Are you with us or them?

The State is the governmental power that makes and enforces the laws and regulations of society. Since it developed it has always represented the social class that is dominating. The armed forces of this State were organised for the purpose of defending the interests and the social arrangements that suited the dominating social class.

Every rising social class has had to struggle for control of, or influence in, this State power in order to abolish or modify the existing political arrangements that hindered the further development of the rising class.

In present society, this holds true of the working class movement which seeks to overthrow the domination of the Capitalist class; a domination that keeps the working class in a subject position. The fact that most of the workers do not yet recognise the source of their subjection, or only vaguely do so, does not effect the question. Thus, before the workers can throw off this domination they must obtain control of the State power in order to take out of the hands of the dominating class the power that defends this domination.

Parliament is the centre of state power in modern “democracies” and the workers, who comprise the great majority of each nation, vote the representatives to these parliaments. Therefore, when the workers understand the source of their subject position and the action they must take to abolish it, they can do so by sending representatives to Parliament to take control of the State power for this purpose. By doing so they will take out of the hands of the Capitalist class the control of the powers of government, including the armed forces.

Once the workers have obtained control of the governmental power what then? They will proceed to reorganise society on a Socialist basis. Now we come into the region of conjecture. While we hold the view that the overwhelming mass of the people will participate, or fall in line with, the process of re-organisation (in other words that, while the workers will participate in the movement, and probably individual Capitalists, the Capitalists as a whole will realize that the game is up, as they have lost the power of effective resistance) we make allowance for a theoretically possible attempt in some form of violent sabotage during the revolutionary re-organisation. The control of the armed forces during this period will be an effective deterrent to any such violent attempt without these forces having necessarily to be used. Should a violent minority attempt to destroy Socialism they would have to be forcibly dealt with. While at full liberty to advocate a return to Capitalism, no violent minority could be allowed to obstruct the will of the majority. Hence the phrase in the 6th clause “in order that this machinery including these forces, may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation.” There will be no suppression of speech, opinion, or peaceful organisation.

A revolutionary policy is one that recognises that since the capitalist system gives rise to, and perpetuates the problems of war, poverty, and insecurity; and that these and many other problems are inherent in the system itself, the only solution to these problems is the abolition of the system itself and replacement by another—a socialist one. Programmes of social reform cannot solve these problems; they only help to perpetuate the system that causes them. Therefore one would expect a "revolutionary” not to advocate, say, a national minimum wage, but the abolition of the wages system altogether.  Many claim to stand for socialism—sometime in the future. But what do they mean by socialism? Do they mean by socialism—or for that matter, communism—what Marx and Engels meant by socialism or communism? Socialism to Marx and Engels and socialism to the Socialist Party means a world-wide universal system of society based on the common ownership of the means of wealth production. It will be a classless society, democratic throughout—a free society, where the coercive forces of the state will have disappeared, and where production will be solely in order to satisfy the needs of the people. When a socialist society "gets on its feet” the watchword will be: "From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her needs.” Socialism will have no need of the state apparatus. That the state will have “died out"; and that the state ownership of the land, farms and the factories is, in fact, State Capitalism.

Fellow workers, your masters take advantage of your hunger and nakedness to enlist you in their battalions. For what? To defend their property at home and abroad; to keep your fellow slaves in subjection. You own no property to defend; you have no freedom to conserve. It behooves you, therefore, whether inside or outside the army, to join the Socialist Party. The aim of the Socialist Party is to abolish the property conditions that give rise to wars; to institute a system wherein armies and navies become unnecessary and merely figure in the memories of a hated past.

Manipulating The Realities

Stats-Canada reported that in June 31,800 jobs were added to the economy, but the unemployment rate went up from 5.8 to 6 per cent.

Figures sometimes can be quiet deceiving, but they explained 76,000 job seekers came into the work force. So, even if 31,800 of that 76,000 got jobs, it would leave 44,200 without one. 

Many years ago the Minister for Labour said, ''the economy can't exist without a reserve army of unemployed,'' which within capitalism it cannot. It needs this ''reserve army'' to fill jobs when the economy is going through one of its periodic booms only to discard them when it has its inevitable slumps.

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

Our Message is Socialism

Workers feel powerless to deal with the important questions affecting their lives. So they ‘participate’ in politics only to the extent of investing some emotional energy by identifying with some personality whose victory will give them some vicarious satisfaction. The workers’ sense of powerlessness with respect to events also makes them unconcerned with policy issues concerned with proposals for reform. Middle-level bureaucrats, Op-Ed writers, intellectuals, and all species of ‘middle class’ reformers frequently advance proposals that are intended to solve, within the confine of capitalism, such problems as racial conflicts, decaying cities, unemployment, climate change and pollution, and foreign policy dilemmas. Such people often bemoan the lack of interest among workers for these proposals. Workers, through their experience, have developed a cynicism about such promises and they feel “let those who get paid for it worry about it”.

