Monday, February 05, 2018

Doomsday Worries

A survey conducted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes it plain that tensions between the US and North Korea and severe weather, such as hurricanes are causing many Americans to prepare for doomsday. 65.5 % respondents have stockpiled materials to survive a political or natural disaster; 36.4% spent up to $400 on survival kits in 2017; 9.2% bought materials because of recent political events; There were a 700% increase in orders for bomb shelters.

So, obviously, plenty of folks are worried and what is more obvious is the world is falling apart. Don't look for the answers within capitalism folks, because it is capitalism that's causing all this crapola.

For socialism,
 Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Poor Results

University application rates from 18-year-olds from the poorest parts of Scotland have fallen. The application rate for those in the most affluent communities has increased.

The report stated: "The application rate for applicants living in the most advantaged areas in Scotland increased by 1.9%, widening the gap between the most and least."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-42938097

Shattering illusions


Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

Implicit in the membership of the Socialist Party is an understanding of socialist principles. In fact, membership is conditional upon this. Exploitation gives the key to an understanding of capitalism. Today the workers as a class are born, and remain, propertyless; they, therefore, do not own capital which is a form of wealth. Capital is the accumulated wealth of the capitalist class. It is useful for further production, but with only one object — that it may absorb the further unpaid labour of the workers, and thus produce . . . surplus value, the source of rent, interest, and profit. Not the means of wealth production in themselves, but the class relations under which they are used to obtain the surplus value, realised through sale in the world market — make them capital. The Labour Party and the Left do not stand as we do for common ownership, which would mean the abolition of such class relations. If the workers are to enjoy the fruits of their toil and drudgery, they must own and control the means by which they produce them. The land, factories, railways etc. must be made the common property of all to meet the needs of all. That is what we mean by socialism.

The conventional wisdom assumes that in order to motivate people to action or to win elections, leaders have to project optimism about our ability to cure all evils and create a world free of hardship.  The Socialist Party, on the other hand, risks popularity by revealing the harsh truths and hopelessness of politicians promises. We do not cling to painless delusions to capture votes because such a position alienates us from the authentic experience of conditions around us. When we deny our pain, doubt, and despair, we deny the opportunity for solidarity with others who feel the same thing.   We end up convinced that we are weak and isolated. Given the massively powerful forces that we must overcome there is nothing more hopeless than thinking of ourselves as atomised individuals. By building that sense that we are part of something much bigger and more powerful than our individual selves, we help expand what is possible. We can reconnect with what we truly value.   Abandoning the dream of some sort of ideal capitalism allows for a broader public discourse about what the purpose of an economy should be and who it should serve.

Socialism cannot be crafted from a diverse variety of groups focusing attention on their own issue at the expense of a universal project all can share. Anytime you support a political party that can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you still continue to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your class.

The question often occurs when socialists explain the Materialist Conception of History how is it that in identical environment some are socialist-inclined and some are conservative-minded, if economic conditions determine, in the last resort, the views of men? The matter of this “identical environment ” can be illustrated by a simple analogy. Suppose a hundred soft clay balls were put in a bag and sat on, these balls would all be in an identical environment, like men in any class in society subjected to economic pressure, so what would happen? Some balls would be squared, ' some, slightly flattened, and some utterly squashed, as determined by their position in this so-called identical environment. In society, different classes have a different environment. In a given class some would be slightly modified Conservatives, and some revolutionary: as pressure increases so all would become entirely altered. All, then, would be affected, but slightly unequally, since no two balls, or two persons, could possibly be in exactly the same environment. So in society men picture the future from what they see and feel in the present. Some by hereditary fitness and actual environment would more easily and clearly comprehend the needs of the present and the tendency of things; others in conditions less violently affected would find it more difficult to see clearly, or would from the materials in their hands or inherited weakness, form false pictures which would lure them in wrong directions.


Inequality is no accident. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 argued that the privileges of the elite were attained by “the first person to fence in a piece of land and to say, ‘this is mine,’ and to find people gullible enough to believe him.” We must give more attention to the “rules of the game” that maintain inequality.  In its analysis of the Oxfam report, the Guardian noted: “Booming global stock markets have been the main reason for the increase in wealth of those holding financial assets during 2017. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saw his wealth rise by $6bn (£4.3bn) in the first 10 days of 2017 as a result of a bull market on Wall Street, making him the world’s richest man.”   


