Less poor get to uni

The number of students from Scotland's poorest areas going to university has fallen, new figures have revealed. Data from the university admissions body Ucas showed a drop in applications and places awarded to those from the most-deprived 20% of areas. There was an increase in Scots from the most-affluent communities going to university.

An economics lesson

Socialism is a society in which all the members of the community collectively determine their way of living. In order to do so, they must control, collectively, the use to which machines, factories, raw materials – all the means of production – are put. Unless the means of production are effectively in the hands of the whole society, not as today where the 1 per cent owns more than half the national capital, there can be no question of the collective control of the conditions of life. Every capitalist competes with every other one for a market. When they sell similar goods, their competition is obvious. Even when they sell altogether different goods, like TV sets and houses, they still compete for the limited wage-packet of the worker. If one capitalist does not compete, he is lost. Others will gain his buyers.

To succeed as a capitalist it is necessary to defeat competitors and add their capital to you own – centralization of capital – or make as much profit as possible from his current sales and reinvest it – accumulation of capital. The first method is of no direct interest to the worker as it matters very little who the boss is. If the capitalists want to fight things out amongst themselves, it is their business. It is of little interest for another reason: it adds nothing to the productive powers of society; real wealth does not grow as a result of it. In fact, all it leads to is the concentration of the same amount of wealth in fewer and fewer hands. We are interested mainly in the second form of capitalist growth: the accumulation of capital. It is accumulation which has made capitalist society the dominant form of society in the world. This is what affects the worker most directly. How do capitalist firms accumulate? Where does the money which they reinvest come from?

In order to produce commodities for the market, every capitalist must buy other commodities which he uses in production. The things he buys are mainly: machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods, and labour-power. Machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods, although an item of expenditure on the part of one capitalist, are commodities sold by other capitalists and appear as part of their incomes. Those capitalists also spend money on machines, raw materials or semi-finished goods and labour-power, the money spent on machines, raw materials, and semi-finished goods being the income of yet another group of capitalists who spend money on ... and so on indefinitely. Whenever one capitalist spends money on machines, etc., that money is part of the income of other capitalists who then hand it over to yet other capitalists for machines, etc. If all the capitalists belonged to one great trust these transactions would not take place and the only buying and selling that there would be is the buying of labour-power by the capitalists and the selling of it by the workers and technicians in exchange for wages and salaries. Taken all in all, the capitalist class (not the individual capitalist) has only one expense – buying labour-power. Whatever remains to that class after its purchase of labour-power is profit (surplus value).

That part of the capitalist’s expenditure which is spent on machines, raw materials, and unfinished goods goes the rounds from one capitalist to another in a perpetual circle – this is the social wealth that has already been created. If the productive forces of capitalism were to remain static and not increase, this expenditure would appear like a constant, fixed fund thrown from hand to hand in an endless relay race of production, each capitalist handing on to the next the exact amount required to renew his stock of machines and raw materials. No profit would be made on such sales as each capitalist would swap exactly that amount of machines, etc., for an equivalent amount, and, when all the exchanges were done with, everyone would be where he started.

There is, however, one item of expenditure which makes all the difference, namely, wages and salaries – the expenditure on labour-power. This expenditure is the only one which is not a transfer of goods already produced from one capitalist to another. It is the only item of expenditure which is productive in the dual sense of producing the wealth of society and in the sense of producing profits for the capitalist. Labour alone produces wealth.

The capitalist controls the physical means of production; the workers control nothing but themselves, the capacity to work. They are driven to work, to sell their labour–power to the capitalist, in order to keep themselves and their families. When they sell, they demand a ‘living wage’ for their labour-power, and, if unions are strong and there is not much unemployment, they usually get it. Of course, there are exceptions, but by and large, for the working class, as a whole, this is true.

If the worker produced exactly that amount of products which he could buy for his weekly wage plus what would replace the raw materials and machinery used up in its production, the capitalist would clearly not make a profit. Profit can only be made when the workers produce more than their wage bill and the depreciation of machinery and the depletion of stocks of raw materials put together, i.e. when they produce surplus value, value over and above the wages necessary to maintain themselves and their families.

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee

An article in the Toronto Star of April 30th focused on the craze for Luk Thep Dolls which is sweeping Thailand.

These are large lifelike dolls people take everywhere with them, even to restaurants where they have their own menus. Owners treat them as if they are human, especially as they receive blessings from monks. Prices range from $60.00 to $1900.00 per doll.

Adam Ramsey, a journalist based in Thailand, said, "Maybe they provide comfort during rough economic and political times. Perhaps people are longing for a little bit of stability. Something in their life that gives them that sense things are going to be alright."

It is a sad reflection of the time that anyone should resort to such a ridiculous illusion that all will be well within capitalism. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

 John Ayers.

Rail Disaster

 On May 2 the Canadian Federal Government spent $75 million to settle with the victims and creditors affected by the Lac-Megantic rail  disaster; a contribution which protected it from lawsuits resulting from it. 

According to Transport Minister Marc Garneau, "we don't acknowledge that we had any responsibility; however, we did want to make a contribution because of the impact of this terrible tragedy in Lac-Magantic."

The government denies responsibility while it attempts to administrate an economic system that creates cost cutting schemes which result in such disasters.

This does not mean Mr. Garneau and his fellow ministers are hypocrites. They can't see an alternative to capitalism. But we can.

John Ayers

The Future is Marxist

Marxism is a method of understanding the world for the express purpose of changing it. Marxism is a science which has as its object revolutionary class struggle. Marxism shows how ’liberation’ can be won, not in the mind, in fantasy, by piety and moralizing persuasion, but objectively and historically. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to create socialists. The working class is not only held prisoner by the capitalist mode of production. It is shackled by the unperceived but overwhelming intellectual hegemony of the capitalist class, which anchors it in capitalism. The working class remains ideological  prisoners.

Contrary to the Left’s illusions of the workers experience in struggles, no matter how militant, generate theory – only disillusionment. Only when associated education and understanding can the learning process rise above the transient particularism of the individual, to the breadth, continuity and thus overview of the collective. Marx addressed the Brussels Communist Correspondents’ Committee:

“To address the working man without a strictly scientific idea and a positive doctrine is to engage in an empty and dishonest preaching game, which assumes an inspired prophet, on the one hand, and nothing but asses listening to him with gaping mouths, on the other... Ignorance has never yet helped anyone.”

