Volkswagen sold 50,000 diesel cars with software that automatically cheated on air pollution tests leaving the company vulnerable to billions of dollars in fines and criminal prosecution. The company sold Volkswagen and Audi cars with a sophisticated algorithm that turns on full pollution controls only when the car is undergoing official testing, the Environmental protection Agency reported. During normal driving the system does not operate so that the cars pollute ten to forty times the legal limit. The company's purpose for using this sophisticated technology is because it was cheaper to install than producing low emission vehicles, so the bottom line is higher profit and to hell with the environment. Just another day in capitalism! John Ayers.
Saturday, November 07, 2015
Help build a new world
Few can deny that the world today is in a constant state of
upheaval and that is reflected in the widespread turmoil and conflict. The fact
that such conditions prevail generally throughout the world, and have prevailed
for a long time, suggests the presence of a common social factor. That common
cause, the Socialist Party has repeatedly demonstrated, is the capitalist
system that does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority. It is a
social system in which society is divided into two classes—a capitalist class
and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority—the
wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution.
The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and
must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of
life in order to survive.
The defenders of the capitalist economic dictatorship never
tire of declaring it the "best of all possible systems." Yet, today,
after decades of reforms, wars on poverty, civil rights legislation, government
regulation, government deregulation and a host of other palliatives, capitalist
society still depicts an obscene social picture. Millions who need and want
jobs are still unemployed. Millions more are underemployed, working only
part-time or temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work. Millions
aren't earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves
and their families despite the fact that they are working. The education and health-care system still
fails to meet the needs of most folk. Slums homelessness abounds. Racism and
nationalism is on the upsurge with its contemptible discrimination against
foreigners.
When the Socialist Party was founded, there was no particularly
great concern regarding pollution of the land, air and water on which all
species—humanity included—depend on for life. But there was widespread poverty,
racial prejudice and discrimination, urban decay, brazen violations of
democratic rights, and the material and economic conflicts that are the seeds
of war, plus a host of other economic and social problems. All of those
problems still plague the working class—but have grown to even more monumental
proportions. These long-standing problems and the failure of seemingly unending
reform efforts to solve or even alleviate them to any meaningful degree have
imposed decades of misery and suffering on millions of families. Against this
insane capitalist system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in emphatic
protest and unqualified condemnation. It declares that if our society is to be
rid of the host of economic, political and social ills that for so long have
plagued it, the outmoded capitalist system of private ownership of the socially
operated means of life and production for the profit of a few must be replaced
by a new social order. That new social order must be organized on the sane
basis of social ownership and democratic management of all the instruments of
social production, all means of distribution and all of the social services. It
must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants.
In short, it must be genuine socialism. Accordingly, the SPGB calls upon the
workers to rally under its banner for the purpose of advocating revolutionary
change and building class consciousness among workers.
Despite the growing
poverty and misery that workers are subjected to, a world of peace, liberty,
security, health and abundance for all, fully in harmony with the needs of the
environment, stands within our grasp. The potential to create such a society
exists, but that potential can be realized only if workers act to gain control
of their own lives by organising for socialism. Help build a world in which
everyone will enjoy the free exercise and full benefit of their individual
faculties, multiplied by all the technological and other factors of modern
civilisation. Join in the effort to put an end to the existing class conflict
by placing the land and the instruments of social production in the hands of
the people as a collective body in a cooperative socialist society.
Friday, November 06, 2015
The accursed capitalist system
Socialism is rule by the working people. They will decide
how socialism is to work. With the abolition of capitalist exploitation there is
also end of the managerial despotism inseparable from it, and representing
all-powerful capital, the arbitrariness of the owners and the employers. Under
capitalism the working people look on those in charge such as directors,
managers and supervisors as enemies, since they direct production in the
interests of the capitalists and of their profits. In socialist society those who
administer enjoy the trust of the people, since they execute the decision of
the entire community in the interests of everybody, not for capitalist profits.
In a socialist
society there is production is not for profit but for use, socially planned
production. A socialist economy is a planned economy. In capitalist society,
the capitalists own the means of production and engage in production for the
sole purpose of making profits and satisfying their private interests.
Therefore, though there may be planned production in a few enterprises,
competition is rife and lack of co-ordination prevails among the different
enterprises and economic departments as a whole. Cyclical economic crises which
break out in capitalist society are the inevitable result of anarchy in
production. Engels pointed out: “With the seizing of the means of production by
society…Anarchy in social production is replaced by plan-conforming, conscious
organisation.” Socialism has freed the workers from exploitation and has
replaced work in subjection to the exploiters by free labour for oneself, for
the whole of society. Labour in socialist society has a creative character, and
is organised in a planned way.
Nationalisation in a capitalist class society is not
socialism, nor is the “mixed economy”. Such nationalisation is simply a degree
of state capitalism, with no relation to socialism. The “welfare state” is not
socialist as “welfare” in a capitalist state is to improve the efficiency of
that state as a profit-maker and is another form of state capitalism (aka the
means test State). It can be an improvement on capitalism with no welfare, just
as a 40-hour week is an improvement on a 60-hour week. But it is not socialism.
Social production is aimed at meeting the ever increasing needs of the entire
society in the interest of all the people, instead of catering to the private
interests of the few. The establishment of common ownership of the means of
production and the fundamental identity of the interests of the working people
in socialist society make it possible for a socialist society to arrange the
whole society’s labour force and means of production in a unified way. Capitalism
makes the worker an appendage of the machine and stifles man’s abilities.
Socialism, on the contrary, liberates labour from exploitation and gives all
citizens free access to the fruits of society’s collective production. Socialism
heralds a new and higher stage development of co-operation of labour, compared
with preceding forms of society. Socialist cooperation is the co-operation of
workers freed from exploitation, and linked with each other by relations of
comradely mutual aid.
To use the word “socialism” for anything less than “from
each according to ability, to each according to need” is to misuse the term. Members
of the Socialist Party capably demonstrate how socialism could end poverty,
unemployment and war by eliminating private ownership of the means of producing
the things of life, national and international competition, and the struggle
for existence by the overwhelming majority of the population in this and all
other countries. They merciless expose of the evils of capitalist society, its
murderous exploitation of the workers, its utter hypocrisy in human relations,
and the most evident feature of its class character: the impoverishment of the
masses and the enrichment of a small class of capitalists. The SPGB understands
the necessity of building the movement for socialism requires the the art of
socialist campaigning and agitation, to tell millions what socialism is, its
relation and comparison to capitalism, and how it can be achieved. We need to
reveal how thoroughly rotten capitalism is, how it is an outlived system
capable of producing nothing but poverty, war and suppression of the will of
the people. The Socialist Party is pledged to over-turn this accursed
capitalist system, with its wars, its reaction, its vileness, brutality and savagery
so that in the memory of people in future times of capitalism will remain only
as a ghastly nightmare.
Thursday, November 05, 2015
No Security Here.
One thing nobody hears about today is "Freedom 55", a smart financial way to retire early, though I did hear someone joke about having "freedom 95". People invested in it believing they would retire at 55 and live comfortably for the rest of their lives, but when the economy went belly up, so did their illusion. This shows that there is no such thing as security under capitalism. John Ayers.
