No Longer A God-Fearing Country

Scots are becoming increasingly indifferent to religion, with the majority of young people describing themselves as not having any faith, according to new research. Scotland is now a nation where most people never pray and only attend church for weddings and funerals.

 Almost 70 per cent of Scots aged between 18 and 24 said they were not religious, while the figure for the nation as a whole is almost 60 per cent, a poll of more than 1,000 adults found.

51 per cent do not believe in an afterlife. Researchers also questioned people about detailed religious beliefs. In all cases, the majority of those questioned said they did not believe in concepts such as heaven, hell or a day of judgement. 68 per cent did not believe in hell, with a similar proportion stating they did not believe in divine miracles. Angels and evil spirits were also dismissed by 60 per cent and 65 per cent respectively.

53 per cent said they never prayed, while 60 per cent said they never attended church outside of weddings, funerals and other special occasions.

The study also uncovered significant regional variations in religious belief. The North East of Scotland contains the most non-religious people, at 66 per cent, while in Glasgow the majority was only 55 per cent. Glasgow also had the highest proportion of people who reported praying at least once a day (20 per cent), compared to just 11 per cent in the North East. Those from mid-Scotland and Fife were the least likely to attend church, with people from Glasgow most likely to attend at least once a week.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/poll-most-scots-never-pray-and-only-attend-church-on-special-occasions-1-4783663

We exist to spread socialist knowledge

The evils of modern society stand out for all to see but the remedy is far less obvious. To arrive at the conclusion that socialism is the real remedy involves study and investigation of the affairs of modern life.

Unfortunately, there are some workers who shun the duty of thinking out these “problems,” and they, therefore, fall a prey to what appears to be more plausible ideas. The danger exists that those workers who have been sickened by the compromise, confusion, and betrayal of the Labour and pseudo-Socialist left-wing parties may succumb to the ideas of other fake socialist parties to help them and advance their cause. Those who follow in the Left's footsteps and ramble in the reformist wilderness delay the time when they must inevitably come to see that the Socialist Party alone is sound, for its aims are revolutionary, its methods scientific, and its working democratic. With the materialist conception of history as his guide, the Socialist Party correctly grasps the relation which prevailing institutions bear to the slavery of the working class in contrast to the bewilderingly vague writings of the progressives on the Left. 

Loyalty to socialist principles and devotion to its aims will do far more to hasten the workers’ emancipation than the will-o'-the-wisp notions of the reformist Left. 

The State as we know it, arose as a part of the division of labour in early societies and carried on the administration of public affairs. The advent of private property in the means of producing wealth gradually influenced the form of the State until it became the instrument of the ruling class. The State has been the State of the chattel-slave owner, the State of the feudal nobility, and now it is the State of the industrial capitalist. It exists today because there is a class to be kept in subjection. When the present subject class become organised and seize political power, their supremacy will have sounded the death-knell of the State. The working class being the last class to achieve its freedom, its emancipation will end class distinctions: neither a dominant nor a subject class can exist when the ownership of the means of life is vested in the community. Tyranny presupposes power, but when the instruments of production are commonly owned, power to oppress can no longer exist. Further, when wealth is no longer privately owned there is no incentive to tyrannise. There are no clashing interests —the mainspring of tyranny. Socialists hold to the view that society is something more than a number of individuals—society is an organism. 

Consider the possibilities and needs of modern life. A great population covers the globe. These people need “food, clothing, and shelter” and a hundred and one other things that centuries of economic advance have accustomed them to and made part of their standard needs. How are these things to be supplied? What are the means at our disposal? To provide the things required the great machinery, etc., has to be used in accordance with the best and most productive methods. Association of the wealth producers is an imperative necessity of the future. This involves the organisation of industry, the division of labour, and the arrangement of processes in proper sequence. The distribution of wealth has to be organised, too, otherwise chaos and starvation ensue.

The Socialist Party does not advocate socialism as “the perfect system.” We seek but to adapt institutions and customs to the changes in the mode of producing wealth. We claim that subject to evolution, therefore, imperfect though it is, it is the best system possible in the circumstances that face us. The common ownership of wealth is decreed as the only alternative to private ownership, and the method of production conditions the method of control. Democratic control is the complement of communal ownership. Democracy, to the Socialist Party, does not only mean the counting of heads. It implies opening all the means of knowledge to the entire population; giving access to every source of information and advancement to all — thus ensuring, as far as is humanly possible, that the vote is the deliberate expression of the will of equals. And if all do not agree, then ample justification exists for acting on the decision of the majority in matters of social importance. There is no other way. The minority are ever free to try to change the opinions of the majority, but they must loyally abide by the supreme views in the meantime. Without this, all organisation is impossible, whether its ramifications extend to society or are extremely limited. It must be obvious that great populations cannot come together and discuss and arrange all matters in detail, but must delegate their authority to representatives. Though the “Referendum” is a serviceable method it must be supplemented by delegation when the occasion demands. Even the first two methods turn on majority rule in the last analysis.

Socialism is just as near or as far off as the industrial development and the political understanding of the working class will allow it to be. Notwithstanding the promises of the pioneers of the Left there has been no “hot-house” growth of socialist ideas—any more than there have been further progressive developments in Labour Party ideas.  The Socialist Party has propagated principles based on an understanding of the socialist teachings of Marx, Engels, and others who not only interpreted the world differently but showed the working class how to change it. The basic conditions of capitalism remain the same. However much the pedlars of vote-catching political slogans and election gimmicks try, they do not improve working-class understanding of socialism by their confusing jargon. With minds filled with capitalist ideas and bodies geared to the grind of capitalist economy, work is now all that matters to most people is the fact that they ‘live to work’ rather than work in order to live. The greater the acceptance of the status quo, the more stagnant the growth of socialism appears to be. Still, there is always a questioning of the value of the existing political parties and the industrial organisations. Self-styled ‘leftists’ still perpetuate the illusion that the salvation of the working class lies in Labour governments. Labourites oppose the socialist view that the emancipation of the working class lies in the abolition of the capitalist system. Socialists in all countries are faced with similar ‘intellectual’ opposition, our opponents adorning themselves with attractive political labels in order to suborn unsuspecting workers from socialist parties. The dissemination of socialist knowledge will help workers detect the political fakirs.

