No Transitions - No Concessions

Think about the world we live in, and the possibilities that could be achieved. Capitalism is one of the greatest threats of our time. Capitalism is a future of devastating natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts over resources, surging refugees, and exacerbated inequalities, in a politically and economically unstable world.  Capitalism is a world where the prosperity of the most privileged is contingent on the suffering of the most vulnerable. Capitalism is driving us towards the gloomiest of futures.

But the Socialist Party has an alternate vision. It is to revolutionise our social system into one that is more sustainable, just, and equitable. Socialism is a solution to the present global chaos. We already have the technologies and capabilities to solve the problems we face - and socialism will mobilise them.  We need to restore the balance between resource consumption and resource renewal.

The word “socialism” has been used by so many people to mean so many different things that, to most workers, it has no clear meaning. We have heard of “National Socialism,” "Christian Socialism,” "Guild Socialism,” "State Socialism,” being some of the 57-varieties.  The fact is, of course, that none of these things are Socialism at all. They are all conditions of Capitalism, or experiments within Capitalism, to which the name Socialism, with a suitable adjective, has been applied. The result has been to sow confusion. Hence, the members of the Socialist Party finds that we must devote much of our time to explaining what Socialism is not before we can make clear what it really is. Not all of those who have. contributed to this confusion have done so with malice intent. Many are quite convinced that nationalisation is socialism or that the Sermon on the Mount was a socialist outdoor meeting.

When the accurate definition of socialism, which is the Object of the Socialist Party (the establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community) is cite in response to the misnomers to any of these "State Socialists" they have two replies. First that it is impossible, which, of course, only means that it would not suit them, because it involves the abolition of capitalism the world over, and not merely the substitution of State for private control in the workshop;

And secondly— the reply which is met with more frequently— that there are recognised authorities on the subject who say otherwise. But recognised by whom?

One thing is common to all these confusion mongers. Without exception they do not understand the operation of capitalism and, in consequence, they do not appreciate what socialism implies. They do not agree that it is necessary for the majority of workers to understand and desire socialism before it can be established. They consider that it is only necessary for a sufficient number of people to support the political party that advocates their particular brand of so-called socialism to put that party into power. The party can then start serving out socialism slice by slice. From the time that the party takes power until the last slice is handed out is a period that they consistently refer to as the “transition period.” We are told that we cannot have socialism overnight. There must be a period between capitalism and socialism is the argument. Then, the problems created by capitalism are paraded and we are informed that this transition period is necessary in order to solve these problems before we can have complete socialism.

 The more orthodox Leninists have been driven to substitute the word communism for socialism and then to explain away the present stage of capitalist development in Russia as socialism, this being, they claim, the transition period between capitalism and communism. The Trotskyists would set themselves up as the revolutionary vanguard of the working class, attempt to so popularise themselves that the workers will, sooner or later, at the ‘‘psychological moment,” put them in a position of power. They will then establish the rule of the working class, more popularly known as The Dictatorship of the Proletariat. During this period of dictatorship (which would, in reality, be the dictatorship of their party) all the transitional problems would be ironed out. The Labour Party idea is that with political power they can reform capitalism, a step at a time until it is such a benevolent system to all members of society that it is nothing short of socialism. On the strength of this, they call themselves socialists. The step by step process is, for them, the transition period.

Whilst the majority of the workers are prepared to support a system based on private property we shall have capitalism in some form or another. Whatever camouflage may be used, whatever disguise may be used, whatever name may be used to disguise it, it will still be capitalism. It can be called “State Socialism,” and poverty can be levelled out but if the ownership of the means of life is in the hands of a section of the community, the remainder will be a subject and exploited class. When the workers recognise the need to abolish this system of class ownership they must organise in a political party for this purpose. When they thus gain control of the governmental machinery they can, at a stroke, wipe out legal ownership. The claiming of property rights in the means of production and distribution can be rendered illegal. It will not require a transition period to do that. With the machinery that was used to enforce recognition of lawful ownership taken out of the hands of the capitalist class by a working class that understands and wants socialism, the capitalist system is finished. There are then no longer owners of the means of. production to employ workers for wages. The relationship of wage-labour and capital is ended. Capitalism is dead. Socialism is established. All barriers to the solution of such problems as housing, unemployment, malnutrition, poverty and a host of others, will have been removed. Socialist society can then tackle the job unfettered by the claims of property, of profit and of class interest. Today production is social but distribution is not. It is necessary to harmonise production and distribution by making the wealth produced available freely to society as a whole. Standing in the way of this are the reactionary interests of the Capitalist class. The revolutionary act of dispossessing the capitalists and placing the means of production in the hands, and under the democratic control of society, will allow of this social evolution to go forward at an accelerated pace. The act of severing the bonds that keep the working class in subjection as an exploited, wage-earning class is practically instantaneous. When it is accomplished new productive processes that are stifled by capitalism, will be freed. Labour-saving machinery that today serves to intensify the toil of the workers, will really be labour saving. Poverty will disappear. The solution to all ills will be real and permanent.

