The Joy of Work

The greatest problem awaiting solution in the world to-day is the existence in every country of extreme poverty side by side with extreme wealth. How is it that the men and women who till the land, who toil the mines, who operate the machines, who construct the factories and build the homes, or, in other words, those who create the world’s wealth, receive only sufficient to maintain themselves and keep their families on the border line of bare necessity, while those who do not produce --the employing class--obtain more than is enough to supply their every comfort, and luxury? The prospect before the workers of all the world is that they will continue to suffer hardships of the capitalist system until they actively interest themselves in understanding socialist principles and assisting in socialist re-organisation. Capitalist production rests upon keeping those who produce in subservience and economic exploitation. Work under capitalism means selling labour power in a labour market which is alien to their interests as individuals and alien to their interests as a class. Under capitalism work and the division of labour in the cause of profit turn people into the appendages of machines and slaves to the assembly-line that is physically and mentally destructive and which proves to be a life time of personal frustration. Workers sacrifice their individuality and lead double lives, only becoming their true selves in their home-life and during their leisure hours. Work is not an end in itself but a distasteful and repugnant means to a pecuniary end. Capitalism makes impossible what William Morris called "The expression of man's joy through his labour"

 Socialism will it will be a society free of classes in which the exploitation and oppression of man by man will have been abolished. All human beings will be social equals, freely able to co-operate in running social affairs where the means of life will be owned in common by the entire community. At one time socialism was known also as 'social democracy', a phrase which expresses that decision-making would extend to all aspects of public life, including production where  'government over people' gives way 'to the administration of things'; meaning that state power of government coercion will have no place in socialism. The purpose of government is to maintain law and order in the interests of the dominant class. It is in fact an instrument of class oppression. In socialism there will be no classes and no built-in class conflicts: everybody will have the same basic social interest. There will be genuine social harmony and community of interest. In these circumstances there is no need for any coercive machine to govern or rule over people.  Those who wrongly assume that government and administration are one and the same will have some difficulty in imagining a society without government. A society without administration would indeed be impossible since 'society' implies that human beings organise themselves to provide for their needs. But a society without government is both possible and desirable. Socialism will in fact mean the extension of democratic administration to all aspects of social life on the basis of the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. There will be administrative general assemblies for settling social affairs by majority decision. Democratic organisation will involve delegation of functions to groups and individuals. Such people will be charged by the community with organising specific necessary functions. They will be chosen by the community and will be answerable to it. Those who perform the administrative functions in Socialism would be in no position to dominate. They will not be regarded as superior persons, as tends to be the case today, but as social equals doing an essential job. Nor will they have at their command any force to impose their will. There will be no opportunity for bribery and corruption since everybody, including those in administrative jobs, will have free access to the stock of wealth set aside for individual consumption. The material conditions for the rise of a new ruling class would not exist. The purpose of socialist production will be simply and solely to satisfy human needs. Under present arrangements production is for the market with a view to profit. This will be replaced by production solely and directly for use. The production and distribution of sufficient wealth to meet the needs of the socialist community as individuals and as a community will be an administrative and organisational problem. It will be no small problem but the tools for solving it have already been created by capitalism.

Capitalism has developed technology and social productivity to the point where plenty for all can be produced. A society of abundance has long been technically possible and it is this that is the material basis for socialism. Capitalism, because it is a class society with production geared to profit-making rather than meeting human needs, cannot make full use of the world-wide productive system it has built up over the past two hundred or so years. Socialism, making full use of the developed methods of production, will alter the purpose of production. Men and women will be producing wealth solely to meet their needs, and not for the profit of a privileged few. Using techniques for predicting social wants (at present pressed into the service of capital), a socialist society can work out how much and what sort of products and services will be needed over a given period. Men and women will be free to discuss what they would like to be produced. So with research and discussion an estimate of what is needed can be made. The next problem is to arrange for these amounts to be produced. Capitalism, with its computer power and input-output analysis, has developed the scientific techniques which a socialist society can use.

When the wealth has been produced, apart from that needed to renew and expand the means of production, all will freely take what they feel they need to live and enjoy life. This is what we mean by 'free access'. There will be no buying and selling, and hence no need for money. What communities and individuals want does not vary greatly except over long periods, and it will be a simple administrative task to see that the stores are well-stocked with what people need. If any shortages develop they will not last long. Planned reserves will be held as a safeguard against unforeseen natural disasters.

'From each according to their ability, to each according to their need' is a long-standing socialist principle. It means what it says: that men and women will freely take part in social production to the best of their abilities, and freely take from the fruits of their common labour whatever they need.

Confronted for the first time with such proposal for free distribution and unrationed consumption, many people are sceptical. What about the lazy? Or the greedy? Who will do the dirty work? What will be the incentive to work? These are understandable objections to those who have never thought about such a startling proposition. Work is a social must for human beings. The point at issue is how work should be organized and for what purpose. In capitalism work is reduced to a monotonous drudgery for most people, instead of allowing it to provide the pleasure it could, and would in a socialist society. Working for an employer is always degrading, often boring and unpleasant and sometimes unhealthy and dangerous. But we should not continue with misleading association of work with employment.  There is no reason at all why the work of producing useful things cannot be as enjoyable as pastimes and hobbies are. The conditions under which work is done can be vastly improved. The  relationships between people at work will change for the better. Free and equal, members of a socialist community will no longer have to sell their mental and physical power to an employer for a wage. The degrading wages system will be abolished so that there will be no such thing as employment. Instead work will be done by free men and women co-operating and controlling their conditions of work, getting enjoyment from creating things and doing socially useful tasks. In a socialist society there will be no social stigma attaching to any kind of work. Nor will there be pressures, as exist at present (because they are cheap and therefore profitable to the capitalists) to continue industrial processes which are harmful or dangerous to those engaged in them. There will be no need for anybody to be tied to the same job continuously. People will have rotating careers. The opportunities for men and women to develop and exercise their talents and to enjoy doing so will be immense.

Socialism must be world-wide because the productive system which capitalism has built up and which a socialist society will take over is already international. There will be no frontiers and people will be free to travel over the whole earth. Socialism will mean an end to all national oppression - and, indeed, in its current political sense to all 'nations' — and to discriminations on the grounds of race and sex. All the people of the world, wherever they live, whatever their skin colour, whatever language they speak, really will be members of one vast human family. Socialism will at last have the age-old dream of the Equality, fraternity and liberty.

