HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

 The many social evils and economic contradictions that capitalism engenders are for the most part insoluble and endless. No matter what reform efforts are made to mitigate the impact of those evils and contradictions, they continue to plague society in varying degrees. Some of those problems may at times and on the surface even appear to have been mitigated only to have them flare up again. Exploitative working conditions may have moved on from sweat-shops but those without a contract struggle to make a living.

From the capitalist's point of view, the gig uber economy is a very desirable employment model. A "temp" is a person who hires out his or her services to companies on a temporary basis, for time periods ranging from a few hours to several months with no formal contract of employment, no paid sick leave or vacation days and often on part-time hours. No matter how good a job they do, there is absolutely no assurance that they will find work the next day. These workers are financially insecure. Because of their need for money, they take just about any job at almost any pay, willingly do unpleasant work, work very hard, and don't complain or argue. And, as an added advantage if business takes a down-turn, they aren’t eligible for any redundancy payments. They are easy to recruit, easy to get rid of, easy to replace. Workers in the gig economy are good for the capitalist class as a whole. They help keep permanent employees "in their place" by serving as an example for other workers as to how bad life could be for them if they don't serve their masters well because they accept low wages and so offer capitalists leverage in resisting pressures to pay higher wages for their permanent employees.

Uber workers know they are used, abused and exploited. But they usually feel that they can't do anything about the situation. This is not true. They can do things other than passively accepting anything the capitalist system dishes out to them. They can understand what is happening to them. They can talk with their co-workers about what is happening to all of them. They can communicate with like-minded people, and get comfort and companionship from the association. They can join people who are trying to get rid of the whole system that is based on the use and abuse of the entire working class. They can contribute to the building of a world based on dignity and cooperation instead of domination and exploitation. If they will do these things, then temporary workers can then look forward to a world where their children and grandchildren will never have to know how it feels to go through all of this in order to earn a living. No social problem can be eliminated unless its cause is uprooted. That fact alone guarantees that insecure precarious work will remain as long as capitalism—its cause—remains.

Jobless! Willing and able to work, a family to feed and house—but no work! This is the plight shared by millions in a world of plenty. And millions more live in fear that their jobs may soon disappear! Why? What's wrong?

Since the Socialist Party was founded in 1904 it has said the cause of unemployment and bad working conditions has nothing to do with which party is in government. Politicians don't decide who will work and who will not. They do not decide what to produce or when to produce it. In a capitalist economy, those decisions are made by those who own the things needed to produce and distribute the goods and services that everyone needs. They are made by the capitalist class. Capitalists and their politicians have no more control over economic crises than they have over earthquakes or hurricanes. Government reforms can't solve the problem, and history proves it. The "recessions" and "depressions" that bring unemployment are caused by the capitalist system itself. That's because the capitalist system has a fatal weakness. That weakness is that wages are never enough for workers to buy back all that they produce. Wages may go up in "good times" and fall in bad ones, but in the long run and on average workers get what is loosely called "a living wage."

New technology and automation only make things worse. Every new advance in labour-saving (read displacing) technology widens the wealth gap. 

The lesson is clear. Unemployment and economic exploitation are inherent in the capitalist system. Consequently, the interests of the overwhelming majority dictate that capitalism be replaced by a new social system capable of guaranteeing security for all—socialism. Sadly many workers think that socialism means an oppressive system of government ownership and control similar to what used to exist in Russia. The truth is that socialism never existed in Russia, or anywhere else. Socialism means economic democracy. There was no more economic democracy in the old USSR than there is in the USA or UK. Under genuine socialism, there would be neither capitalists nor bureaucrats. We have everything at hand to end unemployment and poverty and to build a society in which freedom and security would be guaranteed to all. That is a fact no one can dispute. We have skilled and productive workers. We have the equipment and the machinery. We have raw materials and natural resources. In short, we have all the means with which to produce an abundance for all. What we don't have, however, is the economic democracy that would enable us to use these skills, tools and resources to end unemployment and poverty permanently.

The solution to the problem of unemployment is not complicated. We—the working men and women who have made this the richest epoch in history—must replace private ownership of the industries with common ownership (i.e., the industries must be owned by all the people collectively). We must replace production for sale and profit with a system of production for use. And we must replace the economic dictatorship with economic democracy.

Then and only then will involuntary unemployment be eliminated. Then, instead of kicking workers out of jobs, automation will shorten the workday, workweek and workyear. Technological progress will no longer be something for us workers to fear, but an unqualified blessing that will ensure abundance and leisure for all.

