Anti-Nationalism

Scottish separation would divide the working class along national lines. Who fosters division? In whose interest is it? No one but our common enemy, the capitalist class. To advance towards socialism, the working class must develop its consciousness of being a class with common interests radically opposed to those of the capitalist class. It must understand that nationalism serve the interests of the capitalists, not the interests of the workers.

Various little bands of quasi-Trotskyists in a patriotic effort try to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would mark a step forward towards its own liberation, a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people who parade the banner of independence and socialism around are perpetuating a number of falsehoods.

The SNP is a capitalist party. It works on behalf of the capitalists. The difference between the SNP and the other capitalist parties is not that it is calling for a different social system. What’s different is that they are looking for a new sharing of powers. The sharing will just be between groups of capitalists. Keep it in the family. Those left-nationalists who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class. The independence leads to socialism argument must be thoroughly demolished. Supporting Scottish independence in the name of socialism is a monumental hoax. It is up to the working class to show it will not be duped by their political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric of the nationalists and their Trotskyist bedfellows. Scottish independence is nothing but a dead-end road. It doesn’t bring us closer to socialism, only farther away from it. Whether they like it or not, the left nationalists who are pushing for Scottish sovereignty only end up supporting class collaboration. Promoting Scottish independence consolidates divisions rather than confronting and fighting them. It blocks the growth of class consciousness and instead it develops the idea among Scottish  workers that they have more in common with “their” employers than with the rest of the British working class. Instead of uniting the working class against the bourgeoisie, it divides them from the rest of the working class. It delays socialist revolution and unites the Scottish working people with the Scots bourgeoisie. Thus the working class would be sacrificing its struggle for socialism, which is the only way to do away with exploitation, in return for a few meagre changes, for crumbs.

To struggle for independence would not bring those in Scotland any closer to getting rid of capitalist oppression and exploitation. Instead it would divide the working class in the UK against its main enemy; it would weaken the struggle for socialism all across the land; it would hold back and retard the class struggle.

Support the Socialist Party because it supports you

The Socialist Party supports fellow-workers striking for higher wages and improved working conditions. As workers ourselves we know that under capitalism we get nothing save through organisation and struggle. The social conditions of capitalism, where a tiny minority own the means of life, inevitably give rise to a struggle over the division of wealth. The class struggle will last as long as capitalism because the interests of workers and owners are irreconcilable. Strikes are an expression of this class struggle though it is fair to say that few workers fully understand this. They do not recognise that there is an irreconcilable conflict between workers and owners everywhere. They do not recognise that workers have no country and that patriotism is a delusion and a snare. They do not recognise that the wages system shows up the dependence of the workers on the owners for a living.

Even if workers prevail the Socialist Party points out that this is not enough. All the cards are stacked against workers under capitalism. Being propertyless they depend on the owners for a living. On top of this there is a further disadvantage. The government represents the interests of the owning class. Any government has at its disposal a vast arsenal of political weapons to oppose any economic action by workers. Workers must come to realise the importance of political power and that they must control it before they can free themselves from wage-slavery. When workers do realise this then they will see the need for an independent workers’ party opposed to all other parties to carry the class struggle from the economic to the political field; a party whose sole aim is to win political power to end capitalism and set up socialism. The Socialist Party is such a party in this country.

Workers of all colours are united by a common economic interest under capitalism, to stand together against the ruling class. Beyond that all workers should cooperate to get rid of capitalism, with its privileges and its denials and with the prejudices which help to divide the working class into so called races, nations and so on. There is no permanent way of dealing with the effects of a class divided society other than getting rid of it. Socialists cannot but draw attention and participate the class struggle until such time as capitalism is defeated Then, and only then, will the term become "archaic” as classes themselves will cease to exist.

The Socialist Party takes as its mission the political awakening of working people. We invite all who see that there’s a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. With our organised strength, we will liberate the thinking of our fellow-workers  and unleash their energy. We will win them to the cause for which they are already fighting. We will excite the  people with a vision of a world of plenty. New technology such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics and automation provides better, cheaper and more products with less and less labour. Society now has the capacity to devote the energies and talents of its people to satisfying the material, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs of all. For the first time in history, we have the technological ability to put into effect the principle ’from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ For the first time in history, we can unite our movement against poverty and misery with its great cause: the fight to create a society of abundance, free from want. 

