Ukraine Crisis

Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenk In a sign of the escalating violence in Ukraine has said that the rebels will aim to boost their forces to 100,000 men.  The United Nations says this conflict has already left at least 5,100 people dead. 'The US administration is considering whether to send arms to help the Ukraine government against pro-Russian rebels in the east, US media report. They suggest officials are exploring the possibility of sending defensive weapons and other lethal aid.' (BBC News, 3 February) It looks like more trouble ahead. RD      

A Growth Industriy

According to the New York Times of December 14, global slavery has become a growth industry, generating $150 billion in illicit profits (are not all profits are illicit!). Slaves are mostly seen in the construction industry in the Persian Gulf, girls from Nepal trafficked into prostitution, shrimp fisherman on Thai ships, children in India working in brick kilns and garment workers in Bangladesh (not counting the billions of wage slaves, of course). The UN estimates that twenty-one million are trapped in forced labour, more than fourteen million in India, the land of the rising middle class. John Ayers.

The Brotherhood of Man.

“If capitalism is to endure, whatever may become of men when they die, they will come into hell when they are born." – William Morris

There is no future on the basis of capitalism in the world today. Unless we overthrow capitalism, collapse and starvation await us. As the numerous crises grow and takes new forms, as policy after policy is desperately tried by capitalism and thrown aside in failure, the struggles of the workers and capitalism deepen and gather on a thousand issues while wider and wider sections of the population are awakening to the rallying trumpet call of socialist revolution. Capitalism or socialism this is no longer an academic debating issue of the future, it is a life and death issue; a fight for human-life that draws ever close. Environmental destruction and waste are not an accidental outcome of capitalism but an intrinsic element of the system, just as class division, poverty and war. It is built into the structure of the capitalist system. On their current path homo sapiens will soon lose their ability to consciously and creatively determine the course of their destiny. Capitalism is driven by the logic of its economics to the ruination of the world. The future is in our hands. Planetary forces have been unleashed far beyond our control and

How often have we heard “socialism is not practical politics” or that “socialism is a wild idea not a commonsense solution.” People by are counseled by wiser minds to stick with “pragmatic progress” and “gradual advance”. The contrary is the truth. Working people by the method of social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone, rapidly overcome the difficulties of the present economic and environmental crises, can swiftly construct and extend production and win prosperity for all. The socialist revolution is the only path forward because only the workers can break the bonds of capitalism; can cut through the tangle of anarchic private property rights, conflicting interests and dis-organisation that fetter the growth of; can end the crushing burdens of parasitism that are strangling industry; can organise production socially on planned and environmentally sound lines; can reconcile the conflict of productive power and consumption; can replace the empire of world corporations with the rational organisation of a world socialist economy. Only the socialist revolution can affect the causes of the climate change, arrest the course of global warming, and bring in a new era of a sustainable technology in harmony with the planet’s ecosystems. Capitalism has no policy within the conditions of market anarchy. There is no harmonious solution possible, but only the blind drive for ever more profit. Capitalism can only seek to prolong its life by throwing the burdens of the crisis on to the workers. There are voices crying out to know how the world can produce so much food that people starve, and produce abundance that people go without. It is a question capitalism cannot answer. Capitalism creates and demands scarcity in order to facilitate competition and profit-making

There are people fearful of the word, “socialism”. What is important is not the word, but those ideas which offer a real alternative. Socialism calls for cooperation and production for use. Socialist production for use, unlike production for profit, would allow for a calculation of the true costs of creating useful things and bringing them to the people. The goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural opportunities, and social services. Far from being a society based upon state-controlled centralized command economy, socialism would be a society without a state. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and world levels. Workers take direction of the means of production by "associations of free and equal producers." Far from being a bureaucratically controlled system, socialism would bring democracy -- the rule of the people -- to the most vital part of our lives, the economy. In every plant, every office and every workplace in socialist society, the workers themselves will meet in democratic assembly to determine their own workplace policies and elect committees to administer and supervise production. To administer production at higher levels, the workers will also elect representatives to councils of their respective industry, but also to other bodies representing all the industries and services which will ascertain what goods and services are wanted and will determine the resources needed to supply them. Socialism means economic democracy. Instead of production for sale and the profit of a few, socialism means production to satisfy the human needs and wants of all. The more we collectively produce, the more we shall collectively enjoy. All of us will be useful producers, working but a fraction of the time we are forced to work today. But we shall not only be useful producers, we shall all share equitably in the wealth we produce, and our compensation will literally dwarf anything we can imagine today without harming our relationship with nature. We shall produce everything we need and want in abundance under conditions best suited to our welfare and those for the planet’s well-being.

In short, socialist society will be a society of secure human beings, living in peace, in harmony and human brotherhood. This all may sound too good to be true. Yet the world has the productive capacity to provide a high standard of living for all, to provide security and comfort for all, to create safe workplaces and clean green industries. The Socialist Party is the sole one that furnishes the foundation for the loftiest aspiration of the loftiest minds of all ages -- the Brotherhood of Man.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brithers be for a' that

The only thing keeping us from reaching these goals is that the workers don't own and control that productive capacity; it is owned and controlled by a few who use it solely to profit themselves. To build a socialist society of peace, plenty and freedom, is the only real alternative workers have.

