We are not reformers — we are revolutionists.

Not until the working class own and control the means of production and distribution will they be able to adjust the hours of labour to the requirements of society and the number able to work. To do this they must first understand and accept the principles of socialism, then set to work to establish it by organising to take control of political power for the purpose of wresting the means of life from the hands of the master class.

Most people are almost totally disinterested in politics. Many people don't bother to vote in elections; many probably couldn't tell you who their MP is. It is little wonder that most people are not interested in politics, since it makes very little difference which party controls Parliament — life will go on pretty much as before. The Tories, the Labour Party and the nationalists are out of touch with the needs of workers; they are dominated by representatives of the business community and operate in their interests. The Socialist Party has no illusions about politics. Unlike the Labour left-wing we do not believe that it is possible to bring about “state” or "municipal socialism”. Nobody should be deceived by the use of the word "reality"; it does not mean that Labour Party leaders, after all those years of dealing in the fallacies that they can control this social system, are suddenly facing up to the fact of their impotence. Neither does it mean they are about to tell the voters about the futility of trying to reform capitalism into amiability.

 For the Labour Party reality is no constant thing; it is nothing to do with any political principles. It changes from one election to another, almost from one month to another. Their reality is fashioned by their need to grab votes; what attracts votes is realistic, what repels them is unrealistic, the produce of minds barred with a "Do Not Disturb" notice. every statement and action is related completely to the attaining of victory". Many Labour supporters will see nothing wrong in this — after all, what is the party in business for? And isn't a Labour government different from, more humane than, a Tory one? Well, what is the actual effect of this unprincipled scramble for votes? If the means are to be justified by the ends, what do the ends mean to us? History records that the differences between Labour governments and Tory ones were negligible to the point of being almost indistinguishable. It all amounted to an inability to accept that any party which sets out to run capitalism cannot but disappoint those who regarded it as an organisation based on political principles. Playing for votes from workers who do not accept the need to end capitalism and replace it with socialism means that an election-winning party has to run the capitalist system, whatever promises they have made on the road to power. This means that they must do a great many things which, in line with what they have claimed to be their principles, they should not do. It would be more accurate to say that capitalism runs its leaders rather than the other way around. And it is all justified in the name of reality, while those who point out the uselessness of it are derided as dreamers, subversives and worse. This results in the continuation of the society which is essentially based on the interests of the minority who own the means of life — on the unequal, exploitative relationship between the owning class and those who need to be employed by them in order to live. This is the root of mass poverty and all that it means in terms of bad housing, sickness. repression and so on. Politicians make speeches which not only ignore these facts but often set out deliberately to obscure them. There is nothing of reality in this; it is all deception and distortion. But things do not have to be like this; we do not have to live in a society where political parties compete for support from the uninformed, the apathetic, the confused, the cynical. Facing reality would be a great step forward for the people of the world, which would mean we were about to see some important changes.

The Right’s pious sentiment about the sanctity of human life has a hollow ring when each and every day brings fresh evidence of the lack of respect for human life. And moralistic cant about “rights the unborn'' will do nothing to change the material circumstances that cause women to seek abortions. Only in a society in which human needs are paramount — the needs of women to control their own fertility, the needs of parents to have creative work besides looking after their children, the needs of children to grow up in a secure, loving environment free from want and deprivation. the needs of the handicapped to be respected and useful members of the community — is it possible to imagine a situation where all babies are wanted and abortion redundant.

Capitalism's problems are not an aberration

It is therefore our task as the Socialist Party to help build that genuine working-class party to provide the opportunity to unite working people who have been bamboozled into supporting capitalism, and shown that their interests lie with the socialism. The Socialist Party challenges the capitalist system and proposes to remove it, as if it were a cancerous growth on human society. Socialism means a society of peace and plenty, instead of a society of war and hunger. Only the working class, which has nothing to gain and everything to lose under capitalism, can create a socialist world. Meanwhile, the working class is under attack. The lords of Big Business, throughout the world, are eternally seeking ways and means to undermine and destroy the workers’ own organisations, the trade unions. They want to convert the workers into helpless serfs, unable to defend their hard- won rights and living standards. Capitalist politicians are devising new blows at organised labour. The labour movement can survive only by militant struggle against the offensive of the bosses and the boss politicians. To defend itself with its united power in every field where it is attacked, labour must break for all time with the capitalist political parties. There are no “friends of labour” in the capitalist parties. Labour’s only true friend is its own muscle. Great battles are breaking out between labour and capital on every front of the class struggle. The workers must build their own socialist party. Capitalism offers only food-banks. 

