Knightsbridge Bargain

While many workers scrimp and save in an effort to get together a deposit for a mortgage it is worthwhile looking at how the owning class live. 'An allotted space in an underground car park has gone on sale for £400,000. The space, near the Royal Albert Hall, Knightsbridge, is large enough for a Rolls-Royce Phantom and comes with metal lockable doors.' (Times, 13 February) You homeless workers will be glad to know that the agent Hobart Slater said "We've already had plenty of interest in the space." RD

Reformism and Deformism

The revolt against the ruling class was never so much alive as today. The ruthless march of capital is daily recruiting and making rebels out of both the young and old by grinding down wages to the point of bare subsistence. As a consequence workers are becoming more revolutionary than ever before. All over the world the ruling classes are busy devising measures to stem the rising tide. Even in the United States the “conspiracy of silence” has ended and socialism is once again being discussed from press and platform. Meanwhile the Socialist Party of Great Britain as an organisation and its companion parties in the World Socialist Movement has failed to make a corresponding growth. The Socialist Party of the future must find its strength.

Socialists concern themselves with analysing the capitalist system, pointing out its defects and advocating the replacing of the capitalist system by the collective ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. Socialism is not advanced necessarily in response to or because of great economic  distress. These crises may point out the fact that something is wrong but the suggestion of the remedy and the cure for these ills is quite a different problem. Socialism is our immediate demand. The overthrow of capitalism is our only platform. The purpose for the Socialist Party is not that of a “uniting the whole of the workers,” but that of expressing the interests of the working class and encouraging its fighting class-conscious spirit.

 Reformist demands are like shopping lists and this isn’t surprising since political parties try to collect the maximum number of votes so as to get themselves elected to government. They’re a hodge-podge collection in which everybody can find something which pleases them, a package of electoral promises for one and all. To go out amongst the people and try to get them to vote for our candidates merely because we promise them some palliative amelioration is to enter into competition with the Labour Party and its left-wing on their own ground, for there is no earthly reason why the workers should prefer our brand of reforms to those of these others. We can offer no more and no better reforms than can any other party under capitalism and the workers would be entirely correct if, on the basis of an appeal for reforms, they would turn their backs to us and vote for the more electable parties. We distinguish ourselves fundamentally from all reformist groups by carrying on a campaign solely for socialism, which is not only correct but common sense. The Socialist Party refuses to have anything to do with dangling the hook and bait of immediate demands for acquiring votes. The Socialist Party declines to transform itself into a mere vote-catching machine.

 Concessions gained are by-products of the class struggle, not our aim, and gained only because of our strengthened position against, and over the opposition of the capitalist parties. If we fail to educate, to organise and to prepare the working class for a clear understanding of, and for the attainment of the socialist objective, temporary concessions gained can, instead of becoming partial victories on the way, be turned into retardation of the struggle. It is absolutely necessary to make clear our object and the limitations of immediate partial demands and not to arithmetically add new demands for every ill of the present situation appearing as solutions in themselves, such ends only in reformism pure and simple.

Day-to-day struggles must be subordinated by a socialist party to the realisation of the final goal. The pursuit of immediate objectives, reforms within the framework of the capitalist system supposedly means evolution from capitalism to socialism results in the strategy that the movement is everything, the final aim is nothing. The reformists set their demands as ends in themselves. They sow confusion in the minds of the workers.  The reformist platforms in practice cannot bring us closer to our revolutionary goal. It leads in another direction. It will not serve to develop class consciousness through struggle because the struggle, which it is conducting, is based on reformist premises.

If the socialist movement and the labour movement are ever to become one it will be necessary for socialism to be raised beyond an utopian aspiration. Workers require a concrete goal towards which to strive, which it comes nearer to with every battle. Every effort that preserves or increases the self-consciousness of the proletariat or its spirit of co-operation and discipline, is worth the making. Victory will not he born out of degradation, as many have believed.

Workers have a sense of realism and to put forth propositions outside of the realms of possible achievement under existing conditions then workers will give no serious support to an appeal for their backing on the basis of immediate demands that are manifestly unrealisable under the given conditions. Let us leave reformers to wrangle over reforms. Such a policy cannot mobilise the workers under the socialist banner but on the contrary helps to put new life into an otherwise rather feeble social reformism. Let us make our chief task to spread the propaganda of revolution.

There can be no peace and no unity between the exploiter and victim. There is no more unity between the employer and employee than there is between the robber and the robbed. There is a clash of interests. There is antagonism. The capitalist strives to secure for himself as much of the workers’ product as he can get by force or fraud or both; the workers, resisting exploitation, strive to get as big a share of their own product as they can force the boss to yield. That is fundamental. That is the law of capitalist society. It is the division of classes. It is the never ending class conflict as long as capitalism lasts. Capitalist society is a battle ground and the workers are an army on the march against the enemy. The State is not neutral, nor an ally it sometimes pretends to be.

There are many more struggles. Each day brings its own tasks. Each step the capitalists and their State demands new struggles of the workers. These struggles are not separated from each other. They are intertwined into a united whole. One struggle helps another. One victory makes others more easy. All of them strengthen the working class. All of them weaken the capitalist system. These struggles have not been invented. They are a necessity. They are an outcome of existing conditions. They are vital to the very existence of the workers. These struggles will be the more effective, the greater the masses that participate in them and the stronger their unity and will to fight. The Socialist Party is against the opportunism which concentrates the attention of the workers on immediate demands while posing socialism as some distant and ultimate goal.

Fact of the Day

14th February 1937 --  Emma Goldman speaks in Glasgow to an audience of 600 on "The Part of the CNT-FAI in the Spanish Revolution" in the afternoon; & in Paisley on "The CNT-FAI & Collectivisation" in the evening

Human Misery

Capitalism is a destructive society that causes intense suffering as figures from just one part of the world shows. 'More than 130,000 people have been killed in Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The U.N. has given up counting, saying it could no longer do so with any accuracy. 2.3 million Syrians have official refugee status and 6.5 million others are displaced within Syria out of a total population of 23 million.' (Associated Press, 25 January) These are just statistics but think of what it represents in real human suffering. RD

Our Goal is Socialism

Many people, especially Labour Party supporters, propagate the view that the Socialist Party is so concerned with the revolution that we do nothing to secure immediate reforms and that ignoring the needs of workers and by opposing reform we were preventing the workers from getting the immediate relief.  Socialism they contended is a long way off, the workers don’t want it, and consequently we utopians. The Socialist Party does not reject reforms but we do not view reforms as ends in themselves. It is the struggle for socialism which is all important. The Socialist Party has demonstrated that with the socialisation of the means of production there can be an increasing standard of life for all.

