New times require new actions.

Sickness, poverty, starvation and wars are running rampant over the face of the world. These problems are the inevitable result  of capitalism, an outworn and vicious social system. To the socialist accusation that capitalism produces only for profit, not for people, the apologists justify its continuance by saying: “It’s the best” and that there is no system better. But all people are offered is the choice between different cancers.  There is a hidden kind of hunger. No question about that. Maybe those who are hungry starve aren’t falling   dead in the streets. There are other ways to starve that are slower, less obvious, and less public pride. The upstanding figures of capitalist society don’t care how they make profits, so long as they are big enough. Capitalism cruelly and relentlessly functions to make profits.

 A socialist society will make inequitable distribution and poverty amid plenty impossible. For under the socialist society the means of production will be free to provide for the needs of the people. The capitalist profit-makers will have passed into the limbo of history. The working people will be in control of production and its management. Life may not be perfect. A little confusion may arise now and then, a little stupidity shown on occasions.  However, not as the characteristics of socialism, as they are the characteristics of capitalism; but merely as the natural mistakes made by fallible human beings but also with a democratic process to correct mistakes and errors. Reason and rationality teaches that the people of the world unite to create a cooperative commonwealth. The natural resources of the earth and the new technology made possible by science, all can be used and distributed according to human needs – with common sense international planning by the working people of the world. THAT IS SANE. THAT IS THE ONLY SANITY. THE OUTCOME IS WHETHER THE WORKERS SHOULD CONTINUE TO RELY ON ANY VARIETY OF BOSS POLITICS OR START RELYING ON INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS POLITICS. Workers must raise its voice now – as an independent political force. The road of class-conscious political action leads beyond the bounds the confines of the capitalist system – it leads to socialism. The yearning of the peoples of the world for lasting peace and good will among men and women can be fulfilled only through a social system based on human needs. That is world socialism.

The working class must make its stand against its own capitalist system – whose lust for profits and interest, for investments, markets and expanded capital, for raw materials and cheap exploitable labour, can mean only exploitation at home and abject slavery abroad. the working class – not the intellectuals, idealists – is today the only possible agent of civilisation. It is the class with the revolutionary mission of ending capitalism. It is the class with the revolutionary mission of creating the world-wide brotherhood of mankind, unexploited and unoppressed by ruthless, profit-seeking, capitalist class. The socialist knows that the principles of democracy now reside only in the exploited, oppressed working people of the world. The democracy that is social and economic democracy. There is no other democracy left.

For the peoples of the world to arrive at the longed-for destiny of humanity to produce the necessities of life in peace and plenty, they must rid themselves of the motives of capitalist profits. That is saying that international capitalism is their enemy. Humanity needs a socialist world! World socialism is the goal of humanity. It is the only way to have peace and security.

The choice is between things as they are and things we can all make them if we stop relying on fake messiahs and rely instead upon our own STRENGTH AND ABILITY. The hope for a new life that can be lived in freedom in justice and decency is not crazy. What is insane is to suppose that such a life can come while capitalism still exists. There is a way – a sensible way – whereby mankind can peacefully share all the resources of the world needed for modern life. That is the way of the working people emancipated from domestic and foreign bosses, producing for human use, according to human needs. It is possible for the working people of the whole world to have economic security, work for all, plenty of the goods of life, permanent peace and determine their own destinies. Yes, such sanity is possible on this earth. Not, however, through the aberrations of capitalism – but through the united struggle of the international working class – through socialism. Workers  cannot rely on any supporters of this system which inevitably favours the bosses. The working class itself must pave its own path to a better life. Only by using their economic and political might can the workers improve themselves. No more waiting.

WITH ORGANISATION THERE IS STRENGTH.
WITH ORGANISATION THERE CAN BE ACTION.

The Riches of the Scottish Aristocracy

  Duke of Buccleuch, one of Scotland's biggest landowners, has seen the profits made by a group owned by his family quadruple.

The latest accounts for The Buccleuch Estates show the business made £51.3 million profit after tax in the year to October 31 2019, compared with £12.4m in the preceding year.

Ideology or Ideals?

 The WSM’s position is not ideological, when its actually practical/strategic. If anything its our opponents who portray it as some sort of puritan ideological position. Sure its a big issue for others on the left, but its just the sensible tactic for now.

