Socialism is needed

 Politics is about power. In capitalism most of the power is in the hands of Big Business. To educate, agitate and organise for workers’ power for that’s what socialism intends. We acknowledge that the bosses are richer and more powerful than ever and we are no nearer a democratic, humane, class-free society. One reason is the prevalence of the lesser evil argument, that better half a loaf than no bread. Nothing fundamental can be disturbed.

 

Socialism is not some Utopia. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism which will bring social ownership of social production. Under capitalism, the capitalists own the means of production. Workers are forced to sell their labour power and the capitalist exploits and oppresses them. With socialism, the means of production are owned in common by society as a whole.

 

The present system is a capitalist system. This means that the world is divided up into two opposing camps, the camp of a small handful of capitalists and the camp of the majority—the workers who work day and night, nevertheless they remain poor. The capitalists need not work to be rich. This takes place not because working people are unintelligent and the capitalists are geniuses, but because the capitalists appropriate the fruits of the labour of the working class, because the capitalists exploit them.

 

The capitalist system is based on commodity production: here everything assumes the form of a commodity, everywhere the principle of buying and selling prevails. Here you can buy not only articles of consumption, not only food products, but also the labour power of men, their blood and their consciences. The capitalists know all this and purchase the labour power of workers, they hire them. This means that the capitalists become the owners of the labour power they buy. Working people, however, lose their right to the labour power which they have sold. That is to say, what is produced by that labour power no longer belongs to the proletarians, it belongs only to the capitalists and goes into their pockets. The labour power which you have sold may produce in the course of a day goods to the value of 100 pounds, but that is not your business, those goods do not belong to you, it is the business only of the capitalists, and the goods belong to them—all that you are due to receive is your daily wage which, perhaps, may be sufficient to satisfy your essential needs if, of course, you live frugally. Briefly: the capitalists buy the labour power of the proletarians, they hire the proletarians, and this is precisely why the capitalists appropriate the fruits of the labour of the proletarians, this is precisely why the capitalists exploit the proletarians and not vice versa. The principal basis of the capitalist system is the private ownership of the instruments and means of production. Because the factories, mills, the land and minerals, the forests, the railways, machines and other means of production have become the private property of a small handful of capitalists. Because the workers lack all this. That is why the capitalists hire employees to keep the factories and mills going—if they did not do that their instruments and means of production would yield no profit. That is why the working class sell their labour power to the capitalists—if they did not, they would suffer poverty.

Socialists deny that government can be equally sensitive and receptive to the interests and needs of all classes.  The more the wealth of society as state property increases, the greater is the exploitation of the wage-workers, and the more powerless they are. With the wealth of society as state property, there increases also the impoverishment of the wage-workers; its necessary consequence is the class struggle between wage-workers and state bureaucracy. The richer the State, the greater the poverty of the workers and the sharper the class struggle. The workers are dispossessed, each day anew, when they perform labour; and, in fact, by way of the State, the general proprietor, which appropriates the products of labour. The state is the proprietor, the administrator of the social wealth. The State as the single entrepreneur is nothing other than such a conglomeration of all administrative organs of private ownership.

Future society will be built on an entirely different basis. Future society will be socialist society. This means primarily, that there will be no classes in that society; there will be neither capitalists nor proletarians and, consequently, there will be no exploitation. In that society there will be only workers engaged in collective labour. Future society will be socialist society. This means also that, with the abolition of exploitation commodity production and buying and selling will also be abolished and, therefore, there will be no room for buyers and sellers of labour power, for employers and employed— there will be only free workers. Future society will be socialist society. This means, lastly, that in that society the abolition of wage-labour will be accompanied by the complete abolition of the private ownership of the instruments and means of production; there will be neither poor proletarians nor rich capitalists—there will be only workers who collectively own all the land and minerals, all the forests, all the factories and mills, all the railways, etc.

As you see, the main purpose of production in the future will be to satisfy the needs of society and not to produce goods for sale in order to increase the profits of the capitalists. Where there will be no room for commodity production, struggle for profits, etc. It is also clear that future production will be socially organised, highly developed production, which will take into account the needs of society and will produce as much as society needs. Here there will be no room whether for scattered production, competition, crises, or unemployment.

