We Must Abolish Capitalism

The climate emergency is a pressing issue for many people. Some say civilisation may not survive the climate crisis. Many project coastal cities sinking into the oceans, widespread drought, desertification and deforestation, devastating storms and flooding, pollution on land air and sea, diseases spreading, decreasing soil fertility and failing crop harvests and the large scale migration of climate refugees. It is often described as a climate Armageddon, a global catastrophe.

Capitalism is the root cause of most of the environmental problems we face, and is also the biggest obstacle in implementing real solutions. But few recognise the culpability of capitalism, and if they do, their remedies are little more than passing legislation to regulate the capitalist system such as the proposed New Green Deal or encouraging ineffective life-style changes. What is required is transformational changes, a mass mobilization of peoples for an entirely new society based upon a fundamentally different economic system. The defenders of the environment have to organize worldwide politically for socialism which is the an antidote to much of the despair and despondency that prevails in many people’s response to the global warming threat.

Working people have the potential power to wrest control of production away from the capitalist class. In fact, working people is the only force capable of saving humanity from capitalism and building an economy which is sustainable and in harmony with the environment. The vast majority have the ability to make collective solutions for environmental problems and exercise common ownership and democratic control of resources. Socialists do not focus on individual behaviour but concentrate on universal actions. The politicians would like nothing better than to delay system change by claiming that we need behavioural change, instead. Socialism is a vital and necessary precondition for the survival of civilisation.

While the economic class struggle between labour and capital has previously been the norm for the acquisition of socialist consciousness, our fight for the environment may be a new path towards socialism, a new way of understanding our need to establish a cooperative commonwealth. Perhaps, climate change will be the tipping point for social change.

Adapted from here
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/14/to-confront-climate-change-humanity-needs-socialism/

The Scottish Drug Problem

Scotland saw more drug-related deaths than any other European Union country in 2018, after a 27 per cent increase in a single year brought the total to its highest level since records began 23 years ago.

The National Records of Scotland statistics show 1,187 people died taking drugs last year, bringing the death rate to triple that of England and Wales, and making it higher even than the US, which is in the grip of an opioid crisis.

The majority of deaths involved more than one substance, with heroin and other opiates a factor in 86 per cent of fatalities and “street” benzodiazepines like etizolam, which have flooded the market in recent years, seen in 57 per cent of recorded deaths.

“Scotland’s record drug deaths are an avoidable tragedy, and the failure of politicians in Westminster and Holyrood to act is simply shameful,” said James Nicholls, CEO of drug reform charity Transform. “This crisis is a consequence of policies they support, and continue to impose, despite deaths increasing year after year. Bereaved families may wonder why the UK drugs minister won’t visit Scotland to better understand why their loved ones died, or appear before Scottish MPs to justify her government’s failed approach.”

Only 40 per cent of people with a drug problem are currently in treatment in Scotland, due in part to waiting times of up to six months and a focus on abstinence rather than harm reduction.

The figures raised “serious concerns” about Scotland’s response to opioid addiction, suggesting that 50 per cent of people in treatment were being prescribed methadone doses lower than the World Health Organisation’s minimum recommendation. “If people are not getting the substitute medication dose they require then it is no wonder they ‘top up’ with street drugs and get involved in polydrug use,” he said. 

“Some people misrepresent the evidence by claiming that methadone is causing these deaths,” said Zoe Carre, policy researcher at Release, a national drugs charity offering legal advice and support. “This is wrong, not least because prescribing methadone as an opioid substitute is one of the most evidence-based ways of preventing premature death. “This also ignores the fact that most of these deaths involved one or more opioids, such as heroin/morphine or methadone, which suggests that some people are being let down by drug treatment, for example if they are not being prescribed optimal doses of methadone.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scotland-drug-deaths-highest-eu-heroin-cocaine-a9006811.html

What the Socialist Party wants

The Socialist Party intends to replace the present capitalist system by socialism, understood broadly as a system where there will be common ownership of the means of production and distribution. We envisage socialism as a society where material wealth will be in the hands of those who produce it, where the exploitation of man by man will be ended, where production will be used not for private profit, where a new relationship of fraternity will develop between peoples based on equality and independence, where individual men and women will find totally new possibilities to develop their skills and talents. We see both the need and the possibility to win the overwhelming majority of the population for the fight against capitalism and for socialism.

