The need is socialism

What is needed for socialism is first and foremost for conscious workers to realise that labourism and socialism have nothing whatsoever in common. The Labour Party in action has been making for state capitalism, not socialism. The path to socialism is not through nationalisation or workers’ councils or cooperatives but through a fundamental change in class relations, the superseding of the capitalism. It abandoned the class struggle, and became a reform movement occupied with legislation, not with the emancipation of the working class itself. Instead of rousing the consciousness of the workers, it has been silencing that consciousness. The demand for government ownership of industry and the extension of the functions of the state is not socialism. What nationalisation means is the State has been made responsible for the organisation of production. The workers remain just the same – sweating in the factories and in the fields and piling up the profits for their employers. The workers will have got new masters instead of the old ones. Perhaps, humane masters instead of the rapacious masters of today. Appointed by a government or at best chosen by workers themselves. But, once chosen, they must be obeyed. The workers are not masters over their workshops, they are not masters of the means of production. Above them stand the ministry’s bureaucrats and managers. Powerless against the power of the capitalists, impotent against the strength of the State. Nationalisation (or municipalisation) means new chains. Capitalism, indeed, cannot be annihilated by a change in the commanding personnel; but only by the abolition of commanding. The real freedom of the workers consists in their direct mastery over the means of production. The essence of the future free world community is they direct their work themselves, socially and collectively.

Compromise and concession has been struck by the labourite left with socialist fundamentals and principles in order to secure the support of non-revolutionary voters. To avoid misunderstanding, it is necessary to define the fundamental terms. Socialism is the system where means of production are owned by society as a whole, not private persons, not the State. Socialism is where each individual contributes to society according to ability and receives a share of the social product according to needs. This implies a high degree of modern co-operative production before there can be more than a redistribution of poverty; but co-operative production is not by itself sufficient, for all factory production is possible only by the highest degree of social co-operation, Similarly, most societies recognise the needs of children, the ill, and the elderly; but that does not suffice to make those societies socialist. A socialist revolution is possible only when the productive capacity (surviving after the revolution) suffices for the needs of the whole population on the level that its citizens recognise as equitable. No socialist revolution today in a backward country has any chance of effectiveness, or even of survival

 The Socialist Party is not a reform party, but a revolutionary party. It does not propose to modify the competitive profit system, but abolish it. The Socialist Party stands squarely upon the principles of revolutionary world socialism. There will be not so much as a hint at compromise. It takes no backward step. The Socialist Party is necessarily a world party. It is as wide as the domain of capitalism. It is everywhere and always the same. The Socialist Party has no interest in any of the so-called issues over which capitalist politicians fight sham battles. It cares nothing about banking regulation, protectionist or free markets. It stands first, last, and always for the common ownership of all the means of production and distribution, and will press forward unceasingly until they secure them, thereby liberating humanity and resolving the ills of capitalism. Let there be no ambiguity about the use of socialisation. We mean by it the ownership and control by the community. Fundamental social problems involving antagonistic class interests cannot be settled fully and finally by mutual accommodation but must find their solution in a change in society’s structure.

Capitalism can continue only by beating down the workers. The Socialist Party believes in the organisation of the working class for the overthrow of capitalist society as the only cure for the crimes of capitalism. We are the party of the socialist revolution in the United Kingdom. We maintain that capitalist governments do not represent the interests of the but acts on behalf of the few rich. We propose that the organised workers replace the capitalist regime with their own administration which shall administer on behalf of the majority instead of the exploiting minority of the plutocrats.

To Save the Planet

The 26th Conference of the Parties UN climate conference is taking place in Glasgow this November, the Guardian reminds us.

At COP 26, world leaders will be under huge pressure to come up with an international, united and effective response to the climate emergency. Those involved in the recent wave of climate action believe much can be done beforehand to ensure nations take effective action.

“There is no doubt 2020 is going to be a really big year,” says Kim Bryan, of the US group 350.org.“In Glasgow, nations will be expected to agree formal commitments to tackle climate change. And people pressure is really making a difference.”

A number of Scottish organisations are building their campaigns in the run-up to COP, including Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, a collection of more than 40 civil society organisations.

 But there have never been so many options for would-be activists, from traditional NGOs such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, to more radical groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) and its youth section, the school strikes movement, run by the UK Student Climate Network, and grassroots organisations such as Onca in Brighton or Clean Air for Southall and Hayes.

