Hope for the Future.

“Our doctrine tells us that socialism can’t be built on the ruins of the existing society by a revolt of starving beggars in rags. It can only result from the powerful forward march of an army of organized proletarians, fighting to conquer every position, every progress.” - Anton Pannekoek

This is a crucial time for the working-class movement. The socialist commonwealth is the hope of the world. The idea of cooperation is rational, humane, and all-embracing. The competitive capitalist system has had its day. Mutual aid will come.  The working-class will attain its freedom. When the worldwide co-operative commonwealth having been established, mankind for the first time shall be ensured the material requisites of a decent existence and shall also for the first time be liberated from robbery and from conflict. It is time for workers to express their solidarity with the struggles of their fellow-workers all over the world. It is time to step up the struggle for the end of the exploitation of man by man. Despite claims that the working-class has been defeated and that socialism has failed e the working class is still the decisive force in every country. There are questions of the well-being of the people and of the environment yet we do not make any claims to have all the answers to such questions, and  It is not that we have no view, we have definite views on all these issues. However,  it is the working-class which has to take up these questions. Without the working-class itself taking up these questions they will never be solved. We encourage as wide as possible discussions within our own party and among the people on these questions.

We need to present the socialist alternative as concrete and how we will introduce a common ownership socialist economy. We ought to bring forth concrete proposals for the fundamental principle — “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs” and “socialization of the means of production” — transforming aspirations into much-needed actualities. We need to imagine the society we want to live in. We need to bring forth and create proposals for concrete socialist structures. Capitalism is a society of commodity production — of wealth produced for sale and profit.  Social progress will be encouraged only if it helps towards profitable production and sale. The goal of the socialist movement to abolish market economy altogether in favour of a democratic common ownership of the economy.

This social system is chaotic and inefficient; it cannot answer to the needs of its people. It condemns tens of millions of human beings every year to a distressing, agonising death through starvation—while tens of millions of productive workers are unemployed and while food is destroyed. It inexorably produces war, and increasingly fearsome weapons, while almost everyone wants peace and disarmament. It deprives the vast majority of people of the results of their labour. As one government after another fails to have any effect on these problems, disillusionment with established political parties grows.

Radical social change is needed. But this does not mean reshuffling the existing pack of policies and leaders. It means a challenge to the basis of society, instructed by an awareness of the need to get at the root of our problems. It means thinking in terms of fundamental change—of revolution. For the problems of capitalism cannot be separated from their origin—the private property basis of society. They cannot be solved — in fact typically they cannot even be alleviated without reference to that basis.

The conclusion we come to, then, is that the only worthwhile — the only radical — social change is the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by a social system based on common ownership of the means of production and distribution. That society is known as socialism. It will bring a world free of inequality, of poverty, war, hunger, exploitation. It will liberate people to co-operate in the work of society and to take from the common pool of wealth as they need.

Socialism will be set up when the majority of the working class, worldwide, have the knowledge which will enable them to make the conscious decision to opt for the new society. With that knowledge they will have no use for leaders; the movement for socialism is one of democracy, of conscious and informed participation. The workers must choose; they have nothing to lose but their slavery and a world to win 

Social Evolution is Socialist Revolution

It is the failure of the politicians and their parties that drive the workers in despair to street protests and demonstrations. But the people who organise and partake in these demonstrations are as ignorant of the economic facts of capitalism as the politicians whose failure creates the desire for direct action. What they fail to understand is that the system we live under, the system which they vote for at elections is by its very nature incapable of meeting working class needs; that poverty, slums, and unemployment, are a natural and permanent feature of the capitalist scheme of things; that the politicians, even if they are eager to, simply cannot solve these problems. Their job is to administer the system of capitalism, to legislate conditions for the smoothest possible functioning of the system and to ensure that the rights of property are preserved and protected. The political complexion of the party running the system is irrelevant; while society is organised on the basis of profit rather than human needs, the system dictates to the party in power. 

Ironically, the protesters and demonstrators see the problems against which they oppose in the same terms as the politicians who run capitalism. Their '‘demands” are always “realistically” anchored. Never would they dare to 'demand' for the workers they claim to represent the mode of life enjoyed by members of the owning class. In other words, they accept capitalism; they respect its title to ownership of the resources of the earth; they bow to its class structure. What concerns them is not the fact of slavery but the condition of the slave. The poverty and degradation of working-class life stem from the worker's position in capitalist society and the working class has the electoral strength now to overthrow capitalism and institute socialism. It is not the lack of votes that delays the change; it is the misuse of the overwhelming superiority of those votes which the workers already have.

The capitalist system is based on the private ownership of the means of production, organises production for profit, without caring about the real needs of humanity, but on the contrary subjecting mankind completely to the needs of profit. Socialism has become possible with the development of technology and science so it is possible to give to all men and women a decent standard of living under conditions of total liberty. What stands between us and socialism is not scarcity of resources but simply the political system which throws the economy into anarchic production, full of contradictions and resulting in insecurity, the destruction of wealth and the alienation of liberty. We recognise that one of the first priorities for society after a victorious socialist revolution will be to develop rapidly the forces of production. We also understand that this will be achieved within the framework of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production—in other words within the framework of the price-free, money-free, wage-free society of socialism. This is not the ‘transition period’ but a stage in the development of socialism itself. (Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Programme refers not to a ‘transition period' but to different phases in a communist or socialist society.)  We cannot foretell how fierce the struggles will be at the time of the socialist revolution but it should be clear that once the capitalist class has been stripped of its wealth it will certainly pose no kind of threat to “the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.”

