XR in Aberdeen

Extinction Rebellion protesters have blocked the entrances to Shell's Aberdeen headquarters. Extinction Rebellion also had its purple boat at the site. Activists arrived at the Altens base at about 06:30 and plan to remain at the site all day "to hold Shell to account". The group said the protest was part of its two-week long campaign targeting the fossil fuel industry. The protesters plan to walk through Aberdeen city centre, starting at the railway station at 13:00, then going via Union St and the harbour. 

A statement from Extinction Rebellion Scotland said: "As Australia burns and Indonesia is flooded, with tens of thousands made homeless, the purple boat bears the words, "The Future You Fear Is Already Here", a reminder that catastrophic climate change is already under way across the planet, driven by Shell and the rest of the fossil fuel industry. Last week, as bushfires caused by climate change choked Australia, Shell celebrated the discovery of a huge new gas field off the coast of Western Australia."

The statement added that it was disrupting business as usual for Shell as it was "one of the top 10 carbon emitters in the world, and is projected to increase their output of oil and gas by 35% over the next 10 years".

One of the protesters, Michael, a 57-year-old management consultant, said: "Governments and corporations like Shell all agree that my children are facing a catastrophic climate and ecological collapse yet are doing next to nothing to prevent this. I'm here today because as a parent I am ultimately responsible for the safety of my children whether today, tomorrow or in 30 years time."

The Socialist Party has a great deal to say about the causes of climate change and it exposes the irreformable nature of capitalism.  What is to be done about climate change? The Socialist Party see the pressing need for a democratic,  transformation of society, and clear thinking about how this is to happen. It requires the linking of all the different resistances to one universal project of class emancipation so we can begin to build a socialist political struggle. Socialist politics is indispensable to any real struggle against the environmental crisis in how directly the crisis is related to the system of capitalist production. For many people, “capitalism” may be something eternal and of course, we’re not supposed to question capitalism, and this is why it’s off the table at every UN Climate Change Conference despite its direct effects on the environment, due to its inescapable drive towards growth. 

 Capitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately owned. The owning employing class appropriate the surplus product created by the workers. This appropriation leads to the accumulation of more capital, the amassing of wealth, further investment, and thus the expansion of capitalism. Commodities are produced for the purpose of generating profit and promoting accumulation. Within the capitalist system, individuals pursue their self interests against competition and impersonal forces of the market. We must recognise the fact that global capitalism is driving the climate crisis. Capital is relentless. Any attempts to solve the environmental crisis head-on, without addressing the systemic structural causes, will ultimately fail.  To halt climate change means defeating the capitalist class and its political representatives. It will require a mass movement to capture political power and to take hold of the means of production out of the hands of the capitalists. We are talking about a socialist revolution.

The Socialist Party - The Freedom Party

We are in the midst of a worldwide industrial, political, and social revolution. The capitalist system, with its extreme wealth upon the one hand, its abject and widespread poverty on the other; and its political corruption, its industrial slavery, and its social demoralisation has about run its course and is being challenged by a growing number of working people.  Regardless of all that we hear of liberty, we are not yet truly free. Through the ages the many have been the slaves of the few. Little has changed. Many of us are living in poverty and dying in despair.

The worker must sell his or her labour-power to the capitalist class, which owns and controls the machinery and technology. And how is this controlled? By the law of supply and demand. Labour-power is in the market for sale. The capitalist buys labour-power. He buys as cheaply as possible, and between employer and employee there is an economic and political struggle, and strikes and lockouts, injunctions and bloodshed. The media and the politicians seek to obscure this class struggle. The politician wish to keep you in darkness.

The Socialist Party points out that this class rule must be abolished and human freedom shall be established, freedom for all humanity. The Socialist Party tells you not to trust in political leaders and their mouth-pieces in the media, but insists that you open your eyes so that you may see, that you may understand and it candidly tells the harsh truth on how you lack knowledge and and class consciousness. You produce by your labour all the wealth . You have little or nothing to show for it. You build all the mansions and palaces and live in slums and shanty towns. You vote for this or that government, but you are oppressed and suppressed by them. You produce everything and have practically nothing, while the ruling class produces nothing and has everything. If you understood  you would produce wealth, not for your masters, but for yourselves. Political liberty without economic freedom is a myth. Political liberty is rooted in economic freedom. The man who controls and owns the means that sustains life, owns and controls you. You are his slave and in no sense free. They divide you at the ballot box upon alleged issues, issues in which you have not the slightest interest. Politicians claim that they can serve both the bosses and the workers. This is impossible. Politicians who serve one class serves that class at the expense of the other class. There is not the slightest difference between the parties so far as the working class is concerned. They both stand for the capitalist system, for the private ownership of the means of wealth production and the operation of industry in the interest of the capitalist class. They are  committed to the perpetuation of wage-slavery, and whether one or the other wins, you lose.

