Socialism is Anti-Statism

Most people who call themselves socialists are still dominated by the idea that socialism is about expanding the sphere of activity of the state. For them, the key criterion of socialism is the nationalisation of property. The more militant their socialism, they assume. Judgements about the ‘socialist’ character of various regimes are based on the degree to which the means of production are in state ownership. On this issue, Labourites, Leninists, Stalinists and Trotskyists are in broad agreement. Given this apparently widespread agreement among 20th century leftists, it is surprising for many to learn Marx and Engels did not identify socialism with nationalisation of property. Their attitude to the state was one of unremitting hostility. Far from wishing to expand its activities, they sought to do away with it. In 1844, Marx declared that the most useful thing the state could do for society was to commit suicide. The following year, he and Engels declared ‘...if the proletarians wish to assert themselves as individuals, they must overthrow the state.’

Marx celebrated the Paris Commune of 1871 on the grounds that it was ‘a Revolution against the State itself’. And in 1884, Engels looked forward to the day when the state would end its life ‘in the Museum of Antiquities, by the side of the spinning wheel and the bronze axe’

None of this is to deny that states can and do perform ‘useful functions’ for society. They do, in their fashion, preserve ‘law and order’, redistribute resources within society, provide valuable services from water supply and roads to hospitals. Even if banditry is every state’s real relation to society, it must, to survive, be more than a mere bandit: it must perform services to seem indispensable. But, always, states exact a price for their services: their own existence. We can find state power lurking behind the very phrases that deny it: ‘equality before the law’, for instance, places us all in a situation of equal powerlessness before the state. State services have multiplied within modern capitalist countries, often because workers have fought for them. But every one of them has two crucial features which diminishes its real value: first, they all involve subordination to the state (education, welfare, law); second, they involve the division and atomisation of the population (competition in schools, health and welfare services for individualised ‘patients’ and ‘clients’).

Class rule has been modified, but in no sense fundamentally challenged. The fact that the state has been the mechanism through which workers have won significant concessions and improvements in their material and civil rights, is the real basis of the illusions of modern reformism. Those who want to preserve the existing state machinery in the struggle for socialism are not simply arguing for a different road to socialism; they are arguing against socialism itself. The heart of the socialist idea is self-government in every sphere of life, including production. And the state, in its very, essence, is nothing but a series of massive impediments to that self-rule. The aim of all those who want working class self-emancipation has to be the destruction of the capitalist state. Its existence is incompatible with the development of socialism.

We live in a world dominated by capitalism, a system which allows a small minority of capitalists to oppress and exploit the great majority of humankind.  It is capitalism that brings about great inequalities in living standards, starts murderous wars to steal the resources and causes the growing devastation of our natural environment.  Either we get rid of this outmoded and increasingly decrepit system or it will devastate humanity.  The hour is late and urgent action is necessary. The only viable way forward is to achieve socialism, a class-free and state-free society on a world scale where people do not oppress and exploit each other and where we live in harmony with our natural environment.  To create world socialism it is necessary to overthrow the rule of capitalism and this can be done only through revolution. The working people must depose the capitalist ruling class and establish socialism, a system of real, popular democracy that sets about the reconstruction of society.

People recognise that capitalism is no good but few can see a way forward to a better type of society. It is essential to generate interest in socialism. To achieve this aim the Socialist Party is spreading knowledge of the revolutionary outlook of Marxism among the working class. It is through political action that we reach out to people with our socialist message. The Socialist Party is up against the fact of life that a new generation has to be convinced afresh that socialism does in fact represent a superior system for the peoples, that the idea of the withering away of the state is not a pipedream, but a realistic if very rough sketch of the future state of human society. Only be cogent reasoning and intellectual demonstration can we hope to convince them. Socialism has to become a tool again for going to the roots of existing social problems and pointing the way to their solution. The Socialist Party insists upon repeatedly expressing the continuing relevance of the phrase ‘Socialism or Barbarism’.

While the whole world is now chained to the capitalist system, the immediate aim of the Socialist Party is to overthrow the capitalist class and set out for the socialist transformation of society culminating in the guiding principle will be ’From each according to ability, to each according to need’.

We are the socialists

Throughout the capitalist world, without exception, the picture is one of increasing chaos and crisis. Capitalism, based upon the private ownership of industry and land and the exploitation of the toiling masses, has exhausted its social role. Out of the welter of crises mass miseries and wars, a new social system will be born, based upon the common ownership of the means of production and the carrying on of production for social use. The system of private ownership and production for profit generates the whole series of contradictions and conflicts—economic, political and social—which torment present day society, causing disruption in the economic life and violent struggles between individual capitalists, between social classes and between capitalist states.

