Socialism - Our Only Future!

Socialism is not some utopian scheme. Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today there is social production but no social ownership. Socialism will bring social ownership to social production. It is the next step in the further evolution of  human society. With socialism, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of all.  People will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be an unprecedented liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government control. Government involvement in the economy is a form of state capitalism. Socialism will open the way for great changes in society. Transforming the main productive resources of society into common property will enable the working people to assume administration of the economy. Workers will be able to manage democratically their own work places through workers’ councils and elected administrators. In this way workers will be able to make their work places safe and efficient places that can well serve their own interests as well as society’s.

The Socialist Party has always used the electoral form of struggle in order to put forward the ideas of socialism and rally fellow-workers against the capitalist state. Socialism is a matter of growth but never by obtaining for it a fictitious vote. We should seek only to register the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less. In our campaigns we state our principles clearly, seeking neither to flatter nor to offend, but only to convince those who should be with us and win them to our cause through understanding its mission. No possible good can come from any kind of a political alliance, express or implied, with those who are opposed to socialism. The Socialist Party wants the votes only of those who want socialism. It holds in contempt vote-seeking for the sake of holding office. This is a party which serves the class and does not seek to substitute party power for class power. To fight for socialism is consciously to struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and its state, designed and created to maintain the economic and political dominance of the few who own capital over the many who have only their own labour power to trade for an income.

Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing the wealth (the land, the mines, factories, the machines etc.) are in private hands. It is true that in Britain a number of industries — mining, the railways, electricity — have been taken out of private hands and have been nationalised. But the first charge on the nationalised industries is compensation for the old, private shareholders. The nationalised boards are manned overwhelmingly by ex-directors of the industries concerned. In any case only 20 per cent of industry has been nationalised. The remaining 80 per cent is in private hands. Thus a tiny handful of people own these “means of production” as they are called. But they do not work them. The immense majority of the people own nothing (in the sense that they can live on what they own) but their power to work. By exploitation we mean living off the labour of other people. There have been previous forms of exploitation. In slave society, the slave-owners lived off the labour of the slaves who were their property. In feudal society, the feudal lords lived off the forced labour of the serfs. In capitalist society the worker is neither a slave nor yet a serf, i.e. forced to do free, unpaid labour for a master. But he is exploited just the same, even though the form of this exploitation is not so open and clear as was the case with the slaves and the serfs. The essence of exploitation under capitalism consists in this — that the workers, when set to work with raw materials and machinery, produce far more in values than what is paid out by the capitalists in wages, for raw materials etc. In short, they produce a surplus which belongs to the capitalists and for which they are not paid. Thus they are robbed of the values they produce. This is the source of capitalist profit. It is on this surplus, produced by the workers, that the capitalist lives in riches and luxury. Capitalism is a system in which the means for producing wealth are owned by a few who live by exploiting the workers, i.e. by robbing them of the values they produce over and above the value of their wages. It is a system of booms and slumps. From the earliest days of its existence (at the end of the eighteenth century) until today, capitalism has been marked by periodic slumps, or “economic crises” as they are called, which cause mass unemployment and untold misery for the great mass of the working people.  Capitalism is the system based on competition. There are many capitalists each producing the same kind of commodity. Each hopes to sell all that he has produced and thereby to realise a profit. He has to compete with his rivals in the attempt to sell his goods. The quantity of goods produced therefore bears no relation to the real demand. Capitalism is thus by its nature an unplanned, anarchic system. Each capitalist tries to produce as much and as cheaply as possible in order to grab as much of the market — and as much profit — as possible. To do so more effectively, to defeat their rivals, the capitalists constantly seek to cheapen production by introducing new machinery, speeding up the workers etc. Thus more and more goods are being produced. At the same time they seek to drive down the wages of the workers in order to increase their share of the wealth produced.

Socialism means but one thing, and that is the abolition of capitalism. Anything else is not Socialism, and has no right to use that name. Socialism is not the establishment of a minimum wage, not the enforcement of health and safety laws, or the imposition of price controls, not the putting down of the racists and neo-fascists. None of these, nor all of them together, are socialism. They might all be done by the government tomorrow, and still we would not have socialism. They are merely reforms of the present system, mere patches on the worn-out garment of industrial servitude. Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production. Therefore, while not opposing any reforms or improvements which may be secured under capitalism, the Socialist Party is steadfastly against taking resources and energy away from its main battle, for revolution, in order to carry on the struggle for reform. It refuses to abandon its main demand “the tools of production for the producers” in order to fritter away its time chasing immediate demands. It declines the tempting baits to lead workers into sidetracks, blind alleys and dead ends. The one demand of the Socialist Party is socialism, unadulterated and undiluted - the unconditional surrender by the capitalist class of the machinery of industry. The Socialist Party insists that it is the most humanitarian movement on earth. More so than philanthropic ventures, reform societies, and charities. It, and it alone, carries within its principle the highest humanitarian hopes and possibilities of humanity. All the other movements are based on aspiration alone. The Socialist Party stands out unique as the only one based on making the realisation of those aspirations an accomplished fact. Socialism alone will supply the basis for any permanent improvement in the condition of mankind. Capitalism may be modified with factory laws, housing regulations, family legislation, but it remains the same old capitalism.