Many ideas which are basic to socialism are accepted among far wider circles than the ranks of the Socialist Party. Their most frequent objections to our organisation is that we are too small to be taken seriously and that by preaching "pure" socialism in the form of abolition of the wages system we are out of touch with the working class. Of course, that makes us unacceptable to many.

Socialism is the stage in social evolution that will follow capitalism — a wage-free, money-free, state-free society based on common ownership, another name for this society would be communism. The Socialist Party certainly has no illusions about the difficulties involved in getting ideas like a world without money across to workers steeped in capitalist values, but we recognise that socialism is a relatively easy idea which it is quite possible to express in simple language. The Socialist Party wants socialism, will be directed by a Socialist working class. It is and will remain impossible until such time as there are Socialists in sufficient number, politically organised for their task. So we recognise that socialism is at the moment impossible, for those conditions are not fulfilled. We recognise the fact and urge the workers everywhere to recognise the fact.  The workers have to carry out the task themselves, and the need of the day is to win over the workers to socialism. Well-meant endeavours to find short and easy roads, or to provide half-way solutions cannot succeed and do not help the socialist movement. The workers require an understanding of their class position and all that that implies. Socialist knowledge alone will ensure this understanding, and once acquired the working class will have no need of so-called experts to point the way to their salvation. The road will be plainly marked—to the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of world socialism. As long as people believe that socialism is impossible and that only class and property society is practical the ruling class is safe. 

Scotland's Health Inequality

Scots living in the poorest parts of the country are four times as likely to die early than those in wealthy neighbourhoods.

Almost 21,000 people in Scotland died before the age of 75, formally classed as prematurely, in 2017.

Deaths from cancer, heart disease and alcohol abuse are all significantly higher in these least affluent areas - and the gap is increasing, according to Scottish Government statistics.

Lewis Morrison, chairman of BMA Scotland, said “persistent and substantial” problems can no longer be ignored. “These statistics should leave us in absolutely no doubt that stark and unacceptable health inequalities persist across Scotland. “The significantly worse health of those who live in our most deprived areas compared to the substantially better outcomes for those who live in the least deprived areas is a persistent, substantial issue that simply cannot be ignored.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/demand-for-action-as-health-gap-between-rich-and-poor-widens-1-4842846

A socialist future for all

We are living under capitalism. The capitalist system has concentrated the ownership of the tremendous productive forces in the hands of a small number of capitalists. It is marked by a basic contradiction: production is social, involving the coordinated and interconnected labor of millions of workers, but the control of this social labor and its product is private. Workers are wage slaves who survive only by selling their labor power to the capitalists. Capitalists own the means of production and pay workers for their labor power. But the working class produces far more wealth than it receives in income. The difference is the source of capitalist profits. The capitalist tries to drive down the wages of the worker. The worker is employed only as long as he or she helps create profit for the monopolies. When the capitalist has problems maximising his profits, he does not hesitate to throw workers out into the street. The capitalist system exploits the working class and creates the poverty and economic insecurity of society as a whole. The capitalist system is a system of economic anarchy and is plagued by periodic economic crises, recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. These crises are built into the economic system.  The capitalist class benefits from the misery of countless numbers of people. It squeezes the life out of the worker and then tosses him or her away. Capitalist society callously mistreats people because everything is geared to the drive for profits. This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has strangled our entire society with social decay. The drive for profits holds millions hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air we breathe; it spawns cynicism and violence, crime and other social problems. Always looming over us is the constant threat of war. Exploitation, injustice, racism, and repression - this is the face of capitalism today. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive. The situation demands a new, more rational system of economic organization that will utilise the productive forces for the benefit of the vast majority of society. The situation cries out for change, for a new, more rational social system – socialism!

If you do not join in the fight for socialism if you do not organise and strive for its success, things will not remain just they are, nor will they move forward, but instead of progress, society will slip backward. This is a question of vital concern to everyone, especially to every worker. It is most important to understand what will happen to a capitalist society if it is not replaced by socialism. There will be catastrophic consequences for society. The capitalist class uses the State’s dictatorial powers to subordinate the entire economy to its needs. Standing in the way of social progress and socialism is the capitalist class. The ruling class is composed of the owners and the CEOs of the huge banks and corporations that control the economic life. Their power extends far beyond the boundaries of one nation to control the destinies of millions of people around the globe. These capitalists are very wealthy exerting considerable economic and political influence so to live off the exploited labour.

 The working class is multinational, composed of workers of many different nationalities. Their common identity is that they are all exploited by the capitalist class. The working class is composed of all wage earners – mental and manual, urban and rural – whether in basic industry, manufacturing, service, farm, sales, domestic, clerical, public, or other jobs. The working class is composed of skilled and unskilled, employed and unemployed. Some workers may make more money than others, but they are still members of the working class because they must sell their labour power to survive. But the greatest problem in the history of the working class movement has been its division.  But as the conditions and quality of life deteriorate within capitalism, workers will become more receptive to the ideas of socialism. Through struggle and education, workers will also realise that their interest lies in the overthrow of capitalist private property system and the establishment of common ownership. But such a revolution will require the unity of the workers of all nationalities.  One day these forces will converge into a mighty current that will weaken and then topple the capitalist class. The eventual overthrow of capitalism is as certain as tomorrow’s sunrise.

Does class matter?

You are a member of the working class. Forget all the pretensions about being “middle class” or the put-downs about being “lower class” or the evasions about being “just an ordinary person”. If you depend on a wage or a salary in order to live, as most people do, you are a worker.