The Lapse In Global Heath

We all know that viruses mutate to create superbugs (one proof of evolution), and the fact that patients occasionally die from their effect in our hospitals. In India, the problem is magnified many times. Last year, more than 58,000 people died from their effects. Now these superbugs developed there are spreading around the world and without a really well coordinated effort, something hard to do with our world divided into two hundred competing entities, we could see many more deaths. The spread of Ebola has given us a glimpse into this lapse in global health. John Ayers.

Kobani Massacxre

'The Kurdish forces' unexpected victory in this north Syrian town marked a huge strategic and propaganda loss for Isis, which once seemed unstoppable in their rampage across the region.' (Observer, 1 February) There is no sense of triumph for these troops as Kobani is completely destroyed. Thousands massacred, all that remains is a bombed-out shell. In the yawning craters left by US air strikes buildings have vanished during months of heavy shelling. One side street is blocked by the bodies of Isis fighters, rotting where they fell - a pile of bones marked only by a foul smell'. This is the inevitable  product of capitalism's rivalries. RD

A Man Of Honour

'It's reported that Prince Charles wants to overhaul the honour system when he takes the throne because he believes honours are handed to "the wrong people for the wrong reasons." (Sunday Times, 1 February) He certainly should know a lot about the subject as he is the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew and Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He's a Knight of the Garter, a Knight of the Thistle, a Knight Grand Cross of  the Order of the Bath and a member of the Order of Merit. RD

Unlocking Ideas Worth Fighting For

Some have ventured to argue that the growth of socialism has been hampered by the lack of imagination.  The arguments for better wages and conditions haven’t changed all that much from the 19th century. What is actually missing in today’s wage campaigns is a broader vision of the value of leisure. Where today is the grassroots demand for the right to be lazy as advocated by Karl Marx’s son-in-law, Paul Lafargue? In these days of an ability to provide the material needs of all, where are the great opportunities for people to realize their own potential rather than be consumers of mass culture. For socialists, all workers should have time to think about matters unrelated to meeting their basic needs and to more fully enjoy their lives outside of work. It was Marx, himself, who declared:

 “In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”

This vision of a more civic-minded, pleasurable, and humane existence for all working people is one that the socialist movement must once again revitalize and reinvigorate. This is not an issue we can ignore too much longer. Perhaps there has never before been a time when we need the vision of a true socialist movement more than today as the world teeters on environmental extinction for humanity. The threat of anthropogenic environmental catastrophe has posed the question of how eco-friendly technologies might be widely produced and propagated. The Socialist Party believed that this can only occur within socialist relations of production.

Too many have seen socialism as goods fairly equitably divided and work equitably divided. The level of appeal has been a mixture of economic goods and material gains in a milieu of reformist social democratic-liberal sentiment. This has been good but not good enough. Too few see it as the opportunity to play football, frolic on the beach, dance the night away, simply relax on one’s back beneath the shade of a trees, breathing in the scent of flowers or enjoy the intoxication joys of a novel and of music. Socialists envisioned socialism as the means of achieving higher levels of being. The issue of new technology and automation is bursting with positive possibilities. The goal of socialism is abundance but not for the purpose of creating a spectator culture of consumers, but by providing the greatest number of goods for the greatest number of people it,  to recover old pleasures of living and to discover new ones. When the very material basis of our society change and improve, consequently, so will our free-time and leisure. Education and learning will be made fun for students of all ages and levels, otherwise it will be considered irrelevant to their lives, breeding excessive laziness and a general scorn for education. Learning will become a pleasure that students look forward to, and not a burden that must be endured. It is likely that parents and teachers will often be one and the same, rather than two separate divisions of people for students to deal with for freed from the dictate of working hours parents can take a much more active interest in their children's educational upbringing. Parents will grow to be valued sources of guidance and support. Education will be a lifelong commitment to learning new information and techniques. Regular returns to higher education will be continual and take on a new meaning, just like work will take on a new meaning. Students of all ages will emerge independent thinkers, not docile wage slaves. Learning new things and benefitting society with this knowledge will be the driving force of life, and not simply "making a living."

There is no final blueprint for socialism. But only under socialism will fully democratic debate over the use of society’s wealth be possible and the satisfaction of people’s basic needs assured. The idea of socialism is no longer a pure, innocent ideal it once was. Its appeal has been tarnished by the authoritarian, statist regimes that have ruled in its name. To-day in the name of socialism, socialists work towards a society characterized by equality, solidarity, and participation, not be orchestrated from above by a Big Brother state, but will occur from below in the workplaces and  neighborhoods of civil society through cooperative, voluntary relationships that people will develop to render life meaningful. There will be different roles conforming to the varied talents citizens bring to different pursuits, “from each according to ability.”

Socialism cannot guarantee human happiness but promises the possibility of human fulfillment where misery and suffering is not imposed upon our lives over which we have no control.