Clare Rodger of the UK Student Climate Network says: “There is more that we could be doing to make sure that everyone is equally valued and listened to. This includes encouraging more boys to get involved in the climate justice movement.”

 “There is going to be a mixture of mobilisation for the coming year, and hopefully a lot of it will be led by grassroots groups,” says Guppi Bola of Wretched of the Earth, an activist coalition that supports the global south and people of colour seeking climate justice. Bola says that people of colour should join local groups where they feel comfortable doing so, and that many grassroots groups in metropolitan areas are more diverse and representative of society.

“The basic idea is to inform and inspire new people and then get them into groups to take on roles and jobs so the whole mobilisation can grow quickly,” says XR.


Daze Aghaji of XR youth recommends her own organisation, “because we are extremely diverse. We have really worked on this because we know that XR was coming under criticism over lack of diversity. We are creating bonds with activists in the global south, and we are taking on topics that are hard to talk about, like mental health and climate change.”

Craig Bennett, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, has warned of the environmental movement becoming stuck in “a white middle-class ghetto”.

A key month is April, when there will be three days of action across the world, including a global strike and a rebellion led by XR.

The Socialist Party has an important message for environment activists, no matter their age, ethnic origin or gender. 

The capitalist mode of production is the cause of climate change, the one thing that the politicians cannot go against. Only world socialism can overturn this mode of production. The campaign against climate change is the struggle against capitalism. Challenging climate change means demonstrating that the solution requires the reorganisation of society. It is also about battling capitalism to reshape our our economics to improve people’s quality of life and to reduce CO2 emissions. There is an alternative with a different vision. The solution is radical but the barriers are not technology but rather the the system of capital accumulation and its dominant economic vested interests. Stopping climate change requires a change more fundamental than a change of lifestyle choices or protests to make governments adopt effective policies. The vast extent of global warming is the result not of individuals at all, but by corporations driven by profit. Regulatory departments don’t do their jobs because they were bribed, or complacent, or powerless, or all three.

We urge all climate change campaigners to become active participants in the great struggle for a world of freedom from exploitation. The capitalist system is global so the devastation is global too. Business as usual means the suicide of civilisation and world socialism is vital for the survival of a society we can live in and unless we can clearly name the enemy as the capitalist system, and join and connect the worldwide struggles against it, achieving the political power to overthrow capitalism will elude us. Each of us have a responsibility not be drawn into meaningless games that maintain the power of the few over the many. If socialism to cure climate change is not the priority on your agenda, it ought to be, and you must act politically to make sure your voice counts. If not for for your community then at least for yourself and your own loved ones.

Protest and Survive

Climate activists boarded a gas mining rig in Dundee in an attempt to stop it from heading out to the North Sea. They came down about five hours later due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) Scotland  said three of its members had climbed aboard the Valaris 122 rig and intended to there for as long as possible to prevent it from operating. The group is demanding the Scottish and UK governments “tell the truth” about the impact of the fossil fuel industry and its effect on climate change. Activists have also urged politicians to decommission fossil fuel infrastructure, introduce a “just transition” for workers and communities, and establish a legally binding citizens’ assembly for environmental issues.

Protester, Fiona, said the world has “zero chance” of staying below the 2C global warming limit set by the Paris climate agreement with the current size of the fossil fuel industry.

“We are currently living in a world warmed by 1.1C – and we are seeing the catastrophic, heartbreaking and devastating effects every day,” she said.

Jo said she was taking part in the protest for her niece.

“I don’t want to say to her that I didn’t take a stand when I had the choice and left it to other people to sort it out,” she said. “I am going to give it my best shot and go down fighting because I can see the world through her eyes and I want to protect things for her.”

Police said four men and three women have been arrested in connection with the protest.

Regardless of  how sincere and dedicated environmental activists are, the truth of the matter is that if they do not work to replace the capitalist profit system then all their protests will be in vain. They have to set about dealing with the root causes of global warming and that is the economic structure of today's society.  UN climate conferences always fail and for the same reason — the inability of the various capitalist states to agree on what needs to be done as some would suffer economically more than others, especially countries with fossil fuel resources which they use either for export or for domestic use as the cheapest energy source available.

