What is the future of humanity?

Do we stand upon the threshold of death and destruction for the whole of mankind? Or do we stand upon the threshold of a new age of unparalleled peace and plenty, the brotherhood of man?

The Socialist Party dares to venture an answer. It dares to pose the alternative that has unmistakably risen before us. The Socialist Party demands life with socialism before death under capitalism overtakes us all. The difficult thing to understand about the capitalist system is the irrational fact that all production can be placed on hold, and that millions can be removed from their workplaces and forced to stop production, merely because under capitalist ownership, the whole of society has to submit to a tiny class of capitalists to their accumulate even more to their wealth. modern industry is suited to cooperative production at high efficiency with abundant output assured, and that there is no good reason why such efficient production could not start right now. Hence, the general impatience of socialists about the restrictions and fetters on production. It is one of the outstanding absurdities of capitalism that the capitalist system prevents production of abundance.

Everybody knows about the insanity of this capitalist system we all live under. There is TOO MUCH of everything but people go without what they need. Automation and robotics of new technology has made a world of plenty for all a greater possibility yet capitalism can exist only on the basis of a system of scarcity. We have the factories and raw material that can produce a world of plenty. We have the willing hands and brains to do the task. All we have to do is distribute what is produced. But we don’t own the factories or their supplies. Those who produce have nothing to say about whether they’ll be used and for what. The factories and machinery are owned by a small handful of capitalists, the 1% who won’t let a wheel turn unless they can make a profit. And that profit comes out of the wealth which labour produces. We are the hands and brains who do the producing. All we have to do is come together with the factories and machines, without any capitalist class holding us apart. That means WE have to own and control the factories and machines we work on. We, the working people, organised collectively. Let us abolish the capitalist profit-suckers. Take over our the world, organise it democratically and produce to the limit as science can provide, produce enough to give plenty for all. And distribute what we produce for the use of the people!

The productivity of this planet is already the greatest it has been in the history of humanity and could raise the entire world population to a higher and genuinely decent standard of living – to PLENTY FOR ALL. What stands in the way? The capitalist class gorges upon the greatest share of the fruits of this productive capacity. The capitalists fight like the wolves to guard every scrap of their unearned share. Their kind of a future, i.e., constant unemployment, continual exploitation and permanent war is precisely what we in the Socialist Party seeks to abolish. The wealth and productive facilities around the globe could supply the material basis for a new social organisation which would ensure plenty for all in the shortest time. But the capitalist ownership of industry and their control of the governments stands in the way of using these riches and facilities for the benefit of mankind. The productive facilities of a socialist world would free human beings for the first time on our planet.

Join in the fight for socialism. The fight for socialism has become the fight for the very existence of humankind. Let us break once and for all the chains of exploitation and establish the true free society of socialism. The Socialist Party knows what full production can accomplish, they know that the fetters on production must be removed because only socialism can take the capitalist fetters off production. The hope of the people is a socialist world of freedom, a system, of production for use and not for profit, a system that would eliminate exploitation for all time. The Socialist Party was founded by the conviction that there is no hope for a new and better world except through the achievement of the new social order of socialism, a world of peace, freedom and plenty for all.

The Socialist Party believes that as long as we permit capitalism to exist, poverty and wars will be inevitable. It states that the workers have nothing to gain from capitalism and everything to lose. The Socialist Party therefore teaches that the workers of all nations must regard each other as brothers and sisters and stand together in behalf of the interests of world's workers. In order to gain a world of plenty for all, freedom, and a permanent peace, the capitalist system must be abolished and replaced with a socialist system.

Just Another Petty Dispute Between Capitalists.

PC leader Andrew Scheer has urged Justin Trudeau to step up inspections on all products from China and consider slapping tariffs on imports from there. 

This is in response to the detaining by China of two Canadians on espionage charges, which was in retaliation as Canada had arrested Chinese high-tech exec., Meng Wanzhou, on a US extradition warrant. China has increased inspections that have led to the suspension or obstruction of key Canadian agricultural products, including pork and canola. 

Trudeau's spokesperson said, ''The government continues to work to help the detained Canadians, but also continues to pursue economic opportunities for Canadians in China and to create growth and progress around the world.'' So two major capitalist powers are pissed at each other.

 We don't know how it will end, though it’s doubtful they will go to war. It’s more likely they will refuse to trade with each other.

 One thing is for sure it’s just another dispute between capitalists, and a petty one too -- one in which the working class of both countries have no stake.

