To Be Against War

 

Every annual Remembrance Day politicians shed crocodile tears for the dead and the sacrifice they made for Queen and Country.  

The fact is, it is not really politicians who cause wars. They are caused by economic competition, by the international struggle for foreign markets, trade routes and sources of raw materials. The  Socialist Party explains that the cause of war in the modern world is to be found in the inevitable economic rivalries among dominant, competitive capitalist groups in capitalist society.

Peace is possible but not until production for sale and private profit is supplanted by production for use. The Socialist Party proposes that we put an end to the cause of war by organising to uproot the capitalist system. The workers in the developed nations have more than the necessary numbers to vote capitalism out and socialism in, a genuinely socialist society, resting on the basis of economic freedom. This new social system the workers alone can bring into being, thus forever putting an end to wars, and establishing the society of human brotherhood based on freedom, peace and abundance. Only one thing can prevent the chaos toward which the world is heading. That is the establishment of genuine world socialism. There is no acceptable alternative. We must establish a society in which private ownership of the means of life will be replaced by social ownership and democratic control; in which production for sale and the profit of a few will be replaced by production for the benefit and use of all.  Poverty, insecurity, unemployment will be eliminated. War-breeding struggles for markets will be a thing of the past. Totalitarianism will be impossible. Everyone will lead a full life, contributing his or her fair share of the work and receiving his or her fair share of the total social product. We shall have laid the material and economic foundation for social harmony, peace, plenty and liberty, on the basis of international human brotherhood. 

The problems that make living so difficult today -- problems of poverty, slums, unemployment, crime, water shortages, air and water pollution and many more -- have been with us for a long time, a very long time. These problems are not peculiar to the country where you dwell  They exist in varying degrees in every nation. Every politician who runs for office promises to do something to alleviate or eliminate these evils. Despite these promises, and despite the reform efforts, these problems have defied solutions. The basic cause of 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.

The  Socialist Party does not accuse individuals of deliberate efforts to engineer wars. Instead, we say the capitalist class generally, will do whatever they believe is necessary to protect, strengthen and preserve the capitalist system, the system that in the final analysis is the cause of war. For it is the economic facts and factors that control leaders and their actions -- leaders rarely control events, or at any event not for long.

 "I claim not," said Abraham Lincoln, "to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

Similarly, Napoleon remarked, “I found all the elements ready at hand to found an empire. Europe was weary of anarchy, they wanted to make an end of it. If I had not come probably someone else would have done like me . . .”

Conflicts are propelled by forces beyond the immediate control of individuals, regardless of the prior hopes and intent of individuals, leading to a termination of the precise nature of which even the most far-visioned cannot perceive at this moment.

We believe that the working class must, at last, come to understand that the competitive capitalist system of private ownership of the land and plants of production, means of transportation, mines, etc., is, in fact, the basic cause of the present state of world anarchy, and of wars, declared and undeclared. To avoid future wars, therefore, the capitalist cause must be abolished. Society must be reorganised on socialist lines, replacing private (and state) ownership and competition with social ownership and cooperation. We must make the factories, communications, mines, transport, and all the other means of social production the common property of society so that we can produce things to satisfy human needs instead of for the profit of the few. Only then can the competitive, war-breeding struggle for international markets, spheres of influence and sources of raw materials be ended. Only then will the nations of the world have an economic foundation for lasting cooperation, harmony and peace.

Socialism -- genuine socialism -- is literally the hope of humanity.

 The Socialist Party has devoted all its years to the collective study of the social question, offers a programme to accomplish this change to socialism peacefully. In the name of sanity, we urge you to study our principles and to help us bring to birth a society in which all of humanity can live in peace and freedom.

Sympathy and emotion for a good cause are laudable. But without a sound premise and attainable goal, they can only lead to failure and despair. The crying need of our time is not protest marches for limited and impossible objectives, but determined, unrelenting action to awaken the working class to the imperative need for a socialist reconstruction of society, and to enlighten them on the principles and programme for accomplishing that social change in a peaceful, civilised manner. At this late hour on the social clock, it is the only way to strike a decisive blow for peace and freedom for the workers of all nations. All else is futile and hopeless.

