Our task in the Socialist Party

Vague and misunderstood, or meaningless, phrases have proved useful weapons to the ruling classes, or would-be ruling classes, throughout history as means to rally to their support the mass of the population. Every class that has risen to power has exploited its own particular catchphrases to blind and mislead the rest of society. The antidote to the blind following the blind is to arm yourself with the necessary knowledge that will acquaint you with the road you must travel to achieve your freedom from wage slavery. Once you have grasped the fundamentals of your position in society you will lay down the policy to be carried out and you will not require ‘‘leaders” and understand the futility and foolishness of trusting in "leaders.” Socialism will not be possible until the mass of the workers understand it and are prepared to vote for it. If a working class that did not understand socialism were to vote for it, the result would only be chaos, as the first attempts to put it into operation would bewilder the majority of people and leave the way open for a counter-revolution. When the workers understand socialism they will know what to expect and what will be involved in putting it into operation.

The Socialist Party views the imposition of poverty in any of its aspects (jobs, housing, education etc.) on any grounds whatsoever as a feature of capitalism. Within the ambit of that system’s production for profit ethos, scarcity is an inevitable feature. Capitalism cannot exist without poverty, without unemployment and without penalising those who, for whatever reason, do not offer the profit system the maximum surplus value. The failure of good intentions, Keynesian 'magic' and reforming zeal to remove the social ugliness of capitalism should drive people to consider an alternative form of social organisation, such as socialism.  The abolition of poverty and the abolition of capitalism shall be accomplished at one and the same time.

 Until the workers arrive at that stage in the development of their knowledge of their own position in Society, which we, in the Socialist Party, term “class-consciousness.” The Socialist Party must carry on the work of education and agitation, to help in producing that knowledge or consciousness of the fact that their misery and poverty is due to one class in society owning all the means of life—as the land, machinery, factories, railways, etc., and the wealth when it is produced—while the working class owns only the energy, ability or power to work—inseparable from the workers themselves—which they have to sell day by day or week by week, in order to obtain the necessaries of life. With every improvement in technology, with every fresh application of science to industry,— the number of workers required to produce a given amount of wealth, or number of articles, continually decreases. We thus get the apparent paradox that while the amount of wealth produced increases the number of unemployment increases also. This antagonism of material interests causes a struggle to arise over the share which each is endeavouring to obtain of the wealth produced. And the only way out of this vicious circle is for the working-class to recognise this opposition of interest between themselves the producers—and the capitalist class the appropriators and to end this intolerable system by taking bold of the means of life to be owned and controlled by the workers in their social capacity. There can be no crying of peace where only the conditions of war exist, and any assistance given to the capitalist class, either politically or economically, is a direct injury to the working class.

 Parliament cannot make something happen simply by passing laws: otherwise, there would be no crime. And some laws are widely ignored. But Parliament has the power to enforce its decrees and to punish those who go against them; if Parliament chooses not to use its powers, that is not evidence that that power does not exist. Parliament controls the state machine, which means the armed forces, the police, the prisons, and so on. If socialists were to ignore this and seek to seize power by some means other than capturing Parliament and so controlling the state machine. we would be courting disaster. If there are cynicism and scepticism about political activity and about the power of Parliament (which is not borne out by the large turn-out in important elections) this is a side effect of the evident futility of what Parliament does. And far from glossing over the problems of persuading the working class to see through the propaganda for capitalism and to consciously opt for a new society, this is our preoccupation as a socialist party. Whatever the circumstances surrounding former revolutions, the fact is that they have all been in the interests of one minority against another. The overthrow of capitalism and its replacement by socialism must be the act of a conscious majority of the working class and will, therefore, be democratic and not based on violence — although, if a minority were to try to obstruct the will of the majority, they would, of course, be dealt with.

Workers who are in the police and armed forces are as susceptible to the case for Socialism as anyone else. With the development of socialist consciousness the state machine’s power will progressively decline to the point at which, when the majority are socialists, it will disappear. The few policemen or soldiers who are left may well prefer to play football to trying to defend a discredited inhuman system at death’s door. The case for socialism is based on a materialist interpretation of the evidence of history. Idealism, well-meaning or otherwise, it certainly is not.

What then is our alternative to voting Labour (or Tory or Nationalist for that matter)? A vote for the set-up Labour (and the other big political parties) stand for is a vote to remain enslaved. Enslaved by the wages system and the world market which, regardless of government action, decree unemployment, slumps, trade wars sometimes leading to real wars, destruction of food “surpluses”, mental anxiety, the wreckage of the environment, adulterated food, shoddy houses and ugly cities. The only worthwhile vote is for a political party having as its sole aim the replacement of this system by another, one which we call socialism and define as a world of common ownership, democratic control, production for use and free access. In this country, this means voting for the Socialist Party of Great Britain where it presents candidates and, where not, registering your view by writing the words WORLD SOCIALISM across your ballot paper.

The wages gap

The income of people who earn more than £150,000 a year has increased by 89% under the Conservative government. The figures also showed the total income of those earning under £20,000 a year has risen by 1.8% in the same period.

HM Revenue and Customs data which shows the total income of this group has gone up from £3.7bn in 2010/11 to £7bn in 2015/16.

