The World Commune

Today we are in a global recession and governments everywhere are engaging in reducing spending and imposing austerity cuts. But why should it always be the workers, the actual producers, us poor wage-slaves, and never the real scroungers, those in the City of London and on Wall St, who are called upon to sacrifice themselves for the common good? The answer to this question is perfectly simple. It is because we are living in a capitalist world, a capitalist system, and the Government and all the political institutions of which it represents, exist to maintain, capitalist interests. To make profit is the sole object of all production. Investors and hedge-fund managers are not concerned with supplying human needs. All they are concerned about is making profit by the exploitation. It is truly absurd that a mere handful of plutocrats should be masters and owners of the wealth of the world. All misery, all injustice and disorder, results from the fact that one class monopolises the means of production and of life, and imposes its laws on another class and on society as a whole. We are seeing signs that the working class wakening up to the fact and is beginning to rouse from its long slumber. The Socialist Party of Great Britain has always maintained that the working class should jealously guard the right and the power to strike; that they should refuse to be shackled by any sort of compulsory arbitration, or any other restriction on their right to withhold their labour; and we have always given support to workers who have been on strike. Victory will come to the working class only if it is conscious and willing to struggle.

 Socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have some idea of what it is. If the people who vote for a socialist do not do so because he or she is a socialist but because they do not know that he or she is a socialist, of what use can that be for achieving the socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness of the working class and not upon their lack of knowledge. The idea that we should first be elected to office and then teach socialism to the masses is so utterly absurd that it should not even be discussed. It can be stated with the greatest of assurance that a party described as a  socialist which refrains from teaching socialism with the idea that they will do so after elected will forget all about socialism once in office.

The first condition of success for socialism is that its adherents should explain its aim and its essential characteristics clearly, so that they can be understood by every one. We must do away with many misunderstandings created by our adversaries. The work of the SPGB is to help to educate the people by every effective means; and the knowledge we have to help them to is threefold--to know their own, to know how to take their own, and to know how to use their own. Part of our function is to educate the people by criticizing all attempts at so-called reforms, whose aim is not the realisation of equality, but the hindering of it. State capitalism’s or nationalisation, or by whatever name it may be called, aim is to make concessions and  administrative changes to the working class while leaving the present system of capital and wages still in operation.  With state ownership exploitation will continue as in private enterprise. Class relations which leaves the working class as a subject class is not socialism.

Socialist society will be voluntary in the sense that all people will agree in its broad principles when it is fairly established. A world socialist society is the only solution for the contradictions in the present capitalist  society. Only a socialist society can utilize rationally the natural resources and productive machinery of the earth in  the interests of the peoples of the earth. A federation of socialist  communities can alone solve the conflict between  the efficient development of productive forces and the restrictions of artificial national boundaries. All differences of class must be abolished by transferring the ownership of the means of production and of life, which is to-day a power of exploitation and oppression in the hands of a single class, from that class to the whole community. The rule of the minority must be substituted the universal co-operation of everyone. And that is why the essential aim of socialism is to transform capitalist property into social property. The rights of all individuals are guaranteed to-day, to-morrow and for ever.

Socialism will be an emancipated world, a society of economic and social equals wherein class divisions, privileges and disabilities will for the first time in history be impossible; a system of social ownership of the means of production industrially administered by the workers on an organised and harmonious plan, ensuring from every man according to his capacity and to every man according to his needs, under the motto “All for each and each for All”. The social revolution is the essential objective of the World Socialist Movement when the class war has been for ended, when humanity shall no longer cower under an oppressor and when none shall be called master and none servant. Socialism makes possible a society where there are no national prejudices or racial antagonisms or religious persecutions. It removes the CAUSE of these poisons. It makes possible a free society of human beings.

The Invisible Unemployed

Unemployment may be falling in Scotland in recent months but there is an ongoing increase in the number of people in part-time work and in temporary jobs.

There were 652,000 part-time workers in Scotland in the year to March 2010, but this had risen by 36,000 by March this year. The number of temporary workers has jumped 10,000 since June last year and stood at 128,000 in the year to 20 March. That is near enough a third of all Scottish workers.

 Some workers will choose to work fewer hours, it is estimated that about a 250,000 Scottish workers are “underemployed”.

National figures show that 330,000 more people are underemployed in the UK than in 2010, including 200,000 with dependent children.

Keith Dryburgh, policy manager at Citizens Advice Scotland, warned “Citizens Advice bureaux are increasingly seeing people who want to work longer hours but cannot find them in a difficult economic climate. These are people who are struggling to make ends meet, and yet are often ‘invisible’ in the government’s statistics about employment.”

It's not all over yet

The eight-year programme of cuts to budgets for running Scottish public services is only 40% over.

The analysis, by the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) in Glasgow shows 60% are still to be applied between this year and 2017-18. The deepest cuts in that will be towards the last two years of the spending period. A £2.7bn real terms projected cut in resource spending still to come will be increasingly hard to accommodate, especially given the £1.8bn already experienced since 2009-10.

Professor John McLaren, one of the authors of the study, said: "The day-to-day, or resource, budget cuts still to come include some of the harshest annual reductions seen over this period".

Food for thought

Thomas Walkom of The Toronto Star in writing about the current recession, quotes Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, referring to Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter who famously called boom and bust capitalism a process of creative destruction, "We've certainly had the destruction. But the creative side of the equation has been delayed" Agreed, but whose destruction are we talking about? The same article gives us a clue, " Employment insurance has become
particularly irrelevant. A new study by the Canadian Labour Congress calculates that only 35% of the jobless now qualify for EI. In Ontario, the percentage is 25, in Toronto 20." (although everyone and their employers contribute!). John Ayers

Begs belief

Glasgow and Aberdeen are pressing for new by-laws to tackle the perceived problem of street-begging. The two city councils hope to enlist support of others to persuade the Scottish Government that new measures are required.

A law already covers begging which is obstructive, or causes fear or alarm.

A Revolutionary Idea

There is no other social power equal to a revolutionary movement in modern society. Armies crumble under revolutionary pressure as soldiers refuse to fire on peaceful protesters; police repression is shown to be powerless, and long-standing status quo political parties are cast aside and made redundant. If successful, a revolutionary movement can fundamentally change society. The Socialist Party of Great Britain endeavours to instill into the minds of our fellow workers the hope of the speedy advent of the socialist revolution.

We are all permeated by an uneasy feeling that all is not quite right with the world. Humanity is divided into two classes — the employers and the employed. We are socialists, and our purpose as a political party is to advance the case for a socialist society, and by socialism we mean the common ownership of wealth production, and this involves the complete replacement of the capitalist system, and the conducting of all industrial  relations on a co-operative basis. The interest of each is that of all. The capitalist class, who own most of the land and the tools of production, also own the government and rule the working class, not for the well-being of the working class but for the well-being and profit of the capitalists. It is only by using their political power that the capitalist class make their exploitation of the workers legal and the oppression of their system constitutional. And it is only by using their political power that the working class can make their own exploitation illegal and their own oppression unconstitutional. It is only by the use of their political power that the working class can abolish capitalist  rule and privilege, and establish a form of society based on the collective ownership of all the land and the tools of production.  Organized in the political party - the Socialist Party - workers can, through the ballot box, abolish the capitalist system of ownership with its accompanying class rule and class oppression, and establish in its place socialism.

