What we want

'But of late, since Bismarck went in for state ownership of industrial establishments, a kind of spurious socialism has arisen, degenerating, now and again, into something of flunkeyism, that without more ado declares all state ownership, even of the Bismarckian sort, to be socialistic. Certainly, if the taking over by the state of the tobacco industry is socialistic, then Napoleon and Metternich must be numbered among the founders of socialism.’ Engels, Socialism Utopian and Scientific.

Reformism is the conviction that socialism can be achieved by the use of and participation in the existing political institutions by petitioning for regulatory and legislative measures to ameliorate and improve the conditions of the working class. Every delay in breaking with and exposing reformism does harm to the cause of promoting working-class consciousness. Revolutions do not take place against backgrounds of recessions and austerity. They take place when in a period of rising expectations the established order cannot satisfy the expectations which it has been forced to bring into being, a working-class with further horizons than mere wage rises.

One of the most enduring myths about socialism is that it is a doctrine of nationalisation and state ownership. Engels explained, ‘The more the state proceeds to the taking over of productive forces the more does it actually become the national capitalist ... The capitalist relation is not done away with. It is rather brought to a head.’ Nationalisation is a reform within capitalism, not a measure that overthrows it. To the Socialist Party it was self-evident from 1917 that the Soviet Union was not socialism but a form of state-capitalism, a centralized command economy where the state performed the function of the capitalist. The Socialist Party recognised the fraudulent claims of the Bolsheviks and their followers. Even before the NEP, all the conditions which led to the growth of state-capitalism were already being developed. The market, i.e. the exchange of commodities between independent producers, cannot be abolished by a political act.

Socialism as understood by Marx and other socialists does not mean a state-capitalist programme of national ownership and control. Marx declined to give any detailed picture of what he expected it to be like: that was something for the working class to work out for itself. Nevertheless scattered throughout his writings, published and unpublished, are references to what he believed would have to be the basic features of the new society the working class would establish in place of capitalism.

Nowhere did Marx distinguish between "socialist society" and "communist society". As far as he, and Engels, were concerned these two words meant the same, being alternative names for the society they thought the working class would establish in place of capitalism, a practice which will be followed in this article. As a matter of fact besides communist Marx employed four other words to describe future society: associated, socialised, collective and co-operative. All these words convey a similar meaning and bring out the contrast with a capitalist society where not only the ownership and control of production but life generally is private, isolated and atomized.

Of these the word Marx used most frequently — almost more frequently than communist — was an association. Marx wrote of future society as "an association which will exclude classes and their antagonism" and as "an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". In Volume III of Capital Marx writes three or four times of production in future society being controlled by the "associated producers". Association was a word used in working class circles in England to mean a voluntary union of workers to overcome the effects of competition. This was Marx's sense too: in future society, the producers would voluntarily co-operate to further their own common interest; they would cease to be "the working class" and become a classless community.

Natural resources and the man-made instruments of production would be held in common: Marx speaks of "a community of free individuals, carrying on their work with the means of production in common" and, in his Critique of the Gotha Programme, of "the co-operative society based on the common ownership of the means of production" and of "the material conditions of production" being "the cooperative property of the workers themselves" . It is significant that Marx never defined communist society in terms of the ownership and control of the means of production by the State, but rather in terms of ownership and control by a voluntary association of the producers themselves. He did not equate what is now called "nationalisation" with socialism.

The State as an instrument of political rule over people and an organ of coercion was, in Marx's view, only needed in class-divided societies as an instrument of class rule and to contain class struggles. As he put it, in a socialist society "there will be no more political power properly so-called since political power is precisely the official expression of antagonism in civil society" and "the public power will lose its political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another" Socialism would indeed need a central administration but this would not be a "State" or "government" in that it would not have at its disposal any means of coercing people, but would be concerned purely with administering social affairs under democratic control. Marx endorsed the proposal of Saint Simon and other early critics of capitalism for "the conversion of the functions of the State into a mere superintendence of production", and also declared that "freedom consists in converting the state from an organ superimposed upon society into one completely subordinate to it." Once Socialism had been established and classes abolished, the coercive and undemocratic features of the State machine would have been removed, leaving only purely administrative functions mainly in the field of the planning and organization of production.

