Gustav's Gems

In his work "The Rise of Capitalism", Dr. Bang analyzes the collapse of the Chartist Movement. This was the great movement for universal suffrage in Britain in the 19th century.

"That happened which had to happen. Chartism had to terminate. It had to do so because, historically, it was not in consonance with the evolutionary stage of the period. Capitalism was not sufficiently ripe for overthrow. It was in its ascendancy, both as regards inner and external development. It had barely put the first lap behind, and it was to pass through a series of phases before the germs of its dissolution could manifest themselves. Preparations for its coming collapse could be made, the collapse could be hastened, but this could be done only by the workers gaining in strength, organizationally, tactically, and in consistent progress, and in the measure that the bourgeoisie became weakened.A big victory that in itself, meant a definite step toward a new social order, could not yet be won." 

Today, capitalism has developed to the extent that it is ripe to be overthrown. Has the world's working class themselves become more educated about how it should be overthrown? Or indeed, do they think it needs to be overthrown?

They need to wake up PDQ, before the effects of capitalism destroy life on this planet.

 For socialism, 

Steve and John.

Too Little Too Late

The Earth heated up to a third straight record hot year in 2016, with scientists blaming man made global warming - no kidding! Figures released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration revealed that the average global temperature was 14.84 Celsius, beating the previous year by 0.04,Celsius. 

This shows that what has been done to decrease global warming is too little too late. 

As long as profits are made capitalism rushes pell mell to its own destruction and that of the rest of us. 

Steve and John

Dysfunctional Capitalism

Capitalism is at war with life on earth.  - Naomi Klein

  Our species is capable of great compassion, kindness and tolerance; it is also capable of cruelty, selfishness and hate.  Capitalism's market forces act blindly and indiscriminately and its goal is limitless growth – no matter what the human or environmental costs may be. The global consequences of capitalism are great, long-term and far-reaching. The prospects for the planet and humanity are bleak. The profit-motive is the life-blood of capitalism. It is overwhelmingly responsible for global crises, and yet despite repeated warnings, little of substance has been done and it’s getting worse. All around the world people are suffering. Leaving behind this unjust economic system would create the possibility of progress. The capitalist class is a useless, dangerous, parasitic minority that can be dispensed with. In a society in which private ownership of the means of production has existed for thousands of years, the exploiting class through their rule have built up great power in all fields and have grabbed everything under the sun. Their long rule has given rise to backwardness, ignorance, selfishness, mutual suspicion and deception, mutual injury and slaughter in human society. It has exerted a most pernicious influence on the exploited. This is the inevitable result of the efforts of the ruling class to preserve their class interests and control. For they cannot maintain their ruling position unless they keep the masses backward, unorganised and divided.

 Surely, every thinking man or woman realises the capitalist system fails to supply the needs of the vast majority of the human race, and that it must be overthrown before people can have freedom. Capitalism's short-sighted hunt for profit has nothing to offer the majority but economic uncertainty for tomorrow, environmental disasters, poverty, disease and war. It is time for the workers of the world to learn their own power and use it for their own benefit. Socialist production will be planned on the basis of what serves society, not what yields the most profit. The producers themselves, the workers, will decide what to produce and how – not “the market”. The class-free society is the goal for socialists and the state will have ceased to exist, and people have attained full and unlimited freedom where the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is fully realised. Those things which are necessary for the production of the people’s needs shall be owned in common by all the people.


 Standing in the way of social progress is the capitalist class. Some day in the near future that the hungry millions will turn against the overfed few and a fearful retribution will be enacted on the capitalist class as a class. Can you imagine the power of free, unconditional sharing, mulitplied by millions and billions of people? What kind of world would that be? No exchange. No barter. Just everyone sharing their skills. Can you imagine the problems we could solve if we didn't need to buy and sell and trade in order to survive? Can you imagine if the only thing that governed people's behaviour was not the money they had nor the laws they obeyed, but rather the knowledge, respect and appreciation they had for each other and their environment? Soon we will build enough trust and confidence in the idea of world socialism, that we can begin to truly re-organise our society for the mutual benefit of all. We must understand that socialism is the greatest cause in human history, which will eliminate exploitation and classes once and for all, emancipate mankind and bring humanity into a world of happiness, radiating with beauty, such as it has never known before. But we must also understand that it wull be the most arduous undertaking in all history and only through protracted, bitter and torturous struggle will we be able to defeat the exploiting class. Beyond all doubt the socialist's cause will continue to develop and advance, and will win final and complete victory to deliver humanity from the nightmare of religion.