The label “revolution” implies that the overwhelming majority of people have decided and are dedicated to a specific path for society. This means that the “masses” are passionately intervening to change society, overcoming fear and repression until their objectives are met. In this sense revolution is the highest form of democracy, since it’s the clearest expression of the people’s will, expressed through ongoing massive deliberate action. Revolution is a display of power by working people, who collectively choose to assert themselves into public life in order to change it. In non-revolutionary times working people do not actualise their power; they aren’t even aware that they have any, as they passively ignore any role in social life as individuals, silently delegating their political power to capitalist-bought politicians. The ultimate sign that a situation has entered a revolutionary period is that the masses directly intervene in social life as an independent, powerful force, through ongoing collective action. The people seek to actualise their power. There is no revolution unless people are massively asserting their power in the streets, workplaces, and neighborhoods. A revolutionary movement is also inevitably a battle for political power.

The revolution can only issue from the masses, and it is only through the masses that it is carried out. Workers cannot be driven, lured, or bulldozed into it. “The mass must learn to fight, to act in the struggle itself.” wrote Rosa Luxemburg. Socialism has come to build, not to destroy.

Food for thought

Eighty-two-year-old Alan Gosling died after being evicted from his Toronto Community Housing Corporation subsidized apartment in June, 2009. He failed to keep up with paper work verifying his low- income status. Locked out, Gosling lived in a stairwell until he was then taken to a shelter where he picked up an infection that killed him. A recent enquiry into the treatment of seniors at TCHC homes found, "The current strategy of sending tenants a constant stream of
letters, some of which use threatening language, needs to change." So it took four years to come up with that little goodie. Under capitalism if you ain't got the money (or you are useless to the production of surplus-value), you don't count. John Ayers

The Task and Goal of the Socialist Party

It's a commonplace sentiment that politics is broken. Every week brings more evidence of disillusionment. The debased nature of politics, however, is only the most superficial symptom of our problems. It is clear that we face problems with the capitalist system and not simply political problems. These days, no matter how hard we work, how much we manage to save or how carefully we plan for the future, we are getting no-where.

Propaganda by the system’s apologists is an old proven means to modify the consciousness of population. It has been practiced under the disguise of “objectivity” - data are selected, articles are written and fed to the press, “balanced" TV programmes are delivered. In addition to mere skilled disinformation we are plain old lied to deceived.

The struggle for political supremacy is not between political parties , as it merely appears on the surface, but it is a  struggle between two hostile economic classes, the capitalist and the working class. Deny it as they may or ignore itif they so choose,  the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class struggle, and as more and more  come to understand  they will rally to the political standard of the workers’ party to find their true place in the conflict and strike a united  blow against wage-slavery and achieve full and final emancipation. Nothing can stop the march of a popular socialist revolution. Our revolution will not be the fruit of a lucky chance but rather of  bitter prolonged struggle. Our revolution will not be the  work of a minority for one does not make the revolution for the masses; it is they who make it. The working class must be emancipated by the working class.

The ballot expresses the people’s will. The ballot means that workers have a voice to express its wishes. Centuries of struggle and sacrifice were required to acquire this freedom and we should use it wisely. The first step in this direction is to sever all relations with the capitalist parties. Labour, Tory, and the Nationalists alike, differing only in being committed to different sets of capitalist interests. They however have the same principles under varying colors, and are equally corrupt united as one in their subservience to capital and their hostility to the working class. It is an ignorant worker who supports any of these parties for he forges his own chains and is the creator of his own misery. Workers who support the capitalist politician  are guilty, consciously or unconsciously, of treason to their class. They are voting into power the enemies of labour.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain is not a capitalist party. Its mission since its foundation in 1904 it is to conquer capitalism on the political battle-field, take control of the State and take possession of the means of wealth production, abolish wage-slavery and emancipate all workers and all humanity. In the world, today, reformism dominates the workers’ movement. The overthrow of capitalism is the object of the Socialist Party and on this principle we shall not compromise. The Socialist Party is honest, both in its statements about what socialism is, and in its desires to have within the Socialist Party only socialists.  Reformists conceive of political action in terms of a modification of the political and economic regime of capitalism. The Socialist Party, on the other hand, regards political action to capture the state power in its entirety.

The working class constitutes the majority of the population, however, they are unable to marshal their strength because the class is divided and disunited. Nevertheless, the working class has a militant history of fighting for improved wages and working conditions,  for union organisation, for recognition of political rights. Once again, we see an upsurge in the working class as the economic conditions worsen with the current crisis. But not only must we unite to defend our basic democracy, our wages and our working conditions we also have to struggle towards socialism.  The working class has to organise itself as a united fighting force to achieve a decent living and working conditions and  destroy the capitalist system of wage slavery and establishing socialism. At present, the objectives of the workers are on the economic and not on the political level. They seek to protect wages and working conditions rather than fighting for a better world.

The Socialist Party’s task is simply to help the workers march faster and without faltering toward the socialist goal. We decline to advocate palliatives or as Thomas Paine put it, “administering medicine to a corpse.” The Socialist Party defiantly challenges the capitalist class, relying upon the awakening working class to muster under its banner.

It is as Eugene Debs said:
"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked and clubbed into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but, notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as the setting of the sun.”

Remembrance

Sixteen million people died in the First World War. No fewer than  one in 40 of the nine million British and  Commonwealth troops came from the single city of Glasgow. 200,000 men from Glasgow fought, 17,695 were killed and many many more were wounded with lasting injuries and lost limbs. We should remember the futility of their deaths in “the war to end wars”

16,000  British  men are recorded as being conscientious  objectors. The Richmond Sixteen  were 16 men taken from  Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire where the Non-Combatant Corps was based, to an  army camp in northern France, refused to  unload supplies. They were court-martialled  and, as an example to others, sentenced to  death by Lord Kitchener. They were  only saved from this fate by Kitchener’s own sudden death and the prime minister,  Asquith, who  their sentence to  10 years’ hard labour. We should remember the social stigma these heroes had to bear for the rest of  their lives.

Food for thought

A recent story on The Guardian website claimed the US Foreign Intelligence (?) Surveillance Court granted the FBI unlimited authority to access data on phone calls from April 25 to June 19. They are now collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon communication customers. In other words, privacy laws can be
subverted any time the powers-that-be want. Of course, nobody other than those giving the orders likes it. There is a solution to a world of snooping on each other but it won't be found in capitalism. John Ayers.

No Old Bangers Here

The present economic crisis in the UK has been so severe that many workers face unemployment, wage freezes and in some severe cases repossession of their houses. No such problems exist for the owning class. 'Wealthy Britons have spent £91 million buying new Ferraris this year, making Great Britain the biggest European market for the Italian car company. According to Ferrari's  global sales figures for the first six months, 415 models have been sold in the UK, an increase of 6 per cent, with the average purchase price standing at £220,000.' (Times, 2 August) RD

Fast Food Strike

Capitalist Civilisation - An oxymoron

We pride ourselves on our system, which we call “civilised,” and compare it with those primitive forms of society which we call “barbarian.” We point to our great works of art, our wondrous discoveries in science, our massive buildings and our machinery of all sorts.

