Skip A Meal And Pay A Bill?

Food bank use in the Toronto region is growing as more people struggle with low incomes and the rising cost of living, the Daily Bread Food Bank says. 

In the year ending March 2019, food bank visits topped one million in Toronto and Mississauga, according to the Who's Hungry report released by the provincial government on November 4. Food bank users are spending an average of six per cent more on rent since last year, while the average food costs in the Toronto area have increased by almost eight per cent, the report says. 

Almost all survey respondents reported incomes below Canada's official poverty line which in Toronto is defined as $41,362 for a family of two adults and two children. About 53 per cent have skipped a meal to pay a bill and 25 per cent of parents say their children frequently go hungry. 

Yet still they tell us capitalism is the best of all possible systems.

 Canadian Comrades.

Failing Forecaster.

Regular readers of this report will recall that last month Stats-Canada waxed rhapsodic over the decrease in the unemployment figures. 

Their report for October reveals that 1,800 jobs were lost following two months of growth. The hardest hit were the manufacturing and construction sectors.

 Those of us who are not taken in by the soothsayers may find it amusing to hear that economists were predicting the economy to add 15,900 jobs in October. 

This proves that nobody knows what will happen in this crazy, anarchistic system and that the good times won’t and don’t last for long.

Canadian Comrades,

XR Protests in Glasgow

Dozens of climate activists have shut down a branch of Barclays in Glasgow’s city centre as part of a peaceful protest against the firm’s investments in fossil fuels.

More than 20 members of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group demonstrated outside the building on Bothwell Street on Friday morning, displaying banners demanding the bank ‘clean up their act’.

A report from the Rainforest Action Network and financial activists BankTrack issued in May found Barclays was the world’s largest backer of fracking and coal energy firms, investing around $85 billion in fossil fuel businesses worldwide. 

In a statement, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow said: "Barclays is one of the largest providers to the fossil fuel industry in Europe. Unlike many UK banks, Barclays are willing to fund further tar sands exploration and arctic oil and gas exploration. These are some of the dirtiest investments around and they are a clear and present danger to our future." 

Hearing about and watching news of climate change on the media is something many of us simply do not want to do. The inevitable emphasis on destruction and likely catastrophe isn’t what we want to face in our day-to-day lives which is already tough enough. Hardly a day passes when there is not some sort of protest by eco-activists calling for the shut-down of a mine or pipe-line or power plant. Witnessing the abuse of the land environmental issues are becoming crucial issues for those seeking to change society to stop the poor from bearing the brunt of capitalism’s excesses. 

The destruction of the environment is intrinsically linked to the development of capitalism and the oppression of the poor. Profit is the exact point at which worker exploitation and environmental degradation intersect. Many inXR share a common enemy with ourselves, the capitalist class. Just as workers want better pay, so they also want better environmental conditions. Those first exposed to the health hazards of industrial production are workers and also exposed to the same in their communities. When was the last time you saw the rich living next to a fume-spewing chemical works?

What We Must Do

The capitalist system is behind all the ills that burden humanity today. Poverty, deprivation, prejudice, inequality, repression, ignorance, bigotry, unemployment, homelessness, corruption and crime are all inevitable products of this system. Although they have all existed before capitalism, these problems have found a new meaning and relevance in this society, corresponding to the needs of capitalism. These are being constantly reproduced as integral parts of the modern capitalist system. The source of poverty, hunger, homelessness, the brutal dictatorships, wars, genocides define the life of hundreds of millions of people today draw their rationale from the needs of the system that rules the world today and serve specific interests in this world. The capitalist system continually and relentlessly resists efforts to eradicate and overcome these problems and to improve living and working conditions. Capitalists stand in the way of the attempts to change the system and to construct a society worthy of human beings. This is the reality of capitalism today, boding a horrifying future for the entire people of the world.

Socialism will change our way of life. That is what makes the struggle worthwhile. The supporters of capitalism have nothing to offer mankind beyond the continuous existence of a system of society which totters on under the the weight of crises inherent in that very system. Socialism will be possible only when the workers, those who meet the needs of society, decide that they are determined to lay the living conditions of mankind on a new foundation. Socialism meets the desire for freedom innate in every individual. The class struggle is important and cannot be avoided because it marks the road towards the class-free society. With the end of class oppression the state disappears. No other school of thought can possibly visualise a situation of that kind, not even the most extreme right-wing American libertarian. Courage and determination is required, but it is also necessary that everything possible be done towards spreading socialist knowledge among as many workers as possible. The greater the understanding, the greater our confidence in victory over the class enemy and the establishment of socialism

To create a better world has always been the aspiration of people throughout history. People hold a deep-seated hope in the possibility and even the certainty of a better future. There exists the belief hope that tomorrow's world can be free of today's inequality, misery and deprivation, that people can influence the shape of the world to come and it is this which guides the lives and actions of vast numbers of people. Successive generations have tried to  build a better world and a better future that is both necessary and possible. Clearly, everyone's image of an ideal world of human happiness and social progress is not one and the same, however, they share many common traits -  freedom, justice, security and prosperity, ideals which form the basis of socialism, the movement for changing the world and setting up a new society.

