The Vanishing Posts On The Labour's Web Site

We've all heard about the allegations that the Russians interfered with the U.S. election and we know that Trump fired two guys in his cabinet. What the media haven't covered much is what he's done for the "little guy" who voted for him, considering, his was a populist victory.

Farmers and ranchers, though not little guys, did vote for him in hopes of less regulation and lower taxes. Trump's decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have reduced tariffs and strengthened economic ties with the capitalist class in eleven other countries, will cost the agriculture industry $4.4 billion a year in potential sales, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the biggest U.S. farmer group. As for the "real" little guy, let's hear from California-Based Worker's Rights advocate, Carmen Rojas, who says "If we had been living in an overcast period for working people in the U.S., we are about to enter into a dark, dark, period." Gone is Trump's first pick for labour, Secretary, Andrew Pudzer, who withdrew his nomination on February 16th, after hearing Trump trash minimum wage hikes and overtime protections.

A review of the Department of Labour's website reveal that many posts about protecting precarious workers, enforcing labour laws and cracking down on wage theft, have vanished from the website. Other disappearances are an executive order from the Obama administration that would have raised the minimum wage of Federal contractors to $10.10 an hour. This would have given 200,00 low wage workers a raise. Other links to the Department of Labor blog posts, also appear to be broken, especially on issues related to wage theft and employee misclassification, which is the practice of wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors to avoid legal obligations, like paying minimum wage. 

No one at the White House has asked why these pages have vanished. One thing you can be sure of, is that, the self-styled champion of the forgotten American, has forgotten him.

Steve and John.

In The Final Analysis

On April 16th, Turkey is set to hold a referendum on switching to a presidential system - a move critics fear would put too much power into the hands of Mr. Erdogan. The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, said Turkey's lack of media freedoms and freedom of expression has reached "alarming levels." He also criticized the imprisonment of journalists, the erosion of the independence of the judiciary, the use of defamation laws used to silence critics, censorship on the internet and the use of state resources to favour pro-government media. Shades of Hitler and his thugs, subverting the Weimar Republic . . .

Though political and parliamentary democracy has its uses, in the final analysis, there is only one form of democracy worth working for - economic democracy. To achieve that, you must first abolish capitalism.

Steve and John.

Forlorn hopes in Govanhill

SOUTHSIDE Central contains what are two of the most notorious areas of the city – the Gorbals and Govanhill.

With high levels of poverty, overcrowding and fly tipping, it’s easy to overlook the many positives - community spirit, excellent amenities, great transport links. Jim Monaghan is a community campaigner who works for Govanhill Community Baths said: “The best thing about Govanhill is the mix of people. You’ve got the kind of hipster artists and working class people who have been in the area for decades and migrants who have just come here. The diversity is not just in terms of race but also social cultures, which makes it a really interesting place to be a place that no matter what your community or culture is, whether ethnic or social, you’ll find someone like you.” 

On the other hand, Jim says poverty is a huge issue.

He said: “What I like least is the poverty, which you see in the overcrowded housing. Because of the mix of housing here being low rent, poor quality and easy to get, people who struggle to get references or deposits gravitate here and so it becomes a cycle. 

“Poverty, lack of opportunity, poor housing – everything is linked. People will say the problem is the Roma or landlords but the issues are linked to the same thing: poverty.”

To fix the problems in Govanhill, and the ward more widely, Jim believes a joined-up political approach is necessary.

He said: “The ward needs housing. It needs people to be serious about it. People use the area as a political football most of the time...'

Looking to the future, Jim believes things can get better.“There’s an opportunity to make it that 20 years from now people will say ‘Look at that wonderful place’.”

Jim understands the problem but does he realise the cure? Can he trust that the capitalist system can fulfil what he hopes for.

Understanding socialism

The first condition of success for socialism is that its adherents should explain its aim and its essential characteristics clearly, so that they can be understood by every one. We must do away with many misunderstandings created by our adversaries and some created by ourselves. The idea of socialism is simple.

