You need to be a socialist

Working people are being victimised by an array of absurd contradictions.

Getting something for nothing is what capitalism is all about. That is what capitalists do best. Indeed, that is all they do. Capitalists do not earn, or create, or build anything. They live by profiting from the work done by others. They live off the labour of the working class. The names these two classes bear tell the story. Workers work and capitalists capitalise on the work that workers do. Capitalism exists and can only exist as a system of exploitation. Capitalists are the exploiters and workers are the exploited. Capitalism condemns millions to lives of poverty and despair just to enhance the worthless lives of a few. It is not the welfare queens or the work-shy who bleed leech off others. It is the capitalist vampire that is sucking the working class dry.

Basic needs remain unmet while goods and products that could satisfy these needs sit in warehouses or storage lots, inaccessible to the working people who need but can’t buy them. Billions of dollars are being spent on armament industries while schools, hospitals, public transport and other social services are curtailed or eliminated for “lack of funds.” Workers have demanded too much improvement in the quality of the environment, too much job security safety, too much retirement protection, too much health care, too much equality, too much housing, too much pay, etc. Less pay for workers, less spending for job safety, less investment for pollution controls mean more profits for the capitalist owners of industry. Less spending for education and social services generally means more tax cuts for the capitalists, more money to invest in business expansion. Placing blame upon the greed of the workers diverts attention from the underlying causes - profit-motivated production and private ownership of the economy, policies which are fostering increased competition among workers for the limited number of jobs and social services capitalism has to offer. In this way, the ability of workers to mount a unified defence against enforced austerity is crippled.

Even when a capitalist economy is relatively healthy, the needs of workers are never met. This is so because the capitalist economy does not operate to meet workers’ needs. It operates for capitalist profit. That profit is generated through the exploitation of working people—that is, by paying workers wages that amount to only a fraction of the wealth they collectively produce. In a socialist economy based on common ownership of industry, the workers’ condition would be the reverse of what it is today. Production would be for social use instead of for private profit. Through elected delegates, they would democratically administer the industries and make all economic decisions. Resources would be allocated and production would be carried out on the basis of social needs and wants. A socialist economy would thereby free society of the limitations now imposed by capitalism. Such a society will not, of course, come into existence by itself. If the working-class majority is to become master of the nation’s economic forces, rather than its victims, workers must organise to wrest control from the capitalist class and to lay the foundation for a socialist society. Specifically, working people must break with the political parties of the capitalist class and organise politically around their common class interests. The Socialist Party goal is the transformation of the present economy into a socialist economy run by, and in the interests of, working people. 

This is why you must be a socialist

Capitalist rule forces the masses of people to compete with each other for survival. The unity of the workers of all minorities and nationalities can and will be built not in competition over the division of the pie but in the common struggle to take the whole pie and the means to continually enlarge it. For the working class, the fight for equality is not a fight to “suffer equally under capitalism” but a crucial part of the struggle to end capitalism and the misery it causes to people. Working people who try to find a clear way through the hardships of present-day conditions are faced with a hard task. 

On every side is confusion. Rising prices, falling wages, the uncertainty of a job, or the deepening misery of months and even years of unemployment; wars and ever new threats of war — all these are the daily conditions of life now. Amid all these ills there is no guidance or help from the old sources to which the workers used to look. The trade unions have little to say, engaged mostly in desperate endeavours to keep their membership from disappearing. Politicians are ready to make all kinds of promises for a beautiful future time when they shall be the government.

The capitalist world sinks ever deeper into its many crises. It heaps torment upon torment upon backs of the toiling class. For countless millions of human beings life today is a means hunger and unbearable wage-slavery. Everywhere workers look anxiously for remedies. But they can find no way out of the blind alley. We are not fooled by the sloganising of the Left that the working class is in a revolutionary upsurge. The mass of people are not revolutionists as yet. But nor are our fellow-workers entirely docile. There often comes signs of fresh hope. We see all around signs of the dawning of the new day of socialism, and we shall work for the coming of that better day for we see no way out save in a complete overthrow of the capitalist system. A father who casts a vote for the continuance of that system is as much of a murderer as if he took a gun and shot his own child.

