Right and Wrong

What is the nature of our civilisation? What is the controlling force which is guiding our destinies, and regulating our actions towards our fellow-workers? What is the nature of the system; could it be replaced by a better, or a worse, one. The present system cannot hold for ever. That the present social system has failed must be apparent to all who have studied it. It has rendered the many subservient to the few; it has checked the best human endeavours, and facilitated every method of exploitation; it disinherits the great mass, and foreordains their lifelong misery before they are even born; it makes one dependent upon another’s caprice, instead of making someone dependent on his or her own energies; it is incentive to plunder. It is labour alone which supplies all human wants. It is the labourer alone who carries on civilisation, satisfied all human wants, and keeps the race alive.

The misery of the people is growing and attempts to cover this up, to mesmerise people with via the media haven’t worked. In their vision of the future there are radical reformers who claim capitalism has been able to brainwash people into compulsive consumption, thereby holding down revolt by a glut of goods and high standard of living. Environmentalists argue that people instead of fighting state power and set up working-class urge counter-institutions and counter-communities under capitalism, with communities of cooperatives as their prime example. Some radicals aim at taking power in the city on the basis of radical politics and at radical restructuring of the regional economy. How, exactly, does one take and hold power in one city. Power is not just invested in the local, regional, or state government. There is no such thing as regional economy, a closed system doing without the rest of the world.

Automation and cybernetics has led to an intensification of the class struggle, not its lessening. Under capitalism they are used against the interests of the people. Progressives would have us struggle to break the “work-income connection” (i.e., people should be paid whether they work or not). They call it the “universal basic income”, giving the workers a larger slice of the economic pie will reinforce their support of capitalism. With socialism, automation and cybernation will be advanced and developed. They can serve the people, make life easier for them.

Socialism is the system of society that will carry on production FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS to supply the needs of babies, their mothers and their fathers – and to hell with foreign trade for profits and international wars for foreign trade. Capitalism is based on the robbery of the workers. Those who own industries but do not work in them, pay wages to the workers and keep profits to themselves. But both, profit and wages, are only the product of labour. Wages are part of the total product paid to labour. Profit, generally the biggest part, capitalists appropriate to themselves and call it their “legal share.” Socialists know nothing of “legal share” nor of “reasonable profits,” as all wealth, however little, acquired without labour is robbery. All our political institutions are destructive and reactionary.

The wage system implies the existence of two economic classes. “Fair day's work and fair day's wages” imply a question of right and wrong. How-ever, this is a class society composed and divided in robbers and robbed and each class has its own notion of right and wrong, fair and unfair. At any rate, if labour produces all wealth—what else is a fair day's work except the one the workers will legislate in their union hall stating how many hours to work and that fair payment will be the en-tire products to the producers? Under it the workers suffer, it means no end of strife, therefore from the standpoint of the workers it is Wrong and it is Right to get together as a class and abolish the wage system, and in its place erect the co-operative common-wealth.

The employers well realise that once the workers begin to seriously organise as a class, with class hopes and ideals, and look out for themselves as a class, with interests distinct and opposed to all other classes, that once the spirit of solidarity takes firm hold in the hearts and minds of the workers. We would lose our chains, our miseries, but gain the world for all the workers, a world fit for men and women to live their lives in freedom of love and labour.

The slavery of the workers by the politically-created and politically-fostered monopoly of property, and the robbery of the labourers by rent, interest, profit, and taxation, must be abolished – abolished peacefully, expeditiously, and permanently. We must start from where we now stand, and despite all the disadvantages which surround us, and with all the ignorance, all the bigotry, all the intolerance, and all the debasement and cowardice which characterise the down-trodden millions, we must side by side make our way along the path which so many have found slippery, until we reach the long-cherished goal of labour’s emancipation. We, slaves as we are, have to emancipate ourselves. It can be done. It must be done. It shall be done. 

Edinburgh Branch Meeting (6/6)

June 6, 7:00 pm

The Quaker Hall,

Victoria Terrace (above Victoria Street),

Edinburgh EH1 2JL

To win workers to organise for socialism is a massive task and it is easy to be demoralised and deceive yourself that there is an easier way to initiate the new system. But there is no alternative to the hard work being carried out by The Socialist Party — and the sooner those who want us to succeed join us, the sooner it will be done. It is not easy to join the Socialist Party. It is not just a matter of filling in an application form and receiving a little red membership card. No other political organisation requires potential new members to understand their aims and be capable of arguing for them. Our message to those who can see no future so long as the market economy remains is join us— and help make history.

