Glasgow Branch Meeting (15/5)

The current confusion and division in the Labour Party should be an opportunity for socialists. What is of importance now is that people who may identify with wanting to create a genuinely socialist society of common ownership, democratic control and free access to wealth, don’t get suckered in by a radical-sounding, ‘populist’ reform movement that has yet to prove its popularity anywhere beyond the already like-minded. The attempt to reform capitalism by so-called benevolent governments has always been a disaster and there’s nothing to suggest it would be any different next time. The Labour Party is in a mess. The Labour Party has no answers to basic working class problems because it is ignorant of their cause. The squalid squabbles which presently dominates the Labour Party is nothing but an unprincipled power struggle. 

The Socialist Party has no leaders. That does not mean that we are unorganised, but that we are structured along democratic lines. Workers can only join our party if they understand what it stands for. All applicants for membership are required to undertake a short written or verbal ‘test’ designed to enable them to demonstrate an understanding of – and agreement with – this Object and Principles and also of the Party’s basic political positions not otherwise directly covered in the Declaration. There has been a sound reason for this as all members, once admitted, have full democratic rights and stand in basic equality to one another. This kind of political democracy can only work on the basis of agreement around fundamental principles and there would be no point in a socialist organisation giving full democratic rights to those who, in any significant way, disagreed with the socialist case. The outcome of that would be entirely predictable. Once in, it is their party, their say is as important as the next comrade’s. Our Executive Committee is only empowered to carry out the wishes of the membership. The Socialist Party does not just talk about democracy, we practice it.

The Socialist Party is concerned with how capitalism works, what socialism means and how to create a new order of society. This requires a reasoned approach and for our fellow workers to seriously consider our alternative approach to politics.

So come and learn more:

Wednesday, May 15th,  at 7:00 pm 

Maryhill Community Central Halls,

 304 Maryhill Road, 

Glasgow G20 7YE

The Simple Things in Life

The term “socialism” has a distinct meaning. It means a future system of society characterised by the fact that capitalism, with its markets, commodities, values, prices, exchange, surplus value, capital, money, competition, etc., is no more. Instead, there is a conscious, planned society where production is for use on such an enormous scale that there will be plenty for all. The State will have withered away, together with religion, recognised as the opium of the people. Socialism is the only way to solve the problems of the people and end the class divisions in society.

Capitalism means either the excruciating suffering or even the threat of total annihilation. Only a small section of the population controls production and it is not answerable to the rest of the community This section is competing within its own ranks and with similar classes abroad. This small capitalist class can hang on to power only because they control the State machine, by the means of mass “persuasion.”

People all over the world want simple things:

We want peace, instead of bloodshed and violence and destruction.

We want democracy and freedom, instead of racial and religious and national conflict.

We want security, instead of insecurity, the terrible business of not knowing today whether or not we will have food on the table or not.

We want to be sure that we will be able to raise our families in decent homes and send our children to good schools.

We want comfort and prosperity, instead of low living standards and unemployment.

These are the simple things which you and all the people everywhere long for, the simple things we have always wanted for ourselves and our children.

But we don’t have them.

We have enormous manufacturing facilities all over the land. We have undreamed of natural resources. We have millions of trained and skilled people. We can produce in one day what once took years to produce.

Yet we do not have prosperity.

It is the capitalist system that stands in the way. Under that system, a handful of capitalist oligarchs control all the wealth and power in the world. This handful owns industry, banking, mining, transportation. It owns our jobs. Whoever owns all these things, controls our lives, the lives of you and me and billions of others. 

Capitalism has completely failed us. Has capitalism provided comfortable housing for all of us to live in? Healthy and wholesome food for us to eat? Decent education for our children? Expert medical facilities? No, none of these things, or at least not to the best of its abilities. Instead, scientific resources are poured into industries that produce the most terrifying means of destroying life, destroying whole peoples and nations; bullets, bombs, tanks, war-planes, battleships, artillery and, finally, capitalism's proudest achievement, its dreaded nuclear arsenal. 

Why couldn’t all these factories be used to produce the good things of life? Capitalism works very well indeed to wage war, to kill and maim, to destroy and devastate. Capitalist efficiency is at its best when it is doing its worst. But it is no good for peace, security and prosperity of the people. That’s the best that capitalism offers you. That’s how practical and realistic capitalism is. Is that what YOU want? That is what capitalism offers you. 