Socialism cannot be created by a minority. It can only function with the approval of an immense majority.  In the enormous task of social construction, the immense majority of the citizens must co-operate. We must never forget the object of the Socialist Revolution is the common good. In the socialist system, co-ordination of effort will not be maintained by the authority of one class over another, but will come as the result of the free will of associated members of society. 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. Destined for the benefit of all, it must be prepared and accepted by almost all; because the power behind an immense majority discourages the last efforts to resist its will.  Socialism is not the regime of a minority and it cannot be imposed by a minority. The socialist revolution will be brought about by the will and by the power of a majority. Democracy is the essential basis for building up a socialist system of production. Only under the influence of democracy does the proletariat attain that maturity which it needs to be able to bring about socialism, and democracy supplies the surest means for testing its maturity.

The State in a class-divided society can be nothing other than an instrument in the hands of the class owning the property and means of production in society. The talk of “reconciling class interests” is simple deceit. It is impossible to reconcile the interests of the slave owner and the slave, the exploiter and the exploited. Parliament grew out of feudalism and after the capitalist revolution developed as the natural custodian of the interests of capitalism. It was founded on private property foundations. Its laws are the laws of private property. The modifications that have taken place, the extension of the franchise and the growth of social legislation for the working-class are the reflection of the growing strength and power of the working-class. Parliament reflects the class struggle in its work, the more the capitalists attempt to use it as the means to regulate capitalist economy, the more they are impeded by the increasing claims of the workers. The “safety valve” thus becomes no longer “safe” for private property.

  For these reasons the Socialist Party oppose all efforts to stop the advance of the workers through Parliament. We call upon the workers to make the machine of Parliament effective for economic change. There lies the only chance of a transformation of capitalism into socialism without resorting to violence.Workers must use not only the weapon of mass organisation on the industrial field, but the weapon of parliamentary democracy, won in the past by reason of working class power. It must set itself, by using the machine of Parliament, by adapting it and changing it to serve new purposes, to win power so that it shall transfer into the hands of the exploited the means of production. It must wage the class struggle on the political arena if class domination is to end. A socialist and working-class movement fighting relentlessly for socialism and in that fight combating the day to day attacks of the employers is the only way to defeat capitalism. The wealth produced by the workers, for the first time in history, will become the common possession of all people, not just of a group of property owners.

The Socialist Party has since our inception as a party proclaimed the unity of interest of the workers the world over, and the antagonism of interest between the workers of the world and the master class. The principles which we had proclaimed and acted upon in “peace” were sufficient to guide us in war. Socialists in any country had only to stand faithfully by them to keep the name “socialist” free from reproach, and to retain the confidence of those who looked in hope toward our movement. In the face of the tricksters, the mis-leaders, and capitalist agents we declared the unity of interest of the world’s workers and proclaimed again the class struggle.

To-day the worker goes into the labour market as an article of merchandise with a price tag, that is, his or her wage. Herded together in slums, half starved and ill educated, the workers eke out a miserable existence. The evils with which we are confronted are not temporary or accidental, but are the necessary outcome of the system of society itself. As long as that system remains its results will become more and more pronounced, and its effects increasingly felt by the working class. Suffering from want and haunted by fear of want, life is a burden to the working class today.

Socialism – the only hope of the toiling masses – was proudly acclaimed as the beacon for the toilers of the globe in the struggles of the future. When anxious eyes search the horizon for some flickering beam to give them direction, and weary ears listen tensely for some encouraging sound to give them hope and the strength that comes with hope, they will discern the one and hear the other in the message that we sent out to the world in arms – that the workers of the world are one and the master class their enemies.

We in the Socialist Party are proud to declare before the people of the world that we are Marxian communists. We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We believe that the principles  for which we stand should end impoverishment and win the Earth. We seek a world in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease, when the evolution of human society to new and higher forms shall become possible to all mankind, when peace shall be enjoyed by all. Those who state that the Socialist Party extols catastrophe as a condition of the growth of socialist  influence, we say it is they produce the misery. It is the capitalist system which produces the disasters. We socialists do not need these conditions to develop our influence. We urge no pessimism, no sense of frustration. The future is ours. The Socialist Party has never been more optimistic, never more certain, never more determined to achieve the goal of socialism than we are on this day in the year 2014.

American Nightmare

The USA is often depicted as the embodiment of the virtues of modern capitalism but we are indebted to the American journalist  Paul Krugman for this expose of its less than perfect characteristics. 'What do we know about long-term unemployment in America? First, it's still at near-record levels. Historically, the long-term unemployed - those out of work for 27 weeks or more - have usually been between 10 and 20 per cent of total unemployment. Today the number is 35.8 per cent. Yet extended unemployment benefits, which went into effect in 2008, have now been allowed to lapse. As a result, few of the long-term unemployed are receiving any kind of support.' (New York Times, 9 February) Hardly the American dream is it? RD

Dying To Work

The owning class hate to see workers not working. After all they rely on them to produce the surplus value the owners live on. In addition the owning class have got to pay out sickness benefits. Last year they reckon it cost about £13 billion. The present government have appointed the company Atos to overhaul the benefits system. Its findings have not been without its critics though. 'One 39-year old woman from Livingston, near Edinburgh, was judged fit to work just weeks before she died. A heart and lung transplant patient from Essex died nine days after being declared well enough for employment.' (Sunday Times, 9 February) RD

Anarchy of the Market

 Socialism is not some happy Utopia, which we ought to establish but a future system which we MUST attain.  As the working class fights against its increasingly worsened position it comes to the realisation that the only way out is for it to collectively take what it has produced for itself. To take over the means of production, the mines, mills, factories, resources, utilities and run them for the benefit of everybody. Then we will have production for use and not for profit. Then we will end both despotism in the factory and chaos of the market. Then society will allocate its resources according to a social plan that will benefit all, a rational system of society.