Yours for Socialism, 
SPC contributing members 

Humanity needs a socialist world

When business-people speaks of the “public interest” they are speaking of their OWN interest. There is no such thing as a “public” interest. How can corporation executives and working men and women possibly have the same interest? The capitalists cannot operate manufacturing and production in the interest of society as a whole. It pits the common good against the accumulation of profits out of private ownership of industry. The bloodsuckers who call themselves “captains of industry” sole purpose is to achieve returns to their share-holders. It is THEIR system, which breeds insecurity and want on one side, and incredible wealth on the other.

Working people, however, are fully capable of operating industry and operating it in the interest of society! This is no extravagant claim. Labour has the know-how. And its interests are one with society as a whole. The working class can take power and establish its own rule; the working class can organise and run the world in the interests of all the people. Workers can and will open the door to the new socialist society of peace, plenty, freedom and security. Socialism is a system which is based upon plenty for all. Its aim is to raise the standard of living of all humankind far higher than that reached in the most advanced capitalist country. It means, therefore, the utilisation of the most modern and advanced means and methods of production. It means the most scientific utilisation of all the natural resources of the entire world. It means the closest cooperation of the peoples of the entire world. Socialism cannot be based on scarcity and want, for these breed inequality, rivalry, class divisions. Socialism seeks to eliminate these forever from the face of the earth. We defy the scoffers and skeptics, the defenders of capitalism, who say that the working class is incapable of reorganising society on a socialist basis. Socialism implies not the change of one system of exploitation for another, but the elimination of all exploitation and class rule.

The Socialist Party have long ago demonstrated the fact that there can be plenty for all, including not merely an adequate standard of living but the luxuries and beauties of life for all. However, the question we are always asked is HOW? How do we get this? The Socialist Party says that the evils of the private property system cannot be overcome WITHOUT ENDING THE SYSTEM OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. Liberal and progressive reformers like to believe that the evils of capitalism can somehow be wished away without upsetting the capitalists. The earth is divided then it must be redivided say the nationalists. Capitalism must expand – or die. Depression – unemployment – hunger – barbarism – war – mass slaughter – devastation. That is the “normal” life of capitalism today. That is capitalism gone mad. Capitalism is the REAL enemy of civilisation.

As automation and robotics are installed in the assembly lines, what is more logical than to shorten the work-week? It is easy to understand why capitalists and their backers are against shorter hours. The more hours workers put in and the more productive they are for the same pay, the more profits are created for the capitalists with plenty to spare for their fellow investors. To those who think in terms of human needs and human rights, the solution to wage-slavery is ready at hand - new technology. To obtain the good things of life from the profit-grubbing obstructionism of the capitalist class working people must oust the capitalists from power and privilege and therein lies peace, employment and plenty for all. The peoples of the world are today building bombs for destruction instead of the good things of and for life. It is the outcome of capitalism standing in the way of the peoples progress. For the peoples of the world to arrive at the longed-for destiny of humanity to produce the things of life, in peace and plenty, they must rid themselves of the motives of capitalist profits.

Capitalism is their enemy. The Socialist Party is socialist not because it seeks merely an improvement of the conditions of the workers under capitalism, but the abolition of this system of scarcity and insecurity and its replacement by a social order of security and plenty for all. The Socialist Party fights for socialism in order to end the exploitation of man by man for all time; to eliminate wars and unemployment and hunger. What the Socialist Party wants is what people all over the world want. These are:

Peace, instead of bloodshed and violence and destruction.

Security instead of the insecurity of not knowing today whether or not we will have a job and an income tomorrow.

We want to be able to raise our children in decent homes and have them educated in good schools.

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

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

These are the things which we seek for our families, friends and neighbours, for our children and grandchildren.

We live in a modern civilisation. We have huge industries. We have undreamed-of natural resources. We have millions of trained and skilled workers. We can produce in one day. what it took our ancestors years to produce. Yet we do not have peace. We do not have prosperity. It is the social system that stands in the way, the system of capitalism. A handful of capitalists control all the wealth and power . They own our jobs and whoever owns our means of living, controls our lives, the lives of you and me and the billions of others. Capitalism works very well indeed when it wages war, killing and maiming, . Capitalism is at its best when it is doing its worst. But it is no good for peace, security and prosperity of the people. Is that what YOU want, a new barbarism where surviving humanity wait for the doom of civilisation and their return to living in caves?

