A vote for the Socialist Party is a vote for yourself.

 

Don’t vote for your master

Today the worker creates everything, does everything, produces everything, and yet has nothing. Labour produces all wealth and to labour, it should belong. The resources of the earth and the machinery of production are held as the property of the capitalist class. Its ownership is determined and defended by the power of the state, i.e., the government. By virtue of its ownership of the means of production, the capitalist class stands the absolute owner of the working class. It is in a position to at all times command the services of the workers in the production of wealth and it is also the absolute owner of the wealth brought forth by their labour. Under such circumstances, the means of production become the title deeds to the human chattels who are forced to depend upon their labour for their sustenance.

The working class is the only wealth-producing factor in human society. It, therefore, becomes from a profit-making standpoint, the only property worth owning. It is the only sort of property that can produce a profit. The wealth and power of a ruling class can only come from the toil of the slaves that it possesses.

 The capitalist system is based upon private (or state) ownership of the means of wealth production, therefore all the products of labour belong to the capitalists. The capitalist is the master; the worker is a slave.

So long as the capitalists remain in possession of the reins of government all the powers of the state will be used to protect and defend their property rights in the means of wealth production and their control of the product of labour. The capitalist system gives to the capitalist ever-growing profits, and to the worker an ever-increasing misery and degradation.

The interests of the working-class lie in the direction of setting itself free from capitalist exploitation by the abolition of the wage system. To accomplish this necessitates the transformation of capitalist property in the means of wealth production into collective property. Therefore, we call upon all wage-earners to organise under the banner of the Socialist Party with the object of conquering political power.

The control of the resources of the earth and the instruments of labour must be stripped from the hands of the Capitalist Class and these means of production dedicated to the service of the whole people under the administration and control of those who, by doing the world’s work, make any sort of civilisation possible. You, workers of the world, constitute the only useful part of human society. You have long fed, clothed and sheltered your masters in comfort and luxury while eking out a narrow, mean and slavish existence yourselves. The time has now come to stand erect and throw off your shackles. You can resolve not to stay slaves any longer, but to struggle unceasingly against the employing class.

The owning class has always been the ruling class, and the dispossessed class has always been the slave class. The owning class is the master class now. Our class is the slave class now. Capitalism consists of the POWER to make and keep others in slavery. Slavery is the condition of being forced by any means, to work for others. The Socialist Party is the nucleus of the revolt of the slaves against capitalism. Its policy is to educate the slaves to an understanding of their position and organise them for concerted political action, to the end that they may wrest the powers of State from the hands of capital, and use them to strip the master class of its property rights in the means of production and to make these the collective property of the producers. Your only hope lies in revolution—the sweeping away of this rotten system of exploitation. Capitalism is a system of waste and inefficiency. The Socialist Party seeks to change the economic laws governing society and human relations, by bringing order and plan and rational planning into production and distribution.

To you workers, we appeal to join the party of your class, the Socialist Party and help to make it a real party of struggle — a real mass power.  A revolution is coming that will place the working women and men in full control over the planet’s vast resources, that will become a worldwide commonwealth.

What Socialism Can Bring

 

We know that the cause of the oppression of the working class and of all the atrocities of capitalism such as war is that the world has been enslaved by a few capitalists who own all the wealth of the earth as their private property. The capitalist ownership of the means of production – this is the reason which explains the barbarity of the present order of things. 

Some reformers propose depriving the rich of their possessions and justly and equally dividing it all among everybody, and then all will be well. They say everyone would be equal, and free from inequality, oppression and exploitation, thanks to this equal share-out and everybody will look after themselves and the domination over another will vanish.

But this is not the point of view of the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party considers that such equal sharing would lead to nothing good, and to no other result than a return to the old order. Firstly, there are quite a number of things which are impossible to divide. How, for instance, would you divide ta rail network?

