Patriotism - A Message of Misery

Patriotism as a devotion to the interests of the class which rules over us has long been of value to the capitalist class throughout the world.  In the early 1700s Jonathan Swift recommended it in “The Examiner” thus – “the first principle of patriotism is to resent foreigners.” This method, of setting one section of population against another, has been used ultra-successfully all around the world – so successfully that great swathes of people can now rouse themselves, with no apparent external cue, against the newest threat, the most recent immigrant group, asylum seekers, anyone who looks or sounds like they may be from a group that’s not their own. That its workers should be patriotic is vital to each national ruling class and this, fertilised by official lies, is exploited by all governments.  Enemies are required by the state elites. Enemies within and without, social, cultural, economic enemies to keep the population vigilant against all possible threats, to keep them fully occupied, suspicious of each other, divided, protecting the national interest against any wayward individual or group – including themselves. Workers have no country, however, the system arbitrarily divides them according to ruling class rivalries, the workers are united in their poverty.

Workers, here and elsewhere, are soaked with the philosophy of nationalism from childhood, and when their masters summon them to defend their (the masters') ownership in the means of life, and their right to exploit and govern, appealing to them in the name of a common patriotism, their lack of political knowledge renders them—like clay in the potter's hands— pliable and easily moulded, into the designs of their social enemies, the master class. They become the mere pawns in the political game played only between capitalist groups. The poverty they have endured, their years of excessive toil, and all their bitter struggles on the industrial field against the masters are forgotten, when national traditions—the historic camouflage that veils capitalist interests—are spread to snare them. Workers of all lands need to know how to throw off the yoke of capitalism to establish a system in which they will no longer be exploited by the capitalists of any nationality. The World Socialist Movement is their only hope. It is not a change of masters, or a change in the location of rulers, that the workers of Scotland need but the establishment of a system of society where they will democratically control the means of life owned in common. It is in the interest of your masters that you should be divided by national and religious barriers

 All capitalist societies are divided along class lines—capitalist and worker—therefore any talk of "nation" or patriotism is palpable nonsense. Capitalists and workers do not share a common identity nor do they share any interests in common. We are constantly hoodwinked by a repetition from the mouths of politicians, of the old fiction of the alleged community of interest between ourselves and our employers, and that we should be privileged to defend a country we do not own. While the capitalist class dominates and controls all the means of wealth production the creation of nations is not the business of the working class. It matters not whether the Union Jack or the Saltire flies over Edinburgh. The patriotism of the capitalist class is sheer hypocrisy. In the quest for profits all barriers are broken down, and the capitalist’s love of his country withers before a fraction percent on the yield of his capital. It is the business of the capitalists to set one section of the working class against another in order to prevent them perceiving who are their real enemies.

What the Socialist Party realises clearly is that the interests of fellow workers in other lands are nearer to our own than are those of our employers master in our own country. The bonds which bind worker with worker, irrespective of nationality, are those of class solidarity.  From the capitalist-class of every country the worker is divided by a gulf of class antagonism which can be bridged only by the over-throw of the capitalist-class by the working class as the result of the coming social revolution.

The capitalists are clearly parasites. Are the people to be for ever sacrificed to capital? Surely it is time the workers used their brains in their own interests. The callous brutality, the greed and hypocrisy of the ruling class of all nations could hardly ever be clearer than it is to-day. The workers have only to discard the blinkers of patriotism to see this plainly. The Socialist Party is well attuned to the machinations of the elites of powerful countries as they seek to promote their interests . Though it is no easy task for the uninitiated, we urge our fellow workers to be as vigilant as ever when the fanfare of jingoism and patriotism are sounding.

We can see why the ruling class in the various different capitalist states into which the world is divided find it necessary to rely on workers' identification with 'their' land – it helps them build up popular support for their rule and their foreign policy aimed at protecting their interests abroad. But we can't see why Socialists need to. On the contrary, nationalism is something we need to combat as it is an obstacle to the understanding that the problems faced by workers all over the world cannot be solved within a national framework but only on a world scale, on the basis of a world without frontiers where the resources of the whole planet have become the common heritage of all humanity. 

Comprehending Capitalism

The first point socialist bring to the notice of our fellow-workers is that beneath all the processes of buying and selling, banking and commercial operations, lies the private ownership and control of the physical means of life. Human beings need food, clothing and shelter, recreation and amusements. These things are provided by the application of human labour to the land, raw materials, and the instruments of production and distribution, but the individuals whose labour-power produces the wealth do not own it. All the land and raw materials and all the products are privately owned by individual capitalists or companies or the State. The typical features of capitalist production are the existence on the one hand of a large number of workers who get their living by selling their mental and physical energies for a wage or a salary, and, on the other hand, a relatively small number of capitalist investors who get their living by owning property and employing workers to use that property for the production of wealth. With their wages and salaries the workers can buy part of the wealth produced, and the balance remains in the possession of the capitalists. The workers consume the greater part of their share immediately, by eating food, by wearing out their clothes, and so on, while the capitalists, through the abundance of their wealth, are able to "save" a considerable part of it; that is to say, they take it not in the form of articles for personal consumption, but in the form of factories, machinery, etc., and all the various forms of additions to the existing stock of "means of production and distribution."