They Have To Move

After thirteen years in their low-income townhouse in Regents Park, Toronto, a woman and her children have been forced to move by The Toronto Community Housing Corporation who sold the property to developers who intend to build condominium apartments. The youngest daughter wrote on the wall, " I love this house" and the children have known no other house. Like many of the 7,500 TCHC Tenants who live in the development, they have had to move to a place the agency found for them in a lottery system. There is nothing new in this, it's been going on for centuries – money will win out in the end because profit is the crux of the system, not security. John Ayers.

War Illusions

A great deal of nonsense is spoken about war. During the 1914-18 war they spoke about "a war to end all wars." Some hope. The second world war was supposed to be a war to end fascism or at least  extreme right-wing politics. Today though in Greece, France and elsewhere in Europe we have the re-birth of such political ideas. France recently displayed such tendencies. "If the elections were held now. Ms Le Pen would lead the field with about 30 per cent  of the vote in the first round of the two-stage  presidential election, according to the Ifop and CSA polls for Marianne magazine and RTL radio." (Times, 31 January RD

Home Sweet Home?

Capitalism is a society based on competition and rivalry so it is no surprise to learn that even a simple thing like a home to live in is looked upon as a near impossibility for many workers. 'At the beginning of January 2015, the United Nations said that in the middle of last year, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees registered 46.3 million people who had been forced to abandon their homes. The figure showed a 3.4-million increase since the end of 2013.' (Tass, 15 January)   RD

Dawn of the Reds

                                         

There has been an upsurge in movies and TV series that depict the decay of society and the end of civilisation. Today’s capitalist society reflects the scenarios portrayed; war; crumbling infrastructure; hunger; social strife; lack of resources; and disease, all characteristics of today. It is no wonder that there is such a fascination with dystopian apocalyptic futures. Art does not exist in a vacuum but in some way resemble the real world. Goya captured the horror and terror of war on canvas from the experience of the Napoleonic Wars. The music of punk reverberated and resonated with the alienation of consumer society. The Hunger Games tells the story of repression and rebellion. Zombies show a mirror of our own mindless, aimless, flesh-rotting disintegration.

It is unfortunate that many people regard history as dry and dusty disconnection of dates and supposed famous personages. In fact, the study of history sheds an indispensable light on the present and lights the beacons for the future. Once we begin to understand history it no longer appears as a more or less irrelevant collection of useless trivia. Instead, the experiences of past struggles of the working class come alive, offering lessons for our own struggle to change the world today, and providing a path to our destiny.  The fight for socialism is the fight of the future against the foreboding dark shadows of capitalism with its wage slavery and exploitation. History is a history of class struggle as one famous political commentator once said.

The class struggle is surprisingly simple to explain. It is the struggle over the wealth created by the producing classes. Will it go towards enriching the minority that controls society? Or will it go towards improving the quality of life of the people who actually produced the wealth? It is the struggle for a society that democratically determines what is to be done with the wealth that we all collectively produce. The ruling capitalist class controls the state and owns the means of production of society—the land and natural resources, the workshops and factories. The actual producers of wealth are those who own nothing but their ability to work which they sell to employers for a wage as a means of survival. That is the simplified essence of the class struggle, a conflict of interests between the working class and the capitalist class. Wage-workers are the overwhelming majority of society and they create the wealth of the world. Yet, members of the working class themselves are rarely taught the truth about their own history, for the very obvious reason. If workers were to understand their true power and their class’s repeated attempts to change society, they might be tempted to engage in open class struggle again and again—and this represents a mortal threat to the continuation of the capitalist system. The methods of organisation and struggle of the working masses may have changed but the class struggle is always taking place, sometimes just simmering beneath the ground, other times bursting forth.  Society is torn apart by tremendous class contradictions, and sooner or later, the militant revolutionary traditions of the past will return at an even higher level. The present isolated eddies of the class struggle are swirling more and more but will merge into a great current sweeping away capitalism. The bitter experience of life under capitalism is the greatest teacher, and the workers and youth are learning quickly. There need not be actual immiseration to lead to a revival of revolutionary struggle but the constant insecurity caused by the continual instability of the economic system which will produce a profound effect on consciousness.

Despite the many attacks on the workers, the decline in the unions, and the present insignificance of any socialist party, the potential power of the working class to bring society to a grinding halt—and therefore to change society—remains and is as great as ever. Capitalism creates the gravediggers for its own system. The material conditions for the socialist transformation of society are still as ripe as ever. In spite of what we are told by the media the labour movement’s most heroic days still lie ahead. History tells us that!

Conflict Flashpoints

EGYPTIAN ATTACK                                              

'At least 26 people have been killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants in the north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula. A car bomb and mortars hit military targets in the North Sinai capital El-Arish, killing a number of soldiers.' (BBC News, 29 January) Other attacks took place in the nearby town of Sheik Zuwayid and the town of Rafah, bordering Gaza. Militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which pledges allegiance to Islamic State, said it carried out the attacks. RD

UKRAINE ATTACK

'Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and Europe are set to hold fresh peace talks on Friday in a bid to end a surge in fighting between Kiev and Kremlin-backed rebels, with tensions running high after the EU hit Moscow with more sanctions.'  (Gulf News, 30 January) Talks in Belarus's capital Minsk will bring together the contact group of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Belarus foreign ministry said. But the meeting is set to be overshadowed by a deal reached by EU foreign ministers on Thursday to tighten sanctions against Russia over the conflict, which the United Nations says has left at least 5,100 people dead.  RD

