Bollocks to Insurrection

Elections serves as a barometer of the maturity of the working class. The working class as a class is still capitalistic-minded. Socialists cannot compete with the capitalists on the matter of amelioration of conditions of the workers; to do so means only to sink into the quagmire and quicksands in which the revolutionary outlook is buried. A mish-mash program of makes for confusion instead of clarity. The Left sneer with disdain at “parliamentarianism” and the Socialist Party’s electoral methods. They find education too slow a process. Yet they fail to tell us exactly how their revolution is to be brought about. That is a minor detail to a left-wing romanticist. As far as anyone is able to make out, it is going to be brought about by means of strikes, supplemented by street protests, which they describe as “mass action” or “direct action”. Grass-roots campaigns become the Left’s playthings in the eternal hope that they might trigger a people’s revolt. The slow, plodding processes of education they will have nothing of. The idea that working people who cannot summon up enough thought to vote for a socialist candidate will be ready for something more radical such as insurrection is a crazy notion. What does it matter to the street-fighting revolutionary that men and women of the working class, every time they have had a chance, have rejected socialist ideas.

 For the Leftist, all that is required is the correct chanting on demonstrations and marches. The case for socialism of the Socialist Party is far too advanced to suit the ordinary worker, so instead let’s reduce our demands to some simplistic slogans to justify building the barricades in the streets. The strategy of the Left is a mystic faith in the miraculous conversion of millions upon whom socialist knowledge and class consciousness are to descend like mysterious manna from heaven so they can behold the glory of the promised land. The Left consistently tries to shape people and interpret events to fit the theory instead of developing theory to correspond to reality. The reason that the Left reject the ballot box and parliamentary political action is because they know they are the minority and have not the patience to engage in debate and discussion to win over the majority. They don’t want the counting of votes, because they know the count will go against them, and because voting requires a degree of decision making and deliberation. They don’t want careful consideration of principles since their own fail to stand up to close scrutiny so they seek thoughtless rebellion and hope to carry their case on a wave of emotional excitement. Instead, they believe that the majority of people are fools who have to be led by an “enlightened minority.”

A socialism established by deception and intimidation would be no socialism at all. Political democracy has not failed: it has never yet been really tried. Rebellion, uprisings and all forms of terrorism have been tried and the results are there for the world to see. If reason and common-sense with actions determined for the well-being of all is not enough to bring about socialism, how can force and compulsion succeed? It is the task of the Socialist Party to explain the purpose and demonstrate the power of the universal franchise and to organise our fellow-workers for political action.

However, do not misconstrue for one moment that the Socialist Party for a moment advocates that the workers should relinquish the strike as an industrial or even as a political weapon. We cannot conceive of the workers ever renouncing the right to strike and to collectively withhold their labour in industrial bargaining or in certain political eventualities under a capitalist regime. What the sort of event which may arise that justifies the recourse to strike action will always depend on the nature of the principle at stake and the state of intelligence, knowledge and political awareness of the workers concerned. But in a country possessing complete political freedom – and especially where the workers are in such numbers as to be able to make or unmake Governments and laws – a general strike should be used only as a last resource, when the

will of the people is being opposed by unconstitutional action on the part of the Government – by military or police repression, or by sectional usurpation of public and civic power. For the mass strike inflicts suffering upon the whole community, but the poor, the sick and the elderly are especially vulnerable, and only in such extreme instances can the workers fairly and in accord with the mutual obligations of human society resort to what is virtually a form of civil war.

The Food Bank Crisis

The number of crisis food parcels being distributed in Scotland is almost double previous estimates, with campaigners predicting a similar increase across the rest of the UK.

Between April 2017 and September 2018, 84 independent food banks across Scotland distributed 221,977 emergency food packages.

Added to existing data from the Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank charity, which works out of 137 food banks in Scotland, the newly-combined figures reveal nearly half a million, at least 480,583, food parcels were distributed by the Trussell Trust and independent food banks during the 18-month period.

Sabine Goodwin, of the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), said, “The situation is becoming more and more desperate, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see that this is happening in England and Wales, too. We need action that deals with the root causes of food poverty. We need a social security system that is fit for purpose, and wages that are related to the cost of living.”

Research has consistently shown that changes to the UK-wide benefits system, along with zero hours and temporary contracts that contribute to in-work poverty, is a key driver of food bank use.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/27/desperate-food-poverty-rises-by-15-in-scotland-shows-data

End Disempowerment

 Our world is full of stark and bewildering contradictions. Governments mock the pledges of liberty, justice and equality. Despair and degradation prevail globally. Poverty and economic insecurity exist alongside extravagance. The capitalist class has one basic goal: to make more and more profits, and they accomplish this by dominating the economics, politics, and cultural life of the country. Employers will throw workers out into the streets to starve, promote violent racism, and build a military arsenal that can destroy the world several times over – anything for profits. This is an irrational and unjust system.

