Fiblio Bacteria Can Kill You In 48 Hours.

 

Detour's program, ''Mysteries Of The Deep,'' recently focused on two matters that should be of concern for those interested in the future of capitalism and for those who want to abolish it. Since the oceans have gotten warmer an invasive bacteria is thriving in them and killing people who bath off the coast, in as quickly as 48 hours.

 It's called Fiblio Bacteria and is spreading rapidly because cargo ships take on water as ballast and release it when they reach port. 

The other delightful little goodie is the manufacture of Narco Submarines, in the isolated areas of Colombia. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel caught one off the coast of Ecuador, which contained $242 million worth of cocaine destined for the U.S.

One thing you can be damn sure of - capitalism will never stop throwing up stinky problems for us to grapple with until we stop it.

S.P.C. Members.             

Being Practical

Socialists have tended to refrain from extensive speculation about the precise organisation of a future socialist system but the above descriptions of what is possible demonstrates quite clearly that socialists are not planning an unachievable Utopia. Capitalism has made abundance a possibility, and made workable the "Communistic abolition of buying and selling”. We are taking the people of today and the world of today and simply changing the not very technically different methods of working and organising the resources of society for use and not for the profit of a minority. The nature of its administration will be in accord with the historical circumstances existing at the time of the revolution. The basis of industrial organization and administration will start from the arrangements existing under capitalism at the time of the transformation, and this will present no difficulties because the socialist movement will already be thoroughly international, both in outlook and practical organisation. As far as the machinery of organisation and administration is concerned, it will be local, regional, national and international, evolving out of forms that exist today. When we come to the question of how production solely for use will operate in socialism we begin with the fact that a world-wide structure of useful production already exists and therefore we already have a working model in front of us. The task is to identify the useful mechanisms which co-ordinate production and distribution now as distinct from the value factors of buying and selling in the markets, which under capitalism constrain useful production. In socialism, these useful mechanisms will operate on their own, freely and directly for need.

 Our proposals for practical socialism include the ways in which useful institutions and decision-making bodies could be adapted from “the existing state of things”. Socialism will be based on is production for use, with objects being made or services being provided because they are useful to people, rather than with a view to making a profit. In some ways, this is similar to what happens in many households at the moment. People cook, clean, wash their car, because these are useful activities, not because they hope to make money from them. Equally, people grow vegetables in their garden or allotment for their own consumption or that of their friends and neighbours. In socialism such principles will simply be extended to the whole of production. The corollary of production for use is free access to what has been produced. People will simply take what they need from the “shops” or storehouses, as and when they want it. There will be no point in hoarding things for a rainy day, or in taking masses of stuff. For one thing, there is only a certain amount of most things - e.g potatoes or toilet paper that people can consume. But would some people want lots? Maybe some will want lots of a particular item, but the extra resource used in producing lots of copies is very small, so this will not be such a great problem.

We are not so naive as to imagine that the changeover from world capitalism to world socialism will occur over a single weekend. The changeover can be envisaged as taking place over a relatively short period of time of, say, five years or so (we simply don't know.) Yet even before the full establishment of socialism people will have started to do what is needed to begin creating the new world. Local life will soon became largely self-administering and local plans will be devised to make the best alternative uses of buildings that no longer served their original purpose, such as banks and armament factories.

 Communities able to grow their own food can very quickly become self-sufficient: food surpluses distributed elsewhere to areas of need without any requirement to pass through the intermediary of the market although later it will not be a question of communities passing on their surpluses to one another (most, if left to themselves, wouldn't have any surplus); it is a question of them being interlinked in a single network of production which in the end embraces the whole world. Wider co-ordination will ensue. It is as well to be aware to what extent local communities are interconnected and interdependent and that this places severe limits on what needs could be met locally. The fact is that people in small communities aren't able to produce all they need, or anything like it. The final stage of the production of a range of goods for everyday use could be done locally - food, clothes, shoes, furniture--as well as repairs but neither (most of) the raw materials nor (in most cases) any of the metals to make the tools and machines used in this final stage could be produced locally. The community will ascertain what are the requirements of the people - anything and everything that the people desire. Food, clothing, housing, transport, sanitation — these come first; all effort will be to supply those first; everyone will feel it a duty to take some part in supplying these. Then will follow the adornments and amusements. There will be a real sense of working together for a common goal - a true community. If you read people’s reminiscences of the Second World War or the Depression of the Thirties, you will find time and again the refrain, “Times were hard, but everybody pulled together.” It matters not how accurate these memories are; what is crucial is the way that cooperation and solidarity are seen as positive values, to be cherished and kept in the memory.