Sunday, February 04, 2018

Not all Jock Tamson's Bairns?

Urgent action is needed to address the “gross racial inequalities” in Scotland, according to a major study.  The Scottish Government, politicians and employers have been urged to tackle the country’s racism problem by the authors of a new book challenging the “myth” that Scotland is a more egalitarian country than others.

The book, No Problem Here: Understanding Racism in Scotland, warns that the job situation for black and minority communities is “bleak” and “in some cases” is getting worse. The book highlights discrimination in the workplace and the harassment suffered by the black and minority ethnic (BME) population. Davidson and Virdee accuse the SNP of creating a “dominant story”, through a more positive attitude towards immigration, that Scotland is more “egalitarian” than England. This, they argue, reinforces “the myth that Scotland does not have a serious racism problem”.

Jatin Haria, Executive Director of the Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights writes “Urgent and major action is needed to address the gross racial inequalities in the Scottish labour market if Scotland is truly to become the equal, egalitarian nation it wants to become.”  Haria said data revealed that after interviews for local authority jobs, white applicants are three times more likely to secure a position than non-white applicants. He also quoted the latest official figures which showed that just 1.6 per cent of Scottish Government employees identify themselves as BME, a statistic that showed no improvement since 2014.

According to the latest census figures, the percentage of people from minority ethnic groups stands at four per cent of the population, but the BME population is rising steadily. The Asian population is the largest minority ethnic group, representing three per cent of the population or 141,000 individuals. The BME population is proportionally larger in Scotland’s cities, accounting for 12 per cent in Glasgow and eight per cent in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Haria said: “You have a BME population in Glasgow of over 12 per cent and that’s from the census, so it has probably increased since then. And you have a Glasgow City Council workforce of about two per cent from their own published figures. “It just wouldn’t be acceptable south of the border. I would have thought there should be a greater outcry here. In Scotland it is allowed to go..." He continued, “The disparity in employment is so obvious, but there is so little action around it. Because employment is a long-term process, you won’t get promoted to headteacher for another 20 years or so – if we don’t do something about this now we are going to have a long-term problem.” He writes: “The real need is to deal with institutional, structural and direct racism by organisations and individual employers…

Elsewhere in the book, personal experiences of racial harassment are outlined, which the authors contrast with the inclusive image of Scotland promoted by politicians.

Last week Sarwar claimed a Labour councillor had told him “Scotland wouldn’t vote for a brown Muslim Paki” when he was standing against Richard Leonard in the Scottish Labour leadership contest. Councillor Davie McLachlan, leader of the Labour group on South Lanarkshire Council, has been suspended by the party. McLachlan denies the claim.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/gross-racial-inequality-belies-scots-myth-say-experts-1-4682102

The Ups And Downs In Capitalism.

On Jan 5 Stats-Canada revealed that the Canadian economy had added 80,000 jobs in December owing to an increase in part-time employment. The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 per cent, its lowest since 1976. 

However, it ain't time to celebrate yet folks, statistics can sometimes be misleading. They don't include people who are out of work and have used up their,''benefits'', and how can part-timers make enough to pay the bills? 

Furthermore, if things on the employment front were as hunky-dory as the apologists for capitalism claim, there is, nevertheless a downside. Since everything is going so well, economists are predicting the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates.

That's life under capitalism; what you gain in one way, you lose in another. 

Boy what a system!

For socialism, 
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Socialism – Empowering the Powerless

Capitalism is spiralling ever deeper into an abyss. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realise that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour.

The Socialist Party accepts the view that it is necessary for the workers before they can begin to introduce Socialism to conquer the powers of Government in order that they may control the Governmental machinery and through it the armed forces. The fulfilment of our programme requires that a majority of the workers shall understand and want Socialism. Given such a majority and its reflex in a majority of socialist delegates on local councils and in the House of Commons, the workers will be in a position to impose their will on the present ruling class. Our position is subjected criticism. Our critics deny that the power of the capitalists rests on their control of Parliament. They argue that while political power is necessary it can be obtained only by the workers building up a rival organisation and with it overthrowing the capitalist State. They endeavour to show it is possible that in an advanced and stable capitalist democracy the ruling class are able to throw aside the recognised forms of government, to ignore the institutions which they had proclaimed to be the basis of society, to rule by brute force and to survive, proof that revolutionary Parliamentary action by the workers is futile and a situation requiring the application of methods other than those we advocate such as armed resistance to the ruling class.