No clique of intellectuals will ever be able to shepherd the working class, via a transition period, to socialism. A working class that knows its class status, that understands and desires socialism, knows that “The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.” Those who talk to you about transition periods do not credit you with sufficient ability to understand and act in your own class interest. They seek to lead you. They want your un-class-conscious support in order that they may gain political power. Whether they know it or not, if they get that power they will have to use it to operate capitalism. That is what their transition period will turn out to be; capitalism, with them in the saddle. You will have exchanged one bunch of exploiters for another. And it will be a case of “out of the frying pan into the fire.”

Glasgow and Child Poverty

The End Child Poverty Coalition, made up of charities, faith groups and trade unions, has released a report that says 45% of children in Glasgow city centre are living in poverty. Glasgow Central appears 12th on a list of 20 constituencies across the UK.

Meanwhile, the number of homeless children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland has increased by 10%. Adam Lang, head of communications and policy at Shelter Scotland, said the figures should provide a wake-up call for those charged with tackling homelessness in Scotland. He said: “These figures show that on average between April to September 2017 a household in Scotland became homeless every 18 minutes. This is just not acceptable in 21st century Scotland...These are not just numbers, they represent thousands of people’s lives suffering the human tragedy of homelessness. Among them are 6,581 children without a permanent place to call home, which causes significant and lasting damage to their health, schooling and life chances..."

Socialists Against Racism

“I have said and say again that, properly speaking, there is no Negro question outside of the labor question—the working class struggle. Our position as Socialists and as a party is perfectly plain. We have simply to say: “The class struggle is colorless.” The capitalists, white, black and other shades, are on one side and the workers, white, black and all other colors, on the other side.” Eugene Debs, 1903, 

Racism is an evil that has subjected millions to degrading and humiliating discrimination. While a great deal of effort has been made to mitigate and alleviate the effects of racism, nothing -- absolutely nothing -- has been done to eliminate its cause. The basic cause of racism is not the racial myths conceived and spread by the white supremacists. Rather, the cause of racism is the competitive, strife-ridden, class-divided capitalist system of society under which we live, and under which we desperately attempt to survive. The truth is that capitalism, under which we have developed industrial and scientific forces that no previous epoch in human history could have even dreamed of, cannot solve the crises it has itself created. On the contrary, the very laws that are at the heart of the capitalist system, the incentives and motivations behind its economic activities, ensure that these crises will worsen.

Consider that under capitalism the means of production and all the necessities of life are owned and despotically controlled by a small minority, the capitalist class. The overwhelming majority of the people, black, brown and white, own nothing of their own. In order to live, they must sell their ability to work -- their manual and mental labour power -- as a commodity to the capitalist owners. The workers do all the socially useful work and produce everything. In return, they receive in wages the equivalent of only a fraction of the value of the goods they have produced. The rest is appropriated (legally stolen) by the capitalists. The less the capitalists have to pay the workers in wages, the greater the proportion of wealth they can appropriate for themselves. Accordingly, the capitalists, under competitive compulsions, constantly try to increase their share of the wealth produced by the workers. Contrariwise, the workers resist the capitalists' encroachments and strive to maintain or improve their living standards. The result is a class struggle that is waged continuously in a capitalist society. Obviously, it is in the capitalists' interests to prevent the working class from uniting. And racial prejudice is one of the most insidious and effective devices ever invented for blinding the workers to their class interests and keeping them divided and fighting each other, instead of forming a solid front against their exploiters.

The Socialist Party is fully conscious of the humiliation and sufferings of black and Asian workers. We fully share with them their yearnings for a better life. But candour and honesty compel us to point out that only the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism can put an end to race prejudice, and establish the brotherhood of man on a sound material foundation. By making the means of production, distribution and social services the collective property of society, we shall be able to use our collective productive genius to create abundance and leisure for all in a sane, peaceful and democratic Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth. With all the sympathy that it is possible for a humane mankind to summon for the suffering, anguish, and despair of the victims of capitalism, understanding the anger and bitterness and complete agreement that their anger and bitterness are justified, the Socialist Party nevertheless urges all who are inclined to listen to the advocates of violence to reflect, and to reflect soberly. No one should doubt that an insurrection will bring on to the streets the tanks of the minions of capitalist law, many of whom are ready, willing and eager to wage war on those whom they fear and hate.

A revolution means a complete change, and it need not be accompanied by violence. For a successful revolution, there must be a constructive phase when new institutions are established to replace those that are dismantled. In an age of great technological and economic complexity such as the present one, when prolonged economic paralysis can have devastating consequences for great masses of people, especially to the masses crowded into the great urban centres, this constructive phase of the revolution must be carefully planned and prepared for. Of the all-important constructive phase so vital to the success of a revolution, advocates of violence are obviously oblivious. Destruction is for them the end-all and be-all of what they consider "revolution" -- that is, insurrection in fact.