We of the Socialist Party believe there is an alternative. The alternative to capitalism is socialism. We want to take over the industries built by us so that we can have security, peace and freedom. We want to own in common the wealth produced by all of us to produce for peace, not for war. To produce for use, for the needs and comforts of the people, and not for the profits of the corporations. Without capitalism and capitalist profit, we can put an end to want and starvation. We can provide plenty for all, homes fit to live in, comforts and prosperity, self-respect and human dignity. Those are the things we in the Socialist Party all seek. They are the things the Socialist Party stands for.

Production for need, not for greed

The aim of the Socialist Party is the establishment by democratic means of a cooperative commonwealth in which the supplying of human needs and enrichment of human life shall be the primary purpose of our society. Poverty, insecurity, slums condemn many families to a cheerless life. The planet's productive capacity is not fully utilized. Its use is governed by the dictates of private economic power and by considerations of, private profit. Similarly, the scramble for profit has wasted and despoiled our rich resources of soil, water, forest and minerals. This lack of social planning results in a waste of our human as well as our natural resources. Our human resources are wasted through social and economic conditions which stunt human growth, through unemployment and through our failure to provide adequate education.

Capitalism is based on the principle of private property of certain humans "owning" the earth for the purpose of exploiting it for profit which consists of taking out more than you put in. This system cannot be reformed. It is based on the destruction of the earth and the exploitation of the people. There is no such thing as green capitalism. Businesses have no reason for existence other than to make profits. Human production and consumption is done within the natural limits of the earth’s fertility but this cannot happen under capitalism, because the capitalist class exists by extracting profit not only from the workers, but also from nature. One of the principles of socialism is production for use, not for profit, a socialism that would not destroy the earth but run in harmony with the environment. Socialism means organising human societies in a manner that is compatible with the way that nature is organised. Capitalist society robs us of community with each other and community with the earth. Consumer goods, beyond those needed for basic comfort and survival, are not really what we crave. Our appetite are insatiable, and often turn away from dehumanizing methods of production and goods that do not satisfy us. Socialism is about bringing about changes that are needed to bring society into balance with nature. It’s about time for the ecology movement to stop considering itself separate from the socialist movement.

Socialism is production for use rather than profit. The World Socialist Movement is fighting against capitalism and for a more just, more democratic and more ecologically sound sustainable world. As we protest, we also propose. Both nationally and internationally we know very well what we’re fighting for, human dignity and solidarity. Our world has never been so rich, and we have all the organisational and technological skills needed, plus the capacity to allocate distribution to satify needs. There are no excuses for not changing the world. It is quite feasible to establish universal welfare for everyone on earth – not as charity but as a right, simply by virtue of the fact of being human. Socialism is an answer to the capitalism that’s destroying everything. The idea of workers controlling the resources of the planet is putting socialism on the political agenda. To change the way the world is organised, with the capitalists on one side and the workers on the other we need a social revolution.

We are living under a system which clearly is the enemy of humanity. It imposes draconian cuts in living standards on the already poor labouring masses, simply in the interest of still greater profits for the capitalist class. Although it has vast productive potential, it brings poverty and hunger to the working people. Capitalism is responsible for the thoughtless destruction of the environment. Capitalism and its armament corporations cynically profits from most of the world’s research and development. The root cause of all this is capitalism’s guiding principle, the quest for profit, which takes precedence over any human interest. Capitalism as a system threatens the future of humanity. Capitalism brings nothing but misery and exploitation. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has undergone many changes in its history, but these have simply meant finding new ways to exploit the labouring people. It is already an obsolete system. The only solution is to destroy it and build a new social system. Our task is to build solidarity on the basis of these real, shared grievances. The challenges that confront working people across the world are the same.

A Glaring Contradiction.

A recent report by the Auditor General of Ontario's office has discovered that there is a discrepancy between the amount of people waiting for a place to live on Toronto's centralized housing wait list and homes available. 

The list has grown to 102,000 households, but there are 1,400 empty units, ten per cent of which are being used by contractors for storage. The Toronto Community Housing (TCH) had 200 bachelor units designated for seniors sitting empty in 2018, despite 11,300 senior households hoping to get into subsidized homes, the report said. Of that group 87 per cent never received an offer during wait times that averaged three and a half years.

 The TCH people came up with some weak excuses, such as the lists being poorly maintained and not enough personnel, but nevertheless, whether the excuses be good or bad it still means the same thing: that houses are empty when people need a home, which is another one of capitalism's glaring contradictions.

Yours for Socialism, 
SPC contributing members 

A Sad Sorry Reflection.

On June 26 a group of academics and labour activists called on the Canadian Labour Congress to publicly oppose an arms deal between Canada and Saudi Arabia. They called the CLC's silence on the matter, ''deafening.'' 