Socialism is a society in which all the members of the community collectively determine their conditions of life and their way of living. In order to do so, they must control, collectively, the use to which machines, factories, raw materials – all the means of production – are put. Unless the means of production are effectively in the hands of the whole society there can be no question of the collective control of the conditions of life. 

Remembering Glasgow's roots

A memorial to those who suffered in the Irish and Highland famines in the 19th century has been unveiled in Glasgow beside the People's Palace, features plants and stones native to Ireland and the north of Scotland. Famine ravaged large parts of Europe in the mid-1840s and millions died or were displaced over a number of years.

 Ireland suffered particularly badly and it is thought that more than a million people were forced to emigrate, with 100,000 of them arriving in Glasgow.

The memorial also recalls the thousands of people who also arrived in the city from the Highlands and Islands due to the famine, which saw blight devastate potato crops. Some of those who came from the Highlands settled in Glasgow or continued their journey to North America.

"The treatment of those who arrived on ships from Derry and Donegal and by foot or by cart from the Highlands was not always hospitable." Glasgow City Council depute leader David McDonald, said.

Historian Prof Sir Tom Devine commented, "That is a potent reminder for today of how immigration, even of the displaced and distressed, can ultimately have a positive impact on the host society."

Whoever Said Capitalism And Sanity Go Hand In Hand?

The Beaches area of Toronto, ''known as,''The Beach'', once indirectly played a prominent part in the history of the SPC. It was there in the sixties that a thriving and enthusiastic local was founded. 

The Beach is again in the news but not in such a positive way. It is now being called a retail ghost town. Along its main street, Queen Street West, there are 30 vacant stores. Nor is the Beach a low-income neighbourhood, but it is a high rent one, so much in fact, that retailers are moving out. 

These are regular working people who just wanted to get ahead and, in some cases, worked longer hours than many members of the working class. One, a Parlour Salon, who also owns one in Toronto's west end said, ''The Beach is beautiful, I love it here, but the rent is three times higher than I pay for my other store.''

 The rents are high and thanks to a City of Toronto tax rebate policy there is an incentive to landlords to keep them high, and if it comes to that, keep the businesses vacant. If one is vacant for more than 90 days the owner is entitled to a rebate. This causes problems for the local residents who now have to travel out of the Beach to get what they want.

 Whoever said capitalism and sanity go hand in hand?

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

Socialism is the ONLY answer!

Few can deny that the world today is in a constant state of chaos and upheaval, full of turmoil and conflict throughout the world. The fact that such conditions prevail generally throughout the world, and have prevailed for a long time, logically suggests the presence of a dominant common social factor. That common social factor, the Socialist Party has repeatedly demonstrated, is the capitalist system that does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority.   It is a social system in which society is divided into two classes—a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority—the wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution. The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of life in order to survive. The relationship between the two classes forms the basis for an economic tyranny under which the workers as a class are exploited of the major portion of the social wealth that they produce.

The defenders of this economic dictatorship never tire of declaring it the "best of all possible systems." Yet, today, after decades of new deals, fair deals, third ways, wars on poverty and drugs, civil rights legislation, environmental regulations and a host of other reform efforts, capitalist society presents an obscene social picture. Millions who need and want jobs are out of work despite the official claims that unemployment is at historically "low" rates. Millions more are underemployed, working only part-time or temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work. Millions aren't earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and their families despite the fact that they are working.

The malignant evils of racism an nationalism are on the upsurge with its contemptible discrimination against minorities. The educational system is a mess and getting worse. The health care system fails to meet the needs of the people across the globe. Widespread pollution of our environment continues. Crime and corruption are pervasive at every level of capitalist society. Slums abound and millions of homeless men, women and even children live on our streets. Thanks to falling real wages, poverty continues to grow. Even the foregoing fails to give a full picture of the wide-ranging plague of social and economic problems modern-day capitalism is imposing on society.

When the Socialist Party was founded, there was no space travel, no jet planes, no computers, no internet. But there was widespread poverty, racial prejudice and discrimination, spreading urban blight, brazen violations of democratic rights, the material and economic conflicts that contain the seeds of war, and a host of other economic and social problems. All of those problems still plague the working class—but have grown to even more monumental proportions. These long-standing problems and the failure of seemingly unending reform efforts to solve or even alleviate them to any meaningful degree have imposed decades of misery and suffering on millions of workers and their families. The working class stands perilously poised on the brink of yet another nightmare of INCREASED joblessness and poverty.

Against this insane capitalist system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in emphatic protest and unqualified condemnation. It declares that if our society is to be rid of the host of economic, political and social ills that for so long have plagued it, the outmoded capitalist system of private ownership of the socially operated means of life and production for the profit of a few must be replaced by a new social order. That new social order must be organised on the sane basis of common ownership and democratic administration of all the instruments of production, all means of distribution and all of the social services. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. In short, it must be genuine socialism.