But for argument’s sake let us imagine that miraculously a more or less equal division was attained of everything taken from the rich; even that would not lead to any desired result in the end. What is the meaning of a division? It means that instead of a few large owners there would spring up a large number of small ones. It means not the abolition of private ownership, but its dispersion over a larger area. In the place of large ownership, there would arise ownership on a small scale. But such a period we have already had in the past. We know very well that capitalism and large capitalists have developed out of the competition between one small owner and another. We would get the following result: part of them (and quite a considerable part) would, on the very next day, get rid of their share on some market or other, and their property would thus fall into the hands of wealthier owners; between the remaining ones a struggle would ensue for the buyers, and in this struggle, too, the wealthier ones would soon get the upper hand of the less well-to-do. The latter would soon be ruined and turn into wage-labourers, and their lucky rivals would amass fortunes, employing others to work for them, and thus be gradually transformed into capitalists. And so we should, in a very short time, return to the same order which we have just tried to dismantle and find ourselves once again before the old problem of capitalist exploitation.

In socialism, all the wealth belongs not to individuals or classes, but to society as a whole, which become it were, one great association; no one a master over another. Individuals in socialism do not benefit at one another’s expense. There are no rich here, no bosses and no top dogs; society is not divided into classes in which one rules over the other, no oppressor against the oppressed. There is no government to rule and there is no power of one over another. There is the administration of things only. Humanity is not divided up into hostile camps. The political barriers that divide nations are done away with. Separate fatherlands and rival motherlands are abolished. The whole of humanity, without distinction of nationality, is bound together in. all its parts and organised into one united whole. All peoples form one great world cooperative commonwealth.

The essential characteristics of socialism are:

1. Common ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth. The elimination of the right of individuals or groups to dispose of the means of life. That right belongs to society as a whole. Hence, no exploitation of one group by another.
 

2. Economic and social planning on a world scale: This is made possible by the abolition of competition between capitalists, the anarchy of production, wars and militarism.
 

3. Production for use, not for profit: Substitution of the good for the commodity.
 

4. The abolition of the state: with socialism the state is unnecessary. Government in the form of armies, police, prisons, and property laws gives way to a system of administration, allocation, management and supervision of industry and agriculture by all the people, such as is necessary to maintain the world economy in smooth running order.
 

5. Disappearance of artificial differences and barriers fostered by capitalism: Nationalism, race hatred, religious bigotry, and caste are destroyed by international production and cooperation.
 

6. A tremendous increase in the productive capabilities of the human race: Human energy now necessarily spent in the class struggle or destroyed by war, unemployment and unproductive pursuits such as competition, advertising, warfare etc., will be set free. Increased productivity means a shorter work day, security and increased leisure. Society can then take from the individual according to their abilities and give to them according to their needs. The higher form of human organisation that existed in primitive societies with low productivity now is recreated on the highest level of productivity. On this foundation culture – the arts and sciences – can rise to undreamed heights.
 

We go after the system!

 

Times are changing. Old political parties are transforming. Working people are looking beyond capitalism. Confronted with the catastrophic destruction of the environment by the logic of the profit motive, many seek an alternative.  Capitalism creates a situation where large masses of the people are dissatisfied, embittered, emboldened by intolerable hardships. Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for its cataclysm. Capitalism has reduced mankind to chronic misery, poverty, insecurity, fear, carnage, insane luxury for the few, hunger and degradation for the many — a state that simply cannot continue if mankind is to progress. To save humanity, this putrid wound on its body must be removed. Defending their lives and their future they must inevitably come into conflict with the bosses. Defending their very lives they are driven to stand up against bosses. Fighting against the bosses they are defending not only their own class interests but the interests of mankind. Socialism has grown out of the disappointment of the workers with politics and parliament.

But their conception of socialism remains unclear.

Whenever the government nationalises an industry, whenever the state imposed its control over industry, many workers naively accept this as an abandonment of capitalism, as a symptom of the growing importance of socialism and the transformation of capitalism into socialism. Not so. What was being ended is not capitalism, per se, but so-called free-enterprise laissez faire capitalism. It is socialism nor an “installment” of socialism, but state capitalism.  Socialism is not state ownership or management of industry, but the opposite: Socialism abolishes the state and its parliamentary regime. Industry is not transformed into state organs, but function socially through new administrative norms of the organized producers. The development towards state-capitalism -- often propagated under the name socialism does not mean the liberation of the working class but greater servitude. Socialists rejects policy of state ownership, rejects the idea that state capitalism is a phase of socialism, and insists upon self- management through industrial democracy. It is the task of socialists to abolish private property in the means of production and to establish socialist production and distribution. In a class-free society there is nobody to suppress or repress. Men and women do not need the big stick of the State. They manage their affairs without the State. Mankind is free, forever. 

