Cross Talking About Crosswalking.

Pedestrian crosswalks may not be the most crucial problem capitalism has ever thrown up at us, but nevertheless it's still a matter of life and death, especially since 34 pedestrian's have been knocked down and killed on Toronto streets in 2019.

 In September a 17 year old was killed at an intersection where Councillor, Paul Ainslie has been asking for a crosswalk since 2014. Only 22 crosswalks have been put in during the last 5 years, but 700 have been requested. For once the good folks at city hall are not pleading lack of money, but the amount of time it takes to process the matter. First a request is made, then a survey is done on how many cross that intersection, and if approval is given, it takes an average of 9 months before shovels are in the ground, though we are not told why. Mayor, John Tory, said he was very concerned, but cautioned drivers to drive slower. 

Yet they still insist capitalism is the best of all worlds.

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A 14 Carat Doozey.

 Now for our quote of the month and this one's a 14 carat doozey.

 David Olive, the Toronto Star's economic expert, mourns the loss of banker Paul Volcker in his article of Dec.14. The caption reads, ''Volcker was the greatest banker in history.'' Olive, ''justifies,'' that comment with the following, stating: ''As chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board from 1979 to 1987, Volcker curbed the U.S. money supply and nearly doubled interest rates, triggering the most severe economic downturn since the great depression.'' 

It's time for all of us to reflect on how fortunate we are.

 We do not live in a society that has no banks, inflation and depressions, 'cos if we did we wouldn't be able to thank Mr.Volcker for his wonderful contribution to humanity.

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We need the Socialist Standard

Give a person a copy of the Socialist Standard and you have given that person a three-hour lecture on socialism. This appeal is addressed to all members and sympathisers. The Socialist Party is experiencing grave difficulties in the distribution of the Socialist Standard. Our many readers would doubtless be anxious if they thought that there was a danger of the Standard “packing up.” There is no immediate danger of this happening, but rising costs of production, together with increasing difficulties of distribution, are causing not a little worry.

Does this mean anything to you? You may have come in contact with our paper or organisation quite recently, or you may be a supporter of one of the traditional left-wing; whichever category you come under we ask you to give your immediate and serious attention to this appeal.

In the fight for socialism the Standard has been one of our most effective means of propaganda. It has enabled us to deliver our message not only in this country, but in all parts of the English speaking world.

The need for the Standard and its possibilities are now greater than ever. Owing to the rapid industrial developments of the past few years the minds of thousands of workers are in a state of unrest, and need but an understanding of the principles of socialism to convert their aimless discontent into a state of ordered enlightenment, and so add their strength to the revolutionary movement.

Unfortunately, our powers of propaganda are limited, the circulation of this journal is not as large as it might be, and the expense of its publication is still a drain upon the general funds of the Party. But there is the possibility of making the Standard self-supporting. A thousand new readers will accomplish this object, and that secured, progress will be easier and more rapid.

 

 As the written word is our major form of propagating socialism, all comrades can participate in distributing socialist literature and so help the Party and themselves to bring about a greater understanding of our case by our  fellow workers. Working people who carefully read THE SOCIALIST STANDARD and become acquainted with the aims and methods of the Socialist Party  are bound to realise, sooner or later, that the path marked out is the only certain way out of wage-slavery.

Political parties must be judged by their record—our record is contained in the Socialist Standard first published in September, 1904, and in each successive issue right up to the one you are reading now. No other political party in this country has handled the case for socialism in line with Marxism, that job was, and is, the job of the Socialist Party Whether or not this job is to be tackled with increasing vigour really depends on YOU—because the Party is as strong, and no stronger, than the efforts of our members and friends make it. 

There is no need for me to dwell on the difficult conditions under which the Standard is produced these days. We leave that to your imagination, knowing that you will understand and respond speedily.

Some members in Glasgow intend a drive to increase Socialist Standard sales. Details to follow in due course.

We feel confident that every friend of the Socialist Party is going to see to it that we win this critical battle in our history. 

Let the campaign commence!

Hurting the vulnerable

More than half of new claims in Scotland for the UK Government's disability payment have been refused, according to analysis.

The figures produced by the Scottish Government suggest tens of thousands of people with disabilities have completely lost their benefits.