That is precisely the mission embodied in the Socialist Party's Declaration of Principles—a call for both political organisation and action. Thes principles are based upon the recognition and unqualified acceptance of the fact that the revolutionary change to socialism must be the class-conscious act of the workers themselves.

Accordingly, the Socialist Party calls upon the workers to muster under its banner for the purpose of advocating revolutionary change and building class consciousness among workers. Despite the many threats to workers' lives, liberty and happiness today, despite the growing poverty and misery that workers are subjected to, a world of peace, liberty, security, health and abundance for all stands within our grasp. The potential to create such a society exists, but that potential can be realized only if workers act to gain control of their own lives by organising, politically and industrially, for socialism. The Socialist Party calls upon all who realise the critical nature of our times, and who may be increasingly aware that a basic change in our society is needed, to place themselves squarely on working-class principles. Join us in this effort to put an end to the existing class conflict and all its malevolent results by placing the land and the instruments of production in the hands of the people as a collective body in a cooperative socialist society. Help us build a world commonwealth in which everyone will enjoy the free exercise and full benefit of their individual faculties.

Record Levels Of Debt

The world's debt has reached a record $164 trillion dollars(US), that will make it harder for some countries to deal with the next recession. 

The International Monetary Fund, in its semi-annual report, said global public and private debt swelled to 225 per cent of global domestic product in 2016, the last year for which they had figures. 

High levels of national debt will make it difficult for governments to refinance when their debts reach maturity, especially if financing conditions tighten, the IMF said. 

This is just another insane situation created by an insane system and hardly causes any feelings of optimism for the future.

For socialism,

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

There Is Only One Solution – Socialism!

Is the socialist society a Utopian dream? The Socialist Party completely rejects this. We believe that people can and do draw conclusions which are fundamentally socialist in content. There can be no real future for humanity in an exploiting society. The path to freedom lies through the socialist revolution. The resentment of people today against the stifling and degrading relations imposed upon them by class society provides a strong driving force towards the socialist future.  The methods of struggle decided by the working class will to a large extent mould the workers' movement - providing the organisation sees itself as the instrument of these struggles and not as some sort of self-appointed "leadership". Future events may show us the need to modify or even radically alter many of our present conceptions. This does not worry us in the least. Capitalism seeks to coerce people into obeying its will. It denies them the right to manage their own lives, to decide their own destinies. The real challenge of socialism is that it will give men and women the ability to master their fates.

It seems quite obvious to us that the socialist party must be run by its members, in a spirit of free association. Without democracy the revolutionary organization will be unable to develop the required originality of thought and the vitality, the initiative and determination to challenge capitalism. Self-appointed and self-perpetuating leaders, selected because of their ability to "interpret" Marx's writings and relate them to today's events becomes superfluous. All our fellow-workers need is a good memory,  a knowledge of history and well-stocked library to bring an understanding of today's reality. The Socialist Party rejects the idea that matters of great importance to our class requires tactical decisions by a central committee meeting in a secret conclave. We consider it important to bring to workers information and reports of the struggles of other workers - both past and present - reports which emphasize the fact that workers are capable of struggling collectively and of rising to the greatest heights of revolutionary consciousness. The revolutionary press must help break down the conspiracy of silence about such struggles. It must bring to the working class the story of its own past and the details of its present struggles. But it must disseminate information.  We do not bow to spontaneity. We argue for their own ideas and try to convince people of the wider implications of their struggles. Socialist Party  members actively participate in many movements, but with ambitions of gaining control.  We are dependent on workers agreeing with us. The immediate struggle of the Socialist Party is to establish socialism. he vast creative potential of the millions of working people will be unleashed with their direct participation in organising and operating socialism. Our aim is to replace the world capitalist system with world socialism. Exploitation, oppression, and degradation will not exist in socialism. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage-slavery will be abolished and the guiding principle will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally and private property will be eliminated. With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and intellectual workers will disappear. As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will wither away. There will no longer be the struggle between opposing classes and socialism will propel the development of human society forward. 

Refugees are fellow-workers

Refugee Festival Scotland Opening Day is on Saturday 16 June at the Hidden Gardens in 25a Albert Drive, Glasgow with free entry. Wednesday, 20 June is World Refugee Day.

People living in other countries which are not the land of their birth are grimly accustomed to invectives like "fucking foreigner"; "parasite"; "free-loading scrounger", etc. and it appears matters have been getting out of hand in recent years. Xenophobia is on the rise. "Patriotic" citizens are quick to assert, nationalistically, that the "aliens" have come to take over their country, their resources, their jobs, their culture, and what have you. The Socialist Party does not speak of ‘we’ and ‘us’ in relation to so-called nationality in where we happened to have been born. 