The quality of life is deteriorating. Life does not have to be this way. Exploitation, violence, racism and war strangles our lives. Capitalism thrives on the control of society’s wealth and production – production involving the interconnected efforts of millions of working people. We can improve our lives and society, and we can eliminate exploitation and capitalist injustice, by overturning the monopoly capitalist system. We can replace capitalism with a rational and humane system – socialism. Socialism is a social system where social wealth is genuinely controlled by society and for the benefit of society; where the common good, not profits, becomes the chief concern; where the everyday working people become the rightful masters of society. Such an economic and political transformation will be radical, but a radical solution is what it will take to bury the miseries of capitalism. There is no other choice today but for the working people to organise to struggle and, one day, achieve socialism. Each person is faced with the choice of either enduring the suffering of un/underemployment, brutalisation and war; or taking the path of struggle – joining with others who are dissatisfied and know that a better society is possible. Women and men, young and old, and people of all lands are realising we must unite and struggle to survive, to be able to work, eat and live as decent human beings.

Environmental pollution and poisoning of communities are inevitable because of the inherent drive by Big Business for maximum profits, where operations and conditions are governed by the anarchy of the market and competition. Capitalism must be abolished. Working people need to throw the capitalist parties out of office and fundamentally transform society. The entire apparatus of government, set up to defend the interests of the corporations, must be replaced. The needs of working people can only be met by creating a planned economy, where ownership and control are taken from the tiny minority of capitalists and placed in the hands of the working people, to be run democratically.

Today we must look ahead to the future where socialism, as a more advanced social system, will be built on the powerful productive capacities now stifled by capitalism. Socialism will replace capitalism, just as capitalism replaced feudalism. If the working people, and not the corporations, controlled the great resources of our society, we could improve all our lives. We could end environmental risks and dangers and guarantee a long healthy life for all. We could have a society not preparing self-extinction. We could have a society where the foundation is established for complete emancipation. These are the hopes and dreams of socialism. Reorganised on a socialist basis, the world can be free of poverty, economic insecurity and exploitation. When the vast resources available to us are used to serve the needs of all instead of the profits of the few, we will  have won a world socialist commonwealth. Such a society is worth fighting for.

The Socialist Party often hear the comment that "Socialism is a good idea but it’s not practical." But today it’s becoming more apparent than ever that it is the present system — capitalism — that is impractical and unworkable. Reforms will not change the condition of working people. Our aim is to build a revolutionary party on a world scale, to replace capitalism with a socialist world order. A socialist system today would alter not only who controls the means of production but also what kinds of goods should be produced. It would put those who are currently exploited in control of their own products and environments.

Add caption

Our aim is world socialism

The capitalist class deserve from us no more and no less than the same unwavering, undeviating enmity. The main aim of the Socialist Party is to mobilise our fellow-workers to fight against, not appeal to, the capitalists. The aim of the Socialist Party is the revolutionary overthrow of the world’s capitalist class. Every political party defends the interest of one class or another in society. On all questions, in every battle, and the Socialist Party defends the interests of the working class. We stand in solidarity with the struggles of all the workers. Our Party’s role is to educate, organise and mobilise the working class. One of the primary tasks of the Socialist Party is the political education of the working class. Through our agitation and propaganda we explain the true nature of the system that oppresses workers, and the need for socialist revolution. Our task is to bring class consciousness to the working class – the understanding of workers’ historic mission.

The Socialist Party is the organisation that can orient the struggle of the entire class. It can bring an overall perspective to each branch of the workers’ movement and unite all the isolated battles into one powerful revolutionary storm. Marxism shows how the working class is exploited by the capitalist class; why capitalism must be overthrown and replaced by socialism; and how workers must fight to realise these goals. This theory provides the essential tools workers need. Our cause is a just cause. It is the cause of all those who are exploited and oppressed by capitalism. It is the cause of the liberation of all humanity.

The founding principle of capitalist production has been every man for himself against all others, and everyone against everyone. This will be replaced by the true principle of human society: all for one and one for all. Imagine how great will be the growth of production, when each person, far from needing to fight against all the others, will be helped by them, when he or she will have them not as enemies but as co-helpers. If the collective work of ten attains results absolutely impossible for one alone, how great will be the results obtained by the large-scale cooperation of all who, today, work hostilely against each other?

What the profit system needs to conceal is exactly what we need to expose. This will speed up our common liberation; people have everything to gain in this universal struggle.  It is within our power to take our place in the fight.

