Are Co-ops the Solution?

In the United States the word “socialism” provokes negative connotations of Stalin and the Cold War despite the surprising success of Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party of America at the beginning of the 20th Century where the gerry-mandering of the franchise excluded many blacks, poor whites and immigrants, yet he achieved almost a million votes when he stood for president, 12% of the vote. Still, the word “socialism" conjures up a vision of the Soviet Union’s authoritarian one-party state and its centrally planned economics, controlled by Big Brother bureaucrats and the gulags for any dissenters.

An alternative term for the society socialists aspired towards has been “cooperative commonwealth”. This sounds more positive to an American public. After all, the states Massachusetts, Kentucky, Pennsylvania or Virginia, all call themselves commonwealths in their constitutions. The idea of an economic system based on cooperatives has also found a more receptive hearing. America has known many utopian schemes that had co-operatives as its basis. There has been political parties that have promoted co-operatives as policy.  In the 1930s, the populist Farmer-Labor Party could issue a radical platform:
“We declare that capitalism has failed and that immediate steps must be taken by the people to abolish capitalism in a peaceful and lawful manner, and that a new, sane, and just society must be established, a system in which all the natural resources, machinery of production, transportation, and communications shall be owned by the government and operated democratically for the benefit of all the people, and not for the benefit of the few. Palliative measures will continue to fail. Only a complete reorganization of our social structure into a cooperative commonwealth will bring economic security and prevent a prolonged period of further suffering among the people.”

In Washington state the Washington Commonwealth Federation, based on similar ideas, won control of the state Democratic Party during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In a parallel development in Canada, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was formed with some prominent Socialist Party of Canada members joining.

Today, having fleshed-out their own visions of the Cooperative Commonwealth, Richard Wolff and Gar Alperovitz have been getting a lot of exposure on the alternative media websites for their own “radical"  models for a co-operative economy. But exactly what is there in their proposals to get excited about? They insist that they are challenging capitalism by presenting alternatives to capitalism, but in the end all they offer are prescriptions for curing capitalism. In their mythical “market-socialism” workers would be self-exploited.

The socialist case against capitalism is not whether there exists 'good' or 'bad' capitalism, or that there are 'fair' or 'unfair' capitalists. Our opposition is to the capitalist system in its entirety. Whether someone works for an employer or works as part of a co-op is neither here nor there. It's all just a job. Co-operatives are still capitalist institutions i.e. capital - even if it's "collective" or "democratic" or "social" capital - is invested to make more capital. Co-operatives that exist under a market economy inevitably replicate the problems of capitalism due to market pressures as Chomsky points out, as well as Marx’s criticisms of them.

"First, you can’t “out-compete” capitalism. Corporations will always have larger capital to invest in research, technology, and their willingness to cut costs through lower wages, less environmentally sounds practices, out-sourcing, etc, will give them an advantage.
Second, is that co-operatives are subject to market pressures to compete just the same as capitalist enterprises and this lends itself to pressures to create the same practices of corporations."
Third, is that many cooperatives face the same issues as small business owners face. Often worker co-operatives are in the service, food or other specialty industries with lower profit margins and because they are smaller and do not have the advantages of scale which larger companies do.
Lastly is the tendency of worker co-operatives to see their needs and interests as an entity apart from and/or above other workers. After all, as cooperatives exist within a market system, their interests are to compete with other companies and expand their market share."

https://machete408.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/self-managed-capitalism-criticism-of-richard-wolff-and-workers-cooperatives/

Firms in a competitive market have to compete. That doesn't have to be on price, but they do have to be profitable (even non-profits need to turn a surplus to cover unforeseen costs, reinvestment, downturns). That means that if you want to pay better wages and/or work shorter hours/with less intensity than rival firms, you've got to make up the difference somewhere to remain competitive to continue to exist.

Savings on managerial salaries make up a bit. Maybe you can charge a bit more for your product due to the goodwill of a co-op. But that's a niche strategy, not one for market domination. Hence many existing co-ops are operating in premium-priced niche markets (fair trade coffee, organic food etc).

Another route is to pay less and/or work longer hours. Lots of co-ops go this route, and use co-op ideology to justify the sacrifices 'for the cause'. But this undermines the original objective of an anti-capitalist alternative. Typically as these co-ops grow, newer workers don't share the ideological work ethic, and you get the (re-)emergence of managerial hierarchy and a two-tier workforce. There have even been strikes at co-ops over issues like this. Mondragon frequently hailed as a model to follow is a normal capitalist business as they hire workers and exploit them.  The Mondragon collectives are the seventh  largest company in Spain and in 1965 the fascist regime of Franco awarded Father Arizmendi, the founder of Mondragon, with the Gold Medal for Merit in Work.  In Mussolini’s fascist Italy by 1927 there were 7,131 co-ops and by 1942 the number had swelled to 14,576. There was little fear that these “alternative” modes of production threatened the economic system. So it can hardly be claimed as subversive. As Sharryn Kasmir’s “The Myth of Mondragon” explains they “embodied worker participation, non-conflictual relations between labor and management, and the withering away of class identifications.” The Basque Workers Council in their magazine,  charged the cooperatives with:
“Becoming like any private firm, from the point of view of daily work, the cooperative member is exploited in his/her job in a capitalist firm by increased production, mobility, schedule changes, etc. We don’t understand why the managers don’t present a proposal to lower the age of retirement in the cooperatives…Instead, they opted, just like owners of private firms, to achieve profitability by the same methods as capitalist firms: lay-offs, increasing productivity, temporary contracts, etc.” In 2008-2009 period, the group fired thousands of workers, mainly people with temporary contracts, exactly the same politic as other ‘fully capitalist’ corporations.

Socialists are anti-capitalists - we don't want markets or private/ state owned means of production. Co-ops can't bring about the revolutionary change we desire. Even if all businesses in the world were workers' co-ops, we'd still have inequality (some would compete more successfully than others), we'd still be destroying the environment (market economy means it's profitable to externalize costs), we'd still have unemployment (taking on more workers means splitting the profits with more people, so low incentive to hire), we'd still have alienated work conditions as a norm (exploit yourselves to be more competitive).

It is accurate as Woolf says unions are “reduced to improving the terms of the employer-employee relation for the workers. There was no strategy to eliminate that relation in favor of something better. It was the modern equivalent of struggles during the time of slavery that aimed for better food, clothing, housing, etc. for slaves rather than demanding the end of slavery.” http://www.democracyatwork.info/articles/2013/03/a-new-strategy-for-labor-and-the-left/

But he fails to perceive that his solution is akin to allowing small groups of slaves on a small number of plantations to self-manage themselves. It makes life better for some, but it doesn’t end the system of slavery. Workers at a capitalist enterprise facing pay cuts can take direct action such as strike action against it. But workers at a co-op cannot do this as they would just be striking against themselves!

Seeing co-operatives as anything other than a temporary and partial solution at improving your working lifestyle is definitely a mistake. If co-ops are to be taken as something more than a palliative measure to problems at work, then those involved would be in for a disappointment. Although co-ops are not a means to replace capitalism, worker co-operatives can have some uses for ourselves such as a non-hierarchal way to run socialist movement infrastructure like bookshops, cafés etc

Included are  some contributions from the Libcom forum 

Recovery For Whom?

The press and TV are lauding the government for what they are describing as an economic recovery. 'The Bank of England yesterday upgraded its growth forecast to 3.5 per cent for this year and to 3 per cent for 2015.' (Times, 14 August) Whilst this turnaround has enthused bankers and investors it has meant very little to the working class as the press article goes on to explain quoting figures from the Office of National Statistics. 'Employment growth was still strong but wages grew by only by 0.6 per cent in the three months leading up to June. This was a period in which inflation was running at at 1.9 per cent, which means that real wages, at a time of economic growth, have been falling.' What has been a period of boom for the capitalist class has seen a worsening of conditions for wage earners. RD

Support socialism and socialists

The Socialist Party is a political party based on Marxism which has taken up the banner of socialist revolution. The world is rich in natural resources and is capable of satisfying the needs of all its people. A handful of capitalists control our planet and make fabulous profits off the toil of working people. All the major means of production - the factories, the mines, communications and transportation – are concentrated in the hands of a few thousand capitalists who employ millions of workers. All misery is created by this small clique of very wealthy individuals so they can continue to line their pockets. Every bit of capitalists’ vast possessions was stolen from the people.  It’s the capitalists that get rich by appropriating the fruits of our labour. In reality, a worker gets paid for only a small part of the value he produced. The rest, the surplus value, goes straight into the boss’s pocket. It is robbery.