In order to ward off unrest, various tactics are employed by governments. One of them is creating divisions among the suffering masses by, for instance, blaming foreigners and whipping up nationalistic feelings. This diverts attention from misrule and mismanagement. Secondly, and in response to the official lies, the masses who are hungry, sick and illiterate are taken in by the government's ploy. Now, since a hungry man is an angry man and since anger is emotional and overpowers reason, the least provocation can result in misdirected violence vented against vulnerable fellow citizens or be turned loose on the "aliens". This is the real cause of xenophobia - the rich pitting the poor against the poor. Our ruling class has opened a Pandora's Box of nationalist rhetoric around migrants and allowed a space to open up in groups and individuals influenced by fascist and racist ideology. 

 The Socialist Party condemns nationalist ideas. They are stumbling-blocks to working-class understanding of socialism. This above all is why we find such attitudes pernicious and repugnant.  The nationalist seeks only the crudest and superficial explanation of social problems. They need a scapegoat to explain the loss of what they called “national identity”. For the working class, national identity has always meant congested decaying slums, insecurity poverty and, very often, the dole-queue. National identity is a cunning political device by means of which the working class, who own no country, are duped to identify with their exploiters, the capitalists, who own virtually everything. 

 Capitalism divides because the means of production are owned by a few. Socialism will embrace all mankind because the earth will be owned in common.  We stand together as friends, work colleagues and members of our communities. We stand side-by-side and will not allow a wave of xenophobic nationalism and racism to threaten our lives and well-being.

 

Scotland needs newcomers

Scotland's birth rate has sunk to a 15-year low, while the number of deaths are at a 32-year high, official figures have revealed. Deaths outstripped births by 7,600 in the year to the end of March - this is up by more than 5,000 on the same time last year, according to the figures released by the National Records of Scotland.

The ageing population is behind the trend and again underlines the country's reliance on immigration to keep the population growing.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland-s-birth-rate-sinks-to-15-year-low-1-4753801

This is what we want to happen

It is nationalism that divides the workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose! It is nationalism that pits groups of workers against each other.  What is socialism? If we are socialists, what are we actually for? Socialism is not the rule of bureaucrats over the people.  Marxism has clarified many perplexing problems in philosophy, sociology, history, economics, and politics. Its supreme achievement is the explanation it offers of the key role of the working class in history. It is ironical that young rebels who reject conformism to big business mimic its low opinion of the working class. One reason for this attitude is a limited historical vision. They acquire so one-sided a view of the wage-workers by conceiving of them, not as the chief agents of production, but primarily as consumers motivated by suburbanite culture.  The reactions of the workers are primarily and ultimately determined by what happens to them in the labour market and at the point of production. That is where they encounter speed-ups, short time, lay-offs, discrimination, insecurity, wage reductions, and other evils of exploitation. This class can be roused from its slumber by events beyond anyone’s control. That is why any drastic fluctuation in their economic welfare can quickly alter their tolerance of the existing state of affairs.

Marxism is the theory of the socialist revolution. In a revolution, the power and wealth of society change hands. They are transferred from one class to another. In our time, there are two fundamental classes in society, the working class, and the capitalist class. The minority class owns the wealth, profits from it, keeps down the standard of living of the majority class which has no wealth.  Marxism formulates the goal of the socialist revolution – the abolition of private property, the abolition of exploitation of man by man, the social ownership of the means of production and their planned use for the benefit of the whole of society, leading to abundance. The Socialist Party does not put forward this goal as a utopia, as a mere vision of what would ideally satisfy people’s needs and make them all happy, but as a goal the practical attainment of which is made necessary by the actual conditions of modern society. Socialism will only be gained by waging the working-class struggle. And to wage this struggle and achieve the conquest of power, the working class must have its own independent political party. If the working class cannot be counted on to dislodge the capitalists, who else can do that job? It would be exceedingly difficult to point out another social force that could effectively act. The struggle against capitalist domination then looms as a lost cause and socialism become a Utopia. Socialism is not inevitable. What has been termed its ‘inevitability’ consists in this, that only through socialism can human progress continue? But there is not and cannot be any absolute deterministic inevitability in human affairs since man makes his own history and chooses what to do. What is determined is not his choice, but the conditions under which it is made, and the consequences when it is made. The meaning of scientific socialism is not that it tells us that socialism will come regardless, but that it explains to us where we stand, what course lies open to us, what is the road to life.

Socialism is a society dedicated to the interests of the working people, who make up the vast majority of the population. The basic means by which society produces its wealth – factories, mines, and farms – are transferred from private/state property to common ownership, and exploitation is for the most part eliminated. Socialism unleashes the creativity of the common people, who are capable of tremendous advances when not labouring under a system of exploitation. The working class has colossal tasks ahead of it. It confronts the most formidable and ferocious of adversaries. There is a need for socialist campaigns and angry denunciations of capitalism.  But there is also a need for inspiration, for a vision of the goal which makes the struggle worthy. The theory of the Socialist Party is that if the enormous wealth of society, controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to the mass murder of war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. To achieve its final goal, this revolution would be necessary on a world scale. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of the profit system, peace and plenty for all. The real solution to the many looming disasters is the socialist revolution.  

Smart Meters. Who Benefits?

