REPORT FROM SOCIALIST DISCUSSION GROUP

At our discussion group last night, among the many subjects raised were parties posing as socialist. Here are some of the comments from members last night.

The Scottish Socialist Party is lucky that there isn’t a political equivalent of the Trades Description Act or they could be prosecuted for fraudulently describing what they are trying to sell as “socialism”.Historically, socialism was generally seen as a worldwide system of common ownership and democratic control in which the watchword would be “From each according to ability, to each according to need”. It would mean the end of the wages system along with money, buying and selling and the capital/labour relationship.This has been watered down over the years until even Tony Blair calls himself a socialist. Compare what socialism originally meant with the SSP’s programme of reforms of the capitalist system. The difference between Blair and the SSP is only in the detail – both are all for patching-up capitalism but cannot agree on how this should be done.

The example of the attempt of the present Scottish government, to curtail the present provisions of the bus pass for pensioners and SSP policy of free transport for all of Scotland, prompted this retort from one of the members

Reformist political parties in opposition always claim how much better everything would be if only they were in power and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is no exception.One of their policy documents tells us they would provide free public transport and that this, on it’s own, would bring fabulous benefits in just about every area of life.Everything would be better: the NHS, the environment, the economy, business efficiency, productivity, road safety, more tourists, etc. On top of all this there would be savings of many millions, even billions, of pounds, giving us all more spending power as well as big savings for businesses.And how is all this to be achieved? By two old leftist illusions; taxing the rich and nationalisation (disguised as public or social ownership). Apparently, nationalisation would be more efficient and cheaper, despite the evidence of past experience, and taxing the rich must mean that we’ll still have them. The source of their riches is the surplus value wrung from the working class but the SSP seem not to have noticed this.We are grateful that the word “socialism” isn’t mentioned once in this document because its contents have nothing whatever to do with socialism. The SSP’s aim is really just the same as all the other reformist parties – they try to solve capitalism’s problems by merely re-organising it. If all their proposed reforms were adopted – nationalisation, the multitude of changes in the tax system, defence budget cuts, etc., we’d still be living in a money-driven, buying and selling economy, still working for wages and salaries, still insecure, being hired and fired, in short, in capitalism.Free transport for all can really only be achieved in a worldwide, moneyless, production for use society in which ALL goods and services would be freely available to everyone. That’s what genuine socialists campaign for and what the SSP NEVER does.

Discussion Group meet Wednesday 18th June

SOCIALIST PARTY DISCUSSION GROUP

18 JUNE 8.30PM, CENTRAL COMMUNITY HALLS,

304 MARYHILL ROAD, GLASGOW

SOCIALISM AS A PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE

JOHN CUMMING OF GLASGOW BRANCH WILL OPEN THE DISCUSSION FOR ABOUT 10 TO 15 MINUTES.

THE REST OF THE EVENING WILL BE TAKEN UP WITH YOUR QUESTIONS AND POINTS OF VIEW.

SOME OF THE IDEAS THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED ARE -

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A WORLD WITHOUT MONEY?

CAN HUMAN BEINGS BEHAVE IN A COOPERATIVE FASHION?

IS HUMAN NATURE COMPATABLE WITH SOCIALISM?

WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS INSIDE SOCIALISM?

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH CRIME INSIDE SOCIALISM?

ADMISSION FREE ALL WELCOME

HOME OF THE BRAVE?

"The day before her husband was deployed to the Middle East by the U.S. Air Force, Marketa Johnson got word that her family would be evicted from their rented home. It did not matter that the Johnsons had never missed a rent payment and had signed a two-year lease. The property owner was facing foreclosure and so Johnson simply packed her bags. But last month, when she got another eviction notice and was ordered to leave her new home, she decided to fight. "We military are good tenants," said Johnson whose husband, Derrick, is an Air Force pilot. "We always take care of the property. We were never late, never. I don't see a reason that we should not stay there." The U.S. housing crisis that has caused a spike in foreclosures has meant not only anguish for delinquent mortgage borrowers but heartache for renters in good standing." (Yahoo News, 15 June) RD

CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA (2)

