desire it. In other words, socialism without democracy is unthinkable. The building of socialism requires widespread understanding and participation, and will not be achieved by an elite working “on behalf of” the people. Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. Democracy in daily life is the core of our socialism.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY strives to establish a democracy that places people’s lives under their own control — a class-free society in which people cooperate at work and in the community. Socialism is not government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic system. The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewable future by not plundering the resources of the earth. In a socialist system, the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically-controlled agencies. The goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health-care, child-care, and cultural opportunities. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and global levels, and is determined democratically. Worker and community control make it possible to combine life at work, home and in the community into a meaningful whole.

People live in a society racked with crises. This society can neither guarantee them a secure future nor even promise there will be a future. The threat of nuclear war casts a shadow over the lives of all of us and an environmental apocalypse looms before us. This society places a premium on wealth. The vast majority of our people work out their lives for the enrichment of the small minority of profiteers who through their wealth control the entire society. The system is capitalism. Under it a small minority rule in fact if not in name, and profit is the be-all and end-all of economic life; human needs comes a distant second—if at all. People across the world need to cast off the systems which oppress them and build a new world fit for all humanity. The profit system cannot make use of automation for the benefit of society; socialism will. The future society that will be constructed under socialism will reduce work to an insignificant part of daily life and offer the individual the fullest possibilities to pursue his own abilities and interests. In politics, we don’t believe in choosing the “lesser evil” over a greater evil. We choose instead something good for working men and women: THE SOCIALIST PARTY!

Nationalist Cant

Up to possibly 15,000 nationalists rallied at Bannockburn where Robert the Bruce triumphed over English army for a separate Scottish sovereign state. A socialist does not have profound sympathy with the struggles of countrymen but with, fellow-workers; we do not demand service Irish or English or French but solidarity in the cause of our class. Nationalism will give our fellow-workers something to quarrel over for years to come, to the hindrance of propaganda for working-class solidarity against the international capitalist class.

The Socialist Standard has exposed this patriotic nonsense in an article from 2014

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2014/no-1319-july-2014/bruce-and-bannockburn

De Brus or  Bruys at Bannockburn never fought for the people of Scotland – he fought to place a crown upon his head and create a royal dynasty.

Tremble, oppressors of the world!

The Socialist Party breaks with the deceptions of reformist politics and poses directly the central issue: the class struggle for socialism. Our success in an election campaign is not to be measured in votes won but in the extent and the depth to which they have succeeded in bringing the core issue before the consciousness of the masses. Demagogy means the adaptation of policy and campaigns to the prejudices of the audience to which it is hoped to appeal, without regard to the truth or correctness of principles.  Demagogy is the exploitation of ignorance in direct contrast to a principled position. The Socialist Party stands for its principles instead of pandering to prejudices. The issue for the working class is the CLASS issue. The working class must make its stand against the capitalist system – whose lust for profits and interest, for investments, markets, and expanded capital, for raw materials and cheap exploitable labour, can mean only exploitation and abject slavery. Then ALL the peoples of the world will indeed be free. For it must be understood that distribution is always ultimately controlled by those who own and control production. Today the bosses own. Tomorrow, the workers would own production, to control and direct distribution in the interests of the majority. It is us the task of the Socialist Party to take the anger and the hatred that our fellow-workers have toward this capitalist system and arm it with an understanding of why we have to live this way, whose fault it is and what we can do about it. It is only by understanding how capitalism runs against the interests of working people, of how capitalism must be fought by the working class and all others who can be united behind it and when the people can be armed with an understanding of capitalism as the enemy – then we can advance on the road to the socialist revolution. Only by completely getting rid of this system of wage slavery and its law of profits and the system in which the capitalists own and control everything, including us and our labour can we advance to socialism. We’ll sweep away the capitalist system and we’ll build our new future. A future where we workers will run the factories, produce for our needs and not for the profits of the capitalist bosses. There can be no gradual step-by-step process where we can win, it’s only by getting rid of the whole system of capitalism, that we can build a new society run by and for the working people.

