Socialism -The Hope of Humanity

 We are constantly told that socialism will never work. They tell us that, human nature being what it is. the idea of producing what is needed and taking from the common stock of what is produced, without buying and selling anything, is pie-in-the-sky. Yet even today, with the profit system making us wary of giving anything away or having it stolen from us, people are willing to help others at some cost to themselves if they see there is genuine need. To imagine what life will be like in a socialist world we have to subtract all the institutions and the behaviour and ideas that go to maintain the profit system. Then we have to imagine the huge expansion of goodwill towards others, willingness to help and be helped, opportunities to be creative and not destructive, that a world of common property, democratic control, production solely to meet needs, and free access will offer.

There are sufficient resources in the world to provide adequately for every human being on earth. Why then do millions die annually of hunger and hunger-related illnesses? Why then is there poverty in every country throughout the world? Why then are people homeless and millions living in slums? Why then are there wars over markets, trade routes and places of strategic interest? Why is there competition, alienation, crime and the civil conflicts which, however disguised as a political or religious war is, when stripped of its rhetoric, a profane struggle over access to jobs, homes, status and profits? Why, when there is potential abundance for all to the goods and services that are needed by the whole human family do we live in a state of economic anarchy and political barbarism?

The answer, quite simply and beyond dispute, is that the resources of the planet are the property of a small minority class of capitalists. The working class is denied access to the land, factories, mills, mines, warehouses, stores and other resources of society except when they are permitted to work in the production of wealth. It is the working class that applies its skills and energies to the resources of nature and produces all wealth. But workers are only permitted to work in such circumstances as hold out the promise of profit for their masters. Production is not undertaken simply to satisfy real or imagined need. The primary purpose of production is profit and if there is not the prospect of profit for the capitalist class then, however essential the needs of the working class are, if there is no profit there is no production. That is why people who can not pay for food die of hunger and that is why we say that it is absurd to say that our society is civilised.

The destinies of men and women are bound up together, and the emancipation of women can only come with the emancipation of men. Socialism is the only hope of the whole working-class irrespective of sex, and The Socialist Party is the only party that stands for undiluted socialism. So long as the system of capitalist production endures, so long must toil and trouble increase for the workers, both men and women. The only hope for both is in socialism, for then only will wealth producers benefit by a plethora of wealth, and labour-saving devices mean a lightening of toil. If the increase of willing workers and labour-saving machinery serves only to make heavier the burden on the worker, we have to ask for an explanation. 

Mighty modern technology is a social instrument, ownership of which imparts almost absolute power. Too huge to be owned individually by the worker, the machine must be owned socially, and the workers can only throw off the yoke of wage-slavery and become their own masters by collectively assuming control of the machinery of industry and using it in the interests of the wealth producers.When the producers own the means of production and raw material they will reap the benefit of every improvement: but if the means of producing wealth are the property of a handful of individuals who use them as a means of profit only, then the greater the skill and number of propertyless workers, the fiercer will competition be between them, and the greater the portion of their produce they will tacitly be compelled to bid to the owners of the machinery of production in return for permission to earn a living.The decrease in the well-being of the worker is due to the divorce of the producers from the means of production and the ownership of the latter by a parasitic class: the remedy is the ownership of the productive and distributive machinery by the producers of wealth, and an end of class parasitism. In short, the disease is inherent in capitalism and can be cured only by socialism. Quack “remedies” that touch symptoms only are useless, the root cause must be abolished or the disease will grow worse. 

The Crumbling Scottish NHS

Unison's Janet Stewart said: "Staff are leaving, the turnover of staff higher than ever, we have waiting lists higher than ever, and the NHS is facing real challenges to recruit." 

Data published by the Royal College for Nursing (RCN) showed 45 per cent of respondents in Scotland said necessary care had been left undone due to a lack of time.

Almost a third of patients are still waiting too long to be seen at A&E departments. More than a quarter of nursing staff in hospitals across Scotland have reported patients being treated in ‘inappropriate’ settings such as hospital corridors. That number soared to 63 per cent for nursing staff working in emergency care.

