No recipes for the cookshops of the future

 We are invariably asked for specifics as to what socialism will look like, and that if we cannot present a precise plan of how socialism will operate how can we expect people to give up a system that they now live under for something in the future that has never been tried, and that cannot be laid out in detail in advance.

We readily admit that we are unable to satisfy such a question with a comprehensive layout of future socialist society. The answer in a nutshell is - we don't know. But let us elaborate because the question is most worthwhile. The World Socialist Movement’s companion parties are just a handful of men and women. It is only within our capabilities to give an economic presentation of the definition of socialism together with its implications. We cannot submit a blueprint of a future socialist society because,

(1) it is not our function, 

(2) this can only be achieved by a world-wide socialist majority, which will then have at its disposal the wishes, desires, and preferences of the majority of the population, together with the knowledge, techniques, and talents then available,

(3) we are not in a position to know what the prevailing conditions will be at the time socialism is established; therefore to speculate on details would be a waste of time, and

(4) how can we be expected to know the preferences of a socialist society in the future which will be ascertained democratically only when socialism is finally established?

 

It would be absurdly presumptuous for us to attempt such detailed planning; a waste of effort which would involve everyone concerned in futile debate, because we would be without adequate numbers to arrive at proper decisions, and without adequate facts and material knowledge. The prerogative for such organizational work belongs to the socialist population as a whole. However, once the foregoing is understood, the question can be answered by presenting in a positive manner some of the features that we do know about socialism.

In socialism there would of course be production, transportation, and distribution of goods and services. All these instruments would be owned in common by the whole of society, and they al ready exist. However, with the establishment of worldwide socialism a change of ownership would take place. All the deeds, documents, bonds, stock certificates, and legal records that previously conveyed ownership rights, would overnight become worthless scraps of paper. In their place would be the international declaration that every single person living on the face of the earth enjoyed the same rights of common ownership to all the world-wide means of production and distribution.

This wealth, which would then be commonly owned, would be refined and transformed according to the democratic wishes of the population. Anything harmful or injurious to health, all physical aspects considered unnecessarily ugly or distasteful, would be eliminated. All modifications and innovations in the realm of production and distribution would be effected with one main thought in mind-the welfare and good of humanity. The factories, transportation, and distribution centers would continue to operate, but the overriding principle would be the production and distribution of goods and services solely to satisfy needs, without affecting the health and working pleasure of men and women. The distribution centers would lack one conspicuous attribute - there would be no cash registers. You would be a co-owner with your fellows in the true sense of the word with complete free access to everything that is available.

A new incentive for work will emerge within socialism. It will be the personal gratification that work will automatically afford, plus the desire for each person to receive the approbation of their comrades. There is no reward or incentive that could be greater or stronger; the fact that in reality you will not only be working for society as a whole, but for yourself as well, because the interests of the individual and society will coincide. Work will be come a pleasure; you will enjoy the companionship of your fellows, for you will be working together for the common good of all.

A form of International World Congress would no doubt be set up where delegates would gather and express viewpoints from all over the world.

Administrations, democratically controlled by society, would be established. Their function would be to determine what people need, in what quantity, and how to achieve the finest quality, and what work has to be performed to fulfill these requirements. Computers would be used, polls and referendums taken, statistics compiled and co-related. All relevant information on all issues would be made available, and these administrations would work together throughout the world with this prime objective the satisfaction of human needs and human welfare.

This futuristic, partial picture of socialist society requires your help to bring it to full development and fruition.

Now we have a question to ask - when do we start?

Samuel Leight - 'World Without Wages'

First Good News.

First the good news - on Nov.6 Stats-Canada reported that in October 84,000 new jobs were added to the Canadian economy.

 Now the bad news, yes even under capitalism there sometimes is bad news! Nearly one quarter of Canada's unemployed have been without work for six months or more. Nearly 450,000 were considered long-term unemployed in October, meaning they had been without a job for 27 weeks of more. Their ranks swelled by 79,000 in September and by 151,000 in October. 

Much of this has been caused by the pandemic, but it still gets down to Mother Earth meaning it’s another situation that capitalism and its political upholders can't deal with.

S.P.C. Members

Change the System

 

Working people do not want fed empty promises, because they have eaten them for years. It is within the power of the working class to establish socialism, a system of peace, abundance and equality and freedom.  The working class is a revolutionary class and as such is capable of overthrowing the capitalist system and establishing the socialist society. Sadly, the working class are so imbued with the ideas of capitalism that they can always be diverted from its revolutionary aim.

We are Marxists. We are revolutionaries. Our goal is the cooperative commonwealth. Our struggle is for the overthrow of capitalism, for workers’ power and socialism. Capitalist interests are fundamentally different and opposed to working-class interests. To achieve victory over capitalism the working class must organise itself on a solid base and have a political party under its own direction. As socialists, we understand that the struggle to make the lives of workers better is a never-ending, contentious battle as long as capitalism exists. We also understand that working people have tremendous power if it can be organised. That has been shown over and over again.