The employers get rich, not because they have “taken risks” or “worked harder,” as they would have us believe. The capitalists and their spokesmen endlessly vaunt the merits of a system where “everyone has an equal opportunity,” and “democracy rules.” But the truth is that capitalist democracy is a hoax: a paradise for the rich and powerful, a trap and an illusion for the exploited and the poor.The more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to exploit someone else. This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it! Capitalism is a system based on a handful of parasites who live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. No matter where we look there are thousands of real restrictions with which the capitalists keep the workers in chains and the government are bound by a thousand ties to the capitalists. The state is used as an economic tool by the wealthy. When they face bankruptcy the state steps in and bails them out.

The state serves to spread capitalist ideas to accept the ruling class and uses a whole series of education and propaganda institutions: the schools, the press radio and television networks, through which it spreads its lies daily. The rich has tried everything over the years to put an end to crises. It has used cuts, wage freezes and all sorts of attacks against working people to transfer the weight of the crisis onto the working class. Different groups of capitalists are engaged in deadly competition, each trying to seize more power and profit and control over the economy. Each party claims it is the most fit to run the country, and criticises the shortcomings of the other. No political party can offer real convincing solutions to the problems facing the country, an ever-smaller number of billionaires whose only goal it to maximize profits. Political parties merely compete to prove who is the most faithful servant of capital, while they throw out a few crumbs to the masses to pick up votes.There can never be class peace between exploiter and exploited, between boss and worker. Pro-capitalist parties stand not only for the exploitation of workers.

Reformists aims to lead the working class into collaboration with the capitalist class. Reformist try to convince workers that the solution lies in collaboration between workers and bosses, in everyone tightening their belts and making sacrifices for the “common good.” But there are no common interests between the working class and the bourgeoisie. All that the working class has won in the past from the capitalists has been the result of hard struggle. The working class strengthens itself through education and democratic debates. To defeat the enemy we need unity. The working class must wage a political struggle independent of all bourgeois parties. We must do more than struggle against one boss after another over particular economic questions. The working class must unite its struggles and aim its attack at all the capitalists.

Only socialism can respond to the just aspirations of the working class. The working class will overthrow the capitalists and build socialism. Capitalism is ripe for socialist revolution. The working class is the largest and the most consistently revolutionary class. The workers produce the riches of society, it is they who most directly experience capitalist exploitation and it is their labour which turns the wheels of industry. Despite the many differences that exist among the workers – between the various types of workers, between employed and unemployed, between men and women, and among the workers of different nationalities – all have the same fundamental interests in overthrowing the capitalist system. By forging the greatest possible unity within its ranks, the proletariat can succeed in its struggle for liberation. For, in the long run, the tiny minority of exploiters cannot stand up before the organised might of the working class. The enemies of the working class are in reality a small isolated minority, and the Socialist Party can rally the vast majority of the population under its banner to the cause of socialist revolution. Only the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of socialism will guarantee the liberation of all people.

One of the greatest dangers to the unity of working people is nationalism. Those who are defenders of capitalism are no allies of the working class. In order for the socialist revolution to triumph the working class must win the struggle against nationalism that weakens the whole workers against its common enemy, the capitalist class. The capitalists use the slogan “national interests” to keep workers down. The ruling class uses nationalism to consolidate its domination over the working people. Separatism and independence is a strategy designed to strengthen the native rich and enable it to develop into masters of a new state. Nationalist leads to the division of the working class and the delay of the victory of socialism.

To end capitalism, there must have a clear plan. It must determine what the nature of the struggle is, who are its main enemies, and who are its friends that can be rallied to its cause. A socialist revolution has had as its objective is to overthrow the capitalist class. Socialism will mean the end of the exploitation of man by man. There will be an end to all exploitation. It will bring freedom to all those oppressed by capital and open up a new period of history. Working people will participate directly in running of society from top to bottom. Workers will administer the vast riches of the planet, its lands, forests, mineral resources, lakes and rivers as well as the means of production, for the common benefit of all. The natural and man-made wealth will be the property of the people and not of individual capitalists. Socialist will be a planned economy so gone will be the anarchy of capitalist production. The resources of society will be distributed according to the needs of the people, not to satisfy a few capitalists’ hunger for profits as is the case today. The enormous waste of capitalism will be abolished. All social inequalities will be abolished; there will be no rich and no poor, and all members of society will contribute to the common good. The differences between workers and farmers, town and country, and manual and intellectual work will disappear. Each individual will develop to his or her full potential.

Dundee Despair

There are “desperate” people living in impoverished conditions in Dundee — and they aren’t getting the “urgent help” they need. A reliance on foodbanks, lack of employment prospects and the rise of living costs were highlighted as some of the main concerns in Dundee.

In a survey, 53% said they didn’t believe enough was being done to fight poverty, with 48% feeling less positive about poverty in the future and 40% feeling “very concerned” about the issue. Over half — 61% — said they had cut back on spending since the recession, including on essentials such as food and clothing, with 19% saying they had no disposable income. A massive 70% of respondents to our survey believe that reliance on foodbanks is set to rise in the future. A total of 53% of respondents said drug abuse is getting worse in Dundee — the same number as those who believe more should be done about poverty. And nearly half (47%) felt that there is not enough support available. Thirteen per cent said they saw their future outwith the city.

Solicitor Peter Kinghorn, of Dundee North Law Centre, has noted a spike in clients being sanctioned by the Job Centre — driving them further into poverty. He said: “If people are sanctioned they can be left with no money for weeks, plunging them into poverty and forcing them to live on charity. “We have also seen a substantial increase in people being taken to court by debt collecting companies. Some of these debts are old Department of Work and Pensions debts, such as overpaid tax credits, child benefits and others. This is obviously having an impact on poverty, and we are seeing a large number of clients who are struggling to juggle everything — rent, bills, benefits and general living costs.”

Dave Morris, manager at Dundee Foodbank, said “While we see crisis cases where money has run out, it’s not a surprise that nearly two-thirds of respondents have cut back on spending — cost of living inflation rising faster than wage inflation will affect what people are able to buy, there are also issues around minimal pay and contract hours, which are affecting more people.

The operators of a Dundee foodbank expect to help 6,500 people this year, it has emerged. The fact the number of people relying on foodbanks is still projected to rise is cause for concern. 

More On Finance

"Pope Francis Takes on God's Bankers." Apparently the pope is trying to clean up the Vatican bank known for more scandals than the above brothels. Decades of corruption at the bank reached a new low when a private banker with close ties to the Vatican bank hanged himself under London's Blackfriars Bridge. The Vatican needs its own bank to manage the massive funds and land holdings it owns. Maybe it could alleviate the world's poverty problem (New York Times). John Ayers

More On Governments

Many European governments are obliged to reduce debts as a percentage of their economies. So how can we grow our economies so that the debt is a smaller percentage and make us look good? As a spokesman for the National Association of Sex Clubs, Jose Roca soon found out when a government official called to ask him the typical cost of a room in a brothel. Because GDP is such an important number, countries want to 'better reflect the economic environment.' Prostitution in Spain generates about 20 billion euros ($27 billion) and thus balloons the GDP. Don't stop there - countries are also tallying tons of cocaine seized from dealers. Only in capitalism, you say? (New York Times, July 26, 2014) John Ayers

We need change - We need Revolution

The Socialist Courier blog has written much about the anarchy of production. Not only once but numerous times, we pointed out that millions are not doing any useful or lasting work for society. If instead they would have the opportunity to do useful work by participating in producing beneficial things it would change the picture of our society a great deal. We have highlighted how, purely for the sake of profit, necessary products are made from shoddy materials. How the interests of the capitalists is to make sure that these products wear out quickly, so that they will then need to be replaced, as this will ensure the most profit for them. We have showed that just because of competition how much unnecessary work and wasted energy this means at a cost to the environment. The capitalist system has run its course. The world bandits of capitalism have ravaged the Earth and are squabbling over the spoils.

The World’s marvelous machinery, its complex technology are not for the welfare of the many nor the social good of the masses. It exists for the exploitation of the worker and  the enrichment of the capitalist class. It is an organised system where the machine is merely the means through which the social relation of owner and wage-slave is maintained. All innovation, inventions,  scientific achievements of knowledge are made subservient to this.

