Socialism, the future of humanity

The Socialist Party stands irreconcilably opposed to capitalism and works for the establishment of world socialism. Capitalism means anarchy of production; capitalism means profits come first. Capitalism means the control of our lives by a handful of powerful, giant corporations whose power must be broken! It can be done; it must be done. Is private property more sacred than human life? The people want a change from the misery and uncertainty of the old system, the system of capitalist exploitation and profit, and all the capitalist parties can only offer is the preservation of the old, discredited and bankrupt system. Ruling society and ruling you, is the capitalist class and they drive society to a new barbarism. The working class still follows the capitalist parties, still pursues capitalist politics. Big Business are eternally seeking ways and means to undermine and destroy the workers’ own organisations, the trade unions. They want to convert the workers into helpless serfs, unable to defend their hard-won rights and living standards.

 There are no “friends of labour” in the capitalist parties. The workers' only true friend is its own strong right arm. Capitalism offers charities, food-banks, and the gig economy. The bosses know this. That is why they are so intent on crushing the organised labour movement. They want no resistance from their victims. Fewer and fewer people are satisfied with the status quo but the powerful ideology of “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) has constrained many people’s political imagination and consigned them to political apathy. Our task as socialists is to convince them that there is, indeed, an alternative to capitalism.

Upon socialism, depends the future of humanity and of civilisation. The inauguration of socialism is the aim of the Socialist Party. That is the task of the working class. That is the road to human freedom. Capitalism, by its method of production, has brought isolated workers together and constituted them as a class in society. Capitalism has made the workers a class in themselves. That is, the workers are a distinct class in society, whether they recognise this fact or not. Historical development calls upon this class to reorganise society completely and establish socialism. To do this, the workers must become a class for themselves. They must acquire a clear understanding of their real position under capitalism, of the nature of capitalist society as a whole, and of their mission in history. They must act consciously for their class interests. They must become conscious of the fact that these class interests lead to a socialist society. When this takes place, the workers are a class for themselves, a class with socialist consciousness. Workers acquire this consciousness by a clear, thoroughgoing understanding of capitalist society, their position in it, and the need to replace this society with socialism. To imbue the workers with this rounded-out class consciousness, or socialist consciousness; to organise the struggle for socialism – that is the function of the Socialist Party, the only political organisation which advocates socialism. The Socialist Party challenges the capitalist system and proposes to remove it, (as if it were a cancerous growth on human society.) Socialism means a society of peace and plenty, instead of a society of war and hunger. Only the working class, which has nothing to gain and everything to lose under capitalism, can create a socialist world.

A Scottish Ecological Apocalypse

Outlining a apocalyptic scenario that the country could face within the next decade, Francesca Osowska, head of Scottish Natural Heritage, described numerous catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis which could leave the country with polluted waters, abandoned villages, dying forests and few remaining birds. Some of the biggest impacts include enormous wildfires which burned across swathes of the country in April and May, with one in Moray described as one of the largest wildfires seen in the UK in recent years. The country also faces the twin perils of both lack of water, and heightened risks of flooding, due to less rainfall, but rising sea levels which threaten low-lying coastal regions. Warming temperatures have already changed the timings of spring events such as leaf unfolding, bird migration and egg-laying, as well as fish abundance and spawning locations, according to the Scottish government. The country is failing to meet its own target to plant more trees with more land being given over to agriculture, while the salmon industry is already dealing with the impact of algal blooms due to climate change and pesticide use, and a surge in oil and gas exploration in the North Sea is expected to soon be under way which will further compound the problem.

“Let me paint you a picture of what we could have in Scotland in 2030,” Ms Osowska will say in her address at the Royal Society of Edinburghthis evening. “Imagine an apocalypse – polluted waters; drained and eroding peatlands; coastal towns and villages deserted in the wake of rising sea level and coastal erosion; massive areas of forestry afflicted by disease; a dearth of people in rural areas and no birdsong. All of this is possible, and there are parts of the world we can point to where inaction has given rise to one or more of these nightmare landscapes.”

Unlike the green economists, the Socialist Party has concluded that in a class-divided society where the means of living are used to serve the interests of the owners of private property any talk of finding a ‘common interest’, so that there is a change of course of market forces and consequently a greening of capitalism, is a fool’s errand. We have, therefore, consistently argued that, where classes exist, there are class divisions in the production and distribution of wealth with the subsequent inequality manifesting itself in a class struggle between two classes with diametrically opposed interests.