Where there are no classes, where there are neither rich nor poor, there is no need for a State, there is no need either for political power, which oppresses the poor and protects the rich. Consequently, in socialist society there will be no need for the existence of political power. Free and voluntary labour should result in an equally comradely, and complete, satisfaction of all needs in the future socialist society. This means that if future society demands from each of its members as much labour as he can perform, it, in its turn, must provide each member with all the products he needs. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!—such is the basis upon which the future collectivist system must be created. It goes without saying that in the first stage of socialism, when elements who have not yet grown accustomed to work are being drawn into the new way of life, when the productive forces also will not yet have been sufficiently developed and there will still be "dirty" and "clean" work to do, the application of the principle: "to each according to his needs," will undoubtedly be greatly hindered and, as a consequence, society will be obliged temporarily to take some other path, a middle path. But it is also clear that when future society runs into its groove, when the survivals of capitalism will have been eradicated, the only principle that will conform to socialist society will be the one pointed out above.  It is self-evident that for the purpose of administering public affairs there will have to be in socialist society, in addition to local offices which will collect all sorts of information, a central statistical bureau, which will collect information about the needs of the whole of society, and then distribute the various kinds of work among the working people accordingly. It will also be necessary to hold conferences, the decisions of which will certainly be binding upon the comrades in the minority until the next congress is held.

Socialist society presupposes an adequate development of productive forces and socialist consciousness. At the present time the development of productive forces is hindered by the existence of capitalist property, but if we bear in mind that this capitalist property will not exist in future society, it is self-evident that the productive forces will increase tenfold. Nor must it be forgotten that in future society the current-day parasites, and also the unemployed, will go to work and augment the work-force; and this will greatly stimulate the development of the productive forces. As regards mankind's supposed aggressive sentiments, these are not as eternal as some people imagine; there was a time when mankind did not recognise private property; there came a time, the time of individualistic production, when private property dominated the hearts and minds of men; a new time is coming, the time of socialist production—will it be surprising if the hearts and minds of men become imbued with socialist strivings?

“Capitalism” Divisive At All Levels.

 

A recent report issued by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services revealed that the senior leadership at Ontario's York Region Children's Aid Society was to a large extent racist. 

In 2018-19, York CAS provided services to 5,000 families and more than 10,000 children and youth. During this period they carried out more than 4,000 child protection investigations. The Ministry found that Black female staff members were told their look, hair, dress and body shape was inappropriate for the workplace. Black male clients were called thugs and Asian clients were told that they need to speak English properly. In general Black and Asian families were treated with less respect than white ones. 

Jill Dunlap, associate minister for children and women's issues made a statement which, long story short, said, ''I want to hear that you guy's have smartened up.'' 

Governments may do what little they can, but in the final analysis capitalism is a divisive system at all levels.

S.P.C. Members.

What Matters

 

A party in this day can be either a capitalist party or it is a socialist party. It is the one or the other. It cannot be both.The capitalist class  and the working class are pitted against eachother throughout the world.These classes can never be  reconciled. It is this that is called the class struggle. Politics is simply the expression in political terms of the economic interests of certain groups or classes. The masters and exploiters understand this and is why they are in politics, not in non-partisan politics, but the politics of vested interests.The master class now in power cannot rule honestly. They must rule corruptly They are in the minority. They have not the votes of their own to put them in power, but they have the money with which to corrupt the electorate. They have the money with which to corrupt the courts and to buy the legislators, and to debauch all our institutions. They have the power to do this because they have the money, and they have the money because they own the means of production and distribution. The great mass of the workers depend upon them for employment. In this system no working person has a right to work except under conditions that the master who owns the work-place where he works with grants the permission to work, and who works by permission lives by permission, and is in no sense a free person.

 

Poverty amid plenty is common in this world of fabulous abundance. We live in perhaps the most favoured time of sophisticated mass technology and land of the richest and most fertile soil, with all of the raw materials and resources in abundance.Is it not strange that in this land of fabulous plenty there is still so much poverty, so many million of our people whose life consists of a long, hard, fierce struggle for survival, victims of hunger, disease and homelessness.  

 

The Socialist Party tells our fellow-workers about the class struggle, not because we are in favour of the existence of classes, quite the contrary, because we are opposed to classes and wants to put an end to the class divisions.The Socialist Party is committed to our Declaration of Principles. To compromise principle is to court death and disaster. It is better to be true to a principle, far better to be in a hopeless minority than to be in a great popular and powerful majority of the unthinking. All the progress in this whole world’s history has been made by minorities.

 

Workers of brain and brawn, it is you and you alone who support the government. Were it not for you, the social fabric would collapse in an instant. It is you who do the work, the useful work. It is you who produce the wealth, you who support the government and maintain civilisation. You have but to awaken and stand together then our day will come - the emancipation of the workers and the true civilisation of all mankind.The Socialist Party hold our red banner defiantly aloft and go forward with our work without apology and without fear, knowing as we do that capitalism is criminal, corrupt, and festering with every evil, and that socialism and socialism alone can avert the upheavals which threatens, and bring peace and sanity to the world.

 

This is a wonderful age in which we live — an age of scientific and technological miracles, yet also an age of widespread discontent and unrest.Altruism is enlightened self-interest. There will be no war. War is murder in uniform and the production of instruments of death is the prostitution of genius. War is caused by international competition and is carried on for monetary profits.