Over 400,000 people in Scotland earn less than the living wage.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-44752555

Challenging Human Nature

 Many critics dismiss socialism as impossible because of human nature, that people are inherently selfish and greedy. The human nature basic argument typically goes like this: “Socialism will never work because you can’t change human nature. This is why there will always be capitalism and why a better system than capitalism is impossible ” Human “nature” not unchangeable, it is not the nature of human beings to be greedy and selfish. The human “nature” argument is plausible because it has such a long pedigree. Even the Bible, for example, teaches “original sin” and that people were all born ‘wicked’. It is also plausible because it seems to fit with the history that all past attempts to achieve a society of freedom and equality failed. Finally, it is plausible because it seems to explain a lot of our personal experience – all those occasions when we have been treated badly or let down by friends. All this plausibility, however, does not make the argument sound. Yes, it is true that everyday life presents plenty of examples of selfishness, callousness, lack of sympathy and so on, but it is also the case that it offers many examples of the opposite, of kindness, self-sacrifice, and solidarity – of people who support and defend each other in the workplace, who help strangers in difficulties, who risk their lives to save those in danger, who devote their lives to what they see as good causes. IF it really were human nature to be selfish such altruistic behaviour would either be non-existent or at best extremely rare, but it is not.  If our ancestors had been driven primarily by self-interest and greed, our species would never have survived. People have lived in societies for the vast majority of human history where greed and selfishness were alien to the band. One anthropologist after another, of all political stripes, have reached the same general conclusion that greed and selfishness are not a fixed part of our nature; and that, on the contrary, co-operation and mutual aid was a dominant feature of much of human society for the vast majority of our history.

It is certainly true that an elite and their hangers-on who own the vast majority of the world’s wealth are motivated by greed and selfishness. But the vast majority of us are not "naturally" selfish – though some of us can, indeed, learn to be so.  The capitalist system is based on exploitation. Surplus value is extracted from the working class by the capitalists and is the source of all their profits. It has caused and continues to cause, untold human misery and suffering. It is certainly a system where the devil can take the hindmost. Greed and selfishness are actively promoted as virtues. In capitalism, the greedy of the world have discovered their ideal legitimating cover: the promotion and defence of an exploitative system that turns the vice of selfishness into the highest virtue human beings can attain. Self-interest, envy, and greed epitomising the ideal of the “self-made man” is simply the ideological expression of the economic reality of capitalism and has nothing to do with “human nature”.

 Capitalism gave rise to the working class which learned to combine and unite, to give each other mutual support in order to defend itself against the capitalist predator, providing a counterweight to the dominating idea of individualism.  It pushes them towards association and solidarity as soon as the social conditions allow it. Solidarity and altruism are essential needs. People need the solidarity of others, but they also need to show solidarity to others. This is something which can be seen even in a society as alienated as ours. Some argue that altruism is also a form of selfishness because those who practice it do it above all for their own gain or pleasure. That may be so, but that’s just another way of putting forward the idea defended by socialists that there is no essential opposition between individual interest and collective interest, quite the contrary in fact. The opposition between the individual and society is an expression of societies based on exploitation and private property because how could there be a harmony between those who suffer from oppression and exploitation and the very institutions that guarantee and perpetuate this oppression and exploitation?

It is capitalism, which separates the producer from what he/she produces. In socialism, where there is no state dominating society and no classes either since there is no form of exploitation, where everything that it is produced is purely for human needs and not profit, each member of society will be living in true freedom. Because humanity can only realise its innumerable potentialities in a social way, and because the antagonisms between individual interest and collective interest will have disappeared, new and immense vistas will be opened up for the flowering of each individual. Socialism will be above all a society of diversity because it will break down the division of labour that obliges almost everyone to limited, restricted roles for their entire lives.

Abridged and adapted from here

https://libcom.org/blog/human-nature-communism-16062018

Scottish Slavery

Human trafficking is a complex crime which involves adults and children being traded and exploited for personal benefit. It is an abuse of human rights which causes victims lasting physical and psychological damage. Trafficking can involve victims being sexually exploited or forced into the role of a servant, or trapped in forced labour, with nail bars, car washes and construction amongst the industries where potential cases in Scotland have been reported.

 54 per cent of people in Scotland said they don’t believe it is an issue in their local area.

There were at least 53 potential victims of modern slavery in Scotland during the first three months of 2018 - and eight of them were children. One Romanian girl was suspected of being sexually exploited, while the final child, a Bulgarian girl, was the victim of unidentified exploitation. The most common type of exploitation for adults in Scotland was labour exploitation, involving 27 potential victims from 10 different countries. 12 adults were sexually exploited, two were forced into domestic servitude, and four were cases of unknown exploitation.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/human-trafficking-in-scotland-14874652

Not Our Idea Of Equal Social Access

In its edition of June 14, the Canadian Jewish News ran an article about a company run by its workers. The California-based Morning Star Company, the world's largest tomato processor has no managers but has shown a rapid increase in profits. 

Decisions are made collectively by the biologists, farmhands, factory workers and accountants who work there. This doesn't mean they are all paid equally, in fact, ''The highest paid employee receives only six times more than the lowest''. 

Some folks on the left would say its an example of socialism at the point of production, but its no such thing. The workers still work for wages and the company still have to realize a profit in the market. That they are not exploited by a capitalist as such means nothing because they are exploiting themselves.

 Although workers at this operation may experience less of the crasser edges of capitalism's worst behaviour towards workers, the whip of necessity in a for-profit society requiring the cash nexus to live is not our idea of equal social access to the means of life. 

We, of the SPC, want to do away with all forms of exploitation.

