Towards Socialism

Socialism abolishes the chaos and anarchy of capitalist production and social organisation; it does away with the dog-eat-dog competition of capitalist industry, breeder of industrial crises and war. It sets up instead a planned system of economy in harmony. Socialism ends the production of social necessities for profit—out of which originates all the miseries and chaos of capitalism. Socialism thus revolutionises the aim of production from production for profitable sale to production for social use. In so doing it frees humanity from the narrow limits of capitalist economy and embarks upon a totally new era of social development. Capitalism robs the toilers of a large share of what they produce. With socialism there is no exploitation. The working class exploits no subject class. Under capitalism science is a slave to the class interests of the bourgeoisie. But socialism strikes all these fetters from science. The aim of the Socialist Party is to overthrow capitalism and replace it by world socialism, abolishing all forces of exploitation and oppression of man by man. Society will no longer consist of antagonistic classes in conflict with each other, but will represent a united commonwealth of labour. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, humanity will devote all its energies to the development and strengthening of social evolution. The future society will be State-free. With private property in industry and land abolished (not articles of personal use), with exploitation of the toilers ended, and with the capitalist class finally defeated and all classes liquidated, there will then be no further need for the State, which “withers away” and be replaced by the “administration of things”. When the capitalist class is decisively beaten the workers’ need for a State die out. Under the class-free, State-free regime of socialism there will exist a broad and genuine freedom such as the world heretofore has not even remotely approached. The guiding principle will be: “From each according to ability, to each according to needs.” That is, the distribution of life necessities—food, clothing, shelter, education, etc.—will be free, without let or hindrance. Communist production, carried out upon the most efficient basis and freed from the drains of capitalist exploiters, will provide such an abundance of necessary commodities that there will be plenty for all with a minimum of effort. There will then be no need for penny-pinching. Industry, freed from capitalist anarchy and exploitation, will develop a high efficiency and lay the basis for genuine mass prosperity.

The first condition of success for socialism is that its essential characteristics should be explained clearly, so that everyone can understand them. There are many misunderstandings created by our adversaries. We must do away with these. Capitalists are not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world or even their own people. They are interested only in profits. If the productive forces in the world were to be used for the purposes of construction, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Abundance under this system can only produce crises of over-production, slumps and unemployment, because of the basic necessity of the capitalist class to make profits. Only the unity of the workers, leading to a socialist world can produce that “One World” which can abolish want and oppression and war.

Automation offers tremendous possibilities to humanity. It can free man from slavery to the machine. It can free us from the double degradation of giving one class all the work – uncreative, boring and stultifying – and another class all the leisure – just as uncreative, just as boring and just as stultifying. It can end the artificial dichotomy between neurotic city life and idiotic country life; between workers by hand and workers by brain.

But capitalism cannot give us full automation. It can only use the new techniques to bring new terrors to this world – the terrors of unemployment or war. Automation can only benefit humanity if it is controlled. There is only one guarantee of its human use – workers control of automation, workers control of production, the only meaning of socialism.

People born into wage-slavery, trained to wage-slavery and fed wage-slavery through the mainstream media day in, day out do not question their masters easily. Today with a looming environmental crisis, capitalism’s alternative is needed as it never has before.
 

Free Food...And More...Much More

The human right to food should be put into Scots Law to protect people from rising insecurity, the Scottish Human Rights Commission believes.

The commission said this right - which involves food being accessible, adequate and available for everyone - is not being realised across Scotland. It says: "Health inequalities are persistent with many people, including children, unable to afford or access a healthy and nutritious diet."

Food insecurity is "unacceptably high", the report said, with more than 480,500 food parcels being handed out by food banks between April 2017 and September 2018.

Commission chairwoman Judith Robertson said: "The Scottish Human Rights Commission is calling on the government to take action to incorporate the right to food into Scotland's laws as part of its work to make Scotland a good food nation." The option of exploring a right to food which is directly enforceable under Scots law "has not been ruled out".

For members of the Socialist Party in Scotland the immediate question is, why just food?

To be properly clothed and shod, is a human right, too.

Isn't a secure comfortable home a human right? 

What about free travel for all as a right?

The Socialist Party insist we do not limit or ration our access to the necessities of  decent life. We have been advocating a world of free access since our foundation. 