 We believe that the present system, of capitalism, is not part of an eternal “natural order” of things, not a consequence of “human nature”. It is a recent arrival in man’s history. The problems we face – unemployment, poverty, slump, inflation, are not some “illness” of capitalism, an aberration but are an essential part of how it works. All these evils are the direct result of the private ownership of wealth, and the consequent exploitation by a few of the mass of the population, the workers who produce all wealth – and whose reward is a tiny pittance. This disproportion is increasing as more and more wealth is concentrated into the group of fewer capitalists and fewer corporations. This tiny minority of the population holds complete control of the economy and political power, and effectively controls all the machinery of the state, the armed forces, the police, judiciary and upper rank of the Civil Service. The economic and political power of the capitalist class has its counterpart in the domination and control of the production of ideas, through which it maintains the acquiescence of workers in the repressive machinery of the state.

What do we mean by socialism? Not the phony socialism of the Labour Party and its attempts to organise the working class to make capitalism work. Nor is it the “socialism” of the former USSR which uses pseudo-socialist phrases but where in fact one huge capitalist monopoly, the state, exploits the mass of Soviet workers and peasants on behalf of a small ruling elite of Party and State bosses. The Socialist Party is fighting for a social democracy in which the producers of wealth, the working class will own the factories, the land, the hospitals, the schools, etc. and will run them themselves according to the will of the majority in a the class-free society in which classes and therefore the state have finally disappeared. It cannot be brought to workers from outside, but grows through our own struggles to survive. How we build our future depends on us workers on historical experiences and traditions. Workers are not isolated and are part of the struggles for human progress in a world struggle. So the experiences and struggles of the world’s workers form part of our traditions, giving us invaluable, indeed indispensable lessons on the conduct of our struggle. In the industrialised countries such as Britain, the consequence of the recurring economic crises is placed squarely on the shoulders of the working class, with the soothing palliative balm of reformism to dampen the workers resistance. The ruling class seeks every means to mislead and confuse the forces of revolution. Their aim is to weaken, divide, and defeat the revolution, desperate  to hold their decaying system together and find a resolution to the crises that plagues them. Failing to destroy the workers’ movement, every section of the capitalist tries to use it.

We aim at destroying the present capitalist system to its very foundation. We intend to destroy the machinery of capitalism such as various institutions, organisations, and all other accessories to the capitalist system. In order to create a true standard of life appropriate to a man or woman, we intend to realise a society that is without classes, a society whose members can all secure their food, clothes and dwelling. There is but one aim for us—the overthrow of world capitalism. For the majority of working people there is no other escape, no real salvation except through socialist revolution. From the beginnings of capitalism, the drive for profits and accumulation have set the capitalists not only against the working class but at each other.

Churchill - the Mass Murderer

Although a Green Party MSP, our blog has to agree with him and indeed the Socialist Standard drew attention to the Bengal Famine at the time. Nor are we surprised that a Conservative Party member should endeavour to defend the indefensible.

The socialist aim is revolution

The Socialist Party opposes capitalism, period. The Socialist Party proceeds upon the assumption that society is at present divided into two classes, whose economic interests are antagonistic. Workers cannot look to the benevolent action of left-wing political parties, for help in attaining labour’s objective, the emancipation of the workers from wage slavery. Neither can they look to them for the knowledge and ideas which are the necessary aids to a clear understanding of the present position, and of the means of ending it. The Socialist Party aims at supplying this need for workers to organise independently in the political and industrial spheres. No social movement can afford to neglect its education and that the mischievous results of the false ideas spread by the class enemies of the workers can only be remedied by the spread of socialist knowledge. The Socialist Party takes the stand of the working class worldwide with only one object - the complete overthrow of the capitalist class, the triumph of socialism over capitalism. The aim of the Socialist Party will be the realisation of a communist, cooperative commonwealth - a class-free society.

 However, it is a fact widely recognised that no mass socialist party exists. There is no party capable of forming the proletariat into a class politically independent of the bourgeoisie. There is no party capable of organising the working class in the overthrow of capitalist political power. But the history of modern society shows that such a party is an absolute necessity for the overthrow of the ruling class. The organisational problem presents itself as the need to expand the membership until it has grown to the point at which it is an effective and influential party. The Socialist Party views as a major reason for this failure to build a mass socialist party has been the inability of our fellow-workers to make a complete break with capitalist ideology; their failure to break away from the outlook of the capitalist class. Under normal, that is to say, non-revolutionary conditions, the ruling class maintains its power by its control over men and women’s thinking. If a socialist party is to be able to represent the class interests of the working class then the party must have absolute unity and clarity of purpose.