Build the socialist commonwealth
The Socialist Party always makes it quite clear as to our
exact aim and object. We as socialists, wish to advance the case for socialism,
and by socialism we mean the common ownership of all the agencies of wealth
production, and this involves the complete supercession of the capitalist
system, and the conducting of all production on a co-operative basis. We seek
to overthrow capitalism, and build the socialist commonwealth. Socialism is the
highest stage of human society, economically, socially, and intellectually. All
the accumulated treasures in machines and technical appliances created by the
genius of man, all that science and art had given to the human race in generations
is to be utilised, not for the few, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole. This
socialist commonwealth, liberating the individual from all economic, political
and social oppression, will provide the basis for real liberty and for the full
and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth
of the creative faculties of the mind.
To substitute common, for private, ownership in the means of
production, this it is what economic development is urging upon us with ever-increasing
force. The abolition of the present system of production means replacing for
production for sale with production for use. In a socialist system the people
own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically
controlled workers councils, cooperatives, or other collective groups. The
primary goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life,
including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural
opportunities, and social services. The Socialist Party strives to establish a
radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control in which
people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community. Planning takes place
at the community, regional, and world levels, and is determined democratically
with the input of workers, consumers, and the public to be served. Socialism is
not government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy.
Socialism is a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers
control production and community residents control their neighbourhoods, homes,
hospitals and schools. Democracy in daily life is the core of our socialism. State
ownership is a fraud as decisions are made by distant bureaucrats or
authoritarian managers. In socialist society power resides in worker-managed
and cooperative enterprises. Community-based cooperatives help provide the
flexibility and innovation required in a dynamic socialist economy. The
production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the
private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewed future by not
plundering the resources of the earth. The capitalist system forces workers to
sell their abilities and skills to the few who own the workplaces, profit from
these workers’ labour, and use the government to maintain their privileged
position. The inevitable product of the capitalist system is a class society
with gross inequality, draining productive wealth and goods of the society into
military purposes and war in which workers are compelled to fight other workers.
People around the world have more in common with each other than with their
rulers. We condemn war, preparation for war, and the militaristic culture. We
ally with no nation, but only with working people throughout the world. A
socialist society carefully plans its way of life and technology to be a
harmonious part of our natural environment. The cleanup of the polluted and contaminated
environment will be among the first tasks of a socialist society.
Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. The
Socialist Party is democratic, with its structure and practices visible and
accessible to all members. It ought to be obvious to every socialist that
socialism will not come into existence unless the majority of the people are
willing to struggle for socialism and that means that they have to understand what
it is. If the people who vote for a socialist candidate do not do so because he
or she is a socialist then of what earthly use can that be for achieving the
socialist goal? Socialism must depend upon the consciousness of the workers and
not upon their lack of knowledge. The idea that we should first be elected and
then teach socialism is absurd. It can be stated with the greatest of assurance
that a socialist candidate who refrains from advocating and explaining socialism
during the campaign, with the idea that he or she will do so after elected will
forget all about socialism. The building
of socialism requires widespread understanding and participation, and will not
be achieved by an elite working “on behalf of” the people. The working class is
in a key and central position to fight back against the ruling capitalist class
and its power. The working class is the major force worldwide that can lead the
way to a socialist future – to a real radical democracy from below. Socialists
participate in the electoral process to present socialist alternatives. The
process of struggle profoundly shapes the ends achieved. Our tactics in the
struggle for radical democratic change reflect our ultimate goal of a society
founded on principles of egalitarian and non-exploitative relations among all
people. Our aim is the creation of a new social order, a society in which the
commanding value is the preciousness of every woman, man and child.
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
The Capitalists Are Blood-Sucking Leeches
We in the Socialist Party are not reformers but revolutionaries.
We do not propose to change outward appearances. We want to change the essence
of society. Reformism skims the surface. The socialist movement cannot exist unless
carried on by men and women because in the last analysis it is the human hand
and the human brain that serve as the instruments of revolutions. The only path
before workers is revolution. Only socialism can bring the solution and
organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then
and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase
in production bring increasing abundance and leisure for everyone. This is the
aim of the socialist revolution. Only the organised working-class can fight and
destroy the power of the capitalist class, can drive the capitalists from
possession, and can organise social production to create a free and equal
society. All production is directed solely to supplying people’s needs. It is
for use, not for profit. Therefore every expansion of production means greater
abundance and leisure for everybody. Because production is for ourselves and
administered by our own organisations, it will spur on initiative and enthusiasm
unattainable under capitalism. Through the rule of the people we can immediately
realise the fruits of the revolution and end the present reign of inequality —
inequality in respect of every elementary human need of food, clothing,
shelter, conditions of labour health, education, etc., and bring the material
conditions of real freedom and development to all. In this way we shall
immediately banish poverty, offering a new life for all. The capitalists hold
up the spectre that revolution means “starvation,” that the workers depend on
capitalism for their existence. The contrary is the truth. The workers can by
the method of social revolution, and by the method of social revolution alone
can rapidly reconstruct this redundant social system and win prosperity for all
of us.
Everywhere people are waking up and fighting against the
oppression and exploitation which is a daily fact of their lives. The lies of
the ruling class about “prosperity” are being further exposed everyday. There
is prosperity alright – but it is for a handful of rich capitalists – the
conditions of the working people are getting worse and worse. The situation in
health care, housing and welfare services is rapidly deteriorating. This system
of capitalism is set up with one thing only – to make the most profits possible
for a few people. It is the system under which we, and our parents and
grandparents before us, have done all the work. We mined the mines, built the
buildings, manufactured all the products: and then got just enough to live on –
if we fought hard enough for it! On the other hand, the capitalist class reaps
their huge fortunes from our toil and do no work themselves, except spending
the money that we made for them. Class consciousness means that workers come to
see that united in action they have enormous power—they can bring the entire
economy to a halt and stop profit-making in its tracks. Our class becomes
conscious of its true interests and the need for revolution not simply by
reading textbooks but through practical action. Mass action is the only way
even to defend past gains and to win new ones. Workers learn through
experience, through fighting the capitalists in the living class struggle. And
whatever the initial outlook of most of the participants, mass working-class
action always carries the potential threat of a revolutionary challenge to the
system.
There are other parties around that call themselves
“communist” or “socialist”. We have important disagreements with them. These
parties all have one thing in common – they all dress themselves up with
high-sounding revolutionary phrases, but underneath they are defenders of various
forms of capitalism. There are many who say that they are for socialism and claim
to be in favour of the emancipation of workers. However, we mustn’t be taken in.
Many of these “socialists” have abandoned the principles of Marxism.
Socialist revolution will put an end to capitalist
exploitation and all the forms of oppression that inevitably accompany it. Since
human communities have become class-divided communities through the
accumulation of wealth in the hands of a minority of people who constitute
themselves as the ruling class, class struggle has been the motor of history,
and it will remain so as long as the class division of society has not been
abolished from the surface of the globe. The Socialist Party always stand for
class solidarity in the course of workers’ struggle. We do not drop our support
for the fight against the bosses because we do not like particular trade union
leaders or their policies.