 According to the prices on the market, men are employed or fired, millions made or lost, wealth produced or not, countries rise or fall. Competition between buyer and buyer, between buyer and seller, between seller and seller, between the capitalists and the workers, among the capitalists themselves and among the workers, all this transforms society into a veritable jungle where each is for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Charity, love, mercy, and such ideals find little realization in the market place. The whole world lives for exchange. In a thousand ways, the lives of the workers are worn out prematurely with a wantonness and criminal irresponsibility. Simultaneously the parasitic class increases in numbers, completely divorced from the process of production, interested only in the stocks and bonds they own. Under capitalist competition there is no order, no plan, no authority in the market to control it.

In this labour market buyer and seller do not occupy equal positions. The buyer is a capitalist with wealth and reserves. As a relatively small group, the capitalist may combine their forces against the laborers, sellers of labour power, and may make impossible those combinations of labor that can strengthen the bargaining power of the sellers. The capitalist buyers have at their disposal an army of well-paid henchmen, politicians, soldiers, police, lawyers, brain-washing intellectual leaders and such as those controlling the communication and education media, the church and religious leaders who preach of “turning the other cheek,” and similar. On the side of the workers are hunger, poverty, ignorance, disease, agents provocateurs, turncoats and stool pigeons, and a thousand similar handicaps.

Under the capitalist system, the unions could not play more than a subsidiary role. They could strike for higher wages, but wages depend upon profits and not vice versa. Should higher wages ruin the profits of an employer, he can sell out and enter another line of production; his capital takes flight to other fields of investment. What can an ordinary strike accomplish when the employer shuts down, sells out, or moves away? The only action left is to take over the factories. But this again is a political task. For it is an attack against private property, capitalist property, and property is a relation backed up by all the sanction and power of the State.

 Taking over all the technique prepared by capitalism, socialism begins where capitalism ends.Inside socialism, there are no longer a market, commodities, values, prices, wages.  The workers, through their representatives, guide their own destinies and organise themselves so that  production may be purposefully, planned, controlled and  managed. The allocation of material and workers to a particular industry is made, not according to the frenetic fluctuations of the market, through bankruptcy and booms, but by social analysis of the needs of man, of the productivity of the workers, and of how much strength is needed to fulfill these needs. For the first time, society rises from the domain of necessity into the realm of freedom. Goods are no longer sold for a market, but are produced for use. There being no class struggles, there is now no need for a State, and the State withers away. The armed services are not necessary. Police disappear. The basis for crime is gone, since labour is so productive that all the wants of life easily can be obtained. The criminal is treated as a sick person and is given careful hospitalisation until he or she becomes rehabilitated and made again into a social creature. Socialism lays the basis for a new type of family life, the ending of the misery and despotism that mark many family relations. A complete emancipation of women and for children, an entirely new upbringing. In the home, as in politics, the government over persons is transformed into the administration of things.

Society has become regenerated. The  precept, “from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs.” prevails. The tremendously increased productivity of mankind will have reduced to a bare minimum the amount of time necessary for each to produce the wants of life. Elimination of all toil in work will enable the worker to become an artist, to find the greatest pleasure in the objective result of his labors, to fuse into one work and recreation, and to combine his constructive relations with nature with the construction and reconstruction of himself. If work becomes a pleasure, pleasure itself is work.

Lunching At The Food Bank

Things have reached a sorry pass when even  a  pillar of society like an archbishop can recognise the poverty of the working class. 'Millions of low-paid workers are trapped in an unbreakable cycle of poverty, and are even turning up at food banks in their lunch breaks asking for help to feed their families, the Archbishop of York warns. Dr John Sentamu, writing in The Independent, says low pay is a "scourge on our society" and challenges David Cameron to back up his "warm words" with action to boost the incomes of the working poor.' (Independent, 10 February) An independent commission chaired by the Archbishop says the economic recovery will make no difference to the lives of the five million lowest-paid workers unless they paid the so-called "living wage". The commission is mistaken in thinking that the pittance of a "living wage" is the answer to the problem. They should try "living" on a "living wage" - more like existing than living. RD

The Communist Con Trick

One of the greatest con tricks in history was that Russia and China were communist countries. It is doubtful if any one is naive enough to make that claim about Russia today and surely it is impossible to make that claim for China on learning of this news. China's elite, including the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping, have used secretive offshore companies that helped hide wealth in tax havens, including the British Virgin Islands and Samoa, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, D.C. 'The group, whose website is now blocked in China, worked with reporters from Europe, North America, and Asia, sifting through leaked files from two offshore funds, Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and Commonwealth Trust Limited in the British Virgin Islands. The documents, which are part of a larger cache of 2.5 million files obtained by ICIJ and analyzed with its media partners, provide information on nearly 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in Hong Kong and mainland China.' (Bloomberg Businessweek, 22 January) RD

A Personal Re-appraisal

WORLD SOCIALIST MOVEMENT

It may be advisable to take a look round upon the position of the Socialist movement in this country, to take stock as it were, and to consider where we are and where we are going. We are bound to admit that there are grounds for disappointment.  The fact that we emerge from elections having been unsuccessful in winning a substantial vote seems to have led some to the conclusion that our policy and our methods have been wrong, that our work has been wasted, that we have utterly failed, and that we should adopt some other policy, apply other methods, and work in other directions. We do not at all share that view. We have failed. That is true. But failed how? And in what?

What are we out for? Nothing less than a social revolution, a complete transformation of human society from its base. That is not a little thing. It is about the biggest job that any body of men and women have ever set as their task. And what are the means at our disposal? We have no other material than ourselves and no other means other than those limited resources at hand. Apart from the tremendous forces set in motion by the economic development - forces which are hastening the revolution more rapidly every day, and which make it, as we believe, inevitable - the revolutionary tool we have  forged is a socialist political party. So far, our efforts in this direction have not been favourable. Indeed, it is just here that we have failed. But what of it? Didn't we know, when we started, that that was the most difficult part of our challenge? Didn't we know it would take years and decades? Didn't we know that we would meet with disappointments and set-backs? Didn't we know that many of our members would go to their graves without a glimpse of that free co-operative commonwealth of which they were unquestioningly assured, and which, even in their lifetime, seemed so near?