They fear that Canadian weapons sold to Saudi Arabia are being used in their war in Yemen, where an estimated 70,000 people have been killed in the last three years. They want the CLC to demand the government cancel the deal. 

Last year Canada exported $284 million in weapons and military goods to countries that were bombing Yemen. Of that $204.4 million went to Saudi Arabia. Why then is the CLC silent? 

A clue could be found in London, Ontario at the General Dynamics Land Systems, which manufacture light armoured vehicles destined for Saudi Arabia. The workers at the plant belong to the CAW's successor union, Unifor. The company has warned that if the government cancels the deal it could jeopardize more than 1,800 jobs.

 What a sad, sorry reflection it is that workers in one country have to make products to kill workers in another country, if they want to survive.

Yours for Socialism, 
SPC contributing members 

Our anti-nationalism

Labour Party should allow Scotland to hold another independence referendum if the Scottish parliament votes for one, the second most powerful man in the party said, Labour’s John McDonnell told an event at the Edinburgh festival fringe. 

“We would not block something like that. We would let the Scottish people decide. That’s democracy,” McDonnell was quoted as saying. 

The Socialist Party does not, of course, defend the present British state. But we offer no support to a separate sovereign Scotland. The Socialist Party must tell the workers the truth even if it is unpopular. And the truth is that nationalism, no matter how it is dolled up with patriotic progressive phrases and skilfully disguised by socialist terminology, represents no way forward for working people. On the contrary, we fight against it. We resist every effort to divide the organisations of the working class along nationalist lines. It is entirely wrong for socialists to sentimentalise their ideas and parrot their prejudices. We bear the message, even if it is unwelcomed and unpalatable, nothing very much would change in an independent Scottish state. The Socialist Party have a responsibility to our fellow-workers to warn them of their mistaken course. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. The Socialist Party will defend our class point of view and expose the false and dangerous demagogery of the nationalists. It is an obligation upon the Socialist Party to stand firm in defence of the fundamental ideas and principles of Marxism.

An independent Scotland within a capitalist world would not solve a single problem facing the working class and would have grave social and political consequences by weakening the unity of the working class. The cause of the British working class would be put back as national and regional rivalries return. The Scottish working class cannot succeed in a socialist revolution alone, nor can British workers win in isolation. What is required is a world revolution. The oppression and exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nationality or gender or race. That is why the idea of workers' unity is vital.

We must resolutely struggle against nationalist movements or parties while campaigning for the ideas of socialism. We must constantly press upon our fellow-workers that nationalists ally themselves with the ruling class. We must do education work and popularise Marxism in order that working people shall not forever become side-tracked. Scottish nationalism present itself as a progressive movement and many sincere people become involved with it but in some years’ time, they discover they have been most cruelly misled and have been wasting their time in a diversion which they will then have most fiercely to destroy. Socialists are not deceived by the progressive facade of nationalism. Those who believe nationalism to be progressive, and can therefore be used either do not understand, or opportunistically refuse to accept the negative role of nationalism.

The remedy can only be socialism. There is no intermediate transitional stage. Socialism and nationalism are mutually exclusive. Nationalism is a horrendous condition that has been used by the owning class to turn worker against worker in wars and has led to millions of death. If it wasn’t so tragic it might be called comical that workers, many of them without a job, should take to the streets to support ‘their’ country. It is our business in the Socialist Party to develop class “patriotism.” o love your country, and be willing to sacrifice and battle for it, that is patriotism. To have no home, to be unable to provide self and loved ones with food, clothing and shelter, that is poverty.

Someone who owns no part of the country, yet is prepared to fight and die for it is called by the media a patriot yet a person who is prepared to fight to protect family, friends and neighbours against the curse of poverty, is called a rebel. While patriotism attacks and destroys all the finer sentiments of the human heart, exploits and corrupts those sacred things called tradition, the socialists says this further proof of capitalist class ignorance.

Capitalism offers no future

There are fools who still tell us that since workers has not revolted against capitalism so far, we cannot expect them to revolt in the future. Our aim is to replace capitalism with “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

In a revolution, the power and wealth of society change hands. They are transferred from one class to another. In our time, there are two fundamental classes in society, the working class and the capitalist class. The minority class owns the wealth, profits from it, keeps down the standard of living of the majority class which has no wealth. In order to protect its wealth from competitors and to secure new sources, the capitalist class is compelled periodically to go to war. The workers are propagandised and cajoled to fight the war in behalf of “their country” – whose wealth is owned by the ruling class. If the enormous wealthy of society, controlled by the few, were controlled by the majority of the people under a government representing the majority, poverty could be eliminated, an end could be made to the mass murder of war, and mankind could live in peace and plenty. This kind of revolution would be necessary on a world scale.