 The 'dictatorship of the proletariat' is a much misused phrase; when socialism is in being there will be no proletariat, as we understand the term today, and no dictatorship. There should be no compulsion; some people may say: “What the majority decide is good enough for me.” Others will say: “I like to have a voice in it.” As a rule, when things affecting a group of people who are working together come up for decision everyone of the group will join in and give his or her opinion, and generally the thing will be decided by mutual agreement. The 'dictatorship', so far as it is genuine and defensible, is the suppression of capitalism and any attempt to re-establish it.  Compulsion of any kind is repugnant to the socialist. No-one may make a wage-slave of another; no-one may hoard up goods for him or herself that he or she does not require and cannot use; but the only way to prevent such practices is not by making them punishable; it is by creating a society in which no-one needs to become a wage-slave, and no-one cares to be cumbered with a private hoard of goods when all that they need is readily supplied as they need it from the common storehouse.

We are brothers and sisters of one humanity.

“The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.” - Eugene Debs

Many people feel a pervasive pessimism. Fear, uncertainty and anxiety prevails which sucks the joy out of life and leads to a craving for endless consumerism, which exacerbates climate change and ecological destruction. We import luxuries from all over the globe, but can’t be bothered to cook or grow our own food. Something is happening, but many don’t know what it is. Many no longer feel as safe and secure as they used to. The meaninglessness and rootless of our lives as become too obvious for most of us to ignore, any longer. As each day passes, we witness how ignorant and mean-spirited our society has become. The division of men, women, and children based on money, privilege and social standing is totally unjust. Such inherent injustice is a cause of tension, resentment and conflict. Is everyone too busy hating to do anything? Unless one closes their eyes and filters out information, ignoring the signs of dramatic pending doom, realistically, what do you expect your future and our futures to be like other than potentially worse? What would you suggest we do to get from here to a better world?

We must be open-minded, ready for change and prepared to listen; we are the ones who will make the needed changes, not any saviour from on high. People who desire a better, inclusive, democratic world can achieve their goals, but only if they understand the forces that are working against them. Social change is desperately needed if we are to eradicate poverty, bring about social justice and save the planet. How can we be content with a mode of production in which millions starve and die in squalor; when the rich parade their wealth before the poor; when every person is incited to view his or her neighbour as an enemy; when no-one trusts another? For how long must we live like this? For how long can you support this degradation?”  The task of the Socialist Party is to create a new framework, which will finally change all capitalist definitions, capitalist perspectives and all the capitalist parameters.

We are utterly dependent on the capitalist system to clothe, feed, and shelter us.  For the privilege of sheer survival, we must permit ourselves to be exploited by capitalism. But capitalism has dulled our senses and disconnected us from any harmony with planet Earth. The socialist vision of granting every human being a share in the benefits of technological progress is a noble one. But if we expect that vision to be fulfilled we require a united voice of ordinary people, fused and directed towards a new economic thinking and the transformation of society towards abolishing poverty and malnutrition through the end of capitalism. Our society is not plagued by war, hunger, misery and oppression because we, the 99%, like to live that way. We suffer those things because the 5%, and their politicians, deliberately choose to inflict them on us. The Socialist Party offers the simplest almost perfect solution – that we should remodel our social system. The working class is the people, all of the people regardless of skin pigmentation, gender, or nationality. The failure to achieve working class solidarity, despite our numerical advantage, has allowed the capitalists, the corporations' board of directors, stock-holders, and their governments, military, police, justice system, education, media, etc. to divide and keep divided the people, so that the 5%-ers can continue their capital and profit accumulation unabated. If we are to find cures to the many crises facing humanity, we must end capitalism. It sounds like a platitude but it’s the simple and urgent truth.