"At a recent cricket match here, Mukesh D. Ambani sat in his private box quietly watching the team he owns, the Mumbai Indians. He seemed oblivious to the others around him: his son cheering wildly, his wife draped in diamond jewelry and a smattering of guests anxiously awaiting the briefest opportunity to speak with him. A minor bureaucrat stood a few rows back, strategizing with aides about how to buttonhole “the Chairman,” as Mr. Ambani is sometimes called. Waiters in baggy tuxedoes took turns trying to offer him a snack, but as they drew near became too nervous to speak. In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India’s most famous and powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become. Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and, some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the richest person on earth before long." (New York Times, 15 June) RD

CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA

"Two rickety ceiling fans stir the stale air in a cramped room in New Delhi where 10 men hunch over bright fabrics, sewing shorts to be sold overseas. "I get paid 24 rupees [56 cents] for every piece I stitch," says 31-year-old Amjad Ali. "But I'm sure it's very expensive when it sells abroad." Ali works a lot of overtime at this garment subcontractor, with no holidays, yet he can still barely support his wife and son. In another Delhi neighborhood, Sami Alam, 8, tells of escaping earlier in the week from a sweatshop where he'd worked as a cook for nine months. His parents had sent him to Delhi from his native Bihar, in exchange for cash. "I didn't know how to cook, so the owner would beat me," he says, showing scars on his frail arms." (Time, 11 June) RD

BOLIVIA TODAY

"Watching children and young adolescents push loaded wheelbarrows out of the dark corridors of the tin, zinc and silver mines of the Bolivian town of Potosi, it is clear that the harsh reality of adulthood comes far too early. "I work out of necessity," explains 12-year-old driller Ramiro, helmet in hand, as he stands at the entrance of one of the mines that honeycomb the Cerro Rico - meaning Rich Hill - that towers above the town. He feels bad because he knows that working in the mine puts his health at risk, he says, and "that is what every single one of the children that works inside feels; sometimes some die, some survive". Wiping his sweaty forehead, which is covered in dark dust, he adds: "For us, who work inside the mine, it is not good; the mine brings a lot of disease, a lot of death." It is prolonged exposure to that dust that gives the average miner a life expectancy of only 40 years. The culprit is what they call the "mal de mina", the lung disease silicosis. At the entrance to one of the mines, surrounded by grey piles of mineral waste, men can be seen alongside children, chewing coca leaves as a way to stay awake, carrying picks, mattocks and shovels. It seems that childhood is a luxury the poorest residents of this mining area, located 4,300m (14,100ft) above sea level, cannot afford." (BBC News, 14 June) RD

A NIGHTMARE FUTURE

"Imagine bad guys able to fight without sleep. Or enemy soldiers with hardware implanted in their brains that makes them better able to target U.S. troops than U.S. troops are able to target them. How about future foes able to outfox GIs thanks to the "pharmaceutical intervention" that has improved their "brain plasticity" . ...In the inaugural edition of the Pentagon's annual Soviet Military Power booklet, published in 1981, then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger warned: "There is nothing hypothetical about the Soviet military machine. Its expansion, modernization and contribution to projection of power beyond Soviet boundaries are obvious." ...Today's equivalent of Weinberger's Soviet Military Power booklet is titled simply Human Performance, and it was written by the JASONs, a band of top scientists that advises the Defense Department. Completed in March, it has surfaced thanks to Steven Aftergood, who issues a weekly compendium of interesting government documents for the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists. The report warns that potential foes - none is named, although there is a backwards nod to "East German Olympic athletes" - could put better troops on the battlefields of tomorrow through medication, surgery and mind training. While such changes are not imminent, the study says, the science behind them needs to be monitored carefully so the U.S. military can anticipate what it might face in a future war. ...A big battlefield advantage will be gained by the side that wins the race on "the manipulation and understanding of human sleep," the study notes. "Suppose a human could be engineered who slept for the same amount of time as a giraffe (1.9 hours per night). This would lead to an approximately twofold decrease in the casualty rate. An adversary would need an approximately 40% increase in the troop level to compensate for this advantage." (Yahoo News, 16 June) RD

REFORM UNDER ATTACK

The Scottish Government is to review a concessionary scheme which gives pensioners and disabled passengers free bus travel across Scotland.