Marxism is of importance to all working people because, if the policies advocated and practiced by those entrusted with its application are incorrect, it follows that the economic and political interests of the working people will not be defended. On the contrary, the pursuit of incorrect policies can only lead inevitably to the subordination of the economic and political interests of the working people to the interests of the dominant ruling class. Marxism holds that the agency in transforming society from capitalism to socialism is that class which is itself a product of capitalism, the working class i.e., wage workers who earn their livelihood through the sale of their labour power and have no other means of existence. Marxism offers a “guide to action” for the working class to follow in the struggle to achieve political power and to build socialism. Marxism maintains that the interests of the working class (the proletariat) and the interests of the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) are irreconcilable and that therefore, the interests of the working class cannot be served through collaboration or alliance with the capitalists but in opposition to them. From these conflicting interests of the two basic classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, capitalists and workers, arises an antagonism, a struggle, between the two classes: the class struggle. Marxism recognises that the class struggle is the motive force of history, as the means by which society moves forward and achieves higher forms of civilisation. To give direction and guidance to this struggle, which is essentially a political struggle, the working class must of necessity develop its own Marxist political party, apart from and independent of all other political parties. Socialism will be won and built by the proletariat.

The establishment of a socialist, planned economy, based on the needs of the people, will mean the end to the chaos of capitalist production with its lack of planning, repeated crises, unemployment, inflation and criminal waste of resources and material. The vast creative potential of the millions of working people will be unleashed with their direct participation in the control and direction of production and distribution. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle of labour will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally and private property will be eliminated. With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and intellectual labour will disappear. As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will gradually have withered away. The aim of the Socialist Party is the liberation of mankind through the establishment of a class-free, state-free society, embracing the whole globe. Socialism is not an “improved”, “more just” version of the system of wage labour, but a wholly new mode of production What has to be broken through are the social relations intrinsic to capital, for it is the immanent laws of capital as a social relation that makes capitalism a self-sustaining mode of production.

The road is long and tortuous, but the future is bright for the people of the world.

The Purpose of the Socialist Party

Everywhere people are waking up and fighting against the oppression and exploitation which is a daily fact of their lives. The lies of the ruling class about “prosperity” in this country are being further exposed every day. There is prosperity alright – but it is for a handful of rich capitalists – the conditions of the working people are getting worse and worse yet profits continue to rise. The situation in health care, housing and welfare services is rapidly deteriorating. The source of all these conditions and injustices in the predatory system of capitalism. This system of capitalism is set up with one thing in mind – to make the most profits possible for the handful of people who own Big Business, the global banks and corporations. It is the economic system under which we, our parents and grandparents before us, have done all the work. We mine the mines, build the buildings, manufacture all the products: and then get just enough to live on. On the other hand, the small capitalist class accrues great fortunes off of our labour. The Socialist Party stands for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment by the working class of a socialist system. Once it is no longer possible to make a profit from the sweat and toil of working people the general misery and problems caused by capitalism can be quickly resolved.

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace world capitalist economy by a world socialism. Socialist society will abolish the class division of society, the abolition of anarchy in production, and abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression of man by man. Society will no longer consist of antagonistic classes in conflict with each other, but will be a unified cooperative commonwealth of labour. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its energy to the development and progress of humanity. After abolishing private ownership of the means of production and converting these means into social property, the world socialism will replace the world capitalist market, competitive and blind processes of social production, by consciously organised and planned production for the purpose of satisfying social needs. With the abolition of competition and anarchy in production, devastating crises and still more devastating wars will disappear. Instead of colossal waste of productive forces and spasmodic development of society there will be a planned utilisation of all material resources and a pain-free economic expansion to eliminate deprivation and poverty. The abolition of private property and the disappearance of classes will end exploitation. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy. Want and inequality, the misery of being a wage-slave, and a wretched standard of life generally will disappear; the hierarchy created in the division of labour system will be abolished together with the antagonism between mental and manual labour; and the last vestige of the social inequality of the sexes will be removed. At the same time, the organs of class domination, and the State in the first place, will disappear also. The State, being the embodiment of class domination, will die out in so far as classes die out, and with it all measures of coercion will expire. This new culture of a humanity that is united for the first time in history, and has abolished all national boundaries. Unlike the alienation of capitalist culture, socialism will be based upon clear and transparent human relationships. Hence, it will bury forever all mysticism, religion, prejudice and superstition. As socialist we are distinguished from other working men and women only by this: At all times we point out the aim of the class struggle – socialist revolution - and we strive achieve this aim.

There is only one revolutionary class in the world capable of a successful socialist revolution. That class is the working class. In order to accomplish a socialist revolution, our class must have a political party so to capture the political power to carry through the revolution. The socialist party must be of class-conscious men and women of the working class who seek socialism and socialism alone.  The capitalist class is highly organised – they have the government, the courts and the army to protect their interests. The experience of the working class movement here and elsewhere confirms that it is impossible to make and consolidate a successful revolution without control of the State machine. The Socialist Party is a political party, which means that its concern is the struggle of the working class as a whole for State power. Whereas the primary concern of the trade unions is the economic struggle for better conditions; whereas the primary concern of the many reform organisation is the fight for amelioration and palliatives, the Socialist Party concerns itself with unifying them and giving them direction towards the overthrow of the capitalist system.