When the workers understand the need for socialism they can work for its achievement; while they submit to capitalism they will have to fight and die to defend it. Hence the pressing need for the dissemination of socialist ideas. It is a long and difficult task but the reward--“The World for the Workers”—is well worth it!

The In's And Outs Of Capitalism's Problems.

Doesn't it strike one as kind of nuts that on the US southern border thousands of people are trying to get in, whereas on its northern border thousands are trying to get out? 

You may say that it's on account of that madman Trump, which may be a good answer as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. Trump couldn't do the things he does if capitalism wasn't undergoing a relatively bad time, which he is making worse. 

  Hitler and his thugs were able to do what they did, because of the effects of the Versailles treaty and the resentment it caused in Germany. McCarthy couldn't have destroyed so many peoples lives if there hadn't been such anti-Soviet feeling prevailing in the US. 

People make history from the conditions to hand. Positive actions can improve things a little, such as FDR's New Deal, which were suggested to him by Labour Secretary Frances Perkins, but far better still would be a society where the standard of living, war, the level of unemployment would not be dependent on the decisions of anyone.

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

Things are changing

 “We want no condescending saviours to rule us from a judgment hall.

The Socialist Party is a Marxian party. That is to say, we base our outlook on history and economics on the theoretical researches of Karl Marx. On the basis of Marxian economics, we have pointed out that there is no solution for booms and slumps as long as capitalism lasts. That booms and slumps are inevitable products of capitalism and will always be a part of it. We accept the fact that there is a class struggle in society—but that its solution lies in the hands of the workers to take political action for the establishment of socialism when they understood and want it. Consequently, we have put forward candidates in the parliamentary and local elections for the purpose of taking control out of the hands of our capitalist rulers in order to clear the way for the establishment of socialism. We hold that all people in the world, regardless of colour or nationality, are capable of understanding socialism and its implications. There is no fundamental difference in mental capacity of different groups of mankind, only differences in their stages of social development which has nothing to do with a difference in mental capacity. We have always insisted upon the capture of political power before any fundamental change in the social system can be achieved. Political power is the centre of the capitalist citadel, though the workers place this power in the capitalists’ hands at election times. But no fundamental change is possible until the majority understand and want it. We have also been opposed to reform policies and have kept unswervingly to the pursuit of socialism as our sole objective.

Just as capitalism has spread all over the world, bringing similar conditions of frustration, poverty, and insecurity to all peoples, so also the seeds of discontent and the yearning for something better has become a part of life everywhere. Unfortunately, this discontent takes wrong turnings and has led to riots and nationalist uprisings that, in the long run, have helped nobody but the ruling class of capitalists or budding capitalists. The solution is the same everywhere, for socialism is an international movement involving the workers of the world, whatever their colour. It is not possible to establish socialism in one country alone, in the midst of a wilderness of capitalism. Just as capitalism has spread, so have socialist ideas.  We, therefore, urge the workers of the world to unite in the world-wide socialist movement which has already begun, because socialism is the only solution to the social ills of mankind. Socialism is a system in which there will be no privileged class, as everything that is in and on the earth will be the common and equal possession of all mankind. Capitalism is not going to disappear of its own volition. Ours is the choice of being shaken by its shivers of fever for the whole of our lives or of using our brains and using successfully the only antidote, fraternal co-operation. Socialism!

Only then will mankind be able to live truly. Only then will it be no longer necessary for workers to have to beg for an opportunity to work and for men and women to be forced, after a life of labour and want, to have to drag themselves along to protest meetings in order to be able to keep some part of their standard of living. Peace and prosperity will then be truly secured as a matter of course. Man will step from the darkness of the jungle into the bright light of the landscape of culture.

On the contrary, we affirm that no political party, irrespective of its title or aspirations, can run a system BASED ON THE EXPLOITATION OF THE WORKING CLASS THROUGH THE WAGES-MONEY SYSTEM IN THE INTERESTS OF ALL. They have all put forward the ignorant assumption that they possess the policies and personnel to make a buying-and-selling system, a capitalist system, operate in the interests of ‘the people’.

The fact that it has not worked in the interest of the working class ANYWHERE, under ANY government or ANY political party, whether in the guise of ‘western democracy’ or ‘peoples' democracy’, bears eloquent testimony to their ignorance of the nature of capitalism.

Our role in the cocktail of politics is the political education of our fellow members of the working class to the end of achieving a mass understanding of why capitalism must always operate against us and why we must choose the Socialist alternative—a wage-free class-free society of production for use. With such understanding achieved, our purpose will not be to ‘take over the government’ but, rather, to gain, democratically, the use of its executive authority and, in concert with our fellow workers throughout the world, to banish such government—along with the system of class privilege that gave rise to it. Unlike our opponents we in the Socialist Party have no plans for running—or being run by— capitalism, separated, united, inside or outside the EU We have no urge for taking over the role of government, nor can we claim that, given the opportunity of ‘taking over the government’ we could administer capitalism fairly and in the interests of all. As socialists, knowing full well the nature of capitalism, knowing that that system cannot operate IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES in the interests of the working class, we feel safe in prophesying that our problems, the problems of the working class, will remain with us whatever the demarcations of capitalism’s market.

Cost Effective - For Capitalists - But Not For Workers.