It will be a momentous event to see people from all generations, from all ethnicities and from one race– the human race– come together.  We have to get together to see a real, democratic social process in action. It is up to us as revolutionaries to realise that we do have a new vision to offer, and that society is waiting for someone to give them an understanding and a solution to the conflicts they are up against.

We will educate the people about the economic revolution. Every day, the new technology throws thousands– labourers and managers alike– out of their jobs. Their labour is superfluous to a system that values only what it can exploit. If they cannot work, they cannot eat. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organised. The capitalist class cannot convince the people to believe in their system while that is destroying their hopes and dreams. They attempt to disarm the victims of capitalism by turning them against one another. We will inspire our people with the alternative: a society organised for the benefit of all. A society built on cooperation puts the physical, environmental, cultural and well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. Working people will take control of all productive property and transforms it into commonly owned property, it can reorganise society so that the abundance is distributed according to need. We will endeavour to empower people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and imbue it with the confidence that it’s possible to win. We call on you to join us in this cause.

Our Class Enemy

What is socialism? Socialism is not the rule of bureaucrats over the people. It is not the shaping of the desires and aspirations of the individual to conform to some preconceived notion of what is in the interests of the whole, etc. Far from being proponents of some all-engulfing state-control, Marx and Engels saw the state, as class antagonisms dissipated, beginning to wither away — being transformed as an instrument to preserve democracy into an administrative tool. While in present day  the underlying purpose, of production is the amassing of profits for capital; in the new, free society its sole purpose will be to meet the needs of humankind. In the place of the present anarchy, waste and inefficiency, production will be planned. This planning, contrary to the type now commonly envisaged by advisors of capital, requires the common ownership of the economy. 

Marx and Engels never thought that a socialist society could be built on the foundations of a backward underdeveloped economy. They saw socialism as the next stage of social evolution, a higher stage than capitalism with the developed means of production capable of supplying every human need. The democratic processes necessary to mobilise the vast majority of the population to such a titanic task will separate out the opportunists and frauds. Just one example may suffice. In 1919 the people of Winnipeg, in order to carry forward their general strike, forged a body which sensitively represented every layer of the population — except the employers. While the General Strike Committee co-existed with the City Council, it completely supplanted it. Its representatives, elected largely along occupational lines, subject to immediate recall, serving without pay and in almost constant session, ran the city for 41 days. This committee had the main general characteristics of the workers councils.

Not only will the revolution itself be profoundly democratic, but with its victory will come almost instantaneous benefits for all. Thanks to the tremendous productive capacity we have created across this land, we will be quickly able to satisfy all the basic needs of everyone. There will be no real shortages that would require some kind of policeman to supervise who gets what, and no bureaucrats with the possibility of providing special favours that would allow them to gather up connections that would frustrate the democratic process. One of the first acts of the popular councils would be to place the factories and communities into the hands of the working-people. Local, regional and world-wide planning boards would be set up. The aid of highly skilled technicians would immediately be enlisted. For the first time they would know that their specialized knowledge would be applied entirely for the benefit of mankind. We would see our wealth as part of mankind’s common heritage with its unparalleled natural resources and productivity, would be producing with no other thought than for the well-being of mankind.