Only when the stored-up labour is utilized for the social good, can we realize the full potentialities of human productivity. Only when accumulated labour belongs to those who produce it – to the worker who turns the wheels, instead of to the capitalist who reaps the dividends – will men and women be free. Hunger in the midst of plenty is the distinguishing mark of the capitalist system of production. The tremendous power of technology produces commodities far beyond the possibilities of control by the profit system. The anarchy of production for the market brings about the shutdown of plants, widespread unemployment, bankruptcies of businesses, disruption of world trade, disturbance of the monetary and financial system, the frantic search of capitalists for new outlets and new markets. Hunger, disease, and death stalk all the peoples of the planet. This is the capitalist world. This is the world of competition, of exploitation, of production for profit. The capitalist world remains an armed camp awaiting only the passage of a few more years before it is ready to plunge into another bloody carnage to determine which of the great powers shall dominate the world in the interest of profit. Capitalism outlived its usefulness long ago. It is no longer capable of progress, of raising the standards of living of the people. Capitalism is only capable of guaranteeing new misery. All capitalist enterprises are out to produce as much as it can, to grab as much of the market as it can, for it is in sales that it realises its profits. Capital is simply money and commodities assigned to create a profit and be reinvested. Profit is made by the "magical" addition of surplus value to the value inherent in the product. The "added value," the profit, is produced by workers. And this capital is born to expand or die. To be useful, the investment must result not only in a profit but at a growing rate of profit. The value of a commodity comes from the labor invested in it, including the labor that manufactured the machinery and extracted the raw materials used to create the item. And the boss' profits do not come from his smarts or his capital investment or his mark-up, but from the value created by labor - specifically, surplus-value.

Surplus value derives from unpaid wages. The worker is never paid for the value of the product, only for the value of her or his labour time, which is considerably less, and which meanders widely depending upon the historical, cultural and social conditions of a country. Labour-power is miraculous, like the Virgin Birth. You get more out of it than you put in. Workers produce a commodity which has more value than what they get in wages to keep them functioning. This differential is surplus value, which is the source of capital. The secret of value, the labour theory of value, that was unearthed by the classical economists and by Marx is what the money barons fear and hate. It is the secret that will set the world free. People will learn how to control the supposedly sacred, eternal, and inscrutable method of production and distribution that now controls us.

But the people of the world want an end to this system. They want jobs, peace, freedom, security. They want a new life; they want a change from the chaos of the profit system, that system of “free enterprise” which has proved its incapacity to maintain production in the interest of the people. A new life, a new social, system, that is, socialism, is the only hope for humanity. When we fight for peace, freedom, security and plenty for all, they are fighting for socialism, which alone can guarantee these blessings. Socialists will produce for use according to a reasonable plan and without a thought for the odious notion of profit. And with no insatiable parasitic class to maintain, socialist society will produce abundance for all. That's a fact. The global human family will arrange its standard of living as easily as affluent families do today.

Scots Wealth

The amount of wealth owned by Scots households has broken through the £1 trillion mark, following increases in property values and pension pots. That's £1,000,000,000,000, or a million million pounds. It is more than five times the value of the nation's economic output in one year.

But  household wealth is very unevenly spread. It is nearly twice as unequal as inequality in income levels. A quarter of Scots have savings of less than £500.

Using figures from 2014 to 2016, the median Scottish household - with half the country more wealthy and one half less so - was found to have £237,000 in wealth. The big difference is in property wealth - a median of £65,000 in Scotland to £95,000 in Britain. This is skewed by high property prices in London and south-east England. The Resolution Foundation estimate is of Scottish household property wealth totalling £285bn.

By far the largest share of wealth - some £543bn - is in pension investments. The median Scottish household is thought to have £70,000 put aside in pensions. Financial wealth, including investment products such as shares and bonds, comes to £100bn in total, and is very unevenly spread. Physical wealth is thought to total £122bn, including other assets people own, from cars and yachts to furniture and artwork.