The Socialist Party is not party of utopian reformers or self-sacrificing saviours of humanity. Socialism is not a fantasy designed and conceived by well-meaning know-alls. The Socialist Party is the expression of a social movement arising from within modern capitalist society itself, that reflects the vision, ideals and protest of working people. The Socialist Party emerges out of the class struggle. It belongs in the camp of the workers aimed at the overthrow of the capitalist system and the creation of  a new society without classes and exploitation. The Socialist Party has no interests apart from those of the working class as a whole. What distinguishes our organisation is that it champions the unity and common interests of the workers of the entire world, and it represents the interests of the working class as a whole. It is the organised section of the working class which understands the goal and the conditions and pre-requisites of victory and tries to rally fellow-workers to muster under its banner.

Let's Look at some Freedoms.

 On Remembrance Day, its greatest upholder, that 'Archie Bunker', Don Cherry, was fired as commentator for Hockey Night in Canada owing to his intemperate and racist comments.

 Cherry was upset at not seeing enough people from non Anglo-Saxon backgrounds wearing poppies. 

To quote, ''I live in Mississauga, nobody wears, very few people wear a poppy. Downtown Toronto, forget it, nobody wears a poppy. Now you go to the small cities and you know the rows and rows, you people love - that come here, whatever it is you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys paid for your way of that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the highest price.'' 

This was too much for CBC and Rogers owned Sportsnet to tolerate, especially considering the loss of a big non AngloSaxon audience, hence Cherry got the boot. 

Many I've spoken too agree with him, but fail to see the hypocrisy in extolling, by inference, democracy and demanding people buy something which should be a personal decision.

 Let’s look at some of the freedoms we enjoy in the society that Cherry and his kind admire; like the freedom to be exploited, unemployed, homeless, starving, fighting and killing in your bosses interest, and even the freedom to laugh when one of its biggest apologists makes an ass out of himself.

Canadian Comrades.

Govanhill Remembers the Devouring

A memorial to Roma victims of the Nazis which was destroyed by vandals in Glasgow is to be replaced by a robust granite plinth. Charity leaders said they were "disgusted" at the vandalism last month.

The plaque was dedicated to "all of those Roma who were murdered during the Holocaust".

The rose tree was planted to mark the Roma Genocide Memorial Day along with a plaque in Queen's Park, Govanhill. The original memorial was organised by charity Romano Lav - a group which works for the inclusion of Roma people. A spokesperson posted online: "Roma Genocide Memorial Day is about remembrance, but it is also about resistance. That this hateful act occurred at all underscores the need for this memorial.

"We will continue to honour the memory of those who lost their lives during the Holocaust, whilst fighting against the racism that marks our contemporary political moment, and that is a scourge on our society and communities."

Govanhill not only has the highest population of Roma in Scotland, but is also one of the country's most diverse populations.

• Europe's Roma and Sinti people (often labelled as gypsies' historically) were targeted by the Nazis for destruction.
• About 200,000 people, about 25% of the pre-war population were murdered or died of starvation or disease, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
• Many more were imprisoned or used as forced labour. Others were subjected to forced sterilisation or medical experimentation.
• The persecution is known at The Porrajmos which translates as the Devouring
• About 20,000 were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, which had its own Gypsy Camp.
• 
  

Festive Social (Glasgow from 2pm)

Details

Comrades and friends in and around Glasgow are invited to a Festive Social at The Atholl Arms in Renfrew Street/Renfield Street (corner), 3 minutes walk from Glasgow Buchanan Street Bus Station.

Saturday December 7th.

From 2pm onwards.

Socialism - Speed the Day

While to-day, in the domain of natural science, the theory of evolution is generally accepted as the basis of research, the reverse is the case in the field of political economy. The reason is that natural evolution can be “squared” with individualism, but social evolution cannot. Social development along evolutionary lines must, if logically and persistently traced, demonstrate more clearly that all men and women are social products and economic positions, therefore, merely the result of necessity and not of choice.

While orthodox political economy at the bidding of the possessing class, is at all times concerned to prove that capital and wage labour have existed through all history, the historic and economic teachings of Karl Marx, particularly the “Materialist Conception of History” and the “Theory of Surplus Value,” supply ample evidence that capital and wage-labour are conditions of a social system of production forming but a comparatively small link in the great chain of social evolution.While a number of bourgeois writers contributed considerably to the records of the history of primitive accumulation, it was left to Marx and his life co-worker, Engels, to point out its significance from the working-class stand-point. It was they who laid stress upon the fact that  this accumulation spelt the creation of the proletariat and of capital itself.  

The proofs adduced by Marx in support of his contention that the origin and rise of capital can be traced, distinctly and indisputably, to robbery, fraud and violence, form only a small part, and by no means the most important one, of his profound investigations into social wealth production. The portions of his work describing so lucidly the process of the reproduction and accumulation of capital are for the purposes of proletarian enlightenment of even greater importance. Marx’s evidence as to the reproduction and accumulation of capital bears out completely his theories of Value and Surplus-Value. According to them only two factors exist in wealth production – natural objects and social, co-operative labour. Capital is part of the social wealth, of which the workers have been robbed and which is invested by its owners for the purpose of further robbery.