How many years ago is it since William Morris wrote the words: "Only three little words to speak: We will it!"? And the people do not will it yet! But the numbers grow of those who do; and slow as is the work, it is none the less sure. And bitter as may be the failures, every one brings us nearer to the goal. The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working-class themselves. There is no other way. Even were it otherwise, a political or intellectual leadership cannot "let the people go," even if they desired to do so.  The socialist movement is fundamentally a movement for the emancipation of the working-class, they cannot be emancipated against their will, and so far we have not succeeded in inspiring them with that consciousness of their present wage-slave status, or inspire that passionate desire for their own emancipation, which is essential to a revolutionary movement. That is where we have failed.

 But is the failure due to our own fault, and should it cause us discouragement and despair? We think not.  If we saw others succeeding where we have failed we might conclude that the fault was indeed ours. We have been frequently and constantly derided by critics, who we do not see having faired any better than we have. Over the long decades of our existence our political rivals have endeavoured to show what a poor, hopeless lot of ineffectual cranks we of the Socialist Party were, and proceeded to map out a "better” way for the realisation of socialism. They have at times rallied activists and academics to their ranks but now many have now been forgotten, lost on the wayside of their 'shortcuts' to socialism. The SLP. The ILP. The CP. None mustered  the workers to any significant greater extent than ourselves, and only achieved better success in their recruitment of card-carriers because their 'socialism' was more hazy and less definite, the proverbial all things to all people. Then came the Trotskyists,  red flags fluttering, their banners and placards proclaiming 'follow the vanguard'  They tried and also failed to accomplish what earlier left-wingers had hoped to do, i.e., organise a working-class political party, independent of, and hostile to, all capitalist parties, as an instrument for the political, economic and social emancipation of the working-class preferring instead to hold on to the shirt tails of the Labour Party and other out-and -out reformists. They failed completely in rallying the general body of the workers  for socialist independent action, or even for militant rank and file labourism.

It is not pleasing to dwell upon these failures to organise a mass socialist political party, and it is not recalled in any spirit of exultation or feeling of schadenfreude. On the contrary, we as equally suffering members of the working class would have been delighted had any one of them succeeded. We could then have heartily joined with them in their work and rejoiced in their victories. But honesty expect us to refer them, however, as evidence that the cause of our failure must be sought for deeper down than in their own supposed errors or blunders, and because the present weakened position of the socialist movement is not a matter of the sole failure of the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s case to rally the workers into a class-conscious political party, but the failure of all bodies calling themselves 'socialist' which have took up the challenge.

That is not to say that there is no occasion for self-examination, or for review of our tactics or methods. We have no occasion for complacency.  But we do claim that the road we have marked out is the right road, and that no other political organisation  has, as yet, discovered a faster or more direct way towards our goal.  Whatever may be the sins of omission or commission with which we have to reproach ourselves, it is scarcely a fault to be laid at our feet if the working class to whom we appeal decline to take the road we indicate to them, and persist in continually marching up and down a blind alley, spurred on by short-sighted or blinkered leaders. This is the chief difficulty and cause of our non-success - the people themselves remain chained to the prevailing chains of capitalist ideas of what is and what is not possible. Our fellow workers are imbued with the bourgeois ideology that we can reform society in our interest, rather than re-form it into something new.

But we ought not despair. For we knew it all along. It is a quite common mistake on the part of enthusiastic recruits to our movement to imagine the working class are in a state of seething discontent and latent revolt, only waiting for an opportunity to spring into revolutionary action. Such ardent spirits soon, as a rule, become discouraged by disillusionment. But we know better - have always known better. We did not raise false hopes or make rash promises.

For it has not been all failure. Not by any manner of means. Capitalist dominated as still are the ideas of the working class,  they are, thanks to the irresistible pressure of the economic development, far ahead of what they were only a few years ago. Their universal outlook and standpoint has changed. The basic tenets of socialism are increasingly generally accepted or, at least, acquiesced in, by the working-class. The mass protests such as Occupy rejecting the leadership of the mainstream Left has grown in prevalence worldwide and if we cannot claim the change of attitude towards socialist theories and principles as the result of our agitation and campaigns, we can, at least, point to it as evidence that our teaching and position have been in line, and in accord with the trend. Where we have failed is in disseminating the conscious application of our ideas and conceptions.

Let us look to and eliminate the defects of our own organisation, for it is not free from them. The causes which have operate to prevent our success in rallying the whole working-class to our banner do not supply the reasons for the fact that so many sincere and active socialists are outside our party.  Let us look into these reasons and if possible remedy them. In some cases, doubtless, they are purely accidental, but this may not generally be the case. Are we, as is often alleged, too narrow, too sectarian, too intolerant? Are we too discourteous, not to our class enemies, but to would-be comrades and allies? Do we seek to antagonise people rather than to win them over? These are questions to which it may be worth while to give some consideration. We do not desire anyone inside our party who is not committed to our common cause of establishing socialism by mutually agreed tactics but there should be no heresy-hunting; no undue emphasis of non-essential points of difference but rather seeking the essential points of agreement. In things doubtful, liberty; in things essential, unity.

  Our immediate duty is to strengthen our organisation; to muster new recruits under our banner; to disarm hostility and to bring together all those sharing our viewpoints into a united Socialist Party, a live, active, vigorous instrument for the realisation of socialism - the emancipation of humanity. It behoves us not to yield to political pessimism and persist in the direction of building up our class-conscious working-class Socialist Party. Agitate! Educate! Organise!

AJJ

Selective Justice

Two fugitive owners of a Bangladesh garment factory turned themselves in to face homicide charges for the deaths of 112 workers in the country's worst factory fire, but of course the foreign firms that utilised the factory will face no charges. 'The owners of Tazreen Fashions, Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akter, were sent to jail after being refused bail. They were among six fugitives wanted in connection with the November 24, 2012, fire on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka. Many of those who died in the multi-storey building perished because supervisors ordered workers back to their stations even as an alarm rang and smoke rose through an internal staircase.' (New York Times, 9 February) The $22 billion export industry, which supplies many Western brands, came under scrutiny when a building housing factories collapsed in April, five months after the Tazreen fire, killing more than 1,130 people. After the Tazreen blaze, both Wal-Mart Stores inc WMT.N and Sears Holdings Inc said that goods were being manufactured for them at the factory. RD

For A Socialist One World

WORLD SOCIALISM

Socialists are indifferent to the national interests of any particular country, our own included. The thing to which we are not indifferent to are the principles of socialism. Socialism involves internationalism*. The internationalism of socialism is other than the mere internationalism we hear so much of in the present day, the internationalism of particular interests, scientific, literary, or what not. This internationalism though undoubtedly itself a sign of the times, is an internationalism of expediency. The internationalism of socialism is an internationalism of principle. Socialist internationalism joins hands with that of anti-patriotism, with that of anti-nationalism. Our regret that all this heroism and devotion at the service of the modern nation-State is not always forthcoming when it is a question of fighting, not for the  independence of one nation, but for a new society for all peoples – for the socialist commonwealth. Would the time might come when the socialist ideal shall inspire men as much as nationality can do now.