For socialism, 

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

Slaves and Serfs

Our forebears wore brass collars to let all and sundry know that they were the property of some master. Now we are labelled and numbered and coded and filed to a nicety. How old are you? Where were you born? Who was your father and mother? How many children do you have? How long have you been working or out of work? Astonishingly some working men and women believe they are free.

The rich are getting policies that serve their interests at the expense of working families and the environment. Quite simply, in the United States today, a handful of billionaires and the corporations they run exercise extraordinary power over our economic, political, and social life. It is a global issue as oligarchs and authoritarianism spread from country to country. The world to-day is in the hands of billionaires-owners of the biggest corporations, the biggest banks, the biggest transport companies; in short, owners or controllers of Big Business. Nearly everything we use or need provides profits to them. These billionaire capitalists, not only own or control the chief means whereby we work and live, but, in fact, control the whole governing machine. They pull the strings. And they use their power to make themselves richer and richer—at our expense. They hire workers to make profit out of their labour; their capitalist production is for profit, not for use: and to get more profit they slash wages, carry through speed-up and worsen conditions. Poverty, insecurity, and malnutrition are making their inroads in the homes of millions. 

In Russia, it is Vladimir Putin and his cronies who rule. In China, President Xi Jinping steadily consolidates power around himself and his inner circle. In Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern monarchies, a handful of multibillionaire despotic sheiks exerts enormous power. And across Europe we are once again seeing the rise of demagogues like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.  America's Trump, therefore, should not be seen in isolation. He is part of a global trend and represents a symptom of a much broader problem: a small number of extraordinarily wealthy people, motivated by greed and power, who see the planet as their plaything.

These forces have proved adept at taking advantage of the very many real concerns that hundreds of millions of people face throughout the world. People rightly feel that the establishment and status quo has failed them. They are struggling financially, fear for their children’s future, and are grappling with the loss of social and economic status. Rather than address these grievances, however, demagogues create scapegoats and pit one group against another.

 In socialism solidarity will be the basis of society. Everything is ripe for a bold and independent policy on the part of the workers. It will not happen until the workers decide to take their own future into their own hands. It is a sign of the times that more and more people are discussing the meaning of socialism in practice. They are not content with the reiteration of the socialist classics. Simple answers, set formulas or self-declarations can no longer be substituted for hard analyse. Socialism seeks to eradicate the basic causes for war, unemployment, poverty, hunger and disease, which it knows are the products of capitalism. We are for world socialism as the only way to abolish all the evils of modern class society. How can the workers end capitalism? The answer is that a socialist revolution can do it. Without breaking the power of the capitalists it is impossible to get rid of capitalism or to build socialism. The, workers have the power to overthrow capitalism. It is the capitalists who are powerless, powerless to move a single inch towards the essential reconstruction of society. It is the workers who are strong from the very moment that they unite and resist.

The Socialist Party will carry on an independent campaign of education and attack upon the political field, and as a consequence represent the socialist idea in politics. The oppressed and exploited do not need a new reformist party.  We need a socialist one. Our numbers in the Socialist Party are small, but our potential is huge. Labour Party is the party of reform par excellence. Nothing it has said or done, nothing it has promised could arouse much enthusiasm in anyone looking for more appreciable easement within capitalism than he was getting anyway, let alone anyone wanting an end to the system. That is why we stand for socialism. The nature of capitalist cannot be changed. The yearning of the peoples of the world for lasting peace on earth and good will among men can be fulfilled only through a social system based on human needs. That is socialism. World socialism is the goal of humanity. It is the only way to have peace and security. Building a class-free socialist society involves a gigantic process of remoulding all aspects of social life. It involves a constant change in the relations of production, in the mode of distribution, in the labour process, in the forms of administration of the economy and society, and in the customs, habits, and ways of thinking of the great majority of people. It involves the fundamental reconstruction of all living conditions: reconstruction of cities, a complete revolution in the education system, restoration and protection of the ecological equilibrium, technological innovations to conserve scarce natural resources, etc. All these endeavours, for which humanity possesses no blueprints, will give rise to momentous debates from the point of view of the overall interests of the people, as opposed to sectional interest. Only through the final victory of world socialism can the vast stores of available scientific knowledge really be put to work for the full benefit of humanity.

Green Socialists

After decades of campaigning and legislation, most environmental problems have not substantially improved, and, indeed, some have become much worse. Among people there is an increasing awareness of the threat of climate change and there now seems to be a genuine interest in searching for the deeper roots of the problem. The ecology movement has called into question many aspects of modern consumerist society that are complicit in the environmental crisis. If a future socio-economic arrangement is to be sustainable it must take these criticisms to heart. Getting to the roots of the problem implies that we examine the socio-economic system under which we live. To do this, however, ecological ideas are not enough. If we seek to adequately explain the reasons for the environmental crisis we must clearly understand the economics of society that lead to environmental destruction.

 Many are convinced that the resources used by humans have already far outstripped the carrying capacity of the planet  that expanding population numbers present the greatest ecological crisis. The crude population explosion theory quickly collapses  when we focus on the question of how resources are distributed. The present surplus levels do not account for today's scarcity and hunger. There is more than enough food produced to sustain the current level of world population. Yet food somehow manages to avoid the mouths of those who can't afford to pay the price, being fed to livestock for the affluent to increase profitability yet it is the poor who gets the blame.

