Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution

“Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will Socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation be also found, unfurling its class-struggle banner and proclaiming its mission of emancipation.” Eugene Debs

The fear and loathing of socialism by the powerful elite, stems from its attention to the unanswered questions in the minds of humanity. Socialism, engages with the central problems of philosophy, political economy and sociology. The philosophy of socialism is materialism. Against religious superstition, materialism is a means of conceiving the world in change. Marx and Engels repeatedly exposed the way people fell victims of deceit and self-deceit in politics. They argued that the supporters of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order, no matter how barbarous and rotten it may be. The task of the Socialist Party is not to concoct utopian schemes but to enlighten and organise for the overthrow of capitalism. The major problems of the day are practical problems. We must stop relying on a faith in “the inevitability of socialism”, that things will turn out all right in the end, so long as we repeat the right slogans.

The capitalist class, in their never-ending grasp for higher profits, are willing to make the world a misery for a majority of working people. Capitalists are the most class-conscious people in the world. Despite their family squabbles over how to divide the wealth that is produced by labour and appropriated by capital, the capitalists all stand shoulder to shoulder when they sense any danger to their system of robbery. All capitalists standing united, regardless of politics, race or creed in the defense of their “sacred” system of “private enterprise,” as they hypocritically call it – or; the system of capitalist exploitation, as honest people call it.  They are right in defending the system of free enterprise. It is THEIR system; they thrive on it. It is THEIR government which protects a system, which breeds insecurity and want on one side, and incredible wealth and indulgence on the other. They only hope that they can succeed in hoodwinking enough people to trust capitalism to provide work for everybody. They hope that the working class will be meek and submissive. They hope that they can convince enough workers to hunger in silence while waiting for the “private enterprise” paradise that has been promised

In contrast, the working class, if it were united, could turn the world into a storehouse of plenty for all. Will the workers learn in sufficient time also to stand shoulder to shoulder? The problem is that people accept capitalism and its logic and therefore see no alternative. The truth is that the attacks on the welfare state point to the need for revolution. Even at a time when the system could afford concessions, “welfare” never meant raising people out of poverty and providing a better life for them and their families. It is one thing to defend all the crumbs, like welfare benefits, that have been won. It is quite another thing to pose more or better welfare as a real solution. The answer to poverty is not welfare but a new society which will have real solutions for all, a new society based on human needs, not profits. Faith that capitalism can be reformed is prevalent but reformism today means acceptance of austerity. There can be plenty for all –but only by socialising the means of production and placing production under common ownership.

We live in a modern society. We have vast industries all over the world. We have undreamed-of natural resources. We have millions of trained and skilled workers. We can produce in one day. what it once took years to produce. Yet we do not have security and prosperity. It is the social system that stands in the way, the system of capitalism or, as it is sometimes called to make it sound better, the system of “free enterprise.” Under that system, a handful of capitalists control all the wealth and power. This handful owns industry, banking, mining, transportation. It owns our jobs. Whoever owns all these things, controls our lives, the lives of you and me and tens of millions of others.

We are not reformers — we are revolutionists. By revolution the Socialist Party does not mean violence or bloodshed. It is safe to say that every member of the Socialist Party would regard it a calamity to the cause, as well as to humanity, to have a violent upheaval in society. Socialism offers a possible, a peaceful solution. So, then, by “revolutionary socialism” we do not mean an appeal to insurrection. We mean the capture of the political powers of the nation by the working class as opposed to the capitalist class.

Imagine for yourself socialism

The Socialist Party is to popularise socialist ideas. Those who want to change the world can’t shape their ideas according to the conventional wisdom about what the public will accept. The Socialist Party challenges the status quo.  For too long, politicians have used the alleged backwardness of the voters to justify their own moderation and gradualism. Unlike other political parties, the Socialist Party does not claim to be able to control interest rates or rents or house prices or council tax. We make no promises on housing or on any other issue because we know that within the framework of private property society there is no solution to the problem. It would be dishonest and foolish of us to pretend otherwise. It is easy to make promises, as the other parties do, but to honour them is another matter. Governments, national and local, do not have the control over capitalist economics that they like to think they have. The wages-system must end. The division of mankind into class compartments must end. There is to-day no relation between the people's needs and what the people are capable of producing; markets and profits stand like mountains, in the way. Markets and profits must end. In other words, capitalism must end if humanity is to survive.

Housing certainly is neglected. But is this really a housing problem? Surely, as far as the production of decent houses for everybody is concerned there is no problem. The building materials exist together with the architects and construction workers. What stands in the way, then? Why, in a world of potential plenty, is a basic human need like shelter so neglected? The answer is simple: most people cannot afford decent housing. And. if people can't afford comfortable houses, then, in accordance with the laws of the market no such accommodation will he built for them. No builder is going to put up houses he can't sell. Instead perhaps the government may step in to provide cheap, utility housing. This problem of how to meet an unprofitable basic need in a society based on profit is one which the other parties have grappled with for decades. Yet still the problem remains. And so do the promises. Our standard of housing, like the whole of our standard of living, is rationed by the size of our wage packet. Our wage is a price and, as such, is fixed by the workings of the market. The price is fixed, roughly, by what it costs to keep us in efficient working order. So we’re in a vicious circle: our standard of housing depends on our income and our income depends on what it costs to keep us alive. This is why in housing, as in everything else, we get only the minimum comforts. This is how it will be, and must be, as long as the means of production are the property of a few for whom the rest of us must work for a wage. A sanely organised human community would give priority to meeting its needs of food, clothing and shelter. If production were carried on solely and directly to meet people's wants then there could be no problem in housing. But production for use is only possible when society controls production. Which demands that the means for producing wealth belong to the whole community. No better definition of socialism can be given in general terms than that it aims at the organisation of the material economic forces of society, and their conscious control by human forces.