As we head towards another general election we are faced with the decision whether or not to cast a vote. Most people in Britain are fairly strongly attached to the idea that it is some sort of public duty to turn out and support one or another party even if they are not very enthusiastic about any of the promises on offer. Socialism is achieved by the growth of ideas, never by obtaining a fictitious vote. We should seek only to register the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less. In our election campaign we state our principles clearly, speak the truth honestly, seeking neither to flatter nor to offend, but only to convince those who should be with us and win them to our cause through an understanding of the socialist case.

Our Parliamentary Road

Why do socialists insist on the need to capture parliament? Parliament is the seat of political power through which control of the state apparatus is exercised. Although external influences are exerted upon parliament from big business, unions’ pressure groups and the like, in order to be effective such influence has to be channelled via parliament and realised in the form of legislation.

The basic function of the state, controlled by parliament, is to protect the interests of the capitalist class. The state arose out of the early divisions of society into classes and developed with the development of class conflicts. In this way, class rule through state power originated from class ownership. But private property is a social concept or relationship, the general acceptance of which cannot be separated from the general support given to those who exercise power in the interest of the owning class. The state, through which class rule is exercised will not ‘wither away’ as long as the class basis of society exists and conversely the class basis of society will not disappear as long as the state exists to prop it up.

Those who reject political action must explain how a revolutionary transformation can be brought about which would result in a class-free money-free system of common ownership and free access.

Two possible methods have been suggested: 

1. The creation of a completely self-sufficient cooperative parallel society. 

2. The anarcho-syndicalist proposal adopted by the founding conference of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 that workers should “take and hold that which they produce by their labour through an economic organization of the working class”.

“Workers co-operatives” are essentially no different from any other capitalist enterprise competing for the market and therefore subject to its laws; to compete effectively, workers in co-operatives may have to cut their own living standards or sack their fellow workers. 

The second option of direct action is equally futile. To begin with the proposal that workers should “seize and hold” the factories and “lock out” the owners implies the fatuous belief that capitalists participate in production, or need to. It is the workers, including the “salaried” managers, who run the entire economy from top to bottom.

But supposing workers “successfully” took over a factory — what then? If they recommenced production, they would have to submit to the rules of the game, to seek to gain legal status to operate on a proper financial basis, to buy and sell. Workers in a nail factory cannot live on a diet of nails.

The parliamentary road does not imply that people hand over their power to others every few years. Parliament is the institution to which the working class shall send their delegates with the purpose of declaring capitalism abolished and to validate this revolutionary act. There has to be some means to effect the necessary transfer of power from the capitalist to the working class, a means which clearly and democratically indicates the will of the socialist majority. The parliamentary road is the answer. It will be within our party, not parliament that the “self-activity” and “self organisation” of the working class will be realised.

The Socialist Party. has always contended that the workers, before they can impose their will upon the capitalist class, must get control of the capitalist state-machine by the only means possible, securing a majority of the electorate.

Canadian Election Comments.

On October 21 I did my civic duty and wrote Socialism on my ballot slip, but sad to say it was the working class who slipped and did not vote to end capitalism. Justin Trudeau's Liberals won, but just failing to gain a majority, with 156 seats to Andrew Scheer's Conservatives which had 122. The Bloc Quebecois had 32, NDP 24, the Greens 3 and an independent had 1. There wasn't a big difference between the two main parties percentagewise: the Liberals got 34.3 and the Cons 33.2. The general feeling is that Trudeau didn't win because of anything he had done or said he would do, but because Scheer shot himself in the foot by running a stupid smear campaign, emphasizing the possible criminal involvement in the SCN-Lavalin scandal (see internet). Furthermore, Sheers praise of Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, cost him votes in Ontario by folks who don't want the two of them in power. Though personality should not play a part, we also know it does and Scheer's smart-ass way of speaking put some voters off. Even if I was queer for capitalism I wouldn't want him at the helm. The media seems to think, if they think, that Trudeau will have no trouble forming a majority government. So the working class cast more votes for Tweedledee instead of Tweedledummer. The differences between all five parties are those of details; the Tories would be less inclined to pass good reform measures, and even said they would cut government spending, whereas the Liberals and more-so the NDP would. However the whole history of capitalism has shown that reforms just don't cut it, becoming obsolete or repealed later. There are fundamentally no differences between any of those parties, because they stand for a continuation of capitalism and all the misery it brings: So why not get rid of it.
Canadian Comrade.