History is littered with abortive attempts to reform capitalism. You cannot reform this system out of existence. What we need is a complete and utter change of society. We are not saying that workers shouldn’t try to get the best they can out of capitalism, but that’s the job of trade unions and other similar organisations, not of a socialist political party. History shows that a party that advocates reforms inevitably becomes the prisoner of its reform-minded supporters and eventually ends up giving only lip-service to the socialist transformation of society. The only place for socialists is inside a socialist organisation, completely independent 'of all other political parties. This, we say, is the only way of carrying on socialist promotion and campaigns free from compromise and from distracting side issues. We are socialists because we believe literally that socialism is the sole hope of the working class. We are independent because that is the only safeguard against confusion and compromise and the growth of non-socialist tendencies in our own ranks.

It is common for our critics to characterise the Socialist Party as some sort of exclusive Marxist club and a moribund sect, that is, when they haven’t chosen to ignore us completely. The Socialist Party is no sterile, unthinking organisation full of dogmatists. Is the Socialist Party some sort of dogmatic sect which refuses to admit the impure into its hallowed temple? This question is put by those who sneer at our principles because they themselves have none and find political principle an embarrassment. No, we are not out to maintain a small, select party. On the contrary, we are anxious to recruit members, and recruit them fast into the ranks of our movement. We do not expect every new member to have read the complete works of Marx or deliver lectures on subjects of theoretical complexity. All that we require is basic socialist knowledge: What is capitalism? What is socialism? What do we mean by socialist revolution? How can it be brought about? What is our position on religion, reforms, Russia — the three Rs. In short, we will only accept socialists into the Socialist Party, in much the same way as a golf club will only accept members who want to use the greens to play golf on, not bowls. The movement must prefigure its aim; the end must determine the means.

Adopting a socialist view means looking at the world from a class perspective instead of a national one. It is understanding how and in whose interest today's world is organised, envisaging how a socialist society can be established, and appreciating how socialism will improve people's lives. Socialism has nothing to do with organising capitalism. So isn't it time to break free of the deceptions, to acknowledge the reality and to join the struggle for socialism? The choice is simple. You can either watch helplessly as the world's problems intensify and threaten the very existence of humanity or join the movement to end capitalism and build socialism. If you're a socialist your place is in the Socialist Party. There is no middle course. Whilst the capitalist system continues, so will the socialist analysis continue to have a timeless relevance. A democratic system organised solely for needs would bring not just a sane way to live but a world-wide celebration of all that is best in being human. This could be so easily within our grasp. There is nothing in the human make-up that prevents this from becoming a reality. We are all capable of co-operating in each other's interests. We are still working to make socialists. Still lacking, unfortunately, is a conscious, political majority of socialists eager to move society on to the next phase of social evolution.

We advocate the only policy which we believe to be consistent with our principles: that is the adoption of an uncompromising attitude which admits of no arrangements with any section of the capitalist party or of those supporting any section of the capitalist party nor permits any compromise with any individual or party not recognising the class war as a basic principle and not prepared to work for the overthrow of the present capitalist system. In advocating this policy, we recognise that, in the political field, there are only two parties: one, for the retention of the present system; and the other, the social democratic, organised for its overthrow. Therefore, all entering into political action must join either one side or the other.

Freedom or Slavery?

Sick and weary of the conflicting tactics and vacillating policy of the left-wing the members of this party, some of them veterans in the workers' movement, raise the red flag from the mire through which it was being dragged, and are proud of being members of The Socialist Party. To combat the confusing effects of the compromise and opportunism of the Left, we fully realise that all our time and energies are required for the work of educating our fellow-workers to a clear conception of the causes of their misery, and of organising them so that they will concentrate all their efforts upon the capture of the political machine which is held and used by the master class as an instrument of oppression and exploitation. We have no time, therefore, to waste in appeals to the capitalist class for measures of reform, because we know that nothing short of complete economic freedom, and nothing short of the overthrow of capitalism, will put an end to the despotic system under which the robbery and oppression of the worker goes on. The Socialist Party wants what the oppressor will never give. The workers themselves must achieve their emancipation. “Who would be free must strike the blow." It is our part to show the worker how the blow must be struck.