But we of the Socialist Party believe there is an alternative. The alternative to capitalism is socialism. We can have security, peace and freedom. We can take over the industries built by us – by us and nobody else. We want to take over the wealth produced by us – by us and nobody else. We can run industry to produce for peace, not for war. To produce for us, for the needs and comforts of the people, and not for the swollen profits of the capitalist class Without capitalism and capitalist profit, we can put an end to misery and suffering. Our wonderful technology has produced for the terror of war production. We can make it perform to provide plenty for all, homes fit to live in, comforts and prosperity, self-respect and human dignity. Those are the things we all want. They are the things socialism stands for. They are the things that the Socialist Party stands for. We claim for socialism that it is the next summit which has to be attained in mankind’s progress onward and upward. This summit hides from our view all that may lie beyond.

For Everbody

Working people are in the great majority. Without them, the capitalist class wouldn’t be producing for profit – for sale on the market. What the employers sell is the product of our labour. And that’s where they get the money to hire more labourers to build more plants. That’s where they get the money to live, to live in palaces and swim in champagne. And all they return to the labourer is enough to scrape along on, a jump ahead of the finance company.

That’s the main thing about socialism. We could manage all of industry ourselves. We don't need the CEOs, the supposed business brains of an enterprise. We could use the same office force, the same supply and logistic departments, the same R and D as they use to provide plans and projects today. We could put them to work calculating the amount of our products we can reasonably get out in a year – what we need from the other industries and all. That should be fairly simple. That is why socialist democracy requires the widest participation in decision-making at all levels.

No single individual really rules either Germany or America. 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. When we take over the industries, our class, THE WORKING CLASS, will rule. Then we’ll have real democracy, workers’ democracy. We working people will be running things in our own interests. Any intelligent socialist would think it preposterous for the socialist transformation to be violent, since the aim of socialism is to establish an order of peace. To speak about socialists seeking violence against the capitalist regime today is ludicrous. We are presently an insignificant minority. 

Our Party members, plus our Party sympathisers, plus those who vote for us, multiplied by ten, are still an insignificant number. If every single one of us was armed with a weapon now, we could all be dispersed by few policemen or soldiers. We would be mad to think in such terms. 

The Socialist Party is an educational organisation. We seek first seek to win the minds and the hearts of the people. The Socialist Party does not hide the fact that it is the consistent enemy of capitalism and aims to replace capitalism by socialism not only because it is possible to do so but because it is absolutely necessary to the maintenance and the progressive development of society. We hold that capitalism has outlived its usefulness. We are convinced that if capitalism is allowed to continue, we will be plunged into barbarism. In a word, we hold that if humanity is to advance it must move on to socialism. Capitalism produces only when there is a profit for the owner of capital. When there is no profitable market for his product, the capitalist will not produce, no matter how great and urgent the need of the people for work, for food, for clothing and shelter, for a decent living standard, for security. While profits such as they never dreamed of before flow into the pockets of the big corporations, one after another of labour's rights are abrogated. Our wages frozen; our jobs conditions deteriorated. Every day it remains, capitalism brings us closer to barbarism. It will destroy us unless we destroy it. 

Socialism means peace, security, prosperity, freedom and equality- the things that working people have always wanted and longed for. Today socialism is an urgent necessity. Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution and their democratic organisation and management by all the people in a society free of classes, class divisions and class rule. Socialism is the democratic organisation of production for use, of production for abundance, of plenty for all, without the exploitation of man by man. Socialism is the union of the whole world disposing in common of the natural resources and wealth of our earth. It is now possible to organise our economic life to produce in abundance for all in a minimum of working time. Can socialism organise production and distribution in the interests of society as a whole, providing abundance, security and freedom for all? Yes, socialism and only socialism. Under socialism, production is organised for use, not for profit. Production is carried on in a planned, democratically-controlled way, not on the basis of whether or not the private capitalist can make a profit on the market. It is only necessary to free them from the paralysing hand of capitalism and production-for-profit in order to organise them in a rational and democratic manner. 

Where there is abundance for all, the nightmare of insecurity vanishes. There are jobs for all, and they are no longer dependent on whether or not the employer can make a bloated profit in a fat market. There is not only a high standard of living, but every industrial advance is followed by a rising standard of living and a declining working-day. Where there is abundance for all, and where no one has the economic power to exploit and oppress others, the basis of classes, class division and class conflict vanishes. The basis of a ruling state, of a government of violence and repression, with its prisons and police and army, also disappears. Police and thieves, prisons and violence are inevitable where there is economic inequality, or abundance for the few and scarcity for the many. They disappear when there is plenty for all, therefore economic equality, therefore social equality. Where there is abundance for all, and where all have equal access to the fruits of the soil and the wealth of industry, the mad conflicts and wars between nations and peoples vanish. With them vanishes the irrepressible urge that exists under capitalism for one nation to subject others, to rob it of its rights, to exploit and oppress it, to provoke and maintain the hideous national and racial antagonisms that cling to capitalism like an ineradicable bloodstain.