Since the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) was replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in 2013, 167,000 new claims in Scotland have been unsuccessful - accounting for 54% of all applications.

Meanwhile, the share of new claimants awarded PIP has decreased since its introduction from 74% in 2013-14 to 56% in 2018-19.

The data suggests 39,000 people in Scotland have lost their disability completely - at a cost of between £1,200 and £7,740 a year - after losing their DLA entitlement before being reassessed and refused PIP.

30,000 people had went through a "stressful" appeals process since PIP's introduction - 21,000 of those going to court.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish Government's Social Security Secretary, was critical of the findings, saying. "For disabled people, the stress and anxiety of the application process and face-to-face assessment process are already hallmarks of the UK Government's welfare reforms.
 Now this latest analysis shows that those most in need in our society are less likely to get help or have to fight through the courts to get what they are entitled to. Tens of thousands of disabled people are facing greater hardship because they have completely lost their benefits."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nearly-44000-disabled-scots-completely-21337833

The Appeal of the Socialist Party

We are on the threshold of a remarkable leap in the productive process. Automation, robotics and Artificial Intelligence is not merely ‘a little more of the same.’ It will have consequences upon economy. Like all technical innovations worthy of the name, automation is a way of producing more, better, with less labour-time. That can spell trouble for our economic system. For capitalism tends to reverse the normal ways of thinking about economic problems. What comes to everybody’s mind when he hears that we are piling up large inventories of goods, if not ‘trouble ahead’? And if we are very low on goods, that is taken to mean that we are in good shape. Because it is an economy of production for profit rather than for use, it thrives on scarcity, and collapses as a result of the very situation that men should be happiest about: what is called a ‘glut’ of the things we consume.

Political democracy is only one feature of complete democracy. Complete democracy necessarily includes industrial democracy. Without industrial democracy, political democracy is merely a preparation for democracy. Industrial democracy involves the collective ownership and democratic management of the socially necessary industries. The existing political parties are owned by the capitalist class and stand for the interests of the capitalist class. They stand for the private ownership of the means of subsistence, for the exploitation ol the workers, and for wage-slavery. They are all the mere puppets of the ruling class. They are literally bought, paid for and owned, body and soul, by the powers that are exploiting this nation and enslaving and robbing its toilers. Against these corrupt capitalist parties is the Socialist Party, the party of the awakening working class, whose red banners, inscribed with the inspiring class-conscious solidarity, proclaiming the coming triumph of international socialism and the emancipation of the workers of the world. The Socialist Party is positive and constructive. It stands for complete political and industrial democracy. 

On one side are the corporations, the banks, the plutocrats, the politicians, the bribe-givers, the oligarchs, the parasites, retainers and lackeys of the filth, and slime of ruling class politics, glorifying in its plundering and profligate regime.

On the other side are the workers, the producers, coming into consciousness of their interests and their power as a class, filled with the spirit of solidarity and with the confidence that throbs within them; scorning the capitalist parties that promoted industrial robbery and political rottenness. We are not here to play the filthy game of capitalist politics. Capitalism, having its foundation in the slavery and exploitation of the masses, can only rule by corrupt means. 

The Socialist Party as the party of the working class stands squarely upon its principles in making its appeal to the workers. It is not begging for votes, nor seeking for votes, nor bargaining for votes. It is not in the vote market. It wants votes, but only of those who want it - those who recognise it as their party and come to it of their own free will. we want all the votes we can get but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office. The workers have never yet developed or made use of their political power. They have played the game of their masters for the benefit of the master class - and now many of them, disgusted with their own blind and stupid performance, are renouncing politics and refusing to see any difference between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling class to perpetuate class rule and the Socialist Party organised by the workers themselves as a means of wresting the control of government and of industry from the capitalists and making the working class the ruling class of the world. We are united and enthusiastic as never before. There is but one issue - the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class. It proclaims the identity of interests of all workers and appeals to them to unite for their emancipation. It points out the class struggle and emphasises the need of the economic and political unity of the workers to wage that struggle to a successful end. It declares relentless war upon the entire capitalist regime in the name of the working class and demands in uncompromising terms the overthrow of wage-slavery and the inauguration of industrial democracy.