Capitalism or Common-Sense Common Ownership

ABOLISH WAGE SLAVERY

 “If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning.” Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett

There has been much talk about class warfare, mostly from right-wingers accusing socialists of fomenting unfair and divisive hate against the wealthy. Class war must exist so long as society is divided into classes with opposing interests. Capitalism, by its very nature, creates that division. Class war must end as soon as society is no longer divided into hostile classes. Socialism, by its very nature, creates a classless society. Socialists don’t "preach" class war—they describe the class war that already exists. Class struggle is both the reality of everyday life under capitalism and the way forward to a society based on human needs and not profit. They call upon the working class to help bring about the change from a society which must be divided into classes to a society where no such division is possible. They urge that universal brotherhood, which can be only a dream under capitalism, be transformed into a reality under socialism.

Jack London in his novel ‘The Iron Heel’ explains it:

"And, believe me, we foment no hatred. We say that the class struggle is a law of social development. We are not responsible for it. We do not make the class struggle. We merely explain it, as Newton explained gravitation. We explain the nature of the conflict of interest that produces the class struggle." 

London wishes to present a vision beyond class conflict;

“Let us not destroy those wonderful machines that produce efficiently and cheaply. Let us control them. Let us profit by their efficiency and cheapness. Let us run them for ourselves. That, gentlemen, is socialism...”

Class, class struggle and class war are terms usually deliberately avoided in the media. There is a good reason for this: The ruling elite don’t want working people to see the massive division in wealth between the 1% and the rest of us. They especially don’t want us drawing the political conclusion that working people, the poor and young people have common interests that are opposed to those of the richest 1%. There is a class war going on and being waged against those that have nothing in comparison to those that have everything the best homes, food, medication, education and the material wealth at the expense of the majority, and further more they intend to hold on to it, and we the majority will pay a very high price unless we fight back, we must organise we must come together like never before. We live in a class society. We can't wish that away or pretend like small children that if we can't see it that it can't affect us. Class politics remains the key to uniting the overwhelming majority of the world's people in the fight for a new and classless society.

Today’s robber barons know that the media matters and have effectively bought-off the popular opinion makers. Stylishly groomed corporate executives and financiers, who are morally no better than sneak thieves, have become celebrities. They are flattered on reality TV shows, unquestioningly praised on business programmes and voyeuristically acclaimed in the celebrity columns. The media knows better than bite the hand that feeds it. But most people can recognise class struggle for, on the one side, there are the ceaseless reports of high-levels of unemployment  and mounting unpaid bills and, on the other, in a skyrocketing stock market with sky-high bonuses paid to financial wheeler-dealers. Capital is confident that it appears to have won the class war while many socialists have lost confidence in their utopian hopes. People have lost their belief that change is possible. We need to rebuild belief in the possibility of a better world. Today, when capitalism, the free market, and private enterprise are being hailed as triumphant in the world, it is a good time to rekindle the idea of socialism.

There are two classes in capitalist society— property-owners and propertyless workers. The capitalists, own the banks, the factories, and the corporations and their profits derive from work that is done by workers. Workers, on the other hand, can only survive by selling their ability to work to the owners. The owners of capital have a single goal: increasing profit. Since profits are based on the value that workers add in production above and beyond the cost of production, including wages, owners try to keep the cost of labour as low as possible. Workers, on the other hand, need to earn enough for food, clothing, shelter, education and other necessities. Workers’ and owners’ interests are diametrically opposed. This is the basis for class struggle. A form of class struggle is strikes and other labour struggles. In those fights, workers join together based on common interests as workers to win back some of the surplus value they have produced. But class struggle is constant, even in periods of relative labour “peace.” Even when workers are not struggling to increase their share of the wealth they produce, the owners are trying to increase their share by raising productivity or cutting benefits. Workers seek safety on the job and better rewards for their work; owners seek the maximum amount of cost-cutting and expropriation without completely breaking the mental and physical wellness of workers. Awareness of class interests and looking for ways to advance these interests in the class struggle is called class consciousness. For the working class, class consciousness means understanding the need for unity and solidarity of the whole class against the tiny class of employers.

Socialism means production for need, whereas capitalism is production for profit. Capitalism increases productivity, but this just means more exploitation for higher profit. Socialism is self-management of the workplace and society. People’s conscious direction of their own lives, which the free market only pretends to offer. A revolution means an awakening of the people, rising to their feet from their knees so that they can become true human beings. They will feel that the world truly belongs to them. Under capitalism people are not free at all as they compete with each other in an animal struggle for existence. It is an inhuman and immoral. Socialism is based on respect and solidarity. The division of society into order-givers and order-takers must be ended. Socialism must start as it means to carry on: means and ends are interrelated. We can’t use authoritarian methods to create a society without bosses. Politics is too important to be left to politicians. We cannot wait for saviours to come and liberate us. The faith in the vanguard party must be abandoned.