The state is just a servant of commerce. The only people who have the power to use the laws to their benefit are those who control the means of production and profit from them. A mere change of personnel in this field does not satisfy the Socialist Party. The wage system remains. The exploitation continues. And it will carry on, “until the workers take control of the land, the mines, the factories and the means of production, and abolish the wage system.” We are wage-workers, wage-slaves, and we bear the signs of this system on our backs like a cross. The abolition of the wage system is our organization’s expressed goal, to which we must cling with conviction.

Capitalism is based on wage slavery. The capitalists hire wage workers to produce wealth, give them part of that wealth in the form of wages and keep the rest. We do not sell our labour to the capitalists; we sell our labour power.

To illustrate what a wage slave is, suppose you owned a fine car and some one should say to you, "I want to use your car until it is all worn out. I will give it fuel and oil enough to keep it running until it can't run any more." Surely you would not agree to that proposition. You wouldn't allow anybody to use your car until it was all worn out just for fuel and oil. If you are a wage-worker that is what you are doing with your body. The capitalists use you until you are all worn out and all they aim to give you is what the chattel slaves got, what the serfs got, what a horse gets, a bare living, and on many occasions you are not even sure of that. How about your children? You spend many happy hours teaching your children new things and long years are spent upon their education. When they get to be young men and women then the capitalists say to you, "We want to use your children to produce wealth for us and for our children. Just as we have used you to produce wealth for us, so our children want to use your children to produce wealth for them when we are gone." You ask, "What are our children to get for the use of their bodies during the precious years of their lives?" and the answer is the same, "fuel and oil". A mere subsistance wage. The endless cycle that starts and ends with work. Work to get money, to buy food, to get strength to work. Every increase in the productivity of labour, every invention, every victory of science and triumph of genius, only goes to increase the wealth of a parasite class while the workers are only supposed to get what slave classes always got, a bare living and often not even that. This is wage slavery, the foundation of capitalism. We need  to reflect that of the six billion inhabitants of planet Earth and  all but a comparatively few are hungry, are insecure, are slaves.

 Our party philosophy is based on the fact that everything in the universe, from atoms to solar systems, is continually moving, changing, transforming, developing; likewise the history of the human race is nothing but a ceaseless change, a continuous development. We accept the Marxist analysis regarding historical materialism.  In the course of its history classes are formed; these classes continually struggle for supremacy and, after prolonged struggle, one class succeeds another in the dominating position. The struggle continues until class divisions themselves are dissolved and a new, classless society results. But although these struggles and changes are ceaseless, the apparent velocity of these motions greatly varies at different periods. There are times when whole series of important changes take, place so rapidly as to take one's breath away, to be followed by long periods of apparent stagnation, when social evolution seems not only to be standing still but even to be going backward. Of course, this is only an illusion, for, as a matter of fact, historical forces are continually at work, only their manifestations are of a more spectacular nature at one time than at another.

The new society, of which we speak, a system in which there are no more classes, no more wage workers and no more social  parasites, can not be realised without a class struggle. Capitalism based on production for sale will give way to production for use. Thus will end the world's last class struggle. The age-long exploitation of man by his fellowman will cease forever, and this will be the crowning achievement of the human race. The necessity that gave rise to classes in society has passed. The capacity to produce wealth has increased to a point where it is more than ample to provide sustenance for all. Production has been socialised. It remains only to socialise control of the economic structure and eliminate expropriation. Production under capitalism is anti-social. It is anti-social because it operates against the interests of the producers. What one word sums up the damnation of capitalist rule? Hunger. We must put capitalism in its grave before humanity can flourish in the world, before hunger of body and of mind and heart are forever banished.

There is no other way to reorganise society on a rational basis save through control of industry by the workers and the elimination of the price system based upon surplus value. there is only one form of  economic organisation that shows the way to this result— social and industrial democracy. The Socialist Party is preparing to take over the means of production and distribution in the interest of the human race and to banish exploitation and slavery of mind and body forever from the human scene. From its very inception, the Socialist Party was international in sentiment and scope. It formed a constituent part of the World Socialist Movement, a name deliberately chosen. From among the betrayals of the “socialists” and labour leaders during the world wars, the Socialist Party stood out conspicuously as an uncompromising champion of  principles. We, the workers, are many, though divided because of ignorance. They, the capitalists, are, few, but strong organisationally, ruthless in policy  and determined to increase in power to perpetuate their dictatorship over the hopeless existence of a robbed class.

Workers of the World, unite. You have a world and life itself to gain!

Capitalists for Independence

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

 Stagecoach boss, transport tycoon, Brian Souter has donated £1 million to the SNP.

Souter recently donated £100,000 to Business for Scotland and to Christians for independence, which are both campaigning for a "Yes" vote in the referendum.

Hide The Truth

The Toronto Star asks, "Have we entered the golden age of censorship?" The reason they ask this question is because Prime Minister Harper is again targeting charities that speak out on topics the government doesn't like to have aired publicly, such as global warming. The latest target is PEN Canada, an organization dedicated to protecting writers from censorship – it gets more Orwellian all the time. The Harper regime has clamped down on dissent far more than any government before it. Coupled with the attack on science by reducing or withholding funding, this government is going after any one it considers an enemy. All governments under capitalism must hide or obfuscate the truth, this one is just more 'active' John Ayers.

Who Is Paying The Most Tax?

In crisis- ridden Greece that has an unemployment rate of 27% (officially), public fury is directed at the ship owners. Since 2002, 58 special rules that nearly totally exempt shipping companies from taxes or duties has meant that $200 billion has gone untaxed. In 2012, Greek shipowners paid just $22 million in taxes, while the sailors who worked them paid $80 million, according to their union. Do you know who your government works for? John Ayers

La Criox's Plan

It has been widely reported that Henry La Croix had an accident three days into his intended bike ride from The Arctic to Argentina that prevented him from continuing. La Croix's plan was to raise money for Alzheimer's research. One may respect La Croix for his altruism but nevertheless it is a pathetic reflection on capitalist society where one would feel compelled to take such action because of lack of action by governments who should be tackling the problem adequately. In a socialist society such action by individuals would not be necessary. John Ayers.

For Socialism - Against Slavery

Most workers have been misled on the issue of socialism. Many believe the capitalist class propaganda that socialism is oppressive and that socialism is imposed on the people without their consent. Many believe that socialism is a threat to their freedom. The failure of old “socialist” and “communist” groups to explain the perspective of socialism openly and boldly has greatly assisted the ruling class in undermining understanding. A genuine revolutionary party, as Marx and Engels pointed out over a century ago, disdains to conceal its aims, and openly advocates the necessity for a socialist revolution. It is necessary to use every opportunity to develop workers’ understanding that real economic security, freedom and peace can be achieved only by a revolutionary transformation of capitalist society into socialism.

 It is a sign of the times that  people are discussing the meaning of socialism. There is also the beginning of a surge of militancy among workers. The working-class is composed of all those people who, divorced from the ownership or control of the means of production and forced to rely on the sale of their labour power (ability to work) for their. These workers and their families make up the vast majority of the population. For years the working-class has been a sleeping giant lulled to sleep by the ability of capitalism to expand and provide a gradually rising standard of living. Living standards of the majority of the working-class have been eroded and the system has been unable to raise real wages for the majority of workers or to prevent a drop in the living standards of workers. Each year, a larger share of production goes for profits, a smaller share for wages and other workers’ income.

There is a war raging between the capitalist class and the working class. The capitalist class are the handful of millionaires who own or control factories, mines, fields and banks. They are the class that owns and sells the products that we make and often can’t even afford to buy. We sell our labour to this class for a wage. The war between the capitalist class and the working class is due to the system of wage slavery. We can’t live without. Jobs. We have to eat. To eat we have to work. To work we have to work for the capitalists. To work for the boss we have to accept his terms. We are slaves of the wage system.