Militarism is part and parcel of a capitalist system based on profit-motivated production, the private ownership of the economy by a tiny capitalist minority, and the exploitation of working people. It is the means by which the capitalist minority enforces their political and economic will both at home and abroad. Accordingly, an effective antidote to militarism can only be fashioned by a working-class movement that organises workers to effect a basic transformation of society. This is the programme of the Socialist Party - to organise workers into mass organizations capable of wresting control over society from the capitalist minority and of creating a worker-controlled economy that will serve our collective needs and free us once and for all from the unspeakable horrors of militarism.

Our Revolutionary Alternative Society

 Capitalism is the organisation of brutality and chaos. The world is crying out for socialism, the democratic control of production by the producers and the worldwide planning of resources. The Socialist Party believes that capitalism is a system of private and state accumulation and profit, that is inherently a system of inequality, injustice, and war. We want a social system where social wealth is not in the hands of a few billionaires but is collectively controlled by the people. Human needs cannot replace profit as the driving force of society unless working people administer their workplaces and their communities. To end exploitation, the working class needs to struggle for its own interests. Our enemy is capitalism. In order to fight the enemy and win, we have to understand the enemy. Under capitalism, a handful possesses the communications, factories, mines, land and transport networks. We are fighting this system.

A socialist is an internationalist. It is nationalism that divides the working people so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few scraps the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose! It is nationalism that pits groups of workers against each other with the most hideous rage, while their respective oppressors pursue a little fun in the sun. Nationalism serves the capitalist class in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods. Any nationalism finally implies that people born on one particular patch of land are better than all others born by accident elsewhere. We are all the victims of nationalism that preaches superiority and inferiority.

What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we actually aiming for? And how was this new society to be achieved? These questions, long a subject of debate, is receiving even more attention today because of the momentous changes taking place. We have much to teach and learn from each other. Realising socialism’s potential requires flexibility and innovation. Socialism can only be built if the majority of the people support it actively involved in building it. The building of a classless society involves the participation of millions of people not only through their votes but also in the actual administration of various levels, bodies of self-organisation in all spheres of social life. Decisions can be best taken at the factory level, others again at the neighbourhood, local, regional, national, continental and finally at the world level. Global decision making would be all those decisions necessitating a redistribution of human and material resources to ensure the elimination of the ills of underdevelopment – hunger and disease. The second would cover priority allocation of genuinely scarce natural resources – those which could be depleted absolutely, and of which no minority of the human race has the right to dispossess the next generations; only the living population of the world in its totality has the right to decide here. The third would include everything affecting the natural environment and climate of the planet as a whole; all those processes which can pollute the air, the water and the land, destroying the ecological balance. Such an interconnected and conscious resource allocation, of coordinated planning and self-management, would be much more efficient than either a free-enterprise capitalist market economy or a State-controlled command economy. The workers are able to manage production.  Delegations of workers from the various factories, different industrial sectors will regularly be organised to have discussions with each other, exchange experience about production, discuss the quality of and problems with the products supplied by them, and so on. Planning is crucial. But planning cannot simply be left to experts and specialists. Let the working class operate industry.

The socialist revolution will usher in a new epoch in the history of mankind. We are living in the most industrialised and technologically advanced countries in the world. Socialism as a society is dedicated to the interests of the working people. The basic means by which society produces its wealth – factories, mines and farms – are transferred from private to common ownership, and exploitation eliminated. Socialism unleashes the creativity of the people, who are capable of tremendous progress when not toiling under a system of exploitation. Socialism replaces capitalism worldwide because it is economically superior and will provide a better quality of life for all people. Socialist planning means the allocation of resources according to socially established priorities instead of according to blind market forces and the rule of profit. 

Co-ops - False Hope

 

Cooperatives have been associated with working-class movements for a very long time. Things like worker-owned co-ops are great in theory, but they're not immune to the driving forces of, and the logic behind, the global capitalist system of production and exchange they find themselves in. In order for more neighbourhood-centred, worker-friendly, and/or worker-owned businesses to sprout and flourish, a more socialised economic 'field' needs to replace the current undemocratic one in which we presently plant our seeds of enterprise.