It is time no for to turn away from the capitalist system,
with its mounting mass misery, exploitation, war and terrorism, and look towards
socialism. Socialism abolishes the chaos and anarchy of capitalist production
and social organisation; it does away with the dog-eat-dog competition of
capitalist industry, breeder of commercial crises and war. It sets up instead a
planned system of economy in harmony with the worldwide character of modern
industry and social relationships. Capitalism robs the toilers of what they
produce. Under capitalism everywhere wealth piles up automatically in the hands
of the parasitic owners of the industries, while the masses of actual producers
live at the bare subsistence line. But in socialism this is fundamentally
different. Production is carried on for the benefit of all those in the
ommunity. There are no artificial limits placed upon production by the need to
sell. There can be no “exploited” when there is no ruling, owning class, no
class to get a rake-off from the worker’s production? With private property
abolished (but, of course, not in articles of personal use), with exploitation
of the toilers ended, and with the capitalist class finally defeated and all
classes liquidated, there will then be no further need for the State, which in
its essence, is an organ of class repression. The State will, in the words of
Engels, “wither away” and be replaced by a scientific technical “administration
of things.” The guiding principle will be: “From each according to his ability,
to each according to his needs.” That is, the distribution of life
necessities—food, clothing, shelter, education, etc.—will be free, without let
or hindrance. Production for use, carried out upon the most efficient basis and
freed from the drains of capitalist exploiters, will provide such an abundance
of necessary commodities that there will be plenty for all with a minimum of
effort. There will then be no need for pinch-penny measuring and weighing.
The road to this social development can only be opened by
revolution. This is because the question of power is involved. The capitalist
class, like an insatiable blood-sucking leech, clings to the body of the working
people and has to be dislodged.
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
For the socialist revolution – join us.
What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we
actually striving towards? This question, long a subject of debate is
receiving even more attention today because of the inability of capitalism to
address its mounting crises. Nothing less than the fate of humanity hinges upon
the speediest implementation of the socialist solution yet hardly anyone nowadays
retain hope in the anti-capitalist strivings and sentiments of the working
people or believe that they can in time participate in a mighty movement
oriented toward socialist objectives. For adhering to these convictions and
being guided by them, the Socialist Party is looked upon as a political
dinosaur, ridiculed as a relic of a by-gone age, dogmatists to outworn views
who cannot understand that the world has changed. Indeed, it may seem odd to argue
against the preponderance of public opinion so why not go along with the
prevailing mood? Unfashionable and unpopular as it may be, we in the Socialist
Party have solid reasons for our principled stand and our convictions are not those
of religious-like faith but derived from a scientific conception of the course
and driving forces of world history, a reasoned analysis of the decisive trends
of our time, and an understanding of the mainsprings and the necessities of
capitalist development. Socialist ideas
have clarified many perplexing problems in philosophy, sociology, history,
economics, and politics, explaining the key role of the working class in
history. Nothing less is at stake than the destiny of civilisation and with it
the future of mankind.
Too often, too many radicals place too much importance upon the
undeniable shortcomings of the labour movement than by any of its positive
accomplishments. They disparage the significance of the sheer existence of trade
union organisations which act as a shield against lowering wages and working
conditions and check the aggressions of capitalist reaction. They ignore the
working conditions of a century ago, before unionisation, the fourteen- to
sixteen-hour day, the exploitation of child labor, the early mortality rate for
all workers; and they neglect to study what happens when unions are
exceptionally weak and fragmented. The widespread under-estimation of the
working class comes from a short-term perspective. We are living in a world of
rapidly changing events and many unexpected developments. The working class
will be roused from its slumber by events beyond anyone’s control. We do not
believe that they can be summoned into battle on anyone’s command. The class
struggle unfolds with a rhythm of its own, determined by historical conditions.
The Socialist Party takes full advantage of opportunities in good times or bad.
That is its reason for its existence. We are no idle dreamers. We want to make
things happen.
But how was this new society to be achieved? The critical
first step, in our view, is taking political power, replacing the government of
the capitalist class with the rule of the working class. People should rule
society in their own interests. Socialism is a society dedicated to the
interests of the vast majority of the population. The basic means by which
society produces its wealth – factories, mines and farms – are transferred from
private to public ownership, and exploitation is for the most part eliminated.
Socialism unleashes the creativity of the common people, who are capable of
tremendous advances when not laboring under a system of exploitation. The key
to the solution of the problem lies, for us, in a social revolution throughout
the capitalist world. There is no other way. Socialism has to become a tool and
a weapon again for going to the roots of existing social problems and pointing
the way to their solution. If you want to fight the only battle worth fighting,
for the socialist revolution – join us.
Monday, November 02, 2015
We are the SPGB
For some people the day for socialist struggle never seems
to come around. The time for the struggle for socialism never arrives. Time and
time again the struggle for socialism has been sidetracked by the so-called radical
parties who have held out the promise of immediate salvation for the people.
Again and again people believed in the false prophets and voted him into power,
only to reap a heavy harvest of bitter disappointment. It is in the light of
this fact that the importance of the Socialist Party must be measured. Not a
party of mere patchwork reform, nor a party of sham revolutionary phrases, but
a socialist party, rooted in the working class movement, based upon principles
of education and organisation, both indispensable for a party that is a socialist
party in the true meaning of the term. The soul of our party is to be an
effective instrument for the coming social reconstruction. We call upon workers
to join the Socialist Party, the party of revolution. We stand before them as
the party of the fellow workers, of the poor and oppressed. We stand for no
economic, political or social privilege, but consider that the oppressed of the
world must act together to gain peace, prosperity, security, equality; with
abundance for all but special privilege for none. This is the only way to save
the world from the catastrophes unleashed by capitalism. The Socialist Party has never under
any circumstances forsaken or subordinated the needs of the struggle in the
interests of alliance with class enemies.
Workers’ labour power is purchased on the market by the
owners of capital. On average in half the working week it produces value
sufficient to cover wages to maintain workers and their families. The value
produced in the remainder of the working week constitutes surplus value, the
source of profit. The goods and services produced by workers’ socialised labour
are privately appropriated by capitalists. They will continue to be produced so
long as they can be sold for profit on the market. The system of capitalist
production leads inevitably to the alternating cycle of boom and bust and
periodical crisis under capitalism. It is inevitable that sooner or later these
social conditions will impel people to organise to end the conflict between the
socialised labour process and the private ownership of the means of production,
the big factories, mines and farms, by the establishment of socialism. With
socialism, production is planned and rational, and takes place for peoples’
use. When socialists speak of a society organised on the basis of planned
production and distribution we mean doing away with production for profit.
Capitalism is a system based on production for profit, not
for human need. This system is driven by the necessity to accumulate profit,
which means that capitalists compete with one another, both nationally and
internationally. The capitalist class is a ruling class whose ownership and
control of the means of production is based on the exploitation of the working
class. Thus, a small minority rules society. The contradictions between
competing capitalists, produce war, poverty and crisis. The struggle between
the classes will produce the overthrow of capitalist society. The working class
has the capacity to end exploitation and oppression. It is a law of capitalism
that capital moves to wherever the rate of profit is highest. Capitalism is a
system of production for profit: for the accumulation of more capital.
Companies therefore produce only the products that give them the greatest
profit, and they try to set up their enterprises whenever the most favorable
conditions for making maximum profits are to be found. The welfare of the
people is simply trampled on by the profit-hungry monopolies: their search for
profits is a ruthless rampage that leaves a trail of misery, ruin, hardship and
poverty. This is how capitalism works. Capitalism needs the working class; the
working class does not need capitalism.