 As a worker you have a human commodity, to be bought on the labour market by an employer. To the capitalists who use your labour power you are just an item on the list of production costs: if they can pump more value out of you than they pay you they will use you, if not you will be thrown on to the scrapheap of the unemployed. Your function in life, as a worker, is to be exploited. You are a human machine for creating profit.

 You like to think you are free. A wage slave is never free. Without selling yourself you will face huge problems, leaving you dependent on state or private charity in order to survive. As an unemployed worker your chances of premature death are greatly increased. So you are free to do what your employer dictates. Your liberty must be trimmed to fit in with the profit requirements of the bosses.

 Do you have access to whatever you need? You will spend your life saving up for things because they are not free but must be bought on the market. Are you free to live where you like? Can you travel wherever you want to go? Are the best health facilities available to you? Can you provide for the ones you love? Don’t even bother to try and answer. We know that as a worker you cannot afford to do these things. Your home will never be as pleasant as the bosses’ residences. You will never be as free to travel the world as are the rich who need have no work to get in the way of their travelling. If you are ill you will queue up for the cheap, lower-class NHS treatment because as a worker you are replaceable. The ones you love and care for will always be deprived of some of the good things you want to give them because, unlike the boss who is legally robbing you for profit, you can only afford to be as generous as your wage packet or salary cheque allows you to be.

 If you were free you would not have to jump up like a trained circus animal every time the alarm clock tells you that it is time to go and sell the best part of each day to the boss. You are a wage slave. Don’t like the label? Then try giving up working for a wage or salary for a few months and living like a lord. You’ll soon find out how compelled you are to return to the task of making profits for the capitalists. And don’t kid yourself with that line about being free to become a boss yourself. A mass of new companies over the past few years have gone broke within a year or so.

 They tell you that you are British. How much of Britain do you own? Little or none. Maybe you possess a few shares. Possibly you own a house, although you more likely own a mortgage or a rent book. You are asked to get excited about “your” country, “our” trade. Will “we” get the order to make aeroplanes for the USA? Why should you care? You will not be profiting from the deals which the British capitalists make.

 They whip you up into a frenzy of excitement about “our” Queen You are urged to regard yourself as a subject. But if you are broke and can’t pay the rent or feed the kids you can forget about any prospect of the two-billion-pound parasite in Buckingham Palace giving you a hand-out. The capitalists, including their crowned figureheads, treat you as a worker, with contempt. Your role is to cheer the British gang of thieving bosses in their quest to become rich, but profits for them has nothing to do with a good life for you.

 Not only are you conned into believing that you have a country. You are told that you must die for it. You are so unfree that if a war is declared tomorrow you will stand a high chance of being blown to pieces. They will not consult you before they push the button. Not only you but your children, who are considered too young to vote but not too young to be murdered in the cause of market competition.

 You might console yourself that the bomb will never drop. You’re safe. And ignorance is bliss but it does not protect you from the hard fact that you are now living in a world which is more full of armaments and more capable of mass annihilation than at any time in human history. If you think that war is not on the agenda you are fooling yourself into being a candidate for the post-holocaust pile of corpses and you are leaving those around you unsafe as well.

 You could pray that life will improve. Religion used to be popular in this country — these days fewer workers believe it. Prayer will solve nothing. There is no almighty power up in the sky who will put things right. The only powers worth thinking about are those down here on earth. Maybe you are one of those who believe in the afterlife. A comforting thought: after a life of wage slavery down here there’s going to be pie in the sky up there.

 But it’s a pretty miserable and pathetic ambition: suffer now and have a good time up on Cloud Nine when you’re dead. Intelligent workers will want something now, not promises for when they’re six foot under. Then they tell you about “human nature”, that disease we are all supposed to be born with. Do you really believe that humans are naturally anti-social? Or do you accept that our behaviour is determined by the social conditions we find ourselves in? In a jungle society of rat-race competition people act like rats. But we are adaptable in our behaviour, as you will know from the many examples of co-operative behaviour you have experienced. As a worker you want to be decent but under the profit system decency pays no dividends.

 You have read this far. You agree that you are a worker and that you are not free and that nationalism is a joke and war is a danger and religion offers no answers and humans are not natural aggressors. When you think about these points they make sense to you because they are in line with your experience — that’s always the best way to decide whether a point is right or wrong. You agree that the way we are living now needs changing. what is the alternative?
Socialism. You’ve heard that one before.

We have had eight Labour governments and we are no closer to a new system of society than we were when the first one was elected. All that Labour governments do is run capitalism in much the same way as the Tories. Most workers do not believe that Kinnock and his gang will change much. Those who are planning to vote for him are doing so usually to get rid of Thatcher, not because they believe in Kinnock’s promises. You are right not to trust the Labour Party. They are simply another capitalist party. They do the dirty work for the bosses whenever they are given the chance by the votes of the workers.

 Yes, they have nationalised industries but that has nothing to do with socialism. That is state capitalism. That’s why the miners had to fight just as hard against their state exploiters as ever workers have against private exploiters. Don ‘t allow yourself to be conned by nationalisation or “social ownership” or any other schemes for running the same old system of wage slavery. What about Russia. China. Cuba — the countries which claim to have established socialism? You know very well that there is no basic difference between them and the other capitalist countries.

 Socialism does not mean capitalism run by nice chaps. It does not mean more crumbs, higher wages, bigger pensions. A socialist society will be one where class ownership of the major resources of the world will be replaced by common ownership. The world and everything in it will belong to everyone. The factories, farms, offices, media, transport — all the means and instruments of wealth production and distribution will no longer be the property of capitalists but will belong to us all. We will all run these things in common, without being led or dictated to. We will govern ourselves, sharing ideas and information and respecting different points of view.