In Marx's view, there would be consciously planned production. He writes of a society "in which producers regulate their production according to a preconceived plan" and of "production by freely associated men . . . consciously regulated by them in accordance with a settled plan". He was well aware that to regulate "production according to a preconceived plan" would be a huge organizational task. Indeed, that it would be, if you like, the economic problem of socialism. Matching production with social wants would in the first instance be a huge statistical exercise. Marx emphasised that for this sort of reason "book-keeping" would be more necessary in socialism than under capitalism — not that he envisages the books in socialist society being kept in money. Socialist society, he felt, would use some direct measure of labour-time for its statistics and planning. Calculations would have to be made of how much labour-time would be needed to produce particular items of wealth; the real social (as opposed to monetary market) demand for the various items of wealth would also have to be calculated; and all the figures put together to construct a definite plan for the allocation of resources and labour to the various different branches of production.

Marx compares how capitalism and socialism would tackle the same problems, for instance, a long-term project which would not bear fruit in the form of finished products for some years but which in the meantime would have to be allocated labour and resources. Under capitalism, said Marx, this creates monetary problems and upsets; but in socialism, it is only a question of "preconceived" planning, of making allowances for this beforehand. Similarly with miscalculations, say overproducing: under capitalism (where overproduction means in relation to market demand) this causes a crisis and a drop in production; in Socialism (where overproduction would be in relation to real social demand) there would be no problem: it could be corrected in the next plan.

In his Critique of the Gotha Programme and in Volume III of Capital Marx lists the various major uses to which the social product would have to be put in a socialist society:

1) Replacing the means of production (raw materials, wear, and tear of machinery, etc.) used up in producing the social product.

2) Expanding the means of production so as to be able to produce a larger social product.

3) A small surplus as a reserve to provide against accidents and natural disasters (and planning miscalculations, we might add).

4) The individual consumption of the actual producers.

5) The individual consumption of those unable to work: the young, the old, the sick.

6) Social consumption: schools, hospitals, parks, libraries, etc.

7) Social administration not connected with production.

This is obvious but it is as well to spell it out so as to show that Marx did discuss some of the practical problems of totally planned production.

Socialism, Marx repeatedly makes clear, would be a non-market society, with all that that implied: no money, no buying and selling, no wages, etc. In fact, it was his view that proper planning and the market are incompatible: either production is regulated by a conscious previously worked-out plan or it is regulated, directly or indirectly, by the market. When Marx talked about men under capitalism being dominated by blind forces, which were, in the end, their own creations, it was precisely blind market forces he mainly had in mind. For him, capitalism was essentially a market economy in which the allocation of labour and resources to the various branches of production was determined by what he called "the law of value".

Although production under capitalism was not consciously controlled, it was not completely anarchic: some sort of order was imposed by the fact that goods exchanged in definite proportions, related both to the amount of socially necessary labour-time spent in producing them and to the average rate of profit on invested capital. Under capitalism it was the averaging of the rate of profit on the capital invested in the different branches that regulated production. But this was an unplanned hit-and-miss process which was only accurate in the long run; in the short run it led to alternating periods of boom and slump, labour shortage and mass unemployment, high profits and low profits. The assertion by society of conscious control over production, and the allocation of resources to the various branches of production in accordance with a previously settled plan, necessarily meant for Marx the disappearance not only of production for profit, but also of the whole mechanism of the market (including the labour market, and so of the wages system), of production for the market ("commodity-production"), of buying and selling ("exchange") and of money.

The Communist Manifesto specifically speaks of "the Communistic abolition of buying and selling" and of the abolition not only of capital (wealth used to produce other wealth with a view to profit) but of wage labour too. In Volume I Marx speaks of "directly associated labour, a form of production that is entirely inconsistent with the production of commodities . . ." and in Volume II of things being different "if production were collective and no longer possessed the form of commodity production . . ." . Also, in Volume II, Marx in comparing how Socialism and capitalism would deal with a particular problem twice says there would be no money to complicate matters in socialist society: "If we conceive society as being not capitalistic but communistic, there will be no money-capital at all in the first place . . ." and "in the case of socialized production the money-capital is eliminated" . In other words, in socialism it is solely a question of planning and organisation. Marx also advised trade unionists to adopt the revolutionary watchword "Abolition of the Wages System" and, in his Critique of the Gotha Programme, stated "within the co-operative society based on the common ownership of the means of production, the producers do not exchange their products" for the simple reason that their work would then be social, not individual and applied as part of a definite plan. What they produce belongs to them collectively, i.e. to society, as soon as it is produced; socialist society then allocates, again in accordance with a plan, the social product to various previously-agreed uses.