• Income Gap: It highlights the growth in wealth at a higher pace than the rise in incomes. That means it takes longer to earn and save money with which to become wealthy. In the past decade, Scottish wealth has grown from being five times bigger than total output of the economy (also known as income) to more than seven times.
• Generation Gap: The generational divide on wealth is much greater than the divide on incomes. Taking every five year period since 1965, each successive cohort of Scots has had less wealth than their predecessors at the same age. That divide is clearest for those aged around 43. For those born in the five years up to 1975, at the age of 35 they had median wealth of £52,000. But for those born in the five years after 1975 (now aged 38 to 43), at the age of 35, they had median wealth of £33,000. One reason for this is the big dip in home ownership rates for people in that age group, though it has not dipped as far as Britain as a whole.
• Legacy Gap: While older parents continue to build up wealth, much of it through property values and relatively generous pensions, wealth is transferred when they pass it on to their sons and daughters. "What you inherit, rather than what you earn, is set to become a much more important determinant of your lifetime living standards in the years ahead," according to Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation and co-researcher on The £1 Trillion Pie. He notes that revenue from inheritance tax paid in Scotland rose by 30% in the two years to 2014-15. A further twist is that those who stand to inherit wealth when their parents die are having to wait longer, because their parents are typically living longer. The peak age at which the average millennial, now aged 20 to 35, will outlive both parents is around 60.
• Tax Gap: The report also notes that taxation on wealth has not kept pace with wealth, when counted as a share of national income. For the past 50 years or so, the payment of wealth-based taxes has amounted to around 2.5% of total economic output in any one year. Co-author Conor d'Arcy said: "While some wealth taxes are set in Westminster, including inheritance tax, the biggest wealth tax, Council Tax, is fully devolved. Recent modest reforms have improved council tax in Scotland, in marked contrast to the lack of progress in England, but the tax could still be much more closely tied to property values."
• Regional Gap: Where wealth is held in property, those who do best and can pass on most to their family have benefited from living in areas where property prices have risen faster than average. The average value of a property in Edinburgh is more than £250,000. There are 11 council areas with average prices at less than half that.

‘Survival’ shoplifting

Tayside’s top police officer revealed shoplifting offences have risen by 23% in the past year.

Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson blamed the increase in shoplifting offences in Angus on increasing poverty.

Some agencies have warned that one of the reasons for shoplifting is levels of unemployment, benefits being cut and struggles to cope with the cost of living.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/angus-mearns/674287/survival-shoplifting-rise-linked-to-austerity/

The Struggle for Socialism

No matter how much we organise, no matter how many resolutions we pass, no matter how often we march, we might still end up in a catastrophe. That is an uncomfortable truth: even as we up our resistance. The capitalist class will attempt to profit from human misery to the very end. Despite record food output globally, hunger still prevails in many parts of the planet and even in regions of the more developed nations. Today’s world is characterised by the coexistence of agricultural bounty and widespread hunger and malnutrition. Recent years have seen a reversal of a decades-old trend of falling hunger, alongside the re-emergence of famine. How will we distribute and share food and water? How do we ensure that national frontiers will be irrelevant when children, women, and men seek refuge. What will we do to protect our sisters and brothers? How will we care for one another when we get sick from hunger and disease? What will we do to keep the greedy and the hateful from doing further harm to the planet? 

When we talk about the inevitability of socialism we assume that the workers will continue to struggle for their rights. Were they, on the other hand, to sit down tamely and wait till socialism came to them, they would soon lose all the rights that they have now and become mere slaves. Socialism can only come when the workers are no longer willing to allow themselves to be exploited.  When the workers become so class-conscious and so well organised as to make their exploitation impossible then capitalism would have reached its end. That is what we understand by social revolution.

The great justification for reformism lies in the fact that they make it easier for the workers to organise themselves and enlighten themselves about the real meaning of capitalism and the part that they are forced to play under it, and show the thinking worker how futile it is to dream of reforming capitalism. They furnish besides that a rallying ground for those workers who cannot see beyond their own nose, and perhaps would not understand Socialism, but do feel the need for a shorter working day. A great danger, however, arises when good-intentioned people try to persuade the workers that socialism only means the sum of a number of petty palliative measure; that the Welfare State is also socialism. By that means socialism gets the credit for measures which were all but in name legislation for defending capitalism against socialism and all their failings which arise are used to discredit socialism.