Capitalism is capitalism is capitalism

Capitalism is capitalism all the world over, with its gulf between the exploiter and the exploited. Riches at one end of the scale presupposes poverty at the other no matter whether in China or the West. When the worker is fooled as to where his or her real interests are, and, as a consequence is induced to work like a maniac, it is the capitalist who, growing wealthier, congratulates the worker. This task of misleading the worker is made easier when the workers can be induced to believe that they are a partner in the enterprise and that their interests are no longer opposed to those of the exploiter. When productivity increases, the workers may themselves gain a greater amount of goods without any radical change in their state relative to that of the master class. 

It is time working people took their fate into their own hands. They will find that they can do so much better than those whom they call leaders, but who, in reality, are lackeys of the capitalist class.

Nowadays every government, every political organisation proclaims itself for peace, against war, We are told that our rulers strive ceaselessly for peace, but the aggressive rulers of some other country threaten us. In certain circumstances war is a necessary evil—we are struggling for freedom, human dignity—in fact, we make war for peace. The ruling classes of every country and their governments are themselves the people who make peace, human dignity, real democracy and so on, possible. 

Maybe governments misunderstand each other’s desires? But they possess information services, often secret, much more reliable and detailed than those at the disposal of the general public. Often it is convenient for them to pretend ignorance or lack of understanding.

The aim of war is the protection and advancement of the economic interests of the capitalist classes of every country, each in competition against the others—for example, to protect or gain markets, sources of raw materials, trade routes. Those who control these powers must aim to protect and extend their own spheres of influence. Each power either is or would like to be an imperialist power, but the ambitions and interests of one state often must conflict with those of another. Political discord occurs, and when one government judges that “national interests,” that is, capitalist interests, are intolerably threatened, war explodes. We are against every war, against both sides of every war. Wars are struggles between capitalist interests; no army fights for the interests of any working class. Only in a truly socialist world-wide society will war disappear, because while the capitalist world social order lasts, the roots of war remain. So the only way to lasting peace is through a new world system—without classes, nations.

National struggles, especially when they are waged by the very weak against the very strong, are always seen in a romantic light. They are the material for songs and romantic novels and the new masters that emerge from such struggles are not adverse to the fictions and heroics which later purport to be history—"history” which becomes an important ingredient in the fog of ignorance essential in the exploitation of the “nation’s” working class.

Our purpose here is not to deny the bravery and self-sacrificing of those who contributed these qualities in the so-called fight for freedom. Such qualities were not the preserve of one side in the struggle—they are to be found in the unfortunate combatants of any war; often, sadly, they are to be found in inverse ratio to the amount of reasoned political thought on the part of their contributors. Our object is to show that whatever the ideas, or lack of ideas was the maintenance of the same old failed system of capitalism out of which all working class problems arise.

One of the reasons some workers support nationalisation is that they falsely identify the capitalist state with the interests of the community as a whole. Their nationalisation is still stronger than class consciousness. The break-up of existing nationalised industries, would not be an advance, and might cause some dislocation and redundancy which justify the workers involved opposing such measures without their deceiving themselves as to the real nature of the organisation and ownership of the nationalised industries.

Failure of nationalisation (whether partial as in this country, or almost total as in Russia) to prevent competition, insecurity, destitution and other ills affecting workers has made some of its one-time advocates disillusioned and apathetic whilst others have searched for explanations and new formulas to apply. Emerging from this has been a renewed and extended interest in ‘Workers’ Control' and ‘Workers’ Self-Management'. This is against the grain of both national Bolshevik and Social-Democrat organisation and politics but it is still not a solution, it too will fail to deliver the expected results.

It is essential for socialists to show how these developments point to the practicability and need for Socialism. It would be irresponsible, however, to advocate either nationalisation or workers’ control in the name of “developing consciousness through struggle” as so many self-proclaimed revolutionaries do. To associate with the particular reforms demanded is to be associated with their failure. Since measures such as ‘nationalisation’ and ‘workers’ control,” although originally in the working class, are generally only enacted to the extent and in such a way that they benefit the capitalists, by supporting these measures socialists would be helping to delude our fellow workers into thinking that real gains had been made. When the coal mines were nationalised, the miners believed that a great victory had been won, the capitalist politicians thought otherwise. It took a lot of redundancies, wage reductions and strikes to convince the miners of the true position.

Democratic control over industry and society as a whole can only be achieved by the abolition of the capital-wage-labour relationship, by making all the world’s resources the common property of mankind. Anything short of this is at best a palliative, at worst a total failure even proving detrimental to workers’ interests.