In the 19^th C and for but a short time after, the idea of socialism was fairly agreed upon. The “dream of socialism,” as it was often called, taught that socialism meant a society without classes, without the exploitation of man by man, without a production system operating for the purpose of producing profits for a few. Socialists capably demonstrated how a socialist society could end poverty, unemployment and war by eliminating private ownership of the means of producing the things of life, national and international competition. They mercilessly campaigned for socialism exposing the evils of capitalist society, its brutal exploitation of the workers, its utter hypocrisy in impoverishing of the majority for the enrichment of a few capitalists. Later this socialist propaganda and agitation largely disappeared other than from small principled parties such as the Socialist Party. The paid propagandists of big business, college professors, economics and intellectuals of every variety have failed to convince the Socialist Party that capitalism is a wonderful society and socialism goal remains a mere utopia. The necessity of rebuilding the socialist movement now requires the re-establishing of the task of socialist persuasion and education, to tell what socialism is and how it can be achieved. 

The Socialist Party describes the capitalist system and reveals how thoroughly rotten it is, how it is an outlived system capable of producing nothing but unemployment, poverty, war, the suppression of the will of the people. The importance of the Socialist Party is that it points a way out of this foul system and shows why socialism is necessary. Once it is explained clearly to people, socialism does prove to be one of the most reasonable ideas in the world. The movement for socialist democracy advances against capitalist tyranny. 

The Socialist Party believes working people ought to own and control its industries. It believes that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned instead of being the private property of the few and operated for their enrichment and that it ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all. It is difficult to deny the desirability of such a society because socialism does make sense, and the need for it remains more pressing than ever for working people and oppressed of the world. This way the socialist alternative will begin to appear realistic to millions of workers.

Trouble In Paradise.

Those who regularly read these reports know that whenever Stats-Canada release their monthly figures on unemployment its usually grim. For June, however, it’s very good. On July 5 they said over the last 6 months 248,000 new jobs were added, most of them full time. This sounds a little weird if things were so bad in the first 5 months, but who am I to rain on their parade? The report also said wages climbed to their highest level in over a year, with Quebec being the highest at 5 per cent.

 The Bank of Canada monitors several wage growth indicators ahead of its rate decisions - my, my, what a surprise! But ole' Statsy ain't the only ones to say all is hunkry-dory. Brendon Bernard, an economist for jobsearch website Indeed Canada, said, ''When we take a look at the trend over the past year, job growth still looks to be chugging along at a pace that's even stronger than population growth.'' 

Now we all know that good times under capitalism don't last for long, nor can they in a market based economy. So it was no surprise to hear, on July 10 that Bombardier is laying off half of the 1,100 workers at its Thunder Bay plant and that, furthermore it may be more than that when their contracts with the union expire. 

So already there is trouble in Paradise.

 Yours for Socialism,
 SPC contributing members 

Disabling Funding Cuts For Disabled Cut Off From Legal Aid.

The Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic (IWC) is laying off 40 per cent of its staff and will stop taking new cases after Legal Aid Ontario announced funding cuts to several legal aid clinics in July. This is an agency that funds Ontario's 73 legal aid clinics. It announced the cuts in response to the provincial budget, which slashed 30 per cent from a previous budget of $456 million. 

John McKinnon, the director of IWC, said, ''People come to our door in distress, disabled from working, cut off worker's compensation, depressed, broke and in the biggest crisis of their lives. We are all very worried about what will happen to them when we can't help.'' 

The good folks at IWC may all be very caring people, but that doesn't cut much ice under capitalism.

Yours for Socialism,
 SPC contributing members . . .

Our message as socialists is clear

Under the capitalist system basic goods and services are produced for the market, to make profits. In mature capitalism, the workers who supply our goods and services are market-dependent because they generally live by selling their labour-power for a wage. In other words, labour-power has become a commodity. Workers are paid for their work. But do workers in capitalism really get paid for all the work that they do? What are they actually paid for? They’re paid for their labour power for a certain period of time, not for what they actually produce during that time. Whatever the workers produce belongs to the capitalist, and the capitalist appropriates the difference between what the workers are paid and what their products or services will fetch on the market. So capitalists appropriate the surpluses produced by workers in the form of profit, just as landlords appropriate surpluses from peasants in the form of rent. Workers aren’t legally dependent on capitalists. They’re not slaves or serfs. They’re not in conditions of debt bondage or peonage. They’re obliged to work for capital not because they’re compelled by the capitalist’s superior force, but because they need to sell their labour power for a wage just to get access to the means of subsistence.