Outside the small strata of the decision-makers for capitalism, little serious attention is given to the stuff that is served up by the news media as the subject matter of politics. The frivolities and gossip that pass for political and social issues are discussed by a small number of those concerned, the masses apathetic; businesses keep on making profits that are quietly pocketed by the ruling capitalist class, and everyone continually faces the problems which the capitalist mode of production makes inevitable. From this perspective capitalism has not changed fundamentally in the past hundred-plus years—only the problems have gotten larger. War and environmental destruction now threaten to annihilate the human race. Political class consciousness, the conscious desire for socialism, is still all but non-existent. The world is quiet about socialism. Yet this discouraging scenario is deceptive. Beneath the surface, the forces that shape society are at work, ceaselessly changing the foundations. It is not merely that machinery improves, workers become more skilled and new commodities are marketed while capital accumulates. Mankind's ideas also change as their conditions of life change. Ideas about social conventions change — customary formal dress and bathing attire are trivial examples. Ideas about right and wrong change—the propriety of chattel slavery, birth control, and tobacco smoking are illustrations. However, so far these changes in ideas have stopped short of rejecting the assumptions of capitalist ideology. Before there can be a change in ideas basic to a society, there first must be a crisis of confidence in which the ability of accepted ideas to explain events is disbelieved. There is some evidence that the world is just starting to enter such a crisis of confidence. Everywhere there are signs of a growing uneasiness—an increasing realisation that something is deeply wrong. People are now having second thoughts.

Capitalism sees a shiny future of more consumer gadgets. This philosophy of more and more of the same is beginning to make people wonder if it will provide the answers. The truth of the matter is that however successful and secure capitalism looks at first glance, it is plagued with deep contradictions. These contradictions revolve around the inability of capitalism, despite its wealth, technology and power, to satisfy human needs. On one hand there is fabulous wealth, on the other hand, the most basic of human needs go unsatisfied. Scientists put a man on the moon but society cannot perform the simple task of giving a hungry person a full belly. The rate of infant mortality in the US is above that of far less advanced nations. The capitalist ‘utopia’ is becoming a hell of hatred, despair, and violence. This can no longer be ignored and so people, or at least some people, are beginning to lose confidence in the reasonableness of the system.

The inability of capitalism to solve its contradictions is slowly undermining people's confidence in its ideology; this is the first step. In the middle ages, feudalism began to crumble before developing capitalism when men became sceptical about the accuracy of its world-view. Don Quixote, the famous book ridiculing feudal values, marked the stage when feudal ideas were being rejected to prepare the way for capitalism. In a similar way, capitalist values are being first weakened, then disbelieved, and finally ridiculed. In the middle ages it was segments of the intellectuals, lower clergy, and tradesmen who first became disenchanted; today it is mainly segments of the youth. The Left has undertaken political action avowedly against the system; although, unfortunately, it does not understand the system well enough to take effective action against it. But beyond those observedly alienated from capitalist ideology, there are widespread misgivings among almost all. There is a growing crisis of confidence about capitalist ideology. This is not to say that all these doubts have led any significant numbers of people to explicitly reject capitalism and to become socialists. This is where we socialists come in. The great challenge of the times is in hastening the development of a socialist consciousness that is the prerequisite of socialism. We have accomplished no momentous things, nor do we expect to do so in the near future. We take heart with the thought that, although our numbers are insignificant, our ideas will triumph. The intellectual bankruptcy of capitalism— and its phoney ‘radical’ critics—assure our success. The Socialist Party is working always to keep the message of socialism to the fore.

Hares in Scotland

The mountain hare population of the moorlands in the eastern Scottish Highlands has plummeted by 99 per cent since the 1950s. From 1954 to 1999, hares on moorland sites decreased by almost 5 per cent every year, and the decline accelerated to 30 per cent per year between 1999 and 2017.

The increased decline in the past two decades coincided with a boost in hare culling by gamekeepers, with the intention of controlling the spread of ticks and protecting these fragile environments.

Duncan Orr Ewing, head of species and land management at the RSPB in Scotland, said: “We consider that large-scale population reduction culls are both illegal under EU law and unwarranted as a method for controlling grouse disease."

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/mountain-hare-uk-scotland-population-decline-1950s-moorland-grouse-wildlife-a8490721.html

Asked and Answered (1925)

1. Q. What is meant by political action? —
A. Political action is that action taken to use or control the institutions of government, local and national.

2 Q. Is Parliamentary action a phase of political action?—
A. Parliament is the central institution of national government, and action taken to use or control Parliament is, therefore, political action.

3. Q. Is the ballot the Marxian method of capturing the political state?—
A. As the central machine of the political state is Parliament and the ballot gives the workers an opportunity of electing a majority, the use of the ballot by a Socialist working class is the means under present conditions for the capture of the State. This policy is | based on Marx’s teachings and is in harmony with the necessities of the situation.

4. Q. Do we advocate political organisation to the exclusion of industrial organisation?—
A. No; our party manifesto points out that economic organisation is necessary under capitalism.

5. Q. Trade unions not being class conscious at present, would our party assist them in their struggles against the masters —
A. Yes. When they act for the workers’ welfare Socialists support their actions, but point out the limits of all trade union action. The function of Socialists being to make Socialists and assist to establish Socialism, the Socialist Party, therefore, points the lesson to all trade unionists that only Socialism can secure to the producer real and permanent improvement in his conditions. The work of a Socialist Party is to teach Socialism and organise those who agree with it.