Patients slept on recliner chairs for up to three days increasing the risk of pressure sores before being admitted at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, a report has found. Others lay on trolleys in corridors for up to 28 hours waiting for treatment. Those patients being cared for in corridors for lengthy periods of time and requirements such as washing, showering and toileting "could not be met".

Inspectors felt NHS Ayrshire and Arran were unable to show they could manage these patients safely. It also highlighted concerns over mixed-sex bays, overcrowding and staff shortages. Additional beds were found in some six-bay wards that did not have oxygen facilities or power outlets for monitoring equipment as part of the hospital's full capacity plan.

They also concluded managers did not have sufficient oversight of care provided in both accident and emergency and combined assessment unit (CAU) areas of the hospital.

At the time of the inspection, the fire alarm sounded, but staff were not able to move patients because they did not know how.

NHS Lanarkshire has warned its three hospitals are operating "beyond critical occupancy levels" due to staff and bed shortages. Patients have been asked not to attend accident and emergency unless their condition is life-threatening.

The health board confirmed University hospitals Hairmyres, Monklands and Wishaw are all at maximum capacity. It means a return to the "highest risk level".

Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland interim director, said: “It’s scandalous that nursing staff have to treat patients in the corridors, waiting rooms and even in the back of ambulances outside of hospital entrances.

"This must not become a ‘new normal’ – it is putting patients at risk. Today’s emergency department statistics show that severe staffing shortages continue to have a serious impact on patient care.

“We’re in the situation largely because of the failure of Scottish Government to address the nursing workforce crisis, which has seen registered nurse vacancies reach a record high. Urgent action is needed to protect patient safety, address staff shortages and demonstrate that the nursing workforce is valued as a safety critical profession.”

Save Humanity, Save he Earth

 

All the major political parties applaud the Welfare State. The truth about it all was that the so-called “Welfare State” arose not through the goodwill of any political party but because of the need to adapt the social services to the changing conditions of capitalism. The need to allay any possible working class discontent after the war. Of course, it was a benefit to the health of the working class. The socialist view is that the Welfare State won’t abolish the poverty problem which confronts the working class but is just the best method the capitalist class have devised to re-distribute poverty from the point of view of efficiency. Today is quickly being exposed by the widespread appeals of charities and food banks for help reveals its weaknesses.

Capital is money invested with a view to obtaining a profit by the employment of wage-earners. “Capital” cannot, therefore, be “communally” owned. Socialism or communal ownership involves the abolition of the wages system, the abolition of a propertied class and a wage-earning class, and the abolition of capital. The means of production, land, factories, railways, etc., will be owned by the community, and it will no longer be possible for a propertied class to live by owning property: the means of production will not then be “capital.”

As we have many times demonstrated, nationalisation, or state capitalism, is not beneficial but directly harmful to the working class, even considered as an immediate policy. Further, it is not a step towards socialism.

The  Socialist Party continually warn the wage-slave that when he fights he is not fighting for the benefit of himself, but of his master.

 

Socialism is the question of humanity. Its goal is the welfare of all the people. The capitalist system has divided society into two classes — capitalists and workers — and these classes are pitted against each other in a worldwide struggle. The capitalist class is unnecessary to society. Politicians employed by capitalists endeavour to keep the working people divided on alleged issues in which the toiling classes have no interest whatsoever. As long as they succeed in doing this the capitalists will hold the reins of power.We propose the abolition of the system that produces the conditions under which one person is gorged and another endures deprivation.This is a conflict between socialism and capitalism, a contest for the common ownership of the world for the benefit of mankind. The domination of one class over another degrades humanity. Socialism, which will abolish all class differences restores humanity.

The Socialist Party condemns the whole class system to extinction. Socialism alone gives true meaning to the whole idea of human justice. Every human being has a right to full and unfettered development. And  the community itself must have the right of ownership over all the means of production. To change the world and to create a better one has always been the aspiration of the Socialist Party. Its hope is that tomorrow's world can be free of today's inequalities, hardships and deprivations. Its belief is that people can, individually and collectively, influence the shape of the world to come. However, the Socialist Party is not a group of utopian reformers nor heroic saviours of humanity. Socialist society is not a fantastic design or recipe conceived by well-intentioned know-it-alls. Socialism is a social movement arising from within modern capitalist society itself, a movement that reflects the vision, ideals and protest of a vast section of this same society. - the working class.