What we see is millions of workers, producing and distributing the articles needed to sustain life, and working under the control of the capitalists who own the land, factories, railways, etc. The articles produced can be divided into three classes: (1) Articles needed for the subsistence of the workers (mainly necessities); (2) Articles for the subsistence of the propertied class, both necessities and luxuries; and (3) Articles needed for the repair and extension of existing means of production and distribution (factories, railways, etc.) and the erection of new kinds of means of production and distribution as new needs arise and are satisfied. But the above picture is over-simplified because capitalists and workers are not two closely organised world classes acting as two single units, but are composed of millions of separate individuals and groups acting on their own. If they were two single units, each represented by a responsible authority, we could imagine them planning production and distribution so that only so much of each kind of wealth is produced as is needed, and so that the responsible authority for each class divides the articles among its members as required. Actually the process is carried out with the assistance of the money system. Each capitalist firm produces goods of one or a few kinds (say, boots) and sells them for money. The money is used to pay for the costs of manufacture, raw materials, wages, profits, etc., and the individuals who receive the money spend it to buy goods of various kinds. The final effect arrived at by this money process is at bottom the exchange of commodities. Each individual who owns commodities goes into the market and effects an exchange, giving one kind of goods and receiving another kind or kinds. The worker goes into the market with labour power to sell. He receives wages and uses them to buy bread, clothes, etc. The advantage of the money system over the direct exchange of goods — barter — is that simple barter is faced with the difficulty that the individual who brings boots to the market may not want to receive the articles brought into the market by the man who wants the boots. Money, on the other hand, is the "universal equivalent." He who has money can, if he has sufficient of it, buy any of the thousands of kinds of articles offered for sale. Consequently, the use of money as a medium of exchange is a great advance on systems of barter. But it must not be forgotten that the various substances which have been used as money (in modern times silver or gold) have been able to occupy that position only because they were like every other article in the all-important characteristic that they possessed value, while in addition gold and silver have qualities of durability and scarcity which make them most suitable for use as money.  The values of articles are not accidental or fixed by the free choice of the owners of them. Value is a relationship between the various articles depending upon the amount of labour required in their production. Leaving aside various complicating features we can say that a certain weight of gold has the same value as a certain weight of wheat, or a certain number of razor blades, because the labour required to produce each of these three quantities is the same. We see, then, that the payment of a sum of money by one person to another is, in effect, a way of transferring command over goods from one person to another.

That is a brief outline of the underlying framework of capitalist production.

Patriotism is a sham

"Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense and conscience by the governed and a slavish submission to those who hold-power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed. Patriotism is slavery." - Tolstoy

Workers have no country and patriotism is a delusion and nationalism is a snare.  Nationalism denies humanity, and instead interposes nation, and denies humanity to other nations.  It also emphasises the idea that the world cannot change, since the nation is an organic whole as it is and is unchangeable. Let's not forget, that nationalism doesn't "just happen" it is the product of a vast process of material production, from mass media, to civic performance.  The material culture of sports helps produce, reproduce and reify nationalist ideas.  International sporting events are perhaps the finest example of nationalism being expressed after war.  With the ruling class, patriotism is the mask of self-interest: with the working class it is the brand of utter ignorance. Let us be internationalists.

Working people have no country of their own. Their land is the property of a master class and the worker rarely owns enough to bury his or her coffin. Patriotism runs counter to the interests of working-people. It is therefore opposed by the Socialist Party who do not offer "policies for Britain" etc, but demand a world community without frontiers.  The aims and ambitions of nationalists and patriots are not identical with the principles and ideals of international socialism, and that there is, in fact, no necessary connection between the two things. Too often in history workers have been urged to concern themselves with the interests of nations - to fight to defend one against the other, or to establish new ones.