One of these uses must be individual consumption. How did Marx think this would be organised? Here again, Marx took a realistic view. Eventually, he said, the principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" would apply. In other words, there would be no social restrictions on individual consumption, every member of society being free to take from the common stock of consumer goods according to their individual need. But Marx knew that this presupposed a higher level of productivity than prevailed in his day (he was writing in 1875). In the meantime, while the productive forces were being expanded, individual consumption would unavoidably have to be restricted. How? Marx made the simple point that how wealth would be allocated for individual consumption in a communist society would depend on what and how much there was to allocate: "The mode of this distribution will vary with the productive organisation of the community, and the degree of historical development attained by the producers".

This was another obvious point, but on three or four occasions Marx went further and referred to a specific method of regulating distribution: by "labour-time vouchers". The basic idea of such a system is that each producer would be given a certificate recording how much time he had spent at work; this would entitle him to draw from the common store of wealth set aside for individual consumption an equivalent amount of consumer goods, likewise measured in labour-time. This, as Marx himself recognised, was only one of many possible systems Socialist society could democratically agree on for allocating wealth for individual consumption in the temporary conditions of relative scarcity here assumed — realistically for 1875 — to exist. As long as the total number of vouchers issued matched the total amount of wealth set aside for individual consumption, society could adopt any criteria it chose for deciding how many vouchers particular individuals, or groups of individuals, should have; this need bear no relationship at all to how many hours an individual may or may not have worked. Similarly, the "pseudo-prices" given to particular goods to be distributed need bear no relation to the amount of labour-time spent on producing them. Marx himself described some of the defects of the labour-time voucher system, but also made the point that any voucher system of allocating goods for individual consumption would suffer from anomalies, being forced on socialist society by the not-yet-developed-enough productive forces in what he called "the first phase of communist society".

When Marx mentions labour-time vouchers in Capita! he always made it quite clear that he was only assuming such a system as an example: "merely for the sake of a parallel with the production of commodities" or that the producers "may, for all it matters, ..." receive labour-time vouchers. He also emphasised that these vouchers would not be money in its proper sense: "Owen's 'labour-money' ... is no more 'money' than a ticket to the theatre" and "these vouchers are not money. They do not circulate" .

Marx's point here is that the vouchers would merely be pieces of paper entitling people to take such and such an amount of consumer goods; they would not be tokens for gold like today's paper money; once handed over they would be cancelled and so could not circulate. Besides, they would be issued as part of the overall plan for the production and distribution of wealth. Finally, we repeat, any voucher system, whether on a labour-time or some other basis, was seen by Marx only as a temporary measure while the productive forces were developed as rapidly as possible to the level where they would permit socialist society to go over to free access according to individual need.

This is why this is now only an academic problem. The further development of the forces of production since Marx's day has meant that the system he always said was the final aim of Socialism — free access to consumer goods according to individual need — could now be introduced almost immediately Socialism was established. The problem Marx envisaged labour-time vouchers as a possible solution to no longer really exists.

Conclusion

We have seen, then, that Marx held that future communist society would be a class-free community, without any coercive State machine, based on the common ownership of the means of production, with planning to serve human welfare completely replacing production for profit, the market economy, money and the wages system — even in the early stages when it might not prove possible to implement the principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need", which, however, always remained for Marx the aim. Marx, and Engels, never drew any distinction between "socialist" and "communist" society, using these (and other) terms interchangeably. He did, however, believe that this society would only be established after a "period of ... revolutionary transformation" of a number of years duration during which the working class would be using its control of political power to dispossess the capitalists and bring all the means of production under democratic social control — but, here again, the further development of the productive forces since Marx's day means that the socialist revolution can now be carried through very quickly with no need for any lengthy period between the capture of political power by the working class and the establishment of socialism.