Yet our “civilisation” has a class of people called capitalists – those good, kind, benevolent employers, to whom we go cap in hand, cringing for the privilege of being permitted to work for them. His place in our social system is to extort a profit out of the worker by buying our services as much beneath their true value as he can possibly procure them. The more extensive his trade, the greater will be his power over his employees. The wealth he has accumulated from his labourers gives him the power to regulate commerce. He has so much wealth he can live in idle leisure if he so wishes. This the labourer cannot do, for our earnings have nearly all gone within a matter of a few days.

 These grand works of art exist, true enough but rather than enjoy their beauty, they are bought and speculated as an investments. Wondrous scientific discoveries are constantly being made, but the reward is to the owner of the patent and not to the people. No sooner is a thing produced than it passes into the hands of others. The builders do not live in the fine houses they construct, but live in wretched inner-city tenements or tiny suburban  boxes.

We are engaged today in a class war; and why? For the simple reason that society has been mainly divided into two economic classes—a small class of capitalists who own practically everything and workers who possess very little. Between these two classes there is an irrepressible  conflict. Unfortunately, the worker has not fully understood the nature of the conflict, and for this reason has failed to accomplish any effective unity of his class.  It is a vain and hopeless task,  wasting time and energy, to endeavour to harmonise the interests of the boss and his hired hand.  Nor is it part of the mission of the Socialist Party to conciliate the working class with the capitalist class. We are organised to fight that class.

War and strife of all kinds mark this civilisation’s success and regardless of government they all rest upon appropriation and exploitation. All law is made to protect property and proprietors and there is no law for the poor. The exploitative employer is the economic master and the political ruler in capitalist society. Plutocracy rules.

The average worker imagines that we must have a leader to look to; a guide to follow. We have been taught to be dependent. We have relied too much on leaders and not enough on own self-reliance. As long as we can be led by an leader, we can be betrayed by a leader. Not all leaders are dishonest or corrupt. That would be a too sweeping a statement but we should not place our trust in any and instead take responsibility for own decisions.

 We are engaged in a barbaric competitive struggle in which workers  are fighting each other to sell themselves into slavery and fighting each other to keep soul and body together.  And this is called civilization! What a mockery! There is no real civilisation in the capitalist system.

Surely, the present system cannot go on for ever. The present system is destroying us and  the planet we inhabit. We, wage-slaves have to emancipate ourselves. It can be done. It must be done. It shall be done for the last day of the capitalist system and the first day of the socialist commonwealth is in our own hands. Today there is nothing so easily produced as wealth abundance wealth enough for all.  Today  there is no excuse for poverty.  And, today, we can begin to change this. 

Fact of the Day

The 10th Duke of Buccleuch - a title created in 1663 for the illegitimate son of Charles II - is now Europe's largest landowner with holdings valued at more than £1bn, according to the Independent

Throw off the chains!

Many are not in trade unions and many in their desperation have turned on the union as the cause of their misery. Why should they side with their employers? Why enrich the boss who has the power to dismiss you at will?

Because you get a wage, and that wage suffices to keep you working for the capitalist and you can pay the rent and get fed. You have been turned into a wage-slave. He belongs to another class, the ruling class,  and you belong to the lower class, the subservient class. You are in an overwhelming majority and they only a few yet, they own practically everything and rule the land. And they will keep on owning and ruling the land as long as you  allow them to; and you will allow them to as long as you persist in voting for their politicians, instead of uniting and acting solidly with and for each other and against the capitalists. It is because of your ignorance that you don’t understand your own interest and  believe you need rulers to control you. But you don’t need them. The working class do all the producing and manufacturing. The bosses could not exist second without you. A capitalist without workers cannot exist. While the capitalist could not exist without you, however, you could do just fine and would actually begin to live without them.

Capitalism is based upon the exploitation of the working class; and when the working class ceases to be exploited, there will no longer be any capitalists. What has the investor of a factory got  to do with its operation? Absolutely nothing. They simp1y live off the profits and dividends of what is produced there, because you will allow it to be so. He does nothing and gets everything, and you do everything and get nothing. Some deal! Without you society would cease. Society does not need the idle capitalists. They are parasites. They are worse than useless. They simply take what you make, leaving you in poverty. You make  things in great abundance, but you cannot possess them. You can only consume that part of your product which your wage, the price of your labor power, will buy.

If you think  that you ought to have a master to rob you of what you produced—if you think that you are so helpless that you would die unless you had a master to give you a job and take from you all except just enough to keep you working for him; if you think that workers ought to fight each other; if you think that unity, the unity of the union  would be a bad thing for the working class; if you think that your interest is identical with the interest of the capitalist who robs you; if you think that you ought to be in slavish submission to the capitalist who does nothing and gets what you produce; if you think that, then certainly you are a happy wage-slave. As an individual worker you cannot escape from wage-slavery. It is true that one in a million  may become a capitalist but he is the exception that proves the rule. The wage worker in the capitalist system remains the wage worker. There is no escape for you from wage-slavery by yourself.

Having said you cannot alone break out of chains, if you will unite with all other workers who are in the same position that you are;if you will join the organization that represents your whole class, you can develop the power that will achieve your freedom and the equal freedom of all.  No matter who or what a worker may be, if he or she works for wages they are in precisely the same economic position that you are, your class; your comrade.

The Socialist Party has declared war upon the capitalist class, and upon the capitalist system. We say: Arise! It is in your power to put an end to this exploitation. Make yourselves the masters instead of being the slaves to the machine. Abolish the wage system, so that you can be free.  Build the houses and live therein;  plant the orchards and vines and eat the fruit thereof. The workers who sustain and maintain the world, will take possession of the world and turn all into the common property of all. This is the meaning of socialism and is what the Socialist Party stands for. Our demand is modest: We demand the Earth for all the people.

Adapted from here 

Health and safety in sport

Recently, Socialist Courier, touched on the fact that health and safety of rugby players are deliberately overlooked.  Once again more facts are being produced about the long term health risks of contact sports and once again it focusses on head injuries and concussion.

A brain injuries expert has discovered what he believes to be the first confirmed case of early onset dementia caused by playing rugby.

Dr Willie Stewart said the discovery suggested "one or two" players competing in the Six Nations every year may go on to develop the condition.

He examined sections of brain tissue for abnormal proteins associated with head injuries and dementia.The former rugby player had higher levels than a retired amateur boxer.

The boxer had been diagnosed with dementia pugilistica - more commonly known as punch drunk syndrome - which is thought to affect up to 20% of boxers who retire after long careers. Symptoms, which usually appear between 12 and 16 years after the boxer's career begins, can include memory, speech and personality problems, tremors and a lack of coordination. The condition has been recognised for more than a century, and until recently had been thought to only affect boxers who suffered repeated concussive injuries through being punched in the face.

But Dr Stewart said: "What we are finding now is that it is not just in boxers. We are seeing it in other sports where athletes are exposed to head injury in high levels.Those sports include American football, ice hockey and also now I have to say I have seen a case, the same pathology, in somebody whose exposure was rugby."

Obviously the positives of team sports such as rugby outweigh the negatives they also carry but when sport becomes an industry and the individual participants welfare becomes secondary to that industry's interests than our position is that an injury to one, is an injury to all. That entails all means are used to minimise  risk and and eliminate lasting physical damage and the profits and costs be damned!