We can achieve socialism peacefully. We can outlaw capitalist ownership by a democratic decision at the polls. But before we can do that we must reject the political parties of capitalism and support the party of the working class—the Socialist Party.

The terror of terrorism

 

Ignorant of social forces, many people have no answers for today’s social problems. They see or feel the effects of something they have no understanding of, and they take refuge in conspiracy theories involving the “Deep State ”, the “ Illuminati”,  “The Protocols of Zion” and other mystifications. The sheer mass of genuine problems is too complex when approached from the “pragmatic”  philosophy of capitalism. A solution to the multiple ills of a social system is to be found in a social act. That act can be performed only by a social class. And the sole class capable today of revolution to a better society is the working class. This is no idle assertion. It follows from the fact that industrialised, urbanised globalism is totally integrated—no part independent and all parts interdependent upon one another. Interdependence follows from the present productive organisation of society. The cooperation needed on the assembly line, between all points of production, distribution and consumption, compels society to act harmoniously if it is to act successfully.

 

Today capitalism is a worn-out, regressive social system. It operates for the benefit of a tiny, owning class at the expense of a large labouring class. The social situation is one that demands revolution because all alterations and reforms for the better operation of capitalism continuously fail to benefit the majority of society. The cooperation that production demands are the material condition that prods the working class to take, hold and operate industry on its own behalf. In this way alone can society become a cooperative commonwealth free from the conditions now giving rise to all social evils that capitalism breeds and which fester in the modern world. Do not neglect nor ignore the fact that capitalism is a politically, as well as an economically, repressive system. Effective action for the construction of the cooperative commonwealth of socialism must be taken in both the political and economic fields. 

 

 Socialist Party members deplore the wanton massacre of innocent men, women and children. We denounce any individual or group who perpetrated those despicable terrorist deeds and condemn whatever perverted motive prompted them to commit them. There is and can be no justification for such barbarous crimes. We grieve for the working men and women who are robbed of their lives. 

We grieve for the children, for those who died, for those who lost parents, and for those who must live forever scarred. Those who perpetrated such unspeakable deeds and inflicted so much suffering have damned their cause in the hearts and minds of every compassionate human being.

 

At the same time, the Socialist Party abhors the war-mongering and opportunistic politicians bent on mindless demands to shed the blood of even more innocent men, women and children in far-off lands. We are repulsed by the hypocrisy of those political leaders who wave the flag and invoke the cause of “freedom” for a “war against terror” even as they move to undermine or abrogate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the world’s people. Terrorism itself isn’t a country or even a cause. It is a method, a means to an end, a tactic employed in pursuit of some goal. Terrorism is not something that can be tracked down, flushed out of its lair and eradicated. To end terrorism it is essential that the motivation that prompted men and women to commit the heinous acts. The roots of terrorism in the world will be found embedded in a social system that bears terrorism as one of its fruits. Rooting out terrorism, whether perpetrated by a political state armed with sophisticated weapons or by some sect of self-appointed avengers, will take much more. 

"Our" Country

 

Based on their performance over many decades, the people know what governments have to offer—more of the same. The Socialist Party believes the deepening seriousness of our problems requires revolutionary ideas and revolutionary solutions.

What the media does not mention is the obvious yet significant fact that both major parties (and their would-be reformers) support the capitalist system. Their candidates differ at most on how to cure the mortal ills of capitalism. The deception lies in their claim that legislative tinkering can cure capitalism.

 Some voters are so sceptical of the possibility that voting can have any real influence on the way our lives are run, that they will turn their backs on the whole electoral process. Others will vote with no real expectation of improving things; they will settle for the “lesser evil” in the hope of keeping the worst scoundrels out of public office. A sizable and probably earnest minority, suspicious of elections, will reject the electoral process and try other means, like lobbying, protest marches and demonstrations or community-level activism. Throughout history ruling classes the world over have had no better ally than racism and the various forms of racial oppression have meant profits and privileges for exploiting classes and inhuman suffering for the oppressed.  If workers want to end self-defeating competition, it is necessary that they realise that racial antagonisms are a tactical measure of capitalism to prevent working-class unity. A working-class conscious of its political and economic potentials and of the means to achieve a liveable world for all can put an end to economic insecurity and the interracial distrust it breeds by putting an end to capitalism.

But that mess is the direct result of capitalism and cannot be cured by reforms, no matter who applies them.