Every state is the dictatorship of some class over another.
It is a body of armed men organized by the class in power to carry out that
class’ will unrestrained by any laws and to suppress the rights of those
classes opposed to the continued rule of the dominant class. The present state,
which claims to be a “democracy” of all the people, of all classes, is no such
thing. It is a special body organized by the capitalist class to protect that
class’s property and to keep the workers subserviant in the factories of the
rich. All the laws passed have as their purpose the enslavement of the masses and
the protection of the unjustly acquired wealth of the wealthy, who produce
nothing of value, but appropriate the product of the sweat and blood of the
workers. No matter how fine-sounding these laws they were only written to
deceive the people rob them. We can count on nothing but their own numbers. Socialism
will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society,
decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a
new foundation. The whole future of humanity rests on the working class.
Sunday, November 01, 2015
The System
By 'The System' we mean capitalism. To the casual observer
investments seem to grow as if by a force of nature, like a seed which sprouts
a plant if well-treated. "Let your money work for you" say the ads.
Getting rich is generally seen as a matter of foresight and some luck. This is
equivalent to thinking that water comes from a tap, milk comes from the
supermarket , and electricity from the wall outlet. What actually happens is
that investors get paid out of the profits of companies their money is invested
in. Even most of those who realise that nevertheless think that each company
wins its profits on its own, and thus by choosing companies which act
"responsibly" one can invest in a politically progressive manner.
But an individual company's profit is not simply the result
of sales, of that specific company's revenues exceeding costs. Even such as
Adam Smith and David Ricardo came to realise this around 200 years ago. Every
seller is also a buyer of something. So if all sellers were to sell at 10%
above cost, what they gain as sellers they would lose as buyers, leaving them
where they started. At best, sales can (and do) explain the redistribution of
money from some enterprises to others, but cannot explain economic growth at
the level of society as a whole. Both Smith and Ricardo, who deemed capitalism
to be simply human nature, sensed profit had something to do with human labour,
but admitted they could not figure out exactly how. It fell to latter critics
of political economy, especially Karl Marx, to discover that the explanation
lay in the fact that, on a world-wide basis, human beings working in the
production of goods and services spend more time working during a given time
period than it takes society to produce what they need to survive for that
period. This surplus work-time, embodied in money form, is the source of a
general global profit pool. Individual enterprises "drink" out of
this pool at a level based upon their market competitiveness, by selling their
product. This favours the huge companies, which keep their unit costs down via
vertical/horizontal integration, the use of more machinery and technology
versus direct human labor, and market domination by sheer size. Also in force
is the nature of the functioning of capitalist competition, which tends to
distribute surplus to larger units.
The surplus is thus largely produced by small labour-intensive
sweatshops, but largely appropriated by corporate giants. In fact, a lot of it
is appropriated by banks and other financial institutions, which play
absolutely no role in producing wealth, but suck up ever larger portions of it
via interest payments. And a growing number of workers are engaged not in
producing wealth, but in circulating it (for example, sales, advertising,
information processing) and in maintaining the structure (such as state
workers), likewise fed from the surplus pool. These workers are wage labourers,
whose work, even though unproductive of surplus, is necessary for the system's
functioning, and whose conditions and social disempowerment are just as bad as
those of production workers.
This understanding was incorporated by the 19th Century
movement for a new post-capitalist society, by both its "communist"
and "anarchist" components (most anarchists accepted Marx's analysis
of capital, though they generally rejected his political prescriptions). Not
surprisingly, it was greeted by the powers-that-be with sheer horror. One
result was the complete abandonment of the understandings reached by Smith and
Ricardo in favor of a new "science" called economics, which not only
treated capitalism as ordained by nature, but deemed that only market
interactions between individuals needed to be studied to fully understand the
workings of the system. Class relations were deemed irrelevant. Thanks to
domination by the capital-owning class of all social institutions, including
the media and education, the basic underlying view implied by economics has
become accepted by the vast majority of the population, even by many who
consider themselves on the political left. The system now appears as natural as
the weather. Few people even know of the previous understandings. And thus,
each company is seen as if it alone is ultimately responsible for its profit
performance.
In fact, capitalism is not at all natural, or even the
result of a basic evolutionary process inherent in human social development. It
is a social system that was born not via evolution in Europe's trade centers,
but via imposition upon the post-feudal English countryside starting in the
late Middle Ages, a process referred to as the Enclosures, which was not
completed until the 19th Century. Formerly un-owned land (the commons) and
small estates were expropriated by large landowners. Most of the peasants
living there were expelled, and those remaining turned into wage workers. The
new large estates became competing enterprises whose aim was wealth
accumulation, the first truly capitalist entities. The expelled peasants, no
longer able to produce their survival needs, flocked to urban centers, where
they were to become the workforce of the industrial age, likewise in the form
of wage labour working for capital.
This process expanded out of England to encompass the whole
world. It is still proceeding quite openly in places such as Latin America,
Africa and South Asia, and in more subtle ways even in the advanced industrial
world. This is why every day there are more people willing to sell their labour
power for a wage; they have to in order to survive. The profitability of every
single enterprise thus depends upon the continued operation of the global
process of capital accumulation, a process which inherently requires the vast
exploitation of human labour and the continued conversion of the natural world
and all human needs into saleable commodities. Such a system cannot fail to be
destructive to the human community and the planet's eco-system, regardless of
all the good intentions (however sincere) espoused by managers of investment
funds and companies.
But the notion that good investment decisions can lead to a
better world is wrong not only as a long-term strategy, but even as a
short-term tactic. For every dollar invested with a "socially
responsible" intent, there is a pool of a billion dollars seeking the
maximum return no matter what. Control of the vast majority of the world's
capital is concentrated in the hands of a tiny portion of the population made
up of billionaires and multi-millionaires. And companies receiving their
investments are the ones that will thrive and out-compete rivals by being able
to buy new technology, extend control of both markets and supplies, obtain
government assistance (military interventions, trade pacts), and a host of
other advantages.
The very idea that the market (and money) is freedom, and
participation in it, whether as a consumer or as an investor, is like political
democracy, is skillful propaganda. The main effect of the notion of
"socially responsible" investment is that of supporting this
propaganda, much as participation in the two-party electoral charade
legitimates the claim of the political system to be a "democracy". Some
people lament that “Oh well, capitalism is here and nothing more we can do
about it. Most people (even socially aware ones) accept it, might as well make
use of it. They may have learned a lot about the symptoms of the current
system, but little of its underlying operating principles. This shows a major
problem of the workers’ movement, its general eschewing of hard analysis in
favour of "practical action" based upon gut reactions to perceived
injustices. Many on the Left have yet to grasp any notion of change beyond some
rules (e.g. environmental and labour legislation) which will make the process
more "fair" and less harmful to the world's working people and
environment. They have not been able to visualise any social arrangement that
goes beyond the current one, i.e. capitalism.
Accumulation is capital's very reason for being. Otherwise
it wouldn't be capital, a sum of money whose aim is to expand itself into a
larger sum. And this accumulation has only one source: the time that working
people all over the world spend working beyond that which is necessary to
produce our needs, surplus time. As capital develops, it relies more and more
on machines, due to a process which favors enterprises that produce more cheaply
per unit. Thus, even as there is more and more capital demanding to be invested
for a profit, there are proportionally fewer and fewer people to produce the
surplus to create that profit. Capital thus finds itself under pressure to cut
costs ever more, especially wages, and eliminate regulations which keep it from
going where it wants to go, doing what it wants to do, and getting around
obstacles. This has been its way since its birth. And the current state is the
culmination of its drive to conquer the world, to turn every activity, every
facet of living, into a commodity ruled by the rules of capitalist production.