Editorial Committee

No Longer A God-Fearing Country

Scots are becoming increasingly indifferent to religion, with the majority of young people describing themselves as not having any faith, according to new research. Scotland is now a nation where most people never pray and only attend church for weddings and funerals.

 Almost 70 per cent of Scots aged between 18 and 24 said they were not religious, while the figure for the nation as a whole is almost 60 per cent, a poll of more than 1,000 adults found.

51 per cent do not believe in an afterlife. Researchers also questioned people about detailed religious beliefs. In all cases, the majority of those questioned said they did not believe in concepts such as heaven, hell or a day of judgement. 68 per cent did not believe in hell, with a similar proportion stating they did not believe in divine miracles. Angels and evil spirits were also dismissed by 60 per cent and 65 per cent respectively.

53 per cent said they never prayed, while 60 per cent said they never attended church outside of weddings, funerals and other special occasions.

The study also uncovered significant regional variations in religious belief. The North East of Scotland contains the most non-religious people, at 66 per cent, while in Glasgow the majority was only 55 per cent. Glasgow also had the highest proportion of people who reported praying at least once a day (20 per cent), compared to just 11 per cent in the North East. Those from mid-Scotland and Fife were the least likely to attend church, with people from Glasgow most likely to attend at least once a week.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/poll-most-scots-never-pray-and-only-attend-church-on-special-occasions-1-4783663

We exist to spread socialist knowledge

The evils of modern society stand out for all to see but the remedy is far less obvious. To arrive at the conclusion that socialism is the real remedy involves study and investigation of the affairs of modern life.

Unfortunately, there are some workers who shun the duty of thinking out these “problems,” and they, therefore, fall a prey to what appears to be more plausible ideas. The danger exists that those workers who have been sickened by the compromise, confusion, and betrayal of the Labour and pseudo-Socialist left-wing parties may succumb to the ideas of other fake socialist parties to help them and advance their cause. Those who follow in the Left's footsteps and ramble in the reformist wilderness delay the time when they must inevitably come to see that the Socialist Party alone is sound, for its aims are revolutionary, its methods scientific, and its working democratic. With the materialist conception of history as his guide, the Socialist Party correctly grasps the relation which prevailing institutions bear to the slavery of the working class in contrast to the bewilderingly vague writings of the progressives on the Left. 

Loyalty to socialist principles and devotion to its aims will do far more to hasten the workers’ emancipation than the will-o'-the-wisp notions of the reformist Left. 

The State as we know it, arose as a part of the division of labour in early societies and carried on the administration of public affairs. The advent of private property in the means of producing wealth gradually influenced the form of the State until it became the instrument of the ruling class. The State has been the State of the chattel-slave owner, the State of the feudal nobility, and now it is the State of the industrial capitalist. It exists today because there is a class to be kept in subjection. When the present subject class become organised and seize political power, their supremacy will have sounded the death-knell of the State. The working class being the last class to achieve its freedom, its emancipation will end class distinctions: neither a dominant nor a subject class can exist when the ownership of the means of life is vested in the community. Tyranny presupposes power, but when the instruments of production are commonly owned, power to oppress can no longer exist. Further, when wealth is no longer privately owned there is no incentive to tyrannise. There are no clashing interests —the mainspring of tyranny. Socialists hold to the view that society is something more than a number of individuals—society is an organism. 

Consider the possibilities and needs of modern life. A great population covers the globe. These people need “food, clothing, and shelter” and a hundred and one other things that centuries of economic advance have accustomed them to and made part of their standard needs. How are these things to be supplied? What are the means at our disposal? To provide the things required the great machinery, etc., has to be used in accordance with the best and most productive methods. Association of the wealth producers is an imperative necessity of the future. This involves the organisation of industry, the division of labour, and the arrangement of processes in proper sequence. The distribution of wealth has to be organised, too, otherwise chaos and starvation ensue.

The Socialist Party does not advocate socialism as “the perfect system.” We seek but to adapt institutions and customs to the changes in the mode of producing wealth. We claim that subject to evolution, therefore, imperfect though it is, it is the best system possible in the circumstances that face us. The common ownership of wealth is decreed as the only alternative to private ownership, and the method of production conditions the method of control. Democratic control is the complement of communal ownership. Democracy, to the Socialist Party, does not only mean the counting of heads. It implies opening all the means of knowledge to the entire population; giving access to every source of information and advancement to all — thus ensuring, as far as is humanly possible, that the vote is the deliberate expression of the will of equals. And if all do not agree, then ample justification exists for acting on the decision of the majority in matters of social importance. There is no other way. The minority are ever free to try to change the opinions of the majority, but they must loyally abide by the supreme views in the meantime. Without this, all organisation is impossible, whether its ramifications extend to society or are extremely limited. It must be obvious that great populations cannot come together and discuss and arrange all matters in detail, but must delegate their authority to representatives. Though the “Referendum” is a serviceable method it must be supplemented by delegation when the occasion demands. Even the first two methods turn on majority rule in the last analysis.