We need the conviction that socialism is of more value than an independent national State. But let us not forget that the international workers’ solidarity can sap the importance of the nation-state, and thereby weaken the call of nationalism. The cause of the working class is lost if we allow ourselves to be caught in the net of patriotism, with all the vicious and false sentiment clinging to it, and liable to be evoked in a virulent form on the slightest occasion at the will of the dominant classes. Socialism adopts a policy of unrelenting antagonism toward nationalism. The hoax of “my country right or wrong” must be seen for the abomination that it is. Even if the country is committing a crime the blind patriot  wishes to see that crime succeed, or at least will not rejoice at the frustration of this crime by the defeat of his or her country. Patriotism is an objectionable belief since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity. The Scot who wants to see his or her country great and strong invariably wants to see it so, if need be, at the expense of the welfare and interests of other countries.

Nationalism claims certain virtues as the peculiar, exclusive possession of certain nations. If individuals make such claims, they would be scorned and laughed at. Nationalism claims that the culture belonging to one nation is distinct from that belonging to any other. This may have been so in the past , but increased means of communication, the internet,  satellite tv, and air travel  have caused nations to exchange ideas and traditions until today there is no essential difference between any one of the countries of the world. Even the English language is tending to become universal. More people understand each other today than ever before. Governments are coming to resemble each other. Codes of ethics are becoming international. It is only by the most artificial kind of propaganda that nationalism is kept alive.

National struggles are a form of expression of the class struggle. The nation is the expression of a particular social and economic system and the class representing that system, today - capitalism and the capitalist class. In the coming decisive struggles against capitalism, socialism recognises and emphasises that the class struggle determines all our action – that the national ideology is a fetter upon the emancipation of the proletariat – and that the Social Revolution is international in scope and purpose. Divide and conquer has ever been a capitalist weapon against the working class.  Nothing could have been more dangerous for the ruling classes than that Scots and English workers should make common cause and instead of fighting each other join forces and fight our mutual employers. Working class internationalism, must replace the narrow isolationist nationalism.

A country’s flag is a commercial asset, its trademark, but this commercial asset only represents the economic and political interests of the capitalist classes.  The concept of the nation-state is based upon narrow class interests. It is common knowledge that the class interests of the employers are built on the foundation of capitalist exploitation. They seek profits and still more profits.  In their pursuit of profits, the capitalists not only unscrupulously exploit the workers; even within their own class the capitalists do not scruple to swallow up their rivals in competition - the big fish swallows the little fish, Big Business swallows the smaller businesses, one group squeezes out and swallows another group. The capitalist strives to possess the means of production and the market of his own country. And since his greed for profits knows no limits, the capitalist strives to expand beyond its own country, to seize foreign markets, sources of raw materials and areas for capital investment, thus subjugating other nations and exploiting them. At the same time it squeezes out the rival capitalists of other countries.

The exploitation of wage labour, competition, the s suppression of competitors among the capitalists themselves, the resorting to war and even world war, the utilisation of all means to secure a monopoly position in its own country and throughout the world - such is the inherent character of the profit-seeking employing class. This is the class basis of nationalism. At home, the capitalist subordinates the interests of the nation as a whole to its own class interests. It places its class interests or the interests of a certain top stratum of society above the interests of the whole people. Moreover, the bosses pose as the spokespersons of the nation and the defender of national interests in order to deceive the people. Abroad, at the same time, it counterposes the interests of its own nation (in essence, of its bourgeois top stratum) to the interests of other nations. The bourgeoisie strives to place its own nation above other nations and, whenever possible, to oppress and exploit other nations, completely disregarding their interests. Oppressor nations may become oppressed nations and vice versa.

The victorious working class will have neither to keep its ancient nationalities nor to constitute new ones, because by becoming free it will abolish classes: the world will be its father/mother/homeland. The peoples of the globe will fraternise and they will stretch out their hands to one another. Mankind will continue to set itself new tasks and their accomplishment will lead to a stage of cultural development which will not know national hatred, wars, religions strife and similar remnants of the past. It is the duty of the socialist party of every country to combat patriotism and nationalism at home, i.e., from within, at every turn.  In these times when the poisonous fumes of nationalism are corroding society, we have ought to do all in our power to keep alive the spirit of internationalism.

Rather than  the slogan “Workers of the World Unite!” Left nationalist separatists seek to  replaced it by: “Nations divide!” Nationalism is a curse. It leads to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to a patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of the Earth’s surface on which a particular person has been born. It leads to bigotry, to national jealousy and petty pride. nationalism is the best of cloaks for the intrigues and
machinations of politicians and capitalists.

*Although the term internationalism has been used we should understand that we mean the worldwide (rather than international) character of socialism. Socialism can only be a united world community without frontiers and not the federation of countries suggested by the word ‘inter-national’.

Scots are Anti-Immigration

A decade ago Scotland had the fastest falling population in Europe, with the birth rate at an all-time low and more people leaving the country than were arriving from overseas. The population of Scotland was hovering just above five million at the end of 2003 after a decline of almost a quarter of a million in the previous 30 years. All the projections said the decline would continue but since 2004 there has been a dramatic change which has seen the Scottish population grow past its 1974 peak to its highest level ever.

Economists say Scotland's population needs to grow by 24,000 people a year just to keep pace with European economies.

The majority of immigrants to Scotland have traditionally been from Pakistan and India but over the past decade the number of people from Poland has risen from just a couple of thousand to about 60,000.