The purpose of the Socialist Party is to end the wars, violence, poverty, and brutality dictated by the capitalist class. Socialism is a society where humans can share the wealth of the world equally and create a world in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all; a world where we can all benefit from each according to our individual and multiple abilities and talents; and provide to each according to our individual needs and wants while protecting our planet and all the life on it, saving the world. Capitalism is a world system is on its way out.

Social justice can never prevail until industrial despotism has been supplanted by industrial democracy.

 

Our demands are simple. We only want to control our destiny

 

Society is divided into two classes: the working class, doing all the labour; and the ruling class, living on the fruits of labour. We in the Socialist Party speak therefore to the workers, and above all to those workers who look forward to the emancipation of labour from wage slavery. There can be no appeal to any section of society. outside the working-class, as their interests are opposed to labour, and their opinions therefore of no account to us.

The Socialist Party aims at the complete emancipation of labour from the yoke of capital. This emancipation can be achieved by the transfer to common ownership of all the means and objects of production. This will entail the abolition of the present commodity production (i.e., the purchase and sale of products on the market) and its replacement by a new system of social production with a view to satisfying the requirements both of society as a whole and of each one of its members. 

This socialist revolution will introduce consciousness where there now reigns blind economic necessity; by simplifying and giving purpose to all social relationships it will at the same time provide each citizen with the real economic possibility of participating directly in the discussion and decision of all social matters. This direct participation of citizens in the management of social affairs presupposes the abolition of the present system of political representation and its replacement by direct popular administration. Male, female, young or old, black and white, let us march united forward to our common emancipation from wage slavery.

 Unity and organisation have to be the watchwords of the socialist movement. We know where nationalism leads towards - the disintegration of a unified workers’ movement, dividing trade unions according to nationalities, aggravation of national rivalries and cross-border strike-breaking.

 

 

 

Socialists Have No Time For Lesser Evils.

A large world-wide sigh of relief went up when Joe Biden was elected President. In his victory speech he spoke of healing the soul of the nation, of getting the pandemic under control, of justice for minorities, of rebuilding the economy, of bringing Americans together, of fighting global warming and getting America greater respect in the world. He mentioned that Senator Harris was the first female, first black and first person of Asian descent to be elected VP. 

But what has REALLY happened? 

A man who knows how to behave in public will administrate the affairs of capitalism instead of a total jackass. Many on the left will say Biden is the lesser of two evils. Socialists have no time for lesser evils because capitalism being run by anyone is one enormous evil. 

Biden and Harris may be well meaning, but have to work within the parameters of capitalism which causes war, poverty, hunger, unemployment and global warming, to name a few of its effects. Many will see Harris's election as a step forward in the fight for equality. If it is it only means equality within capitalism which is self-defeating because there is no equality within it. Whites don't have equality with each other; blacks don't have equality with each other, let alone equality between white and black. How can they when the world’s wealth and the tools of production are owned by a small minority?

 There is only one equality worth fighting for and that is one where all will stand equal to the world’s wealth and the tools of production. In the days ahead you will see Biden and Harris grapple with the problems capitalism throws up and fail to overcome them. Biden did say one significant thing; that to him America meant possibility. 

Socialists agree but on a wider, hence world-wide scale. The possibility is there that the world’s working class can organize and overthrow the system that Biden and Harris uphold.

S.P.C. Members.

The Socialist Party's Solidarity

 “What matters whether you give the food and clothes to the slave direct, or whether you just give him enough in wages to purchase the same?” - John Adams

We, slaves as we are, have to emancipate ourselves. It can be done. It must be done. It shall be done. The Socialist Party is not, and does not pretend to be, a capitalist party. The Socialist Party is not a capitalist party, nor a reformist party, but a revolutionary party, to take control and possession of the means of wealth production, abolish wage-slavery and emancipate all workers and all humanity. People are as capable of achieving their industrial freedom as they were to secure their political liberty. The capitalist system is no longer suitable to the needs of modern society. It has become a fetter on the forces of progress. All the wealth the vast army of labour produces above its subsistence is taken by the machine owning capitalists, who also own the land and the mills, the factories, transport and mines, the forests and fields and all other means of production and transportation. Hence wealth and poverty, millionaires and beggars, castles and hovels, luxury and squalor. The capitalist parties can do nothing. They are an iniquitous part of the foul system. They have no remedy. The Socialist Party is the only party that is organised to abolish industrial slavery, the prolific source of the evils that afflict the people. The overthrow of capitalism is the object of the Socialist Party. It will remain hostile to all other non-socialist parties and would rather die than compromise. There can be no common interests between those who own the machines, factories, mines, mills and land, with the workers who do all of the producing. One class does all the work, produces all, suffers all the hardships necessary to accomplish the task. The other class owns, but does not know, nor cares to know, how to produce 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.” 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 

The working class must be emancipated by the working class. Society must be reconstructed by the working class. These are the principles and objects of the Socialist Party. The workers of the world must organise as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system. The present social system has rendered the many subservient to the few. It has disinherited the great majority. It prolongs their lives of misery. It makes one dependent upon his or her master’s caprice. It creates jealousies, hatreds, and injustice. Our political institutions are destructive and reactionary to protect the self-seeking, dishonest, and tyrannical, ever ready to repress and oppress those willing to resist. Our social system continually drives men and women into poverty.