Let every Scot face the fact that Scottish nationalism is not socialism and that the achievement of the SNP even up to the highest professed ideals of traditional patriotism, namely, the complete separation of Scotland from Britain, would not “free” Scotland one iota in any sense satisfactory to the world socialist and absolutely demanded by socialist principles. This struggle of Scottish “patriots” to “free” Scotland is therefore from the our point of view an utter chimera. In the name of humanity and of sanity let every international socialist in the United Kingdom have done with the traditional follies and foolishness of nationalism or of unionism. Let us direct all our energies to the emancipating the workers from the chains of wage-slavery. Every professed socialist who lends countenance and encouragement to the deluded Scottish separatists in their vain efforts to gain a sovereign Scotland is guilty either of betraying socialist principles or be ignorant of what socialist principles really are, a knave or a fool.  Associating the concepts of nationalism and socialism has done nothing but to add to the confusion in working-class minds about what socialists really stand for. Scottish nationalism has more than its fair share of leftist confusionists. 

The working class of the world have a common bond that transcends every tie of race or nationality. What matters the name of the country of your birth, if you are a slave in that country? What binds you to the capitalist? You are chained to his machines, in his factories and workshops, and driven by the lash of hunger to produce wealth for him while you sink deeper into poverty. You are the robbed, he is the robber; you are the slave, he is the master. A bond of shame, a tie that is a degradation to every wage-slave and patriotism is the acceptance and approval of this bond.

When hands clasp across national boundaries in solidarity the workers will know that borders and nations have no meaning or significance for them. These two, nationalism and international socialism (and there can be no socialism that is not international) are opposite as the poles, as antagonistic as fire and water. When patriotism and socialism enter the worker's mind, patriotism will be quenched or socialism will evaporate. The socialist patriot is an impossibility. If any is loyal to those in the class that exploits, he or she is a traitor to our own class. The capitalist class will practice nationalism and preach patriotism just so long as it serves to obscure the class struggle and keep the workers divided. When they face an enlightened and united working class, they themselves ignore every boundary in their need to combat the workers. The Socialist Party does not care whether the capitalist class divide the UK among themselves. What concerns us, is the class ownership, which we work and organise to abolish. Nationalism is at the top of the list of political illusions used to blind capitalism's victims. Workers own no country, so why should we care which section of the class of thieves owns which national portion? Workers have a world to win, not nations to fight for.

The Anti-capitalist Campaigners

Capitalism continues to generate recessions, waste and wars. Amid the many crises today people are once again debating the meaning of socialism. The nearest thing to a common understanding of the various “socialisms” is the negative “anti-capitalism” yet more and more parties on the Left spectrum, have virtually dropped the building of socialism from their manifestoes, promising to maintain some sort of version of regulatory capitalism until it makes us wonder in what sense are these parties still “socialist”? One reason why the Socialist Party view reformists with such antipathy is that they made the abolition of that system and the creation of a socialist society more distant and difficult.

The simplest description of a socialist system of production is that, unlike all class societies, there is no ruling class that extracts surplus labour from the producers. The capitalist class profits because they control. As Rosa Luxemburg contended, until a socialist revolution is successful, the most important result of any struggle is the building of working-class self-confidence and self-organisation. If the class must rely on itself, it must be united.

The Socialist Party’s central message was stated in the Rules of the First International, "that the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves." We strive to get fellow-workers to trust in their own power to achieve their own emancipation and that our belief is that there is no task that a worker cannot accomplish. We educate fellow-workers to look inward upon their own class for everything required, to have confidence in the ability of their own class to fill every position in the revolutionary movement. In short, we ask fellow members of the working class to take to heart the full meaning of socialism, a free association of social individuals. The revolutionary movement is the gravedigger of capitalism. It is part of the world movement of the global working class for peace, social democracy and socialism. The emancipation of the working class is the revolutionary act of self-emancipation. The Socialist Party declares that its aim is to develop the class consciousness of the workers through our agitation in the class struggle. The job we envisage for is to bring together social and political analysis that has special relevance to the waging of the class struggle and the deepening of working class consciousness. Our ambition is to achieve socialism alongside the working class as a whole, for the whole of mankind. The central core of the Socialist Party’s politics is the belief in socialism as the self-emancipation of the working class. This involves a rejection of the Leninist vanguards and national liberation anti-imperialists.

The Socialist Party swam against the current by rebutting reformism and left reformist illusions that capitalism could be transformed by the action of various social groups such as technocrats without the conquest of power by the working class. It involved, repudiating the widespread belief that capitalism can permanently solved its inherent tendency to crisis and the associated idea that capitalism will collapse without the agency of socialist revolution. Capitalism continues with its ups and downs. These ideas were unpopular amongst broad circles of the left. They were widely regarded as ‘dogmatic’ and ‘sectarian’.  Countless reformists have come and gone, believing that within the framework of the capitalist system, of commodity production and of exploitation they could achieve a better society. It is a hard and difficult job struggling for real socialism and not piecemeal palliatives. It may the efforts of several generations. But for anybody to whom the word “solidarity” remains meaningful, it is worth all the effort. The endeavour of total human emancipation, the endeavor to build a socialist society on a worldwide basis, is in our hearts. The Socialist Party represents the continuation of the essence of Marx's thought: the self-emancipation of the working class as its fundamental guiding principle to establish a new society built on the "association of free and equal producers."

