We Want Freedom for All

The Socialist Party is made up of workers who share agreement on some simple generalisations. Our bond of comradeship is rooted in the acceptance of the barest minimum of socialist principles which are

1. Socialism is a product of social evolution;
2. The socialist revolution is inherently democratic because of its nature of being conscious, majority, and political;
3. Socialism is based on the social relations of a community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole.
4. A socialist is one who recognises and realises that capitalism can no longer be reformed or administered in the interest of society or of the working class;
5. Capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, war, crises, etc.;

The times call for arousing the majority to become socialists to construct socialism, which is now possible and necessary.

To establish socialism, the workers must first gain control of the powers of government through their political organisation. The state is the central organ of power in the hands of the capitalist class. The state has through the ecades demonstrated its function as the executive committee of the capitalist class.  By gaining control of the powers of the state, the socialist majority are in a position to transfer the means of living from the parasites, who own them, to society, where they belong. This is the only function or need the working class has of the state/government. As soon as the revolution has accomplished this task, the state is replaced by the socialist administration of affairs. There is no government in a socialist society. We emphasise that the ballot is the lever of emancipation.  We urge the socialist majority to vote for socialism, and socialism alone. If the workers ever rely or depend on the Socialist Party, then the Party may well indeed sell them down the river but nothing could be more repugnant to a member of the Socialist Party than the idea of voting for it so that they might do something for the workers. We are uncompromisingly opposed to any leadership policy or principle!  We are organised for action to change the world from capitalism to socialism. We are not concerned with the problems of administering capitalism. Capitalism cannot be administered in the interests of the working class or of society as a whole. 

 The Socialist Party is always prepared express solidarity in the economic struggles between the wage slaves and their parasitic masters over the division of the wealth produced by the workers. We also always support the fight for civil and human liberties. Workers who are satisfied with the status quo, are contented slaves and poor prospects for socialist revolution. Civil liberties are powerful tools for socialist victory. What stands in the way of socialism, today? It is not the limitations of technology, nor of the material conditions of existence. It is not the lack of literacy, scientific information or democratic forms. The only material condition lacking is a majority of class-conscious revolutionary socialists determined to inaugurate the new social system. Building that majority is the task of the socialist movement. Our great ally is the workings of capitalism and the lessons of experience. That is the latent strength of socialism. Once the workers wake up and the ideas of socialism spread like wildfire, they have the tools ready to hand — the vote. All that the capitalist class can do is to submit to the inevitable.

The Socialist Party does not advocate reforms nor fight for reforms, that does not mean that it refuses to accept reforms. However, reforms and reformism are just because their objectives are palliative in nature and are fought for in order to make the system function more smoothly. Historically, reformism has dissipated the earnest energies of so-called socialists from doing any socialist work. Once achieved the need to protect the gains of the reforms is an all-time job. Reforms are efforts to introduce measures into the legal machinery of the State for making the operation of capitalism more efficient. The difficulties that arise from the irreconcilable contradictions of the system require “remedial” measures. Thus the advocacy and fight for reforms, such as nationalisation, social welfare, tax relief, and the host of proposals as can be found in the programmes of all the parties that are geared to the amelioration of the conditions of life with a view to a better administration of capitalism.

But we have to distinguish activities that some like to equate with reformism but we consider not to be..

1. Workers going out on strike over wages, hours, work-shop conditions, have as their objective resistance to increased exploitation. The economic phase of the class struggle, trade unionism, is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a reform. It is undeniable that many unions do engage in reform activities. Workers are compelled to organise into unions by the very conditions of capitalism, i.e., the division of the new value produced by the workers into its two component parts: variable capital (the workers’ share) and surplus value (the capitalists’ share). Through the mechanism of unionism, the workers, over the long run, sell their commodity, labour power, at its value. 
2. Socialists fighting for civil liberties, the right to free speech, to publish and distribute literature, removing restrictions from the franchise and similar activities strengthen the workers' movement to get rid of capitalism — and have nothing to do with reforming the system. The strength of the socialist movement is that it is the task of the vast majority. Democratic procedures are the essential conditions for the social change we are working for; they themselves are the special products of the material conditions of the 20th century. Civil liberties are revolutionary weapons in the hands of socialists and the socialist majority. This is not a reform activity.

The fight by workers for their economic interests within the framework of capitalism is the economic phase of the class struggle. The fight for civil liberties within the framework of capitalism is a manifestation of the highest expression of the class struggle, its political phase.

