Arise ye workers!

Study socialism, and make yourselves proof against the propaganda spread by the master class daily. Are the problems which face the working class capable of solution within the capitalist system, or are they not? If they are, then socialism is not only a dream, but also a waste of time and energy. If they are not, then those who divert working-class energies to a futile attempt to save the present system are of necessity enemies of the workers and must be opposed by the Socialist Party. There is no need to await events to put this to the test. The workers are slaves to the capitalist class because the latter own the means of producing wealth. The workers will either replace capitalism by socialism, or they will retain capitalism. If they perpetuate capitalism, they will perpetuate their slavery to the capitalist class. The form may change; the slaves may become well-fed; they may be given access to the cultural crumbs from their master’s table; they may become contented, but they will still be slaves. Wage slavery is inherent in the capitalist organisation of society. When the workers understand and want socialism, they will have it; not before.

Many reformists really do imagine that they can take action in Parliament to further socialism; but they are no less dangerous than the anti-socialist because it is with sincerity that they advocate their delusion. Either from ignorance or with intent, are prepared to support the continued existence of the capitalist system. The reformist main argument is that an honest and efficient government, sympathetic to the aspirations of the workers, can remove poverty, end inequality, abolish war, and in general can solve the many problems of the day without changing society; without abolishing capitalism. An elementary study of the working of capitalist economics is sufficient to show that poverty, war and unemployment are natural products of the capitalist system of production.

Only the Socialist Party aims at power for socialism. It is our contention that other political parties have programmes which are designed to attract anti- or non-socialists. These are made up of a series of immediate proposals or demands which, judged from the socialist viewpoint, may have advantages for the workers, but will be useless in preparing and making the working-class socialist-minded. Hence our attitude to reforms is not merely that they are of no immediate or lasting benefit to the workers, but that for the party aiming at social revolution the task of making socialists is paramount. The advocacy of reforms fails to accomplish this, in fact hinders the furtherance of socialist education.

Socialist action on the political field must be action for the abolition of capitalism, whatever the intentions of the leaders, whilst the mass of the working-class electorate are not socialists, they can only act within the bounds of capitalism. The problems they set out to solve are inherent in the capitalist system. Thus at the very outset they are doomed to failure and will be discredited. Having spent their time popularising reform programmes and catching votes they have had no time or energies for spreading socialist knowledge. Socialism could only he achieved by a working-class understanding socialism.

The workers blame the existence of such problems as poverty, unemployment, etc., upon the men who hold the reins of Government. The Socialist Party is not concerned that these political parties and their leaders should be discredited by their failure, but a serious consequence is the disillusionment and apathy that falls on millions of workers as a result. It is insufficient for workers to aim merely at political control, but that they must obtain political control through their own independent organisation and for socialism. The myth of Russian socialism and the Third International has done much to put back the clock of working-class development.

Those who may have been among the many workers whose tireless energies and selfless devotion built up the Labour Party and other left-wing organisations should answer this question: If it were possible to start again, with the knowledge they possess to-day, would they still do what they have been doing for the past decades?

Surely, the miserable plight of the workers throughout the world, their suffering and anxiety, is a vindication of the attitude taken up by the Socialist Party; that an organisation having for its object the capturing of the machinery of government for socialism, must devote its energies and abilities to the making of socialists and organising them to this end. 

Dictatorships, poverty and other social evils can only arise in a world where the control behind the management of industry is the production of goods for sale and profit-making. Whilst this obtains peoples will stand in fear and hatred of each other and Governments be driven on to the building of armaments for their eventual use in war. These problems can only be removed by the world working class establishing a social system which has for its basis the production of wealth solely for the use of all, regardless of race or sex. This cannot be accomplished by a working class blindly following leaders who have preached to them policies of reforms, nor can violence be a method to make up for the unreadiness of the workers. Only by the mental development of the working class can the suffering and misery of capitalism be replaced by socialism.

Kirkcaldy's Misery

More than 70 per cent of children in one of Kirkcaldy’s poorest areas are estimated to be living in poverty. The shocking latest figures for Sinclairtown Central have revealed that 70.5 per cent of youngsters under 16 are living in households which are struggling just to get by.

The figure isn’t much better in Gallatown West, where an estimated 59.9 per cent are living in families in receipt of working and child tax credits and with an income less than 60 per cent of the average household. This compares to a figure of 17.9 per cent for the whole of Fife and 16 per cent for Scotland.

And the most up to date statistics taken from the Department of Work and Pensions Child Poverty Estimates for 2016, don’t take into account the recent introduction of Universal Credit, which is hitting the poorest families the hardest.

Joyce Leggate, chairman of Kirkcaldy Foodbank, said: “These figures are shocking and I cannot even begin to imagine how much worse they will be when the post Universal Credit statistics are added. To have seven out of 10 children in one small area living day to day, month by month and even year by year in poverty should bring shame on every politician who has the power and influence to change this broken system. “We are constantly being told we live in one of the richest economies in the world but I doubt if many individuals living in this part of Kirkcaldy will agree. It’s time for everyone to wake up to the drastic effect that austerity is having on people and change lives for our future.”

 https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/child-poverty-kirkcaldy-s-shocking-story-1-4857879

Stinking Capitalism

Even supposing that we had absolute equality of opportunity—which is impossible in a capitalist society—even supposing that no member of the ruling class could give money or shares or a better education to his children, and that while the Smiths and Browns provided the capitalists of this generation, the Joneses and the Robinsons provided the capitalists of the next (again, impossible, but let it pass) even supposing all this, we should have exactly the same society that we have now. So long as we have a capitalist society—part private and part state, like the Conservatives want, or a little-less-private and a little-more-state like the Labourites want—we will have the exploitation of the mass of people, the working class, by a small minority, the ruling class. To support capitalism while demanding equality of opportunity is like supporting burglary, provided everyone has an equal chance to become a burglar. Equality of opportunity in our present society simply means that each generation of capitalists would have different names from the last lot. But who in the world cares what they are called? To alter a familiar line, a sewer by any other name would smell as foul.

The Socialist Party refuses to lose sight of our own aim and object—socialism. Emotion is only a positive and constructive force when it is controlled and directed. When it is misdirected its effects are negative and pernicious. We do not put forward our diagnosis of society merely because it is right, but because in the conclusions we draw from it are the humanitarian assumptions of remedying the ills of extant society. We are keenly sensitive to social suffering, but we refuse in lieu of our own remedy to accept what we hold to be harmful soporifics based on a faulty diagnosis. In answer to this antagonism ridden, man divided, class divided, nation divided society, we proclaim the alternative, socialism, one world, one people.