Notions that the current system can be changed to one which
safeguards (and even restores) the environment, and which lifts the living standards
of all of the world's people, while still sustaining profitable production, are
at best naive and illusory. At worst, they are deceptions, meant to channel
people away from a direct challenge of the status-quo and towards some sort of
a managed situation. They will rely less upon open repression (while of course
not doing away with that option) and more upon cultivating an image of people
who really care, who are willing to compromise, provided the opposition is
likewise willing to compromise, to drop any notion of radical social change,
and settle for a seat at the table, even if it's a seat at the end of the
table, whose rewards are everyone else's scraps. This only shows the workers’
movement desperately need to do some reflection, to understand what they are up
against and where they want to go, if they are not to become mere cogs in a
campaign to spruce up the present system.
Socialist Standard No. 1335 November 2015
- Editorial: Climate Change and Capitalism
- Pathfinders: After the Sugar Rush
- Letter: If Robots Take Over
- Music Review: 'Thee Faction - Reading Writing Revolution'
- Halo Halo! Do the Gods Ever Change Their Mind?
- Cooking the Books: Moore on Marx
- Material World: Rising Sea Levels
- Greasy Pole: Tessa Fails To Make It
- Economics, Politics and Climate Change
- Neither Westminster Nor Brussels But World Socialism
- Peter Watkins: A Revolutionary Film-Maker pt.2
- Growing Old, Growing Old
- Consumerism
- Cooking the Books: A Classic Reformist
- Mixed Media: Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Book Reviews: 'How Voters Feel', & 'Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind'
- Proper Gander: Soldiering On
- 50 Years Ago: Indian A-Bomb
- Action Replay: Online Gambling - Getting the Punters Hooked
- Voice From the Back
- Cartoon: Free Lunch
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Auld Reekie Loses its Charm
The formal recognition of Edinburgh as one of the world’s
most beautiful cities is under threat amid a battle for the soul of its most
historic quarter. The city was inscribed as a Unesco world heritage site in
1995 for the beauty of its medieval old town and 18th-century new town but,
following complaints from the public and architectural experts over a number of
new buildings, inspectors from Icomos, the International Council on Monuments
and Sites, which advises Unesco, have toured several of the most contentious
sites.
David Black, a conservationist and architectural critic,
detects a sinister hand in the planned developments and others that have
occurred with seemingly indecent haste around Edinburgh.
“The cataclysmic event
as far as I was concerned was the wrecking of St Andrew Square last year and
two wonderful, B-listed buildings within it, to build a TK Maxx and offices for
Standard Life, all of which was dusted under the carpet,” he said. “Edinburgh is in crisis financially as a result of the tram
catastrophe and the losses arising from a property repairs scandal. They’re
trying to deal with this with a number of panic measures, like extending
parking controls to late night and through Sundays to raise more revenue and
doing all sorts of events deals in public spaces like Princes Street, St Andrew
Square, and the Meadows. They’re also pimping the city to global investors like
TIAA-CREF of North Carolina.” He went on to say, “If you are an international
developer there has never been a better time to open up in Edinburgh and to get
past planning protections for its built heritage.”
Pacifists aid war
Most people are opposed to war. War is so terrible in its
methods and results that only a small number of deviants or professional
soldiers or completely ruthless financiers can support it. Even the practical
politician, at least, must pretend to themselves that they are against war. But
we have seen that wars do not result from what people wish and believe; and
that being against war does not prevent people from acting in a way that helps
bring war about.
The aim of the pacifist is to bring about a state of affairs
in which war will not exist. The goal of pacifism is a warless society BUT under
exactly the same form of production and in the same social conditions as at
present. War is inseparable from capitalism it follows that the “abolition” of
war is possible only through the overthrow of capitalism and the building of
socialism. The pacifist would rather we first get rid of war, then talk about
socialism. Pacifism spreads illusions about the nature of war and of the fight
against war (advocating disarmament, conscientious objection, non-aggression
treaties, UN mediation, etc., as solutions), and thus prevents a real struggle
against war, which can be based only on a true understanding of the nature and
causes of war. The UN will keep peace as long as peace is to the interests of
the powers that control the UN. Pacifism turns aside the working class from its
struggle for power, the only genuine way to fight war. In this way it redirects
the revolutionary struggle against war into “safe” channels.
The goal of socialists is a society without exploitation,
the society in which the demand for the complete abolition of private property
in the means of production will be realised. This condition of human society accomplishes
the objective of permanent warlessness. War must be made impossible by
destroying its deepest and best hidden roots. Socialists are not satisfied with
destroying the poisonous fruit - war. Socialist anti-war activity is only part
of the general struggle for emancipation of the working class. Pacifists believe
that the struggle against war can be carried on independently of the class
struggle.
Before being able to combat an evil, one must know its
cause. Thus, seeking the primary cause of war is the first step in preventing
it. Even a brief study of the nature and causes of modern war proves that war
is an essential part of capitalism. The inner conflicts of capitalism lead and
must lead to war. The only way actually to get rid of the high fever is to
remove the cause of the fever –if it is a diseased appendix then take it out.
The same thing is true for 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 part of the inner nature 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.
There is no “separate” or “special” struggle against war.
The struggle against war cannot be divorced from the struggles of the workers. No
one can uphold capitalism – whether directly, as an open adherent of the
capitalists, or indirectly, from any shade of liberal or reformist position –
and fight against war, because capitalism means war. To suppose, therefore,
that the Socialist Party can work out a common platform “against war” with non-socialists
is based on a misunderstanding. Pacifists are 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 away
from the real fight against war. There is only one policy against war:
advocating socialism. 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 common ownership and democratic
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 artificial
limits on consumption, and hence permit the scientific and controlled
development of production. Thus, with socialism, war will disappear because the
causes of war will have been removed.
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; by
subordinating the working class to middle class individuals and ideas; by
preparing the betrayal of the masses in the next war, when outstanding pacifist
leaders will decide in the crisis that, this war is different – is for
democracy, culture, God, or what not – and call for support of the government.
No, the pacifist way is not the way to fight war. War and militarism must be
approached by the working class from a class standpoint. War is a manifestation
of capitalist society. War remains as long as capitalism remains.
The Socialist Party is against any and every war undertaken
by the capitalist state and is the implacable enemy of the capitalist state –
the political representative of the class enemy – on every occasion. We support
only one particular kind of war – the class war – since only through the class
war can capitalism be overthrown and the causes of war thereby removed.
All across the globe people have always been fighting for
peace between nations. However, the preaching of peace does not necessarily
further the cause of peace. Pacifism as a policy may look plausible so long as
peaceful relations prevail but it collapses like a pricked balloon as soon as
hostilities are declared. In previous periods many professional pacifists have
turned into fanatical war supporters once the ruling class has plunged the
nation into battle.
The Socialist Party is not a pacifist organisation. Indeed,
we are opposed to pacifism, the reason being that pacifism is completely
ineffective as an instrument for preventing war. This has been shown again and
again. Pacifism’s weakness lies in its failure to diagnose the causes of war.