Class inequality increases over time because employers pay workers less than the value of what they produce. However, this exploitative relationship is hidden by the lies that a) employers create jobs and b) workers are lucky to have them. In fact, labour creates all wealth, and capitalists are lucky that workers keep producing it for them. Lies are used to divide workers. Only employers benefit when workers are divided. The purpose of pitting workers against one another is to prevent unity. "Foolish and vain is the working man who makes the colour of his skin the stepping stone to his imaginary superiority," Eugene Debs decried. We must remember what it takes to win – fighting as a class. Class struggle is built into the fabric of all societies that have classes. Our challenge is to rebuild a movement that can end the class-division of society and all the oppressions that go with it. The employing class are organised and fighting their own offensive against the working class, as they always have been. Itʼs time to organise ourselves.

The not-so-golden years

Thousands of Scots face decades of poverty in retirement.

More than four out of ten questioned by Scottish Widows admitted they hadn't considered how they would survive when they gave up work. Almost as many optimistically said they would look to their children for financial support, while one in seven expected the state to cover their costs.

According to Aviva, 50 to 65 year olds underestimate the length of their retirement by up to eight years. Women put the average lifespan for a reasonably healthy person at 84 years, while men say it is 80, but they could well live to 89 and 88 respectively.

A survey by HSBC found that despite almost six out of ten UK workers worrying they won't have enough to retire on, the economic downturn has prompted more than four out of ten to cut their pension savings or stop altogether. Just over half of those taking part in the HSBC survey said they simply couldn't afford to save enough and a third said paying off debts was preventing them.

According to Prudential, a fifth of those planning to retire this year still have debts averaging just under £22,000, which will further diminish their standard of living.

No one should expect to live well on a state pension alone, the amount people get will still be meagre. Even with a complete NI record - which has been set at 35 years - the maximum individual pension is expected to be around £150 a week, or £7,800 a year.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/personal-finance/pensioner-poverty-in-prospect-unless-scots-start-saving.117293308

The Road to Socialism is Paved Red with a Green Verge

The political system does not take into account the essential needs of the people, and that they are not invited to participate in decision-making. The world capitalist economy with its unceasing drive for capital accumulation is the most immediate cause of the current environmental crisis. The solution requires replacing world capitalism with a socialist society.  Marx believed that the working class would lead in the transformation of society because it was at once the most dehumanised and alienated class, and potentially the most powerful, since the functioning of society depended upon it. The radical ecological approach dates back to the likes of Peter Kropotkin and William Morris. Forget socialism in one country — in ecological terms socialism in one country is even less feasible because environmental problems don’t respect national or institutional borders. That interdependence should be a reminder that sustainability will come only through global solidarity and world socialism. Socialists don’t need to go green to save the planet, environmental activists need to go red.

We, the people, different in many ways but alike in so many others, work hard. We depend on our pay to live, feel stressed out by too many hours, or too few. We worry about our future, or the future of our children and grandchildren. We are in college or in prison; retired or disabled. Young, old, unemployed, underemployed or overworked. Computer technicians and nurses. Delivery drivers and engineers. Teachers and students. Designers and scientists. We are the working class. Without us, nothing could happen, be produced, nothing grown or harvested, nothing fixed or invented. Whether we live in suburban developments or cities; in an apartment or a house; pay rent or owe on a mortgage. Homeless, just making it or worried we might lose all we've gained...we must work for our living or suffer the consequences. As a class, as a community and as a people, we share the same basic needs and basic desires: to live in and be part of a healthy, peaceful and humane society. Workers have voting for the 'lesser of two evils' and got greater evil. Unless we look at alternatives to profit and competition and the way industry and society is run today--from 'above' to benefit a few - it is hopeless.

We, in the Socialist Party, are like so many others, looking for real change and seeking a path to get it. While corporate control of the political arena is strong, rigged to protect the existing status quo, the political arena still offers the best means for peaceful and meaningful change. Whether Labour or Tory, either party gains office only by how well it serves to protect capital and profits, not how well it solves our real problems. Why vote? But what if we use our ballot differently? Not to vote for reform, but for a totally new society?

Today, we vote with little or no hope of results. With no single unifying effort - just scatter-shot, ineffectual complaints - most have become 'the silent majority'. Or become angry and join UKIP  in empty protest. We know we have problems, but at best try to attack them one at a time. We can't see the interconnected systemic cause, never mind the solution. With no sense of class solidarity, no place for social cohesion, with insecurity and threat now built into our daily lives we seem hopelessly divided. Is there hope? Can we come together and really have an effect? We in the Socialist Party believe we can and that stand at the beginning of a renewal of the workers’ movement. At the same time as we see apathy and cynicism, we also see huge numbers of concerned, active, independent and fragmented groups and political stirrings across the internet. It is proof that people's interest in changing the way things are have not declined but have greatly increased. How do we transform all the separate issues into a unified movement for socialism which will tackle them all? The coming years can only bring more problems, less faith in reform, and greater exposures about a system.  The problems and complaints will grow. Eventually independent candidates and independent 'social protests' will -intentionally or not- uncover the economic link between all the ills they address piecemeal and from that will grow a unified movement, stronger and broader than any union, party or theory could ever do. Right now we need to use what we know and help clarify that the goals of various 'groups' to recognize capitalism as the fundamental cause of our social ills, and that the institutions it rests on must be replaced by democracy where we work and where we live. Change can happen, peacefully in the way and at the time it is needed. The idea is not new.