Glasgow branch meeting

Wednesday, 15 November 
 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Maryhill Community Central Halls,
 304 Maryhill Road, 
Glasgow G20 7YE

The Socialist Party policy is not to advocate any reform, but to advocate only socialism. However, the Socialist Party is not the socialist "party" that Marx (or even our Declaration of Principles) envisages, ie the working class as a whole organised politically for socialism. That will come later. At the moment, the Socialist Party can be described as only a socialist propaganda or socialist education organisation and can't be anything else (and nor would it try to be, at the moment ). Possibly, we might be the embryo of the future mass "socialist party" but there's no guarantee that we will be ( more likely just a contributing element). But who cares? As long as such a party does eventually emerges. At some stage, for whatever reason, socialist consciousness will reach a "critical mass" , at which point it will just snowball and carry people along with it. It may even come about without people actually giving it the label of socialism.

In 1904 we raised the banner for such a single, mass socialist party and proclaimed itself as the basis of such a party. Not only did the working class in general not "muster under its banner" but neither did all socialists. So although with a long history as a political party based on agreed goals, methods and organisational principles we were left as a small propagandist group, but still committed to the tenets set out in our Declaration of Principles. But we have never been so arrogant as to claim that we're the only socialists and that anybody not in the Socialist Party is not a socialist. There are socialists outside our party, and some of them are organised in different groups. That doesn't mean that we are not opposed to the organisations they have formed, but we are not opposed to them because we think they represent some section of the capitalist class. We are opposed to them because we disagree with what they are proposing the working class should do to get socialism -- and of course, the opposite is the case too: they're opposed to what we propose. Nearly all the others who stand for a class-free, state-free, money-free, wage-free society are anti-parliamentary (the old Socialist Labour Party being an exception). For ourselves, using the existing historically-evolved mechanism of political democracy (the ballot box and parliament) is the best and safest way for a socialist-minded working class majority to get to socialism. For them, it's anathema. For the Socialist Party, some of the alternatives they suggest (armed insurrection or a general strike) are anathema. We all present our respective proposals for working-class action to get socialism and, while criticising each other's proposals, not challenging each other's socialist credentials.

In the meantime, the best thing we  can do is to carry on campaigning for a world community based on the common ownership and democratic control of the Earth's natural and industrial resources in the interests of all humanity.  We will continue to propose that this is established by democratic, majority political action. Other groups will no doubt continue to propose your own way to get there. And, in the end, we'll see which proposal the majority working class takes up. When the socialist idea catches on we'll then have our united movement.

Revolutionary Socialists

The Russian Revolution did stir and inspire large segments of workers, that fact we freely acknowledge. Yet in light of developments, the socialist movement would be a far greater force and factor today had it not been for the wasted energies and illusions of the Bolshevik counterfeits as far as a genuine socialist revolutionary movement is concerned. These Bolshevik groupings, including the Communist Parties over the world, the Trotskyists, and all their various splinter groups, usually revolve around personalities and “leaders.” They are dominated by the concept of a vanguard of “professional revolutionists.” It is the responsibility of the vanguard to guide and lead their followers. They arouse the emotions with their “grassroots” activities of organising demonstrations and protests on any and all questions. Their concepts of the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” and the “Transitional Period” are reflected in what they call “Democratic Centralism.” The control of the organisation is from the top, who inform the membership of “the party line.”

When the workers become socialists, they will not need a vanguard party to lead them. They will organise consciously and politically to emancipate themselves. Its bond of comradeship and unity is rooted in the barest minimum of socialist principles which may be summarized as socialism is a product of social evolution; the socialist revolution is inherently democratic because of its nature of being conscious, majority, and political; and that socialism is based on the social relations of a community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole. There can hardly be any compromise on these three general principles. Further, a socialist is one who recognises and realises that capitalism can no longer be reformed or administered in the interest of society or of the working class; that capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, war, crises, etc.; and that the times call for arousing the majority to become socialists to inaugurate socialism, now possible and necessary.

The word “government” is often confused with the word “administration.” It is a very common misconception until one realizes that “government” is but a synonym for the “state,” that is, rulers and ruled; governors and governed. (Although all governments have a secondary function of administering social affairs, it is a secondary function that is subordinate to its primary function of ruling society in the interest of the ruling class.) Where the social relationships of private property exist, there is a need for state machinery (a government) to keep the people in check and under control, as well as to protect the national ruling class interests against the rivalries of foreign “enemies.” Thus, we have had governments in chattel slave, feudal, and capitalist societies. Primitive tribal societies were typically administered communally and had no governments, as such. Socialism is a class-free society, without rulers and the ruled, a genuine democracy where there exists a real community of interests between all the members of society and society as a whole. It is a social administration of affairs where everyone cooperates in the common interests according to his abilities and desires; where human beings live useful, interesting and meaningful lives.