Production for needs

A socialist society requires that production as a whole should meet the needs of people and be sustainable for the rest of nature.  In other words, what humans take from nature and dispose of them after use, should all be done so as to leave nature to go on supplying and reabsorbing those materials after use. In the long run this implies stable consumption and production levels. Production would be simply to meet current needs and to replacing and repairing the stock of means of production. The only rationale for accumulating means of production would be to be in a position to satisfy all reasonable consumption needs, not as at present to manufacture ‘wants’ for marketing and profits.  Once achieved then further expansion of the stock of means of production, could stop and production levels be stabilised. The proportion of people’s time devoted to ‘production’ would be correspondingly reduced and stabilised, leaving them free to indulge in whatever pursuits they fancied. So if human society is to be able to organise its production and other activities in an ecologically acceptable way then it must abolish the capitalist social, economic and political system of profit accumulation and replace it with a system which gears production to the direct satisfaction of needs.

To produce the things that people need in an acceptable and ecologically benign manner presupposes that society as a whole must be in a position to control production and direct its purposes.  This cannot be done in a society where the means of production are owned and controlled by the privileged few and governed by the blind economic laws which impose their own priorities.  Production for needs, therefore, demands an end both to capitalist control and the market. Production for needs requires that direction over the means of production (nature, materials, and machinery) should be available to all.  Everyone must stand equally with all others in relation to the means of production.  Also, production for needs demands the end of buying and selling; the end of the market. It means that goods are produced, and services made available, simply for their use-value, that is, capacity to satisfy human need. Production for the market is an expression of the fact that the means of production and therefore the products are owned not by all the members of a society in common but by individuals or groups such as corporations. Exchange would completely disappear in a society where there were no property rights over the means of production.

Democracy and common ownership

Production for needs can take place only on the basis of common ownership.  With common ownership, what is produced is no longer the property of some individual or group, which has to be purchased before it can be used or kept, but becomes directly available for people to take in accordance with their reasonable needs. We say that it is common ownership which provides the framework for the development of a balanced relationship between human society and the rest of nature.  We are talking about the common ownership of all the Earth’s natural and manufactured resources by the whole of humanity.  We are talking about a world socialist society which would recreate, on a world scale and on the basis of today’s technological and other knowledge, the communistic social relations of freedom, equality and community which many humans have aspired to since the coming of property society.

Humanity is now in a position, and has been for some time, to supply, in a sustainable way the needs of the population.  The means of production and the knowledge at its disposal are more than sufficient to enable this to be done. The problem is capitalism.  Common ownership on a world scale means that there will be no property or territorial rights over any part of the planet or over any of the technology.  The Earth and its resources will not belong to anyone.  They would simply be there to be used in accordance with democratically-decided rules and procedures. We can imagine the local community being the basic unit of such arrangements.  People could elect a local council to co-ordinate and administer local affairs.  Delegates could be sent to regional councils to decide matters concerning a wider area, and so on.  Possibly a world council would be the best way to deal with matters on a world scale (for instance, the supply of scarce minerals, the protection of the biosphere, the use of the oceans, and space research). On the basis of common ownership and democratic control, the world-wide network of productive and administrative units can be geared to meeting human needs.  This need not involve the organisation of a bureaucratic world planning authority.  Instead we could set up production and distribution mechanisms at different levels to respond flexibly to demands communicated to them.

Free access

Gearing production to meeting needs means making arrangements for individuals and groups to have free access to what they need.  Socialism not being a society in which goods and services are produced for sale, people would not have to buy what they needed.  They would be able to decide for themselves in a socially responsible way what their needs were and then take from the stock of products set aside for individual or group consumption.  In the case of services, advance booking, priority according to need, or ‘first come, first served’ arrangements could apply. Information to the network of productive units as to what to produce would thus come from what people actually chose to take or order from distribution stores under conditions of free access.  This would essentially be a system of stock control in the first instance at local community level.  Needs would be communicated to the productive network as demands for given amounts and types of specified products, materials and services.  This information would then be communicated throughout the system, where necessary to other regions or to the world level.

Goods and services would be produced and distributed as useful items intended to satisfy some human need.  Because they were no longer being produced and offered for sale on the market, they would not have a price.  Instead, estimates of what updated information suggested was likely to be needed over a given period would be expressed as quantities of specified products, materials and human time, not money. There would be no need for any universal unit of account to measure need, supply or demand.  Other more important factors than cost could be taken into account in making choices about which materials and productive methods to use or what services to supply. Instead of minimising the cost of production being the only criterion, other factors such as the health, comfort and enjoyment of those doing the work, the protection of the environment and a sustainable ecological system could be given the prominent place they deserve.

Protecting the environment

In a society oriented to meeting needs the concept of profits would be meaningless, while the imperative to ‘growth’ would disappear.  Instead, after an initial period of increase in useful production to provide the whole world’s population with basic amenities, production can be expected to reach a level sufficient to provide for people’s current needs and the future viability of their society.  A sustainable relationship with the rest of nature could be achieved. Needs on a world scale could be in balance with the capacity of the biosphere to renew itself after supplying them. As the only life-form that can act in a way conscious of the wider impact it can have on other species and on the planet as a whole, humans have the potential to act as planet’s ‘brain’, consciously regulating its function in the interest of present and future generations.  But before we can hope to play this role we must first integrate our own activities into a sustainable natural cycle on a planetary scale.  This we can do only within the framework of a world socialist society in which the Earth and all its natural and material resources have become the common heritage of all humanity.

We humans are part of nature, not external to it.  We are one with nature; we must nurture it if it is to sustain us. Socialists work for a revolution in society from world capitalism to world socialism.  The revolution we want is a social revolution that will change the basis of society from the present monopoly of productive resources by rich individuals, corporations and states into one where the Earth and its resources belong to none but will have become the common heritage of all humanity. This revolution can only be carried out democratically by the majority class in society, those forced to work for a wage or a salary in order to get a living, with a view to freeing themselves from exploitation for profit and from the restrictions and problems that the capitalist profit system imposes on them.  At the same time socialists understand that such a revolution has also to achieve a sustainable relationship between human society and the rest of nature. Together we can be architects of the future rather than victims of the present.

Only socialism can end capitalism

The Socialist Party lays down a thoroughly democratic procedure for the conduct of its affairs. Control of policy is in the hands of the members; there are no leaders and never have been. Democratic procedure has been maintained throughout the Party's existence and is a practical refutation of those who argue that all organisations must degenerate into any bureaucratic rule. In fact, a democratic structure without leaders is the necessary form of any real socialist party. Everyone who applies for membership of the Socialist Party is asked to show that they understand and agree with what we are aiming for and how we expect to reach our goal. All sorts of false ideas still exist about how to bring about the change to a socialist form of society. The Socialist Party has worked consistently to make socialist principles known and to expose the many erroneous and dangerous theories that have attracted support among the working class - foremost among them being the notion that capitalism can be reformed to run in the interests of the workers. There is no magic formula that can by-pass the process of building a democratic world-wide socialist movement. The process is slow because workers still have faith in capitalism and trust in a political party’s reforms to improve it when it fails them. The Socialist Party presents an analysis so that our fellow-workers can begin to think differently. We seek a change in their attitude to take place.  It all hinges upon the readiness of the working class for the change that is to take place. If the great majority do not have a clear idea of what needs to be done and a firm resolve to do it, then it does not matter what methods are used--they will fail.