Our minds are not blank sheets of paper upon which ’reality’ can be written. On the contrary, we approach the world full of preconceptions that are instilled by the society in which we have been brought up. And the general cast of these ideas, especially the socio-political component, is heavily influenced by the ideas necessary to justify the existence of the ruling class; hence ’the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas’ as Marx explained. Concepts and theories are as much part of their material reality – the conditions of existence of these interventions – as the material objects/processes being studied, or the technical equipment used to investigate them. The question is how working people will come to embrace the goals of revolution and socialism and how they will struggle to rid themselves of capitalist society by replacing it with a socialist society. The discoveries Marx and Engels succeeded in making were not the result of individual “genius” but rather the product of the collective experiences shared by masses locked in life and death struggle against the capitalist class. The Socialist Party refer to ourselves as Marxists because these discoveries point the way ahead for the workers’ movement everywhere. However, our revolutionary theory is not a catechism–a set of ideas and principles that work mechanically, as if by “magic.” Workers and revolutionaries must constantly evaluate their experiences in struggle and re-evaluate their ideas about these experiences. If working class revolution, proletarian dictatorship, and socialism correctly remain the goals of the revolutionary movement, there is no universally valid formula served up on a platter for achieving these goals.

There is a job to be done. It can be done only by doing it. Working people in every corner of the world know that they can solve the fundamental problems of their class only by making a revolution and winning the fight for socialism. Our agenda is to build up the socialist sentiment, and the socialist movement, and the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party stands upon clearly-defined, publicly-proclaimed and firmly-defended basic principles for the reorganisation of society. The difficulties we face are the mass of misconceptions and outright falsification of the ideas of socialism which the ruling classes have systematically cultivated in the minds of the people. Supposing you decide not join the struggle for socialism and work for its victory what will happen?  The trend of capitalist development in every country has been known and observed for many generations. The race among the big nations and corporations for mastery devours more and more of the peoples and wealth of the world. Turbulence and strife, war and destruction, disorder and decay become increasingly prevalent in capitalist society. Stability and security are impossible. Peace is fleeting. War is an ever-present threat or a monstrous reality. Capitalism drives society to a new barbarism and becomes the great destroyer. Upon socialism depends the sustainable future of humanity. The working class is called upon to save society from barbarism and the only alternative to socialism. The inauguration of socialism - that is the aim of the Socialist Party. That is the task of the working class. That is the road to human freedom.

The working class makes the revolution

The world is teeming with millions of able individuals willing to build and operate machines to produce an abundance. Wondrous new technology exists now for people to use for their mutual benefit. Yet the people of the world are today engaging in mutual destruction rather than in the good things of life. For the peoples of the world to arrive at the longed-for destiny of humanity to produce plenty, they must rid themselves of the motives of capitalist profits. Humanity needs a socialist world.

Capitalism is more destructive than all the earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions ever visited upon the Earth from the beginning of time. Capitalism kills and cripples millions in its wars, in class strife and civil war, in hunger, in disease and industrial accidents, in malnutrition and child labour, in poverty and crime. It destroys the wealth of society and wastes the labour potential of millions of idle hands. Capitalism pits worker against worker in bidding for a job. It pits capitalist against capitalist in fighting for profits. It pits workers against capitalist in a class struggle. It pits capitalist nation against capitalist nation in war. It pits producer against consumer, landlord against tenant, farmer against city dweller, white against black, gentile against jew. All this in a mad race for a crust of bread, for survival, for security, when plenty is possible for all. It is a system of dog-eat-dog, of each man and woman for them self and the devil take the hindmost, of the law of the jungle. And this the age of plenty. Capitalism stands before us indicted as a system of criminal madness, the capitalist class stands before us as insane overlords.

The world is in crisis. Capitalism cannot reform itself; it cannot be reformed. Humanity can be saved by the socialist revolution. There can be only the socialism which unites the whole world in the general struggle against the desperately destructive despotic domination of the ruling class. It will not take someone very long to come across articles on the Left calling for the “building of the movement” but which lack a clearly defined goal to move towards. Capitalism can only obey its own rules--the rules of constant growth and accumulation by any means; this trait is inherent in it. We cannot regulate or reform our way to a capitalism that does not behave in a capitalistic way. We cannot regulate or reform our way out of capitalism altogether. We are therefore left with only one path for liberating ourselves and the planet from capitalism--social revolution; workers collectively taking power away from capitalists and the state. A revolution for a world without capitalism and the state must dismantle the underlying system, not try to tame it. We, in the Socialist Party, hold that there is a class struggle in society and that this is caused by the economic conditions of capitalism. We hold that this class struggle will continue until the workers are masters of that which is produced by their labour.

For example, many trade unions have engaged in inspiring militant fights against bosses (and won) in the various “Fight for 15” campaigns across the country. But ultimately they are content for workers to remain as wage-slaves. Trade unionism does not concern itself with combating the overall economic system which necessitates organised labour to begin with.

In order to save our planet, our species, we have to overthrow the capitalist class. The ruling-class controls the means of production and dictates the conditions under which we work. Our labour produces all the wealth of society yet the bosses enjoy the fruits of its accumulated value. Our labour should collectively produce for the common well-being and human need and not for the profit of a few at the expense of many. Therefore, we are exploited of and alienated from our work. As workers, we must organise ourselves along class lines in order to defend our interests economically, socially, and politically. As workers, we are oppressed and exploited by capitalism. We must liberate ourselves from this domination. The liberation of the working class can and must come through a social revolution to overthrow capitalism. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia divide the working-class against itself, preventing us from cultivating the collective strength necessary for making the revolution.

Workers must be educated politically. Working-class people must develop relationships with fellow workers and among neighbours in our communities in order to build solidarity with each other. Organising in neighbourhoods and work-places will empower working-class people to take their affairs into their own hands. The liberation of the working class is not possible under capitalism. The working class, and it alone, can and must achieve its own emancipation through a worker’s revolution.

Build a new society

Socialism is concerned more with people and change than with anything else. Socialists believe that social conditions can be changed for the better if the people are willing to struggle for it. The vast majority of the people gain nothing from capitalism and would lose nothing with its passing. Even today, although they do not own or control the industry, they, in fact, are turning the wheels that keep all industry going. With the ending of capitalism the people would decide how industry was to be run. The conviction that socialists have that life can be made happy for all comes from their study of life as it really is, and from the lessons learnt from the experience of striving for a better future. It comes also from the study of what life was like in the past, how it has changed and what made it change.

Under capitalism, a minority controls the wealth of the world (the raw materials, the factories and the land) and the majority work with machines in the factories that they do not own. As in previous societies that are divided into classes, under capitalism, the interests of the opposing classes cannot be reconciled. There is a class struggle between the employers on the one hand and the workers on the other. Class struggle, or “strife”, as some would call it, is built into capitalist society, because it is not possible to satisfy the capitalists’ aspirations and those of the workers at the same time. The workers fight for better wages and conditions, and the capitalist lives to make the maximum profit out of the labour of the workers. Profits can only come from the value created by the workers. Hence the conflict. . Capitalism is based on the production of goods for sale. The capitalist is interested in organising the production of those goods alone which will make him a profit, while the worker is interested not in profit, but in being able to buy what he wants and needs. The higher the wages paid to the worker, the greater the threat to the capitalist’s profits. As capitalist exploitation became world-wide, so workers in different countries became linked in the productive processes and came more and more to see that they had common interests. These common interests were opposed by the interests of capitalists in all countries. The watchword remains the slogan of socialists to this day is “Workers of all countries, unite!”

