Why war and how to stop it

Part of the aim of the socialist movement is the permanent elimination of war. Modern warfare war threatens not merely suffering and death to millions, but with the development of nuclear and biological weapons, the actual destruction of human civilisation, and for humanity a return to barbarism. The first step in the struggle against war is a clear understanding of the causes of war.

The driving force of the capitalist mode of production is the necessity for the continual accumulation and expansion of capital. This necessity is inescapable. Capitalists must constantly attempt to expand capital, in order to maintain profits. Capitalists of every major capitalist nation are faced with the following situation: In order to sustain the system which sustains them, they must find continuous outlets for capital investment and re-investment; but the internal market, provided by the capitalist mode of production within any single nation, is not, sufficient to re-convert into capital values the values of commodities turned out even by existing capital equipment, much less of new. Consequently, the capitalists of each nation are forced to seek outlets for capital investment (and likewise consumer markets) beyond the national borders. There must be added to this basic drive of capital for accumulation, the closely related struggle for sources of raw materials, for control of shipping routes, for the right to install military bases at geo-political strategic points around the globe and for the ability to manufacture in countries where the standard of living is lower than in the home country, and the determination of the home capitalists to keep the home market for their own purposes by tariff’s, and import quotas.

Since the world is limited in extent, since the areas available for new forms of capital expansion and exploitation are growingly restricted, conflict is not only likely but inevitable. The battles of the capitalists are fought on a world-wide scale. Into the neo-colonies and proxy-nations, those “spheres of influence”, flow the surplus capital funds, imperiously demanding to be set to work at making profits. The political arms of the capitalists – the governments of their respective countries – are extended watchfully over the new investments. They are ever ready to unseat a government by regime-change, intervene to stop “terrorism”, stop or start a revolution, send a flotilla of warships or a regiment of marines or declare a no-fly zone.  

The truth of the matter is capitalist society is continuously at war or constantly making preparations for war. The camouflage that war wears – appearing as due to “national” or “cultural” or “religious” differences must not be allowed to hide the fundamental conflicts which are the true source of modern war. Though these other factors may provide the final push that sets open war going or may modify the character of a war, there is nothing in their own nature that must necessarily lead to war. They are the tools of the forces making for war, not the cause of these forces. Modern war is neither accidental nor due to the evil of human nature nor decreed by God. War is of the very essence of capitalism, as much a part of capitalism as wage labour.

One misconception often made by anti-war campaigners comes from the wide-spread belief that this struggle is somehow “independent” of the class struggle in general, that a coalition of all sorts of persons from every social class and group can be formed around the issue of stopping war, since – so the reasoning goes – these persons may he all equally opposed to war whatever their differences on other points. War is thus considered something separate from its causes and conditions, an abstraction instead of a concrete historical institution. Acting on this belief, attempts are made to build up all kinds of permanent peace movements and anti-war alliances. At times they seem to settle a war situation “peacefully”, this is only because the interest of the dominant powers is against an immediate outbreak. Postponement serves only to assure a greater conflagration when the time comes. They serve, in point of fact, as additional means whereby the great powers can carry out their aggressive aims. In practice anti-war pacifism aids war: by spreading illusions about the nature of war and the fight against it; by shifting the energies of honest opponents of war to a fictitious fight against it; by sugar-coating the realities of capitalist society and thus making them – including war – more palatable. Some anti-war activisits will be  preparing a betrayal when its leaders will decide that a particular “humanitarian” crisis will make  this war different and call for the military intervention of the government. No, the pacifist way is not the way to fight war.

The only way to get rid of war is to remove the cause of war. War is not the cause of the troubles of society. The opposite is true. War is a symptom and result, of the irreconcilable troubles and conflicts of the present form of society, that is to say, of capitalism. The only way to fight; against war is to fight against the causes of war. Since the causes of war are an integral part of capitalism, it follows that the only way to fight against war is to fight against capitalism. But the only true fight against capitalism is the struggle for socialism. It therefore follows that the only possible struggle against war is the struggle for the socialist revolution.

The Socialist Party is absolutely clear on this point. There is no “separate” or “special” struggle against war. The struggle against war cannot be divorced from the struggle of the workersto establish a socialist society. No one can uphold capitalism – whether directly, as an open adherent of the capitalists, or indirectly, from any shade reformist position – and fight against war, because capitalism means war. Only a socialists can fight against war, because only a socialist advocates the road to the overthrow of capitalism. So to suppose, therefore, that the Socialist Party can ally “against war” with non-revolutionaries is a disastrous illusion. Any organisation based upon such a platform is not merely powerless to prevent war; in practice it acts to promote war, both because it serves in its own way to uphold the system that breeds war, and because it diverts the attention of its members from the real fight against war. There is only one method to wage war against war: socialist revolution. 

Revolution can and will eliminate war because, by overthrowing capitalist economy and supplanting capitalism with a socialist economy, it will remove the causes of war. With socialism there will no longer exist the basic contradictions that lead to war. The expansion of the means of production, under the ownership and control of society as a whole, will proceed in accordance with a rational plan adjusted to the needs of the members of society. Socialism will remove the limits on consumption, and hence permit the scientific and controlled development of production. Thus, inside a socialist system, war will disappear because the causes of war will have been removed.

It is the business of the Socialist Party, upon the outbreak of any war, to work to turn that war into a class war. The aim of the Socialist Party includes the elimination of wars of all kinds and we know that this can be accomplished only through one particular kind of war – the class war. All the fine phrases and noble sentiments and even the deep sincerity of pacifists are powerless against war, when not actually of assistance to the war-mongers. The knowledge that this is true is hard for many, even for some socialists, to accept. Many feel, it is important to share something in common the non-revolutionary millions from the working class who oppose war. They appeal for unity saying, we all agree in our opposition to war, in our repugnance to its barbarity, its cruelty and horror, and we both share an earnest wish to put an end to it. “Can we not all join together on this basis, leaving other differences aside?”  Surely, the addition of the reformers will offer greater forces to defend ourselves against war and its destruction and we will come into closer contact with them to win them gradually to our side on other questions.