Capital is wealth used for the purpose of profit. To be strictly accurate, capital is a function of money; it is money which begets money; money invested for the purpose of bringing back a larger amount of money than that which was originally advanced.

The starting point of all capitalist operations is the investing of money. A glance at the prospectus of any company will make this evident. A long period of time, and complicated processes, may intervene between the original investing of the money and its final return, plus an increment; nevertheless, the increment was the object of the investment. The increment, or extra money, is the form taken by unpaid labour — surplus value. The cause of the production of this increment is the fact that the worker produces more in a given time than he receives for working during that time; in other words, he produces a surplus of value above the value of his means of subsistence. This surplus goes to the capitalist, as the worker receives on the average only a sum equal to his cost of subsistence.

Production of articles for sale with a view to profit is the basis upon which capitalism is built. Before this can become the rule, two essentials are requisite. First, wealth must be privately owned; and second, there must be a stock of free labourers on the market—free to be bought along with the other articles necessary for the production of wealth. The free labourer is a product of modern times. He is free in the sense that neither family nor territorial ties interfere with the sale of his labour power. He is also free in the sense that he may starve if he does not find a buyer for his labour power.

In the past, capital has appeared here and there, but only as the odd, the unusual element in production. Originally it appeared as lending money in the hands of usurers. It only became the social rule when a new type of worker appeared, who was bound by no feudal or other ties, and was free to sell his energy to whoever wished to buy. Capital is therefore bound up with wage slavery.

To sum the matter up: the existence of capital as the general condition of a society presupposes the existence of a class producing surplus value and a class appropriating it; a robbed and a robber class; a class producing wealth which it does not own, and a class owning wealth which it does not produce. With the introduction of socialism, the private ownership of wealth will cease to prevail; wealth will be produced for use and not for profit. Consequently, wealth wilt not function as capital. The conditions for the existence of capital having disappeared, capital will do likewise.

Capitalism continues the vicious conditions of life, whether unemployment, overwork, or the perversion of the most exquisite physical functions, have their origin deep in a system of life which we claim has outlived its usefulness. Our analysis of present-day society proclaims the workers the only useful class; when workers reach that consciousness, they will understand that their emancipation involves the emancipation of humanity irrespective of race or sex. Then women, like men, will become units in a class-free society; wherein the useful necessary tasks of that day, will be undertaken by all capable, with the object of securing the best physical and mental development possible. Socialism will assure a leisured and bountiful life to all, because, even with our present powers of production, unfettered by the restrictions of trade and profit, and used with the object of satisfying all our needs, with the minimum of effort, wealth could be produced to almost any quantity we might demand. As yet, we have but scratched nature’s skin; with socialism the basis of our social order will cease to be a private property one, giving way to common ownership and democratic control by the whole people. Individual ego can then be pursued through the communal welfare of all, as against the present wasteful competitive cut-throat methods of life.

The Socialist Party - a movement for a new society

The capitalist system is the enemy of men and women, and it is only through socialist revolution and the abolition of the private ownership of the means of production and the building of socialism, that the oppression and exploitation of men and women can disappear. The complete emancipation of workers is only possible in a class-free society – a socialist society. The Socialist Party fights for the class unity. Our goal is a class-free society. The Socialist Party rejects all reformist and opportunist methods of struggle. Socialism requires a working class whose sights go beyond the here and now. Socialism requires the participation of large numbers of workers with a political grasp and sense of purpose. Socialism will be built on the social foundations inherited from capitalism. By abolishing relations based on private ownership, it will enable humanity to pursue the goal to which men and women have always aspired – a harmonious society, free of both classes and the State. This is the task of the Socialist Party. Socialism means a class-free society which means that a privileged minority of the population are not in a position to enjoy the wealth, while the majority live only on their labour to produce it. It means an end of rent, profit, and interest on stocks and bonds, an end of “surplus value,” an end of the exploitation of labour.

The workers can only reach a permanent solution to their problems by the conquest of political power, that they as a class must use their political supremacy to end forever the exploitation of man by man. In other words, we aim at a social system which would be entirely class-free, one in which the means of production, and the wealth produced, would be the common heritage of the whole people, instead of, as at present, the private property of the rich minority.

To our fellow-workers reared under this oppressive capitalist system the socialist aim seems so enormous that they cannot fully grasp it. and considers it unattainable and therefore Utopian. The workers will learn to fight implacably for the socialist goal only when they realise that, in the struggle for existence, reforms cannot free them, and that they must use more effective means. When we speak at meetings, when we speak with our colleagues, when we go from house to house leafleting , when we write in the periodicals, we will tell our suffering fellow-workers where the capitalist class are always trying to throw the burden of their crises on working men and women. It is easy to make this clear to the workers. When capitalist production does not bring sufficient profit, the capitalist uses every means to guard himself against loss. He throws the workers pitilessly out into the street. He raises the cost of living. He beats down salaries, and for this purpose he creates lock outs, mobilises strike-breakers and organises campaigns to destroy workers’ resistance in order to intimidate the workers. The capitalist seeks to increase or decrease the hours of work or introduce new technology to improve the efficiency of labour, in case wages remain the same. Protection for the workers is made impossible. Affordable decent housing is neglected. Hospitals are closed. Invalids, pensioners, and cripples are abandoned. In order to carry this out more easily the capitalist buys the media and employs journalists and commentators to influence the workers’ opinion in a manner favourable to the employers’ own interests. The capitalist strives to demoralise and to dishearten the workers’ organisations, especially the trade unions, with a subtle system of swindle and lies. Those who are working are incited against the unemployed and vice versa. The trust of the working people in the truth of socialism will not be strengthened through continual nagging of the workers about their troubles but rather through our armour-plated argument against capitalism. Socialism means that we will run our economy in institutions that work for society, not for the profit of rich owners. Basically, socialism means no rich and no poor, common prosperity for all.

The principal task of the Socialist Party is to try to restore the credibility of socialism in the consciousness of millions of men and women. A coherent vision of socialism means priority must be given to solidarity and cooperation. The practice of socialists must be totally consistent with their principles. Our basic position is the complete overthrow of the exploiting class. Our aim is the class-free society of world socialism so that all humanity will be emancipated. The Socialist Party does not cultivate a constituency: we make no appeal for votes. We do not fashion a policy to fit ignorance and prejudice. The movement for a new society must be one of understanding and participation.