1. money, wages, buying and selling will serve no function; they will no longer exist,
2. each one of us will be able to take quite freely from whatever is readily available, according to our own self-determined needs,
3. each one of us will be free to participate in providing society's needs by working quite voluntarily, according to our own willingness and ability,
4. each one of us will have unrestricted freedom of the earth; there will be no 'national' boundaries separating various regions of the earth,
5. the organisation and administration of society will be carried out entirely democratically by and in the interests of all the world's population, ensuring that the needs of  eople everywhere are met; there will be no need for leaders or governments.

We have always aimed to show that a world of free access is the only way to permanently ensure:

1. the harmonious survival of the human race,
2. an end to all poverty, hunger, hardship, discomfort and all depression, violence and tension due to economic insecurity,
3. the rapid disappearance of racism, since nearly all racism is brought about through using others as scapegoats for the frustrations, anxieties and hardship actually caused by the money, wages, buying and selling form of society itself,
4. an end to all forms of war, since all wars are basically economic, fought to protect or expand profitable commercial markets, land, raw materials, trade routes and strategic political positions which offer access to these.

We aim to show that a world of free access is not a far-off dream but an immediate, practical and realistic possibility, and that it can be achieved when the majority of people are aware of it, want it and consciously and peacefully bring it about through whatever democratic means are available.

There is no other way. 

A Message to Extinction Rebellion

WAGE SLAVERY

The Socialist Party contends that it is capitalism and capitalism alone which creates or exacerbates all of the major problems in the world today. Poverty, unemployment, homelessness, war, and, to a large extent, disease, but, foremost, let's not forget the current crisis of climate change and the accompanying destruction of natural resources. These are all fundamental to capitalism and cannot be solved on any long-term basis while this system continues.

Those who support the continuation of present-day society would disagree with the Socialist Party analysis and claim that capitalism can be changed to, if not solve most social problems by means of legislation, at least alleviate their worst effects.

A reform is not a fundamental change; it is an attempt to alter the way in which capitalism is run. The fundamentals of capitalism are minority ownership of the means of production, the production of wealth for sale on the market, a money economy, a wages system, and the realisation of profit from the difference between the wages the producers are paid and the sale of what they have produced. The forms of government and the methods employed to actually run the system are not fundamental. The fundamentals of capitalism must remain the same. There must always be a drive for profit and a drive to expand markets which come before any other consideration. Capitalism cannot escape the iron laws of its own economics. Even given the desire to do so from those in power they must follow the laws of the market—or go under, to be succeeded by those capitalists who have a more realistic appreciation of the necessities. The system hangs together as a whole; no one part of it can be taken away.

For reforms to "succeed”, capitalism would need to work smoothly and rationally. But capitalism is a totally chaotic and uncoordinated system which cannot function in such a way because it only follows one law—the drive for profit. This blows apart the best-laid schemes of government or reformers, especially in regards to the regulatory measures proposed to mitigate global warming.

It is quite impossible to achieve a long-term plan for any carbon-zero objective because capitalism is always in some crisis and demands immediate responses to pressures. World events occur with such rapidity that for any country just to try to maintain stability is about as much as they can do. They are so busy swimming against the tide of change that they are using all their strength just to keep their heads above water. They are so busy reacting there is no time to act. So, even if a long-term plan could ever work—and there is no evidence to show that it would and overwhelming evidence to show—that it could not—capitalism is such a dynamic system that it will not stand still long enough to allow such a plan to happen.

All countries face desperate dilemmas in their relationships with other countries. Many strategies have been placed into operation to reduce carbon emission and all have failed. Even if it were possible to iron out the conflicts of interest, the co-operation of all the major countries would have to be secured. This is impossible because every capitalist country is always following a policy to suit its own interests. Since a major objective is to export more than is imported at any given time, it is obvious that not all can succeed. Add to this the commercial interests of the multinational corporations and the difficulties encountered in handling lesser developed capitalist countries and it can be seen why reforms of international capitalist relations cannot succeed in harmonising capitalism with nature on a world basis.

Why do the environmental activists advocate reforms and put them forward when the evidence is that these well-meaning schemes will not work?

It is a mistake to accept that the capitalists understand their own system. They have never studied it in the way that socialists have. Capitalist economists make their reputations, and get their bread and butter, from supplying "solutions" to capitalist problems. What kind of future would he or she have by pointing out that there is really no way of ensuring a stable economy and that the system always staggers on from crisis to crisis?