The growth of reformist or pseudo-socialist parties which has been one of the developments of recent politics, while giving little guide to the actual amount of sound socialist knowledge among the workers who have flocked to them, are certainly a proof of the fact that millions of the world’s producers are profoundly dissatisfied with capitalist conditions. Marxist writings are to-day read and discussed to an increasing extent. As the general level of  knowledge is raised the working class will be enabled to take the control of their organisations completely into their own hands, and to dispense with leaders, and thus will be fitted for a more definite and uncompromising attitude toward the employing class. At the same time, we may expect, with the growing perception of the futility of palliatives within the structure of capitalism, the increasing acceptance of genuine socialist positions and the gradual growth of political parties which have for their avowed aim the waging of the class struggle to a successful revolutionary conclusion—the expropriation of the capitalist class and the institution of the co-operative commonwealth. This struggle must be international in its span and primarily political in character. The global character of modern scientific production demands a correspondingly worldwide social organisation and therefore the society of the future must be world-embracing and its establishment will mean the obliteration of national divisions. The class struggle between the capitalists and the workers is necessarily as world-wide as is the capitalist system itself. That the bourgeoisie of all nations are prepared to sink their differences in the face of working-class rebellion and to join hands in the work of suppression we have already ample evidence. We may therefore expect that forcible suppression will become more frequent and ruthless, and thus the class nature of the State, and the mercilessness of the bourgeoisie will be unmasked. As the consciousness of the proletariat grows and is translated into action we may dearly expect further manifestation of the international solidarity of the capitalists in defence of their mutual interests. The necessity for the political organisation and action of the class-conscious proletariat is shown by the fact that the capitalist class to-day are only able to dominate society because of their control over the political machinery.

Representatives of the ruling class are elected to power by the votes of the politically unaware workers, and will continue to be so long as this ignorance remains. Once it is dissipated, however, the workers can just as easily gain control over the complex organisation of government (which is not as the anarchists think, a mere arbitrarily imposed power, but has grown through centuries of evolution, step by step with economic development, and is firmly rooted in the social and intellectual life) for themselves. After constituting themselves the dominant class, the working class can proceed with the work of socialisation, and of levelling to the ground class rule and class subjugation. But to speculate on the manner of doing this is to-day futile. Both the tactics of the revolutionary struggle and the actions taken in the event of victory will be determined by the precise conditions which obtain at the time. It is not for us to dictate to, or even to advise, the men of the future. We who live in the present have our own duty to perform—incessant agitation, persistent education, so that we may build up our organisations strong in principle and discipline, without compromise or falter, and armed at every point to withstand the assaults, either open or covert, of the enemy without or within. To prepare the worker’s mind for revolutionary concepts we may therefore place the ever more glaring contradictions presented by existing society, and the intensification of the antagonism and severity of the conflict between the capitalist class and the working class. But other factors are not without importance.

Killing Communities and Neighbourhoods

A third of banks in Scotland have closed since 2010. 610 banks and building societies closed between 2010 and 2018.

Edinburgh south-west had the most bank closures, cutting the network by 135 branches down to a total of 30.

Glasgow Central came second, having lost 70, while Edinburgh North and Leith lost 65 and Edinburgh East lost 45.

Angus, Dundee West, Falkirk and Paisley and Renfrewshire North all lost 15 branches.

Since 2015 RBS has closed the most branches, shutting 158 of the 399 banks that have closed in those three years. Bank of Scotland closed 86, Clydesdale closed 59, Santander closed 38 and TSB closed 35.

Stuart Mackinnon, external affairs manager for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, said "Policymakers need to take action to stop financial institutions removing this infrastructure from our communities."

Brian Sloan, chief executive of Age Scotland, said the "alarming" reduction in banks and free ATMs "disproportionately impacts the lives of older people" who were less likely to use digital banking. He continued: "The extraordinary push by the banks to digital services leaves behind the 500,000 people in Scotland over the age of 60 who do not use the internet. That's the equivalent of the population of our capital city and is a staggering number of people to disenfranchise. What's more, with an ageing population in Scotland and the projected 50% increase in people living with dementia over the next 20 years, older people will find it harder and harder to manage their finances independently if face to face banking options have been eroded to the point of extinction..."

 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-47696346

End Global Warming - End Business-As-Usual

Capitalism threatens mankind with a lethal and unpredictable mixture of global warming droughts and floods, sea level changes loss of forests and crops, all combining to precipitate recurring cycles of famine and conflict. This is the devastating scenario of the breakdown of our ecological system. The planet only supports life because of the delicate and harmonious relationship between eco-systems and carbon dioxide. Fossil fuels – oil, coal and gas – for energy in modem times, together with the destruction of much of the world’s rainforests, has enormously disturbed the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. But today this fine balance is being disturbed and on a massive scale. Anarchic capitalism and the rapacious greed of today’s corporations now threaten humanity with possible extinction.

 The Socialist Party has never opposed the spectacular successes science has contributed to society. But under capitalism it has been used and developed in an irrational and unplanned manner which has resulted in many catastrophes. Capitalism has proved incapable of using the capacity of modern technology to ease the nightmare conditions of those whose conditions of life are characterised by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy. While advances in science and technology have made possible the development of the microprocessors, computers, mobile phones and robots, the real ‘energy crisis’ is for the people still dependent upon charcoal as fuel for cooking. For them, it can only be obtained by encroaching upon the forests. Denuded of tree cover, the top soil quickly becomes washed away creating deserts.