Alleged labour leaders, who so far as discernible, do everything to confuse the minds of the working class as to their correct position, and as a consequence the working class are apathetic and indifferent regarding their social welfare. The work of this Party is to give a clear exposition of the conflict of interests between the working class and the master class, which in this district is made most intensely manifest, to arouse that enthusiasm which arises from class consciousness, and to organise the workers into The Socialist Party determined to wage war against capitalism and all its supporters, with the ultimate object of securing its complete overthrow. We realise that for some time to come considerable clearing away of misconceptions will be necessary before the socialist party shall reap the full reward of its campaigns. If all sincere socialists would but appreciate the importance of being associated with an organisation such as ours, based as it is upon sound principles, and pursuing as it does a straight and clearly defined policy, how much more effectively would we be able to accomplish the work we are called upon to do. Our case for socialism is presently the only solution for the many evils and problems that exist around us. As well as may be, we are doing the work the Socialist Party is called upon to do—the preliminary spade work necessary to the organisation of a class conscious working class party—and doing it in face of the added difficulties of reform parties—born of the ill-informed and misdirected exuberance of a few local reformers—inevitably create. The number of these parties do much to distract and divert our fellow-workers attention from the consideration of the real problem underlying their condition, so that workers do not readily appreciate their class standing and the necessity for organisation upon the basis of the class struggle as the indispensable condition of successful conflict with capitalism. Every one of the reformist left-wing parties is simply a further factor making for working class confusion—simply one more division of the available working class awareness that might otherwise be focused upon the root causes of, and real remedies for, working class ills; one more obstacle that will have to be overcome.

What the workers want is a straight lead upon a clear issue, and it is precisely because they have never had the one given them, and the other kept plainly before them ; it is precisely because they have been led to follow the fantasy of reform, and have found themselves at the end of their journey in very much the position they formerly occupied, that they to-day are sullen, disconsolate, and recalcitrant. And so the reformer must go into the category of working class enemies, and must be fought as strenuously as the hard-grained proletarian ignorance and apathy, the more so because he or she is the apathy producer, the ignorance perpetuator

The Scottish Drought

Scottish distilleries have revealed that during last year’s heatwave, they had to halt production because they ran out of water. In a summer marked by high temperatures and little rainfall, water levels in springs and rivers fell so low that in the Scottish Highlands some whisky makers missed up to a month’s production.

“We lost the whole of September,” said Callum Fraser of the family-run Glenfarclas distillery on the River Spey. While some whisky makers take their water from the river, Glenfarclas – which means “valley of the green grass” – has its own private water supply. “It’s a natural spring, and it was dry,” said Fraser.

The month’s pause saw Glenfarclas production down by up to 300,000 litres, he added. Rumours abound of other distilleries seeing similar problems. “We weren’t the only one, just the most vocal,” he added.

Further south near Pitlochry, the Edradour distillery lost a few days’ production last year for lack of water. Its owner, Andrew Symington, said the neighbouring river runs visibly lower each year. Edradour now plans to install costly cooling towers to mitigate the effect of lack of water in the future.

The prolonged heat and longer dry spell meant even Scotland – known for soggy and temperate summers – had to cope with drought. Grasses stopped growing, which meant the Highland Games had to be cancelled, and wildfires spread in places they’d never previously been seen.

At some points last summer the Spey was running 97% lower than its normal minimum, and this winter has not brought enough rain to replenish it. “The water table hasn’t recovered yet, so it’ll be this year we see the full effect,” said Fraser. “We’ve still not had real rain yet.”

Experts fear that last year’s conditions may not be unusual in future. This week the environment agency is hosting a “drought summit” in London with water company bosses, as fears grow over similar temperatures this summer. Research has shown that last summer’s heatwave was made about 30 times more likely by the human-caused climate emergency. Some estimate that such heatwaves could be happening every other year by 2050 if emissions continue to increase.