Such sentiments are mistaken whatever their appearances. Socialists have little in common with these the anti-war opposition. The reason for this is that those who oppose war do not really oppose war at all. They do not, because they do not oppose the causes of war, and are not willing to take steps to remove these causes – that is, take revolutionary steps. Their “opposition” to war, therefore, is in the last analysis, a salve to soothe their consciences.

The Socialist Party takes to the platform and addresses the audience: “You believe you are opposed to war. Very well, we will take you at your word. If you are opposed to war, you must want to get rid of the causes of war. We will show you what the causes are ...” And proceed to demonstrate how real opposition to war must lead to a revolutionary position. Some have come into the socialist movement from anti-war activities. Many more will do so, if we make an intelligent and clear approach to them. Their anti-war stand, if carried to their logical conclusion must lead to a revolutionary understanding. But too much should not be expected: economic interest the powerful propaganda of the ruling class will, in the majority of cases, prevent anti-war activists from accepting the full reasoning of our position. But not in all cases and the Socialist Party does not ignore any avenue of approach. Thus the issue of anti-war is correctly seen as rich potential for socialist education and agitation. Workers honestly against war can be shown how only socialism will eliminate it. It is, therefore, necessary for socialist to attend anti-war protests and meetings not to pledge that “we are all engaged in a common fight”, but to present openly and unequivocally the socialist analysis of war and to show why all other analyses are wrong. It is the part of the duty of the Socialist Party to expose where we can the war plans and diplomatic manoeuvers of governments, offering analyses of treaty summits, armaments spending, and “war games in order to make clear to the working class the exact level of threat of war, and to pierce through the double-talk of the capitalist statesmen.

Some on the “radical” left propose the simplistic solution and very deceptive slogan, of “a general strike to stop the war,”. A general strike at the outbreak of a major war would be a revolutionary strike; only those who are prepared to carry it through to the revolutionary capture of the State by the workers can genuinely advocate it. It pre-supposes a tremendously advanced conscious working class because without this such a crucial political action would either evaporate or go quickly down in the uselessly spilled blood of the strikers. The State, staking its existence on embarking upon –war – is scarcely going to give up and accept defeat from abroad because of pressure at home and since it is prepared to sacrifice the lives of its troops, killing strikers and pickets to suppress the General Strike will scarcely register. Unless the pressure at home is at a level of a social revolution to overthrow the State and establish socialism then it must be prepared for defeat. War will be defeated only by the revolutionary struggle of the workers. The real building of socialism will be accomplished in the only way it can be accomplished by the self-emancipation of the working class understanding and conscious of its actions. Any other direction lies disaster, and the triumph of reaction.

Learning about socialism

The task of the Socialist Party is to present the full uncompromising socialist position. The present labour movement are in general disarray, striving to understand and overcome their heritage of class collaboration. We raise no illusions of the extent struggle is required to win socialism. For this the workers must be prepared. "If we struggle we can win” or “workers united cannot be defeated” are deceits.  There are plenty of workers’ struggles that do not win. Leftists who claim to know the truth about capitalism and its state and who still raise reformist illusions are lying to the working class.

 For workers, the availability of employment is central for existence. Jobs are the primary if not exclusive means of income, it occupies a great portion of time and is a source of dignity and achievement. But its importance goes far beyond this in considering workers as a whole, their role as a class. Workers form the key productive component of modern society. They run and maintain machinery, build factories and homes, work up the various products for the market—in short produce and reproduce society.

But the tragedy is that a growing percentage are not being allowed to do that, even though there is a crying need for more services and products for the masses. What is behind this madness? It is the nature of the capitalist system itself. To understand it, we turn to its greatest critic and the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx.

Marx holds that 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. immigrants ) onto the labour market, or it can lower the demand by automating labour-intensive production processes. It does both.

Thus capitalism has an inherent drive to introduce new technologies, to revolutionize production. The chief result is accumulation by reducing the proportion of living labor 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 ofnew technology, workers are thrown into the street to form what he called the “industrial reserve army,” a mass of disposable labour. Marx noted that this “army” 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 club against the employed workers, a constant downward pressure on wages and combativity. Thus factors that result from capitalist production become key to its success.

But if a surplus labouring population is a necessary product of accumulation or of the development of wealth on a capitalist basis, this surplus-population becomes, conversely, the lever of capitalistic accumulation, nay, a condition of existence of the capitalist mode of production.

Among Marx’s other observations are: 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.

Most important, capitalism relies on the working class to produce its source of profit—surplus value. By its nature, it cannot transform the productive forces in a fundamental way to overcome this dependence. Automation has brought big-time changes, but an isolated look at its dazzle can leave a misimpression of just what is being achieved. A look at capitalist society as a whole reveals the limitations. Alongside the automated factory, the sweatshop has re-emerged.

Capitalism is still driven to innovate but in a haphazard, sectional manner. Behind a facade it conserves out-dated production methods and resurrects older ones. The result is an uneven development that projects the dream of an automated world without being at all able to carry it out. Exploitation of the worker remains absolutely central to the capitalist order, but the employers must rely ever more heavily on the reserve army. People must be kept from working to keep wages low, just as farmers are discouraged from growing too much, to keep prices high. These are vicious absurdities, symbols of the inhumanity of this system. The only solution is to replace capitalist rule with workers’ power.

The wasted years (2002)

From the October 2002 issue of the Socialist Standard Ten years ago at the Rio Earth Summit a 12-year old schoolgirl from Vancouver, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, made a speech to delegates that astonished them. It is worth repeating part of that address : “I am only a child, yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words.” That speech had such an impact that she became a frequent invitee to UN conferences. She is now 22, with a BSc in biology from Yale University and she attended the recent conference in Johannesburg as a member of Kofi Annan's World Summit advisory panel. So what does she make of the progress in the last 10 years? “I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I've sat through many more conferences, I'm not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and the power of an individual's voice to reach them has been deeply shaken” (Time, 2 September). Cullis-Suzuki's pessimism is well founded when you compare some of the figures over the last 10 years : Then 17 million refugees, now 20 million refugees. Then 5,000 species threatened, now 11,000 species. Then rainforests being depleted at 17,000 sq.km a year,now speeding up to 1 percent depletion per year. Then carbon dioxide omissions 356 parts per million in the atmosphere, now 370 parts per million. The list is long and horrifying, for instance the Antarctic ozone hole is now three times the size of the United States. Cullis-Suzuki has now retreated from her schoolgirl world view into organising locally to get people to cut down on household garbage, consuming less and using their car less frequently. What a dreadful commentary on this awful society of capitalism that it turns youthful zeal and enthusiasm into pathetic and petty reformism. Socialists don't make the mistake of appealing to the governments of the world to stop polluting our world, because we know that is futile. Instead we call on our fellow workers to join us in the struggle to rid the world for ever of the cause of these problems, world capitalism. Only then will we be able to attain that 12 year old's beautiful vision . “What a wonderful place this would be”. Richard Donnelly Glasgow Branch