The Socialist Party participates in the election campaigns as a separate and distinct political party. It solicits votes to have its representatives in the legislative bodies. But its election campaigns and its purpose to be within parliament are fundamentally different from other parties. The Socialist Party not here to help the capitalists govern over the masses. We do not spread the false notion that there can be cooperation between the exploited and their exploiters. On the contrary, we go to the legislatures to prove to the workers that such cooperation must not be because it is good only for the bosses. In other words, we go to the legislatures — and we conduct our election campaigns — in the spirit of the class struggle. We use the platform of the legislatures, from which our voice can be heard better than the voice of private citizens, to advocate and promote socialism. For sure, we would help defend fellow-workers and press their masters to offer the maximum of concessions. At the same time, we’d endeavour to force the law-makers to pass legislation that would bring relief to the workers, not by pretty speeches, not by pleading with the law-makers who are servants of the ruling class, but by urging great movements of the masses which would make those gentlemen sit up and take notice. In other words, the Socialist Party does not beg for votes in order to reform the State and thereby to make it more effective for the capitalists. The Socialist Party practice revolutionary parliamentarism, by which is meant strengthening the working class and weakening its enemies. We go to the law-making institutions, not to tinker them up for the benefit of the capitalists, but put a monkey wrench in their State machinery, preventing them from working smoothly on behalf of the masters. We expose the agents of the capitalists before the people, to show what these so-called representatives of the people and what all these so-called democratic institutions actually are. We will use Parliament to abolish Parliament.

There are several parties around that call themselves “communist” or “socialist”. These parties all have one thing in common – they all dress themselves up with high-sounding revolutionary language, but underneath they are defenders of capitalism. The Socialist Party make it their purpose to communicate with our fellow-workers explaining to them the meaning of the class struggle so that they can recognises the truth of that explanation from their own experience. Understanding the nature of the class struggle, is the first step to actual participation in the socialist movement. Our critics say the workers are difficult to mobilise and that there is no hope of workers putting up a stiff resistance. We say, but let the worker recognise his or her class interests, and they will fight their lives, for freedom, for the liberation of all oppressed.

The SPGB Case

The Socialist Party case can be put without belligerence, arrogance, condescension or abuse. We are not Marx idolators—we have never been adulators. We have never postulated Marxian Papal infallibility—or produced a special "interpretation” of Marxism. It is perhaps for this reason that we have not forgotten Marx’s contributions to working-class thought. The Socialist Party is most certainly a "materialist" party in the sense that we argue that to understand society fully we must look first at the ways in which people are organised to meet their material needs, how the goods and services that are necessary for life are produced. In capitalist society that production takes place only for profit and people are divided into two classes — the capitalist class which owns the means of producing and distributing goods and services, and the working class which owns nothing except their ability to work. These two classes have opposing interests which cannot be reconciled within the capitalist system. The effects of this class division — and the conflict which it entails — are both material, in the sense that workers never receive the full benefit of their labour, and non-material in the sense that capitalism also engenders insecurity, conflict and division. We recognise that people have what some refer to as "inner needs" — to live in harmony and cooperation with each other — but would argue that the material conditions created by capitalism frustrate the meeting of those needs. Socialism, by contrast, will ensure not only that people's needs for a decent standard of material life are met but will also create a society in which people can live in peace with each other. 

Socialism implies, in the economic field, ownership of the means of production by society as a whole. Under capitalism, the capitalists own the means of production. Workers are forced to sell their labour power and the capitalist exploits and oppresses them. The self-seeking, individualist outlook bred by capitalism will have been replaced by a social outlook, a sense of responsibility to society. Even within capitalist society there is what is known as “solidarity” among the workers – the sense of a common interest. This is not an idea which someone has thought of and put into the heads of workers. It is an idea which arises out of the material conditions of working-class life, the fact that they get their living in the same way, working alongside each other. The archetypical grasping individualist with no sense of collective responsibility is the capitalist, all struggling against competitors to survive. Of course, the ideas of the dominant class – the rivalry instead of solidarity – tends to spread among the workers. But the fundamental basis for the outlook of any class (as distinct from individuals) is the material conditions of life, the way it gets its living. Hence it follows that the outlook of people can be changed by changing their material conditions, the way in which they get their living. In a world socialist system the advances that mankind could make defies the imagination. With all economic life run by a world plan and co-ordinating the plans, with scientific discoveries and technical inventions shared globally, humanity would indeed take giant step forward. Towards what? We have no doubt of the transformation of modern civilisation into socialism, yet we cannot foretell definitely what form the social life of the future will take, any more than a man living at the beginning of capitalism a few hundred years ago could foresee the development of that period in the capitalism of to-day. The Socialist Party never attempts to foretell, because the conditions are too unknown for any forecast. It is necessarily hidden from us.  But it is possible to say for sure that with the establishment of socialism throughout the world, class divisions and class struggles will come to an end. There will be no new division into classes, chiefly because in a socialist society there is nothing to give cause for it to rise.

