Capitalism - the Con-Trick

 

Measured by capitalist yardsticks the economy has been working quite well. The stock-markets are booming, share prices are sky-high and the  rich are adding to their wealth. The voice of socialists are  still much too weak to stand up to the tremendous din of the media apparatus to show that capitalism is unstable and involves a cycle of recurring economic crises.

The World Socialism Movement  share a vision of a real commonwealth. It means a global system of society where all wealth is held in common and is democratically controlled by all people. It is a society from which borders and frontiers, social classes and leaders, states and governments have disappeared, in which production is geared to meeting needs, not profit, and in which people give of their abilities and have free access to the benefits of civilisation. This is the cooperative commonwealth socialists look forward to.

 Our object is to achieve the education of the working class to their real interest in society, and to expose the bankrupt social order under which we live.

We live in a capitalist society, and this is world wide. The main feature of this society is property ownership, buying and selling. On the one hand there are those who own all the important things in the world, land, factories, mines etc. On the other side the vast majority of those who own nothing except their abilities. By sheer necessity, those who own nothing are forced to sell their abilities to those who own. On this basis society as it is functions.

From what has been said it is clear that there are only two classes of people in capitalist society. Those who own, the capitalist class, and those who sell their skill, the working class. The popular view of a middle class is really a myth. The doctor is as much a worker as the bus driver, or the street cleaner. Observe that even doctors go on strike to support their demands for more pay and better conditions. Workers’ income groups are different, but they are still of the same class.

The conflict between capitalist (to pay as little as possible) and worker (to secure as high a price as possible) is an inherent feature of capitalist society. Nothing that can be said or done can reconcile the opposing interests of these two classes. Those of the owning class have clear ideas as to their interest. They, however, with their power and wealth and control of the mass media use these to maintain and even widen the division within the working class. They have done this with great success. Their existence depends on this division.

We must remember that society as it is today does not mean that it was always so. There was a time when men lived as slaves; they changed from this and became serfs. They again changed to the present system of wage earners. We socialists believe, and events the world over support us, that the time is ripe for another change. Our present social system has outlived its social usefulness ; it is now a hindrance to mankind. Most people sense that something is fundamentally wrong with the world, but can’t name it. That unnamed thing really is, trying to operate a social system that is no longer in harmony with world conditions. Things are produced only if they can realise a profit, not to satisfy human need. Observe the vast areas of poverty alongside pockets of wealth. Capitalism has done much in the improvement of productive methods for man. It is quite hopeless at distributing this wealth it can create.

Socialists advocate a system of society where each will contribute to production and partake freely of his need. Sounds fantastic? We have heard that before, just think for a moment of the fantastic things we have come to accept as normal under capitalism. It is now quite normal for thousands of people to starve to death, as we have seen , while farmers in Europe and America are paid not to cultivate their land. Capitalism distorts the vision of a future society. We can only see a different system in terms of our present one.

Socialism can only function on a world wide basis. It cannot and does not exist in any country. Russia was just as capitalist a country as America. The constant reference to Russia as a socialist country only served to confuse the issue of what socialism is. The attainment of socialism is not only possible but necessary. The great mental problems that are evident in the developed countries: more people are going mad, there is widespread frustration and a deep sadness that seems to dominate people’s life. Even pleasure has been turned into a way of escape. All these are becoming more noticeable in our society.

The task ahead is difficult indeed; so much distortion and confusion to clear up. That is why we need your help, in whatever way you can. Read our literature, get to understand fully our point of view. Apart from the personal reward that this knowledge will give, you will be able to play an historic part in popularising socialism throughout the planet. Hard and difficult yes, but so worth while.