The Socialist Party proclaim its dedication to the cooperative commonwealth and has set out its alternative to the grinding poverty and stark injustices that confront our fellow-workers. We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent inhumanity, by a social system where exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated.Few can deny that the world today is in a constant state of upheaval. Never have we stood in greater need of fundamental solutions faced by a world in the grips of social, economic, environmental and political crises. The Socialist Party goal is a socialist world, based on common ownership of our resources and industry, cooperation, production for use and genuine democracy. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of our people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. The socialist option is the only alternative. The deepening of the world social problems is inevitable as long as profits dictate the course of humanity.  The half-measures of offered by Big Business cannot meet the challenge. The stock-in-trade of government legislation—tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy has proven futile. Welfare state policies have done nothing to correct deep-seated structural inequality. Regulatory reforms, aimed at the most blatant abuses of corporate power, have not succeeded. Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That failure puts a campaign for the socialist alternative on the immediate agenda. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society.

A multitude of human beings possesses nothing. They can only live by their work, and since, in order to work, they need an expensive equipment, which they have not got, and raw materials and capital, which they have not got, they are forced to put themselves in the hands of another class that owns the means of production, the land, the factories, the machines, the raw material, and accumulated capital in the form of money. And naturally, the capitalist and possessing class, taking advantage of its power, makes the non-owning class pay a heavy price.  It may be said that the worker does not even own his or her own body outright.  If labour is to be really free, all the workers should be called upon to take part in the management of the work rather than be mere  “hands” of the capitalist system, whose only use it is to put into operation the schemes which the capitalist has decided upon. All this misery and all this injustice results from the fact that one class monopolises the means of production and of life, and imposes its laws on another class and on society as a whole. The thing to do, therefore, is to break down this supremacy of one class.

  Socialism recognises no distinction between the various nations or “races” comprising the modern world. “My country, right or wrong,” is an expression that is the very antithesis of socialism. The position of the Socialist Party is one of hostility to the existing political order.  We are now poor and enslaved not because of lack of reforms made by politicians, but because the employing class own and control the means of production, without access to which we cannot live. So long as others control the means whereby we live so long shall we be slaves.

Against this insane capitalist system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in protest and unqualified condemnation. It declares that if our society is to be rid of the host of economic, political and social ills that for so long have plagued it, the outmoded capitalist system of private ownership of the socially operated means of life and production for the profit of a few must be replaced by a new social order. That new society must be organised on the same basis of social ownership and democratic management of all the instruments of social production, all means of distribution and all of the social services. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. In short, it must be genuine socialism.

The Market Fails Again

There has been a further deterioration in home affordability in Scottish cities with prices up 3%.

The average price in cities has now risen from £181,061 in 2016 to £186,002 in 2017, according to the figures from the Bank of Scotland and this has resulted in average home affordability in Scotland’s cities worsening in the last 12 months from 5.2 to 5.3 times gross average earnings. It is the fourth successive annual decline in home affordability and affordability in Scottish cities is, on average, now at its worst level since 2009.

Edinburgh is once again Scotland’s least affordable city with an average house price of £236,136 which is six times annual gross average earnings. Other expensive cities include Aberdeen and Perth at 5.7, and Dundee and Inverness at 5.5. Perth has recorded the biggest price rise of any Scottish city over the past decade with a gain of 31% between 2007 and 2017, compared to the UK cities average of 21%. Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen had the next highest price rise, with all seeing a gain of 16%. Perth house prices have seen the strongest recover since the economic downturn. Over the past five years, Perth has recorded the highest house price growth with a rise of 27%. Dundee has the second highest increase in average house price with growth of 25%, closely followed by Glasgow at 23%.

Stirling is the most affordable city for home buyers in both Scotland and the UK with an average price of £173,848 which is 3.7 times average gross annual earnings. This is much lower than the UK cities average of 6.9.

 ‘Rents and house prices are continuing to rise as demand outstrips supply, meaning many individuals and families are facing growing pressures and aspirations are being stifled,’ said Homes for Scotland, chief executive Nicola Barclay. ‘With housing production having fallen by 40% since 2007, but the number of households rising, it is vital that we see the bold action and investment needed to provide enough homes of the right types in the right locations to meet the diverse housing needs of our growing population.’