Many have sympathy with the socialist idea of a world of common ownership and free access to replace the present system of buying and selling but say that such a transformation is such a long way off that in the meantime we must still aim for improvements within the framework of the existing system. They point to the changes that have taken place in people’s lives since the nineteenth century and that children no longer run around without shoes on their feet, no-one starves, medical facilities are available to all, everybody receives an education, and many people own things previously undreamed of - a car, a house, and a host of gadgets. It is worth trying to get more of these improvements, they say, and the best way to do it is to press governments for reforms. It may also seem that public agitation for reforms does a lot to help, as when abortion and homosexuality were legalised after many years of campaigning. While at other times very large reform movements such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the massive turn-out to oppose the Iraq invasion produces no alteration in government policy at all.

What distinguishes the Socialist Party from those who also want a class-free, state-free, wage-free, money-free society of common ownership and democratic control is our view that parliament can, and should, be used in the course of establishing such a socialist society. There is a strong sense of disenchantment with the world as it is which exists through the failure of the system to solve the many social problems. But still, the mistaken idea that the nature of the present system can be changed by reformism of one kind or another, or by state control continues to prevail. Governments have been formed with the intention of changing the nature of capitalism, so as to bring about a society which could work in the interest of the whole community. Far from being able to control capitalism, all governments have found themselves dancing to the tune played by economic forces. No government has succeeded in controlling the economy or the market system for the benefit of the whole community. To those who might think that political action could be better directed at “improving” capitalism, we say that those who took the same view in years past contributed by default to the present status of society. A sane society cannot be postponed without accepting the consequences of postponement.

The necessary means of achieving socialism are determined by the nature of socialism itself. A society organised as a result of conscious democratic control can only be established by conscious democratic means. The ends and means are inseparable. The only power which can change capitalist society is the democratic power of a majority of socialists acting in world co-operation.

Cosmic Humanity

The Socialist Party rejects the idea that any one group should own or control the means of production. It seeks a class-free community where there will no longer be the need for the state, since there will no longer be any class to suppress, and the state will be replaced with common administration by all of society. Socialism will be able to make full use of the contribution of everyone in society while developing and introducing scientific methods to expand output. As new technology such as computerized automation can replace workers, workers will not be thrown into the streets, but transferred to other jobs – according to an overall plan – and the work-day for all workers will be reduced. The nature of work itself will change completely because workers will no longer be toiling to enrich the capitalists to further enslave the working class but to improve life and providing for the future. Workers will have more commitment and pride in their work because they are working for themselves and neighbours. Workers will no longer be a mere extension of the machine, as they are under capitalism but instead machines will become tools in the hands of the workers to improve society. The collective stored-up knowledge of the workers will be unleashed to inspire workers to make new breakthroughs.

Capitalism creates conflict. The main conflict is between the capitalists and the workers. Their class interests are irreconcilably antagonistic. There is also one within classes. Not only is there a battle between classes, however. It makes workers compete against one another. And it is not only workers who are often disunited and weakened as a class. Capitalists are divided too – competing corporations, rival nation states, and economic blocs. And their competition over markets, raw materials, and strategic positions often breaks out into open war. These wars are not fought over pious ideals like justice, nationhood, democracy or religion. They are fought over power and control related to the need of capitalists for markets, sources of raw materials, investment outlets, trade routes and the strategic positions to defend all these.

The capitalist system, however, has been responsible for building up technology to the point where we now have a potential abundance of wealth. Compared with previous ages, advances in agriculture, science, and technology have made it quite possible to produce an abundance for every man, woman and child on the planet. Yet, scarcity still exists. The world's population lives in varying degrees of poverty. Millions are starving while harvests are stockpiled or destroyed with some farmers paid to stop producing. For the working class, in the present age of potential plenty, rationing by the money system, denies many of us access to the necessities of life, much less its luxuries. In an age when we could produce for use without anyone going short, producing for sale and profit is an obstacle to the real satisfaction of human needs and desires. Socialism is the free association of the world's people, a global community which can make arrange to use the world's resources for the benefit of all. This will mean selling one's ability to work in order to gain some access to wealth, an end to separate nation-states and an end to all forms of exchange and therefore the requirement for money. Instead, people will have free access to all available goods and services according to their own self-defined needs. Socialism will come as a welcome relief.

Humanity will not be miraculously transformed into angels and saints, full of "goodness" or "kindness" or "gentleness"; but the pressures which now stops them being all of these things will disappear– shortage of money, fear of unemployment, fear of crime, fear of strangers fear of war and fear of the boss. All of these neurotic responses and frustrations arise directly out of the capitalist organisation of society. When we end capitalism, we shall have removed these influences upon the thoughts and actions of every member of the working class. Socialism does not require us all to suddenly become altruists, putting the interests of others above our own. In fact, socialism doesn’t require people to be any more altruistic than they are today. We will still be concerned primarily with ourselves, with satisfying our needs, our need to be well considered by others as well as our material and sexual needs. No doubt too, we will want to “possess” our personal style in clothes and other things of personal use and to feel secure in the place we live in, but this will be just that— a home and not a financial asset. Such individual “selfish” behaviour will still exist in socialism but the acquisitiveness encouraged by capitalism will no longer exist.

"Humans have evolved gregariously. We delight in each other's company; we care for one another. Altruism is built into us. We have brilliantly deciphered some of the patterns of Nature. We have sufficient motivation to work together and the ability to figure out how to do it. If we are willing to contemplate nuclear war and the wholesale destruction of our emerging global society, should we not also be willing to contemplate a wholesale restructuring of our societies?"  Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Socialism cannot come by stealth.

The emancipation of the working-class can be accomplished only by the members of that class consciously organised in a socialist party. Its work consists in educating the working class to the best of our ability. It is of the highest importance that we should keep the class position of the workers as against the capitalists clear in its actions. We are in the midst of a world-wide recession. Every country feels its ravages. Millions and millions of workers are unemployed and in acute poverty. Everywhere there is discontent and a feeling of insecurity and the prestige of even the strongest of governments has been shaken. All sorts of emergency measures have been hastily adopted, but the recession still continues. In some minds, there is a hope that the crisis may bring the present system of society down in ruins, and make way for another. Some on the Left think that in a time of great distress and much despair workers would be forced by their sufferings to revolt against the capitalists and that they would place in power a government which would remould society on a socialist basis. The Socialist Party’s knowledge of past history and of the way in which the social system develops convinces us that no economic crisis can ever by itself bring us socialism.