Capitalism is a vicious, dirty society which makes human beings act in vicious, dirty ways. Trump claims to represent the opinions of the average worker in America and in the sense that he calls to mind much that is ugly, frightened, bigoted and confused he may be right. Workers feel that way, and take refuge in extreme political ideas, because capitalism is a society of fear, without security; it is a divisive system. The organised workers must take united action. It is not a sectional question. The whole of the workers is involved, and if they remain divided, they will be attacked and beaten, by the employers.

The profound difficulty with socialism is that it cannot be demonstrated. It is a complete system of human society to which a new principle is to be applied. Many enthusiasts with an insufficient knowledge of their subject have endeavoured to found little communities, run as they thought on socialist lines. All have failed, for socialism can only be applied to a highly organised community, and on a large inclusive scale. It is a complete change in the basis of society. It is therefore impossible to show examples of a complete and fundamental change. Socialism and capitalism are mutually exclusive, although, curiously enough, each deals with the same things. Trains would still run, factories still work, power stations still function, the soil still be tilled, under socialism as under capitalism. The great difference would be ownership, and therefore control. Instead of being operated by the whole people, for the private benefit of private owners, they would still be operated by the whole people, but for the public benefit of the communal people. Private owners only employ just so many as they can profitably make use of. Private owners only allow their plant to produce wealth when a profit is to be made. In short, private owners of the means of wealth-making only allow their machine to run for private ends. But with social ownership the outlook is entirely changed. There would be no idlers of any sort, rich or poor, for it would be to the interest of everyone that there should be abundance of everything. There would be no slack times and semi-starvation because too much wealth had been produced, as at present. If, under socialism, too much wealth was to be produced, it would be, first, the signal for a real holiday, and, second, for an enquiry into why the Statistical Department had not properly adjusted supply to public needs. There would be no shoddy clothing, jerry-built houses and adulterated food. The market for trash would go the way of all markets. It would follow poverty and ignorance into the limbo of forgotten capitalism.

But if the workers are waiting to be shown a working model of the proposed new system they are waiting for the impossible. A picture of society under socialism can only be constructed by the imagination aided by an analysis of our present condition and a knowledge of human history. Clever men and women have performed both of these latter tasks, and references to them and their works are frequently given in our columns. Imagination they cannot give you, but they can stimulate it.

If after reading our literature that you decide that socialism is desirable and practicable, do not sit back and wait for something to happen, but do the only logical thing—join our organisation and help get it. What have you to lose? Nothing but your chains. To win? The whole world! You have a world to win. A world to win.

Revolution is not only a possibility, it is a necessity

The socialist movement is almost suffocated by reformers. Every crying evil of capitalism has its devoted band of would-be reformers. What a vast and formidable force would they be if they united for the abolition of the wages system. The horrors of capitalism are world-wide and ever growing, they cannot be cured a bit at a time. All over the world, in all the great cities, are horrible and indescribable slums. People are mentally and physically starved, and repressed in a thousand different ways. All the means of production lie in the hands of private holders. The motive of industry all the time is profit-making, not the supplying of things for the people’s use. Yet it is possible to produce everything that we need in spacious surroundings and decent buildings, and for people to enjoy life to the full. Socialism means a system of society where men and women organise together to produce the things they need, and having produced them in co-operation enjoy them freely. This does not mean a stilted uniformity, but a satisfaction of individual requirements. Socialism means that all men and women will become individuals for the first time and will have individual expression of thought and feeling. The Socialist Party seeks a new world, a class-free world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. There is only one thing in the way of realising this wondrous state of things, and that is the realisation of its possibility by the rest of the workers. Help us to spread the knowledge and waken our fellow-workers so we can transform this hell of capitalism into a cooperative commonwealth for the benefit of all. Working people, wake up! The time has come to open your eyes and see things as they are. You have been hoodwinked and robbed and enslaved long enough. Line up with your class in the great struggle for freedom. Transform the whole world into one cooperative commonwealth, and bring about real human freedom and Brotherhood of Man.

The theory of the Socialist Party is based on Marxism: Marxian economics, the theory of the class struggle and the materialist conception of history. Marx supported certain wars. The Socialist Party does not.? Is the Socialist Party not Marxist or was Marx wrong? One of the dangers of dogmatism, of going by quotations, is that the historical context is lost. Mid-nineteenth century Europe was a different place from the modern world. Marx’s support for wars and nationalist insurrections must be seen against the background of Europe a hundred years ago. Socialism grew out of the European revolutionary democratic movement which the French Revolution had triggered off. Marx and Engels, in Germany in 1848. had played an active part in this movement and they shared many of its assumptions. Socialism is only possible on the basis of large-scale industry as developed by capitalism. However, at this time. Europe was in danger of being dominated by powerful feudal forces — the Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria. These powers had already been used to crush uprisings in Italy, Hungary, Poland and Germany. Marx felt that in these circumstances there was a very real danger that Europe might be overrun by these feudal powers, particularly Russia, thus putting off the social revolution for decades. This fear of Tsarist Russia explains Marx’s support of the Franco-British side in the Crimean War and also of Polish nationalism.  An independent Polish nation, was supposed to be a shield against Russia for a revolutionary Europe.