Universal Ownership of the World

Capitalism is a sick society and this is becoming more apparent with each passing day. Crime and violence are a continuing part of daily life. Police savagely assault and even kill poorer citizens with impunity. Desperate people fight back by striking out at anything within their reach. The military are regularly deployed in the major cities to preserve property and 'law and order'—the same law and order which created the conditions in the first place. This capitalist ‘utopia’ is becoming a hell of hatred, despair, and violence. This can no longer be ignored and so people, or at least some people, are beginning to lose confidence in the reasonableness of the system.


We live in a world where wealth and poverty are juxtaposed.  We point out that all modern wars are capitalist wars, and as such did not justify the shedding of working class blood on the battlefields. That they should be of no concern to the workers no matter with what idealist sentiments either side cloaked their real aims. That the only way to abolish wars was to abolish the conditions that gave rise to them, the buying and selling system that was behind the pursuit of markets, trade routes and sources of supply. We sent out Manifestoes to the workers in the belligerent countries stating that we had no quarrel with the workers of any nation and pledging ourselves to work for the triumph of socialism.

 

We accept the fact that there is a class struggle in society—but that its solution lies in the hands of the workers to take political action for the establishment of socialism when they understood and want it. Consequently we have put forward candidates in the parliamentary and local elections for the purpose of taking control out of the hands of our capitalist rulers in order to clear the way for the establishment of socialism.

 

We hold that all people in the world, regardless of colour or nationality, are capable of understanding socialism and its implications. There is no fundamental difference in mental capacity of different groups of mankind, only differences in their stages of social development which has nothing to do with a difference in mental capacity. On this, as on other aspects of our attitude, we have published pamphlets explaining our outlook.

 

We are a Marxian party. That is to say we base our outlook on history and economics on the theoretical researches of Karl Marx. On the basis of Marxian economics we have pointed out that there is no solution for booms and slumps as long as capitalism lasts. That booms and slumps are inevitable products of capitalism and will always be a part of it. On the basis of the same principles we have shown that the huge rise in prices since the thirties have not been due to the rises in workers’ pay, but have mainly been due to the devaluation of currency. This in spite of the new machinery and methods introduced which were alleged to cheapen costs of production.

 

We have always insisted upon the capture of political power before any fundamental change in the social system can be achieved. Political power is the centre of the capitalist citadel, though the workers place this power in the capitalists’ hands at election times. But no fundamental change is possible until the majority understand and want it. We have also been opposed to reform policies and have kept unswervingly to the pursuit of socialism as our sole objective.

 

Finally, just as capitalism has spread all over the world, bringing similar conditions of frustration, poverty and insecurity to all peoples, so also the seeds of discontent and the yearning for something better has become a part of life everywhere. Unfortunately this discontent takes wrong turnings and has led to riots and nationalist uprisings that, in the long run, have helped nobody but the ruling class of capitalists or budding capitalists. The solution is the same everywhere, for socialism is an international movement involving the workers of the world, whatever their colour. It is not possible to establish socialism in one country alone, in the midst of a wilderness of capitalism. That was the fiction spread by the Lenin and the Bolsheviks and their servile followers.

 

 But just as capitalism has spread, so have socialist ideas. socialist parties and groups with similar ideas to ours have developed in different parts of the world and form a Socialist International movement; such parties have arisen in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and in India

 

We therefore urge the workers of the world to unite in the world-wide socialist movement which has already begun, because socialism is the only solution to the social ills of mankind. Socialism is a system in which there will be no privileged class, as everything that is in and on the earth will be the common and equal possession of all mankind.

The World Socialist Movement

 

We have always maintained that the spread of socialist ideas does not depend upon the existence of the Socialist Party or its Companion Parties, but that they arise from the system under which we have to live. 

 

1.  The WSM claims that socialism will, and must, be a wage-free, money-free, worldwide society of common (not state) ownership and democratic control of the means of wealth production and distribution.

2.  claims that socialism will be a sharp break with capitalism with no “transition period” or gradual implementation of socialism (although socialism will be a dynamic, changing society once it is established).

3.  claims that there can be no state in a socialist society.

4.  claims that there can be no classes in a socialist society.