Classes are composed of men and women, of human beings. There is one phenomenon that is more important than all the propaganda of the ruling class, and this is experience, the experience of the reality that people go through in their struggles for a better deal. No matter what the capitalist-controlled mass media tell people about capitalism being the best of all possible worlds, experience belies this and teaches otherwise. Men and women cannot be fooled by lies and false promises forever. It is to try to slow down people’s thinking, to withhold information, which is the purpose the ruling class keeps such a tight check on the mass media, allowing real opposition viewpoints to an almost insignificant extent, and often forced to do so against its will. People form organisations to fight the excesses of capitalism, and they come to learn the need for radical, basic change in the system if they are to win real advances. In this class struggle, a theory that draws conclusions from the experience of struggle and which looks to a future society organised without exploiters, is an invaluable weapon when grasped by the people.

Since its birth, the working class has always fought the injustices of the capitalist system, and has been able to win higher wages, housing, education, a health service etc. This fight has limited the extent to which the powers of the state can be used, and to which the individual capitalists in their individual factories and federations can manoeuvre. In the course of their struggle the working class has founded its own fighting organisations of defence and attack. In the first instance, these are the trade unions. Their freedom of action, today again threatened by the state, was won at enormous cost to the founders, including imprisonment, deportations, lockouts and misery inflicted by the capitalists. The trade unions organise the workers for the day to day struggle under capitalism. To change the system, however, members of the working class need to generalise the experience gained in all the struggles, and acquire a class perspective as a whole.

While people think and act as individuals, they are only effective as a collective mass, as a class, to the extent to which they are organised together and conscious of what needs to be done. This is the lesson of hundreds of years of struggle. To be put into practice, to become reality, ideas must be adopted by the people. To bring about change, therefore, demands an explanation of the facts and in a way that can be understood by the people in their millions. Mankind’s struggle for a better life has never been confined to fighting for increases in wages, more to eat and better housing. The working people have always placed a premium on democracy. Democracy for them has meant the right to fight for a better life. The fight for a working class press, for the right to free speech, organisation and assembly and the right to vote figure prominently in the struggles of the working class. None of these have been granted without enormous resistance from the ruling class, resistance that cost the people many martyrs. It is for this reason that the working class is the staunchest defender of the liberties that have been won. This is why today when the state would like to curtail these liberties, it directs its main attack against the organisations of the working class such as the trade unions and why workers fight against it. There is no better atmosphere in which people come to understand new ideas and sense the potential strength of the working class, than when they themselves are involved in an action, fighting for their rights. Today workers can defend and improve living standards and win the extension of democracy. But they cannot solve the wages problem or complete the struggle for democracy while capitalism continues. This capitalist society demands, not patching up and blood transfusions, but the death blow to enable the introduction of socialism, an order of society that can manage the technological revolution to the benefit of the working people.

The Socialist Party believe that, just as in the past, no progress in improving the lot of the working class will be brought about without the struggle of the people. Decisions can never be left to others. No individual, no political party can do the job for the people of ending capitalism and building socialism. To win fundamental change for the better for the vast majority of the population, the question of the ownership and control of the means of production is crucial. Democratic popular control must be brought into the economic and industrial world of Britain. This means that the land and factories and transport must be made the property of all the working people. The people must win political  power. They must take it out of the hands of the capitalists to ensure that the transfer of the economy to the people is carried out. The power of the capitalists in the state machine must be broken.

Clearly, the actual conditions of the social revolution will decide what socialism will look like. However, it is possible to say some things about this. Socialism means, above all else, that political power has been taken out of the hands of the capitalists and their representatives and placed in the hands of the people. It means that this political power is used immediately to place the economy into common ownership, taking it out of the hands of the unelected oligarchs and plutocrats. There will be ownership of industry as a whole by the people. Clearly, those who work in a particular enterprise know more about its workings than anyone else so workers in particular factories and other public institutions will have their say in the control of those establishments. From the present day organisation of production for private profit, it will change to production for use, production of what is wanted and needed by the people. Work will become more interesting and more meaningful as a result since production will go entirely to benefit the people, not the investors and owners. As more goods are produced, so working hours will be shortened. The economy will be planned by those who own it, the people, through various levels beginning with the local factory and neighbourhood committee. Industry’s purpose inside socialism will be to serve the people. Priority will be given to improving working conditions, expanding the social services, education and the care for the sick, the aged and the young. The present enormous wastage by which the same goods are sold by different competing companies, which spend millions on advertising to convince you that their product is best, will be replaced by real variety in goods. Choice will be more real and less of an illusion. Removal of wastage will save the environment and improve life. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the mass of the people, making it possible to build an industrial base that will be able to meet their needs in food, clothing and shelter, and will open vast horizons of cultural and educational possibilities for millions. Mankind will be freed from worry about basic material needs as we know them today, and will be able to meet new ones of which we as yet have no conception. Classes will cease to exist, and all people will make their contribution to the productive life of society. The oppressive functions of the state as we know them will become redundant, and will wither away as they fall out of use. What will remain will be only a democratic administration of production in the hands of the people. Men and women will be able to develop their own personality and talents to the full. With the harnessing of science and technology to industry, boring and repetitive work will be eliminated. Work for all will become as it is today for only a very small minority—interesting and satisfying. The essential difference between town and country will be ended, as housing, travel and cultural facilities become available to all people. The boundaries between mental and physical labour will be removed as all people receive the freedom and means by which to exercise their potential, their talents and abilities.

 Life for all will be plentiful, secure, happy and interesting. It will not mean the end of questions and problems, but the end of those worries about wages, housing, poverty, peace that dominate our lives today. There will never be a time when humanity has solved all problems and then sits down to live like a cabbage. What happens is that the problems change. They become more worthy of our time and attention.

The building of this new society in our country is the aim of the Socialist Party.

Newtopia

Most people wonder what the future holds for them, their family and their friends. They want to know if it is possible to see a future free from the anxieties and worries of today, free from the insecurity of poverty. People ask themselves, can there be such a thing as a secure and happy future for all, or must there be a rat race? Is it inevitable that a small number of rich people should cream off the benefits of modern industry and new technology, while the rest of us spend our days in drudgery and toil, whether in the factory, building site, glass-tower offices or in the home? Are things arranged like this for eternity because of faults of “human nature”, “man’s natural greed”, “power-seeking” and the like? Increasingly more people know that life can be improved to make it better for all, which we no longer need to accept the way our society is ordered today and that they can become part of a growing to change it for a better one. It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today. It is the way society is organised, with a minority of people owning and controlling the wealth, the industry of our country, and excluding the vast majority of the people from any real say in the running of society. This is what lies at the root of the problems that working people face. It is this system, which we call capitalism, which cannot provide the good things of life for all, cannot give a constantly improving standard of living and cannot guarantee peace in the world. It is this that must be changed. The working people who have produced all the wealth around us must come into ownership and control of what is their own by right so that they can then build the society and produce the things they want.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism in the world.  Socialism is a future system of society characterised by the fact that capitalism, with its markets, commodities, values, prices, exchange, surplus value, capital, money, competition, etc., is no more; instead, there is a conscious, planned society where production is for use on a scale that there will be plenty for all. The State will have withered away and reduced to nothing, together with the eventual disappearance of religion. The facts speak clearly: socialism is the way to progress and liberty.