The Socialist Party does not minimise the necessity and importance of the worker keeping up the struggle to maintain the wage-scale, resisting cuts, etc. If he always laid down to the demands of his exploiters without resistance he would not be worth his salt as a man, or fit for waging the class struggle to put an end to exploitation.  The class war is far from over. It can only end with the dispossession of the owning minority and the consequent disappearance of classes and class-divided society. Only by recognising the struggle between capital and labour, and acting to bring about the victory of labour, of the working class, can classes once and for all be abolished, common ownership be established, and real human interests and relationships begin.

We have yet to hear a convincing argument how you are supposed to become a "revolutionary" without engaging - and eventually agreeing - at some point with the IDEA of what such a revolution would entail.  All we are doing in the Socialist Party, essentially, is trying to help the emergence of majority socialist consciousness. People can, and do, come to socialist conclusions without us, but they can come to this more quickly if they hear it from an organised group dedicated exclusively to putting over the case for socialism. We can't force or brainwash people into wanting to be free, they can only learn this from their own experience. We see majority socialist consciousness emerging from people's experiences of capitalism coupled with them hearing the case for socialism, not necessarily from us, though it would seem that we are the only group that takes doing this seriously. We depend for the success of our message on people who are prepared to THINK.

Socialism means that people have taken their destiny into their own hands. Socialism can't be created by decree or by force by a minority. It can only be implemented by the majority of the people taking over the economy (taking over their workplaces, streets, and estates) and reorganising them as they see fit. But being against vanguards is not the same as being against organisation. A vanguard is a particular type of organisation, with specific aims and to reject vanguardism is not to reject organisation.

The Socialist Party do not see itself as yet another leadership, but merely as an instrument of the working class. We function to help generalise their experience of the class struggle, to make a total critique of their condition and of its causes, and to develop the mass revolutionary consciousness necessary if society is to be totally transformed. We reject an organisational role. What we want people to come to is the realisation that they should take over their workplaces, communities, and put themselves in a position to control all of the decisions that affect them directly, and to run things themselves. If we were to be a vanguard, in the sense of an enlightened minority seeking to gain power over others, we could never achieve this aim, because WE would have the power, rather than people having power over their own lives, collectively and individually. We would also be assuming the arrogance to think we have a monopoly of truth, rather than certain views which we debate with others including amongst ourselves, coming to a better viewpoint at the end of it. There is a big difference between an organisation that produces propaganda and so on, and helps promote the popular will where people accept decisions  because they have been convinced by the case and  have freely chosen to do so and a vanguard in the common sense of the word, meaning a party seeking to gain power over the masses. Revolution will be a process of self-education. Without the active participation of the mass of the working class in the fight for a state-free society cannot even be contemplated.


 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. “Capturing” Parliament is only a measure of acceptance of socialism and a coup de grace to capitalist rule. The real revolution in social relations will be made in our lives and by ourselves, not Parliament. What really matters is a conscious socialist majority outside parliament, ready and organised, to take over and run industry and society. Electing a socialist majority in parliament is essentially just a reflection of this. It is not parliament that establishes socialism, but the socialist working-class majority outside parliament and they do this, not by their votes, but by their active participating beyond this in the transformation of society.

 William Morris envisaged that, at some stage, socialists would enter parliament but in his words "...so long as it is understood that they go there as rebels, and not as members of the governing body prepared to pass palliative measures to keep Society alive." 





Saturday, February 03, 2018

If It Makes A Buck Sell It.

At the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994, the attention of sports fans, and some who were not were riveted on the clash between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, in the wake of the vicious attack on Kerrigan at the American championships.

 Though Harding denied prior knowledge of the attack she fooled nobody, especially after notes Harding made about Kerrigan's training times and location were found. Now, we have what looks to be, a successful movie, " I Tonya'', about her turbulent life.

 A two hour documentary, ''Truth And Lies, The Tonya Harding Story'', was aired on ABC, on January 11. So now Ms. Harding, who is hardly an Angel of Mercy has become a media Superstar.

This may seem baffling to some, though it should not, because notoriety sells, in fact, it sells big time. 
It is enough to make any decent person puke their guts out, but it's totally consistent with capitalism's value system - "if it makes a buck sell it!''

For socialism, 
Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC.

Ulva to be owned by the community

A community trust on the island of Mull will buy the neighbouring island of Ulva for 4.2 million pounds ($5.95 million).