Our country will have continued unemployment, poverty, racial discrimination, urban decay, pollution and rape of the environment not because the people don’t care but because the capitalist owners don’t care—more accurately, care about profits more.

Our country will continue to find it profitable or expedient to make war as long as capitalism rules.

Our country will continue to support dictatorships abroad as long as capitalist influence and markets are at stake.

Our country will continue to whittle away the rights and privacy of its citizens and, by terror and intimidation, to curtail the right of dissent because capitalism is fighting for its very existence and holds nothing else sacred.

We say “our” country but it isn’t our country in a meaningful sense. We, the majority, don’t own it and we don’t control it. When it does become our land—owned, operated and administered by the majority—we can easily solve all our problems. And not until then.

Socialism is the extension of democracy, based on majority control of the most essential area of our existence: the economy. Socialism is based on common ownership and social administration of the industries and services. Not less democracy, but more. Nothing short of actual day-to-day popular power and control.

Socialism is a system in which the means of production are owned by all society, and in which the industries and the economy as a whole are democratically administered by the workers themselves, through their own organisation. Not only does socialism not exist in China, but it also does not yet exist anywhere in the world.

 

Our votes can be used to demand an industrial democracy by casting a ballot for the only candidates who make that demand their platform - the Socialist Party candidates with the mandate to deliver socialism. Until that struggle is won, the system of class rule will remain — so, too, must the resistance and solidarity of the workers of the world. The answer to inadequate educational opportunities is full opportunity for all. The solution to unemployment and competition for jobs is an end to unemployment and to the system that has workers competing with one another for a chance to sell their labour-power. The solution to inequality is not to share it or spread it around, but to root out its capitalist cause. 

The Socialist Party holds that capitalism is not worth reforming and that, in any case, it cannot be reformed so as really to improve the workers’ condition, or protect them from capitalism’s recurring depressions and wars, or from displacement by automation. Parties of reform are in the business to divert the workers from a revolutionary socialist solution to their problems, and to preserve capitalism.

Don't trust in promises

 

Politicians throughout the world are resorting to all kinds of tactics and attention-getting gimmicks intended to demonstrate to the electorate that they are thoroughly honest and free of improper influence. Although some lay stress on their "integrity" and "independence,"  they disguise they may have "sold out" to special interests.

 

Every politician who has run for office has promised to do something to alleviate or eliminate the evils of poverty, crime, unemployment, pollution, and many more. Ask yourself this— Has the general quality of your living improved? Or has it worsened? Are the streets safer? Is there less crime? Is the air we breathe less polluted? Are our jobs more secure? Has poverty diminished? Has racism been eliminated?

On the contrary, hasn't every one of these evils grown worse?  Few will deny that, whatever their race or ethnic origin, we are being subjected to more discomfort, more crowding, more inconvenience, more exploitation, greater insecurity and physical danger than ever before. The politicians blame each other.

 

But the truth is that these evils have been present and worsening for decade after decade. Reform after reform has been enacted in efforts to alleviate them. But conditions have gone right on getting worse and worse. All of which demonstrates that even with the best of intentions no politician or set of politicians could prevent conditions for workers from worsening. WHY?

The explanation is easy. Politicians persist in dealing with effects and ignoring the cause.  The basic reason for our problems is the capitalist system under which we live. Capitalism today is an outmoded decadent social system. It has been so for a long time, and history fully justifies this conclusion. Consequently, the solution to our problems is not to be found in politicians, but in a whole new concept of society—a society for which the material basis exists right now.

Technological development clearly dictates the course that must be taken. Modern industry is thoroughly socialised in its organisation and operation. It has outgrown private ownership of industry and production for sale and the profit of the owning few. We are now at a point where we can produce an abundance for everyone. By establishing a new society we can prevent worsening crises and the ultimate catastrophe toward which our present society is taking us. What we are saying is that we can and must establish a socialist society. Let us explain briefly what socialism is and the kind of life we can have under it. 

In a socialist society, there will be no private ownership of the land and the industries. When we say this, we are not talking about your personal belongings. We are talking about the factories, the mills, the mines, transport—in short, the socially operated instruments used in the production and distribution of the necessities of life. We say that these must belong to society as a whole.

In a socialist society, there will be no wage system in which the workers receive in wages only a fraction of the value of the goods they produce. Instead, in socialism, we shall receive the full social value of our labour. We shall produce for use rather than for sale with a view to profit for private capitalists. We shall produce the things we want and need rather than the things for which a market exists in which the goods produced are sold for the profit of private owners.