Helen Gavin, who researches climate breakdown and drought at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, said such extreme events place stress on the environment and the economy. “There’s an impact already,” she said. “It’s not just hot and dry summers, but strange weather like we’ve just had – 18C in February, that’s just weird. And that messes up biological and agricultural cycles.” Gavin added, which first affects crop yields, then the cost of production and thus the price paid by consumers. “And it means if we take more water from the environment to try and save whisky, a farmer’s crop, or so we can still turn on the taps, it comes at a huge cost.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/02/scotland-whisky-climate-crisis-heatwave-distilleries-halt-production

Socialism is the way, the only way

Socialism, the revolt against the ruling class, is never so much alive as today. The ruthless march of the capitalists is daily recruiting new workers and making rebels out of both young and old by grinding down wages to the point of bare subsistence. As a consequence our fellow-workers are becoming revolutionary. All over the world the ruling classes are devising measures to stem the rising tide. Our chief task to spread the propaganda of revolution so apathy will disappear, and the Socialist Party will for the first time become a vital force in the struggle between capitalists and wage-workers.

Capitalism is a social system based on the class ownership of the means of production and maintained by the coercive power of the State. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is the political expression of the interests of the workers in this country. The economic basis of present day society is the private ownership and control of socially necessary means of production, and the exploitation of the workers, who operate these means of production for the profit of those who own them. The interests of these two classes are diametrically opposed. It is the interest of the capitalist class to maintain the present system and to obtain for themselves the largest possible share of the product of labour. It is the interest of the working class to improve their conditions of life and get the largest possible share of their own product so long as the present system prevails, and to end this system as quickly as they can. In so far as the members of the opposing classes become conscious of these facts, each strives to advance its own interests as against the other. It is this active conflict of interest which we describe as the class struggle. The capitalist state, by controlling the old political parties, control the powers of the state and uses them to secure and entrench its position. Without such control of the state its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the building of the new social system, the cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party seeks to organise the working class for independent action on the political field with the aim of putting an end to exploitation and class rule with the purpose of the emancipation of the working class, and the establishment of genuine liberty for all. To accomplish this aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the common ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production — to eliminate profit, rent, and interest — to change our class society into a society of equals, in which the interest of one will be the interest of all.

Socialism is not some Utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. Socialism will be won through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the seizure of political power by the working class. In socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. This can bring a qualitative improvement in the lives of the working people. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. Socialism does not mean government control. The state serves the interests of the capitalist class. Government involvement in the economy is state capitalism.

Our vision of socialism is that the means of production – the factories, mines, mills, big workshops, offices, agricultural fields, banks, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, big retailers, etc., will be transformed into social common property. Private ownership of the main means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people, and steadily advance. Because capitalism already has a developed and centralized economy, socialism’s main task will be to reorient this structure towards social needs. 

Redirecting the productive capacity to human needs will require a variety of economic methods and some experiment. There could be a combination of central planning and local coordination. Various policies might be used, depending on what will be appropriate to changing conditions. But no matter what means are chosen, a socialist economy must uphold the basic principles of common ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation. Socialism will realize the ideal “from each according to one’s ability, to each according to one’s need.” Classes will have disappeared, the state will “wither” away, and an exciting new era of human freedom and prosperity will arise.

The heart of capitalism is in its bank-balance

So-called capitalist intellectuals draw their huge salaries just so they can lie to the people in order to prove the system's permanency. The Socialist Party has written much about the anarchy of production that it would require volumes. Our speakers understood, and still understand the capitalists’ squandering of resources. The production of murderous technology used in wars we classify as useless and harmful. We point out that millions are hired to produce such armaments are not doing any useful or lasting work for society. If instead of spending such energy and efforts in destroying things it would change the picture of our society a great deal. The Socialist Party also point out how, purely for the sake of profit, products are manufactured from shoddy materials. How the interests of the capitalists is to make sure that these products wear out and become obsolete quickly, so that they will then need to be replaced, as this will insure the most profit for them. And we point out how much unnecessary work and wasted energy this means. In certain branches of industry, production has increased so much that the capitalists don’t dare apply new discoveries, because their practical use would have a destructive effect on the current system.