Not Bloody Likely

In the US, there is a turnaround in the textile business. Manufacturing is returning to that country from China. The reason? Costs have gone up in China due to rising wages, energy bills, and logistical costs and lowered in the US. In South Carolina, companies can locate residents desperate for work, even at depressed wages, and subsidized cotton. Boston Consulting estimates that for every $1 spent on production in the US, China spends 96 cents. Although most of the production moving out of China is going to places like Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam, some is returning to North America. Could it be the patriotic flourish of big capital? Not bloody likely, it's all about money! John Ayers.

No Matter The Consequences

In Finland, the home of Nokia mobile phones, 10,000 were laid off and the company was bought by Microsoft who promptly fired a further 18,000. These are mainly top IT jobs that we are constantly told are the key to economic prosperity. Although the Finnish government has tried to help with grants and training programs, capital will do what is necessary to maintain the production of profit and accumulation of wealth by the few, no matter what the consequences may be. John Ayers.

The mind guides the hand

The Socialist Party concern itself with analysing the capitalist system, pointing out its defects and advocating the replacing of the capitalist system by the common ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. The success and progress of the socialist movement will depend very largely upon the method of education and the political tactics of the Socialist Party. The political programme of the Socialist Party is essentially constructive. There is no place in the political movement for the midnight palace coup and any cataclysmic transformation of society. Socialism does not advance necessarily in response to or because of great industrial distress. These crises may point out the fact that something is wrong, but the suggestion of the remedy and the cure for these ills is quite a different problem. Being merely anti-capitalist cannot bring about the cooperative commonwealth. We require a clear vision of our objective. Socialism meant the immediate communisation, according to a definite predetermined plan, of the means of production and distribution. The Socialist Party, denies the right of a person to call himself a socialist, in any sense whatever, on the strength of advocating the municipalisation of gas and water, or the acquisition of the railways, by the State. This is not a dogmatic statement of how the change will come about, but the expression of general meaning and ultimate significance of revolutionary social change. We consider it irrelevant to bandy words over the relative cost and advantage of a nationalised railway system over a privately-owned one. In both we find the class struggle and the extraction of surplus-value. Never has the need been greater than now for socialists to conduct a campaign for the socialist society. But how does the policy of supporting the “lesser-evilism of good” capitalist politicians stand up when we examine the conduct of Labour politicians? Socialists, in our opinion, never become partisans of one capitalist policy versus another. The overthrow of capitalism that is our demand; it is the ONLY demand of the Socialist Party.

Whatever one may think of the Socialist Party one must admit that its adherents are not of the type to give up without a struggle. We share the same viewpoints and walk the talk. In elections out candidates spell out the alternative to capitalism and we face the usual accusations of sectarianism for promoting socialist ideals by leftists who refuse to accept that the first step towards the building of a strong socialist party is knowledge and understanding. It is not simply a question of good will and solidarity. We know that the principles of socialism are necessary to the emancipation of the working class. The question is one of the need for revolutionaries to explain patiently where workers are being misled.

While drowning mankind in blood with its vile wars capitalism also befouls the world atmosphere with pollution. We have seen that capitalism means a small section of the population controls production and is not answerable to the rest of the community. At the moment the workers shows no interest in socialism which is generally regarded as “voting Labour.” The Socialist Party must spread its case for socialism as widely as possible, relating it to the questions of the day, so that as political consciousness strikes deeper roots, the socialist arguments can pull as many as possible from destructive rebelliousness to constructive social revolution. The Socialist Party proudly declares itself a party of revolutionary socialism. This means we stand for the abolition of capitalism, nothing more and nothing less. We do not stand for the reform of any institution under capitalism. Our activities are always directed towards the complete overthrow of capitalism, and to that end we concentrate our attention upon the education of our fellow men and women who are engaged in wealth production and who are exploited in the process. A socialist party is an organisation of the working class and its weapon. And the hand that grips that weapon must know whom it is fighting, to what purpose it makes its thrusts, and what it intends to do when the enemy is conquered and destroyed. The weapon can be forged only in the flame of thorough discussion. The mind guides the hand – our theories are clarified by criticism and analysis as it goes forward in the battle.

Socialism is no utopia

The Socialist Party reaffirms our belief in world socialism and in the principles of human brotherhood as the only force in the world that can bring order out of capitalist chaos and prevent an environmental catastrophe. A new and heartening sign of the fraternal mood that has been growing throughout the world. It now appears that socialists can expect an increasingly favourable response to our activity of presenting socialism as the only permanent solution to capitalism and offering brotherhood for all nationalities. Our socialist alternative will begin to appear realistic to more and more of our fellow workers. Socialists are alert in pointing out the great distinction between "state" and "social" ownership and in reiterating the socialist demand for the complete common ownership of all the means of production and distribution as the only cure for the evils of the competitive system.