Socialism is just as near or as far off as the industrial development and the political understanding of the working class will allow it to be. Notwithstanding the promises of the pioneers of the Left there has been no “hot-house” growth of socialist ideas—any more than there have been further progressive developments in Labour Party ideas.  The Socialist Party has propagated principles based on an understanding of the socialist teachings of Marx, Engels, and others who not only interpreted the world differently but showed the working class how to change it. The basic conditions of capitalism remain the same. However much the pedlars of vote-catching political slogans and election gimmicks try, they do not improve working-class understanding of socialism by their confusing jargon. With minds filled with capitalist ideas and bodies geared to the grind of capitalist economy, work is now all that matters to most people is the fact that they ‘live to work’ rather than work in order to live. The greater the acceptance of the status quo, the more stagnant the growth of socialism appears to be. Still, there is always a questioning of the value of the existing political parties and the industrial organisations. Self-styled ‘leftists’ still perpetuate the illusion that the salvation of the working class lies in Labour governments. Labourites oppose the socialist view that the emancipation of the working class lies in the abolition of the capitalist system. Socialists in all countries are faced with similar ‘intellectual’ opposition, our opponents adorning themselves with attractive political labels in order to suborn unsuspecting workers from socialist parties. The dissemination of socialist knowledge will help workers detect the political fakirs.

When the workers understand the need for socialism they can work for its achievement; while they submit to capitalism they will have to fight and die to defend it. Hence the pressing need for the dissemination of socialist ideas. It is a long and difficult task but the reward--“The World for the Workers”—is well worth it!

The In's And Outs Of Capitalism's Problems.

Doesn't it strike one as kind of nuts that on the US southern border thousands of people are trying to get in, whereas on its northern border thousands are trying to get out? 

You may say that it's on account of that madman Trump, which may be a good answer as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. Trump couldn't do the things he does if capitalism wasn't undergoing a relatively bad time, which he is making worse. 

  Hitler and his thugs were able to do what they did, because of the effects of the Versailles treaty and the resentment it caused in Germany. McCarthy couldn't have destroyed so many peoples lives if there hadn't been such anti-Soviet feeling prevailing in the US. 

People make history from the conditions to hand. Positive actions can improve things a little, such as FDR's New Deal, which were suggested to him by Labour Secretary Frances Perkins, but far better still would be a society where the standard of living, war, the level of unemployment would not be dependent on the decisions of anyone.

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

Things are changing

 “We want no condescending saviours to rule us from a judgment hall.

The Socialist Party is a Marxian party. That is to say, we base our outlook on history and economics on the theoretical researches of Karl Marx. On the basis of Marxian economics, we have pointed out that there is no solution for booms and slumps as long as capitalism lasts. That booms and slumps are inevitable products of capitalism and will always be a part of it. We accept the fact that there is a class struggle in society—but that its solution lies in the hands of the workers to take political action for the establishment of socialism when they understood and want it. Consequently, we have put forward candidates in the parliamentary and local elections for the purpose of taking control out of the hands of our capitalist rulers in order to clear the way for the establishment of socialism. We hold that all people in the world, regardless of colour or nationality, are capable of understanding socialism and its implications. There is no fundamental difference in mental capacity of different groups of mankind, only differences in their stages of social development which has nothing to do with a difference in mental capacity. We have always insisted upon the capture of political power before any fundamental change in the social system can be achieved. Political power is the centre of the capitalist citadel, though the workers place this power in the capitalists’ hands at election times. But no fundamental change is possible until the majority understand and want it. We have also been opposed to reform policies and have kept unswervingly to the pursuit of socialism as our sole objective.

Just as capitalism has spread all over the world, bringing similar conditions of frustration, poverty, and insecurity to all peoples, so also the seeds of discontent and the yearning for something better has become a part of life everywhere. Unfortunately, this discontent takes wrong turnings and has led to riots and nationalist uprisings that, in the long run, have helped nobody but the ruling class of capitalists or budding capitalists. The solution is the same everywhere, for socialism is an international movement involving the workers of the world, whatever their colour. It is not possible to establish socialism in one country alone, in the midst of a wilderness of capitalism. Just as capitalism has spread, so have socialist ideas.  We, therefore, urge the workers of the world to unite in the world-wide socialist movement which has already begun, because socialism is the only solution to the social ills of mankind. Socialism is a system in which there will be no privileged class, as everything that is in and on the earth will be the common and equal possession of all mankind. Capitalism is not going to disappear of its own volition. Ours is the choice of being shaken by its shivers of fever for the whole of our lives or of using our brains and using successfully the only antidote, fraternal co-operation. Socialism!

Only then will mankind be able to live truly. Only then will it be no longer necessary for workers to have to beg for an opportunity to work and for men and women to be forced, after a life of labour and want, to have to drag themselves along to protest meetings in order to be able to keep some part of their standard of living. Peace and prosperity will then be truly secured as a matter of course. Man will step from the darkness of the jungle into the bright light of the landscape of culture.

On the contrary, we affirm that no political party, irrespective of its title or aspirations, can run a system BASED ON THE EXPLOITATION OF THE WORKING CLASS THROUGH THE WAGES-MONEY SYSTEM IN THE INTERESTS OF ALL. They have all put forward the ignorant assumption that they possess the policies and personnel to make a buying-and-selling system, a capitalist system, operate in the interests of ‘the people’.