From all quarters of the globe comes cries of distress. Poverty and low wages, and unemployment, are driving millions to despair. Now they are once again at the cross-roads. Only the conversion of private property in the means of production – land, mines, raw material,machinery, transport and communication – into social property, and the transformation of the production of goods into socialist production, carried on for and through society, can bring it about that the great production and the continually increasing productivity of social labour may become for the exploited classes, instead of a source of oppression, a source of the highest welfare and of all-sided harmonious development. This social transformation means the emancipation, not merely of the worker, but of the entire human race which suffers under the present conditions. The Socialist Party proposes no new class privileges and exclusive rights, but for the abolition of class rule and of classes themselves. It struggles in the present society, not only against exploitation of the wage-workers, but against every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether directed against gender or race.

The greatest need of to-day is clear understanding of the present conditions and positive marking out of the path to travel. Where can it be found? Through all the unrest and discontent of present times at home and abroad there is only one party that is consistent and unhesitating, that has exposed the confusion of shams and lies and stood firmly by the struggle of the working class. That party has been the Socialist Party. When the Labour Party and the capitalist politicians were prattling on about improving conditions by reforms, the Socialist Party declared that capitalism had out-lived its usefulness and the time was now for a socialist revolution. All sorts of politicians proclaim a new world, a new heaven upon earth. New cults and idols are held out before the workers, all shams to conceal from the workers their growing enslavement and hide from them the issue of Revolution. Alone the the Socialist Party asserts that capitalism its continuance would only mean growing chaos, and that the only path for the workers was the path of the workers’ revolution. Workers are beaten down because they were divided and uncertain, of their path, because they are duped by the trickery of fake leaders in alliance with the capitalists. The capitalist bear down upon the workers and leaving a trail of want and misery.

The struggle of the working class against economic exploitation is of necessity a political struggle. The working class cannot effect the change of the means of production into the possession of the collective society without coming into possession of political power. To shape this struggle of the working class into a conscious and united one, and to point out to its inevitable goal, this is the task of the Socialist Party. In all lands the interests of the working classes are alike. With the world trade and the global market, the condition of the workers of every single land always grows more dependent on the condition of the workers in other lands. The emancipation of the working class is therefore a task in which the workers of all countries are equally interested. Recognising this the Socialist Party declares itself at one with the class-conscious workers of all countries.

Robert the Bruce - the real history

The  film - Robert The Bruce - will have its premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival tonight.

Angus Macfadyen who plays Bruce and co-wrote the script is a supporter of Scottish independence.

Perhaps this is an opportune moment to draw attention to the Socialist Standard article on Bruce. 

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2014/2010s/no-1319-july-2014/bruce-and-bannockburn/

"...Bruce at Bannockburn never fought for the people of Scotland – he fought to place a crown upon his head."

But not solely of Scotland but of Ireland, too

https://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/03/bruce-invader.html

Fact of the Day

Almost half of workers ran out of money before payday last year, with some having to go without food as a result, according to a survey for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS).

Life Expectancy Pessimism

The connection between austerity and dwindling life expectancy is hard to shake off, says David Walsh, of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. The city once had some of the worst life expectancy rates in the western world – for example in the central area of Calton, a place blighted by poor housing, illness, high smoking rates, and violence.

Inhabitants suffered high death rates linked to drug and alcohol abuse and suicides. As a result, at the beginning of the 21st century, the male life expectancy in Calton at birth was 54, one of the worst figures in the UK. Glasgow subsequently made major efforts to improve death rates in Calton but is now watching life expectancies slide back towards their old levels.

“I think it is pretty clear that austerity is to blame,” says Walsh. “We have taken away these people’s safety nets.”

The grim future facing these young adults was summed up by Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology at University College London. “If you were to go to a young man growing up in Calton who is doing drugs and alcohol and smoking and is unemployed and is unemployable and say to him: ‘Look, you really shouldn’t smoke.’ Well, you wouldn’t get far with him and, in any case, he might be quite rational for not making long-term plans because he does not have a long-term future.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/23/why-is-life-expectancy-falling

The need is for socialism

With socialism, all power to make social decisions will be vested in the people. Our industries, their ownership, and how they are run will be based on the means of producing all goods and services owned collectively by all the people. The industries will be administered democratically from bottom to top by representatives elected directly by the workers in each industry and subject to their control. All representatives will be subject to recall at any time by those who elected them. Production will be carried out to satisfy the people’s wants. There is nothing in this which in any way resembles the workings of class-divided capitalism and its political state. Democracy founded on common ownership of the instruments of production and distribution and on economic freedom is the only form of society that can solve the problems capitalism has imposed upon us. It is the only social structure that can release the abundance for all now locked up in the capitalist economy. 