 The Socialist Party is the party of the working class. Its platform consists of but a single plank. It declares against the capitalist system, against wage-slavery, and in favour of a socialist society. It proposes organising the working class into a party representing the economic interests of the working class.  We are overwhelmingly in the majority, and when we are politically organised as a class and become conscious of our power as a class, we will conquer political power and take hold of the machinery of the state. We will take possession of the industries, put the working class in possession and control of production and distribution, and then capitalism fall, never to rise again.  We have raw materials in overwhelming abundance, the most wonderful technology the world has ever known, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their skills and talents to transform the raw materials into finished products.

In the capitalist competitive society working people are pitted against one another in every sphere of activity, and the struggle has become so sharp, so fierce, so brutal, that it develops and appeals to all that is cold and cruel and dehumanising to a person. The pressing issue is, how shall we eat, how shall we find a home to call our own, how can we educate our children and find healthcare for our sick and elderly. Everywhere there is the spectre of want, the possibility of failure. We do not know what is to become of ourselves. It is said that these things are inherent in and inseparable in our society. We repudiate the charge as a libel upon the human race, as a slander upon civilisation.

 In the capitalist system we are pitted against each other. Our economic interests are in conflict. We make war upon each other. We do not develop those qualities that dignify humanity. We do develop tooth and fang and claw; cunning at the expense of conscience. No-one understands this better than the businessman. No one mistrusts the businessman more than another businessman. It is his rule to treat every man as a rogue until he proves himself otherwise, and never to give him a chance to prove otherwise, for that might be his own undoing. He may wear a nice suit and talk eloquently but he is in no true sense a civilised human being. He is obsessed on how to make larger dividends, how to secure greater profit. The more he gets the greedier he grows. He gets rich in the worldly sense;  but spiritually he remains a pauper hence a need to sponsor the arts, to perform charitable deeds, to disguise his mercenary nature.

The Socialist Party knows that men and women are locked in an economic condition in which they are compelled to fight others for scraps. We do not propose a mere change of party as a solution — we propose a change of system. We are not reformers — we are revolutionaries. We appeal to our fellow-worker to organise a party that represents their economic interest. Our vision of socialism has in which there is no master and no slave. We wait until our socialist minority becomes the majority.  If you respect human life as greater value than profit, we ask you to join our party.

 New technology, automation and robotics and Artificial Intelligence will serve us. At the touch of button, mankind will produce abundance for all.  Work will be joy with everybody gladly doing ones own share of the world’s useful work. Everyone will have leisure and can cultivate the mind. Men and women will rise from the rule of capitalism, from the realm of necessity, to the heights of freedom.

The prisons will become vacant. We ask you to join us in the march from capitalism into socialism, from slavery to freedom, from barbarism to socialism.

A bit of Glasgow Branch history

January 1948

Comrade Prince Vallar, of Glasgow Branch, died December 1st. Many Socialists all over the country knew Vallar’s sincere comradeship and unflagging devotion to the cause of the working-class. While he did not join the party until 1938 he was for many years before a practical and moral bulwark to the small handful of enthusiasts who kept socialist principles alive in Glasgow against frightening odds. He played a great part in the formation of the Glasgow branch in 1922 with his generosity and unfailing optimism. He sought no reward and was unassuming in his party work

 He later had the keen pleasure of seeing his two sons and daughter-in-law become members of the large, virile branch which Glasgow is today. His wife and family have suffered an irreparable loss and the party has lost a staunch member. The working-class owe Vallar a debt, and we would ask that payment should take the form of ever-increasing struggle for the emancipation of the working-class.

February 1948

Glasgow Branch are keeping well in action in 1948. They are strong with the determination to make the very best use of their resources this year in socialist propaganda among the teeming wage-slave population of Glasgow. 