Despite the rise over the past decade Scotland still has a relatively small immigrant population relative to England, especially London. About 7% of Scots were born outside the UK, whereas the figure for the rest of the UK is almost 14%.

Robert Wright, professor of economics at the University of Strathclyde, says Scotland has not really been tested with mass immigration. "So the fact I think there is more tolerance here is because there has been less of it. That does not mean there will be tolerance in the future when there is more immigration, so this will be a hurdle we have to jump later."

Professor Christina Boswell, professor of politics at University of Edinburgh, says that tolerant immigration policies do not tend to be vote winners.  "It is really quite easy and quite tempting for political parties to tap into those political concerns about immigration and try to mobilise support on the basis of an anti-immigrant position, or at least of a less liberal position on immigration. You don't win votes by adopting a liberal progressive labour migration policy and, in fact, the Labour government in the UK has found that in the past few years and it has obviously had to backtrack on its more expansive policy of the early-2000s." Prof Boswell says there is much research to show that immigrants do not create high unemployment and generally do not create a high burden on the welfare state. However, she says: "Immigration is often used as a lightning rod for channeling a lot of anxieties about employment, about welfare, about social cohesion."

Prof Boswell adds: "It is much easier to sell the benefits of labour migration where an economy is facing very tangible acute shortages in particular sectors or regions. It is much easier as well to sell labour migration when it is about recruiting highly-skilled migrants. I think it is much more difficult for governments to make a case or sell the case for recruiting semi or low-skilled migrants. If it were to become a major issue of concern, for example with Romanian or Bulgarian immigration, then I would expect the SNP to water down its claims about a more liberal immigration policy, at least not to emphasise those in the election campaign because it clearly would not be a vote-winner."

58% of people in Scotland wanted to see immigration reduced a little or a lot.(The figure for England and Wales was 75%.)
45% of people thought an independent Scotland should be less welcoming to immigration. When asked if they thought Scotland would actually be less open to immigration just 22% said it would.
12% of Scots think of people coming from England as immigrants.

Food for Thought

The incessant drive for bigger and bigger profits ensure that the capitalist system continually strives in its efforts even when that means breaking the law.Scientists made a "disturbing" discovery that more than a third of foods sampled by a lab were either mislabelled or not what they claimed to be. 'Councils in West Yorkshire carried out tests on 900 food samples to unearth the concerning results. Problems included mozzarella that was less than 50 per cent cheese, ham on pizzas found to be made from poultry or "meat emulsion" and prawns that were 50 per cent water. Other worrying finds included beef mince which was found to contain pork and poultry, while a herbal "slimming" tea was found to be neither herbal or contain tea, instead containing high levels of a prescription slimming drug.' (Daily Express, 8 February) RD

We make the revolution

Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto "The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority".

Some only pay lip-service to this idea. Many do not take it seriously. A number even fail to understand its implications. ‘Self-conscious’ implies that the class itself must understand the full significance of its actions. 'Independent' implies that the class itself must decide the objectives and methods of its struggle.

It is reaffirmed by the First International declaration “The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves". The working class cannot entrust its historical task to anyone else.

Even the lyric of the workers’ anthem, ‘The International’, states “no saviours from on high will deliver” socialism.

 In an official manifesto addressed to the National Labour Union of the US, Marx explains:
“On you, then, devolves the glorious task to prove to the world that now at last the working classes are bestriding the scene of history no longer as servile retainers, but as independent actors, conscious of their own responsibility . ..”

Trade unionism first arose in England, where industrial capitalism first developed. Trade unions first arose out of the battles of working people to defend themselves from the abuses and oppressive conditions imposed by the very system of wage labour. The rise of capitalism brought an increasingly greater concentration of industrial production in factories and mills, with ownership concentrated in the hands of a small class of capitalists. Stripped of any means of survival other than the sale of their labour power; workers were forced to compete against each other, thereby enabling profit-hungry capitalists to drive down wages and force long hours and inhuman conditions on the masses of people. In this situation workers were bound to resist. In the days of the industrial revolution, this resistance tended to take the form of smashing the very machines which seemed to be the immediate cause of their enslavement and impoverishment. In the course of these outbreaks and through their own experience, workers soon learned that their most effective weapon against the combined power of capital was to combine their own resources, to unite the working people in one craft or one factory so they could exact better conditions for work and also better terms for the sale of their labor power. Workers began to form various societies, organizations and common funds for mutual protection.

When the unions were in their early of development, carrying out guerrilla war against different employers, Karl Marx recognized the enormous potential of the unions far beyond the fight against day-to-day abuses. In “Wages, Price and Profit,” written in 1865, Marx warned that workers should not be “exclusively absorbed in these unavoidable guerrilla fights.” The trade unions failed as centers of the working-class struggle, he noted, when they limited themselves to fighting only the effects of the capitalist system, “instead of simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organized forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class, that is to say, the ultimate abolition of the wage system.” In addition to their original tasks in defending workers, the trade unions, as Marx pointed out, “must learn how to act consciously as focal points for organizing the working class in the greater interests of its complete emancipation.” In supporting every social and political movement directed towards this aim, the unions “must convince the whole world that they are not fighting to further their narrow personal interests, but to free millions of oppressed people.”

Political parties are the product of the class struggle. In a classless society which has rid itself of the remnants of class interests and ideology there will be no political parties. They will be unnecessary. But we have not reached the classless society. We are in the midst of a society torn by class struggle, and the political parties of necessity express and reflect the interests of classes in conflict. The more fierce the class struggle becomes, the more society is divided into two camps marshalled for decisive struggle, the greater is the tendency for a fusion of parties in terms of the classes upon which they are based.

The simplistic critique against the Socialist Party is the belief that we declare that until the masses are educated in socialism by ourselves we can’t have socialism. If the changes in society from one social system to another lead waited upon the development of the individual and the education of each individual, then mankind would still not have progressed beyond  primitive society. But society has not waited in this way. The intellectual and moral transformation of society depends upon and follows in the tracks of economic change. This is described in the concept of the historic materialism. Man is the maker of history, but he makes that history with the tools and material at his disposal. His relationship to these instruments of production is a dialectical relationship changing the materials and the tools and himself in the process. At each successive stage when property relations became a fetter upon the development of the forces of production those property relations had to be changed. They were changed. But they were changed when the class which was primarily interested in their transformation developed the will to fight for the change and fought and conquered.