Lothian Socialist Discussion (24 May)

Wednesday, May 24, 

• 7:30 PM

• ACE,

• 17 West Montgomery Place,

   Edinburgh EH7 5HA

• Most people would probably agree that the future of mankind should be hammered out on the anvil of free discussion and debate 

• 

  
  

Refugees need more help

FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

MSPs looking at the problems facing asylum seekers in Scotland have said "destitution" is built into the process. The equalities and human rights committee said that, too often, vulnerable people fell victim to homelessness, ill health and misery.

The committee investigated asylum and destitution, where people are left without adequate accommodation or the ability to meet essential living needs. Committee convener, the SNP's Christina McKelvie, said the evidence they heard pointed to "huge gaps" in the asylum system which suffered from a "serious lack of compassion and humanity".

The British Red Cross in Scotland told the committee the number of destitute refugees and asylum seekers it had helped in Glasgow had more than doubled from 326 in 2014 to 820 in 2016.

End nationalism

SUPPORT FOR THE SOCIALIST PARTY
IS SUPPORT FOR WORLD SOCIALISM

Before the rise of class society, and even until comparatively modern times before communications and transport broke down geographical barriers, the workers did have an interest in the country of their birth. But now that we have all become wage earners, the basis of patriotism has gone. Still the sentiment persists and the master class who control the forces and services of the State are able to identify their own private interests with the patriotism of the class which has now no stake in the country. 

With the weakening power of religion to keep the workers docile and obedient, the cult of nationalism and patriotism is being exploited to the full for the furtherance of the damnable policy of the slave-holding class: to divide and rule. Like religion, patriotism has its vestments, its ceremonies, its sacred emblems, its sacred hymns and inspired music; all of which are called in aid of the class interests of our masters. Patriotic nationalism is nothing more or less than a convenient and potent instrument of domination. Patriotism is the handmaiden of class rule. The nation they call “ours” is the result of a conquest over original inhabitants, and over ourselves, by successive ruling classes.  We possess no country.  Patriotism is a fraudulent thing. The “country” is that of the owning class alone. Patriotism is not love of your country. Patriotism is love for someone else’s country. You see, the UK and its resources are owned by a few corporations and a handful of families - it is their country and not ours.

What is the fatherland and our motherland ? Our fathers and mothers came from many different parts of the world. Rather humankind are my brethren, the world is my country. Despite the shameless attempts by the robber class, the great impulse to human solidarity is by no means dead.  In the class struggle of the workers against the employers and exploiters, of the socially useful against the socially pernicious, in this struggle for the liberation of humanity from wage-slavery, the great principle of human solidarity will come to full fruition. That is our hope and aspiration. For us, all nationalism is destructive of human values, simply pitting one section of the working class against another with the sole aim of furthering the capitalist cause. The people of the world are worth more than that, much more. They are part of a world society which collectively could choose to work for peace, justice and prosperity for all in our time, putting aside the divisive issues of capitalism and recognising at last that with socialism unity is strength.

Patriotism festers politics like a weeping sore. It does not represent progressive ideas Enormous damage has been done, throughout the world, by the notion that one country and its people are superior to the others. A truly progressive policy – socialism – recognises the essential unity of the human race and the urgent need to celebrate it by building society on that basis. Socialism would be worldwide, with no nation states, no borders, and the common ownership of the whole Earth by the whole of humanity.  No one would be an immigrant or emigrant in a socialist world without states and therefore without boundaries. It’s like saying a person born and raised in Hampshire or Surrey who then moves to Berkshire is an immigrant.  Socialists dont prescribe where people, let alone “masses” of people,  should live or move to in a socialist world.  It’s entirely up to them as free individuals in a free society

The nation state did not materalise out of thin air.  Still less did it always exist as some kind of  looming background presence or potentiality way back in the mists of time as nationalist mythology would have it.  Rather, it  was an almost deliberately crafted invention (see Benedict Anderson's book, "Imagined Communities") the outcome of a complex process of structural and spatial reorganisation coinciding the emergence of capitalism. In Europe in 1500. for instance,  there were approximately 500 more or less autonomous  political units - an intricate patchwork ranging from Italian city states to numerous principalities  and duchies. France was not the natural expression of a pre-existing French nation. At the revolution in 1789, half its residents did not speak French. In 1860, when Italy unified, only 2.5 per cent of residents regularly spoke standard Italian. Its leaders spoke French to each other. One famously said that, having created Italy, they now had to create Italians.