My attention was drawn to an advert in the Metro (Wednesday, June 13) posing the idea that “If we all get a smart meter we could save enough energy to power every home in Aberdeen, Cardiff, and Manchester for 365 days.”

Capitalists are always trying to get workers to identify themselves with their interests. The additional comments prove this.

“With a smart meter, you could save an average of 354kWh of energy a year. Because when you’re using, you can make a few small changes and use less of it. Save your energy for powering cities.”

On examining these words from a class point of view, I would point out that the need not to pay wages to people reading meters would benefit the capitalist selling electricity. The small changes I make would if made, probably save me some money (not my energy to save) it would not be used by me to power cities. We don’t sell electricity, We buy it.

The advert has a night time picture showing a massive lit-up city. Shareholders in electricity companies evidently are making money even while they sleep. Workers don’t get paid while they sleep.

Many workers are in need of heating but use very little of it, the result of poor wages, unemployment etc. so this idea that (we could save enough energy to power every home in Aberdeen, Cardiff, and Manchester) is nonsense.

When we own the means of production in common, we will mean everyone not the shareholders of a capitalist enterprise.

YFS
PH

 

Prevention Is Better Than A Cure

On May11 Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard announced plans to build a 12.8-kilometer by-pass at Lac-Megantic.

 In 2013 a train carrying crude oil came of the track, exploded, killed 47 people and destroyed most of the downtown area. This was in blatant violation of safety regulations so they could save a few bucks. 

The bypass has been estimated to cost $133 million; the federal government will pay 60 per cent and the provincial one 40 per cent.

 A typical capitalist situation caused by putting a price tag on everything and then having to pay more money because an ounce of prevention wasn't worth a ton of cure. Boy! what a system.

For socialism,

 Steve, Mehmet, John & contributing members of the SPC

Our Red Flag Keeps Flying

Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

Contrary to the aims of the anti-capitalist activists, the old social order cannot simply be removed. Its removal is dependent upon its replacement by socialism. The anti-capitalists who know that capitalism is the enemy, but who cannot make time for building a revolutionary socialist party because they are too involved in the campaigns for immediate reforms has not yet grasped this fundamental. They deplore the chaos in the world, the chaos in the radical movement yet there remains the chaos of their own political positions. Fortunately, there is the Socialist Party which fights for socialism and is able to devote themselves single-mindedly to the building of party dedicated to socialism. Let the cowards flinch and the traitors sneer but we reiterate our trust in our fellow-workers and dedicate ourselves again to the emancipation of ourselves from wage-slavery.

Capitalism has shown conclusively that it cannot advance civilisation, but only drive it further along the road of human degradation and ruination. The working class, even those sections of it that have been most cruelly oppressed, has shown a power of recuperation from defeat and powers of resistance to the capitalist class.

The working class is struggling daily to improve their living conditions, defend and expand their democratic rights, and achieve social progress. The history of mankind can be described as the history of the efforts of human communities to free themselves from the constraints always imposed by the necessity of meeting their daily survival needs and reproducing the species. The history of humanity is the history of human communities involved in the struggle for their existence. Unless we understand the implications of this, we cannot wage a systematic and effective struggle. The purpose of socialist revolution is to provide today’s society with a form of organisation that corresponds to the material possibilities open to us today. Socialist principles lay bare the conflict of interest between the owners of the means of production and the workers. Organised society came into existence as the result of experience that taught the lesson of mankind’s common problem and of the realisation that its solution is more likely to be attained through the cooperation of all having a common aim. Standing in the way of social progress and socialism is the capitalist class.

The Socialist Party calls upon the workers of the world to unite. In fact, it is held that it the most famous thing Marx ever said. The Socialist Party seeks to unify the workers across national borders. The International Workingmen's Association, or "First International", was a step toward such a thing as is our own World Socialist Movement. The new workers' movement must be imbued with the spirit and principles of socialism for the building of a genuinely revolutionary socialist party. The zigzag path of the world revolution will emerge more clearly. To change society and end exploitation, we need a plan to get from where we are now to liberation - a strategy that will work. Identifying our real friends and our real enemies is the first step. The capitalists are the powerful enemy and it will require protracted efforts to overthrow them. These capitalists are very wealthy and live off the exploited labour of others. Members of the Socialist Party believes that to be a part of the working class is something to be proud of. The working class constitutes the majority. When socialists look at the issue of class we see that every kind of society, from ancient times until now, is organised around its tools - it means of producing things that satisfy people's needs and wants. Ownership of the means of production is basic. Classes are large groups of people, who have a defined relationship to the means of production, such as ownership. The result of these differences in who owns what and where one fits into the social division of labour, means a difference in who gets how much wealth.

Capitalism is a doomed system whose continued existence stands in the way of all social progress. Huge corporations and financial institutions are headed by a wealthy oligarchy that dominates the political and economic life of this country, blocking the path to prosperity for the vast majority. The ruling class is like a vampire that sucks the blood of the workers. They live off the labour, land and natural resources of others driven to achieve the highest possible rate of profit. The capitalists have accumulated untold wealth based on the exploitation and robbery of the world's working class. We need to turn things around. This means a revolution that advances the cause of the exploited. Workers need political power. as the means to reorganise society in our own interests.