Socialism will be a higher level of social development. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transformative force. Socialism will not mean government control. Our vision of socialism is that the means of production – the factories, mines, mills, big workshops, offices, agricultural fields, transportation system, media, communications, medical facilities, retailers, etc., will be transformed into common property. Private ownership of the main means of production will end. The economy will be geared not to the interest of profit, but to serving human needs. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion of useful production and the wealth of society will become possible. Rational economic planning will replace the present anarchistic system. Coordination and planning of the broad outlines of production by public administrative agencies will aim at building an economy that will be stable, benefit the people, and steadily advance. Capitalism has already developed an interconnected economy, socialism’s main task will be to reorient this structure towards social needs, redirecting the productive capacity to human needs. A socialist economy is founded upon the basic principles of common ownership, production for the people’s needs, and the elimination of exploitation.

The important point is that, from the dawn of social production, there will be no more surplus-labour, no more classes, and, therefore, no more exploitation, as there inevitably is under capitalist production. Emancipated workers will be, since their lives will no longer be dependent upon the means of labour monopolised by others, will be free to make their lives what they will. In fact, they will freely choose the kind of productive work they prefer. Socialist society implies people's self-organisation of every aspect of their social activities.

Socialists insist on democracy not merely as a matter of justice but because without democracy and popular participation in and control over all phases of public life it is impossible to conceive of the well-being and happiness for the human race. People work better, are more interested in the success of a venture, and have a greater kinship with it, if they feel they are actually part of it and benefit from it. Democracy is not only a more just way of running society; it is more productive in the long run. It is the only way to fully unleash the creative powers lodged in the people. Socialism will be able to give full rein to democracy for the mass of the people, which under capitalism could never attain more than perverted and corrupted forms. Socialism implies that the organisation of a society will have become transparent to its members. With socialism, people will dominate the workings and institutions of society, instead of being dominated by them. Socialism will, therefore, have to realise democracy for the first time in human history. When we say that in a socialist society the central bodies will not constitute a delegation of power but will be the expression of the power of the people, we are implying a radical change in this way of doing things. In all essential fields, decisions will be made at the grass-roots and will be sent to those whose responsibility it will be to ensure their execution or to carry them out itself.

The apologists of every social system that has passed into history have always sought to justify its continuance by saying: “It’s the best yet.” The whitewashers of capitalism who support the status quo are no different.

In the socialist society, the means of production will be free to provide for the needs of the people. The capitalist profit-makers will have passed into history. The working people will be in control of industry. The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism. The world will be filled with wealth for all to have and to enjoy in its abundance. The World Socialist Movement’s mission is to win the world from capitalist barbarism and make it the sustainable home for the human family. While we live under capitalism, it is suffice enough for socialists to establish the possibility of the emancipation of the working-class and to work for that emancipation. There is no need to waste our time in working out and settling the elaborate and minutia details of the organisation of the future society. Each epoch has its task. Let us not have the presumption to lay down rules for those who are to come after us, and let us be content with present tasks. Socialists focus upon present. If we make general predictions of what possibly may happen they should not be taken as the socialist bible of reconstruction. There is no question of trying to draw up "statutes",  "rules," or an "ideal depictions" of a socialist society.

Practical Idealists

Many mainstream politicians sneer at the Socialist Party because we are “idealists.” Some on the Left claim that we are on the whole fairly nice but utterly “impractical.” What are the Socialist Party organised for? What is our bond of unity? Do we have a blueprint for a socialist society? Can we envision what such a society looks like? What is our avowed object? The abolition of capitalism. The Socialist Party declares uncompromisingly and unequivocally that we are for socialism. Our compass for where we are headed has socialism as its destination. We work for the coming of the cooperative commonwealth. We serve the workers who strive for the social revolution. We champion the oppressed and hasten the day of liberation. Capitalism is organized purely for private profit and the right to exploit the working class. The Socialist Party is organising for the purpose of securing political power upon the platform that declares in favour of common ownership in the name of the people and to take possession of industry. We look into the future with absolute confidence and see the emergence of the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism means expanding democracy not only in the political sense but in an economic sense – freedom from want.

What is the meaning of capitalism? Capitalism is an economic term. It is applied by political economists and sociologists to the economic system of our civilization, by means of which men achieve economic independence and have the privilege of living idly upon the labour of others, who produce a surplus value above that which they receive for their own sustenance. Capitalism refers to the system. A capitalist is one who profits by the system. If he labors himself, it does not alter the fact that he has an income apart from his labour sufficient to sustain him for life without labour, and therefore his is economically independent.

Capitalism inevitably produces exploitation and poverty, war, oppression, poisonous environmental pollution, and the waste of human and natural resources, none of which can be consistently eliminated without the socialist transformation of society. Under capitalism, the production of wealth is carried on for profit. The desire for profits is the motive force which drives the capitalist class to use its capital in the production of wealth. In order to secure profits, the workers must be exploited. Part of the product of their labour must be turned over to the capitalist class in the shape of interest and dividends. The result of this is the robbery of the workers.

Capitalism also hampers and limits the production of wealth by keeping thousands of workers in unemployment.  If these workers were allowed to use their brains and muscle in the production of wealth we could materially add to the amount produced. But this limitation on production by denying employment is necessary to the continuance of capitalism. The army of unemployed is a weapon in the hands of the master class with which the workers are kept in submission. If there were no unemployed, no strike would be lost. The workers could dictate their own terms to the capitalist and their terms would be that they receive for their labour the equivalent of what they produce. The reserve army of unemployed, however, gives the capitalist power to enforce his terms and continue the exploitation of the workers. The capitalists must, therefore, keep part of the workers in unemployment and deny society the benefit of their productive power.

In addition, capitalism prevents the complete socialisation of the production of wealth. We can today produce more wealth and can produce with less expenditure of labour-power. Production today is still in a chaotic condition. There exists a clash between the interest of society as a whole and the interest of the owners of industry under our present system of production. So long as the industries are privately owned, society does not receive the benefit of this development, but rather suffers further exploitation. Once we establish common ownership of our industries we will throw off the checks of our productive powers and will be able to produce more than enough not only to supply every human being food, clothing, and homes to live in, but the opportunity for education and culture which can make life worth living. You cannot create a revolution without convincing the majority. Unless your goal is to have some silly despot that is worse than what we have now.