To establish socialism the workers must first gain control of the powers of government through their political organisation. It is the recognition that the state is the central organ of power in the hands of the capitalist class. By gaining control of the powers of the state, the socialist majority are in a position to transfer the means of living from the parasites, who own them, to society, where they belong. This is the only function or needs the working class has the state/government. As soon as the revolution has accomplished this task, the state is replaced by the socialist administration of affairs. There is no government in a socialist society.

Some say we require leaders to educate the workers politically and economically towards socialism. But teachers are not leaders any more than writers or speakers are leaders. Their function is to spread knowledge and understanding so that the workers, the conscious majority, may emancipate themselves. Quite different from that we must have leaders (great men) to direct their followers (blind supporters) into a socialist society. Socialism is not the result of blind faith, followers, or, by the same token, vanguards, and leaders. Nothing is more repugnant to socialism than conspiratorial tactics. Socialism is not possible without socialists. What makes socialist work stirring and inspiring is not that there are shortcuts, but that there is no alternative worth a damn. The seeming failures, the disappointments, and discouragements, the slow growth, only indicate that socialist work is not an easy task. Our satisfaction is that the latent strength of the movement is that it makes sense, and when the great majority wake up and socialist ideas come of age, then socialism, a world fit for human beings, becomes invincible. “socialist activists” have had impressive “successes” and “victories” in every field except one. The lessons of experience and history have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they have not remotely convinced the workers of the need for socialism. From the activities carried on in the name of socialism, the one thing conspicuous by its absence has been any mention of the socialist case. In common, the efforts of “socialist activists” — ranging from peace activists, through to campaigners for human rights have been geared to an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism. With contempt, they sneer at the dumb workers and their backwardness. Such groups have been guilty of disillusioning the workers about real socialism. The great indictment of these activists is that they divert the workers from the genuine socialist movement, and have hampered the growth of socialism by many years. Were all that tremendous energy and enthusiasm harnessed in the genuine socialist work of making socialists, how much more the movement would have been advanced! The “practical realist” has proven to be an impractical utopian; the “activist” has proven to be the occupant of an ivory tower.

 The great mass of the workers never hears the socialist message. Had all the enthusiasms and energies of the past fifty years been harnessed for the spread of socialist knowledge and understanding, imagine how much more advanced the revolutionary movement would be today. The history of the “practical socialists” sneering at the “impossiblists and theoreticians” finds them landing in the camp of capitalist politicians. There is no shortcut to socialism, short of socialist determination. Our latent strength lies in the fact that science, truth, and above all, necessity is on the side of the scientific, revolutionary socialist movement. Socialism cannot be rammed down the throats of the majority against their wishes. We have the glorious task of arousing our fellow workers to speedily introduce socialism. The alternative facing us is socialism or chaos. Our task is primarily that of arousing socialist consciousness, on the basis of evidence and unfolding events, that capitalism has outlived its historic usefulness and is now ripe for burial; that socialism is no fanciful utopia, but the crying need of the times; and that we, as socialists, are catalytic agents, acting on our fellow workers and all others to do something about it as speedily as possible.

Members of the Socialist Party are wary of the use of the word, “radical.” Actually, socialists are not radicals in the usual usage of the word. We are, rather, revolutionary. Under the heading of “radical” must be included a hodge-podge of confusionists full of nebulous, vapid discontent based on blind misconceptions. What company is included in the term “radical”!

Of course, there is no question whatever that there is a need for “some sort of unity of understanding,” as many put it; but that is the function of a socialist organisation, i.e., a socialist party. The nature of a socialist party is that it is not for the workers. The party is not going to emancipate the workers or do anything for them. There is no dichotomy or separation between the workers and the party. It would be quite valid to say that the socialist party is the party of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers. The real socialist party cannot be apart and distinct from the working class; it has to be comprised of the whole human community. That is the general nature of any socialist party. The Communist Manifesto phrases this very well: Section II starts off that the party “always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole” and ends with “the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy.”  In other words, the work of emancipation, the transformation of capitalism into a socialist society, the transfer of the means of living from the hands of the parasites into the hands of society as a whole, is the conscious, majority, and political action of the working class — the socialist party. When the workers finally wake up, they will use their party to change the “civitas” of propertied society into the “societas” of communal society.

Taxing Thoughts

Scots want tax cut on Scotch whisky.

"More than two-thirds of Scots want the Chancellor to cut taxes on whisky a survey shows.

Duty rates on the spirit currently make up 80 per cent on an average priced bottle after being raised by 3.9 per cent in March. A poll for the Scottish Whisky Association found 68 per cent believe Philip Hammond should reduce taxes in his Budget on November 22.

Since the duty rise in the last Budget, sales have fallen by on million bottles."