Capitalists are struggling to survive in business and maintain their competitive edge. To do this they must make sufficient profit to re-invest in capital equipment and keep it up-to-date. This has to be their priority. Anything else comes afterwards. It is not the “wicked” capitalist who brings this about; it is not a moral decision, it is an economic necessity.

Reforms are basically of two kinds; those that are meant to make the capitalist system run a little more smoothly for the capitalist class and those that are meant to bring about improvements in the conditions of people and the planet. Neither kind can work because only a fundamental change of social system can make any difference. Reforms are not meant to change the fundamental set-up of capitalism; they are expressly the opposite of that. The most that can be achieved is to ease the conditions of a section of the working class for a time. But as fast as a reform is applied fresh problems are thrown up on account of the changing pressures of capitalism. So our question to those engaged in the environmental movement, remains, is it worth the effort? Why chase after elusive reforms when it is a futile effort and a waste of energy. What is really required is that effort should be put into something that is lasting — working for socialism. The Socialist Party cautions those who want little more than bandage over capitalism's worse weeping sores that reforming the system will not halt climate change

Socialism and the Future

We are as firm as ever in our belief that the only hope for humanity lies in a revolutionary reconstruction of society, and that the working class is the only one historically fitted for that great achievement. We invite the cooperation of all who will work with us toward that end. Some socialists accuse us of being dogmatic and sectarian. We are not. We welcome the criticisms of our friends and our enemies. It is about time to look upon the problem of social transformation in all its broad complexity, and try to examine more closely the practical side of the issue. The revolution could happen tomorrow, and we must enable ourselves to act within it in the most effective possible way. Let us use our time to examine more closely and clarify our ideas about what is to be done, while we try to hasten the time.

Our journal, the Socialist Standard does not muzzle its readers. We reject political jugglery and ingenious tactical tricks because we do not believe them to be efficacious in the long run. There can be no socialism without the active participation of the masses. We must strive to imbue our fellow-workers with a confidence in their own class strength; with a distrust of class collaboration and cynical opportunism. We must help them to rediscover the road of revolutionary struggle. This is the only guarantee of victory. The basic condition for victory is that the masses consciously realise that their emancipation cannot be brought about from above, but only by their own independent movement. Socialism cannot be imposed by force. Socialism, applied in its full breadth and with all its beneficial effects, is only possible when it is understood and wanted by the masses that embrace all the elements necessary to creating a society superior to the present one. Capitalism will have to face a whole series of new crises. The workers will again become the decisive political force. Even if such a method of struggle results in a temporary defeat of the workers, the defeat is nevertheless of greater benefit to the class struggle than any transitory gains obtained by class collaboration. The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go. Socialism is not possible as long as the present social and economic conditions last. Since such conditions, which keep workers slave for the benefit of those privileged, are preserved and perpetuated by brutal force, it is necessary to change them through revolutionary action. Our task is to speed it up as much as possible and encourage our fellow-workers to take possession of the production means and organize the work and the distribution of products, to occupy housing, to perform public services without waiting for commands from higher-ranking authorities. We must uncompromisingly oppose everything that hinders the will of the people and we must take care not to destroy those useful services that we cannot replace in a better way.

Capitalism is turning the worker into a mere cog in a machine. Capitalism is production for profit. No production, no profit. Mankind is being robbed not merely of the products of its labour, but of the power of free initiative, of originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things being produced. We, in the Socialist Party realise that as we suffer together, we must work together, that we may enjoy together. Socialism or barbarism! With the whole world hard-pressed by advancing barbarism to make the choice of socialism that it must make for civilization to survive, if not to flower, the reformists find it fitting to promote the postponement of socialism. Socialism, you see, is not advocated because it “would not unite people” behind a policy of legislation and regulation to alleviate the current climate crisis. Capitalism is objectively ripe for replacement by socialism. Capitalism is an obstacle in the path of social progress and it stands in the way of the welfare of the people and the well-being of the planet. The conditions are objectively ripe for socialism precisely because capitalism can no longer work effectively, regardless of what is done. Socialism must not be understood as, an abstraction, a blueprint for reorganizing society at some future very remote date. The realisation of socialism, however is an immediacy. No green revolution can ever triumph unless it is transformed into a social revolution. Without socialists, without socialist activity instead of marking a progress of freedom and justice and the start of a complete liberation of mankind, at best, it would only bring about a shallow improvement, largely delusive and by no means adequate to the effort, the sacrifices, the pain of rebellion, and would bear new forms of oppression and exploitation perhaps even stringent than the present.