The Day To Day Struggle

Politicians are always claiming that because of their endeavours we are all better off financially than we have ever been, but the facts disprove this fantasy. 'More than half of UK adults are struggling to keep up with bills and debt repayments, a major survey of people's finances has suggested. Some 52% of the 5,000 people questioned said they were struggling, compared with just 35% in a similar study in 2006, the Money Advice Service said. In Northern Ireland, some 66% said they were struggling.' (BBC News, 2 August) RD

Banking on ethics?

If you think the preceding post calls for a better type of bank and believe the Co-operative Bank, alas, you are mistaken. The difference is simply in the degree not the essence. The Co-operative Bank is a relatively small and “conservatively” run bank that has promoted its ethical business practices.

Former Co-op Bank chief executive Neville Richardson’s left the bank in 2011 with a package worth £4.6 million, including a £1.4 million payment for ‘loss of office’, and the same amount as ‘compensation’ for leaving. The banks financial downgrade to “junk” status by Moody was mainly based on the deterioration in the performance of the loan portfolios the Co-op Bank acquired with its takeover of the Britannia Building Society in 2009 when Richardson was chief executive of the Britannia at the time of the deal.  Like any other business,it has to beat the competition, make profits and accumulate capital. Large institutions like local councils have a fiduciary responsibility to not leave taxpayers’ money in a bank where there are any questions about its solvency.

It looks as if the Coop Bank's difficulty has arisen from "loan repayments" being less than expected, i.e some of their loans not being repaid in full or on time. I would think that there are many businesses and people who would love to have a loan from the Coop Bank. The trouble seems to be that it is having to use the funds it has to increase its capital rather than to make loans. The Co-operative Bank unveiled a rescue plan to tackle the £1.5bn hole in its balance sheet. Most of the capital to be used to plug the hole will come through a "bail in" - a process where bond holders will be offered shares in the bank.

The deal will result in a stock market listing for the group. Many will argue that the culture and practices of the bank are bound to change once its shares are owned by commercial investors. In general, the bank will be more focussed on making profits because of the "need to generate an appropriate return on equity". The bank has always focused on making a profit, that's what co-ops do: it's just a question of who gets the profit. The capital is in the hands of the capitalists, and the bank needs capital to keep going.

An estimated 15,000 retail investors, many of them pensioners, who hold Co-op bank PIBS (permanent interest bearing shares) and preference shares stand to lose at least 40% of their investment plus a large chunk of their income if the plans proposed by the mutual parent, Co-op Group, go ahead. Dividends on the PIBS and preference shares have already been suspended, leaving thousands desperate to know how they will survive. Many are dependent on this income which ranged from around 5% to as high as 13% a year, to supplement their pensions. Until now, PIBS have been regarded as relatively safe – nothing like as risky as shares. As capital issues emerged at the Co-op, the price of its bonds began to fall sharply, hitting the small investors. The PIBS now trade at 60p compared to their face value of 100p and the 160p they were at their peak.

Ethical concerns do not come before business.

The Real Thieves

For many of us Wells Fargo simply recalls all those cowboy western movies we used to watch of stagecoaches being held up by masked bandits.

However Wells Fargo has surpassed the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as the world’s largest bank by market capitalization. It has also amassed almost 40% of the U.S. mortgage market by early 2013. And the real robbers has been Wells Fargo itself.

One for all, all for one

A Labor Day is coming when our starry flag shall wave,
Above a land where famine no longer digs a grave,
Where money is not master, nor the workingman a slave...

All workers have but one enemy — the employing class. All the workers must get together against their common enemy. The struggle of the working class is world-wide. The workers  cannot wage a successful struggle against their own exploiting class and at the same time put their trust in organizations that have been and are hampering and betraying the struggles of their brothers and sisters in other countries. We must join hands with the workers of the world. They have fought our battles which they knew were theirs. We must fight their battles which we know to be ours.

The employers pay as much as they have to pay, in order to secure "the hands" that they need, in order to carry out their profit-making enterprises. They pay what they have to in the open market. In the open labor market your wages are determined by your own economic necessity. If you are destitute enough to offer your labor power for lower price than the other fellow, wages will come down. Standing alone with empty pockets you are no match for the boss with pockets bulging with money, and backed up by an extensive employer organisations and trade  associations.

 Workers learned this long ago that they must match the cartels of the employing class whose aim is exploitation and tyranny and began to start unions, pledging one another not to work below a certain price. If they worked together to get all available workers into the union and if they practised solidarity and bargain collectively, they were able to shift some of the burden of economic necessity from their own shoulders to the employer’s and made him pay the “going rate”

Reformists maintain that we can arrive at “socialism” by winning reforms one after the other. Reformism is trickery used to keep the working class under wage slavery. What they don’t say is that whatever the capitalist has to give up with one hand, he will just take back with the other. Nor is that to say we will no take all the reforms the capitalist is forced into conceding. Those so-called “socialists" advocate activities limited to achieving  immediate demands, denying  the tasks of raising the consciousness of the working class. The fight against reformism  is about stopping the creation of illusions about capitalism. The Left accuse us of the charge that such opposition to reforms is “dividing” the working class,which in itself pre-supposes a preceding unity, and this never existed. Instead of dividing workers we are arousing them from their slavish submission to capitalist domination. Better a thousand times to be divided fighting for freedom than united in the bonds of slavery. The issue for the Socialist Party, therefore, is not that of a “uniting the whole of the workers,” but that of expressing the interests of the working class.  Every socialist knows that to solve the unemployed problem we need the social revolution. Can we immediately unite the whole working class for that? We cannot. There are those that insist on intermediate stages such as nationalisation  and state-ownership.  We know and have pointed out that the State, merely furnish forth better wage-slaves and better organisation for the profit-takers. Even if State employees are well-paid, and are assured of continuous employment, they are still only privileged menials, so long as they are unable conjointly with their fellows to control the entire management of the industrial community. State control of this sort may be better or it may be worse than private control, but brings with it no complete change from competition to co-operation such as we are striving for. Moreover, there is an ever-present danger of  a bureaucracy imposing authoritarianism from above. Furthermore, we cannot  mislead workers  and induce them to think we, too, are merely tinkerers with present forms of social development.  Rather we are working and fighting for a complete social revolution, which shall abolish the State and establish a free association of producers in its stead.

The class struggle is a political struggle. Capitalist society is built upon our sweat and blood, our misery and want. All our victories on the economic field are turned against us, and our economic slavery is reinforced by an absolute political dictatorship of capitalism. Thus our economic struggle must of necessity become a political one. The proletarian struggle ceases to be a struggle for higher wages and shorter hours, and becomes a struggle for the supremacy of the working class.The workers must organise an independent working class mass socialist  party consisting of all workers. A socialist party makes no compromises with the capitalist class. We ask no favors of capitalism and grant it none. We are a movement of revolt against the existing social order, scorning all alliances with th ruling class  and working with all available means for the emancipation of the working class and the abolition of capitalism. The object of a Socialist Party is socialism. To that end the education and organisation of the proletariat and their conversion to socialist principles is essential. We cannot have socialism without socialists. Therefore, the first duty of a Socialist Party is propaganda, in order to make socialists. We declare ourselves for the abolition of the wages system.