The capitalist system is behind all the ills that burden humanity today. Poverty, privation, discrimination, inequality, sexism, political repression, ignorance, racism, bigotry, unemployment, environmental destruction, homelessness, insecurity, superstition, corruption and crime are all inevitable products of this system. Many of these have all existed before capitalism but  have found a new meaning in this society, corresponding to the needs of capitalism of today drawing their rationale from the requirement of the capitalists  that rule the world today. The economic laws that govern the capitalist system relentlessly resists people's effort to eradicate and overcome these ills. 

The capitalist system’s primacy of profit exposes working people to mortal danger and irreparable damage. Capitalism is based on exploitation. The essence of capitalism and the basis of exploitation in this system is the fact that on the one hand, labour power is a commodity, and, on the other hand, the means of production are the private property of the capitalist class. The surplus value extracted from the exploitation of the working class is divided among the various sections of the capitalist class. Profit, interest and rent are the major forms in which the different capitals share the spoils of workers’ sweat.  The market mechanism and also through state fiscal and monetary policies, the competition between  each capitalist branch, unit and enterprise determines the share. This surplus pays the whole cost of the capitalists’ taxes to the state machine and administration so by its work, the working class pays the cost of the ruling class.

The motivating aim of economic activity is not the satisfaction of people's needs, but profitability and accumulation of capital. The socialist revolution is the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and their conversion into common ownership of the whole society, an end to the class division of society and to the wage-labour system. Thus, the market, exchange economy of commodities, and money disappear. Production for profit is replaced by production to meet people's needs and to bring about greater prosperity for all.

 Work, which in capitalist society for the overwhelming majority is an involuntary, mechanical and strenuous activity to earn a living, gives way to voluntary, creative and conscious activity to enrich human life. Everyone, by virtue of being a human being and being born into human society will be equally entitled to all of life's resources and the products of collective effort. From everyone according to their ability, to everyone according to their need — this is a basic principle of socialist society.  Socialism is a global society. National boundaries and divisions will disappear and give way to a universal human identity. Socialist society is a society without a state. The administrative affairs of the society will be managed by the cooperation, consensus and collective decision-making of all of its members.

Socialism is not a dream or utopia. All the conditions for the creation of such a society already exist within the capitalist world itself. The scientific, technological and productive powers of humanity have already grown so enormously that abundance and a society committed to the well-being of all are perfectly feasible.  The organisation of a world community with collective participation in the design, planning and execution of society's diverse functions is possible more than ever before.

A large part of our planet’s resources is now either wasted or deliberately not used to improve society and satisfy human needs. But socialism will apply all the creative and living power of billions of men and women to free them all from class bondage, wage-slavery and alienation.

NATIONALISM—AN ENEMY OF THE WORKERS

 

Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win . . . At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests and seriously believe—at any rate for short periods—that running, jumping and kicking a bill are tests of national virtue. George Orwell

Around the world, nationalism is on the march and the battle cry is “Independence.” What many people forget is that newly won sovereignty will be the freedom to administer capitalism. The joys of becoming an independent country are, by and large, illusory for the mass of the peoples of the “liberated” countries and not worth the effort and sacrifice so often involved in achieving it. This is what the Socialist Party has been saying throughout its history. Of course, this attitude brings us no popularity.

The workers to-day has nothing to fight for. The interests of the masters are not their interests. National prestige is not their prestige. What workers have to realise clearly is that the interests of their fellow workers in other lands are nearer to theirs than are those of the masters in their own country. The bonds which bind worker with worker, irrespective of nationality, are those of class solidarity. The truth is that the very essence of socialism is internationalism. 