Capitalism has worked for Big Business and for the people who own stocks and shares and landed estates.  In the opinion of the Socialist Party the problems which confront the working class can only be solved by the workers taking power into their own hands. As socialists, we surely take as our starting point that capitalism produces sufficient wealth to provide enough for all, but because of the ownership and organisation of production, that wealth is wasted or even destroyed. Capitalism is incapable of providing decent homes, social services and living standards for all. We believe that the correctness of our ideas will become apparent to the whole of the working class. The first job of the Socialist Party is to pool the resources and experience of its members; to give every isolated socialist the confidence to organise and argue for socialism among his or her workmates, neighbours and companions. Real socialism is the only alternative to capitalism and it is worth fighting for. Society can be changed, but only if working people abandon reformism and commit themselves to revolutionary change from below. Only by resisting all attempts at class collaboration, insisting on the independence of the working class, can a movement be built to challenge capitalism in Britain, and to respond with effective solidarity to the struggles of fellow workers in the rest of the world. At present Scottish nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of a ‘progressive movement’ to some sincere people. Often such nationalism is not transparent, for it is skilfully masked by socialist phrases. Deceived by this, Left Nationalists will work in and around the nationalist movement only to discover, in some years’ time, that they have been most cruelly misled, have been wasting their time and worse – have been propagating an at best diversionist movement which they will then have most fiercely to destroy. Socialists must not fall into this trap; they must not be hoodwinked by the ‘potentially progressive’ facade of nationalism. They must unite to expose it now, as part of their struggle for socialism. Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism (in whatever form), they must arm the people with knowledge and understanding. We can cope with open nationalism for it can easily be discerned. It is much more difficult to combat a nationalism which is hidden beneath a mask of socialism. Any struggle which is not a part of class struggle is a distraction from real issues.

The unity of mankind is an age-old dream. The Christians preached it. Even the capitalists aspired to it from the League of Nations to the United Nations. A slogan in itself means very little unless we consider by whom it is put forward, and with what purpose. As with the slogan ‘Against the War’, many political groups use it and all mean something different by it. Frontiers alone do not cause wars. Wars are caused by the conflict of aims between individual or groups of capitalist powers. This has apparently been ‘overlooked’ by those who prefer to invent a ‘peace plan’ which does not involve the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. The overcoming of the divisions and conflicts among peoples in this world is no Utopia. Such world unity cannot, however, be achieved by religious morality or bourgeois reformism. The supreme task of our age is to abolish capitalism as an outmoded and dangerous system and proceed to build socialism on a world scale. This can be done only through the action of the working class, not because of any better qualities as individuals, but because of their position and functions in the economy. They are the principal objects of exploitation under capitalism and the fighters against it. And they become the bearers of a higher mode of production and builders of a superior social system under post-capitalist conditions. The uprooting of exploitation and construction of a social order where people can be free and equal with unlimited prospects of advancement will be a climactic achievement of humanity. With the development of new technology, automation and other scientific and industrial accomplishments, mankind has the chance of eliminating all relations of oppression and exploitation and then lightening the burdens of necessary labour – and other curses – imposed by the low levels of labour productivity.

The workers’ movement is strong when it is conscious of a goal and strives for its realisation along class lines. When the class lines become obscured, its strength is dissipated. A socialist party is not an end in itself; it is only a means to an end. It is only a political class expression on the road toward the abolition of capitalism and class society. Nor does it come into being purely as an automatic process. Men must exert their conscious influence and action. The conscious revolutionists particularly must be the leaven in a field of such fruitful work. The socialist movement is in a similar position to that of the child learning to walk. The movement has been born, it has passed through the crawling stage, it has taken a few steps and had a few tumbles, and in the swift evolution of events it will soon be beyond the walking and into the running stage.

SPGB's Dick Donnelly V. the Anarchist Albert Meltzer (Audio)

Which Way Is Left For Socialists?

“Study because we will need all your intelligence.

Agitate because we will need all your enthusiasm.

Organise because we will need all your strength.”

Gramsci

Never before has the Socialist Party had greater need for the recognition of the whole of its ideal. Let the Socialist Party hold aloft its ideas and be above any compromise or concession. It is a democratic party to the highest degree since it wants to give every individual the concrete means of development that alone will permit one to fully realise oneself. Despite its recent shift to the left with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, all that the Labour Party has laid claim to do up to now is to be able to manage the capitalist ship of state just as good or just as bad than anyone else. It has never seen itself as being, despite its name, a party which represents the working class. It has consistently been a party for “the nation as a whole”. It has claimed to represent the capitalist class as much as the working class. It has therefore never sought to overthrow that ruling oligarchy, but, on the contrary, to gain admittance to its hallowed citadels. The cruelest trick that the Labour Party has played has been to use its position within working class culture to popularise any real vision of socialism distinct from capitalism. And none of the current arguments around the question of party democracy or proposed “radical” policies are projected in terms of the social relationships within socialism. There is a total absence of any class analysis or any characterisation of the state as an instrument of class rule. Nowhere do they indicate how the fundamental contradiction within the capitalist mode of production can be resolved. Perhaps of significance is the definition of the enemies of the working class used by Corbyn and others on the left of the Labour Party which generally consists of “the City of London, the IMF/World Bank, the transnational corporations”, all of which are part of finance capital. Industrial capital is not only largely excluded, but is, indeed, seen as the lifeblood of the nation. The nature of industry, production for profit, and the relations within production are not criticised. If the Labour Party holds out no solution, what are the alternatives?

The principal task of the members of the Socialist Party is to try to restore the credibility of socialism in the consciousness of millions of men and women. We can formulate these as feed the hungry, house the homeless, offer a dignified life to everyone, safeguard the lives of the sick who die from lack of proper medical attention, in short, generalise free access to the wealth of society to all. The producers must hold the real decision making power over what they produce this power must be exercised in a completely democratic manner; that is, it must express the real aspirations of the people. There is a total renunciation on the part of the Socialist Party of all substitutionalism, paternalism and top-down practices. The emancipation of the workers will be the work of the workers themselves. It cannot be done by states, governments, parties, supposedly infallible leaders or experts of any kind. The Socialist Party can only assist people to free themselves by education; they cannot be a substitute for them. Priority must be given to solidarity and cooperation. If we direct our attention and actions against all conditions in which human beings are alienated and humiliated and our practice is consistent socialism will once again become a political force to contend with.