OUR WAR IS A WAR OF IDEAS, A BATTLE OF WORDS

No to Nationalism

There is always a lot of myth and romanticism surrounding so-called nationalism offering a popular ‘solution’ of a sovereign state to workers. The working class would soon find out that this was no solution at all. For the Socialist Party which has no desire for yet more flags and frontiers and who anticipates that the setting-up of any new state will no more solve the problems of members of the  working class than has been the case with scores of other “successful” national struggles, the most promising line of action would seem to be to join with other workers to the early attainment of a class-free and border-free society. Such a socialist or communist society (they mean the same) will not only enable us to have free access to our material requirements but we shall democratically control the pace and nature of work that we freely choose to undertake. It would also be a way of life in which the language in which we express ourselves and the clothes we wear will be freely determined by each one of us. For the expropriated class of producers, nationalism has nothing intelligible to offer. We are but pawns in the game of life so long as that game is played by rival sections of the master class. Nationalism raises the national struggle above that of the class struggle.

The new era has begun to dawn. New and still bigger mega-fortunes are being made. The labour movement has to prepare itself for a further period of extremely bad weather and rough seas. Discontent and anger are characteristics of these times, animating waves of radical protest movements as well as the growing tide of nationalism. The current rise of nationalism and right-wing populism is a response to worries about immigration and national identity, coupled with genuine social injustices including economic hardship and unemployment, being exploited and manipulated so that in many countries they appear to be in the ascendency. Nationalism plays on notions of identity, encouraging allegiance to national and racial ideals rooted in the nation-state and in a world in which many people experience an alienated and fragmented feeling of loss, such nationalism appears comforting, offering a sense of belonging. But far from creating nationalism strengthens false notions of superiority, creating an atmosphere of distrust where a climate of fear can flourish. The ‘the other’, the ‘outsider, people from other nations, are seen as a threat, as rivals, and are viewed with suspicion, if not outright hostility. They are described in inflammatory terms in a process of dehumanization. Nationalism is tied to the ways of competition. it is a dangerous ideology which is being cynically used by politicians, who see widespread public discontent as an opportunity to gain power. It is detrimental to human development and has no place in our world.

We cannot unite with those “socialists” who preach reformism under the cloak of “anti-imperialism.” Although dressed up as very revolutionary its politics opposition to the working class, advocating constitutional change within the confines of the capitalist system rather than aiming towards revolution as the goal. The capitalists strive to possess the means of production and the market of their own country. And since their greed for profits knows no limits, they strive to expand beyond their own country, to seize foreign markets, sources of raw materials and areas for capital investment, thus subjugating other nations and exploiting them, squeezing out the rival capitalists of other countries. The exploitation of wage labour, competition, the squeezing out, suppressing and swallowing of rivals among the capitalists themselves, the resorting to war, the utilisation of all means to secure a monopoly position in its own country and throughout the world - such is the inherent character of the profit-seeking capitalist. This is the class basis of nationalism. 

Patriotism is a demonstrably one-way affair, which insists that the interests of the British capitalist class should be dominant but does not allow the same belief to patriots in, say, Russia and China about the interests of their capitalist class because they are obviously wrong minded. This prejudice extends into the field of economic rivalry. For example, people like lorry drivers and car workers should work very hard indeed because that is their lot under capitalism and, in any case, it is good for the country that they should do so. Workers who dare to strike are excoriated because strikes interrupt production. which is not good for the country, but it is quite acceptable for the capitalist to shut down factories which are unprofitable because this is the sort of interruption of production which is. mysteriously good for the country. We advocate the only solution that will enable people of different race to live in peace - socialism. And capitalism should be eradicated without further delay to enable us to enjoy all the beautiful things of the world without fear.

It is time of unease and insecurity certainly, but also times of great hope and opportunity for socialists. If humanity is to progress fundamental change in the way society is run is essential. Socialism encourages cooperation, tolerance and sharing and can serve as stepping stones to global responsibility; collective action in which the skills, gifts and abilities of the individual is used for the benefit and enrichment of all, and not just for the nation state. Socialism goes beyond racial and national identities. Humanity is one, albeit diverse, single unity.

Welcome to the Revolution

Everywhere people are the same in that they seek happiness, desire prosperity and love liberty. Everywhere the rich are the same, i.e., they profit from the common misery to enrich themselves and desire make the people suffer. Capitalism has failed us. We’re overworked, underemployed and powerless. The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace world capitalist economy by a world socialism for it alone can abolish the contradictions of the capitalist system which threaten to destroy humanity. A socialist society will end the class division of society and cease the 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 world cooperative commonwealth. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its energy to the development and strengthening of its own evolution. The future of our human civilisation hangs in the balance.

After abolishing private ownership of the means of production and converting these means into social property, the world socialism will replace the elemental forces of the world market, competitive and blind processes of social production, by consciously organised and planned production for the purpose of satisfying rapidly growing social needs. With the abolition of competition and anarchy in production, devastating crises and still more devastating wars will disappear. Instead of colossal waste of productive forces and spasmodic development of society-there will be a planned utilisation of all material resources and a painless economic development on the basis of unrestricted, smooth and rapid development of productive forces.

The abolition of private property and the disappearance of classes will do away with the exploitation of man by man. Work will cease to be toiling for the benefit of a class enemy: instead of being merely a means of livelihood it will become a necessity of life: want and economic inequality, the misery of enslaved classes, and a wretched standard of life generally will disappear; the hierarchy created in the division of labour system will be abolished together with the antagonism between mental and manual labour; and the last vestige of the social inequality of the sexes will be removed. At the same time, the organs of class domination, and the State in the first place, will disappear also. The State, being the embodiment of class domination, will die out in so far as classes die out, and with it all measures of coercion will expire.

Private ownership in the means of production, the selfish lust for profits, the artificial retention of the masses in a state of ignorance, poverty-which retards technical progress in capitalist society, and unproductive expenditures will have no place in a socialist society. The development of the productive forces of world socialism will make it possible to raise the well-being of the whole of humanity and to reduce to a minimum the time devoted to material production and, consequently, will enable culture to flourish as never before in history. This new culture of a humanity that is united for the first time in history, and has abolished all State boundaries, will, unlike capitalist culture, be based upon clear and transparent human relationships. Hence, it will bury forever all mysticism, religion, prejudice and superstition and will give a powerful impetus to the development of all-conquering, scientific knowledge. The most important lesson from the history of capitalism is this: It has sown the seeds of its own destruction.  Capitalism is not eternal but historical. It too shall pass — but only if we make it so. The socialist case is, and always has been, that socialism can come about only through democratic action by a working-class majority, throughout the world. The socialist revolution will be a majority, democratic act—the first social revolution in human history in the interests of the majority.