The task of the Socialist Party is to spread socialist understanding among the working class. This is not done by suggesting that “defensive” wars should be supported by workers, nor by confusing the interests of the working class and bourgeoisie. It was a mistake for the socialist pioneers to entangle themselves in the international power struggles between the capitalist class and feudal nobility. Apart from anything else, they provided an opportunity for the leaders of the social-democratic parties, when they supported the slaughter of the First World War, to claim that they were following a precedent set by Marx and Engels. This made the task of the Socialist Party all the more difficult when it sought to explain that there were no interests at stake which could justify the shedding of one drop of working-class blood. Marx’s position on war was thus mistaken. Looked at in the context of the historical conditions of the nineteenth century, it is understandable how he arrived at this point of view. But, although we can see the reasons for his error, this makes it no less an error. As it happened the feudal powers did not overrun Europe. They grew weaker and were destroyed completely as a result of the First World War. By the turn of the century capitalism had conquered the world and there was no danger of a feudal reaction. All wars were now purely capitalist, disputes between rival imperialist powers. The purpose of the Socialist Party is quite clear: to struggle uncompromisingly and consistently for the establishment of socialism throughout the world.

Times are a-stirring

The Socialist Party is the political expression of the interests of the workers in this country.  For the existing ills of the wage-workers there is but one remedy. It is embraced in a single word — socialism — the common ownership of all the means of production and distribution; and these can be secured by conquering the political power and seizing the reins of government through a united, class-conscious socialist ballot. To the working class we say, the Socialist Party is pledged to your complete emancipation. It promises no shortcuts and no quack remedies. It is a class-conscious, revolutionary party committed to the overthrow of capitalism and its wage-slavery and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth and economic equality, and every wage-worker should rally to its standard and hasten the day of its triumph and their own deliverance. The Industrial Revolution created the two inherently adversarial key components of modern capitalism engaged in a monumental battle — the capitalist class and the working class in formation. A united socialist movement may now make clear to all the people the lines of conflict between capitalism and socialism; between despotism and liberty. These lines of conflict may be made so definite that no party of compromise or tinkering can enter the political field. Nothing outside of socialism can defeat capitalism. Socialism points out the economic basis upon which democracy must stand in order to achieve liberty. It proclaims all liberty to rest back upon economic liberty, and all individuality to be rooted in economic unity. It affirms that there can be no liberty save through association and a cooperative commonwealth. It makes clear that democracy in the State is but a fiction, unless it be realised through democracy in production and distribution. Socialism declares that liberty to be a mockery if it means merely the survival of the strong and the cunning devouring the weak. If we are to stand together, we must act like brothers and sisters. Not until slave and master have both disappeared can we lay any proper claim to civilisation.

We do not denounce capitalists as individuals. Men and women are the product of conditions, circumstances, environments, and these are favourable or unfavourable, become useful or useless, noble or ignoble, good or bad. It is, therefore, not with the individual that we have an issue with, but with the system of society that produces him and protects him. The Socialist Party’s purpose is to discuss conditions and point out the means to our fellow-workers who maintain that there can be no relief while any part of the wage system remains, insisting that the present competitive system must be completely overthrown and not a vestige of it left before permanent relief to the suffering masses can be provided. Socialism is the science of human association.

The economic basis of present-day society is the private ownership and control of socially necessary means of production, and the exploitation of the workers, who operate these means of production for the profit of those who own them. The capitalist system of production, under which we live, is the production of commodities for profit instead of for use for the private gain of those who own and control the tools and means of production and distribution. Out of this system of production and sale for profit spring all the evils, and problems of misery, want, and poverty that menace and confronts civilisation. The Socialist Party teaches that the only way to attain the just distribution of wealth to those who produce it is through the common ownership, democratic control and operation of the means of production and distribution, such as lands, mines, factories, transport, communications, etc., etc. It asserts that this production should be for use and not for sale or profit, thus doing away with all private ownership of the means of subsistence in every sphere of society, and with which a vast amount of unproductive labour and an immense number of useless and harmful occupations wastes resources. Socialism would conserve and not abolish the private ownership of wealth as distinguished from capital. Thus, homes and all personal belongings not used to produce more wealth would be individually and not collectively owned.

It is the interest of the capitalist class to maintain the present system and to obtain for themselves the largest possible share of the product of labour. It is the interest of the working class to improve their conditions of life and get the largest possible share of their own product so long as the present system prevails. Each class strives to advance its own interests as against the other. It is what we describe as the class struggle. The capitalists, by controlling the political parties and in control of the State secures and entrenches its position. Without such control of the State its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government machinery from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the building of the cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party seeks to organise the working class for independent action on the political field, not just for the betterment of their conditions, but above all to end the class rule of out exploiters. Such political action is absolutely necessary to the emancipation of the working class. To accomplish this aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the common ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production — to eliminate profit, rent, and interest, and make it impossible for any to share the product without sharing the burden of labour — to change our class society into a society of equals, in which the interest of one will be the interest of all. Subordinate to this fundamental aim, it supports every measure which betters the conditions of the working class, and which increases the fighting power of that class within the present system.

THE TIME HAS COME

The Socialist Party is primarily concerned with analysing the capitalist system, pointing out its defects and advocating the replacing of the capitalist system by the common ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. Its success and progress will depend very largely upon the method of education and the political tactics of the Socialist Party but those in itself cannot bring about the cooperative commonwealth. Just as propaganda fails to necessarily advance socialism nor does great economic distress. These crises may point out the fact that something is wrong, but the suggestion of the remedy and the cure for these ills is quite a different problem. The socialist movement is international because it is born of and follows the development of the capitalist system, which in its operation is confined to no country, but by the momentum of modern methods of production, exchange, communication, and transportation which has crossed all frontier lines and made the entire world the focus of its activities. By this process all parts of the planet has been drawn into relations of industrial and commercial cooperation. The global brotherhood of all workers is the goal of modern socialism and it is this that inspires its advocates with zeal and ardour. 

So, what is socialism? Simply, it means the common ownership by all the people of all the means of wealth production and distribution. Socialism does not propose the shared ownership of personal possession, but of the instruments of wealth production, which, in the form of private property, enable a few capitalists to exploit vast numbers of workers, thus creating class rule and all its odious manifestations. Socialism proposes economic freedom for every human being. As nobody would possess private property in which another person would be dependent for employment, economic mastery and slavery would disappear together and competition for profit would give way to cooperation for use.