What is rarely raised in discussion is an alternative society without a profit-oriented economy. In other words, socialism which produces what people need, not what makes a profit Such a society would, for the first time allow genuine possibilities for ecological sustainability. With democratic control of economic activity we could realise the potential to recognise and stay within the limits of the ecological carrying capacity of the earth. Without profit-seeking businesses operating in their own interest, we will have eliminated the major social forces which resist environmental safeguards.

Some environmentalists activists lead the call decentralisation and localism. While it is important to pay attention to question of large-scale concentration of industry, doing so does not solve all of our problems. Certain industries require centralisation for efficiency, and economy of scale actually may reduce environmental impact in many of these cases. Each town cannot have its own factory to produce trains, yet the demand for transportation will not simply evaporate. The key is to meet this demand at an ecologically appropriate scale under a system that places a priority on protecting the environment. Under the current system, new technologies will always be implemented in order to create new products to sell, and to increase productivity for firms attempting to be more competitive.  Yet the introduction of a new technology does not automatically spell greater exploitation. A vision for a socialist society which functions in a complementary way and in harmony with nature is our goal. 

The mainstream environmental organisations seem unable or unwilling to absorb the hard political and economic lessons being taught to them, and continue to hope that capitalist institutions can live up to their promises. Such hopes are bound to be disappointed. The relationship between people and our environment is a central question for millions across the world today and has raised the spectre of environmental destruction on a scale previous generations could barely have imagined. The most serious issue is the threat of global warming which seems to be occurring already with many unusual weather patterns and extreme events. To the Socialist Party, the argument is simple enough. It is that the roots of the threat to the environment and to the future of the planet lie in the capitalist system itself and they cannot be solved within the capitalist system. The answer to this terrible threat is to build socialism. 

Without the drive to make a profit, wouldn't workers in the vehicle industry assert a right to insist on proper safety and anti-pollution features being built into all cars? Wouldn't workers in the food industry compel thorough standards of hygiene and prevent introduction of impurities and adulteration of any kind? Wouldn't construction workers in the architect office an the building site to assert their authority over what they demolish and what they build? . The problem is not industry or science, but the organisation of production under the control of a minority which lives by the greed of profit before all else. The continuing viability of civilisation itself demands  a social revolution that ends the threat of environmental disaster depends on that the class on whose labour the whole system rests upon. The future of society, and the environment, relies on whether the global working class can wrest control of society from the parasitic few and commence production for need and use instead of for profit and capital accumulation. 

Will you hear us?

Socialists are often accused of seeking to overthrow the government by violence. When they accuse us of this, what they are really trying to do is to imply that we want to abolish capitalism and impose the will of the minority on the majority. The opposite is the truth. We believe we can win a majority of the people to support a change in the system. Many possess a stereotyped picture of what is meant bya revolution. They confuse revolution with insurrection.

There are people going hungry all over the world because of the profit system. The US alone would have the potential to feed the whole world. The potential is there. Take the question of housing.  We could wipe out every slum in the next few years. The potential exists, not only in the factories and materials for building but in the potential to build new machinery and factories. Yet, they are not going to solve the housing question because it’s not profitable. We have the unemployed who are not hired because it’s not profitable to hire them. Then you have the people in the army, not to mention the police, and others who consume a great deal but don’t produce anything. Then you have things like the people in the advertising industry. They don’t do anything really useful or necessary.  We create waste by having built-in obsolescence. For instance, if you designed a car for the that would run for 50 years, they wouldn’t use it. Because that would destroy the purpose of making cars, which is to produce profits.  Capitalism doesn’t just have general long-range problems. It has other contradictions — big crises, like recessions and wars. 

It’s very important that everyone should get to know and recognise the ruling class. People are making the choice to ignore capitalism's culpability, and that is a choice to do nothing. The business-as-usual mentality of society as a whole is rife.  Inequality, poverty, abuse of the planet's resources and more have become a natural phenomenon and normalised. The poverty of billions of people is seen as unavoidable and something that is basically deserved. The resources are there to end hunger, cure or prevent many illnesses, set up solar and other renewable energies to replace most contaminating energy forms, build housing, and more. Political apathy facilitates those with the economic and political power to get away with atrocities. The more apathetic and passive society is, the lower the bar for what is tolerable is set. At the moment, we tolerate our supposed representatives lying to us, we tolerate a press controlled by commercial interests, we tolerate resources being wasted. We're tolerating extreme maltreatment of refugees and bombing in the Middle East.

Many people tell themselves that they ignore what is going on in the world in order to protect themselves from it. We can't avoid the homelessness, racism, sexism, or economic hardship. Many people say that following the news is too much effort. We make ourselves powerless when we pretend we don’t know. Ignoring the world means not being part of humanity and the global community. The pervasiveness of indifference means that we have to live in an uncaring, hostile world where we aren't confident we'll be looked after. When people ignore injustice they make an active choice to turn off empathy. We know that it isn't beneficial to an individual's mental health for them to ignore a problem in the long term, and the same applies to society's mental health. Individually, we are not very strong – we lack determination, solidarity, empathy, and we're submissive. We need hope to keep us moving and active. A culture that ignores the suffering of others fosters a feeling that change is impossible, and we go through life embodying that sense of hopelessness.

A starting point is to stop insisting that politics be kept out of everything. Injustices and politics weaves its way into our every thread of being – it's in sport, it's in shopping (who made the clothing and under what conditions, who allocated the land to be used for consumerism rather than health or education). The politics are there, and ignoring it or telling those who don't to shut up doesn't make it go away, it just turns you into a wilful accomplice. Speaking out lets others know that they can speak out too – it triggers action. Talking to others about social problems, discussing socialism, counters the apathy. 