 It is a searing indictment of the short sighted and disastrous policies of Big Business. The wanton destruction of the environment has now reached calamitous proportions. The Greenhouse Effect is inevitable in a society dominated by blind market forces. The inherent contradictions, antagonisms and the competition of interests makes capitalism absolutely incapable of developing and introducing adequate safeguards against climate change. Corporations cannot afford to be overly concerned with stopping global warming. The existence of every corporation is based on its ability to make more profits than a rival company. Businesses will not dig deeply into their profits to take any real steps toward stopping climate changes. Business is not about to cut its profits for anybody. Business has not cut its profits to provide full employment or to avoid wars. There’s no reason to expect them to do such a thing in order to end global warming. This is also true to a large extent of the government. lt’s very difficult to tell the politicians from the businessmen. Marx summed it up well:

“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie.”

People no longer hold any confidence in the business-controlled government’s ability to “control” business.  Capitalism is a voracious system. Can we end it before it destroys us?

 The Socialist Party see through the superficial and deceptive token gestures of the politicians. In a socialist world, all types of energy production would be considered on the basis of safety, efficiency and environmental concern.

This World of Ours

For years the Socialist Party has pleaded with the workers to organise and take over the entire means of production and distribution. The Socialist Standard, books, pamphlets, leaflets of all kinds were freely circulated, with scanty result. Unheeded, the Socialist Party faced blank indifference. It is not a question of condemning capitalism. Capitalism condemns itself. Capitalism must go is the only hope of the world. The onus is on the Socialist Party to demonstrate in a way that can be understood by fellow-workers that the theories we have so long expounded can be translated into a practical method of producing and distributing the wealth of the nation in such a way as to end forever the exploitation of the many by the privileged few

All the progressive liberal “anti-capitalists”, all of them, accept continued production of commodities for the market and for profit, the existence of an owning class and a working class, and the division of the world into capitalist nation-state competing against each other — in short, capitalism. The word, socialism, is taken to mean state ownership or government control. Their proposed policies contain a vast array of suggested remedies for the ills of capitalism —nationalisation, the development of state-operated health and welfare services, workers to sit on boards of directors, workers’ pension funds to extend their ownership of corporation stocks and seek control of corporation policy, government curbing of the freedom of action of big companies, encouragement of small companies and cooperatives, government management and planning of the economy, and so on. All these expedients have been tried and tested — with total failure. Application of all these “remedies” has not materially affected the character or operations of capitalism. Progressives not only support capitalism, even strengthen it by reforms, but also sees state capitalism as “socialism.”

Socialists are not looking for a saviour but for their fellow workers to join them in a movement which is understood by all, controlled by all, and in the interests of all — Socialism. It is not enough to say one is a “socialist” to be one. One must advocate the revolutionary abolition of capitalism and refuse to work for its reform, in order to wear the label of "socialist.”

What is apparent in elections is the extent to which all the parties try and manage the agenda for the election. They all want to encourage the debate to be round the handful of high-profile “flagship” issues where they feel on strong ground. The assumption is that voters are stupid and can only remember 3 or 4 things at a time, so why give them more than that to consider.

What it all means is that the campaign may centre around a handful of issues only. That may appear to appeal to the Socialist Party. After all we are the ultimate single-issue party - Abolish Capitalism. But while this is a single issue no-one is pretending that it is a simple case. Sure, it’s not complicated, the case for putting human need ahead of profit, but simple soundbites don’t do our case justice. We in the Socialist Party are also handicapped in the eyes of the modern voter by the fact that we are not in a position to make promises, and what’s more, we aren’t going to “do anything” for anyone. The other parties are falling over each other to be seen to be offering some immediate palliative. The Socialist Party advocates the abolition of buying and selling and money and wages. We want the replacement of the system where production is geared to profit, by a system where production is based on self-defined human needs. We're talking about a world community without any frontiers. About wealth being produced to meet people's needs and not for sale on a market or for profit. About everyone having access to what they require to satisfy their needs, without the rationing system that is money. A society where people freely contribute their skills and experience to produce what is needed, without the compulsion of a wage.

 In the admittedly unlikely event that the Socialist Party was elected, we would very probably (i.e. as we are a democratic party it wouldn’t just be up to the newly elected MP to decide) give our support to a reform demand which we felt would advance the interests or conditions of the working class. But it is reasonable for us to not want to allow this to divert us from the mandate we would have been elected on, to push for a world where the satisfaction of human need is the first and last and only consideration of society.

It's tempting, in the absence of any real alternative, to get drawn into the phoney war that is political debate today. Whether Labour, Tory, nationalist, Lib Dem or whatever they all spout the same promises. But it always amounts to the same thing-they offer no alternative to the present way of running society. Do you really think who wins an election makes any difference to how you live? And do politicians (whether left-wing, nationalist or right-wing) actually have much real power anyway? OK, they get to open supermarkets and factories, but it's capitalism and the market system which closes them down.