When it comes down to it there is no real choice between reform and revolution. These are not two alternative ways of reaching the same goal. Certainly people can try to reform capitalism to make it work in the interest of all, but they can never succeed. All their efforts are wasted. The only way forward is social revolution, in the sense of rapidly abolishing present-day society by a political act and establishing a new and different society in its place. Capitalism is an economic system which operates according to economic laws which cannot be changed by human action, and which human beings have to accept and submit to in the same way as they do to natural forces like the weather and the tides. As long as capitalism remains its economic laws will continue to function roughly like the tides. If people decided to end this system, then these forces would cease to operate.

We are talking about people being in charge of the production of the wealth they must have to survive. This is what socialism is about: subjecting production to conscious human control so that it can be directed to the single purpose of turning out goods and services to satisfy human needs. Why should this not be possible? After all, production for use — production to satisfy human needs — is the logical purpose of producing wealth. Production to satisfy human needs is possible, but it requires a fundamental social change to make it a reality. Basically, all that is in and on the earth must become the common property of everyone. In other words, there must no longer be any territorial rights or any private property rights over any part of the globe. The farms, factories, mines and all other places where wealth is produced will not belong to anybody. This means that a section only of society would no longer stand between the rest of society and the means of production. Social classes would cease to exist and all men and women would stand in equal relationship to the means of production as free and equal members of a class-free community.

In a socialist society democratic control will extend to all aspects of social life, including — and in fact in particular — decisions about the production of wealth. This is what production is about: bringing the production and distribution of wealth under conscious human control which, in a class-free community of free and equal men and women, can only be democratic control. Otherwise society would no longer be class-free: access to. and control over, the means of production would then remain in the hands of the minority. This is why democracy and socialism are inseparable. There is no choice about the matter. An undemocratic socialism is a contradiction in terms. Socialism is democratic or it is not socialism. If the means of production are commonly owned and democratically controlled, there is only one end for which they can and will be used: to produce wealth to satisfy the needs, individual and collective, of the class-free community.

When we say production for use we mean production solely for use. In socialism wealth no longer will be produced for sale; buying and selling and all that goes with it, money, prices, wages, profits, banks, and so on — will have no place; they will, in fact, have no sense in socialism. Since the means of production will be commonly owned, it follows that what is produced will also be commonly owned — that is, by the classless community of free men and women who will have produced it. In these circumstances the question of selling what has been produced just would not — could not — arise. For how can what is commonly owned be sold to those who commonly own it?

Since the turn of the century, we have left the Age of Scarcity and entered the Age of Abundance — potential abundance. that is. To the extent that scarcity survives today, as of course it very much does, this is an artificial scarcity maintained by the economic laws of capitalism, and particularly its basic principle of "No Profit, No Production".  The artificial barrier to the production of abundance (that is, the profit motive) will be removed and we shall be able to produce an abundance of the basic things — food, clothing, shelter — which people need to enjoy life. Material wants and poverty can be banished forever. Technologically speaking, there is no reason why any man, woman or child in any part of the world should starve or go without proper shelter. Socialism will allow this technological possibility to be realised, which will no doubt have to be one of the first priorities of socialism when it is established. Let people come and take what they need. Wealth could be produced in such abundance today that there is no need to ration access to it. People will simply take what they need from the stores as and when they need it. Ensuring that these stores are always stocked with what people need will be no problem given the technological possibility of producing in abundance. This will essentially be a question of stock control.

We either have common ownership or some sort of class ownership, private or state. We either have production for use or production for sale. The only way forward is social revolution — not in the sense of insurrections and street-fighting, but of a rapid change in the basis of society. This is what the Socialist Party is working for. But it is not us who are going to establish socialism. We could not do it. No minority can. How could a minority impose upon others a society based on voluntary co-operation and democratic decision-making? This is why all the efforts of the Socialist Party is directed towards helping to spread the idea that there is an alternative to capitalism with its waste and wars, its insecurity and anxiety. Our role is to inform people about this and get people to want to change society and to organise to do this.

Socialism, One World, One People

Socialist Party members can confidently forecast what 2019 has in store for our fellow-workers 

The working class will continue to struggle over their wages and other working conditions; in other words, there will be more industrial disputes. Employers will carry on attempting to hold wages in check and to persuade the working class that any rise they may have should be only a small one, and one related to their increased intensive productivity effort. There will be more tension on the international field—more conflicts and there will be more conferences on how to calm these tensions and how to disarm the combatants.  Very little will come of them. The working class, afflicted by the usual struggle to live, will become dissatisfied with whatever government is in power and may express this discontent by protest marches and demonstrations. This dissatisfaction is an inevitable part of capitalism because the problems which give rise to unrest are also part of the private property system.

The only solution to this calamitous muddle is the establishment of socialism. It is simply not possible for any leader to make glamorous promises about that because the key to socialism is the knowledge of the people who will set it up. In the election campaigns of the capitalist parties, knowledge is an alien word. How many people, among the mass who are mesmerised by the rituals, the pomp and ceremonies will stand out by understanding and supporting socialism? 

As far as the Socialist Party is concerned, capitalism has no acceptable face. Everything about it is unacceptable. Its accumulation for accumulation’s sake. Its exploitation of wage-labour. Its putting of profits before satisfying people’s needs. Is it acceptable that capitalist firms should direct their investment to producing what is the most profitable, while essential human needs are left unmet?

The heart of the socialist idea is self-government in every sphere of life, including production. And the state, in its very, essence, is nothing but a series of massive impediments to that self-rule. The aim of all those who want working class self-emancipation has to be the destruction of the capitalist state. Its existence is incompatible with the development of socialism. Those who want to preserve the existing state machinery in the struggle for socialism are not simply arguing for a different road to socialism; they are arguing against socialism itself. The struggle for socialism is revolutionary. It involves a war between two opposed classes: one against the centuries-old system of state exploitation and oppression, based on the principles of the most complete democracy possible.

The Socialist Party is up against the fact that our fellow-workers has to be convinced that socialism does in fact represent a superior system for the people. Marx’s idea of the eventual withering away of the state is not a pipe-dream, but a realistic if very rough sketch of the future state of human society.  We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humankind.  It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards with more poor people now in the world than ever before, starts murderous wars to steal the resources of less developed countries and causes the growing devastation of our natural environment.  Either we get rid of this outmoded and increasingly decrepit system or it will devastate humanity.  The hour is late and urgent action is necessary.

