Arise Ye Workers From Your Slumber

 We wage slaves are still bent double bearing our weighty burden, and it is becoming increasingly plain that our exploiters have no intention of lightening the load we are called upon to carry. We make our stand for socialism. Our cause is the cause of all those who live by selling their labour power, and no matter how chaotic the conditions or how eloquent the appeal of those who would divert us from our goal, we call upon the working class to make the means of life common property and establish a system of production solely for use. We are wholeheartedly in the fight for freedom—freedom from capitalist bondage. This is the only way in which a world worth living in can be brought into being: Socialism and socialism alone guarantee permanent peace. Socialism gives economic security and prosperity to all; Capitalism offers poverty, insecurity and war.

We are opposed to dictatorship in any form, but the enemy of the labouring class is the capitalists, and we should be unfaithful to our class and our class interests if we have cause to forget this historic fact.

When capitalism's economy is booming then some sections of the working class can make considerable gains. This, reformists assure us, is proof that their strategy of “getting something now” is more rewarding than our insistence on the need for socialism. But what happens when the economic climate changes? Then many of the gains inevitably come under attack and will be completely lost. “Getting something now" is difficult enough in capitalism but hanging on to it is the really tricky bit.

The productive resources of the world have long since reached the point which would allow mankind to go over, in a very short time, to free distribution of the things needed to life and to enjoy life. The technical problem of producing enough wealth for all to enjoy has been solved long ago. However, there could be temporary problems in supplying certain things — but at least, if there are to be problems, this is what they should be. How to provide more and not how to cut down consumption as is the case today. The Socialist Party is suggesting a world community where wealth is produced by voluntary labour and is available to all free of charge. 

What we mean by free access is that no section of society will monopolise access to the means for producing wealth. These will belong to no-one and so will be the property of the whole of mankind to use as they think fit.Mankind will control the use of the means of production through democratic institutions. The capitalist system may have nominally democratic institutions, but it relies upon working class compliance, passivity and lack of involvement in the process to carry out its worst and most illiberal functioning. Real democracy can only be achieved on the basis of the common ownership of society’s means of living. Nationalism allows the politicians to limit democratic choice on the grounds that there is only one national interest and therefore only one general programme, one set of policies to be followed. However, one of the basic points about liberal democracy is that, as we put it in our declaration of principles, “all parties are but the expression of class interests”. This has long been a guiding principle in British politics, with the different interests of different sections of the ruling class being represented by the different parties. 

To remove poverty the workers must by class conscious activity take from the master class their means of life. They must commonly own these means which to-day are the private property of the capitalist few. To enjoy the leisurely life, the modern powers of wealth-production make possible, social revolution is necessary. In order to change the basis of society from a production for profit to a production for use one, the workers themselves must first have the revolutionary outlook. No amount of capitalist evolution can bring the change to socialism that is necessary to free the workers. Capitalism has the seeds of its own destruction, but the workers must be the seeds.

Democracy is not a set of rules or a parliament; it is a process, a process that must be fought for. The struggle for democracy is the struggle for socialism. It is not a struggle for reforms, for this or that political system, for this or that leader, for some rule change or other—it is the struggle for an idea, for a belief, a belief that we can run our own lives, that we have a right to a say in how society is run, for a belief that the responsibility for democracy lies not upon the politicians or their bureaucrats, but upon ourselves.

 

The workers being content with the scraps and the offal, the gloomy hovels, and excluded from life’s real pleasures, have allowed their masters to take full advantage of their contentment. Blame or sympathy in either case is waste of time: nothing but the recognition that the removal of all social evils is their mission, and theirs alone, can rid society of such glaring contrasts in wealth and squalor. Experience is a hard and often a slow teacher, but there are signs that it has slowly but surely been doing its work.

Awaken, workers, to the possibilities of socialism, so that you may join with us for the social revolution.