 In his first day as Ontario's Premiere Doug Ford decreed that people under 24 would not get free prescription medications on OHIP. Now don't get the wrong idea folks the guy does have a heart. They can claim on their parents work plans if their parents are working and have a plan. If not, all is not yet lost. The out of pocket youngsters can apply for reimbursement from his government, but may not get it, may not get all of it and will have to wait a few months for what they do get. Fords explanation was we have to make OHIP ''cost effective'', which is the political chat for making a profit – profits squeezed further up by his government's canceling $100 million school repair fund first days of power. 

That guy's a dream – for capitalists – but no, not for the worker.

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

A Normal City Within Capitalism

Toronto, Ontario is Canada's most populated and, they say, prosperous city, but one which is up to its proverbial neck with problems. Crime is blatant and rampant almost on a par with Chicago of the 20's, with open gang warfare over the Narcotic trade. Refugees from the US are pouring into the city at such an alarming rate that Mayor John Tory has asked the Federal Government for financial help. It could certainly need the help as the city is billions in debt. The cost of living is one of the highest in the world.

All in all, a normal city within capitalism.

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

Build Class-Consciousness

In all class societies, there is one class that rules over others. Capitalism is no exception. We live today in what is called the ‘CAPITALIST’ AGE. THERE ARE TWO GREAT CLASSES OF SOCIETY—the one, the CAPITALISTS, owns land and capital; the other, the WORKERS, owning nothing except the power to labour. We regard present-day parliamentary democracy as a form of capitalist rule because all the important elements of the state machine – the police and armed forces, the judiciary, the organs for controlling financial and economic policy, the organs for exercising ideological influence - are shaped and dominated by the representatives of the capitalists who in exercising their rule over the people, prefer to do so by persuasion and deception but are always ready, if these become ineffective, to resort to repression and force. So long as challenge from the working class does not seriously undermine the stability of the system, parliamentary democracy is a form of government with considerable advantages to the capitalist class compared with more openly dictatorial forms of rule. The relatively free and open exchange of social information among sections of the ruling class which goes on through the media and public discussion and through the representative organs of government affords them the opportunity of selecting policies in their best interests after weighing facts and taking account of opinions. The existence of competing political parties (superficially offering different policies but identical in their acceptance of capitalism) creates the illusion but not the reality of choice. To keep the thinking of the people in this mould, a vast ideological effort is carried on by the capitalists. The educational system, the diverse tools of the media, religion, and a whole host of think-tanks and societies perpetuate a belief in parliamentary democracy; promoting trust and faith in the democratic facade and conceal from the people the realities of capitalist rule behind it. The workers are ’educated’ to accept the ideas of capitalism with a view to turning them from class struggle and persuading them that their interests are identical with those of their own employers. The capitalists prefer to avoid resorting to open force so it is therefore important for them to ensure that the organisations of the working class are prevented from posing a threat to the continued existence of the system and they try to control the workers’ organisations directly and from within.

We defend a model of socialism that is totally emancipatory in all areas of life and which qualitatively extends democracy. The producers and the consumers equally must hold the real decision making power over what they produce. Priority must be given to solidarity and cooperation. The Socialist Party holds a  vision of a sharing economy to advance humanity. The Socialist Party is organised to build the working class power in every workplace, in every community and society in general to defeat the logic of capitalist accumulation that has not only pauperised workers around the world but it has caused the widest inequality and deepest poverty ever recorded in the history of humankind. Capitalism divides workers, which should be overcome through working class solidarity. The unity of the working class is the best possible way of fighting. As a united working class, we must stand behind workers on their issues Our fight must go beyond reforms. It calls for social revolution. We must point to the future by giving a glimpse of what it will look like. Our message to fellow-workers across the length and breadth of our planet is that the time has come to unshackle ourselves from the chains of wage-slavery and the bondage under which we suffer. Socialism is a viable alternative system, where social and economic priorities are set by the majority. It can begin to solve the core problems facing society today such as insecurity and war, environmental degradation, declining living standards, and inequality. All the important elements of socialism are already present in developed capitalist societies. In a technical or practical sense, it would not be difficult to make the transition to socialism. The Socialist Party recognises that capitalism is at the root of all the social ills that society faces and there is a need to fight for the creation of a cooperative commonwealth. Socialists around the world believe in the establishment of a society where the exploitation of one class by another will no longer exist and instead the creation of a system of economic planning to satisfy human needs rather than profit.  

Another Example Of The Sick Society We Iive In.

Lynn Factor, a social worker who works with troubled youth recently had an award named after her. This was the Lynn Factor Stand Up for Kids National Award and was created by the Children's Aid Society of Canada. 

In Canada, over 235,000 young people live in abusive situations and over 67,000 live in foster care, according to the foundation, which claims that it helps youth in the child welfare system go from, ''surviving to thriving''.

 Ms. Factor has worked for 35 years in the foundation, as well as the chair of the Covenant House sex trafficking committee, the Toronto Children's Aid Society, and Boost Child and Youth Advocacy Center in Toronto.

 It's horrifying that such organizations should be felt necessary and one should be horrified at the figures they have disclosed; another example of the sick society we live in. Though Ms. Factors hard work is thoroughly admirable, wouldn't it be better if we had a society where it wouldn't be needed?

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

Mankind's Future

All people have the right to leave their country but they do not have the right to enter another without permission. The right to move was recognized internationally over a half-century ago with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 13 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state" and "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." This contradiction is creating a dilemma.  Large numbers of people are desperately attempting to leave their homelands.

Receiving countries face a "birth rate crisis" while sending countries' populations continue to grow. The falling birth rate in Europe and elsewhere is expected to lead to labour shortages. With more deaths than births, such countries are experiencing population ageing and will be facing population decline in the near future.  Governments are raising retirement ages, increasing contributions of workers to retirement and cutting health-care and benefits for the elderly.

In the less developed regions those in the working ages, especially the youth, face difficulties finding gainful employment. And even among those who are employed, many are seeking better opportunities in the wealthier countries.