Bigotry in Scotland

Sectarianism still exists in Scotland, a new report says, and there is culture of denial about the extent of problems.

 The report, by Dr Duncan Morrow, said the focus should be on ending the behaviours, attitudes and structures which underpinned sectarianism rather than naming and shaming any individual or group. He also said there had been a disappointing lack of urgency from local authorities. Dr Morrow said football was only one part of the jigsaw of sectarianism.

He said he was sceptical as to whether government proposals to tackle the problem were sufficient to change the evident sectarian behaviour in Scottish football.

"I remain seriously concerned that the primary concern of the authorities remains to avoid responsibility rather than to take action."

"That Atrocious System"

On February 14, 2017, Toronto judge, Edward Belobaba, found in favour of survivors of the round-up of Indian children, in their suit against the Federal Government. Between 1965 and 1984, 16,000 Indian children on reserves, were placed in non-indigenous care. In his report, Belobaba said, "The uncontroverted evidence of the plaintiff's experts, is that the loss of their aboriginal identity left the children fundamentally disoriented, with a reduced ability to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. The loss of identity resulted in psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, violence and numerous suicides."

Belobaba's next step will be to "assess the damages the government owes to the plaintiff." The real damage has already been done. The capitalist class forces everyone to conform to their scheme of things, regardless of the misery it causes. 

When Robert Tressel referred to capitalism as, "That atrocious system," it was a masterpiece of under-statement. 

Steve and John.

A Moral Question? Or A Fact.

On Valentine's Day, the RCMP appropriately warned anyone using APPS or websites in their search for love, to be cautious. Last year, 748 people lost more than $17 million to on-line dating scams. Some were cheated out of more than $100,000 and many were too embarrassed to report it.

Scammers create on-line profiles to gain someone's trust, then ask for money, often claiming to be faced with an emergency, the RCMP said.

It is despicable that the de-humanizing aspects of life under capitalism, would make anyone so devoid of conscience, they would prey on people's loneliness and then hurt them, but nevertheless, let's bear in mind that this is illegal robbery - there's enough legal robbery going on, every moment of every day.

 Steve and John

A Fast Way Oiut Of A Job.

In July, commuters in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, will still be taking taxis, but those that fly. Passenger drones capable of carrying a single rider will fly above the skyscrapers at the push of a button. This is part of the city's plan to increase driver-less technology. The city already operates the

world's longest driverless subway system. In October, the city signed a deal with the Los Angeles-based, "Hyperloop One", to study the potential for a Hyperloop, which is a vacuum-like tube, through which a vehicle travels faster than airliners, between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

It sounds great and the technology is great, but its effect won't be when, like so many of capitalism's inventions, it puts the working guy out of a job.

Steve and John.

Capitalism is a failed system

Many argue that poverty and climate change are being solved by capitalism, making the current system the best way for the world to continue to grow in a sustainable manner. In fact, those issues are a direct result of the capitalist system. Capitalism is the source of many structural issues in society as it promotes economic expansion – capital accumulation- at the expense of the well-being of society. The pursuit of profit is the capitalist's prime objective. Capitalism as an economic system relies on profit to the point where welfare falls to the wayside. Money begets money. Poverty begets poverty.   Capitalism promotes the idea of profit as the bottom line while ignoring the realities of poverty and failing to promote social welfare.

 In theory, profit and wage are set through competition so that both firms and labourers profit. However, theory does not necessarily represent reality. Firms can increase their profits by slashing wages as much as possible. While the basic rules of supply and demand clearly affect wages, the competitive equilibrium does not necessarily guarantee a livable wage. When the government does not provide protections like a minimum wage, companies will inevitably exploit workers through lower wages in order to increase their profits. The basic tenet of the capitalist system is that workers and companies have competing interests.

Before unions were widespread and established within the U.S., employees could not bargain collectively for wages that would allow them to live comfortably. In order to justify exploitative wages, capitalist society, especially in the U.S., encourages the narrative hard work and dedication as conducive to economic success. However, the vast majority of people will end up in the same income bracket as their parents. 