Revolution is absolutely necessary if the horrible conditions of society are to be ended. But such a revolution can only be consummated by the working class, as a whole in solidarity, united. And they will do it, not with guns, but with the ballot. Our task is to organise for political and economic power -- not to demand mere amelioration but to demand the abolition of the capitalist system of wage slavery, and to effect an orderly socialist reconstruction of society. To establish socialism, the workers of all lands must organise politically in the Socialist Party to demand at the ballot box that all the means of life become the common property of all.

Rabbie's Day

Today is the appropriate day to remind visitors to the Socialist Courier blog of the Burns Night article in the current issue of the Socialist Standard by Alwyn Edgar.

"What do socialists think of Burns? Is it possible that Burns could be called a socialist? The answer must be ‘No’...Yet there are many facets of Burns’ poetry, and of Burns’ philosophy, that must strike a chord with all socialists."

Bill Gates Comes to Town

On Friday, Bill Gates will visit Edinburgh University and will talk about world farming. He will announce further investment in UK agricultural innovation and unveil a plaque to formally launch the University’s Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, a £35 million research and teaching initiative focused on safeguarding the future of the world’s food supplies.

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, Edinburgh University principal, said: “Feeding the world’s growing population well while protecting the natural systems on which we all depend is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity."

It is a shame that Bill won't manage to drop in on any of our Edinburgh branch members who would be more than willing to point out to him that the world currently produces a surplus of food yet nearly a billion go without sufficient nutritious food.

Only within a socialist framework can a rational food policy be put into place. Much of our case is promoting the possibility and the feasibility of a sustainable future society. We suggest and accept that there must be changes in energy policy, to waste and pollution management, but most of all in our food production system. The Socialist Party case is that these necessary changes cannot and will not be permitted by capitalism. The social cost of what you eat and the environmental and health consequence of what you eat is determined by the profit system and by those who own the means of production and distribution. 

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

CAPITALISM

TWO CLASSES
WEALTH PRODUCED SOCIALLY
... BUT PRIVATELY OWNED
... AND CONTROLLED BY POLITICAL STATE
WORKERS PRODUCE ALL RECEIVE FRACTION

STATE CAPITALISM
TWO CLASSES
WEALTH PRODUCED SOCIALLY
... BUT STATE OWNED
... AND CONTROLLED BY POLITICAL STATE
WORKERS PRODUCE ALL RECEIVE FRACTION

OR REAL SOCIALISM
NO CLASSES
WEALTH PRODUCED SOCIALLY
WITH DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION
WORKERS PRODUCE ALL, RECEIVE ALL

The apologists of capitalism say it is the best of all possible systems. Under capitalism, the means of production, distribution and social services are privately owned, with some government ownership. However, government ownership is usually limited to areas where the risks are too great, the profits too unattractive, or the scope of the operation too vast for private capital to undertake, or the activity too important to all capitalists to allow any one group of capitalists to have control. By and large, the land, the factories, the machinery an technology and other means of social production under capitalism are privately owned. Under capitalism, production is carried on for sale and profit. This explains why it is that during capitalism's periodic depressions (which occur when production outstrips markets) workers suffer privation while the things they need to live rot in warehouses filled to overflowing or are wantonly destroyed.

There are only two economic classes in a developed capitalist society -- a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class performs no useful economic function but lives by virtue of its ownership of the means necessary to sustain life. The working class, on the other hand, owns nothing except its ability to work, i.e., its labor power. When we say the working class owns nothing we mean that it owns none of the tools, none of the means of production that it must have access to in order to live. Many who think of themselves as "middle class" are so-called professional workers, such as teachers, technicians, engineers and similar kinds of "white-collar" workers. But one and all they must sell their labour power to capitalists or to the political State in order to live, hence are members of the working class.

Ruling classes have always exploited ruled or subject classes. In the ancient world, chattel slaves were exploited openly by being made to produce more than was needed to feed, clothe and house them. In the feudal era, serfs were forced to turn over part of their product to their feudal master or to toil for him so many days each year. But under capitalism, exploitation is cloaked by the wage system. The capitalist buys the worker's labour power for a price (wage), and it appears as if a fair bargain had been struck. Actually, the working class produces all social wealth and performs all necessary social services. The wages it receives in return represent but a small fraction of the social wealth it alone produces. The capitalist class, by virtue of its ownership of the tools, appropriates the balance (by far the larger portion) of the social wealth. Thus, the wage system disguises the true nature and extent of capitalist exploitation, which has been well described as the "biggest theft in history." Wherever there are classes with antagonistic economic interests, there must inevitably be class struggle. The essence of today's class conflict may be simply stated. It is a struggle over the division of labour's product. The working class, driven by stark necessity, strives to increase its wages (its share of the wealth it produces), while the capitalist class, driven by the profit motive and related economic compulsions, constantly strives to increase the rate of exploitation. Neither class can increase its share without decreasing the share of the other. The result is an irrepressible and irreconcilable class struggle between the capitalists and workers.