Land is an asset for the many, not the few absent, land-owners whose have hold over Scotland date back to an era when it was a largely agricultural nation run by the wealthy gentry. This had led to about 430 people owning half of Scotland's privately held land.

Ulva, which neighbours Mull on the west coast of Scotland, has been in economic decline for decades and has less than 10 residents, including its owner. The North West Mull Community Woodland Company (NWMCWC), which is behind the plan to buy Ulva, was set up in 2006 to purchase and manage woodlands in the north west of Mull. The NWMCWC said last year it wanted to invest in the 1,860 hectare (4,600 acres) island's infrastructure and local industry to boost its flagging fortunes.

What socialism is not



It is impossible to exaggerate the harm done to the socialist movement by those who, calling themselves socialists, have taught the workers to believe that state-capitalism and social reform are socialism. Millions of workers all over the world have, through this misdirection, been led to support some form of capitalism, trusting that it would solve their problems.  We in the Socialist Party have always been conscientious in explaining what we understand socialism to mean. But being so concerned about being misinterpreted has permitted our critics to ridiculed our principled position as “doctrinaire” or “dogma”. What events have proved is that the Socialist Party's insistence on the need for clear ideas about socialism has been repeatedly justified. What then is Socialism? Socialism is a system of human society of a special kind. Its fundamental is the common ownership of all that is necessary to the common good. This implies the end of buying and selling and the end of the wages system. Now is the time, not for day-dreaming or for getting out plans for reforming capitalism, but for deep thought about the nature of the capitalist system and of its opposite, socialism.

Capitalism moves in cycles of growth and stagnation, boom and bust, job creation and job cuts, increasing and declining investment. It always has, and it always will for as long as it exists. Under the capitalist system, there’s little planning for the ebbs and flows of economic life.  The profits system is not a government-ruled command structure directed by any single state authority – not even that of the president of the world capitalist system’s most powerful state, the United States. If capitalism is in one of its recurring recessions, then the party not in power blames all the woes for the crisis upon the party in office, often including the mess it had inherited. When capitalism is (or seems to be) on an upswing, creating jobs, the ruling government takes the credit for the current state of the business cycle. Whoever is in government would like its citizens to believe it is somehow directly responsible for the economic expansion. Little mention is made by either the ruling party or its opposition that the boom is built on the persistently low wages and weak benefits granted to workers, that the stock-market share prices are inflated in a momentary bubble which will burst eventually, and that the growing prosperity is being concentrated corporate and financial hands, the harbingers of the inevitable crash. One thing we can be sure about is that the next economic crisis is coming.

 Unless a fundamental change in the basis of society is carried out, the world's resources will still be privately owned and utilised for the purpose of profit-making. There will still be two classes with antagonistic interests, one class living by rent, interest, and profit, the other living by selling its labour-power for wages or salary. True, this is “wicked” in the sense that it is unnecessary, but it can only be removed by abolishing its cause, the private ownership of the means of wealth-production and distribution. While there is private ownership (including so-called “public” ownership or State capitalism) it is impossible to have harmony and identity of interest between the classes. The only way to abolish class struggle is to abolish the classes. The post-capitalist world will not just happen. It will correspond to the development of the ideas of the majority. The effort now devoted to thinking out the basic causes of the problems of riches and poverty, unemployment and strikes, will be more valuable than years of scheming to soften the rigours of the capitalist system.

There are many consequences to the daily barrage of lies produced by the capitalist media. The idea of the socialist vision is not pie in the sky.  If you do not desire to continue to live under capitalism you have but one single, simple alternative. How long capitalism endures is a matter for those who suffer under it and who are misled by it—the working class. They have the power to establish a society of harmony. We are talking here about a massive movement of ideas—no less than a majority revolution to overthrow one social system and replace it with another, a historically unique act. This world is owned by a few. Why not consider the possibility of us, the producers in this world, taking it over and running it in the interest of all, with human needs the dominant factor.

The Socialist Party is unique in keeping open platform for the expression of the point of view of opponents. We oppose all forms of suppression, not in response to some abstract principle, but because we recognise that socialist society demands for its operation, as for its achievement, a responsible, intelligent population, used to drawing its own conclusions from the observation of facts and the weighing up of the arguments of opposing schools of thought. We only know our position to be correct because it survives continuous criticism. We do not deny that suppression may be immediately useful to the British governing class. We do deny that it can serve the purpose of the socialist movement.