The capitalist class live out of the difference between the value of the goods produced by the workers and the amount paid to the latter as wages. The capitalists are able to do this because they own and control the means of production and distribution and can, in consequence, compel the workers to accept employment on these terms—the alternative being unemployment. It is interesting to consider how these fortunate property-owners came to be in the privileged position which they occupy and to consider what hope members of the working-class have of climbing up beside them. Apart from the rare proverbial rags to riches self-made success story they were rich mainly because their families were rich. We see, therefore, that the way to get rich is to choose your parents wisely, failing which your chance is small. If you are born into the ranks of the privileged class you have an excellent chance of living well and dying with more wealth than your father before you; if you are born a worker you will live hard and die as poor as you began—unless you join with us to get socialism.

The very basis of society today is a struggle between two classes, the capitalist who own all the means of production, and the property-less class who are only allowed to use and operate these means of life when it is in the interest of members of the capitalist class to allow them. It is the historic mission of our class, the property-less class of wage-slaves to make the socialist revolution. It is necessary to make revolution to eliminate the evils of this society and move society forward. It is possible to increasingly raise the consciousness of the mass of workers and others ground down and degraded by this system, to develop and strengthen their revolutionary understanding and sense of organisation as this system. The common interests of the property-less class of wage workers whose historic mission is to abolish private property at its source, the means of production, transcends all national boundaries and differences.

In socialist society, not only will we have free access to the products and services of human production and to life itself, too we’ll get free access to all the human support, kindness, affection and love from all our fellows all year round, instead of for just a mean two weeks.  In free society this behaviour will become the norm in our human world.  Why would you want to pay, when you can have free access?  In addition, we will be free of the drudgery and stressful life that is our everyday experience now, that which we are glad to see the back of for a skimpy two weeks of partying at the end of the year.

The only viable way forward is revolutionary struggle to achieve socialism, a class-free and state-free society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment.  To create a socialist world, it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution.  The working class must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society. People know that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. It is essential to generate interest in socialist ideas. The class war is won not with guns, but with words, with argument and persuasion. The old motto of class-conscious workers goes beyond the present wage fights, and indeed should be a guiding goal of all socialists: Abolish Wage Slavery.

Remember that ever since capitalism came onto the scene political parties have lied and swindled their way into and out of power. The people who have been tricked have always forgotten the lies and the broken promises and have continued to vote for capitalism. 

Our Revolution

All wealth is created by the labour of the working-class alone which produces wealth by expending their labour upon natural resources. Therefore, it should be owned and controlled by the community. The working-class can abolish classes altogether and bring into being a class-free society, which will democratically own and control the means of life in the interest of the whole community—not in the interest of a class which has ceased to exist.

  The essential thing is that the member of the working-class has to sell his or her labour-power in order to live. Beside this salient fact all else pales into insignificance. The differences of dress, pay, education, habits, work, and so on that are to be observed among those who have to sell their working power in order to live are as nothing compared with the differences which mark them off from the capitalists. No matter how well paid the former is, or how many have to obey commands and has a master. He or she has to render obedience to another, to someone who can inflict the torments of unemployment. Because we have to sell our labour-power, our whole life must be lived within prescribed limits. The release from labour is short and seldom and we have no security of livelihood for there is always the fear that a rival may displace us.  The Socialist Party does not question the need for organisation in industry. What we do question is that capitalist argument that industry is, and must be, directed by capitalists. It is, in the main, already directed by salaried employees, members of the working class. Only in the field of financial operations do we find capitalists themselves normally engaged and even these operations are more and more being performed by paid employees. The capitalist class own and control industry. They do not direct it. Men who boasted how much personal interest they took in the control of their business were pushed aside, crushed or swallowed up by the men who had a finger in hundreds or thousands of different businesses and who took no personal interest in manufacture. Personal control and personal supervision played a good part in the early days of the business, but the time arrived in economic competition when mere personal control, brains and knowledge of an actual industry, no longer decided who was victor in the world of industry.

There is the lesson—ownership of wealth and more wealth is the winning card. Finance buys up the personally-conducted businesses and becomes the ruler of more and more workers. Shall the octopus grow or will the men and women who do the actual work in business and industry learn that they can run society without the parasite—financial or industrial? The Socialist Party has always warned against workers following leaders, even if and when the leaders seemed people of some quality. Workers must do their own thinking. But how much more sensible does our advice appear when it is obvious that the famous names who monopolise the media and make sure that a socialist voice is almost never heard, are such obvious nincompoops. Wake up, ye wage-slaves. You can’t possibly be as blind as the moronic specimens who lead you. There would be no leaders in a socialist society, since leadership implies the blind following by a majority of a minority and under socialism the majority would be politically conscious and mature. The leaders of capitalism will be replaced by the delegates of socialism. Those with a flair for administration might well become the servants of socialism in the work of distributing wealth and organizing services in the interests of the world society.

"Is there enough wealth for all?” is a common question put by anti-socialists. The existence of luxury all round us and the stored-up wealth that cannot find a market to-day is one aspect of the answer. In modern society the ease with which wealth can be produced means lack of work for the worker but only to assure the maintenance of owners’ profits. More wealth could be produced but it does not "pay” the owners to allow that to be done. But what would be the possibilities of wealth production in a society where the workers had access to the raw materials and the machines?

On the introduction of socialism millions of people will be released from currently useless, harmful and degrading jobs to undertake all kinds of useful work of their own choosing. There will be no shortage of labour in the form of interested minds and willing hands liberated from such occupations as the armed and police forces, the armies of insurance and other salesmen, accountants and income-tax workers, to mention just a few, necessary under capitalism. Accountants would no longer have to spend most of their time balancing the books of capitalism’s looting systems. Men and women good at figures would be required to calculate the needs of society and to make sure that the outputs of the various industries were always in good supply everywhere and that all resources were most efficiently used. Architects in socialist society would find their scope infinitely extended, presented with a free and full horizon open to them to produce beautiful and functional buildings to meet the varying wishes and needs of people. Currently a doctor’s calling involves patching up the workers so that they can continue to supply it. Research workers seeking the cure for today’s incurable diseases have to tolerate the painfully slow progress of their efforts because of lack of funds, whilst watching enormous resources being expended in military and space research. In socialism all the achievements of medical science would be devoted to the enjoyment of good health by all. Workers in hotels and restaurants would choose their job because they enjoyed rendering that particular service. There would be no servility nor class distinction about this, no ingratiation, no bitterness caused by “inadequate tipping” and the worker would enjoy the same good living as the diner. Even the most basic contribution to creative work would enrich and alter the lives of so many so radically. One could multiply indefinitely such examples of the fruitful and satisfying work open to men in a sane order of society. Only socialism can offer this