In a socialist society, there can be no poverty or involuntary unemployment. The more producers, the better for all. Technological improvements will be a further blessing. The greater the number of workers, the better the tools, the more modern the methods, the greater and more varied will be the wealth we can produce, and the shorter the hours each of us will have to work.

Organised into one all-embracing industrial interconnected network we, the useful producers, shall manage and direct all social production, exercise all authority and make all other decisions necessary for the most efficient operation of production. When private and state ownership have been eliminated, there will be no way for social parasites, capitalistic or bureaucratic, to exist. In the nature of things, it will be impossible for any individual or group to acquire economic power and use it to exploit or suppress another human being. There will be no material basis on which a bureaucracy could establish and perpetuate itself. No one will be able to hand out offices or appoint lackeys. All in whatever capacity will be elected to be subject at all times to grassroots control. In short, we, the people, shall be in complete control of the source of all power, the economic resources of the land.

We have all the material requirements for producing an abundance. It is common knowledge that we have developed the most productive machine in the world. Once this machine is socially owned, controlled and administered, there will not be, there cannot be, conflicting material interests. We shall all be useful producers, each contributing his or her fair share to the total product. In return, each of us will receive directly and indirectly all that we produce. We say “indirectly” because we shall get part of our product back through social services—public health, education, recreation, etc. So great is our capacity to produce abundance that we can easily ensure that our youth will be educated, the aged provided for, and the sick given the finest care possible. All this will be done without depriving anyone of a fair and more than adequate share. It will not be charity but the rightful share of every human being in the affluent socialist society.

In socialism of abundance and cooperation, we shall achieve the highest standards of mental health and physical well-being. We shall enjoy great material well-being individually and collectively, but it will not be at anyone else’s expense. We shall be secure, healthy, happy human beings living in peace, harmony and freedom, in marked contrast to the capitalist jungle of strife, misery and insecurity in which we live today.

How can we get such a society? The answer is easy. Winning the struggle for socialist freedom requires building a political party of socialism to contest the power of the capitalist class on the political field, and to educate the majority of workers about the need for socialism. The working class must organise its might to back up its demand for the end of capitalism and the establishment of socialism.

There is no time to delay.

 

As COP26 approaches, more and more the urgency of resolving the global environment emergency becomes apparent.

The capitalist system carries in its wake environmental degradation and destruction. The most far-reaching example of this is global warming. The world has to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Such change will require restructuring the world’s energy, manufacturing and transportation systems. Such changes require massive investment and represent a threat to existing capitalist industries, their growth and profits. Capitalism requires profit and economic growth to survive. Capitalists want their profits now. The future has little meaning in a profit-driven society.

Workers today continue to live under the shadow of climate catastrophes, but in a socialist society, workers could enjoy a material abundance without in any way compromising their health of the planet. The many social problems of capitalism increasingly threaten the lives and well-being of workers, it becomes more and more imperative that they recognise the need to organize politically and economically to take control of the economy, abolish class-divided capitalism and administer production through their own democratic bodies. 

Socialists can bring many important insights to the questions and concerns raised by technology and the environment. The socialist understanding is that in a profit-motivated capitalist economy, technology will inevitably be developed and applied in an unsafe and environmentally destructive manner. No solution to the current danger can be found by taking the problem out of the social context in which it exists. The primary problem with any technology under capitalism is that it is controlled by a ruling-class minority that manipulates technology to serve its narrow economic interests. The task of the Socialist Party is to consistently emphasise the need to free all technology from the fetters of capitalist productive relations.

 Socialists clearly favour technological progress and the general expansion of society's productive forces. Accordingly, socialists do not see the answer in a technological retrogression of capitalist society. For one thing, it is utopian to suggest that society can or will return to a lower level of material development. Moreover, workers' interests directionally lie in furthering, rather than limiting, economic progress. Socialists thus seek to transform society into one based on new social relationships that will allow the worker-majority to become the master of technology, rather than vice versa.

On the other hand, this does not mean that socialists blindly support technology. All technological innovation is not progress, and a socialist society may well decide that the hazards of particular technology renders of no use. Nor should Socialists foster the illusion that the debates on the environment will miraculously disappear with the advent of socialism. Socialist revolution will clearly sound the death knell of the profit-motive and the militarism which have generated the threat to ecology. But socialism is no panacea.