For real democracy: imagine a society where all the people would be of equal status, with equal, free access to resources owned by the community, as a whole (e.g. food, shelter, health-care, education, transportation, etc.).

 

Imagine a world with no leaders and no elite to lord it over us. A society where everyone can have an equal say in the issues that concern them. Above all, a world, in which all the people own and share the wealth that we need in order to live. The precise, day-to-day details of the running of this future society will be up to the people at the time, but what we can be sure of is that there will be open access to the administration of society for those interested in particular issues, such as food production, health, education, building of houses, the environment and local matters. Immense satisfaction will be experienced by huge numbers of individuals as, on the one hand they will be able to contribute their mental and physical energies into increasing the commonly held wealth of society, whilst on the other hand, they will satisfy their own self-defined needs from the common store.

A Vision for Socialists in Scotland

 

 

 

The appeal of Scottish nationalism to working people in Scotland is, of course, a result of the failure of the Westminster Parliament to deliver the goods it repeatedly promises. The Scots are not the only victims in this; it is equally true to English and Welsh workers. But the Scots (and indeed the Welsh) have a ready-made ‘national’ conduit to which discontent can be channelled. The nationalists claim to be capable of solving Scotland’s social and economic problems. Our attitude in the Socialist Party, and, in particular, its Scottish branches, to independence is that no fundamental problem facing working people can be cured, or even seriously alleviated, by tinkering with the constitution.

 

Nationalism does not oppose capitalism. Furthermore it is used to divide the workers among themselves so they can ignore their real enemy. In order to overthrow capitalism workers need to unite – their main interests lie in unity. There are no short-cuts to the socialist revolution, and those who enter the nationalist path block the coming of a popular revolutionary movement by chasing fake enemies.

 

Socialist internationalism arises from the practical experience of the workers who feel that they have to cooperate with each other across frontiers and boundaries in order to defend their interests, their wages and their working conditions. The day-to-day experience of a worker standing at the factory bench next to a foreigner who, often through necessity, under-priced his or her labour, brought an understanding of common interests, an instinctive kind of internationalism.

 

Socialists are well aware of this very real and unedifying element in the existence of the working classes in a society where competition permeated every aspect of social life. This strife would end only with the abolition of private property in the means of production – that is, with the abolition of capitalism.

 

The aim of the workers’ movement is to curb the competitiveness of the workers, to bring under control that individualism which made them an easy prey for capitalist exploitation. The aim of the labour movement is to instil in the workers solidarity which would benefit them all as a class. That was the origin of the trade unions, the origin of socialism.

 

‘Workers of the world, unite!’ is nothing else but a call to eliminate harmful competition between workers within each country and to eliminate it also on an international scale. From this point of view nationalism is, in the first instance, the workers’ self-destructive competitiveness; internationalism was their solidarity transcending national boundaries.

 

Socialist internationalism may have developed from the cosmopolitanism of commerce; but it also surpassed that cosmopolitanism, overcame its limitations, and, finally, has come to stand in opposition to the capitalist cosmopolitanism.

 

A socialist understands that “socialist” and “nation” are mutually antagonistic words. Socialism is world-wide where nations remove national divisions and unite their economies for socialist production, so the benefits of global production flow to all the people. We live in a world of plenty, rich in resources rich, but, despite this abundance an estimated 700 million people go hungry every day. Millions more are food insecure, meaning they may have food today, but have no idea if they will have any tomorrow or next week. Additional millions can only afford nutritionally poor quality junk food filled with salt and sugar, increasing the risk of illness and obesity. Even in developed wealthy nations most people live from paycheque-to-paycheque with little or no savings as a reserve. Statistics around poverty and hunger are disturbing. There is no shortage of depressing statistics.  Covid-19 and climate change has intensified this crisis. Humanity, it appears, faces a choice upon the ways of organising society. Nothing has stopped the tendency of the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer. No major problems have been solved by capitalism. An economy based on the aim of maximising profit as fast as possible for a tiny ruling elite is an economy that belongs in the past. It is a failed economy. It cannot open the path of progress to society. A new aim and direction are needed. The capitalists must be deprived of their ability to carve up and use a productive socialised economy for their narrow privileged interests. Instead we must build a sustainable diverse economy that is human-centred and recognises that humans are born to society and depend on society for their livelihood and well-being.

 

The Socialist Party holds a vision of an emerging new world society that would break down the constricting barriers and frontiers of the nation-state. World socialism remains the vital principle for a new world.

What Causes War?

