Blockading Mossmorran

Climate Camp Scotland is to set up camp at Mossmorran petrochemical site where Shell has its Fife NGL Plant and ExxonMobil has its Fife Ethylene Plant.

It is an independent group of climate activist volunteers with strong links to Climate Action Scotland and Extinction Rebellion Scotland. More than 80 people chose the site at a meeting in Glasgow on Sunday.

It will take place for five days over a long weekend in June or July.

Their website states their aim is to "shut down the fossil fuel industry, ensure a just transition for communities and workers and create a world which is defined by fairness, not inequality". 

Climate Camps are a growing international phenomenon where activists set up camps over a number of days, providing a space to join the climate justice movement, to organise workshops and training and create a focus for direct action against the fossil fuel industry.

James Glen, Mossmorran Action Group chairman, told BBC Scotland: "We're very excited that Mossmorran has been chosen as a focus for climate action, and very grateful for the support that this will bring from activists in Scotland and further afield.

"Mossmorran is Scotland's third worst polluter, an essential link in the manufacture of plastics and a major recipient of fracked gas from the US.

"Despite all the rhetoric about a climate emergency and just transition, the Scottish government has done nothing about Mossmorran apart from rubber-stamping a £140m investment by Exxon. Shell is planning a further 50 years of operation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-51266794

Climate Change - Capitalism Can’t Solve It
Capitalism requires perpetual economic growth in order to avoid economic crises. Capitalism requires increasing commodity production, escalating resource extraction, increasing trash and toxic dumping, and ever increasing energy production. Capitalism, by its very nature, must expand unendingly. Capitalism is not only incapable of responding adequately to the environmental crisis, it is the very cause of the crisis and can only make matters worse.

It is not enough just to oppose capitalism. We also need to create something better - an alternative system of human relations - socialism. It is not only desirable, it is imperative. The only way to deal with global warming is to rationally reorganise the economy sustainably and to collectively and democratically plan most of the world’s industrial economies. What is needed is socialisation of the means of production and distribution. All kinds of useless, wasteful and polluting industries must be eliminated. Under pressure from the public, clearly many corporations feel the need to do something but a close inspection reveals how ineffectual their solutions are. It simply involves “greenwash.” Global warming, for business policies,  enters the equation only after the fact, and too late, in the form of rising costs and pressure on profitability. Firms must compete to survive, while capitalist states compete in military, economic and political arenas. If abandoning fossil fuels requires investments that undermine a company or state’s competitive position, the pressure to resist change is immense. Inertia is further strengthened by the lobbying and market power of fossil fuel dependent corporations, above all in the energy and vehicles sectors. Accordingly, many measures taken by states and corporations ostensibly to mitigate climate change are cosmetic – they are designed to placate the public. For corporations, much of the climate crisis is a public relations problem to be managed at the least possible relative financial and market loss to themselves. Other companies see it as an opening for further capital accumulation, even if climate change is accelerated in the process. This is not a hopeful scenario.

There is a simple solution to climate change – a drastic reduction in the emission of the greenhouse gases yet the solutions offered usually calls upon individuals to change their behaviour. The Socialist Party has a different approach. We can only begin to address the problem of climate change. We begin by understanding it is a problem rooted within capitalism and that it is the priorities of capitalism is the reason why we see politicians fail to seriously reduce climate change. Capitalism is a barrier to reducing carbon emissions. Capitalism is the greatest threat to the planet’s well-being and the greatest obstacle to attempts to save it.

Sadly but not surprisingly, there is so little discussion of capitalism within mainstream environment movement where most people possess only a vague understanding of what we’re talking about. For many campaigners, “capitalism” is seen as something unchangeable, almost part of human “nature” so the existence of capitalism is not questioned and it is why it always off the negotiating table at the climate change conferences.

Naomi Klein defines capitalism as follows:

“Capitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately owned. The owners, or capitalists, appropriate the surplus product created by the workers. This appropriation leads to the accumulation of more capital, the amassing of wealth, further investment, and thus the expansion of capitalism. Commodities are produced for the purpose of generating profit and promoting accumulation. Within the capitalist system, individuals pursue their self interests against competition and impersonal forces of the market.”

This explains its inevitable drive towards growth and why corporations will not allow their profits to be curtailed.