Built-in rivalry between the sections of the capitalist class always results in casualties in some form or another. At one end we have the everyday casualties of lay-offs and redundancies. Whilst at the other end from time to time inter-capitalist rivalry erupts into a full scale war – with extensive human casualties, refugees, communities being destroyed – and extensive damage to the environment and the destruction of wealth on a tremendous scale. It is these conditions of competition which make it extremely difficult to reach any regulatory agreement which can have a global application. When any such proposals come into conflict with the competitive self-interest of the various national sections of the capitalist class, the problems of winners and losers appears. This is usually announced in the media as, “There was a failure to reach an agreement over who is to pay the bill”. If market forces essentially cause and create environmental damage by literally encouraging an irrational human impact, how can you realistically expect those self-same forces to solve it? This conundrum will almost certainly intensify if globalisation picks up pace and the competition gets even tougher for the possession of scarce resources, especially energy and water.

But the conundrum does not end there since the system of capitalism is also dependent on economic growth and the accumulation of capital on a larger and larger global scale. And in order to achieve an accumulation of capital, market forces must not only create and produce commodities on a mass scale but also destroy them in a systematic fashion never known in human history. When confronted by barriers of environmental legislation which are designed to diminish the rate of expected profits and the accumulation of capital, the capitalists will do what they have always done in their search for short-term profits: finding or creating loopholes, moving the goalposts, corrupting officials, trying to bribe the local population with empty promises, or shifting the whole concern to an area or region where a more favourable reception is expected and profits maintained. 

Only when we are living in a society based on a system of common ownership, a society of free access where wage slavery has been abolished, money is obsolete, hierarchical structures pointless, class laws transformed into social rules, and production is geared to satisfying human needs, will we be in a position to minimise any environmental damage caused by human activity. Once we have reach this stage in human development and social evolution — where our interaction with the natural environment not only enhances our understanding of ourselves but also converges with a social recognition that we are as much dependent on nature as is nature dependent on us — so we will be able to start to tackle a rational clean up of the environmental damage which capitalism will have left in its wake. The lesson is that those concerned about global warming should direct their efforts to getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with a system where the Earth’s natural and industrial resources will have become the common heritage of all humanity. This will put a stop to the operation of the current economic imperative to seek and accumulate profits and will provide the framework for co-ordinated global action to deal not only with global warming but other current problems such as world poverty and constant war somewhere in the world. 

Working towards a socialist future

The Socialist Party is the party of the working class, in fundamental opposition to all other parties. It declares that the increasing wealth in the hands of the rich, side by side with the increasing misery and poverty of the proletariat, cannot be eliminated within the framework of capitalism unless the working class overthrows the capitalist class. It has as its aims the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a society in which the means of production will not be the private property of the few, will not be based upon profit and not be based on class division, The Socialist Party therefore is the deadly foe of capitalism and capitalist parties. It advocates the mobilisation of the entire working class in a direct fight against the capitalist system. It is part of a worldwide movement aiming to rally the workers of all lands for the common struggle for socialism. Socialism is possible but not inevitable. It is more urgently necessary in 2019. We begin our work with modest means and forces but with an unshakable faith in the future. Our tasks are of international significance.

In this period of recession, a fall in the rate of profit forces the capitalists to make up the loss by the most drastic steps. If they intend to continue to exploit the workers, they must change the ratio of necessary labour (wages) and surplus wages (surplus value) to their interest. The lengthening of the workday has given way to the speed-up and flexibility of the uber gig economy and the reduction of wages in order to reduce the necessary labour and increase the surplus labour to keep up the falling rate of profit. In crises, and in sections of the industrial structure the capitalists are still able to lengthen the workday, but the general trend is in the opposite direction, due to the developed productive forces which forces them to resort to speed-up and general wage cuts. The developed productive forces since the war have forced into the structure for the first time an absolute decrease of the number of workers employed in production, which opened the door for a permanent army of millions of unemployed workers.

Cancer must be cut out early or the body perishes. The time to act against the canker of capitalism is NOW when there is still time to cut it out with the least injury. That is the only way to reduce its anti-working-class politics.

In thinking about what socialism will be like people should realise what will be the outlook of those who establish socialism and what socialism itself will involve. Conditions determine the behaviour of people. When the mass of people have decided to abolish the conditions that cramp their minds and bodies they will already have recognised the evil of unsocial behaviour and the value to themselves of social behaviour. When the new society has got upon its feet the conditions that breed unsocial behaviour will have disappeared. Some inkling of this can be gained by the behaviour of people in tribal societies although tribal society is far short of the conditions that will obtain under socialism.