Pacifism tends to regard war as simply the product of misguided foreign
policies or the ations of aberrant politicians. In reality war has much deeper
roots. Its main cause in the modern world is the capitalist system, which
subordinates all production, and with it the whole of society, to the struggle
for capital accumulation, which by its very nature is competitive. If pacifism
succeeded in converting a huge majority to ‘non-violence’ it would still not be
able to prevent war. The only way to abolish war is to abolish the system that
generates it, and replace competitive production for profit by collective,
cooperative, production for need. By counter-posing the struggle for peace to
the struggle for socialism pacifism encourages the idea that mere could be a
violence-free, war-free capitalism. The pacifists proceed on the utopian
premise that the laws of capitalist competition can be nullified by the
cooperation of people of goodwill who can prevail upon the capitalist class to
refrain from war-making. Pacifists oppose the development of the class struggle
in favour of class peace at almost any price. Pacifist ideology disorientates
anti-war movements.
The task of the Socialist Party is to direct anti-war
protest into class-war. It seeks to promote socialism by the workers.
Friday, October 30, 2015
FFS - For a Free Society
The Socialist Party was founded for the establishment of a
free society and the abolition of all forms of exploitation. Every day is
demonstrating more clearly the incompetence of our politicians to solve our
problems. Many are beginning to realise that this incompetence is not due
merely to the stupidity or corruption of individual leaders of industry and the
government, but that the system itself cannot work properly any longer, whoever
is in charge. More and more people are beginning to understand that the present
system of society must itself be done away with and a new system substituted -
that we must have a revolutionary change in the whole structure of society. The
Socialist Party claims to know the nature of the revolutionary change that can
save our society from continuing and increasing disintegration and degradation.
The Socialist Party further claims, that with the support of the workers of
will be able to assist the movement to bring about this change, and to
establish political and economic democracy, guaranteeing peace, security, and
the opportunity of individual development for all. The Socialist Party calls
upon all who are no longer willing to suffer needless injustice and who have
decided not merely to complain at but to change society.
The central contradiction of capitalism is unmistakably
clear: it is the contradiction between a productive potential now physically
capable of supplying amply all the basic needs of men and women, of freeing them
forever from hunger, want, and insecurity, of enabling mankind as a whole
thereby to develop creatively as truly human beings--between this and a system
of social relations that prevents this productive possibility from manifesting
itself, that directs its operations not to the fulfillment of human needs but
to the making of profits for private individuals and corporations. Out of this
contradiction, and the irreconcilable class division it creates-the division between
those who do and those who do not have an interest of ownership in the means of
production flow the myriad other contradictions that devastate modern society.
It is the struggle of the small owning group to maintain its position of
privilege against the just demands of the vast
dispossessed majority.
The aim of the Socialist Party is to join with the
revolutionary workers of all other countries in building world socialism. A
world socialist society is the only solution for the contradictions in present
world society. Only a socialist society
can put to use rationally the natural resources and productive machinery of the
earth in the interests of the peoples of the earth. Only world socialism will remove the causes
of hunger, wars and climate change that under capitalism now seriously threaten
to send mankind into barbarism or complete destruction. Wage slavery and the
profit system must be abolished. Our technology applied to our natural
resources can be made the basis of a rich and growing life. The Socialist Party
aims to establish a socialist economic system where the resources which nature
has provided and the productive
machinery built by people will be owned by them in common and administered in
their mutual interest, without
interference by profiteers of the capitalist system. With such conditions
abundance for all will be available. Every family could at once have Food and
clothing in abundance, a comfortable home, medical care, ample opportunity for
education and recreation and the assurance under a true economic democracy that
this standard of living would be secure, in fact could be steadily improved.
Reforms have been tried before. In the end it always turns out that the masses
are fooled and robbed in a new way. We must not be satisfied with half-measures.
We will not be.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Against capitalism
In recessions, many people thoroughly and quite rightly
resent the blows which fate under the present system has meted out to them.
Some people rationalise their interests in utopian plans of harmony and
goodwill, trying to work out some system of planning whereby Big Business of
the large corporations will not drive the little fellow further into ruin.
Unable to fully understand the productive process, they work out their own
panaceas in the sphere of the circulation of commodities and the money system.
It is not capitalism that is bad, they conclude but the money system, the
Federal Reserve becomes the enemy. The problem is viewed as a financial and
credit problem of the issue of money. They demand cheaper money. Because they
lack money they believe there is a general lack of money, and they call on the
State to fill the void. Some will argue that if we returned to the gold
standard prosperity will return. Others seeking to be seen as radicals call for
a nationalisation of banking for the purpose of ensuring increased credit.
These things add to the belief that the ills of society are due to the methods
of circulation and finance rather than to the capitalist mode of production.
Storekeepers and salesmen, investors and speculators who produce nothing, they
live in a world of exchange; naturally they must seek their panaceas there.
Many even attack those bastions of capital – Wall St and the City of London.
The most militant agitate for the slogan “Share the Wealth” – the universal
basic income – that is to be handed out to “revive the market” Taxation will be
focused upon the fortunes of the wealthy and the stashed away profits of the
multinationals. Yet those appealing for a drastic redistribution of wealth, has
never stopped to consider that the laws of distribution are intimately
connected with the mode of production.
Read any newspaper. The misery of the people is growing. The
ruling class tells workers that while maybe a long time ago they were really
oppressed, now it doesn’t make that much sense to talk of classes anymore. But
workers have never bought into it. Workers live a life of deep economic
insecurity. Automation and new technology has led to an intensification of the
class struggle, not its lessening. The working class knows these developments
are costing them jobs. Automation and robotics must be looked at from a class
viewpoint. With socialism, machinery will be advanced and developed. They can
serve the people, make life easier for them. But under capitalism they are used
against the interests of the people. Hence, no matter how many times the bosses
tell us not to, workers are going to wage a struggle to see to it that we don’t
get screwed by them. And this is true also of many who work to build, programme,
and operate the new machines, because except for a very few of the most skilled
and educated, they too are cheated.
It is pure fantasy to pretend that the struggle over wages
does not challenge the power of the capitalist class. Such a theory ignores the
clear facts of daily life in which the fight over the distribution of surplus
value forms the heart of the class struggle. To maintain otherwise is to say
that capitalism no longer thrives on the exploitation of workers; it is to be
blind to the increasingly sharp struggles between boss and worker. A ruling
class will go to great lengths to devise ingenious schemes pretending to offer
workers an opportunity to “make decisions affecting their lives” rather than
concede the main point–money. Though the struggle for higher wages and better
working conditions is not a revolutionary one it is one in which socialists must
participate. But while we fight with the workers we must also offer the message
that only the capture of the state machine by the working class can put an end
to exploitation. It is of great importance and fundamental to create socialist
consciousness. The only thing fatal to capitalism the revolutionary actions of
the people. The Socialist Party base ourselves firmly in the working class, to
whom the future belongs. The future of the workers’ movement, the future of
socialism, depends upon the quickest divorcement of the labour movement from
the cancerous influence of reformism and vanguardism– that enemies of the free
society of world socialism. The future lies in a reorganisation of the worldwide
socialist movement based on the teachings and the spirit of Marx and Engels.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
The struggle for socialism
Hunger is the daily lot of millions of individuals, yet tons of food are thrown out with the garbage. Anger is growing everywhere. Today, many people are conscious that capitalism is not paradise on earth. In fact, the material conditions of the masses are constantly deteriorating. The working class must assume its historic mission and fight for the abolition of class society and the complete elimination of the exploitation of man by man.