To this end the Socialist Party has been organised; to this end it is devoting all its energy and resources; to this end it makes its appeal to the workers. The Socialist Party has no blueprints to offer the world. Its task is to mobilise the workers for the destruction of the system which robs them of the fruits of their labour. That is our only purpose in calling upon them to organise for the conquest of political power.

Homelessness In Canada

Stats-Canada recently created its first survey on wait times for affordable housing. It showed that there is someone on the waiting list in about 283,000 households across the country, and 176,600 households have been waiting for at least two years. Of all those, one fifth are already in a subsidized unit and waiting to move to a new home. There are about 1.7 million households who live in ''core housing need,'' meaning they live in a home which is too small or they can’t afford it.

 Tim Richter, head of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said they were some of the best numbers he has seen, though he did not define what he meant by “best.'' He also said, ''It points to the urgency of a federal government response, and that we should be doing as much as we can as soon as we can.'' 

One thing's for sure and that is life under capitalism isn't getting any better

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Financial Wellness Crisis.

The Manulife of Canada debt survey, published on Nov.22, revealed that two in five Canadian's don't expect to get out of debt on their lifetimes. Also 94 per cent of respondents said the average household has too much debt, while 67 per cent of those in debt assumed that everyone else was. In the spring, 33 per cent said their spending was increasing faster than their income, but now 45 per cent said it. More than half of Canadians reported considerable non-mortgage debt and 60 per cent said their credit cards were carrying a large balance, which is up from 48 per cent in the spring. "There is a financial wellness crisis and it's affecting Canadians of all demographics'', said Rick Lunny, president and CEO of Manulife Bank. 

When people of Mr. Lunny’s brilliance don't attempt to sugar coat things, you know they're really bad.

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Student Debt

The student loan debt burden in Scotland has more than doubled over the past decade to hit £5.5bn, with those from the poorest backgrounds borrowing more to get by.

Total student loan debt has increased from £2.4bn in 2010-11 to £5.5bn at the end of 2018-19, according to a report by the nation's public spending watchdog.

Audit Scotland said the amount of money being given out in loans had also nearly tripled over around the same time frame, rising from £187m in 2008-9 to £533m now.

 Its report added that students from the most deprived areas typically borrowed more than their richer peers, although this is partly explained by the fact that they are entitled to higher loans.

Under the current system, Scottish students receive free university tuition if they stay in the country to study, but can borrow money towards their living expenses.

The average loan in 2008-9 was only £2,420 but by 2018-19 it had reached £5,300, with students from the poorest areas claiming an average of £840 more than those from the richest.

The National Union of Students (NUS) said the level of debt was at an “unacceptable” level. NUS Scotland president Liam McCabe said the report made “stark reading” and showed that student debt “continues to sky-rocket”.

“It is Scotland’s poorest students that are carrying most of this burden, at an unacceptable average of £23,200 [over a four-year degree] in student loans,” he added. “Whilst free tuition helps mitigate Scottish student debt levels, this cannot be used as an excuse for continued levels of increased student debt.”

Audit Scotland said a total of 505,800 students still had loans to repay as of April last year, out of 654,000 who were provided with funding.

It added that £7m of debt was written off in 2018-19, which happens when a person becomes permanently unable to work or exceeds the time limit for paying the money back.

https://inews.co.uk/news/scotland/scotlands-student-loan-debt-soars-poorest-borrowing-more-1371710

Slave in Scotland

In 1778, Joseph Knight successfully challenged his status as a slave in court in Edinburgh - not only defeating his master and winning his freedom, but ensuring that slavery was ruled illegal in Scotland.

Knight had been taken from Jamaica to Scotland as the personal servant of sugar plantation owner Sir John Wedderburn. It was, for the period, a more "nurturing" relationship than that experienced by most slaves, according to May Sumbwanyambe, who tells the story in the National Theatre of Scotland's play Enough of Him.

"This was a young black man who wanted his freedom but at the same time felt such a degree of loyalty towards his 'master and father' - somebody who had actually been very loving and caring towards him," the writer says.

"This was a master and slave owner who genuinely felt anguish and felt betrayed that this young man wanted to be free of him."

Sumbwanyambe was born in Edinburgh but grew up in Grimsby, working night shifts on the docks to earn money during the university holidays while studying for a law degree.

He wrote the play against the backdrop of debate about Brexit. "You kept hearing this thing - 'We want our country back.'