"Democracy" is not a synonym for "capitalism." In even the most "democratic" of capitalist countries, there is economic despotism. In the workshop, the capitalist is the absolute master. He can replace workers with machines. He can close down until business gets better and force his workers into unemployment. Or he can move his plant to another city or country and leave his employees stranded. The truth is that capitalism is not only an economic despotism -- it is also a foe to political democracy. Wherever worker unrest arises, and the capitalist rule is threatened, the capitalists are quick to throw political democracy overboard and establish dictatorial rule. The State is a government based on territory (states, counties, congressional areas, etc.) and having special coercive powers (police, army, prisons, etc.) that are beyond democratic control. Historically, the State has always been an engine of ruling classes for holding down the ruled. The ancient State was the State of the slave owners, the feudal State the State of the feudal lords, and the modern State is the executive committee of the capitalist class.

Socialism is the direct opposite of capitalism. It means a completely new social order, with new administrative institutions through which to direct democratically the social production of our industrial age in the interests of all society. Socialism does not now exist, and it never has existed anywhere in the world.  With real socialism, the land, factories, mines, and all the other means of social production, distribution and services will be owned, controlled and administered, not by private persons, and not by a State, but collectively by all the people. With the elimination of private (and State) ownership, the division of society into exploiting and exploited classes will end. Socialism means the abolition of the wage system. We shall collectively produce the things we need and want. New techniques and inventions, and the elimination of anarchy and waste in production will greatly increase the wealth available. And such technological improvements will not result in unwanted surpluses and unemployment -- they will enable us to reduce drastically the hours of work. Socialism will, therefore, give us the leisure time to develop our faculties and live healthy, happy, useful lives. Even with the facilities we now have, merely by eliminating capitalist waste and duplication and providing useful work for all, we could probably produce an abundance for everyone by working four hours a day, four days a week, and forty weeks a year. In the class-divided world of today the primary consideration is: Does it pay? In the world socialism of tomorrow the chief question will be: Is it needed, is it desirable and socially beneficial? In short, socialism means the production of things to satisfy human needs and wants and not, as under capitalism for sale and profit.

THE REAL CAUSE OF WAR

War is caused by economic competition, by the international struggle for foreign markets and sources of raw materials. The Marxist answer is that the cause of war in the modern world is to be found in the inevitable economic rivalries among dominant, competitive capitalist groups in capitalist society.  It is not Socialist Party alone who perceive this. We could cite the testimony of any number of leading capitalist spokesmen on the point.  To make them politically palatable, ideological issues have always been invoked.  In 1914 that the seed of the war they were being asked to fight and die in was commercial and industrial rivalry. Capitalist propaganda told them it was a war "to make the world safe for democracy." The same applies to World War 2, which was supposed to be a war to save the world from fascism. If this had been true, there would no longer be any fascism in the world. But it was not true. The war was fought for industrial and commercial reasons. Workers are made the victims of a cruel deception.

Unfortunately, the “Stop the War” demonstrators lack an understanding of the true nature of the problems confronting them. They completely ignore the basic cause of war. In fact, they disdainfully reject every effort made to call it to their attention as "dogmatic sectarianism." The result is that they are split up into dozens of factions and jerry-built "organizations." Since none of them is based on a correct theory or premise, they cannot establish any unifying principle. This in turn makes it impossible for them to adopt any workable programme or seek an attainable goal. All of them vociferously proclaim their desire to eliminate an evil, but not one of them attacks the cause of that evil. The result is that despite all the protests, parades, demonstrations, etc., wars have continued and escalated. What anti-war marchers need more than anything else is a sound knowledge and understanding of the nature of the capitalist system and its inherent compulsions to war. They have to learn that "hatred of war" and "love of peace," no matter how widely, or how loudly, or how frequently proclaimed, cannot halt or eliminate war. They must learn that they are wasting their time and efforts in hacking at the branches of evil and leaving the root-cause untouched. And they must learn what must be done to replace the war-breeding capitalist system with the sane socialist society. The Socialist Party, does not question the sincerity of many of the protesters. But it is duty bound to point out that sincerity is not the issue. Sincerity is like the good intentions that pave the road to hell. Undisciplined by sound knowledge and theory, sentiment runs riot and commits tragic errors. When the looked-for result is not soon achieved the "movement" based on sentiment alone -- sincere or otherwise -- collapses like a pierced balloon. Sentiment and emotion for a good cause are laudable. But without a sound premise and attainable goal, they can only lead to failure and despair. The crying need of our time is not parades, or demonstrations for limited and impossible objectives, but determined, unrelenting action to awaken the working class to the imperative need for a socialist reconstruction of society and to enlighten them on the principles for accomplishing that social change in a peaceful manner. It is the only way to strike a decisive blow for peace and freedom for the workers of all nations. All else is futile and hopeless.

The repeated crises to which the world is being continuously subjected are not caused by men. There is a more basic cause, one that explains why as one crisis subsides another flares up, and one that also explains why all these crises follow a pattern that has become almost monotonous. This is not to say that men do not play their part, sometimes hastening, sometimes slowing the pace of events and their immediate consequences. The really determining factors, however, are social forces that exert an irresistible pressure on both men and events.