For you, as an individual, social democracy will mean a full, happy and useful life. It will mean the opportunity to develop all your talents. It will mean direct participation in the decisions of a society of free human beings. In socialist society, class divisions and exploitation will have been eliminated. Production will be carried out for use by all rather than to serve the profit interests of a small minority.

In each plant and enterprise, people will collectively determine workplace policies and will elect committees to plan the overall operations where the workers will participate in determining how best to implement and assure the efficient running of their economic unit. The workers will also elect representatives to a local and regional committees and to a central council representing all the industries and services. They will draw up the necessary production, expansion and improvement plans and allocate these to the various industries. All persons elected to posts in this economic administration, at whatever level, will be subject to rank-and-file control, and to removal whenever a majority of those who elected them find it desirable to replace them. The principles of workers’ democracy—i.e., the right and power of the majority to recall all elected representatives, the abolition of bureaucratic privileges, etc.—would ensure that control remained in the hands of the people.

In socialist society, for the first time, the people will consciously direct their economic activity and democratically provide for their own well-being and security. Not only useful labour, but the fruits of that labour as well, will be available to all. The only limit on production would be social needs and wants. The allocation of resources will be democratically planned by a society in full control of its productive forces.

Genuine socialism is the hope of humanity

We live in times of political change. There has never been a free people. Human society always consisted of masters and slaves, and the slaves have always been and are today, the foundation stones of society. Wage-slavery is a fact. It is clear to every class-conscious worker that there is a class war being waged by the capitalist classes to secure a greater share in the exploitation of labour. It is a matter of paramount importance that we, as socialists, apprehend the basic conditions underlying the strife, and that we prepare to meet the consequences to the world’s workers that will issue from it. This address to socialists and the working class generally is directed to such an understanding. In the confusion arising from false issues of the capitalist class, put forward to mislead the workers, we must ever be on our guard against the crafty apologists of wrong posing as friends of labour.

The Socialist Party of Ireland seeks to organise the workers of this country, irrespective of creed or race, into one great PARTY OF LABOUR. It believes that the dependence of the working class upon the owners of capitalist property, and the desire of these capitalists and landowners to keep the vast mass of the people so subject and dependent, is the great and abiding cause of all our modern social and political evils – of nearly all modern crime, mental degradation, social strife, and political tyranny. Recognising this, it counsels the working class to organise itself politically with the end in view of gaining control and mastery of the entire resources of the country. Such is our aim: such is socialism. As to the necessity for working-class organisation there can be no question. The point to be decided is: How shall the workers organise? Our method is: political organisation at the ballot box to secure the election of representatives of socialist principles to all the elective governing public bodies of this country, and thus to transfer the political power of the State into the hands of those who will use it to further and extend the principle of common ownership. What is needed is unity of thought and action. Far better no organisation at all than a fake form which divides the workers against themselves and misleads them in the interests of the employing class. As working-class organisation grows stronger capitalism grows weaker. It has already outlived its usefulness. It is unable to run industry efficiently, and fails to supply the needs of the great majority of the people.

The Socialist Party is the party of the working class, the party of emancipation, made up of men and women who scorn any compromise with their oppressors; who want no votes that can be bought, and promises no offices and no support under any false pretences whatsoever. The Socialist Party stands squarely upon its class principles. Its central task today is to consistently expose the enemy and point to the aim of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism, to raise the general level of consciousness and sense of organisation and instill a revolutionary outlook among fellow-workers. Ignorance alone stands in the way of socialist success. The capitalist parties understand this and use their resources to prevent the workers from gaining knowledge and understanding. Capitalist parties cunningly contrive to divide the workers. The Socialist Party is uniting them upon one issue: the abolition of wage-slavery.

