Towards Socialism

 

The first step in the revolution is the expropriation of the capitalists and the taking over by the working-class of all the means of production — the land, factories, mines, railways, docks, etc., no less than the communication system, etc. By this means we can begin the social organisation of production, free from the burdens of parasitism and private ownership.

The second step is the organisation of production to meet social needs. Every industry is organised as a single unit under its own Council, with workers’ control at every stage of production. The direction of all is united in the central Council of Industry or Workers’ Economic Council. The Council of Industry plans out the entire production of the country: so much coal, so much textiles, so much iron and steel goods, etc. The output is calculated, according to the given stage of the productive forces, to meet the three purposes: (1) goods to meet the immediate needs of the population; (2) means of production to extend the productive power in the future; (3) goods to share with other communities. 

The entire social product thus goes in one of these forms to the workers, whether socially or for individual consumption. The necessary work to be done is spread out over the entire labour force, i.e., the whole able-bodied community, hours being shortened to absorb the labour of all (in place of the capitalist method of overworking some in order to leave the rest unemployed). Necessary adaptations to new forms of work and industrial transference can be rapidly and easily effected, when these no longer involve cutting of rates, loss of skilled status, etc. (as in capitalism compels the justified resistance of the workers), but are carried out with the co-operation of the workers concerned, and without affecting the equal privileges and guaranteed minimum of every worker.

What will be the immediate consequences of the change-over from the present capitalist society to the workers’ socialist society — the fruits of the workers’ revolution and its sacrifices? We shall have ended unemployment,  we shall have at last directed production to meet the needs of all,  we shall have abolished the rule of class distinctions and privilege, and entered on the way to the first real democracy and freedom for all, the free and equal workers’ society. Workers’ self-rule will immediately set itself to realise in order to bring the fruits of the revolution to all, in order to end the present reign of inequality — inequality in respect of every elementary human need of food, clothing, shelter, conditions of labour health, education, etc., and bring the material conditions of real freedom and development to all.

 

The present tribute drawn by the capitalist class in the shape of rent, interest and profits will cease.  It is evident that, on the most immediate practical basis, and leaving out of account the enormous increase in production which will result from universal socially organised production, the workers’ rule will be able immediately, so soon as the change is achieved, to realise the most enormous advances in standards, hours, conditions of labour and social conditions. The capitalists and their propagandists try to frighten the workers from revolution by holding before them the spectre that revolution means “deprivation,” that the workers depend on capitalism for their existence. The contrary is the truth. That the workers can by the method of social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone, rapidly overcome the difficulties of the present crisis, can rapidly reconstruct and extend production and win prosperity for all, has been already shown. The continuance of capitalism that means misery and suffering.

Forward to socialism! Forward to the social revolution! There is no time to lose. We are advancing to wider struggles, towards a new revolutionary phase. The issue of class-power, the issue of capitalism or socialism. We need to prepare for this. We need to prepare the new forms of struggle. We need to build up a strong working-class to fight, drawing together the various forms of mass organisation factory committees, the unions, the cooperatives, uniting the fight stage by stage to the revolutionary victory.

Capitalism or Socialism? The Coming Showdown

 

With the conflict in Ukraine, the great threat of a new world war hangs over mankind, but at the same time, the chances for revolution are becoming clearer. Capitalism has never been so prostrated as now by its own sharpened contradictions. The dawn of socialism, created by the masses and for the masses, is rising on mankind’s horizon. Let the socialist dawn inspire us all. In the whole world, power will pass into the workers’ hands, ending forever all misery, dictatorship and war. The victory of the world revolution will put an end to all exploitation, all oppression and all violence among mankind. Workers of the world awaken before it is too late. The future is in our hands. We shall overthrow capitalism.

Capitalism has no solution. Why? Because capitalist monopoly cannot organise production for use. The most the capitalists can see is to wait amid the general misery until the universal stagnation, destruction and stoppage of production have produced such a vacuum that a feeble “demand” will again arise, beginning a new trade cycle, and leading to a new and greater crisis. But of any attempt to organise the growing productive power to meet human needs — the question does not even enter into their heads; it cannot arise within the conditions of capitalism.