The changing economic conditions is the evolution of the social organisation and are paving the way for the transition from competitive capitalism to cooperative socialism. Socialists are simply indicating the trend of the evolution, and seeking to prepare the way for its orderly arrival. The rapid centralisation of capital and the extensive existence of corporations makes individual initiative and small businesses less and less possible. The day of small production has passed, notwithstanding, the protests of the petty trade-person. These great modern conglomerates increase in power and are the inevitable outgrowth of the competitive system. The efforts of small capitalists to destroy monopolies will prove as fruitless as the efforts of working people to resist technological change. Actually, many of these global corporations in themselves are not evil. The evil lies wholly in the private ownership, and its operation for private profit. The remedy is common ownership and for them to be run and operated for the good of all. Despite all such alleged issues as banking reform, imperialism, protectionism and free trade, etc., the Socialist Party declares that economic emancipation is the supreme question that confronts the people. 

The working class are dependent upon the capitalist class, who own the factories, the transport and the communications by virtue of their economic mastery and political power, are the ruling class and it is idle under such conditions to claim that men and women are equal citizens. No person is free in any sense if required to rely upon the arbitrary will of another for work. Such a person lives by permission of the capitalist class. Chattel slavery has disappeared as it is no longer necessary to own the worker in order to take the fruit of his or her labour. It is now only necessary to own the vast machinery which workers cannot afford to buy, and against which he cannot compete, with which we work, and without which we are helpless. We are at the mercy of the owner of the machines, our employment is precarious, and our very lives hang by a thread. The few who own the places of work rarely work in them. The many who toil in the work-places never own them. The few who own them are enabled to exploit the many who use them. The Socialist Party presses forward until it can conquer the political machinery of the State. This will mark the end of the capitalist system. The factories and all other means of production and distribution will be transferred to the people in their collective capacity, industry will be operated cooperatively, and every human being will enjoy the fruit of society’s labour. The hours of work will be reduced. Rent, interest, and profit will be no more. The sordid spirit of commercial conquest will be dead. War and its ravages will pass into history. Economic liberation will have triumphed and the emancipated sons and daughters of Mankind will glory in the triumph of socialism.

It’s up to You

Discontent and unrest are having a wide sway and even to the most superficial observer it is evident that there is something wrong in our social and economic life, and ignore it as we may, the question is daily attracting the public’s attention.  Of the two great `isms’ - socialism and nationalism—the latter has proved the stronger. Socialist internationalism has suffered from the beliefs of patriotism and national chauvinism. War is not merely inevitable under capitalism, but another is actually impending as this blog written. The wonderful inventions and marvellous discoveries which has received joyous acclaim has failed to lift the burden of toil or brought relief to working men and women, but the new technology, under the control of the private capitalist, has driven many from employment and forced down wages of many more. It is true that working people still have political rights, but these are largely infringed, if not extinguished, by economic dependence. Employees of the corporations know that their contracts and security depend upon them voting as their employers want them to vote, and they become the unresisting serfs of the capitalist class. The object the Socialist Party is economic emancipation, that is to say, the abolition of the capitalist system of production and distribution and the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth.

There are the exponents of one system — the capitalists — who claim they hold the right to live off the toil of others, while there are the others — the socialists — that believe the earth and and its resources belong to all the people. The competitive capitalist system produces millionaires and millions of mendicants, and it was those who work the hardest who are rewarded with the least. Capitalism makes it necessary for the successful man to compete with his competitor in what is not “the survival of the fittest,” but “the survival of the most unscrupulous.” Capitalism is a cut-throat system where there can be no ethics. Capitalism’s history is written in the tears and blood of the human race.

As a remedy for this pernicious system the Socialist Party is organised with its object to achieve the cooperative commonwealth, where men and women would stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder for the uplifting of our common humanity. Working people should be ashamed to follow leaders. They may betray them. Ignorance is slavery. Knowledge is freedom. The working class shall unite all its energies to destroy the present capitalistic system and establish the cooperative commonwealth. The world has been brought to the verge of ruin, and humanity has been degraded beyond the power of language to describe. To one whose sensibilities are not wholly dead a mere contemplation of the horror of our social life is sickening and shocking. The time has come for social revolution and regeneration. This is only possible through a new and global-wide change of system. We will establish the cooperative commonwealth in harmony with the planet. Socialist ideas will leap over borders and permeate others, and thus the tide will sweep in all directions until the old barbaric system of capitalism has been destroyed. The Socialist Party stands for a cooperative commonwealth system as the substitute for the wage system. Then production will be carried forward for the use and comfort of mankind, and not for the gratification of private greed. Then we shall have industry organized, and work, being scientifically done, will be relieved of all drudgery and the hours of labour reduced in proportion to the progress of invention.  Then poverty, the prolific parent of crime, will disappear. And it is then that we shall progress to a higher stage of social evolution. A civilisation fit for people.

However, as realists, socialists realise that world socialism seems distant and only the optimist that sees the imminent arrival of socialism and the cooperative commonwealth. But to judge it unsuccessful is to reproduce the common and tempting error of thinking that history moves according to the rhythm and tempo of individual human lives. It does not. The Socialist Party’s significant contribution to the attempt to replace capitalism with a better form of social organization, has been its commitment to original socialist principles. It has boldly defied the enemies of freedom, the oppressors of the people, the exploiters of the working class, and the foes of all humanity. Let us in one mighty effort hasten the end of capitalism and herald the inauguration of the cooperative commonwealth.

Cutting Education in Toronto

When Governments Are in Debt.  Education For Workers Is Diminished. Nothing New There.