We therefore appeal to all workers to throw in their lot with the Socialist Party and assist it in giving force, clearness and effectiveness to the gathering working class movement. And on its part that Party, conscious of its high mission, pledges itself to pursue, unfaltering and undeviating, its great object – common ownership of the means of producing and distributing all wealth. As socialists our basic goal is the emancipation of labour. We oppose any so-called right to own or exploit the labour of others. The Socialist Party's aim is the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism is not a scheme or plan. It is the next stage in social evolution. Many believe the Socialist Party is going to take all you own and divide it among the poor. We don’t want your paltry possessions. It would do us no good. We want the Earth.

Solidarity and Unity

If the workers of the world do not awaken in time then a terrible fate awaits for all. Long hours, low wages, misery and war—these have been the offerings of capitalism in the past but now we face the existential threat of global warming and climate change. The greatest need of the workers is world socialism, the cooperative commonwealth.

The workers of the world have endured years of slaughter, starvation and suffering. Many millions of men, women and children have died of want while fat capitalists have lived in luxury. Present-day life means nothing to you except the same daily grind of hopeless toil, poor food, poor clothing, poor housing, and an early death. Wake up! Show yourself to be worthy of more than a slave's position. Sweep away the capitalist class; conquer supremacy for the working class; and then get down to the serious business of building up institutions necessary for carrying on the business building a society where the people will own and control all means of wealth production and distribution in common. You must now choose between revolution for the establishment of socialism or degradation. The capitalists of the world are aiding and abetting one another. The workers must unite and overthrow them. The issue is clear—either revolution for socialism or more misery under capitalism.

The Socialist Party desires to impress upon you the practicability of the action we urge. No abstract theories are necessary. All that is necessary is that you, workers, should recognise that while a few men own the means whereby you live, you must be slaves to these men; once you see this then you must be prepared to take action to accomplish your freedom. You know that the government uses the police and military force to repress you every time you try to do anything for yourselves. These men are members of the working class like you are, efforts must be made to win them over to the side of the workers. This is your first step, and it is not so hard as it may appear; the workers in the army suffer under a system which is worse than factory life, also, and they are coming to understand that when they are discharged from the army they can only expect a miserable pension. Everything about which they only dream now could become a practical certainty through the co-operation of workers for the defeat of the capitalist class. 

You must show fellow-workers that the only ones who have interests in common with them are their own fellow-workers. We have everything to gain by the overthrow of the capitalists and nothing to lose. This is the way the workers of the world should be moving, and succeeding in their task of ridding the world of the system of society which means only misery for the workers. Nothing short of the complete overthrow of the capitalists and their institutions can prepare the ground where the workers shall control their own destiny. Workers, upon your shoulders rests this mighty work, your whole future depends upon its success.

Militarism on the march to war.

In the face of the latest ominous developments, the Socialist Party restates its conviction that only one thing can prevent the catastrophe toward which the world is heading is the establishment of world socialism. There is no acceptable alternative. The Socialist Party condemns in no uncertain terms any attack on Iran and regime change by U.S. Forces. There has been no evidence of any officially countenanced assaults on American citizens. 

The Socialist Party appeals to U.S. workers to take a stand against the war-hawks — and against the capitalist system that repeatedly causes such senseless acts of war. A socialist transformation of society would create an economic order under which the means of production would be socially owned and democratically controlled by workers. Socialism would place power in the collective hands of the working class. With the elimination of the profit motive, the principle of social use would guide production. The need would no longer exist for military spending artificially to stimulate the economy, or to maintain a large military machine to enforce access to foreign markets. Under capitalism even relatively small cutbacks in military spending could lead to increased unemployment and the creation of economically depressed areas. Under a social system based on production for use, the elimination of unnecessary production would simply reduce the workweek of the entire labor force because the entire industrial process would reflect the needs of the whole population. American working people must also learn the lessons of history or we’re going to be forced to relive old mistakes.

Capitalism is a predatory social system. The U.S. ruling class has continued its escalation of militarism as long as there are profit interests benefit from it.The capitalist class and its political parties couldn't care less if the government of Iran (or any other country) is democratic or anti-democratic. Its government will "wheel and deal" with any foreign tyrant if its purposes are served. It had no qualms about supplying Saudi Arabia despots and Muslim fundamentalists with weapons. That may seem inconsistent or hypocritical to some, but it is not. Supporting or opposing foreign governments has nothing to do with political principles or ideologies and everything to do with the material and profit interests of America's capitalist ruling class. Capitalism needs foreign markets; it needs foreign sources of raw materials for its industries; it needs large supplies of cheap labor; and it needs strategic control over those markets, supplies of cheap labor and sources of raw materials. Without these things it would choke and collapse. Getting and securing them is the fundamental foreign policy at work. How they are gotten and secured is a secondary consideration.