The  Socialist Party has nothing against working in a 'workers cooperative' if it means better conditions at work under capitalism and being treated better. We can have a little bit of improvement in our days of drudgery under capitalism and needn’t wait for the Glorious Day of the Revolution? Co-ops are not the panacea as presented by some, but they can improve the lives of a few of us. Co-ops don't exist outside capitalism but you can at least have some say in how you are exploited which is an improvement for many. We would all rather work for a business that at least treats us tolerably well and like human beings rather than making us miserable. However, seeing cooperatives as anything other than a partial palliative at improving one's working condition is definitely a huge mistake.

Setting up co-ops is not a revolutionary strategy or one which advances the interests of the working class as a whole, and as such isn't something we should promote. There are also dangers with it as described in the Mondragon example, in that workers at a capitalist enterprise facing pay cuts can take direct action such as strike action against it. But workers at a co-op cannot do this as they would just be striking against themselves. Another issue is that there are those on the right who are encouraging workers to set up cooperatives to take over some social services - to privatise public services much as the Irish government farmed out social services to the Catholic clerics in the past and describing such approaches as ethical consumerism.

The cooperative movement was easily integrated into the capitalist system and, in fact, was to a large extent an element of capitalist development. Even in bourgeois economic theory, it was considered an instrument of social conservatism by fostering the savings propensities of the lower layers of society, by increasing economic activities through credit unions, by improving agriculture through cooperative production and marketing organisations, and by shifting working-class attention from the sphere of production to that of consumption. As a capitalistically-oriented institution, the cooperative movement flourished, finally to become one form of capitalist enterprise among others, bent on the exploitation of the workers in its employ, and facing the latter as their opponents in strikes for higher wages and better working conditions. The general support of consumers’ cooperatives by the official labour movement – in sharp distinction to an earlier scepticism and even outright rejection – was merely an additional sign of the increasing ‘capitalisation’ of the reformist labour movement.

If factories anywhere fell into the hands of workers’ cooperatives tomorrow what would happen? Since workers at the moment all over the world are committed to capitalism because they have not yet grasped any alternative method of organising society, these factories under ‘workers’ self-management would continue to produce commodities for sale. It would simply be a question of the workers driving themselves, holding their own whips, managing their own exploitation. The factories will be run on socialist lines only when the goods they turn out are no longer for selling on the internal and world markets and when the people working in them have no need for wages.

Capitalism has had its day of carnage

 People are beginning to call more and more often for the end of capitalism, or at least speak of the crises of the capitalist system. In the face of growing hardships and increasing attacks on workers in every sphere of society, growing numbers of workers are taking matters into their own hands to fight back against the owning class of capitalists that rules.  But the debates and discussions suffer from one initial disadvantage, an inadequate definition of the subject under discussion, and this is common both to the adversaries and defenders of capitalism. The result is that many of these discussions only add to the already existing confusion they all have a different interpretation of the terms used. Capitalist society is based on the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class and that all the evils of this society arise from that. Working people face the situation where the capitalist rulers are stepping up their drive to wring even more profit from the workers. Speed-up, under the fine-sounding name of “productivity,” and hand in hand with it, wage cuts, massive lay-offs, ending formal employment contracts, creating temporary and part-time employees with obligatory forced overtime–these are the main forms of attack on the working class today. To eliminate capitalism, that alone can move society forward. And abolishing capitalism will put an end to the division of society into classes and bring about a completely new era in human history–SOCIALISM–where mankind as a whole, through its cooperative efforts and conscious planning, advance to heights undreamed of in the past. This is why the aim of the working class, through all its daily battles against the capitalists, must not only be to win whatever concessions. can be wrung from them today, but to build the strength and unity of the working class for the day when it will be able to overturn the capitalist order altogether in every country. No political party can represent both capitalist and worker, for the capitalist lives by exploiting the worker and the workers lives for the day they can end this exploitation. Freedom for the working class means the ending of capitalist wage-slavery–something the capitalists will never permit.