On Population Matters

We are told by many environmentalists, some of the stature of the BBC personality David Attenborough, that society overlooks the need for the world’s people, especially the poorer ones, to restrict or curtail their procreative activities. Study Malthus, abolish all religious superstition about contraception and get down to birth control should be a lesson to all. What they need to tell us is how their population reduction cure for poverty is supposed to operate. Perhaps, they argue that there are too many workers and that a reduction of their number would enable the smaller number to push up wages. An argument that overlooks the fact that under capitalism the number of workers who can get work is not a fixed number, it depends on whether capitalist production is expanding or contracting. The fallacy of the theory of the birth controllers is in supposing that unemployment is a direct result of the size of population in a given area of land, thus ignoring the form of social organisation, capitalism.

While capitalism continues, working people, whether more or less numerous than what some “experts” regards as the proper number, will continue to be exploited. Not birth control but socialism is required to abolish poverty.

It is true that the human population cannot grow without affecting the natural environment, sometimes with the risk of dangerous ecological chain-reactions. But the cause of global warming and the vast majority of pollution problems, from pesticide, industrial waste and so forth, could be avoided upon the abolition of capitalism with its reckless race for profits. The way to stop the environmental crises is not to stop having children, but to start cleaning up the economy and the planet. The “overpopulation problem” is really a misuse of resources problem.

People’s readiness to accept the “overpopulation” argument arises from their lack of understanding of the way capitalism works. If millions are hungry, it is felt that this can only be because there isn’t enough food in the world. If millions live in overcrowded squalor, this must be because there is a shortage of living space. If people are homeless, there is a “housing shortage” and that is that.

On the fringes are the white supremacists, self-styled eco-fascists, who envisage a future of climate change refugees invading North America and Europe. They foresee an impending war between the “haves” and the “have nots”. We are ominously warned that the Muslims are out-breeding the white Christian “race” and casting jealous eyes on their possessions and territories. This is highly misleading nonsense.

Capitalism, as a system of rationing and we are constantly told that “There isn’t enough to go round”, so we must limit what we consume. “Overpopulation” is used to make those of us who possess a few basic comforts to be thankful for what we have. Yet if we examine the potential for satisfying human needs which has been released by modern technology, we see that the opposite is the case. In order to thrive, the capitalist system must expand and develop its potential for plenty but in order to survive it also must preserve poverty and scarcity which are its life-blood. 

Lothian Socialist Discussion (27/3)

Making Politics Matter

Wednesday, March 27, 7:30 to 9:00 pm

Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh,

17 West Montgomery Place,

 Edinburgh EH7 5HA

Today, we find examples of both the left and the right blaming political democracy, or ‘bourgeois democracy’ as they call it, as the cause of the many problems facing people. Some envisage nationalist solutions as in protectionism, the erection of tariff barriers, a sentiment behind the Brexit vote. They blame political democracy and elected politicians for not heeding the popular vote in the referendum. There are those who seek to ‘take back control’ to try to push through a populist and nationalist agenda.

Today’s politics fail, not because the politicians are insincere, corrupt or incompetent (as many indeed are) nor because they are not subject to enough control by those who elected them. It’s because the voters who elected them set an impossible task, that of making the capitalist economic system work in the interest of the majority. This can’t be done because the workings of the capitalist economic system forbid it.

Damage to the environment is now a major threat to the stability of human life on this planet. We cannot expect the problems to be solved within capitalism. Consider the fact that this has been on the international agenda for decade after decade and very little has been achieved; carbon emissions have increased (and were only temporarily slowed as an effect of the recession). Governments publicly state that the environment must come second to the economy. Only in a society where we have the power to determine what can and cannot be done will we be able to stop this headlong rush to environmental devastation. That means a world of common ownership and democratic control. Anything else which anyone offers is merely using an Elastoplast to seal a volcano. 

Only socialism can deliver so come along to this regular discussion meeting and learn why.

Championing the Working Class

What is capitalism? Capitalism is an economic term, applied to the economic system of our civilisation, by means of which a small minority of people achieve economic independence and have the privilege of living idly upon the toil 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 toil, and therefore his is economically independent. Capitalism therefore consists of two classes of society: the capitalist class, which has achieved economic independence and the working class, which includes those who are not able to do more than sustain life by means of selling their labour power to the capitalist class. Capitalism is based upon two sets of conflicting economic interests. One class believes that it is justly entitled to the economic power and security which it has, but which it manifestly did not create; the other class believes that it is being unjustly deprived of that which it has created yet will never possesses. This is the class struggle. The source of all profit is the exploitation of the working class; where it goes is irrelevant. The logic of the class struggle is simple, A handful of capitalists and financiers who are in control manufacturing, the banks, the natural resources and the government, are steadily whittling away at the living standards and democratic rights of all the working class. The reason why a handful are able to dominate is that the millions of workers are scattered, powerless, without unity and direction. Labour must be organised to challenge the capitalist foe. In addition to obvious splitting tactics to divide our class with racism, sexism or nationalism, the capitalists also divide our class with reformism.