We must establish a society in which the means of life will be socially owned and democratically controlled; in which production will be carried on for the benefit and use of all; in which we will manage our affairs through an industrial form of government. This is the only way we can end the ruling-class rivalries that lead to war. The crying need of our time is determined, resolute action to awaken the working class to the imperative need for a socialist reconstruction of society.

To avoid future wars, therefore, the capitalist cause must be abolished. Society must be reorganized on socialist lines, replacing private and state ownership and competition with social ownership and cooperation. We must make the factories, mills, mines, railroads and all the other means of social production the collective property of society so that we can produce things to satisfy human needs instead of for the profit of the few. Only then can the competitive, war-breeding struggle for international markets, spheres of influence and sources of raw materials be ended. Only then will the nations of the world have an economic foundation for lasting cooperation, harmony and peace. The Socialist Party believes that the American working class must at last come to recognize that the competitive capitalist system of private ownership of the land and plants of production, means of transportation, mines, etc., is in fact the basic cause of the present state of world anarchy, and of wars, declared and undeclared.

"The capitalist class will wreck a railroad, scuttle a steamer, or fire a building to achieve its ends. It will shoot down; it will murder and kill to advance the price of its commodities. It will declare war in order to dispose of its goods. Nothing, not even what it now considers the most sacred, is allowed to stand in its way. Whatever menaces it is ruthlessly swept aside. No compunction being shown in the matter of expansion, none will be or is shown in the matter of defense." - Daniel De Leon

Time to end wage slavery

We live in times of political change. There has never been a free people. Human society always consisted of masters and slaves, and the slaves have always been and are today, the foundation stones of society. Wage-slavery is a fact. It is clear to every class-conscious worker that there is a class war being waged by the capitalist classes to secure a greater share in the exploitation of labour. It is a matter of paramount importance that we, as socialists, apprehend the basic conditions underlying the strife, and that we prepare to meet the consequences to the world’s workers that will issue from it. This address to socialists and the working class generally is directed to such an understanding. In the confusion arising from false issues of the capitalist class, put forward to mislead the workers, we must ever be on our guard against the crafty apologists of wrong posing as friends of labour.

The Socialist Party of Ireland seeks to organise the workers of this country, irrespective of creed or race, into one great PARTY OF LABOUR. It believes that the dependence of the working class upon the owners of capitalist property, and the desire of these capitalists and landowners to keep the vast mass of the people so subject and dependent, is the great and abiding cause of all our modern social and political evils – of nearly all modern crime, mental degradation, social strife, and political tyranny. Recognising this, it counsels the working class to organise itself politically with the end in view of gaining control and mastery of the entire resources of the country. Such is our aim: such is socialism. As to the necessity for working-class organisation there can be no question. The point to be decided is: How shall the workers organise? Our method is: political organisation at the ballot box to secure the election of representatives of socialist principles to all the elective governing public bodies of this country, and thus to transfer the political power of the State into the hands of those who will use it to further and extend the principle of common ownership. What is needed is unity of thought and action. Far better no organisation at all than a fake form which divides the workers against themselves and misleads them in the interests of the employing class. As working-class organisation grows stronger capitalism grows weaker. It has already outlived its usefulness. It is unable to run industry efficiently, and fails to supply the needs of the great majority of the people.

The Socialist Party is the party of the working class, the party of emancipation, made up of men and women who scorn any compromise with their oppressors; who want no votes that can be bought, and promises no offices and no support under any false pretences whatsoever. The Socialist Party stands squarely upon its class principles. Its central task today is to consistently expose the enemy and point to the aim of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism, to raise the general level of consciousness and sense of organisation and instill a revolutionary outlook among fellow-workers. Ignorance alone stands in the way of socialist success. The capitalist parties understand this and use their resources to prevent the workers from gaining knowledge and understanding. Capitalist parties cunningly contrive to divide the workers. The Socialist Party is uniting them upon one issue: the abolition of wage-slavery.