What do people want? Progress to advance the economic, political and social circumstances of the majority of working families. That requires major change, and that will definitely make powerful enemies among wealthy elites. The point of socialism is to create a better society for everyone. To realise socialism is to do away with capitalism.  Socialism provides a way forward for the rest of us who still care about creating a better society

Adapted from here

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/06/20/vivid-dangers-our-indifference-hellish-world

TOWARDS WORLD SOCIALISM

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one that is hacking at the root.” - Henry David Thoreau

Socialism has not triumphed yet the Socialist Party has not given way to despair even if our numbers are decreasing. Now, more than ever, there is a chance, and an urgent need, to build a party to end capitalism, not to run it. The failure of socialist parties claiming to be based on Marxian principles to win the support of the workers has been and. is the primary factor in the success of reformist parties. Many have expressed the opinion that the name “socialist” has kept the workers away have advocated a change of name. We remain firm to the Communist Manifesto that we disdain to conceal our views and aims.

Trade unions arose because working people needed organisations to defend themselves and their standard of living against their employers. Trade unions are still key organisations of the working class. It should be clear that the trade unions are absolutely necessary to the workers under capitalism. The worker’s trade union is the only organisation which stands between a worker and the capitalists. In a class society, the dominant economic class makes and enforces the rules. The Socialist Party is against capitalism because it does not provide the majority of world’s population with the basic necessities of life and is based on inequality and theft and. We intend to replace it with mutual aid and a cooperative commonwealth where society democratically controls the means of production. We go by the maxim: To each according to their need, from each according to their ability. We, in the Socialist Party, want to replace the rule of a handful of exploiters, the monopoly capitalists, with the rule of the working class, the producers of the wealth of society. We seek to replace the anarchy of capitalist production, with its recessions and insecurities with a planned socialist economy, based on the needs of working people. We stand for the fullest democracy for the many over the few. We seek to subvert the domination of the employers over the workers and resist the idea that workers should cooperate with management for their mutual betterment. The capitalist system can only survive by enslaving and exploiting the vast majority of people. We must change the material basis upon which the exploitation and enslavement of people exists by destroying the capitalist system.

Capitalism is a pretty good system for those in charge: a small number of immensely wealthy men who have convinced the vast majority of the population – those of us who work our entire lives away making them rich – that they have the right to decide how the world will be run. A socialist revolution differs from all previous revolutions for a number of reasons. The socialist revolution is the first revolution aimed at a consciously planned overthrow of existing society. Like other revolutions, the socialist revolution grows out of class antagonisms, but the workers’ revolution does not stop at the revolutionary seizure of power. It overthrows all existing human relationships and brings the whole working class into self-activity. Unlike previous revolutions, the socialist revolution can only conclude with the construction of a worldwide class-free society. The more the class struggle intensifies, the more the oppressed begin to free themselves from the ideas of the ruling class. The Socialist Party stands for the self-emancipation of the working class. The growth of the class consciousness of the working class is not automatically guaranteed. The political thinking, organising, and action of the workers must be stimulated and promoted inside the labour movement itself. We believe that the present system of capitalism is not part of an eternal “natural order” of things nor a consequence of “human nature. The problems we face – unemployment, poverty, recessions, are not some “illness” of capitalism, they are an essential part of how it works. All these evils are the direct result of the private ownership of wealth, and the consequent exploitation by a few of the mass of the population, the workers who produce all wealth – and whose reward is a tiny pittance. Around the globe this disproportion is increasing as more and more wealth is concentrated into the group of fewer and fewer mega-rich. This tiny minority of the population holds complete control of the economy and political power and effectively controls all the machinery of the state, the armed forces, the police, and judiciary.  The economic and political power of the capitalist class has its counterpart in the domination and control of the production of ideas via the media, through which it justifies the repressive machinery of the state.

The Socialist Party is fighting for a working-class democracy in which the producers of wealth, the working class will own in common the factories, the land, the hospitals, the schools, etc. and will run them themselves according to the will of the majority. What do we mean by Socialism? Not the phony “socialism” of the Labour Party nor is it the “socialism” of the former USSR which used pseudo-socialist phrases but where in fact one huge capitalist monopoly, the state, exploited the workers and on behalf of a small ruling elite of Party and State bureaucrats.

Building the Future

The unity of humanity has been an age-old dream. Is this goal an illusion? No, answers the socialist, it can be won. Modern technology makes possible the overcoming of the divisions and conflicts among peoples in this world.  Peace and fraternity cannot become real and secure until there are no rich and no poor within any country and no rich drain the lifeblood from the poor. Socialism alone can create for the first time the material and cultural prerequisites for realising the brotherhood of man and the happiness of the whole human family on earth as preached by religion.

Socialism has been defined and interpreted in lots of different ways but we are one of the few currents who emphatically maintain that socialism should be identified with the abolition of wage-labour. This clearly distinguishes us from all those who identify socialism with a state-planned economy or with redistribution of wealth via tax reforms. We maintain that socialism requires the abolition of wages and the transformation means of production, into the common property of society.

We are ruled by a tyranny of industrial and financial barons who govern by the rule of profits. The quality of life for most people is going from bad to worse. And the present system offers no hope for the better. There is no end to wars. Pollution is destroying our environment—from the water we drink to the air we breathe. The economic crisis is worsening and each week is harder to get by. 