Potential production has become almost unlimited, thanks to the means nowadays provided by new technology and improved working methods, etc. However, it’s one thing to be able to produce and another to have produced. Capitalists, either through incompetence or indifference, but largely because of a system that makes profits from shortages and rationing, do not sufficiently exploit the means of production they own, and prevent others from using them.

As long as the working class exists, the future is not hopeless. 

It's Not Only Marine Life That's Threatened.

A recent report from Cornell University in New York revealed that in 2013 millions of Starfish along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska died from the effects of global warming.

 To quote, ''They succumbed to a wasting disease. It began with white lesions on their limbs, the dissolution of surrounding flesh, the loss of limbs and finally death.'' 

The researchers found that the die off of the starfish matched the pattern of heat spreading through the ocean and that the world’s oceans have absorbed more than 90 per cent of the atmospheric heat humans have caused by releasing greenhouse gases. 

The report did not mention that it isn't marine life alone which is threatened with extinction by the effects of global warming - the Human Race is too.

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

Having The Rug Pulled From Under One.

The Canadian economy's six month streak of job creation came to a halt in March. 

Employment dropped by 7,200 most of which were full time jobs, said StatsCanada in its report on April 5. 

Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said, ''The party had to end at sometime''. 

Of course it did, we are talking about capitalism, not some society where prosperity and security can be taken for granted. 

Think of how many thought they had it made for life in 1929 and in 2008 only to have the rug pulled out from under them and that includes some capitalists.

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

Proud to be Scottish? Dead at 63.

Being poor in Scotland doesn’t just take years off your life, it takes decades. Last year an NHS Lothian study found that people living in the wealthiest parts of Edinburgh could expect to live 21 years longer than those in the poorest ones. While the life expectancy of men from the New Town was an impressive 85, their counterparts in Greendykes and Niddrie Mains could expect a life of 63.6 years. 

Scotland had 934 registered drug-related deaths in 2017 and the highest rate per head of population of anywhere in the EU.

Of 6,738 hate crimes in 2017/18, two-thirds were race-related. That means that every day in Scotland. Nearly two-thirds of Muslim women in Scotland have witnessed or experienced a hate incident or crime. Every day in Scotland, there are about 12 cases of racist hate crime that prompt a complaint to the police. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf described Protestant-Catholic sectarianism as a “vile cancer” afflicting football and warned clubs they needed to “step up”. 

In 2017/18, 2,255 rapes and attempted rapes were reported to the police, resulting in 107 convictions.

George Bernard Shaw described patriotism as “fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it”

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/ten-reasons-scotland-should-be-ashamed-of-itself-ian-johnston-1-4907063

How is society likely to evolve in the future?

The many discoveries of all the sciences, from astronomy to nuclear physics, amply demonstrate that the universe as we know it today is in perpetual evolution. Nature is in constant movement, continuously changing. Mankind itself is the product of this uninterrupted evolution of nature from inanimate matter right through to a living, intelligent being. Historical materialism is the science that studies one particular form of evolution – the evolution of human society. It is the evolution of “human society”, rather than of individual men, for a society cannot be reduced to a collection of individuals any more than a human being can be reduced to a sum of cells. Society is a specific reality whose evolution is governed by a specific set of laws. Society has been evolving ever since the beginning of humanity.

Despite some inadequacies, Marxism explains the social phenomena accompanying the evolution of society by society’s constant need to ensure its subsistence and reproduction, and its tendency to try and reduce its operating costs (to put it somewhat crudely). This explains why in its struggle to survive and reproduce, human society has at times been obliged to engage in some activities judged rather severely by the moral standards of today, such as slavery. This also explains why society came to be and is still divided into social classes, a reality that socialism is the means to ending. did not invent human aspirations for a just, egalitarian and free society; men have cherished this dream for a very long time. What socialists did was to take these aspirations and shape them into a revolutionary project to achieve the better society to which mankind aspires. Economic expansion accompanied by widespread suffering and injustice is not desirable social progress. A society motivated by the drive for private gain and special privilege is not progress. The hungry, oppressed and underprivileged of the world must know social democracy not as a smug slogan but as a dynamic way of life which sees the world as one whole, and which recognizes the right of every body to the highest available standard of living.