Socialism or barbarism! With the whole world, hard pressed by advancing barbarism to make the choice of socialism must the decision for civilization to survive and to flower. capitalism is objectively ripe for replacement by socialism which is another way of saying that capitalism has become an obstacle in the path of social progress. The Socialist Part faces the struggle for the socialist future with full confidence.   And we bring to this struggle the determination to work for the common good of all.  It is true that the humanity is indeed confronted with a problem of survival on this planet. But in order to survive, mankind will do away with the social system which threatens its survival. The goal is in sight. Socialism will win the world and change the world, and make it secure. 

 

Statistically Insignificant ?

The latest from Stats-Canada is wage growth in April reached its highest level in six years and the unemployment rate stayed at 5.8 per cent, its record low.

 The report issued on May 11 said wages were 3.6 per cent higher than this time last year, but the economy lost 1,100 jobs. You may wonder how this didn't change the unemployment rate; this was explained away by saying that, ''the decline in jobs last month was too small to be statistically significant.'' So according to these brilliant federal employees, everything is just great.

However, we still have unemployment and wages which limit how much of the world's wealth one can enjoy. Why not a society where neither would exist?

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

Fan The Flames of Revolution

The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace world capitalist economy by world socialism.  To change the world and to create a better one has always been the goal of the Socialist Party. The hope that tomorrow's world can be free of today's inequalities, hardships and deprivations, The people can shape the world to come. But clearly, everyone's image of an ideal world is not one and the same, nevertheless, throughout history certain ideas have always come to the fore such as principles of freedom, equality, justice and prosperity. Socialism  is the movement for changing the world and setting up a free, equal, human and prosperous society, a movement that reflects the vision, ideals and protest of a vast section of the people.  Socialism is the revolutionary movement of the working class for overthrowing the capitalist system and creating a new society without classes and exploitation. The history of all societies has been a history of class struggle. An uninterrupted, now open and now hidden, struggle has been going on between exploiting and exploited, oppressor and oppressed classes in different epochs and societies. This class struggle is the chief source of social change and transformation. Modern capitalist society, has greatly simplified class divisions. Present society as a whole is organised around two main opposing class camps: workers and capitalists. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of direct producers — the appropriation of a part of the product of their labour by the ruling classes.   Under slavery not only the slave's product but he himself belonged to the slave- owner. He worked for the slave-owner, and in return was kept alive by him. In the feudal system the peasants either handed over part of their produce to the feudal lord, or performed certain hours of forced and unpaid labour. Under capitalism the workers, are free; they don't belong to anyone, are not appendages of any estate or lord. They own and control their own body and labour power. But workers are also 'free' in yet another sense: they are `free` from the ownership and possession of means of production, and so in order to live, they have to sell their labour power for a certain length of time, in exchange for wages, to the capitalist class — i.e. a small minority that own and monopolise the means of production. The workers have to then buy their means of subsistence — the goods they themselves have produced — in the market from the capitalists. The essence of capitalism and the basis of exploitation in this system is the fact that, on the one hand labour power is a commodity, and, on the other hand the means of production are the private property of the capitalist class.

In capitalism labour power and means of production are shut off from each other by the wall of private property; they are commodities and their owners must meet in a market. On the face of it, the owners of these commodities enter into a free and equal transaction: the worker sells his/her labour power for certain periods, in exchange for wages, to the capitalist, i.e. the owner of the means of production; the capitalist employs this labour power, uses it up and makes new products. These commodities are then sold in the market and the revenue begins the production cycle anew, as capital. However, behind the apparently equal exchange between labour and capital lies a fundamental inequality; an inequality which defines the lot of humanity today and without whose elimination society will never be free. With wages, workers only get back what they have sold, i.e. the ability to work and to show up in the market once again. By its daily work the working class only ensures its continued existence as worker, its survival as the daily seller of labour power. But capital in this process grows and accumulates. Labour power is a creative power; it generates new values for its buyer. The value of the commodities and services produced by the worker at any cycle of the production process is greater than the worker's total share and that portion of the products which goes into restoring the used up materials and wear and tear. This surplus value, taking the form of an immense stock of commodities, belongs automatically to the capitalist class, and increases the mass of its capital, by virtue of the capitalist class's ownership of the means of production. Labour power in its exchange with capital only reproduces itself, while capital in its exchange with labour power grows. The creative capacity of labour power and the working class's productive activity reflects itself as the birth of new capital for the capitalist class. The more and the better the working class works, the more power capital acquires. The gigantic power of capital in the world today and its ever-expanding domination of the economic, political and intellectual life of the billions of inhabitants of the earth is nothing but the inverted image of the creative power of work and of working humanity.  Exploitation in capitalist society takes place without yokes and shackles around the ankles of the producers,  through the medium of the market and exchange of commodities. This is the fundamental feature of capitalism which distinguishes it in essence from all earlier systems. The surplus value obtained from the exploitation of the working class is divided out among the various sections of the capitalist class essentially through the market mechanism and also through state fiscal and monetary policies. Profit, interest and rent are the major forms in which the different capitals share in the fruits of this class exploitation. The competition of capitals in the market determines the share of each capitalist branch, unit and enterprise. This surplus pays whole cost of the state machinery, of its ideological and cultural institutions, and the upkeep of all those who, through these institutions, uphold the power of the master-class. By its work, the working class pays the cost of the ruling class, the ever-increasing accumulation of capital and the bourgeoisie's political, cultural and intellectual domination over the working class and the entire society. With the accumulation of capital, the mass of commodities which make up the wealth of bourgeois society grows. An inevitable result of the accumulation process is the continual and accelerating technological progress and rise in the mass and capacity of the means of production which the working class sets in motion in every new cycle of the production process. But compared to the growth in society's wealth and productive powers, the working class continually gets relatively poorer. Despite the gradual and limited increase, in absolute terms, in the workers' standard of living, the share of the working class from the social wealth declines rapidly, and the gap between the living conditions of the working class and the higher living standards that is already made possible by its own work widens. The richer the society becomes, the more impoverished a section the worker forms in it.