Private ownership of the means of production and distribution is the seed or germ of capitalism, of which wage slavery is the most revolting feature. This seed has now brought forth a bitter fruit in the class struggle, but the Socialist Party, championing the working class, declares its intention to be the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a worldwide system of cooperative industry, based upon the social or common ownership of the means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members and the complete emancipation of the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism. Socialism proposes the relief of the people from the demands of the capitalist class. Why should we struggle through a lifetime to maintain private ownership and to leave to our children, all the vicissitudes of the capitalist system, when through the substitution of collective ownership, we can make ourselves and our children the wards and stewards of society. The Socialist Party marches forward confidently with giant strides toward the historic mission of the working class — the abolition of wage slavery and establishment of the cooperative commonwealth.

Choose capitalism or humanity

The catastrophic situation where the powerlessness of politicians and the indifference of the privileged class have placed the world at the edge of an abyss. If the people, organised in a revolutionary way, don’t act, their future is lost, all is lost. The political unity we seek is the voluntary association of all local initiatives, the spontaneous and free coming together of all individual energies in view of a common goal: the well-being, the freedom and the security of all. The class war between capitalists and workers is one of those that cannot be ended through illusory compromises. One class today has taken all, stealing from the other class the bread not only of its body but also of its soul and spirit. It is our obligation to fight and to win. Socialists urge men and women to think, to investigate, to analyse every proposition. We are not “believers”; we don’t bow before Marx and Engels. We debate their ideas, we accept them when they are in accord with our own conclusions, but we reject them when they don’t strike a chord within us. We are far from possessing the blind faith in something because Marx once said it.

When speaking of socialism, most people think of the more or less authoritarian State-Capitalism advocated last century and practiced in certain countries. Socialism is not only on the side of freedom but it is equivalent to freedom. We affirm and recognise only free socialism. The following three essential points were learned:

[1] The abolition of the wage system, the modern form of ancient slavery,

[2] The abolition of private ownership in the means of production, and

[3] The emancipation of the individual and of society from the political machinery, the State, which helps to maintain economic slavery.

Socialism guarantees economic freedom because it can guarantee well-being, even luxury, in return for a few hours of work. This means emancipation from one of the heaviest burdens of slavery on man. It is an increase of liberty, where men and women have their means of existence guaranteed and is not forced to sell their brawn and brain to those who condescend to exploit them. Socialism is a free, non-governed society, which offers freedom, equality and solidarity for its members. Its foundations are to be found in mankind's sense of mutual responsibility.

Socialism cannot be made by force and is only possible when it is understood and wanted by the majority of people who embrace all the elements necessary to creating a society superior to the present one. The revolution will not be socialist if the masses are not socialist. We must organise and act like socialists before, during and after the revolution. Organisation which is, after all, only the practice of cooperation and solidarity, is a natural and necessary condition of social life. The age-long oppression of the masses by a small privileged group has always been the result of the inability of the oppressed to agree among themselves to organise with others for production and for enjoyment. Socialism exists to remedy this state of affairs.

Many would not dispute the fact that the current social system is evil, and the proof that it is, is that everyone suffers from it. From the poor, with neither bread nor roof, who knows constant hunger, to the millionaire, who lives in fear of a revolt of the poor. All of Humanity lives in a state of anxiety and it is easy to prove that all the ills we suffer from flow from the existence of the private property. Poverty, crime, war, and authoritarianism are all nothing but the results of capitalism. We socialists want to replace private property with communism, and oppression with freedom.

We don’t claim that all men and women will have the same intelligence, the same physique: we know that there will always be the greatest diversity in intellectual and physical aptitudes. But one will not be considered superior to the other. In a century that we call one of progress and of science, is it not painful to think of the millions hungry for knowledge and that cannot flourish? How many children who could have become men and women of great value, useful to humanity, will never go further than a rudimentary education.

Will everyone want to work? What about the lazy? We answer yes, everyone will want to work. Here is why. Many workers are engaged in work that is absolutely useless to society, for instance, on armaments. Many are also unemployed. Add to this a considerable number of able-bodied men who produce nothing: civil servants, financial sector employees, shop workers. We can thus say, without exaggeration and with a conservative estimate, that of a hundred capable of producing some kind of labour, only fifty furnish an effort truly useful to society. It is these fifty who produce all of our society’s riches. From this flows the deduction that if everyone worked, instead of eight hours the workday could decrease to only four. Beyond this, we should also consider that in the current state of things the total of manufactured and agricultural products are many times the amount required to meet humanity’s needs; which is to say that if the population was in even higher numbers three times we could still clothe, house, heat, and feed all; in a word, would have all of its needs satisfied if waste and other causes didn’t destroy that over-production. A society where all would work together, and which would be satisfied with productivity not far beyond its consumer needs (the excess of the first over the second would constitute a small reserve) would have to ask of each of its able-bodied members an effort of only two or three hours, perhaps less. So in reply to the original question, who would then refuse to give such a small quantity of work? Who would want to live with the shame of being held in contempt by all and being considered a parasite? Work being a natural need will all accept that no one would flee from the demand for such minimal effort. There would be no reason to have recourse to coercion to avoid the problem of idlers. But if in some extraordinary case someone wanted to refuse to contribute to his brothers and sisters, it would still be less costly to feed this unfortunate, who can only be described as sick, than to maintain magistrates, police and prison wardens to break him down. If there is no more authority, if there is no fear of the existence of the police to stop the criminal, don’t we risk seeing crimes multiply at a frightening rate? The answer is easy: We can categorise the crimes committed today in two principal categories; crimes of gain and crimes of passion. The first group will disappear on its own since there can be no attacks on property in a society which has done away with property. As for the second group, no law can stop them. But with socialism there will be no more making man the property of woman and woman the property of man; no more demanding of two beings who loved each other but a moment that they remain attached to the end of their days. Consequently crimes, in a future society, will become increasingly rare until they disappear completely.

Capitalism. That is the enemy of human happiness, for it alone creates inequality, and in its trail competition and division. With socialism and the end of nationalism, there will not be any more countries to incite hatred between fellow-workers, pitting one against the other, men and women who have never set eyes on each other. There will be the replacement of the narrow and petty attachment of the chauvinist for his country by the large and fruitful love of all of Humanity, without distinction of race or color. Religions will disappear giving people the hope of a better life and to enjoy life in the here and now, not in the after-life. No more hindrances to the free development of human nature. Each person working and consuming according to his or her needs, which is to say, as they wish.

It's capitalism - Do the maths

Just one in four S2 pupils from deprived areas are meeting standards in numeracy at school, according to official figures. 

New statistics have been branded a “disgrace” as they reveal the education gap between the least and most affluent is widening. Numeracy statistics show the number of pupils doing ‘well’ or ‘very well’ in numeracy at the three assessed stages is far lower in the poorest communities than in the richest. The results show standards are slipping across the board but the gap is widening and the poorest have dropped further.