Where mankind is free of economic exploitation, of economic inequality, of economic insecurity, it is free for the first time to develop as a human being among fellow human beings, free to contribute to the unfolding of a new culture and a new humanity, which recalls the capitalistic war of all against all only as a sordid and horrible memory of mankind's ugly childhood. To the achievement of this noble ideal which is a burning necessity, socialism addresses itself firstly and above all to the members of the working class. This fight cannot be conducted consistently nor, in the long run, successfully, unless it becomes a conscious fight against the whole rotten foundation of capitalism and for laying the foundation of socialism. 

We in the Socialist Party are organised to make the working class conscious of its historical mission, of the great part it must play in reorganising society itself. We are part and parcel of the working class. We appear in every election campaign as the party of socialism. We do not say to the workers: "Fix your eyes so rigidly on the socialist future that you ignore the needs and battles of the day." Rather, we say: "Precisely because socialism is the future, because it is the solution of the social problem, we support every fight and every demand of labour today which strengthens the working class, which gives it a stronger position in society, which increases its self-confidence and militancy, which pits it against its mortal enemy capitalism and the capitalist class-which strengthens its independence, and which, therefore, brings it a step further along the road of struggle for the socialist future." We do not believe that a well-cast vote will solve the problems facing the working class. When we appear in elections, it is first of all with the aim of presenting our views to the widest possible sections of the working class, and with the aim of winning and recording in the elections their support for these views. What a vote for the Socialist Party, and for its candidates for means is recording yourself in favour of the socialist demands of our party. It means more than this, however. It means also recording yourself clearly as voting for your own socialist convictions.

Scotland needs newcomers

Scotland has a particular problem with an ageing workforce.

In 20 years time, the CBI expects only one third of the Scottish population to be of working age, causing "profound implications for Scotland, its tax base and public services". 

Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the CBI, "Scotland has particularly unusual problem in terms of a falling working age population."

A UK government consultation includes a minimum £30,000 salary for skilled migrants seeking five-year visas. The Home Office has said its plans would allow the UK to attract talented workers and deliver on the Brexit vote.

But Carolyn Fairbairn told BBC Scotland she believed skilled workers would have to be recruited at lower pay levels. "For many people wanting to come and work in Scotland the salaries are well below that, so we are looking for change and we are looking for a new immigration model that works for the whole country."

The Scottish median salary is less than £24,000.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-48221757

The Scottish Billionaires

11 billionaires linked to Scotland have increased their wealth in the past year, are worth an estimated combined £17.245bn, an increase of £1.038bn in the past year.

Glenn Gordon, the Jersey-based tycoon behind distillers William Grant & Sons, and his family were named as Scotland's richest for the sixth year in a row. His family has more than doubled its wealth in six years to £2.882bn. Rising profits for William Grant & Sons group, which produces whisky including Grant's, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie as well as Hendrick's gin, has seen huge returns for the founder's great-great-grandson Glenn Gordon. Gordon has overseen a £310m increase in the family's wealth in the past year, with profits up by 14.4% at their Banffshire-based distillery.

Scotland's richest

1. Glenn Gordon and family - spirits - £2.882bn.
2. Sir Ian Wood and family - oil services and fishing - £1.763bn.
3. Mohamed Al Fayed and family - retailing - £1.7bn.
4. John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - pharmaceuticals - £1.689bn
5. Mahdi al-Tajir - metals, oil and Highland Spring water - £1.66bn
6. Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family - industry - £1.602bn
7. Thomson family - media - £1.401bn.
8. Philip Day - fashion - £1.2bn.
9. The Clark family - of the Arnold Clark car dealership - £1.178bn.
10. Jim Mellon - property and finance - £1.1bn.
11. Jim McColl, of Clyde Blowers - £1.1bn.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48218103

Fighting for Ourselves

Socialism is rule by the working people. They will decide how socialism is to work. This was how Marx and Engels defined socialism. The task of the Socialist Party is to help and guide the transfer of power from capitalists to working people. To use the word “socialism” for anything but working people’s power is to misuse the term. Nationalisation of mines, railways, steel, etc. is not socialism, nor does this constitutes “the socialist sector of a mixed economy”. Nationalisation is simply state capitalism with no relation to socialism. Nor is the “Welfare State” socialist. “Welfare” in a capitalist state is to improve the efficiency of the worker as a profit-maker and is not socialism but another form of state capitalism. It can be an improvement on capitalism with no welfare, just as a 40-hour week is an improvement on a 60-hour week. But it is not socialism. (A “Welfare State” can also be described as a Means Test State.)