The Socialist Party differs from every other political party in that it has set up the abolition of the wage system as its standard. The Socialist Party formed with the goal of fighting an effective class war against the property-owners. The Socialist Party is working on changing the basic foundation of the current social system. We accepted Marx's analysis regarding surplus value as well as historical materialism. The State is just a servant of commerce, a form of management, forced upon us, that is inadequate for conducting a modern social system. The exploitation of the wage system continues. And it will continue, until the workers take control of the land, the mines, the factories and the means of production, and abolish the wage system (or as some call it, the price system.) We are wage workers, wage slaves, and we bear the suffering of this system. The abolition of the wage system is our organization’s expressed goal, to which we hold to with firm commitment and conviction. capitalism can only be affected by money and gold. It is a cruel system which it rules unmercifully. Its convulsive grip and its terrible use are expressed in profit, poverty and want.

The future does not belong to those who are subservient. Let us organize, read, and learn, because we have no time to lose. The Socialist Party promises nothing, but if we become its members , the reward for our struggle will be a new, free, and happy system. A system in which there are no more classes, no more wage workers and no more parasites. A system, which will not be led by the privileged but carefully guarded by society’s producers. 

No Future in Separatism

5000 Scottish independence supporters, organised by the pro-independence group All Under One Banner, marched through Galashiels in the latest in a series of similar rallies

Socialists defend the rights of the human being not just in the legal and political dimensions but in the most fundamental economic dimension which was once called industrial democracy. Nationalism, presents itself as a version of the ideals of justice and equality, yet look what message nationalists have. The whole essence of nationalism is support for one’s own ruling class – in its exploitation, in its war, in its spreading of superstitions. Nationalism is setting for the in- fighting of the various sections of this class over the share of each in the process of capital accumulation. Nationalist present themselves as anti-imperialism. The fact that the nationalism of the bourgeoisie in the less-developed country or among oppressed nationalities has, during a short period in history, found itself in confrontation with certain features of imperialism, has led the left, to embrace and whitewash nationalism. But the Socialist Party see in nationalism the image of the capitalist class and nothing else. In its opinion, nationalism is among the superstitions from which humans should free themselves. Nationalism separates human beings from their common human and universal character. Workers who, instead of describing themselves as a part of the human family, view themselves as British, Scottish or Irish have already bowed to nationalist prejudice incompatible with socialism but also contradictory to the social evolution and advancement of humanity. The era of workers’ strength on the political stage is once again arriving. The power of the working class does not lie only in its size. This power essentially rests on this class’s position in capitalist production. The working class will triumph by virtue of being the backbone of production in the existing society, the leader of the new society and the social class having a real solution to human suffering as a whole. 

Just as capitalism is a world system of society, so too must socialism be. There never has been, and never can be, socialism in just one country because its material basis is the world-wide and interdependent means of production that capitalism has built up. The bulk of the wealth produced in the world today is produced by the co-operative labour of the millions employed to operate these means of production. What is needed now, to establish socialism, is a conscious political decision on the part of these billions across the world to run society in their own interests. This will be done by taking the means of production throughout the world into common ownership, with their democratic control by the whole community, and with production solely for use. 

No longer will there be classes, governments and their state machinery, or national frontiers.

Democratic control will involve the whole community in making decisions about the use of the means of production. Instead of government over people there would be various levels of democratic administration, from the local up to regional and world levels, with responsibility being delegated if necessary to groups and individuals.

The ‘national interest’ is an all time favourite for jingoists, indeed a much bandied about term in any crisis. But what is it supposed to mean?

Well, for one thing, the term is so designed, and used, as to distort our perception of reality. From the cradle to the grave we are discouraged from asking significant and searching questions - the type that might embarrass our betters and superiors. We are nurtured to mistrust our own ideas, to respect the views of our “betters.” Little wonder, then, that so many injustices prevail and that so many can speak in defence of the government line, unwittingly acquiescing in their own exploitation - albeit in the national interest. But this is how it is - so many are prepared to accept that the government embodies the people's “interests”.