What the working people  strive for in its struggle, liberty and security, to be master of its own life, is only possible through control of the means of production. State capitalism is not control of the means of production by the workers, but control by the organs of the state.  Workers control of production means that the employees direct the enterprises and construct the higher and central organisations from below. Organised autonomy of the productive masses stands in sharp contrast to the organisation from above in state capitalism.  The slogan of "workers' control," does not mean to work in co-operation with employers and government ministers; it means class struggle, it means revolutionary action against state power. 

The diametrically opposed interests of capital and labour can never be reconciled. Socialism works in two directions: first, by undermining the existing institutions; secondly, by developing and educating the workers and cultivating their spirit of solidarity, to prepare them for a full, free life, when capitalism shall have been abolished. A free society can exist only through voluntary association and that will depend upon the development of the workers who will supplant the wage system with a new social arrangement, based on solidarity and economic well-being for all. 

The Capitalist Contradiction

 We are drowning in a sea of poverty, thousands of families are living in abject poverty, food banks, low pay, homelessness and much, much more The ruling class are beating us with a great long stick, many have got their heads down and are happy as it seems taking the beating being handed down to us. Things will not change if we change our socks and elect a government of the Starmer Labour Party. This seems to be the best time to explain that despite everything that’s happened, we can see that people are beginning to rise. Some are losing their lives in these struggles, never let us lose sight of that, violence is always as abhorrent and abominable as capitalism itself. All that matters to the capitalist and the boss is production for profit, if the profit begins to slide then more than likely the worker will end up taking the bullet, and many times in the back. Workers are nothing more than cannon fodder in reality, time, and time again, the ruling class are only too happy to send them to the slater house if it is expedient and convenient to do so, especially if they have no other uses and employ for them when their work is done or the industry begins to fall into decline; new methods of production, a cheaper alternative product and, workers are fired, We are told, because people are living longer, this, in turn, is putting a fiscal twist and strain on public finance, it’s costing an arm and a leg to keep our pensioners, in what should be a comfortable break after a lifetime of work; but, it should be cosy, snug, warm and pleasant, and after a lifetime of repetitive slavery for most. What the ruling class is really saying, and with a pointing finger at all working people, is you exist only to work, you are the firewood we burn, the fuel to profit.

The times have changed, the movement has changed, and it may be just, that we may have to do things differently too, that we adapt to these new times. Technological advancement should free people from toil, but first, we would have to establish a civilised society which capitalism is not.

Working peoples of all lands join us, to build the world on new foundations. A world in which the age-long dreams of poets will become a living reality. Liberate yourselves from the political rule of Wall Street and the City of London. Once these parasites are off our backs, war will be only a word in the history books. We shall then stand on the threshold of a new era of unlimited human progress. Our world has everything necessary to provide permanent security and prosperity for all. We have the raw materials, the industries, the most advanced technology, a skilled labour force, and a high cultural level. These can be put to work to provide a life of abundance for every man, woman and child on the planet. Today, the madmen who rule are preparing to use their power to plunge humanity into the barbarism of endless wars in their insane drive to enslave the world. Over every man, woman and child hangs the threat of war, with the grim prospect of destruction from nuclear missiles. These are the bitter fruits of capitalism. So long as capitalism endures war will ravage the world.

The employing class, aided and abetted at every turn by the government at Washington, has been conducting a furious offensive against the workers. Their object is to beat down living standards, and- make the workers pay for all their problems.

The Socialist Party is 100% opposed to the capitalist system. We call for the establishment of a socialist society. We invite you to join us in the struggle for a socialist society, in which at long last you will really find complete freedom from want and true freedom from fear.  Let us build a socialist society in which life on this earth will be a thing of beauty and a thing of joy. Unite with the Socialist  Party to rid ourselves of the plague of capitalism with its hunger, wars and recessions. Build a socialist party of peace, freedom and plenty.

Catastrophe Capitalism

 

Everywhere you look, people appear to be extremely obsessed with wealth and money. It has always been a problem getting our message across to others, that capitalism is not working, or better put that another way, has never worked in our interests ever, let me clarify that and make it less confused and more clearly comprehensible; it does not work in the interests of the majority in the world no matter what your background is or has been.