AND A WAGE-LESS WORLD 

Share the Planet, Spare the People and Save Humanity

 All forms of life, vegetable, and animal, are part of a network of relationships called an ecosystem. This system is normally self-regulating so that, if disequilibrium occurs, it is corrected spontaneously, either restoring the former equilibrium or establishing a new one. The problem is that the industrial revolution came along, i.e. pollution of earth and water due to the dumping of toxic waste, or the use of non-recyclables, chemical fertilizers, nitrates, pesticides and other processes in agriculture; pollution of oceans due to an increase in maritime traffic, pollution of and from continental waterways, to shipwrecks of oil tankers (seventy recorded in 1996), to the discharge of toxic waste, chemicals, radioactive material, to over-fishing; air pollution due to massive utilization of fossil fuels and the development of individual automobiles, to destruction of forests, the lungs of the planet, to industrial accidents (for instance, Bhopal 1984, Chernobyl 1986), to emissions of greenhouse gases by vehicles, factories; deforestation leading to global warming and its consequences; raising the levels of the oceans due to melting of polar and continental glaciers; desertification; storms; acid rain; species extinction; stockpiling of nuclear weapons; development of mega cities that now house half the world’s population. 

As to the social and economic consequences of the ecological crisis, they will be dire with ninety per cent of the population exposed to natural catastrophe, especially in the poor regions and half the world’s population occupying coastal zones. How many climate refugees will be forced from flooded lands or from desertification that renders their lands unfit for agriculture? In the nineteenth century, some people were already concerned about the consequences of industrialisation on the environment, but it was the ecologists in the second half of the twentieth century when the ravages caused by human activity worsened, who provoked a consciousness of ecological problems. To remedy this, conferences and summits were held where international accords were reached, e.g. Declaration of Rio, 1992, Protocol of Kyoto, 1997, Earth Summit, Johannesburg, 2002, Paris Treaty 2016 on the greenhouse effect and global warming but not respected by the signatories who were submitting to global multinational interests. No nation is going to pass legislation unilaterally that will penalise the competitiveness of its national enterprises in the face of foreign competition. It would be almost impossible to find the international agreement that would penalise no one. That’s the snag since competition for profits is the basis of our current system.

Attempts at international agreement have been made, e.g. the UN, founded with the goal of maintaining peace. Yet the twentieth century has experienced the most murderous and devastating wars in history. No accord aiming to limit the machinations of the multinationals in their tireless quest for profits is successful. The measures that favour the environment, and the fundamental transformation of the productive apparatus and transportation systems that these measures imply, hurt the interests of the enterprises and their shareholder since adding to costs diminishes profits. Human beings are capable, whatever the form of production, of working with the environment. That was the case for many primitive societies that co-existed in complete harmony with the rest of nature and there’s nothing to prevent that being possible today, based on our technology and methods of industrial production, but for the capitalists, they are a ‘cost’ that would penalise them, faced with international competition.

It isn’t, then, that production itself, i.e. the use of nature to produce for human needs, that is incompatible with sustainability, but the use of certain productive methods that ignore nature’s balance or that brings about changes too rapid to allow a new balance to develop. In effect, environmental preservation is a social problem that imposes on humanity the establishment of a rapport with the rest of nature. In practice, that implies a society that uses as much renewable sources of energy as possible and recycling of non renewable material; a society that, once the appropriate balance with nature is found, would hold a level of stable production and zero growth. That doesn’t mean to say that changes are excluded on principle, but that all changes must respect the environment making a rhythm to which nature can adapt. Yet, the destructive methods of capitalist production over the course of the last two centuries destroyed the natural balance. What is called ‘market economy’, ‘economic liberalism’, ‘free enterprise’, or whatever euphemism is employed, the social system we live under is capitalism. Under this system, the means of producing and distributing social wealth – the means of society’s existence – are the exclusive property of a dominant, parasitic, minority, the holders of capital or the capitalist class, in whose interests the system is inevitably managed. 

In effect, capitalism, ruled by economic laws that act as external constraints on human productive activities, and within which businesses compete on the market for short term economic gain, pushes the economic decision makers to adopt methods that serve profit without taking their ecological impact into account, and pillage the earth’s natural resources without regard for the future. It isn’t, then, man, but the capitalist system itself that is responsible for ecological problems. Not only do the salaried workers have no influence in business decisions, but those who have the power to make decisions – the capitalists and their managers – are themselves subject to the laws of competition and profit. Of course, capitalism must face up to the ecological problems sooner or later, but only after the fact, after having caused the damage. Yet the ecologists, critics of ‘liberal capitalism’, accept, like the other types of reformers, the economic dictatorship of the minority, because they do not understand the relationship between environmental destruction and the private ownership of the means of production. That’s why the Greens are forced to make concessions whenever they participate in government. Because, by definition, capitalism can only function in the interests of the capitalists, no palliative, no adjustment, no measure, no reform, is able (and never will be able) to subordinate capitalist private property to the interests of all. For that reason, only the threat of a socialist movement, based on the establishment of social ownership (hence socialism) of the means of existence of society, managed by, and in the interests of all, would push the capitalists to concede reforms favourable to workers for fear of losing the whole pie, but still retaining the system that causes the problems! 