"And it was constantly linked to immigration. The thing that I struggled with is that it was based on this idea that, if only you could just go back 70 years, back to the glory days when Britain still just had an empire but was all completely white. I knew that was a myth."

The point that immigration was happening long before Windrush underpins his play.

Sumbwanyambe was surprised to learn that there were thought to have been between 10,000 and 20,000 black people in mid-18th Century London, out of a population of around 700,000.

"Black people have been here and we've been living side-by-side in this country with white people for a very long time," the playwright says. "For all those glory days that people want to go back to - we were there too."

Joseph Knight was among those who left a legacy. "The journey towards this noble idea of justice and dignity and respect that we think of [as British] was contributed to by that young black man's actions."

Enough of Him is at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 17 October, then at Perth Theatre and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51177299

Something for Nothing

A Manifesto of World Socialism

There may still be room for some reforms for betterment of some sections of the working people in the present social system, but this is of minor consequence compared to the need for social revolution and radical reorganisation of society. We must achieve the socialisation of the means of production and distribution. Private property and the ownership industry and production by a minority for individual profit is not compatible with social evolution and has ceased to be progress. Despite its marvellous technology and invention this poor world of ours has not yet learned how to feed itself. That is the problem of problems now confronting us more and more insistently and until that is solved the world is halted and it will either resume its march toward industrial and social democracy or it will degenerate into chaos. There is no longer any excuse for a hungry person. All the material forces are available for the production of all things needed to provide food and shelter for every man, woman and child, putting an end to the poverty and misery. But these have to set into operation for the common good of all instead of the private profit of the few. A capitalist world can never be a free world.

The education of the people, not only the few, but the everyone is the task of the people and it must be emphasised that task can be performed only by themselves. To stir the people, to inspire them to think for themselves, to advocate the idea of mutual kindness and good will, based upon mutual interests, is the Socialist Party’s contribution to the cause of humanity. Its declared principle is that workers have no interests in common with capitalists; that, in fact, their material interests are in conflict, and it is its declared purpose to abolish the wage-system, and supplant it by a system of co-operation in which the workers themselves shall have full control for their own benefit, and to this end they recognise the necessity of organising the political as well as the economic power of the working class to attain industrial democracy, by, for and of the workers, first, last and all the time.

Every useful and beautiful thing in the world, made by the hand and brain of man, is the creation of the men and the women who work. In a capitalist society, however, where all the lands and the natural resources of the earth, and all the instruments of production and distribution (transport, mines, factories, etc.) are already privately owned and controlled, Labour, the world’s true magic-maker, is shut off from the productive processes and from the power of producing a living, or of earning a living, except upon the terms laid down by the capitalist class.This is true in spite of the fact that all the capital in all the world is incapable of producing one loaf of bread, one pair of shoes, one house, one suit of clothes. Not one wheel would ever turn productively, not one machine would ever operate, not one train would ever move without the hands and brains of labour. Capital is utterly incapable of increasing itself. Unless he is able to filch the swag from some other capitalist who has exploited labour, the only way a capitalist may force his capital to multiply and bear the fruit of still more capital, is by the employment of labour. Without the hands and brains of labour, capital would remain forever stationary. A million dollar investment would remain one million dollars. The increase on this capital is the product of labour alone. We are not discussing a situation in which another capitalist comes along and invests another hundred thousand dollars in the first capitalist’s plant. What we are trying to explain is how the first capitalist, who possessed a one million dollar investment, finds himself at the end of the year, with this same one million dollars AND fifty thousand dollars additional capital (or profit).The only possible increase in capital, in this instance, comes through the exploitation of wage-labour.

A landlord may double the rents he demands of his tenants for his flats or his houses. But this merely doubles the income of the landlord. This does not increase the total commodity, money, or the total capital existing in the world. It merely transfers money from the pockets of your employer (who has to pay you. higher wages in order that you may pay increased rents) INTO the pockets of the landlord. One man will be five hundred dollars “out” and the other will be five hundred ahead in the game. You wage-workers only get a bare living (when you get that) anyway. In this transaction of rent-paying there is no increase in the total capital. the power of one capitalist landlord to raise the rents of shacks inhabited by the employees of other capitalists, for example, is his arbitrary monopolistic power to levy a tribute from the employing capitalists, because the landlord is able to force these employers to pay higher wages to their workers to enable them to pay his increased rents. No value and no capital is added to the total general capital. The landlord forces the corporation capitalists to divide the surplus value they have already extracted from their own workers, with him.