While we shall not ourselves advocate a policy of demanding palliatives. The Socialist Party does not oppose every movement of the working class towards improving its condition – even in present circumstances – or in defence of its interests. But our sole purpose is to be the political instrument of the working class.

 “The emancipation  of the working class must be the work of the working class itself,” says the Communist Manifesto. And the “working class” is not a few hundred elected representatives who control society’s destiny with rousing speeches. Even less is it the two or three dozen leaders who occupy government offices. Only with the working class actively co-operating and participating in the overthrow of  capitalism can the socialization of the economy be prepared. If the methods recommended by Socialist Party are not the best we are ready to adopt any methods that can be proven to be better, until then our men and women will go to Parliament with a the sole mandate to establish socialism, not to plead for amelioration or beg for alms. We will not ally ourselves with any non-socialist party that does not share our common socialist aim. It is better for a socialist to fight and be beaten as a socialist than to fight and win under another banner. The struggle for working class emancipation, which finds its expression through a socialist party, must continue, and will increase in intensity until either the ruling class completely subjugates the working class, or until the working class prevails over the capitalist class. There is no middle ground possible.

We wrest control of government from the capitalist class not simply for the purpose of continuing the class struggle on a new level, as has been the case in all previous political revolutions when one class has superseded another in the control of government. It does not mean that the workers and capitalists will merely change places, as many believe. It means the inauguration of an entirely new system of society, in which the exploitation of one person by another will have no place. It means the establishment of a new economic motive for production and distribution. Instead of profit being the ruling motive of industry, as at present, all production and distribution will be for use. As a consequence, the class struggle and economic class antagonisms as we now know them will entirely disappear.  The class struggle must necessarily cease, for there will be no classes. Each individual will be his or her  own economic master, and all will beat the service of the commune, co-operative, or collective. There will be a free community of fellow-workers working for the common good, sharing the fruits of common  ownership and  enjoying the personal emancipation from compulsory toil  and drudgery.

To be free, you must dare to be free. The chains holding us down in wage slavery are our submissiveness and our lack of revolutionary spirit.

We British Workmen

We British workmen, so they say,

Are free; and who can doubt it?

For, if we do not like our pay,
We’re free—to go without it.

Unlike the helpless negro slave.
Our tyrant-driven brother,
If one employer prove a knave,
We’re free—to find another.

H. S. Salt
Labour Leader, 26 May, 1894

The Blue-Bloods of Scotland Mobilise

The Duke of Roxburghe and other members of the nobility have lobbied the government on its moves to help individuals and communities buy land which  has been in the hands of the aristocracy for generations. A Land Reform Review Group (LRRG) has been set up by the Scottish Government to examine ways of increasing community ownership of the land. A forthcoming review of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act will look at granting an absolute right-to-buy for tenant farmers. That would give them the right to buy-out landowners, even if they are unwilling to sell.

The duke owns the Roxburghe Estate, an enterprise with a £10.1 million turnover with Floors Castle, near Kelso, at its heart  and includes the Roxburghe Hotel and a championship golf course.

 The Earl of Seafield at its head, warned against the “fragmentation” of the land and played the ecological environmental green card to justify his extensive ownership of land as of his shooting and hunting grouse moors were run naturally.

James Carnegy-Arbuthnot, director a family company that owns the 3,250-acre Balnamoon  near Brechin described the extension of  right-to-buy legislation as a “highly vexatious proposal in the eyes of landowners” and described“This amounts to the dispossession of land from one person to the advantage of another and has no place in any democratic system.

Atholl Estates, which oversees 145,000 acres in Highland Perthshire, was critical of increasing community ownership as a means of redistributing land, saying: “It certainly should not be used as a tool to politically engineer property ownership away from one group of people to another as this fundamentally undermines Scotland’s credibility as a nation that respects the private sector, free markets and the protection of property rights as a cornerstone of human rights and financial security.”

 Douglas and Angus Estates, which are owned by the family of the former Tory prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and currently under the stewardship of David, the 15th Earl of Home, remarked the current ownership arrangement put the estates at the heart of community life.

The agent for Kinnordy Estates, Kirriemuir, owned by Lord Lyell, former Tory minister said: “In the instance of Kinnordy Estate and its locality to the town of Kirriemuir, I do not believe there is justification for the wider public community to have a stake in ownership, governance, management or use of the land… land and estate management must remain in the hands of those qualified for the task (by merit of both qualification and experience) as demonstrated on Kinnordy Estate.

Land-reform campaigner Andy Wightman said: “I want to live in a land where class distinctions are no longer legitimised by the recognition of aristocratic titles and where the principle of equality underpins access to land rights… I want to live in a country that finally puts an end to the centuries of landed power and returns the land to the people of Scotland – both men and women.”

Half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people, many of them those relics from feudal time who believe they have a birth-right to “their” land.

What Will A Socialist World Look Like

Marx refrained from offering future generations any instructions or blueprints. Nowhere in Marx is there to be found a detailed account of the new social system which was to follow capitalism. Marx wrote no “Utopia”. Socialist society of the future will be for the socialist generations themselves to decide upon and organise. It was Auguste Blanqui, the French revolutionary who said: “Tomorrow does not belong to us.”

However, we can project general principles and note what will be redundant in socialism. We can outline the broad features of the new society and the way in which it would develop.  Actual socialist society, like all previous forms of society, will come into existence on the basis of what already existed before it. We do not start with a blank page. Capitalist society has actually prepared the way for socialism. Production has become increasingly social and the process of production has linked  together a very large number of people in the course of transforming raw materials into the finished article and  crated a greater and greater interdependence between people.  It is because the fact that capitalist production is now the co-operative work of all society that it can no longer be the property of one individual or group but instead it should be the common property of all.  Production is carried out by workers and  the transfer of ownership to society as a whole does not essentially alter their work. Therefore the working class can take over immediately. In a socialist world production will not be not for profit but for use. There will be no new division into classes, because in a socialist society there is nothing to give rise to it. Socialism will not be perfect but there will no longer be a struggle between opposing classes. The State will shrivel away.

Capitalism condemns those of us to poverty, enforced idleness, and hunger which it cannot employ for the purpose of enriching the capitalist class.  Our capitalist society is based on the waste and the squandering of resources and energy. Consider the waste of militarism and war. Just think of it! Billions a year wasted on the arms trade under the present system. Billions expended on advertising to promote consumerism. Millions of  people, engaged in all kinds of useless, non-productive occupations in capitalism such as sales-persons.

Laziness is a social malady, a legitimate response in our system, which offers ample role-models encouraging laziness. It assures all riches, all the pleasures of life to those who work the least possible, to the idle rich and to the social parasites. Sloth develops from the intolerable conditions of forced and excessive labour in unhealthy factories. How can a people work with enthusiasm when they know that their work will go to the enrichment of others? The typical grasping individualist, with no sense of social or collective responsibility, is the capitalist surrounded by competitors, all struggling to survive by cheating and corruption. These ideas of the dominant class – the competition and rivalry instead of solidarity – tend to infect the workers, especially those favoured by the employers for special advancement.

When the producers know that the products of their work will belong to them they will throw overboard the reluctance which forced labour engenders in them. Work well-regulated and properly apportioned will become attractive. It will become a joy and a pleasure, and this is because work is necessary for the physical and mental well-being of man. Even within capitalist society there is what is known as “solidarity” among the workers – the sense of a common interest, a common responsibility. The workers have at their disposal a thousand means of organising administration, control and division of products – Workers councils, factory committees, trade unions, co-operatives, etc., etc. There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome in a society that is based on labour and not on profit.