 In a propertyless world society there will be no exchange relations, because you cannot exchange what you already own. So money will not exist. There will be free access to goods and services. Why waste time and resources on the business of buying and selling when we can all just take what we need from the common store, using modern computer technology to express our demands? Just as socialism will do away with money, so it will abolish the wages system. Instead of selling your labour power to an exploiter you will contribute it in accordance with your abilities. This will only work if people cooperate to give according to ability and take according to need. Socialists think that our fellow workers are that sensible. If you know that you are. then why doubt the co-operative potential of those around you?

 It will certainly be a very different way of living from the poverty and insecurity of the present, when we establish socialism. You would be odd if you did not find it an appealing prospect. But there are still questions to answer. How soon can this new system be set up? How do we go about establishing socialism? How much detail about socialism can we give? These are the important questions facing you today.

From an unsigned article in Socialist Standard January 1997

What socialism must be

Socialism does not mean everybody will receive an exactly equal share of the social wealth. Socialism is not crude equalitarianism, denounced by Marx and others in the last century. Socialism abolishes exchange by free distribution. Everybody will own everything in socialism - ALL commonly OWN

Socialism does not mean the abolition of personal divergences of individual taste—it means free distribution according to the single test of NEED. Actually, individual taste will secure real recognition for the first time in history.

The question of the ownership of the means of production has been and continues to be, the most vital factor in any discussion of major social problems. Since capitalism rests upon a foundation of class ownership of the means of production, then the obvious solution to those problems (such as war, poverty, and insecurity) inherent in the capitalist system is the establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership of the means of production, namely socialism.

Whenever working class conditions under capitalism are aggravated by particular crises within the system, such as wars and depressions, then the master class or their representatives bring the full force of their propaganda machine into play to befog the minds of workers and to distract them from the real causes of their problems.

Socialism is a system in the interest of the entire community. Socialism is a world community without frontiers, where wealth will be produced solely for use. Buying and selling, and with it, prices, wages, money, profits, and banks will disappear. Instead, everybody will have free access from the common store according to their needs. Socialism is a fully democratic society. The coercive state machine of class society will be replaced by the simple democratic administration of society’s affairs. Where there is socialism there is no state; where there is a state there is no socialism. The idea of a general strike as a means of overthrowing capitalist rule is obviously impractical since it leaves the means to crush any such strike, the state machine, in the hands of the capitalists. Much the same can be said of the use of workers’ councils as an alternative to parliament. In developed political conditions, this would have been unnecessary since such institutions, in trade unions, political parties and local councils would already have been in existence.

The task facing our fellow-workers all over the world is the same: organisation along class lines for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a world socialism. The task of the Socialist Party is clear. Since socialism is a democratic society based on voluntary work and co-operation, then its establishment and survival depend upon the conscious, organised action of the majority of the working class. On the economic front, socialists must do all in their power to encourage the development of democratic organisation and processes for the defence of workers wages and conditions. But more than this is needed: the organisation of a revolutionary socialist party seeking understanding on the single issue of capitalism or socialism, and reflecting the society it seeks to establish, by being completely under the control of the whole of its membership. A new world cannot be made by governments. A government’s purpose is the safeguarding of the private property institution and the maintenance of the master class as the dominating class in modern society; and this domination and privilege of the master class can only be maintained by the exploitation and oppression of the only useful section in society, the working class. To establish socialism, the working class must first win control of political power and to do this they must organise as a political party. That the majority must want and understand socialism has been a principle which has distinguished us from all other parties who have claimed to be socialists. Socialism can only be established by the majority political action of a working class that wants and understands it.

Socialism is a free society based on voluntary work and free access to all the fruits of that work, is grasped, that it can only be set up by conscious majority action should be obvious. The voluntary cooperation and social responsibility that socialism demands cannot be imposed by a minority of leaders; the people must cooperate to make it work because they want to. This is why leadership is an anti-socialist principle. There must be a majority of convinced socialists, for, with majority socialist understanding, violence is unnecessary, unless the pro-capitalists resort to it. The socialist majority can use universal suffrage both to show that it is a majority and to send its delegates to parliament and local councils, thus gaining control of the state machine.  In modern political conditions — the overwhelming numerical superiority of the working class, universal suffrage, political democracy, an army and civil service recruited from the workers — the working class can, and should, use elections and parliament as the way to winning power for Socialism. A socialist party should contest elections whenever it can, but only on a socialist programme. Where there are no socialist candidates, the party should advocate the casting of blank or spoiled voting papers and never engage in anarchist-type anti-election propaganda.

At some stage in the development of the socialist movement in each country socialists must organise as a party, with its own rules and democratic discipline, in place of the discussion groups and journals or educational societies they may at first find convenient. The party which the working class will use as an instrument for winning political control must be organised on a democratic basis. Control of policy and administration must be entirely in the hands of its members; there must be no leaders and those chosen to carry out various functions must be answerable to the membership. There must be the fullest opportunity for free discussion of party policy. Such is the basis of the Socialist Party. Since a political party can only be what its members are, if a socialist party is to remain such it must recruit only socialists to its ranks. This is especially necessary for a democratic party where all members have an equal say in forming policy. Passing a test of basic socialist knowledge should be a condition for joining the party. in order to remain socialist, the party must only seek support on a socialist programme. Inevitably, in present circumstances, this will result in the party being comparatively small, but there is no other sound way to build a genuinely socialist party. In order to retain their non-socialist support, they themselves were forced to drop their talk of socialism and to become ever more openly reformist.