While the concept of peacefully legislating to form a new, true civic and economic democracy with a sustainable green objective may be unfamiliar now, it will eventually start with one or two representatives being elected. From there, the simple fairness and rationality of it will make it grow and spread. A new society will be born. For radical, fundamental change to begin, of course, will require a broad base of citizen awareness, consistency and principles, but the socialist dialogue must begin now. For the first time in a long time, dire economic and environmental conditions have called into question for many people the old assumptions about capitalism's ability reform itself. For the first time in decades political activity on the right and left is burgeoning. Yes, there is plenty of apathy and skepticism, but that's from distrust of the old politics that haven't worked, the failure of reforms to achieve their promises. We must be grounded in the present and acknowledge the potential of independent action especially of those who have seen other approaches to change fail. Raising consciousness and understanding will take time but we need people who want real change, are excited by the vision of what a new, better, humane society could look like and willing to face the challenges and the possibilities. And, most importantly, we need to vote for them! Once elected, our candidates will not be office-holders, they will be advocates for change.

The idea that people can change the way we do things as a society, can actually progress and better our lives as a country has become a difficult argument to make. We've grown deeply disillusioned with our system, our politics, and rightly so. While we agree that much has improved, from technology to human rights, too many of us have become convinced that when it comes to real social or economic progress, it's impossible. Too many have been convinced that the present system, capitalism, with its dog-eat-dog competition, greed and aggression may not  be perfect but the best we can do given our 'human nature'. We're told endlessly that socialism is for dreamers, idealists and while it sounds nice, at best it's a utopian fantasy. However, our eyes and ears tell us our present road is leading to disaster, and that we must change. Our very survival is now being threatened by too much thoughtless disregard for the future. Seeing that all life is interconnected and co-dependent, we need to create ways to a more constructive and sustainable path. The point is, we can. But the question has actually come down to ‘How’?'

Societies are man-made which means they can be 'undone'. They're not divine' creations nor static. Societies are also 'organic', that is they have 'life-cycles' based on change. The idea that change is painful or violent isn't true. But like birth, it isn't pain-free either. The more prepared we are to think about the future, the better; the more defined our goal, the better the outcome. But once inner pressures begin and the old society starts to get rigid and no longer can adapt, the end of that society is coming and a new one develops to take its place. What evokes change vary but it usually is changed by our tools, how we use them, and what those tools do to our quality of life. Visions a better society, is always met with skepticism. That is 'natural':  being thwarted by the status quo, by reluctance to change, can be a 'survival mechanism' preventing changes that might fail. 'Replacing the Devil we know for the Devil we don't know' has some logic. Most often, however, if the changes are minor, they can be retrofitted into the old society and make their way more slowly, shifting society, its attitudes and beliefs into a new 'paradigm' or mindset. But as we have seen throughout history, even slight changes has a domino-effect, these alterations affect everything. New relationships lead to others until eventually, they cannot be adjusted within the existing framework and a new social order is born. If our present society doesn't change, it would indeed be the first time in human history and contradict everything we've come to know about being human. Capitalism’s goals are in direct conflict with society’s goal. The good news is History is on our side. Like our ancestors, we can envision a new way to live in harmony with nature and with others, for the benefit of the majority. We can meet as they did, in our neighborhoods, but also by the World Wide Web. Organised, we can start our own new party and vote for social cooperation and   social ownership.

So far, we have been hoodwinked into thinking we are incapable of any fundamental change. Without thinking we believe the Big Lie. It’s obvious we need to reaffirm a real alternative based on the needs and wants of the people. We need to talk socialism, all the time and everywhere.  

Democracy At A Price

One of the boast of USA politics is that unlike some countries they have a democracy, but it is a democracy that is subject to the whims of the very rich. . 'A secretive political network led by two billionaire pro-Republican brothers plans to spend $889 million (£585 million) on next year's presidential election, a war chest that rivals the financial firepower of the official parties.' (Times, 28 January) Charles and David Koch, who are worth $41.5 billion each, revealed their plans to fellow donors yesterday. RD

Capitalism is Bankrupt. So What’s Next?

Economically the world has become one, yet workers remain separate and isolated, atomised consumers instead of communities. The current economic crisis, the incompetence and corruption of capitalist corporations and politicians, has led some commentators to declare that these elites are discredited and that this development creates an opening for the socialists. There is some truth in this view, illustrated by polls that suggest that people in the United States and around the world are becoming more skeptical of capitalism and supportive of what they believe to be socialism than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago. Socialism is no longer a dirty word and Marx is no longer the despised demon he once was.