The Socialist Party has a clear view on what socialism is, and how it will be achieved. Socialism will be a society in which all the means by which wealth is produced and distributed will be under the common ownership and democratic control of the whole community. Of necessity, it will be a worldwide system because the means of production and distribution are worldwide. There will be no wage or price system as things will be produced solely for use and not for sale. People will work to the best of their ability and take according to their needs. The nature of socialism shows that it can only be achieved by the conscious and independent action of a clear majority. It is the job of the Socialist Party to help build that majority. We do not deprecate the struggles of workers but we insist that they must understand the class basis of those struggles. Without that consciousness all their efforts will eventually be futile. Once socialists are in the majority, they will have to get hold of the state machinery to prevent it being used against them. Socialist delegates elected to the various assemblies of the capitalist nation-states by a socialist working class would have this control, and would leave any recalcitrant capitalists in a virtually helpless position. The capitalist class only maintain their order with the active support or acquiescence of the workers. Once they lose this and are faced with an organised, uncompromising working class it will be plain to all what they are—a socially useless, parasitic minority living off the backs of the workers.

Organise for Socialism

Workers around the world are stuck in the mire of exploitation, oppression and war. We’re stuck with the prospect of a dire future.  The world desperately needs, not simply a legislative shopping list of palliatives but a vision of radical change, a new sense of revolutionary purpose. It’s old news that large segments of society have become deeply unhappy with what they see as “the establishment,” in the interests of the ruling class. There are good reasons for today’s discontent: decades of promises by political leaders of both the left and right, espousing a host of related reforms which would bring unprecedented prosperity, have gone unfulfilled. While a tiny elite seems to have done very well, large swaths of the population have plunged into a world of vulnerability and insecurity. There is now a gross mistrust in governments and politicians, which means that asking for sacrifices today in exchange for the promise of a better life tomorrow won’t pass muster. And this is especially true of “trickle down” policies: tax cuts for the rich that eventually are supposed to benefit everyone else.

The ills that afflict our society are systemic. The problems of capitalist society are structural and they require deep-going changes. The Socialist Party seeks a system where the “associated producers” would actually run most of their own working lives and there would be free goods and services for all. Capitalism can’t mask the truth anymore. It’s time for change. It’s time for a rallying cry for a vision that virtually transcends status quo thinking. Socialism represents a future without the moneyed interests that think they own it. Let the future it begins to build be one of prosperity and peace for the planet and ourselves.

The most successful social movements are highly organised, not spontaneous upsurges. The working class needs a socialist party. As long as politics exists the party (defined as organisation centred around agreed goals) will be a necessary means of intervening in the collective project of changing society. Politics means a clashing of class interests. The kind of party we need is first and foremost a world party, an   organisation where (to use a rather militaristic metaphor) each      national section is essentially a battalion in a worldwide army fighting the class war. The socialist revolution will be worldwide, hence there must be global organisation to coordinate it. The World Socialist Movement does not tailor our politics in hopes of gaining popularity by vote-catching. Nor does it sacrifice its political principles through united fronts with or reformist parties. The WSM is a party of opposition to the entire capitalist order, one that stays hard and fast to its socialist aims without embracing reformist coalitions as a shortcut to power. This mean rejecting the notion that we can ‘trick’ the working class into taking power by mobilising it to fight for reforms. It is no use blaming the people caught up in the pressures of capitalist competition. We need an economic and social system from which the profit motive has been removed, in which there is no longer national or international competition, in which progress is measured in terms of human welfare. That system is socialism.

Ours is the case for a class-free society, in which production is geared to satisfying human needs, and in which production for sale and the market economy are abolished, is underlined by the fact that modern industry and technology have now been developed to the stage where they could provide an abundance of consumer goods and services for all the people of the world. The problem of production — of how to produce enough for everybody — has been solved. Humanity’s long battle to conquer scarcity has been won. Potential abundance is a reality. The task is to make abundance itself a reality.

This can never be done within a society based on the class ownership of the means of production, where wealth is produced for sale with a view to profit. The only framework within which abundance can be realised is a society where all resources, man-made as well as natural, have become the common heritage of all mankind, under their democratic control. On this basis production can be democratically planned to provide what human beings need. In such a society, the market, wages, profits, buying and selling, and money, would have no place. They would cease to exist. 

Could we really supply enough for everybody to have free access to consumer goods and services? A society of abundance is not an extension of today’s so-called “consumer society”, with its enormous waste of resources. It does not mean people will come to acquire more and more useless and wasteful gadgets. It simply means that people’s material needs, both as individuals and as a community, will be fully satisfied in a rational way. Certainly, the waste of capitalism wastes resources. First, there are the armed forces and armaments. Second, there are all the people, buildings and equipment involved with the market and money economy generally: banking, insurance, government pension and tax departments, salesmen, ticket collectors, accountants, cashiers etc. Indeed, it might be said that under capitalism well over half the population are engaged in such unproductive activities. Third, there is planned obsolescence, the deliberate manufacture of shoddy goods made to break down or wear out after a comparatively short period of time. In a rationally organised society, consumer goods could be made to last; this would mean an immense saving of resources. With the elimination of these three sources of waste that are inherent in capitalism, enough to adequately feed, clothe and house everybody could easily be produced.

Contrary to what is popularly believed and carefully cultivated by the defenders of capitalism, men and women are not inherently greedy; human needs are not limitless. From a material point of view, human beings need a certain amount and variety of food, clothing and shelter; what this is in individual cases can soon be discovered by the individual himself — and would be if there were free access to consumer goods and services. But it may be objected, with free access wouldn’t people take more than they needed? But why should they if they can be certain (as they would, be given the productive power of modern industry and the common ownership of the means of production) that there would always be enough to go around? After all, today when access to water (or at least to the amount of water consumed in any one period) is free, people only use what they need for washing, cooking etc. Similarly, when all consumer goods and services are freely available people could be expected to take only as much food, clothing etc. as they felt they needed. To take any more would be abnormal and pointless.