 Worker is pitted against worker in a struggle for jobs, housing, and education. The capitalist media blame working people, claiming that we eat too much and live too well. They blame people in other countries and point to a “population explosion” in poor countries as a burden on the planet, while the corporations plunder the resources of these same countries. The majority can win their democratic and social rights only by its own action. Working people cannot rely on the Labour party, which defend the profits of big business. Capitalist society is based on the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class and that all the evils of this society arise from that. The working class faces the situation where the capitalist rulers of this country, whose system is once again sinking into deep crisis, are stepping up their drive to wring even more profit from the workers. Throughout society the capitalists are mounting their attacks, cutting back on funds for education, health, housing and other vital needs of the people, which are sacrificed more and more for the capitalists’ need for profit. And along with all this, they practice and promote discrimination against minorities and foreigners to divert the anger of the people against each other–and away from the capitalists themselves.

This is a crucial time for the working-class. The working people are not content to remain wage slaves of the capitalists and refuse to accept the burden of the economic crisis created by the capitalists themselves. Our fighting spirit cannot be suppressed by any amount of anti-trade union legislation. The history of the working class in England, Scotland and Wales have been a history of unremitting struggle against exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. The capitalist system can only end by the overthrow of the parasitic ruling class by the working class, the creators of all wealth in society. Under capitalism, there can be no freedom for the workers – only freedom to be exploited as wage slaves. The British ruling class has revealed its true features time and time again, driving of the peasants from the land under the threat of branding and flogging, using lies and deception to exploit and oppress.  In the face of growing hardships and mounting attacks on workers in every sphere of society, it is now time for workers to take matters into their own hands and fight back against the owning class of capitalists that rules this country. Only by the overthrow and elimination of capitalism can society move forward. The working class in abolishing capitalism will put an end to the division of society into classes and bring about a completely new era in human history where mankind as a whole, through its cooperative efforts advance to heights undreamed of in the past. The aim of the working class must not only be to win whatever concessions can be wrung from the employing class today but to build the strength and unity of the working class when it will be able to overthrow the capitalists altogether.

Edinburgh Branch Meeting (5/7)

Thursday, 5 July, 7:00pm
Venue: The Quaker Hall, 
Victoria Terrace (above Victoria Street), 
Edinburgh EH1 2JL

 There are many political parties professing to exist only for the purpose of assisting the working class if the workers would only trust them and vote for them. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is opposed to all parties who ask the workers to support a reformist policy. Reform of capitalism would still leave workers in their wage-slave position. Reforms, apart from the fact that in many cases they had proven worse than the evil which they set out to remedy, are the normal features of capitalism. Capitalists and their representatives have been busy reforming the capitalist system since it had been established but in spite of all their reforms, the condition of the working class has not substantially improved.  The Labour Party, with its ever-changing lists of palliatives and ameliorations, should be an example to the workers of the futility of wasting valuable time and energy attempting to reform a system which can not be reformed in the interests of the working class. This refusal to advocate reforms has been the other distinguishing feature of the Socialist Party though one that has been less understood by other working-class militants and by the working class generally. 

Actually, we do not oppose to reforms as such - how could a party composed of workers and committed to the working-class interest be opposed to any measure that improved, however marginally and temporarily, conditions for workers - but to reformism in the sense of a policy of actively seeking reforms.  Our policy is not to advocate any reform, but to advocate only socialism, argueing, as did William Morris in his Socialist League days, that if it’s reforms you want the best way to get them is to go for revolution as, faced with a strong movement demanding socialism, the capitalist class will offer all sorts of reforms in a futile bid to buy off this movement.

 Socialism is the only hope of the workers, all else being illusion. 

The Future Belongs to the People

We are living in serious times. We stand on the eve of grave events. History has burdened the shoulders of the working class the task of solving humanity's problems. Failure to do so means the continuance of poverty, hunger, and wars, resulting in the possible destruction of all civilisation. To achieve socialism labour must first gain political power. The capitalist class under feudalism had economic power; it required political power to consolidate and guarantee its economic power; it obtained political supremacy by a revolutionary overthrow of the feudal nobility. The workers under capitalism have no economic power (except in the sense that they can bring industry to a halt by withdrawing their labour power) and neither have they political power. Before they can take over the industries and proceed to construct a socialist society, they will have to take power by capturing the State machine. This does not mean the creation of a workers' state or the imposition of a dictatorship of the proletariat as advocated by the Left. Democracy will have real meaning and no one person will be permitted to exploit any other person.

The necessity for any state exists only because there are classes in society, and one class requires the instrument of the state to rule over the other classes. Do away with classes and you do away with the necessity of any state. As classes disappear, the State loses its function. A peaceful revolutionary change is most desirable. The greater the strength of the working-class organisations, the less violence will be. The struggle between the capitalist class and the working class is a political struggle, and a political party is necessary. Because of the economic interdependence of nations, the Socialist Party has always said that socialism must exist on a global scale. It has been an axiom with all socialist thinkers that the working class of one country should cooperate with the workers of all other countries. A class-conscious worker does not consider himself a Briton or German or Russian first, and a member of the working class second, but considers himself, first and always, a member of the working class interested in the struggles of the workers the world over. The Socialist Party judges things and people from a class point of view.