Socialism cannot come by stealth. It can only come by the deliberate act of workers who understand socialism and are organised politically to obtain it through control of the machinery of government. The blind revolt of desperate workers would cause great distress and destruction. It might prove troublesome to the capitalist authorities, who would have to exert themselves to suppress it, but the outcome would not be socialism. The lesson to be learned is that there is no way out of capitalism until a sufficient number of workers are prepared to organise politically for the conscious purpose of ending it. So long as the workers are prepared to resign themselves to the evils of capitalism there is no escape from its effects. The workers will continue to suffer from the hardships of the capitalist system.  That is the prospect before the workers of all the world unless they actively interest themselves in understanding socialist principles and assisting in socialist organisation. What are you going to do? Are you going to put it aside and carry on as before, or are you going to acquire socialist knowledge? One way lies poverty, misery and bondage; the other way lies the road to emancipation and, at its end, all the happiness and fullness of life that the gigantic and fruitful machinery of modern industry offers to a world of free and equal men and women. The choice is before you; only knowledge, desire and self-confidence are needed to realise the free society of the future. Place not your trust in others, but be assured that the work there is to do must be done by yourselves. The political struggle of the workers must of necessity be waged along class lines. It is on the political field that the sternest battle of all is to be fought. That fight is not for mere votes as such, but for the acceptance of the socialist idea.

It is not for us to detail the social system that will arise from the common ownership and democratic control of the instruments of labour. Our knowledge of the conditions which will prevail at the time of the change, and of the outlook upon life of people is not extensive enough to foretell the exact nature of the future social system. We can only state the broad changes that we know must arise from the revolution.

The wages system would be abolished because it is quite plain that there is no other course open than this. With all the means of production and distribution socially owned, no one would be in a position to exploit labour-power, therefore no one would buy it. On the other hand, with the socially owned instruments of labour open to every worker, none would wish to sell his labour-power for another’s profit, even if he could find a buyer. Thus the whole wages system tumbles to the ground. When society as a whole it owns and controls the means of production, it will produce the things society needs. Necessity alone will demand industrial activity.

When Will The Insanity End?

To say the least, capitalism is an insane system. It's fundamental that the ownership of the tools of production by a minority, with the majority of people selling their working abilities to them for money which they use to buy some of the goods they have produced, is insane enough.

 From this flow, all manner of insane situations and the latest being the Republican party selecting a cartoon character to be their Presidential candidate. It is so stupid that newspapers that have urged their readers to vote Republican for years are now telling them to either abstain or vote for Clinton. 

Whomever wins it will still mean the continuation of capitalism and the insanity of billions being spent on war instead of social programs because of capitalism's insane profit priorities. One may well wonder when the insanity will end. It could be with the establishment of Socialism.

 John Ayers.

No more class-divided society

The manner society will organise on a socialist basis will be by securing the co-operation of all in the production of the articles and the operation of the services needed by all the members of society. Goods will not be produced for sale and profit-making, or to provide incomes for investors in company shares or in government bonds, etc., but solely for use. Men and women will no longer work under the threat of starvation but because they will realise that, at last, the interest of the individual is the interest of the whole community and the interest of the whole community also that of the individual.

To those who believe the capitalist teaching that men and women only work when driven to it by starvation and under the threat of losing their job and their livelihood, this is indeed a revolutionary idea but it is time for the working class came to understand their own capability and potential. There is nothing fantastic in holding that the world has now attained the capacity easily to provide an abundant and varied life for all. It is for the working class to become aware of the mission history has allotted to them, that of ending class-divided society for ever, and to strive for the achievement of socialism under which the principle shall be “From each according to ability: to each according to need.”

Socialist society will function quite differently from capitalist society, although initially at least it will have to use mainly the same equipment. The primary task of socialism will be to produce enough of all the things that people need and to get them to the right places at the right times. This will require a large part of the administrative organisation already built up within capitalism. The difference that will be most noticeable will be the simplicity once the cumbersome paraphernalia of capitalism has been removed. Many people are completely engrossed in the ramifications of present capitalist society. They are so conditioned by the impossible job of trying to make capitalism work effectively that they find it difficult to imagine how a real alternative to it could function. To support the whole process of production and distribution, socialist society will need a highly sophisticated system of information: about what people want, in what quantities; and about what is being produced all over the world. Capitalism has already developed technology and techniques which could make such a world-wide system extremely fast, comprehensive and accurate. But because of competition and the secrecy that goes with it; because of the market and its fluctuations; above all because the main aim of capitalism is to produce profit, not goods, capitalism cannot develop a really sensible and workable information system. A socialist world can.

Socialism is only possible because capitalism has preceded it. Capitalism has developed techniques of production potentially capable of producing an abundance; it has developed a world-wide working class which runs every aspect of modern society and it is rapidly developing information technology making world-wide communication simpler and more direct. But at the same time capitalism frustrates all of the developments because of the workings of capital itself and the interests of the capitalist class. The same sort of pattern can be seen in details. Supermarkets, for example, are a highly efficient method of putting a wide range of consumer goods within the reach of a large number of people. The trouble with supermarkets is the bottleneck at the cash desk. Because money will be useless in a socialist world, so will the cash desks. "Supermarkets" will then be able to function at full efficiency. Their shelves will be kept full by the removal of all the financial and trading restrictions that now cause butter-mountains, milk-lakes, and often ruin for farmers.

Modern production is social production. This means that what society can achieve depends on individuals doing different things in different places, but that all these link up with the effect of improving the quality of life for everyone. In socialism, the human capacity for co-operation would be set free to operate where it matters most — in the organisation, production and distribution of goods and the running of services. Co-operation would then operate throughout the entire structure of society. This will bring work under the democratic control of those who carry it out. It will be the self-determined activity of individuals, responding to the needs of the community of which they form a part and having responsibility and the real power of decision-making and action. Combined with the powers of production which already exist, co-operation in socialism would, in a relatively short period of time, deal with problems that now appear to be beyond control. There are few problems which cannot be solved by useful labour, acting throughout the world in co-operation. This is the prospect that world socialism holds.

Profit, rent and interest.

What is the ultimate source from which the landlord derives his rents, the industrialist his profits, and the banker his interest?

The property-owner knows that he receives rent from his tenants, whether those tenants are factory owners, farmers, or home-occupiers. The factory-owner knows he receives his profit from the sale of the goods produced by the workers employed in his factory. The money-lender knows that his interest likewise comes also ultimately out of the proceeds of the sale of goods. Likewise, the worker who rents a house is able to pay the rent only because his employer has sold goods and can pay wages out of the proceeds of past sales of the goods the worker produced for him. Ultimately, therefore, all forms of income arise from goods produced for sale.