We are told we must live austerely, work harder and forego claims for higher wages and shorter hours. Capitalists are out for the same thing, making as much profit as possible out of the exploitation of the workers, and they can always find some plausible propaganda to help on their aim. Workers should know, by bitter experience, that their wages at all times are based on the cost of living, i.e., the lowest amount necessary to produce, maintain and reproduce the power to labour and that, subject to some fluctuation of supply and demand, they get no more than that. The cause of workers' problems is capitalism itself and not until workers understand this and organise together to abolish capitalism and establish socialism, can these problems be solved.

 Socialism must be a worldwide social system because a state-free, money-free, class-free set-up could not exist, as a separate enclave, amid a capitalist world of nations, wars, class division, commodity production and so on. It follows that socialism must be established at pretty well the same time throughout the world but this does not imply that workers develop socialist consciousness at exactly the same rate everywhere. Inevitably, there is some unevenness but in terms of social movement this is so slight as to be insignificant.

Ideas mirror material conditions. At present workers all over the world support capitalism and this support takes just about the same form wherever we look. The same false ideas help to keep capitalism in being all around the world. The development of socialist ideas faces many problems and political dictatorship is one of them. An absence of democracy reflects a low state of development of workers' consciousness; its presence is one of the fruits of a flourishing consciousness. That is the direction in which society is moving, as workers' ideas react to capitalism's contradictions. In the struggle for reforms it is the effects that are tackled and not their causes.

The Worker’s Weekend (1972)

From the April 1972 issue of the Socialist Standard

From Monday to Friday the weekend is the time most of us look forward to. This is the time for living it up or taking it easy, and so well is this recognised that numerous books and songs have been written and films made which deal with this theme. Indeed “the weekend” has become one of the most important social institutions in modern society. Life without Saturday night and Sunday morning would be unthinkable for most people and yet the weekend is only one more institution which, like any other, is evolutionary in character and must eventually disappear.

Just as the legal and political institutions of a society must correspond to the needs of that society (more accurately, of its dominant class) then so must the institution of leisure. The weekend can only have any real meaning in capitalism: it didn’t exist in feudalism and certainly won’t exist in Socialism.

In feudalism production was largely agricultural so time off work was partly governed by the seasons of the year. Even so, the Church made sure that many holidays (holy days) occurred in winter when work in the fields was often impossible anyway. And the idea of today’s summer break would have been ridiculous in medieval times as summer is when work is most needed in agriculture. Modern industrial society requires its work to be carried on throughout the year as the market knows no seasons and it has the artificial means (factories, mills, etc.) to do this. Indeed, lost working time in capitalism is usually caused by purely social factors — slumps leading to redundancy are an obvious example.

The Church, as the most powerful social and political institution in feudalism, decreed when and how many holy days should be observed. In medieval England and, right into the 17th century, the Catholic countries of Europe there were over a hundred holy days a year on which no work could be done and Church courts inflicted fasts and penances on those who broke this law. Further opportunities for leisure were provided by the many Fairs at which the known world displayed its wares. Eileen Power describes in Medieval People how Bodo, a Frankish peasant in the time of Charlemagne, and his family looked forward to these Fairs although their real purpose was to provide essential trading outlets in an age of poor communications. Obviously they have little relevance to modern society and have been replaced by the airborne travelling salesman, the tele­phone, and the manufacturer’s prospectus.

Medieval holidays took place irrespective of the day of the week they fell on. The Church was powerful enough to see to that. And they didn’t follow the mechanical two consecutive days-out-of-every-seven pattern like today. Rather they occurred in conjunction with important social, religious, and trading events like feast days and Fairs. In capitalism holidays have to coincide with the demands of industry — whereas May Day traditionally fell on May 1, today it has been relegated to the first Sunday in May. In other words, times for living it up in feudalism happened when there was an excuse for it. They were times for dancing and drinking, sport and lechery, with the clerics wailing that more sin was committed on holy days than on any other. We can confidently say that medieval leisure (or recreation) was geared to the productive forces and social relationships of feudal society.

Meanwhile, as the merchant class grew in strength and power it could see that the medieval system of holidays was incompatible with its need for an ideology fostering the regular working habits required by the new manufacturing system. The cry that England’s allegedly weak competitive trading position was due to the “misspending of our time in idleness and pleasure” occasioned by holidays and absenteeism is not the pro-­duct of the mid-20th century but of the early 17th.

With the triumph of capitalism over feudalism and the consequent further weakening of the Church’s power, the holy days were steadily eliminated until by the 1830s they had almost vanished. Holidays for much of the new-born working class meant, apart from Sundays, only Christmas Day. The same trend affected office workers too. The Bank of England closed for 47 holidays in 1761, 40 in 1825, 18 in 1830, and 4 in 1834. In Italy, where the Church is still powerful, the remaining Church holidays are coming under fresh attack and legislation is being prepared to rearrange these for the convenience of industry.