As the recent recession deepens the attack has been intensified on living and working conditions of all workers in order to sustain the maximum profit drive of the capitalist class. This renewed profit drive at home takes on many forms:

1. Replacement of workers by automation and mechanisation.
2. Speed-ups, redundancy and early retirement to eliminate workers.
3. Lengthening of the working day per family. This is done by means of workers having to take extra jobs and that there must be at least two job-holders if a family is to keep the bills paid.
4. Shifting of an increased tax burden from the capitalists to the workers, although this can only be on short term respite before the burden returns to the capitalist class.
5. Increasing attacks and the squeeze on millions of workers on welfare benefits.
6. Undermining of unions and union conditions by cutting wages, hiring temps in a process of casualisation such as zero hour contracts, or moving plants to unorganised and low-wage areas (right-to-work states in America) at home or out-sourcing abroad, as well as passing anti-union legislation.

Workers’ efforts to organise unions in order to raise wages, shorten hours, and improve working conditions go back to the earliest days of capitalism. Throughout history, the bosses have always tried to keep workers divided, unorganised and weak, in order to intensify their exploitation and thereby grab bigger profits. The capitalist class has never stopped – and will never stop – its efforts to destroy and weaken the workers’ movement. Bitter class battles have developed, and the outlook is for longer, more frequent and more bitter class warfare.

Despite a history of struggle to organise and to improve conditions, reforms have not resulted in a decent, secure life for working people. Every gain is continuously threatened and require defending. As long as the ownership of land and industry is under control of the capitalist class, the economy is run solely for the maximum profit interest of the bosses, and their state power is used to protect their capitalist system. Reforms only create illusions. Out of a misconception that socialism is not on the order of the day, reformists forget the very purpose of being revolutionaries. They fail to expose the nature of the capitalist state so as to avoid being “too left.” Out of fear of isolation, they abandon class struggle entirely.

Workers must be guided by the slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” and advance  solidarity in all battles against the capitalist class enemy. Unity of workers in a class struggle must begin from below through cooperation and coordination. To achieve the maximum possible labour unity, many groups besides union members must be involved, the wives,  the unemployed, the local community – all those who are exploited by capitalism. Workers must also build toward independent political action by the working class.

The immediate aim of the socialist revolution is to overthrow the capitalists and the the creation of a classless and stateless society in which the guiding principle will be ’From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’. The working class  abolishes capitalist relations of production and replaces them by non-oppressive, non-exploitive ones then the alienation characteristic of capitalism will begin to disappear. Productive activity will become a creative, fulfilling and truly human activity. The Socialist Party seeks no cut and dried Utopia. We challenge the system of wage slavery itself.

Building Collapses Are Common in India.

In India in the last weekend of June, there were two building collapses that killed at least twenty-two people. The Toronto Star news reporter said, " Most homes in that part of the capital (New Delhi) were built without permission using substandard materials." Building collapses are common in India because lax regulations and enforcement encourage builders to cut corners, add unauthorized floors, and use poor materials to save construction costs and increase profits. This will not end while the profit system is in place and until the workers end it. John Ayers.

Commendable But A Bit Late

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety that includes 26 top brands such as Walmart, Hudson's Bay Company, The Gap, Canadian Tire, and The Children's Place, has closed or partially closed seven factories for remediation after inspectors found structural problems and safety concerns. Workers will be compensated for up to four months – commendable but a bit late for many who have already lost their lives or ability to work because of the companies' blatant lack of concern and blind pursuit of profit. John Ayers.

End Slavery

Most workers have been misled on the issue of socialism. Many believe the capitalist class propaganda that socialism is oppressive and that socialism is imposed on the people without their consent. Many believe that socialism is a threat to their freedom. The failure of old “socialist” and “communist” groups to explain the perspective of socialism openly and boldly has greatly assisted the ruling class in undermining understanding. A genuine revolutionary party, as Marx and Engels pointed out over a century ago, disdains to conceal its aims, and openly advocates the necessity for a socialist revolution. It is necessary to use every opportunity to develop workers’ understanding that real economic security, freedom and peace can be achieved only by a revolutionary transformation of capitalist society into socialism.

 It is a sign of the times that  people are discussing the meaning of socialism. There is also the beginning of a surge of militancy among workers. The working-class is composed of all those people who, divorced from the ownership or control of the means of production and forced to rely on the sale of their labour power (ability to work) for their. These workers and their families make up the vast majority of the population. For years the working-class has been a sleeping giant lulled to sleep by the ability of capitalism to expand and provide a gradually rising standard of living. Living standards of the majority of the working-class have been eroded and the system has been unable to raise real wages for the majority of workers or to prevent a drop in the living standards of workers. Each year, a larger share of production goes for profits, a smaller share for wages and other workers’ income.

There is a war raging between the capitalist class and the working class. The capitalist class are the handful of millionaires who own or control factories, mines, fields and banks. They are the class that owns and sells the products that we make and often can’t even afford to buy. We sell our labour to this class for a wage. The war between the capitalist class and the working class is due to the system of wage slavery. We can’t live without. Jobs. We have to eat. To eat we have to work. To work we have to work for the capitalists. To work for the boss we have to accept his terms. We are slaves of the wage system.

As the recent recession deepens the attack has been intensified on living and working conditions of all workers in order to sustain the maximum profit drive of the capitalist class. This renewed profit drive at home takes on many forms:

1. Replacement of workers by automation and mechanisation.
2. Speed-ups, redundancy and early retirement to eliminate workers.
3. Lengthening of the working day per family. This is done by means of workers having to take extra jobs and that there must be at least two job-holders if a family is to keep the bills paid.
4. Shifting of an increased tax burden from the capitalists to the workers, although this can only be on short term respite before the burden returns to the capitalist class.
5. Increasing attacks and the squeeze on millions of workers on welfare benefits.
6. Undermining of unions and union conditions by cutting wages, hiring temps in a process of casualisation such as zero hour contracts, or moving plants to unorganised and low-wage areas (right-to-work states in America) at home or out-sourcing abroad, as well as passing anti-union legislation.

Workers’ efforts to organise unions in order to raise wages, shorten hours, and improve working conditions go back to the earliest days of capitalism. Throughout history, the bosses have always tried to keep workers divided, unorganised and weak, in order to intensify their exploitation and thereby grab bigger profits. The capitalist class has never stopped – and will never stop – its efforts to destroy and weaken the workers’ movement. Bitter class battles have developed, and the outlook is for longer, more frequent and more bitter class warfare.

Despite a history of struggle to organise and to improve conditions, reforms have not resulted in a decent, secure life for working people. Every gain is continuously threatened and require defending. As long as the ownership of land and industry is under control of the capitalist class, the economy is run solely for the maximum profit interest of the bosses, and their state power is used to protect their capitalist system. Reforms only create illusions. Out of a misconception that socialism is not on the order of the day, reformists forget the very purpose of being revolutionaries. They fail to expose the nature of the capitalist state so as to avoid being “too left.” Out of fear of isolation, they abandon class struggle entirely.

Workers must be guided by the slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” and advance  solidarity in all battles against the capitalist class enemy. Unity of workers in a class struggle must begin from below through cooperation and coordination. To achieve the maximum possible labour unity, many groups besides union members must be involved, the wives,  the unemployed, the local community – all those who are exploited by capitalism. Workers must also build toward independent political action by the working class.

The immediate aim of the socialist revolution is to overthrow the capitalists and the the creation of a classless and stateless society in which the guiding principle will be ’From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’. The working class  abolishes capitalist relations of production and replaces them by non-oppressive, non-exploitive ones then the alienation characteristic of capitalism will begin to disappear. Productive activity will become a creative, fulfilling and truly human activity. The Socialist Party seeks no cut and dried Utopia. We challenge the system of wage slavery itself.

Casino-Like Practises

 "Flummoxed by investment options? So are the'pros" was the headline in the Toronto Star Business section on June 30. The thrust of the article was, as the heading suggests, that fund managers just do not know where to invest. To quote, " They see treasury bonds vulnerable to the inevitable climb of interest rates and corporate and high yield bonds paying so little interest that there is not enough insulation to protect investors if the economy suddenly weakens, or if the investors get cold feet. After the unrelenting climb of stocks since 2009, the pros see a stock market so pricey that stocks appear vulnerable to any bad news from the economy or companies." The above clearly shows how uncertain the markets are and that no investor can feel secure. The most significant words in the article are 'cold feet'. Clearly, the economy is based on casino-like practices and outcomes. John Ayers.

Life Without Running Water.