 Protecting the environment does not inherently lead to profit, so it is not a desirable goal for most companies. The Keystone and Dakota Access pipeline are predicted to cause massive damage to the environment, not to mention a massive amount of distress to indigenous groups, but are being implemented despite those facts for company profit. Similarly, Volkswagen was found to have created technology to lower carbon emissions while cars were being tested. This enabled the company to market their cars as environmentally friendly without investing in sustainable technologies, which would presumably increase costs. Many more major corporations actively ignore the environmental repercussions of their actions in order to profit, exemplifying the way capitalism prioritizes profit over long term sustainability.

If companies willingly shared their research, there could be huge beneficial implications for scientific and medical research. However, most companies cannot afford to lose the money spent researching by not patenting profitable intellectual property, be it in the form of lifesaving drugs or more efficient technology. A research culture that is not based off of the capitalist pursuit of profit could allow for a greater degree of knowledge sharing and innovation and increase the speed of progress.

Capitalism is not harmless nor progressive, and society must recognise the failings and inequalities inherent in the current system.

Adapted from here

Life expectancy on hold

Life expectancy in Scotland has failed to rise for the first time since records were established in 1861, research has found. 

It is the first time in more than 150 years life expectancy has not increased.

Statistics show that in three years from 2012-2015 the ages at which women and men could expect to live remained static at 81.1 and 77.1 years respectively.

Austerity measures introduced by the coalition and Conservative governments since 2010 may have contributed.

Scotland needs foreign workers

Scottish Chambers of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron highlighted the need for 11,000 new vacancies each year in Scotland's digital and IT sector. She warned that they could not be filled entirely by British workers.

Cameron called for a migration system that responded to Scotland's lower population growth rate. She said Scotland's projected population growth to 2024 was only 3.1%, compared with a projected 7.5% increase for England over the same period.

"Dying from Inequality"

The poorest Scots are three times more likely to commit suicide than the richest, according to a new report by Samaritans.

The charity is calling for more to be done to tackle inequality which it says is an important factor when it comes to people taking their own lives.

The Samaritans said poor housing, debt, and bleak employment prospects were all factors in the suicide rate being three times higher among the most deprived 10th of the population compared with the least deprived 10th (22.1 deaths per 100,000 population compared with 7.3).

The report, "Dying from Inequality", highlights clear areas of risk to communities and individuals, including the closure and downsizing of businesses, those in manual, low-skilled employment, those facing unmanageable debt and those with poor housing conditions.

Samaritans' chief executive Ruth Sutherland said: "Suicide is an inequality issue which we have known about for some time. This report says that's not right, it's not fair and it's got to change.

Inverclyde has the highest suicide rate of any local authority in Scotland

The Task Ahead

Welcome to a world of unimaginable wealth and rampant inequality, a world where monolithic corporations act as a law unto themselves, where automation and technological progress threaten to undermine the very foundations of society, and where frightened, forgotten, and furious citizens turn in droves towards political extremism. The Socialist Party doesn’t pretend to have all the answers (although we do to many) and we are distrustful of those who think they do since humility is demanded of us.  In this starkly divided world, the question for ourselves is how to catalyse a united voice of engaged fellow-workers. Our greatest hope for the future rests with new solidarities being forged on the global stage, with the welfare of the collective whole being prioritised above the welfare of any one particular group or nation.  The starting point for the Socialist Party is how to unify our fellow workers on a  common platform for socialism, bringing together millions of people for a shared cause paving the way for social, economic and political transformations.

Stoking fear is a strategy that is emerging as a central agenda of populist politicians. They are employing scare-mongering tactics playing upon people's anxieties. They are cynically manipulating us, using fear as a way to dupe us into supporting their policies. Words have a power and their speeches are creating threats and dangers. Sadly, many fellow-workers are buying into the hate rhetoric. However, the process of creating fear and enemies is a two-way street. We are not mere puppets, with our leaders pulling our strings. We need vision. We need to be defiant. There can be no compromise or concession. Movements cannot win without promising a future that includes beauty, joy, and fun. "Dance the military guns to silence," said the Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (executed for his activism against Shell.) It's easy right now to feel like we are facing something unprecedented and unbeatable, but many of the peoples' movements have fought much harsher regimes, but still kept fighting for justice and liberation, anyways, and some of them went on to win incredible victories.