Revolution occur because of the objective conflict between the new forces of production and the old relations of production. In other words, the way this society is organized holds back the development of the material well-being of the society.  The vast resources and wealth of the world have gone to a handful of rich capitalists and corporations , while the masses of people struggle to even survive in the face of unemployment,  the threat of war, and hunger. The problem is not that there isn’t enough to go around, the problem is that what is there exists an abundance but it is hoarded by this small minority. The objective conditions for revolution fully exist. But the objective conditions alone are not sufficient to successfully make revolution. It is the relationship of the objective to the subjective conditions which determines the victory of the revolution. The level of class conscious struggle on the part of the working class is expressed in many ways, but the most important expression is the existence of the political party of .the working class, the socialist/communist party. It is the masses who make revolution, but it is the socialist party which must bring forth organisation.

Sanctioned Crime

It sounds like a wild TV or cinema plot. It has certainly grabbed international press headlines, but there is a more important issue at stake here. 'A woman who allegedly stole diamonds belonging to the Sultan of Brunei's ex-wife and replaced them with worthless replicas made a full confession to local police, a court heard on Friday. Fatimah Lim, 35, pocketed the gems while Madam Mariam Aziz's bodyguard and  jetted off to Geneva to see a diamond merchant for over $7m (£4.3m), it is claimed.' (Daily Telegraph, 7 February) Never mind the bodyguard's alleged crime. How does one individual inside the capitalist system like Aziz accumulate wealth of $7m? We are talking here of a much greater legally sanctioned crime. It is called exploitation of the working class. RD

What to do and not what to do

The trade unions are the organising centres of the working class, the most important mass organisations of workers. Trade unions first arose in order to eliminate the existing competition among the workers. They arose as organising centers that provided the workers with their initial lessons in class struggle. The solidarity learned in the course of the trade union struggle was a school of socialism. The immediate aims of the first trade unions were to win the basic economic demands of the workers, through collective action. The boss tries to squeeze as much profit out of the worker as he can. The worker tries to wring as close to a living wage out of the boss as he or she can. And if the workers stopped struggling, they’d just be squeezed more, that’s all. That’s why there’s a class struggle.

Immediately it became apparent that the function of the trade unions was not only to fight on the economic front, but to fight for the abolition of wage slavery itself, to fight to end the rule of capitalism. We want to get rid of the class struggle too. We’re going to do it by getting rid of the profit system, which exists only because there is a class of exploiters and a class of the exploited.

Many of the fundamental rights of the working class today were a result of the early trade union struggles, such as the eight hour day. Today this advance is being eroded by the capitalists. But certainly, in response to the austerity cuts of the recession,  the class struggle is sharpening. The storm clouds of great battles ahead are filling the air. The task of Socialist Party is to assist  linking these with the aim of our movement–the establishment of  socialism. This task can only be accomplished through patient and careful work, challenging any viewpoint which denies the necessity of trade unions, or that belittles the nature of the class struggle to be waged, and suggests trade unions engage in the line of class collaboration.

To increase profits and expand investments, capitalists have to pay workers lower wages and benefits and keep down the expenses needed to provide safe and healthy conditions. Therefore, workers have to fight both to maintain any gains they have won and make any new advances.

As socialists, our approach recognises that the class interests of workers and capitalists are in basic conflict. We are also concerned that working people do not narrow their attention just to the economic struggle (wages, benefits, working conditions) in their particular workplace. When working people take an active role in struggling with major social and political issues they increase their strength and help both themselves and all oppressed people worldwide. This means taking stands that offer solutions for discrimination, war, pollution and other problems that nobody can really afford to ignore.

There is no kind of labour unionism by itself which is going to provide a solution to the exploitation of the working class. Unions helps to strengthen the working class’ position against the capitalists, and therefore it can contribute to building a  movement of the working class to overthrow the capitalist system and construct a socialist society. Only in socialism do working people have the means to collectively decide the direction their society will take and how they will participate in it.

 As socialists we believe society’s main problem is the capitalist system itself and always uphold that the only real solution is socialism and political rule by working people, not capitalists. A socialist party fights for the interests of the working class as a whole and doesn’t take a narrow sectional view of just looking out for the interests of a few trades. A socialist party struggles for the long-term, political interests of working people, and not just a few short-term economic gains. Socialists also recognise that international borders should not be allowed to divide workers from other working people around the world because we are all fighting one international capitalist system.

Of course, not everyone who calls him or herself a socialists is one. Some leftists who may have the best of intentions cannot be considered socialists because they have the wrong idea of what a socialist society is and advocate the wrong strategy for making a revolution. Too many left-wing activists engage in adventurist acts as publicity stunts to gain attention primarily for their own organisation. They try to be impressive to other working people by striking a “militant” pose, but often their reckless actions just make them end up looking irresponsible and foolish. Typically, a group like this overestimates the conditions that could create a revolutionary situation because it needs to justify its adventurist actions because it has an over-inflated view of its own importance. They cause unnecessary divisions among the working class, and it ends up strengthening the position of the repressive political forces. What is most serious is that it tends to fan anti-socialism by discrediting genuine socialists in the eyes of the working class.

Essential Information

Most workers rely on the daily press for information about world events, but we are also indebted to Fleet Street for other essential information. For instance did you know that Champagne should be kept in the fridge to prolong its shelf life, according to recent research?  'Scientists in America found bubbly kept at lower temperatures was less likely to develop a browning compound called 5-MMF that turns wine bad. They concluded that fizzy wines like Champagne, Prosecco and Cava should be refrigerated to 4C (39F), rather than a cellar at around 16C (61F).' (Daily Telegraph, 7 February) This important information is almost as essential as where our masters are sunning themselves this winter or what billionaire is romancing what starlet. Where would we be without the newspapers? RD

Trade unions and the socialist party - class symbiosis

The aim of trade unions is to serve workers’ struggles and the role of a socialist party is to push forward the fundamental battle to eliminate capitalist exploitation. Unions are the means of defence developed by the working class in its struggle against their employers. They were the result of concerted efforts by workers to organise and fight collectively for better working conditions, wage increases and a shorter working day. The establishment and organisation of unions is no gift from the capitalist class, but the result of the workers’ struggles against their exploiters. Unions are essential for the working class and have done much to advance its cause. Without them, workers would still be subject to the every whim and fancy of the employers. Unions have not been able to remain as combinations of workers of one employer, or even groups of employers in associated industries. They have developed from a unity of workers against a particular employer to unity against employers in one whole field of production, to unity of workers in entire areas. They form a massive unified network from local, to national, to international union. The union movement has proven itself to be a powerful instrument of a defensive character. But unions, while indispensable in the struggle of the workers against capital, have limits as well. They require to restrict themselves to economic struggles and struggles for reforms, and to stay outside the political struggle to abolish capitalism, the source of the workers’ misery.