Clearly, the socialist perspective has thus far failed to impress itself on the environmental movement which continues to be dominated by anti-technology currents, apolitical supporters of techno-fixes and capitalist politicians and other liberal reformers. Environmental reforms are not the answer. Capitalism has eroded even those feeble efforts of the past.

To capitalism falls the task of justifying its technological horrors on the basis of picking the lesser evil. To socialism falls the task of turning technology from the horror it currently is to the benefactor of an emancipated working class.

In a socialist society, people would democratically make the decisions on how the resources available to a society are to be used, what energy sources are to be developed, what goods are to be produced, etc. and collectively hold full decision-making power over the use of all technology. With the abolition of the profit motive and the transformation of the means of production from private into social property, such decisions would be made not by a minority to serve its own vested interests, but by the working-class majority, which could rationally assess the overall impact of any decision would have on the general welfare.

If the future is not to be plagued with the floods, droughts and other catastrophes predicted related to global warming, the political and economic system of capitalism must end. The Socialist  Party urges fellow workers to abolish capitalism and introduce socialist production for use. Workers must understand their latent economic and potential political power as operators of the industries and services and begin integrating the protest campaigns and resistance movements into one movement with the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production—human needs and wants instead of profit—and organise their own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether.


The new society they must aim for must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organisations based in the workplaces. In such a society, the workers themselves would make decisions governing the economy, electing representatives to industrial councils and to a workers’ congress representing all the industries that would administer the economy.


Such a society is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power of the nation in the hands of the workers, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to halting global warming, employing the renewable resources we now have available and develop new ones, and clean up the damage already done.

This is what is meant by socialism

  

Because of the imminent arrival of COP26 attendees in Glasgow, many more of us understand that the most serious problem facing society today is the climate crisis and its environmentally destructive consequences. The list of bad news on the environment is seemingly unending. Each of the ecological problems represents a serious danger in its own right. The longer the ongoing and worsening process of environmental degradation continues, the more difficult it will be to halt and reverse. Resolute and decisive action is long overdue. The laws that have been enacted and regulatory agencies that have been established have often been undermined by the very corporations and firms responsible for global warming. The regulations themselves have been watered down; undeveloped countries aren't funded adequately to act on them and are frequently corrupted by corporate interests; enforcement of even inadequate regulations has been poor, raising the question of whether the laws and regulations were frequently intended to be anything more than window dressing.

To understand why regulation hasn't worked and what kind of action will work to end this worsening environmental nightmare, it must be understood that the environmental crisis is fundamentally an economic and class issue. Its cause lies in the nature of the capitalist economic system.

 Environmental destruction is not an inevitable by-product of modern industry. Methods exist or can readily be developed to safely neutralise, recycle or contain it. Less polluting, less wasteful forms of technology can be built. Adequate supplies of food can be grown without deadly pesticides. The problem is that, under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make these kinds of decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and controls the industries and services—the capitalist class. And the capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve, first and foremost, one goal—that of maximising profit for themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins. From the capitalist point of view, it is generally less costly to dump pollutants into the environment than to invest in pollution-control equipment or pollution-free processes. It is more profitable to continue fossil fuel production as it is rather than invest more heavily in solar, wind or other alternative energy sources. Likewise with every other aspect of the environmental crisis: Socially harmful decisions are made because, in one way or another, they serve the profit interests of the capitalist class.

Capitalist-class rule over the economy also explains why government regulation is so ineffective: under capitalism, the government itself is essentially a tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected “democratically,” but because they are financed, supported and decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist class, democratic forms are reduced to a farce. The capitalist class and its government will never be able to solve the environmental crisis. They and their system are the problems. It is up to the majority of people to end this crisis.

The goal is building a new society with completely different motives for production—human needs and wants instead of profit—and to organise our own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether.

The new society must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organizations based in the workplaces. In such a society, the people themselves would make decisions administrating the economy.

Such a society is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power of the nation in the hands of the workers, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to stop pollution at its source and clean up the damage already done.

Many people believe that socialism means government or state ownership and control. Who can blame them when that is what the schools teach and what the media, politicians and others who oppose socialism say? Worse, some people and organisations that call themselves socialist say it, too—but not the Socialist Party. Socialism is something entirely different. 