Glasgow is home to the most poorer areas with the city home to 30% of the most deprived datazones in Scotland.

The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy for 2015 assessed pupils at P4, P7 and S2. In four years the rate of least deprived P4 pupils doing well or very well dropped from 82% to 76%, while the most deprived fell from 70% to 55%. For P7 the least deprived was static between 2011 and 2015 at 77% doing well or very well while the most deprived dropped from 61 to 54. For S2 pupils the least deprived fell from 56% to 53% and the most deprived fell from 28% to 25%.

Driven into poverty

One popular misconception is that capitalism equals freedom and free societies. In order for capitalism to work, capitalists needed a pool of cheap, surplus labour. Countryside workers were forced off the land and into the new urban centres and the factories from the enactment of so-called Game Laws that prohibited peasants from hunting to the destruction of the peasant productivity by fencing the commons into smaller lots.

Daniel Defoe, the novelist and trader, noted that in the Scottish Highlands “people were extremely well furnished with provisions. … venison exceedingly plentiful, and at all seasons, young or old, which they kill with their guns whenever they find it.’’

Thomas Pennant, a botanist, this self-sufficiency was ruining a perfectly good peasant population:

“The manners of the native Highlanders may be expressed in these words: indolent to a high degree, unless roused to war, or any animating amusement.”

If having a full belly and productive land was the problem, then the solution was obvious: kick them off the land and let them starve.

John Bellers, a Quaker “philanthropist” and economic thinker saw independent peasants as a hindrance to his plan of forcing poor people into prison-factories, where they would live, work and produce a profit of 45% for aristocratic owners:

“Our Forests and great Commons (make the Poor that are upon them too much like the Indians) being a hindrance to Industry, and are Nurseries of Idleness and Insolence.”

Arthur Young, a popular writer and economic thinker respected by John Stuart Mill, wrote in 1771: “everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.” Sir William Temple, a politician and Jonathan Swift’s boss, agreed, and suggested that food be taxed as much as possible to prevent the working class from a life of “sloth and debauchery.”

Temple also advocated putting four-year-old kids to work in the factories, writing ‘‘for by these means, we hope that the rising generation will be so habituated to constant employment that it would at length prove agreeable and entertaining to them.’’ Some thought that four was already too old. John Locke, often seen as a philosopher of liberty, called for the commencement of work at the ripe age of three. Child labor also excited Defoe, who was joyed at the prospect that “children after four or five years of age…could every one earn their own bread.’’

David Hume, that great humanist, hailed poverty and hunger as positive experiences for the lower classes, and even blamed the “poverty” of France on its good weather and fertile soil:

“‘Tis always observed, in years of scarcity, if it be not extreme, that the poor labour more, and really live better.”

Reverend Joseph Townsend believed that restricting food was the way to go:

“[Direct] legal constraint [to labour] . . . is attended with too much trouble, violence, and noise, . . . whereas hunger is not only a peaceable, silent, unremitted pressure, but as the most natural motive to industry, it calls forth the most powerful exertions. . . . Hunger will tame the fiercest animals, it will teach decency and civility, obedience and subjugation to the most brutish, the most obstinate, and the most perverse.”

Patrick Colquhoun, a merchant who set up England’s first private “preventative police“ force to prevent dock workers from supplementing their meagre wages with stolen goods, provided what may be the most lucid explanation of how hunger and poverty correlate to productivity and wealth creation:

“Poverty is that state and condition in society where the individual has no surplus labour in store, or, in other words, no property or means of subsistence but what is derived from the constant exercise of industry in the various occupations of life. Poverty is therefore a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society, without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of civilization. It is the lot of man. It is the source of wealth, since without poverty, there could be no labour; there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth.”

As Karl Marx pointedly said in Capital....."Capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.”

The revolution must be willing to look beyond constraints of capitalism and stop looking for ways to put bandaids on it and find ways to replace it instead. Without empowering workers to own their own labour, capitalists will find new ways to exploit that labour and beat the working class back into submission. The class war on the working people is growing through attacks on workers’ rights and the unions. These are the conditions predicted by Marx and Engels, and the far left has noticed. Activists need to be talking to fellow-workers to build a real resistance that no longer is willing to be trampled on by the capitalist elite. It is time for workers of the world to unite and realise they don’t actually have anything to lose and do, in fact, have the world to gain. It’s time to think beyond capitalism. Capitalism is not a form of government. It is an economic system. It does not create wealth, but only allocates it. It is indifferent to the welfare of people. It has no social purpose. Private profit is everything.

The process of immiseration and impoverishment of the 99% is ongoing and accelerating and the parasite caste has NO intention of allowing it to be reversed. In fact, through mechanisms like the TPP, TTIP, TiSA etc, austerity policies and rapid automation, computerisation and robotisation, they are preparing to intensify the process. So a situation where 1% rule over a 99%, in the midst of ecological collapse, is intensifying.

Adapted from here

The Value In Knowing About Surplus Value

Our parliamentary system of democracy is characterised as the only true freedom through which all social ills can be eradicated, guaranteeing to the people the opportunity of re-shaping society as they choose. In all class societies, there is one class that rules (dictates) over others. Capitalism is no exception In Britain democracy has a long history. Parliament as an important political institution superceding the feudal monarchy was achieved in the seventeenth century. The capitalist class has gained considerable experience in the use of Parliament and are in a strong position to divert the workers’ resistance and struggles into ’safe’ channels. The educational system, the mass media, religion, a host of other organisations perpetuate a belief in capitalist democracy; that is, promote faith and trust in the democratic facade and conceal from the people the realities of capitalist rule behind it. The workers are ’educated’ to accept the ideas of capitalism with a view to turning them from class struggle and persuading them that their interests are identical with those of their own capitalists engaged in the exploitation of fellow-workers. It is, therefore, important for them to ensure that the organisations of the working class are prevented from posing a threat to the continued existence of the system. They try to control the workers’ organisations directly and from within. Socialism is far from discarding political activity, (but there is more to politics than what happens in Parliament). Parliament’s control over the forces of law and order, the armed forces, education and a, number of other services means that it cannot be ignored.

Socialism can be built only when the working class has taken political power from the capitalist class: that is when there has been a revolution. Socialism would change our way of life. That is what makes the struggle worthwhile. No greater transformation of the conditions of life has been conceived of as a possible achievement of mankind itself. The aim of our movement makes it necessary that the revolutionary character of socialism be openly proclaimed. Socialism will be possible only when the workers decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a new foundation. The whole future of humanity rests on the emergence of a class-conscious working class as the creative force in society. The class struggle is important and cannot be avoided because it marks the road towards the class-free society. With the end of class oppression, the state disappears. We can play no part in the building of the new society – that privilege must be left to those who come after us. Marx wrote ‘The measure of wealth will no longer be labour time, but leisure time.’ Marx elsewhere referred to socialism as ‘the realm of freedom’. He looked forward to the ending of the division between mental and physical labour, which he saw as the reduction of the worker to ‘a fragment of a man’. Instead of labour-power being sold as a commodity he saw production being carried on by ‘freely associated labour’. Courage and determination are required, but it is also necessary that everything possible be done towards spreading socialist knowledge among as many workers as possible. Solidarity is an urgent necessity if we are to further the cause of socialism.