There would be a certain amount of necessary work to be done which would be usually repellant; some of this, probably the greater part of it, would be performed by machinery; and it must be remembered that machinery would be improved and perfected without hesitation when the restrictions laid on production by the exigencies of profit-making were removed. But nevertheless some of this work may not able to be done by machinery and so  volunteers would have to be relied upon. It is not foreseen that there will be any difficulty in obtaining them, considering that the habit of looking upon necessary labour from the point of view of social obligation would be universal, and  such work will be spread amongst many which would remove objections to work usually disliked.

The future alone can tell what will be the precise forms and special methods of organisation.  However, try and imagine the new society as an organised body of communities, each carrying on its own affairs, but united by a delegated federal body. It is to be understood that these two bodies, the township (or community) and the federation, would be the two poles but between there would be many other expressions of the decentralised principle, -- as in districts and regions  that were linked together by natural circumstances, such as language, climate, or the divisions of physical geography.

 The Socialist Party task is convincing people that a socialist is desirable and is possible. When we have enough people of that way of thinking, they will find out what action is necessary for putting their principles in practice. The Socialist Party accepts that, for the moment,  workers do not believe in their own capacity to undertake the management of affairs and unprepared to take responsibility for running society in their own interests.

Remember Our Past, Organise Our Future

Blowing the whistle on freedom

BRADLEY MANNING

The Socialist Standard wrote:
"Your brain is the greatest weapon you possess; your ability to communicate is your tool of liberation; thinking, speaking and organising democratically and intelligently you are a force that cannot be defeated."

Falkirk - Labour Party Attacking the Unions

After all the headlines about the Falkirk MP-selection rigging by the Unite union have  Radio Scotland described the row as “much ado about nothing”, reflecting the view of the police who said they would not investigate the allegations due to lack of evidence.

Investigative reporter Hannah Barnes said: “There was, as far as we can see, no major vote rigging scandal in Falkirk. And there will be no police prosecutions. The selection debacle there was much ado about nothing. But it was the catalyst – some might say excuse – for a historic shift in Labour’s financial relationship with the unions. The battle for Falkirk will soon be forgotten but the consequences for Labour will be felt for many years to come.”

Apart from Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman (and a handful of senior party staff), almost no-one involved in the key decisions about Falkirk, have been allowed to read the full report of the party’s secret investigation that was conducted by one member of the party compliance unit and one “young Labour activist based in Scotland.”

Some of those who it was claimed did not know they were members are quoted as having “said they had been asked whether they wanted to join and said they did.” They were in any case not members of Unite, and their membership fees were not paid by Unite.

 Ed Miliband and his advisers specifically led an attack on Unite and Len McCluskey himself telling him to face up to “malpractice” and insisting the union should not be defending “machine politics“.

 Socialist Courier can only say that sooner the unions and the working class ditch their misplaced and misguided allegiance to the Labour Party, the better for us all. The Labour Party (and their leaders) have shown their loyalty is to the ruling class over and over again throughout its miserable existence and it is now time for every trade unionist to cease their political levy and call upon their union to dis-affiliate from the Labour Party forthwith..

The gravy train

Former Glasgow Govan Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar is to be appointed governor of Punjab, the largest state in Pakistan. Its governor is considered to the the third most senior figure in the government of Pakistan. 

Sarwar's son, Anas Sarwar, went on to win the Westminster seat vacated by his father in the May 2010 general election. He was appointed deputy leader of the Scottish Labour party in 2011.

Socialist Work

HOW IT IS AND HOW IT COULD BE

The basis of all societies is the production of goods necessary to life. In the present time, production is dominated by the capitalist, possessor of money, owner the factory and the machines, buyer of the raw materials, the hirer of the workers who  produce the goods which then can be sold and provide the capitalist with profit and privilege. Labour relations under capitalism is a system of squeezing, workers must be driven to the utmost exertion of their powers, either by punitive powers or by the more gentler arts of persuasion. So long as we have wage slavery it matters not in the least how debasing and degrading a task may be, it is easy to find people to perform it. Under capitalism the majority of human beings are not human beings at all, but simply machines of flesh for the creating of wealth for others.

Private property is the enemy of human happiness, for it creates inequality and established authority serves no other purpose than the sanctioning of property property. Socialists want to replace private property with common ownership. We stand for equality. When we say equality we don’t claim that all men will have the same brain, the same physical attributes: we know that there will always be diversity in intellectual and physical aptitudes.

There will be engineers and labourers: this is obvious but neither will be considered superior to the other, since the work of the engineer is useless without the collaboration of the labourer, and vice versa.

A question often asked is: “What about  the lazy? Those who do not want to work”

Today, the average person works a 8 hour day, 5 day week. Many workers are in jobs that are absolutely useless to society, in particular those in the armed forces and armament factories. Add to this a considerable number who produce nothing and are only necessary in capitalism: cashiers, bank and insurance staff, paper-pushers in the civil service, etc.

Much  useless work can be done by machines, used not as now to cut costs and grind out profit, but to save labour in unnecessary routine work to release people from the monotonous tasks.

We can thus say, without being accused of exaggeration, that when this pool of available workers is re-deployed and redirected away from  socially wasteful labour, the work-day and working week would decrease.  A society where all would work together would have to ask of each of its able-bodied members an effort of only two or three hours a day, a few days a week, perhaps less. Variety of life is as much an aim of socialism as equality of condition, and that nothing but an union of these two will bring about real freedom.
 As Marx wrote as early as 1845 “In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”


Who would then refuse to give such a small quantity of labour in return for consuming according to his needs, which is to say, as he wishes? Who would want to live with the shame of being held in contempt by all and being considered a parasite? Our system of artificial shortage has engendered a fear of an abundance, filling our minds  with the customs and norms of commercial and competitive society.

Work in itself is not unpleasant. Many will toil in their garden or allotments for leisure. Many will engage in all manner of DIY and handicrafts as a hobby. Many will volunteer their help to charities. Some will offer to risk their lives to serve on a lifeboat or in a mountain rescue team. So even in our sham society most men are not disinclined to work, so long as their work is not that which they are compelled to do. But work under capitalism is inhuman for the workers and is compelled by the threat of deprivation, and the labour is without genuine interest, in  monotonous, repetitive jobs, where men and women are often driven to the point of exhaustion that the body can barely sustain. Therefore it is not unnatural that we witness an aversion amongst workers for their work, and how experts conclude that productive work, by its very nature, is repulsive to people , and must be imposed upon the unwilling by threat and bribery, the stick and the carrot. Yet, saying all this about compulsory labour, the work-place can also become a centre of community and fellowship. Some socialist suggest that the ideal of the future does not point to the lessening of men's energy by the reduction of labour to a minimum, but rather to the reduction of pain in labour to a minimum, so small that it will cease to be a pain.

Socialists assert that the community should hold all wealth in common and that everyone should have free access but their needs are not necessarily determined by the kind or amount of work which each person does. The fact that they are human beings with a capacity for work is enough. It is to be understood that each member of a socialist society is absolutely free to use their share of the communal wealth as they please, without any interference. This will minimise the possibility  of the community falling into bureaucracy, with the multiplication of committees, and all the paraphernalia of official authority, which is a socially wasteful  burden, even when it is exercised by the delegation of the whole people and in accordance with their wishes.