The prevailing economic system has allowed for the concentration of wealth, and with it political power, into the hands of a wealthy elite, whilst condemning billions to lives of poverty and suffering. Income and wealth inequality is greater than it has ever been. A recent report by Oxfam revealed that “ the world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population [3.6 billion people].” There seems to be an assumption amongst the privileged that they are entitled to be as greedy, selfish, rich and powerful as they like, whilst billions live in crushing poverty. The feelings of hostility against our ruling class have been suppressed for generations, but are now beginning to surface as anger and frustration directed towards the capitalist system and governments that have policies for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.   Capitalism is a blind system – devoid of compassion. It promotes the idea that some are more deserving than others; some are entitled to live lives of excess whilst hundreds of millions literally have nothing. It pollutes democracy and it poisons the planet, for its survival.  It promotes atomisation and works in opposition to humanity’s underlying unity.

 This means we need to design new, social system, which work for everyone; that has as its principle aim, the goal of meeting the needs and addressing the welfare of every human being. What the Socialist Party works towards is a new system that take the fear and uncertainty out of life, and unite people instead of dividing. To achieve this requires nothing more than the common ownership of the world resources, sharing the skills, knowledge and technologies of the people of the world among the people, based on need. The Socialist Party seeks a revolution in how life is organised. When one feels powerless, engaging in action with others can break down the isolation. Stand up and fight back! A better world is possible but time is running out if we are to preserve the planet and protect life on Earth. Capitalism is an abomination. Capitalism is anathema. Capitalism is the destroyer of the environment. Capitalism is the maker of wars and famines and pestilence. Capitalism is abhorrent.

Saving our world is not, it seems, particularly important for the men of power – the possessing class and politicians; their priority is profit growth, economic expansion and the exploitation of everyone and everything through the cancer of capitalism.  Every natural resource is drained and exhausted in the name of the market. Such irresponsible, reckless behaviour by people content to bury their heads in the sands of denial is causing far-reaching, perhaps irreparable damage to the Earth, its diverse eco-systems and to humanity itself. The call is now for revolution. What is required is a revolution. It is an imperative that humanity abolishes capitalism. The revolution must begin.

Scotland's Shame

On Thursday 16^th March, the Scottish Government released two sets of poverty statistics, on how many people live in poverty and on how many people live in ‘persistent poverty’, in other words, have been in poverty for three of the last four years.

The figures are stark.

17% of Scotland’s population live in poverty before housing costs, equivalent to 880,000 people.  When you include housing costs, a further 170,000 people are in poverty – pushing the total figure to over a million people living in poverty and 1 in 5 of the population.

Poverty rates have fluctuated over the past few years, but seem to now be on the rise. More worryingly, poverty among working people is increasing fastest of all, perhaps reflecting the growth in part-time working, zero hours contracts, and low wages that fail to rise in line with inflation and living costs.

More than 1 in 4 children in Scotland live in poverty. And for the first time, we now know that over 1 in 10 children are classed as living in persistent poverty, meaning that they have been growing up in poverty for at least 3 in the last 4 years. The potential impact on the education attainment and wellbeing of each of these children is damning.

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/14550/blog-over-1-million-people-living-in-poverty-in-scotland-the-families-behind-the-figures/#

Who's Watching And Why

In January Toronto officials announced plans to double the amount of cameras at intersections, which is currently at 77. The expansion is part of the city's new $80 million road safety plan, which Mayor John Tory has championed with the aim of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. Methods of surveillance always start in a way the public as a whole find acceptable. In the U.S. it was supposedly to ''combat terrorism''.

All these techniques can and will be used to crush opposition to capitalism, but it won't do them a bit of good when the vast majority vote to end it. 

Steve and John.

Security On Buses?

The Toronto Transit Commission are increasing security on buses and streetcars in the hope that riders won't spit on drivers. In 2016 there were 285 assaults on transit operators in Toronto, a number that doesn't include verbal abuse. 34 per cent of assaults were by spitting, 31 per cent were a slap on the hand and 37 per cent a punch in the face. In a December pilot project called Bus Stop, constables boarded 400 buses on 400 lines.

 Most of the disputes were about fares, but nevertheless it's a clear indication that capitalist society is breaking down more and more every day. 