A society for individuals

WITH WORLD SOCIALISM

A new era has begun to dawn. New and still bigger mega-fortunes are being made. The labour movement has to prepare itself for a further round of bad weather and rough seas. The Socialist Party doesn’t have some hopeful gospel to preach to you. If you’re a realist, and you’re observing the things going on around the world you’re apt to feel some despair. There is vast despondency and desperation. But it’s not that easy to lose hope. Humanity possesses qualities of determination, courage and an extraordinary resoluteness to persevere in the face of adversity. In English we say “hope springs eternal”. In Russian it’s “hope dies last.” We might feel anguish and despair but our evolutionary impulse is for survival. Hope is an unstoppable power. Our hope says we are going to keep on fighting for our goal. It is the fight members of the Socialist Party signed up for. We will never cease fighting for our ideas. We intend to put our broken human society back together but this time just a little differently - without the exploitation and oppression. Capitalism continues to kill us and the only real solution is to end capitalism.

The thing about social movements is that they move. They morph into new forms and evolve into different expressions. It is common for a movement to develop in one part of the world and be adopted by another country. This is even more common in modern times as the economy has become increasingly globalised and the internet has made communication easier. Protests turn into inspiration for others to take up. Socialism will become the movement of movements that unites the many single-issue groups into a force too powerful for the ruling class to defeat, a movement exposing the contradictions in society that cannot be solved by the current economic and political system. Socialism shows the system-wide problems that require both the economic and political systems to change. There are many triggers that are likely to spark mass protests and resistance. Get ready.

Socialism is a worldwide state-free society where money and markets have been abolished and production is collectively planned by all. It is the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, where the segmentation of human beings into classes, nationalities, races and genders has been transcended. Rather than mere worker ownership of factories or state-control of resources, socialist society is one within which “value” as we know it has been abolished and free access to goods has replaced markets and rationing. The previous development of capitalism makes such a society possible. Socialism is universal human emancipation.  Such a society will not emerge not through immediate insurrection or apolitical utopian experiments. It is to be achieved through social revolution on a mass scale. The workers cannot take political power through a putsch or coup nor can it come by an alliance with sections of the capitalist class. The State cannot be gradually evolved into socialism. It is fundamentally representing the interests of the propertied classes, structurally designed to serve the needs of capitalism. Socialism is a society based on the cooperation of all humanity. We promote world revolution as opposed to “socialism in one country” or other national roads to socialism. From this we reject all capitalist wars. Nationalism in all forms stands as an obstacle to revolution. The fight against racism is a fight to unite the working class to defeat capitalism.

The development of capitalism, a system which now dominates the entire planet, brings with it massive toil, suffering and crisis along with revolutions in production. It also creates its own gravedigger – the global working class. By socialism we mean a world where waged labour has been replaced by free associations of producers and all are able to participate in the total benefits of society’s wealth, based on the principle “from each according to their ability, to according to their need”. National boundaries are to be replaced by the free movement of people and the ending of the division of humanity into false communities of the nation. The dominance of markets and money, products of private property, is replaced by humanity taking collective control of production so as to reorient it towards meeting our needs and desires through scientific and democratic planning that transcends the irrationality of the market. It is only the cooperation of society as a whole that can provide the real basis for the individual to achieve their full capacity. We have no interest in turning the world into one giant labour camp with a monolithic culture that crushes the individual. Rather we aim for a new era of human development where the limitations imposed by the weight of class society have been surpassed, where one’s daily life is not structured around the earning of a wage or salary but the desire to better oneself and achieve their full capacity. Socialism is not a technocratic vision to be imposed but is created through the collective activity of working people re-organising society where the State will become more and more useless, eventually fully withering away.

A Vision of the Socialist Future

Sometimes a fellow-worker wonders how he or she is ever going to understand the theory of socialism. You can’t even understand Karl Marx words without a dictionary. At least that’s the way it looks at first. Many find themselves thinking, “Well, this socialism stuff is all right for college graduates but. I only work for a living. How am I going to understand these books on economics and philosophy when I don’t even read the Socialist Standard?” The class struggle bubbles and boils and at first sight it seems to be quite a mystery to understand. Yet it is each and every day of your life and take part in it yourself. Recessions, wage-cuts, strikes, picket lines, and sometimes revolution. No working man or woman should think just because it is called scientific socialism that he or she can’t hope to learn it. The worker can learn the most important elements a thousand times easier than any university-educated boss. It is a study of the everyday things that working people know more about than anybody else: the factory and office, where they spend all their working hours; the machinery, which they become almost a part of; and the products which they, and only they, produce.

 Marx simply showed how capitalism is different from other systems in the past and that capitalism had a beginning and it’s going to have an ending. That the next stage in history is socialism, a system which operates in a different way than capitalism,  directly for the benefit of the people. It produces for use and not for profit. He explained that Mankind have the possibility of running the world to benefit the majority.  He and Engels were educators, eager with their books to teach. There are others in the Socialist Party trying to do the same, explaining the day-to-day class struggle, anxious to be a helper to make the task not such an impossible thing as you first thought. And later when the class struggle heats up, you’re going to step up and tell dozens – maybe hundreds or thousands – of other working people how to turn resistance into revolution. And discover you weren’t so dumb as you believed. The whole idea of socialism is we wouldn’t be producing for profit – for sale on the market. That’s the main thing. We would manage the whole industry ourselves. We’d co-operate with other industries’ workers doing the same thing.

Maybe you think it’s going to be a long, long time before the working people take power and create abundance for all. You explain the case for socialism to your neighbours and work colleagues and they don’t accept the idea. You see, some people hold on to the same old prejudices that are against their own interests. And you wonder how and when all these workers will overthrow their ruling class. How are you ever going to get the working people together because you see the workers divided by religion, race, nationality and gender.  People still go on talking capitalist crap. How are the workers of the world ever going to get together? lt isn’t going to be easy to organize the whole world. We’ve a big job ahead of us. But the main job of uniting the working people is being done by our enemy, the capitalist class. Yes, even though they encourage racism and nationalism they are uniting us. They are uniting us by subjecting us to the same conditions. They are uniting us by making us work together. They are uniting us by giving us all the same lousy wages and squeezing us into a common mould. The people all over the world are suffering the same united misery under their capitalist masters, regardless of what flag these masters fly or colour of skin. We have a common fight against a common enemy and there is the camaraderie of struggle. We share the same desire to smash our shackles. 

The whole capitalist world is a prison for our class and we are beginning to see it, we can’t help but see it. As we see it more and more, unity in the struggle will be forged. For we are shackled with a common chain. And the same key to free us fits all the locks.