Reformism thinks only of how to solve problems within the framework allowed by capital. Reformism regards socialism as a remote goal and nothing more, and actually repudiates the socialist revolution. Reformism advocates not class struggle, but class collaboration. Reformism is a programme of relying on gradual change and making things a little bit better, slowly. It develops out of faith in the fair mindedness of the wealthy. Reformists feel that they can serve the people by forming an alliance with the enemy. Reformists slyly serve the interests of the ruling class. The Socialist Party says reformism is not a moderate or too slow form of socialism, but its mortal enemy. Reformism is trickery used to keep the working class under wage slavery. Reformism keeps the working class indefinitely under the yoke of capitalism.  Reformists maintain that we can arrive at a certain type of “socialism” by winning reforms one after the other. What they don’t say is that whatever the rich has to give up with one hand after a hard struggle, it will just take back with the other. It’s the same story with regard to all those who hold reformist ideas. The Socialist Party makes no compromises. In our education work we show how reformism upholds capitalism and sabotages the fight for socialism. Marxists link themselves with their fellow-workers as socialists. They don’t hide their positions out of fear of cutting themselves off from the masses but rather carry out their educational work in order to demonstrate revolutionary positions. To fight against reformism means stopping the creation illusions about capitalism. Skilful politicians endeavour to reform, in other words patch up the old system of antiquated and shaky domination, or erect a new system of domination. This is what is called good politics. Others try to help the exploited acquire the strength to deliver themselves from oppression and domination. It is this which in parliamentary terms is called bad politics.

 The Socialist Party champions the working class, declaring its intention to be advocate the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a world system based upon 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. 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 disappear. Our object is to establish social justice for the people of the world. Let it be understood by everybody that the purpose of the Socialist Party is to secure the conquest of the world for the workers of the world. We aim at a new society – the socialist commonwealth. The meaning of this should be clear to all workers. It is a fight against the Labour Government and the so-called “Left Wing”, as the enemies of the working class, and we must bring our sharpest weapons of attack to bear on them. There is not and cannot be any political party which genuinely fights for the people other than one which is clearly and unambiguously a socialist party. If socialists dilute their own principles and party, hoping to catch the popularity of the common people, it thereby dilutes its fight against the capitalists. Let socialists organise and oppose resolutely, uncompromisingly against the 1%.

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace world capitalist economy by world socialism for it alone can abolish the contradictions of the capitalist system which threaten to degrade and destroy the humanity. It is mankind’s only way out by creating a united commonwealth of labour, abolishing private ownership of the means of production and converting these means into social property, and replacing those competitive and blind processes of the world market by 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 production for use of all material resources. The abolition of private property and the disappearance of classes will do away with the exploitation of man by man. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy. Deprivation, want and inequality will disappear and the wretched misery of we, the wage-slaves, will end.

Good Times Don't Last Long Under Capitalism

 
For the average working guy Mississsauga, Ontario was a pretty good place to live, about as good as it could get under capitalism. 

Sad to say, it ain’t that way now. The place is well maintained, the public services are administered well and it was a relatively cheap place to live, though that has changed recently and drastically. 

In an effort to encourage the development of new buildings, last fall the Ontario government lifted rent controls from new units unoccupied prior to Nov.15. Now the average rent for a one bedroom condo in Mississauga is $2000 a month, up from $1,794 in October. The amazing thing is that rents there are higher than most parts of Toronto. Only in it’s central zone is Toronto higher, with $2,241 a month. 

One may well ask how a working class family can cope with these rents. Most probably can’t, nor can they save for a down payment on a mortgage. 

Good times don’t last very long under capitalism and the only things you can be sure of are hardship and insecurity.

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

We Can Set Our Own Family Policy.

The Federal Services Minister Seamus O’Regan said he was working night and day to come up with proposed welfare legislation to benefit their children, but if he is, the Native Canadians aren’t happy.

 As the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said in an open letter to Justin Trudeau, "We do not wish to see the federal government put in place a child welfare system that subordinates or places us under a province with no recognition of our right to set our own family policy and protect our own children and families.” 

It’s the idea of the proposed bill allowing provincial intrusion into their affairs that has their panties in a twist. 

Cameron said it was, "A renewal of colonialism”.

 However the matter plays out, one wonders when have the effects of colonialism on aboriginals ever ended that they should be renewed. 

Also we can be sure the political upholders of capitalism won’t do a thing for them if it clashes with the interests of the capitalist class.

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

An answer for May

Take your pick

We have to choose whether capitalism with all its attendant miseries and horrors is to remain or whether we intend to be free of its wage slavery. The Socialist Party explains to our fellow workers the nature of the struggle in which they are participating. To tell them of the principles for which we work and fight. To reveal what we are confident is the way out for our class from the horrid nightmare of the competitive struggle which sets nation against nation, class against class, and individual against individual. The struggle between individual capitalists to realise profits sets employer against employer. The conflict between national groups of financiers sets nation against nation, and produces war. But despite their individual and national conflicts the whole capitalist class stands united in their common desire to exploit the working class. Hence under capitalism the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour-power to create profit. Thus, the workers are not free. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities. The struggle is between the possessing ruling class, which owns the means of production, and the working class, which is subjected to exploitation and oppression precisely because the means of production are in the hands of the exploiters.