Refugees left destitute in Scotland

Refugee Survival Trust – which provides emergency grants to asylum seekers and refugees when their support has been stopped – is raising the alarm after distributing more than £100,000 of destitution payments in 2017.

The British Red Cross claimed that seeing people “feeling hopeless and suicidal” as a result of destitution was a now a “routine occurrence”

 Positive Action in Housing, which also helps destitute refugees and migrants, said its own most recent figures were “shockingly high”.

Refugees can find themselves destitute due to administrative delays and errors at all stages of the asylum process, and sometimes have to fight to prove their eligibility. After all appeals have been refused the Home Office insists people should return home and declares them to have no recourse to public funds (NRPF). However many people claim their lives would be in danger, if they were to return.

One refugee family who applied for help had been told it would take 26 weeks to process their claim for child benefit.  Also highlighted was the rise in grants required to pay for travel to Liverpool – as since 2015 those wishing to submit fresh claims or further submissions must travel there. The Home Office does not provide travel expenses even to those who are destitute.

In April 2014 a face-to-face support and advocacy service, run by Scottish Refugee Council and funded by the Home Office, was replaced by a UK phone line run by Migrant Help on a reduced grant from for the UK Government department.

“In an age when information sharing is so incredibly easy, it is absolutely crazy that we are putting people through this journey, which is at best inconvenient and expensive and at worst dangerous and psychologically damaging,” RST Coordinator Zoe Holliday said

She claimed that the government had done “a great PR job” of celebrating the successful resettlement of Syrian refugees, supported through the UNHCR’s Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programmeHowever, for an estimated 3,500 asylum seekers housed in Glasgow – whose claims are processed while in the UK – Holliday claimed the experience was “bureaucratic, unpredictable and profoundly upsetting”.

Positive Action in Housing Director Robina Qureshi said: “The [UK] Government appears to be ripping support away when people are fast tracked into refusal, leaving people in a kind of shock as to what to do next. The stress is unimaginable.” She claimed charities were being left to “pick up the pieces” of the failing asylum policy. “This seems to be the growing trend of government,” Quereshi said. She added: “to leave the basic humanitarian needs to be provided by charity and faith groups and ordinary citizens. “We have been charged with the care of very vulnerable groups – children, older people with suspected dementia on the verge of street destitution, [people who are] mentally ill and those who have been trafficked.”

Jillian McBride, Refugee Services operations manager for British Red Cross, said that many people it worked with, relied on hosting schemes, night shelters or ended up on the streets. “Since 2014 we have seen a worsening crisis in Scotland, which increasing numbers of people presenting in our office homeless and or hungry,” she said. McBride added: “Sadly, seeing people who feeling hopeless and suicidal has become a routine occurrence within our services and we’ve had to have all of our staff and volunteers trained in suicide intervention skills.”

Scottish Refugee Council said it was also dealing with upsetting cases. It recently saw a family with two children who had had no asylum support for six months although they were eligible for it."

Its media officer Pauline Diamond Salim explained“Destitution is designed into the UK ‘s asylum system. It is a cruel, punitive policy that absolutely wrecks people’s lives. It is completely unnecessary and inhumane to force people into exploitative and dangerous situations. The UK Government uses destitution – and the threat of destitution – as a central element of its hostile environment policy.”
https://theferret.scot/scotland-refugee-destitution/

Green Space

Green space – both private and public parks, gardens, grounds, covers 54% of the urban land area, 1,593 square kilometres – the equivalent of 22 Loch Lomonds. This equates to 27 hectares of green space per 1,000 people (excluding private gardens) – equivalent to a tennis court size of green space per person.
Of this 37% is amenity green space and 28%, private gardens and grounds. Scotland’s most used accessible green spaces - public parks and sports areas, account for 4% and 9% of green space respectively.
Council expenditure on parks and green space has been cut from £27,814 per 1,000 people in 2010/11 to £21,794 in 2015/16.
Chief executive of Greenspace Scotland Julie Procter, said: "This study raises important questions about the quality of green space in our towns and cities. It shows that Scotland’s green space is not delivering to its maximum potential for our people and our places. Whilst many of our parks and green spaces are still in good heart, the report shows we are rapidly approaching a tipping point leading to the downward spiral of reduced maintenance, poorer quality green spaces and lower levels of use – meaning we are at risk of losing the wonderful health, social and environmental benefits that quality green spaces provide."