A socialist means a man or a woman who recognises the class war between the proletariat and the possessing class as the inevitable historic outcome of the capitalist system and of the direct economic and social antagonisms which it has engendered and fostered, who sees that those antagonisms can only be resolved by the complete control over all the great means of production and distribution thus abolishing the class state and the wages system, and constituting a co-operative commonwealth.  The principal function of the Socialist Party is to participate in the class struggle in such a way that the workers are educated to realise their political power. The goal of the Socialist Party is socialism, not a reformed capitalism. Its tactics must be those that will bring about socialism.

The Socialist Party tells the workers that socialism is the only remedy for their troubles. There is no time which is not a proper time for them to work for socialism. This is true whatever the excuse offered by defenders of capitalism. Whether the crisis is a war crisis or a trade crisis, the Socialist Party will continue to preach socialism. Workers who understand the working of capitalism will see through the excuses to the capitalist interests behind them and will help us with our task. The only solution to the economic problems of the workers is socialism. Sadly the average worker is unable to see any alternative to the profit system. With socialism, there will be no wages at all.  With socialism, men and women will receive a share of what has been produced by the common social labour. They will receive it on the basis of having participated in that social labour in one way or another, and not, as in capitalism, on the basis of the amount of expended work they have accomplished. With socialism, goods are produced for the use of men and women and NOT for the profits which they bring in to bosses. Labour power ceases to be regarded as a commodity to be bought and sold. It is not purchased at all, let alone purchased at the lowest possible price to keep it alive and able to produce more value. Men and women in socialism, will work and produce useful goods. But they will produce these for their mutual needs and for their mutual development. The sufficiency of goods which men and machines can create will be given to people to develop their bodies so that their minds can grow rich in the wealth of human knowledge, aesthetic appreciation, and artistic creation. From day to day, from week to week, and from year to year, the spiral of possible individual activity will widen rather than taper, as human productive and intellectual achievements increase. Men and women, no longer fettered by the necessity of working not only for their own maintenance but for the bosses’ profits, will be freed to live more fully. The time that each must work will be less, yet the goods produced for all to enjoy will be plentiful.

We will have been freed from the capitalist system and also from wage labour, price, and profit. That is why, instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” workers must inscribe on their banner the REVOLUTIONARY watchword: “Abolition of the wage system!” Socialism is the ONLY answer!

You must believe in your power to change the world.

Down through the years, the ruling class has suppressed or distorted the socialist message so that its ideas are misrepresented and misunderstood. A society that permits poverty and hunger amidst plenty and abundance stands self-condemned. The Socialist Party is pitted against the whole profit-making system. It insists that there can be no compromise so long as the majority of the working class lives in want, while the master class lives in luxury. There can be no peace until the workers organise as a class, take possession of the resources of the earth and the machinery of production and distribution, and abolish the wage-system. In other words, the workers' collectivity must own and operate all the essential industrial institutions in common. Surely it is right that the creators of wealth should own what they create and that we learn that we are all related one to the other, members of one body and that injury to one is an injury to all?  No matter how much we think about it, everything comes back to the question of the overthrow of capital as an economic and political entity. If it is not done, reforms in the economic structure can get us nowhere. We have to abolish this worker-capitalist relationship.

 The planet's productive capacity is not fully utilized. Its use is governed by the dictates of private economic power and by considerations of, private profit. Similarly, the scramble for profit has wasted and despoiled our rich resources of soil, water, forest, and minerals. Our human resources are wasted through social and economic conditions stunt human growth. Our industry can and should be so operated as to enable our people to use fully their talents and skills. Such an economy will yield the maximum opportunities for individual development and the maximum of goods and services for the satisfaction of human needs. Under the capitalist system, basic goods and services are produced and obtained from the market.  This means that a wide range of human activity is subject to the market and determined by its requirements in a way that was never true before. The workers who supply our goods and services are market-dependent because they generally live by selling their labour-power for a wage. In other words, labour-power has become a commodity. Capitalists depend on the market to purchase labour power and capital goods, and to sell what the workers produce. Workers are paid for their work. What are they actually paid for? They’re paid for their laboUr power for a certain period of time, not for what they actually produce during that time. Whatever the workers produce belongs to the capitalist, and the capitalist appropriates the difference between what the workers are paid and what their products or services will fetch on the market. So capitalists appropriate the surpluses produced by workers in the form of profit. It’s not done by means of direct coercive force but through the market.