The fact that it has not worked in the interest of the working class ANYWHERE, under ANY government or ANY political party, whether in the guise of ‘western democracy’ or ‘peoples' democracy’, bears eloquent testimony to their ignorance of the nature of capitalism.

Our role in the cocktail of politics is the political education of our fellow members of the working class to the end of achieving a mass understanding of why capitalism must always operate against us and why we must choose the Socialist alternative—a wage-free class-free society of production for use. With such understanding achieved, our purpose will not be to ‘take over the government’ but, rather, to gain, democratically, the use of its executive authority and, in concert with our fellow workers throughout the world, to banish such government—along with the system of class privilege that gave rise to it. Unlike our opponents we in the Socialist Party have no plans for running—or being run by— capitalism, separated, united, inside or outside the EU We have no urge for taking over the role of government, nor can we claim that, given the opportunity of ‘taking over the government’ we could administer capitalism fairly and in the interests of all. As socialists, knowing full well the nature of capitalism, knowing that that system cannot operate IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES in the interests of the working class, we feel safe in prophesying that our problems, the problems of the working class, will remain with us whatever the demarcations of capitalism’s market.

Cost Effective - For Capitalists - But Not For Workers.

 In his first day as Ontario's Premiere Doug Ford decreed that people under 24 would not get free prescription medications on OHIP. Now don't get the wrong idea folks the guy does have a heart. They can claim on their parents work plans if their parents are working and have a plan. If not, all is not yet lost. The out of pocket youngsters can apply for reimbursement from his government, but may not get it, may not get all of it and will have to wait a few months for what they do get. Fords explanation was we have to make OHIP ''cost effective'', which is the political chat for making a profit – profits squeezed further up by his government's canceling $100 million school repair fund first days of power. 

That guy's a dream – for capitalists – but no, not for the worker.

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

A Normal City Within Capitalism

Toronto, Ontario is Canada's most populated and, they say, prosperous city, but one which is up to its proverbial neck with problems. Crime is blatant and rampant almost on a par with Chicago of the 20's, with open gang warfare over the Narcotic trade. Refugees from the US are pouring into the city at such an alarming rate that Mayor John Tory has asked the Federal Government for financial help. It could certainly need the help as the city is billions in debt. The cost of living is one of the highest in the world.

All in all, a normal city within capitalism.

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

Build Class-Consciousness

In all class societies, there is one class that rules over others. Capitalism is no exception. We live today in what is called the ‘CAPITALIST’ AGE. THERE ARE TWO GREAT CLASSES OF SOCIETY—the one, the CAPITALISTS, owns land and capital; the other, the WORKERS, owning nothing except the power to labour. We regard present-day parliamentary democracy as a form of capitalist rule because all the important elements of the state machine – the police and armed forces, the judiciary, the organs for controlling financial and economic policy, the organs for exercising ideological influence - are shaped and dominated by the representatives of the capitalists who in exercising their rule over the people, prefer to do so by persuasion and deception but are always ready, if these become ineffective, to resort to repression and force. So long as challenge from the working class does not seriously undermine the stability of the system, parliamentary democracy is a form of government with considerable advantages to the capitalist class compared with more openly dictatorial forms of rule. The relatively free and open exchange of social information among sections of the ruling class which goes on through the media and public discussion and through the representative organs of government affords them the opportunity of selecting policies in their best interests after weighing facts and taking account of opinions. The existence of competing political parties (superficially offering different policies but identical in their acceptance of capitalism) creates the illusion but not the reality of choice. To keep the thinking of the people in this mould, a vast ideological effort is carried on by the capitalists. The educational system, the diverse tools of the media, religion, and a whole host of think-tanks and societies perpetuate a belief in parliamentary democracy; promoting trust and faith in the democratic facade and conceal from the people the realities of capitalist rule behind it. The workers are ’educated’ to accept the ideas of capitalism with a view to turning them from class struggle and persuading them that their interests are identical with those of their own employers. The capitalists prefer to avoid resorting to open force so it is therefore important for them to ensure that the organisations of the working class are prevented from posing a threat to the continued existence of the system and they try to control the workers’ organisations directly and from within.

We defend a model of socialism that is totally emancipatory in all areas of life and which qualitatively extends democracy. The producers and the consumers equally must hold the real decision making power over what they produce. Priority must be given to solidarity and cooperation. The Socialist Party holds a  vision of a sharing economy to advance humanity. The Socialist Party is organised to build the working class power in every workplace, in every community and society in general to defeat the logic of capitalist accumulation that has not only pauperised workers around the world but it has caused the widest inequality and deepest poverty ever recorded in the history of humankind. Capitalism divides workers, which should be overcome through working class solidarity. The unity of the working class is the best possible way of fighting. As a united working class, we must stand behind workers on their issues Our fight must go beyond reforms. It calls for social revolution. We must point to the future by giving a glimpse of what it will look like. Our message to fellow-workers across the length and breadth of our planet is that the time has come to unshackle ourselves from the chains of wage-slavery and the bondage under which we suffer. Socialism is a viable alternative system, where social and economic priorities are set by the majority. It can begin to solve the core problems facing society today such as insecurity and war, environmental degradation, declining living standards, and inequality. All the important elements of socialism are already present in developed capitalist societies. In a technical or practical sense, it would not be difficult to make the transition to socialism. The Socialist Party recognises that capitalism is at the root of all the social ills that society faces and there is a need to fight for the creation of a cooperative commonwealth. Socialists around the world believe in the establishment of a society where the exploitation of one class by another will no longer exist and instead the creation of a system of economic planning to satisfy human needs rather than profit.  