Under capitalism the aim is to make a profit out of what is produced and to reduce costs accordingly. With socialism no effort would be spared that would make work as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible.

All wars have sprung from economic motives. Speaking accurately there have been no religious wars; they have only been “so-called religious wars.” The economic motives have been cloaked by religion just as the last war was cloaked by such things as a fight for democracy. The motives are there even though the participants may not be conscious of them.

Many workers pass such remarks as “The case put by the Socialist Party is sound, BUT...” or “I would support you IF...” Such statements imply a recognition that socialism, offers the only remedy to present-day social evils together with a vague doubt as to how or when it can be established. The IFs and BUTs show that the full significance of the socialist alternative, the means by which it will be achieved and its place in the process of social evolution has not been completely grasped. The Socialist Party wants to clear away all doubts, its wants to prove our case to the hilt. Workers who attend will receive a warm welcome and will have all their questions answered in a comradely atmosphere. Don’t wait until the next election to get the “low down” on the many political sharks who will then be seeking their prey and cadging your vote. Get them in line and learn how you can take your place in the struggle to end wars, the wages system, class society and all the consequences that you abhor.

The Socialist Party recognises that a person's relations to another are dependent on very material conditions. In other words, our behaviour, our morals, even the way in which we amuse ourselves, can be related to the method which society employs at the present time to produce and distribute the things we need.

Mankind is not born with an inherent instinct to perform all the most insidious and diabolical cruelties to his or her fellow creatures. The capitalist does not oppose workers’ demands for higher wages and better conditions because of a desire to see millions of people squirm in poverty, filth and degradation. His economic position dictates his policy and if he ignored the rules he would soon find himself ousted from the markets by more astute members of his class, and possibly flung into the exploited class himself.

It is the capitalist system with all its ridiculous contradictions and anomalies that puts class against class, race against race and nation against nation. It is the capitalist system that twists and perverts people’s sense of values so that they are shocked and disgusted by sexual promiscuity but accept and condone the mass murder and butchering of millions of helpless people.

You do not need to delve into the mysterious labyrinth of the human mind to discover the reason for mankind’s inhumanity. The fault lies not in mankind but in mankind’s inability at the moment to understand and grapple with the economic machine which dominates his or her whole outlook and relationship with fellow beings. Once humanity has discovered the real cause of its problems, there is no power on earth that can stop us sweeping away capitalism and introducing a new form of society based upon different economic laws.

This will not only abolish persecution of one another but also the economic problems of war, insecurity and want. These things are the root of all the mental phenomena and disarrangement which our psychologists and moralists would have us believe can be cured and finally abolished if only we could learn to control ourselves a little better.

When the socialist asserted that the condition of the working class in capitalist society grows steadily worse, his work-mates just can't make it out. They compare certain aspects of their way of living with those of their fathers or to their earlier days and disagree. The socialist explains that the difference between the conditions and ways of living in the past and those at present make it very difficult to draw any comparison. The Socialist Party viewpoint is that the only way to estimate the progress made by the working class in society is in relation to the wealth they produce, or in relation to the wealth they could produce with the existing productive forces. From this aspect, what they receive in relation to what they produce, the standard of life they have compared with what they could have, the working class are worse off than they ever were. When colleagues hear this they say, “Well, I suppose, looking at it that way, you’re right, but things are a bit better.”

Capital is wealth used to extract profit. Profit arises from the difference between what the workers produce and what they receive, in other words from the exploitation, the robbery, of the working class. So more capital formation means more working-class exploitation.

Do the parties of capitalism offer any change to this continuing deterioration of the position of the working class in society? In their election manifesto both Tory and Labour pledged themselves to increase production and lower costs. Labour maintains this can be done better by state intervention and government and controls. The Tories claim that free enterprise and a minimum of State interference is the better method. For the working class, increased production means working harder, and lower costs means less wages, at least less wages in relation to what they produce. While capitalism lasts these conditions will remain. The only alternative is to study socialist propaganda and equip yourselves with the knowledge necessary to abolish capitalism and establish socialism.