The Toronto Star's "World Weekly Dispatches" included 'Life Without Running Water". No, this is not a report on a Third World country but Detroit, Michigan. In April, the city set a target of cutting off services to 3,000 customers a week who were more than $150 behind on their bills. In May, the water department sent out 46,000 warnings and cut off service to 4,531, i.e. they exceeded their target! Maybe someone will get a medal, or maybe they will cut off service to 5,000 customers as they get more efficient. The bankrupt city is currently owed $90 million from customers and nearly half the 300,000 accounts are past due. The city is located on the shores of the Great Lakes! Some have been without running water for six weeks and counting. In capitalism, if you do not have enough money, you can't have, even a basic human right such as clean water. John Ayers.

The Workers' Party

Socialism has been the goal of the working class political movement since before the time of Marx and Engels. The core elements of whose political ideas can be found in the Communist Manifesto, which is still relevant for today. Socialists foresee that humanity will do away with the system that threatens its survival with destructive wars and environmental destruction. Socialism will win the world and change the world, and make a planet of peace and freedom. Capitalism's economic problems are generating a ruling class offensive, designed to cut costly social welfare programmes and drive down wages, at the expense of the living standards of the working class. Although by no means certain, socialists are optimistic of a class struggle upsurge which will lead to actually challenging capitalism, (but again, this need not automatically follow). We are talking about the beginning of the radicalisation of the working class.

If the working class is destined to transform society then it must create its own political party within the framework of capitalist society to fulfill its historic mission which must be working class in composition and subject to the control of its members. Creating a party of the working class with the aim of establishing a new socialist society is very different and far more difficult than organising a union movement. But the two are related and will eventually be connected. Education is essential and comes through experience, but its essence is the grasping of ideas and not to feel intimidated in questioning authority or—as Marx once put it— “doubting everything.” That is why democracy and education must go hand in hand.

 If an organisation’s principles are correct the tactics reflected must also be correct. If an organisation’s tactics are wrong, it is nearly certain that its principles can be nothing else but wrong. We must not be swept off our feet by fine sounding phrases. Obviously the workers cannot wait until the social revolution has stepped upon the scene and then organise. Tactics therefore dictate the organisation of the working class today, under capitalism, into an organisation whose primary purpose is to to create a new social order. The working class must organise today, under capitalism, in order to achieve its emancipation. Slogans will get us nowhere. What is needed is a class-conscious organisation of the working class on the political and industrial fields.

Some so-called socialists argue that the large mass of workers will never become socialist and will have to be led by an enlightened minority (the vanguard) which  is willing to unite with any movement of workers, no matter how wrong this may be, in order that they will have some masses to lead, and who are frequently willing to barter away all its principles for the sake of being taken into the ranks of reformist organisations. In other words, numbers are more important than principles. In order to reach the masses, we find their manifestoes filled with all kinds of  reforms and demands, simply to garner support. Marx and Engels lived and wrote in vain. Their teaching that the workers are robbed at the point of production and not at the point of consumption is not even grasped. The workers’ party that is of any use in our estimate is one that recognises that the workers are robbed by the capitalist, and understands how that robbery takes place; and is one that is organised to prosecute the class struggle politically until socialism is attained. Such would be a socialist party based on Marxian principles. All other parties, no matter how named, and of whom composed, are useless. The Socialist Party holds that the political party must be a party of no compromise. Its mission is to point the way to the goal and it refuses to leave the main road to follow the small side-tracks that lead into the swamp of reformism. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It must be overthrown.

The Socialist Party knows that no leaders are going to pull the workers into socialism. As Marx stated, “The emancipation of the working class must be the class conscious act of the working class itself.” A muddle-minded working class will never be able to act correctly or move in the proper direction no matter how insightful the leaders may be. “The day is past,” says Engels, “for revolutions carried through by small minorities at the head of unconscious ” yet some activists say the workers must arm themselves for the revolution and that mass action and armed insurrection are the means by which our emancipation is to be accomplished. These “revolutionaries” are a century behind the times resorting to such methods. If there is anything the capitalist class likes and which it tries to bring about, it is to have the workers engaging in these street-fighting tactics. After pointing out that the development of capitalism had rendered barricade fighting and armed insurrection obsolete, Engels goes on to say:
“Does the reader now understand why the ruling class, by hook or by crook, would get us where the rifle pops and the sabre slashes? Why, today, do they charge us with cowardice because we will not, without further ado, get down into the street where we are SURE OF OUR DEFEAT IN
ADVANCE? Why are we so persistently importuned to play the role of cannon fodder?”

The Socialist Party is opposed to violence or the advocacy of violence in the labour movement because it knows that such tactics are playing right into the hands of the capitalist class. It is not cowardice that dictates our position but common sense and it is not heroism or bravery that dictates the advocacy of violence but idiocy. In today’s protest movements, any who embrace violent resistance is either a lunatic or a police spy acting as an agent provocateur. The labour movement must not descend into a conspiracy behind closed doors. It must be fully transparent in its structure and operation. This the Socialist Party can proudly serve as an example of openness.

One argument made against the Socialist Party is that it is small, the Small Party of Good Boys,  but when the time is ripe for the social revolution, it will be the organisation, no matter what its size, that has the correct principles and tactics that will be the rallying point of the working class. The Socialist Party never compromises truth to make a friend, never withholds criticism of error lest it make an enemy.

“Together For All”

A few personal reflections by this blogger concerning organisation and the Socialist Party

We are all alienated under capitalism - alienated from the sort of work that might be meaningful, the sort of relationships that might sustain us, alienatated from the Earth and from the human community. We are also alienated from our own true selves. We want change but we don't want to see the world reproduced as it currently is. It is not just about dreaming up blueprints for a new society, though that can be important if we do that together.  It's about transforming our social lives and relationships, transforming ourselves. It’s about  challenging the lonely hopes of our fellow workers of winning the lottery to escape their misery, and of  disillusioning others of their  fantasies for violent revenge upon those who oppress us. We need to re-focus our aim towards the personal gain of collective struggle for common ownership, emphasising it is about working for ourselves yet not about individual survival. We have to succeed in tracing social and personal problems to their root - capitalism.

 The recession and the State’s austerity policies has made the need for a radical re-thinking of our politics more urgent than ever. In fact the bigger picture is that we are literally destroying the Earth and billions of lives in the name of capitalist economic growth. The Occupy movement which emerged around the world with its camps tried to present alternative social relationships, political power and future possibilities. Protest movements need to promise a different, better world in both word and deed. They cannot limit themselves to offering seemingly practical palliatives, but must act as catalysts to advance and defend visions of a very different world. An expanding capitalist economy provides suitable conditions for reformism and for many decades reformist ideas have been dominant in the working class. However, the belief that the systems we live under can be reformed or tamed is hopeless idealism whereas the revolutionary approach is pragmatic and understands the only real way out of the exploitation we are living under. Bold declarations of radical aspirations ignites and inspires the imagination and and when combined with thoughtful organization, can change the world. Revolutions are not built purely out of love and cosy sentiments. Rather, movements need to possess structures where disagreement, argument and critical thinking can flourish and emerge from the differences between people, ideas, experiences and strategies. It is by working through conflicts of opinion, and not by glossing them over in the name of false unity or claims to party efficacy that contributes to our vitality. Making room for these disagreements, but ensuring they don't handicap the movement, is key.

Why does the Socialist Party exist? Nothing less than to help make a social revolution which is a complete transformation of human society and all its social relations. That is no small thing. It is about the biggest job that any body have ever set itself and the means at our disposal is simply other people like ourselves. The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working-class themselves. There is no other way. We endeavour to 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. It is in the direction of building up a class-conscious working-class socialist party that we have concentrated our efforts and  energy. Agitate, Educate, Organise!

Perhaps, as some critics say, our methods are not perfect and we have never claimed that we haven’t made mistakes or that we should not engage in self-examination of our tactics or methods. We have no reason for complacency. But the Socialist Party does claim that the road we have marked out is the right road, and that no other political organisation has, as yet, discovered a better way.  Whatever may or not be the faults that which we have to reproach ourselves, it is scarcely a failure to be placed at our feet  if those to whom we make our appeal decline to take the path we point out to them, and persist in taking detours down every side-track and dead end in search of a short-cut. Where we could have missed opportunity is that in organising we could have failed to take advantage of new ideas and conceptions in communications. When we present our alternatives, we need to assess them on the basis of how well they allow us to confront and overcome systems of exploitation and oppression.