Those activists who focus on changing lifestyles to achieve sustainability based their advocacy on the flawed notion that consumers are actually in charge of the market, that an enlightened public can simply choose to buy green or consume less. This view fails to recognize the role of marketing and its power to affect consumers’ behaviour: it’s the corporations that are in charge, not the consumers. People often have no choice concerning how or whether to spend their money. This individualist “feel-good” undermines the collective solutions required.

The Socialist Party - The Revolutionary Optimists

Homo sapiens, as social animals, hold a claim upon the society. This claim is the right to live as long as he or she is willing to perform a share of the work necessary for the community’s and society’s maintenance. This claim involves, in the first place, the right of free access to the means of life; in the second place, the duty of contributing to the support of the weaker members of the human family, such as children, the sick and infirm, the frail and the aged. This conception of human rights and duties can only flow from the acceptance of the principles of socialism. The object of every protest must be the undermining and ultimate overthrow of wage slavery and if it lacks this vital element it is but a blind revolt and has to be fought over and over again until the eyes of the slaves are finally opened to what they are up against. It is imperative necessity to take possession and control away from our masters.

Human society has always consisted of masters and slaves, and the slaves have always been and are today, the foundation stones of the social fabric. Wage-slavery is the fact. This is the plain truth of what is known as the job market. They who buy and they who sell in the job market are alike dehumanised by the human trafficking in the brains and brawn of human beings. Without this commerce in human life capitalist civilisations of all lands and all climes would crumble. The very moment workers begin to do their own thinking and understands the paramount issue, they will part company with the capitalist politicians and join their own class on the political battlefield. The political solidarity of the working class means the death of despotism, the birth of freedom, a new dawn for  civilisation. The capitalist system is no longer adapted to the needs of modern society. It is outgrown and fetters the forces of progress. Industrial and commercial competition are largely of the past. The handwriting is on the wall.

The Socialist Party stands squarely upon its principles and relies wholly upon the the eduction of the working class.

The Socialist Party makes no promises.

The Socialist Party is the herald of the future.

When wage slavery is as dead then the Socialist Party will have accomplished its mission and fulfilled history.

The vote expresses the people’s will. The vote means that people are no longer dumb, that, at last, it has a voice, that it will be heard and shall be heeded. All working people owe it to themselves and their class to take an active and aware interest in political affairs. Centuries of struggle and sacrifice were required to wrest the vote from tyrants and place it in the hands of the people as the sword and shield of attack and defence. Capitalist progress has done little for the worker except to modify the forms of its exploitation. It will always be until the class struggle ends in class extinction and free society. Society has always been and is now built upon exploitation—the exploitation of a class—the working class, whether slaves, serfs or wage-labourers, and the exploited working class in subjection have always been, instinctively or consciously, in revolt against their oppressors. Through all the centuries the enslaved toilers have moved slowly but surely toward their final freedom. The people are as capable of achieving their industrial freedom as they were to secure their political liberty, and both are necessary to be free.

The call of the Socialist Party is to the exploited class, from the most menial to the most skilled, to muster under its banner and put an end to the last of the barbarous class struggles by conquering the capitalist state, taking possession of the means of production and making them the common property of all, abolishing wage-slavery and establishing the co-operative commonwealth.

The old order can survive but only a little longer. The days of crisis are drawing closer and socialists are exerting all their influence to prepare the people for it. Soon that minority will be the majority and then will come the co-operative commonwealth. Every friend of social justice, every lover of humanity should support the Socialist Party as the only party that is organised to abolish wage slavery and political despotism.

The overthrow of capitalism is the object of the Socialist Party. It will not ally itself with any other party and it would rather die than compromise. 

The Socialist Party comprehends the magnitude of the task and has the patience and confidence in ultimate victory.

The working class must be emancipated by the working class. Society must be reconstructed by the working class. The fruits of labour must be enjoyed by the working class. Bloody brutal war must be ended by the working class.

The Socialist Party fearlessly proclaim these principles and objects to our fellow-workers. We know our cause is just and that it must prevail. With hope and courage we march from capitalism to socialism, from slavery to freedom, from barbarism to civilisation.