Peace is possible. But it requires that the working class unite politically to outlaw private ownership of the tools of production at the ballot box.  Peace is possible -- but not until production for sale and private profit is supplanted by production for use. The Socialist Party's answer is that we can uproot the cause of war by organizing to uproot the capitalist system. The workers have more than the necessary numbers to vote capitalism out and socialism in.  We would then have social ownership of the industries, under the democratic management of the workers themselves.   We would have socialism, not the phony socialism of government ownership but a genuine socialist society, resting on the basis of economic freedom. This new social system the workers alone can bring into being, thus forever putting an end to wars, and establishing the society of human brotherhood based on freedom, peace and abundance.

Only one thing can prevent the catastrophe toward which the world is heading. That is the establishment of genuine international socialism. There is no acceptable alternative. We must establish a society in which private ownership of the means of life will be replaced by social ownership and democratic control; in which production for sale and the profit of a few will be replaced by production for the benefit and use of all. This is the only way we can end the economic ruling-class rivalries that lead to war and the recurring economic crises that increase the compulsions to war. Socialism will be the opposite of capitalism.  Poverty, insecurity, unemployment will be eliminated. War-breeding struggles for markets will be a thing of the past. Totalitarianism will be impossible. Everyone will lead a full life, contributing his or her fair share of the work and receiving his or her fair share of the total social product. We shall have laid the material and economic foundation for social harmony, peace, plenty and liberty, on the basis Of international human brotherhood. 

Gone but not forgotten

 Hugh Armstrong, a long time member of Glasgow branch died, at Marie Curie Hospice in Stobhill. He was ill from prostrate cancer. He was rested and comfortable at the end.

A formal obituary will appear in due course.

Plastic Beaches

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh took more than 100 sediment samples from 13 beaches on Hoy and the Orkney mainland.

 They found levels of microplastic pollution on beaches around Scapa Flow in Orkney are similar to those in industrialised areas like the Forth and Clyde.

Dr Mark Hartl, from Heriot-Watt, said: "The fact that a relatively remote island has similar microplastics levels to some of the UK's most industrialised waterways was unexpected, and points to the ubiquitous nature of microplastics in our water systems.

Jenni Kakkonen, a marine biologist at Orkney Islands Council commented "It came as a surprise to me as well that there was no significant difference between average particle and fibre concentrations found in the Scapa Flow, Clyde and Firth of Forth."

Dying for fresh air

According to figures from Friends of the Earth Scotland (FOES) Glasgow’s Hope Street was yet again ranked Scotland’s most polluted street for nitrogen dioxide but levels have decreased from 65mcg per cubic metre to 58.

The campaign group examined figures for two key pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and “particulate matter” (small particles including smoke, dust and dirt, some of which can be hazardous). 

Salamander Street in Edinburgh is the worst for particulate matter overtaking Queensferry Road in the capital and Atholl Street in Perth.

FOES described air pollution as a “public health crisis” and blamed it for over 2,500 early deaths every year in Scotland. "Filthy streets continue to poison our lungs nearly a decade after a legal deadline."

Six most polluted streets for particulate matter in 2017

Edinburgh Salamander St - 23

Edinburgh Queensferry Road - 23

Perth Atholl Street - 21

Glasgow Clarence Drive- 19

Edinburgh Glasgow Road - 19

Glasgow Dumbarton Road - 19

Figures in mcg per cubic metre. The Scottish air quality objective is 18 mcg per cubic metre.

Six most polluted streets for Nitrogen Dioxide in 2017

Glasgow's Hope Street - 58

Edinburgh's St John's Road - 50

Glasgow's Dumbarton Road - 43

Dundee's Seagate - 43

Dundee's Lochee Road - 42

Edinburgh's Queensferry Road - 41

Figures in mcg per cubic metre. The European Ambient Air Quality Directive set a limit for NO2 of 40 mcg per cubic metre.

Scotland is unequal

The gulf between the haves and have nots in Scotland is deepening

A new report from Oxfam reveals that in Scotland, the richest one per cent has more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent combined.

In Scotland, the ten richest families or individuals were last year estimated to have a combined wealth of £14.7bn. 

The Sunday Times annual Rich List placed the Grant-Gordon whisky family as the richest in Scotland, with a fortune of £2.37bn, with Highland Spring owner Mahdi al-Tajir listed as having an overall fortune of £1.67bn.

Oil industry leader Sir Ian Wood and family are said to be worth £1.6bn and the Thomson family, owners of publisher DC Thomson, £1.285bn.

Meanwhile, around 430,000 Scots were paid less than the living wage of £8.45 per hour last year, with women outnumbering men by around 100,000. More than a quarter of a million Scots children – working out at one in four - are officially recognised as living in poverty.

The problem appears to be growing, with Scottish Government figures last year showing 1.05m people in Scotland were living in relative poverty after having paid their housing costs – a rise of two per cent on the previous year.