Patriotism is not supportable with fact and reason but by deception and prejudice. That is why it is so quickly inflates into racism, prejudice and discrimination. One of the strongest holds the capitalists have over the minds of the workers is the workers' ready acceptance of the dogmas of patriotism. 

The problem that belief in a nation has grown stronger and has become more of an obstacle for achieving socialism. People have adopted a belief that nations, even continents in respect to European "civilisation". As for us, the Socialist Party, we have discarded the flag and disowned the so many deeds of butchery committed in our name. All over the world, in every capitalist state, there are masses of people who depend for their living on the sale of their labour power. Internationally, these people have a common interest which is opposed to that of their ruling classes.  This has been true for as long as there has been a society of two classes - for as long as capitalism has existed. In wars, for example, the workers who were fighting and killing each other were doing so in ignorance of their international common interests. Instead of firing at each other, they should be extending the hand of fraternal greeting and unity. The unity of socialism will unleash, for the first time in history, the full powers of the human race. Socialism will be established by a people who have seen through the divisive cynicism of patriotism. 

Which city has the wealthiest?

Glasgow is the wealthiest city in Scotland, according to analysis of the fortunes of the 100 richest individuals and families from north of the border.

The city has produced 16 millionaires from the 2017 Sunday Times Scottish Rich List. Their combined wealth is just under £4.5bn – 13.7 per cent of the £32.7bn accumulated by the top 100.

The figures put Glasgow ahead of Edinburgh, which has 17 millionaires worth a total of £3.9bn, and Aberdeen with 16 millionaires with a combined wealth of £3.6bn.

The Glasgow Rich List is headed by John Shaw, who left the city to build a £1.15bn pharmaceuticals fortune in Bangalore with his Indian wife, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

The richest person from Edinburgh is property investor Jim Mellon, worth £920m, and now based in the Isle of Man. Author JK Rowling is number two on Edinburgh’s list, with a fortune of £650m.

Aberdeen’s richest is billionaire Sir Ian Wood, worth £1.6bn, who made his money in the North Sea oil industry.

Meanwhile, Moray has produced seven fortunes worth almost £5.4bn – 16.5 per cent of the wealth of the top 100.

Much of the money is centred on Speyside where the Grant Gordon family – who head the rich list in Scotland with £2.37bn – have two of their whisky distilleries.

The richest in Perthshire and Tayside account for 14.1 per cent (£4.6bn) of the rich list wealth. The Dundee-based Thomson publishing family are among the richest in Scotland having accumulated £1.285bn.

To say "Glasgow is the wealthiest city in Scotland," is mistaken. Their wealth doesn't reflect the wealth or otherwise of the city itself. Glasgow is one of the few cities that has so many run-down poor areas so close to the city centre. Apart from the west end of Glasgow if you leave the city-centre going north, south or east you very quickly come to the less prosperous areas without going very far from the centre of town. Glasgow has been badly served over the years and when we consider its rich successful industrial history that contributed so much wealth to the country it seems particularly sad.

Our Socialist Vision

One of the snags of presenting a vision of socialism as a solution to our numerous crises is that it's hard to know where to begin. The gap between where we are now with capitalism and where we'd like to be with socialism appears enormous and therefore we wonder how it might be accomplished. Charles Eisenstein once said “There is a vast territory between what we’re trying to leave behind, and where we want to go – and we don’t have any maps for that territory”.

Capitalists do not direct their capital, but in fact are themselves directed by and enslaved by capital, as Marx pointed out. Capital spontaneously flows wherever the most profit can be made. There is no society-wide overall planning under capitalism, nor can a capitalist economy as a whole be a planned economy. The interests of the capitalists are individual interests. Capitalists all fight for their own immediate interests, the interests of a particular company or sector. By their very nature, that is their sole consideration. They come into antagonistic conflict with other capitalists, other sectors and other industries. So long as the prevailing ideology supports it and the State apparatus is in the hands of the owners and so long its system maintains a reasonable hold, then the owning class are in control. Their system of exploitation is safe. Socialism challenges the whole prevailing ideology and socialist aim to capture of the State machine. The very experience of workers of their exploitation educates them. They ultimately require and acquire socialist ideas.

Socialism is the free association of completely free men and women, where no separation between private and common interest exist. The predictions of socialists with regard to future society cannot be exact because the great complexity of social phenomena does not permit, in our present time, of their being completely observed in all details, but only in their main features, and for that reason the picture of the new system also can only be drawn in its main outlines; but these are the most important considerations for the people of the present day. Socialism, however, can’t be built on the ruins of the existing society by a revolt of starving beggars in rags.