Friday, February 02, 2018

We Are One

Today's dire threats do not arise out of nowhere. They have a cause. Too many of our fellow-workers are naive enough to believe that capitalism can and should be fixed. "Identity politics" is essentially seeking a better deal for women, LGBT and blacks within capitalism and we suggest this is a divisive form of politics to practice.

The Socialist Party has always held that socialism will mean ‘the emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex’. In other words, that it will end all oppression and discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Such discrimination divides the class of wage and salary workers whereas socialism can only be achieved when workers unite to bring it about. We are opposed to ‘identity politics’ as this, too, divides the working class. We still see socialism as the outcome of the class struggle of the working class (in the broad sense) pursuing its interest for a better material life and a better quality of life. We don’t know what will spark off the mass movement for socialism but concern for the environment could be a factor. In any event, as capitalism and its pursuit of profit is the cause of damage to the environment, the aim of the environmentalist movement can only be achieved in socialist society; at some point, they may come to realise this.  

The change of arguments from class politics to ‘identity politics’ is welcomed by the authorities who prefer divide and rule to class unity. Minority groups are urged to identify themselves politically as such and to campaign to get gains and concessions only for themselves. Previously, revolutionaries and even reformists had talked in terms of getting a benefit for the whole wage and salary working class, irrespective of their ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever. This class approach is now being abandoned (though not by us) and reformists and liberals have turned to protecting ‘identity’ groups that are subject to prejudice and discrimination, seeing the setting up of ‘safe spaces’ from which the expression of views offensive to them are banned as one way to do this. But the question remains: which is the best way to deal with people who hold racist or other prejudiced views? Is it to ban them from expressing them? Or is it to confront them in open debate and refute their views and expose them as dangerous? The Socialist Party see no reason to change our position of favouring the second approach.

The social solidarity of community feeling is the common inheritance of all mankind. But being a powerful social force it has lent itself to exploitation. Therefore with the development of class rule, this great impulse is made subordinate to the class interests of the rulers. It becomes debased and perverted to definite anti-social ends. As soon as the people become a slave class “the land of their fathers” is theirs no more. Patriotism to them becomes a fraudulent thing. The “country” is that of their masters alone. Nevertheless, the instinct of loyalty to the community is too deep-seated to be eradicated so easily, and it becomes a deadly weapon in the hands of the rulers against the people themselves. Only socialism will liberate human brotherhood and sisterhood from the narrow confines of nationality and patriotism. These sentiments will then be remembered only as artificial restrictions of mankind's sympathy and mutual help; as obstacles to the expansion of the human mind; as impediments to the needful and helpful development of human unity and co-operation; as bonds that bound men and women to slavery; as incentives that set people at each others' throats. Despite its shameless perversion by a robber class the great impulse to human solidarity is by no means dead.  Even the hellish system of individualism, with its doctrine of every man for himself and the devil, take the hindmost, has been unable to kill it. Ours is the last great struggle for the liberation of humanity from wage slavery, the great principle of human solidarity will come to full fruition and win its supreme historical battle.

The Socialist Party has always maintained that the Labour and social-democratic parties were useless for the purpose of introducing socialism. We saw that their reformist programmes would permit them to enact measures of reform and no more and that to enact their puny reforms these parties would be forced to cooperate openly with capitalist governments, or would have to form governments themselves. In either case, they would be involved in the administration of the capitalist system.

We saw further that the voters and members behind these parties lacked political knowledge and were befogged by pro-capitalist illusions, such as the necessity for leaders, the impartiality of the State, the permanency of the wages system, etc., in short, the boasted strength of these parties was but a sign of their fatal weakness. Since their massive support was fugitive in nature it could only be kept by pandering to the backwardness and the prejudices of the supporters; thus the progress in numbers was but the building up of political inertia. An inertia that could not be overcome by brilliant or forceful leadership, since the leaders that would be permitted to rise would be precisely those who most faithfully corresponded to the needs of these backward masses. From the very foundation of our Party, we were able to demonstrate that unenlightened, reform-seeking masses were unfitted for the revolutionary act of abolishing the capitalist system. Insight, determination and the strength to take responsibility are exactly the qualities that our class needs in order to emancipate itself, and it is only on the basis of socialist consciousness that such qualities can arise. Hence our insistence on the need for understanding.