We therefore appeal to all workers to throw in their lot with the Socialist Party and assist it in giving force, clearness and effectiveness to the gathering working class movement. And on its part that Party, conscious of its high mission, pledges itself to pursue, unfaltering and undeviating, its great object – common ownership of the means of producing and distributing all wealth. As socialists our basic goal is the emancipation of labour. We oppose any so-called right to own or exploit the labour of others. The Socialist Party's aim is the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth. Socialism is not a scheme or plan. It is the next stage in social evolution. Many believe the Socialist Party is going to take all you own and divide it among the poor. We don’t want your paltry possessions. It would do us no good. We want the Earth.

Reformism V. Revolution

We live in a critical period for civilisation and we are now living in the shadow of annihilation from climate change. In the midst of this, people still show a stubborn adherence to reforms, a belief in the possibility of major improvement of conditions under capitalism, and a rejection of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Why is this so? Why the general political apathy and rejection of revolutionary changes in society, when humanity as a whole is in the grip of life and death struggle? It is now difficult to imagine that the term ‘social democracy’ once embodied workers' greatest hopes. There was a desire to bring about a profound social change and to abolish capitalism itself by gradual means. Then came the patriotic jingoism of World War One. Everything changed. From now on, social democracy saw the state not as something to be overthrown but instead as one of the principal instruments of its reformist policy. Socialism came to be re-defined. The major tendencies within the labour movement began to see its objectives as gaining more parliamentary power, initiating state-run public services, appointing more 'socialist' ministers to implement ‘left-wing progressive’ social legislation under the auspices of the state. 'Socialist' aspirations were integrated into the state apparatus. Their 'socialism' had been diluted by a programme which is in no sense socialist.

Reformism presented an outward semblance of radical aims and theory, but becomes in fact directed towards the goal of securing the maximum benefits for the working-class within capitalism. Reformism's basic political method is that working people should devote themselves primarily to voting for suitable politicians to win elections to become the government and so to pass legislation to regulate capitalism and, on that basis, to improve their working conditions and living standards. The implication is that class struggle is not necessary. If a reformist government can secure stability and growth in the interests of capital, there is no reason to believe that employers will oppose a reformist government. However, so long as capitalist property relations remain the bed-rock of the economy, the state cannot be neutral and an honest broker. This is not because the state is always directly controlled by openly pro-capitalist parties. It is because whoever controls the state is brutally limited in what they can do by the needs of capitalist profitability and because the needs of capitalist profitability are very difficult to reconcile with the interest of working people. In capitalism, you cannot accumulate capital by economic growth unless you can get investment, and you can't get capitalists to invest unless they can make what they judge to be an adequate rate of profit. Since high levels of employment and increasing state services in the interest of the working class (dependent upon taxation out of the employers share of surplus value) are predicated upon economic growth, even governments that want to further the interests of the exploited for example left-wing governments must make capitalist profitability its first priority.

Reformists viewed genuine socialism as a far-off goal and little more. Revolution was a possibility but not in the foreseeable future. Reformism pushes aside the revolutionary aspirations in the working class. When reforms fail, a series of new reforms becomes the expected course of events. Our fellow-workers become their own reformist advocates. The role of the Socialist Party is to generalise the lessons drawn from the day-to-day class struggles to resist reformism. For reformists capitalist crises and accompanying social problems can be cured within the system with palliative policies; for revolutionary socialists they can not. The acceptance of gradualism is the acceptance of the dominance of bourgeois institutions to be negotiated with and not challenged. The reformist’s method is one in which the self-activity of the working-class is necessarily minimised, its militancy curtailed. To accommodate reformist theories is to assist in turning the labour movement away from socialism itself. Reformist tactics are the effective enemy of revolutionary strategy. When movements of revolt arise and begin to march, the reformists are obliged to reject them as a hinderance to its own baby-steps towards improving conditions. It expresses no revolt of their own and cannot acknowledge other revolts. Again and again we have witnesses the spectacle of reformist politicians limiting the scale of protest, and then telling people that the failure to make gains shows that such action cannot work. Reformism always shies away from social conflict.