Steve and John.

The Movie "Hidden Figures"

The recent movie ''Hidden Figures'', which depicts the successful battle of three coloured women for recognition when working on NASA's space program in the early 1960's is excellent. Since one is a mathematician, one an engineer and the other a computer specialist, each have to fight their separate battles. The movie is totally absorbing, especially as it's a true story. 

Though one can applaud the breaking down of barriers and consequently raising the status of people who had previously been dumped on, wouldn't it be better to have a world where there were no barriers to break down because no one was getting dumped on? 

Steve and John.

National Myths

Scotland's national animal is the fictitious beast, the unicorn, which is apt for the fiction of the Scottish nation.

The brutality in much of Scotland's history beggars belief. The Clan Campbell versus Clan MacDonald and the Glencoe Massacre may perhaps be the most infamous that people have read about, yet “only” 38 men, women and children were murdered, (while others died in the snow)  but it was nothing special by Highland standards. 

Bones discovered in Massacre Cave, on Eigg have been linked to a massacre of almost the entire island's population during a clan feud in the 16th Century. Analysis by archaeologists at Historic Environment Scotland has dated the remains to the time of the killings.

In or around the year 1577, about 400 islanders, who were members of the Macdonald clan, were murdered by a raiding party of Macleods from Skye. The islanders had been hiding in the cave for three days when they were discovered. The Macleods blocked the narrow entrance to their hideout with heather before setting the material alight. The Macdonalds were suffocated by smoke and their bodies left in the cave.

The killings happened during a long standing dispute between the Macdonalds of Clanranald and the Macleods of Dunvegan on Skye. A party of Macleods arrived on a small island off Eigg during a storm , helped themselves to cattle and most likely raped some of the girls looking after the cattle so some Eigg Macdonalds crossed over to the island and dispatched the Macleods, reserving the worst fate for the first son of the chief of Macleod of Dunvegan by breaking his limbs and putting him adrift in a little boat without oars, condemning him to a slow and painful death.

The MacDonalds took their revenge one year after the brutal massacre when they landed on Skye, barred up the entrance to a local church, set it alight and killed all but one MacLeod inside.

Know Where You Want To Go

All around us are the signs of a world in crisis, yet men and women seem unable to do anything about it. Homelessness, unemployment, inadequate education and health care, and mass alienation have become facts of life. For the first time in history, present and future generations are confronted with the reality that they will be worse off than their parents.  No wonder many are in despair. But all is not lost. Those fellow-workers who seek a way out of a world of poverty and environmental destruction must look to socialism. Under capitalism, a small section of the population controls production and is not answerable to the rest of the community. This section is competing within its own ranks and with similar classes abroad. We are living in the most revolutionary period in the history of mankind. We are now entering an epoch in which the course of history has to take a decisive turn towards world socialism for planetary survival. So long as workers resist alienation and oppression they will revolt. And these revolts will emerge, as they always have, with remarkable power and suddenness. But those class explosions that are still to come are likely to have the appearance of new revolutionary forms, organisations which are not simply organs of struggle but organs of control of production. They are a sign of the future. Rest assured, whatever new organisations emerge, the struggle will continue. 

Socialism is not a reform, it is a revolution. However, to use the word without explanation is to get one’s self and one’s cause seriously misunderstood. We need to distinguish us as socialists from those who merely wish to patch up the present system and keep it. The other political parties, every one, old and new ones, really do advocate mere reform measures. All reforms that stop short of overthrowing the capitalist system become co-opted by that system and turned to its advantage (but not necessarily to the advantage of any particular capitalists). If the system isn’t overthrown it continues to function. We are not reformists — we are revolutionists.  The Socialist Party stands opposed to joining in a demand for palliatives, and assert that such a line of agitation is liable, to obscure the higher ideal, the complete overthrow of the wage system.