This article in the Metro on November 9^th is questionable in that 68% of the Scots want a cut in taxes on whisky. 

More likely they mean 68% of the Scots that they asked wanted a cut in the taxes and that could be any number. 

Chancellors are lobbied all the time by business men and women requesting a cut in tax. They also like workers to believe that any cuts they get will reduce the price of the bottle and benefit them. A cut in taxes would mean the Chancellor would tax some other product and the money saved by the Whisky Association would increase their profits.

Will Child Poverty Ever Go Away?

Targets to cut child poverty in Scotland voted through.

SCOTTISH ministers have pledged to ensure that less ten per cent of children will be living in poverty by 2030

Legislation passed unanimously at Holyrood yesterday will make Scotland the only part of the UK with statutory targets to cut child poverty. MSPs debated and voted on the Scottish government's Child Poverty Bill at the final stage of its journey through parliament.

Currently more than one in five (-220,000-) children live in poverty north of the border. The Bill requires ministers to ensure that, by 2030 less than ten per cent of children are in relative poverty, meaning those living in a home earning below 60 per cent of the 2010/11 national median income.

SNP MSP George Adam said the Bill could be "transformational for children across the country."

The Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland said it was a hugely welcome step.

Socialists can't say just exactly how things will be run in a socialist world, outside of saying the working class will recognise that common ownership of the means of production will eliminate many of the daily problems. 

The article above is certainly one of them. It was in the Metro on the 9^th of November. The article demonstrates "The Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland said it was a hugely welcome step." and SNP MSP George Adam said the Bill could be "transformational for children across the country." 

In other words, child poverty will always be around for many years yet.

In the Scottish Referendum, on Independence. I remember Tommy Sheridan pointing out that Norway being an independent country only had 5% child poverty against the 12% child poverty in Scotland. Norway at that time had billions of Euros surplus and yet as Tommy says it still had child poverty. Even in an independent Scotland the likelihood of child poverty remaining is certain.

 The only transformation that will eliminate child poverty is socialism.

Forgetting War

It is the duty of our fellow-workers to achieve real peace—a peace guaranteed by the identity of interest of all the members of society. Such a peace can only be obtained by the realisation of socialism. The genuine working-class movement must take power out of the hands of privileged politicians and parasites, take its own destiny in both hands, and wage class war against capitalism, militarism, and repression.

 Pacifists may be antimilitarists and opposed to all wars, aspiring for perfect peace, yearning for brotherly love, but they are dreamers and ignore the nature of the profit system under which we live. Experience has shown that pacifist organisations spread confusion, and do more harm than good, dissipating energies and raising false hopes. The representatives of capitalist interests, however, have learned from grim experience that a system of exploitation such as the present can only be preserved by force. Armies are required by the master class to keep the subject class in slavery and wars are inseparable from a system of private property. The Socialist Party, therefore, goes to the root of the matter. The Socialist is concerned with the abolition of capitalism, without which war cannot be eliminated. The system depends upon the ignorance of the masses of workers and therefore until the workers obtain real knowledge of the causes of their conditions and organise in agreement with that knowledge—there is no possibility of abolishing the effects of the system. The only thing that can undermine the power of the ruling class is working-class political knowledge; the only way in which the political control can be wrested from the ruling class is by political action based sternly upon sound working-class political understanding. 

Any party claiming to represent the workers’ interests which calls upon workers to support their masters’ wars surrenders its right to be described as a party of labour. To the class-conscious workers who comprehend their position in society it is a matter of indifference which section of the international master class is the best equipped with weapons of war. Whichever side wins or loses, the workers of both sides lose their lives or gain nothing if they survive. The working class has not one shred of interest to justify their participation in any of capitalism’s wars.  Members of the Socialist Party would point out that the war is part of a whole related pattern of social problems generated by capitalism; and because it is part of a related pattern, the war cannot be attacked in isolation from the rest of the pattern or from its roots in the needs of capitalist society; the only way this problem, and others like it, can be permanently solved is to establish a system of society in which the means of production are owned and democratically controlled by the whole people, and goods are produced for use and not for competitive exchange and profit.

The Socialist Party advocates the organisation of the working class for the capture of the political machinery in order that a new social order may be established in which the means of life will be owned in common by all and in which therefore there will be no need for the forcible protection of property and the slaughter of millions of producers in order to decide which bunch of parasites shall control the trade routes and markets of the world. The only way in which mankind can bring about a social change and build a fraternal society, free of war, is to establish socialism. This will not come about as an expression of non-violence but as the conscious act of a socialist working-class.  To establish socialism the working-class of the world must first understand and want it. They must, in other words, free themselves from ideas which at present keep capitalism in being—including ideas like pacifism—and consciously choose the new society in which men can truly live in brotherhood and build a world for human beings.