The Socialist Party are revolutionary socialists who believe that capitalism — as a system centered on private accumulation and profit — is inherently a system of inequality, injustice, and war. We want a social system where social wealth is not in the hands of a few billionaires or government officials, but is controlled by the people. The working class is made up of men and women who sell their labour power or are dependent on the sale of labour power (housewives, children, unemployed, etc.). We seek both economic and political democracy.  Human needs cannot replace profit as the driving force of society unless the people control their workplaces and their neighbourhoods. To end exploitation, the working class needs to struggle for its own interests. Our enemy is capitalism. We live in a world where the capitalist mode of production predominates. In order to fight the enemy and win, we have to understand the foe. Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, corporate farms, and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. It is this system that we are fighting. Capitalism organises globally. Blocs of capital compete intensely for growth and profits. Under capitalism you either destroy the competition, or are destroyed yourself. This drive sends the giant corporations around the world, seeking cheaper raw materials and corrupt local governments that will insure a "friendly investment climate." Capitalism continuously seeks cheaper labour costs. This is why we see so many plants closing down and moving "offshore," i.e., into the Developing World. The capitalist class rules this country. We are told that this is a democracy, where the people rule. It is, however, “their” democracy. It is not just that it takes millions of dollars to run for high office. The state – the government and the legal system – were set up and developed to serve the interests of capitalism, to uphold the rights of property over of the people. Capitalism is a system of violence. Poverty is built into its operation. The capitalist class needs to maintain its grip on the levers of power. History has shown again and again that the capitalists will stop at nothing to maintain their wealth and power. Capitalist democracy is protected by the threat of force.  The capitalist class has kept the working class divided along national and racial lines.

Today’s struggle for a livable planet is a life-and-death issue. Corporate greed has polluted our air, destroyed the soil, poisoned our waters, and drenched our food with dangerous chemicals. To develop our vision of socialism, we will have to deepen our understanding of the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature. People will have to change how they live and how society is organised. The threat to the environment touches everyone. We believe in a socialism where fulfillment will be found in the relationships among people and not in the consumption of things. Only conscious socialist planning by all of society can make this a reality.

Our enemies are organised; we must be organised, also, to bring about socialism and the liberation of the people. The interests of the working class around the world are in the final analysis the same. This means that the interests of the working class has a crucial internationalist aspect requiring solidarity and support for all our struggles. We do not attempt to lay out a blue print for socialism, because the conditions existing at the time of the overthrow of capitalist power will determine the specific path of socialist construction. History has shown that attempts to impose preconceived strategies for socialist construction can result in a dictatorship not of but over the proletariat.

Another Reason To Dump The System

Heralded as a success story for austerity, Spain reports that it is on track for a 3% growth this year and has created one million jobs since 2014. Critics point out that the majority of the new jobs are part time and low-paid. Spain lost 16% of its jobs and 7% of its GDP and the poorest 10% lost 13% of their real income. For example, a forklift operator recently got called back for one week's work and was shocked to see his pay had dropped 35%. The labour reforms that the government enacted while workers were in a weak position makes it easier to dismiss employees and wages dropped accordingly. There is little to be done to fight capital when a recession is on. Another reason to dump the system. John Ayers.

Obscuring Issues

- A way to obscure the main issues facing society today is shown by the selection of a candidate for the Republican party for the upcoming US election. According to David Olive writing in the business section of The Toronto Star, the agenda is dominated by killing 'socialist' Obamacare (Olive says it is actually a Right Wing idea hatched in the Nixon days), the fake crisis of illegal immigration from Latin America (Donald Trump, the front runner to date, has called Mexican immigrants 'drug runners and rapists'), family values as defined by religious right, and whether Obama was born on American soil, (something Trump has railed about since Obama was first elected). There is nothing about poverty, unemployment, the economy, or, most troubling, global warming and tackling the problem, and its consequences. Good smoke screen! John Ayers.

The seeds of the new society

The basic assumption shared by many in the Labour Party is that it no longer makes sense to seek a socialist alternative to capitalism. Yet how capitalism continues to work against the interests of the majority strengthens the case for socialism. We need a different form of society, one in which working people get together to decide collectively and democratically how the world’s resources should best be used. Productive resources shouldn’t be controlled by cliques of overpaid executives and their cronies who run the big investment funds, but by the people who actually do the work of producing the goods and services on which we all depend. Rather than an economic system that relies on capitalists betting on which way the market will go, we need one based on democratic planning whose aim is to match resources to the real needs of ordinary people. The case for socialism is even stronger today than it was in the past. We need to start building a socialist alternative to Labour now. This is what we in the Socialist Party are trying to do. This will not be an easy task, but achieving it carries the promise of a transformation of society undreamed of within the Labour Party. Why not join us?

A popular image of socialism is that it is about self-sacrifice and self-denial. By equality we mean, not equality in personal requirements and personal life, but the abolition of classes; the equal emancipation of all toilers from exploitation after the capitalists have been overthrown and expropriated and the equal abolition for all of private property in the means of production after they have been transformed into the property of the whole society. That socialism is the levelling of everyone’s tastes and calling for uniformity of their personal lives, wearing the same clothes and eating the same dishes and to the same quantity is talking banalities and slandering socialism. The Socialist Party fully realises that mankind does not live by bread alone.

 Socialism is something very different. It is the expression of a whole lot of new possibilities – imaginative, creative. Socialism is about enhancing one’s pleasure and enjoyment and rewards in life. Our case for socialism is that there is a phenomenal human potential which is being squandered every single day this wretched system persists. Our case about socialism is that we could be giants but instead we are all little men as Wilhelm Reich wrote of us. The potential of what we could be as people isn’t even beginning to be tapped, and that’s because we’re in a society which systematically divides us from each other, takes power away from us and prevents us from being organised. One changes oneself is in the process of changing the world. One doesn’t change very much as an individual. Change happens more and more as you get involved in the bigger things and suddenly your own individual change suddenly starts taking on leaps and bounds. The road to socialism lies through the experiences and struggles of workers. Those who want to join us on this road know where to find us.

Socialism is in accordance with the highest and noblest traditions and ideals of humanity. But socialism cannot be imposed upon the people by a minority. It is a movement in the interests of the vast majority and will come into existence only when a majority of the people want it and are organised sufficiently to obtain and maintain it. Socialism has gotten a bad name. Labourites and Leftists defined their socialism in terms of state ownership and control. They cut out of socialism its essence, its control from below and its accountability to working class democracy. The liberating and revolutionary element of socialism is its ability to unleash and mobilise all the human energies which a class society cramps and corrupts. For us in the Socialist Party socialism is not some paradise or Utopia, distant and unimaginable. The seeds of the new society are being sown all the time before our eyes, in the struggle against the old one.