Many would-be reformers of capitalism (including the Labour Party) urge that if only the capitalists would pay higher wages to the workers, enabling them to buy more of what they produce, there would be no crisis. This is utopian nonsense, which ignores the inevitable laws of capitalism — the drive for profits, and the drive of competition. The drive of capitalism is always to increase its profits by every possible means, to increase its surplus, not to decrease it. Individual capitalists may talk of the “gospel of high wages” in the hope of securing a larger market for their goods. But the actual drive of capitalism as a whole is the opposite. The force of competition compels every capitalist to cheapen costs of production, to extract more output per worker for less return, to cut wages.

Capitalism has no answers. Only socialism can bring the solution. Only socialism can cut through the bonds of capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the working-class revolution.

In the capitalist world, the standards of the workers go steadily down. Real wages fall. Social services are cut. Hours and conditions of labour are worsened. Capitalism can only seek to prolong its life by throwing the burdens of the crisis onto the workers, by ever-renewed attacks upon workers’ standards.

“But these inventions and discoveries, which supersede each other at an ever-increasing pace, this productiveness of human labour, which increases day by day at a hitherto unheard of rate, finally creates a conflict, in which the present capitalist system must fall to pieces. On the one side, immeasurable wealth and a surplus of products which the purchasers cannot control. On the other, the great mass of society proletarised, turned into wage workers, and just on that account become incapable of taking possession of that surplus of products. The division of society into a small over-rich class and a large propertyless working-class, causes this society to suffocate in its own surplus, while the great mass of its members is scarcely, or, indeed, not at all, protected from extreme want. Such a condition of things becomes daily more absurd and unnecessary. It can be abolished; it must be abolished. A new social order is possible, wherein the class differences of to-day will have disappeared, and wherein — perhaps, after a short transitional period, of materially rather straitened circumstances, maybe, but morally of great value-through the systematic use and development of the enormous productive forces already in existence (with equal obligation upon all to work), the means of life, of enjoying life, and of developing all the physical and mental capabilities, will be at the equal disposal of all in ever-increasing fullness.” (Engels: Introduction to Marx “Wage-Labour and Capital,” 1891.)

Many workers placed their hopes in the Labour Party to bring the solution. They have seen the need for basic social change; the Labour Party spoke of basic social change, of socialism, and promised to realise it. Understanding the role of the Labour Party right — this is the first necessity for the workers to advance to real working-class politics, to the workers’ revolution, to socialism. Do they not profess the aim of socialism? Yes, they profess the aim of socialism as an ideal for the future. But at the same time as they profess the aim of socialism, they attack the necessity of the workers’ revolution, which alone can realise socialism, they expel from their ranks the militant workers who fight for the workers’ revolution. They profess to hope to reach their aim without the necessity of fighting and overthrowing capitalism, on a basis of co-operation with capitalism, on a basis of winning for the workers gradual gains within capitalism. Therefore their practice is based on capitalism, on acceptance of the capitalist State on administering capitalism and helping to build up capitalism. This they term the “practical” policy for the workers. What is the outcome of this policy? As we have seen, in the period of flourishing capitalism, reformism was able to win small gains for the workers, and on this basis to hold them from the socialist revolution, hold the workers to capitalism. But this basis is ended. Capitalism to-day is no longer willing to grant concessions to the workers, on the contrary finds itself compelled to withdraw existing concessions, ,make new attacks, to worsen conditions. And therefore the role of reformism, which is the servant of capitalism in the working-class, changes. The role of reformism inevitably becomes to assist capitalism to attack the workers, wage cutsenforce wage-cuts, repress the workers’ revolt, to worsen conditions — all in the name of “practical” policy. This has been the role of Labour Governments. Millions of workers are turning from the Labour Party and seeking a new direction. Where shall they turn? The only path forward is the path of struggle against capitalism, the path that leads to the social revolution, to socialism.

The so-called “lefts” in the Labour Party hasten to proclaim their “opposition” to the Labour Party policy and to advocate so-called “socialist” alternatives. But on examination their policy will be found to be only the old policy of the Labour Party dressed up in new clothes. Although they speak roundly of “socialism” against “capitalism,” they do not propose the overthrow of capitalism, the working-class conquest of power, the expropriation of the capitalists; their basis is still the same basis of capitalism, of capitalist democracy, of the capitalist State, as with the Labour Party; and therefore the outcome can only be the same. Their only proposals are for the reorganisation of capitalism by a system of State control boards, by which they promise a minimum wage for the workers, at the same time as higher profits for the capitalists. But in fact, capitalist reorganisation in the present period of decline can only, if the capitalist burdens are maintained, be at the expense of the workers. And this is the practical effect of the left-wing propaganda. This is precisely its value to capitalism, to draw the workers from the struggle in the name of phrases of “socialism.”