Another Example Of The Sick Society We Iive In.

Lynn Factor, a social worker who works with troubled youth recently had an award named after her. This was the Lynn Factor Stand Up for Kids National Award and was created by the Children's Aid Society of Canada. 

In Canada, over 235,000 young people live in abusive situations and over 67,000 live in foster care, according to the foundation, which claims that it helps youth in the child welfare system go from, ''surviving to thriving''.

 Ms. Factor has worked for 35 years in the foundation, as well as the chair of the Covenant House sex trafficking committee, the Toronto Children's Aid Society, and Boost Child and Youth Advocacy Center in Toronto.

 It's horrifying that such organizations should be felt necessary and one should be horrified at the figures they have disclosed; another example of the sick society we live in. Though Ms. Factors hard work is thoroughly admirable, wouldn't it be better if we had a society where it wouldn't be needed?

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

Mankind's Future

All people have the right to leave their country but they do not have the right to enter another without permission. The right to move was recognized internationally over a half-century ago with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 13 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state" and "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." This contradiction is creating a dilemma.  Large numbers of people are desperately attempting to leave their homelands.

Receiving countries face a "birth rate crisis" while sending countries' populations continue to grow. The falling birth rate in Europe and elsewhere is expected to lead to labour shortages. With more deaths than births, such countries are experiencing population ageing and will be facing population decline in the near future.  Governments are raising retirement ages, increasing contributions of workers to retirement and cutting health-care and benefits for the elderly.

In the less developed regions those in the working ages, especially the youth, face difficulties finding gainful employment. And even among those who are employed, many are seeking better opportunities in the wealthier countries.

Modern race prejudice nourishes because capitalism produces chronic problems in employment, housing, and welfare. The working class suffers these problems but they do not understand their cause. They are, therefore, ready to blame the problems onto any fashionable scapegoat, including foreigners or any other group which happens to be a readily identifiable minority.

the capitalist system is responsible for the horrors of modern society still awaits the bold economist to explode it. The basis of society, the private ownership of the means of life, breeds the most hideous manifestations. The capitalist class, who own and control the means of wealth production and distribution, force the working class in order to live to operate those instruments for the profit of the former class.  The capitalist class — national and international—being in possession of the wealth stolen from the workers, compete with each other for the control of the world’s markets. This capitalist class, split into warring factions, The Socialist Party sympathise with our fellow workers in their struggle against the hideously squalid conditions that prevail among them but must record our hostility to any movement that is not based upon the class struggle. The blood-thirsty gang known as the international capitalist class know full well the horrible conditions that are rampant among the wealth producers, but while they pretend to condole with them, they do not intend to ease by a fraction the exploitation to which they subject them.

Until the working class understand the class struggle, and recognise that the capitalist system and its parasitic class are alone responsible for the whole of the horrors we now witness, the common anomalies always prevalent, i.e., abject poverty and misery on one hand and riotous luxury and affluence on the other; international trade wars for markets and sea routes with their attendant bloodshed, will run concurrently with the cruel and ceaseless slaughter of the workers from the prolongation of the worst of all wars—the Class War. The only hope lies in the deluded, toiling masses of wealth producers mustering under the crimson banner of socialism, determined to gain control of the machinery of government, including the armed forces, to use it as the agent of emancipation, and to usher in the system of society based upon the common ownership of the means of life; the social system wherein the interests of the human family shall form a harmonious whole. Socialism is the only way forward for the rational use of science and technology. The interests of the class that profit by capitalism are no longer in accord with social progress, and if a further advance is to be made this function-less class must be dispensed with. Among socialists, it has been a long recognised fact that capitalism has out-lived its usefulness and is so full of contradictions that it is “its own grave-digger.” Capitalism to-day is guilty of clogging up the wheels of progress. Some socialists speak of the individual employer as a “robber.” But each employer is but a part of the system. No single employer can lessen exploitation and continue to exist. It is the system as a whole that must be judged. Class antagonisms will be solved by the abolition of these antagonisms in the co-operative commonwealth.

Reformists say that capitalism isn’t what it used to be and that Marx may have been right in his time but that was over a century ago. But can reformists tell us what exactly has changed in terms of the exploitation of the working class since he wrote? Today, like yesterday, to build socialism we must make a revolution. We must overthrow the State power of the capitalist class that maintains their ability to exploit.  The right-wing attempt to prove that socialism is incompatible with democracy, that socialism cannot be but authoritarian. The fact is that revolutions claiming to be socialist have so far either produced socialism. As a matter of fact, Marx’s ideas on human emancipation is incompatible with any state and one-party rule, and that a true socialisation of the means of production requires a true participation of all citizens in social decision-making. The socialists of the world will bring about the cooperative commonwealth and the brotherhood of man. We must declare uncompromisingly and unequivocally for socialism. We in the Socialist Party are revolutionists, no class-conscious socialist would be satisfied with a platform of palliatives. Reformism upholds the private ownership of capital; the competitive system; the profit system; wage slavery, and it ignores the class struggle. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of wage slavery; severance with all capitalist and reform parties; abolition of class rule; the establishment of world socialism and the Brotherhood of Man. Inside socialism, private ownership and barter in capital being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be abolished.