What is it that gives goods of all kinds a value and enables them to be sold at their appropriate prices which provide both for the wages of the workers and for the profits, rent and interest of the propertied class? The explanation is that commodities have values which arise from what Marx termed the “socially necessary labour” embodied in them. To take a simple explanation, a bicycle worth £100, a suit of clothes worth £100, and a certain weight of gold worth £100, all have the same value because the amount of labour required in their production is the same. (The selling price of an article may in practice deviate from value, and secondly only that labour is value-producing which is “socially necessary” labour)

There is one commodity which has two peculiar features. This commodity is the “labour-power”, the physical and mental energies of the worker. Its first peculiar feature is that it is possessed by the working-class who, apart from this, have no commodities to sell. Not having any other commodity to sell, the worker has to obtain his livelihood by selling his “labour-power” to the capitalist, by the hour, day, week or month as the case may be. Like other commodities, it has a value, which is proportionate to the amount of labour required for its production; which means the amount of labour required on an average to produce the food, clothing, shelter, etc., of the worker and his dependents. Under the different climatic conditions of different countries and the different conditions of different occupations the worker requires differing amounts of means of subsistence, but this is a qualification which need not detain us in considering the simple elements of the position.

The second peculiar feature possessed by the commodity “labour-power” is that it has the quality of being able to produce a value greater than its own. When the worker expends his labour-power by working on the employer’s raw materials he is capable of adding a value greater than the wage he is paid, or in other words a value greater than the value of the food, clothing, etc., that he consumes. In a working week of six days, for example, the worker may be working, say, three days producing value equal to the value of his means of subsistence (his wages), but in the remaining three days, he will continue to work producing value which is retained by the capitalist. This “surplus value” is the source from which all forms of property income, all profit, rent and interest are derived.

This, then, is the answer to our question. The property income of the capitalists, like the income of slave owners in former times, is derived from the exploitation of the workers. The workers are carrying on their backs the whole of the propertied class.

It may seem that the contract between employers and employees is just like any other bargain entered into voluntarily, as, for example, the contracts between capitalists when they buy and sell commodities. The wage contract however only appears to be free but, in truth, it is forced. The capitalists, because they are the owners of property and their ownership is endorsed by law and protected by the State, can impose more or less their own terms when they bargain with the property-less working-class. They are able to do so for the reason that the workers are always only a short distance from destitution. The workers must accept more or less the terms that are offered because otherwise they face unemployment and have not the means to hold back for more than a short time. The workers’ bargaining position is helped but necessarily to a limited extent only, by trade unions.  

A slave owned by a slave-master, knew very well that he was labouring to provide for the slave-owner as well as himself. He did not imagine that he was entering into a voluntary arrangement. Similarly, a serf, obliged to work unpaid for the Lord of the Manor could clearly see that he was being robbed and exploited. To-day exploitation takes the form of “wage-slavery”.

Defenders of capitalism do their best to argue that their incomes arise from sources other than the exploitation of workers. They talk of the thrift and self-denial of the capitalist. They talk of their own long hours of “work”, and that they are indispensable as “supervisors” and “organisers”. They make much of their superior business knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. Or that they are inventors and discoverers.

But at the end of it all, the propertied class provide the facilities and the instruments of they allow the working-class to produce and operate them – on condition that the workers agree to their own exploitation, working part of the week to produce the equivalent of their wages and the rest of the week creating surplus-value which is the source from which all the sections of the propertied class derive their profits, rent and interest.

Socialism is all about organising

Socialism is the planned organisation of production for use by means of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and is the abolition of all classes and class differences. Socialism is not a utopian ideal or a blueprint for society that exists in the minds of some people. It is a social necessity; it is a practical necessity; it is the direction that people, in order to satisfy their social needs, must take in order to save society from disintegration. To be a socialist merely means to be conscious of this necessity, to make others conscious of it, and to work in an organised manner for the realisation of the goal.

Production is already carried on socially. Labour has been socialized. Capitalism has become concentrated and centralised which organises a great multitude of little operations under a single direction. Capitalism has already accomplished a great deal in eliminating the need for high skills by simplifying the operations in production. The only important thing that has not been socialized is the ownership and the appropriation of the products of industry. They remain private. And therein lies the root of capitalist exploitation and oppression, of the anarchy of production and of crises. Social production represents the seeds of the socialist society growing right in the soil of capitalist society itself.

Capitalism also produces the force capable of reorganizing society - the working class, brought into existence and developed by capitalism itself. Capitalist production organises the workers as a class. The very way in which work is carried on assemblies the workers for cooperative labour. Capitalism wipes out the basis for the workers’ interest in maintaining private property. The workers are now propertyless workers. The workers suffer intensely from the rule of capitalism. Their interests are diametrically opposed to those of the capitalists. The struggle between working class and capitalist class is the sharpest and most irreconcilable. The workers cannot rid themselves of their sufferings without abolishing the domination that the machine has over them. They can do this only if they gain control of the machine itself. In doing so, they must destroy capitalism and proceed with the complete reorganisation of society. The working class is thus the bearer of socialism.

Humanity will no longer be the slave of the machine. Automation and robotics will serve mankind. Every increase in productivity through technological innovation will bring with it two things: an increase in the things required for the need, comfort and luxury of all; and an increase in everyone’s leisure time, to devote to the free cultural and intellectual development of humankind. Despite all the restrictions that capitalism places upon production, industry, properly planned and organised, can produce the necessities of life for all in a working day of four hours or less. Men and women will not live primarily to work; they will work primarily to live. As the necessities and comforts of life become increasingly abundant, and the differences between physical and mental labour, between town and country, are eliminated, the last vestiges of inequality will disappear. These divisions will be eliminated as will all aspects of commodity production (production for sale and profit rather than production for use.) Wage-slavery will be seen as just as criminal and absurd as ancient slavery. The slave-owners and the capitalists have one fundamental thing in common–they are both exploiters, and they both regard it as the correct and perfect order of things for a small group of parasites to live off the majority of laboring people. They differ only in the form in which they exploit and therefore in their view of how society should be organised to ensure this exploitation. The working class has no interest in promoting private gain at the expense of others and every interest in promoting cooperation. For only in this way can it emancipate itself and all humanity.

Fracking Awful

A series of new reports published by the Scottish Government into the potential health effects of fracking found there was “sufficient” evidence to suggest that a number of “air and water-born environmental hazards” would be likely to occur should the operations go ahead.