Today the Social Democratic parties are as firmly committed to capitalism, in theory as well as in practice, as those who have never pretended otherwise. We say this was the inevitable result of admitting non-socialists and of advocating reforms of capitalism. This is why we have always advocated socialism alone and never reforms of capitalism. We are not saying that all reforms are anti-working class, but that for a socialist party to advocate reforms would be its first step towards becoming a reformist party.

Organise for a Better Life

What is needed is a complete change in the way society is organised.We need a transformational change in our relationship with one another and with nature to ensure the sustainable future we want for ourselves and our children. Not one of the major social problems facing the majority today has a practical chance of being solved within the present social framework. As long as a minority own or control the productive resources of the world, the bulk of humanity will suffer relative poverty. As long as food, clothing, housing and all other goods and services are produced to be sold for a profit in the market, those needs which cannot be paid for will remain invisible. Until these productive resources are owned in common and controlled democratically by all, the millionaires will continue to hold the rest of society to ransom. And until production is geared purely to satisfying human needs without the obstacle of finance, the scale, and quality of production will be compressed into what is profitable only.

 All but a small minority of capital-owners suffer lives of insecurity and economic frustration. And yet this same majority gives support, actively or passively, to the system which robs us of our dignity as well as of the wealth we create. That is the key to the change we seek. No system could stagger on forever without getting some acceptance from the millions of human beings involved in it. When a majority of workers withdraw their support for the present system and organise themselves to introduce and run the alternative to this, then and only then can real change come. This is what revolution must mean.

 Socialism means a complete breakaway from all systems of property. It means, for the first time in human history, a consciously organised and planned end to all property relations. It must be carried out by and in the interests of the overwhelming majority across the world. So, at this point, there would be a real leap in the development of world history, a point in time when a common control of the Earth would truly begin for the first time. And the way in which such an inspiring step can happen is by the democratic acceptance of this by a majority—the force of numbers. This would, of course, express itself in different ways in different parts of the world. One common thread in the World Socialist Movement, however, will be its understanding that means must harmonise with ends. A democratic society can only be established democratically. The socialist movement, therefore, has no leaders. It is a movement of equals. Neither does it court popularity by adopting or patronising the latest fashionable cause, seeking in vain to ease capitalism's problems one by one. We pose a clear choice for the working class throughout the world. Either continue to give your political support to the present, capitalist system, with all of its obscene contradictions. Or build a strong and conscious political movement for the socialist alternative of common ownership, democratic control and production for use, not profit.

Must the workers of the world always have feelings of suspicion, hatred and contempt towards each other? We, in the Socialist Party, do not think so. We are normal human beings, but we do not blame the strangers in our midst for all the minor and major evils of capitalism. Workers must learn to think with their heads and not be guided by their feelings. They must understand, and they will do when they become socialists, that there is a bond that unites them with their fellow workers, whether they are “enemies'' or “friends". This bond is not the superficial one of the same language, the same colour of skin, the same shape of nose, the same habits or allegiance to the same capitalist state, but the fundamental one of class interest. The workers of the world have one great task: to overthrow the system of their respective capitalistic masters and establish a world socialist cooperative commonwealth, where the word “foreigner” will have no meaning.

The Socialist Party takes the same principled position that we have always taken. We are opposed to capitalism and all who seek to run it. We do not want reformed capitalism or the profit system better managed. We are not looking for “nice” leaders or any kind of leaders for the workers to follow. The wages system is against the interest of the workers and only workers’ self-emancipation will solve the problems that we face. We are told not to waste our time upon such revolutionary ambitions. 

The Socialist Party supports the efforts of workers to improve their conditions under capitalism. But socialists also point out that there is no solution to their problems inside capitalism, and even if the agitation of those who support improvements succeeds for the families they are now trying to help, future generations will still face the same misery and hardship. Only in a society in which production is carried on solely to satisfy human wants, without anyone having to worry about where next week's rent or next month's mortgage repayment is coming from, will the social problems we endure find a solution?

Once this socialist majority exists, it will be necessary for us to do two things before socialism can operate as a social system. First, it is necessary to establish beyond all doubt that this is the will of the majority at that time. Second, the ruling class of today must be stripped of the political power which they have so far been allowed to hold. The state machine, with its coercive forces, must be taken over openly and democratically by that majority and dismantled; the owning class must be disarmed, by removing their control over the forces of the state. It is for these two reasons that the Socialist Party contests elections. That, then, is what socialist revolution means. And the transformation of society, from serving the profit of the minority to meeting the needs of all, has never been more urgent than it is today. The choices humanity makes now will profoundly affect the world which in turn will impact the future economies, livelihoods, food security and quality of life of people everywhere. We must get them right. The choice is yours.

"The Observer” and the SPGB (1964)

From the December 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

The following is an extract from The Observer (Oct. 9) to which the Party wrote in protest at the reference to the SP.G.B.

Everywhere around Glasgow, the contrast in political styles is striking. On the Left, they speak with tongues of the old Clydeside fire, preaching a new society, teaching their audiences a total view of socialist justice and democracy. All have something of the Trotskyite poster in Woodside which snarls at the citizen “Don’t vote for the S.P.G.B. (Socialist Party of Great Britain) candidate unless you understand and want Socialism.”