Globalisation enabled global supply chains to spark trade and global economic growth. But the problems of globalization resulted in the loss of jobs, as factories relocated for cheaper labour, growing inequality. All the while, political elites are focused on profits, ignoring the growing anger from the working class. 
The negative impact of globalization exploded into populist nationalism. In the US, the 2008 Great Recession caused more than 2 million jobs lost and several million lost homes in the mortgage crisis while the too big to fail banks were given a life-line and bailed out. Two wars Iraq and Afghanistan costing more than $2 trillion and hundreds of lives shattered the confidence of the American people and sparked resentment against the political elite Demographic change - the diminishing white majority and the increase of non-English speaking immigrants across the US - coinciding with the election of the first black US president elected, the stagnation of wages since the 1980s, and increasing inequality, all led to the populist revolt and the discrediting mainstream politicians.
  Trump made trade and immigrants the villains for job losses. Yet, studies show that nine of ten US jobs lost since 2000 were due to technology and automation, not trade and that since 2014, there has been a net outflow of Mexicans from the US
But populist politics is driven by emotion, not reason. Trade and immigration became punching bags for the anger and frustration that Trump skillfully manipulated.   
In Europe, a number of factors combined to encourage populist nationalism and most dramatically, Brexit. The free flow of labor within the EU led to complaints of "Polish plumbers" in the UK. Growing numbers of Muslim immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East created cultural fear and anger. This has resulted in a growing number of authoritarian regimes, as in Hungary, and the rise of right-wing anti-immigrant politics personified by Brexit, Marine Le Pen in France, as well as similar parties in the Netherlands and in Germany.  
Socialism is the only way we can successfully resist populism. Let’s leave some of the historic baggage surrounding the word “socialism” at the door and start with a clean slate. Socialism does not mean government control. Socialism does not entail a tyrannical one-party state. Socialism means deepening democracy. Under capitalism, we have a political democracy of sorts. We vote for our politicians to “represent” us and make laws. Voting allows us to have a hand in creating the society we want to live in, and if our representatives aren’t doing a good job, we can vote them out.

Calling capitalism “democratic” is only half-true, however. Despite having political democracy, we do not have economic democracy. Think about your boss. Are you able to speak up and change them? Of course not. You’re beholden to your boss, and their word is law. Employees have little to no control over a company’s decisions. In essence, companies are little tyrannies where shareholders have all of the control and the workers are at the mercy of their judgment. If shareholders want to liquidate a company to make a couple million dollars and throw thousands of people out of work, hire a corrupt CEO, or pollute the environment—the workers have no power to say no. This is economic tyranny. Socialism’s solution to economic tyranny is common ownership and democratizing the workplace.

 Money continues to accumulate in the hands of a few and to favour the privileged. There are two worlds — one eating cake, the other, hungry for food. It appears to many that capitalism has only one agenda: to punish the impoverished and to increase inequality while protecting the prosperous and promoting the interest of the powerful. If we are to stop nationalism and populism, it is time for socialism. we must both persuade and mobilise. We have fallen short in both. Starting now, we have to do better.

Folk like us

Scotsman columnist, Jane Bradley, has offered her personal first-hand point of view on the refugee situation and highlighting some of her observations would not go amiss.

“...Those who fled oppression in search of a better life are accused of being cynical economic migrants, but who among us would not have made the same choice...

...No matter what your political beliefs, these refugees are people: people like you and me. We may not be able to help all of them, but we can feel empathy for their plight, we can try to understand why they are in the situation they are in...

...I met many refugees who were undoubtedly fleeing war and persecution. Death threats and imminent danger to their lives. Their cases appeared, to me, cut and dried: they should be granted asylum, somewhere...

...I met others, however, whose stories were more complicated - who may not have had an imminent threat to their lives, but who wanted a better future for their children.