Modern race prejudice nourishes because capitalism produces chronic problems in employment, housing, and welfare. The working class suffers these problems but they do not understand their cause. They are, therefore, ready to blame the problems onto any fashionable scapegoat, including foreigners or any other group which happens to be a readily identifiable minority.

the capitalist system is responsible for the horrors of modern society still awaits the bold economist to explode it. The basis of society, the private ownership of the means of life, breeds the most hideous manifestations. The capitalist class, who own and control the means of wealth production and distribution, force the working class in order to live to operate those instruments for the profit of the former class.  The capitalist class — national and international—being in possession of the wealth stolen from the workers, compete with each other for the control of the world’s markets. This capitalist class, split into warring factions, The Socialist Party sympathise with our fellow workers in their struggle against the hideously squalid conditions that prevail among them but must record our hostility to any movement that is not based upon the class struggle. The blood-thirsty gang known as the international capitalist class know full well the horrible conditions that are rampant among the wealth producers, but while they pretend to condole with them, they do not intend to ease by a fraction the exploitation to which they subject them.

Until the working class understand the class struggle, and recognise that the capitalist system and its parasitic class are alone responsible for the whole of the horrors we now witness, the common anomalies always prevalent, i.e., abject poverty and misery on one hand and riotous luxury and affluence on the other; international trade wars for markets and sea routes with their attendant bloodshed, will run concurrently with the cruel and ceaseless slaughter of the workers from the prolongation of the worst of all wars—the Class War. The only hope lies in the deluded, toiling masses of wealth producers mustering under the crimson banner of socialism, determined to gain control of the machinery of government, including the armed forces, to use it as the agent of emancipation, and to usher in the system of society based upon the common ownership of the means of life; the social system wherein the interests of the human family shall form a harmonious whole. Socialism is the only way forward for the rational use of science and technology. The interests of the class that profit by capitalism are no longer in accord with social progress, and if a further advance is to be made this function-less class must be dispensed with. Among socialists, it has been a long recognised fact that capitalism has out-lived its usefulness and is so full of contradictions that it is “its own grave-digger.” Capitalism to-day is guilty of clogging up the wheels of progress. Some socialists speak of the individual employer as a “robber.” But each employer is but a part of the system. No single employer can lessen exploitation and continue to exist. It is the system as a whole that must be judged. Class antagonisms will be solved by the abolition of these antagonisms in the co-operative commonwealth.

Reformists say that capitalism isn’t what it used to be and that Marx may have been right in his time but that was over a century ago. But can reformists tell us what exactly has changed in terms of the exploitation of the working class since he wrote? Today, like yesterday, to build socialism we must make a revolution. We must overthrow the State power of the capitalist class that maintains their ability to exploit.  The right-wing attempt to prove that socialism is incompatible with democracy, that socialism cannot be but authoritarian. The fact is that revolutions claiming to be socialist have so far either produced socialism. As a matter of fact, Marx’s ideas on human emancipation is incompatible with any state and one-party rule, and that a true socialisation of the means of production requires a true participation of all citizens in social decision-making. The socialists of the world will bring about the cooperative commonwealth and the brotherhood of man. We must declare uncompromisingly and unequivocally for socialism. We in the Socialist Party are revolutionists, no class-conscious socialist would be satisfied with a platform of palliatives. Reformism upholds the private ownership of capital; the competitive system; the profit system; wage slavery, and it ignores the class struggle. The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of wage slavery; severance with all capitalist and reform parties; abolition of class rule; the establishment of world socialism and the Brotherhood of Man. Inside socialism, private ownership and barter in capital being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be abolished.

Child Care Deserts. Increasing Fears

Worried parents who feared that the Humberside Daycare Center in Toronto's west end would be closing on August 31 are relieved to know that, as a result of their outcry the owners, have decided to maintain it for another year. They are in their seventies and were looking forward to retirement. Many parents feared they would have to quit work because of the lack of licensed day care facilities in their community. This fear was intensified by the new report that shows 44 per cent of non-school age children in Canada live in so-called child care-deserts where licensed spaces are scarce. 

Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care said, ''Daycare centers close across Canada all the time and parents are lucky to get 60 days notice. I've heard cases where parents arrive on Monday morning at a non-profit center to find the doors locked. It's way too common and it shouldn't happen this way. This is nationwide, we need to see it as the public crisis that it is and fix it''. 

This is another of the many ways that life under capitalism increases our fears and insecurities.

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

The Task of the Socialist Party

The abolition of the profit system, which is the legalised robbery of the workers who produce all wealth, still remains the agenda of the Socialist Party which still stands for that and nothing less. And if one thing is for certain it is that history can change very fast in just a short time. The class struggle can hot up and a lot of complacent grins can be wiped off a lot of fat-cat faces. We ponder how long it will be before our fellow workers realise what an insane society they are living in. A rational one would produce food solely to meet needs, rather than for profit. Don't buy into capitalism. Both the theory and the experience of how capitalism works show that it cannot be made to work in the interest of the majority. Any government that tries this may well, at the beginning, be able to introduce a few favourable reforms but in the end will have to ‘run the economic system’ on its terms, by giving priority to profit-making overspending on reforms. No government can change the economic laws of capitalism. Workers face the capitalists as sellers and buyers of labour power. The former want the highest price they can get, the latter the lowest. In addition, the larger the share that the capitalists take of the wealth produced, the less there will be for the workers who have, in fact, produced all the wealth.

Capitalism is not the fault of the capitalists or the governments which preside over it. They are the victims of a system which needs poverty in order to ensure that the wage slaves have no alternative to employment. After all, anyone with a secure income would not waste their lives working to make an idle class richer. Why, then, is the suffering in the world today necessary? It is needed because the present social system is based on minority class ownership, whereby a small fraction of the earth’s population own and control the resources of the planet and the means of producing and distributing wealth. The system puts profits for the capitalist few before the needs of the wealth-producing majority: the men and women who live by selling their ability to work in return for wages or salaries. Capitalism is a profit system, where the golden law of the market is that production only takes place with a view to sell for profit. Under capitalism, that which cannot be sold profitably is either not produced or is destroyed.  The bosses blame the workers and the most stupid of the workers blame other workers.