Technological progress and rise in labour productivity mean that living human labour power is increasingly replaced by machines and automatic systems. In a free and human society, this should mean more free time and leisure for all. But in capitalist society, where labour power and means of production are merely so many commodities which capital employs to make profits, the substitution of humans by machines manifests itself as a permanent unemployment of a section of the working class which is now denied the possibility of making a living. The appearance of a reserve army of workers who do not even have the possibility of selling their labour power is an inevitable result of the process of accumulation of capital and at the same time a condition of capitalist production. The existence of this reserve army of unemployed, supported essentially by the employed section of the working class itself, heightens the competition in the ranks of the working class and keeps wages at their lowest socially possible level. This reserve army also allows capital to more easily modify the size of its employed work force in proportion to the needs of the market. Massive unemployment is not a side-effect of the market or a result of the bad policies of some government. It is an inherent part of the workings of capitalism and the process of accumulation of capital.

A socialist society will abolish the class division of society, i.e., simultaneously with the abolition of anarchy in production, it will abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression of man by man. Society will no longer consist of antagonistic classes in conflict with each other, but will present a cooperative commonwealth of labour. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy. The road to the emancipation of the workers, and with them, of mankind, is the social revolution. Humankind will be organised into a free federation of producers’ and consumers’ communes. The socialist revolution is the most profound of all revolutions in history. It initiates changes more rapid and far-reaching than any in the whole experience of mankind. The workers striking off their age-old chains of slavery, will construct a society of liberty and prosperity and intelligence. Socialism will inaugurate a new era for the human race, the building of a new world. The overthrow of capitalism and the development of socialism will bring about the immediate or eventual solution of many great social problems, among them war, superstition, famine, pestilence, crime, poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, unemployment, illiteracy, race and national chauvinism, the suppression of woman, and every form of slavery and exploitation of one class by another. The revolution will eventually liquidate these handicaps to the happiness and progress of the human race. Only socialism can fully uproot and destroy all these social evils. As long as there have been class divisions there will be struggles for social mastery. Socialism would prevent the evils of class division, subjection, and exploitation. Although there is little hatred for the capitalist system in the abstract many workers hold a burning anger and disgust for every successive calamity which comes to them as a matter of course. It is a call of every worker who has heart enough to feel a hatred for the wrongs and agonies of the capitalist system to realise the possibility of an alternative.

The capitalist system is behind all the ills that burden humanity today. Poverty, deprivation, discrimination, inequality, political repression, ignorance, bigotry, cultural backwardness, unemployment, homelessness, economic and political insecurity, corruption and crime are all inevitable products of this system. No doubt pro-capitalist philosophers will respond that these have not been invented by capitalism, but have all existed before capitalism, that exploitation, repression, discrimination, women's oppression, ignorance and prejudice are more or less as old as human society itself. What they disguise is the fact that, firstly, all these problems have found a new meaning in this society, corresponding to the needs of capitalism. These are being constantly reproduced as integral parts of the modern capitalist system. The source of poverty, starvation, unemployment, homelessness and economic insecurity at the end of the 20th century is the economic system in place at the end of the 20th century. The brutal dictatorships, wars, genocides, and repressions that define the life of hundreds of millions of people today draw their rationale from the needs of the system that rules the world today and serve specific interests in this world. Women's oppression today is not the result of medieval economy and morality, but a product of the present society's economic and social system and moral values. Secondly, it is the capitalist system itself continually and relentlessly resists people's effort to eradicate and overcome these ills. The obstacle to workers' struggle to improve living conditions and civil rights is none other than the capitalist class and its governments and political parties. Wherever people rise to take charge of their lives, the first barrier they face is the armed force of the local and international ruling class. It is the State, its enormous media and propaganda machinery, the institution of religion, traditions, moralities and educational system which shape the prejudiced attitudes among successive generations. There is no doubt that it is capitalists who stand in the way of the attempts by the people, more or less in possession of a clear outline of a society worthy of human beings, to change the system.