Raise your consciousness with LSD

Lothian Socialist Discussion 

Wednesday, 24 January - 7:30pm - 9:00pm

THIS MEETING HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED

 The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh,

 17 West Montgomery Place,

 Edinburgh EH7 5HA

Socialist consciousness involves understanding socialism which means talking about it, sharing ideas about it - in short, educating ourselves and our fellow workers about it. 

People become socialists from their experiences; meeting socialists is part of that experience. Class struggle without any clear understanding of where you are going is simply committing oneself to a never-ending treadmill. 

We come to a socialist view of the world by interacting directly or indirectly with others, exchanging ideas with them. And that is perhaps the role of this discussion meeting as a catalyst in the process of changing consciousness. 

" If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself." - Joseph Dietzgen

The Dark Side

We, in the Socialist Party, are optimists. We believe in the future, in progress, that things will get better, eventually. That in spite of its relentless propaganda the idea that capitalism is the ‘end of history’ is ludicrous. There is a future beyond capitalism, conditional of course, that we come together to fight for it, as there’s nothing inevitable about it. Our members have always been optimistic, that in the future, eventually things would get better and we would move beyond capitalism to a sane society. We believe in a better future, better than this miserable present.

But as things stand, there may well not be a future. The harm inflicted on the planet by 200 years of industrial capitalism may be irreversible, and that no matter how much remedial action we take, it is already too late to halt, let alone reverse the catastrophic climate change. The capitalist class are deluded into thinking that with their money, power, technology, and weapons they can sit out the coming chaos. Capitalists have no problem sacrificing vast swathes of humanity, the vulnerable and the defenceless to preserve their pursuit of profit and the rule of capital. A vast reserve army of surplus labour are maintained for the interests of privileged few. Unless stopped, the ruling class, those oligarchs, and plutocrats around the world, threaten to bring about an environmental apocalypse. Can green lobbyist organisations like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth force the capitalists to reverse this suicidal trajectory? Not until they confront capitalism itself.  

Rather than “feel good” lifestyle changes e.g., not buying stuff in plastic bottles real change can only come through collective actions, as a class that collectively opposes capitalism and furthermore advocates an alternative economic system. There are no other alternative socialism. As always, the people and the planet pay the price for the capitalist, profit-driven production. Instead of being ‘responsible’ consumers by recycling this and that, it is time to be tackling the issue at its root, by challenging capitalism as a system. This is a qualitatively different struggle that requires not individual choice at the market-place but organised, collective action to transform the way we make our living; our economic mode of production. We will decide how we want to live our lives. Yes, ultimately, it’s the economic system, capitalism that’s doing the damage but surely it’s time we also accept responsibility for our role in maintaining an unsustainable economic system by voting for pro-capitalist parties or accepting compromises and concessions rather than insist upon genuine change.

 There is no time to delay. The world will need to reduce the existing build-up of hothouse gases in the atmosphere. Such changes will require restructuring the world’s energy and transportation systems. Such changes require massive investment and represent a threat to existing capitalist industries, their growth, and profits. Capitalism requires profit and economic growth to survive. Capitalists want their profits now. The future has little meaning in a profit-driven society. Environmental reform by legislation and regulation are not the answer. If the future is not to be plagued by the floods, droughts and other catastrophes predicted related to climate change, the political and economic system of capitalism must end.

The Socialist Party urges all or fellow-workers to organise to abolish capitalism and institute socialist production for use. Workers must realise their latent economic and political power by forming an integrating integrated into one mass movement for the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production—human needs and wants instead of profit—and to organise their own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether. The new society must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organisations based in their communities and workplaces. In such a society, the people themselves make decisions about administering the economy.

Such a society — a socialist cooperative commonwealth - is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which people produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to halting global warming, employing the renewable resources we now have available and develop new ones, and clean up the damage already done. The environmental crisis is fundamentally an economic and class issue. Its cause lies in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Pollution and environmental is not an inevitable by-product of modern industry. Methods exist or can readily be developed to safely neutralise, recycle or contain most industrial wastes. Less polluting forms of transportation and energy can be built. Adequate supplies of food can be grown without deadly pesticides. The problem is that, under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make these kinds of decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and controls the industries and services—the capitalist class. And the capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve, first and foremost, one goal—that of maximising profit for themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins. Socially harmful decisions are made because, in one way or another, they serve the profit interests of the capitalist class. Capitalist-class rule over the economy also explains why government regulation is so ineffective: under capitalism, government itself is essentially a tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected “democratically,” but because they are financed, supported and decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist class, democratic forms are reduced to a farce.

The capitalist class and its government will never be able to solve the environmental crisis. They and their system are the problems. It is up to the working class, the majority of people who actually produce society’s goods and services and daily operate its industries, to end this crisis.

Keir Hardie Revisited

In 1936, the S.P.G.B., in a pamphlet War and the Working Class, drew attention to the attitude which Keir Hardie actually adopted to the First World War. This must have offended many of Hardie’s admirers and in 1953 a South Wales newspaper published a defence of him. This was largely directed against the S.P.G.B., whose exposure of Hardie was described as a “nauseating attack,” a “smear campaign” against the “character and honour” of Hardie. The S.P.G.B., said the writer, was “ turning and twisting ” but our argument would be “torn asunder” by “indisputable facts” which he possessed “in abundance.”