Capitalism, however, does not extract surpluses from workers by means of direct coercive force but through the market. The fact that capitalists can make profit only if they succeed in selling their goods and services on the market, and selling them for more than the costs of producing them, means that making profit is uncertain. Capitalists have to compete with other capitalists in the same market. Competition is, in fact, the driving force of capitalism — even if capitalists often do their best to avoid it, by means, for example, of monopolies. But the social conditions that, in any given market, determine success in price competition is beyond the control of individual capitalists. Since their profits depend on a favourable cost/price ratio, the obvious strategy for capitalists is to cut their own costs. This means above all constant pressure to cut the costs of labour. This requires constant pressure on wages, which workers constantly have to resist. It also requires constant improvements in labour productivity. That means finding the organisational and technical means of extracting as much surplus as possible from workers within a fixed period of time, at the lowest possible cost. To keep this process going requires regular investment, the reinvestment of surpluses. Investment requires constant capital accumulation. So there’s a constant need to maximise profit. The point is that this requirement is imposed on capitalists, regardless of their own personal needs and wants. Even the most modest and socially responsible capitalist is subject to these pressures and is forced to accumulate by maximising profit, just to stay in business. The need to adopt maximising strategies is a basic feature of the system and not just a function of irresponsibility or greed.

Production is determined not by what’s needed but by what makes the most profit. Everyone, for instance, needs decent housing, but good and affordable housing for everyone isn’t profitable for private capital. There may be a huge demand for such housing, but it’s not what the economists call “effective demand,” the kind of demand with real money behind it. If capital is invested in housing, it’s most likely to be high-cost homes for people with money. That’s the whole point of capitalism. Where production is skewed to the maximisation of profit, a society can have massive productive capacities. It can have enough to feed, clothe, and house its whole population to a very high standard. But it can still have massive poverty, homelessness, and inadequate health care. With its emphasis on profit maximisation and capital accumulation, it’s necessarily a wasteful and destructive system of production. It consumes vast amounts of resources; and it acts on the short-term requirements of profit rather than the long-term needs of a sustainable environment. All aspects of life that become market commodities are outside the reach of democratic accountability. They answer not to the will of the people but to the demands of the market and profit.

Capitalism needs intervention by the state in some ways more than any other system, just to maintain social order and the conditions of accumulation. But the economic power of capital is separate from political power in two senses: the capitalist’s power over workers doesn’t depend on privileged access to political or legal rights, and possession of political and legal rights by workers doesn’t free them from economic exploitation. The capitalist system is driven by certain inescapable imperatives, certain compulsions, the economic imperatives of competition, profit-maximisation, constant accumulation and the endless need to improve labour productivity. These really are imperatives. They’re not just choices made by greedy capitalists. They’re conditions of survival for capital. Capitalist democracy in all its forms. There’s no such thing as a capitalism governed by popular power, no capitalism in which the will of the people takes precedence over the imperatives of profit and accumulation, no capitalism in which the requirements of profit maximisation doesn’t dictate the most basic conditions of life. Political rights in capitalism, even though they’re more widely distributed than they ever were before, leave out huge aspects of our lives. 

A Reflection On Capitalism. It Isn't Great Anywhere.

 On July 15 the Toronto Star ran an ad which read: ''Is Now The Time To Renounce Your US Citizenship?-Make the right decision for you and your family.'' It went on to say there was a seminar at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto on July 27, which would provide American citizens living in Canada, with information needed to renounce it. 

Though we hear a lot about people trying to get into the US, nevertheless there are plenty wanting to get out. Is this a reflection on the US itself ?, or is it a reflection on capitalism, bearing in mind the US is the greatest manufacturing power in the world and the most prosperous? At least it suggests that life under capitalism isn't great anywhere.

Yours for Socialism, 
SPC contributing members . . .

To be a nation again...so f-ing what?

Scottish voters would vote for independence from the United Kingdom, according to a new poll. 46% voters said they would vote for independence and 43% against.

The appeal of Scottish nationalism to some working people in Scotland is, of course, a result of the failure of reformism. In no sense does it offer a way forward for Scottish workers. It is simply another cul-de-sac. The Socialist Party attitude to a sovereign Scotland, is that no fundamental problem facing working people can be solved, or even seriously alleviated, by tinkering with the constitutional status of the state structure.