What we say to IndyRef2

 

The SNP is promising a referendum in 2023. What an irrelevant waste of time and energy that would be, but it’s their alibi. As the regional government of Scotland their excuse for not delivering (as capitalism won’t let them) has been that their hands are tied and that their promises can only be able to be honoured after separation. Basically, the SNP is just another reformist party angling for support on a programme of reforms and even styles itself on the Scandinavian social democrats. Should Scottish sovereignty eventually be established the nationalists will discover that they cannot legislate away the problems of capitalism. No country in the world, no matter how independent or rich in resources, has yet succeeded in eliminating poverty, unemployment, insecurity, etc. Separatists and unionists share the complete acceptance of capitalism and hold a blind belief, despite all the evidence, in their ability to tame it. Capitalism's problems are the result of non-social ownership of the means of life in the field of social production: more diversity of government or of ownership cannot alter this fact. Nor can the national identity or location of the legislature have much effect on our standard of living.

Scotland, whether independent or united with England, is divided into classes, as is society elsewhere. It is this division which accounts for the existence of the evils from which the Scottish workers suffer. English rule did not account for the fact that the depopulation of the Scottish Highlands led to the congestion in its industrial slums. The Scottish chieftains themselves turned out their own clansmen in order to make way, first for sheep and later for deer, in order to fill their own pockets. The notorious Duchess of Sutherland, for example, had 15,000 people hunted out in the six years 1814-20, and called in British soldiers to enforce the eviction. The political union merely facilitated the development of capitalist robbery with violence.

Thus the history of Scotland, while differing in detail from that of England, followed the same general course. By their divorce from the soil, a nation of peasant cultivators were converted into wage-slaves, exploited by a class ready to convert the world into one gigantic market. The forces of competition thus let loose may be held in check to some degree by national legislatures, but no final solution for the havoc they create can be found along such lines. The problem is essentially an international one, and must be internationally solved. That, however, calls not for nationalist parties, but for parties in all countries which clearly recognise the common interest of the workers of the world, namely, to achieve their emancipation as a class.

What it all boils down to, is that the SNP just don’t understand the world around them. It is time to reject the notion that there are "Scottish problems” which apply exclusively to Scottish workers and which can be solved by an independent parliament of their own. The Socialist Party echo Robert Burns desire for the day 'That man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a' that”. This will be a fact when the world's wealth, owned in common, can be utilised for the satisfaction of all mankind. 

The Socialist Party does not want nor care about Scottish independence (any more than we care or support a “United Kingdom” or an “independent Britain” during Brexit) so it’s not our business to advise those who really want this how to best go about getting it. But we do want world socialism and do know that the way to further this cause is to advocate it and it alone and not seek support on any ‘minimum’ programme of reforms. That way, support for a socialist political party will be support for socialism and not for something less. When a majority for this has evolved, socialists would have no fear of a referendum on the single question of “Capitalism or Socialism?”  

The Socialist Party’s aim is to abolish masters of every nationality and to organise the production of wealth for their common good.

An appeal to fellow workers

 

We address you not as citizens of one country to citizens of another but as world socialists to fellow members of the world working class.

The basis of present-day society is the class monopoly of the means of living, that is, the land, factories, railways and so on. Accumulated wealth is monopolised by a privileged minority. The rest, separated from the means and instruments of labour, are forced to work for those who own them. This inequality, poverty and slavery are capitalism.

We reject frontiers as artificial barriers put up by governments. All men and women are brothers and sisters and the world should be theirs. All people should be social equals with free access to the plenty that could be if only the means of living belonged to a socialist world community. We oppose governments everywhere, all nationalism, racism and religion, all censorship, all wars and preparations for war.

We support all class struggles for better wages and conditions against the employers and governments. Do not be misled by those who say that universal suffrage is a fraud. Learn from your masters. You too must organise to win political power if you want a new society. Do not let cunning politicians retain power on your backs. Ignore those who would be your leaders. Rely on your own understanding and organisation. Turn universal suffrage into an instrument of emancipation.

We share your wish for a new society with no exploitation of man by man. But do not underestimate what a task it will be to change society. It will be a hundred times more difficult than changing the government. A democratic world community, based on common ownership with production for use not profit, can only be set up when people want it and are ready to take the steps needed to get it up and keep it going. Democratic political action is the only way to socialism. There are no short cuts. We must have a majority actively on our side. Do not be misled by left-wing demagogues, those who praise Trotsky, Mao or Che Guevara, who would use you for their own mistaken ends. They think that an elite should use unrest to gain power and then set up a class-free society. What dangerous nonsense! Look at the former state capitalist Soviet Union where a new privileged class ruled, with police intimidation and censorship, over an increasingly restless population. Look at state capitalist China where power-hungry bureaucrats cynically manipulate the people in their own sordid squabbles. Learn the lessons of history: elite action leads to elite rule. No socialism unless by democratic political action, based on socialist understanding.