What is needed is that the working-class shall rule — i.e., that the workers shall drive out the capitalists from possession, defeat their resistance, dismantle their State machine, and set up their own workers’ rule throughout the country. What is the form of the workers’ rule? The form of the workers’ rule is through their elected workers’ councils, elected from the factories, from local communities,  in every enterprise, in every town and in every district.

The Wealthiest of Scotland

Danish fashion tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen is still the richest person in Scotland, according to a study of the UK's wealthiest people.

The 2022 Sunday Times Rich List found there were 10 billionaires in Scotland. The 10 billionaires at the head of the 2022 Rich list have a combined wealth of £23.054bn - more than a quarter of this is in the hands of Holch Povlsen. His personal fortune increased by £500m in the past year to £6.5bn.

He owns 220,000 acres of land in Scotland. He bought the 42,000-acre Glenfeshie estate in the Cairngorms for £8m in 2006 and now owns 12 Highland estates.

Glenn Gordon, the chairman of Moray-based distiller William Grant & Sons, is the second richest person in Scotland with £3.395bn. 

John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who owns pharmaceutical firm Biocon have an estimated £2.496bn - putting them in third place.

Brothers Sandy and James Easdale who have a £1.363bn fortune, based upon transport and property acquisitions, make them eighth richest.

1. Anders Holch Povlsen (Wealth of £6.5bn)

2. Glenn Gordon and family (£3.395bn)

3. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and John Shaw and family (£2.496bn)

4. Sir Ian Wood and family (£1.819bn)

5. Mohamed Al Fayed and family (Harrods; £1.699bn)

6. Mahdi al-Tajir (Highland Spring; £1.685bn)

7. The Thomson family (DC Thomson; £1.585bn)

8. Sandy and James Easdale (£1.363bn)

9. Lady Philomena Clark and family (Arnold Clark; £1.267bn)

10. Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family (Industry; £1.245bn)

Overall, the richest 250 people in the UK this year are worth £710.723bn, compared to £658.089bn in 2021, an 8% rise on last year.

Landowner Anders Holch Povlsen tops Scotland's rich list again - BBC News

This is the Socialist Party

 

The working people of the capitalist countries live in such conditions that, increasingly, they realise that the only way out of their grave situation lies through socialism. Every worker, embittered, disappointed, confused, and bewildered by the capitalist chaos around can find a clear philosophy and confidence which comes from understanding the principles of the Socialist Party. The World Socialist Movement does not consider itself a sect or faction with interests separate and apart from those of the working class as a whole. Its interest is in articulating the long-range experience and historic aims of our fellow workers. It makes no pretence at holding a patent on Marxist thought. Its contributions are offered freely in the best spirit of international comradeship.

In the words of Rosa Luxemburg:

“Socialism will not be and cannot be inaugurated by decree: it cannot be established by any government, however admirably socialistic. Socialism must be created by the masses, must be made by every proletarian. Where the chains of capitalism are forged, there must the chain be broken. That only is socialism, thus only can socialism be brought into being...The masses must learn how to use power by using power. There is no other way.”

 She echoes the most fundamental idea of Marx: the workers must emancipate themselves. The  task cannot be left to some other force, called ‘the Party’ or ‘the State’. The most pressing task is to emerge from the anarchy of capitalism to socialism. The cost of delaying this task will be recessions, social stagnation and slaughters on a global scale. To these has now been added the hazard of environmental destruction which could wipe out all the higher forms of life. It has become a life-and-death question for working people to construct socialism. A generation of youth armed sufficiently with socialist theory would signify the finish of the capitalist system. With an understanding of why they have rebelled against the social system into which they were born and how they must go about changing that system, the new generation will prove invincible. May the Socialist Party help the youth to seize the unique opportunity which is theirs—the greatest task in the history of humanity, the establishment of world socialism.