Capitalism Will Solve Climate Change? Dream On.

On October 18, climate activist Greta Thunberg, spoke to a crowd of 4,000 from the steps of the Alberta legislature in Edmonton. Taking world leaders to task over climate change she said ''We are doing this because our future is at stake. We will not be bystanders. We want the people in power to unite behind the science. This is not opinions or political views, this is the current best available science and the politics which even recognize this are still nowhere in sight.'' Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney, was at the same time at the opening of a new gas pipeline in Keephills, west of Edmonton. Elected on the premise and promise of creating energy sector jobs and pipelines for oil, he responded: ''Folks should learn a little bit about real practical measures that industry is taking in order to reduce emissions for the power they rely upon every single day. We do not live in some kind of dream world, but in the real world.'' If Ms. Thunberg thinks the problem can be solved within capitalism, then she is certainly living in a dream world, and if Mr. Kenney thinks a continuation of capitalism is the only way forward, then so is he. The irony of the whole thing is that so many upholders of capitalism have accused Socialists of being dreamers.
Canadian Comrade.

Glasgow's Culture

Glasgow named European Commission cultural and creative capital of the UK The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor 2019 ranked 190 cities in 30 European countries on their 'cultural vibrancy', 'creative economy' and ability to attract creative talent. Glasgow was also hailed for its 'openness, tolerance and trust'. Glasgow is home to more than 100 cultural organisations. The council claims more people visit Glasgow's museums each year than in any other UK city outside of London. Eight Turner Prize winners have hailed from, trained in, or worked out of the city in recent years.

However, many Glaswegians will recognise another Glasgow. 

The number of crimes committed by children in Glasgow has increased for the third year in a row. The most significant rise in offending stemmed from crimes of dishonesty, housebreaking and vehicle crime.

A council officer said: “We do not yet have a clear picture of what is driving these increases, we do know that there is a strong link between deprivation, inequality and crime.

Sergeant Michael Fletcher, One Glasgow hub supervisor for Police Scotland, said: “These young people often come from backgrounds blighted by poverty, very unstable family circumstances, addictions, early childhood trauma etc.”

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/number-crimes-committed-children-glasgow-17241445

Work for Socialism!

The primary purpose for the Socialist Party engaging in elections is to get our socialist message out there for people to hear and see. The Socialist Party  is a political party of men and women organised together for the purpose of getting control of political power in order to introduce socialism. 

For sure, at this moment in time we do not expect to have our candidates take their seats in Parliament and begin the task of dispossessing the capitalist class and establishing socialism. We try to present our case to our fellow-workers and do not waste our time and space campaigning on issues such as humanising wage-slavery. 

We explain the REAL causes of their poverty, their squalor and the misery they have to endure. We explain why they must continue to live for the best part of their lives toiling in jobs that they hate but must perform day in and day out, to pay the rent or mortgage, to put food on the table and to raise their families. We always tell them that the remedy for this suffering lies entirely in their own hands, that they must do some hard thinking, that they have to acquire that revolutionary knowledge and understanding to organise politically and consciously to obtain control and power over the State machine.

 No leaders can do it for them. No other political party can tell that. Indeed they dare not tell them that. When the working class arrives at that stage of revolutionary knowledge and understanding  amazing things will happen. They will take possession of the whole Earth and the wealth and resources it holds. A new social system will be born, and it will operate throughout the whole world. True to our international socialist principles we will seek contact with workers in other countries who take their stand on the same principles, with a view to setting on foot at last a genuine World Socialist Movement free from the national prejudices the progress of the workers’ movement. 

If we have a message for our fellow-workers, it is that the progress of humanity does not require the loss of millions of lives to hunger, disease and war.