When asked why we do not support struggles for Independence by fellow workers in other parts of the world, we point out that, at best, they will simply be exchanging one lot of masters for another. They may win or be allowed a little more freedom within the system but while it remains they must depend on the capitalists — state or private — for their subsistence. For workers, independence is merely a change of rulers. Nationalism is a ruse to lure workers into supporting the rights of the business class to make profits at their expense. Nevertheless, our rejection of nationalist delusions ought never to show insensitivity to the valid concerns of oppressed people. Moreover. it strengthens the appeal of socialism to show that in contrast to the imposed uniformity and centralisation of commodity production we aim for a way of life which, of its nature, fosters cultural freedom and diversity.

Most  people are more worried about the necessities of life: putting food on the table, a roof over their head, and other ultimately far more important considerations, than the name of the state they happen to live in. Different languages, skin tones, sexes, and customs pale next to the economic differences in a single country or ethnic grouping. The working class will never be served by nationalism or its bed-mate, racism. The only way out is to establish Socialism, which will organise the world so that everyone, whatever their sex or colour of skin, has free access to the world's wealth and stands equal to the rest of humanity. Independence solved none of the problems resulting from exploitation.  Independent governments are wedded to the same set of priorities and subject to the same constraints as any other capitalist government. Poverty in the midst of a potential for plenty remains a running sore, exploitation and massive disparities of wealth continue to exist, wars with neighbours claim the lives of those with no class interest in the outcome, environmental degradation continues virtually unabated. That is the lesson for workers to learn all over the world.

The Socialist Party calls for the end of exploitation and an end to the domination of the privileged few over the majority, not for its replacement by another, more local elite. We view our fellow-workers as the revolutionary force that could overthrow the tyranny of the capitalist system, freeing people and breaking their chains of wage-slavery, if only they can halt the virus of nationalism from spreading. Socialism needs to be placed at the heart of a new approach to living, locally, regionally, and globally. It is a unifying sharing principle that will encourage cooperation, which, unlike nationalism, brings people together and builds social harmony. Ours will be free unions of free people in free associations.  Democracy for socialists isn’t just the ballot, but the participatory democracy, revocable—delegated—social and economic democracy based on a world co-operative commonwealth. The message of socialism is world wide however. It reaches across the artificial national boundaries erected by politics. 

Our One Demand - Socialism

 

The Socialist Party in declining to put forward a programme of immediate demands does not take up the untenable position that the position of the workers under capitalism is such that they could not be worse off if they gave up the struggle to defend their wages and working conditions; nor do we maintain that reforms are valueless.

What we do maintain is that reform programmes inevitably attract reformists, and produce reformist organisations incapable of working for socialism; that only by working directly for socialism will it be achieved; that parties lacking solid socialist support and depending on reformists cannot achieve socialism even if they obtain control of the political machinery; that reforms cannot end the subject-position of the working class although they may be of small temporary or sectional benefit; that the small value of the reforms obtainable by reformist political action is In no way commensurate with the years of work and the volume of effort required to achieve them ; and that incidentally the capitalists will give concessions more readily in an endeavour to keep the workers away from a growing socialist movement than they will in response to the appeals of bodies based on programmes of reforms. We point out that experience has also shown the danger and uselessness of programmes of immediate demands.

 Experience has taught the lesson that programmes of immediate demands do not serve as a means of organising socialist parties. They serve as a sure means of destroying socialist unity, of thrusting the socialist objective into the background and of attracting into the organisation non-socialist elements which drag it into the mire of compromise and bargaining with capitalist parties. Every one of the capitalist countries provides its examples of parties whose original socialist aims have been subverted and their organisation corrupted in this way. 

The most tragic observation of all is not only that members of the working class should behave against one another in such a way, as resenting the skin colours of fellow members of their own exploited class while their common enemies, the exploiting capitalist class, live on their backs, but that the move away from segregation came from outside and not from within the states concerned. Unfortunately, the ignorance of the economic forces at work within capitalism, from which this conduct springs, cannot be banished merely by the Supreme Court making rulings although to whatever degree events turn against segregation it is a healthier sign than its unchallenged continuation.