A British worker, employed in a nationalised industry is a ‘wage-earner’ in the Marxian sense of the word, and still ‘exploited’, he is only a wage-slave. Yet extraordinary enough in the former Soviet Union his opposite number earns less, works longer hours, has much less variety of goods on which to spend his money, has trade unions which exist only to squeeze more and more work out of him, is tied to his particular factory, and had the prospect of being sent to a forced labour camp if he protests against his lot; yet here presented the most advanced, emancipated and free worker in the world. Somehow when the amount of unpaid labour which is ‘surplus value’ goes to the British state, the same amount of unpaid labour is not ‘surplus value’ when the Russian state is on the receiving end. Who was kidding who? As Engels pointed out in his Anti-Duhring “State ownership of the productive forces is not the solution...neither the conversion into joint-stock companies nor into state property deprives the productive forces of their character as capital... The workers remain wage-earners, proletarians. The capitalist relationship is not abolished; it is rather pushed to an extreme.” The state is the owner of the conditions of production (‘the general capitalist’) and the direct producers are wage-earners, that therefore the relations between them are still the relations between capital and labour, between employer and employee. All the characteristics of the capitalistic system of exploitation are to be found in the Russian system of relationship between the state, owner of the means of production, and the direct producer, the worker. The state pays the labour it employs with wages, and ‘wages... by their very nature always imply the performance of a certain quantity of unpaid labour on the part of the labourer’ (Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 25/1), that is ‘surplus value’.

The Leninist platform contained nothing that was incompatible with capitalism. It allowed exploitation itself and class opposition to remain in place, and suppressed political rights, enslaved its workers to the yoke of militarism and the senseless waste of its labour power.

This is a general picture of the social process of change to socialism. While capitalism exists, it is suffice for socialism to establish the possibility of the emancipation of the working-class and to work towards that emancipation. There is no necessity to work out and settle every detail of the organization of the future socialist society. Let us not have the presumption to lay down rules for those who are to come after us, and let us be content with our present task. The whole goal of the Socialist Party consists in educating their fellow-workers, in explaining to assist them become conscious of their condition, their task and their responsibility, of organising them in readiness for the day when the political power shall fall into their hands. To win for socialism the greatest possible number of supporters, that is the task to which the Socialist Party must dedicate their efforts and energies. The Socialist Party is the only party which pursues these aims in a practical fashion. What is the use of talking of anything but socialism. We must talk of revolution and our aim should be to overthrow the capitalist system, not to modify it.

Our solution appears 'utopian' and not practical and so the aspiration is abandoned in favour of short-term remedies that prove to be no cure.  Socialism is a society without money, barter or trade, with the awareness that Humanity is One family and where technology, science and spirituality is used to its fullest to develop and manage the planet’s resources to provide abundance for everyone in the most sustainable way. That is a big leap to make because this idea of an abundant, peaceful, sustainable and cooperative world may well seem impossible yet it isn't. It is a feasible future.

Remember Our Past, Organise Our Future

'If they speak consciously and openly to the working class, then they summarise their philanthropy in the following words: It is better to be exploited by one’s fellow-countrymen than by foreigners.’ Marx, 1848

'Because the condition of the workers of all countries is the same, because their interests are the same, their enemies the same, they must also fight together, they must oppose the brotherhood of the bourgeoisie of all nations with a brotherhood of the workers of all nations.'- Engels, 1847.

The abolition of capitalism and the transformation to a socialist society is the only solution to Scotland's many problems. The capitalist class say that socialism is impossible because it is in their class interests to say so. No party of capitalism can solve the problems faced by the wage and salary working class and so none of them are worth voting for. Scotland's independence is just not possible within the context of globalised capitalism. Certainly, formal sovereignty, is possible, where it would have the full power to make decisions without reference to any “mother parliament”. But there’s a difference between the mere legal power to do something and what can be done in practice. In practice all states, when exercising their sovereign power to make decisions, have to take into account the economic reality that there exists a single world market economy on which they are dependent. A state can exercise some degree of influence on how the world market operates in relation to it - it erect tariff walls, subsidise exports, devalue its currency - but this depends on its economic clout. The interest of the working class in all countries is to reject all nationalism, to reject in fact the very idea of “foreigner”, and to recognise that they have a common interest with people in other countries in the same economic situation of being obliged to sell their mental and physical energies in order to get a living.  The liberation for Scottish workers can only come about by overthrowing capitalism itself. If this is not done, no amount of separatism can ever succeed in bringing freedom. Instead of tragically wasting time fostering nationalism, workers should be struggling for a socialist society without national borders. All the fuss abour Scottish separatism is an irrelevance. It will not give the people of Sotland more control over their own affairs. The only change that will do that is a change in the whole social system, replacing competitive production for profit and minority ownership by co-operative production. Neither an independent sovereign Scotland or United Kingdom can achieve this. It is only feasible in a money-free, frontier-free society which, for those with vision, is the next stage in human social evolution.  Scotland can achieve, along with the workers of all countries, the victory which will end for all time the exploitation of man-by-man. The history of the future will tell of the final assault and triumph of humanity over slavery and humiliation and the world will be the inheritance of the people as a whole.