The question then now arises how is it to be done? A political party of the working class is the how. The Socialist Party declares that political power should be in the hands of those who intend to employ it for the overthrow of the present system, understanding by political power not merely the power of voting, but the possession of the whole administrative state system – the complete control of all executive functions. This, then, is the immediate object to be striven for; not mere reforms. Workers shall come together in those countries where elections are permitted and vote the capitalists out and vote ourselves in and with that political power we will take the means of production away from the capitalists control. It may not be all that simple and straight forward a task in all circumstance and thre may indeed be defeats and set-backs but there exists no other  alternatives despite claims to the contrary.

“The Socialist movement is not the coinage of one man, of one body of men, or of one nation; it is the expression at once of a necessary phase of economic evolution, and of a yearning which fills the hearts of the people of all countries and nations throughout the civilised world to-day – a yearning which individuals may formulate, but which no individual can create.” - William Morris

Expoloitation In Action

Apple likes to portray itself as an ultra-modern progressive firm but its exploitation of workers can beat anything from the 19th century. It uses Pegatron factories in China to manufacture iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. 'An undercover investigation of three Pegatron factories employing 70,000 workers found 76 legal and ethical breaches, including poor conditions, withheld pay, forced illegal overtime and safety and environmental abuses, according to China Labor Watch, a leading workers' rights group.' (Times, 30 July) The report  goes on to say that the average hourly wage of Pegatron factory workers is 97p per hour and that Apple's weekly revenue at the end of last year was £2.7bn. RD

No American Dream

Social mobility in America is practically non-existent. The New York Times reveals that American children have very little chance of climbing out of the social and economic class that they’re born into.

According to the NYT study, a third of Americans studied who grew up in the top 1 percent made $100,000 by the age of 30. Only 1 out of every 25 Americans who grew up in the bottom half of America’s income distribution was making the same amount at the same age.

Income inequality has increased in nearly every state in the country over the past three decades.

The incomes for the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans are eight times greater than those at the bottom 20 percent.

Real wages have been falling for decades. What the corporations want is a surplus of labor supply. With surplus labor, wages generally do not rise and therefore all the gains from productivity increase will go to profit, not wages. With profit as the goal – workers and services will be reduced to increase profit.

We are the People

"The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority" - The Communist Manifesto

"The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves" - The First International

Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution. Socialists say plainly that mere reform of existing society is impossible, or if possible, useless. The Socialist Party is not concerned whether this revolution  comes next year or next century that is not a question that matters to us. It is bound to come sometime and the party’s task is to do all it can to hasten its coming (although we all personally want to be there to celebrate its coming and its triumph)

For the first time since the beginning of human history, a great upheaval will have for its aim, not the substitution of one class for another, but the destruction of classes with the common good as its object. Let it be clearly understood that by revolution we do not mean violence or bloodshed.  A new socialist  system cannot be created by a minority. It can only function with the approval of an immense majority.  It is this majority that will create from capitalistic chaos, the social property, co-operative and communal. How, then, can a system based on the free collaboration of all be instituted against the will, or even without the will, of the greater number? It can only succeed by the general and almost unanimous desire of the community.  Precisely because socialism is precisely is not the regime of a minority that it cannot, therefore, and ought not, to be imposed by a minority.  The Socialist Revolution will be brought about by the will of all of the majority and by the power of a majority. Mass socialist consciousness and mass participation are essential.

The Socialist Party does not shy away from apportioning some fault with the working class. The capitalist class and the working-class stand openly opposed to each other. The class lines are clearly defined. There is no mistaking who is a capitalist and who is a workman, who is rich and who is poor. We all know that the capitalist class are the 1% and we are the 99%. That is to say, we are in  are in the clear majority yet we suffer the capitalist class to rule us. If that is what workers want, that is what workers will get and as long as they are satisfied with the capitalists’ domination they will have to continue to submit to it.

In this current crisis we in the Socialist Party must offer a wider perspective of their problems and articulate the workers anger into a wider view of how to transform society. Unless that is done, their anger can all too easily sink back into apathy. The Socialist Party appeals to our fellows in all lands to work for the interests of themselves and of others, in order to bring about, even in our own day, the Social Revolution which can alone give freedom and happiness to mankind. We appeal  to the working class to come together in one class-conscious solidarity. We present the politics of revolt. We are educating, we are agitating, we are organising, that is to way we are preparing for the revolution.

 As the workers anthem the International says no "saviours from on high" will free us

More pay restraint ahead

CBI Scotland has urged the Scottish Parliament not to support a living wage.

CBI Scotland's senior policy executive Lauren Paterson said: "Pay restraint has played an important role in supporting current levels of employment...Pay restraint is set to continue with containing labour costs cited as the second-highest workforce priority for businesses in the next 12 months...decisions on pay must be left at the discretion of the individual business, taking into account their wider business strategy, including affordability."

Dave Watson, Scottish organiser of Unison, said: "One of the primary causes of the longest and deepest recession for a generation has been the shift from wages into profits...It's the fat-cat pay of the CBI bosses that is out of control."

Britain's workers are suffering the most protracted squeeze on their incomes since the long depression of the 1870s and are now well into their fourth year of falling real wages. High inflation and stagnant pay for many workers mean that real wages have now fallen for 40 months, according to calculations by the TUC. It says that is the longest such stretch of financial pain since 1875 to 1878, when the world economy was mired in the so-called long depression.

Economists say there is little prospect of wages outstripping inflation any time soon. TUC senior economist Duncan Weldon said: "At the very, very best it will be mid-2014 and even then it will take lots of time to make up the lost ground."

money goes to money

The names of more than 19,000 landowners and farmers who annually receive public subsidies totalling more than £500 million are to be kept secret. It follows a ruling in November 2010 by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg that publishing the information breached people's rights to privacy.

The last time the subsidy information was released in 2010, four farmers in Scotland were given record handouts of more than £1m each. Other big landowners given hundreds of thousands of pounds included the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Morton, the Earl of Moray, the Earl of Rosebery and the Earl of Seafield.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/under-wraps-500m-of-public-cash-given-to-landowners.21721630

The Only Solution

Many people will say “socialism is a good idea but it cannot be realised in practice.”

No blueprint can be given but socialists must at least present various scenarios as well as what is possible and not possible. Socialism is the organization of production for use by means of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production, is the abolition of all classes and class differences.

Socialism offers a vision of a new society — a society of men and women living in mutual helpfulness and good will; a free, equal, and happy society of peace and abundance.  Socialism is the overthrow of the capitalist system, and the establishing in its place of a Co-operative Commonwealth.  Capitalism has only known how to cause humanity unhappiness; socialism will establish peace and happiness among men.

We cannot present what a socialist utopia would look like. This decision is not ours to make. All we can do is to help provide that spark that will help people to arrive at their own conclusions.

Being a socialist consists not in waiting for its actual realisation, but in striving, here and now for it.  Our theory is a guide to action. Only by deeds can socialism come about. Being a socialist is not merely in recognizing the trend of social evolution from capitalism to socialism endeavouring to help hasten its day. Being a socialist is not only holding a  vision that life will be better under socialism; that human nature, crippled and deformed in the class society, will assert itself and change for the better; and that people in the socialist society will be different and better but requires going beyond just words to achieve it.