The aim of the Socialist Party is the establishment by democratic means of a cooperative commonwealth in which the supplying of human needs and enrichment of human life shall be the primary purpose of our society. In spite of great economic progress and expansion, large sections of people do not benefit from the increased wealth produced. Wealth and economic power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a relatively few. The gap between those at the bottom and those at the top of the economic scale has widened. Billions still live in want and insecurity, deprived of a decent life, condemned to a cheerless life. In short, the world is characterized by glaring inequalities of wealth and by the domination of one group over another. The growing concentration of private wealth has resulted in the economic dictatorship by a privileged few over the many.

The world's productive capacity is not fully utilized. Its use is governed by the dictates of private economic power and by considerations of, private profit. The drive for profit has despoiled our rich resources of soil, water, forest and minerals. This lack of social planning results in a waste of our human as well as our natural resources. Our human resources are wasted through social and economic conditions which stunt human growth, through unemployment and through our failure to provide adequate education. We need the wise development and conservation of its natural resources. Our industries can and should be operated as to enable our people to use fully their talents and skills. Such an economy will yield the maximum opportunities for individual development and the maximum of goods and services for the satisfaction of human needs. Unprecedented scientific and technological advances have brought us to the threshold of abundance for all. Opportunities for enriching the standard of life are greater than ever now. However, unless careful study and intelligent planning to meet the potential benefits for humanity, the evils of the past will be multiplied in the future. The technological changes will produce even greater concentrations of wealth and power and will cause widespread distress through unemployment and the displacement of populations. The challenge facing working people today is whether future development will continue to perpetuate inequalities or whether it will be based on principles of social justice.

The Socialist Party reaffirms its belief that our society must build a new relationship among people--a relationship where everyone will have a sense of worth and belonging, and will be enabled to develop his or her capacities to the full, working together in the people's interest. The Socialist Party will not rest content until every person in all lands is able to enjoy equality and freedom, a sense of human dignity, and an opportunity to live a rich and meaningful life as a citizen of a free and peaceful world. This is the cooperative commonwealth which the Socialist Party invites the workers of the world to build.

For people whose clothes are in rags we don’t offer to stitch them together with patches. We offer to make new and better clothing. The Socialist Party always put the interests of the working class first and foremost.

Elvis Costello's Shetland Connection

A nationwide NUS strike began in January 1988. It was organised in solidarity with workers in the Isle of Man who had been sacked for not accepting new contract terms.

The union had negotiated a weekly ferry service that acted as a lifeline for the Shetland Islands. It would carry essential supplies for the islands, and staff would not take payment - rather the money would go to charity. But some crew from the St Clair ferry joined the picket, meaning it would not make the Shetland sailing.

Shetland's Folk Festival has always been ambitious - bringing international artists to community halls, bars, and an audience that otherwise may not have been able to see them. An inescapable part of the experience for visiting artists is to make the journey up from Aberdeen on the overnight, 14-hour ferry.  The strike action put the festival at risk.

Elvis Costello negotiated the passage of the ferry in exchange for performing a benefit concert for the workers on his return to Aberdeen. He probably single-handedly saved the Shetland Folk Festival that year.

Good to his word, he hired the Aberdeen Music Hall and performed a variety concert in May 1988. In Melody Maker, he was reported as saying: "I agree with the NUS side of things. Anything we can do to get publicity for them...must be good. I spoke to the pickets and they are just ordinary blokes trying to protect their jobs."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-47879328

Is there a future?

When the Socialist Party points to the continual struggle between employers and workers, and to the accompanying strife and ill-will as evils which are inseparable from a social system in which property is owned by one class and wealth is produced by another, we are often met with the answer that the discord, the strikes and lock-outs, are the result not of the economic organisation, but of the defects of the human beings concerned. Capitalism is systemically and inherently hard-wired not just to exploit labour power and to concentrate wealth and power in ever fewer hands, but also to push a livable planet passed its existential tipping points.

We cannot understand the mental acrobatics of so-called socialists who propose to take office in order to continue capitalism. Not being a class party, the Labour Party cannot obviously be a working class Party. Such an accommodating party can, therefore, find it easy to secure “rich friends” and finances from the only other section of society, apart from the working class—the capitalists. What Labourites, in woeful ignorance, or wilful deceit, calls bits of socialism, are merely state-owned or government controlled departments of capitalism. These the capitalists prefer not to own for their own convenience. 