Workers could also be at risk from breathing in dangerous crystalline silica during operations, the report found, a risk to health that could also affect those living near to fracking sites. Energy and Climate Change Minister Paul Wheelhouse emphasised the importance of remembering that shale gas and coalbed methane resources are located in the most densely populated part of country. Increases in traffic could also result in more noise and emissions in the affected areas. However, the report found that there was “inadequate” data to determine whether the development of shale oil and gas or coal bed methane would pose a risk to public health overall. He told MSPs that a “precautionary, evidence-based approach” would continue.  

Also, analysing the impact fracking could have on climate change, experts from the Committee on Climate Change concluded that developing unconventional oil and gas (UOG) would make it harder for the country to meet environmental targets. Left entirely unregulated, the emissions footprint of unconventional oil and gas production could be substantial,” the report warned.

Researchers reported it was “unclear” if the fracking industry was “commericially viable”, with current low oil prices providing a “challenging” financial climate. The industry would contribute an average of 0.1 per cent GDP.

Friends of the Earth Head of Campaigns Mary Church said: "Fracking is bad for the climate, bad for public health and won't do much good for the economy. That's the damning verdict of the independent studies published by the Scottish Government today, echoing the concerns of communities across the country.

Poverty Scotland

Up to one in three children grow up in poverty in parts of Scotland, a new study for the End Child Poverty coalition suggested. 

3.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK - with 220,000 of them in Scotland. The worst-hit local authority area in Scotland is Glasgow, where 34.1% of children are affected.

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, explained: "Poverty in Scotland continues to harm the lives of children across Scotland… Living on a low income not only affects their well-being now, but can have a negative impact in the future. This is an unnecessary situation and one that requires urgent attention."

A separate study has revealed that 63,794 three-day supplies of emergency food were handed out to people in Scotland at Trussell Trust foodbanks. The figures showed that problems with benefits remain the most significant reason for foodbank use, accounting for a total of 42% of referrals. One in four were due to benefit delays and 17% were sparked by benefit changes.

The trust's Scotland network manager, Ewan Gurr, said: "… we are still experiencing an epidemic of hunger in Scotland. Benefit delays and changes are still the primary reasons underpinning the increased number of referrals to foodbanks. What is more concerning, however, is that hunger is also clearly and consistently being driven by low income. A decrease in the cash in people's pockets leads to an increase in the use of foodbanks."

Financial Insecurity Can Be Very Dangerous Under Capitalism

An SPCer asked a delivery guy for Pizza-Pizza why they had extended the time limit for a free pizza from 30 to 40 minutes. "Too many accidents,'' was the answer. He didn't say that the fear of losing their jobs made them hurry. 

This clearly shows how the financial insecurity that daily life under capitalism creates can be very dangerous. 

John Ayers.

Is There Anything Capitalism Cannot Destroy?

A recent television program focused on the plight of the Horseshoe Crab which is an endangered species, because its spawning grounds are being polluted. This species has existed for 450 million years and now, thanks to the effects of capitalism, it may soon become extinct. 

This begs the question, ''Is there anything capitalism cannot destroy?

Why not preserve the Horseshoe Crab, which has, obviously, survived many climatic changes and make capitalism extinct? 

John Ayers.

The industrial cooperative commonwealth

Unity does not mean locked-in agreement on every issue or detail, it does mean bringing together our presently atomised struggles for peace, the environment, racial, social, and economic justice together. None of our struggles can achieve our only objective for social change – socialism - without all the struggles joining in class solidarity.  We all know it but have not been able to bridge the divides.

Thus, we find ourselves in the eleventh hour of a deep global crisis of climate change with expanding wars. It is increasingly clear that all global people's movements must arise around the world to save the planet and civilisation. Hungry people are hungry for positive change. The transformational revolution needed by our people and our planet is possible. Organised groups must persuade fellow-workers of our common interests and to do this we need to be united in ways we have not been in the past but that is possible to do.

World peace, social equality, work for all and job satisfaction are what every worker, young and old male and female black and white, wants and needs. And they are exactly what capitalism cannot provide. Since the inception of capitalism and long after it had exhausted any and all of its initial progressive features, each succeeding period has produced its spate of apologists, confusionists, and mystifiers of the real nature of this brutal system of exploitation of one class by another, have offered reforms and palliatives to make capitalism work better. All to no avail. They still keep presenting a host of hopes and aspirations, sweeping all their past failures under the carpet.

There is surprisingly little discussion there is today among those who call themselves socialists about socialism. They concern themselves exclusively with the ‘practical’, ‘day-to-day issues’ of the class struggle, leaving the future revolution to take care of itself, little different from Bernstein’s famous saying ‘the goal is nothing, the movement everything’. If there is no goal, there is no movement.

What is socialism? Socialism is not the rule of state bureaucrats over the people. Socialism is a society without any classes. Socialism is a new system built on the ruins of the old capitalist system. Socialism is about freedom, not merely juridical sense but freedom in the most concrete sense: freedom of people in their everyday lives and activities to decide collectively how much to produce, how much to consume, how much to work and how much to rest. Freedom to decide, collectively and individually, what to consume, how to produce and how to work. Freedom to participate in determining the direction of society, and freedom to control one’s own life within this social framework.

Socialism means, above all else, that political and economic power is been taken out of the hands of the capitalists and placed in the hands of the people. Political power will be used immediately to place the means of production and distribution into common ownership, taking it out of the hands of the capitalist class. From the present day organisation of production for profit, the purpose will be changed to production for use, production of what is wanted and needed by the people. Work will become more interesting and more meaningful as its results will go entirely to benefit the people.  Industry will have only one purpose in socialism, to serve the people. Democracy will be extended in a way not imaginable under capitalism. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes placed on progress by capitalism. It will release the creative energies of the people, making it possible to meet their needs in food, clothing and shelter, and will open vast horizons of cultural and educational possibilities of which we as yet have no conception. Different classes will cease to exist. 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. 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. Mankind will be able to develop its talents and potential to the full. The boundaries between mental and physical labour will be removed as all people receive the freedom and means by which to exercise their latent abilities.

The Socialist Party is for depends on industry. The support of the majority of the population is necessary for the socialist transformation of society. The Socialist Party envisage the restructuring of the ownership and control of means of production in the economic process of society whereby the means of production will be controlled and owned in common by the working class and not by the capitalists.

the industrial cooperative commonwealth founded upon the social ownership of land and the means of production and distribution where the requirements of life, the responsibility for this production should rest with the community collectively. The control of industry today is left to the care of the capitalist class whose sole concern is to make profits for themselves, although life and death

Towards a new society

Capitalism is based on the production of goods for sale. The capitalist class owns and controls the social necessaries, the economic resources of the world. That class, for its own protection and perpetuation in power, subjects all institutions, political, judicial, educational, religious and others, to its own interests. On the other hand, however, there is the working class which is eventually going to change the whole system of ownership of the means of production. The working class alone is interested in the removal of economic inequality. The workers, collectively, must take over and operate all the means of production and distribution, for the well-being of. No return to barbarism but instead a higher civilisation is to be achieved. People will use the knowledge of ages to build the foundations of a new social system. Harmonious relations will evolve out of the change in the control and ownership of the resources of the world. All members of society will enjoy in equal enjoyment all the good things and comforts of life. They will be the arbiters of their own destinies in a free society. The life of human beings will not consist only of drudgery when all the good things created by the workers are available to them.