Operators have been told that fare reimbursement is to be capped.
Scottish Labour said Alex Salmond could go down in history as the first minister who "shoved Scotland's grannies off the bus".
We socialists have often made the point that any improvements workers manage to get, are always fair game for attack if governments, Scottish or any other brand, find they have to protect the taxpayer( i.e. the capitalist class)


Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said "The bus companies have a commercial operation, they will negotiate robustly with government and we will equally make sure that we are protecting the taxpayer."

AN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

Many people see the recent rise in foodstuff as an unmitigated disaster. Millions of poor people see it as a potential death sentence, but we live in capitalism and many capitalists see it as an investment opportunity to make huge profits. "Huge investment funds have already poured hundreds of billions of dollars into booming financial markets for commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans. But a few big private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world’s need for food will greatly increase — by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment. One has bought several ethanol plants, Canadian farmland and enough storage space in the Midwest to hold millions of bushels of grain." (New York Times, 5 June) RD

THIS FRIGHTENING WORLD

It is always difficult if not impossible to predict where the next international conflict will erupt inside capitalism, but this piece of sabre-rattling by a prominent Israeli politician gives us the heebie-jeebies. "An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday. "If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defense minister." (Yahoo News, 6 June) RD

THE WASTEFUL SOCIETY

"World military spending grew 45 percent in the past decade, with the United States accounting for nearly half of all expenditure, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday. Military spending grew six percent last year alone, according to SIPRI's annual report. In 2007, 1,339 billion dollars (851 billion euros) was spent on arms and other military expenditure, corresponding to 2.5 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP -- or 202 dollars for each of the world's 6.6 billion people. The United States spends by far the most towards military aims, dishing out 547 billion dollars last year, or 45 percent of global expenditure. (Yahoo News, 9 June) RD

A MURDEROUS SOCIETY

There are many examples of how capitalism turns human beings into monstrous creatures, but we doubt if a more extreme example than this could be found. "A woman beat her grandmother to death with a garden spade because she feared her inheritance would be spent on her residential care. Joanne Hussey, 33, has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years for the brutal attack on 77 year old Annie Garbutt. ...The jury was told that Mrs Garbutt had the onset of Alzheimer's disease and it had been recommended she be placed in a home. Her savings of around £250,000 would have been dipped into in order to pay for the cost of her care."

(Daily Telegraph, 11 June) RD

WHAT ABOUT THE DEAD KIDS?

"Mr Blair, who is now a peace envoy to the Middle East, told Time magazine that religious belief had given him "strength" while in power. He is launching a "faith foundation" in New York on Friday. Mr Blair, who recently converted to Catholicism, said: "Faith is part of our future, and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of making globalisation work." (BBC News, 29 May)
Perhaps your faith will allow you to forget the dead children you ordered to die in a capitalist war, perhaps the tears of their parents will not disturb you, Mr Blair. Globalization is all important to you, what you really mean is capitalism is important to you.and all your slimey politician side kicks. RD

PAY KILLERS MORE SAY THE CITY

"Now working in the City, Mr Alistair Galloway is also involved in campaigning against the limitations of Armed Forces Compensation Scheme. He hopes that by speaking out he can highlight the plight of men and women accustomed to risking their lives. "Everyone always wants a pay rise. But soldiers really do need to feel appreciated," he said." (BBC News, 5 June) RD

CLASS DIVISION IN INDIA

"Hamilton Court — complete with a private school within its gates, groomed lawns and security guards — is just one of the exclusive gated communities that have blossomed across India in recent years. At least for the newly moneyed upper middle class, they offer at high prices what the government cannot, at least not to the liking of their residents. These enclaves have emerged on the outskirts of prospering, overburdened cities, from this frontier town next to the capital to the edges of seam-splitting Bangalore. They allow their residents to buy their way out of the hardships that afflict vast multitudes in this country of more than one billion. And they reflect the desires of India’s small but growing ranks of wealthy professionals, giving them Western amenities along with Indian indulgences: an army of maids and chauffeurs live in a vast shantytown across the street.“A kind of self-contained island” is how Mrs. Chand’s husband, Ashish, describes Hamilton Court. India has always had its upper classes, as well as legions of the world’s very poor. But today a landscape dotted with Hamilton Courts, pressed up against the slums that serve them, has underscored more than ever the stark gulf between those worlds, raising uncomfortable questions for a democratically elected government about whether India can enable all its citizens to scale the golden ladders of the new economy." (New York Times, 9 June) RD