 Not only have we not succeeded mustering the working-class to our banner, the fact is, many sincere socialists remain outside our party. Let us search for the reasons and if possible remedy them. Do we distance possible friends and allies rather than to win them over? There must be adherence to the party’s principles but also there should be room within it for every genuine socialist. There should be no hunt for possible heresies, no obsession about reaching full 100% agreement on non-essential points of difference but instead a celebration of  the core points of consensus to bring all comrades into a united socialist party, a living, vibrant instrument for the emancipation of humanity!  It needs to make common cause with others of like mind for a real, material transformation of the world. Our confidence and hopes are activated and animated when we encounter examples of new ideas. The sound of the class war drums become a common beat as we increasing engage in shared understanding. There needs to be the realisation that building solidarity is never-ending work.

Rather than a slogan of “Alone Against All” it should be “Together For All”

Who Owns the North Pole Part 72

Canada has launched a scientific mission to map the seabed surrounding the North Pole, aimed at claiming the area.

The Canadian government said in a statement issued on Friday that two ice-breakers will be sent to the Arctic waters to gather scientific information to support a plan to extend Canadian territory up to the North Pole.

“Our government is committing the resources necessary to ensure that Canada secures international recognition of the full extent of its continental shelf, including the North Pole,” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

The mission comes after Ottawa filed a UN application in December 2013, seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary. If Canada’s claim over the territory is accepted by the UN body, its share of the potentially oil/gas-rich region would grow dramatically. The US Geological Survey estimated previously that the area could hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and up to 30 percent of its hidden natural gas reserves.

Pathetic Reflections

It has been widely reported that Henry La Croix had an accident three days into his intended bike ride from The Arctic to Argentina that prevented him from continuing. La Croix's plan was to raise money for Alzheimer's research. One may respect La Croix for his altruism but nevertheless it is a pathetic reflection on capitalist society where one would feel compelled to take such action because of lack of action by governments who should be tackling the problem adequately. In a socialist society such action by individuals would not be necessary. John Ayers.

Money Trumps everything

The first new town built in India after its so-called independence in 1947, Chandigarh, was designed by the famous Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier. There was just one small problem, his plans did not include housing for labourers who were forced to live in shanty towns outside of town. In 2006, the city government introduced a scheme to construct 25,000 new apartments with water and electricity for the poor folk. The fact that the shanty- towns are being leveled so that the developers can build luxury homes for the rich is merely coincidental. Oh, and just one other small detail – some of the shanty towns are being leveled before the workers apartments have been built. In capitalism, money trumps everything! John Ayers.

World Without Borders

There are examples where groups and individuals who claim to be indigenous to the land, so to speak, lash out against those they consider to be “interlopers”, “aliens,” “foreigners,” and “outsiders” - immigrants. Few issues today so sharply differentiates the revolutionary socialists and nationalist reformists as that of the cross-border migration of workers. The issue at stake is a challenge to the very existence of the national State and its prerogatives in the control of a territory and the inhabitants. Some of the Left care only to gain control of the State and acquire  its power over its citizens not with abolishing the State, per se. Accepting the right of the State to control immigration is accepting its right to exist. When some on the Left deplore the ill treatment of immigrants it is seen, not as an attack on the powers of the State, but as an argument for ending all immigration. Demands for a “humane immigration policy” rival the fantasies of liberal NGOs make to send capital to the countries from which the immigrants come, not immigrants to the countries where capital exists. If the reformers had power to direct capital to new locations, then it has the power to abolish capital. To permit the expulsion of illegal immigrants is to take one step nearer to the expulsion of immigrants, which in turn is a step closer to the expulsion of selected sections of natives and we already see the early signs with “terrorists” being deprived of passports and hence their nationality, made stateless.

The U.N. estimates that 79.9% of children in Guatemala, 78.9% in El Salvador and 63.1% in Honduras live in poverty. In Honduras, rates of malnutrition reach 48.5% in rural areas, while almost half of Guatemalan children are moderately or severely stunted in growth. Honduras is the eighth most unequal country worldwide, and Guatemala isn’t far behind.  According to a report from the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, since the Zelaya coup in 2009 the economy has plunged, poverty has increased, social spending on health care and education has been slashed, economic inequality has worsened, and 100% of all real income gains have accrued to the wealthiest 10 percent of Hondurans. The  economic policies of the so-called “Washington Consensus” – centered around privatization, trade and financial liberalization, and diminished social spending. In Honduras and Guatemala the bottom 50% actually experienced a decrease in its income share during this period. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have been kept under the jackboot of murderous regimes, with U.S. support, for much of the twentieth century. Superimposed on this has been a devastating wave of gang violence. Honduras is now the murder capital of the world. El Salvador and Guatemala have also some of the highest homicide rates in the world. The immigrants eager to cross the US-Mexican border for security and sanctuary are refugees of inequality.

Nationalism and socialism are contradictory. Socialism must be international or it can not exist at all; it is a sham. In the end, not socialism but nationalism and the national State will have to disappear. The world is irresistibly being driven to internationalism and interdependence, the only race remaining, that of the human race as a whole. The capitalist system has freed people from the soil."Where I fare well, there is my home”. Workers journey often with their families in order to settle wherever conditions are most favourable. Everywhere, human beings are the same, no matter where they come from or where they go to in search of their bread and butter. He is but a nomad. They leave behind unemployment but only too frequently they find  discrimination. They constitute a large section of the workers in transport and on building sites. They staff our restaurants, our laundries, work in factories. They also face hostility at work, in schools, in pubs, because of where they were born.

The new land is usually one in which the laws and their administration are more favourable to the workers than those of their original home. And  co-workers have no motive for depriving them of what little protection they can get from the law the struggle against exploiting employers. Their interest lies rather in increasing everybody’s  ability to withstand the common enemy. Prejudice, of which he or she allows him or herself to be made a victim, does as much harm as it does the newcomer. The capitalist artificially stimulates antagonisms in order to be able to control.

Intimidatory immigration controls has nothing to do with the specific characteristics of the foreign worker concerned, but rather is related to the need to secure the loyalty of the natives. It is a ruling class strategy of directing blame for the failures of capitalism onto the “newcomers”. While it is workers which leads the attack on foreign workers, the ruling class can sleep easy  in their beds.

Over the  years the demands of the working class for better living conditions have not been met and accusing fingers are pointing at the  people who have emigrated from their home as if this were an answer to these demands. No doubt the world mobility of labour is a great hardship for the workers in countries where the standard of living is high and the conditions of labour are comparatively good. In such countries, naturally, immigration will exceed emigration. As a result the labourers with the greater standard of living will be hindered in their class-struggle by the influx of those with a lower standard and less power of resistance. Under certain circumstances this sort of competition, like that of the capitalists, may lead to a new emphasis on national lines, a new hatred of foreign workers on the part of the native born. But the conflict of nationalities, which is perpetual among the capitalists, can be only temporary among the proletarians. For sooner or later the workers will discover that the immigration of cheap labour is as inevitable a result of the capitalist system as the introduction of machinery or the forcing of women into industry. Wages always come down when two are after the same job. That’s the fault of competition, not of the person who cuts the price. When they say: - “The immigrants are taking your jobs,” we answer: - it is the capitalist system which causes unemployment.

 It is also learned that the workers of each nation that their success in the class-struggle is dependent on the progress of the working-class of other nations. For a time this may turn them against foreign workers, but finally they come to see that there is only one effective means of removing the hindering influence of backward nations: to do away with the backwardness itself. German workers have every reason to co-operate with Asia’s workers in order that they may secure higher wages and a shorter working-day; likewise the English workers have the same interest in relation to the Eastern Europeans, and the North Americans in relation to Latin America. The dependence of the working class of one land on that of another leads inevitably to a joining of forces by workers of various lands.

The national hatred which the working class absorbed from the capitalists steadily disappears and the working-class frees itself from national prejudices. Working-people learn more and more to see in the foreign labourer a fellow-fighter, a comrade. How necessary is the international solidarity of the class-struggles was recognized in the beginning by the authors of the Communist Manifesto. This historic document is addressed to the workers of all lands and concludes by calling upon them to unite. The working class must remember that in their unity is their strength. That the strength of the working class is all powerful because it is based on the determination to end all oppression, all exploitation of man by man, and to oppose all subjection of man on grounds of nationality, colour, or creed. Unlike the unity of the capitalists it is based on a total and enduring unity of interests. But in the absence of working class unity, the strength of the capitalists is greatly increased.