Thursday, February 01, 2018

Capitalism - A crime against humanity

The Socialist Party's purpose is to move the concept of socialism itself from the possible to the plausible. Notwithstanding our significant achievements, we are still falling short of our aspirations for system change.  The aspect of our work to transform from an educational advocacy group to a mass socialist party has remained elusive. We hold a practical vision for the structural change of the basis of our society.

We have reached a turning point in planetary history. Our planet produces more than enough food to feed everyone and has for a number of years. However, food is unequally distributed and far too much is wasted.  Some have access to much, while others not enough.  The current capitalist system is untenable, and a future of instability, mass unemployment, and ecological breakdown lurks on the horizon. We don’t have the luxury to procrastinate. Socialist action is like sailing: we know our destination, but the winds and the currents keep changing, and we must tack to adjust to real-world conditions. Integrated, systemic thinking is urgently needed. Catalysts of change may emerge unknowingly, depending on circumstance. We may not recognise,the forces of systemic change, but we can help create the preconditions for their crystallisation. We need to touch the heart as much as the head. 

The focus on symptoms rather than causes would not achieve the necessary transformative change. The time is now for a mass movement of people saying “We want something different.” The aim of socialism is to meet the needs of all human beings while operating within ecological limits. It seeks to maximise the well-being of all. We, humans, have much more in common than most people assume, unable to see beyond contemporary divisiveness in so many parts of the world. Our common humanity provides the foundation for a global movement.

 Apart from the political dictatorship—which they could study in the past of Britain and Western Europe—where are or ever were these so-called Socialist features of Russia? Commodity production, the production of goods for sale and profit, the existence of a great propertyless wage-earning class, the huge national debts and bond-holding, the banks and insurance institutions, the inequalities of income and the complex taxation systems, the preoccupation with Capitalist investment, foreign trade and the military struggle for territories and the control of trade routes—these are the features not of Russia as such or America or Britain as such, but of world-embracing Capitalism.

The many defences of capitalism were the unsupportable notion that Russia in the form of the great nationalised industrial monopolies was socialist. State capitalism is not socialism and cannot be shown to be anything else, but a form of capitalism and one familiar enough in all countries. The more sophisticated critics retreat to an indefensible position as their second line of defence, i.e., that “socialism” now means “state capitalism,” anyway because they and so many others profess to think that it does. What has happened in Russia is not the mere continuation of Russian tradition under another name, nor the development of a different “socialism” (which would be like deciding to call chalk, cheese), but the emergence of capitalism, growing more marked with the passage of time, in place of feudalism. Russian evolution is Russia’s delayed version of the Revolution which brought capitalism to supremacy in France a century and a half ago. The turn of events in Russia is not the failure of socialism or its corruption by Russian tradition, but the total failure of the Bolsheviks to impose socialism on an unready country, against the wishes of the population who were not and are not socialists.

Marx, in his writings, predicted that someday the capitalists would have to take care of their slaves; that they would be forced to feed and otherwise keep alive an ever-increasing army of unemployed workers. Modern capitalism with the Welfare State an all its social services has fulfilled this prediction with a vengeance. Nevertheless, it was not accomplished by the full agreement of all the capitalist class. Many f the master class dispute the necessity and have endeavoured to minimise the State's intervention. They believe that unemployed workers and their dependents must be left to survive on their own and oppose relief expenditures by the government as “wasteful extravagance”,“harmful to business’, as well as “demoralising the recipients and creating a dependency culture.  While the more enlightened employer believes in giving hand-outs as the order of the day because the exploiting class cannot kill the goose that lays the golden egg.  Experience demonstrates that the old method of private charity can no longer cope with the conditions resulting from widespread unemployment, and thus the government is forced to administer relief. Buying off the discontent of hungry workers is more efficient than maintaining an enormous police force or employing other repressive apparatus to keep the workers in subjection. Disorders, riots, and possible insurrections of desperate workers are thereby averted.