The ABC of Socialism

Socialism will neither have commodity production nor classes so it is clear that no socialist society exists or has existed anywhere in the world. Capitalists  are confronting proletarians and it is impossible to speak of solidarity between them; one group tries to reduce wages, the other tries to increase them. Each can only gain at the expense of the other. We live in a world where commercial rivalries, war and the threat of war characterize the relations between countries, peoples, and nations. Hunger, poverty, unemployment, racial and sexual discrimination, and many forms of repression, including the most barbaric, such as genocide, are the lot of the majority of the earth’s inhabitants. Capitalism is the result of the exploitation of the labour power of the workers by the employing class, sole owners of the means of production. This exploitation is particularly brutal in the less economically developed countries. The working class now have a rich experience behind it from its many battles fought against the capitalists for more than a century: battles both on the economic and the political fronts.

 The goal of the class struggle is to lead the world to socialism. The historic mission of the working class is thus not only to replace the rule of one class with that of another, as has happened already in the feudal and bourgeois revolutions, but also to liberate all of humanity from the chains of exploitation and oppression by the abolition of classes themselves. The divisions between the city and countryside, and between mental and manual labour will also be abolished, and a society without a State will be created, since the State is nothing other than the instrument of domination of one class over the others.

The emancipation of the workers will be accomplished by the workers themselves. They will achieve it through socialist revolution, which will suppress the private ownership of the means of production in order to establish common property, and replace capitalist commodity production by the socialist organization of production based on the labour of all the members of society and designed to ensure the complete well-being and full development of each person. What socialism demands is now nothing else, than the opening of our eyes for the social process, which take place around us. Socialism is thus revolutionary in principle, i.e. it puts up a totally new principle in place of the old, not just patches this or that flaw.

The Socialist Party’s objective is to lift the working class everywhere from the dead level of wage-slavery to freedom and dignity. 

 Socialism is a free society, based upon cooperative industry, administered in the equal interest of all without a trace of bondage to breed resentment. Socialism is the product of social evolution. Capitalists upon the one hand, workers upon the other, the former having the machinery, buying the labour-power to operate it, and therefore owning the product. Result: a few billionaires ad a vast army of poverty-stricken, degraded, and servile toilers. These conditions are practically the same in all nations throughout the world. The workers and the  capitalists are in deadly economic conflict. The battlefield is the Earth; the stake is universal freedom. The slave pen and auction block had to go. The “labour market” will soon follow. 

Good Times Don't Last Long Under Capitalism.

 There was a time when Fort McMurray, Alberta was a boom town. With 165.4 billion barrels the oilsands were the third largest in the world, behind those of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

 With oil prices climbing from 2004 to 2014, the industry invested $210.1 billion, and in over those ten years output more than doubled to 2.2 billion barrels a day. 

Thanks to big paycheques and plenty of overtime, workers bought customized pickups and million dollar homes. 

Now Fort Mac is the insolvency capital of Canada due to the drop in oil prices. Eight thousand people a month come to Wood Buffalo Food Bank for jars of peanut butter and cans of soup. These are folks who were living high before the bust. The bank’s director Dan Edwards said, ''Individuals that have degrees and education and skills come here, because the jobs aren't what they were.'' The enormity of it is the population of Fort Mac is only 75,000. 

Good times don't last long under capitalism; how about a society where they do.

Canadian comrade.

The Fantasy. "Equality Within Capitalism".

American news programs have featured women being ecstatic because they can now participate in combat in the army. Well now isn't that a wonderful step forward in the fight for equality; women can now prove they can kill as well as any man - like BFD man.

 It is a terrible, sad, and sick reflection of capitalism that when one studies the history of feminist movements all over the world -- and women achieving whatever little rights they have – they are now proving their worth to the swindling class of their usefulness in capitalist wars. The sad and pathetic truth is women want equality with men within capitalism, which is a fantasy, because men don't have equality with each other. 

Capitalism is a divisive system which turns people against each other: it’s a case of hate this or that person because he/she is black, white, Catholic, Jew, or yes, male or female. 

There is only one kind of equality worth fighting for - one where all will stand equal in social relation to the means of life.

Canadian comrade.