Our aim is to create a world socialist movement section in every country. We invite our fellow-workers to participate in our struggle. Removing exploitation, not reforming it, demands the creation of new socialists. We need to abolish the unacceptable that’s been accepted for far too long. Revolution, not amelioration, is necessary.  Socialists have to make a merciless criticism of the economic, political, historical, philosophical, moral and religious ideas of the ruling class to deliver humanity from the nightmare which is capitalism. We can perceive a time not so far in the distant where with the needs of consumption and the powers of production will be scientifically calculated and things will be free. There will be neither wages nor prices. Human society will then once more enter the period of communism. The aim is the abolition of class-society itself.

The Socialist Party maintains that there is only one solution to the problems of the planet and it’s that all production and distribution become common property and be given over to the associated workers, who will operate them not for the profit of a few capitalists but for the profit of the entire population. Capitalism has only known how to cause humanity misery and unhappiness; socialism will establish peace and good-will among men and women. The anarchic production of capitalist civilisation, which only knows how to engender the poverty of the producers will be replaced by planned production, calculated according to the needs that are to be satisfied. Technological advances and inventions, no longer serving to enrich a few individuals but will increase the means of leisure and enjoyment of all members of society. What the socialist revolution is all about, in the last analysis, is confidence in the ability of mankind to build a future for the human race. Working people hold their future in its own hands.

The only hope is a socialist future

An employer is interested in only one thing: profits. The sole reason why any owner of a business hires workers and produces goods is because he can make a profit by selling the goods that he produces and if he is unable to gain a profitable return he closes his factory and the workers are made redundant. Lower the wages — higher the profits. Fortunately, the workers do not submit passively. They organise themselves into unions so that they can sell the only thing they possess, their labour-power, at a higher price and under better conditions.

Knowing the basic cause of society's social ills, we are in the position of a doctor who knows the cause of what ails people. We can prescribe the cure. The cure is socialism. The basic idea of socialism is that all the means of production and distribution be owned in common by all of the people. Instead of having individuals or corporations own all the factories and employ workers to produce goods only when a profit can be made from their sale, society as a whole will own the factories, and the workers will produce the things required to feed, house and clothe all of the people. Communities will figure out how much of each article will be necessary to satisfy the needs of consumers and the factories will be set into motion to produce more than enough of each item. Instead of the anarchy and the waste of competition that prevail at the present, production and distribution will be thoroughly planned by elected committees delegated to help alongside the participation of the workers. Decisions and projections will constantly be subjected to analysis and revision. It is impossible, of course, to furnish a complete blueprint indicating every detail of the functioning of society under socialism. Of one thing we can be certain. A change in the system of property from private ownership, producing for profit, to collective ownership, producing for use, will solve the major problems facing the people today.

The Socialist Party contends that industry has developed technology to such a degree where a sufficient quantity of goods can be produced to assure everyone the highest standard of living and with the production of goods in sufficiently large quantities socialism will end the problem of insecurity. Since things will be produced for use and not for profit and if too much will be produced, it will merely mean more leisure for the workers. With profits eliminated and production increased, there will be no difficulty for society to take care of those unable or even unwilling to work. It is certainly necessary to convince of the desirability and necessity for socialism. Human nature is supposed to be such as to make socialism an unachievable and unrealisable utopia. Human behaviour will reflect the character of the future society just as at present it assumes the competitive, selfish, grasping character of capitalist society. When you take into consideration the greed, the strife, the cheating and the violence that exist under the system of private property, you are amazed, not that the human animal is so bad but that, in spite of everything, mankind has not completely degenerated into a wild beast. If anything, it can be argued that humanity is inherently good and not bad. But, let no one imagine that we assert that under socialism all men will be born with equal abilities. Just as at present, there will be individuals with greater and lesser abilities, but the superior individual will be educated to use his or her capacities to serve society and not to exploit others. For the person of greater talents, socialism, by doing away with the struggle for food and clothing, will mean a far greater opportunity for the exercise of those talents.

If the capitalists were to depend upon force alone to guarantee their privileged position, their situation would be precarious indeed. After all, they represent only a small minority of the people. Against such a decisive majority the instruments of force at the disposal of the capitalist class could not prevail. If the working masses would be aroused and determined to abolish capitalism, the police and the army would be helpless, even if we assume that all of the soldiers would be loyal to the capitalist class. What the capitalist class must depend upon, more than on force is deceit. All the force in the world would not avail the capitalists if they could not deceive and confuse the majority. Even their police and their armies would not be reliable because the police and the army are composed of people who come from the working class and who permit themselves to be used against their class brothers simply because they do not know better. The rulers of our present social order see to it that the workers are subjected to a system of conditioning which succeeds in making them believe that the present system is the best possible system and that if there is anything wrong with it, it is only of a minor character and can be easily cured by changing the people who are in control of things. It is this deception, more than anything else, that assures the existence of a social order which brings so much misery and suffering to people. From early childhood, every person is subjected to the influence of ideas which tend to make him respect authority, and to believe in things as they are. Obedience is the virtue stressed by religious preachers and by school teachers. Day in and day out the capitalist media lets loose a veritable flood of lies and half-truths, the sum, and substance of which is that capitalism is the best of all possible systems and that only people with pathological tendencies would want to change that system. On all sides there stand the gate-keepers of the rulers guarding the interests of the exploiting few, permitting only debate and discussion that does not threaten their masters. Swayed by the fake news and false ideas promoted by the capitalist class, the workers not only fail to struggle against their real enemies but actually permit themselves to be pitted against one another. They allow themselves to be divided on racial, national and gender grounds. Prejudices are fostered so that the struggle against the common enemy is weakened. Mighty forces stand in the path of the working class yet if we look at history, we discover that there have been revolutions in the past which were successful. The lesson is clear. When the problems confronting people cannot be resolved by the ruling class, when the people are suffering without getting relief, when they see an arrogant minority wallowing in luxury, indifferent to the fate of others, then they are receptive to radical solutions. The ideas which the ruling class brainwash into the minds of the masses loses their hold and new ideas are accepted. The blinkers which blinded the workers are lifted from their eyes and they realise that they must take their fate into their own hands. No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. When a system of society outlives its usefulness, when in the womb of the old society there has been prepared the possibility of a new social order, when the people suffer needlessly, and when the ruling class is unable to solve the problems facing society—under such circumstances—the ideas representing the new social order are understood and accepted leaving the tools and instruments of force and deceit at the disposal of the ruling class ineffective to preserve the old order. A revolution occurs and a new social system comes into being.