Ford’s Ontario government lost no time in slashing reform measures. It has cut $25 million in funding for programs that provide after-school jobs for needy teens, class room tutors for kids as well as projects focusing on indigenous issues.

 Maria Rizzo, chairman of the Toronto Catholic School Board, said,”I’m sick to my stomach because I’m afraid of the steps we’ve taken on poverty, on indigenous education and even in the Focus on Youth Program – we’ve hired our kids in the most vulnerable school communities, in the neediest neighbourhoods, just to give them a leg up. Now I have serious concerns. 

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said,”such funds must be better managed so they the greatest impact on the students”. The fact that the province is $14.5 billion in debt has, of course, nothing to do with it. NDP education critic, Marit Stiles, said,”These cuts are going to be deeply felt by our kids in the classroom. 

For Doug Ford to take the axe to schools is inexcusable. It would be better for all concerned, if we had a society that didn’t need reforms.

Socialist Party of Canada's  news report.

Dreamers and Realities of Capitalism

A recent issue of the Canadian Jewish News ran an article which focused on the plight of the Yazidi’s, the aboriginal people of Iraq, which are now being raped, murdered and enslaved by ISIS. Their history goes back 7,000 years, but their numbers have dwindled from a high of 23 million down to one million. They are now experiencing their 74th genocide. 

Yet there are still people who want capitalism to continue, but without atrocities – and they think socialists are dreamers.

Recently there has been a rash of convenience store robberies in Hamilton, Ontario. Young men have been driving trucks into them and stealing the ATM machines. So far there have been no injuries and no arrests. 

That such actions are crazy, callous and criminal, is symptomatic of capitalism these days.

Socialist Party of Canada's monthly newsletter.

Which Path – Revolution or Reformism?

Socialism as represented by the Socialist Party is to serve the needs of society as a whole. The Socialist Party,       has as its purpose, the building of an organised movement to teach a common interest.  What is the meaning of capitalism? Capitalism is an economic term. It is applied by political economists and sociologists to the economic system of our civilisation, by means of which some people achieve economic independence and acquire the privilege of living idly and in luxury upon the labour of others, who produce a surplus value above that which they receive for their own sustenance. Capitalism refers to the system. A capitalist is one who profits by the system. If he works himself, it does not alter the fact that he has an income apart from his work sufficient to sustain him for life without labour and therefore his is economically independent. The working class would also like to achieve economic independence in the same manner as the capitalist class. Capitalism divides society into two antagonistic forces, because it is based upon two sets of conflicting economic interests. They each desire economic independence. The capitalist believes that he is justly entitled to the economic independence which he enjoys has, albeit it manifestly clear, he did not create his wealth; the socialist believes that the worker is being unjustly deprived of that which he or she created and which never possess. The Socialist Party, champions the working class, declares its intention to advocate the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a global system of industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members and the complete emancipation of the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism.  Socialism proposes the relief of the people from the exactions of the capitalist class. Private property ownership with its competition upholds the present unplanned nature of production. With socialism, private ownership and barter in capital being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be abolished. Our task is the abolition of wage slavery and establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. What is the Socialist Party organised for? What is our main bond of unity? What is our avowed object? The welfare of the working class and the abolition of capitalism. Those who hope for that socialist cooperative commonwealth and work for it, who are on the workers' side of the class war are our comrades. Our comrades are all who serve the interests of their fellow-workers, of all who strive for the social revolution. The Socialist Party mission is to sweep the capitalist system into oblivion.

Socialism has been misrepresented and maligned by press, pulpit, and politicians so long that even some so-called socialists who do not study the subject hold rather vague and misleading conceptions about it. The first requisite of a socialist is to have a clear and accurate knowledge of what socialism is. The definition of socialism, as historically accepted is the common ownership of all the means of production and distribution. Socialism, therefore, means virtually the same thing in all countries, and justly so. For in all countries, the action of capitalism and competition is nearly the same, and the position of the wage-workers is exactly the same, in that the latter depend upon the capitalist who owns the means to work and to live. In all countries, and under whatever form of government, the present system of social production by individual ownership has produced two classes: the propertyless class and the possessing class.  Private ownership of the means of production and distribution — an industrial despotism, or common ownership and an industrial democracy? It must be one or the other. What the people need they take. The trouble is that they have been too patient and too modest, but one of these days they are going to realise that this earth is theirs, and then they will take possession of it in the name of the human race. Socialism will wrest the earth from the greedy grasp of its exploiters and its vast and inexhaustible storehouse will yield abundance for all. The growth of socialism is the promise of freedom and fraternity.

Socialist Party calls upon all people who are interested in the emancipation of the working class from the chains of wage slavery to join it and through it and its associated organisations of the World Socialist Movement, to work for the overthrow of the present capitalist system in all its social and economic ramifications, and for the establishment in its stead of a worldwide socialist cooperative commonwealth.

Dying Scotland

The rise in life expectancy in Scotland is grinding to a halt, according to two new reports. Scots' life expectancy had fallen for first time in 35 years.

In the decades after World War Two, there was a steady increase in the length of time men and women were expected to live. But over the last seven years Scotland has seen the slowest growth in life expectancy since at least the 1970s. New research has also revealed that death rates have started rising in deprived areas of the country. 

Charity boss Jim McCormick, associate director (Scotland) of the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has criticised the systems that "sweep people into poverty". He said "A rising tide of in-work poverty and high housing costs, combined with the benefits freeze, are making it harder for people to achieve a decent life.

Dr Gerry McCartney, head of the public health observatory at NHS Health Scotland, said: "What we see here is a worrying trend. Life expectancy not only gives an indication of how long people are likely to live, but also serves as a 'warning light' for the public's health." Dr McCartney said this pattern gave "cause for concern". He also said that cuts to council budgets and pressures on key local services like social care could be behind the divide.