 

An economic system founded upon injustice must produce the effects that we see all around us every day — degradation, deprivation, and despair. and in the face of these facts it is blindness and foolishness to try to find the remedy in the reform of some effect. We must go to the root of the matter. Once all men and women stand in a just relation to each other economically, the other things will follow. The other problems must be worked out for themselves, it is true, but the economic problem must be solved first.

 

Emancipated Humanity

 

The Socialist Party came into existence in 1904. The principles upon which it was founded, and has consistently adhered to, have won it the reputation of being the only genuine socialist party in the UK. The Labour Party and the left-wing are parties of social reformism. Although they all claim to have for their object the ultimate establishment of socialism, their immediate aim is the reforming of the present social system.

The Socialist Party is not a reform party. Its purpose is the abolition of the present social order, ending the exploitation of labour by a parasitic ruling class. The reorganising of society upon a class-free basis is the goal of the Socialist Party. Our task is the organising of the necessary forces for that purpose to accomplish the revolution of the workers, to succeed in winning over the majority of our fellow-workers, freeing them from divisions and building a common understanding and a common will to action, moving along a definite course, not pulling in different directions.

 

The Socialist Party has pursued the policy of reaching as large numbers as possible with a sound elementary promotion of socialist principles. In capitalist society, that which the worker sells — labour power — his or her physical and mental skill, takes on the character of a commodity. Certain economic laws govern the capitalist system, which is a commodity producing one. A knowledge of those laws is imperative, if the workers are going to participate intelligently in the daily struggles against their exploiters. The logical course to pursue is to link up with those who seek the abolition of all exploitation, through the ushering in of a new class-free socialist world. We absolutely refuse to give up the name of socialists just because the reformists have dragged it in the mud and because the capitalist apologists attack it. 

The Ups And Downs Of Capitalism.

 First the good news; on Dec.4, Stats-Canada said 62,000 new jobs were added to the economy in November. 

Now for the bad news; the economy was still short of 574,000 jobs lost from the lockdowns since March.

 That sent the unemployment rate up to 13.7 percent in May. It presently stands at 8.9 per cent. The youth unemployment rate stands at 17.4 per cent. 

The hardest hit area is the food and accommodation sector which lost 24,000 jobs in November. Royce Mendes, the senior economist at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, predicted “A decline in employment and economic activity in December.'' 

On the one hand this seems surprising considering people spend money at Christmas, but on the other; we do live under capitalism, so expect anything!

S.P.C. Members

The future will be ours

 

Opponents of socialism frequently say as an objection that there are different kinds of socialists and different kinds of socialism. In using that statement however, let them take notice that socialism rests on one fundamental principle, the collective ownership and democratic administration of the social tools of production and distribution of wealth. State ownership for instance, is therefore not considered as collectively owned nor democratically administered. Socialists recognise that others are striving for the same goal, their methods, powers, opportunities may and do differ They sometimes wax eloquent in denouncing the evils of the capitalist system. But what do they propose? They propose to “improve” the capitalist State so as to make it an instrument for doing away with private ownership of wealth. In other words, they preach the nonsense of converting the exploiters, by the power of prayer. Since this “theory” appears in the garb of socialism and since there are a number of workers who lend it their ear, it is necessary to debunk. 

We in the Socialist Party are realists, and we do not wish to be carried away by fancy ideas, especially when these fanciful theories are beneficial to the capitalist system as they tend to keep workers from fighting the capitalist State. It is not a dispute of words. It is a clash in politics. Do not blame us when we say that the gradualist reformist leaders are betraying the working class. We merely call a spade a spade. We are realists. They have blood on their hands, blood of the workers. They spread illusions among the workers to the effect that by using the capitalist state, they can abolish the evils of capitalist oppression and by using the capitalist international institutions like the United Nations or the World Court, they can abolish wars. The capitalist system stands in the way of the workers’ progress towards a new, free life. Can it be abolished by gradual transformation? Those who say it can are the staunchest supporters of the capitalist robbers and the most active promoters of “humanitarian” wars. Their theory is not harmless, indeed. It is a poisonous theory. It is a smoke screen behind which cruel capitalist exploitation is hiding.

The socialist project is one for a new and better society lose validity. Capitalism has not proved to be capable to resolve the major problems of humanity. Capitalism and its essential features remains a system of exploitation, oppression and aggression, marked by injustice, inequalities and social scourges. Capitalism is a system in which exist exploiter and exploited classes, classes that dominate and classes that are dominated, classes that rule for themselves and others that are ruled, classes that are a population minority that concentrate wealth and profits excessively of it and classes that are the overwhelming majority of the population that live in poverty and misery. In capitalism the most developed, richer and stronger countries exploit, dominate, subdue and oppress in the most varied ways the less developed, poorer and weaker countries, creating, worldwide hunger affects and kills millions of human beings. Only someone who gains from such a system can consider capitalism as a system that corresponds to the needs, the interests and real desires of the people. Only the beneficiaries of its evils can justify its existence.