The interests of capitalists lie not in the defense of a mythical free market but in making profit. When their profit-making is served by measures that interfere with the free market, capitalists will favor and aggressively push for them. This also explains the bank bailouts. The problem with the Wall Street bailouts that have fueled people’s anger is that they are symptomatic of the inherently undemocratic nature of the capitalist economic system. This undemocratic nature derives from the ability of the capitalists to use their control of wealth and the State to pursue their interests. Capitalism allows capitalists to leverage their economic power into policy outcomes that benefit themselves. Even well-intentioned policies are inevitably shaped and constrained by the imperatives of capital accumulation. Capitalism is economically undemocratic because it is a class society that exploits workers, whereby all human beings find themselves enslaved by an abstract social logic that they are forced to reproduce through their daily social and economic activity. It is namely this subordination of all people, (including capitalists), to the imperatives of profitability and accumulation that accounts for the inability of the “invisible hand” of the capitalist market to deliver the benefits promised by Adam Smith and his followers. When the goal of profit is paramount, nature becomes no less subordinated to the logic of capital than people themselves. Natural ecosystems become degraded and depleted faster than they can regenerate themselves. It is a process of ecocide. Capitalism is also undemocratic by virtue of the fact that it tends to subordinate the majority of society to the dictates of capitalist elites who are as economically and politically powerful as they are numerically small. Their power enables capitalist elites to shift the environmental cost of their economic activity onto the rest of society.

Socialism allows all human beings to have an equal say over the priorities the economy is called upon to serve. In contrast to capitalism’s subordination of life outside people’s control socialism as economic democracy promises to give people the ability to become the true authors of their individual and collective lives. It does so because only an economically democratic socialism can create an economic system with goals and priorities that are the product of democratic deliberative processes rather than the blind logic of capital accumulation. Socialist society must replace the pursuit of economic expansion at any cost with a commitment to keep the physical scale of economic activity never exceeds the ability of natural ecosystems to regenerate.

Rethinking socialism in terms of being an economic democracy has the added benefit of making it easier to debunk those who declare socialism contrary to individual freedom, made only too plausible by the mis-identification of socialism with Soviet-style authoritarian one-party-rule.   Designating these regimes as socialism is a terrible misnomer. Rather the economy being the democratic responsibility of their citizens, determining priorities, the Soviet bloc were run by a relatively small political and technocratic elite.

Capitalism’s crisis is already fueling the right-wing with racism, nationalism and anti-immigration. To counter these forces and build a better world, socialism as a vision of economic democracy must be urgently emphasized and presented as the strategy of economic democratization which can turn the popular struggles proliferating around the world today into the means through which such a vision comes to life. What’s needed now is neither fatalism nor utopianism, but a practical path towards socialism. We need to convey the messages that emphasises the personal and community benefits of a socialist society and a vision of an attractive future where human needs are met. We need inspiring examples, engaging narratives, and opportunities for learning and teaching. The transition to a socialist future deserves a prominent, persistent place at the centre of public discourse. Those gloom and doom preachers who say that only utter ruin and extinction, awaits us may be correct. However, it need not as there are still a wide range of possible futures. People have an option to change the system and choose another type of society. The practical suggestions for socialism to adopt as sustainable are far from new, what is original in its solutions is that their applicability will be now actually possible. The true dreamers are those who believe in the utopianism of a green capitalism, that a sustainable sound ecological world is possible withing the restraints of market expansionism, capital accumulation, its planning short termism - its logic for existence.

A Polluted City

According to state media, Beijing's mayor, Wang Anshun, has called the city "unliveable" because of its noxious smog, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper. To establish a liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this, he said last Friday, 'At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city. Anshun,s speech came days before the market research company Euromonitor International announced, in its findings on the global tourism market in 2013, that tourism to Beijing had declined by 10% from the year before due to pollution and a countrywide economic slowdown.' (Guardian, 28 January) RD

Election Promises

With the election looming all the reformist political parties are proffering their "solutions"  to the social problems of capitalism. Ed Miliband promises a "10-year plan" for the NHS including longer home visits by social care workers. Prime Minister David Cameron also hinted that pensioner benefits may continue to be protected from further welfare savings mooted for after the election. 'All of the major parties have pledged what they say is enough money to maintain NHS services in the next Parliament after the general election. The Conservatives say they would ring-fence and "protect" the NHS budget while the Liberal Democrats have promised to meet "in full" the £8bn extra NHS managers say is needed by 2020 and UKIP has said it would commit an extra £3bn a year to the service.' (BBC News, 27 January) What none of them say is that they are all committed to running the buying  and selling system in the only way it can be run. In the interests of the owning class. RD

A future without money

Our planet is changing itself to cope with global warming in ways that will make our environments hostile to our continued existence as a species. Capitalism distorts the values, relationships and structures that ideally exist between people and between people and nature. At the heart of the capitalist system is the practice and concept of money.  Capital is money that begets more money. Money and markets represent capitalist power. You cannot have capital without money. You cannot have wage-labour without money. People who have no money understand that money is not a neutral tool, it’s a form of control. Capitalists are defined by money, their power is monetary power, their logic is a market-based logic. If our strategies for confronting, undermining and overwhelming capital are based in these simple facts, it is not hard to challenge the system.