We publish, without comment, the Observer’s reply:

The Observer, 29th October, 1964.
Dear Sir, 

I have now heard from Neal Ascherson, to whom I referred your letter of October 11. After helping us in covering the election campaign he returned to his post as our resident Correspondent in Germany; hence there was some delay in reaching him. He writes:

“I think I should apologise without reserve to the members of the S.P.G.B. for calling them Trotskyite, I was mixing them up in my hurried head with the Socialist Labour League, and there is no excuse for that. I still think that “snarl” expressed the shock of hostility experienced by a reader of the S.P.G.B.’s fiercely honest and uncompromising poster."

I’m very sorry we can’t clarify this point now in our correspondence columns —it would be rather out of date and there is room for so few of all the letters— but we will take care not to make any such mistake again. 

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) Charles Davey, 

Assistant Editor.

We Need Socialism

We desperately need an economy that can meet humanity’s needs without undermining the basis for civilisation. When we talk about the inevitability of socialism we assume that the workers will continue to struggle against the capitalist system. Were they to sit down tamely and wait till socialism came to them, they would soon lose all that they have now and become mere slaves. What we understand by social revolution is when the workers, both politically and economically,  are so class-conscious and so well organised as to make their exploitation impossible that capitalism would have reached the end of its tether. The task of the Socialist Party is to show how inadequate reforms are in eliminating the evils from which the workers were suffering. Our tactics are to demonstrate that only with the abolition of production for profit, and the competition between the capitalists for sources of profitable investment which is an inevitable result of the capitalist system, can we end nationalism and rid ourselves of the danger of war. Who will assist the workers to formulate their own battle plan in their own interests?  We propose to plant the seed of socialism in the minds of our fellow-workers, to germinate and to bear fruit until the time comes to harvest it. It will take a little time and a great deal of education, but it will succeed.

Socialism aims at giving meaning to people's life and work; enabling freedom and creativity to flourish. Socialist society implies people's self-organization of every aspect of their social activities. These are not aspirations about some far and distant future but rather demands for today. With socialism, people will dominate the workings and institutions of society, instead of being dominated by them. Socialism will, therefore, have to realise democracy for the first time in human history.  Real democracy lies in one's being able to decide for oneself on all essential questions in full knowledge of the relevant facts. To grasp this is to perceive that socialism is not "nationalisation" or "cooperatives" to increase the standard of living" but to understand that the real crisis of capitalism is the anarchy of the market.  

 The Socialist Party has continuously pointed out that increased production, whether as a result of greater efficiency or labour-saving machinery, can have but one result: an increase in unemployment. Unemployment is proof of the rottenness of the capitalist system. Men and women lack the necessaries of life; they are forced to be idle by the capitalist class; yet, given access to the means of wealth production, they could produce the things they require in abundance. Capitalism compels the workers to produce for profits. The workers can only satisfy all their requirements when they make the means of wealth-production common property and produce for use.

Some Marxists may, and do, exaggerate the personal importance of Marx as an authority owing to their admiration for his genius but it is quite untrue to suggest that they as a body “slavishly" accept his intellectual authority. Marx and Engels made wrong judgments, like other people. In 1848 and even later they under-estimated very considerably the longevity of Capitalism. Engels, especially in his later years, had an exaggerated idea of the strength and soundness of the Second International, and particularly of the German S.D.P.

Marx described as the proletariat in modern society the property-less wage worker. The mass of men and women, rapidly in process of becoming the most powerful numerically in every country in the world, who own nothing but their power to labour and who by reason of their being compelled to sell that power in order to live, stand face to face in an antagonistic relation to the buyers, the capitalist class.

 A footnote to the 1888 edition of the Communist Manifesto by Engels gives: “the class of modern wage-labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour-power in order to live.” Marx taught that the development of the system would produce in the workers that outlook, that class-consciousness, which would precede their organising to overthrow capitalist domination, but he expected the workers to emancipate themselves; he certainly did not teach them to rely on self-styled intelligent minorities.

Marx was quite clear in his writings that not only has the establishment of socialism to result from the political action of the working class itself ("the proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority", as the Communist Manifesto puts it), but that this involves the abolition of commodity production and wage-exploitation (the workers, says Value, Price, and Profit, "ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword 'Abolition of the Wages System'”) and their replacement by a democratically-organised society where the principle ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs' would apply (Critique of the Gotha programme). One central feature of socialism, clearly stated by Marx, is that it would be a class-free society in which the means to life would be the common ownership of all society ("In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have", says the Communist Manifesto again, “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all").

Hungry Scots

Many working people are struggling to afford food.

More than a fifth of people in Scotland have gone a day without eating because they are too poor to buy food, according to a Citizens Advice Scotland survey.

The survey of more than 2,600 people found 21% had not eaten for a day due to lack of money. Just under half (45%) of respondents were employed and of these, one in three (29%) reported having to reduce or skip meals because they lacked money for food. A total of 40% of working respondents worried about running out of food before having money to buy more and 35% said they are struggling to afford to eat balanced meals.

This rose to 45% of all those who completed the survey, employed and unemployed, worrying about running out of food before having funds to replace it.

Researchers found 23% of people had had to skip meals so that their children could eat.

More than a fifth (21%) of people considered fresh fruit to be unaffordable.

Citizen's Advice Scotland Chief Executive Derek Mitchell said "For some people going hungry is the norm - that's just not right," he said. "This study shows that many working people in Scotland are struggling to afford to buy food, and in 2018 this is simply unacceptable."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/more-one-five-scots-starving-13699483

Socialism and Humanity's Heritage

 The aim of the Socialist Party is to build a new society. We differ from other political parties in that we want to completely change the society’s economic organisation for the social emancipation of the working class. This can only happen through abolishing the private capitalists’ monopoly on the means of production and transforming those to common ownership, all society own collectively social property, and the replacement of the unplanned production of goods with a socialist society’s satisfying real needs. The interests of the working class are the same in every country. With world trade and the production for the world market, the position of the working class in one country become dependent on the positions in all other countries. The emancipation of the working class is thus an achievement, in which every people of all lands must take part.