The long term effect of such harshness was that many workers used Sunday to drown their sorrows in and the resulting over-indulgence in alcohol produced widespread absenteeism. The shrewder of the employers saw the way to combat this and even rejuvenate the workers by providing more recognised holidays. The 60 hour week in the 1860-70’s produced the Saturday half holiday and by 1878 the term “weekend” was in use. Next came secular holidays unconnected with religious festivals and with dates specially picked to suit industry. In the 1890’s came summer holidays when whole industries closed down for a week with many workers spending the time away from home. The weekend which we now take for granted -Saturday and Sunday off-was not widespread until after world war two (this writer, employed in engineering, didn’t get it until 1948) and was due to the improved bargaining position of the workers caused by full employment.

Leisure as we know it today is the product of a modern industrialism which compels a division of labour within the factory and at the same time gathers all the work of the plant into a unified production process. Similarly, whole industries with their many plants and diverse component units become an integrated network. All these industries are linked together on a global scale so that all the workers directly or indirectly engaged come under this single dominating influence to which they must co-ordinate their use of time. This is why we have the weekend and why we all take our holidays together-to fit in with the requirements of those who as a class monopolise industry – the capitalist class.

Obviously, the way we spend our leisure has changed with the passing of centuries. In feudal times recreation was associated with participating in physical activity such as sport, dancing, etc. Today it means paying to watch others do this, going to the pub, or, more likely, watching TV. But there is an important similarity between the two ages in that both were societies in which men’s labour was controlled by a ruling class, so they usually hated their work. Up to the present day work and recreation have been strictly segregated and considered to be mutually exclusive.

But must this always be so? After all, there are some people, even in capitalism, who enjoy and even live for their work. This is especially so when they have some control over what they do and when the work is useful and stimulating. This will certainly be the case in Socialism, a society of production for use with everyone owning and controlling the means of production and distribution in common. People will be able to indulge in work that is engaged in from choice because of the enjoyment and satisfaction which it brings and is not subject to the compulsion imposed by the wages system. What people today call work may well be regarded as leisure or recreation in the future. So even our very concept of leisure changes along with changes in the economic basis of society. Certainly no regimentation of leisure such as today’s weekend represents will be tolerated in a free society like Socialism.

If the reader looks around him today he can see that this is not so far fetched as it may seem. Already there is an evolution away from the weekend idea. The increase of rotating shift-work has made many workers dissatisfied with fixed leisure time by giving them a taste of something different. Also, the growth of “Flexi-time” where workers may report for and depart from work within certain limits is an indication of their desiring and achieving more control over their own time. These developments should mean that workers hearing the socialist case aren’t required to mentally bridge such a wide gulf between the practices of capitalism and of Socialism. Our task as propagandists is made easier by developments within capitalism which erode fixed ideas about the world.

Vic Vanni

The Battle for Socialist Ideas

Why do babies starve

When there’s enough food to feed the world?

Why when there’s so many of us

Are there people still alone?

Tracy Chapman

Capitalism is based on the ownership and control of the earth's resources by a minority class. The owners permit the production of wealth only so far as it can be sold in the market for a profit. Wars are begun by governments in furtherance of the bosses' interests. Trade routes, strategic regions on the map, areas for market expansion and those rich in mineral deposits are the reasons behind war. No workers' interests are ever at stake in their masters’ struggles. In a society where nearly everything is for sale and virtually nothing is produced or provided without an eye to profit, it would be naive to expect sport to be in any way different. Capitalism, after all, is not about meeting the interests of the person in the street. The reforms of the past have eased some of the misery at the margins of poverty while allowing the system of exploitation to function intact.

Whether the profit system is run by parties like the Conservatives, which is avowedly capitalist, or the Labour Party which is allegedly "for the workers" makes little difference. It will operate the only way it can — by producing wealth for sale and profit and not for human need. It will be a society in which the wealth producers live in relative poverty while the socially parasitic wealth owners live in luxury. It will be a society of wage-slavery for the majority. It will be a society ridden with competitive anxiety and beset with the insecurities of employment and the persistent threat of war. These are symptoms of a social system. They are as irremovable from the profit system as are death and injury from warfare. Capitalists get rich by employing workers. A society of money, banks and title deeds is a society of prison cells and homeless people.  When a majority decide democratically to put an end to class rule we then can we establish real civilisation. Socialism will be what those who establish it want; today, we can do no more than put forward ideas.