The branch had a very successful mass meeting on Sunday, January 11th, in the Central Halls to commemorate the centenary of the “Communist Manifesto.” Three speakers addressed the audience who were packed tightly in a hall with a seating capacity of 160. Members gave solid support as stewards, literature sellers, etc. 

A branch social committee is now busy arranging a theatre evening or smoking concert for members and friends as soon as accommodation can be reserved. 

Correspondence is being maintained with the Workers’ Socialist Party of U.S.A. at Boston and with comrades in Dublin and Belfast.

 Branch meetings are held on Wednesday evenings at 7.30 p.m. at the branch headquarters, 43, Maryhill Road, Glasgow, N.W., and the Sunday evening programme of lectures at the Central Halls, Bath Street, continues. These commence at 7 p.m.

The February programme is as follows: 
1st February, “The real crisis,” F. Duncan; 
8th February, “Socialism and Morality,” J. Thorburn; 
15th February, “The affairs of our masters,” J. McFarlane; 
22nd February, “ The workers’ party,” T. Mulheron; and 
29th February, “Dictators and Socialism,” J. Prout. 

There is, of course, no charge for admission to these lectures, and plenty of time is reserved for questions and discussion from members of the audience.

April 1948

Glasgow Branch has suffered severely lately owing to the death of members. John Adrian died in February suddenly under very tragic circumstances. He had been making plans for his usual visit to the Annual Conference, an event which he always looked forward to. John joined the party in 1936 and became a very valuable member. He was not a public propagandist, but a very serious student with a thorough grounding in socialist theory. He organised classes on economics and was a source of inspiration to all members. He had all the essential attributes of the revolutionary worker. Fifteen members attended his funeral at which a party member gave a fitting address. 

The branch has also lost R. D. Robertson who died in February after a long illness. He was a young member who joined us in 1942. He was an earnest and unassuming lad with a keen and intelligent interest in the work of the party.

The branch have been temporarily inconvenienced as a result of being served a notice to quit their excellent shop premises by May 28th—or to buy them at £700 (an impossible sum). This has faced Glasgow comrades with the difficult task of seeking new premises in the city by that date. The shop with its spacious window for displaying pamphlets, and announcing meetings, proved itself a most useful asset during its several years of branch occupancy.

Indoor meetings are continuing, but with the present mild weather and longer light evenings a start on outdoor propaganda is being made this month; probable venues are Queens Park Gate and Brunswick Street. 

Again a challenge to the C.P. to debate has been issued, this time through their Penilee branch, who await their central committee’s, sanction. It is expected, however, that the C.P.’s usual political cowardice about debating with S.P.G.B. representatives will add but another refusal to efforts to get them on the public platform.

 Recently the branch organiser travelled 50 miles on invitation to Kelty, to address a meeting composed mainly of miners. The S.P. case was well received.

July 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

Glasgow Branch continue their outdoor propaganda with moderate success. Glasgow lacks a really well-established outdoor "Speakers’ Corner” and the branch is trying out one or two new stations. They have some promising young speakers coming along but could do with more. 

They had a public debate with the Trotskyists at the end of May on the subject “Is Parliament the road to socialism?" The hall was packed and many had to be turned away. The Trotskyist repeated the usual stale distortions of Marxism and incitements to mass action. The debate is being repeated at Hamilton with a view to stimulating interest there.

 A special branch meeting is being held to discuss future activities on the electoral field and all friends in Scotland are appealed to for assistance and are asked to get in touch with the branch.

Beyond Protest

Extinction Rebellion protesters staged an 11-hour blockade outside an Edinburgh-based finance company which invests in fossil fuels. Campaigners blocked entrances at the Greenside Row office.

They claim Baillie Gifford increased the Scottish Parliament's pension investment in oil firm Shell despite MSPs backing action on climate change.

One campaigner, Lauren Waterman, from Extinction Rebellion, said: "We are here because Bailey Gifford manages the MSPs pension funds and despite MSPs claiming they would try to have more ethical pension funds they have upped their investment in Shell by 19%, so that is hundreds of thousands of pounds that are now going into the fossil fuel industry. It is impossible to see now how MSPs could properly regulate the fossil fuel industry when they are profiting from it so that's why we are here and we are here to ask them to divest."