Marx, Socialism and the Socialist Party

OUR MINIMUM DEMAND

The fundamental feature of a socialist society is that all the means of production –the factories, the offices, the mines and mills and the transport– are owned by the people and the goods that are produced, are produced for use. Under the present system, which we call capitalist, the means of production are owned by private persons or corporations and sometimes by the government and they all operate their industries not because people need the goods that they produce but because they want to make a profit. We call the present social system capitalist because men are permitted to own productive wealth and to hire and exploit wage labour.

With socialism the people will decide how many pairs of shoes, how much coal, how many houses are needed to satisfy the needs of the people and proceed to manufacture them. The productive wealth of the productive wealth of society – machinery, factories, mines – will be owned in common by the people, and goods will be produced for the use of the people. The productive forces of society will be so greatly developed and the education of the people will be such as to enable society to follow the principle: From each according to ability; to each according to need.

There are no classes under socialism – that is, there is no class that owns the wealth and no class that is exploited. Today a worker has only his labour power and he or she sells that to someone who owns machinery and gets a wage in return and the man who owns the machinery makes a profit out of the labour power. That is what socialists term exploitation of labour. We want a socialist society where all the productive wealth is owned in common and there is no exploitation. We want a social revolution; that is undeniable. By that we mean that our aim is to transfer the economic and political power from the class we call capitalists to the. When that happens, a social revolution will have occurred. The French revolution was a social revolution because the mercantile and capitalist class displaced the feudal class. The power to rule society was transferred from the landowning feudal nobility to the merchants and industrialists. There may be political revolutions that are not social revolutions. The coups that occur frequently are political revolutions because they do not change the social system. A social revolution may or may not be accompanied by violence and no one knows for certain exactly how it will occur in the future but the Socialist Party judges that a peaceful revolution is not only possible but highly likely if certain mean are taken to accomplish the ends.

“Economic determinism” is not the theory of socialism, but socialists do consider the economic factor the determining factor in the development of society. The primary concern of human beings has always been to feed, clothe and shelter themselves. As human beings lived together, certain necessities drove them to invent certain machines and with the invention of these machines production increased and with the increase in production changes occurred in the economic and social system.

Struggles arose between groups and the victors made slaves out of the vanquished. A system of slavery arose and the forces of production continued to develop. More machines were invented; the forces of production increased; society developed further and ever further and class struggles arose; slaves revolted against masters; the social system based on slavery could no longer function effectively and that social system was displaced by a new system. What is known as feudalism came into existence. He who owned land had the right to exploit the man who worked on the land and this man who worked on the land was called a serf. In comparison with the chattel slave, he was a free man but nevertheless he could not leave the land. New markets came into being; new machinery was invented; the forces of production grew and with it a new and powerful class arose – the merchant class of the Middle Ages – and it is this merchant class that constituted the beginning of modern capitalist class. We call that class the “bourgeoisie” and this class began a struggle against the feudal nobility and finally conquered and became the dominant class in society. Thus you see that, in the opinion of socialists, a class struggle has existed since time immemorial. The chattel slaves struggled against the masters, the plebeians struggled against the patricians, the serf against the feudal nobility; and today we have the fundamental struggle between the capitalists who own the wealth and the wage workers who create the wealth. And is this struggle a result of man’s will or desire? No, it is a struggle that is due fundamentally to the development of economic forces. A social system is born, develops, decays and is displaced by a new social system – all this by virtue of laws at operate independently of the will of human beings. A new social system gives birth to new ideas, to new moral concepts. Under the feudal system in the Middle Ages, for instance, the church prohibited the lending of money on interest. To lend money on interest was considered usury. But with the development of the merchant class and the capitalist system, the lending of money became an absolute necessity and obviously people would not lend money unless they could make a profit out of it. The rule of the church against usury was abolished and interest up to a certain point was permitted. Man’s ideas, man’s morals, man’s philosophies are determined fundamentally by the economic structure of society and not vice versa. The history of man is determined not by his will nor by his consciousness nor by what he thinks is right or wrong but by inexorable economic forces operating on the basis of certain laws. This idea was first introduced by Karl Marx – the Material Conception of History.

Society cannot be changed by the mere desire of a small group to change it. It must, in the first instance, be ripe for a change and in the second instance the masses of men must understand the necessity for a change. We have now reached a point in the development of society where mankind must take control of social forces and determine the operation of those social forces. Up to now, man has been subjected to social forces that he did not understand and could not cope with. What man must do now is to become master of his own destiny. If man does not do so, then barbarism, the destruction of all liberties and of all culture will inevitably follow.

Look at our social system and you can see for yourselves how the class struggle operates the worker against the employer. Why is our society subjected to this struggle? Because each social group wants a larger share of the income that society produces. In comparison to the number of wage workers, our party constitutes a small group; the class struggle goes on without us. We have not as yet achieved an influence which can permit us to play a decisive role in that struggle. The struggle between the worker on the one hand, anxious to get a higher wage, and the employer on the other hand, anxious to make more profit, is a struggle that will go on regardless of the desire or the intention of any man. There are some employers who are willing to give higher wages but they are prevented by the law of competition under capitalism. By and large the employers are anxious to make more and more profits and, because of that, the class struggle must necessarily continue.

Throughout history there have been men who dreamed of changing society. They saw the poverty, the oppression, the persecution and hatred that prevailed in the world. There are some people who claim that the human being is essentially bad and no attempt to change his nature can succeed. But when one considers that in spite of the meanness and violence that prevail in society, there are millions of decent human beings, one must come to the conclusion that the human being is essentially good. Marx presented the proposition that to change man, you must change the social system. It is impossible to have a society where love between human beings prevails, unless you have a society where the struggle for economic existence is done away with. Under the present social system, mean, petty and violent struggles prevail in all classes. There are struggles in the form of bitter competition between business men; there are struggles between the small business men and the chain stores; there are struggles between workers. Everywhere in society struggle prevails. Marx concluded that before man can develop to a point where the relationship between one human being and another will be on a decent basis, society will have to be altered. Marx formulated the following proposition: that the ideas, the philosophies, the religions and the morals of a certain epoch are determined fundamentally by the prevailing social system; change the social system and the ethics and morals will also change. Marx accepted two fundamental principles: one, the necessity of convincing the majority of the people to accept the ideas of socialism, and two, the necessity of capturing the State so that we can begin building the socialist society by firstly displacing the rule of the capitalist class.