 Workers should remember that members of our class are being killed, beaten up, discriminated against and made insecure today and not just in the past. In a world which now, more than ever, is a global village where modern technology has made it easy to unite, the means are at hand for workers of all lands to join our efforts into one movement. We must remember that an injury to one — whatever the nationality or the colour or the sex of the victim — is an injury to our class. Unity to improve our condition of wage-slavery is not what workers in the late twentieth-century should be organising for. The treadmill of trade unionism as an end in itself can only ease the intensity of our exploitation; what is needed is a society where there is no exploitation of employee by employer because there are no classes. Socialism, which will be a society without classes, employment or state machinery, will mean the abolition of the wages system. In a society, without wages people will give according to their abilities and take from the goods and services which are available according to their self-determined needs. The class struggle, which throws up countless victims, will not go away. It will not come to an end until the capitalists are defeated by the workers. That defeat will not require workers to use violence against the bosses — unless, of course, the capitalists have undemocratic ideas about making martyrs of themselves by defying the will of a conscious, socialist majority. But first we must build that majority, and it is for every worker to ask themselves the crucial question: am I to make use of the right to unite which the martyrs of Tolpuddle stood for — and millions of workers have yet to gain — or will I be a martyr to the system which robs workers of our dignity?

Classes are distinguished by how they stand in relation to the control and use of the means for producing wealth. In modern society, there are two main classes: the non-working owning class and the non-owning working class. Marx did not say that the state, should be smashed or by-passed, but that it should be captured by the working class. The state, as the public power of coercion, was an instrument of class rule which came into being with the division of society into conflicting classes and which has been controlled by various classes through its history: ancient slave-owners, feudal barons, and modern capitalists. To say that a class controls the state because it has economic power is to fall for a crude economic determinism. The state is controlled by the class that has waged and won a political struggle to capture it. It is true that the class which is economically progressive has generally been able in the end to win state power, but because of its political struggle rather than its economic position. This is why it is possible for an economically redundant class (like the modern capitalists) to retain power long after it has become redundant. The capitalist class rules today not because of its economic position (as a superfluous class, after all!) but because of its political and ideological leadership of the working class. The capitalist class is wealthy today because it has political power. It retains its economic privileges only because it controls the state. And it controls the state only with the support of the workers. The ruling class is the class that controls the state in the sense of its being used to maintain its economic privileges. It is a political rather than a social concept. To find out which class rules you study how the state is used rather than who fills the top posts. 

We do not doubt that top civil servants and judges and generals are themselves mainly from wealthy families or that they are firmly committed to capitalism. But then, on this last point, so are those who fill the bottom posts in the state machine and so are most other workers. If you have a correct theory of class, you realise that by and large both industry and the state are run from top to bottom by members of the working class, men, and women who are dependent on their wage or salary to live. No doubt there are capitalists who do some of these jobs, but the socialist case has always been that, economically and politically, the capitalist class as a class is redundant as society is already run by the workers alone.  The capitalists control the state not by filling the top posts with their relations but by winning working-class support for the policy of using the state to maintain capitalism. Even if the top posts were all filled by the children of manual workers, with provincial accents, the capitalists would still rule if the state was used in their interests. It is not a question of the social background of the state officials, but of the purpose for which the state is used.

The task of the Socialist Party is to urge workers to look beyond the incessant turmoil of the day-to-day struggles engendered by capitalism. To take up the struggle for socialism and end the servitude of wage-labour once and for all. The same energy and effort now being expended on purely limited objectives could, given socialist understanding, change society completely. Then, from a world-wide basis of common ownership of the means of production and distribution, mankind can redirect social production to the free satisfaction of human needs. Better than an eternity spent bickering over pittances!

The attainment of socialism awaits majority understanding and the use of the ballot-box for that exclusive purpose. The only way to abolish capitalism’s problems is to get rid of the system itself, entirely. There is only one system which can replace it and that is socialism, a world of common ownership and free access, where all the world’s people will live in harmony because for the first time in history we shall be able to express a common interest.  Shall we unlock the door to a socialist future or stay here in our uncomfortable present, like dinosaurs defying the laws of evolution. The future is made, not given, and any worker with any sense will be making it fast before the capitalist future destroys us.

Socialists offer a new vision

 The Socialist Party recognises that there are many faults with the capitalist system, resulting in human suffering. The Socialist Party believes that workers are exploited by a capitalist economy. Under capitalism, the few own the industries. The many do the work. Wage workers are compelled to give a large part of the product of their labour to the few. So long as the few own and control the economic life of the planet the many must be enslaved, poverty must coexist with conspicuous luxury and civil strife prevail. The dire consequences of this system are everywhere apparent. The workers are oppressed and deprived of much that makes for physical, mental and moral well- being. Year by year poverty and industrial accidents destroy more lives than all the wars in the world. The Socialist Party is to-day the only democratic party of the workers who would remove the causes of the social evils inherent in the capitalist system. The Socialist Party is the political expression of the economic interests of the working class. By voting for the Socialist Party you can help remove the capitalist system.