Jobs are disappearing, wiped out by factory closures, out-sourcing and off-shoring and automation. Unions have lost members and forced to submit to humiliating concessions. The social services of the Welfare State which gave some protection against unchecked capitalist exploitation have been gutted. No section of the working class has escaped hard times. Workers in industries, accustomed to relatively good wages and secure jobs, have gotten a jarring reminder of what too many other workers were never allowed to forget: that economic survival under capitalism is not something you can take for granted. Yet the economic crisis did not bring us all down to the same level. On the contrary, those who were worst off to begin with have been hurt the hardest. We hear from the politicians, the media and the economists that the recession is behind us as corporate profits soar and share dividends rise. The clear message is what working people have lost in the course of the last recession will not be returned to us.

This is nothing new. For generations, workers have borne the brunt of each economic downturn. But employers mouthpieces have been assigning blame to migrant workers, accused of “stealing” our jobs and asylum seekers getting “priority and privileged access” to social services.  Worker have raised new cries for restrictive immigration laws. Wherever we look, we see capitalists appealing to the most backward, chauvinist sentiments in the working class – sowing seeds of disunity that will spread like weeds if not vigorously opposed. The capitalist’s divide-and-conquer game doesn’t end with racist and nationalist propaganda. More and more, their collective bargaining strategies are calculated to set workers at one another’s throats with the introduction of dual contracts where newcomers or those without seniority are paid less. Instead of competing for jobs, we need unity of employed and unemployed. Instead of resigning ourselves to weaker unions, we need to organise our class. Instead of flag-waving, we need international unity and defence. We’re up against a enemies who represent different class interests than our own. 

 In opposition to all other parties—Conservative, Liberal, Nationalist or Labour—we affirm that so long as one section of the community own and control the means of production, and the rest of the community are compelled to work for that section in order to obtain the means of life, there can be no peace between them. We want no more promises. We want no more charity. The Socialist Party works for the building of the world anew, for the sweeping away of ignorance, for the full development of men and women, free from class exploitation, and the degradations of poverty. We don’t have an effective socialist party right now. Building one is a big job. But it needs to be done – and it is up to all workers who sense that capitalism can never provide them with a decent life or secure livelihoods to see that it happens. Decline to make your stand alongside us and by your neglect, you condone misery, exploitation, greed and war. The hour is great. The eyes of the world are upon you. The choice is yours.

Trust your leaders

How often have you heard the plea, “What we want is honest leadership” and the failure to keep pledges blamed on “treachery of the leadership” and the need for a more “revered leader” to fulfil the promises. Leaders has always been an accepted fact in workers’ movements. For centuries it has been taken for granted that there are individuals specially marked out to be at the head of their fellow-workers. They are offered the opportunity to exercise power and are presented with positions of higher standing over those less fortunate. The idea of leadership is often put down to an inherent attribute of humanity’s hierarchy often based on some sort of biological endowment; as a proof of this we are referred to a bull lording it over his herd as an illustration.  However, one simple fact, is overlooked and it is that leadership, if meaning one who directs, controls and is followed, then it is unknown to many hunter-gatherers and tribal people.

Leadership is a form of domination. Within the working-class movement leaders lead from behind. That is to say, they can only follow the course the mass agrees to follow.

“There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” Gandhi

While action by the mass of workers depends upon leaders and leaders depend upon masses there is bound to be this instability.

The first thing a leader must do is to convince the masses that the course he or she proposes following is the best one. Out of this arises rivalry and antagonism amongst leaders, each striving for support and building up of clique of “true believers.” This creates the intrigues and internecine warfare that plays a prominent part in labour politics. The qualities that make leaders are varied. In some cases, it is the power of their oratory, the ability to make fine speeches, in others a capacity for intrigue, and in others again, the ability for the back-room routine paperwork. A brass neck and a thick skin are also helpful. Extravagant promises impossible of fulfilment are also part of the general stock-in-trade.

It has to be conceded that leaders do not always start out with the idea of making a career or tricking their followers, although there are many who do so. What generally happens is that they gradually drift into a position where their interests are not identical with those of their followers. Leaders who have sprung from poor circumstances dread the possibility of falling back into the ranks of those looking for employment, and consequently they do all they can to keep in existence trade union and political jobs, and to hold on to the jobs they have obtained. Any attack upon the job either by erstwhile followers or budding rivals is bitterly resented. Leaders are jealous of one others' popularity.  Exclusive inner-circles develop, placing barriers around the available jobs, and a great part of the political life is taken up with this side, instead of pushing for the workers' interests. At times, where circumstances dictate it, the interests of followers are sacrificed to the interests of keeping the job. There are innumerable examples of the callous way in which many who have risen to position on the backs of followers and have then abandoned their followers for a political advancement.  