They found that between 1992 and 2011, it took 5.5 years to add a year to a woman's life expectancy and four years for a man. But current trends suggest it will take nearly 21 years for women to start living an extra year, and 11.5 years for men. 

At the current rate, it will be 2058 before girls born in Scotland can expect to live as long as females in England could in 2016. For males, it will be 2045.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-47161342

How Shall We Live?

The issue is socialism vs. capitalism. As Tolstoy said, our masters will do any and everything but get off the backs of their workers.  The Socialist Party is well aware that socialism is a term little understood by most people, and that it is everywhere a target for denunciation by the plutocratic media. What socialism means is an improved and egalitarian distribution of the products of labour and cooperation instead of competition. It is the common ownership of land and all the means of production and distribution. Socialism is the coming of the cooperative commonwealth to take the place of wage slavery. The present economic system – capitalism - is not only a failure, but criminal. It robs and it starves. It is a foul blot upon the face of humanity. It promises only an increase of its horrors. Human power and natural resources are wasted by this system, which makes “profit” the only object in business. Ignorance and misery, with all concomitant evils, are perpetuated by this system, which makes a person’s ability to work a product to be bought in the open market, and placing no real value on an individual’s worth. Science and technology are diverted from their beneficial purposes and made into instruments for the enslavement of men and the starvation of women and children.

There is no hope for our fellow-workers except by the path mapped out by the Socialist Party, the advocates of the cooperative commonwealth. The resources of the world must pass into the possession of working humanity. All other problems, the problems of nationality and of race will be solved once society is freed from exploitation and class divisions. Socialism will bring real democracy. We  call upon all our fellow-workers to muster under the banner of the Socialist Party, so that we use of our political power and taking possession of the State machine, so that we may put an end to capitalism, restore the soil of the land, and turn over all the means of production, transportation, and distribution to the people as a collective body to construct a cooperative commonwealth in place of unplanned production, class war, and social disorder This will be a commonwealth which, will give to every worker the free exercise and the full benefit of his or her faculties, multiplied by all the advantages of modern day. 

The Socialist Party’s platform is an indictment of the capitalist system; it is the call to class consciousness and political action of the exploited working class; and it is a ringing declaration in favor of collective ownership of all the means of production and distribution, as the clarion voice of economic freedom. The Socialist Party is organising for the purpose of securing control of the government. Having conquered the political power upon the platform that declares in favor of common ownership in the name of the people, it will develop cooperation in every department of human industry. The labour of workers will no longer be bought and sold in the markets of the world. We will not make things for sale, but will make things to use. We will fill the world with wealth and every one can have all that he or she can rationally use. Rent, interest, and profit, three forces of exploitation, will disappear forever. The badge of labour will no longer be the badge of servitude. Every man will gladly do his share of the world’s useful work. Every new invention will be a blessing to mankind because it will serve to reduce working hours and increase leisure time. Men and women will be economically free; life will no longer be a struggle to survive. Abolishing of the capitalist system does not merely mean the emancipation of the working class, but of all society. The world will be healthy and fruitful, fit for men and women to bring children and grandchildren into. Nothing is so easily produced as wealth, and no one should suffer for the want of it. No-one should be compelled to depend on the arbitrary will of another person for the right of free access of what society produces. Everyone will work for the society, and society will work in the interests of all who compose it. 

The Socialist Party looks to a future of a world without a master, a world without a slave

All for One, One for All

Much has been in the media about racism, anti-semitism and islamophobia as well as reports of anti-immigration and anti-LGBT. Not only has there been numerous campaigns to discourage such bigotry, but legislation has been passed to outlaw such thought-crimes as illegal. Many well-meaning people, appalled at such expression of views have been prepared to listen sympathetically for even more bans. This is an understandable reaction particularly if you happen to be a victim of prejudice. But a little dispassionate reflection will show it to be wrong.

Would it only led to racialists being more careful about the words and images they use, going underground and creating a backlash again proponents of PC attitudes. Ideas cannot be suppressed by legislation.

Full free speech means exactly what it says: any and every view should be allowed expression so that it can be examined and shown to be wrong.

The Socialist Party is wholeheartedly in favour of the fullest freedom of speech. This is because we hold that out of full and free discussion of today’s social problems only one valid conclusion can emerge: that socialism alone will provide the framework within which they can be solved.

The real problem is why do certain sections of the working class hold discriminatory views and how can they be persuaded to abandon them. It is fairly clear why a certain number of workers scapegoat other sections of the population. Suffering from bad housing, poor hospital services, poor schools, etc., and having seen the arrival of newcomers into their areas they mistakenly link the two together to conclude that it is the cause of their problems. Where arises insecurity there is also comfort in the herd mentality so being different makes a person suspect. So, workers with intolerant beliefs are workers who, in their search for an explanation of and solution to their troubles, have reached a mistaken conclusion. How can they be convinced that they are wrong? If they can’t be convinced by legislation they can be convinced even less by being insulted or ostracised. The only way is to try to convince them that their conclusions are wrong.

This is the approach the Socialist Party has always adopted expose dangerous nonsense before an audience of interested workers. People who deny the validity of our approach of of reasoned open argument are in effect denying that people are incapable of rational argument.

The ultimate basis of all arguments for is an assumption that people are too stupid or irresponsible or immature to make up their own minds and that others, more superior and mostly self-appointed, must therefore decide for them

Mere propaganda on its own, unlinked to propaganda for socialism, will not be effective. It offers no solution to the problems and frustrations which drive some workers to embrace extremist politics. It leaves untreated the capitalist cause of the disease while trying to deal with the symptom.