Socialism is a world system under which all peoples will cooperate to produce enough goods to satisfy the reasonable needs of every human being. Every region will produce that which it is best fitted to produce. If a place can produce good machinery then let it not busy itself with producing agricultural products. Let some other location best fitted for the production of agricultural products produce those products and exchange its products for the machines produced by another. Peace will come to a world cooperating in this way, which will be made possible only by socialism.  We reject the idea that one nationality or people is superior to any other. To us all human beings are equal. The prejudices that exist are a product of the social system and not inherent in human nature. The brotherhood of man will be made possible and real under a socialist society which will do away with economic conflicts.

The misery, the suffering and the death of millions of fellow human beings are not abstractions to the Socialist Party. We feel them keenly and we react to them and we try to create a world where poverty, disease and war will not be the lot of mankind. Our studies have led us to certain conclusions and we have come together into a political party to propagate those conclusions. We proclaim that it is possible to build a new social system guaranteeing every human being a decent livelihood and a chance to develop his or her individuality, free from economic worries, free from the dangers of war. We say that we have reached an epoch where mankind must go forward to socialism or degenerate into barbarism. The strength of our ideas lies in the fact that our general predictions, based upon the laws operating in society, have come true. The Socialist Party base its case upon ideas that has withstood the test of time and events. We still hold hope that people will come to accept the ideas of socialism. We ask you to understand these ideas because we think they will ultimately enter the minds and the hearts of our fellow workers who will then struggle for their realisation because there is no road to peace and plenty other than the road of socialism.

SOCIAL EVOLUTION

How Capitalism Survives In So Called Communist Countries.

Ah communism, how it has failed in the world! Now Vietnam has fallen to the lure of capitalism. The very apartment building where we watched the desperate evacuation of Americans and the Vietnamese who worked for them, is now the centre of a neighbourhood of luxury shops selling $1,000 Rimowa suitcases and $2,000 Burberry suits, for those who can afford them, of course. The statue of Ho Chi Min is sandwiched between a luxury hotel and a Brooks Brothers store. The New York Times comments, "If for the Americans, the war here, in which 58,000 Americans and as many as three million Vietnamese died, was on some level about keeping Vietnam safe for capitalism, it turns out they need not have worried." How true! Like the Soviet Union, Cuba, China et al, they never were communist and we still await the first truly socialist/communist society. John Ayers.

Modern Day Slaves In Thailand

In Thailand, according to The New York Times, August 2, young men and boys are lured into working in fishing boats as slave labour. Guarded by armed men, treated violently, where the sick are often thrown into the sea and captives sold like cargo, they are forced to work for nothing. The report states, "Labour abuse at sea can be so severe that the boys and men who are its victims might as well be captives from another era. This activity is driven by the demand for seafood across the world and, of course, the money to be made from it. What a different world it would be without money. Illegal activities would be of no use whatever. John Ayers.

Socialism from below

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

There is a saying “the perfect is the enemy of the good” and members of the Socialist Party are often accused of this because we strive solely for the establishment of socialism and nothing less. We have on innumerable occasions refuted such allegations in the sense that we have never opposed workers seeking amelioration of their conditions within capitalism but we have argued that it is not the task of a socialist party to seek reforms of the system it endeavours to overthrow. Our case is based upon another well-knowing adage - “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. Throughout history we have witnessed workers organisations advocate reforms and palliatives and they have advanced not one step towards socialism but have changed into supporters of the status quo.

If a person is suffering from a fatal disease and the only chance of survival is an operation, is he or she being a martyr if the person submits to this operation? Most will say, no. He or she is acting intelligently. Therefore, if society is suffering from the cancer of capitalism that all the best treatments offered are merely palliatives which aren’t going to cure, what choice has the intelligent worker? One can either resign oneself to the progressively worsening of the capitalist system - more wars; increasing poverty and mounting environmental damage. Or he or she can submit to the operation known as social revolution!

Workers have been working harder and more productively but aren’t seeing any change in how much they take home at the end of the week. A study from America by the Economic Policy Institute found that many parents’ paychecks aren’t enough to cover their family’s most basic needs, and that working full-time at the federal minimum wage isn’t enough for a parent with one child to get by anywhere in the US. Even though the recession has passed most Americans have failed to see improvements in their pay, according to a recent study by the National Employment Law Project. This is especially true for those who work in the retail, food service, and home-care industries, which already are among the lowest paying sectors and have seen the greatest declines in take-home pay. All the while, more and more corporations are leaving the people who cook our food and stock our shelves without the right to stand together to demand better wages and working conditions. And, profitable corporations like McDonald’s and Walmart are keeping their employees from working enough hours to pay the bills and making their lives impossible to plan.

The forces that keep working people living on the brink are beginning to fall apart, and it’s not a mystery as to why: People have been beginning to stand together and press for change. Still, there is so much work that remains.

Some ‘socialists’ say the way to change things is to rely on enlightened leaders to do it for you. These ‘great’ people will shape the world for us, for our own good. The most we can do is admire and trust the wise in their work.  ‘Socialism’ from above is elitist and bureaucratic. It leaves the exploited majority in the same position as before. It is the Fabianism and reformism of the Labour Party intellectuals.

Socialism from below is entirely different. Its rallying cry is the first sentence of the Rules of the First Workers’ International: ‘The emancipation of the working class must be conquered by the workers themselves.’ Socialism can only be achieved if working people themselves inspire it, create, develop and strengthen it. Their own consciousness and self-organisation is the only possible basis for socialism. Such a socialism must be, in its essence, democratic, involving the mass of workers in taking over and running society in their own interests, under their own control. Socialists endeavour to chart a new world free of the State and freed from nationalism.