Abuse. Or Deportation

The Toronto Star's edition of Oct.7 continued its series of exposures of the abuse migrant workers are subject to in the Canadian food industry. To read the complete article, the star.ca. I will mention a few significant points here.

Many female workers are exposed to sexual abuse and are afraid of complaining to the authorities because their boss will immediately fire them and they will lose their right to be in Canada. When some want to complain they find a grey area of responsibility between the federal and provincial governments. The federal one has to ensure the employers live up to the terms of their Labour Market Impact Assessments, which means they have to explain why they were unable to recruit Canadians for a job and are paying them the agreed wages.

It was reported that Employment and Social Development Canada does not, to put it bluntly, get-stuck-in. They conduct few on-site inspections and fewer interviews. They have though received tips on their hot line about employers lack of regard for safety, poor living conditions for the workers and threats of deportation. So whatever rights they have become meaningless when faced with the fear of deportation.

Furthermore Ontario is the only province in Canada where agricultural workers cannot form a union. It all reads like a chapter from Steinbecks, Grapes of Wrath, which shows how little things have changed. You may say, something should be done about it, and you would be right -- something can be, but it won't be under capitalism.

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & all contributing members of the SPC.

If you seek to lead a movement - take a laxative

To all workers throughout the world, the socialist message is loud and clear. Don't waste any more time or effort attempting to reform capitalism. Instead of campaigning for this or that reform join the movement which has as its sole aim ending a social system which cannot satisfy the needs of human beings, a world-wide system run by human beings for human beings. The Socialist Party strives to make its case as widely known and fully understood as we can. This is no easy task for the Socialist Party—our rotten system is deeply ingrained into the minds and manners of men and women and it is going to take a lot to shift it. 

The socialist movement is not only the heart but is the combination of the heart and the head. When the workers, as a class, couple their latent revolutionary fervour with socialist understanding, they become an indomitable force. 

The Socialist Party emphasises that the ballot is the lever of emancipation. We do this because the conscious, socialist majority takes political action in order to be in a position to transfer the means of living from the hands of the parasites into the hands of society, as a whole. The ballot symbolises the nature of the socialist revolution. We advocate the ballot because we cannot visualise the need for a socialist majority to use violence. Violence does not represent the socialist revolution. However, we can get all tangled up in speculations of projecting possible contingencies that may exist in a future event. History may make liars out of us in predicting the workings of social forces based on scientific analyses. When we say that socialism is inevitable it always implies: barring catastrophes such as environmental climate change wiping out of the human race. However, given capitalism and its laws of motion, the next stage in social evolution is socialism.

For many years we have witnessed the “success” of a procession of practical efforts by the Left to rally workers to socialism by clever policies. We have seen the transformation of these advocates of socialist goals into supporters of the status quo — rebels who have been converted into offering concessions to the system. Their trademark has become the reforming, improving and administering capitalism. 

Where are the convinced socialists they were going to make? 

In the name of building up a socialist movement among the masses, they have emasculated and compromised socialist principles. When elected, they have actually administered capitalism in the only way it can be administered, in the interest of the capitalist class, even to the extent of supporting capitalist wars and crushing workers on strike. They have complained that capitalist parties have stolen their planks (as though any capitalist party could steal a socialist program). Look at the net result. Where are the socialist masses? 

As far as numbers are concerned the Left-wing are not much better off than the Socialist Party. Their practical, realistic policies have proven worse than illusory. They have failed to make socialists! Yet they continue to heap scorn and sneer at the Socialist Party for our small numbers. With smug omniscience, they dismiss us as “ivory tower utopians,” “dogmatic sectarians,” “impossiblists,” etc. The real question is: — Who have ignored the lessons of experience? The SPGB has been confronted with sneers and scorn by those who fight for something “in the meantime” and who are busily actively participating in the “workers’ struggles.” The lure and fascinations of protest demonstrations and making demands at every opportunity is very attractive. (In a sense, it does indicate how deeply-rooted discontent with capitalism really is, and it demonstrates the latent strength of socialism once the masses wake up to the need for changing the system instead of adjusting to it.) But — and this is the vital point — these activities are not in harmony with the immediate needs of our time: the making of socialists. 

The lack of socialists is all that stands in the way of socialism, now.

 You can put the Leftists on the spot by asking: Where are the socialists you have obtained by your efforts? 