Child Care Deserts. Increasing Fears

Worried parents who feared that the Humberside Daycare Center in Toronto's west end would be closing on August 31 are relieved to know that, as a result of their outcry the owners, have decided to maintain it for another year. They are in their seventies and were looking forward to retirement. Many parents feared they would have to quit work because of the lack of licensed day care facilities in their community. This fear was intensified by the new report that shows 44 per cent of non-school age children in Canada live in so-called child care-deserts where licensed spaces are scarce. 

Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care said, ''Daycare centers close across Canada all the time and parents are lucky to get 60 days notice. I've heard cases where parents arrive on Monday morning at a non-profit center to find the doors locked. It's way too common and it shouldn't happen this way. This is nationwide, we need to see it as the public crisis that it is and fix it''. 

This is another of the many ways that life under capitalism increases our fears and insecurities.

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

The Task of the Socialist Party

The abolition of the profit system, which is the legalised robbery of the workers who produce all wealth, still remains the agenda of the Socialist Party which still stands for that and nothing less. And if one thing is for certain it is that history can change very fast in just a short time. The class struggle can hot up and a lot of complacent grins can be wiped off a lot of fat-cat faces. We ponder how long it will be before our fellow workers realise what an insane society they are living in. A rational one would produce food solely to meet needs, rather than for profit. Don't buy into capitalism. Both the theory and the experience of how capitalism works show that it cannot be made to work in the interest of the majority. Any government that tries this may well, at the beginning, be able to introduce a few favourable reforms but in the end will have to ‘run the economic system’ on its terms, by giving priority to profit-making overspending on reforms. No government can change the economic laws of capitalism. Workers face the capitalists as sellers and buyers of labour power. The former want the highest price they can get, the latter the lowest. In addition, the larger the share that the capitalists take of the wealth produced, the less there will be for the workers who have, in fact, produced all the wealth.

Capitalism is not the fault of the capitalists or the governments which preside over it. They are the victims of a system which needs poverty in order to ensure that the wage slaves have no alternative to employment. After all, anyone with a secure income would not waste their lives working to make an idle class richer. Why, then, is the suffering in the world today necessary? It is needed because the present social system is based on minority class ownership, whereby a small fraction of the earth’s population own and control the resources of the planet and the means of producing and distributing wealth. The system puts profits for the capitalist few before the needs of the wealth-producing majority: the men and women who live by selling their ability to work in return for wages or salaries. Capitalism is a profit system, where the golden law of the market is that production only takes place with a view to sell for profit. Under capitalism, that which cannot be sold profitably is either not produced or is destroyed.  The bosses blame the workers and the most stupid of the workers blame other workers.

 Workers should remember that members of our class are being killed, beaten up, discriminated against and made insecure today and not just in the past. In a world which now, more than ever, is a global village where modern technology has made it easy to unite, the means are at hand for workers of all lands to join our efforts into one movement. We must remember that an injury to one — whatever the nationality or the colour or the sex of the victim — is an injury to our class. Unity to improve our condition of wage-slavery is not what workers in the late twentieth-century should be organising for. The treadmill of trade unionism as an end in itself can only ease the intensity of our exploitation; what is needed is a society where there is no exploitation of employee by employer because there are no classes. Socialism, which will be a society without classes, employment or state machinery, will mean the abolition of the wages system. In a society, without wages people will give according to their abilities and take from the goods and services which are available according to their self-determined needs. The class struggle, which throws up countless victims, will not go away. It will not come to an end until the capitalists are defeated by the workers. That defeat will not require workers to use violence against the bosses — unless, of course, the capitalists have undemocratic ideas about making martyrs of themselves by defying the will of a conscious, socialist majority. But first we must build that majority, and it is for every worker to ask themselves the crucial question: am I to make use of the right to unite which the martyrs of Tolpuddle stood for — and millions of workers have yet to gain — or will I be a martyr to the system which robs workers of our dignity?

Classes are distinguished by how they stand in relation to the control and use of the means for producing wealth. In modern society, there are two main classes: the non-working owning class and the non-owning working class. Marx did not say that the state, should be smashed or by-passed, but that it should be captured by the working class. The state, as the public power of coercion, was an instrument of class rule which came into being with the division of society into conflicting classes and which has been controlled by various classes through its history: ancient slave-owners, feudal barons, and modern capitalists. To say that a class controls the state because it has economic power is to fall for a crude economic determinism. The state is controlled by the class that has waged and won a political struggle to capture it. It is true that the class which is economically progressive has generally been able in the end to win state power, but because of its political struggle rather than its economic position. This is why it is possible for an economically redundant class (like the modern capitalists) to retain power long after it has become redundant. The capitalist class rules today not because of its economic position (as a superfluous class, after all!) but because of its political and ideological leadership of the working class. The capitalist class is wealthy today because it has political power. It retains its economic privileges only because it controls the state. And it controls the state only with the support of the workers. The ruling class is the class that controls the state in the sense of its being used to maintain its economic privileges. It is a political rather than a social concept. To find out which class rules you study how the state is used rather than who fills the top posts. 