Let them strengthen their position and prepare for the future by joining the Socialist Party, the only party which stands unequivocally for the working class. Let socialists everywhere follow its example and declare the class war, in every skirmish and every battle of the workers everywhere in the war of emancipation. All the wage-slaves of the earth, white and black and brown and  and yellow, will abolish the privileges of their masters and become citizens of the world. This is the mission of the world socialist movement. Between workers and capitalists there is war to extinction. The capitalist class must go and the sooner the better for all concerned, themselves included. We are emerging from the darkness of the night and moving toward the light of the dawn, from competition in individualism to individuality in cooperation, from war and despotism to peace and liberty.

Socialism is a growing idea. It is as futile to hinder it as it would be to stop the sunrise. It is coming. Can you not see it? If not, I advise you to consult an optician. There is certainly something the matter with your vision.

LABOUR IS ENTITLED TO ALL IT PRODUCES

As the SNP and their nationalist allies once more take to the streets to demand independence, this time in Inverness where SNP Westminster MP, Ian Blackford, claimed a mandate for a second referendum, those of us in the Socialist Party cast scorn upon Scottish separatists and their misguided belief that a constitutional reform towards a sovereign parliament in Edinburgh is the panacea for the social ills of our fellow-workers.

It is said that our socialist ideas are impractical. That is true. From the standpoint of capitalism, the prospect of a new society is always going to be impractical. Our ideas, our principles and our objective are certainly menacing to the defenders of the status quo.

 The world socialist movement is certainly imbued with definite and lofty goals. The oppressive conditions under which the vast majority of wage workers must live is forcing the members of that class to seek for some alternative.

 Labour produces all wealth. 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, is theft.

“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. The wage system implies the existence of two economic classes. Under it the workers suffer, it means no end of strife, therefore from the standpoint of the workers today’s society is wrong and it is only right to get together as a class and abolish the wage system, and in its place erect the co-operative commonwealth.

Let the reformists talk of the motto of “a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.” We workers will march with heads erect, our hearts beating, resolved with our aim fixed on the new societyand the rallying cry - “abolition of wage-slavery.” Such are “dangerous” ideas to capitalists. The Socialist Party propagates these very views, it has and will continue to meet with the opposition of the employing class. It is to be expected. Such proves the correctness of our principles. Employers well understand 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, the capitalist parasites will be gone. That danger and fear is an ever recurring night-mare to them. They would if reduced to extremes, be willing to make any concession always with the feeling that they can successfully juggle matters so as to keep in the saddle. Therefore is accounted their readiness to look with favour to movements that do not aim at changing the economic relations between wage workers and capitalists. Concession and compromise has been the one great weapon of the capitalists. It is the means whereby they seduce the revolutionary spirit of the workers.

This struggle is political and it must be fought out accordingly, and this can only be done when labour has a political party of its own to express its interests, declare its aims, and develop its power to fight its battles and achieve victory. A political party today must stand for labour and the freedom of labour, or it must stand for capital and the exploitation of labour. It cannot possibly stand for both any more than it could for both freedom and slavery. We want to see the workers of the world demand a party of their own, free from exploiting masters — a party with a backbone and the courage to stand up without apology and proclaim itself a socialist party. It must bear no false label, carry no false banner, nor seek support under any false pretence whatsoever. It must stand avowedly for the workers — for the working people who produce and who are useful and necessary to the world.

 The Socialist Party stands fearless and unflinchingly for the working class upon the basis of the class struggle and wage the war against capitalism for the liberation of the working class from its age-old bondage. 

A Momentous Year--Momentously Bad.

2019 was a momentous year - momentously bad; not that we can expect much under capitalism. 

Climate disaster continued unabated with uncontrolled fires, particularly Australia, droughts and floods. There was an increase in racist incidents which included the rise, again, of anti-Semitism, and in China the genocide the government carried out against the Uyghur Muslim minority. We saw Brexit, need I comment? and Trump, need I comment? We saw the gradual erosion of the power of unions; three million children starved to death; the biggest strike ever in India, of about 200 million. Also riots there protesting discrimination against Muslims. Riots in Hong Kong against totalitarianism. Continuing wars in Afghanistan and Syria and the Boeing crashes.