Some of them lived in situations where their daughters would never be allowed to attend school. Others were not in personal danger right now, but lived in a constant fear of political unrest and violence: families who had no idea when or if it would be their door that would be knocked upon by terroist or insurgent groups in the middle of the night. Maybe it would never happen - but it could. So many times, I have heard people like this, sceptically, called “economic migrants”, but I found it was far more complex than that.In reality, few of the people in this situation are likely to be granted asylum in Europe and for me, some of their stories were even more heartbreaking as a result...

...No-one I met wanted to move to Europe to pocket benefits - they wanted to work. They did not want a bigger house or a better car: indeed, many of them knew their living conditions in Europe, even if they made it that far and were granted asylum, were likely to be economically worse than they had been in their home countries of Iraq, or Afghanistan. For most, the priority was being able to give their children the chance of a decent education. “I just want a future for my children,” was a refrain I heard many, many times...

...No-one I met was a cynical “economic migrant”. They were people: ordinary, flawed people, who had found themselves faced with difficult choices and who had done what they thought was right...Why, when faced with such adversity at home, would they not have taken that chance?...we should not condemn them for trying. "

The Not Fair Fares?

Almost every day the Toronto Transit Commission is in the news and it's never anything positive. At present passengers pay a flat-rate fare, which TTC spokesman, Brad Ross, said is "Very user-friendly." 

It won't stay that way if the recommendation in a 2016 report is enacted, which is to pay by the distance travelled. This is being considered by Metrolinx, the provincial organization that oversees transit in the Greater Toronto Area.

At present, the matter is under discussion. Mayor, Tory, said the present price-structure is unfair, which implies that paying by distance is fair.

 This must be of concern to people with low incomes, but of, one thing we can be absolutely sure – if this deal goes through, it will make life harder for the workers affected.

Steve and John.

Better Solution Needed.

It is generally assumed that unemployment and homelessness go hand-in-hand, but it ain't necessarily so. An article in the Toronto Star of February 11, 2017, which focused on homeless shelters, reported that four men, who sleep at the Bloor Street West Shelter, in Toronto, have jobs.

One said, "We just can't afford to rent." With the average one-bedroom apartment rent in Toronto at $1,130.00 a month, it's no wonder. The wait-list for Toronto Community Housing has topped 180,000 and is in massive need of repairs.

Mayor, John Tory, has pressed Ottawa and the province to each kick-in a third of the repair bill of, $2.6 billion, but, "No firm commitments have materialized." Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam, said that "Emergency shelters are at best a Band-Aid solution. When that becomes their permanent address, that is a system fail. They have given up hope on affordable housing and are living in shelters."

There are different estimates of how many sleep on Toronto's streets, but it is known, that 80 died on them in 2016. Our well-meaning friend is right, it is a system-fail. The only solution is a better one. 
Steve and John.

Maximum Good or Minimal Good. Yout Choice.

Increases in the cost of transportation and shelter, drove the inflation rate up 1.5% in Canada in December, according to figures released by Statistics Canada on January 20th. A decrease in the cost of food in December (the third consecutive month) helped keep the overall increase in consumer expenses lower than expected. Economists had predicted a 1.7% increase. The Consumer Price Index in Ontario was up 2% from 2015, driven by an 11.2% surge in prices for electricity and a 7.4% increase in the cost of buying a home.

So, there it is folks, slight improvements like the decline in the cost of food do minimal good. We socialists, want to do maximum good, such as abolishing the source of the above figures.

 Steve and John

The Possibility of Post-Capitalism

Capitalism must be removed and replaced with the post-capitalist majority revolutionary alternative. It can't be reformed in any major way, Swedish and Labour Party models do not impinge in any way upon capitalism' rapaciousness. Its is like trying to make a vegetarian out of a tiger.

Lenin's model was a Jacobin one to win power. Lenin wasn't trying to make socialism, but to make state capitalism, not because socialism was impossible or an impossible dream, but because of the fact, as real Marxists told him at the time, socialism is a post-capitalist society and not a post-feudal one, which Russia was becoming.