Capitalism is a system of the exploitation and the subjection of mankind is getting worse and worse. It only needs a good push to bring it tumbling down, to make possible its immediate replacement by a different and better system, desperately needed if the humanity is to continue, indeed, if to survive at all. But it will not fall down by itself. To see the wage and social struggles as the main task is like being concerned about what’s for dinner when the house is burning down. First put out the capitalist fire, the class policy that subordinates everything to profit and threatens to destroy our planet. Then we can all breathe freely again and set about reconstruction. To concentrate on the immediate struggles within capitalism today is to betray the working class. Socialists more than ever today must be champions of the people, not a mere negotiators. Our aim is not a better wage nor improved living conditions, but people’s power. We accept that at the present time that most working people are capitalist-minded. Why is this? Because they have been capitalist-educated in a capitalist society. People today do not in general accept or seek socialism, but very many do reject capitalist values. They can see that the world about them is falling to pieces. The need for some sort of change is widely realised but they have little idea about what to do about it. It is up to socialists to win them over. Men and women for the first time can take charge of their own destiny, no longer having things happen to them and now able to decide what is to happen.

Technologically there is no more a major problem. The difficulty is now only a social one – that mankind as a whole has so far been incapable of making choices because of the class divisions that make it impossible to take decisions for the development of mankind in its entirety. Capitalism is maintained by class power and will only be displaced by other class power. Who are the one class that no society can do without? Those who work. If the working people want power they will have to take it. It will not be given to them. We have to remember that all politics is about power. The revolutionary socialist calls for power for the working people. The first task of socialists is therefore to build a revolutionary party.

The reformist is a hypocrite who is prepared to exercise power on behalf of the oppressor, and calls for power for the working people for some future date. Workers are not political theorists, rather, they are primarily practical men and women strong in commonsense. They can and do organise successfully to improve their conditions. They will organise in the same way to take power, when they see the necessity, and when they see the way to do it. The socialist can and does prove all that the practical person demands. Socialism can and does meet all the standards applied to it.

Socialism is practical.

Socialism is a society in which all the members of the community collectively determine their conditions of life and their way of living. In order to do so, they must control, collectively, the use to which machines, factories, raw materials – all the means of production – are put. Unless the means of production are effectively in the hands of the whole society, not as today where 1 per cent of the population owns more than half the national capital, there can be no question of the collective control of the conditions of life. In the earlier days of the workers' movement it was generally accepted, without discussion, that the State represented Society as a whole, that its parliamentary institutions provided the means for popular opinion to express itself; and when that opinion became socialist, or at least the majority of it, the State would become socialist automatically. Consequently many have still grown up with these ideas and rarely have questioned the soundness of the theory. Therefore nationalisation in various forms is hailed as a method of “socialisation” and “public control” and welcomed as a socialistic measure. In fact they do not constitute an attack upon capitalism, but only an outward form of it. Class relations are not changed. A “socialism” which leaves the working class as a subject class is not socialism. State ownership is nothing more nor less than state capitalism, just as the Post Office is a form of a state capitalist enterprise. The workers within it are as much wage slaves as the workers in private capitalism. Nationalised industries are highly centralised forms of capitalism which leaves the workers subject to more severe rationalisation and makes them more subjugated than ever. The path to socialism is not through public corporations and state ownership, nor even workers representatives on the Board of managements but through a fundamental change in class relations. Socialism means the creation of a class-free order of society.

An appeal to humanity does not move the capitalist

Social Reaction or Social Revolution, Capitalism or Communism – thus stands the question. This question must be answered in our favour. For the spirit of socialism rises over the entire world.

Capitalism, with its competition, incites nations, races and continents against one another. Capitalism is the instigator of wars. Instead of uniting the world for peace, it works for its irremediable division, for perpetual conflict. Capitalism becomes the Destroyer. The permanent war economy continues with all the key social and economic questions are decisively determined by the course of national antagonisms and preparations for war.

The rise of a socialist movement depends today on the rise of a politically-conscious working class, on its separation from the capitalist ideology. Socialists should dedicate themselves to the purpose of hastening and influencing such a development. What is required of us above all is steadfastness in the face of continuing adversity. That is the duty of every conscious socialist who has stuck by his or her principles and ideas.