And because we have taught and allowed entire generations to think that becoming wealthy is one of the primary goals in life, it is creating a tremendous amount of envy, jealousy, frustration and anger among those that have not been able to become wealthy and done well in life, it could be that they don’t fully understand why; it could also mean that many start to turn on their own and find another way of chasing money to pay them bills, life is cruel and harsh for many under capitalism.     

 

In recent years, the level of bitterness and resentment that the rest of the nation has toward the very wealthy has risen to a new level.  It has now become more and completely apparent to many that the system is designed to funnel wealth to the very top of the food chain, and many of those at the bottom of the food chain are starting to become extremely upset about this.

People living in poverty pay around 10 per cent more than average for essential goods and services – a “poverty premium” which can push people on low incomes into crisis, a report has warned this week.

Low-income households are much more for their energy due to a lack of ability to take advantage of switching or finding cheaper tariffs. Budgets undeniably, are tight as millions of us are forced through austerity, some take an unprecedented cut in their standard of living, then struggling with low pay or having to take a pay cut just to keep a job, then there are the millions, the legions and multitudes reliant on the foodbank and the handout just to keep body and soul together and sustained physically and mentally strong, It’s definitely hard for many of us and has been for some considerable time now.

However, it’s good to know that for some the good times never ended and the champagne still flows and the party never came to an end. Most people have always known the trickle down effect is and always has been complete and utter bollocks. Bringing the problems of inequality to the attention of politicians who can't see past the next election or a future directorship is also pointless as they just don't care as long as they are part of the 1%.

 

 

Since the last financial crisis, almost all of the income gains have gone to the top one percent of all income earners, whilst on the other hand working families are feeling the pinch from flatlining wages which are completely out of line with the every spiraling costs of living.

None of us are perfect or as good as it is possible to be in the present system, we are after all the product of the environment we are born into and to some extent we may mimic that system in our own lives.

Capitalism has been changing the climate. The ‘climate crisis’ should now be spoken of as the climate catastrophe, because this is what it is for the majority of the people on earth. The droughts of prolonged periods of abnormally low rainfall, melting icecaps of once-permanent ice, tropical storms amongst the most powerful and destructive may become commonplace here in Britain, and of course the bizarre weather we have been experiencing is just the beginning.

The dominant economic system is the driving force of climate change.  It is based upon the exploitation of first coal and then oil, all of which contributes greenhouse gases to the environment, resulting in increasing global temperatures. The innermost logic of this economic system is the accumulation of capital.  Whatever serves profit thrives. Currently a large part of the capitalist machine is fueled by oil and coal. The vast majority of scientific investigation points directly to the burning of oil and coal as having already raised the temperature of the Earth, with the probability of raising it even by the end of this century. To do this would make life on earth unrecognisable, like something out of a science fiction movie. This may happen by the time today’s infants enter old age.

It seems that if the fundamental driving force of capitalism is the further accumulation of capital, it would make sense not to change the ecology so much that you severely reduce the number of producers and consumers, threaten food production, and endanger the future of humanity.  Without civilization, how can capitalism continue?  Right now, the most potent anti-civilisationforce on the planet is capitalism.

Capitalists confront us by driving the rate of destruction ever upward, while becoming increasingly irrational in seeking out the remaining oil, coal and gas supplies. The tar sands extraction process in Canada, ‘fracking’ to get at natural gas reserves (which is causing earthquakes), mountain-top removal in Appalachia, oil drilling off the coasts and efforts to do so in pristine parts of Alaska, all for a form of energy which is literally killing millions of people, is simple madness.

Perhaps members of the ruling class simply do not care about the future of civilisation, or what kind of future their children or grandchildren will have. Perhaps they think they will be dead before things get too bad. Perhaps today’s continued profit is more important than the future disintegration of society, and the end of civilisation as we know it. Perhaps they think they have enough money that the devastation that awaits will not really affect them. Or perhaps they just think they will adapt to a changing environment.