It will finally only be when workers turn to socialism that they will cease to be a prey to nationalist or racial prejudice of one variety or another, because only then will they no longer see themselves as one with their respective national ruling class, but will see that their real oneness lies in union with the wage slaves all over the world, geography, sex and so-called race making no difference. We would conclude by saying that the “education” machine of capitalism whose function it is to turn out obedient, efficient wage slaves will never direct its efforts towards socialism, but the hard facts of life and the common problems which universally smite all workers will direct their interest our way.

The despairing and apathetic attitude of workers is part of the fruits of their having blindly voted for people who promise them things. All the  parties promise the same things and childishly blamed one another for past failures in bringing the same “houses for the homeless,” “food for the hungry,” “pensions galore” and “better roads,” etc., as have been promised for many elections past. One thing that should be obvious is that if any of them had ever redeemed their past promises there would be no need to keep coming back for re-election to do the same thing. This should clearly show to any thinking worker the utter  futility of voting for any of them unless you want more in the future of what you have had in the past and if you do, then one could hardly call that thinking. It is quite evident  that the whole approach of the Socialist Party is very different from and opposed to that of the parties of capitalism.

Meanwhile, the politicians will go on with their “better world” promises and we for our part will go on vigorously advocating the abolition of the nightmare, which these hirelings seek to preserve, and its replacement by socialism—the world of social equality of all men and women of the world, of one community of interest based on holding the means of living in common, and production entirely and literally for use.

The Fetish of the Flag

 

The whole world is in a crisis. Everywhere society is in chaos and ferment. Unemployment and hunger; recessions and war are shaking up the thinking of millions of  workers and impelling them on the road of struggle against the system which oppresses them and drives them toward catastrophe. Socialism is our only hope. Marxism is the science of human society which supplies the key to the development of social existence, past and present, and projects the direction in which it is moving – must move if it is to survive. It is the theory and practice of working class action, of social revolution.

In small communities the principle of all for each and each for all is not entirely lost. There was a time when the regions of  Britain were separate political entities. Even today the distinction between these districts are embodied in sport in which, Geordies, Scousers, Mancunians, Londoners and so on  respectively boast of their football, rugby or cricket virtues. The Socialist Party confidently hold that such trivial rivalries and differences will be reflected in the future when the dividing lines between existing nation-states in a world commonwealth disappear. The cause of the working class is lost if they allow itself to be caught  permanently in the snare of nationalism. The sentiment of “My country right or wrong” will be seen for the abomination that it is. If it is possible to love a city, a nation then surely our love can be spread wider to humanity itself. The perpetuation of hatred of foreigners based on distinction of nationality is  obviously  subservient the selfish interests of the profit-makers of those rival countries and by no means of the peoples. The Socialist Party embraces all humanity. Revolutionary socialists  will have neither to keep its ancient national identities nor to constitute new ones because by becoming free the whole world will be its home. We are convinced that separate countries have had their time.

Socialism groups people, poor against rich, working class against the capitalist class, without taking into account the differences of race and language, and especially the artificial frontiers created by accidents of history. The Socialist Party will not fight to defend existing countries nor to bring new ones into being but we will fight if we need to bring about socialism or to defend it as soon as we have succeeded in establishing it. The class war is the only war which brings some real hope to the exploited of all countries. The class-conscious proletariat, in its fight against the employer class, still more the Socialist Party cannot consistently hold an attitude of loyalty to  ones own capitalist State to the detriment or disparagement of other peoples. If there is one doctrine fundamental to socialism it is that of the class struggle as supersedes the national struggle. We are patriots for mankind as a whole, but not for any particular section of mankind.

Patriotism consists in giving loyalty without considering right or wrong. “Love of country” becomes unquestioning obedience to the country’s government. Patriotism is particularly dangerous because it both isolates and confuses us. Patriots feel good about themselves. It fills something missing in their life. People have a need for community. The churches used to offer it. Sports stadiums have turned into cathedrals and music festivals have become a substitute to the religious jamboree. However, sectional devotion to a more or less mongrel population, even if they all speak varying dialects of the same language, is cant and humbug. The bulk of the population of Britain is as unknown to me as the population of Outer Mongolia.

Workers cannot espouse a narrow nationalist attitude. What happens to the workers in one country has its effect on workers elsewhere and is the concern of socialists everywhere.