The capitalists own everything. We just own our debts and our muscles. We have to give the capitalists our muscles so we can pay our debts. Here’s how it works. Say a knife represents all the plants, machinery, tools – everything we work with that the capitalists own. Suppose this chunk of bread is the earth itself. Pretend for now that you are the whole working class of the world. I’m the capitalist class because I own the knife.

I let you work with this knife and cut that bread. There, you made ten slices. Well, I put those ten slices away in my cupboard and give you a pound. You take the pound, go out and buy five slices of bread. Here’s the five slices. You and your family eat it up tonight. Then tomorrow you come to work and slice some more bread for me.

After this goes on for a while, I acquire a hoard of bread stored up in that cupboard. And it isn’t any use to cut up any more, because it’ll only get moldy. So I tell you to go home, and wait for me to call you back to work. Well, you’re out of work, and you can’t buy any bread, so I have to lower the price. I can’t make much money that way, so I dump a lot of it in the ocean so the price will go up.

Things get tough and strength in your muscles are getting weaker. That looks bad for me because I’ll need you later on. So being the big-hearted person I am,  I give you a half a slice of bread a day for nothing – no money at all. Of course, I say you’re a lazy bum because you won’t work, and it’s your fault that I don’t give you any work. But that generosity makes me feel pretty good. I think of myself as a philanthropist

Finally, I get resume business again. I get you to sharpen up the knife once more. You cut out twenty slices a day instead of ten. To show you how big-hearted I am, I give you one pound and fifty pence a day. And it isn’t my fault if the price of bread has gone up because I am selling more bread in the rest of the world.

In the meantime, my cupboard is once more getting bigger than ever. I lay you off again, take back the knife again and eat my bread while you starve. What can you do about it? WHY DON’T YOU TAKE THAT KNIFE AWAY FROM ME?

No single individual really rules. A CLASS rules. The capitalist class. Like all previous class rule, capitalist rule is the rule of a tiny minority, based on the foundations of scarcity economy. The only way a minority has or can or ever did rule over the majority is by supplementing brute force with deception, lies and legends. What the capitalist sells is the product of our labour. And that’s where they get the money to hire more employees to build more plants. That’s where they get the money to live in palaces and swim in champagne. And all they return to the worker is enough to scrape along on. The chains of wage- slavery are worse than real chains in a way. Your hands work faster and pile up wealth faster for the boss when iron chains are not in the way. Only NEED chains us all. Only cringing poverty before mighty wealth of ONE individual. But it’s a powerful chain – for the BIG BOSS. We don’t all wear the exact same uniform of the chain-gang convict. But it doesn’t take long for dust and hard labour to do its work and make us all look alike – inside and out.

When we take over the industries, our class, THE WORKING CLASS, will rule. Then we’ll have real democracy, workers’ social democracy. We working people will be running things in the interests of our communities and society. There will be no presidents or dictators in our system, for the simple reason that we’ll be constantly getting better leaders to take care of the interests of those who will then PROFIT from the power – the WORKING PEOPLE themselves. When we working people take over production, we’ll have some real rights for the first time in history. The main thing we’ll do is make more than enough for all to live a comfortable life. The fear of want and penury will be gone. We’ll make the work easier by using the many inventions that capitalists buy up and bury. And we’ll encourage far more inventions from people who can hold up their heads for the first time and look their machine and the whole factory over from top to bottom. Instead of us all being one tired-out bunch, drab, grey, and regimented by the power of capital, we’ll BE individuals. Things are going to be different. We’re going to be working for ourselves, not as sweated slaves for a few lousy bucks, but as people working for other working people instead of for profits. Making the things our family and neighbours want – and making them in far greater amounts than the fattest capitalists ever dreamed of.

“Who’s going to do the dirty work under socialism?” is one question that is just thoughtlessly echoing boss-class, people who never have dirtied their hands in their lives.  If we stop to think a second we’d say “Who does the dirty work under capitalism?...THE WHOLE WORKING CLASS.” The only dirty work will be the job of cleansing all the filth the capitalists have left behind – like clearing up the waste from their environmental destruction. Our new society will have no need of pollution or war. It will have every need for strong, healthy, happy human beings and every reason to help them to be so. Our workers’ society will spare no expense to make all jobs safe and clean. With socialism, no one is going to do the dirty work. 

Returning Land To Their Natural State? Not If You Go Bankrupt!

The toxic wastes of the Canadian oil patch in Alberta has been spreading in the boreal forest since bitumen mining began there in the 1960’s. 

The mix of clay, water, toxic acids and leftover bitumen has sprawled into artificial ponds big enough to cover an area twice the size of Vancouver. More than one trillion litres of the gunk called trailings fill these man made waste lakes. It would take five days for the same amount of water to pour over Niagara. The ponds emit methane and other greenhouse gases. They attract and kill migrating birds and are totally inhospitable to aquatic life. No fish and few invertebrates can live in them. 

According to Jodi McNeill, policy analyst for the environmental think tank, Pembina Institute, ”The ponds have grown and grown over the last five decades. If we continue kicking the can down the road we will be leaving a legacy of ten’s of billions in clean up costs to future generations”. 

Oil companies are required to return the lands they develop to their natural state, which is a joke, especially when they go bankrupt, which one did last August leaving 4,000 uncleaned wells and pipelines. The Alberta Energy Regulator has estimated it will cost $130 billion to clean up the mess if they can. It may not be so easy considering leakage from the ponds has got into the surrounding groundwater and the nearby Athabasca River. 

Of one thing you can be sure of – everywhere capitalism sticks its filthy tentacles it destroys life in one way or another.

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

No Capitalist Will Say To A Worker, ”You Are An Idiot For Letting Me Exploit You”.

The arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec.6 sent shock waves through stock markets and around the world. She is the company’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder Ben Zhengfei.

 The arrest was in response to a request from the US, who want Ms. Meng extradited as part of an investigation of an alleged scheme to use the global banking system to evade US sanctions against Iran. 

Prime Minister Trudeau said that though he had no prior knowledge of the arrest, nevertheless stated it was made by the appropriate authorities. The Chinese got quiet snotty about it and retaliated by arresting two Canadians in China, a diplomat and a businessman, who have no connection with the matter.

 Fearing Ms. Mehg a flight risk she was released on bail, but has to wear an electronic ankle bracelet. 

Whether the lady is guilty or not is hardly the point, which is capitalism is a system based on deceit. No capitalist ever has, or will, say to a worker, ”You are an idiot for letting me exploit you”.

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