The economic emancipation of the working class will be achieved only by the transfer to common ownership by the working people of all means and products of production and the organisation of all the functions of social and economic life in accordance with the requirements of society. The modern development of technology in civilised societies not only provides the material possibility for such an organisation but makes it necessary and inevitable for solving the contradictions which hinder the development of society. This radical economic revolution will entail most fundamental changes in the entire constitution of social relationships. By eliminating the class struggle, by destroying the classes themselves; making the economic struggle of individuals impossible and unnecessary, by abolishing commodity production and the competition connected with it; briefly, it puts an end to the struggle for existence between individuals and classes.

Without falling into utopian fantasies about the future, we can already now foretell the abolition of the state, as a political organisation opposed to society and safeguarding mainly the interests of its ruling section. The socialist revolution simplifies all social relationships and gives them a purpose, at the same time providing each citizen with the real possibility of participating directly in the discussion and decision of all social matters. This direct participation of citizens in the management of all social matters presupposes the abolition of the modern system of political representation and its replacement by direct popular legislation.

 In exactly the same way we can already now foresee the worldwide character of the impending economic revolution. The contemporary development of international exchange of products necessitates the participation of all countries in this revolution. That is why the Socialist Party acknowledges the global character of the present-day working-class movement and proclaim the principle of international solidarity of producers.

A New Vision for Working People

 “In proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, BE HIS PAYMENT HIGH OR LOW, must grow worse.” - Marx

There has never been a free people on this earth. Human society always consisted of masters and slaves, and the slaves have always been and are today, the foundation stones. Society has always been and is now built upon exploitation — the exploitation of a class, the working class — whether slaves, serfs, or wage workers; and the exploited working class have always been, instinctively or consciously, in revolt against their oppressors. The call of the Socialist Party is to the exploited class, the workers in all useful trades and professions, all honest occupations, from the most menial service to the highest skill, to rally beneath their own standard and put an end to the last of the barbaric class struggles by conquering the capitalist government, taking possession of the means of production, and making them common property of all and establishing the cooperative commonwealth.

Wage-slavery is a fact. This is the plain meaning of what is known as the labour market - the selling and buying of labour-power. They who buy and they who sell in the labour market are alike dehumanised by the human trafficking. The Socialist Party is united upon one issue: Abolishing wage-slavery.

The platform of the Socialist Party may be stated simply — economic justice. We demand this in the name of humanity that it may come through peaceful channels. We are and ever will be foes of violence. Our remedy lies in the ballot box. The Socialist Party proposes that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy all human needs; that every man and every woman shall be economically free.

We are not going to destroy private property. We are going to so establish common ownership that every person can have a share in and possess what is necessary to house and keep them in comfort and satisfy all physical wants. we are not going to destroy the home, but we are going to make a home possible for all. 90% of the people have little or no property of any kind today. A few have got it all. They have dispossessed the people, and we will dispossess them.

The Socialist Party stands for all the people. Nature’s storehouse is full. Nature has spread a great table bountiful for all. There is room for all and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of society that denies a single one the right and the opportunity to freely help himself to Nature’s bounties is an iniquitous system that ought to be abolished in the interest of humanity and a civilisation worthy of the name. All of the resources and raw materials are here in abundance. We have the most marvellous technology the world has ever known. Why should any man, woman or child lack food, healthcare or shelter? Such a condition as this is indefensible in this century. Is the condition fair today, and satisfactory to any thinking person? As long as a relatively few men own the sources and means of life — they will corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working class, they will impoverish and debase society, they will do all things that are needful to perpetuate their power as the economic masters and the political rulers of the people. Not until these great forces of production are owned and operated by the people can the people hope for any material, improvement in their social condition. there will be no material change in the condition of the people until we have a new social system based upon the mutual economic interests of the people: until you and I and all of us collectively own those things that we collectively need and use. The working class can only emancipate itself in one way, and this is by making the means of production common property and this means the emancipation of the human race.

The capitalist who profits by the class struggle seeks to cover and obscure it so that it may be perpetuated. They accuse the socialists that if they succeed to power they will at once proceed to subjugate and enslave us all. What the Socialist Party seeks to do is let the exploited worker know who is the real master, the employer and the State. No working person, no matter what wage, no matter how long he or she lives, no matter how economically prudent one may be, no worker can get rich by his or her toil. The man who gets rich is he who lives off the sweat and leeches from the blood of the working class to profit himself.

The Socialist Party is organising to abolish the capitalist system, and to accomplish this object we require to take political power. It must be a class-conscious party. Present government is entirely coercive. It is simply a policeman, and its chief duty consists in keeping the exploited victims of the capitalist in subjection and creating new markets or defending the old ones. We must have socialist administration instead of capitalist government. We must succeed at the ballot box.