Marx often ridiculed those who seemed to think that they could simply redefine money, issue it on different terms, regulate it in new ways, or give goods and services ‘prices’ at a distribution centre or before they reached the market. Marx opposed those who only saw money as a neutral tool or ineffectual form rather than appreciate that money is at the basis of practices that developed and maintain class and private property. Marx main points were to do with breaking with money per se, rather than thinking that all you had to do was to ‘tinker’ with it and achieve large-scale change, let alone revolution. Marx’s analysed experiments, such as workers’ cooperatives and labour money and wrote of their incapacity to fulfil the principles of decision-making being transparent and just, and production efficiently and effectively satisfying social needs. Today, socialists make the same points about the plethora of half-baked schemes — fair trade, carbon trading, community currencies and so on, using nebulous terms such as ‘social capital’ or ‘natural capital’ — that cannot lead to socialism unless they go hand-in-hand with political movements to erode capitalism, private property, and create a global commons focusing on production for everyone’s basic needs.

Many environmental and social activist campaigners appeal to a logic of use values rather than exchange values to advocate their position. For instance, they will argue that an old-growth forest has more use values and reproductive and sustainable potential to the communities that rely on it for all their basic needs, such as food, potable water, shelter, clothing and medicines, than its use for making profits for a multinational conglomerate that plans to clear the trees, sell them for timber, let or help the remaining forest ecosystem die, and replace it all with a tree farm. Similarly, anti-nuclear campaigners will argue that the industry is unnecessary to fulfil people’s basic needs and a risk to their wellbeing and livelihoods, while the nuclear industry will argue that it will create ‘clean’ energy to sustain growth, jobs and profits. These examples contrast arguments based in use values and those based on exchange values. If the ecologists continue to consciously and conscientiously argue and propose options that are based on a logic of use values we can offer a clear and unequivocal alternative to capitalism. Once we start to try to convince capitalists and the state to be more environmentally and socially sound using arguments based on economic values — ‘You can make more money this way’; ‘Why not trade in environmental values?’ — we are lost. Capitalists cannot in practice appreciate environmental and social values. The system they employ reduces everything to a market assessment, a monetary value, a price. Marx’s analysis shows the absurdity and risks of efforts to try to set prices, which today focuses on making prices reflect environmental values, as in carbon and water-trading schemes or pricing forests and other environmental ‘assets’. He reveals the absurdity of market values, alludes to the workings of the market as absolutely distinct from meeting basic human needs and the needs of ecological systems. The political conclusion is:

“The religious reflections of the real world can, in any case, vanish only when the practical relations of everyday life between man and man, and man and nature, generally present themselves to him in a transparent and natural form.” (Marx,1867)

To institute socialism we only need to understand the potential, limitations and needs of a natural and built world held in commons along with the basic needs of humans — and share decision-making based on a discourse of use values and distinct measures appropriate to differing use values. There is no need for a universal unit of account or means of exchange. Acknowledging money as a tool of power points to revolutionary strategies which undermine capitalism non-violently and involve instituting direct democracy in the process. Money is not a ‘mere tool’ at all, but rather omnipotent. So powerful and pervasive a force, in fact, that even some of the most committed and passionate socialists can complain that they cannot envisage a socialist future without some kind of monetary framework or role for money and markets. What a dictatorship of the imagination money and its market has wrought, that even its most ardent detractors cannot think outside their prison walls.

We are already in a process of species suicide or we are in a process of renewal of what it is to be human. We cannot afford to think in terms of a long-term plan or reformism, if only because of the haste with which we must move. It is fitting that we take the most accurate route. There will be a revolution or, literally, nothing left of our species. Revolution means workers’ gaining control of the means of production and making work meaningful through self-organised cooperation and collective self-realisation. Post-capitalism means increasing our free time to enable a growth of individuality and humanity replacing labour as the source of value in society. Socialism is a market-free, money-free, class-free and state-free society, as well as want-free, sustainable and just.

The Socialist Party does not lay down a hard and fast plan for a socialist future but tries to stimulate people’s imaginations and counter those who regard it as impossible. We need to have a clear idea of where we are going and how our different activities might ultimately constitute a socialist future. We want as many people as possible elaborating ideas of a post-capitalist future so we can argue, experiment and establish this society. We can express it in various terms. A local–global compact society. The noun ‘compact’ refers to a social agreement and, used as an adjective, ‘compact’ is associated with efficiency and economy, referring to a condensed, small and efficient use of space. The concept of a compact world is one of multiple horizontal cells, which aim for relative collective sufficiency within neighbourhoods and bioregions, connected by networks of various sizes appropriate to their functions, with voluntarily created and agreed to compacts structuring the production and flow of goods and services. ‘Collective sufficiency’ is a term to refer to material, basic-needs sufficiency evolving on the basis of a commons and people working together to ensure their communal sufficiency (in contrast to individuals or singular households developing ‘self-sufficiency’). ‘Permaculture’ stands for permanent and sustainable culture, integrating human practices with natural processes to yield security in food and other basic needs. Diversity and resilience are both enhanced by relatively autonomous collectively sufficient neighbourhoods and bioregions.

Marx’s clear analysis, based as it was on use values offers a clear way forward. People seeing our basic human needs and the needs of the environment in direct, scientific and practical forms and then advancing to discussing options for just and sustainable futures in terms of such use values would be a real advance. Socialist politics must be embedded in people’s direct and immediate control of the means of production and distribution.

Adapted and abridgedfrom an interview of Anitra Nelson