It is, then, for the construction of such a movement that we launch a call to all workers conscious of the fact that their interests are in opposition to those of the capitalists, to all those who are subject to the incessant attacks and dangers of the capitalists’ destruction of our planet, and wanting not just to patch up for now, but to solve the problems forever. We are only able to heal the planet by establishing a society without private property, commodity production, or profit, where human beings are free to choose the employment of productive methods because only such a society is free of the economic laws of the quest for profit and capital accumulation. In short, only a world socialist society, based on common ownership and the democratic management of the world’s resources, is compatible with production that is respectful of our natural environment.  

Dreams And Reality.

JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA

The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, is a new book by economist Peter Temin.

We know that there are only two classes: those who have to work to earn their living, and those who do not. I visited the US only three or four times, but just a quick glance at any neighbourhood is enough to see that "American Dream" is only true for a select few.

Run down neighbourhoods, increasing racial violence, xenophobia, and many other ills, are the results of the very system they have been praising for years. America is not regressing into a developing nation. It has already been a developing nation, for capitalism, but is now far worse for most: it's anarchic barbarism.

The rich will understand that they cannot sustain their status much longer while there is so much injustice and suffering around. Hasten the day working folk of America wake up to know that "American Dream" is for all to prosper, not a select few! 

Wage slaves to the back of the line . 

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-is-regressing-into-a-developing-nation-for-most-people

Steve and John

Come Fly With Me - If You Are Rich.

How much would you pay to avoid the common crowd? Now there is a great service available for 1% of the 1%. While the rest gets treated like crap going through security points, customs and struggling to get their baggage if you can afford, you can get the royal treatment. With a private entrance to suites at the airport and quick custom and security clearance, the service boasts that all you have to do is to walk 70 steps as while the rest walks about 2200 steps from the entrance to the plane. Capitalism continues to divide us and pushes those who are already at lower levels of the social structure further down.

Another article related to this by the Independent mentions that there are iPads showing the airport security and baggage queues. This adds insult to injury.

Now the very rich will be watching how hoi polloi suffer to get on planes (only to be further insulted as in the American Airlines incident) while they are sipping cocktails in comfy suites.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-private-terminal-lax-0503-story.html 

Steve and John.

The Waste of the Profit System

Capitalism has an odd way of producing goods in today’s world. The sheer amount of waste created by the capitalist system would almost be unexplainable if it weren’t understood that goods are only produced for a profit. When you look at the industries that have nothing to do with the production of goods to satisfy human needs this becomes apparent. The marketing industry in the United States is an excellent example of how labour is being wasted at an unprecedented scale.

 In 2004 the communications and research company, Blackfriars Communications, Inc. projected that marketing spending in the U.S. alone would near $1.074 trillion in 2005. That accounts for nearly 9% percent of the gross domestic product for that year. They found that manufacturers spent the most on the marketing of all the industries, almost $120 billion, which was spent on advertising, direct marketing, events and other activities. The sheer amount of labour hours wasted in this industry alone is astonishing. Let's take a look at some of the other industries that have nothing to do with the production of goods for human need. A breakdown of the American economy for 2007 shows that the labour pool, that is all employed workers in America, is approximately 134 million people. Of that number approximately 60 million are employed in industries that are involved in the production of goods that can be consumed or used. This figure is the added approximate number of workers employed in industries such as mining, utilities, construction, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, scientific and technical services, education, health care and arts and entertainment. That leaves approximately 72 million workers employed in industries that have little or nothing to do with the production of goods for use or consumption. Industries such as wholesale, retail, information, finance, and insurance, real estate, management, administration and food service. Not to mention the number of workers employed by the armed forces and the police. It is striking to see that the number of workers employed in fields devoted to the selling of goods produced is much higher than those employed in sectors that actually produce wealth. This odd balance is only part of the unavoidable structure of the capitalist system.