Revolution is possible and it is necessary

The Socialist Party fully supports the just struggles of the working class. Our cause today is a vision of humanity free of exploitation, ignorance and strife, a cause of human freedom, peace and brotherhood. The Socialist Party vision is one of peace and social harmony, free forever from want, from race and national hatred and from sexual oppression and human exploitation. That vision is a vision of a world where the ever-expanding material and cultural needs of the people are satisfied by an ever-expanding technology that has freed humanity from toil. Today, the level of the means of production makes realising this cause possible. A movement is taking shape. The movement consists of the social activity of millions of people to reorganise society in harmony.

With little hope of a decent future, the millions of working people represent a political threat to the capitalists. Labour-replacing technology is producing a global glut of labour, both skilled and unskilled. Computers are replacing labour. Feeding us, housing us, taking care of our children, conceding our demands for a better life – no longer are these things necessary elements of making a profit for the capitalists. As production is modernised to compete on the world market, a huge and permanent increase in unemployment results, with all the social, political and economic consequences. Human labour is becoming worthless. As a result, wage rates are falling and working conditions deteriorating. Africa has been virtually written off, consigning its peoples to absolute poverty, political anarchy and destruction. The capitalists have reaped unprecedented profits from these changes. Increasingly, the ruling class is making its intentions clear. It is unable to solve the problem of growing poverty. Therefore, it is moving to tightly control the millions who will not starve in silence.

Revolution must win the war for the hearts and minds of the people. The ruling class’ tactics aim to disarm and divide the working class. When workers unite as a class, no force on Earth can stop them from taking what rightfully belongs to them. Our agitation and propaganda has to arm them with the understanding that the only thing standing between them and the wealth being generated is a tiny, vampire-like class of billionaires. The movement has to be merged consciously with its cause and its vision. This will not happen spontaneously. This task falls on the shoulders of the socialists. No movement can succeed without a cause. A cause arises as a vision of what’s possible, based on the objective economic and social forces that are in motion. The task of the Socialist Party is always agitation and propaganda to reflect the history-making transformation that society is going through.

What will be our future if we don't stop capitalism

The Socialist Party is not afraid of isolation. There are times when socialists, if they are to remain true to their principles, have no other alternative. For years we endured slander and lies in the struggle for our ideals. We survived. We are proud. We retract nothing and repent nothing. We are not afraid of isolation when circumstances impose it. Join the Socialist Party with its ideas and traditions. We urge all revolutionary workers to add their energies to the efforts in a common struggle to build a powerful party of revolutionary world socialism. Everyone who is a socialist ought to join the Socialist Party. If it is not exactly what you think it ought to be, get in and help make it right; for, through the referendum, the membership can make it what they will. It is the only party in which each and every member directly control by means of the party poll. To vote for the Socialist Party does not make you a party member. It is necessary to join the party organisation and pay dues. You may inquire why it is necessary for you to join the Socialist Party and pay dues. The reason is this. The Socialist Party is conducted in the interest of but one class. It is impossible to expect any other class to be interested in the welfare of your class, therefore, if you desire to better your condition in life you will have to unite with other members of your class in bringing about the desired results. When you formally join the party you have the same rights as any other member. In the Socialist Party the membership elect all officers by referendum vote, and all matters debated at conference are submitted to the membership by referendum vote to approve or disapprove.

Capitalist production results in dividing society into two classes, the capitalist class and the working class. These two forces of society, whose interests are diametrically opposed to each other, are naturally forced into a continuous class struggle, which can only end with the abolition of the wage and profit system. Under this system the wage workers own nothing but their labour-power, which they must sell to the capitalist in the open market in order to live, while the lion’s share of labour’s product flows into the pockets of the capitalists who buy and sell labour power for the sake of profit. The Socialist Party declares for the abolition of the wage and profit system, and for the introduction of the cooperative system of production and distribution. Capitalism has been tried and found guilty of untold crimes. It has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Capitalism exploits working people; capitalism breeds war, environmental destruction, poverty, slums, child-labour, unemployment; it regularly and inevitably calls forth crises of recession and factory shutdowns; it breeds racial hatred and religious bigotry, and makes a mockery of the words peace and security