We do not doubt that top civil servants and judges and generals are themselves mainly from wealthy families or that they are firmly committed to capitalism. But then, on this last point, so are those who fill the bottom posts in the state machine and so are most other workers. If you have a correct theory of class, you realise that by and large both industry and the state are run from top to bottom by members of the working class, men, and women who are dependent on their wage or salary to live. No doubt there are capitalists who do some of these jobs, but the socialist case has always been that, economically and politically, the capitalist class as a class is redundant as society is already run by the workers alone.  The capitalists control the state not by filling the top posts with their relations but by winning working-class support for the policy of using the state to maintain capitalism. Even if the top posts were all filled by the children of manual workers, with provincial accents, the capitalists would still rule if the state was used in their interests. It is not a question of the social background of the state officials, but of the purpose for which the state is used.

The task of the Socialist Party is to urge workers to look beyond the incessant turmoil of the day-to-day struggles engendered by capitalism. To take up the struggle for socialism and end the servitude of wage-labour once and for all. The same energy and effort now being expended on purely limited objectives could, given socialist understanding, change society completely. Then, from a world-wide basis of common ownership of the means of production and distribution, mankind can redirect social production to the free satisfaction of human needs. Better than an eternity spent bickering over pittances!

The attainment of socialism awaits majority understanding and the use of the ballot-box for that exclusive purpose. The only way to abolish capitalism’s problems is to get rid of the system itself, entirely. There is only one system which can replace it and that is socialism, a world of common ownership and free access, where all the world’s people will live in harmony because for the first time in history we shall be able to express a common interest.  Shall we unlock the door to a socialist future or stay here in our uncomfortable present, like dinosaurs defying the laws of evolution. The future is made, not given, and any worker with any sense will be making it fast before the capitalist future destroys us.

Socialists offer a new vision

 The Socialist Party recognises that there are many faults with the capitalist system, resulting in human suffering. The Socialist Party believes that workers are exploited by a capitalist economy. Under capitalism, the few own the industries. The many do the work. Wage workers are compelled to give a large part of the product of their labour to the few. So long as the few own and control the economic life of the planet the many must be enslaved, poverty must coexist with conspicuous luxury and civil strife prevail. The dire consequences of this system are everywhere apparent. The workers are oppressed and deprived of much that makes for physical, mental and moral well- being. Year by year poverty and industrial accidents destroy more lives than all the wars in the world. The Socialist Party is to-day the only democratic party of the workers who would remove the causes of the social evils inherent in the capitalist system. The Socialist Party is the political expression of the economic interests of the working class. By voting for the Socialist Party you can help remove the capitalist system.

Instead of being organised to provide all members of society with an abundance of food, clothing and shelter, and the highest attainable freedom and culture, industry is at present organised and conducted for the benefit of a parasite class. All the powers of government and all our technological genius are directed to the end of securing to the relatively small class of investors the largest amount of profits which can be wrung from the labour of the majority whose only possession is muscle and brain, manual and mental labour power. The Socialist Party would end these conditions by reorganising the life of the planet upon the basis of socialism. Socialism would not abolish personal property but greatly extend it. We believe that every human being should have and own all the things which he or she can use to advantage, for the enrichment of his or her own life, without imposing disadvantage or burden upon any other human being. If men and women were free to work to satisfy their desires there could be neither poverty nor involuntary unemployment. But people are not free to work to satisfy their desires but can labour only when the capitalist class who own all believe they can market their product at a profit. The needs of millions are subordinated to the greeds of a few. Their greed comes first—the people's needs are secondary. The Socialist Party maintains its attitude of unalterable opposition to war. We state that the competitive nature of capitalism is the cause of modern war and that the co-operative nature of socialism is alone adapted to the task of ending war by removing its causes. 

The Socialist Party advances along the road to a world free from capitalist exploitation -- a socialist society built on the enduring principles of equality, justice, and solidarity among peoples. We are socialists because we have a vision of a humane worldwide social system. We are socialists because we reject a global economic order sustained by profit, alienated labour, discrimination, environmental destruction, brutality, and violence. Our vision of socialism is a democratic one, rooted in the belief that individuals can only reach their full potential in a society that embodies the values of liberty and equality, and only through creating material and cultural bonds of solidarity. We demand a society where all participate as equals and are respected for their worth as human beings. A society where a full life for all may be achieved.  We demand that people have control over how they work when they work and how their labour is applied. The world is more productive than it has ever been yet millions upon millions remain mired in poverty. Increased productivity can eliminate poverty and satisfy everyone’s material needs. We demand a system that can achieve this. If left unchecked, capitalism will destroy our planet. We in the Socialist Party believe that a new society must be organised and built that can serve the interests of the majority. We are committed to fighting for real change. The Socialist Party offers a vision based on our core values and principles, to our fellow-workers. The Socialist Party, as a political party of working people, provides a vehicle through which they can develop their class strength.