Socialism means common ownership and democratic control of the means of life by the whole of the people. Such cannot be brought about in bits and pieces by any party or government; it can only be established as a system of society, when there are a greater number seeking socialism than there are opposed or apathetic to it. The Labour Party shows that they are prepared to take office with non-socialist support. The Labour Party must, therefore, if elected without the endorsement for socialist reconstruction, must carry on the present system. Be their intentions the most honest, they are powerless to avert or remove the evil the present system begets, notwithstanding the remedies they propose if elected. When our fellow-workers, through education, become socialist in outlook, they will elect and control socialist delegates. They will cease to be followers and will be leader-free.

We can change it all if we want it all, and surely we do seek everything for everybody. Without bold and focused action, our future is in critical danger. If there is no future for a mass worldwide socialist movement then there can be little chance for humanity in the future. We either transcend the capitalist system by constructing a new society or we face the common ruin of all. Failure to establish the alternative to the profits system will bring what Arundhati Roy has called “the endgame of humanity.” It’s “socialism or barbarism...if we’re lucky” (Ivan Meszaros).

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called capitalism "irredeemable."

"Capitalism is an ideology of capital — the most important thing is the concentration of capital and to seek and maximize profit," she explained, during an interview. "To me, capitalism is irredeemable," she added.

The irony here is that AOC isn’t really a socialist. She is a progressive neo-New Dealer who calls for the reform of capitalism, not its abolition.

Change the World

We live now in a time of recession. One effect of the recession is to cause a lot of misery to a lot of people whose big mistake was to take what they thought was their big chance when they thought the time was ripe. They committed themselves to a massive debt. They were confident that the market would continue to rise. They simply couldn't lose. We all know what happened next. The economic situation which the pro-capitalist pundits claimed to have designed and constructed to work to the eternal benefit of everyone ready to take their chance, and which would last for ever, abruptly changed. There is now no shortage of experts to tell us what went wrong for the investing class. They borrowed too much money. They ran their affairs like there was no financial tomorrow. This presented few problems as long as the boom lasted, as long as sales went up taking profits with them. But when the slump began to bite, the big borrowers had difficulty in just paying the interest on their massive debts. They borrowed to seize what looked like a great opportunity; in the event it turned out to be a trap. Pressure of competition pushed the banks into lending; if one backed off there were plenty of others only too willing to exploit what they saw as an unending source of profit. The banks have now been brought face to face with the realities of capitalism— that it is a system of unpredictable swings, falls and rises, not to be controlled by financial experts or economists or politicians. At times it seems to offer the opportunity to some individuals or some firms to get rich fast. If they missed the opportunity they would not be working the system as they should. With luck it comes out right for them; in other circumstances there is disaster. And none of them, from the heights of the City of London or Wall St to the manager at your high street bank branch shows that they understand how the system works and that it cannot be controlled. Reformers traded off their vision and hope of the socialist future for a few privileges and comforts of the present, sharing out the crumbs.

We cannot leave political control in the hands of the ruling class.To think that Parliament can be used as the means of permanently improving the conditions of labour, by passing a series of acts, is to believe in parliamentarism. The Socialist Party is not a parliamentary party. It believes in entering Parliament only as a means of sweeping away all antiquated institutions which stand in the way of the industrial union owning and controlling the means of production. The Socialist Party is a revolutionary political organisation and therefore believes in revolutionary political action. It urges the workers to use their ballots to capture political power—not to play at politicians or pose as statesmen, but to use their votes to uproot the political State and to hand to our fellow-workers the constructive task of building up the administrative bodies of a socialist society. The attitude of the Socialist Party is clear and definite. It claims that the wealth of society is created by the workers. It claims that the workers must own all the processes of wealth production and control through all their various administrative councils. We carry this struggle on to the political field in order to challenge the power which the present ruling class wields through its domination of the State which it wins at the ballot box. We are convinced that the present political State, with most of its attendant institutions, must be swept away. There is no equivocation.The political State is not and cannot be a true democracy. It is not elected according to the industrial and social wants of the community. It is elected because the wealthiest section of society can suppress all facts through its power over the media. By its money the capitalists can buy up the mass media which then present false election issues. Voters are not asked to vote upon facts but only upon such topics as the TV and press, representing capital, puts before the workers. In order to achieve a peaceful revolution. Labour must capture the powers of the State at the ballot box