Despite the realisation by the property owners and their political representatives of the need of government-welfare to maintain the status quo, their efforts are always directed toward the reducing the cost. Economy measures are continuously pushed in an effort to reduce the amount welfare claimants are eligible for, tending to bring the payments down to the bare subsistence level. Added to this is the old attempt to discourage the taking of welfare by enforcing red-tape regulations and placing a moral stigma upon those applying...scroungers and fraudsters. The result of these constant attacks is to impair the precarious and already too low economic standing of the workers. The tendency is to drive the standard of living towards and below the subsistence level. Yet, at the same time, for obvious reasons, they must see to it that this standard of living does not fall below the starvation level.  The concessions of reforms given to the workers under capitalism may temporarily alleviate but will never eradicate the misery of the working class. The continuation of capitalism will only serve to perpetuate the hardships and suffering of the workers, both employed and unemployed

There does arise, however, a point where the workers must and do resist. Through the limited trade unions and various NGO organizations worker attempt to weather the pressure of austerity. This determination not to submit is inevitable and is the result of necessity and experience. Temporary respite can and has been obtained by resistance. But real victory for the working class depends upon capturing control of the state, which now strives to keep the workers in subjection and attempts to allay their discontent by offering reforms and ameliorations, which are insufficient. The capture of “political power”, rather than the resisting of "state pressure”, must become the object of the workers. Ridding society of capitalism is the only solution. It can be seen that no amount or variety of reform will ever be able to abolish the workers' discontent. On the day that this discontent becomes crystalised into socialist understanding, we will see the end of capitalism and all its evil effects.


Socialist Standard No. 1362 February 2018


Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Apathy and silence is compliance


The Socialist Party desires to build a better and healthier society with mutual aid at its core. One thing the workers will get from all governments everywhere are the usual nauseating sermons from the rulers calling on the ruled to work harder and produce more. Members of the Socialist Party are struggling for social justice, for human emancipation, and for a solidarity economics. We seek a truly free society without violence and totalitarianism; a society in which everyone pulled together for the common good.

The Socialist Party argument is that the workers live by selling their mental and physical energies to the employing class. They then go to work and produce wealth for the employers of value far larger than that represented by their wages. It is out of this “surplus value” that the employing class came to be the owners of all but a small part of the accumulated wealth of the country. Broadly speaking, the employing class, in peace and in war, have squeezed out of their workers in factories, fields, mines, and offices, all that can be squeezed out of them in the existing circumstances. This is a very fortunate situation for the propertied class, but it has its corresponding disadvantage in that the civil and military costs of running the State, its administration, its police, its armaments and its wars, are in the last resort a burden on their profits and property. Far from being proponents of some all-engulfing statism, Marx and Engels saw the state, as class antagonisms dissipated, withering away — being transformed as an instrument to preserve democracy into an administrative tool.

As socialists, we re-affirm that all peoples should seek their emancipation, not as members of nations or religions or ethnic groups, but as human beings, as members of the human race in a world without national frontiers and in which free movement is possible and where all people live together as equals. They should unite to abolish the division of the world into so-called nation-states and to establish a World Cooperative Commonwealth of which we will all be free and equal members – citizens of the world, not subjects of nation-states.

We sympathise with the suffering of our fellow workers, whatever their ethnic origin. It is always they who suffer the brunt of their masters’ wars. Peace is always better than war because wars are never fought in the interests of ordinary people. It is also because war provides an ideal opportunity and excuse to suppress democratic rights on both sides. Peace will create better conditions for democracy. No longer obsessed with nationalistic conflict, our fellow-workers across the world will be able to re-focus on the social, economic and ecological problems spawned by the “normal” peacetime functioning of capitalism. A space for socialist ideas will then open up. 

The Socialist Party teaches that the revolution against capitalism and the socialist reconstruction of the old world can be accomplished only through conscious, collective action by the workers themselves. A mass socialist movement capable of coping with such a colossal task cannot arise haphazardly but requires to be consciously built.  Our aim is to transform from a propaganda group into a party capable of influencing and organising our fellow-workers to create a mass socialist party of the working class. When the majority of the people refuse to be fooled and intimidated any longer; when they refuse to stay on their knees; when they recognise the fundamental weakness of their oppressors, they can become transformed overnight from seemingly meek, subdued and helpless sheep into mighty lions.

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 

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Homes for people

More than 1000 flats and houses that could be used to ease the homeless crisis have been lying empty for more than 10 years.

Figures obtained by the Scottish Lib Dems reveal there are more than 20,000 long-term vacant private sector homes in 23 of Scotland’s 31 local authority areas surveyed.

 Midlothian Council said they knew of a home that’s been empty since April 1993.

While new build homes cost an average of £100,000 to construct, the bill for refurbishing an empty property is significantly, at between £6,000 and £25,000.

The number of children living in temporary accommodation had risen by 10% in one year. There were 6,581 children living in temporary homes on September 30 last year.