The future of the working class in Britain is unavoidably bound up with the development of the world as a whole. Only if we conduct our struggle against capitalism on the basis of being just one contingent of the international working class will we achieve ultimate victory over our oppressors. The working class has no interest in making peace with its own rulers. we have every interest in stepping up and intensifying the class war to overthrow this oppressive and exploitative capitalist system. Taking the road of tightening our belts to help our masters through the crisis of their rotten system simply perpetuates a class-divided and oppressive society.  The difference between the value of what workers produce and what they receive in wages constitutes the profits of the capitalist employer. Massive exploitation of the working class is an integral part of the capitalist economic system and will persist for as long as does capitalism. Not only do capitalist exploit workers but the system operates in such a way that capitalists constantly have to try to exploit workers even more. Different capitalists producing the same kind of commodity are competing with one another in the market to sell their products. Failure to sell the commodities produced by his firm means bankruptcy and ruin for a capitalist and the main way of ensuring steady sales is to offer given commodities on the market at a price below that charged by other capitalists. If a capitalist is to reduce his prices without reducing his profits then one way is to increase the hours of work of his employees without paying them any more wages. Where many workers are organised in trade unions, it is not easy for capitalists to force workers to accept such an increase in the degree to which they are exploited. Another ploy is to speed up the rate of work, increase its intensity, and thus reduce the cost per item by forcing the workforce to produce more commodities in the same time as before. When this does happen but in a given type of production there is usually a very definite limit to which the pace of work can be increased and anyway workers are likely to resist such a move. It is important to realise that capitalists are not always looking for ways to increase the degree of exploitation of workers because they, the capitalists, are inherently greedy but that they do this because of the way in which the capitalist economy operates leaves them with no choice if they are to stay in business. Similarly, if workers are not to be worked to death and totally impoverished then they have no choice except to take a common stand together against capitalist employers so as to resist employers’ attempts to exploit them even more. This is done by forming trade unions to defend wage levels and working conditions. In Britain a greater proportion of workers are in trade unions than in any of the other advanced capitalist countries. Even trade unions have a very limited capacity to defend the living standards and working conditions of the working class. While trade unions are a necessary means of defence of the working class against the capitalist class it is also the case that they pose no fundamental challenge to the whole capitalist system. Trade unions do not challenge the right of capitalists to exploit workers but only the degree to which this takes place.

The whole of capitalist society is organised around the capitalist economy. The modern family is structured to produce and discipline the workforce, labour power. The state passes laws and maintains the police and armed forces So as to keep the working class in line. Education and the mass media are powerful means of spreading the ideas and outlook of the capitalist class, bourgeois ideology, among the working class so as to get them to accept the capitalist system. Religions promise the good life in this world for those who knuckle under to oppression and exploitation in this one, and so on. Capitalist society in its totality is structured so as to preserve the exploitative relationship between the capitalist class and the working class which lies at its heart.

Capitalists try to gain an advantage over each other is by introducing new and more efficient means of production, technological innovation. The capitalist employer in a given field of production may be able to reduce his costs of production by introducing new production processes which enable output per worker to rise and thus cost per unit to fall. This allows the employer to sell his commodities at a price lower than that of his competitors while at the same time increasing his rate of profit on the capital he has invested. This advantage does not last long because the other employers will also quickly adopt the new production processes so as to be able to compete and stay in business. As the new production processes become introduced throughout an industry the proportion of total capital which is spent on raw materials, machinery, etc. rises while the proportion spent on employing labour power, on paying wages, falls.

The enemy of the working class is the capitalist class. The capitalists dominate the economic, political and cultural life. The capitalists have the interest in perpetuating the rule of capital. Experience has shown that while they find it necessary at times to make certain minor concessions to the working class and are willing to enter into alliances and accommodations with various groups outside their ranks, that even so the capitalists will never tolerate any fundamental challenge to their interests and rule. While there are differences within this class on what is the best way of controlling the working class so as to perpetuate the rule of capital they stand united in their determination to uphold its reign. Any challenge to their rule is met with whatever measures are necessary to defeat it. These people are the real rulers and the working class will never be free until they overthrow the capitalist class.

Homeless in Scotland

A child has been made homeless every 37 minutes in Scotland over the past year, according to the charity Shelter.

Its research found 14,043 children were made homeless in 2018-19 in Scotland.

During that year, 8,304 families with dependant children were made homeless, the equivalent of 23 a day.

Shelter's Generation Homeless report also found 6,795 children were in temporary accommodation as of March 31 this year, meaning one in every 160 children in Scotland was without a home.

It said the number in temporary accommodation has risen from 4,155 in the same period in 2014, a jump of 64%.

Shelter Scotland deputy director Alison Watson, said: "Children being homeless in 21st century Scotland is a badge of shame in itself but a 64% increase over the last four years up to 6,795 being homeless is completely unacceptable.

"It's time that promises were made and kept to the children of Scotland - that we will do everything possible to prevent homelessness and build enough social homes to make sure every child has a home not just for Christmas, but permanently."

The UK figures show a total of 66,836 children became homeless in the last year, one every eight minutes, with 39,548 families being forced to leave their homes. A further 134,429 children were in temporary accommodation on March 31, a 51% jump from the same time in 2014.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/child-scotland-made-homeless-every-21011290