The feudal lords had to surrender to the ascending capitalist class. There is no escape from the inevitable result that they too are fated to be relegated to history. It all seems so solid and permanent right now, as once did slavery and then feudalism after it! But within the capitalist system, the force is being created and organised that will destroy capitalism and usher in socialism—the working class. The frantic appeals and clamour of reformers will not in the least affect the course of events. The working class have a historic mission to perform; a mission that they will carry out, despite the bribery held out to them that a restoration of past conditions would accrue to their benefit. The workers of the world, conscious of their historic mission, will learn to avoid the mistakes they would make should they depend on other forces than their own industrial power for the solution of the world’s problem. Agencies and institutions deriving their lease of life from the political and industrial masters of today cannot be looked to for support. They may feign being in favour of radical changes in the effects. They will, however, strenuously, even violently oppose any attempt at destroying the cause. They will strive to perpetuate the wages system at all costs.

Most people wonder what the future holds for them. They want to know if it is possible to share a future free from poverty and the anxiety that their pay will be able to keep up with prices, the payments on the house, the furniture and the car.  They want to be assured that there will be work to be had for themselves and their children.  People seek a secure and happy future for all without the rat race.  They don’t agree that a small number of privileged rich folk should cream off the benefits of technology, while the rest of us spend our days in drudgery and boring monotonous work. Many no longer consider such things arranged because of “human nature”, of his “natural greed”. More and more people think that life can be improved to make it better for all. Lessons have been learned from experience and also from the study of what life was like in the past, how it has changed and what made it change. People are increasingly understanding that it is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today but the way society is organised where a small minority of people owning and controlling the wealth can exclude the vast majority of us 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 that cannot guarantee security nor provide the good things of life for all. 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. With the ending of capitalism, the people would decide how the world should be run. The vast majority of the people gain nothing from capitalism and would lose nothing with its passing.

Class struggle 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. 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.

The ruling class have kept a tight check on the mass media, allowing no real opposition viewpoints to try to control people’s thinking and to withhold information. Men and women cannot be fooled by lies and false promises forever, however. The working class has always fought the injustices of the capitalist system. The trade unions organises the workers for the day to day struggle under capitalism. The trade unions were formed to improve the living conditions of the working class through struggle. They are defensive organisations, to stop the capitalist reducing working conditions and to stop workers undercutting one another for jobs. Other organisations of struggle on particular issues have been by the whole course of the struggle for a better and more secure life for the people to win housing, education, a health service reforms. To change the system, however, bodies are needed that can generalise the experience gained in all the struggles, and give a perspective to the working class as a whole – a political party for the workers, a socialist party. While people think and act as individuals, they are effective as a class, 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. Man’s struggle for a better life cannot be confined to just fighting for increases in wages, more to eat and better housing. Today workers can defend living standards but they cannot end exploitation and wage-slavery while capitalism continues. All the reforms that have been enacted to date have not taken us one inch closer to socialism. No reform will end in socialism.

No leader, no political party can do the job of ending capitalism and building socialism. This can only come about when the majority of the people engage in action themselves. The Socialist Party believe that no progress in improving the lot of the working class will be brought about without the struggle of the people themselves. Decisions can never be left to others. The emancipation of the workers must be achieved by the working class itself. This is the call to all the downtrodden all over the world. Helping to build a new society is the aim of the Socialist Party.

America elects a new leader

US workers, who are getting poorer and working longer, settle in for another US presidential election farce. American workers, like workers throughout the capitalist world, support a society which must impoverish and degrade them. The American voters will give their verdict on all the familiar issues of reform and futility, ignoring the real issue—capitalism or socialism—which faces them all the time. When the fan-fare ends and the next President is settled in the White House, capitalism will grind on, spreading confusion and despair on all sides. The inability of presidents to deal with the situations confronting them and to keep their promises to the electors is not lack of sincerity (although it often is) but that they are attempting the impossible - make capitalism work. The hope many have in Obama to implement policies that will benefit the working class was misplaced. The outcome of US elections carries one truth: namely that whichever candidate becomes president, he has but one remit once in office – to further the interests of the US corporate elite. It’s just not a feasible option for any newly elected president to entertain any idea other than guaranteeing a safe playing field for the domestic profit machine and doing what’s needed to try to ensure the US maintains its global hegemonic status.

The reality behind the American Dream is the sordid money-grubbing, back-stabbing rat race of capitalism; where politicians are merely the message boys of the rich and powerful and where the poor and exploited are left behind. The American Dream is a horrendous nightmare. It is depressing that American workers should be impressed by—indeed be part of—slick, high-pressure salesmanship and cynical drives for power. For after the shouting and the ballyhoo have died, capitalism, in America and the rest of the world, remains unscathed. This social system produces the horrors of war, poverty, insecurity and racial hatred. The Democrats and Republicans, like the other capitalist parties, can offer no end to these. Voters invest a lot of hope in the mystifying images that are placed before them. There is a lot of noise and movement, a feeling of anticipation. And then the penny drops. If you are running capitalism, the fact that you are a Jew or a Gentile, or black or white, or Christian or Muslim, or Hindu or atheist, or male or female, is completely irrelevant. Whoever you are, you can’t run a turkey farm for the benefit of the turkeys.

Only the establishment of socialism can give us a world of peace and plenty. As socialists, we are not pessimistic about the future. We believe that the class that produces all the wealth of the world will wake from this capitalist nightmare and bring about a society based on production solely for use. After all, as old Abe once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Wee Matt's Message to American Fellow-workers

Capitalism cannot be reformed to work in the interests of the wage worker.

Whoever becomes president; capitalism will continue with its poverty, homelessness, and hunger for many Americans. It’s not a new president that is needed but a new economic system. It makes no difference is that politicians and governments do not, and cannot, control the way the capitalist economy works. They have to navigate by sight in the face of what the capitalist economy throws up and so can do no more than react to how the economy moves. This quite apart from the fact that their remit to govern in the overall interest of the capitalist class. In fact, far from them controlling the way capitalism works, it's the other way round. Both Clinton and Trump want the power to organise the country for the benefit of its owning class. To support either candidate in this presidential election requires a massive feat of collective amnesia or delusion by the working class.