Let it be clearly understood everywhere that by revolution the Socialist Party does not mean violence or bloodshed. If any violence should arise, it would be not the result of the teachings of socialists, but rather the result of the refusal of the rulers to accept the will of the majority. For the Socialist Party offers a possible peaceful solution through the ballot box and the capture of political power. Socialism is not government ownership or control of industry. Socialism struggles for the abolition of the state, not the enlarging of its functions. Socialism is a struggle to place the management and control of industry directly in the workers through the overthrow of capitalism. Socialism, in the words of Engels, is not the government of persons, but the administration of things.  The Socialist Party holds that the economic emancipation of the worker requires the conversion of the means of production into the common property of all society.

Capitalism is tremendously wasteful and destructive of men and women, goods, energy, land. The ultimate destiny of all useful goods is to be consumed. Yet under capitalism goods are not produced to be consumed, but for profit, and if a greater profit can be made by destroying the goods, the destruction takes place. While production is a social act, the appropriation of the product, under the present system, is individual. As capitalism develops, larger and larger factories are built, thousands of laborers co-operate in the production of a single article, yet the article does not belong to them but to the owner of the means of production. The laborers are merely paid wages for the use of their labor power, wages which constantly grow less and less a part of the total product as the total product ever increases. Within the factory a rigid dictatorship, a terrible “rationalisation” where the dead machine rules living labor, where the man is transformed into a cog of the machine, where labor becomes wage-slavery. Outside the factory dictatorship is replaced by economic chaos, man is ruled by prices which he cannot control, by the wild forces of the market of which he can be only the victim. It is only through the hectic fluctuations of supply and demand, it is only through the frantic rush of “successes” and bankruptcies that society “decides” and “plans” the division of its labor. Simultaneously the owner of the industries becomes progressively more divorced from the productive process. As small partnerships become big corporations or are driven out of business by the trusts and monopolies, the original entrepreneurs and organisers become mere rentiers, mere dividend receivers. The corporation also develops, becomes more and more a public utility. The state begins to take a hand, and to run the industry. The former individual owner now becomes a purely parasitic hanger-on, his dividends paid regularly by the state apparatus which he controls. While the productivity of man is unlimited and increases in geometric ratio, the markets are limited, increase in arithmetic ratio, later do not increase at all and even decrease. The greater the productivity of labor, and the greater the amount of production, the greater becomes the surplus product in the hands of the owners, the greater the need for markets, the greater, therefore, the competition among the capitalists, and the greater the tendency to lower the rate of profit, the greater the lowering of the wages of the workers, the larger the army of unemployed and paupers, the more vigorous the drive for foreign markets and colonies for exploitation, and the more violent the military struggles to control the world. The greater the globalisation of markets, the greater the need to have a military machine to defend the market interests, the greater grow the oppressive burdens of the state apparatus. The only solution for capitalism is another world war greater than the preceding one. The motto “Bigger and Better” certainly prevails for capitalist wars and crises.

Is capitalism able to find the way out?  What solutions do the capitalist leaders propose?

The Socialist Party takes the attitude that what's necessary for the working class is to understand the world we liv in; the working class is faced with the problems of poverty, insecurity, and war, and the working class could not remove these problems until it understood the cause of them. Unfortunately, at the present time, the overwhelming majority of the workers did not understand the system of society in which they lived, and in which they were exploited.

Under capitalism, wealth took the form of commodities, articles which are produced solely for sale on a market with a view to profit The means of producing wealth—the land, factories, railways, etc., were owned by a small minority of the population, the capitalist class. The working class owned none of the means of production and consequently, was forced to work for those who do own. The worker, in order to live, had to sell the only commodity which he possessed—his power to labour. However, the commodity labour-power had a peculiar characteristic not possessed by any other commodity—it could produce a value greater than its own. That value which was produced by the working class, over and above what it was paid in the form of wages, was appropriated by the capitalist class and distributed in the form of rent, interest, and profit.

Because the working class was tied to the wages system, it received only the value of its labour-power, which was determined by what was required to maintain it as an efficient working class and to reproduce the next generation of wage-slaves. Hence, the worker’s lot was one of poverty amidst plenty. Moreover, the worker was only employed as long as the capitalist could make a profit from his employment. If there was no profit, there was no production, and the worker was out of a job. In order to realise the profits on the wealth produced by the workers, the capitalist class was brought into conflict with the capitalist class in other parts of the world and periodically, therefore, the capitalist world was plunged into war.