Capitalist production is characterised by the greatest chaos. Each capitalist and every enterprise, does not seek the well-being of society in general: it seeks its own profit. It thus produces what is profitable; and that, only when it is profitable. When market conditions are favourable all the capitalists and all the enterprises, without exception, go full swing into production so as to be the one who will profit the most, the fastest…until such time as the market can no longer absorb such an influx of products. Businesses must temporarily, and perhaps permanently, close their doors, and workers by the thousands and tens of thousands are reduced to unemployment.
The working class must guard against these sleight-of-hand artists who claim to want to do away with capitalist exploitation but who adhere to a policy of collaboration with the class whose very reason for existence resides in the continued existence of capitalism. There has been a steady growth of nationalism in all regions of the world in recent years; the working class must be remain on its guard against it. Nationalism is always a reactionary ideology. It is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the capitalists who make regular use of it. The result? The peoples of the world have shed their blood repeatedly in the many so-called liberation struggles. It does not take much reflection to realise that so-called the anti-imperialist line is nothing but a mask to cover up clear nationalist aims. We can say that these national liberation struggles have, by and large, succeeded in deflecting the struggles of peoples away from the revolutionary path of socialism. This nationalist conception furnishes the pretext for ignoring the socialist revolution as an immediate question everywhere in the world, in favour of the struggle against the “imperialist superpower” . The “struggles-to-be-waged-while-we’re-waiting” provide a justification for the support of the “positive actions” of “their” national bourgeoisie and of all the other native bourgeoisies except for “the most dangerous one”, all in the name of national sovereignty. Only the working class can carry the revolution through to the end, to the abolition of capitalist exploitation. It is the only class that has a fundamental interest in putting an end to capitalism.
The struggle for socialism has stagnated because the working class and peoples have remained dominated by the opportunism of reformists and nationalists. They give the working class no inspiring goal beyond the ceaseless, bitter and exhausting struggle for economic reforms whose benefits are cancelled out by the system of commodity production. Consequently they do not tell the working class of the necessity for a socialist system nor how to achieve socialism. It is part of a deliberate and well-organised attempt to compel the majority of the population, to deny their socialist destiny – in a world where the natural resources, the productive capacity and the social forces needed to reach this goal of liberation are present in the greatest abundance.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
The Contradictions of Capitalism
Archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered much
about early pre-class societies. We know that when people lived co-operatively
and there was no division into classes. The end of these egalitarian societies
came because of the division of society into classes – one class in which the
overwhelming majority of people, women and men, work to produce everything and
the other, ruling, class which steals from us the wealth we produce. This
transformation did not come about overnight. It was the result of the
development of society’s productive forces, and the production of much greater
material wealth than had been possible in earlier societies. As human beings
worked to control the world in which they lived, they developed tools like the
wheel, the plough and irrigation channels, which allowed them to settle in one
place, and to produce a surplus to put by for the next season’s planting and
for times of scarcity. But the surplus produced was small. It was not enough to
be divided out and had to be ‘protected’ by a small minority on behalf of the
rest of the group. Gradually this minority grew to have different interests to
the rest of their group and started to treat the surplus as ‘theirs’ rather
than everyone’s. They employed bands of armed men to protect the surplus from
the majority and used metal tools to develop a monopoly on the best weaponry.
The emergence of private property and of embryo states.
Profits are the heart of capitalism, markets its circulating
system but it is the working class that is its muscles which transforms nature
into saleable goods. Capitalist production needs propertyless workers to work
for wages anywhere, and this was accomplished by expropriating peasants,
driving them from the land.
Capitalism is full of inherent contradictions:
(a) the contradiction between use value and exchange value;
between production for use and production for the market, for profit.
(b) the contradiction
between social production and individual appropriation.
(c) the contradiction between increased use of science in
production and the tremendous waste (of the soil, of labour-power, and of materials
and means of production).
(d) the contradiction between the rational planning in the
factory and the chaos and anarchy in the market.
(e) The contradiction between the unlimited possibility for
scientific and technological advancement with increased output and the
imposition of artificial rationing.
(f) The contradiction
between the falling tendency of the rate of profit and the rising proportion of
constant to variable capital resulting the increasing hold of dead labour over
living labor.
(g) The growth of the
unemployed with the growth in strength and energy of capitalism.
(h) The development
of private property contradicted by the expropriation of the direct producer
from the means of production and the separation of the owner from the
productive process. (i) The contradiction between city and country, between
industry and agriculture.
(j) The rise of monopolies concurrently with the intensification
of competition.
(k) The ruin of ‘middle classes’ and the consolidation of
the rentier class.
(l) The development of nationalism with the further
internationalisation of markets and division of labour.
The social system is made up of a net of social relations,
the most decisive of which are the economic, that is, those productive
relations which result in the satisfaction of our basic needs, food, clothing,
shelter. In the close to 300 years since the beginning of the industrial
revolution, modern capitalism has greatly developed the productive powers of
society. But more and more capitalism is now choking these productive powers.
The last world war and the present great economic crisis are two outstanding
proofs of the fact that capitalism is played out and is hindering the
development of humanity.
Again, the contradictions of capitalism:
1. Capitalism is tremendously wasteful and destructive of
men, goods, power, land. The ultimate destiny of all useful goods is to be
consumed. Yet under capitalism goods are not produced to be consumed, but for
profit, and if a greater profit can be made by destroying the goods, the
destruction takes place.
2. While production is a social act, the appropriation of
the product, under the present system, is individual. As capitalism develops,
larger and larger factories are built, thousands of workers co-operate in the
production of a single article, yet the article does not belong to them but to
the owner of the means of production. The workers are merely paid wages for the
use of their labour power, wages which constantly grow less and less an aliquot
part of the total product as the total product ever increases. Simultaneously
the owner of the industries becomes progressively more divorced from the
productive process. As small partnerships become big corporations or are driven
out of business by the trusts and monopolies, the original entrepreneurs become
mere rentiers. The corporation also develops, becomes more and more a public
utility. The state begins to take a hand, and to run the industry. The former
individual owner now becomes a purely parasitic hanger-on, his dividends paid
regularly by the state apparatus which he controls.
3. While the productivity of man is unlimited and increases
in geometric ratio, the markets are limited, increase in arithmetic ratio,
later do not increase at all and even decrease. The greater the productivity of
labour, and the greater the amount of production, the greater becomes the
surplus product in the hands of the owners, the greater the need for markets,
the greater, therefore, the competition among the capitalists, and the greater
the tendency to lower the rate of profit, the greater the lowering of the wages
of the workers, the larger the army of unemployed and paupers, the more
vigorous the drive for foreign markets and colonies for exploitation, and the
more violent the military struggles to control the world.
4. The greater the internationalisation of markets, the
greater the need to have a military machine to defend the market interests, the
greater grow the oppressive burdens of the state apparatus, the greater grows
the necessity to transform the whole nation into an armed, economically
self-sufficient, ruthless, chauvinistic state.