Capitalist development creates the tools to eradicate poverty and an educated workforce to create and run ever more of it (the capitalist class are a redundant class now inasmuch as they are not needed for wealth production), (which is why Marx supported capitalist revolutions to overthrow feudalism), but then it has to increase or curtail production to satisfy an artificial 'market' demand in the interest of the minority classes profit accumulation.

The minority class has become a fetter upon the realisation of the productive potential of the technological capabilities of the potential productive capacitive process capitalism has bequeathed to the 95% wealth producers.

It can not distribute resources to satisfy human needs without destroying itself in the process and it also doesn't lift us out of the relative poverty, but retains it as a necessity, to ensure a constant supply of waged slaves. as Voltaire wittingly put it, "The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."

The comparison is not with early capitalism nor today's version, but between the social and economic position of the immense majority relative to the wealth they collectively produce. The needs of industry demands an educated , fed workforce in many instances, as workers also run capitalism from top to bottom, the diseases of poverty can jump class barriers, so self preservation of the system requires different scenarios to early developmental models but can revert to smokestack circumstances and shanty towns also, as the developing world shows us.

Poverty in those twin senses relative and absolute, is entrenched forever if capitalism is retained, as is war (business by other means), trade wars, war over resources and geopolitical interests.

Don't forget also the horror of two world wars for economic dominance and the war science upon Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the kind hearted capitalist class as they currently pick sides for another go.

To say that 'true socialism is impossible' is akin to a person in feudal times expounding against the coming impossible capitalist revolutions. Nothing will stop social change or an idea which time has come.

The post-capitalist revolution has of necessity to be a majority one. The first time ever for majority revolution and not some vanguardist, Leninist-style minority putsch as all previous revolutions have been minority led, 'meet the new boss' ones.

Using the Achilles heel of bourgeois democracy a politically aware immense majority, conscious of their class interest in abolishing the last great slavery that of wage slavery, can transform the world into a commonly owned, production for use , free access socialist society without elites and change the operating tenet from a minority "Accumulate, accumulate" into a majority one of, "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".

It will not happen by gradually reforming capitalism,nor by premature nationalist adventures or mislabelling state capitalist monstrosities, but the primary task of socialists these days is education.


If you open any textbook on economics you will find the definition at the beginning as to what economics is will include the concept of ‘scarcity’. On the one side, it is taught, there are scarce resources and, on the other side, unlimited wants, and that economics is the study of the choices people make (as individuals and societies) to deal with this.

However, the concept of ‘scarcity’ used in these definitions is an abnormal and circular one and human wants are not unlimited. The relationship between scarce resources and unlimited wants is not what economics actually studies. The definition above is an ideological construct to justify one particular way of organising the production and distribution of goods and services – the capitalist system of production for profit, involving markets, money, prices, profits, wages, interest, banks, etc. That’s what economics really studies.

The technological means of the modern age make it possible for everyone in the world to live a comfortable, safe, interesting and happy personal and social life, with all our needs provided, and totally free from hardship, misery and the constant frustration, worry and embarrassment of not being able to afford what we require.
Modern production techniques are entirely capable of providing an abundance of nutritional food for many times the present world population. There is no need for anyone anywhere to starve, to lack nourishment or even to make do with cheap substitutes.

There is enough raw materials, knowledge and manpower in the world to ensure comfortable hygienic accommodation for everyone everywhere. It is possible for everyone to live in houses which are safe, weather-resistant, fitted with up-to-date appliances and decorated and furnished according to individual taste. There is no need for anyone anywhere to be homeless or to live in poor, dangerous and ill-equipped accommodation.