You workers who find it impossible to make both ends meet, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to continue to support a system that will continue these deplorable conditions or will you be real men and women. Millions of men and women are determined that the children of tomorrow, shall be safe from the ravages of poverty disease and war. This is a beautiful, bountiful planet, abounding in natural resources. But they do not belong to the people. They belong to the corporations and the banks in a network of interlocking businesses, small and large – rail and air, mines and mills, public utilities, oil and chemicals, department stores, fast food, media, finance companies. There is also the highest degree of technical development and of industrial efficiency as well as productivity. But they do not belong to the people. The safety and health of the workers and their communities is not a consideration for the capitalist owners of industry. Labour saving and labour displacing technology such as automation and robotics that could be blessings to humanity to eliminate drudgery and heavy work, deprive workers of their jobs. Plenty can be produced for all, an abundance of food, clothing, shelter and means of education, amusement, travel, recreation, for all the people. "Heaven on Earth" is not a Utopian dream. The material basis is the utilisation of labour, machinery and materials to full capacity in planned socialist production and in socialised distribution. Produce for use and not for profit! Today, no matter how much is produced, none of it belongs to the people. If the products of farm and factory cannot be sold for a substantial profit they are stacked in warehouses and granaries and allowed to rot. We have "shortages" while “plenty” is hoarded and stored away. A small group of owners condemn millions of workers to a mere existence wage and throw millions out to starve. We can work, to live and support our families, only when they say so. When they nod their heads factories and mines close or open up. This is free enterprise; this is the profit system; this is private ownership; this is capitalism. It has produced war and more war, hunger and want, unemployment and misery, in the midst of untold wealth. It solves no problems for the welfare of the people. That a worker who is able, willing and anxious to work can be jobless, that the stench of the slums can arise in all our great cities, that a child can go hungry, should forfeit capitalism's right to continued existence. It's one world with the same hopes and dreams, heartaches, headaches, everywhere.

Is this the best of all possible worlds? Have you not wondered what you can do to help change these conditions? We are sure you have. Let us tell you what you can do.

The Socialist Party has no interests apart from the people, no narrow selfish "axe to grind." To be in the Socialist Party is not a career. We join through enlightened self-interest to work unselfishly so that by freeing the workers from wage slavery all humanity including ourselves is freed from greed and tyranny. "The greatest good for the greatest number" is the concept members of the Socialist Party practices. We strive unremittingly for all the interests of the people, to fight for our goal of socialism which will come more quickly through the solidarity, class consciousness and understanding. Our perspective of socialism becomes clearer and the need for it more imperative with each passing day, as history exposes the criminal inadequacies of capitalism.

A Socialist Party cannot properly or fully function without a wide, deep and firm base of a working class membership. We don't think we will build a mass revolutionary party by one-to-one recruitment of those convinced by our regular educational work. We explain to workers that it is yet not an adequate instrument to achieve a socialist world, and that it is an initial step to build a global revolutionary party. The Socialist Party holds the deepest conviction and confidence in the workers, their militancy, honesty and courage and their burning hatred of exploitation as well as their their power to free themselves and all mankind from all forms of oppression.

"Rise like lions after slumber,
In unvanquished number,
Shake your chains to earth, like dew,
That in sleep have fallen on you,Ye are many--they are few."

So sang the poet Shelley long ago.

We are proud of our Party. It is a tough world. But men and women like yourselves can understand comradeship and great ideals. Are you ready to join the Socialist Party.

Change the World

The Socialist Party hold many ideas about how to change society for the betterment of all of humanity. It had a vision of a world where all people work without compulsion, of order without government or authority and of peace without violence and coercion. The Socialist Party realised that there is a wealth of materials, technology and human power, enough to make possible a high living standard coupled with considerably less labour time per person than the current full-time job. The chaos of capitalist production and distribution of wealth can only be stopped by creating a new economic and social system based on human needs. It is apparent that the survival of life on Earth itself is also dependent on the overthrow of capitalism, for as long as it exists, profits for the few will come before human needs and environmental survival.

The Socialist Party agreed that the majority of working people must be the primary forces in stopping the capitalist class and its governments. When this vast majority of humanity realises that the inherent inequality and futility of capitalism are wrong and no longer acceptable, and when these people realise the power they have to shape society, they will shut down the system and take back the wealth sucked out of them by the rich minority.

The understanding of the need for an alternative to capitalism will come when leading voices show the validity of a free society, and because of mass disillusionment with the status quo and its violence, wars, prisons and poverty. Already this disillusionment appears to be affecting a majority of Americans, but positive alternatives to the current world situation are not yet being sought out, perceived or thought possible. Most people probably desire a socialist future, and if shown the options towards this possibility they could create such a conscious society, after an initial struggle with the leaders of the world capitalist minority. We all need to continue to insist that a free, positive culture is up to the people to create. When the majority does overturn the capitalists, the direction society takes will of course be up to those same people who have made the revolution. Capitalism, even in its profitable periods, is inherently weak, directly dependent upon the very people it oppresses and exploits.