Reformism as a powerful ideology within the workers’ movement is far from dead. The hold of reformist ideas among people remains strong. Reformism is always with us, but it rarely reveals its presence and usually goes by another name, Despite its friendly manner it is our main political foe and we should understand that. If we wish to attract people to our socialist banner and away from reformism, it will not be through outbidding reformists in terms of palliative policies and amelioration programmes. It will be through our understanding of the world. 

The World is Ready for Socialism.

Society is today clearly on the road to the abyss. A new Dark Age confronts mankind at the end of that road if we fail to make the socialist revolution. The Socialist Party optimistically believes that the emancipation of humanity from the age-long thralldom of the class state and class rule will be finally be consummated in our own era. We have reason to believe that, despite temporary setbacks, our age is pre-eminently an age of revolution, and that the social revolutions of our day, unlike those of the past, will end in final victory. Social revolution presents itself as the only saviour of an otherwise doomed social order. The Socialist Party aims at nothing else or less than world unity and universal well-being, to be achieved by internationalism and the world-wide substitution of production for use in place of production for profit. Let us hope it can carry forward the emancipation of humanity from class rule to its final and victorious conclusion. Our mission is the redemption of the workers from the bondage of wage-slavery.

Stated in a sentence, the aim of the Socialist Party is the common ownership of the means of production and distribution, and the consequent economic equality of every human being on earth. The class struggle is the driving force of history. As clear as this statement can be, there are so many people who seem unable to grasp it. They construe socialism to mean all kinds of silly and grotesque things which makes socialism seem ridiculous to so many people and which no socialist dreams of. The trouble is not with socialism, but with what people imagine to be socialism.

The working class is the most revolutionary class in society, the only one capable of fulfilling the task of ending once and for all this oppressive system and of building a socialist society free of all exploitation. Every class-conscious worker is important. Every honest rebel against capitalism is dear to us. The Socialist Party is simply preparing the way for the peaceful and orderly reception of the socialist commonwealth. Socialism is the only possible cure for that social sickness called poverty and its countless festering sores. The cooperation of all for the good of all will inspire the love of all, and for the first time, the human race will be in harmony. The building of the Socialist Party is an important step toward the total emancipation of the working class and ending once and for all the exploitation and oppression of the capitalist system.

The enemy is capitalism.

Our present society is founded upon the exploitation of the propertyless class by the propertied. This exploitation is such that the propertied (capitalists) but the working force body and soul of the propertyless, for the price of the mere cost of existence (wages) and take for themselves, i.e., steal the amount of new values (products) which exceeds the price, whereby wages are made to represent the necessities instead of the earnings of the wage-labourer. With the accumulation of individual wealth, the greed and power of the propertied grows. They use all the means for competing among themselves for the robbery of the people. With our own eyes we can see the achievements of capitalism: millions of new graves, cities and whole countries turned into cemeteries , refugees in the millions wandering without homes or countries to call their own. Still more millions transferred from the rule of one despotism to the rule of another. Starvation, misery and insecurity throughout the world.

Working people stand before an important decision. They must decide whether they will continue to support the political parties of their enemies and exploiters or whether they will create a socialist party which will carry on the political struggles of the workers against these parties. Are the workers of the United States to continue to use their political power to support the capitalist exploiters? Fellow-workers you must use your political strength Refuse to support the parties of your enemies. Refuse to permit your political power to be wasted in another “progressive” party.

Those ever-obedient lackeys of the master class, our Labour Party leaders, when will the workers realise how they are betrayed by them each time. It is time people took their future and fate into their own hands. They will find that they can do it much better than those whom they call leaders, but who, in reality, are skivvies of the capitalist class. The Labour Party popularises the theory that the capitalist and the worker are brothers; it justifies its own existence as the arbiter of the brothers, when they have spats, as brothers will. The Labour Party is committed to the capitalist system rather than overthrowing the system of industrial slavery. We live in the era of capitalism. Our enemy is capitalism. Just as we cannot abolish the system of monarchy without deposing the person of the monarch. We cannot end the capitalist method of production without expropriating the person of the capitalist. They produce as cheaply as they can, pay as low wages as they can, and sell at a profit. The workers have nothing but their ability to labour. Our masters recognise their international interests. They fight together — against us. They are the global brigands of capitalism endeavouring to crush the labour movement of the world. In one nation after another the movement of the working class is being defeated by the combined forces of capitalist imperialism. For them there is no imaginary boundary line that keeps them separated. They stand united around the world against labour. In order to effectively resist the onslaughts of capitalism we also must act on an international scale. Against exploiters, murderers, parasites, and their flunkeys of all lands we must oppose international action on the part of the working class. Against the combined forces of capitalism we must hurl the forces of worldwide workers.