Regardless of the thinking of capitalists and the ruling class, and whatever debates they may be having about how to respond, we must confront the realities of the climate catastrophe and develop a movement to create a society that does not change the weather. It is really up to us, and what we do in the next decade. To not act is to allow millions of people, primarily poor people of color in impoverished nations, to suffer and die

The climate crisis offers damning evidence that capitalism is madness. The situation offers the opportunity for us to argue for the fundamental transformation of society as the only alternative to a barbarous future. Almost every aspect of modern life is contributing to the changing climate, from air transportation, to our reliance on cars, to how goods are produced and transported, how our food is grown, and how we light and heat our homes.  The common theme that runs through all these things, and what must be changed, is that they are all aspects of a capitalist economy and ideology.

A Poetry Podcast

https://groups.io/g/spintcom/files/9.%20Miscellaneous%20&%20Archive/Miscellaneous/SPGB%20PODCAST_Ep2%201.mp3

You do have choices

 

Anxious about the state of the planet and worried what capitalism is doing to it? Want to do something about it? But don’t know what?

Capitalism has taken us as far as it can go, but there's a lot further we can go without it. It doesn't really matter whether you call it post-capitalism, world socialism, or post-scarcity anarchism, it is feasible and desirable. And given that some scientists are talking about a point of no-return for environmental destruction being reached, the word 'urgent' springs to mind.

You can't overthrow capitalism by street barricades. At best you can temporarily annoy it. Don't kid yourself that rioting is a real threat to capitalism. Modern states have massive coercive power, and they can withstand more resistance  than you can deliver. To be dangerous to capitalism,we have to win the war of ideas, across all the media, amongst our friends and co-workers, in our groups, in our own head. And we have to be united about what we want after capitalism, and united about how to get it. Otherwise, the grim truth is that we really won't succeed.

 

For a revolution to be any good, you have to be for something, besides being against capitalism. Some people are just against big capitalism (WTO, IMF, World Bank, multinationals, etc) as if somehow 'small' national capitalism is a completely different thing, and perfectly nice. It's not. They're the same. Let's have a definition: capitalism is production for sale on a market with a view to profit. Instead of that we could have: cooperative production for use and free distribution on the basis of need. This would involve: no markets, no money, no commodities, no private property, no rich class and poor class, no Third World and First World, no profit-led profligacy of any description, no ecological destruction, no famine, and no war.

Everywhere people are waking up and fighting against the oppression and exploitation which is a daily fact of their lives. The lies of the ruling class about “prosperity” are being further exposed every-day. There is prosperity alright – but it is for a handful of rich capitalists – the conditions of the working people are getting worse and worse. This system of capitalism is set up with one thing in mind – to make the most profits possible for the handful of people who own the big banks and corporations. It is the system under which we, and our parents and grandparents before us, have done all the work. We mine the mines, build the buildings, manufacture all the products: and then get just enough to live on – if we fight hard enough for it! On the other hand the small capitalist class builds up huge fortunes off of our labour.

The Socialist Party stands for the complete overthrow of the world capitalist system. There is only one class capable of conducting the struggle for a successful socialist revolution. That class is the working class. The workers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win!

All the resources for a world of abundance, without pollution, disease and squalor, exist at the present time in skill, technique and science. They are the same resources used to produce pollution and destruction.

Humanity is at a crossroads. Capitalism’s continued rule offers humanity nothing but more wars, more mass acts of terror and grinding exploitation and poverty.

The world’s working class, the one class with no essential interest in oppression or exploitation, has the potential to put an end to capitalist barbarism. If it rises up to overthrow the capitalists in revolutions the planet over, it can take hold of the productive power of the world economy to put an end to poverty and build a world of abundance for all. It can end the racism, chauvinism and sex and gender oppression that thrives on capitalism’s world of want and competition.

Only by building a global movement can the working class prepare itself for the titanic task of undoing the disasters the capitalists keep making - and building a new world in their place.

A new society is not created by steps toward socialism. There are no shortcuts. There are several parties and groups around today such as Counterfire or Left Unity to name but two from a long list (Heinz baked beans and 57 other varieties) that call themselves “communist” or “socialist”.  The Socialist Party has important disagreements with them. These parties and groupings all have one thing in common – they all dress themselves up with high-sounding revolutionary phrases, but underneath they are defenders of capitalism.