The Socialist Party believe that the creation of a new state will perpetuate centralised power beyond the control of individuals. They contend that if the vast majority agree with the goals of a free and equal society, they could defend themselves in a coordinated way but control their own lives and communities at an individual and community level. That way, delegated decision-makers would not be beyond the reach of the people. Working people are entitled to full information about, and control over, the environmental conditions that affect their health and survival where they work and live. The poisoning and destruction of the environment is a crime that threatens human survival, and should be treated as such. 

Environmental and health standards must be established by working people and communities with full access to technical information and based on consultation with experts of their own choice. Community committees must be empowered to decide directly on projects to establish factories or use industrial processes that may adversely affect the local environment. Such committees must be empowered to gather full and accurate information about the relevant ecological and health issues, and to make their decisions on the basis of this information, not out of concern for corporate profits. Just as they must reject the false dilemma of having to choose between employment or cuts in wages, working people must reject arguments by the capitalists that they cannot afford to take the measures necessary to clean up and protect the environment, or that workers’ jobs will be threatened by environmental protection measures. Working people cannot afford bosses who put profits before the health of their employees and the community. 

Socialism Now More Than Ever

The two basic classes in our society, the working class and the bourgeoisie, are locked in a bitter struggle. The bourgeoisie represents the old system of exploitation and oppression. The working class represents the fundamental progressive force, the most consistent social force in the struggle to eliminate capitalism. It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. At the end of a work week the worker collects his pay. The capitalists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. he bosses get rich, not because they have “taken risks” or “worked harder,” as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and reduce the number of employees with speed-ups, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. And if the boss thinks he can make more profit somewhere else, he just closes his factory and throws the workers out on the street.

The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! Only socialism can respond to the just aspirations of the working class and the people. Working people will overthrow the capitalists and build socialism. 

Around the globe, the working class is in motion. The working class has always fought against the capitalists. There is a growing determination to overthrow this system of capitalist wage slavery and build world socialism. But although revolution is the main trend, we know that history proceeds through zigs and zags and that the struggle for revolution may suffer setbacks.

Our planet is rich in natural resources. It is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. A handful of capitalists control our world and make fabulous profits off the labour of working people. All the major means of production - the factories, the mines, telecommunications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of a few thousand capitalists who employ millions of workers. for the workers, the future is less and less certain. The exploitation and oppression gets worse every year. Our misery is created so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can continue to line their pockets. Capitalism is a system based on exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. The capitalists' spokespersons endlessly vaunt the merits of this system where “everyone has an equal opportunity,” and “democracy rules.” But the truth is that it is a hoax: a paradise for the rich and powerful, a trap and an illusion for the exploited and the poor.

The state is an economic tool by the wealthy. When the capitalists need to develop certain sectors of the economy that require large initial investments, when they need to protect certain industries that are essential to the entire ruling class (like transport), when they face bankruptcy or in sectors that produce little profit (health care hospital services), the state underwrites them them. Nnationalisation in no way mean the people control or benefit from these companies. It just means the workers of these nationalised companies are subjected to the same conditions as workers in private industry.

Prices rising faster than wages, redundancies and lay-offs where those out of work are piling up debts as our communities education, health care and transportation fall apart. And our cities are becoming more and more unlivable. To the great majority of its people the world is going to hell and politicians lying through their teeth. The capitalist rulers cannot continue to maintain capitalism without plunging into one war after another, in their quenchless thirst for more profit. They double-deal and double-cross others like them from other countries as the divide their ill-gotten gains and spoils. They keep saying they have solutions, but they all come down to one thing – we have to tighten our belts as they tighten the noose around our necks. They demand that the people sacrifice – and sacrifice some more. They tell us we will just have to get used to the fact that things are bad and will keep getting worse.

Things do not have to be like this, and people will never be satisfied living this way. All over the world people are rising up to fight back against those whose wealth and power have been built upon the backs of the world’s working people. More and more people are talking of revolution. At the very heart of this struggle is the basic conflict between the working class – the millions who have no means to live except through their labour, and whose labour is the driving force in society – and the capitalist class – the handful who do no productive work but live and accumulate billions from the labour of the workers, and continually grind the workers down in accumulating more. The working class possesses tremendous potential power to change the world, a fact that is shown every day in the process and product of its labour and in its many struggles against capitalism. It is the task of the working class to wield its mighty power to remake society to serve the interests of the great majority of the people.