If the government or state ownership is not socialism, what is? Socialism means economic democracy. Workers would be making decisions every day where they work and in the field in which they are most qualified. Here is where their vote counts because it vitally affects their own personal lives.  When we use the word “worker,” we mean everyone who sells his or her labour-power, or ability to work, at so much per hour, or so much per week, to a capitalist employer. Coal miners are workers, but so are musicians, scientists, nurses, teachers, architects, engineers and mathematicians. In a socialist society, there would be no wage system. Workers would receive the social value of their labour. And since the people would collectively own the industries, anyone would be free to select any occupation in which he or she has an interest and aptitude. No longer would workers live under the fear of being laid off, or be compelled to spend their lives at some job they hate or are unsuited for. Also, since the people would collectively own the colleges and universities, no longer would workers be denied education or training because they lack the money to buy it.

Socialism we would produce for use and to satisfy the needs of all the people. Under capitalism, the industries operate for one purpose—to earn a profit for their owners. Under this system, food is not grown primarily to be eaten. It is grown to be sold. Cars are not manufactured primarily to be driven. They are made to be sold. If there are enough buyers here and abroad, then the capitalists will have their factories turn out cars, appliances, pianos and everything else for which buyers can be found. But if people lack money, if the domestic and foreign markets cannot absorb them, then these factories shut down and the country stagnates, no matter how much people need these commodities.

 With socialism, the factories and industries would be used to benefit all of us, not restricted to the creation of profits for the enrichment of a small group of capitalist owners. Under socialism our farmlands would yield an abundance without great toil; the factories, mines and mills would be the safest, the most modern, the most efficient possible and productive beyond our wildest dreams—and without laborious work. Our natural resources would be intelligently conserved. Our schools would have the finest facilities and they would be devoted to developing complete human beings, not wages slaves who are trained to hire themselves out for someone else’s profit. Our hospitals and social services would create and maintain the finest health and recreational facilities.

Under capitalism industrial technology is used to replace workers and increase profits. Instead of creating a society of abundance, capitalism uses machinery to create unemployment and poverty. Our inner cities have been converted largely into festering slums in which impoverished people, not understanding the cause of their miseries, are imprisoned and damned to a life of misery.

It is not technology that threatens us. By themselves, improved methods of production and distribution are not social evils. They could be a blessing, but under capitalism, technology is used for antisocial purposes. This follows from the fact that technology and industry are the exclusive property of a small minority —the capitalist class. Capitalism uses the industries for the private profit of their owners and not for the benefit of the vast majority of the people—the workers who invented and built them.

In a socialist society, on the other hand, since we would collectively own the factories and means of production, we would have full and free access to the means of wealth production and distribution. Since we would receive the full social value of our labour there would be no unwanted surplus. We would collectively produce the things we want and need for full and happy lives. It would be to the benefit of all to find new inventions, new means of production, improved means of distribution.

 Society as a whole would have a vital interest in providing the opportunity to each individual to find the work for which he or she is best suited and in which he or she will be happiest. There would be the fullest freedom and opportunity.

And, we repeat, there would be a complete and full democracy. Democracy that will truly be based on the broadest lines. Democracy in which the final and only power will be the great mass of our people, the useful producers, which in a socialist society would mean everybody. Society no longer would be split into two contending classes. Instead, we would all be useful producers, collectively owning the means of production and distribution, collectively concerned with producing the most with the least expenditure of human labour, and collectively jealous of the rights of the individual to a full, free life of happiness.

How can we get such a society? The answer is easy. It is within the power of the working class to establish such a society as soon as they recognise the need for it and organise to establish it.

While Capitalism Prevails Atrocities Will Always Be.

At the time of writing 48 churches have been burned down or vandalized in the last 2 months, since the news of the genocide committed against indigenous children was revealed. Most of them were Catholic since they ran the residential schools where the children were murdered. 

Though Prime Minister Trudeau and Indigenous leaders have appealed for it to stop, nevertheless it continues, including churches that are not Catholic. However bitter one may understandably feel about atrocities, bitterness alone is not enough. Bitterness fused with the understanding that as long as capitalism prevails atrocities will always be. To sum up the state of things in Canada, July 31, it's pretty bad, or should I say ugly bad.

Fires are out of control in B.C.; there are fires in other provinces and smoke from them engulfing other areas, which with the intense heat and humidity are health hazards. This is exacerbated by the drought in most of western and central Canada, in fact, some rivers are in danger of drying up. The pandemic was on the decline is on the rise and causing the cost of living to go sky-high. Crime in general and gun violence, in particular, is on the rise in major cities. 

So, things ain't exactly wonderful in Canada and since capitalism is a worldwide system, Canada stumbles lockstep with too many people and places suffering the same plight.

S.P.C. Members.