Socialist Standard No. 1367 July 2018

• Editorial: Trump - Will Trade Follow?
• Pathfinders: UBIquity
• Avanti populisti
• Cooking the Books: Riding for a Fall
• Wood for the Trees
• Material World - US Capitalism: Born on the Fourth of July
• The NHS, from Birth to Old Age
• The Rich Stay Rich
• Rising land prices: another housing problem
• The military and the environment
• Cooking the Books: Quantity and Quality
• Intelligent machines, enough for an intelligent society?
• Proper Gander: ‘One Does’
• Book Review: 'The Value of Everything - Making and Taking in the Global Economy'
• Book Review: 'What’s Yours Is Mine - Against the Sharing Economy'
• Book Review: 'A World Without Money or Politicians'
• Exhibition Review: Changing Lives - 200 Years of People and Protest in Sheffield
• 50 Years Ago: How Close Was France to a Socialist Revolution?
• Cartoon: Free Lunch
• Rear View

There are no solutions within the capitalist system!

Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of our people; but the same economic forces which have produced and now intensify the capitalist system will necessitate the adoption of socialism, the common ownership of the means of production for the good and welfare of all. The present system of social production and private ownership converted society into two antagonistic classes — i.e., the capitalist class and the propertyless class. Capitalism sharply divides society into two classes, the propertied and the propertyless, master and slave, owner and owned, employer and employed. There are those who imagine that when the working class succeed to power they will at once proceed to subjugate, enslave, and exploit some other class. This has been the history of the past. It is not true of the present socialist movement and in this very important respect the present social revolution differs from every other in all past history. In the struggle between capital and labour, in the revolutionary change from capitalism to socialism, there can be no coalition between employer and employee, no compromise between capitalist political parties and working-class organisations. Our job is to win working people to see the necessity of building socialism. The co-operative commonwealth will be inaugurated by the mass action of the workers. To assert the contrary is a denial of the very principles of socialism. Steadily the workers move along the road to socialism. Circumstances compel them to take that road.

Economic laws operate whether they are known or not, but if we understand their operation we can bend them to our purpose pad assist society along the course it tends to travel. The Socialist Party must bring this knowledge to the workers. The State is the political expression of the dominant class, and since that dominant class uses the machinery of the State—law, justice, force—to maintain its own privileges and to impose its will upon the labouring mass, the workers contest their claims by political action.  The reason why some socialists participate in the every-day struggle in the industrial field, and yet decline to take a part in political action, is that they regard industrial action as more important than political. That belief is without justification. A socialist party is an integral part of the working-class movement. It is the centre  of class education. The stronger the socialist body the better can it permeate the working-class movement, giving expression to socialist opinion; voicing the demand for socialist activity and reiterating the need for revolutionary change.

The Socialist Party is the party of the working class and is in fundamental opposition to all other parties. The Socialist Party, therefore, is the deadly enemy of capitalism and capitalist parties. It has as its aim the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a socialist society in which the means of production will not be the private property of the few, a society which will not be based upon profit, will not be based on class division, but will eradicate poverty forever.  At a crossroads the World must now choose a new direction. Which way we pick may well lead to an abyss for large portions of civilisation and humanity. Capitalism is showing itself to be not only injurious to the vast majority, but a definite obstacle to the advance of mankind. We seek that the last of the slave systems shall be finally swept away an where our fellow-workers embrace the cooperative commonwealth ending the wage system where the production and distribution of wealth are for the use and benefit of all. 

Mankind can only work to produce wealth with tools. The mere handicraft tools of former times have become very costly technological marvels. These and the factories, mills, and shops in which they are housed, as well as the lands and mines from which the raw materials are drawn, are used in common by the workers, and in their very nature are marked for common ownership and control. Socialism does not propose the collective ownership of property, but of the instruments of wealth production, which, in the form of private property, enable a few capitalists to exploit vast numbers of workers, thus creating millionaires and class rule with all its odious and undemocratic distinctions. As we better understand our history we can better figure out our future and our strategy to get there. For this revolution to go forward, each of us needs to ask the questions and seek the answers. The Marxist materialist understands the world is knowable and studies relentlessly to learn and contribute. Today's scarcity can be eliminated. We’re talking about abundance. We’re talking about a world where the automation can produce 24/7 where there is plenty of plenty. We’re talking about a world where everybody becomes involved in the organisation and administration. We’re talking about a world of happy people. Our troubles and woes arise from material scarcity where we are involved in struggling to get food, struggling to get homes, struggling to get an education, struggling to get a job, struggling for all these things. If these necessaries are in abundance then we can turn to the real matters of life, developing ourselves as a person.