BRAVE NEW WORLD

"The new generation of titan "super prisons" are being designed to be overcrowded from the start, the Justice Ministry admitted yesterday. Prison service officials are already looking for a minimum 50-acre Brownfield site in the Greater London area to build the first titan jail. But when it opens in 2012 it will only have 2,100 places for its 2,500 inmates. A consultation paper published by the justice secretary, Jack Straw, said yesterday the sites for the four- or five-storey titans should be suitable for an initial development providing at least 2,100 un-crowded places with the capacity to hold up to 2,500 prisoners "through planned overcrowding". (Guardian, 6 June) RD

JAILHOUSE BLUES

"The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any other country in the world and more than ever before in its history, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The number represents an incarceration rate of 762 per 100,000 residents, compared to 152 per 100,000 in Britain, 108 in Canada, and 91 in France, HRW said in a statement commenting on Justice Department figures also released Friday. (Yahoo News, 6 June) RD

RECESSION! WHAT RECESSION?

"A silk Persian rug dating from the 16th century or 17th century has sold for a record $4.45 million at auction, or about $729.87 per square inch. The rug was sold by Christie's auction house Tuesday on behalf of the Newport Restoration Foundation. It had been expected to fetch up to $1.5 million. The rug, which measures 7 feet, 7 inches by 5 feet, 7 inches, had been purchased by the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke in 1990. She left it to the foundation when she died. Elisabeth Parker, head of Christie's rugs and carpets department, says there are only two other known rugs like it. She calls it an "amazing work of art" and says it has an intricate floral design and an unusually large number of colors, at 17. Christie's says the buyer prefers to remain anonymous." (Yahoo News, 5 June) RD

THE PRIORITIES OF CAPITALISM

"A California company will give five dog owners the chance to have a favourite pet genetically copied and brought back to life later this month. BioArts International has arranged an online auction to decide which dog lovers will qualify: at starting bids between $100,000(£51,000) and $180,000." (New Statesman 5th June) "Every 17 seconds, a child in the developing world dies from water-related diseases. In around the time it takes you to read this paragraph, someone, somewhere, will die. Everyday, people in the world's poorest countries face the dilemma of having to trust their health and that of their children to the consequences of drinking water that could kill them. It's a gamble that often carries a high price - seeing children needlessly dying is simply heartbreaking." (Water Aid leaflet, June) It says a lot about the priorities of capitalism when Water Aid are asking for £2 a month to help save children and someone can spend £90,000 to clone a pet dog! RD

CLASS DIVISION IN NORTH KOREA

"Oblivious of rumours that famine is gathering again and that the state's food-distribution system is breaking down, the country's pampered elite went on a shopping spree at the Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair, held on May 12th-15th. Originally designed to promote business-to-business contacts, the trade fair, along with a companion event in the autumn, has become one of the few opportunities for North Koreans—or, more accurately, a few thousand residents of the capital—to buy, or gawk at, foreign merchandise. More than 100 Chinese companies, together with some from Taiwan, Indonesia, Britain and North Korea itself, offered up everything from T-shirts to heavy machinery. Cutting-edge technology it wasn't. Duvets, refrigerators, flat-screen televisions, DVD players, cooking pots and cosmetics were the most popular items. More than 15 units of one of the show's most expensive items, a $1,200 refrigerator from Haier, a Chinese company, were snapped up. Counterfeit iPods were also popular, even if downloading is illegal. North Korea's new rich make their money from political connections. But one shortage they don't seem to face is that of American dollars. (Economist, 29 May) RD