The Socialist Party strives in collaboration with the world working and toiling masses to abolish classes and build the World Socialism. The Socialist Party works towards the complete victory of the social revolution of the working class and the introduction of the cooperative commonwealth in its entirety. It believes that advances in human society so far in the economy, science, technology and standards of civil life have already created the material conditions necessary to set up a free society without classes, exploitation and oppression, i.e. a world socialist community and that the working class on taking political power must introduce this and establish a political structure based on people's direct and permanent participation in political power. Exercise of power at various levels, from the local up to the national level, has to be carried out by people's own councils, acting as both legislative and executive. All political and administrative organs and posts in the country are to be elective and revocable whenever the majority of the electors so decide.

Human equality is a central concept in socialism and a basic principle of the free socialist society that must be founded with the abolition of the class, exploitative and discriminatory system of capitalism. Socialist equality is a concept much wider than mere equality before the law. Socialist equality is the real equality of all people in economic, social and political domains. Equality not only in political rights but also in the enjoyment of material resources and the products of humanity's collective effort; equality in social status and economic relations; equality not only before the law but in the relations of people with each other. Socialist equality, which is at the same time the necessary condition for the development of people's different abilities and talents and for society's material and intellectual vitality, can only be realised by ending the division of people into classes. Class society by definition cannot be an equal and free society. Our struggle for equality and elimination of discrimination in the existing capitalist societies is an integral part of our wider and basic struggle to advance the social revolution and set up an equal and free socialist society.

As long as capital dominates human society, as long as people have to sell their labour-power to the owners of means of production and work for capital in order to make a living, and as long as the system of wage-labour and the buying and selling of human labour-power survives, no labour law, no matter how many clauses it contains in favour of workers, will be a truly free labour law — a workers' labour law. The workers' true labour law is the abolition of the wages system and the creation of a society where all contribute, voluntarily and according to their abilities, to the production of necessities of life and the welfare of all, and share in the products of this collective effort according to their needs.

The Socialist Party calls on the working class and all those who share the party's aims and objectives to join it.

A Better World

 

We are living in a rotten society hurling humanity backwards. The world is a shambles, a wrecked and tortured planet with its economy shattered and without the possibility of healthy reconstruction on any basis short of socialist revolution. Capitalism is at a loss to reconstruct the world, it cannot achieve the most simple reorganisation of production and distribution. Starvation; poverty in the midst of plenty; uprooting of millions of people; growing totalitarianism; diplomatic hypocrisy; destruction of and failure to use productive facilities; preparations for new war; imperialist expansion and exploitation; jockeying for division of the spoils of war – this catalogue of the aspects of capitalist society can be continued indefinitely. Society is sick. Capitalist society is over-ripe for a socialist revolution which has not yet succeeded. That is the setting for our time. It is not pretty. It gives no occasion for optimism. Pessimism is to philosophy.

Lamentation fill the air. Increasingly large numbers abandon the idea of social action for the myth of individual salvation rather than change society.  Some turn to outright mysticism.  Suffering, we are told by them, is the inevitable and unavoidable lot of humanity. Socialists do not in any way minimize the seriousness of the present situation, we categorically and contemptuously reject all such tendencies of catastrophism.  We believe that the basic problem of our time resides in society. We believe that humanity can develop a healthy society of plenty and peace.

 

As socialists we continue to affirm the possibility and necessity for men to work together to build a new and decent society, and that means primarily the class which has most to gain from and can alone construct socialism: the working class. Is it merely wishful thinking that allows us to persist in our belief? Is it merely because we want it so? One of the reasons why we believe in the continued validity and relevance of the socialist principles is the fact that we desire it, the fact that it alone can solve the problems of our day. History is not some automatic process in which men and women are merely puppets; history is the activity of people functioning within the limits of their situation. And today that situation cries for a socialist solution. No realistic desirable alternative exists except a thorough socialist reconstruction. And that is the program to which the working class, for all its present confusion and political immaturity, will have to turn if it is not to sink completely into a new era of barbarism.

The most elementary needs and demands of the people are unrealisable under capitalism.

· Do you want economic plenty, the utilization of the means of production for peaceful needs? Then you must have socialism.

· Do you want the perpetuation and flowering of the democratic rights which the workers have won through years of struggle? Then you must have socialism.
 

· Do you want a future without nuclear missiles, without chemical weapons, without terror bombing? Then you must have socialism.