The Socialist Party strives to replace capitalism by socialism and all its members believe that it is both possible and essential. We understand the great importance for socialists to work for a new social system. we see the need to win the overwhelming majority of the population for the fight against capitalism and for socialism. If you asked me for a short definition of socialism, I would start by saying that socialism is a society where the means of production and distribution were commonly owned and in the hands of the working people. The Socialist Party does not believe that the State is neutral or above classes, and we believe that in order to advance to socialism in Britain it is necessary for the working class majority to take political power out of the hands of he capitalists and to transform the State so that it becomes an instrument of the will of the majority.

This worn-out and corrupt system offers no promise of improvement and adaptation. There is no silver lining to the clouds of darkness and despair. This system offers only a perpetual struggle for slight relief within wage slavery. It is blind to the possibility of establishing an industrial democracy, wherein there shall be no wage slavery. Previous efforts for the betterment of the working class have proven abortive because limited in scope and disconnected in action. Universal economic evils affecting the working class can be eradicated only by a universal working class movement.

Working people, we call upon you to play your part in the establishment of a real live working class party. Rally to the call for complete emancipation of labour. The great task of abolishing the present capitalist system and inaugurating socialism rests with us. The day has come for solidarity. Wherever people have the opportunity and the freedom to act, they have shown their desire for a new type of world. They want a world free of war, free of inequality, free of want. They want a world free of the rule of the few over the many. The aspirations for liberty are so strong and universal. The working class is losing confidence in capitalism and its spokesmen. That is a most encouraging sign.

Radical Glasgow

Although it does not mention the activities of the Socialist Party, this summary of the left-wing history of Glasgow makes interesting background reading.

https://libcom.org/files/radical-glasgow.pdf

Our Capitalist Foe

What stands between the liberation of the millions of exploited working people and the continued rule of the bourgeois dictatorship is the absence of understanding and awareness among our fellow-workers. The focus of our party must be directed toward the development of education and enlightenment. As our fellow-workers imbibe the lessons and climb the ascent to class-consciousness, they will apply this consciousness and experience to the problems of their existence, the practical result will be: concrete political organisation of the working class.

The capitalist understands one thing very well. He knows what his class interests are and how to protect them. He may be a fool but he knows that so long as he can maintain the organisational, political and social integrity or unity of his class on important matters and at the same time impregnate his workers with the belief that they are incompetent and impotent, he and his class are secure. Thus the ruling class puts forth the claim, in one form or another, that it has the right to rule, to govern; to own, manage and control. The claim look very impressive because his class has had an appreciable degree of success, and success can be glorified and sanctified, particularly by chicanery and trickery. The first aim is to obscure and conceal the real situation. He will never admit that political power has any class meaning or content. The existence of classes has or should have no connection with the nature of the state and the role of the government. He may speak of those who have wealth and those who do not. He attempts to explain it by differences of fortune or misfortune, of frugality or profligacy, of ability or the lack of ability, dismissing the embarrassing matter of inheritance by designating several millions for the establishment of a “charitable” but astutely also a tax exempt foundation. His aim is to conceal the fact that political, social and economic power are in the hands of a small minority. Any attempt of on the part of ordinary people to achieve and assert political power is resisted because he knows that political power is indissolubly related to social and economic power. Of course, to see that no steps are yet taken by workers in the direction of political power is beside the point. The ruling class know that even a little learning by the people is a dangerous thing and may result in progressively increasing demands. Such development would expose and lay bare the basic evil of a dictatorship exercised by a small minority, not by virtue of service to society but solely for the protection of the capitalist.

 Our capitalist fully realises the elementary knowledge that the government is not or should not be a neutral body sitting above capital and labour, impartially adjudicating the disputes which arise between contending classes or groups. He knows only too well that that it is the cloak of capitalist democracy under which the ruling class exercises its dictatorship over society. The people may vote, but the bourgeoisie rules.