A nation-state as a goal in itself, such as the establishment of an independent Scotland, has no place in socialism. The Socialist Party demands are common with our fellow-workers of all countries. Scottish nationalism is not resistance to oppression; rather it is the reaction of a section of Scottish business that seek to be the beneficiaries of a Scotland separated from British capitalism. Nevertheless, Scottish economy is fully integrated into the British economy and it is why most businesses oppose independence so as the lure for votes, radical policies are proposed by the nationalists as panaceas to the problems of the Scottish working class. 

Nationalists fish in troubled waters, and will betray and abandon these workers later on. Regardless, though, of the status of Scotland, the ruling class in the transnational corporations are interested in maintaining their power and whatever structural form is unimportant to them. This does not mean that they enthusiastically embrace independence but that it would not be an insurmountable obstacle problem for them to adapt to as they have the world over. Scotland would be no exception. A sovereign Scotland is something that the capitalist class can live with. It is necessarily incompatable with the interests of the capitalist class. Scottish secession will not pose a serious challenge to capital.

We refuse to spread the illusion among Scottish workers that separatism would be of any real permanent gain. The issue of independence threatens to poison relations between English and Scottish workers. Our opposition to independence is based on a class opposition. An independent Scotland would not solve a single problem facing the working class. The problems of the Scottish workers does not stem from a constitutional connection to England as the nationalists argue, but arise from the existence capitalism which weighs just as heavily on the workers and their families south of the border. The economic exploitation of working people is a product of capitalist society and can only be removed by the socialist transformation of society. This, in turn, requires the unity of all workers, irrespective of nationality they perceive themselves to be. For that very reason, it is why the Socialist Party presses for class unity and opposes any attempt to divide the workers' movement along national lines. Class unity is about solidarity, which recognises no borders.
 

Nor does the Socialist Party defend the unity of the United Kingdom status quo in any way. To do so is to line up with the equally repugnant British nationalist ideology.

Our postion is that we abstain but that does not mean we evade answering the arguments. Far from it. Our members in Scotland will be saying to our fellow-workers that the only solution is socialism. There does not exist a "Scottish Road to Socialism." A "Scottish Workers Republic" belongs to the never-never land of the left-wingers.

Answering the opposition

It is one of fundamentals of the Socialist Party that capitalist governments represent the interests of capitalism, not the “sentiments” of the citizens. Left-wingers are quick to claim upon seeing state-owned industries that this is socialism. But nationalisation does not lead to establishment of socialism nor gradually advancing towards socialism. This is a huge hoax.

 Nationalisation does not mean social ownership. People are exhorted to tighten their belts and accept hardship in the interest of national wealth -- because this wealth belongs to the nation. And who owns and controls the nation? The emancipation of working people from the capitalist yoke will be impossible to achieve through change of government a thousand times or through attempts to rewrite the law. The only way to achieve emancipation is to gradually build up the united strength of the people through a democratic movement based on sound political lines. There is no other way for emancipation of the people besides this. All other ways entail only wastage of time and self-deception. If you are worker, if you comprehend that your 8 to 16 hours of work represent exploitation without limits, understand that neither you nor society will ever receive the earnings of your labour, if you comprehend that despite all the strikes you will always be exploited, become a socialist. The fear of Wall Street and the City of London is that the people will stop simply demanding higher taxes on the rich, but will demand political and economic power.

One of the most common criticisms used against socialism is the claim that it is against human “nature” and that inequality is “innate” in the human species. Rich and poor have always existed and will always exist. Homo sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years without private ownership of the means of production, without a market economy and without a class-divided society. In fact, private property and classes have probably existed only among a tiny fraction of the time human species has been on the planet. The fact also remains that class-divided society has been challenged repeatedly for thousands of years and the vision of a class-free society projected as an aspiration. History abounds with slave rebellions and peasant revolts. Religious imagery has been employed to reflect the longings of the ordinary people. Even defeated revolutions have been able to influence the course of history, their goals of the vanquished growing resonating with increased popularity, producing egalitarian ideas enriching the oppressed's heritage. 

The fact is that the exploited have rebelled, are rebelling and will rebel against their masters. The duty of every socialist, of every man and woman who loves humanity and seeks liberty, is to fight with our fellow-workers and try and increase to the utmost their lucidity and chances of success. The only alternative would be to tolerate exploitation as a lesser evil to the emancipation efforts of their victims.