Social, co-operative human labour applied to natural objects being alone necessary to produce wealth, it follows that the reproduction and accumulation of capital – a portion of social wealth – can exclusively be traced back to the exploitation of human labour.

The development of capitalist production causes ever-extending co-operation and productivity of labour, resulting in a gradual cheapening of human labour-power. Hence the proletariat, who alone produce all wealth, grow increasingly poorer, since their sole source of income is the sale of their labour power; while the idle owners of the means of production are accumulating more and more social wealth.So soon as it is conceded that to-day social labour applied to natural objects is the only source of wealth, the claim to the means of production – capital in present-day Society – by its capitalist owners can only be sustained on the ground of heredity or privilege.

Capitalism, the ownership of the world by a small propertied class, is driving the people of this planet along the path towards ruin. The plight of the people will worsen due to competition, strife, bloodshed and a growing poverty. The hope of humanity and the path to progress lies in the revolt of the wage-workers against the employing class, the capture of political power and the appropriation the means of production from the owning class. This great change means that the people will own the world in common, produce wealth in common, possess in common all wealth produced, and by common agreement distribute that wealth to the common advantage. This is a big task for the workers, but one forced on us by the worldwide misery. This next form of human society is called socialism/communism. It is our determined intention to do all in our power to spread the principles socialism throughout the whole of the world. We make it quite clear as to our exact aim and object. We are socialists and by Socialism we mean, the common ownership of all the agencies of wealth production, and this involves the complete supercession of the capitalist system, and the conducting of all production and distribution relationships on a co-operative basis, making for the socialist co-operative commonwealth.

Capitalist society  cannot assure an existence to the makers of its wealth. The private ownership of the instruments, together with the results, of production, has shown that if social development is to proceed, Socialism must be instituted, i.e. a system of society wherein all those who labour shall jointly possess and use those things which are necessary to satisfy the wants of all.

The main reason so many seekers after socialist knowledge remain reformers is that they do not realise that man is a social product and that wealth production throughout human history has been based on co-operation. With a thorough grasp of these primary socialist principles no proletarian can remain in ignorance of the meaning of social evolution and revolution. In his efforts to trace the history of man as a social product he will discover the fact that society is an organism with its own laws of development and that the various stages of such development are determined by the evolution in the tools of production. And in his endeavour to gather evidence of the existence of the co-operative principle in human society, the worker will learn that the condition of the wealth producers depends entirely upon the ownership of these tools of production, that is, upon whether they are owned by the users, or by another class, to whom such ownership gives the power of exploitation and domination. He will also come to realise that a change in the ownership of the means of production cannot be brought about by any evolutionary process, but, on the contrary, must be accomplished, by the propertyless class, by a political revolution.

Capitalism involves the sale by the worker and the purchase by the capitalist of his or her value-creating power – the source of the wealth of capitalist society. Socialism therefore — a society wherein we have the free and equal association of the wealth producers, operating the means of production they commonly own, making everything for use and for use alone — is the next stage in social progress. Onward! Haste the day!

Anti-Nationalism

Scottish separation would divide the working class along national lines. Who fosters division? In whose interest is it? No one but our common enemy, the capitalist class. To advance towards socialism, the working class must develop its consciousness of being a class with common interests radically opposed to those of the capitalist class. It must understand that nationalism serve the interests of the capitalists, not the interests of the workers.

Various little bands of quasi-Trotskyists in a patriotic effort try to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would mark a step forward towards its own liberation, a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people who parade the banner of independence and socialism around are perpetuating a number of falsehoods.

The SNP is a capitalist party. It works on behalf of the capitalists. The difference between the SNP and the other capitalist parties is not that it is calling for a different social system. What’s different is that they are looking for a new sharing of powers. The sharing will just be between groups of capitalists. Keep it in the family. Those left-nationalists who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists. In reality, they find themselves in the camp of those promoting division of the working class. The independence leads to socialism argument must be thoroughly demolished. Supporting Scottish independence in the name of socialism is a monumental hoax. It is up to the working class to show it will not be duped by their political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric of the nationalists and their Trotskyist bedfellows. Scottish independence is nothing but a dead-end road. It doesn’t bring us closer to socialism, only farther away from it. Whether they like it or not, the left nationalists who are pushing for Scottish sovereignty only end up supporting class collaboration. Promoting Scottish independence consolidates divisions rather than confronting and fighting them. It blocks the growth of class consciousness and instead it develops the idea among Scottish  workers that they have more in common with “their” employers than with the rest of the British working class. Instead of uniting the working class against the bourgeoisie, it divides them from the rest of the working class. It delays socialist revolution and unites the Scottish working people with the Scots bourgeoisie. Thus the working class would be sacrificing its struggle for socialism, which is the only way to do away with exploitation, in return for a few meagre changes, for crumbs.

To struggle for independence would not bring those in Scotland any closer to getting rid of capitalist oppression and exploitation. Instead it would divide the working class in the UK against its main enemy; it would weaken the struggle for socialism all across the land; it would hold back and retard the class struggle.