I envisage a growing revolutionary movement may need to more actively engage with reformist opportunities provided for working class gains - I have no ideological objection to that, but we'd be doing it from a position of strength with the capitalist class in desperate retreat. As to the present, I think there are grey areas (i.e. as to what is trade union activity and political activity) and we in WSM do definitely sometimes make it seem like its clear cut, when it really is not.

 

Campaigning against government cuts for example is often about both defending jobs as well as advocating for free access to healthcare, education, libraries etc. - so it gets messy, but individual socialists can sort that out for themselves on a case-by-case basis. "Mostly on track"? I think we at best aspire to that!

Returning to the Labour Party, the main thing I would want to highlight (to anyone interested in the SPGB or the WSM) is that we have no leaders and never have in 116 years of existence. No secret meetings, no slates, no power grabs: decision-making is entirely led by members. We have an executive committee (anyone can attend the meetings) but it's there to carry out the memberships wishes, it cannot initiate resolutions, only branches can. We accept no ring-fenced funding and are immune to being taken over or influenced by media or others.

We can do this because our members are equal. We can say this because all members when applying to join have to satisfy their local branch that they are not a "follower", that their views are consistent with being a revolutionary socialist with no prejudices, and a clear understanding of capitalism and socialism.

 

Some think this requirement to join is elitist; in fact its the very opposite. The Labour Party long ago allowed itself to be open to anyone with the vaguest commitment to social justice and a chequebook. The suspension of Corbyn may be shocking to many Labour members. Corbyn may have genuinely been the leader you wanted him to be, but the Labour Party? - it has never been the party you thought it was.

Brian Gardner

(slightly adapted)

 

What we need is a red revolution, not a green one.

”…When a great social revolution shall have mastered the results of the bourgeois epoch, the market of the world and the modern powers of production, and subjected them to the common control of the most advanced peoples, then only will human progress cease to resemble that hideous, pagan idol, who would not drink the nectar but from the skulls of the slain.” ― Karl Marx, The First Indian War of Independence 1857-1859

Many people are going hungry, despite the cornucopia of food that glut supermarket shelves or that gets destroyed, buried to maintain market prices and stock-market values or re-directed to making fuel by government subsidies. There are many who are homeless, regardless that society has the workers, the raw materials and the equipment to build houses for all. The central point is that world hunger is not due to the impossibility of producing more food or building more and better housing. It the capitalist media’s job is to ignorance.

 

Market economics and not technology has always been the main limiting factor to food production. The fact is that capitalism can never be ‘green’ or ‘ethical’ and shopping around for “fair trade” brands can never save the world. the capitalist market never creates stable, sustainable relationships with the environment or with people themselves. Environmentalists hold a deep pessimism about the environment. It suggests the problems are too big and complex for an organised sustainable solution. Human beings have the unique ability to transform the world consciously, according to a plan. The destruction of environmentally important areas of our planet is not caused by scarcity or overpopulation. Human activity itself is not innately hostile to nature. But working people are excluded from any real control of the environment. The vast majority of humanity want to live in a safe, healthy world, and to enjoy nature, have no control over decisions that affect our lives. Even at our own workplace we have to struggle for the most meagre health and safety measures. All production decisions are made by a tiny handful of capitalists, not in the interests of humanity, but solely for profit. Environmental concerns are ignored in the short term scramble for capital accumulation.

 

Without modern applications and technology it simply would not be possible to feed current population levels.The type of economic system we operate is. The market can never be harnessed to develop a harmonious relationship with nature. Because it depends on the exploitation of most of humanity, it must keep us subjected. Because its motor force is profit, it will result in the blind destruction of the environment.

Malnutrition and actual hunger threaten the working people around the world – unless the production and distribution of food is taken out of the hands of the capitalists and politicians. Will the people eat – or will the food corporations be allowed to accumulate profits as usual? The fact is that the production and distribution of food is the source of enormous private profit for a bunch of bloated capitalists and bankers who also dictate political policy. The bosses of the food industry will not produce food except for profit

Continue capitalism and we face the certain prospect of new wars, mass destruction of nature and the eventual graveyard of civilisation. There can be no peace, no security, no freedom under capitalism

Build socialism and we face a new horizon for humanity to give us undreamed-of wonders to enrich our life. It has been the aim of civilized man to gain freedom from want and from toil through the use of technology. It is able to give to the human race all the good things of life and plenty of time in which to enjoy them. Isn’t it crazy that the millions of the men and women who operate the modern new technology capable of  tremendous mass production go “home” to shacks in the slums of shanty-towns? Where does the goal of satisfying mankind’s needs come in? The answer is never – never under the crazy profit system. The hand at the controls of production is that of a ruling class intoxicated with power and insane for profits. 