The only solution to these problems lay in the abolition of their cause, which was the class ownership of the means of life. Socialism is defined by the Socialist Party as being a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means of producing and distributing wealth by and in the interests of the whole of society. This would enable society to produce things solely for use and thus, remove the exploitation of the working class and the social problems which flowed from that state of affairs. Socialism could only be introduced when the working class understood and wanted it. They would act upon their understanding by, first, gaining a majority in Parliament. There had been people, including the so-called Communists, who had denounced Parliament as useless. However, Parliament controlled the forces of repression, and any alternative action in defiance of the capitalist control of the armed forces was suicidal and doomed to failure. Socialists, in Parliament , would be controlled by a socialist working class which knew what it wanted and how to get it. When the working class understood its position in society, it had no need for leaders, and could not be misled or betrayed.

Until capitalism was removed the working class could not solve its problems—and where the wages system existed, capitalism existed.  

A New Annual Record

About 100 people were missing in December and feared dead after two shipwrecks off Italy raised the total of deaths among migrants on the Mediterranean Sea in 2016 to 5000 - a new annual record, United Nations Agencies said on December 23. 

Deaths linked to Mediterranean crossings by migrants spiked in 2016. In 2015 more than one million crossed the sea, with 3771 deaths recorded. In 2016 about 360,000 people have crossed, most between Libya and Italy, but there have been far more deaths, probably due to overcrowding on unseaworthy vessels. 

As long as capitalism lasts folks will always flee from its more troubled spots, hoping to find a place where they can be exploited without a war raging around them. 

Steve and John.

A Two Edged Sword

Regular readers of this column may recall an item some while back about the claw on garbage collection trucks which can be operated by the driver making it unnecessary for a guy to lift and unload bins. At the time there were still a two man team on the truck.

 Recently, in Mississauga, Ontario, this writer noticed there was just one guy. Under capitalism progress is a two edged sword. 

Steve and John.

Drug Related Deaths

On January 18, on the CBC news, they provided the statistics of drug related deaths, recently in BC. 142 died in December and 914 in 2016, which is an 80 per cent increase from 2015. 

What a sick, empty, meaningless society we live in that would make anyone turn to and get hooked on narcotics. Its time to get rid of it. 

Steve and John.

Capital versus Humanity

A new danger is threatening the domination of the bourgeoisie – workers are resolutely adopting the path of international class organisation. The down-trodden, submissive slaves humbly bowing before the omnipotence of the modern Moloch of capital are, under the reviving influence of socialist ideas, lifting their heads and raising their voices in defence of their common class interests. The capitalists once could breathe freely when they still had under their power an inexhaustible supply of compliant workers, always ready obediently and selflessly to enrich by their labour the happy owners of the instruments of production. The employing class availed itself of the advantage offered by this state of affairs to set one half of the proletariat against the other, shattering any unity, compelling the newcomer migrant workers to appear as the menacing rivals, sapping the class solidarity of the workers. With malicious smugness it, the bosses fostered a more ignorant working class to thwart the struggle waged by the organised elements of the working class. But now the owners of capital and property do have something to worry about: new successes are being achieved in the organisation of the working class. Yesterday's silent slave is now a courageous fighter for the liberation of the working class.

The advance of scientific knowledge and the use of scientific method are of primary importance to man because, through enlightenment, they free him from the blind forces of nature, and through labour and struggle enable him to master his environment. Technological progress in recent times has extended man’s control over nature, to the point where it is possible to provide for all normal material needs. This is the economic base on which the good life for all citizens can be built. Such a life involves the creation, in the broadest sense of a cultured community — a community providing the maximum opportunity for the development of the potential of all its members.