  “…you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.” Eugene Debs

In general, leaders who have “got there" favour arbitration rather than confrontation. The tendency of leadership is also towards conservatism—to keep the status quo going. Many a leader starts off as a firebrand but then gradually drifts into the “respectable” camp but gradually they do not want any disruption or seek any change in the conditions that guarantee them security, and hence they look with suspicion upon anything new. Often, they are in a better position to obtain a grasp of the situation, possessing more access to information than the rank and file, and this tends to give them an inflated idea of their own importance. Hence, they resent criticism.  The position of working-class leaders permits them to mix with a more privileged circle that was formerly unknown to them. The Red Clydesiders when they went to Parliament adopted the habits and dress of their “social betters”. They made the most of their new connections and gaining the reputation of being practical and respectable, they received the trust of those in the ruling class. Such “red radicals” without deliberate intention, lived it up and were presented with the rewards of office, expenses and higher pay. "We were the stuff of which reform is made." David Kirkwood

 It didn’t go unnoticed by younger aspiring leaders, now hoping to make their own political careers. The battle-cry of the old leader is often outdone by that of a newcomer, and the popular idol of one day disappears and is replaced by another to follow the same path.

Relying on leaders dulls the critical faculties of people who habitually depend upon others to solve their difficulties. They become averse to working out solutions to their own problems. They expect the leaders to do their thinking, and when events take place that needs thoughtful action they have lost the ability. They blame the leadership for failure. Repeated failure develops apathy, and the feeling that success is impossible. The actions of leaders are limited by the outlook of the majority of the workers, it would be necessary for the majority to possess knowledge understand the position clearly in order that they might act effectively. When the majority do understand what is required they will no longer need leaders to tell them what to do.

Until the Socialist Commonwealth

There was a time when men and women joined together in parties and societies, for the purpose of furthering a cause or principle dear to their hearts. These organisations were supposed to exist for the idea or cause it represented. Now, on the contrary, the tendency is to regard the cause as existing for the sake of organisation. “The end is nothing, the movement everything,” is a rallying-cry of the practical party-man of the present day. The principles, the ideas, for which these movements are supposed to stand for are now quite subordinate to the party-machine.

There is probably no word better abused at the present moment than the word “socialism”. There seems a great difficulty with many persons, calling themselves “socialists” nowadays who fancy themselves before all things as sensible, level-headed politicians which means the continuance of capitalism and of the traditional policy of capitalism in its essential features, notwithstanding modifications of detail. In other words, preserving the stability of the present social system. The Socialist Party’s object is to strike a blow at this continuity of capitalism.

Socialism does not mean co-operatives competing against one another and also with traditional capitalist enterprises. It means the whole community, backed by the forces at the disposal of the community, organised for the work of production and distribution, and employing for this purpose the latest and most approved methods and the latest and most approved technology.

Socialism is a lot more than the capitalist gospel of success – acquisition for acquisition’s sake - and the selfish individualist doctrine of life where every person’s aim is to become a capitalist, large or small which is to buy his work-force in the cheapest market (exploit the workers), and sell the resulting product at the highest price (i.e., overcharge the consumer). Now, it is a matter of fact, it is economically impossible for every man to become a capitalist, so that the attempt to carry out this doctrine, as in the present state of things, must invariably result in the separation of society into two classes – victimisers (employers or investors) and victims (working people.)

Distinct from the Labour Party, the Socialist Party have always stoutly upheld the banner of Internationalism in the matter of immigration.

The wealth of the community, whether land, raw material, or instruments of production, socialism would place in the hands of the people themselves. The Socialist Party alone holds a clear goal- the entire transformation of human society. An economically free community cannot fail to be the foundation of a free social life, a life free from the shackles of wage slavery and the sordid struggle for the bare means of subsistence imposed on mankind. Socialism means the proclaims the “joy of life” as the right of all

The ways of the men and women of the co-operative commonwealth of the future will not be our ways, nor their thoughts our thoughts. We only deceive ourselves if we think so. “Why don’t you practice what you preach?” is a common jibe at socialists. We answer, “Because we cannot; if we could practice what we preached we should not require to preach any longer, so that the fact of our preaching is a sign that the time of our practicing has not yet arrived!” 

The accusation also assumes that socialism is an individualist-ethical theory, primarily designed for the direct reform of the personal character of individuals. This it is not. Socialism is an economic theory of the evolution and transformation of society. 

The Socialist Party doesn’t profess to practice what they preach, because what we preach is social revolution, i.e., the entire transformation of society. It is perfectly obvious that no individual can practice the transformation of society, except by working for the said transformation to the best of his or her ability. This is the only sort of “practicing” a socialist can do nowadays. Only when we have changed the existing conditions and secured for all the reward of their work, then and not till then shall me be able to “practice what we preach.”