At the height of capitalism's globalisation and in the midst of the greatest technological development, humanity finds itself facing bare physical survival. The dream has given way to the permanent nightmare of war, hunger, and disease.  The miserable promise of the welfare state has resulted in massive U-turns with the resurgence of austerity policies and the abandoning of the livelihood of millions, old and young, to the mercy of the free market. The capitalist system and the primacy of profit have exposed the environment to serious dangers and irreparable damages. This is the reality of capitalism today, boding a horrifying future for the entire people of the world. 

Sylvia's suggestions

With socialism, we shall all satisfy our needs from common storehouses, according to our desires. Everyone will be able to have what he or she desires in food, in clothing and travel. The abundant production now possible, and which invention will constantly facilitate, will remove any need for rationing or limiting of consumption. Every individual will be secure from material want. Material anxiety being removed, and the rat-race for wealth and status eliminated. There will be no class distinctions since these arise from differences in material possessions — all such distinctions will be swept away. There will be neither rich nor poor. Money will no longer exist. There will be no selling, because there will be no buyers, since everyone will be able to obtain everything at will, without payment. The possession of private property, beyond that which is for actual personal use, will disappear. There will be neither masters nor servants, all being in a position of economic equality — no-one will be able to become the employer of another. Theft and all other economic crimes will disappear, with all the coercive law-enforcement institutions for preventing, detecting and punishing them.

As soon as people are working together some sort of organisation of work and of distribution becomes inevitable. Production cannot be carried on without organisation. In each industry, the workers concerned in the work must form and control the organisation, directed by the community an society as a whole. The various industries are interlinked in interest and utility; therefore the industrial organisations must be interlinked. When wages have disappeared, when there exists economic equality, when the position of manager, director, supervisor, etc., brings no material advantage, the danger of oppressive behaviour by the management will be largely nullified and organisers and administrators will be chosen and workers will be free to change him. Co-operation for the common good is necessary. Since co-operative work and mutual reliance on mutual aid render some kind of organisation necessary, the best possible form of organisation must be chosen: the test of its worth is its efficiency and the scope for freedom and initiative it allows to each of its units. Committees and delegates, built up from the base of the workshop and local assemblies, presents the best form of organisation yet evolved; it arises naturally when the workers are thrown upon their own resources in the matter of government.  We live always, however, in a state of flux, and there is and happily can be, no permanence about human institutions; there is always the possibility of something higher, as yet undiscovered.

Consider the position in London with capitalism abolished; the tubes and buses, the mainline stations, the docks, the waterworks, the power stations require to be operated. Millions of people are waiting for their food and groceries requirements to be brought to them. If any of these things cease, then people will be deprived of accustomed necessaries. Thus everything has to be reorganised and built upon a new basis; production for use, not for profit, and capitalism is overthrown. Everyone, both as worker and consumer, has new hopes and desires and new claims upon life, for has not the socialist revolution come? Everyone demands more leisure and more relaxed work , improved food, better clothes, more pleasant housing. Everyone is demanding a share in deciding how things shall be done. The only people who could deal with the great new situation would be the people who already do the work and who produce. All inter-connected as they are in this busy hive of activity. Workers and consumers would come together and talk the matter over; appoint one of their number to take stock and to coordinate supply and delivery. All this will be done purely by way of managing affairs so that all may be, as far as possible, satisfied that the needs of all may be explained and understood by those who have to supply them. But there should be no compulsion; some people may say: “What the majority decide is good enough for me.” Others will say: “I like to have a voice in it.” As a rule, when things affecting a group of people who are working together come up for decision everyone of the group will join in and give his or her opinion, and generally the thing will be decided by mutual agreement. Compulsion and coercion are repugnant to the socialist ideal. No-one may make a wage-slave of another; no-one may hoard up goods but the only way to prevent such practices is not by making them punishable; it is by creating a society in which no-one needs to become a wage slave, and no-one cares to privately hoard goods when all that is needed is readily supplied as required from the common storehouse. To recapitulate, workers’ and community councils structured in interlocking levels, will form the administrative machinery for supplying the needs of the people in socialist society. 

Socialism necessitates the creation of initiatives which shall animate the entire people. Under capitalism, people are like a flock of sheep shepherded by their owners. With socialism, on the contrary, they will be free co-operators, producing, inventing, studying, not under the compulsion of law, or poverty, or the incentive of individual gain, but from deliberate choice and with an eager zest for achievement. Socialism will provide the material conditions which will make voluntary co-operative labour possible. Only by willing service and intelligent initiative can true socialism develop. The establishment of the socialism entails a complete breach, both in practice and in ideas, with capitalism. There are no half-way compromises. 

Abridged and adapted from here

https://www.marxists.org/archive/pankhurst-sylvia/communism-tactics/index.htm