The great store of society’s wealth is created by the millions of workers who with their labour mine, grow, and transport raw materials, construct machinery, and use the machines to transform raw materials into finished products. The machines, raw materials and other means of production created by the workers are an important part of the productive forces of society, but the most important part is the working class itself without whose labour the means of production would rust and rot. But in the hands of the capitalists the means of production become tools for the continued enslavement and impoverishment of the working class. Production is on a massive scale, but with the present economic relations, the basic producers, the workers, are increasingly unable to buy masses of goods they have produced. Goods pile up and stare the workers in the face, for lack of one thing – money. Under the capitalist system, production only takes place if those who control production, the capitalists, can make profit from it. And they can make profit only by wringing it out of the workers, and constantly pushing their wages down to the lowest level, allowing the workers only enough to keep working and to bring up new generations of workers to further enrich capital.

Part of the workers’ labour covers the cost of maintaining themselves and their families–their wages–and the rest is unpaid labour that produces surplus value for the capitalists, the source of their profit. This exploitation of the workers to create private profit for the capitalists is the basis of the whole capitalist system and all its evils. Capital chases after the highest rate of profit, as surely as iron is drawn to a magnet–this is a law beyond anyone’s will, even the capitalists’, and it will continue in force so long as society is ruled by capital. Owning and appropriating a part of the total capital of society privately, each capitalist must try to enlarge his share at the expense of the other capitalists. Capitalists therefore repeatedly introduce new machines and technology to try to produce goods faster and more cheaply, in order to grab more of the market from their competitors. But this machinery and technology costs the capitalists additional money without bringing additional profit–which can only be gotten from the labour of the workers. So there is the constant tendency for the capitalists’ rate of profit to fall, which constantly leads to desperate attempts on their part to push the rate of profit up, to the highest level possible. Capitalists battle each other for profit, and those who lose out go under, even huge corporations can collapse. While each capitalist tries to plan production, the private ownership, the blind drive for profit and the cut-throat competition continually upset their best-laid plans, and anarchy reigns in the economy as a whole.

Capitalists constantly pull their capital out of one area of investment and into another, along with bringing in new machines to speed up production. Some capitalists temporarily surge ahead and expand while others fall behind or are forced out of business altogether. With each of these developments, thousands of workers are thrown into the streets and forced once again to search for a new master to exploit them. All this is why, from its beginning, capitalism has gone from crisis to crisis. And the way the capitalists get out of these crises only lays the basis for worse ones – they destroy goods and even the means to produce goods, scramble to grab up more markets, and a bigger chunk of the existing ones, and increase their exploitation of the workers. The strongest capitalists survive, and in surviving concentrate more of the means of production in their hands and hurl more of the smaller producers into the ranks of the working class. As capitalism develops, society more and more divides into two antagonistic camps–at one pole tremendous wealth and greater concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer hands; at the other pole tremendous misery for the millions who can live only by working for the owners and can work only so long as they produce profit for them.

Through all this, and especially in times of the sharpest crisis, the basic contradiction of capitalism stands out all the more starkly: production itself is highly socialised–it requires large concentrations of workers, each performing part of the total process and all essential to its completion, and it is capable of massive output on this basis; but the ownership of the means of production and the appropriation of the wealth produced is “private”–in the hands of a few, competing owners of capital. But so long as capitalism is not overthrown, it finds some way out of the crisis – temporarily.

Through a series of such crises large corporations have come to dominate and monopolise the major industries. Banks have increasingly merged their capital into industry, creating finance capital and monopolising credit as well, interlocking it with industry. Monopoly or duopolies has become the rule where competition once was, but competition still exists, and in fact grows more intense – between different monopoly capitalists within these countries and internationally, and between the monopolies and smaller capital that seeks to expand and challenge the existing monopolies. Anarchy and the chase of competing capitalists after higher profit remain in effect. The laws of capitalism remain in force, especially the commandment: “expand or die.” The market of the “home” country is too limited for the continued expansion of capital. So, backed by the military might of their governments, the monopolies penetrate into every possible part of the globe, not only or mainly to sell goods, but to exploit labour, grab up supplies of raw materials–for their own production process and to keep them out of the hands of the competitors-and to set up production in other countries to “secure” their markets.