Many left-wing groups fancy themselves as “vanguards” of the working-class. We say that workers should spurn these would-be elites and organise for socialism democratically, within political parties without leaders. Leftists insist that they are very much concerned with working-class consciousness, but an examination of their literature shows that “consciousness” means merely following the right leaders. When it is suggested that the majority of the population must attain a clear desire for the abolition of the wages system, and the introduction of a worldwide money-free community, they reply that this is “too abstract”, or “too academic.” Some say, when push comes to shove, that they look forward to such a world without wages “ultimately,” but since this “ultimate” aim has no effect on their actions it can only be interpreted as an empty platitude. They are even muddled about the various capitalist reforms they will introduce if they get power. Bernstein’s dictum “The movement is everything, the goal nothing” sums up the left-wing outlook very well. Left-wing people need to chase feverishly down every reformist cul-de-sac, a practice known as “developing consciousness through struggle. Struggle is apparently a sort of metaphysical driving force which is supposed to turn reforms into sparks of revolution. Action for its own sake is lauded to the skies. The Left constitute the officer corps and the ringmasters who order the working-class to jump through hoops, manipulated by slogan-shouting demagogues brandishing reformist bait. What is needed is not leadership (the labour movement is full of “revolutionary leaders” as it is) but a working class equipped with an understanding of socialism. The left wing are a valuable asset to the capitalist system, thanks to the confusion and disillusionment they produce.

Those who march in protest about the effects of capitalism would do better to look for a more radical approach—or else contribute towards generations to come suffering the same sore feet, the same sore heads—and the same bitter disillusionment. Even when the politicians, the economists and the experts listen they are still powerless to end the misery and exploitation of capitalism.

Nationalists share the illusion that the problems facing workers in Northern Ireland or workers in Wales or in Scotland are caused by some faulty political arrangement: rule from London rather than from Edinburgh, Cardiff or Dublin. In actual fact, however, these problems have an economic cause: the capitalist system of class ownership of the means of production and distribution. As long as capitalism continues to exist these problems will remain, however the political superstructure is re-arranged and no matter how radical or violent the rearrangement. The experience of the South of Ireland since independence in 1921 is proof enough of this.

The Socialist Party is internationalist. It strives to join together of workers of all lands in order to end capitalism, and all the scourges which accompanies the system. It is nationalism that divides workers so that the workers of one nationality are struggling against the workers of another nationality for a few illusory crumbs the rulers throw out exactly for that purpose. It is nationalism that pits groups of workers against each other to the advantage of their mutual exploiters and oppressors. Nationalism is an ideology which developed with the emergence of nations during the rise and development of capitalism. Nationalism serves the capitalists in the sense that they are seeking a market for their goods, and their national market is always primary as capitalism develops. And nationalism serves to help the merchants, traders and manufacturers secure its home market from foreign competitors by promoting patriotic protectionism. Yet the nation-state also offers the spring-board for acquiring foreign markets by demanding free trade for its exports. Nationalism does not serve the interests of the working class but is a tool of the capitalist class. The hold of patriotic sentiment and the havoc wrought by capitalists by playing upon it, have been abundantly demonstrated.

Nationalism means exclusion and isolation. Any nationalism finally implies that those people are better than all others. We are the victims of a nationalism that preaches superiority and inferiority. Nationalism isolates the oppressed from their foreign brothers and sisters and delivers them into the hands of the exploiters of their own nationality. The destroyer of capitalism is the collective workers struggle, the victory of the multi-national working class.

Capitalism is a world system and cannot be replaced by socialism except on a global scale. Just as socialism in a single country is not possible, so a successful socialist strategy cannot be developed except on a worldwide scale.

The SNP is a capitalist party. It works on behalf of business. The difference between the SNP and the other parties is not that it is calling for a different social system. What’s different is that they are simply looking for a new way to divide the spoils. The sharing will still just be between groups of capitalists.