A Deadlly Society

We have all seen politicians and religious leaders commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Great War of 1914-18. What we haven't seen is any of them apologising for the society that produced such a bloodbath. 'More than nine million troops were killed, and, depending on how you count them, as many as 10 million civilians. In Turkey, Russia, the Balkans and elsewhere, unprecedented millions of people became homeless refugees. Some 21 million soldiers were wounded. In Britain, 41,000 men had one or more limbs amputated; in France, so many had mangled faces that they formed a National Union of Disfigured Men.' (Guardian, 28 July) This is what capitalism and its drive for markets leads to  - disfigurement and death. RD

There is Power in the Union

Trade unionism is the organised refusal of the workers to submit meekly to the laws of supply and demand. The trade unions, in Marx’s phrase, were centers of resistance to the encroachments of capital. Neither the value of the workers’ commodity labour power, nor his standard of living in general are fixed automatically but by way of the class struggle. The first attempts to combine in trade unions encounters the savage repression by the State. Trade unions were declared an unlawful society and to strike, a crime. The propertied class today are just as  hostile to trade unionism as they were generations ago. The present day capitalist class is once again engaged in the restriction of trade union activities. Statutes forbid the sympathetic solidarity strikes and places limitations upon peaceful picketing. The right to strike, if at all effectual, must carry with it the corollary right to organize the unorganised and persuade them to join the strike. Only a strike growing out of a trade dispute within narrow limits are “legal”and hanging over every union is the threat of  employers legal injunctions and criminal proceedings. Yet unions which abandon their militant functions for defensive or offensive purposes, invite legal and governmental strangulation at the hands of a capitalist class. Whatever concessions have been wrung from the capitalist class in the past have been along the way of mass struggle. The “democratic” state is the political representation of the interests of private property and not of the working class.

The bubble burst. The collapse of banks and the stock market, the deep decline in industry, and the creation of a huge army of the un- or underemployed are having the effect of wiping out  illusion in the minds of broad sections of the working class. Capitalism is revealed in all its frailties of its anarchic production for profit. The attempts of capitalism to exit the  crisis by a re-adjustment of its industry for more effective competition on the world market, attempts which spell rationalisation, wage-slashing, and a general offensive upon the workers’ standards of living, can only further the process of disillusionment. Under the pressure of these developments,  workers are moving away from their former passivity and moving away from acquiescence. There is a growing mood for struggle and militancy.

Once again there exists alarm among the wealthy at the “spectre” of communism. Employers are fully aware that as a result of unemployment and the pay-cutting offensive, and ending of the welfare state workers hitherto faithful to the traditions of capitalist politics will be radicalised by their increasing experience of misery and mounting exposure to inequality. The pressure upon the workers has become unbearable. For sure, the capitalist class of this country has not yet lost its confidence and its power to rule. There is no immediate revolutionary struggles on the horizon. But the necessary defensive resistance of the workers can become the starting point for revolutionary struggles in the future. Once started in that direction, we in the Socialist Party are confident that the momentum of the class struggle will be like an avalanche (or perhaps like an ever-enlarging snowball). Nobody can foretell the exact speed of events, but nobody has the right, to count on an even and gradualist course of the class struggle. The workers must be clear that even were the exploiters willing to grant them without struggle no mere palliatives or reforms will suffice any longer. You cannot serve both the wealthy and the workers without committing treachery.

 The power of the  plutocracy is great. But there is a power greater than theirs and that is the power of numbers. Organise!

Saving Construction Costs

Next door, in India in the last weekend of June, there were two building collapses that killed at least twenty-two people. The Toronto Star news reporter said, " Most homes in that part of the capital (New Delhi) were built without permission using substandard materials." Building collapses are common in India because lax regulations and enforcement encourage builders to cut corners, add unauthorized floors, and use poor materials to save construction costs and increase profits. This will not end while the profit system is in place and until the workers end it. John Ayers.

To Late For Some

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety that includes 26 top brands such as Walmart, Hudson's Bay Company, The Gap, Canadian Tire, and The Children's Place, has closed or partially closed seven factories for remediation after inspectors found structural problems and safety concerns. Workers will be compensated for up to four months – commendable but a bit late for many who have already lost their lives or ability to work because of the companies' blatant lack of concern and blind pursuit of profit. John Ayers

For All Or For None

Every state is the dictatorship of some class over another. It is a body of armed men organised by the class in power to suppress the rights of those classes opposed to the continued rule of the dominant class. The economic system and the state structure, that prevails today is a capitalist economic system, a capitalist state structure — a reality that cannot be denied by any trickery of words. The government is an executive committee for managing the common affairs of the capitalist class as a whole. The State acts on the basis of the naked self-interest of the ruling class. The state is a machine for the oppression of one class by another. The fundamental political problem for the capitalists  is to protect their class interests of the small exploiting minority while obscuring the true nature of its state from the great majority of the people. All the laws passed by the capitalists’ politicians have as their purpose the further enslavement and robbery of the masses and the protection of the unjustly acquired wealth of the rich, who produce nothing of value, but appropriate the product of the sweat and blood of the workers. No matter how fine-sounding these laws which will apply "equally” to rich and poor alike, they were only written to deceive people. The 1946 Employment Act and the 1978 Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act legally obligate the president and Congress to use all available means to achieve full employment. Reformists try constantly to get the masses to trust in the legal system and have faith in their “rights” granted by the capitalists to their wage-slaves. Appeals to paper promises and prattling on about a fake legal “right” awarded by the capitalist government are worse than pointless.

The interests of the capitalists and of the working class are irreconcilable. Pitiless exploitation and the anarchy of the market oppress working people in a thousand different ways. Capital must accumulate in order to survive. It grows by keeping for itself the surplus value produced by workers after they have reproduced the value of their labour power, their wages. Surplus value is the source of all profit. The unending search for surplus value, for profit, is the motive force of capitalist production. Capitalism can produce only for profit. It is forced constantly to seek new ways to achieve the maximum rate of profit. In its restless search for maximum profits, spurred on by ruthless competition, each capitalist company is bound to attempt to increase its productive strength to the full. The capitalists cut their costs of production mainly by stepping up their already vicious exploitation of the working class. They cut their wage bills by reducing wages and sacking workers. They also make the remaining workers work longer hours and they increase the intensity of labour. Capitalists also reduce their wage bill by buying more advanced machinery in order to produce the same goods with less labour. In times of economic recession the capitalists tell us to tighten our belts and toil harder for them, “in the national interest”. They try to increase exploitation so as to get the huge profit needed to start capital expanding again. Competition among the vying capitalists to minimise losses is fierce. In this battle the winners as well as the losers lay workers reduce living standards to offload their crisis onto the backs of the working class. The working class must fight all attempts by the capitalist to shift the burden of their economic crisis. We must resist all wage cuts, unemployment, speed-ups, tax rises, and cuts in government welfare services. We must make the capitalists pay for their own crisis rather than people being kept from working to keep wages low

Working is the exclusive means of income and occupies a great portion of time of workers. It is a source of dignity and achievement. Workers run and maintain machinery, build factories and homes, work up the various products for the market—in short produce and reproduce society. When there is a crying need for more services and products for people it is a tragedy that many are forced to be unemployed. It is the nature of the capitalist system itself behind this madness. unemployment results from the basic drives of capitalism. Labor power is a commodity brought to market by workers. To keep its costs down capitalism can either raise the supply by forcing new layers (e.g., migrants) onto the labour market, or it can lower the demand by automation of  labour-intensive production processes. It does both. Capitalism has an inherent drive to introduce new technologies, to revolutionise production. The chief result is accumulation by reducing the proportion of living labour to “dead labour": machinery and materials. Marx made the striking observation that while generals win wars by recruiting armies, capitalists win their competitive wars by firing them. Under the impact of automation, workers are thrown into the street to form what he called the “industrial reserve army,” a mass of disposable labour which could be used in several ways. One is to supply masses of labor when and where the need arises without disrupting production elsewhere. Another is as a weapon against the employed workers, a constant downward pressure on wages and their militancy.  Workers tossed on the streets are often confused and demoralised, while those with jobs are cowed and become protective of them.