When you own everything, you fear everyone

We are living – let us frankly admit – in the aftermath of great defeats suffered by the labour movement internationally. The working class remains in many countries atomised, disrupted, disoriented. Everybody knows that this capitalist system we live under is crazy. We have the factories and raw material that can produce a world of plenty. We have the willing hands and brains to do the job. All we have to do is let the one work on the other, and distribute what is produced. Sure, the factories and machines and raw materials are here. Sure, the labor is there to turn them into usable goods. But labour doesn’t own the factories and machines. It has nothing to say about whether they’ll be used and for what. These factories and machines are owned by a small handful of capitalists, and these fat cats won’t let a wheel turn unless they can make a profit. That profit comes out of the wealth which labour produces. It comes out of their purchasing power.

Capitalist (A), seeking profit (B), owns a factory (C), and starts producing. Does he produce anything? He’s not a fool. He hires workers (D) to do the actual producing. They produce a billion pounds worth of goods (E) and get their wages (F). How much do they get – a billion dollars in wages, for producing a billion dollars in goods? Don’t be silly. The capitalist has to get his profit (G). So, they get only – say – a half billion in wages, the rest is profit. Pretty soon, the profit piles up in the coffers, and the unsold goods pile up on the shelves (H). Capitalists stop making more goods, lay off. Hey Presto – unemployment. The National Association of Manufacturers (K) says: What’s needed is more profit to spur production. The best way to raise profits is to cut wages. Wages are cut and more profits made. The capitalists and their government are saying that they must have their profits above all other things, and that in order to get them the wages of workers must be kept low.

Remember this:

The factories and machines and raw materials are there. We are the hands and brains of labor who do the producing. All we have to do is come together with the factories and machines, without any capitalist class holding us apart.

That means WE have to own and control the factories and machines we work on – WE, LABOUR, organized collectively.

Abolish the capitalist profit.  Take over our economic world, organise it democratically through a. Produce to the full. The sky’s the limit as science can provide, produce enough to give plenty for all. And distribute what we produce for the use of the masses of people.

Common ownership of our economic machinery – that’s socialism. The world has a capacity to produce beyond the wildest dreams of most people. This capacity is used primarily to produce the means of death and destruction. The factories are there and if need be more can be built. The raw materials and resources are available. The working force is here. Now what stands in the way of full production, full employment and the fullest enjoyment of the fruits of our labour? Only the insatiable lust for profit of the capitalist class. Only the unplanned anarchyof capitalist production. In the midst of unparalleled opportunities to achieve plenty for all, millions are unemployed, in poverty and suffer hunger.

LABOUR, RELY ON YOUR OWN STRENGTH IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE YOUR OWN AIMS. Wherever the people have had the opportunity or the freedom to act, they have shown their desire for a new world. They want a world free of war, free of inequality, free of want. They want a world free of the rule of the few over the many. To accomplish this task, it is only necessary to understand what our task is and to realize our invincible strength. Then no power on earth can withstand us.  The working class is losing confidence in capitalism and the spokesmen for “free enterprise.” That is a most encouraging sign.

The Socialist Party greets its comrades and brothers and sisters of the working class of this country and throughout the world. We are the party of revolutionary socialism. We have no interests separate from the interests of the whole working class. The working class is on the march. It is taking the first big steps out of capitalist decay, capitalist disorganisation, capitalist bankruptcy, capitalist barbarism. It is rising as the reorganiser of society. It cannot achieve this goal, accomplish this task, without the victory of socialism. They need the knowledge of their own strength to enable them to construct a better world – a world free from hunger, unemployment, war and environmental destruction. It is solely by the independent action of working people, those who produce the wealth of society, that capitalist power and privilege can be eliminated and a world of peace and plenty for all be built.

As a socialist party devoted to the abolition of the capitalist system of profit and exploitation of the people, the Socialist Party defends the interests of oppressed people the world over, showing how these interests were common to all who labour. The Socialist Party will continue its great aim: to seek the abolition of the rotten system of capitalist exploitation, of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few and poverty for the millions, of mansions for a handful of rich and hovels for the people, of fine foods and delicacies for a handful and hunger for the mass of people, of security for the rich and insecurity for those who work in, order to live. It will fight for a socialist society of plenty for all. The struggle between capital and labour must not result in a “socialist” label pasted over the same old capitalist system. We believe that the basic problem of our time resides in society. We believe that humanity can develop a healthy society of plenty and peace. As socialists we continue to affirm the possibility and necessity for men and women to work together to build a new and decent society, and that means primarily the class which has most to gain from and can alone construct socialism: the working class. Capitalism is at a loss to reconstruct the world, it cannot achieve the most simple reorganization of production and distribution. Capitalist society is sick, moribund, overripe for change.

Do you want economic plenty, the utilisation of the means of production for peaceful needs? Then you must fight for socialism. Do you want a future without nuclear weapons, without poison gas, without terrorist bombing? Then you must fight for socialism. here is no other road. Either chaos and destruction – or socialist reconstruction. The socialist perspective is more valid, more essential than ever because it alone meets the problems of our times; it alone proposes a programme that is realisable in the situation of declining capitalism and which is a comprehensive solution to all of our social problems, as well as a concretisation of the greatest ideals of which humanity is capable. We stand with arms interlocked with our comrades throughout the world; we march towards the socialist future. Yet we must ask our fellow-workers this question. How is possible that millions of working people still believe and support an economic system which does not benefit anyone of them?

Who so blind as he who will not see?