 In a world of private ownership, the wealth produced is owned and controlled by a small minority of people. Jobs are available only when there is a profit to be made in that sector and goods can be had only if you have the money to buy them. It is the profit making system that creates a society of scarcity. It is not scarcity that creates the profit system. In the capitalist society, goods can only be produced if there is an expectation of making a profit. The capitalist class, who owns all of the wealth produced, sells the goods back to those who produce them in the first place. The wage or salary paid to the worker is always less than the value of what he or she produces. It is this surplus that creates profit. In this respect, profit can be considered as unpaid labour. In a society of common ownership, labour would be directly involved only in the production of wealth for use. Only the work that is involved in the production of goods would remain. That would leave more than half of the entire labour pool that could be immediately used to increase the productive capacities of wealth in society, greatly reducing the man-hours of each worker in the production of goods. Gone would be the countless numbers of jobs that only exist to administer the profit system. It has been argued that it is the competition that exists in the profit system that is responsible for all technological advancements.

 While this may true in some respects, it is also the profit system that is responsible for the hindering of many technological and productive advancements. For example, the know-how and will exist to create an automobile that can run on hydrogen power alone, i.e. water.2 Unfortunate, however, is the fact that there is no profit to be made in selling a car that runs for free. Another thing to consider is the production of shoddy goods that break down not long after they are used. Again, using the automobile as an example, it is not that we cannot build a car that would run for 20 years without having to be replaced, but it is the fact that there is no profit in selling a car that would last that long. Much more profitable to the owning class is to sell a car that breaks down after five or six years so that another car must replace it. Without the hindrance of the capital seeking system of production, the working class would be free to increase its efficiency and productive capacities to satisfy each human being to live a full life of abundance. It is only when the working class organizes politically and consciously to take the wealth of their labour into their own hands that the waste and exploitation of labour will end.  

Dictating The Course Of Enemies In WAR!

On May 5, a senior Russian diplomat, Aleksandr Laventriev, made an announcement that would make Trump seem like a wise guy in comparison. He said that as a result of the U.S bombing of Syria, their aircraft and that of allied nations are banned from flying over the areas of Syria where the war is being fought. This is a deal agreed on between Iran, Russia, and Turkey. It is not known at this time if the U.S. has agreed, what a laugh. 

Laventiev should be doing stand up comedy if he thinks one can dictate to capitalists what they are allowed to do or not in a war. 

The best thing anyone can suggest in relation to war is to abolish it, or better still abolish the cause. 

Steve and John.

Can One Say Perfectly Crazy?

A Brampton man who rented the main floor of his house to a Muslim couple has been ordered by the court to pay them $12,000 for failing to respect their religious practices when showing their apartment to prospective tenants. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario also found he had,''Harassed them and created a poisoned housing environment''.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? And what exactly was his diabolical, dirty, deed? John Alabi refused to remove his shoes when showing the bedroom where the couple prayed and while he always gave them the mandated 24-hour notice before showings he didn't always provide the five-minute warnings they had requested to ensure the wife was modestly dressed and they weren't in the midst of their 5 daily prayers. Wow! Mr.Alibi must be one real bad dude.

It is clearly obvious that daily life under capitalism is getting crazier every day and the above is a perfect, (if one can use the word), example. 

Steve And John.

Save the Children or Save the Profits

In the tradition in which we stand, revolution is the self-emancipation of the working class. Our vision is a world without the private ownership of the means of production. The struggle for that freedom is to wrest control of the means of production from the controlling class. The Socialist Party encourages all struggles against exploitation, raising an awareness of the truth that the only solution is the socialist revolution. The only real deterrent to the attack on the working class by capitalism is the socialist revolution.  Once workers understand their material interests, not just as good ideas or moral imperatives but as inescapable necessities, they will embrace the revolution.  Workers recognising their self-interest will see the absolute need for the unity of their class in order to overthrow the ruling class.  What kind of future do we have? Under capitalism, the overwhelming majority of us have little to look forward to. Capitalism has brought our world to the brink with inequality, racism, war and environmental devastation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It is clear that the current system isn’t working, and we need an alternative A better world is possible.

Capitalism operates purely on the basis of blind profit and competition. This is the real lunacy of capitalism. Socialism has to further develop technology and science. Two-thirds of the world's population live in absolute poverty. Socialists are not interested in sharing out the misery, we want a decent life for all. A socialist society would harness technology to lower the number of hours it is necessary to work. This would give working-class people more time to participate in running society. Combined with a massive programme of socially necessary projects - such as increasing the numbers of teachers, doctors, and nurses - unemployment could be eliminated. However, there does not have to be a contradiction between this and safeguarding the planet. What is needed if we are to save the world is to develop alternative technologies that did not harm the environment. This could only be achieved on the basis of socialism. 