Strong words. They sparked off a lively debate in the newspaper, in which the S.P.G.B. members reminded the readers of Hardie’s boast that he had helped to recruit more men to The Colours than had his Liberal opponent. This, said our adversary, was a falsification of history. By this time, the Welsh members had their teeth into it; we obtained photostat copies of some 1914 issues of the Merthyr Pioneer which proved conclusively the correctness of our assertions. 

It is as well to place some of Hardie’s attitudes on record. He advised against pacifist agitation, advocated national unity in wartime and resistance to an aggressor “to the last drop of blood.” Thus he was no better (and no worse) than the other Labour Party and I.LP. leaders who have given their support to the war efforts of British capitalism; Henderson, MacDonald, Attlee, Bevin, and Morrison all followed him, playing the same terrible game. There is no doubt about their support of war. 

We can only hope that our efforts will help to show that the revered Keir Hardie was no different.

From the July 1959 issue of the Socialist Standard

Lest We Forget - Agnes Hollingshead

Obituary: A. Hollingshead (1959)

From the August 1959 issue of the Socialist Standard

Mrs. Agnes Hollingshead died in Edinburgh at the age of 91 years. This old Comrade was, for many years, active in the old Socialist Party of Canada. When a younger woman, she spoke in Calgary and Toronto. Last year, in a recorded message to the World Socialist Party Conference at Boston, U.S.A., she said it was still her ambition at the age of 90 to go on the Soap-box.

Mrs. Hollingshead was a very talented woman. She ran a business college in Calgary, and on her return to the “Old Country” in the 1920’s taught languages, shorthand-typing, and music. Her home in Edinburgh was made freely available to any member and sympathiser. She was the Edinburgh Group secretary up to within a few months of her death. Her keenness and enthusiasm for Socialist propaganda in her sprightly old age is an object lesson to young members. If anything, she became more active as she became older.

Mrs. Hollingshead was very generous to the S.P.G.B. When funds were lower than usual a few years ago she came to the rescue with a substantial donation. Members affectionately referred to her as “the old lady from Edinburgh”—a kind of Socialist institution. Comrades from Overseas always made their way to her home, and she had a warm welcome for everyone. Her greatest difficulty in recent years was her inability to get to the Mound where the outdoor meetings were held by members from Glasgow.

Socialism kept Mrs. Hollingshead young at heart. She looked to the future with that irrepressible optimism possessed only by Socialists. Hers was a useful life.

From The Monument by Robert Barltrop:

The Party was saved from an extreme predicament (one section of the membership saw nothing else but to sell the newly-acquired Head Office) by old Mrs Hollingshead. I went to see her in Edinburgh, and told her we needed several hundred pounds to pay the bills: she gave a thousand. Agnes Hollingshead was one of the most remarkable of people. At this time, she was ninety-two. She had run a commercial college in Calgary for several years, came to Britain in the nineteen-thirties and set up again in Edinburgh. After her husband’s death early in the war, her sole wish became to amass a small fortune and leave it to the Party. She continued working until she died — her only concession to age was to give up classes and take individual pupils instead. On the day I arrived she was taking a girl of seventeen or so, dictating shorthand and correcting exercises with briskness and authority.

Besides having the school, she let out the rooms in her house to families: they paid only modest rents, but reading the Socialist Standard was a condition of tenancy. Her teaching-room was a huge room at the front of the house, and she lived in the kitchen at the back with a cat named Karl Marx. A tiny, dignified woman, she had an indomitable zest for living. She attributed her age and her fine teeth to ‘plain living and high thinking’ and to vegetarianism, and confided to me that she was worried by shortness of breath when she walked up the steep hill by her house: ‘I’ll go to the man at the nature-cure clinic,’ she said, ‘because it isn’t natural to be puffing like that.’ She died at ninety-six, and left nearly four thousand pounds to the SPGB.

The Monument: the Story of the Socialist Party of Great Britain by Robert Barltrop (Pluto Press, 1975) Page 161

Why we are angry

In a socialist society, there will be no wage system where the workers receive in wages only a fraction of the value of the goods they produce.  We shall produce for use, rather than for sale with a view to profit for private capitalists. We shall produce the things we want and need rather than the things for which a market exists in which the goods we produce are sold for the profit of the private owners.

Socialism is the story of a robbery so colossal that it defies measurement. Compared with it the prizes, loot, and spoils taken by all the pirates, buccaneers and freebooters of history are a mere bagatelle. The robbery is confined neither by time nor space. It is continuous, unremitting. It proceeds wherever society is divided into classes, wherever one class owns the instruments of production to which another class, owning no tools of its own, must have access in order to live. There is nothing illegal about this robbery. Under the capitalist system, it is considered the normal "way of life." But it is robbery nonetheless. For the capitalist class uses its ownership and control of the factories, land, railroads, etc., in the same way that a highwayman uses his gun -- to extract a tribute from its victims. It is an insidious form of robbery.