Their vaunted “fresh radical tactics” prove to be very stale indeed. For years their antecedents — the Labour Party activists with their gradualism, the Bolsheviks with their “revolutionary” platforms and vanguard strategies— actually gained victories on such policies and programmes. Yet they were responsible for the recruiting of workers for capitalist wars and the crushing of workers on strike. If there is one generalisation that could be applied to the Bolsheviks and Social Democrats is that they stood for their pet “burning issue”’ not socialism. Recall the phrases: “Immediate Demands” and “Ultimate Demands.” We used to be told and are still being told, that “in the meantime” we must fight for some “priority” issue and you in the SPGB should join our ranks to recruit for socialist objectives. 

Observe the  result: Capitalism is being administered by “socialists” and, often, in the name of “socialism.” 

There it is, in all its stark nakedness. Had all that wasted energy and sacrifice (devoted and sincere as it may have been) been harnessed for socialism, what a movement — or society — we would now have! It is easy to forget that human beings are also part of the material conditions and that they play the active role in social change. All those “socialist governments” merely wound up administering capitalism for the capitalist class. And that is all that Labour radicals and the Trotskyist Left will be able to do if they gain their objectives.

Capitalism Moves Into Recession. (1990)

From the December 1990 issue of the Socialist Standard

What the media call the "recession" in Britain today provides a classic example of a capitalist crisis. The City yuppies have been surprised by a supply that is exceeding demand to the point that it is provoking a decline in orders and cutbacks in production. The sales slump is giving the economic crisis an unstoppable momentum: reductions in production, investment and employment.

This should be no surprise. Crises of overproduction and a reserve army of the unemployed are integral to the capitalist system. They are not only the consequences but also the necessary conditions of capitalism's existence.

Think back to the early 1980s. An increased intensity of labour and new technology were easily imposed on workers severely weakened by the high unemployment levels of the previous crisis of 1980-82. We are well aware of what this meant for workers in the years of Thatcher's so-called "economic miracle". There was a general frenzy of activity for people in work as the rate of exploitation increased. This went hand-in-hand with the introduction of computers into the office and robotics into manufacturing industry.

The result of this frenzy was a marked increase in the average productivity of workers. A general rise in productivity means a fall in the unit value of all commodities: more of them can be produced in the same period of time so each is worth less. This is disguised by inflation, but a price calculation in hours of labour-time soon reveals the real fall in value.

The sharp economic downturn that we are now facing is the point of overproduction, the sudden failure in the balance of supply and demand that triggers the process in which prices are brought into line with values. In other words, the crisis is imposing the new, lower values that have resulted from rises in productivity on those commodities, particularly fixed capital, produced under previous conditions. The result is losses for the capitalists and unemployment for the workers.

Falling values and the tendency to capital losses are manifested in the unprecedented levels of bankruptcy for small and over-borrowed businesses. “More than 16,500 companies collapsed between January and the end of September 1990", a third more than the previous year (Guardian, 28 September).

Credit boom
The economists in the service of capitalism examine only the surface phenomena of economic activity in the search for explanations of the crisis. The financial pages of the press blame individuals: Nigel Lawson, for one. They blame the banks and building societies for their high levels of lending. They blame workers for pushing for higher wages. But all these things are effects not causes.

The underlying cause, the imbalance between supply and demand, came first. The current crisis, like every crisis of capitalism, is one of overproduction with regard to markets. But until recently it has been concealed by credit. As Marx put it, capitalism

  permits an actual free development only up to a certain point, so that in fact it constitutes an immanent barrier and fetter to production, which are constantly broken through by the credit system. (Capital, Vol III, chapter 27).

Despite all the talk about "tight monetary policy", the crisis has been delayed by neo-Keynsian recovery techniques: that is. by the Bank of England printing money for the clearing banks to lend. And the price of applying this technique is now, as it always was when overtly Keynsian, rising inflation.

For a while the Thatcher government managed to put off the inevitable, allowing inflation to rise. But the crunch had to come because high inflation cannot be sustained forever. For a start, when domestic demand is inflated by credit, imports rise as well, causing a trade deficit. This deficit puts downward pressure on the currency, necessitating high interest rates to hold off its complete collapse. But, on the other hand, a fall in consumer spending cannot be tolerated by industry because of its already high debt burden.

Exchange rate mechanism

Entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) is an attempt to break out of this vicious circle. Thatcher hopes to give flagging businesses a quick fix before the general election without triggering a fall in the value of sterling. At the time of writing there has already been an interest rate cut.

Meanwhile, workers will pay the price of this quick fix. The ERM means that exports can no longer be protected from foreign competition by a devalued pound. John Major has already told workers to shoulder capitalism's problems by taking wage cuts if they want to keep their jobs. The President of the Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl, has given an ominous warning:

  A country with an inflation rate three times as high as Germany's cannot link its currency to the Deutschmark without mass unemployment and enormous payments problems . . .  It is very important, and not always understood, that monetary union means doing away with the exchange rate as a corrective to divergent economic developments. (Observer, 23 September).