 “Give us Imagination enough to conceive; courage enough to will; power enough to compel; and then I say, the thing will be done.” - William Morris

Might we suggest you should spend a little time and thought on the issues that affect you, as a member of the working class. Our purpose is to gain your attention in order to state our case. Regardless of how enthusiastic you are in support of a particular political party’s position and policies, deep down you know that their success will not make any real change in your conditions of life. All the election promises were designed to persuade you that it meant something to you but, experience has taught you not to expect any real change. These ‘changes’ have been applied to capitalism elsewhere throughout the world and yet your problems remain those of the working class internationally. It is true that these problems assume different forms in the local conditions of their origin but all the problems of your class, including those that you may feel are peculiar to your own circumstances, are duplicated throughout the world of capitalism. Capitalism has provided us with ample evidence that it cannot be operated in the interests of society as a whole. All the schemes and plans of its political apologists have been tried and yet the old miseries prevail, sometimes eased a little by the politicians’ schemes and just as often aggravated by them!

Whether you are a factory worker or high-salaried “professional’ you are dependent on a wage or salary in order to obtain the necessities of life. The recent US federal shutdown demonstrated that clearly. On the other side of the social scale we have the capitalist class, the small minority of people who own not only the means and instruments for producing wealth but the very resources of nature which provide the ‘raw materials’, so to speak, of wealth production. The members of this class do not have to work, they can enjoy a life of wealth and privilege on the surplus value created by the working class. This class owns, and by virtue of that ownership, controls all the productive resources of society; whether that ownership is through the medium of private or public companies or corporations or through the medium of bond holding in state or municipal enterprises, the capitalist class are the effective owners and controllers of the means whereby the rest of society lives.

Under capitalism wealth is class owned and produced for sale so that if you want anything you must have the money to buy it. This presents no problem for those who own the means of wealth production since they get a free income as rent, interest and profit merely because they are the owners. It certainly severely restricts the choice of workers in jobs but at least they have their wages. But what about those with no property and no job—workers who are unemployed, sick, disabled or old? The government cannot really let them starve and kill the goose that lays their golden eggs and must make some provision for them if only to avoid bread riots  by providing those who would otherwise be destitute with an income however low.

It is no part of the Socialist Party’s case for socialism to suggest that the members of the capitalist class are simply greedy or evil people: their greed is a vice of capitalism and is not peculiar to any particular class. We do not condemn capitalists, we condemn capitalism as a social system while recognising that it is an inevitable stage in the history of our social evolution. Nor is our condemnation based simply on the facts of its miseries—its poverty amidst organised waste, its degradation of human life, its wars, crises and all its other social failings: our condemnation is based even more on the fact that it has long since outlived its usefulness as a means of developing society’s productive resources and now only blocks the way of a sane alternative that can provide the material basis of a full and happy life for all mankind.

At present all the values of the capitalist society in which we live are being challenged even though despite the failures of capitalism workers still doubt that socialism offers them anything better. They cannot imagine a world that is essentially different from the present one. Luke-warm visions do not raise consciousness. They cannot maintain the high level of commitment needed to keep the movement going. Reformist gradualism is a roadblock to liberation. The argument for radical, utopian visions is thus not just one of principle, but also of effectiveness. Workers unified, in solidarity, working together and voting together, can conquer. Divided and factionalised, our doom is sealed. Building a movement for socialism now requires presenting a picture of such a world, expressing socialist ideals to which future society can be adjusted. The socialist form is not just the conquest of political power, but also the socialisation of productive property and replacement of the anarchy of the capitalist market by a rational plan of production and distribution which will lead to the full democratisation of society.

The starting point of socialism is the elementary truth that men and women working in organised co-operation can produce far more than working in independent competition. The greater the number of co-operating workers, the more complete can be the co-ordination of the labour process. Interposed between that enormously amplified power are all sorts of social obstacle—property rights, economic institutions, legal relations, frontiers, states, traditions and superstitions. A socialist system of production will by its superior efficiency. Capitalism exists today simply and solely because you and your fellow members of the working class, who produce its wealth and endure its miseries, permit it to exist. It is parliament that makes the law and it is the law that says it is legal for capitalists to own Nature's resources and the tools and instruments of production which the working class have produced. The law further enshrines the right of the owners of wealth production to use their property in their own interests— to produce wealth for sale and profit and not for the satisfaction of human needs. When there is no profit in employing workers, in building homes, in clothing or feeding the needy the law does not require the owners of society’s means of production to provide these things nor does the law ensure capitalism when its profit needs create the conditions for crime, bad social relationships, violence and war. In fact the law is made to suit the needs of capitalism and is relevant to the needs of the working class only insofar as such needs are compatible with the requirements of capitalism to disguise its function, keep down social discontent and prevent open rebellion.

It follows that if we are to change things the working class must organise for the purpose of making the means of production the property of society to be used solely for the satisfaction of human needs. Given such a change, all the complex mechanism of the present market economy could be scrapped. Means of exchange, money, would no longer be required, hence wages and social classes would disappear as would the need for banks, stock exchanges, doles, most of the clerks, ticket clippers, insurance and sales agents and all the vast hordes of people whose present function is necessitated only by the existence of capitalism. All could then enter into the co-operative and efficient activity of producing the requirements of the human family and, freed from the obstacles which capitalism’s buying-and-selling imposes on production, enough could be produced to satisfy the needs of all and all would have free and equal access to the fruits of such production.

Conditioned as you have been to the vast complicated economic arrangements required by capitalism, you are as staggered  by what sounds like a staggering proposition. You can accept that members of the working class can run this society from top to bottom, can even formulate the tremendous mathematical data and technical knowhow to build a computer or send a man into space and yet you are staggered by the simple proposition that mankind can own in common the resources of the world and can use those resources to provide for his and her needs without markets, money and all the other useless and wasteful obstacles of capitalism.

Socialism is a feasible proposition NOW! Its introduction is delayed not by the capitalist class but by your reluctance to look beyond the narrow limits of capitalism that keeps that system in operation; your support gives it its legality.

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