Time and again the socialist struggle has been sidetracked by the appearance of a so-called radical leader who held out the promise of immediate victory and salvation. Time and again  people believed in the false prophet only to reap a heavy harvest of bitter disappointment.

The Socialist Party is not a party of patchwork reform, or a party of sham revolutionary phrases but, as a social democratic party, promoting within the working class movement a programme of education in the economic and political struggle. The goal of the Socialist Party is socialism, not  a reformed capitalism. Its tactics must be those that will bring about socialism. The Socialist  Party call on all socialists to fight the political fight on the straight ticket of revolutionary socialism. A reformist programme can be nothing but a reactionary capitalist programme to-day. We of the World Socialist Movement will fight this fight on the principle of the abolition of the private ownership of property. 

For a new future

No sane person  can be satisfied with the present system. It is a question of human freedom versus human slavery and it is only the rich and powerful who are happy by right.

Socialism is not some utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Socialism will bring social ownership of social production. Socialism will be won through the overthrow of capitalism and the capture of political power by the working class.  In socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society.  Because the workers will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures.

 It is a question not of reform, the mask of fraud,  but of revolution that the propagandists and apologists for the status quo have falsely associated with “anarchy and bloodshed.” Electoral struggle will  be one tactic among many. It is the most reliable, the most probable, and, at the right moment, the most decisive weapon in the workers armoury. But the actual manner in which the revolutionary process will develop and progress cannot be predicted. It may well not be a straight line to the electoral capture of power.  It will be something that people will forge out of the concrete experiences of engaging in the class struggle.

Our vision of socialism see the means of production – the factories, mines, mills, big workshops, offices, agricultural fields, banks, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, big retailers, etc.,being  transformed into common property of all. Production  will not be geared to make  profit, but to serve human needs. Rational self-regulating planning will replace the present anarchistic system. The working class must get rid of the ruling class exploiters, and put themselves in possession and control of the means of production. Workers will democratically run their own work places through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society’s. Although there will be no overnight miracles when socialism is first established,  the way will be cleared to achieve a decent, meaningful and productive life for all working people. Classes will disappear, the state will “wither” away, we will realise the object of “from each according to one’s ability, to each according to one’s need.”

 A new era of human freedom will arise. The world’s population will have free access to the wealth their labor produces, all of it, and enjoy with their families and friends and neighbors, the fruits of their industry in comfortable and happy homes, and share abundant and wholesome food, proper clothing and all other things necessary to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” How quickly this Earth can be transformed and made to blossom with beauty.

 The Socialist party offers the only remedy to the problems of to-days world, which is socialism and we are pledged to abolish the capitalist system, class-rule and wage-slavery and establish in its place an industrial and social democracy in which the workers shall be in control of industry and the people shall rule. We are pledged not to compromise our objective nor enter into alliance with non-socialist parties. It is simply a question of capitalism or socialism and those who are not wholly with us are wholly against us.

in its place an industrial and social democracy in which the workers shall be in control of industry and the people shall rule.

Who owns the North Pole Part 61

The UK is "complacently standing by" as firms start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic, a group of MPs has said. The Environmental Audit Committee said this was despite oil companies being unable to prove "they could clean up an oil spill in such harsh conditions".

It called for a halt to new drilling, saying it was risky for the climate and the environment. Exploring for new reserves in the Arctic is therefore "needlessly risky", the MPs argued.

"What happens in the Arctic will affect the UK, impacting our weather systems and biodiversity," committee chairwoman Joan Walley said. "Yet this government is complacently standing by and watching new oil and gas drilling in the region." She added: "The rapidly-disappearing Arctic sea ice should be a wake-up call for this government to tackle climate change, not pave the way for a corporate carve-up of the region's resources."

Greenpeace UK political director Ruth Davis said the present government stance on drilling for oil in the Arctic suggests "its real interests lie in promoting the irresponsible plans" of oil companies.

Blood Sports

Former Scotland internationalist Rory Lamont has lifted the lid on rugby players “cheating” concussion protocols and insisted many well-known figures are knowingly taking the field with head injuries. When Lamont started pro rugby concussion brought a mandatory three-week lay-off, but that was argued, largely by coaches, to be over-prescriptive in cases of minor concussion. Coaches flouted it in any case by pretending concussion had not occurred.

The 30-year-old retired last month after a succession of injuries, undergoing 16 operations and suffering “at least six or seven clean knock-outs” in games, and many more what he terms “minor concussions”. He explained “... there is a high risk of me developing neurological issues associated with the early stages of ‘Parkinson’s Disease’. But what’s done is done...Once you start losing your mind there’s no coming back from it. You can be an alcoholic and have cirrhosis of the liver, and get a new liver and come off the booze, but there’s no coming back from brain damage.”

 US experts have begun investigating  potential links between depression and suicide in former American Footballers who suffered from concussion, through the ‘Boston Brain Bank’ – the Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University.  In the United States, former NFL players are now suing the league over the use of the powerful anti-inflammatory drug Toradol. They argue that the medication masked the pain of head injuries and led them to play on and suffer concussions as result. Lawsuits have been filed against the league in federal court alleging that the NFL failed to acknowledge and address neurological risks associated with the sport and then deliberately failed to tell players about the risks they faced. The players say that sometimes they were lined up in what they termed a 'cattle call' and injected with the drug whether they were injured or not. Similar concerns have been expressed in NHL, where hockey players are paid to inflict and to absorb pain and can become addicted to painkillers.

Dr Jiri Dvorak found that almost 40% of players at the 2010 World Cup were taking pain medication prior to every game. Experts say that painkilling medication can be particularly dangerous in professional sport. In high-intensity exercise like football, a player's kidneys are continuously working hard, making them more vulnerable to damage from strong drugs. And the risks of using nsaids are not just confined to the kidneys and liver. There are also worries over their impact on hearts. Dr Stuart Warden from the University of Indiana is an expert in the use of these drugs by athletes."There is an elevated risk of cardio vascular side-effects with almost all nsaids and the risk increases with duration of use."

A study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine reveals that the risk of injury in football may have been played down, at least at the professional level. The Center for Hazard and Risk Management at Loughborough University found that players had a 12 percent risk of injury every game. More significantly, they reported that almost a third of professional players would suffer at least one injury this season.
''The injury rate, is about 1,000 times what you'd find in industry,'' said Dr. Colin Fuller, a lecturer of health and safety management at the center and director of the study. ''It works out to every employee having a reportable injury once every three weeks, which, of course, would be completely unacceptable.'' Only a third of the injuries resulted from fouls. The rest involved legal contact between opposing players.

"Soccer is not a sport. It is a knee killer" said Alwin Jaeger, MD, chairman of orthopedic surgery at the University of Frankfurt in Germany.

According to a 2006 report in the Florida paper St. Petersburg Times, for every season a player spends on an NFL roster, his life expectancy decreases by almost three years.The average American male lives to be almost 75. According to the Times report, an NFL player, whose career lasts roughly four years on average, lives to be 55.

Self-harm for the love of the sport or is it the sporting industry’s love of the profits and the players are only fodder?