The undeveloped or developing nations they have made into indirect colonies and distort their economies to fit their own profit drives, allying with the local landlords capitalists and government officials in these nations, and turning them into their junior partners in the plunder, keeping these countries in an enforced state of backwardness, in order to rob their resources and make profits . To back up this international robbery they ring the globe with their armed forces. These monopoly capitalists are modern-day imperialists, having empires far greater than the ancient Roman, Greek, Persian and Ottoman rulers.

It is impossible to “reform” capitalism. The only solution is to go forward, to socialise the ownership of the means of production and the appropriation of the products of production. This requires a political revolution, the overthrow of the rule of capital by the working class, which, in its socialised productive labour, represents the embryonic organisation of the future, socialist society. The working class as a whole never ceases battling for its day to day needs. This resistance to capital erupts in a great upsurge of rank and file struggle. Despite the divide and conquer schemes of the rulers, the unity of the working class is being built through these struggles. Increasingly united the working class is intensifying its mighty war against capital. For the workers, capitalist “freedom” means in essence the freedom to choose between toiling for some capitalist or starving - and in times of economic recession even the first choice can disappear.

Now is the time to overthrow the capitalist system and build a completely new kind of society. It has become possible for the people to finally take their place as masters of society and break all social chains enslaving the producers and shackling production itself.

AAARG...Not another one

The political scene is really buzzing here in Scotland. The Labour Party is in turmoil. Nicola Sturgeon on a visit to Dublin, said her preference was for another independence referendum vote in the latter half of 2020.

The nationalist argument, as propounded by the SNP is very simple ― and wrong. The people of Scotland, the SNP say, suffer because they are misgoverned from England; what they need is an independent nation of their own so that they could begin to solve their problems. In fact the problems faced by workers in Scotland are basically the same as those in Britain or Ireland or any other country; they are caused by international capitalism and can only be cured by world socialism. The setting up of more frontiers in the world would be irrelevant and a waste of time. The simple truth is that capitalism will be just the same as far as the working class are concerned. What is required is another system of society, not new management for the old one.

 Members of the Socialist Party reject allegiance to any nation-state and regard ourselves as citizens of the world. We accept the boundaries between countries as they are (and as they may change) and work within them to win control of each State with a view to abolishing them all. Our aim is the establishment of a world community without frontiers.

The Socialist Party echo Burn's desire for the day 'That man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a' that'. This will be a fact when the world's wealth, owned in common, can be utilised for the satisfaction of all mankind. 

When it is darkest, the dawn is not far away

Many have heard the saying, “socialism or barbarism” which is growing more and more into reality with the approaching consequences of global warming and the climate crisis. Socialism cannot be built on the ruins of capitalism by destitute beggars striving for bare survival. The Socialist Party always said that the future belongs to socialism despite what appears to be dim prospects when the very word “socialism” seemed to almost dropped out of the political vocabulary. The word's connotation has been with what existed in the former Soviet sector of the world when socialism has become synonymous with tyranny, a sad fate for a word which in better days was linked always with liberty. With the concept of socialism reaching rock bottom it had no place to go but up. And up it in popularity it has gone, without a doubt. The calamities and looming catastrophes of our current social system is forcing people to wonder if there is not some other way out and once again they are looking towards people who call themselves socialists if there is a socialist movement worthy of the name as an alternative to barbarism. There is a reawakening of interest in socialism. Many are willing to listen, for deep down they know there is something rotten with the way things are. There is an increasing recognition that what Karl Marx had to say a over hundred years ago has a good bit of application today, and shows people where hope lies. The new socialist movement will be based on people who can free themselves of their miseducation

The Socialist Party is thinking of a future in terms of sustainable development where humanity looks to understanding nature’s laws and working in harmony with them, rather than treating nature as the enemy. We do not believe in the permanence of capitalism. We aim to build – and we invite you to join us in building an honest party that tells the truth to the workers, a democratic socialist party with the goal of nothing less than the conquest of the capitalist world. All the material conditions for this victory of humanity are in place. Socialism on the order of the day and the workers’ revolution is the means to realise it. Political power is wielded by social classes through political parties. The transference of power from one class to another is not an automatic process. The party of socialism, facing a well-organised capitalist class highly conscious of its interests, must strive to excel the enemy in both organisation and conscious will. It cannot, if it is to reach the historic goal, be an amorphous all-inclusive society of undisciplined dabblers. A party with a vague programme, or, worse still, no principles at all, would be like a someone without ideas. People learn from all their experiences, whether positive or negative. More optimistic are we that out of the present ferment in the environmentalist campaigns and the coming radicalisation of the participants we see the emergence of a revolutionary socialist movement.