Real socialism is a post-capitalist society where waged slavery will have been abolished. As capitalism is run from top to bottom by the working class, 95%, so it can be replaced by a commonly owned, production for use, free-access,society with no elite access to its products. The capitalist class, liberals or neo-cons, are an economic parasite class. All government, however well meaning politicians are, whether Leftist, Rightist, Centrist,or "Can't make up their minds", to win power, are governments over us in the interests of the dominant economic capitalist parasite class. Capitalism cannot be reformed into some kind of egalitarian system. It cannot be managed in some state-capitalist, soviet-style system, nor can it end the cycles of boom and bust with waged slavery driving the production of wealth. The cause of the Labour Party is not the cause of socialism and never was. It's original reason for existing was to get reforms for working people. Damn all to do with socialism. “The Labour party has never been a socialist party, although there have always been socialists in it – a bit like Christians in the Church of England.” (Tony Benn)
 There is no such thing as a middle class. It is a conceit. Class is a person's relation to the means of producing an ddistribution of wealth. If one HAS ot work for a wage or salary in order to receive a rationed access ot wealth then one is by definition working class. The phrase working class was, as we saw, originally “working classes”, but this usage is loose and theoretically wrong since there is only a single working class. But there is another confusion arising out of the phrase’s association with “working man” and “workman” which refer to manual labour, so that it is often assumed that the working class is confined to manual workers, in the factories and mines', on the railways and docks, etc. This mistake is made not only by those who do not want to be considered as members of the working class, but also by manual workers who do not consider civil servants, clerks and other “pen-pushers” as real workers. But it is a mistake and arises from an alternative and inadequate definition of class in terms of social status rather than relationship to the means of production.

But it is clear that, as far a relationship to the means of production is concerned, office workers (including managers) are in precisely the same position as shop floor workers: they are excluded from ownership and control of the means of production and are forced to obtain a living, by selling their mental and physical energies to an employer. This in fact is our definition of working class: all those who are forced to sell their mental and physical energies in order to live. It would have been convenient to use some phrase such as “wage-earning class” in order to make our point of view clear at first sight, but unfortunately not only does a section of the working class call itself the “middle class" but even denies that it is paid wages as workers are and insists on calling them a salary instead. In fact a salary is equally a price for the sale of a person’s mental and physical energies, but this snobbery means that in order to make ourselves absolutely clear who we mean by working class we have to say “those forced to work for a wage or salary” or, less adequately but more simply, “wage and salary earners”. 



The society of today is a capitalist society and the classes that face one another are the capitalist class and the working class. The form of bondage is different from the forms that prevailed formerly, but it is still bondage.
The wealth producers of today are not bound to a lord or master as were the serfs and slaves. They may refuse their services to this or that capitalist. But they cannot escape from the capitalist class. They must deliver their abilities to some member or members of that class. In no other way do they have access to the things needed to preserve life.
And in spite of the often repeated claim in various circles that the classes of today have mutual and harmonious interests, the facts show a struggle between these classes as grim as any that preceded it. From the beginning of the existing form of society down to the present day there has been a never-ending conflict between the capitalists and the workers: on the part of the capitalists to squeeze every possible ounce of energy from the workers at the lowest possible cost; on the part of the workers to check these efforts and to try in turn to gain bearable living and working conditions for themselves.

Wee Matt

Problems That Can't Be Solved

Canadian officials are now seeing a sharp increase in the amount of refugees illegally crossing the U.S. border to avoid deportation from the U.S. In Quebec alone, the amount has tripled in the last year to 1,280 from 424.

Some who crossed into Manitoba in freezing weather have been treated for frostbite. A pregnant woman said she was afraid to deliver in the U.S. Under the U.S. - Canada pact introduced in 2004, refugees cannot make asylum claims in both countries.

As the weather gets warmer more are expected to cross into Canada.

So too put it bluntly, Canada will soon have a refugee crisis like some European countries have now. 

Once again, capitalism creates problems it can't solve. 

Steve and John.

Treating The Symptons Not The Cause.

Soon it will no longer be a crime in Russia to beat a family member, as long as you don't cause bodily harm.

On January 27, 2017, the state duma, voted 380 - 3 to decriminalize battery on family members that doesn't cause bodily harm. Instead it will mean a fine, or a 15 day sentence. Critics of the new law, said it would encourage domestic violence, (no kidding). Statistics show that 40% of all violent crimes in Russian, are within the family. Russian police are reluctant to react, regarding their intervention as meddling in family matters. 

It would be easy enough for socialists to advocate harsher measures in dealing with those guilty of spousal and child abuse, but that wouldn't be the point; which is the establishment of a society where the economic pressures that cause families to break down (of which this is a symptom) won't exist. 

Steve and John.