The national interest conjures up an image that we are all one big happy family, all pulling and working together for the good of all; that we all have something to be proud of, to defend and to benefit from. It suggests an absence of strife and antagonism and that the real enemy is 'out there'. We're meant to feel good about the national interest, secure in the knowledge that the well-informed are thinking on our behalf. It harks back to the 'bulldog spirit' of the blitz years, when even the king and queen seemed half decent because they had been bombed ('Gawd bless 'em all, Guv.') – even though most Londoners didn’t realise the royal family were shooting off to Windsor Castle, 50 miles away, every night and feasting on swan. In reality, the national interest is anything the master class and their executive deem it to be at any given time, or rather anything that helps perpetuate their ideology and keeps them in power; anything that can undermine the potential for political action geared towards real change.

The national interest is the paternalistic jargon of a profit-hungry elite, trying to rationalise in our eyes the lengths they will go to accrue more profits at our expense. It is used by politicians largely to secure support for a course of action they are finding difficult to promote. It is designed to block serious discussion of an issue - who'll argue against the national interest and risk being denounced as unpatriotic? – and to marginalise opponents, thus stifling deeper understanding of issues.

Thus, the national interest is a government contemplating the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia or where ever. It is police wading into a picket line, truncheons swinging. The national interest is the Russia army intervening in the Ukraine, Israeli troops occupying the West Bank and Gaza and UK war-planes involved in bombing runs over Syria.

One thing is clear. While all the above can be pushed as national interests, none are in the interests of the working class. The interests of the majority - or the working class - are diametrically opposed to the interests of the master, or capitalist, class. True, we all have basic needs and desires, whichever class we belong to, but talk about shared interests in a two class society is nonsense. The capitalist class have one real interest - and let them deny it - to maximise their investment and to accrue more profit at our expense. How many people get trampled over or slaughtered in the process is of no consequence. Anything is legitimate in the pursuit of profit. Neither is much consideration given to environmental concerns. We, the working class on the other hand, own little more than our ability to labour by brain or by hand - an ability we sell to the master class. Our interest under capitalism becomes getting the best price for our labour. Indeed such is the onus on us to sell our labour power at as a high a price as possible that its consequences dominates every aspect of our lives. It has to be remembered that the master class depend on our complacency for their continued survival. Our silence, our willingness to accept everything they say without question, is the victory they celebrate every day.

Our job should therefore be to doubt and question everything they say - if we stand for nothing we fall for anything. For we do have interests. As a globally exploited class, denied so many of the benefits of civilisation in a world of abundance, it is in our interests, our real class interests, to help put a stop to their insane system, not just for the future of humanity, but for the future of our planet. Our real class interests lie in establishing a worldwide system of society, devoid of borders or frontiers, social classes or leaders, states governments, force or coercion, money, wages or salaries, a world in which production is freed from the artificial constraints of profit and used to its fullest potential and for the benefit of all. These interests are far removed from the national interest we are supposed to identify and moreover, they benefit all of today's classes.

Our fellow-workers continue to butcher one another in a senseless round of tit-for-tat atrocities. Many on the political ‘left’ will argue that nationalism is somehow progressive and different to imperialism and should therefore be supported. As socialists, we say that this is a dangerous poison that is being spread by the left and that no side engaged in such conflict can either speak for the working class as a whole or be an example to it.

History is replete with minorities in existing states using terrorist methods so that a new state may be formed or territory transferred from the “ownership” of one state to another. The working class of wage and salary earners is never in a position to benefit from this process; it is only in a position to suffer. The working class – by definition the class that does not possess any significant titles to land or private property, including capital – has quite literally nothing to gain from a situation where one group of rulers and owners is replaced by another group.

In the 19th century, when the modern capitalist system was expanding across the globe, “national liberation” struggles, typically led by a local growing capitalist class against the old autocratic empires, were part of the process which swept away the old political arrangements and opened the way forward for liberal democracy and the development of capitalist methods of production. It was often argued that it was in the interests of the working class during this time to take the side of the capitalists against the old autocracies like the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire, etc. It was said that this process would open the way up for working class organisation and for the development of an advanced industrial system which is a prerequisite for a socialist society of abundance and free access to available wealth.

Since then, the capitalist system has become a world system. The alleged justification for the working class taking sides in 'national liberation' struggles has now gone if ever it existed and today all such struggles are just deadly battles between sections of the capitalist class, even though it is the workers – imbued with nationalist poison – that naturally enough end up doing the fighting and dying.