Our policy on reforms and reformism is set out briefly here:

1. We are opposed to reformism, or the futile policy of trying to make capitalism work for the good of all.
2. We are opposed to political groups which pursue reformist policies.
3. We are not opposed to all reforms of capitalism.
4. We do not advocate or propose reforms. .
5. Reforms will be offered by capitalist governments when the Socialist Party grows stronger.
6. We urge workers to resist the downward pressures capitalism always exerts on their living standards.

In regards to the last point we appreciate that as long as workers are not socialists, this resistance will often be carried on in a disorganised and ineffective way usually involving support for reformist policies and parties. As long as socialist numbers are small (as now) there is little we can do to remedy this save urging workers to recognise the futility of reformism and to become socialists and wage the class struggle in an organised and conscious way. There is a difference between giving support to the general aim of working class resistance to capitalism and giving endorsement to any and every specific method a non-socialist working class might use. 

Our object is socialism.

The Socialist Party contends that there is no solution for the workers’ problems except Socialism. It is not possible for the Labour Party or any other party to administer capitalism in such a way that the workers’ problems can be solved within the framework of the existing system. The failure of past Labour government is not an accident. It is not due to mistakes in tactics, or to the failure of the personal qualities of its leaders.

Before the productive power of modern technology can become a beneficial advantage to the whole of society the instruments of production must become common property. They are socially operated; they have yet to become socially owned and controlled. This of course involves the abolition, through political action, of the “rights” of the capitalists to own and control the land, factories, transport, etc. It implies the conscious assumption by the working-class, organised for the purpose, of complete control of the machinery of government so that they may obtain control of the entire industrial resources of society. This abolition of classes is the equality at which socialists aim; but an equality of access to the means of living. Such an equality would render the term “wages” a meaningless one, as no one would be in the position of having to sell their energies in order to obtain a bare subsistence. Our object is to get socialism.

Under such a system it would be to the interests of all to expand the material resources of society as rapidly as possible in order to increase the common stock of necessities and amenities. For so long as these resources are fettered by capitalist ownership, whether in the form of private capitalism or nationalisation, the workers will be restricted to the consumption of such a quantity of goods as is sufficient to enable them to go on producing a profit. Hence we find everywhere that the capitalists, faced with a quantity of goods which cannot be sold, are compelled to take steps to restrict production. Socialism will abolish the need for such restriction and while, even with the present resources of production, it would immediately increase the wealth available for the workers' enjoyment, it would also render possible a considerable expansion of those resources in order that the free development of every individual should be translated from a dream into a reality.

Wages are paid only in order that employing concerns may squeeze out of the workers that profit which it is the object of their existence to obtain. The enthusiasm of even the staunchest Labour voters has been undermined by instance after instance of successful attacks on their wages and working conditions. Knowing that socialism is the only solution and that it can be brought about only when the electors become socialists, we have consistently opposed the Labour Party and its left-wing hanger-ons. We urge our fellow-workers to abandon their illusions and oppose capitalism, including its Labour Party supporters. 

The Socialist Party is the only party in this country that has never betrayed the workers’ interests by supporting reform programmes or capitalist parties. We are at present necessarily a propaganda organisation, working to make socialist principles better known. Political leaders thrive not on the knowledge of the workers but on their ignorance. Whether they are honest or dishonest these leaders cannot bring about socialism for the working-class—that the workers have to do for themselves. Which means that they, and not merely their leaders, have to acquire knowledge. It is the purpose of working-class education to give the workers the knowledge. Until the workers rid themselves of their trust in leaders they will continue to be misled, defeated, and betrayed, whenever suitable occasion offers. 

The assumption that the Socialist Party attaches no importance to action is grotesque. What we want is sound action, the action of socialists who want socialism. Of course we reject the unsound action of the “something now” parties. Would our critics have us participate in their actions, such as protecting the capitalist system, and—most important of all—preaching the false doctrine that the workers’ problems can be solved by the “something now” policy of reforming capitalism? Our slow progress is merely a reflection of the success of the propaganda efforts of the capitalist parties, including the parties of capitalist reform. But not even their most skilful propaganda will serve permanently to cover up the woefully inadequate results of their “something now” actions. No member of the Socialist Party, proposes to give up our action directed towards the attainment of socialism, in order to perpetuate the endless, useless and dangerous mistakes of the ‘‘something now” parties. In due course the workers, disappointed with that policy, will join us and make socialism a reality. We are optimistic enough to believe that. 

The evidence of capitalism's decay, its redundancy, is persistent and overwhelming. The working class, who now run capitalism in every way, need only to see this evidence for what it is and then to opt for the social system which they can run in the interests of the entire human race.