The only sure protection against climate change is the replacement of a society based on accumulation for profit with one based on production for need. That will not come about while we make futile appeals to governments and corporations to mend their ways. The impact of climate change will cause an intensification of all the different problems bred by capitalism such as refugees and migration. There is only one way to put an end to the system that creates climate change and that is through participation in the challenge to capitalism as a whole. In order to survive, socialism necessary. Environment activists must make a choice between global catastrophe and revolutionary change.

We can only begin to address the problem of climate change if we understand the priorities of capitalism that we can see why mainstream politicians have failed to seriously reduce emissions. Capitalism is a barrier to reducing emissions, not simply because of the system’s historic reliance on fossil fuels, but also because of its reliance on market forces. Capitalism is an economic order barely compatible with human sustainability. A global economy that requires constant expansion of production and increasing exploitation of finite resources and labour would have to be transformed at its roots. We’ll have to produce fundamentally differently and more equitably than we do now. Challenging the regime of capital based as it is on the cheapest and fastest exploitation of labour and nature and the endless expansion of exchange value is at the core of this necessary transformation. By concentrating its labour resources economically on the real needs of people socialism would be able to stop vast numbers of wasteful and destructive jobs that are only necessary for a profit system. With the end of economic competition, socialism would not be bound to use the least costly methods of production, many of which are destructive of the environment.

The Socialist Party Is not for turning

Under the capitalist system the privileged few have enjoyed the fruits of the world and the vast majority of the people have been doomed to serve as beasts of burden. Those who benefit from  the advantages of this system believe that a system under which the few rule and the rest of us toil and submit to our masters is a good system.  Yet it is a economic structure which has inflicted the world with unspeakable suffering.  There is another possible system under which there is no favoured class, no special entitlements, where the Earth and its bountiful abundance becomes the common heritage of the people. Economic freedom will be established and the brotherhood of man will be inaugurated.

In today’s world the chief aim is to become wealthy. The man who has money is the master of the world, and in his presence the people prostrate themselves. The power of money now dominates every department of government. The power of money maintains an organised lobby in all the capitals of all the nation-states. It is the power of money that rules the world. They who have it are the rulers of the planet. The wealth of the world is concentrated in the hands of the few and the few dictate the destinies of all of us.

There are those who say this system is right; that it is the only system and that there exists no alternative one.  It may be a good system for those who benefit, but it is not a good system for the people at large. Greed is the dominating motive. Every man for himself and every man against every other man not working in his interests.  It is a fight for self-preservation, and in the fight the honest, conscientious, and scrupulous man goes down.

The Socialist Party says the people ought to own and operate all the means of production, to rescue society from the greed and avarice from the few and restore it to the working people. The Socialist Party proposes to supplant the present commercial competitive system with a cooperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party proposes that private property become the property of the people. The voice of socialism must be as inspiring music to the ears of those in bondage.The Socialist Party is the party of the whole working class of the whole world. Socialism means the overthrow of capitalism, the abolition of wage-slavery, and the inauguration of the cooperative commonwealth. It means a social revolution which shall give to every worker economic freedom.  We are organised to overthrow the capitalist system to establish a socialist society in which all men and all women, regardless of race or nationality, may enjoy equal freedom. To accomplish this we are not making war upon individuals, but upon a social and industrial system.  The fact remains that under the present system government is controlled absolutely in the interest of the capitalist class and its chief function is to keep the working class in subjection. We live today under class rule, whether the government in office be Labour or Tory, Republican or Democratic, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the government — are simply the functionaries of the ruling class and could not, even were they so disposed, materially change conditions resulting from the class ownership of the means of production, that is to say, the means of life. Between these capitalist parties there is no economic difference so far as the the people is concerned. They are all committed to capitalist ownership, class rule, and wage slavery.

The Socialist Party is the only political party in the world today whose declared purpose it is to abolish class rule and establish a republic whose fundamental principle is the equal rights and freedom of all. The other political parties all believe in the capitalist system and support the private ownership of the means of production, and believe that the workers, who produce all wealth and support all government and all civilisation, should be dependent upon the capitalists for the opportunity to work, and therefore doomed to live and die in wage slavery.

 Abolish capitalism, the private ownership by the few of the means whereby the great mass live, give all the oppressed economic freedom so that they may have the right to work and to receive and enjoy all they produce, and the gender, national and race question will be no more. The Socialist Party wants every vote it can get, provided it represents the intelligence, dignity, and honesty of the person who casts it. The Socialist Party does not buy votes with promises.

 Now, right now, is the time to begin.