 Marx also noted:
1) the size of the reserve army depends on the needs and conditions of capitalist production; it does not indicate absolute overpopulation;
2) it varies with the cycles of capitalist development—smaller at the end of the boom period, larger in times of crisis—but its existence is constant;
3) it has an active element that Marx termed the “floating” section (including part-timers), a more destitute “stagnant” part, and a “latent” element composed of a population rendered superfluous by productive developments in agriculture and other spheres where capitalist methods were being newly introduced.

Work can now be transferred to different parts of the world with much greater ease, in order to seek cheaper labor or force workers to accept less. The result, along with a further concentration of capital, is the internationalisation of the reserve army. Alongside the automated factory, the sweatshop has re-emerged.

The working class must overthrow the dictatorship of the capitalist by socialist revolution. Our enemy is the capitalist class and all those in league with them. We place our hope in the people, helping them to raise their understanding of individual oppression to collective oppression, from collective oppression to class oppression, from awareness only of economic oppression to awareness of political oppression, and from awareness of the need for reforms within the existing system to awareness of the need for political struggles for socialist revolution. The politicians have shown time and again that they serve big business first. If we fight back, we can win but any gains or concessions acquired in the past were won because capitalism feared something greater: workers’ revolution. And now even these gains are being eroded and disappearing. If the aim of workers’ resistance is only to persuade politicians to grant reforms, and is not a struggle about making workers conscious of the need for all-out confrontation with capital then it will be all a futile effort that merely raise false hopes. To advocate struggles for reforms and expect the struggle itself to turn automatically into revolutionary demands would be equally illusionary.

The Socialist Party does, however, recognise the revolutionary potential created by the recession. There is a heightened awareness among workers that this system will never fulfill their needs nor grant their demands. Reformists simply no longer has very much to offer. Despite it being a long and difficult struggle, the fight for socialism is now very much worth engaging in, particularly knowing what the bleak capitalist future has in store for us all. That is why working people should join us in this effort.

Parasites And Poverty

Probably nothing sums up better the contrast between the life style of the owning class and the working class than the place in which they live. 'She invested a staggering $85 million refurbishing the 56,000 square foot mansion in the exclusive Los Angeles enclave of Holmby Hills. But now three years after buying the sprawling estate, Petra Stunt, billionaire daughter of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone is selling up, according to new reports. And if you fancy yourself as the next lady of the manor you better hope your bank balance is in good shape - the asking price is a cool $150 million.' (Daily Mail, 28 July) This useless parasite is living in a 110 room mansion whilst many workers fear unemployment, unpaid mortgages or are living in inadequate bed and breakfast accommodation. RD

Poverty In Indonesia

As capitalism expands all over the world its development leads to an unimaginable level of inequality and the gulf between rich and poor has widened in Indonesia more than in any other developing country. 'It has grown by as much as 60 per cent over the last decade, according to our comprehensive look at inequality in the country. While the rich get richer, around 40 per cent of the country's 250 million people still live with less than $2 per day. The last ten years in Indonesia following the departure of former President Suharto and the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 has seen dramatic change. Across Asia we've seen rapid growth, but this hasn't trickled down to the region's most impoverished people as much as one would hope - and Indonesia is a case in point. The country's economy has boomed since the 2000s, but this has benefited the rich more than the poor.' (Aljazeera, 29 July) Millions of people trying to survive on less than $2 a day. Capitalism must go! RD

I got no flag. I got no country.

 “The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one of uniting all working people of all nations, tongues and kindreds." Abraham Lincoln

So the Yes and No camps have had their big TV spectacular. Salmond and Darling engaged in what was called a debate, exchanging facts and figures, throwing the occasional spanner into the  other’s arguments, and hoping we all fall their respective spin. The Socialist Party members were not taken in by the clever sound-bites and many workers, too, will see through the charade.

No country is yours or mine. The ruling class use nationalism to side-track the aspirations of the workers. Nationalism is by no means struggles a way forward to the liberation of the working class but represents local capitalists wanting a larger slice of the profits from exploitation of local workers - “their” workers. Left nationalists preach class collaboration with proponents of private property, contributing nothing but division and confusion. Independence is an empty vessel which demagogues eager to fill with false and even dangerous content. They ally with the bosses. Their political principles can be summed up as: first independence, everything else after. “Everything else” is class struggle, revolution, and socialism. Those supposed radicals present the fallacious case that political independence would constitute a step which is not only necessary but revolutionary in and of itself. Nationalist demagoguery is still with us, here and elsewhere, to deceive the people.

 How many peoples are now paying a heavy price for having put their faith in the pretensions of their nationalist leaders? In spite of their “independence”, countries are still governed according to the rules of capitalist exploitation. Once the nationalists are victorious, at the first important conflict we see the “national” police clubbing the “national” workers by order of the “national” state whose legality is maintained at all costs by the “national” judges and the “national” industrialists maintain their profit level and the “national” finance companies do a great business.
The nationalists have taught us well. We now all know who is responsible for all the economic troubles and political instability in Scotland. It isn’t capitalism at all but the 1707 Union! Scottish workers, however, understand only to well the different task before them. It is to unite to resist the attacks upon them, regardless of the passport of the employer. The class enemy of Scottish workers is identical with the class enemy of the working class as a whole. The global domination of capital means that a nationally-located socialism is an illusion, and so the only way to overcome this problem is through world revolution.

Since the days of Marx, socialists have challenged the capitalists’ national chauvinism with our own appeals for the international solidarity of the working class. We have opposed the attempts of capitalists to enlist the workers in their nationalist strivings with our own appeals for class struggle of the workers of all countries against world capitalism. History has proven that independence is not the objective interests of the working class. The workers will not win victories in the struggle against capitalism  if it fights in dispersed formation against the same enemy. All it will do is make a “breach” in its own defences.

  It is the slogan “world socialism” which must be raised by revolutionists from the first. This slogan serves not only to distinguish the Marxists from the nationalist fakirs of all shades, but also to express the deep-rooted aspirations of the workers movement. The Socialist Party is fighting for the victory of the working class and for a world society that will see an end to all artificial national boundaries. We are out to develop the international struggle of workers, and to unite workers, not to reinforce mistaken identification with the oppressor. Governments need nationalism to make people obey them. They use nationalism to make people think that they are not just obeying a particular group of men but that they are doing their duty to “the nation”.

The Ref..errr? ..end...ummm?

 The left nationalist case invites Scottish workers to cast aside their historic solidarity with their English and Welsh allies, on the grounds that it is only possible to achieve progress towards socialism in Scotland. Collective action co-ordinated across all nations presents the best prospects of success. Our Left nationalists should stop playing with words. For starters, they should quit pretending that sovereignty would be a step towards working class emancipation and recognise instead that what socialists want is real independence. What we want is freedom from capitalist domination.

Love your little bit of what is called Scotland, your street, your neighbourhood, your town or village, but love the human family, all life, and the planet Earth more. There are no countries (or gods), just the human family and kindred species, sharing the fruits of one living biosphere. From the tiniest creatures to the global ecosystem, we are all part of the same natural evolutionary journey, and we must love all life like kin. It is absolute madness that the human family can't take responsibility for its actions and instead learn to share and live in peace in order to avert a possible and increasingly probable ecological apocalypse. The human family must come together globally or else all is lost. Capitalism is causing increased war, pestilence, poverty and the rise in authoritarianism. We face an unprecedented global emergency as life-giving ecosystems collapse. Either humanity immediately comes together to embrace liberty and socialism or we each face a violent end.

Whatever choice the Scottish people make, the Socialist Party will continue the fight for working class liberation, border or no border. What is the “independence” they yearn for, if it means being trapped within national borders - jail-cells inside the bigger prison of capitalism?

Labour Theory Of Theft

A recent attendee at one of our discussion meetings revealed that he worked in a fast food joint for $7 per hour. He would often make a sandwich in a few minutes that cost $7, so for the rest of the hour he was working for nothing – the labour theory of theft at work! John Ayers.

Nine To Five Drudgery

NINE TO FIVE DRUDGERY                                        

The image projected by the press of happy workers going of to work like a cartoon Seven Dwarfs chanting "Hey, Ho Hey Ho -It's Off To Work We Go" is a complete fantasy.'Half the population are so miserable in their jobs that they believe their career choice was a mistake, a survey suggests. Legal professionals were the unhappiest, according to the poll of 2,000 workers by Kalixa Pro, the card payment company.' (Times, 4 August) Capitalism is such a miserable society that anyone singing on their way to work would be locked up for being drunk or insane! RD