5.  promotes only socialism, and promotes it as an immediate goal.

6. claims that only the vast majority, acting consciously in its own interests, for itself, by itself, can create socialism.

7. opposes any vanguardist approach, minority-led movements, and leadership, as inherently undemocratic (among other negative things).

8. promotes a peaceful democratic revolution, achieved through force of numbers and understanding.

9.  neither promotes, nor opposes, reforms to capitalism.

10.  claims that there is one working class, worldwide.

11.  lays out the fundamentals of what socialist society must be, but does not presume to tell the future socialist society how to go about its business.

12.  promotes an historical materialist approach—real understanding.

13.  claims that religion is a social, not personal, matter and that religion is incompatible with socialist understanding.

14.  seeks election to facilitate the elimination of capitalism by the vast majority of socialists, not to govern capitalism.

15.  claims that Leninism is a distortion of Marxian analysis.

16.  opposes all capitalist war and claims that socialism will inherently end war, including the “war” between the classes.

17.  noted, in 1918, that the Bolshevik Revolution was not socialist. Had earlier, long noted that Russia was not ready for a socialist revolution.

18.  the first to recognise that the former USSR, China, Cuba and other so-called “socialist countries” were not socialist, but instead, state capitalist.

19.  claims a very accurate, consistent analysis since 1904.

 

Month after month, year after year, our fellow workers appear to be too satisfied with the capitalist system — or too apathetic — to want to put an end to it. They seem almost fatalistic and resigned to their poverty and misery. Workers feel powerless to deal with the important questions affecting their lives. So they ‘participate’ in politics only to the extent of investing some emotional energy by identifying with some personality whose victory will give them some vicarious satisfaction. The workers’ sense of powerlessness with respect to events also makes them unconcerned with policy issues concerned with proposals for reform. Middle-level bureaucrats, editorial writers, intellectuals, and all species of ‘middle class’ reformers frequently advance proposals that are intended to solve, within the confine of capitalism, such problems as racial conflicts, riots, decaying cities, unemployment, air pollution, and foreign policy dilemmas. Such people often bemoan the lack of interest among workers for these proposals. Workers, through their experience, have developed a cynicism about such promises and they feel “let those who get paid for it worry about it”. Outside the small strata of the decision-makers for capitalism, little serious attention is given to the stuff that is served up by the news media as the subject matter of politics. Thus, in one sense, the American scene remains unchanged. The frivolities and gossip that pass for political and social issues are discussed by a small number of those concerned, the masses apathetic; businesses keep on making profits that are quietly pocketed by the ruling capitalist class, and everyone continually faces the problems which the capitalist mode of production makes inevitable. From this perspective  capitalism everywhere has not changed fundamentally in the past hundred years—only the problems have gotten larger. War, climate change and pandemics, for instance, now threatens to annihilate the human race. Yet still political class consciousness, the conscious desire for socialism, is still all but non-existent

 

 

Yet this discouraging sameness is deceptive. Beneath the surface, the forces that shape ociety are at work, ceaselessly changing the foundations. It is not merely that machinery improves, workers become more skilled and new commodities are marketed while capital accumulates. Men and women’s ideas also change as their conditions of life change. 

 

The truth of the matter is that, however successful and secure  capitalism looks at first glance, it is plagued with deep contradictions. These contradictions revolve around the inability of  capitalism, despite its wealth, technology and power, to satisfy human needs. On one hand there is fabulous wealth, on the other hand the most basic of human needs go unsatisfied. Scientists will eventually put a man on the moon but  society cannot perform the simple ask of getting a hungry man with his face pressed against a shop window into contact with the food he needs. Children die of rat bites within sight of the world's marvels of engineering. The illiteracy rate and the rate of infant mortality of the US are above that of far less advanced nations. Farmers are paid not to produce food while millions in the world are starving.