This is the world you live in

CAPITALISM - DIVIDE AND RULE 

Some people refuse to learn. Others refuse to remember. And still others remember what they have learned only up to the moment when events call upon them to put it into practice, whereupon they start to forget. A socialist is not an ordinary person who absorbs ignorance and prejudices pumped into him or her like a sponge every day in a hundred ways. The socialist endeavours to think about social problems. The first question he or she asks about any problem that needs tackling is this: How has this problem arisen. Only after this question has been answered as ably as social science permits, is it possible to tackle it intelligently and effectively and with positive results.

Society is divided into property owners and propertyless people and this lies at the root of the crises and problems of the capitalist world. Millions of workers own neither the land nor the machinery they use nor the products they make. These are the property of the capitalists. The vast majority of people in society to-day are thus at the mercy of the private owners. They cannot organise the distribution of the wealth which they have co-operated to produce, because they do not possess this wealth. It is the property of the private owners. Here is to be found the fundamental reason why the socially necessary goods are obtainable only in the market-place as commodities. They cannot give the goods to society, for that would be an abandonment of the right of private property to extract profit. They cannot distribute the goods according to the needs of the people, however vast and urgent those needs may be, because private property production is governed by the law of production for profit irrespective of the needs of the people. The criterion of all capitalist enterprise is—does it make a profit? When it ceases to make a profit it goes bankrupt—it is finished and the workers are cast on to the scrapheap of unemployment. For the capitalist there is no other way of disposing of the goods produced other than through the exchange market, the laws of which are not need nor beauty, nor quality. It is a transaction between individuals exchanging property, however repeated, however multiplied, however varied. One can have exactly according to his means to pay. If you have £1 or its equivalent you can have £1’s worth of goods. If you have nothing, then you can exchange nothing. Thus the number of boots sold is not governed by the number of men, women and children needing boots but by the number who are able to buy boots. The market demand therefore is not the measure of human needs nor human capacity to produce, but the measure of the means at the disposal of the people to purchase the things they need. Society can measure the resources of the country through its social organisation. It can measure the needs of the people through its social organisation. But it cannot distribute products it does not possess, nor control production when it does not own the means of production. When society owns the means of production it will own the products. When it owns the products it can distribute them to its members according to their individual and collective needs. This is the only solution.

The State in a class-divided society can be nothing other than an instrument in the hands of the class owning the property and means of production in society. The talk of “reconciling class interests” is simple deceit. It is impossible to reconcile the interests of the slave owner and the slave, the exploiter and the exploited. We have no intention or desire, no right and no need, to abandon the fight for socialism. The only way we know how to do this is: tell the truth about capitalism; help make those we can reach conscious of the problem of society today and how to solve it, and increase the clarity of those who are already partly conscious of it. We will do everything we can do to deepen the understanding of the capitalist system. We will continue in our way even if we fight alone. We will try to teach the ignorant better; and we will answer the deceitful as they deserve to be answered. We are working for the power of the working class and as such, we shall be guided accordingly in our campaign for the cause of the working class, of socialism and against all attacks upon them.

In the World Socialist Movement the case for socialism will remain clear and firm. It will be heard and it will be echoed.

The Right Wing Play Book

- Regarding the ISIS threat, Canadian PM, Stephen Harper stated, "It would be absolutely foolish for us not to go after this group before they come after us." British PM David Cameron said, "This is the great threat of our generation, the battle of our generation, and the fight that we are going to have." Australian PM Tony Abbott opined, "They're coming after us. We may not feel that we are at war with them, but they are certainly at war with us." They must be all reading from the Right Wing play book, probably written by George Bush. John Ayers.

Confirmation

Under the harsh conditions of Greece's $122 billion bailout, social security will be cut, property taxes will increase, and, if Greece's creditors have their way, there will be price hikes on food. The people hit the hardest will be pensioners on a fixed income. Most of them will not be able to get work, not that there are many jobs available for anyone. All this confirms that no matter how big a mess the effects of capitalism create, it's the working class that will suffer and pay the debts. John Ayers.

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

RISE says what is needed an "independent socialist Scotland" and that then the problems will be solved. But they won't be. First, because socialism cannot be established in one country (we are living in an interdependent world and capitalism is a world system and those Trotskyists within RISE are perfectly aware of this fact) and, secondly, because what the RISE mean by "socialism" isn't real socialism but only a form of national state-capitalism. Left nationalist groups have done so much to discredit the idea of socialism by associating it with a state-run economy. In spite of all their revolutionary posturing they have devoted their time and energy to chasing reforms of capitalism. Scotland is only a small part of an economic system which embraces the whole world. It could never enjoy any real autonomy or self-sufficiency in the face of the world market. From day one it will be buffeted by hostile economic forces entirely beyond its control. In no time at all, Scotland will be faced with two choices—either total ruin, or the complete restoration of capitalist economics. The independent socialist Scotland of RISE would be neither independent nor socialist.

RISE is lucky that there isn’t a political equivalent of the Trades Description Act or they could be prosecuted for fraudulently describing what they are trying to sell as “socialism”. Historically, socialism was generally seen as a worldwide system of common ownership and democratic control in which the watchword would be “From each according to ability, to each according to need”. It would mean the end of the wages system along with money, buying and selling and the capital/labour relationship.

We, in the Socialist Party’s Glasgow and Edinburgh branches, are few in number but our mission is simple. We  proceed with educational propaganda until the working class have understood the fundamental facts of their position - that they do not own the means by which they live, that they are but commodities on the market, never hired unless employers can profit, always discarded when a liability. We have to emphasise the fact that no appreciable change is possible in the working-class condition while we all remain commodities. There are no short cuts. Naturally, we wish the work to be accomplished as soon as possible, and that is why we oppose and expose those who, sometimes with the best of intentions, blur the issue that must be kept in clear view, and so prolong the task of emancipation. For the worker in Scotland there is hope. Join the local branches of the World Socialist Movement and make common cause with the socialist workers of all countries for the end of all forms of exploitation; saying to both English and Scottish capitalists: "A plague on both your houses". For the true battle-cry of the working class is more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rally cry is: THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!