Socialism does not mean mere governmental ownership or management. The State of to-day, nationally or locally, is only the agent of the possessing class. By socialism, we mean the common ownership and control of the whole of the world’s industry. The entire means of production and distribution thus being common property, there would no longer be a propertied class to make a profit out of exploiting their employees or from the interest from financial speculation which now divides society into two classes. Classes would disappear. Socialism embraces all the relations of human life. The establishment of socialism means a complete change in society in all its aspects. The world’s social wealth will be made to serve to satisfy human wants and desires, not profit.

The kernel of the whole capitalist system of production for profit, with its exploitation and impoverishment of the proletariat, is that profit is not made on the market, but in the workshop, in the mine and the factory. Profit is derived from the surplus value which is wrung from the unpaid labour of the workers. Surplus-value is the difference between the cost of labour-power to the capitalist and the amount of labour-power he is able to extract from his workpeople. Labour-power is the capacity for labour inherent in the worker, and it is this capacity or quality which the capitalist buys in the labour market as a commodity. We are assuming a modern capitalist society in which there are no slaves, and the workers are free. Consequently, the capitalist does not buy the workman, neither does he buy labour; that is to say, labour actually expended or in operation. What he buys, when he engages a worker for a given time, is the power to labour which is contained in the body of the labourer. The labourer and the capitalist meet on the market, the one as a seller the other as a buyer, in the same way as do the buyers and sellers of other commodities. The exchange-value of labour-power is precisely the same as that of any other commodity, determined by the amount of socially necessary human labour expended in its production; in other words, and in the language usually employed by economists, the return to labour — WAGES — is determined by the cost of subsistence of the labourer. For it is by this subsistence that the labour- power is continually reproduced. The capitalist buys labour-power at its cost of production in labour, but the amount of labour which the workman expends, that is to say, the capacity for labour, or the labour-power, which the capitalist buys, and which the worker incorporates in the commodities he produces, is a very much greater quantity than is expended in the production of that labour-power, and it is this difference, a difference which the capitalist gets for nothing, which constitutes surplus-value. The capitalist obtains this surplus-value owing to his monopoly of the means of production, which enables him to extend the working day, beyond the hours necessary to produce the subsistence of the labourer; by the employment of machinery, by which the labour of the workman is made more effective; and by the organisation of labour, which has the effect of intensifying the expenditure of labour. The labourer cannot, as a rule, command more than the actual exchange-value of his commodity, that is to say, his cost of subsistence, in return for his labour-although his wages, like the prices of all commodities, sometimes rise above this and sometimes fall below — because, although apparently free, he is really not free. He must sell his labour-power in order to live; he has no other commodity to dispose of, and, having no ownership in or control over the means of production, he cannot employ himself. Consequently, he has to find a purchaser for his commodity and must accept the terms that purchaser will offer — subject only to two conditions, his own cost of subsistence and the fluctuations of the market. Machinery itself is the product of labour, and is, as we have pointed out, used for the purpose of exploiting labour; but of itself, it creates no value. The sum total of the value of a commodity represents the sum total of the average labour employed in its production, including that involved in producing the raw material and the amount of the wear and tear of the machinery used up in the commodity, but the surplus-value comes from unpaid labour only. Because the profit of the immediate capitalist employer only forms a portion of the total surplus-value. Out of that total, the landlord draws his rent for the land upon which the factory is built; the owner of the factory takes a share himself as rent for the factory; as do also the middleman, the dealer, and all those who handle the commodities for the purpose of making a profit. The fees of the lawyer who maybe engaged in drawing up the deeds, etc., the tithes of the clergy, the salaries of public officers, and in short the rewards or payments of all those who are not themselves engaged in the immediate work of production, these, as well as the remuneration of the contractor engaged in the building of the factory or repairing the machinery; the profit of the broker who sells the raw material, and so on, are all derived from the surplus-value wrung from the unpaid labour of the workers.

Socialist Standard June 2016

• Cartoon: Free Lunch
• Editorial: End Not Mend Capitalism
• Pathfinders: Great Men of Straw
• Letter: The Vote or Twitter?
• Halo Halo! Angry Christians, Hot Dogs and Venezuela
• Cooking the Books: The EU and the Price of Food
• Greasy Pole: Goldsmith versus Khan
• Material World: Give Us the Vote
• In? Out? Big Business or Little England?
• The Problem is Not the EU … It’s Capitalism
• Living on Tick
• Scarcity and Infinite Wants: The Founding Myths of Economics
• Party News
• Opposites and the Man at the Bar
• Obituaries: Bill Critchfield and Bernie Flitter
• Cooking the Books: Mises is Irrelevant
• Proper Gander: Monarchy Malarkey
• Book Reviews: 'Syriza - Inside the Labyrinth', & 'This Is London - Life and Death in the World City'
• Exhibition Review: 'Imitation of Life'
• 50 Years Ago: China's Bomb
• Action Replay: Cinderella Men Win Premier League
• Rear View

Building a world socialist movement

We see the need for building a mass socialist party and recognise the importance of clarifying the many questions such a task demands. The class struggle teaches one lesson above all others, a lesson summed up in a single proposition: The most important project for the working class is the creation of a party to reflect and represent its interests, a leader-free party where members do their own thinking. The Socialist Party unfurled the red banner of socialism from the hour of its birth, has no rival in the field. It is the only revolutionary party, the heir of the rich traditions of the past and the herald of the future. The various groups and cliques which challenged the Socialist Party have all, without exception, fallen into pitiful disintegration and demoralisation.

It is nationalism that can divide the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose! It is nationalism that can pit groups of workers against each other with the most hideous rage, while their mutual oppressors skip off with both their purses for a little sun and fun. Nationalism means exclusivism and isolation. Any nationalism finally implies that those people are better than all others. Even the most “justifiable” nationalism, taken to its logical conclusion, can end up justifying the slaughter of almost anybody else outside the nation. We are the victims of a nationalism that preaches superiority and inferiority. We have seen its obscene terror and oppression. We are not fighting so that we can put these on somebody else. Nationalism does not serve the real interests of the people. This is true and has been proven correct time and again. Nationalism delivers workers into the hands of the exploiters of their own nationality.