Socialists hold a lofty view of human powers — mental, moral, and physical: a view of mankind changing itself and the environment through the exercise of those powers in collective labour. The promotion of culture involves the all-round development of the whole community, including the care of physical health and welfare, and preparation for working life, as well as the things of the mind and spirit, the sciences and arts. Socialists seek their synthesis in the production of complete humanity, the all-sided personality, for whom all life and experience form a unity. Marx was concerned with education for life, for useful people, not education for a leisured class, and he saw the need for maintaining the organic connection between labour and culture. Socialism sees all labour, physical and mental, as a unity, and sets out to end the distinction that exists between them in a class society, by seeking the end-product of the worker-intellectual. Socialist men and women are all-round persons, at home in physical labour, with technical skills, and a scientific understanding of nature and man’s place in it. A cultured life in socialist society includes physical welfare and an interest in the world of spirit and mind as reflected in the arts and sciences. Under capitalism, both worker and intellectual tend to be one-sided, partially developed. Socialism sets out to achieve a synthesis in personality, to produce people for whom both productive labour and intellectual life are requirements for satisfactory living. With socialism, the distinction between mental and physical labour, essentially a class distinction, will have disappeared. The collective, co-operative spirit of living is part of the lifeblood of a socialist society.

Profit Before The Environment.

Indian chiefs from Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. said, on January 11, that environmentalists everywhere were impressed by Justin Trudeau's comments at International talks in Paris, in late 2015. To quote activist Jane Fonda,''we all thought, what a cool guy, what a disappointment. He talked so beautifully of the need to meet the requirements of the climate treaty and to respect and hold to the treaties with indigenous people. Such a heroic stance he took there and yet he has betrayed every one of the things he committed to in Paris." Last year Trudeau approved plans to triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain Line between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C. And approved plans to replace Endbridge's line between Edmonton and Superior, Wisconsin, but he pushed ahead with a national carbon price and rejected Endbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. The compromise did not please Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C, Indian Chiefs, ''I share the bitter disappointment. He failed to restructure the National Energy Board or environmental assessment hearings into major resource projects''. Fonda added,''There's going to be more poor people if the likes of your Prime Minister and our President-Elect have their way - a lot of poor sick people''.

If the capitalist class and governments which maintain the status-quo consider the extraction and transportation of certain raw materials to be profit yielding they will go ahead and to hell with the environment and all who live there, indigenous or not. Protests won't accomplish anything - Revolution will. 


Steve and John

Bias Is Not Necessary A Bad Thing

On December 18 the Toronto Star focused on insurance claims made against General Electric in Peterborough, Ontario. Over the last ten years more than half of the 660 occupational disease claims, including brain, bowl and lung cancer, have been denied. Workers at GE are exposed to high levels of cancer causing substances such as Trichloroethylene, Asbestos and Lead. When they try to prove their cases to Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board they are confronted with delay, bureaucracy, callousness and disappointment.

One can hardly expect a Board, created by a government which is there to protect the interests of the Capitalist Class, to be unbiased. This is not to say bias is necessarily a bad thing. Some bias in the direction of a society where the above situation could not exist would be welcomed. 

Steve and John.

WORLD SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

The Socialist Party has no interests other than those of the working class. Capitalism has shown more and more clearly its inability to serve the needs of the people.  Wars, poverty, hunger, recessions and unemployment have been the lot of the people. But the millionaires and the industrialists have made their fortunes out of the people’s sweat and blood. The capitalists have done exceptionally well; indeed, they have never been better off. Fellow-workers have paid for all this in low wages and worsening conditions while the employing class has conducted a ceaseless offensive against the workers. Collective bargaining has been turned into a farce. The failure of the Labour governments and the failure of reformism is not the failure of socialism. Concerned only to defend capitalism and profit, the political leaders openly betray workers' interests. Only by the establishment of Socialism can workers' problems be finally solved and people guaranteed a good life, lasting peace and steadily rising living standards. Socialism means an end to capitalist profit and exploitation, for it will deprive the capitalists of their ownership and control of the factories and workshops, mills and mines, and land, shipyards and transport, and ensure that production is organised for the use of the people and not for the profit of the tiny minority of capitalists. The capitalist class is not interested in production to benefit the peoples of the world or even their “own” people. They are interested only in profits. If the productive forces in the world were to be utilised for the purposes of construction, the entire planet could be transformed and the standards of living and level of culture raised to undreamed of heights. This is not possible under capitalism. Plenty under this system can only produce crises of over-production, slumps and unemployment, because of the basic necessity of the capitalist class to make profits. Economists openly forecast a new economic recession in the imminent future. This springs from the economic laws of the system, not the desires, good or bad, on the part of the capitalists.