What, then, do socialists suggest? In the past, we were accused of wanting equal sharing and dividing up amongst the poor the wealth of the rich. This, of course, was a lie. What we do advocate is the social ownership and democratic control of the already socially-operated means of living.

The task we all share is the same that we face in Britain and our comrades in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas and all other countries: to build up a strong world-wide movement for socialism. What is needed more than anything else in this period of social unrest is a clear, uncompromising statement of the case for a socialist world community.

Made in North Edinburgh: Bringing a festival back to life (VIDEO)

 

Class Power

 

“Take care of the principles and the details will take care of themselves.” - Joseph Dietzgen

We stand for socialism: a new system in which the people own and control the  economy, through social institutions of the widest democracy. We stand for a socialist principles which are completely  opposed to the reactionary systems of exploitation of man by man which now divide the world. Capitalism is an outlived system whose lifeblood is private profit and oppression, whether or not represented as the “welfare state” and whether or not its government is administered by liberals or self-styled “socialists.” Our view of socialism is both democratic and revolutionary and it is the only movement for a new world of freedom, peace and security. We stand for socialism, the abolition of capitalism by the workers.  We believe that society has reached a stage where it is possible so to organise production to end poverty, unemployment, inequality and war.

Capitalism organises and exploits workers collectively. Our work is organised on the basis of social co-operation and the division of labour. Capitalism has, in fact, given workers tremendous collective power, power which runs factories, hospitals, schools, transport systems. This power creates all the things that we need as human beings – and often things which we do not need, such as weapons of mass destruction, for the capitalist class controls and uses this power for its own ends and its own profit.

But the collective power could be used to run society in the interests of the workers themselves.

 

Capital is wealth used for the purpose of obtaining a profit. The owner of this wealth —the capitalist—purchases buildings, plant, machinery, raw materials, etc. Then he purchases labour-power to use the plant and machinery on the raw materials for the purpose of producing commodities, or articles for sale. The value of the raw materials and of the portion of the plant and machinery, used up in a given time, form part of the value of the commodities, and pass over unchanged into the latter value.

The value of the labour-power can be represented at any given period by a particular number of hours’ work. If the labourer only worked this particular number of hours each day there would be no surplus produced as the value of the commodities would be equal to the sum of the values of (1) the raw materials used; (2) the portion of plant and machinery worn out; and (3) the labour-power expended.

But, by using the whip of hunger, the Capitalist compels the labourer to work for a longer number of hours than is necessary to replace the value of his labour-power. In these extra hours of work is produced the surplus-value which is afterwards split up into various parts. One part may be used to extend the business. Another part may be absorbed in advertising the goods for sale. Still another part may go to pay rates and taxes. The part remaining to the Capitalist after these distributions form his profit. Surplus-value is thus seen to consist of the products taken by the capitalist that the labourer has produced in the time during which he works, but for which he has not been paid. In other words, surplus value is based upon the robbery of the worker. Profit is a part of the results of this robbery.

This explanation makes it quite clear that an individual only obtains profit when he robs some worker, or workers. Whatever tools or plant a man employs in working for himself obviously cannot be capital, as he does not obtain a profit because he does not rob anyone. Only when he uses these tools and plant to rob some worker or workers of the values they have produced, do they become capital and he a capitalist. The fact that the appliances may be out of date or unscientific, does not prevent them from becoming capital in the above circumstances —though it certainly places the capitalist using them at a disadvantage in competition with other capitalists who are better equipped.

In the single tax theory the economic rent would go into the government coffers instead of into those of private or group Capitalists. This would leave the workers just as they are to-day, slaves to the master class, and robbed of the larger portion of the wealth they produce. Only socialism can end this slavery.