The UN adopted a treaty, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, guaranteeing children’s rights and one hundred and ninety-three countries have ratified the treaty yet millions are still deprived of food, shelter, and clean water. There is no reason to doubt the good intentions of UNICEF and all the charities but it must be obvious that we need more than good intentions. This is just another example of a reform not working, not fulfilling its promise. It doesn’t matter whether a reform is proposed by local, national or international governments, if it tries to make capitalism solve the problem, it will fail. Why? Because the problems are created by capitalism, are natural consequences of its normal operation. Capitalism is a system designed to produce surplus value, profit, that goes into the pockets of the investors, without regard to how, when, or where that is done, and it is very successful at doing that. Food, housing, medical care, clean water, etc., are only produced if there is a reasonable expectation of profit, and, if not, production does not occur, or, in some cases, unsold surpluses are destroyed. Thus anyone without the ability to pay must do without, even the necessities. That’s the way the system is. No amount of reforms, band-aid, or food-aid, is going to change that. Only COMMON OWNERSHIP of the production and distribution of wealth, where we all have control, can bring the obvious common sense reality of looking after our children properly. Common Ownership means that the resources of the world and the means to produce useful goods from them would be owned by everyone and, therefore, by no one. All humanity would be producers meeting as equals to decide what, how, and where to produce based solely on mankind’s needs. Distribution of goods and services would deny no one access to what they needed. This system would end the present class system and render money, trade, employment, exploitation, want, and war obsolete.

The Socialist Party appeals to the voters to their class interests. The Socialist Party candidates nominees make no pretence of attempting to serve both capitalists and workers. That is a political sophistry which we leave in the hands of the political opportunists for capitalism. Our overwhelming numerical superiority allows us to expect our will to be carried out. It is only after having the social means of existence under collective control that we would, at last, ensure that their management is used no longer in the vested interests of today’s owners, but, this time, truly in the interests of all. Only then will we be in a position of realising a world in which the present system of competing states will be supplanted by a world community without borders, the wages system by voluntary labour, buying and trading by free access to the wealth produced, the competitive system supplanted by cooperation, the class system by social equality. 

Anchored To Poverty

On May 6 the Toronto Star ran an article focusing on the plight of neighbourhood malls, which are in decline. The two most likely reasons are the anchors pulling up anchors and on-line shopping.

Target has been in and out of Canadian malls for two years leaving a trail of debt and unemployment behind them. Sears has closed 11 department store anchor locations across Canada since 2012.

Market research firm IBIS-World issued a report which predicted this trend would continue for the next five years, ''Profit has suffered over the five years to 2016, as many industry operators have slashed their selling prices in order to remain attractive to customers'', the report said.

Mary Mowbray, of group sales for Colliers International, added, ''Malls, used to rely on their anchors and the anchors are changing faster than anyone imagined they would''. This is another indication that under capitalism no one really knows what will happen, but you can bet that with the economy the way it is now it won't be good. It's so bad even mall owners are getting out of the mall business.

Canada's top real estate development and investment firms have reduced their mall portfolios by half in recent years. A spokesman for one real estate consultancy said, ''Retailers don't want to have 600 stores anymore in a country. They are aiming for something closer to 300. The growth of online sales is a major factor. According to an estimate by Colliers, online sales of 23 billion in 2014 replaced 76.7 million square feet of stores. That is roughly the equivalent to the shopping centre inventories of Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa and Victoria, the estimate said. What no report or estimate did say was that these days millions of working class folk just don't have the money to shop for more than their basic needs and some haven't enough to do that.

 Steve and John.

Understand today - Visualise tomorrow

ROBOTS FOR SOCIALISM

Down through the ages, the imagination of mankind has been fired with the great vision of a world free of war and strife, without national rivalries, without racial and religious strife. The ideal of the “Brotherhood of Man” has inspired struggles against inequality and oppression, appearing again and again 

The technology exists to produce all that we need for a peaceful, orderly world and the true flowering of the human intellect and spirit. Our goal is to re-organise society. Our vision is of a new, cooperative society of equality, and of a people awakening. The revolution we need is possible. We invite all who see that there is a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. Only by engaging the hearts and minds of people can we win this social revolution. Our task is teaching people about the nature of this capitalist system and what kind of political organisation we need. We seek to transform people into conscious thinkers who become aware of themselves as indispensable makers of history and participate in the liberation of humanity.