The socialist revolution is to end poverty once and for all. A revolution arises not simply from discontent about injustice, but from deep changes in the economy. New ideas of reorganising society based on the new means of production have to be put forth to challenge the employers. We must rally together to put forth a vision for the future and end compromise with the billionaires and corporations who are robbing the people. 

The new technology of robotics and automation is threatening to replace workers and impoverish masses of people. Whether we work or not, the people still must live. The coming social revolution must place the robots in the hands of the people. Cybernetics and other forms of IT should be the foundation for a whole new world. Abundance, created by robotics and people working for the common good rather than the profit of the few, will forever end poverty, exploitation, oppression, and war. The Socialist Party calls for our fellow-workers to organise for this new vision. Our goal is no daydream but a demand full of tremendous enthusiasm, fighting spirit, and unity, arising from the new social relationships forming in the economy. This is an era of revolutionary change. For the first time in history, humankind can produce such abundance that society can be free from hunger, homelessness and backbreaking labor. The only thing standing in the way is this system of exploitation and injustice. This is the beginning of a revolution for a better world, economically and culturally. The Socialist Party takes as its mission the political awakening of our fellow-workers. We invite all who recognise the problem with capitalism and are ready to do something about it to join with us. With our organised strength, we will liberate the thinking of the working people and unleash their energy. We will win them to the cause for which they are already unconsciously fighting. We will excite the people with a vision of a world of plenty. New technology provides better and more products with less and less labour. Society now has the capacity to devote the energies and talents of its people to satisfying the material, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs of all. We will educate the people about the economic revolution that’s disrupting society. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organised. We seek to inspire fellow workers with the alternative to the capitalist state: a society organised for the benefit of all, a world built on cooperation that puts the physical, environmental, cultural and spiritual well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. When the working class assumes control of all productive property and transforms it into common property, it can reorganise society so that the abundance is distributed according to need. For the first time in history, we have the technological ability to put into effect the principle ’from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’

The key thing is to keep educating oneself, organising around a movement which fosters a commitment that to ensure the successful revolutionary transformation of the world. It is up to us as socialists to realize that we do have the vision to offer and that society is waiting for a party to give an understanding and offer a solution to the conflicts we are all up against. Far from being proponents of some all-engulfing Big Brother government control the Socialist Party view the state, as withering away — being transformed as an instrument to preserve class rule into an administrative tool. While in the present day world the underlying purpose of production is the amassing of profits for capital; in the new, free society its sole purpose will be to meet the needs of humankind. In the place of the present chaos, waste, and inefficiency, production will be planned. This planning, contrary to the type now envisaged by would-be-advisors of capital, requires the common ownership of the means of production and distribution.

Not only will the revolution itself be profoundly democratic, but with its victory will come almost instantaneous benefits for all. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created across this land, we will be quickly able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman to supervise who gets what and no bureaucrats with the possibility of providing special favors that would allow them to gather up connections that would frustrate the democratic process. One of the first acts of the general assemblies and popular councils would be to place the factories into the hands of those who operate them. For the first time, they would know that their specialized knowledge would be applied entirely for the benefit of mankind. We would see our wealth as part of mankind’s common heritage.

Why are we socialists

Capitalism has bled the people white. People there are many, their needs are vast. The capitalists run the factories in the interest of earning profit. They do not do so to provide a livelihood for the people. They run industries with a view to earning profit. If they find that the introduction of some machines lowers the cost and helps them earn more, they will employ fewer workers, resulting in further unemployment. Technology and science are being used in the class interest of the capitalists, in the interest of profit and exploitation of the working class. The socialist revolution and the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist state machine that we advocate means emancipation — the emancipation of the workers from the exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class but also the emancipation of science from the tentacles of capitalist profit motive. We need emancipation for all from all bondage and exploitation. The struggle for establishing socialism is also a struggle to free science from the bondage of capitalism and to use it for the benefit of mankind. 

 We witness today that people against capitalism are growing so as to free science and the productive system from the motive of exploitation; that is, from profit motive and instead use it for the satisfaction of the social needs. The workers are engaged in the struggle to oust private ownership over the production system and establish social ownership in its place. Although workers want to free from the chains of capitalism, all the falsehood and myths, the web of confusions and conspiracies laid by the capitalist class in the society can only be disentangled with the help of political knowledge.

The function of the Socialist Party is to educate the people by criticising all attempts at so-called reforms, whose aim is not the realisation of a new society, but the hindering of it. The world today is full of bewildering contradictions. Despite great industrial and agricultural power it cannot feed, clothe and provide a decent livelihood for people on this planet who toil away their lives to survive, while billionaires squander fortunes on mansions and fly around the world in private jets. Poverty and economic insecurity exist alongside abundance and extravagance. We fed promises of promises of liberty, justice and equality yet we have a system of exploitation, violence, racism, and war strangles our lives, where people cry out for the welfare of humanity.

What is the reason for these contradictions between the promises, the potential of this society, and its stark reality? Why is there such an agonizing gap between what is and what could be!