 

Socialism is where wealth is produced not for money-sale but for the direct satisfaction of the ascertained needs of the whole co-operating community of owning-workers involves a complete change in every detail of social life. In its struggle against the workers’ emancipation movement, capitalism plays upon all the dark sentiments of ignorance, prejudice and superstition. This is seen daily and hourly in its endeavours to divide the workers and oppressed people along national, racial and religious lines. We partisans of world socialism retain undimmed that vision of the future and hastens its realisation. 

 We begin from these fundamental propositions:

1. Modern wars are part and parcel of the capitalist system.
 

2. Capitalist economy must continually expand or suffer from recession
 

3. Each capitalist represented by the nation is continually driven to seek new markets, new sources of raw materials and new areas for investment.
 

4. Important trade routes must be protected
 

5. There can be no end to war without an end to capitalism.
 

6. Permanent peace is only possible when planned production for use has taken the place of competitive production for profits. Planned production for use on an international scale means a world socialist cooperative commonwealth.

All are familiar with the more superficial and immediate causes of the war. Previous wars and the terms of settlement which created lasting hatreds and thoughts of revenge;the remnants of a feudal system with its royal dynasties which retarded modern social and political progress with racial and religious prejudices. The supreme duty of the hour is for us, the socialists of all the world is to dedicate ourselves anew to the imperishable principles of international socialism; to strengthen the bonds of working class solidarity.The Socialist Party extend to the socialists of all the world our greetings and hail them all our brothers and sisters, our comrades.We socialists are for the goal of a world administration, which would eliminate the obsolete national boundaries into which the earth is divided. The national boundaries are obsolete not only because they breed fear; they are obsolete because they choke and distort the inevitable need for political integration in a world where economic integration is already a fact in various ways. The peoples of the world in the various countries, through coordinated international effort, will  progress toward the complete class-free socialist society, all the various workers' organizations which have been instruments and mechanisms of class struggle, that is, the socialist parties, the unions, the cooperatives, the workers’ councils, will gradually lose their original functions and coalesce into one united body. And that one united body will be the organised world society of the free and equal. World socialism shall really be the human race.

Time Will Tell How Capitalist Austerity Screws Us All.

On Nov.30, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled next year’s budget. The media made a load of hoopla over the fact that it was the first time the budget speech had been made by a woman, oblivious to the fact that whomever attempts to administrate a screwy system like capitalism, whether it be male, female, black, white catholic, protestant, jew or gentile, it’s strictly a case of B.F.D. 

The highlights of her speech were: The spending of $13 billion on COVID-19 vaccine plans; $1 billion for setting up national standards for long term care homes and helping provinces meet those standards; People working from home with modest expenses can claim up to $400 on their 2020 taxes; Some families will receive a

temporary boost of up to $1,200 for every child under 6; GST/HST will be dropped on face masks and face shields; Ottawa will eliminate interest on federal portions of Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans for 2021-22. 

Freeland also said Canada's deficit will balloon up to a record $381 billion, the biggest since W.W.2 Freeland, Trudeau and the rest of their crowd may mean well, but it takes a lot more than good intentions to solve the problems capitalism throws up at us, especially when so much money has been borrowed. 

Time will tell how this will work out, but for the members of Canada's working class, the best advice is to not raise your hopes too high for we may just be looking at 50+ years of capitalist austerity screwing us all.

S.P.C. Members.

Socialists for Progress

 

Socialist Party organisation means getting together with a common understanding and a common end in view, and working systematically for the attainment of that end. For our fellow-workers to organise effectively, they must have a correct understanding of their position in society and of the conditions under which they live and work. If they fail to understand these things, they will either not organise at all or will organise in an ineffective manner. The effectiveness of their organisation depends on the correctness of their understanding. The better they understand conditions the more effectively they will organise. Our common end is the abolition of the wage system.

 

Many workers mistakenly believe that they are all free and independent sovereign citizens and that all people have an equal chance to become wealthy and powerful, or to enter the White House as president. They have been told that it is a person's own character failing if one is not "successful"; that the wealthy gained their riches by honesty, industry, self-denial and dedication to business; that there are as many opportunities for advancement today as there ever were; that his workers are protected by the law, and get justice in the courts; that the boss is their best friend; that the way to improve their condition is to work harder and that work a privilege.