Thus is it not clear that although in the beginning
capitalism developed the productive forces, as capitalism reached its maturity,
capitalist relations throttle and destroy these productive forces. With what a
system are the products we need and want produced? Within the factory a rigid
dictatorship, a terrible “rationalization” where the dead machine rules living
labour, where the man is transformed into a cog of the machine, where labour
becomes wage-slavery. Outside the factory dictatorship is replaced by economic
chaos, man is ruled by prices which he cannot control, by the wild forces of
the market of which he can be only the victim. It is only through the hectic
fluctuations of supply and demand, it is only through the frantic rush of
“successes” and bankruptcies that society “decides” and “plans” the division of
its labour.
What is the way out of these contradictions? The present
economic relations breed different classes, the capitalist class and the
working class, with opposing interests. Inasmuch as our ideas rationalize our
interests, the ideas of the ruling, capitalist class will be along the line of
preserving their property and their right to exploit laborers, while the ideas
of the working class will follow their interests and go along the path of
solving the contradictions by removing their causes. The capitalists and their
agents in the seats of government are blinded by their self-interest, by the
profits which they make as beneficiaries of the present system. The workers, on
the other hand, having nothing to lose, are free to see that the present
society must evolve into a new one; they see that nothing can free society from
its convulsions save the change in the mode of production from a capitalist
one, of private ownership of the means of production, to a socialist one, where
the means of production are socialised and classes are no more.
Who can provide the way out? Certainly, not the capitalist
class, the beneficiaries of the present system. But rather the working class
who bear the full weight of capitalism upon their backs and who are in a
position to see that capitalism is redundant. As the working class fights
against its increasingly worsened position it comes to the realisation that the
only way out is for they to take what it has produced for itself. To take over
the means of production, the mines, mills, factories, resources, utilities and
run them for their own benefit. Then we will have production for use and not
for profit. Then we will end both despotism in the factory and anarchy in the
market. Then society will allocate its resources according to a social plan
that will benefit all.
The interest of the workers are diametrically opposed to the
interest of the capitalists and exploiters of the workers who, controlling the
government strive to keep the workers down. The productive forces have created
capitalist relations, capitalist relations have created classes which have
opposite economic and thus opposite political interests. The capitalists want
to keep the old relations of exploitation. They fight the rise of the workers.
But their only alternative is to plunge society into one crisis and one war
after another. The victory of the workers cannot be forever delayed. The old
relations must be burst asunder. And if the capitalists, blinded by their
interests, try to stop the wheels of progress they are ruthlessly pushed aside
by the workers just as in the past they themselves pushed aside the feudal
lords. When the workers of the world unite to take power then the rule over persons will begin
to give way to an administration over things. The state, along with religion,
will begin to wither away. There will be no exploitation. There will be no
classes. Each will receive according to needs, giving according to ability and
as the productivity of labour will greatly increase. Humanity will have reached
a rational system of society where development of mankind will no longer be
choked by social relations, where, therefore, society will be a free one and
mankind emancipated.
Fuel Poverty Continues
Fuel poverty in Scotland has witnessed a steep rise with
more people seeking help for energy bills from consumer advice charities. Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has published
new evidence showing the extent of fuel poverty over the last few years, with the
number of energy cases recorded by the service increasing by 130% since 2011. The
report blames government austerity policies, low pay and changes to the social
security system for the increase.
CAS consumer spokeswoman Sarah Beattie-Smith said the report
clearly showed Scots are struggling to pay their energy bills as well as the
increase on the charity's workload. “Our
case evidence highlights the key issues that have affected peoples’ ability to
heat their homes over this period," she said. "These include; low pay,
under-employment, increased living costs and rising debt, in addition to the
impact of austerity policies such as below-inflation benefit payments, the
bedroom tax, benefit sanctions and long waits for benefit assessments… The
levels of fuel poverty in Scotland are higher than ever, and all over the
country there are families who yet again this winter will face the devastating
choice of whether to heat their home or put food on the table.”
Monday, October 26, 2015
Free your imagination and then use it
Capitalism is based on wage slavery. The capitalists hire
wage workers to produce wealth, give them part of that wealth in the form of
wages and keep the rest. We do not sell our labour to the capitalists; we sell
our labour power which is the mental and physical capabilities of man or woman exercises
when he or she produces wealth.
As an illustration of what a wage slave is, suppose you
owned a nice automobile and someone should say to you, "I want to use your
car until it is all worn out. I will give it gas and oil enough to keep it
running until it can’t run anymore." Surely you would not agree to that.
You wouldn’t allow anybody to use your car until it was all worn out just for
gas and oil. But that is exactly what you are doing with your body. The
capitalists use you until you are all worn out and all they aim to give you is
what the chattel slaves got, what the serfs got, what a horse gets, a bare
living, and you are not even sure of that.
How about your children? You parents spend many happy hours
teaching your children how to walk and how to talk. Long years are spent upon
their education. When they get to be wonderful young men and women with their
eyes brightly shining like the headlights on a new car, and with their veins
and arteries like the wiring on a new car, and their hearts beating without a
murmur, like the smooth running of new engines, then the capitalists say to the
proud parents, "We want to use your children to produce wealth for us and
for our children. Just as we have used you to produce wealth for us, so our
children want to use your children to produce wealth for them when we are
gone."
The parents ask, "What are our children to get for the
use of their bodies during the precious years of their lives?" Answer,
"Gas and oil". A mere living wage. The endless chain that starts and
ends with work. Work to get money, to buy food, to get strength to work. Every
increase in the productivity of labor, every invention, every victory of
science and triumph of genius in the line of industrial progress, only goes to
increase the wealth of a parasite class while the workers are only supposed to
get what slave classes always got, a bare living and often not even that. This
is wage slavery, the foundation of capitalism.
But some workers want to escape from wage slavery. Class
systems are not eternal. Everything in the universe, from atoms to solar
systems, is continually moving, changing, transforming, developing; likewise
the history of the human race is nothing but a ceaseless change, a continuous
development. In the course of its history classes are formed; these classes
continually struggle for supremacy and, after prolonged struggle, one class
succeeds another in the dominating position. The struggle continues until class
divisions themselves are dissolved and a new, classless society results. The
slave owning patrician gave way to the feudal nobility; the feudal nobility in
turn was overthrown by the capitalists. The working class are now challenging
the capitalists for control of the economic structure and we now advocate that the
entire human family own and control of the means of life as the solution to all
social problems—an industrial democracy. Production has been socialised. It
remains only to socialise control.
Production under capitalism is anti-social. It is
anti-social because it operates against the interests of the producing class. It
refuses to act without profits. Capitalism is synonymous with violence, and it
is the handmaiden of chaos. We, the workers, are many, but divided because of
ignorance. They, the capitalists, are, few, but strongly organised, ruthless and
determined to increase their power and to perpetuate their dictatorship over the
class they rob. We have reached an era where action may not much longer be
delayed if we are to escape the mounting threat of ecological destruction. Our
species have built a world that has at last brought us within reach of the
creation of universal abundance. The genius and energy of humanity have shown
that there need be no want, no hunger, no famine. All that stands in the way is
capitalism. It will fall and with it will go slavery, crime, war, ignorance,
poverty and waste. What will rise will be the Co-operative Socialist
Commonwealth, the hope of martyred workers, the dream of generations of
workers.
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