For after the shouting and the ballyhoo have died, capitalism, in America and the rest of the world, remains unscathed. This social system produces the horrors of war, poverty, insecurity and racial hatred. The Democrats and Republicans, like the other capitalist parties, can offer no end to these. Only the establishment of socialism can give us a world of peace and plenty. And for that, we do not need stage-managed ballyhoo. We need knowledge and the social responsibility that goes with it.

The majority of people—the working class, the useful, productive people in this society—are content to keep capitalism in being under the delusion that it is rather like a movie in which the baddies come to a bad end and goodie prevails. The problem is that there are so many baddies—war, poverty, starvation, mental stress, homelessness, alienation, crime, disease . . . And the "heroes" and "heroines are powerless to do anything about it but all those speech writers, strategists, and spin doctors try to tell us differently.

The socialist message to the American people is that they should think long and hard about what their new President will represent before casting their vote because the periodic election of Presidents function is to protect the class interest of wealth and privilege that perpetuate our servitude.

Wee Matt

Society's Addictions

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sounds like a guy way out of control in his ravings against drug dealers and users, 3,000 of whom have been killed in the Philippines since he took office on June 30. To quote ,''Hitler massacred 3 million Jews.....there is 3 million drug addicts; there are. I'd be happy to slaughter them''.

It is disgusting, inexcusable, but not very surprising that a man in a position of power would make such an inhumane comment. 

Though one can understand Duterte's revulsion of drug addiction it would be better for all concerned if he worked for the establishment of a society where no one would feel a need to take drugs. 

John Ayers.

The proletarian commonwealth.

Capitalism is synonymous with violence, and it is the handmaiden of chaos. 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. But capitalism is only a passing stage in the economic development of mankind. As capitalism spreads over the earth it produces the working class the great class whose historic mission is to end the exploitation of man by his fellow man. Workers want to escape from wage slavery. Some soon learned that reforms are either economically unsound or politically impossible. That the workers can get only what they have the power to take. If they have the power to take, and begin to exercise that power, the capitalists will often try to get ahead of them and give, hoping to get credit that they do not deserve and deceive the workers into the belief that the benefits do not come because of their own organised powers but because of kindness in the hearts of the capitalists. Rest assured, that if the workers allow their organised power to weaken, the hearts of the capitalists will harden accordingly. We, the workers, are many, though divided because of ignorance. They, the capitalists, are, few, but strong organisationally, ruthless in policy, grimly determined to increase in power and to perpetuate their dictatorship over the hopeless existence of a robbed class.

The employing class, organised in business associations, know that if one group of workers fight and win, other workers will be encouraged to do likewise, and the more they get the more they will want. So, no matter how much the capitalists fight among themselves, they are as one against labour. This resulted in the grand idea of solidarity of labour, a solidarity that knows no race nor country. 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. When the power of workers becomes greater than the power of the capitalist class, then comes the revolution! Every class system in society has ultimately been overthrown by revolution. The old power will disappear before the greater power of the new. Capitalism based on production for sale will give way to production for use. Thus will end the world’s last class struggle in which the workers will be the only class, embracing the entire human family, with ownership and control of the means of life in the hands of the collectivity. This is the final solution of social problems—industrial democracy. The age-long exploitation of man by his fellow-man will cease forever, and this will be the crowning achievement of the human race. The necessity that gave rise to classes in society has passed. The social economic structure‘s capacity to produce wealth has increased to a point where it is more than ample to provide sustenance for all. Production has been socialised. It remains only to socialise control of the economic structure and eliminate expropriation.

We have reached an era where action may not much longer be delayed if we are to escape an environmental collapse unprecedented in the annals of mankind. Workers of the world, unite. You have the world and life itself to gain!

Even the churches condemn the Tory cuts

A UK benefits cap that has just come into force is "indefensible", church leaders in Scotland have said. The Church of Scotland, the Baptist Union, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church said the cap would hit children the hardest. The churches believe the number of Scottish families with capped benefits will increase by more than 10 times. The churches said the cuts were "manifestly unfair".

Rev Dr Richard Frazer, convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council, described the cap as punishment for hundreds of children and said those who carried the heaviest burden were the "least able to suffer it". He explained, "We cannot tackle poverty by making people poorer and we cannot leave families without enough to meet their basic needs."

Paul Morrison, policy officer for the Methodist Church, said: "Over 2,000 single parents with babies under a year of age had their housing benefit cut because of the cap each month. Does the government seriously expect that cutting housing benefit will make it easier for them to find work?"

Socialism is coming

WORKERS UNITED

The Socialist Party indicts capitalism as a threat to civilisation. The present political struggle is a struggle to the death; either capitalism, with its wealth and power for its owners and the brutal, degrading struggle for existence for its workers, or else the capitalist class will surrender to socialism and people will progress to undreamed heights and establish a civilisation far in advance of capitalism. The Socialist Party challenges the right of capitalism to exist and proclaims socialism as its legitimate successor.  The Socialist Party appeals to the world’s workers upon the basis of their class interests. Capitalism is founded upon production for profit. Socialism is going to be planned production for use.

Whenever the employers fail for any reason to make a profit, it is in their power to end production for they dictate the terms upon which their privately owned factories are used machinery. Their workers have naught but their labour power, of hand or brain, to sell upon terms dictated by another. We are wage-slaves. We are asked to fight and die for a better world, and the better world they promise is only enough to keep body and soul together. The thing to observe is that the ruling class has been unable to solve the basic ills of capitalism. They all seek to do the impossible: make capitalism work. Capitalism has become an obsolete oppressive system that ought to be got rid off. This vast and resourceful planet should be free from the scourge of poverty and the blight of ignorance. If this system cannot give peace and plenty to its people, socialism will.

Common ownership is when products socially produced by the workers are be owned by those workers and ordinary people. Production is no longer guided by the profit of the handful of owners but by the requirements of the community, who now own the means of production. This is production for use and not for profit. The old coercive state apparatus of the exploiters is ended. This is the basis for socialism. Socialism must be the aim. The social producers become the social owners. Marx and Engels described this process and showed that capitalism had called into being its own gravediggers – the working class. This is the essence of socialist change.

Socialism means that one working class is not pitted against the others in wars. It means that one worker is not pitted against the other in the fight for a job. It means that one working class is not cutting the throat of the other by producing at lower wages than the other. The criteria for production under socialism would be – how much is needed? Some people will argue that it can’t work, it’s a utopia. We can only answer that capitalism has demonstrated that it cannot work. A society organised on the basis of production for use would have more of a chance of working than our present economic system.

It is not to reform the evils of the day but to abolish the social system that produces them that the Socialist Party is organised. It is the party not of reform but of revolution, knowing that the capitalist system has had its day and that a new social order, based upon a new system of production must soon replace the old one we now have.