Independence from England will not cure the poverty and insecurity of the Scottish workers, because they will still be the wages labour and capital relationship. There is no truly independent country in the world, because international capitalism has made sure of this. The SNP tell us that independence from England and the control of our own purse strings will cure all our problems. What they do not seem to realise is that the problems they are going to try to solve are an integral part of the capitalist system. The SNP demand for its constitutional “right" to control the economy, completely ignores the fact that this is purely a paper right. The capitalist economy works according to certain economic laws which no government or legislative body can over-ride. So the argument about sovereignty is not really about what the constitution may or may not say. It's about the effective power that a capitalist state can exercise within the capitalist economy. Capitalism has always existed within a framework of competing states, none of which is strong enough to impose its will on all the others. States, as weapons in the hands of rival groups of capitalists, intervene to further the interests of the capitalists that control them. They do this by using state power to set up protected markets, raw materials sources, trade routes and investment outlets. In normal times their weapons are tariffs, taxes, quotas, export rebates and other economic measures. When they judge that their vital interest is at stake their weapons are . . . weapons. They go to war.

Workers have nothing to gain from the redrawing of the boundaries, but some Scottish entrepreneurs and bureaucrats certainly do have a chance of making good if only they can persuade the electorate to back them. Can't we see that the only people who would gain anything from Scottish independence would be local politicians who would become big fish in a small pond?  There can be no relief for the oppressed Scotsman in changing an English robber for an Scottish one. The person of the robber does not matter—it is the fact of the robbery that spells misery. National divisions are a hindrance to working-class unity and action, and national jealousies and differences are fostered by the capitalists for their own ends. The Scottish capitalist is in no wise more merciful than the English exploiter. The Scottish capitalist competes with the English capitalist because the latter stands in the way of a more thorough exploitation of the Scot workers by Scottish capital. Let the thieves fight their own battles! For the worker in Scotland there is but one hope. It is to join the Scottish branches of the Socialist Party and to make common cause with the socialist workers of all countries for the end of all forms of exploitation; saying to both English and native capitalists: "A plague on both your houses". For the true battle-cry of the working class in broader, more significant and more inspiring than mere nationalism, and that rally cry is: THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

What, in all honesty, do nationalists got to gain with the “independence” they so dearly yearn after. It means being trapped within borders - artificial constructs, no, prisons - inside of the bigger prison of capitalism. We always have a choice: we can continue to place our power as a class into the hands of leaders who use it to pursue the interests of a capitalist elite, or, we can take responsibility for it collectively and use it to further the interests of all humanity. Socialism is a form of globalisation – a globalisation of human community that abolishes capital against the sort of globalisation that is subservient to the transnational corporations.  Members of the Socialist Party do not aspire to Scottish independence but to the emancipation of all humanity through the establishment of world socialism. It is not “English rule” that is responsible for the problems faced by workers in Scotland, but capitalism. Socialist society will mean the liberation of all mankind. As socialists, we don't take sides in any inter-capitalist argument. We don't support one section of the capitalist class or the other.  Let the capitalist class and their parties and supporters settle the matter for themselves. In the meantime we continue to campaign for the establishment of a world society without frontiers where the resources of the Earth are the common heritage of humanity. 

The voice of the Socialist Party in Scotland is a small but a constant one. All parties are in opposition to it but it persists. It will continue to expose those who, under the guise of liberators, continue to mislead the working class.

Why we are for socialism

Many of us in our advanced years understand only too well that we will not be members the socialist future, except by anticipation. But it is precisely this anticipation, this vision of the future that we continue to advocate the revolution and promote the liberation of humanity. And that is the most worthy of causes for any man or woman, regardless of whether we personally see the dawn of socialism or not.  No matter what our personal fate may be, our fight for the social revolution has right on its side and will bring all mankind a new day. Socialists are concerned more with people and change than with anything else.

Most of us wonder what the future holds for ourselves, our family and our friends and we want to know if it is possible to see a future free from the poverty for millions free from hunger and free from homelessness. We ask ourselves I there can be such a thing as a secure and happy future for all of the world, or must the rat-race continue where a small number of rich people cream off the benefits of modern technology, while the rest of us spend our days in monotonous drudgery whether in a factory, building site or plush office?