Entry into the ERM is the policy of both the Tory and Labour parties. It marks a cynical attempt to squeeze more productivity out of workers. It will achieve this by throwing thousands of workers on to the dole queue. Employers will again impose an increased intensity of labour on the remaining workforce weakened by the threat of unemployment. And here we go again!

Are we going to suffer another ten year's frenzy of activity only to find that cut-backs and unemployment are the reward for higher productivity? Do we have to go through the whole predictable cycle again?

Socialists say emphatically no. Socialism offers the means of escape from the tyranny of the market. It offers a society in which all work according to our abilities for the common good. We will all take according to our needs. Goods and services will be produced solely for use, not profit. The capitalist barrier and fetter need never stand in our way again.

John Dunn

ex-member, Glasgow Br

Workers Cost Of Reproduction Verses Profits

If you thought flipping burgers in a fast food joint was a crap for pay job, pretty soon even this sorry excuse for wages will be toast. Shake Shack, a New York based burger and fries chain, says front order cashiers will be a thing of the past at their Astor Place store, undoubtedly with more to come and competitors forced to follow. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/02/shake-shack-to-open-a-cashlesskiosk-in-new-york.html

And on that happy topic of job redundancy, Walmart, one of crapitalism's paramount achievements of parasitical 'success,' announces its jolly robot floor checker that takes stock, reorders when necessary, and generally keeps track of everything, including, one would suppose, the occasional would-be shoplifter ("smile, you're on candid 24/7 robotic camera!"). 

Of course, the days of even the lowly shelf-stocker are numbered. Why the hell would crapitalist skivers like Walmart want a wage slave to pay to stock shelves when they can hustle profits without paying for such viable capital as a worker's cost of reproduction!

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John &all contributing members of the SPC.

Socialism is nothing to be frightened by

Capitalism has been the world’s dominant economic system for a few hundred years now and as it brings the planet to yet more new crises it’s important to imagine what might replace it. The concept of capitalism as something to name and define and study.

Capitalism is the commodification of human labour and nature. In other words, you can buy and sell a local ecosystem, and because of private property rights, you can destroy it if you want to. And you can buy and sell labor, which means that as productivity increases you need fewer people and their worth as a commodity goes down. That’s why we have a lot of unemployed people and low wages.

Basically, capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production. The capitalist - the boss, the entrepreneur, the investor, the owner of capital - purchases labour-power from workers (paid in the form of wages or salary) in order to work these means of production, and then collects surplus value as profit. Capitalism seeks to maximise profi because profit can be utilized as additional capital. To maximise profit, expenses, such as labour, must be cut as much as possible. So under capitalism, wages and benefits will be driven down as much as possible, and society must maintain a labour surplus - the large numbers of unemployed people. Capitalism values cheapness above all else by devaluing nature and human resources so that capitalism can continue to concentrate wealth in the hands of the already-wealthy. In that sense, “cheap nature” refers to the way in which land and its resources are systematically given away to businesses for exploitation, “cheap work” refers to wage-slavery, sweated labour  and other anti-worker tactics that keep wages levels down.

Time and time again, politico-economic realities have confirmed that the main role of the state is to protect the capitalist system, or, to use Marxist language , the state is the “executive committee of the bourgeoisie.” Yet left reformers cling to the illusion that the  state can become a benevolent entity an point to  national healthcare  programmes, public education,  council housing, minimum wages, and more. But the  welfare state has always remained vulnerable to cuts or elimination during economic crises, as the recent turn toward austerity  and redced benefits has shown. The welfare state shrinks or disappears as the priority of the  state kicks in—protecting the capitalist economic system and addressing the system’s recurring crises.

 But more importantly the social services of the welfare state contribute to a false belief about the state’s beneficent potentials. By providing helpful and even vital services, the  welfare state legitimates the continuing inequality and exploitation inherent in the capitalist  system. Many respond to the misery we encounter everyday by advocating for the expansion or, at least, the maintenance of the capitalist state’s 'safety-net' protections. They do so even though they understand that we remain perpetually vulnerable by a profits- system that inherently causes exploitation, inequality, hunger, ill health, and early death. Yet we persist in legitimising and advocating for the welfare state that sustains the system.

The word “socialism” has scared many away from even talking about it being an option to capitalism. When we propose socialism as an alternative economic system, some people think of Soviet-style state-ownership and its command economy, where the government controls enterprises as opposed to private individuals. One of the greatest obstacles to socialism in the twentieth century was Bolshevism.

 But that’s not what we are talking about. Socialism calls for human freedom and creativity. It calls upon humanity as a whole to rebuild its world on ecological foundations. It is a revolutionary struggle that must commence with a worldwide movement toward socialism. The time for revolution has arrived, and it is time to act. We have to move in a direction that allows for a better society and a better world to emerge. 