 It is a socialist party that expresses the experience of the workers in many different unions across the country and provide an orientation for the workers’ fight against the capitalist system. and acts as a force that poses the possibility of a fundamental transformation in socio-economic relations from wage labour to a free association of labour and common ownership of its product - socialism. What the unions has won through battles on the picket lines has often been lost, due, not only to the operation of the laws governing the capitalist system itself, inflation for instance, but to counter attacks by the representatives of the employers as a class in control of parliament, and the state in its totality. The employers, through their agents in control of parliament and the entire state apparatus, have erected a whole network of laws and regulations designed to hamstring the labour movement.

Socialism is the proclaimed goal of many trade unionists who turned to the Labour Party, however the Labour Party cannot even be said to be socialistic. By introducing State management under preserving State-guaranteed profits for the capitalists, it strengthens capitalist domination and perpetuates the exploitation of the workers. The socialist goal cannot be reached by creating a new governing class substituting the capitalists. It can only be realised by the workers themselves being masters over production. The socialist party’s function is to spread insight and knowledge, to study, discuss and formulate social ideas, and by their propaganda to enlighten the minds of the masses. Their work forms an indispensable part in the self-liberation of the working class.

Within the capitalist economic system there are ranged on the one side all those who owned the means of production, and on the other those who use but do not possess them. The class struggle is the ceaseless struggle to obtain some advantage over the other.  It may take the form of more wages or shorter hours or the alteration of some workshop practice; but the particular point really does not matter, the opposing forces are always the same – the employing class and the employed class. It is like a huge market where two commodity possessors come to sell their goods.  The capitalist brings his commodity – money to pay wages , and the worker his or her commodity – the ability to work.  The worker sells his labor power in exchange for gold which is the commodity that will bring him the subsistence of life.  But it must be remembered that the commodity of labor power is free, that is to say, that the worker has no personal ties like the feudal slaves.  He can either sell his labour power or withhold it; but his well-being depends on materials, things he must eat and drink.  The capitalist has accumulated these necessities which he sells by means of his gold, consequently the free laborer with his empty stomach is forced to sell his labor power in return for the commodities without which he cannot live.  The wage laborer therefore is in the grip of a system that beats him down to the lowest – that is to say, to a bare subsistence.  The supporters of a system are those who have gained control of it or control of the means of production, those whose interests are bound up in it.  The system is capitalism, and those who control it are capitalists.  To manage it effectively and to their interests they must have a group of people to assist them and to operate the machinery.  The section or class who assist must be subject to their controllers or, in other words, must be slaves.  In return for their slavery they receive only sufficient of the gold commodity to enable them to continue operating the machinery from day to day, and to perpetuate their class.  It would be a catastrophe to the capitalist system if slaves did not breed more slaves. From this picture we see that for any material advantage one class must take from the other class.  This attempt to take, the one from the other, goes on all over the world, day in and day out.  It is like a tug of war.  There is a long rope – if you can imagine your bread and butter in the form of a rope – with the capitalists at one end and the workers at the other.  The more of the rope that is won, the more material comfort is acquired.

This, then, is the class struggle. It follows  from a Marxian analysis that socialist politics is very different in KIND from all other politics. Its aim, the expression of the interests of the revolutionary class, is quite precisely to overthrow existing social relations, to capture the existing state machine to facilitate the task of establishing a new society. Politics of the other conventional sort revolve within the framework of the existing order. Non-revolutionary political parties, contending for votes and office, represent different sections of the ruling class struggling for the major share of profits and privilege, different groups seeking the lucrative control of the governmental bureaucracy, different theories of how best to maintain the existing order and keep for it the support or at least the tolerance of the people, different organised attempts to secure this or that reform or concession for this or that section of the population. But all varieties of non-revolutionary politics PRESUPPOSE the continuance of the existing order in its fundamental structure: that is to say in capitalist society, non-revolutionary politics presupposes capitalist property relations, the exploitation of the masses by the propertied minority, the class domination of the bourgeoisie, the maintenance of the bourgeois state.

Furthermore, the chief function of mainstream politics is to deceive the working class as to the real and central issue which confronts them. So long as the electorate believe that their significant political choices lie WITHIN the capitalist order, capitalism itself, no matter what internal shifts take place, is not threatened. Every device serves: two or more avowed capitalist parties stage “life-and-death struggles” for “the fate of the nation”; when that sham is seen through, a populist party to slough off mass dissatisfaction into safe channels within the limitations of the capitalist state; when all else fails, a dictatorship to maintain capitalist property with guns. A socialist party pose directly the central issue: the class struggle for workers’ power and for socialism. Their success in an election campaign is not to be measured in votes or offices won, but in the extent and the depth to which they have succeeded in bringing the central issue before the consciousness of the masses.  The main issue for the working class, the only issue  is the CLASS issue:

 The two main political parties are two wings of a single bird of prey. The Conservative Party plays the “hard man” towards the working class. The Labour Party plays the “soft man”, who poses as the friend of the working class. Both unite in trying to fool and confuse the working class and to keep it trapped within the draconian  clutches of the capitalist class. Tory leaders make clear that what they  propose is a return to the good old days. The future of capitalism and profits, they would like to believe, lies in free enterprise, in a balanced budget, rugged individualism, competition, no government “interference” in business.  Equally devoted to the preservation of capitalism and the fullest possible capitalist prosperity (i.e., profits), the Labour Party politicians believe that the traditional methods are no longer adequate either to preserve profits or to keep the tolerance of the masses for the capitalist order. They advocate an “enlightened” capitalism, tempering the harsh exploitation with fine phrases about human rights and public works, and collective bargaining. In this way, Labour aim to oil the wheels of capitalism.