With each day that passes class conflict becomes more acute. It is a battle of values and ideas, of what kind of society we want to live in. Rational, open debate is being crushed by intolerance fuelled by hatred. Economic failure, environmental vandalism and social injustice have caused widespread discontent and anger among people in many countries, made more severe by policies of austerity. Among the 38 members of the wealthy OECD nations it is said that 50% of the population feel disenchanted with the political-economic conditions. While large numbers of people recognise change is needed and are calling for greater levels of cooperation between people and nations, others, equally great in numbers, blame external forces such as immigration, and retreat into a narrow form of nationalism, inflamed by politicians’ poisonous rhetoric who simply don’t care what effect they have. A huge increase in hate crimes against immigrants and other groups is one of the consequences. Such intolerance and hate flows from fear and ignorance, both of which are constantly agitated by misinformation. The xenophobic views are constantly reinforced by what they choose to read and watch and who they listen to. Alternative positions remain unheard, balance denied and a plethora of conspiracy theories believed. Altering our ways of social being carelessly in the name of some ideological shibboleth is likely to produce far more trouble than good.

This level of suspicion, prejudice and distrust makes discussion almost impossible, increasing divisions. Walls are erected, some of concrete but others are mental barriers. The polarisation has come about as a result of the resistance to fundamental change and an inability to respond to the demands of the times which has created great uncertainty. The longer change is resisted, and the ways of the past are perpetuated, the more intense insecurities will become. Political parties and the corporations they serve are firmly attached to the existing system and mode of living where concentrated wealth and power remain in the hands of a tiny percentage while trapped working class people are stuck in economic uncertainty and poverty. This is energising the right-wing which are working to maintain the status-quo. It is a toxic movement. The primary aims of the capitalist elite are to monopolise the world’s dwindling resources by whatever means necessary, usually by force, and to control all peoples’ and nations’ way of life and their conditions of life. The rich say the poor and the vulnerable get what they deserve.

Red Square, 1919

One hundred years ago, on 31 January, 1919, Glasgow’s George Square witnessed tens of thousands of striking workers, many accompanied by their families, being baton-charged by police. Panicked officials read the Riot Act and the government later sent troops and tanks into the city. The Scottish historian Tom Devine says, “They thought a Bolshevik uprising was about to begin in Glasgow.”

Factory owners wanted to maintain the 47-hour working week, while workers wanted a 40-hour week so that everyone could get a job.

John Foster, an emeritus professor at the University of the West of Scotland. “The factory owners wanted them to do more work so there would be fewer jobs and they would have a permanent unemployed workforce at their beck and call.”

The workers went on strike on 27 January and asked the city’s lord provost to put their claim to the national government. On the 31st, they gathered in George Square, outside the city chambers, to hear his response. Without warning, police made "a savage, totally unexpected assault." The authorities decided to read the Riot Act, a formal process giving them rights to unleash martial law and as the sheriff began to read the act it was torn from his hands.

In London, the war cabinet met at 3pm. The Scottish secretary, Robert Munro, claimed a Scottish Bolshevik revolution had begun and it was decided to send in troops from barracks in Scotland and northern England – but not from Glasgow’s own Maryhill barracks because men there might have sided with their embattled neighbours. 

Fighting raged across Glasgow. In one skirmish, two policemen were stripped of their uniforms and let loose semi-naked. 

Then the troops arrived. Machine gun posts were placed in George Square. Soldiers were sent to protect power stations, and six tanks were stationed in the city’s Cattle Market. By Saturday, the city was under military control. “The city chambers is like an armed camp,” the Observer reported that Sunday. “The quadrangle is full of troops and equipment, including machine guns.” By Sunday, however, Glasgow had returned to calm.

Willie Gallacher suggested that “Had there been an experienced revolutionary leadership, instead of a march to Glasgow Green there would have been a march to the city’s Maryhill Barracks. There we could easily have persuaded the soldiers to come out, and Glasgow would have been in our hands.” But it was only wishful thinking on his part.

 “This was a widely supported trade union dispute but it was a reformist not a revolutionary gathering and it turned into anarchy only because of political nervousness in London and maladroit policing,” explained Foster.

The workers lost the strike for a shorter working week although better working hours were slowly introduced by employers. The revolution never materialized. It did not trigger the downfall of UK capitalism. In fact, the Battle of George Square was not so much an outburst of revolutionary fervour as the outcome of hostile policing and a loss of nerve by the cabinet.

According to Devine, “The experience of being harshly treated helps explain the election success of Red Clydesiders.” 

In 1922, the Independent Labour Party – won 10 out of 15 Glasgow constituencies. Shinwell, Kirkwood and others became MPs. 