The goal of the socialist movement is not to assist in the creation of even more states and more nationalities, but to establish a real world community without frontiers where all states as they currently exist will be destroyed. In a socialist society, communities, towns and cities will have the opportunity to thrive – and people will no doubt feel an attachment to places that are real and tangible – but the 'imagined communities' that are nation states will be consigned to the history books where they belong.

The Capitalist Contradiction

The victory of socialism means the political supremacy of the working class and the abolition of every form of exploitation. To fight for socialism is consciously to struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the institutions of the State designed and created to maintain the economic and political dominance of the few who own capital over the many who have only their own labour power. From where we are, the capitalist system seem stable and solid; but with a bird’s-eye view, we can see the widening cracks within its structure. Change, change and change – that is the main lesson of Marxism. This world is not fixed and stable; boundaries, laws, lifetime habits, opinions, rights, governments, methods – everything tends to approach a fluid state. The capitalists like to pretend that capitalism is eternal. The fact is, however, that for the greater part of human history mankind lived in tribal society under a system of primitive communism, a system without classes, in which acceptance of the authority of the elders did not require a special coercive force but was freely given, and questions of paramount importance were decided by the tribal assembly. In those times there was no state. With the appearance of classes comes the division of society into rulers and ruled. Because of antagonistic class interests a special apparatus of coercion grows up, apparently standing outside of and above society, but utilised by the ruling class to maintain its privileges, economic and political. This apparatus, the state, consists of special bodies of armed men, prisons, courts, etc. It is used by the ruling class against other classes that might endanger its position. Thus the essence of the state consists precisely in this, that it is an instrument for the oppression of one class by another.

When men and women sought employment and were willing to work, capitalism declared that it could not open the factories and start the wheels of industry moving. There was use for goods, but capitalism is not production for use. All the scientists, all the statesmen, all the industrialists, the bankers, all the politicians and economists of capitalism, were unable to make capitalism operate to serve the needs of the people. There were consumers at hand, but not profits. Therefore there were millions of unemployed, but no production for them.

Yet for war, capitalism functions splendidly. Every factory works, some of them around the clock. New factories are set up. Money flows like water. There are consumers aplenty and undreamed-of profits. Capitalism found an almost inexhaustible market for its wares. It now works like a clock, ticking of blood and ruin with every second. We have a social system that stands self-condemned. Its usefulness of the past is now long outlived. If it is allowed to continue, the world will only plunge deeper into slavery, suffering, degradation, exhaustion and death. Capitalism is a cold ruthless devourer of human life. Always and everywhere, the inexorable drive for profit and accumulation, expansion and profit, occurs at the expense of the worker.

The tempo of thought and action becomes immeasurably accelerated in mental attitudes and psychologies – that is, a profound shake-up of human nature. One of the lessons of history is that it is so hard for us, even for socialists, to realise the tremendous impact of each of these forces, and the terrific potential which is being built up in the world working people. The struggle for socialism is the struggle for socialist consciousness.

This system of capitalism is driving humanity into the ground. If you like that idea and vision of a new economy, democratically structured to answer to people’s needs instead of the profit imperative welcome to the movement for socialism.

Socialist Standard No. 1378 June 2019

June 2019 PDF

• Editorial: A World of Abundance
• Eurospeech: Brexit Statement
• Pathfinders: Fully automated luxury… capitalism
• Dear Theresa
• Cooking the Books I: The Libertarian Myth
• Wood For The Trees: Can you be a socialist and anti-Marxist?
• Material World: Out of Africa
• Prosecuting Capitalism: The Case For and Against
• Seeing Visions
• The Strange World of FALC: Consumer Fantasy?
• More FALC: The Wallmark hypothesis
• When Profit Is All
• 50 Years Ago: Opt for Socialism
• Mogg/Corbyn: Duelling Dinosaurs
• Cooking the Books II: Cash mountains
• Proper Gander
• Reviews
• Meetings
• Rear View
• Free Lunch

Revolutionary Inspiration

“Dare to be a Daniel,

Dare to stand alone.

Dare to have a purpose firm,

Dare to make it known.”