Instead of being organised to provide all members of society with an abundance of food, clothing and shelter, and the highest attainable freedom and culture, industry is at present organised and conducted for the benefit of a parasite class. All the powers of government and all our technological genius are directed to the end of securing to the relatively small class of investors the largest amount of profits which can be wrung from the labour of the majority whose only possession is muscle and brain, manual and mental labour power. The Socialist Party would end these conditions by reorganising the life of the planet upon the basis of socialism. Socialism would not abolish personal property but greatly extend it. We believe that every human being should have and own all the things which he or she can use to advantage, for the enrichment of his or her own life, without imposing disadvantage or burden upon any other human being. If men and women were free to work to satisfy their desires there could be neither poverty nor involuntary unemployment. But people are not free to work to satisfy their desires but can labour only when the capitalist class who own all believe they can market their product at a profit. The needs of millions are subordinated to the greeds of a few. Their greed comes first—the people's needs are secondary. The Socialist Party maintains its attitude of unalterable opposition to war. We state that the competitive nature of capitalism is the cause of modern war and that the co-operative nature of socialism is alone adapted to the task of ending war by removing its causes. 

The Socialist Party advances along the road to a world free from capitalist exploitation -- a socialist society built on the enduring principles of equality, justice, and solidarity among peoples. We are socialists because we have a vision of a humane worldwide social system. We are socialists because we reject a global economic order sustained by profit, alienated labour, discrimination, environmental destruction, brutality, and violence. Our vision of socialism is a democratic one, rooted in the belief that individuals can only reach their full potential in a society that embodies the values of liberty and equality, and only through creating material and cultural bonds of solidarity. We demand a society where all participate as equals and are respected for their worth as human beings. A society where a full life for all may be achieved.  We demand that people have control over how they work when they work and how their labour is applied. The world is more productive than it has ever been yet millions upon millions remain mired in poverty. Increased productivity can eliminate poverty and satisfy everyone’s material needs. We demand a system that can achieve this. If left unchecked, capitalism will destroy our planet. We in the Socialist Party believe that a new society must be organised and built that can serve the interests of the majority. We are committed to fighting for real change. The Socialist Party offers a vision based on our core values and principles, to our fellow-workers. The Socialist Party, as a political party of working people, provides a vehicle through which they can develop their class strength. 

Is It Buyer Fatigue Or Not Enough Money?

There is a slowdown in the Toronto condo market as borrowing costs have risen for the first time in a decade. The average price is now $560,000. Some developers in their anxiety to sell are offering discount parking and are giving buyers longer than the usual six months to come up with the down payment which usually ranges from15 to 25 per cent. 

What is both amusing and pathetic is the new terminology some developers are using. Shaun Hilderbrand at condo data provider Urbanation Inc. said,'' High prices and buyer fatigue are coming into play'', meaning lots of folk can't afford it. 
Christopher Bibby of Remax, said,'' Your not seeing the same pace of growth or aggressiveness on the buyer side'', I wonder why. 

The question becomes,'' does one want to pay exorbitant rents that increase every year or a condo that will gobble up every cent you make''; a lose-lose situation.

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

Capitalism is the Common Cause of Our Misery

The Socialist Party strives for a world where all members of various communities manage social and economic life.  Each community would coordinate with every other community on a regional and global scale. We believe it will take a social revolution to win. Allocation of public and consumer goods would operate according to calculation in kind, that is the measurement in real quantities. Markets and money prices would be replaced by a system of stock buffering and control to ensure against shortages of consumer goods. Needs would be calculated by direct records of demand from community stores and workers would supply according to pull production responding to consumption. Community councils could prioritise needs when goods are scarce by needs-testing, a points system or even a lottery.

State capitalism is capitalism by the state and for the state. It is capitalism by the government and for the government. It is thus capitalism by the ruling classes and for the ruling classes. State capitalism is not socialism and never can become socialism. The abolition of the State is a necessary precondition for the emancipation of the working class. The first act of the coming revolution which wants to overcome class division is the abolition of the state. The community has to organise production. Government ownership is no better for the slave than private ownership, and it seems as if under government control the workers are in a more absolute slave position (if possible) than ever, bound by rules and regulations and subject to more direct coercion than ever before. National ownership or control is only a more complete development of capitalism and is generated by the commercial jealousy of one section of the capitalist class against another, socialists realise that nationalisation of industry will not remove the slave system under which the working class is compelled to live. Capitalism is to make profits, regardless whether under nationalization or not. Nationalisation would operate and does operate the same as the big chain stores or trusts, to eliminate useless labour and make bigger profits. What about the workers? Would it give better wages or fewer hours and more employment? If the mines were nationalised operating staffs would be greatly reduced and more machinery introduced. The same applies in all industries, it is simply the concentration of labour in the most efficient way. Under private capitalism, the workers must sell their labour power to live and under nationalization, which is state capitalism, they must sell their labour power and be subject to the laws of capitalism, a struggle for existence and hired and fired to suit a capitalist state.

The workers are a slave class; they are as much slaves as their progenitors, the chattel and the serf, but in place of previous methods the worker receives his subsistence to-day through a money payment, he is a wage slave. To the chattel slave, his/her whole labour appeared to be given gratis, to the wage worker his/her whole effort appears to be paid for. Behind this payment lurks the secret of modern methods of exploitation: ever since the dawn of slavery human energy has sustained a set of unproductive idlers out of the wealth produced beyond that required for the sustenance of the producers. As with the slave of ancient society so with the modern wage slaves, the wealth they produce is the property of the masters. Its proportionate increase is enormous owing to the increased powers of mankind over nature’s materials. This surplus over and above the value of the workers' wages is called by the socialist “surplus value." Out of this surplus, whether its form be rent, interest, or profit, its owners have to meet the expenses of their profit-making system, i.e., wars, pauperism, crime, etc. Fellow-workers, heed not your masters' canting cry about “burdens," they are his, and in order to economise as far as possible he would have you think them yours. 

  For Marxists there is no amount that the worker ought to receive, nor was the non-receipt of the full value produced, ever offered as a justification for restitution or for the struggle to rebuild society. Exploitation to the Marxist is not something “wrong,” and therefore to be condemned. Exploitation in various forms has been the necessary basis of different social systems. The need for it is passing, and only that fact calls for and justifies our efforts to establish socialism.  Many misunderstand the Marxian doctrine of the increasing exploitation of the workers. Marx did not assume and build hrs theories upon the inevitability of increased poverty. The change he had in mind was the worsening position of the workers relative to the wealth and power of the capitalist class. What he argued was that the productivity of the workers' increases more rapidly than their real wages. Marx explained that the workers' position gets worse, even although his or her real wages may not fall, but actually rise.