 As bad as all this is, there were still some positive events. The capitalist class in North America didn't do so badly. At the time of writing the all the major U.S. indexes have hit record highs. Nasdaq is leading the way with a yearly gain of 32.8 per cent. The S&P 500 is ahead 27.3 per cent. The Dow is up 21 per cent. Here in Canada the S&P/TSX Composite is up 21 per cent. 

So a minority is doing well. 

Let’s have done with that and work for a society where all will do well.

for socialism 
SPC Members

Dumping Pollution. A Capitalist Cock Up

On December 20, Nova Scotia Premier, Stephen McNeil, said that on January 31 the Northern Pulp Mill near Pictou Landing First Nation would have to shut down. This was in response to the company dumping pollution in the lagoons near Pictou Landing since 1967. 

The company had been warned for five years to clean up their act, but to no avail. The First Nations are delighted; Chief Andrea Paul said, ''I am grateful he has put an end to the pollution and provided an opportunity for us to heal.'' 

This is just another crazy, complex, capitalist cock-up in which, inevitably, someone has to lose and they are the 300 mill workers and the 2,400 forestry workers who will lose their jobs.

for socialism 
SPC Members.

Reforms Retain Capitalism. Lets Have Done With Capitalism.

Michael Coteau, the member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Don Valley East, is advocating making public transit free to ride. His argument is that it would reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, he said, many who drive their cars to work do so because of the high cost of transit fares, such as $3.25 in Toronto. 

Mr. Coteau isn't the first to propose this in Canada. Prior to the October election the NDP said they would institute it if elected. Last year Toronto mayoral candidate, Saron Gebrellassi, said she would campaign for it. 

If free transit fares were legislated, it's probable the capitalist class would use it as an excuse to keep wages down.

 It would however, be just another reform, like free education and free health care and many years of experience have clearly shown that reforms just don't cut it, because they leave the fundamentals of capitalism intact and from these flow all the social evils the upholders of capitalism are so unsuccessfully grappling with. 

So let’s have done with reforms and lets have done with capitalism too.

for socialism 
SPC Members.

Under water in 30 years time?

Socialism - The revolt of the dispossessed

We are socialists who want the Socialist Party to participate in a fight for the principles of socialism. There are misconceptions about socialism. These do not surprise the socialist, because they are to be expected. Socialism does not say what it will do or what you shall do, but only that the people, the workers and producers, shall be master of themselves and do with industry and the proceeds of their toil what they may think best. 

Socialism is merely an extension of the ideal of democracy into the economic field. At present, industry is ruled by the owners of the means of production and distribution, who have literally the power of life and death over working people who are made helpless before the system. 

Socialism proposes to put industry in control of the people so that they may no longer be dependants on others for a job, so that they may be freed from the tribute of profit, and so that they may manage industry in their own way, as seems best to them and their communities.

 We do not exactly know not what the people will do when they control the means by which they make their living, but we believe they will use them in their own interest and with a reasonable degree of planning and thought. We can speculate that they can make it possible to banish want from the face of the Earth. They can make it possible for every family to have a home and will be free from insecurity for themselves and their children. They can make it possible for every child to have a good education, to be able to see the world. They can make it possible for every woman to be free economically, so that she may get along whether she marries or not. 

These are part of the ideals that the socialist cherishes. They are not mere visions, but are things that may be wrought into concrete form, whenever men and women shall have free access to goods and services. They have been impossible of attainment in the past, only because the earth and its fullness was held from the people by either political or industrial masters. 

 We have been so busy seeking to make a living that we have not been able to make a life. If socialism meant the solution of the bread-and-butter problem alone then it would be the most wonderful idea ever given to earth. If it meant the solution of the bread-and-butter problem only, it would surpass all other movements the world has seen, because it would mean an end of the slums and the sweatshops, of child labour.

But it will mean very much more than this. When the bread-and-butter problem is resolved and all men and women and children, the world around, are made secure from dread of war and fear of want, then the mind and heart will be free to develop as they never were before. We shall have a literature and an art such as never before conceived. We shall have beautiful homes. We shall have wonderful thoughts and sentiments never before imagined. Think the best of capitalism and it will be the worse of socialism which can only be possible when men and women are really free from the masters class.

Burns Night

It's coming yet, for a' that, that man to man the world o'er, shall brithers be for a' that."