 

 

 Capitalism is the cause of these many social problems we endure and those problems are world-wide, existing not only in obviously capitalist countries like Britain or France or Germany but also, in the form of state capitalism, in countries like China or Cuba. Because capitalism is world-wide so too must be Socialism, the system which will replace it and whose common ownership, democratic control and production solely for use will provide the framework within which today’s social problems can finally be solved.

 

This is why we sometimes refer to our object as “world socialism”, making it absolutely clear that we reject all nationalism and all national approaches to working-class problems. It is also why we are linked with Companion Parties in other parts of the world, with the same objective and the same principles as us and which exist in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and India.

Capitalism is war; socialism is peace

 

It is pleasing to note that the feeling of international solidarity between the workers of different countries is growing more and more strongly. Working people regarded any worker of another nation as “a foreigner”. Now the workers are beginning to understand that the “foreign” workers and themselves are really one and the same.

 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gallop across the world. This system makes  the lives of the great majority of the people across the world where capitalism prevails, are somewhat empty and somewhat futile.

When we realise what’s possible in society, we come to the understanding that what stands in the way of our having the benefits of the potential that comes with the development of modern technology, we know that this comes from capitalism, the class nature of society.

 War always came from above — from those who live upon the blood and the sweat of the workers. We, in the World Socialist Movement, denounce the capitalist system which creates war and the armament industries. Total mutual alliance, united revolutionary action against world capitalism - these  can bring victory to the working class. We can carry out our war against war. Our war against the class enemy: the oppressors and the exploiters of working people.  Our hearts  long to unite liberated mankind. Our eyes is fixed unswervingly upon the goal for socialism. What we want is to use class unity as a powerful weapon for victory. Instead of workers everywhere uniting more closely in the fight against  capitalism, workers are weakened. We got division among workers, instead of solidarity. We don’t care what language a person speaks, as long as he or she can fight alongside us for socialism. United we stand, divided we suffer.

The Owners of Scottish Land

 Landowners could be barred from buying country estates or forced to sell off land if they are accused of neglect or abuse of power under proposals being studied by Scottish ministers.

The Scottish Land Commission (SLC), an influential advisory body, has recommended that all large or important land sales in Scotland should be subject to a legally enforceable public interest test to make sure the sale has wider social or environmental benefits.

The SLC has told ministers the concentration of land ownership in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and uplands, is equivalent to the monopolies seen in business, where small groups of people wield excessive economic power. That could include lairds preventing new houses being built; landowners controlling key assets such as filling stations or boat slipways, or important cultural assets like local hotels and shops; or landowners who employ a majority of local people, stifling different activities.

In a detailed report to the Scottish government, the commission has told ministers any future sales involving estates over 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres), as well as any of economic or ecological significance, such as entire islands, should be included. 

Hamish Trench, commission chief executive, said: “History has given us a pattern of land ownership in which localised ‘monopoly’ power can and does exist. This creates risks that run counter to the needs of a modern, dynamic economy.”

 In a major study in 2019, the commission found that 70% of Scotland’s rural land, covering more than 4.1m ha was owned by 1,125 people or public bodies. Of those, 87 of the most powerful owners had holdings totalling 1.7m ha, including major agencies and charities such as Forestry and Land Scotland, a government body that inherited the Forestry Commission’s estates, and the National Trust for Scotland, as well as powerful hereditary owners such as the Duke of Buccleuch. In 2019, the Church of England’s investment fund became the largest private owner of Scottish commercial forestry. 

Wealthy Scandinavians have also emerged as significant forces in the Highlands, with Anders Povlsen, the billionaire owner of the Bestseller clothing group, now Scotland’s largest private landlord. He owns more than 89,000 ha in the north and the Cairngorms. Lisbet and Sigrid Rausing, multimillionaire sisters from the Rausing family, which established the Tetrapak global packaging company, own large estates near Inverness and Fort William.

Scottish ministers consider stringent land ownership tests | Scotland | The Guardian