The Socialist Party was born in revolt against the horrors of poverty. It gets its whole philosophy by analysing the modern economic system in search of the cause of poverty. Its aim is opposed to capitalist business and capitalist politics as light is to darkness. This principle no professional politician will adopt. A lot of make-believe capitalist sympathy has been slobbered over the working class recently as a result of the revelations of some of the horrors of working-class existence. That the capitalist may make a genuine effort to improve these conditions is quite possible. But even if they do improve the workers' conditions; if they stable them in palaces and harness them in golden chains, what then? Evolution has given us the possibility of producing by work, as distinct from toil, wealth in such abundance that the amenities of civilisation shall be the portion of all, without stint – is that not worth fighting for? True the world is vain, evil, ugly. But these are mere accidental phenomena, only forms and appendages of the world. Its eternity, truth, goodness and beauty is substantial, existing, positive. Its negative is like the darkness which serves to make the light more brilliant, so that it may overcome the dark and shine more brightly. The spokesmen of the ruling classes are not open to such a sublime optimism, because they have the pessimistic duty of perpetuating misery and servitude. Why fritter your time away on matters that leave you bottom dog. Recognise the real and ultimate contest must be between masters and slaves. In numbers you are overwhelming, armed with the knowledge of your usefulness as a class, no power can withstand you.

Manifesto of The Socialist Commandments, 1912

These socialist commandments were taught to children who attended socialist sunday schools, emphasising to children that socialism was the secular embodiment of Christianity.

The socialist sunday school movement arose out of the London dock strike of 1892 when food kitchens and educational classes were set up for the children of striking dockers. It was at these classes that children were taught the causes and results of poverty for working people. By 1912 there were over 200 socialist sunday schools organised throughout Britain.

In their early days, they encountered much opposition from local authorities and other official bodies, as many Conservative and Liberal politicians argued that socialist sunday schools were subversive and were poisoning the minds of young people with political and anti-religious doctrines and teachings.

This is for those who are fed up

Fed up with the failures of this dreary system
Fed up with leaders and the false promises of career politicians
Fed up with poor hospitals, poor schools, poor housing and an unhealthy environment
Fed up with having to live on a wage that struggles to pay the endless bills
Fed up with serving the profit system and seeing poverty amidst luxury. 

We, in the Socialist Party, reject the view that things will always stay the same. We can change the world. Nothing could stop a majority of socialists building a new society run for the benefit of everyone. We all have the ability to work together in each other’s interests. All it takes is the right ideas and a willingness to make it happen.

By calling themselves ‘democratic socialists’ progressive Democrats such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revived interest in the subject of ‘socialism.’ More people are trying to find out what ‘socialism’ means. For them, ‘socialism’ means a series of reforms to make American society fairer and more democratic—more like what exists in West European countries and especially Scandinavia. They want the capitalists who own most of the means of life—the land and other productive wealth—to pay more taxes. They want more effective government regulation of their business activity but never talk about the need to replace capitalism by a fundamentally different system. There are other people for whom ‘socialism’ is associated by the ‘communist’ dictatorships that used to exist in Russia where the means of life were owned by the state and controlled by officials. However, there exists another tradition of socialist thought in which socialism means neither the reform of capitalism nor state ownership. It means social (or communal) ownership—that is, democratic control of the means of life by and for the whole of society (or the whole community). It also means production for use, not profit. It views socialism as a worldwide society. The interconnected nature of today’s world makes it impossible to create a new society in a single country. Capitalism is a world system, so socialism too must be a world system.

The position of the workers is the hopeless one in that they must always struggle to maintain their wages at subsistence level, but that they cannot do more. All the vast and wonderful improvements in the productive processes which mean such stupendous wealth for the owners mean only more intensive conditions for the workers. They can have no share in it. All the reforms and all the philanthropy cannot touch this position. Remove the unemployed to-day, to-morrow machinery will have produced them again. Give the workers free houses or free bread—they must struggle just as hard for the remainder of their necessities. Attempts at reform, therefore, are useless. They are defeated by the very operation of the economic laws of our competitive system. As a matter of fact, capitalism is always being reformed. Reforms are the red-herring by which the capitalists keep the workers on the wrong scent. Reforms and palliatives keep the wage-slaves running from Tweedledum to Tweedledee and from Tweedledee to Tweedledum. And when, after much fighting, each reform or palliative is gained, it is only such as is necessary to keep capitalism safe for capitalists.

For many generations, human misery has been so obvious. The Socialist Party set itself up to form an organisation which would serve the revolutionary purpose, the establishment of a social system for the furtherance of human happiness and well-being. The only hope of any real betterment of their condition lies in abolishing the social system which reduces them to being mere sellers of their labour-power, to be exploited by the capitalists. Workers will see then that this involves dispossessing the master class of the means through which alone the exploitation of labour-power can be achieved. A class which understands all this is class-conscious. It has only to find the means and the methods by which to proceed,  in order to become the fit instrument of the revolution.

The world we want is one where we all work together. We can all do this. Co-operation is in our interests and this is how a socialist community would be organised – through democracy and through working with each other.

To co-operate we need democratic control not only in our own area but by people everywhere. This means that all places of industry and manufacture, all the land, transport, the shops and means of distribution, should be owned in common by the whole community. With common ownership, we would not produce goods for profit. The profit system exploits us. Without it we could easily produce enough quality things for everyone. We could all enjoy free access to what we need without the barriers of buying and selling.