Bleeding the poor is a normal operation for capitalism. Poverty stalks the land. The standard of living of the people has been reduced drastically. There are people fearful of the world, all along the political spectrum. In the view of the Socialist Party capitalism is beyond salvation by any means. The alternative is to ally oneself with the future; with the socialist movement, to put an end to capitalism and open the way for the socialist society of the free and equal. That is the way to secure peace and progress and a good life for all. Today, when capitalism, “the free market,” and “private enterprise” are being hailed as triumphant in the world, it is a good time to rekindle the idea of socialism. The Socialist Party offers something worth fighting for, a victory for all humanity in which you and your generation will share. The Socialist Party reaffirms its adherence to the principles of socialism. We declare the Socialist Party to be the party of the working class with intentions of socialising the means of production. The present system of industry is directly the cause of the many evils which now prey upon society. It fully realises the crying need for an immediate change in the social system; it realises that the time for compromise has passed; and that now it is only the question whether all power remains in the hands of the capitalist or is taken by the working class. The Socialist Party proposes the organisation of the workers as a class, the overthrow of capitalist rule, and the conquest of political power by the workers. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to create a unified revolutionary working class movement. The working class, in order to gain control of the means of life, have by force of economic necessity been compelled to organise into their industrial and political organisations, and wage battle against the capitalist class directly on the industrial field through their industrial organisations (Direct Action) and indirectly on the political field through their political organisations (Political Action). The struggle by the working class to achieve its revolutionary purposes — the ownership and control of the means of life — cannot be obtained without a struggle against the state, and all struggles for the conquest of the capitalist state are political struggles.

A juicy carrot is dangled just in front of the donkey but out of reach, only in order to keep it going with the heavy load on its back. Reformists are always ready to PROMISE the good things of life some time in the future. The only fight for a better tomorrow that has any serious meaning is the fight for socialism that begins right now. Workers must act as a class, with a class movement and a class programme and a class struggle of its own. The employer uses his economic and political power to get the highest profits in history. The wages of the workers are forcibly kept at the lowest point. If they attempt to improve their economic position by the use of their organised strength, the whole machinery of the government is brought to bear against them.

The capitalist system of production, under which we live, is the production of commodities for profit instead of for use and for the private gain of those who own and control the tools and means of production and distribution. Out of this system of production and sale for profit spring the entire problem of misery, want, and poverty that, as a deadly menace, now confronts civilisation. Socialism will usher in a new civilisation based upon the welfare of all. Socialism is the application of human association. The Socialist Party teaches that the only way to attain the just distribution of wealth to those who produce it is through the common ownership, democratic control, and planned operation of the means of production and distribution, such as land, mines, factories, transport and communications, etc., etc. It asserts that this production should be for use and not for sale or profit, thus doing away with all private ownership of the means of subsistence with its accompanying unproductive labour and an immense number of useless and harmful occupations. Socialism would not abolish the private possession as distinct from social capital. Thus homes and all personal belongings would still be individually and not collectively owned. The cooperative commonwealth is the Socialist Party goal.

This involves a complete change in the structure of government. The present government is based upon private property and is essentially coercive, the vital function being to protect the interests of the owning and ruling class, and to keep their victims in subjugation. When productive capital becomes common property, government will be purely administrative, and will cease to be unjust and oppressive. The owning class in the present, as in all past ages, is necessarily the ruling class, and all legislation is enacted and interpreted in the interest of said class. Political equality under the present system is simply a myth. The wage-workers whose employment is controlled by their master, and who in that relation is at the mercy of their master since they depend upon his arbitrary will for the opportunity to labour and support their families, is not on terms of political equality with the master. Political equality is rooted in economic freedom, and only when the means of production shall have become the common property of all, as they have been produced by all, are used by all, and are necessary to all, only then will political equality prevail and all men and women enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities. The Socialist Party proposes to establish industrial democracy, based upon cooperative industry, thus converting the present bogus into a genuine social democracy. 

Resources in its various forms are to be owned in common, and we

will not have countless capitalists at war with each other in an insane strife for profit. Rent, interest, and profit, three forms of exploitation, will be totally eliminated. Production will be carried forward for use and not for profit. The working day will be reduced in proportion to the progress of invention. This is the goal of the Socialist Party and of the international socialist movement of the world.