People know that their lives can be improved and made better. It is not “human nature” that is the cause of the problems people face today but the way society is organised, where a minority of people own and control the wealth and exclude the vast majority of the people from any real say in the running of the world. This is what lies at the root of the problems that working people face. It is this capitalist system which cannot guarantee security of employment, which cannot provide the good things of life, which cannot offer an improved standard of living for the millions and cannot safe-guard peace around the world. It is this that must be changed. The working people who have produced all the wealth around us must come into ownership and control of what is their own by right, so that they can then build the society and produce the things they want. Socialists think that conditions can be changed for the better if the people are willing to fight for this. The vast majority of the people gain nothing from capitalism and would lose nothing with its passing.

Once political power has been taken out of the hands of the capitalists and placed in the hands of the people production-for-profit will be changed to production-for-use which is production of what is wanted and needed by the people. Rather than accumulate capital for the employing owning class, industry and technology will have a completely different purpose in socialism - to serve the people. The enormous waste by which the same goods are sold by competing companies under different labels using advertising to convince you that their product is best, will be replaced by real choice and not an illusion of choice. Socialism will enable us to overcome the brakes on progress of capitalism. It will release the creative energies of people. Mankind will be freed from worry about basic material needs as we know them today making it possible to open up vast new horizons of cultural and educational possibilities for millions. Classes will cease to exist and people will be free to make their contribution to the productive life of society. Men and women will be able to develop their own personality and talents to the full. With the harnessing of science and technology, boring and repetitive work will be eliminated and will become satisfying.

Empathy in Montrose

We read:

The destruction of the town of Guernica by Nazi planes under the direction of Francisco Franco in April 1937 saw the Basque government appeal to foreign nations to give temporary asylum to children. An old steamship designed to carry 800 passengers was loaded with 3,840 children set sail for Southampton Docks. Over the following weeks the children were sent to 90 locations across Britain which had been organised by churches, trade unions and private individuals.

On September 17 1937, 24 children aged between five and 15 arrived at Montrose Station where they were greeted by a number of the charities. A sign stating ‘Viva Espano Salud’ greeted the children. At the end of April 1938, nine children were returned to their parents in Bilbao but they were replaced by others who had either been orphaned or whose parents were themselves, refugees.

As tokens of their appreciation for their happy stay almost 50 years earlier, the former refugees presented Angus Council with a silver plaque from Bilbao and a silver salver from the Province of Biscay.

Surely, the desperate need still exists today to help refugees and the compassion expressed by the folk of Montrose can easily be repeated. 

Karl's Quotes

Many a non-Socialist has asked many an SPC'er ,''You guys say a Socialist Society would solve the social problems humanity faces, so why haven't we got it? why haven't millions flocked to your banner?'' Good question, though once again our old buddies Karly and Fred come through for us by supplying the answer. In the ''Communist Manifesto'', one sentence says it all, ''The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of the ruling class.''

Since the Capitalist Class own the tools of production, it logically follows the own the tools of propaganda which produce ideas, and ideas are a product too, a product of the mind. One can hardly expect newspapers, movies, radio and TV to advocate anything which runs counter to its owners' interests.

For the capitalist the rest becomes easy, from the moment of birth one is brainwashed to think their way, ''hate him, he's black or white or Jew or gentile, Catholic, Protestant, long haired, short haired, the list is endless, but it all boils down to one thing - at a given time and place a person is different in some way to everyone else who is hanging around, therefore this person must be shunned and harmed, all of which is pressure to conform.

Many folks will say they think for themselves and sure they do but within the framework of Capitalism. It's like two guys arguing and one saying he will vote Liberal and the other saying he will vote Tory. Since both are speaking within the context of Capitalism they have more in common than in discord.

So one must surely wonder how will Socialism be established and the best answer I can give is that when people realize that only through co-operation can humanity survive they will establish the great world-wide co-operative commonwealth of Socialism.

For socialism, Steve and John

Sickening Attacks on Sick Benefits.

Employees of the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) have been on strike since March 6, their first since being, unionized in 1943. These workers perform a very valuable service for thousands of deaf and hard of hearing people who rely on them for counselling, employment help, interpretation, hearing aids and communication devices.

The union and CHS management started negotiating three years ago; the workers haven't had a contract or a wage increase for four years. They have maintained a sick bank that let them carry over unused sick days into the following year. CHS wants them to cut back to six paid sick days a year and bring in a short-term disability plan for anything longer which the employees have, quite understandably rejected.

Ninety per cent of the union membership are women who, one can assume, have families to support. It's enough to make anyone feel bitter just to think the working class fight for years to get benefits like paid sick days and then see management try to eradicate them. I'm sure they would just "love it'' if the government suggested cutting their fat salaries.

Though naturally enough, Socialists hope the strikers prevail, we nevertheless realize the limitations of union activity which at best will bring an improvement into their lives under Capitalism. A greater improvement would be its abolition so there would be no need for anyone to strike. 

Steve and John.