It abounds in illusions. For example, there is the illusion that conceals the real source of wages and makes the capitalist exploiter appear to be a sort of benign philanthropist. The worker goes into the factory on Monday morning empty-handed, but, when he or she comes out on payday, lo and behold, he or she has a paycheck in his hands! If he or she meets a socialist and hears the socialist attack the capitalist system, he or she might say: "Don't attack my boss. I'm getting little enough as it is. I wouldn't get anything if he were put out of business." see, this worker is under the illusion that the capitalist supports him or her, whereas, as we shall demonstrate, it is we who supports the capitalist.

Why is the worker the victim of this illusion? What goes on inside the factory that conceals from him the true state of affairs? What goes on is simply this: In the first hour or two that he is on the job the worker produces in the form of new values as much as he is paid in wages for the entire working day. Of course, the worker has no way of knowing this. When the serf of feudal times was forced to yield part of what he produced to the feudal lord, he knew he was being robbed. But capitalist robbery is more subtle. The worker may perform but one-minute operation in the production of a commodity requiring thousands of operations. Nevertheless, the labour has created new value equal to a day's wages in the first hour or two on the job. and this new value -- together with the value added by fellow workers -- is embodied in the finished product.

 Marx called the part of the working day in which the worker reproduces wages “necessary labour time”. During the rest of the working day the worker produces values not paid. This part of the working day Marx called “surplus labour time”. For purposes of simplification, take the case of a worker who sells his labor power -- to be expended in eight hours -- for the price of $15. The first two hours of his working day are necessary labor time. In these two hours, he or she produces as much as the boss pays him for eight hours of labour. During the remaining six hours -- surplus labour time -- he produces three times as much or $45 worth of new values. In the science of political economy we call the wealth that the worker produces, but of which he is robbed - surplus value.

What is the degree of robbery, or exploitation? It varies as conditions vary in the different countries. In a country, where more advanced techniques and methods of production are applied (such as the UK, USA or the EU), the degree of exploitation is greater than it is in less advanced countries. At first, this may seem contradictory. Why you may ask, should workers who are more productive receive less proportionately of what they produce than workers who are not so productive? The answer is simply that wages are not determined by what the worker produces. Leaving aside their temporary rise and fall due to fluctuations of supply and demand in the labour market, wages are determined by what it costs the worker to live and raise a new crop of wage slaves to take his place when he dies or is thrown on the scrap heap. Everyone is familiar with the expression a "living wage." Our grandfathers got a "living wage"; our fathers got a "living wage": and. normally, we get a "living wage." Thus, in terms of food, clothing, shelter, etc., we receive substantially what our grandfathers did. Yet we produce vastly more than our grandfathers and considerably more than our fathers. Why, then, haven't we advanced beyond the "living wage" concept? The answer is that we cannot advance beyond this concept, no matter how much our productivity increases, as long as capitalism lasts. And the reason is that, under capitalism, labour power is a commodity, an article of merchandise, whose price is governed by the same economic laws that govern the price of any other commodity.

Price may fluctuate according to the supply of a commodity and the demand for it in the market. Just as a pendulum swings back and forth, but is always drawn toward the center by gravitation, the price may go up or down -- but always it oscillates around its value in accord with the economic law of value. In other words, price, in the long run, coincides with value. And the value of any commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labour time required to produce it. In the case of the commodity labour power this means that its value is determined by the amount of socially necessary labour time required to produce the food, clothing, shelter, etc., needed to keep the worker in working condition. He or she gets a 'living wage."

But, note: The more highly developed a nation is industrial, the less labor time is required to produce the workers' necessities. Hence, instead of the workers' share of their product increasing proportionately as their productivity rises, it is the other way around. As new methods and techniques -- such as automation -- are introduced, the articles workers consume are cheapened and wages fall accordingly. Thus the workers' relative wages (what they receive in relation to what they produce) tend to fall as productivity rises. In other words, as labour productivity rises, the necessary labour time grows shorter, thus lengthening that part of the working day when the worker produces surplus value. Apologists for capitalism sometimes try to refute socialist charges of high-degree exploitation by pointing to the net profits of corporations. But socialists have never contended that the corporations pocket all the surplus value their workers produce. On the contrary, socialists point out that before a capitalist can count his net profits he must pay off the landlord, government tax collector, the bankers' interest, advertising capitalist, insurance and all the other parasites on parasites. By the time taxes, interest, rent, etc., are deducted, net profits of the immediate capitalist exploiter may be only a fraction of the surplus value of which workers are robbed. But this in no way disputes the fact that the working class is robbed by the capitalist class of wealth so vast that it defies measurement.

Exploitation is not the act of any individual capitalist or set of capitalists, perpetrated upon any individual worker or set of workers. Exploitation is a class act -- the act of the whole capitalist class-perpetrated upon a class -- the whole working class.