Nationalisation is merely the strengthening and concentration of capitalism. The interests of all workers, government employees or not, will be served by unqualified opposition to nationalisation as to other forms of capitalism. Socialism alone is the remedy for our class.

The Second Referendum

 

19^th October 2023 is the target date for the second independence referendum.

We believe that to hold out hopes of amelioration of the condition of the workers through nationalism and independence is delusional and nonsensical. The Socialist Party has never been in the business to win popularity contests and jump on any old band-wagon such as Scottish sovereignty for the sake of recruitment. We are internationalists, opposing the idea that the rulers and ruled within a nation have any interests in common. We are against the divisions and false choices set up by nationalism.

The illusion of nationality is yet another tool of the ruling class, intended to trick workers into thinking that this really is some kind of collective society, and to misplace their passions that could otherwise be directed into the class struggle. Nationalism is the ideology which seeks to justify the capitalist division of the world into separate “nation-states”.We utterly reject this view of the way humanity should organise itself. We condemn nationalist ideas. When countries achieved independence little changed except the personnel of the state machinery.

It is of no concern to workers in Scotland whether they are governed from London or by a separate government in Edinburgh. This is because the cause of the problems they face is the capitalist economic system of production for profit, not the form of government. And the capitalist economic system would continue to exist in a politically independent Scotland. In the end, the point at issue - independence which leaves profit-making, exploitation and all the other social problems untouched - is so irrelevant that it is not worth taking sides. We don’t see any point in diverting our energies to changing the constitution but we certainly want things to change. We want people to change the economic and social basis of society and establish socialism in place of capitalism. We don’t want or care about Scottish separatism (any more than we care or support a “United Kingdom” or the ”European Union”.)

But we do want world socialism and do know that the way to further this cause is to advocate that and that alone. So-called self-determination encourages workers to waste their efforts in chasing something which cannot be achieved. Not simply because the native capitalist class preserves their power but any newly independent nation-state immediately find itself having to come to terms with a worldwide economic system dominated by powerful blocs and integrated on a global scale. The room for manoeuvre within this framework is extremely limited. Either the dominant power relinquished direct political control but continues to exert its domination at an economic level. Or the client state frees itself entirely from the domination of one imperialist bloc only by switching to the all-embracing hold of a rival bloc. Competition between nation-states puts pressure on each state to maximise its power to avoid subordination to others. States that have little power are under pressure to ally themselves with stronger states that have major economic forces at their disposal. In neither scenario is the result any real independence for the local capitalists or any weakening of imperialism as a whole. The formation of new nation-states can no more put an end to imperialism than the formation of new businesses can put an end to capitalism.

The interest of the working class in all countries is to reject all nationalism and to recognise that they have a common interest with people in other countries in the same economic situation of being obliged to sell their mental and physical energies in order to get a living.

Will “independence” make the Scottish workers better off and happier? Is it “London rule” that is responsible for the problems faced by workers in Scotland, or is it capitalism?

It can be seen in retrospect that independence for the vast majority of the people has simply meant the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. The realisation of "political independence" by a country leaves the workers' conditions untouched (or actually worsens them in some cases). As socialists, we don't take sides in this inter-capitalist argument. We don't support one section of the capitalist class or the other, and we don't have any illusions about the "sovereign power" of Parliaments to pass reformist legislation that can make capitalism work in the interest of the exploited class of wage and salary earners. Capitalism just cannot be reformed to work in this way; so transferring the powers of the House of Commons to a Scottish Parliament sitting in Edinburgh makes little difference.

Supporters of Scottish independence who talk about “democracy” always mean only political democracy since economic democracy - where people would democratically run the places where they work is out of the question under capitalism, because these workplaces are owned and controlled by and for the benefit of a privileged minority. You can have the most democratic constitution imaginable but this won’t make any difference to the fact that profits have to come before meeting needs under capitalism. The people’s will to have their needs met properly is frustrated all the time by the operation of the economic laws of the capitalist system which no political structure, no matter how democratic, can control.

The Socialist Party opposes both the separatist Scottish nationalism and the unionism of British nationalism. We support only working-class unity to establish a socialist society. Self-determination for "nations" just equates with self-determination for a ruling class. It must be opposed in favour of self-determination for people, their self-emancipation. It must be opposed with socialism.