As socialists, we are not pessimistic about the future. We believe that the class that produces all the wealth of the world will wake from this capitalist nightmare and bring about a society based on production solely for use.

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number-
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many - they are few.”
Shelley

"If I Fed You Arsenic Every Day"

Disturbing news has recently emerged concerning pollution in Chemical Valley, Sarnia, Ontario. There, companies such as Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Suncor Energy and Plains Midstream have their plants. 57 companies are registered as polluters with the Canadian government, all within 25 kilometres of Sarnia.

The smell of Benzene pervades the air. An independent company measured the levels at 50 parts per billion. If sustained over 30 minutes that would be 22 times higher than the provincial safe standard. The report, and 500 others conducted in 2014 and 2015, was obtained by a national investigation involving the Toronto Star, Global News and 2 Toronto schools of journalism.

On April 26, 2016 benzene levels were logged at 161 micrograms per cubic meter -- 23 times Ontario's standard – for half an hour. Hospitalization rates for respiratory problems are higher in the Sarnia area than nearby Windsor and London. There are more lung cancer cases and mesothelioma than the Ontario average in part because of the regions production of asbestos.

As one Sarnia resident put it, ''If I fed you arsenic every day I'm poisoning you and you could charge me. These companies are leaking things and slowly doing harm and they get a slap on the wrist or nothing at all. We have to prove it, but there are so many companies how can you point out one? So capitalism doesn't just stink figuratively it all stinks physically.

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & all contributing members of the SPC.

Scotland - Increasingly a land of immigrants

Scotland is becoming increasingly diverse, with almost one in 10 of the population born outside of the UK.

EU nationals working in Scotland contribute an average of £34,400 each - £4.4bn annually - to the country’s gross domestic product, according to new data analysis. The evidence demonstrates how the economy benefits from the presence of 128,000 workers born elsewhere in Europe.

Alasdair Allan, MSP, Europe Minister, said, "EU citizens are filling hard-to-fill specialisms and areas of acute shortages." Allan added: “EU citizens and their families also make a positive contribution to the communities in which they live, including in remote and rural areas. That is why we believe fundamentally that continuing free movement of people is in the best interests of Scotland and the UK as a whole.”

Majority of EU migrants to Scotland speak English, are here to work or study, and have low healthcare needs

Social Democracy as it should be

The simplest definition of democracy is that it is decision-making by the whole people involving procedures such as free and open debate, free access to information, one person one vote, and the accountability of public officials and elected representatives. Such a decision-making system can be regarded as desirable because one key aspect of the nature of human beings is their ability to reflect and weigh up options before deciding what to do. In other words, a system in which the people as a whole freely decide what to do is the only decision-making system worthy of humans as self-determining ("free") agents.

The idea of democracy is also bound up with that of equality, if only in the sense that it is a decision-making procedure in which every human deemed capable of making a reasoned decision has a vote of equal weight. Ensuring each person an equal as possible say in the decision-making process requires a high degree of social equality and not mere equal political rights. ‘Democracy’ under capitalism is different from the generally accepted meaning of the word as a situation where ordinary people make the decisions that shape their lives, frequently summarised as being the ‘rule of the people.’ But democracy is not simply about ‘who’ makes decisions or ‘how’ the decisions are to be made. It is an expression of the social relations in society. If democracy means that all have equal opportunity to be heard, then this not only implies political equality but also economic equality. It further presupposes that people have individual freedom. A genuine democracy is, therefore, one where people are free and equal, actively participating, without leaders, in co-operative discussion to reach common agreement on all matters relating to their collective as well as individual requirements. We are told we are ‘free’ but in reality, our only freedom is to sell our labour power to someone who is ‘free’ to buy it – or not, as the case may be. If we choose not to exercise this freedom then we are ‘free’ to go without or even starve. It is quickly apparent that in capitalism freedom is an illusion because freedom cannot exist when the conditions for the exercise of free choice do not exist.

Scottish Homeless

Shelter Scotland has said that 28,000 Scottish households were assessed as homeless last year.

The charity said an estimated 5,000 people sleep rough on Scotland's streets all year round.

Across the UK the number of people recorded as homeless has reached 307,000 - equal to more than half of the population of Glasgow.

Deputy director of Shelter Scotland Alison Watson said the number of homeless people is "shocking".

She said: "On a daily basis, we speak to hundreds of people and families who are desperately trying to escape the devastating trap of homelessness. A trap that is tightening thanks to decades of failure to build enough affordable homes and the impact of harsh welfare cuts which are now, for many, being compounded by the roll-out of Universal Credit."