Patriotism’s effect on the body politic is like a malignant tumour. It has persuaded millions of workers that they should endure the miseries of austerity and war. Enormous damage has been done, throughout the world, by the notion that one country and its people are superior to the others. The Socialist Party recognises that there is an irreconcilable conflict between workers and owners everywhere. We recognise that workers have no country and that patriotism is a delusion and a snare. Patriotism is not supportable with fact and reason but by deception and prejudice. That is why it is so easily incited into a mindless frenzy. Governments attempt to persuade us all of the merits of patriotism and sacrifice for our country. With the ruling class, patriotism is the mask of self-interest. The more people who see through it the better. We have more in common with the ordinary people of all other countries than we have with the leaders of 'our' own. It's not 'your' country, it belongs to the rich.

Nationalism was born out of commercial mercantile capitalism of the 16th and 17th century State, politically. It developed under the industrial capitalism of the 18th and 19th century State. It grew to its greatest State power in the republics of the 20th century represented by fascism and “National Socialism,” and the enormous growth of State Capitalism. Socialism cannot be accomplished under capitalism and under the national relations engendered by capitalism. Socialism must be international or it cannot exist at all - it is a sham. More and more the growth of economic forces demands appropriate economic and political relations which cannot be realized by the nation-state. Unable to be resolved by the national State are such problems as air pollution, climate change and the impact upon weather patterns; proper energy policies; ecological problems; oceanic problems and collective use of the oceans; world resources and their exhaustion; problems relating to world fauna and flora and their extinction; pollution of all kinds, urbanisation and over-crowding problems, In the end, not socialism but nationalism will have to disappear. The world is irresistibly being driven to internationalism and interdependence, the only race remaining, that of the human race as a whole. Socialists have to understand the only way to bring workers of different nationalities together is to insist on free association. Socialists are not proud of their nationality. They are proud of the denial of their nationality.

Trotskyism Rehashed (1973) - book review

Book Review from the December 1973 issue of theSocialist Standard

Tariq Ali, a leading member of the so-called International Marxist Group writes in his book The Coming British Revolution that the socialist revolution will be produced by the long-dreamt-of big slump and not working-class understanding. Indeed,he categorically states that the working class is incapable of ever developing a socialist consciousness on its own and must have “leaders” (guess who) to do their thinking for them. Apparently the need for workers to recognise the leaders now is crucial since British capitalism is already on the brink of collapse and only needs one more good push. And not only will the Trots provide the workers with political direction during the revolution but will also throw in the direction of military operations for good measure!

Obviously, that’s a piece of romantic nonsense as Trotskyists know little or nothing of such matters, but such extravagant flights of fancy enable us to see the appeal Trotskyism can have for some youngsters by conjuring up a vision of themselves as latter-day Lenins dramatically leading the masses into world-shattering action. However, if past behaviour is anything to go by such a revolution is doomed to be an awful flop as Ali, Robin Blackburn and co. would be unable to resist the urge to get themselves arrested after five minutes.

Ali wants to see the Labour Party back in office on the grounds that it will finally (again!) disgrace itself in the eyes of the workers and so drive many of the disillusioned into the ranks of the Trots. This is what they always hope for from a period of Labour government and it should be obvious to them by now that they are on a loser. What is much more likely to happen is that disillusioned, politically ignorant workers will be driven into supporting, say, the Liberals or even Enoch Powell. So here is a blatant disregard of what has gone before, and a knowledge of Marxism must include the recognition of history’s lessons in order to avoid repeating mistakes.

And while we’re on the subject of Marxism, Ali correctly attacks anti-dialectical methods of thinking and points out that it is wrong for Trotskyists to parrot what Lenin said in 1919 or 1920 since the circumstances will be very different today. But this is exactly what they always do, especially in connection with Marx. IMG’ers are forever backing up their claim that socialists should support Irish nationalism and the various nationalist movements in the Third World by quoting what Marx said on the subject back in the middle of the 19th century (see Socialist Standard December 1972).

The point is that Marx and Engels found themselves in a very different historical situation from the one we live in today. They supported the emergent bourgeoisie of Europe in its struggle with feudal reaction because at that time the two forces were pretty evenly balanced and it was just possible that reaction could crush or at least hold back the progressive force which the bourgeoisie then represented. By the turn of the century, the victory of the bourgeoisie was all but complete. All over Europe they had vanquished feudal remnants and unified dozens of tiny states into large capitalist nations.

To the founders of the Socialist Party of Great Britain in 1904, it was clear that the victorious bourgeoisie needed no help from them and had in any case, having fulfilled their historic task in increasing the productive forces, now become in turn the reaction. The task of Marxists from then on was to point this out at all times and to concentrate on propagating the case for the next stage in social development, the establishment of a worldwide production-for-use society. In dealing with the basic principles of the Marxist case (the materialist conception of history and the class struggle) Marx and Engels correctly stated in the preface to the 1872 German edition of The Communist Manifesto that

"The practical application of the principles will depend, as the manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing . . . "

It is we who apply these principles within the context of the present day and not the followers of Lenin and Trotsky.

Like Trotskyists everywhere Ali sees revolution round every corner. He even thinks that the 1945 Labour government introduced the National Health Service only to stave off revolution and goes on to argue that the capitalists can no longer afford to buy-off the workers with more such reforms. Of course, as even Ali should know the NHS was introduced in order to save the capitalists money by ensuring that workers didn’t spend the part of wages required to pay for medical attention on other things by having it deducted from their wages and paid into a central fund. And the most likely reason why the capitalists don’t produce other such reforms is that they can’t think of any worth their while. Perhaps Ali and other leftists could help them out by suggesting a few? Anyway, the capitalists are not under any great pressure from the workers to require buying them off.

So Ali in 1973 is as wrong about Britain in 1945 as Trotsky was in 1935. Then the man Ali describes as “a perceptive observer of the British political scene” was writing that the revolution was about to break out in Britain only a few months before the Tories were returned to power with a massive majority. Some “perceptive observer”.

Ali thinks that “large areas of the world have liberated themselves from the tyranny of the world capitalist market”. Where is this true? Russia? China? Cuba? Actually, the first two are entering the world markets just as fast as they can and are busy negotiating with Nixon and other western political and business leaders to accelerate the process. And Cuba is only kept going at all by the “aid” given by Russia and China for reasons of strategy and propaganda alone.

Predictably the usual lip-service is paid to the idea that socialism means “To each according to his needs. From each according to his ability”. But is this concept any nearer realisation in Russia where Ali claims a “new set of property relations” have been established? Does the working class still not have to work for wages there? Of course,Trotskyists always identify capitalism and exploitation with western-style ownership of bonds, stocks, shares, etc.; in fact, capitalism as it had developed in Marx’s own lifetime under peculiarly western conditions. That the Russian form of state capitalism developed out of a different historical background with capital accumulation carried out by a dictatorial political party — the Bolsheviks — instead of private entrepreneurs has escaped them. They imagine that the capital-wage labour relationship must develop in the same way everywhere despite vastly different historical circumstances and so provide us with one more example of their ignorance of the Marxist method.

Vic Vanni