There is no other choice. Either chaos and destruction – or socialist reconstruction. The socialist perspective is more valid, more essential than ever because it alone meets the problems of our times; it alone proposes an answer that is achievable which brings comprehensive solutions to all of our social problems, as well as expresses the greatest ideals of which humanity is capable.

This future depends upon the people who believe in it and seek it. What we do will help determine the future. We unfurl again the red banner of socialist revolution; we stand with arms interlocked with our comrades throughout the world; we march towards world socialism.

Getting on under Capitalism (cartoon)

 

Our Aim is Socialism

 

What is socialism? According to Marx and Engels, socialism means a society of associated producers that is characterised by collective ownership of the means of production, and the planning of production to satisfy needs (production of use-values and not commodities). It means a class-free society without a state, without, that is, special organs or apparatuses for administrative, managerial or joint decision-making purposes that are divorced from the decision-making of citizens and community. Such a society can exist only if it is managed by the working people themselves and only if it takes its destiny into their own hands, freed from the tyranny of the “laws of the market”. Socialism must NOT be based upon a one-party state or a single “ central command economy apparatus.  Socialism is necessary because private property and the market economy, the quest for private wealth and, above all, commercial competition are feeding makeand leading us to disaster.

The Socialist Party remains convinced that existing resources makes no reason to suppose that poverty is inevitable or that there are not sufficient goods and services to cover basic needs in terms of food, health, reasonably comfortable housing, culture, leisure, and public transport. It is not utopian to speak of the abolition of commodity production. lt is certainly possible to feed all the men and women who live on our planet without destroying the ecological balance, provided that population growth is controlled on a worldwide basis, and the indications are that it is starting to be controlled. The currently available scientific data show no ground for fears that energy or mineral resources will inevitably be exhausted. Global redistribution of the resources required to eliminate famine and poverty does not necessarily imply a fall in the standard of living enjoyed by the average person in the developed world.  Redistribution could to a large extent be achieved using resources which are now wasted or make no contribution to living standards, such as armament manufacture.

Socialism means cooperation and solidarity between producer-consumer to replace the selfish urge to acquire private wealth. Cooperation and solidarity were the prevailing features in primitive society and must again eventually become universal traits of humanity. It is not utopian to speak of altruism replacing selfishness.

Socialism is based upon a class-free society and it will result from education and “rationalist” propaganda, “science,” and a “desire for emancipation”  No socialist society can emerge without socialist theory or without a deep desire for emancipation.

Whoever travels around the countries of the world must be struck by its beauty. But, in addition to great natural beauty — our planet is rich in natural resources, the matchless skill of its people and in its potential to produce everything necessary for a good life for all. The world’s greatest single asset is the ingenuity of its diverse peoples. Our planet could be a paradise for people. But the world is not a paradise for the people. On the contrary.

What is wrong with the world is the way society is organised, the “system of society” which prevails. Some of the main features of this society are:

1.  It is divided into rich and poor

2.  Wars — involving incalculable suffering to the people — are a regular occurrence.

3. It is a system of exploitation. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing the wealth (the land, the mines, factories, the machines etc.) are in private hands. 

By exploitation, we mean living off the labour of other people. There have been previous forms of exploitation. In slave society, the slave-owners lived off the labour of the slaves who were their property. In feudal society, the feudal lords lived off the forced labour of the serfs. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor yet a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs.

The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists in this — that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in value than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages, for raw materials etc. In short, they produce a surplus which belongs to the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages.

It is a system of booms and slumps. From the earliest days, capitalism has been marked by periodic slumps, or “economic crises” or recession as they are called, which cause mass unemployment and untold misery for the working people. Capitalism is a system based on competition. There are many capitalists each producing the same kind of commodity. Each hopes to sell all that he has produced and thereby realise a profit. He has to compete with his rivals in an attempt to sell his goods. The number of goods produced therefore bears no relation to the real demand. Capitalism is thus by its nature an unplanned, anarchic system. Each capitalist tries to produce as much and as cheaply as possible in order to grab as much of the market — and as much profit — as possible. To do so more effectively, to defeat their rivals, the capitalists constantly seek to cheapen production by introducing new machinery, speeding up the workers etc. Thus more and more goods are being produced. At the same time, they seek to drive down the wages of the workers in order to increase their share of the wealth produced.

So long as capitalism continues to exist crises are inevitable.