The Socialist Party is the party of the working class. The working class, the only class without which society could not exist and its emancipation, which will follow the abolition of the wage system, will mean the freedom of humanity, based upon cooperative industry; and it will also mean the end of the animal struggle for existence in human society and the beginning of the first real civilisation the world has ever known. A man or woman who wants his or her vote to count against the private ownership of the earth and the tyranny of class rule and for industrial democracy and the freedom of mankind will cast that vote for the Socialist Party. Any person who aspires to become free should join the Socialist Party, the only party that believes that the people have capacity for industrial as well as political self-government; the only party that proposes to make this in fact a government of and by and for the people.

The Socialist Party does not intend to “smash” those global corporations and the logistic networks of their worldwide supply chains. The Socialist Party, when it gets into power, will take control of the multinationals and have them owned and operated by all the people to produce wealth for all the people. In other words, the Socialist Party proposes to transfer the sources, means, and machinery of production and distribution from the private hands to the collective people, so that wealth may be produced in abundance, not to enrich a small class, but for the comfort and enjoyment of all. In every election campaign, this is the overshadowing issue, notwithstanding the capitalist attempts to obscure and to divert the attention of the people; and upon this great issue every first voter in the land who prefers freedom to slavery, peace to war, love to hate, plenty to poverty, happiness to wretchedness, man to mammon, should cast his or her vote for the Socialist Party. 

Whatever Does Happen Won't Be Good.

 On Dec.6 Stats-Canada informed us that the Canadian economy in

November had its biggest monthly job loss since the financial crisis. 71,200 jobs were lost, this was 38,400 full time jobs and 32,800 part time. Economists on average had predicted a gain of 10,000 jobs, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

This proves clearly that under a crazy, anarchistic system which capitalism is, nobody knows what will happen and even Warren Buffet has admitted neither does he. 
Of one thing we can be sure is that whatever does happen won’t be good, so why not abolish it?

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Some People Who Build Dams. Don't Give a Damm.

When looking through the TV guide I came across this little goodie - River Silence – a Rogerio Soares award winning 2019 documentary which paints a painfully vivid portrait of the more than 40,000 Indigenous residents of the Amazon Basin whose lives have been shattered by construction of the controversial Belo Monte, one of the world's largest dams. As a result of the project, the displaced people who used to live along the banks of the Xingu River saw their homes flooded, forcing them to relocate to nearby cities that are overrun by unemployment and increasing violence.

 For centuries the capitalist class have been forcing people off land they have lived for generations when they see a chance to make a buck. This though, as bad as it is, doesn't mean that all capitalists and their political stooges are mean and cruel.

 Take Henry Kissinger for instance. When the Nixon administration were discussing nuclear testing in Micronesia and the affect it would have on the locals, he said, ''There are only 90,000 people out there; who gives a damn?'' Quote from, How To Hide An Empire, by Daniel Immerwahr, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, N.Y.C. 2019.

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think

Where are the jobs?

Students from Scotland's most disadvantaged areas are less likely to secure a professional job quickly, according to a new paper from the Commissioner for Fair Access to Universities. It suggests they may suffer "silent discrimination" in the jobs market.

One key point is that they are less likely to continue their studies on a postgraduate course such as a Master's course or a doctorate.

The paper says: "... even the students from more socially deprived backgrounds who do progress to postgraduate study are still significantly less likely to get professional jobs six months after leaving, which suggests that they continue to suffer perhaps silent but nevertheless powerful discrimination.

The commissioner Professor Sir Peter Scott said, "The gap is also explained, partly but again not wholly, by the fact that more socially deprived students are concentrated in universities with lower postgraduate progression rates - although, again, this begs the question of why they are under-represented in more prestigious institutions, notably the ancient universities, where many more students continue on to postgraduate courses."

As a general rule, Scotland's "ancient" universities and the institutions which became universities in the 1960s have fewer students from the most deprived parts of the country (SIMD 20 areas) than former polytechnics.

Only two institutions currently have met their long-term target for admissions from SIMD 20 areas - Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-51190188