The answers to these questions cannot be found in cynical condemnations of “human nature” or apologies about the “way things are.” No! capitalism, the social system under which we live, is responsible for the contradictions of society. Capitalism thrives on the private control of society’s wealth and production – production involving the interconnected efforts of millions of working people. The rich have one basic goal in life: to make more and more profits, and they accomplish this by dominating the economics, politics, and cultural life of the country. The employing class will throw workers out into the streets to starve, promote racism and bigotry, and build a military arsenal that can destroy the world several times over – anything for profits! This is an irrational and unjust system. But life does not have to be this way. We can improve our lives and society, and eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern; where working people become the rightful masters of society. Such an economic and political transformation will be radical, but a radical solution is what it will take to bury the miseries of capitalism. The socialist revolution has become a historical necessity and possibility. There is no other choice today but for the working people to organise to struggle and win socialism.  Today we must look ahead to the future where socialism, as a more advanced social system, will be built on the powerful productive capacities now stifled by capitalism. Each person is faced with the choice of either enduring the suffering of unemployment, recessions, brutalisation and war; or joining with others who are dissatisfied and know that a better society is possible. If working people, and not the capitalists, controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. We could have happy, safe places of work, and guarantee a decent standard of living for all. We could end pollution and the destruction of the environment. We could could wipe out racism and xenophobic nationalism. We could live in a society that is not preparing constantly for war and self-extinction. These are the things that urge us forward.

Socialism - An Association of Equals

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what is it that we are trying to achieve? This question, long a subject of debate, is receiving increased attention today because of the changes taking place in the United States where “Democratic Socialists” are apparently losing their stigma and are on the rise and some are rethinking their conceptions of socialism. Some say socialism is simply public ownership of the means of production by the government, and other criteria are irrelevant. These advocates for what was once described as “state socialism” say the government is to defend working people’s rights to a decent standard of living and a life free from exploitation, that the “socialist” government would end oppression and working people will rule society in their own interests. The Socialist Party says “Not so.” The first question to be put is how far that program really breaks with the existing capitalist order of society. The Socialist Party understands socialism means getting rid of money and markets entirely as a necessary condition for getting rid of capitalism. We imagine a world without money and reject all programmes that propose to transcend capitalism but retain money and markets as supposedly efficient methods of allocating resources in a new and better society.

The new society will be based not on exchange but on natural self-sustaining economy, there will not be the market, buying and selling, but consciously and systematically organised distribution. It will be different from the old primitive communism, in that it will embrace not a large or a small community, but the whole of society, the whole of humanity. The Socialist Party envisages that by way of change, we will be a community of free individuals, carrying on our work with the means of production in common, in which the labour power of all the different individuals is consciously applied as the combined labour power of the community.  The total product of our community is a social product. One portion serves as fresh means of production and remains social, another portion is consumed by the members as means of subsistence. Socialism is when freely-associated people decide what they want to do during their working hours (within the constraints of what is possible) and how they will organise themselves to do it.  we will take over workplaces and neighborhoods and create a society based on freely associated labour. That means that at that time we will decide through discussions, debates, and perhaps struggles how we will organise our working time and what products we will produce how.

The Socialist Party asks why so many movements have stopped short of challenging capitalism itself, in favour of instead advocating relatively restricted social reforms and self-limiting revolutions? We face a world in which we have been brought up to obey those with money and power, and where it seems natural to be bossed around while doing labour that others have defined as necessary for profits. We face a world of inequality in where large proportions of people think that some men should be more privileged than others. The Socialist Party thinks that most of the problems of the world can be solved, but it will be the working people of the world who will have to develop ways to make decisions, ways to work together, and ways to protect ourselves. If successful, we will create a world of freely associated labour where we decide what use-values need to be produced, make them available to those who need or want them, and do this in an environmentally sustainable way in which we find ways to enjoy our lives and fulfill our potentials through actions that are sociable and helpful to ourselves and others as well.

The victory of socialism is desirable because only socialism can put an end to the exploitation of man by man and of women by men. Because only socialism can put an end to the struggle for the re-division of the world, for national possessions, which takes place between the different continents, nations, and races. Only socialism can put an end to war and poverty and the innumerable injustices which are an everyday feature of our lives. There is no progress possible to civilisation save in the direction of socialism. Socialism means the freeing of the individual from the fetters which weigh upon him or her under the capitalist system. And this is not to be understood as meaning that while the old fetters are removed new ones will be shackled. Foremost among the fallacies is that socialism implies coercion. On the contrary, the primary aim of the industrial and political organisation supposed by socialism is the guaranteeing of the freedom of the individual.

The task of the Socialist Party business is the making of socialists, convincing fellow-workers that socialism is beneficial for them and is possible. When we have enough people of that way of thinking, they will find out what action is necessary for putting their principles in practice. Until we have that mass of opinion, action for a general change that will benefit the whole people is impossible. Inequality did not grow out of greed; a society based on inequality gave birth to greed. In all capitalist countries the object of production is not to provide employment to people, nor bring comfort to their life with better technology, but to lower the cost of production and thereby earn maximum profit for the capitalists. Simply because in all capitalist countries production is run from this motive the workers must understand that such a situation would not have arisen had production been run with the object of fulfilling the people's necessities and not for earning maximum profit by the capitalists. So the use of machines — to be more precise, use of science and technology — must be freed from capitalist exploitation,  from the motive of earning maximum profit or, in other words, from the clutches of the capitalist class. If we, the workers, can achieve this, then automation and robotics will bring comfort and happiness to our lives and with the aid of new technology we can produce more with much less effort and in less time. We will get more comfort, greater satisfaction and more happiness from the work. So technological progress is not our enemy. Our enemy is capitalism, which is at the root of all the problems of society.