Working people on this planet can unite to remove the crazy grip of the capitalists from the controls and create our own abundant socialist society. That is sanity.

 

Socialism: Workers Emancipation

 

It is every individual’s desire to make of life the best and happiest thing  possible. The Socialist Party wants the same thing. Our vision of the world is making life better and sweeter. Socialism stands for the advancement and emancipation of society and it is non-bureaucratic, non-autocratic. It is industrial democracy, by, for and of the workers, first, last and all the time. Socialism is industrial democracy. Socialism seeks economic as well as political equality. What good does it do a man to have political rights and be a slave under the economic system? As long as one person is born the possessor of untold luxury, and one on another street is born to an inheritance of misery, as long as one is born master and other servant, there can be no peace on earth and goodwill to all men. They say you must change human nature. Socialists say change the conditions and you will change human nature. The small businessman tells us, “You want my property and my business.” It is not the socialist, but the corporate monopolies that destroys you, reduce you to a subservient sub-contractor, if you are lucky. The sharks swallow the small minnows, and ultimately in the capitalist waters there will be only a few sharks left.

The Socialist Party believes in democracy and in the brotherhood of all. No community can endure which ignores the Golden Rule, the basic law of social life –‘Each for all, and all for each’

The evils of the present social order are the product of an economic system in which the supreme purpose is the taking of profits. The present capitalist system divides the people into two classes. Anyone with common sense will admit that. There are people who work for wages and those who employ the wage workers. There are the people who own the industries and those who must go to the owners of industry or their representatives for the opportunity to earn a living. The ownership of industry is the source of the power of the profit-seeking class. It gives them control of the working people to secure for themselves the necessities of life. The millions of men and women  who are dependent upon the wages they earn for a living are economic serfs, wage-slaves. The power to hire and fire the workers, to give and take away the opportunity to earn a living, carries with it the power to compel the workers to work for such wages as will leave the capitalists a profit from their labour.

 

The business of making profits is shrouded in great mystery by the capitalists. They seek to make the workers believe that it is through some occult power that they make the processes of production yield them profits and build up great fortunes for them. There is no mystery about the source of profits. The capitalists do not create wealth out of the aid in juggling with industry. They make profits because they purchase the labour-power of the workers for less than the value of the goods the workers produce, that is, they do not pay the workers the full value of their labour. There is not other way of making profits.The lower the wages for which the capitalists can purchase the labor-power of the workers and the longer their hours of labor, the greater will be the capitalists’ profits. Naturally, the capitalists pay the lowest wages at which they can induce the workers to work. Since they are in a position to deny the workers the opportunity to earn a living if the workers do not accept their terms, they have been able to keep the wages at the point where they yield the workers a mere subsistence. The existing industrial system is a huge profit-making machine. This worn-out and corrupt system offers no promise of improvement and adaptation. 

 

If the work of socialists is to make a better world, its aim must be the abolition of the profit system. The Socialist Party solemnly reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of internationalism and working-class solidarity the world over. Modern wars as a rule have been caused by the commercial and financial rivalry and intrigues of the capitalist interests in the different countries. Whether they have been frankly waged as wars of aggression or have been hypocritically represented as wars of “defence” they have always been made by the rich and fought by the poor.  Wars bring wealth and power to the ruling class, and suffering, and death to the workers. The Socialist Party is unalterably opposed to the system of exploitation and class rule which is upheld and strengthened by nationalism and patriotism. The wars of the contending national groups of capitalists are not the concern of the workers. The only struggle which would justify the workers in taking up arms is the great struggle of the working class of the world to free itself from economic exploitation and political oppression. The end of wars will come with the establishment of socialized industry and industrial democracy the world over.

The Socialist Party calls upon all the workers to join it in its struggle to reach this goal, and thus bring into the world a new society in which peace, fraternity, and human brotherhood will prevail.