Social revolutions come about can ultimately be traced to the economy. Everyone knows the economy is undergoing a profound change. This change is fundamental and irreversible; it is so great it is causing great change in every aspect of life. The content of the change in the economy is the replacement of human labour by new and ever expanding technologies such as automation. All the necessities of life must be paid for with money. We make money by going to work. If the robots do the work, then how will we get the food, housing, and clothing we need? If there is going to be production without wages, then there must be distribution without money. We must guarantee that the changes result in a better life for the people. We must guarantee the high-tech revolution provides for the common good through common ownership.

The worker's commodity is what he or she sells, their ability to work, is. Like a chair or an automobile, our ability to work is worth the cost of its production. Like the chair or automobile, its cost of production is determined by how much labour went into producing it. The secret of profit is this: Labour produces more than it costs to create. Every worker knows, even if he or she can’t explain it, that labour cranks out more value than it consumes. So a system evolved in which everyone bought and sold. The capitalist buys the elements of production, the worker buys the elements of life. The worker sells his or her ability to produce, the capitalist sells the produce. Every employer understands that the surest way to increase profits is to have the worker produce more for the same amount of wages. Every advance in machinery made the workers more productive and made more of them unemployed in a mad scramble to increase profit by cutting labour costs. Today the machinery are no longer mere labour-saving but labour-replacing. Robots force the worker out of the factory. Expanding sections of the working class are permanently unneeded. The new mode of production no longer needed a reserve army of unemployed. It is now clear that a new society must be built.

The mission of the Socialist Party is so to organise the mechanism of production that wealth can be abundantly produced as to free mankind from want and the fear of want, from the brute’s necessity of a life of arduous toil in the production of the brute’s mere necessaries of life. Socialist philosophy has made this clear. The Socialist Party is a is a revolutionary political party of the working class. We do not believe that the social or political maladjustments can be remedied by mere reforms in the manner of exploiting labour, but only by the complete abolition of the system of labour exploitation. When the workers awake to their class position they can by the conquest of the political machinery, recast society as they wish.  We, of the Socialist Party, have no other aim than to give the workers the knowledge that will enable them to act. Because we think that conditions are ripe for Socialism now, and only knowledge is lacking, we are not prepared under any circumstances whatever to divert the workers' attention from the main object; we do not aid the capitalist class, nor do we seek their aid, because we consider these things will not serve any useful purpose; we do not endeavour to interest the workers in the administration, nor in the reform of the capitalist system, because we regard the one as a purely capitalist question, and the other as a means of prolonging the system which we are bent on destroying; we do not formulate immediate demands, because we know that the capitalists will not yield one jot of their position unless they are compelled, by circumstances, or unless the yielding is conceived by them in their own interests. Reforms of the latter type will be introduced by the capitalists and imposed by them, irrespective of our wishes; and when we are strong enough to challenge them we shall formulate the only demand worth making, the final demand. All who are prepared to fight for this are invited to unite with us for that purpose.

Intense Wage Struggle.

JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA

 The Calgary Herald 05.12.2017 tells us "WestJet pilots poised to unionize amid intensifying worker unrest."

Wait, what's going one here? Was there ever a time earning wages under capitalism wasn't intense? Do tell! With Westjet's shares falling 4% over this wee tussle over wages and conditions, it is not surprising to read that WestJet CEO of Canada's budget airline vows to "go down fighting ..." Bully for you, mate! What a blinking hero! Those damn nuisance workers: Take it in the Chin!

Like a feral scourge that must be eradicated, what we see here is no different the world over: when decent working class folk struggle to stay afloat in a sea of swindling buccaneers, buccaneers who use every trick in the book to extract profit via the 'master and servant statutes' of old (labour law!) tipping the balance of power their way to dash the economic brains out the working class almost every time. And why not! It's their system! Those enterprising captains of industry fought hard, lying through their teeth to suck workers into letting them run civilization in their own interests – the interests of parasitical capital.

Good luck to you all fellow workers of Westjet. If you get your deserved gains, let's not forget to knock out the system that lets bosses everywhere exploit and keep us all in positions of senseless servitude! 

Steve and John.