The Socialist Party is opposed to the capitalist system. The Socialist Party says there is a need for a revolution. We say democracy has prepared for the workers all the means necessary to achieve socialism. Let the workers use universal suffrage to send socialist delegates into the legislative assemblies. Let the socialists form a majority in these assemblies and when this is done, the road is open to abolishing the capitalist system. To make socialism possible the working people must take hold of the State machinery of capitalism and dismantle it. The socialist revolution will put an end to capitalist exploitation and all the forms of oppression that inevitably accompany it. It is, however, true that the task of building a new society – the socialist society – is being more difficult, complex and lengthy than we, in the Socialist Party, originally expected. Subjective factors such as the hold of religion, racism and nationalism were underestimated but to be a socialist is to trust the people and their  potential of understanding, determination and struggle. It is to be confident that the future for humanity will be better than the present. Socialist optimism is to know that someday the future will be ours.

Re-imagining the World

Within the World Socialist Movement there exists a widespread sincere belief in and commitment to equality and justice. There is absolutely no room for any discrimination, based on race,colour, ethnicity, caste, gender, or other such considerations. Top priority of a socialist society should be given to meeting the essential needs of all people, respecting the dignity of all people.

 

The most common objection to socialism is that it is against ‘human nature’.

 

I’m sure many know that in the UK the largest sea-rescue organisation is not a government-run Coastguard but the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a voluntary charity that declines any government funding to preserve its independence.

 

There is usually a waiting list of volunteers seeking to risk their lives in the wildest of weathers and they wish to join, not for any monetary reward as it is unpaid but they do so for the ‘selfish’ and ‘egoistical’ reason of receiving the respect and esteem of their communities. They also following that age-old tradition, the ‘law of the sea’, where mariners come to the assistance of those in difficulty, and it is in practise even today when many in distress are refugee boat-people and are picked up at considerable cost by commercial shipping. It is a simple principle but in fancy parlance it is called enlightened self-interest.

 

Then there are the mountain rescue teams, willing to save those also at great risk to themselves. The believe in mutual aid, that they expect others to come to help them when they get into difficulties in the mountains. Related is also the upkeep of the network of bothies, emergency refuges in the mountains. It is also performed by volunteers

 

 Do we have to cite all the voluntary organisations and the work done by the charities and NGOs to show that people express altruism and empathy for others? This gives us a glimpse of what can happen if we establish a state-free society in the future. 

Capitalism is an economic system in which means of production are controlled and owned by a numerically small group of people - the capitalist class. They dominate the government. Like many anarchists and right-wing libertarians we don’t believe we need the State to keep society operating but we suggest a very different way of accomplishing that aspiration.

 

Socialism has been attacked many times. Socialists are reproached with every kind of wickedness. If only we open our eyes and look around us, we find many beneficent and useful institutions established by many or by the whole people in common. In one place associations are formed, for instance, to save and shelter shipwrecked persons; at another place the community erect a school, a medical clinic, builds a harbour or a canal. In ordinary life everybody cares for himself, but in such cases as those just mentioned people unite for advancing a common, social purpose. Experience teaches that our own welfare is greatly advanced by such institutions of common usefulness. What would people be without common roads. common schools, etc.; that is, such as are built and instituted at the cost of the community for common use?  Socialism is nothing but exercising the principle of the common interests of society. 

 

In capitalism everybody looks out for ones own interest, even at the cost to others. What does the capitalist care for the victims of his greed? What does the stock-exchange speculator care about the damage done by the buying and selling of bonds and shares. Socialism represent the victory of common interests over this hideous individualism. Whoever is the enemy of socialism is an enemy of society and humanity.

 

The Socialist Party are always reminded of all the previous attempts at socialism by the gradualists in the Labour Party or the more radical Bolshevik-influenced Left-wingers but we reply that if anybody wants to make a Madeira cake, they require the correct ingredients in the proper proportions, then they need to be mixed in the appropriate manner before being baked at a specific heat for a particular time. If you do none of these actions, don’t call the mess that emerges from the oven a Madeira cake and least of all, don’t blame the author of the cookery book for your failure to follow the recipe guide.

 

Imagine a world built for us to thrive in rather than scarcely survive in. Maybe if we were able to have more control over our individual and collective lives, our self esteems would be stronger, lives less broken, and we’d all get better at making good decisions.

Organise, agitate and educate for a better world