And the events of January 31st acquired a mythical status in the city.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/06/100-years-on-the-day-they-read-the-riot-act-in-glasgow

Poor Scotland

More than 300,000 households in Scotland have been awarded emergency financial assistance to pay for household basics since 2013.  The fund pays out grants via local authorities with the aim of which helping individuals in crisis to buy everyday essential items like food or toiletries. The most common expenditure for a community care grant was for floor coverings, bedding, and kitchen appliances.
From 1 July to 30 September last year, 9,495 community care grants and 28,950 crisis grants were made by local authorities.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/hundreds-of-thousands-of-scots-receive-crisis-payments-to-pay-for-basics-1-4864328

The Socialist Party Promise

The working class live by the sale of their labour power. Many workers know that there is something wrong and want to change society. Some join reform groups in the hope that capitalism can be patched up, but such efforts are futile because you cannot run a system of class exploitation in the interests of the exploited majority. At present the capitalist class control society through their possession of political power, through their control of the machinery of government. They did not construct this machine for this purpose. It evolved along with the evolution of society as a whole. If the working class is to become the master of society — which it must do in order to change it — then it must recognise itself as a class, and organise itself politically as a socialist party, expressing workers' recognition that their emancipation can only be achieved by the expropriation of the capitalist class and the establishment of socialism.

A movement which aims at the establishment of a social democracy in which human values flourish cannot employ means which conflict with this end. It must to a certain extent reflect the new society it aims to create. A socialist party must organise on democratic lines. Its membership must have complete control over policy; all its officials must be responsible to the membership; there must be complete freedom of discussion within the party; there must be no division into leaders and led; there must be no secret meetings from which any section of the membership is excluded. Not only must a socialist party be democratic, it must also be open and transparent in its methods. Like other social phenomena, it will grow out of social conditions and will not appear ready-made.

At present, there are two hurdles standing in the way of achieving socialism: the political ignorance of the working class and the control of the machinery of government by the capitalist class. To overcome these obstacles socialist understanding must come first. Socialist understanding or in Marxist jargon, class consciousness, is not something that can be constructed out of nothing. It must grow out of social conditions. It will not arise simply as a result of the propaganda of the socialist party. Ideas only grip the masses when they are relevant to social conditions.  Political education is not just about reading and learning from books and pamphlets; that is just one aspect. The actual experiences of the working class under capitalism will teach it that socialism is the answer to its problems. The role of the socialist party is storing up and passing on the lessons of the past to serve as a guide to dealing with current events and issues. Once a higher degree of political knowledge has been acquired, political conditions will completely change and with changed conditions will come a change in the role of the party. It will become the political organisation of the working class which they can use to capture political power.

The Socialist Party is a political party, separate from all others, Left, Right or Centre. It stands for the sole aim of establishing a world social system based upon human need instead of private or state profit. The basic socialist principle advocated by the Socialist Party is that it people will give according to their abilities and take according to their self- defined needs. Work will be on the basis of voluntary co-operation: the coercion of wage and salary work will be abolished. There will be no buying or selling and money will not be necessary, in a society of common ownership and free access. For the first time, the people of the world will have common possession of the planet earth. the Socialist Party has no leaders. It is a democratic organisation controlled by its members. It understands that socialism can only be established by a conscious majority of workers — that workers must liberate themselves and will not be liberated by leaders or parties. Socialism will not be brought about by a dedicated minority as some left-wingers would have it. Nor do the activities of paid, professional politicians have anything to do with socialism — the experience of several Labour Party governments has shown this. Once a majority of the working class understand and want socialism, they will take the necessary step to organise consciously for the democratic conquest of political power. There will be no socialism without a socialist majority.

There are countless dedicated campaigns and good causes which many sincere people are caught up in, but there is only one solution to the problems of capitalism and that is to get rid of it. Winning workers to the socialist case requires knowledge, principles and an enthusiasm for change. These qualities can be developed by anyone — and are essential for everyone who is serious about changing society. Capitalism is a system of waste, deprivation and insecurity. You owe it to yourself to find out about the one movement which stands for an alternative society.

Regarding the February Revolution

The outstanding feature of the past month in the domain of public affairs is undoubtedly the ‘Russian Revolution’. That this is an event of some importance in the development of human society cannot be denied, but its importance is far less than, and lies mainly in an altogether different direction from that which the capitalist Press of the whole capitalist world would have us believe.

Far from it heralding the dawn of freedom in Russia, it is simply the completion of the emancipation of the capitalist class in Russia which started in the ‘emancipation’ of the serfs some seventy years ago — in order that they might become factory slaves. The revolution's greatest importance from the working-class view-point is that it brings the workers face to face with their final exploiters.

[From the Socialist Standard April 1917]

Austerity cuts into Glasgow's Budget

Austerity has effected Glasgow more than any other Scottish city.

The cuts to Glasgow City Council budgets show that spending has fallen by £638 per person since 2009, which equates to a drop of 23%.

According to Glasgow campaigners, cuts to public spending are the reason behind dirty streets left uncleaned, roads in desperate need of repair, and slashes to front line services which have left the city worse off.

Gary Smith, Scotland Secretary of the GMB union agrees. He said: “You can see austerity shame everywhere you look in Glasgow; filthy streets, pot holed roads and iconic buildings in disrepair. It’s not going to get any better anytime soon. This year, the city council is set to cut even more from our front line services.”