Capitalism is an Unnecessary Evil

The Socialist Party provides no career for any individual, but some organisations, the capitalist political parties, for example, normally allow their political leaders to use the party machine as a means of carving out a career full of honours and wealth.  Much more then must this be true of the Government, the executive committee of the ruling class. The Cabinet, representing the outlook of the capitalist majority in Parliament is the servant of a minority of the population, the minority which owns and controls die resources of the country to the exclusion of the mass of the population. This state of affairs will continue until the workers cease sending defenders of capitalism to Parliament.

The Government then represents the collective interests of the capitalist class. The principal part of its task is to keep the propertyless working class from challenging the position of the exploiting class. The workers must, in other words, be fobbed off with promises, bemused with fine-sounding, but empty, phrases, bought off with petty concessions, and—if everything else fails— beaten down by force in the name of the law. What, then, is the first qualification of the politician who wants to be useful to the ruling class? Obviously, it is that he shall have the confidence of the workers or at least of a large number of them. He must be popular. Only so can he misdirect the sheep on behalf of the wolves, who are his paymasters. Like the quack doctor, he must have a patter. He must speak the language of the factory and market-place. He must be able to dress up his capitalist nostrums in phraseology which makes them look like the real thing for the workers. As with the man so with the institution. The politician and the Cabinet must be trusted and respected. No breath of suspicion of personal self-seeking must be allowed to blow on them. In order to serve most effectively as cover for the brutal methods of factory exploitation and the tortuous ways of finance, the political institutions must stand forth as beacons of purity and unselfishness. That is all there is to it.

How You Are Robbed.

From whence come the dividends upon which the capitalists live? From the results of the work you do. Let us illustrate this point by taking a particular instance. You and some of your fellow workers are employed by a certain company and that company pays you wages and salaries. Now if the company makes a profit they must make it out of employing you because your class does all the work of producing for the company. In other words, you and your fellows produce a quantity of goods that sell at a value which is greater than the value of your wages plus all other expenses. There is a surplus and it is out of this surplus that the capitalists of this country, and the rest of the world, live luxuriously and amass fortunes.

The capitalists pay you as little as they possibly can and urge you to increase the amount of your production, because the more you produce and the less you take the more there is for them. They are helped in this process by the fact that you compete with each other for jobs and those who work most efficiently for the wages they get stand the best chance of getting and keeping a job. Efficiency does not necessarily mean doing the best job. You may be constructing jerry-built houses or doing similar shoddy work. Efficiency under capitalism means producing the greatest possible amount of profit for the capitalist which also involves working at high speeds. Sometimes, as in America, they pay higher wages because they have found they can get more out of you by doing so; that is by exploiting you more efficiently. But such higher paid workers are more rapidly exhausted, and, in the long run, are no better off than those on lower pay.

Another method adopted by the capitalists to increase what they can get out of you is the introduction of new technology and automated methods of production. This increases the amount of wealth each worker produces and reduces the number the capitalists need to employ—Puts many of you out of a job to swell the unemployed army. It is class ownership of the means of production that is the root of our troubles. This is what is wrong with society to-day. This is why we suffer poverty and insecurity and all the misery associated with poverty and insecurity. No reforms put forward by any political party touch this class ownership of the means of production; at best they only aim at easing some of the worst evils. Even in this, they are generally unsuccessful as you know from your own experience. No sooner is one evil eased than another, maybe worse, appears in its place. While you remain dependent on the capitalists giving you a job, in order that you may live, reforms cannot relieve you of poverty and insecurity.

To-day you do all the work of society yourselves. The capitalist does nothing except draw his dividends. He tells you that you cannot get on without him because, according to him, nothing can be done without money and he has the money with which to pay your wages. But money does not make anything and people have made things where money was unknown. Even your ordinary history books tell you about people who made the things they needed without having to use money. It is only because goods are bought and sold that money is needed. If buying and selling were abolished money would lose its function. If you distributed to your, selves the goods you produce you would not need wages. Just as you produce and distribute goods now at the behest of the capitalist, in return for wages, which only enable you to buy a portion of them back, you could distribute them freely to the whole of the community, including yourselves, to-morrow, without the need for wages. If all the people who make up society take over the means of production and distribution and own them in common, the work of production would still go on. But instead of an idle class taking for their own enjoyment a large portion of the wealth produced, they would take part in the production of it, and it would be distributed according to the needs of each member of the community. That is socialism.

Nothing short of socialism can alter your condition of life for the better. We, in the Socialist Party, are neither dreamers nor good-natured idealists. We are working men and women. Like you are. like you, we belong to the working class and consequently we are poor. Our poverty has limited the amount of propaganda we could do. Our Literature will show you how steadfastly we have adhered to the same position since we first formed our party. Our funds come out of our own pockets and those of our sympathisers. We have not, and we do not want, any rich benefactors, who might try to influence our policy. Our party is ours and it can also be yours.  We are faced with the same problems as you are; our interests are the same as yours. We have found the only solution to our troubles and we want you to join us in helping to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism.  Society is controlled through Parliament. Parliament makes and administers the laws. It does so at present on behalf of the capitalist. That is to say, laws are made and administered on the basis of the private ownership of the means of production. The laws are made to protect this private ownership. But you and your fellow workers are the people who have voted the nominees of the capitalists, and others who support the continuation of the wages system, into power at each election. Therefore, if you want to abolish capitalism you must vote into Parliament delegates whose sole business will be to abolish capitalism and introduce socialism. This they can do as soon as a majority of workers like yourselves become convinced that Socialism is the only remedy for social ills and vote a majority to Parliament to introduce it. Remember we are not going to do anything for you, and no "leader” can get you out of wage slavery. It is you who must do the job yourselves. It is the working class itself that must take charge of its own destiny and build a new society worth living in.

Do you want to live under a free social system, owning your own means of production and using them for the equal benefit of all, or are you content to remain a human beast of burden, fettered to the insecurity of life as a wage worker? The choice is before you.