Capitalists have to compete with other capitalists in the same market. Competition is, in fact, the driving force of capitalism — even if capitalists often do their best to avoid it, by means, for example, of monopolies. But the social conditions that, in any given market, determine success in price competition is beyond the control of individual capitalists. Since their profits depend on a favorable cost/price ratio, the obvious strategy for capitalists is to cut their own costs. This means above all constant pressure to cut the costs of labor. This requires constant pressure on wages, which workers constantly have to resist. It also requires constant improvements in labor productivity. That means finding the organizational and technical means of extracting as much surplus as possible from workers within a fixed period of time, at the lowest possible cost.

To keep this process going requires regular investment, the reinvestment of surpluses. Investment requires constant capital accumulation. So there’s a constant need to maximise profit. The point is that this requirement is imposed on capitalists, regardless of their own personal needs and wants. Even the most modest and socially responsible capitalist is subject to these pressures and is forced to accumulate by maximising profit, just to stay in business. We can talk as much as we like about corporate social responsibility. But capitalism itself puts severe limits on that. The need to adopt maximizing strategies is a basic feature of the system and not just a function of irresponsibility or greed — although it’s certainly true that a system based on market principles will inevitably place a premium on wealth and encourage a culture of greed. There’s no such thing as a capitalism governed by popular power, no capitalism in which the will of the people takes precedence over the imperatives of profit and accumulation, no capitalism in which the requirements of profit maximization doesn’t dictate the most basic conditions of life. The essential condition for the very existence of capitalism is that the most basic conditions of life have been commodified, turned into commodities subject to the dictates of profit and the “law”’ of the market. Production is determined not by what’s needed but by what makes the most profit. Everyone, for instance, needs decent housing, but good and affordable housing for everyone isn’t profitable for private capital. There may be a huge demand for such housing, but it’s not what the economists call “effective demand,” the kind of demand with real money behind it. If capital is invested in housing, it’s most likely to be high-cost homes for people with money. That’s the whole point of capitalism. Where production is skewed to the maximization of profit, a society can have massive productive capacities. It can have enough to feed, clothe, and house its whole population to a very high standard. But it can still have massive poverty, homelessness, and inadequate health care. You only have to look at the United States, where there are some of the highest rates of poverty in the developed world and where tens of millions have no access to affordable health care. What possible excuse can there be for that in a society with such enormous wealth and productive capacities? Capitalism is inefficient in another sense too. With its emphasis on profit maximisation and capital accumulation, it’s necessarily a wasteful and destructive system of production. It consumes vast amounts of resources; and it acts on the short-term requirements of profit rather than the long-term needs of a sustainable environment.

Capitalism Can't Be Run In Working Class Interests

June 7 is the date of the Ontario provincial election with PC leader Doug Ford leading in the public opinion polls. The NDP, under Andrea Horwath are second and incumbent Premier Kathleen Wynne Trailing them. Already the childish behaviour of the participants are coming out with Wynnes campaign manager David Herle speaking of Ford as, ''a bit of a dick''. 

The main issue is the opposition of the PC's and the NDP to the Liberal government's privatization of Hydro One, which raised $9 billion to pay off debts and build infrastructure. Horwath has been particularly outspoken promising to buy it back bit by bit. However, whatever the issues might be they have one common thread they are all matters of attempting to run capitalism and therefore are fundamentally of no benefit to the working class. 

Whoever wins on June 7 it will mean a continuation of capitalism, which causes the issues that will decide the result. There is only one issue worth voting on: “Fire your boss, dump the swindlers, and run civilization in the interests of yourself and All!”