Humanity should be marching forward to socialism and freedom, not backward to barbarism. Outlived and outmoded capitalism has no secure future anywhere. The Socialist Party face the future with full confidence. And its task is to work for the common good of all. We possess a belief in mankind and its capacity to survive and improve. It is the recognition of reality, the most important and decisive reality there is. The gloomy prophets of doom see the obliteration of human society, but they ignore the history and the evolution of humanity, which demonstrates above all else the unconquerable will and capacity to survive and go forward. It is true that the human race, threatened with global warming and climate change, is indeed confronted with a problem of survival on this planet. But the human race will survive. And in order to survive, it will do away with the social system which threatens its survival. Socialism will win the world and change the world and make it safe and secure for all.

For a New World

We repudiate any idea of any socialist party "holding office" or "forming a government". The establishment of socialism will not be like a change of government, with the socialist party winning an election, forming a government and using its parliamentary majority to legislate socialism into being.

We do not say to fellow-workers: "Vote for us and we’ll introduce socialism for you".

What we say is: "If you want socialism, this is something you will have to do for yourselves; only you can establish socialism, not some party on your behalf".

What we are talking about is not a change of government nor a change to be achieved by a government, but a change in the basis of society—a social revolution, to be carried out by the actions of the immense majority. We advocate that this social revolution should be accomplished by democratic political means; so contesting elections, going into parliaments, etc will be involved, but the mechanics of electoral systems in particular countries are mere technical details. The important element is the socialist consciousness and democratic self-organisation of the working class who are the immense majority.

When the socialist movement has reached the stage when it is near to winning control of political power—the socialist political party really will be the majority working class organised politically for socialism. This means that it will be up to the socialist-minded majority itself to decide how to handle the sort of tactical issues you raise as hypothetical problems.

All we can say now is that whatever is decided will be decided democratically, in the light of the fact that socialism cannot be established unless and until a majority want it, and in accordance with the socialist principle that under no circumstances should socialists take on any responsibility for running capitalism.

The change-over to the situation you mention where a person elected for a locality would be the mandated delegate of the people of that locality won’t be able to take place until a classless society has been established. This, along with the procedures and practices it implies—report-back meetings, mandating conferences, referendums, right of recall, rotation of posts, etc— will in fact be the basis of the democratic decision-making structure of the new society. Socialists see society and the individual as reciprocal terms; the one couldn’t exist without the other.

We don’t want power; we want the majority to take power into their own hands. This in fact is the aim of the socialist revolution: to bring the means of production under the democratic control of all the people. But if this is the case why not organise just to take over the means of production? Why bother to also organise to win control of parliament and the state? This has been the main difference between us and those anarchists (by no means a majority, by a long way) who agree that common ownership can only come about through the majority organising themselves consciously and democratically.

We favour the socialist majority taking electoral action, as well as organising at their places of work, because we see this as the best way for them to ensure that the socialist revolution proceeds as smoothly and peaceably as possible. To try to ignore the state, whose role today is to uphold and protect capitalist property rights, would be a completely irresponsible policy as this would be to increase rather than minimise the risk of violence. Given the existence of a socialist majority, the sensible way to proceed would be to use the vote to take the control of parliament out of the hands of the supporters of capitalism, so neutralising the state while at the same time giving the socialist revolution an unchallengeable democratic legitimacy.

Unless you subscribe to the so-called “iron law of oligarchy" which says that elected representatives will always sell out, you have to explain why the socialist majority would be able to control the delegates it might send to some such extra-parliamentary body as a congress of workplace committees or a conference of neighbourhood councils (or whatever else it is you see as the alternative to parliament) but not those it sent into parliament. We say that, if they can do it in the one case, they can do it in the other too.

The phrase “workers’ control” is today frequently used as if it were some sort of definition of socialism. In fact it is not, implying as it does the continued existence of a working class and control of the productive system by units less than society. Clear thinking is uncommon on this whole question of workers’ control. It seems to be a slogan full of meaning. A closer examination discloses its inadequacy. 

The Socialist Party recognises the need for an organisation to arrange the affairs of society as a whole via a network of interconnected free federations of local communities with as much decentralisation as feasible. In our view the State, as a coercive instrument, only flourished in class societies and was the instrument whereby a ruling class controlled society. In the class-free society of the future there would be no coercive government machine, control would be purely administrative. With socialism, there could be no permanent conflict groups; society as a whole would exercise democratic control over the means of production.