If misery is inevitable, is socialism inevitable?

 

The Socialist Party holds an Annual Conference to administer the organisation and to develop its policies. We also has an Autumn Delegate Meeting (ADM) which focuses more on our members discussing issues that concern either the party or our fellow-workers. 

At the upcoming ADM Saturday 21st November where all interested including non-members can attend via the DISCORD application available at our website home-page, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, Glasgow Branch has placed two items for discussion which some may wish to comment upon on this blog. 

Item 37: Is the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of socialism inevitable?

 Glasgow Branch Supporting Statement:

 We have argued that capitalism creates the conditions for socialist ideas to develop and spread: it being a system which presents workers with so many problems and apparently irresolvable contradictions that one is almost forced to think about them.

Although our case rests entirely on its own merits and not on what Marx may or may not have said, we have often quoted Marx approvingly when he wrote: 

"The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable." (Manifesto of the Communist Party) 

We are sure that when Marx made this statement he was referring to what has been called the “broad sweep of history”, arising from “…the history of all hitherto existing society†…” being “…the history of class struggles.” and not some ineluctable and mechanistic historical process. 

For over a century the objective conditions necessary for the establishment of socialism, ie the development of the means of production and distribution of wealth to a level which first permitted abundance and now superabundance, have existed. So, why has it not happened? When will it happen? These questions are obviously much easier to ask than they are to answer, and any answer which we might give would not have the degree of precision which is possible when answering questions such as: when is the next full moon? or when will Halley’s Comet next be seen from Earth? 

We could state that socialism has not been achieved yet because the subjective conditions required, ie a majority of socialists among the workers of the world, do not exist. Unfortunately, the majority of our fellow wage-slaves have a mindset which supports, or at least acquiesces in, capitalism.

 But such an answer is only a summary of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and does not take us much further. Instead it prompts us to ask “but why?”. Why, despite their experience of capitalism, do most wage-slaves still accept it? Why are they not yet ready to overthrow the wretched capitalist system? And when will they be ready? 

To answer these questions, it would probably help to look at some indicators within society which might show us what progress, if any, has been made in the last century or so towards increasing socialist consciousness, and consequently towards socialism itself. Does anything we find indicate inevitability?

 We may also consider what effects globalization and improved communication systems, such as the internet, have upon the potential for: greater class consciousness amongst workers, or greater control by the capitalist class.

 [ †That is, all written history…] 

Item 38: What is the increasing misery of the workers under capitalism, and is it inevitable?

 Glasgow Branch Supporting Statement:

 No, we do not mean Eastenders! 

We know what Marx meant by this, but we have often seen and heard this idea misrepresented by supporters of capitalism. Whether misrepresented by design or just by ignorance, it has often been claimed that because the majority of workers are much better off materially than they, or their ancestors, were their misery cannot ipso facto be increasing. 

 It is perhaps fortunate for capitalism that wages which have been stagnant for a long time nevertheless are allowing workers hitherto unimaginable access to more and more stuff because the real prices of many commodities have fallen. 

So although workers are relatively worse off they are better off in absolute terms. But the fact that we have not been reduced to a “mass of broken wretches” is taken by some supporters of capitalism to mean that there can be no misery or, at least, no increasing misery. That degree of crassness itself adds to the accumulated misery. 

The increasing misery surely refers to what workers must do to get all this stuff, not total, utter and absolute poverty or destitution. The working conditions they suffer, the stultifying and tedious drudgery of most employment, the insecurity, and the danger. All this is before we even venture outside the workplace. 

Once at home the worker is confronted by his/her masters’ voice in the form of so-called news. Fake news is not a new concept to us. This “news” tells us the things our masters think we should know about: usually stuff that is really none of our business, but is important to them.

 The increasing misery must also refer to the sense of alienation, not just from the wealth stolen from us, but from the physical world we are forced to inhabit. 

There can be few who are unaffected by: anthropogenic climate change, wars and other violence in the world, and the myriad problems seemingly designed for a personalised experience of misery.

 What was going on in the heads of the wage-slaves who voted for Donald J Trump? Will those who support this man today be ready for socialism any time soon?

 Is all this not misery enough? 

Although we have no wish to “wallow in misery”, if we have missed any misery here please do not hesitate to let us know…