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

Our Goal

“The earth shall rise on new foundations;
We have been naught, we shall be all!” 
The Internationale

Since the Socialist Party was founded its  aim has been the realisation of a society based on equality of condition for all persons without distinction of race, sex or creed; a society which will not recognise the right of any privilege to interfere with that equality, whether such privilege rests its claim on birth, wealth or faculties in an individual. The Socialist Party holds that the necessary step to the achievement of this society is the abolition of monopoly ownership in the means of production, which should be owned by no individual or corporation, but by the whole community, in order that the use of them may be free to all in recognition of the maxim ‘from each according to ability, to each according to needs’.

Our party is a party of the revolution. The socialist revolution is the only solution of the labour problem and all our work must lead to this goal. This is our starting point in every field of activity in the class struggle. It is this fundamental conception that distinguishes us from all other parties in the labour movement. It is what that binds us together into one party. The revolutionary aspirations of our party give the party its driving power. Woe to us if we become so “practical” as to forget this for one moment. All our work must lead toward the socialist revolution. If we keep this always in mind and measure all our work by this standard we will keep on the right road. The revolutionary principles to which we are committed put upon us responsibilities which cannot be shifted or evaded if we are to live up to our conception of the party. We have to stand up and fight for the true interests of the working class as a whole, at every turn of the road. Ours is the only party standing for the solution of our social problems by means of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Our party is a party of revolutionary workers, a party of revolutionary struggle against capitalism and all its works. We are not reformists, but revolutionists.  Workers have the power to paralyse the entire system. Such is the conception of our party, the idea of socialism as the self-emancipation of the working class. We must build a mass revolutionary socialist party now, no matter how difficult and discouraging the circumstances may be.

In their everyday life, workers pour their sweat into production and, in capitalist society, experience the life-killing exploitation on which the system is built. They take part in struggles, together with fellow workers, against the abuses and outrages of the capitalist system. Each worker perceives the reality of capitalism. The goal of the Socialist Party is freedom, freedom from hunger and poverty, freedom from war, freedom from endless toil and exploitation, freedom from racial and sexual oppression. These can only be made a reality by establishing socialism. Capitalism has exhausted its progressive role; now it is time for a better system. The working class in society holds a special position. It has no property. It is a propertyless class—dependent upon the class which owns property—the land, the factories, mills, mines, railways, transport. But the land cannot give forth its fullness unless workers plough and sow and reap. The earth cannot deliver its mineral wealth unless workers dig it. Factories, mills, mines, railways, etc., cannot work unless workers are employed to make them serve their purpose in the transformation of nature’s wealth into social wealth. It is this fact which compels the owners of the means of producing wealth to employ labour. They need that labour or their ownership ceases to be of value. That is why the withdrawal of labour by the workers can be so powerful a weapon when used on a large scale. Socialism is the name given to that form of society in which there is no such thing as a propertyless class, but in which the whole community has become a working community owning the means of production—the land, factories, mills, mines, transport and all the means whereby wealth is created and distributed to the community. It will be obvious at once that the basic principles of Socialist society are diametrically opposite to those of Capitalist society in which we live. Socialism stands for social or community property. Capitalism stands for private or state property. Socialism is a society without classes. Capitalism is divided into classes—the class owning property and the propertyless working class. We can easily understand, therefore, why the great majority of landlords, employers of labour, financiers and the like are opposed to Socialism. Their very existence as the receivers of rent, interest, and profit is at stake.

Scots without a home

The number of applications for homelessness status in Scotland has gone up for the first time nine years, according to official figures.

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said the "shocking" statistics should start alarm bells ringing in Holyrood. Mr Brown also warned the figures were "clear evidence" that the good progress made in recent years was now being reversed.

"Every 18 minutes a household was made homeless in Scotland last year with 34,972 homelessness applications - more than last year. For the fourth year in a row the number of homeless children living in temporary accommodation has risen - up 9% to 6,615. And people are having to stay longer in temporary accommodation with their lives in limbo."