Socialism means peace and an end to the danger of wars because in socialism there are no longer capitalists who want to conquer new markets, to capture raw materials and to exploit other people for cheap labour. Socialists have always taught that war was not a question of the wickedness of individuals but the result of the conflicts caused by private ownership and profit and the existence of separate national states. There is only one class which loses in war and that is the working class. Workers in America, in Russia, in China and in Britain, like the workers everywhere, have their class interests in common. End the system that leads to war. 

Socialism ends the gulf between poverty and plenty and frees the creative energies of the people for gigantic strides forward in economic, social and cultural advances. Socialism means an end to slumps and unemployment. Socialism means freedom for the people—freedom from poverty and insecurity, freedom for men, women and children to develop their capacities to the full, without fear or favour and the opening of new opportunities for the family and new respect for the individual. Socialism means the abolition of capitalism. The way forward lies through the united action of the working people. The power of the working people, uniting all sections who recognise the need for social change and participate in carrying it through create the conditions for the establishment of socialism. The ownership and control by the people of all the main productive and distributive resources of the country will provide the means necessary for the reorganisation and extension of all social services, and the direct participation of the people in administering them.

The Socialist Party is out to change the whole system throughout the whole world. We, socialists, refuse to join the reformists in leading the workers into the camp of capitalism. Only a socialist revolution can prevent the outbreak of more global wars and the relapse of humanity into barbarity. To this inspiring task, we summon the workers of city and country – all who are oppressed by capitalism. The myriad evils of capitalism will disappear only with the destruction of capitalism and the building of socialism. The struggle for socialism will be an arduous one but only by wresting the state power from the capitalists can we begin the task of building a new society made to serve a truly human civilisation. The only road is the socialist road. End capitalism that breeds war, suffering, and oppression. Forward, workers of the world, forward to the new world that awaits us. Use the ballot against capitalism. Vote for socialism.” Vote for the Socialist Party, the only party that keeps the revolutionary banner unfurled and engages in the unremitting struggle for a socialist world. 

The Thanks One Receives

On December 23, three Canadian soldiers said they had endured years of racist abuse, including slurs about Aboriginals and Blacks that were ignored by their superior officers. The three have filed a lawsuit against the military in Federal court in Halifax. They claim they were exposed to verbal taunts, racial epithets and insults to family members. A Black soldier claimed someone threw bananas at his wife. Their officers brushed aside their complaints and told them not to file any suits. 

If all this is true, it goes to show that even when one is prepared to fight to defend and advance the interests of the capitalist class he is still treated with contempt. If anything is contemptible it's the capitalist system. 

Steve and John.

A Typical Capitalist Situation

In Toronto, unionized city garbage collectors said they would fight Mayor John Torys efforts to outsource 200 of their jobs. Matt Figliano, Vice-President of CUPE local 416, which represents the affected workers, said they have an anti-privatization,''Kicked To The Curb'', lobbying campaign. Before Toronto amalgamated in 1997, Etobicoke outsourced its garbage. In 2012 the then Mayor, Rob Ford, convinced council to contract out the rest of the city's west half, which saved them $11 million a year. 

The city is in debt, therefore it wants to save money, but workers don't want to lose their jobs - a typical capitalist situation. Years ago when the economy was buoyant, a job in the government usually meant job security, which today no longer exists. 

Steve and John

It's Obvious Nothing Changes Under Capitalism

On December 16 Venezuela became a country without cash. The most widely used banknote, the 100 Bolivar, which had previously been worth 2 American cents, went out of circulation. Higher denomination bills which were meant to replace it had not arrived at the banks and no explanation was given. This meant people looking to buy groceries were out of luck as banks had run out of lower denomination bills like 20 and 50 Bolivar notes. There were no political protests as people scrambled to figure a way of fulfilling their needs in a country operating without money, but with a price tag on everything they would want. 

And this in a country that claims to be a Socialist one - how ridiculous can it get?

 It's shades of the runaway inflation in Germany in the early 20's, when workers were paid four times a day.

It's obvious nothing changes under Capitalism, so why don't we all work for its abolition?

 Steve and John