The World Socialist Movement is as wide as the world, and its mission is to win the world — the whole world for humanity. The world the WSM  is to win from capitalism  will be filled with wealth for all to have and to enjoy in its abundance. And why not? We have the knowledge. We have the technology to free, not to enslave, to save, and not to destroy. Within in every passing breeze, in every tide, in each ray of sunshine, we possess fabulous sources of renewable energy. Abundance can banish for all time poverty and misery, and make the Earth fit once more for human habitation. The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism. To achieve this great socialist ideal is a work of education and organisation. The working class must be aroused. They must hear the trumpet call of economic solidarity and political solidarity. A new power will be in control. The people! For the first time in history the working people will be free and no class will be subjugated or in subjection.You produce by your labour all the wealth of the world. You have little or nothing to show for it. You build all the palaces and live in hovels. You support this or that government, but you are oppressed, repressed and suppressed by it.You are divided at the ballot box. All the political parties stand for the capitalist system, for the private ownership of the means of wealth production and the operation of industry in the interest of the capitalist class. They are all committed to the perpetuation of wage-slavery, and whether one or the other wins, you lose. You produce everything and have practically nothing, while the other class produces nothing and has everything.  

 We may not ever be elected. If so it will not be our fault; it will be you to blame, and you will have to accept the consequences and be held accountable of your act. You will be responsible for what you voted for. So far as we are concerned, defeat means but little, because we are but a few. But it means a great deal as far as you are concerned, for it will mean more years of wage-slavery. 

Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

The capitalist class or bourgeoisie is that class whose members own the means of production and obtain their income by means of the exploitation of those they employ. The working class is that class whose members do not own any means of production, but whose subsistence comes from the sale of their labour-power.

The working class is essential for far-reaching social change to put an end to the political, economic and social power of the capitalist class. The  Government is in its social and historical character an instrument for the crushing down and exploitation of the labouring classes; at home and abroad it serves the interests of capitalism. Resistance to capitalism is growing among working people albeit in an unorganised manner. Yet too many workers view the present capitalist system and its government as the way to provide reforms to better the lives of working people. There is no solution for the working class under capitalism–only wage-slavery and oppression. There is only one road to socialism and it is the road of the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Through education and study, we are aiming to reinforce and consolidate the working class’s revolutionary core.

 

We gain nothing from changing the government in power, from throwing out one old set of bandits and voting in a new set of robbers. It’s not the government, the Prime Minister or the Cabinet that we must change but the capitalist system itself. This means not defeating one or two of the bourgeois parties but overcoming the whole capitalist apparatus. According to the media moguls, the ideas of the socialist movement are outdated and obsolete because we now live in a Welfare State but facts speak louder than words. Marx’s description in Capital remains valid:

“In proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse... Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole.”

That is the real conditions in capitalist society everywhere today. That is why we need an ever stronger socialist movement with a clearly defined goal, to end the system of exploitation by capitalism, with its wars and economic crises, its enslavement of the wage-workers, and to replace it with the socialist society.

 

Scottish or Welsh independence would not bring us any closer to getting rid of capitalist oppression and exploitation. Instead, it would divide the working class against its main enemy, the British bourgeoisie and it would weaken the struggle for socialism all across the world. Nationalism would hold back and retard our struggle. A divided working class makes for much easier prey for the capitalist hyenas. This is why we say that independence movements are not in the best interests of the working class. We say that the struggle we must take up is not for national sovereignty but the struggle for the socialist revolution to liberate us from the chains of capitalist exploitation. We seek to build a socialist society.

It is the poor who suffer

 People from the most deprived areas of Scotland are 2.5 times more likely to die with Covid, official figures show. Figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) reveal the gap between the most and least deprived areas has widened during the pandemic.

Some ethnic groups have also been disproportionately affected.

The main NRS findings include:

• Deaths among people with Pakistani ethnicity were 3.7 times as likely to involve Covid as people with White Scottish ethnicity.
• Figures for deaths among people with Chinese (1.7 times), Indian (1.7 times) and Other Asian ethnicities (3.0 times) were also more likely.

People with White Other British ethnicity were less likely (0.8) to die with Covid than people with White Scottish ethnicity. The likelihood of deaths among people with Other White ethnicity was not significantly different from those with White Scottish ethnicity.

Covid in Scotland: People in deprived areas 2.5 times more likely to die - BBC News