We Need a Revolution of the Brain and the Heart

In order for the working people to fulfil their historic role of abolishing capitalism and establishing socialism, it is necessary that they be organised as a class. The task of the Socialist Party is not to channel class struggles into programmes of reform but to extend transform them until they are seen as part of the path to the abolition of capitalism and the taking of power by the working class. The Socialist Party is the conscious expression of the class struggle of the workers against capitalism. Its aim is to direct the struggle to the conquest of political power as the means of introducing the socialist society. The Socialist Party maintains that the problems of the working class are identical with the problems of the workers around the world. Every country to-day is in the hands of billionaires-owners of the biggest corporations, the biggest banks, the biggest computer companies; in short, owners or CEOs of Big Business. They use their power to make themselves richer and richer—at our expense. They hire workers to make profit out of their labour; their capitalist production is for profit, not for use: and to get more profit they slash wages, carry through speed-up and worsen conditions. This mad race for profit ends in a crisis; and then they try to get out of the crisis—at our expense.

Poverty, insecurity and malnutrition making their inroads in the homes of millions of workers: low wages, increased work-loads, to the point of physical exhaustion, is the lot of the workers and it increases the number of accidents, sickness and a high death-rate among the working-class. This is the world to-day for working men, women and their families. Unless we put an end to capitalism, conditions will become worse and worse. Poverty and insecurity and unemployment which threatens the majority of people. Workers must face with full and serious determination the situation as it is; face the fact that all capitalism has to offer them to-day is wage-slavery; and that neither they nor their families have any hope or future under capitalism. There is no need for a single worker to be overworked or in dread of losing his or her job; no reason why an unemployed worker should lack the necessaries of life. All over the world millions of workers are year by year coming to realise these facts and to see that nothing except the existence of capitalism prevents them building up for themselves a decent and secure world. Everywhere the workers are becoming less and less willing to put up with an entirely unnecessary state of semi-starvation. They are showing themselves more and more determined to insist upon their right to food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their families. But to get this, capitalism must be overthrown. To get this is only possible by the building up of socialism, giving peace and prosperity, happiness and new life to the whole working population. All over the world the tide of working-class resistance is now rising. The workers have the power to overthrow capitalism. It is the capitalists who are powerless. It is the workers who are strong from the very moment that they unite and move towards the essential reconstruction of society.

It will mean that the capitalists will be deprived of their ownership and control of the factories and offices, mines, farms and transport. All these means of production which they have used and misused only to pile up profits for themselves and poverty for the workers will be taken from them. The workers will put an end of production for profit and will carry on production for use. The needs of all will be met, and new needs and pleasures now denied to the working class will be created and satisfied by a socialist organisation and extension of production.

The future of the world depends upon the people themselves, upon the working class above all as the most cohesive and progressive class in society. The future of humanity depends upon the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a class-free society; it depends upon the abolition of exploitation and production for profits, and its replacement by a State-free society. Central to the capitalist economic system is the exploitation of workers by capitalists. This determines that the great mass of people, the working class, have no choice except to work for capitalist employers so as to earn a money wage to buy the goods and services, the commodities, necessary for them to survive. On the face of things this relationship between capitalist and worker seems to be a fair and equal one: the worker agrees to do so many hours work for the capitalist and in return the capitalist agrees to pay a certain amount of money in wages. In reality this relationship is an unequal and exploitative one because the wages paid to the worker are less than the value of what he or she produces. The difference between the value of what workers produce and what they receive in wages constitutes the profits of the capitalist employer. Massive exploitation of the working class is an integral part of the capitalist economic system and will persist for as long as does capitalism.

Who owns the North Pole?

This blog has comprehensively covered the struggle by the capitalist countries to assert their power over the arctic region. 

Continuing this ongoing process the United States warn other counties but in particular Russia and China, that American interests will not be threatened by them.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US would strengthen its Arctic presence to keep in check what he called the "aggressive attitude" of China and Russia.

Pompeo said: "The region has become an arena of global power and competition. Just because the Arctic is a place of wilderness does not mean it should become a place of lawlessness," Pompeo added.

Surface air temperatures in the Arctic are warming at twice the rate as the rest of the earth, according to some researchers. Some experts say the ocean could be ice-free during the summer months within 25 years. The melting ice has made some of the earth's undiscovered reserves of oil, gas and mineral deposits more accessible. Environmentalists are concerned that the Trump administration is focused on exploiting resources and pushing back on Russia and China for strategic and security reasons at the expense of the Arctic's fragile environment. 

 China, which became an observing nation on the Arctic Council in 2013, has tried to boost its presence in the Arctic region. It has been one of the countries scrambling to claim territory as thawing ice allows for the exploitation of some of the world's remaining untapped resources. Last year, China outlined a plan for a "Polar Silk Road" as melting ice has opened up northern shipping routes. The US warned earlier this month of the risk of Chinese submarines in the Arctic.

https://www.dw.com/en/us-vows-to-check-aggressive-china-russia-in-arctic/a-48612809