 

If the workers are dissatisfied with capitalism but have no faith in themselves or their class; if they want to be led by politicians they will remain slaves. Those holding a socialist understanding can neither be chloroformed into inactivity nor carried away by half-baked theories of reformist half-measures. Class-conscious workers do their own thinking instead of trusting to politicians or would-be leaders to do it for them. All wealth is produced by labour, but it is taken by the capitalists, who give the workers in the form of wages just enough to keep them in working condition and to reproduce their kind. The capitalists own the natural resources and machinery of production. The capitalists live in opulent extravagance never before heard of in the history of the world. While the capitalists revel in luxury, the workers are condemned to lives of poverty, ignorance, toil and privation. They lack economic security. Poverty and the fear of poverty render their lives miserable. The average worker is not more than a few weeks removed from a state of dependency. Great numbers are killed annually in the industries. Hundreds of thousands die from occupational diseases. Millions of children are deprived of education and are stunted and dwarfed physically and mentally by slavery in factories and mills. Other millions go hungry to school and suffer from countless diseases brought on by malnutrition. Having no standing before the law, workers are hounded by the police, victimised by the courts and subjected to all kinds of abuse, injustice and tyranny.

 

It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today. It is the way society is organised, with a minority of people owning and controlling the wealth and the industry of our planet, excluding the vast majority of the people from any real say in the running of society. This is what lies at the root of the problems that working people face. It is this capitalist system that cannot guarantee security, cannot provide the good things of life for all, cannot give a constantly improving standard of living for the millions and cannot guarantee peace in the world. It is this that must be changed. The working people who have produced all the wealth around us must come into ownership and control of what is their own by right, so that they can then build the society and produce the things they want.

 

The capitalists control government and all institutions of society by means of their wealth; they get their wealth by means of controlling those who work, the source of all wealth. Governments bow to them, courts hasten to do their bidding, politicians grovel at their feet, the media distort facts in their interest. Socialism means radical action that deals with causes instead of tinkering with effects. The workers have a power infinitely greater than that of the capitalists. When the workers control industry, they will own the earth. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the people, making it possible to build a society that will be able to meet their needs in food,health and shelter, and will open vast horizons of cultural and educational possibilities for millions. Mankind will be freed from worry about basic material needs as we know them today. Different classes will, in fact, cease to exist, as all people make their contribution to the productive life of society. The oppressive functions of the state as we know them will become redundant, and will wither away as they fall out of use. What will remain will be only a democratic administration of production in the hands of the people. Men and women will be able to develop their own talents to the full. With the harnessing of science and technology to industry, boring and repetitive drudgery will be eliminated. Work for all will become interesting and satisfying. housing, travel and cultural facilities become available to all people. The boundaries between mental and physical labour will be removed as all people receive the freedom and means by which to exercise their potential and abilities. The separation between town and country will end.

 

Winning socialism will open up for us the possibility of a life for all that will be plentiful, secure, happy and interesting which will end of those worries about wages, housing, poverty, peace that dominate our lives today. Building this new society is the aim of the Socialist Party.

A better tomorrow for all.

Erich Fromm stresses the insanity of capitalism. As objective evidence of the pathological condition of this society, Fromm points to the statistics for suicide, homicide and alcoholism. We take society as it actually is; a world-wide system. Capitalism is much more than capitalism in the United States. In its first stages, capitalism was highly rational, for it developed the productive forces as no other society before it. This is an objective fact that must be recognized no matter what one might think about the real attitude of this society toward “the unity of man, of reason, love and justice.” Today, however, capitalism has become such a brake on the productive forces that it is turning them into their opposite – forces threatening to destroy civilisation and even mankind itself. 

 

Socialism is based upon cooperation, administered in the equal interest of all without a trace of slavery to breed resentment or mar the social interactions of society and community.Competition, they tell us, makes the world go round. Competition, however, means rewards for the rich but penalties for the rest. Socialists see men and women as constantly involved in a process of change, changing their societies and their environment and, through that, changing themselves, their nature. As a basically predatory society, capitalism is destructive, and develops aggression in mankind. Socialism aims to release humanity from the ugliness that capitalism fosters.

 

Socialism is indispensable to real freedom – that is to say, of liberties that are concrete and actual, not formal and “constitutional”. Socialism rids us of enemies of human liberty. The working class is enslaved, its organisatons suppressed, and its conditions of work and life constantly deteriorating. The working class is not free. Property cannot be collective until the community as a whole is free to dispose of it as it wishes. Without democracy, and unless the community as a whole enjoys an absolute right of control and decision, collective property is an empty phrase. The point is to dispossess the plutocracy of its power.

 

Revolutions make themselves; they have no need of any school-master to assist them. All that is necessary is that the organisations of the working class should adopt tactics calculated to promote this gigantic economic and social transformation. We are not a party like other parties. We retain an unshakable confidence in the socialist future of humanity. The fetters which bind the forces of production and condemn the overwhelming majority of the population to misery must be cast off. The only road that can avoid chaos and barbarism is the socialist emancipation of society.

 

The aim of socialism is nothing but the fullest attainment of democracy. The World Socialist Movement differs from all others in that it is the only consistent and thoroughgoing champion of democracy in all spheres of economic, political and social life.