Under capitalism the policy of the ruling class is to try to find a way out of the crisis by throwing its burden upon the shoulders of the working class. Austerity is the order of the day in all capitalist countries. The Socialist Party does not oppose trade union struggles nor does its members refuse to participate in them. It is very essential for workers to organise and help one another to fight for their day-to-day demands. Because, it is only in the course of these fights, that the workers learn about the system of capitalist exploitation and the need to abolish it. Trade union struggles are necessary to educate the workers. What is wrong is to stop at that stage, limiting ourselves always to trade union struggles. Workers, at some stage, must go forward to transform the economic struggle into a political struggle for the capture of power by the working class without sinking into the morass of reformism. They must go further to abolish the wage system itself.

Hunger, misery, disease, and death is the daily lot of our fellow-workers. Too often the workers of the world are fighting each other at their masters’ command. When you fight capitalism you are doing what is right and just from the point of view of your class interests and of the future of humanity. You are fighting to forever abolish exploitation. It is the task of the Socialist Party to abolish private property in the means of production and to establish socialist production and distribution. As soon as private property is abolished, as soon as the industrial society has become socialised, exploitation of man by man ceases to exist. That means freedom and the road will be open for economic and cultural progress undreamed of under capitalism. The rule “let each person work according to ability; let each person receive from the common stock of goods according to needs.” is established. This is socialism. Mankind is free, forever. We no longer need the State. Masters of their own society, working people manage their affairs without the State.

The Socialist Party scorns to hide its aims. Under capitalist society it exists to fight against the exploitation of those who toil by hand and brain, to strengthen the working-class organisation and political understanding of the need of ending capitalism and establishing socialism. We have always regarded the struggle for socialism and the fight for peace as one struggle, a struggle which must be waged incessantly against those who spread misery and want and who continuously prepare for war. For war is not only a question of butchery on battlefields. War is inevitable under the capitalist system. It is an economic question. The Socialist Party is blunt: If you, fellow-worker, desire to abolish war, we say: Abolish capitalism with all its misery and replace it with a system of production for use and not for profit all over the world. War calls for a radical cure, not a palliative salve to soothe the ulcer and retain the body of capitalism.

The workers represent the decisive force in our society but they, however, fail to recognise this elementary fact. The Labour Party betray the true interests of the working class. They pretend that because they were of us they will be for us, and for our interests. Yet they urge us to help their masters—pay and benefit freezes, stagnating social services. For they believe the future as a future of recovered capitalism, and not as a future under the new world of socialism. The Socialist Party represent the vision of the future. We present the conception of socialism of the future. We urge no more pessimism. Let there be no more sense of frustration. The future is ours. We stand for the end impoverishment and to free the Earth from the fear of war. We seek a world in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease and peace and prosperity shall be enjoyed by all. The capitalist system which produces misery and disasters. We are never more optimistic, never more certain, never more determined to achieve the goal of socialism.

The capitalist class live in great splendour by exploiting the working class through the daily robbery of the enormous wealth the workers produce. In contrast to this, intense exploitation, oppression, poverty and misery characterise the lives of the working class. The fundamental contradiction between private appropriation and social production gives rise to the anarchy of production, its unplanned essence. Each capitalist or group of capitalists produces without knowing how much demand or need there is for their product. Driven by their need for maximum profits and by their competition with each other, the capitalists are forced to throw the greatest possible amount of commodities on the market. Working people have the power in its hands to forge a new socialist society.

Money Is More Important Than People's Health!

Hundreds of thousand Canadians are drinking tap water laced with high levels of lead leaching from aging and deteriorating pipes. A year long investigation by 120 journalists from nine universities and ten media organizations including the Toronto Star and the Institute for Investigative Journalism, collected test results that measured exposure to lead in 11 cities across Canada. Out of 12,000 tests since 2014, 33 per cent exceeded the national safety guideline of 5 parts per billion. Before this investigation, in 2008 a toxicology report from Toronto Public Health, estimated that 10,560 children in the city were at risk of high lead levels in their blood from lead plumbing. This was the last time the city conducted such an analysis. Health Canada recommends lead testing in residential areas, but B.C. and Alberta don't require municipalities to do so. 

During consultations with Health Canada's officials many provincial politicians complained about what it would cost them to conduct tests at residences and schools. Manitoba said it would be, ''A significant burden''. 

So whatever the situation, money is always more important than people's health. 

So much for crapitalism's priorities.

for Socialism – SPC GAC

Something Is Wrong. Admit It.

These are the captions of most of the articles in the Business section of the Toronto Star, October 25. ''Forever 21's family ties played role in retailer's ultimate demise''. "Twitter's ad woe weigh on revenues''. ''Hexo cutting 200 jobs in right sizing'' ''Husky CEO critical of government curtailment''. 

And that folks is just the first page! and it don't get much better inside. 

Precision Drilling has $3.5 million loss after cutting costs.'' '' Tax Resources plans to cut 500 jobs''. ''WeWork cool factor is facing big challenge''.'' Cannabis firms find financing expensive''.'' Ten sensation Tik Tok's appeal now waning''. Furthermore the ads for services and employment are only two pages which used to be four.

 Isn't this a case of capitalists admitting something is very wrong with their beloved system? But whether you agree or not, check it out at torstar.ca.

for Socialism – SPC GAC

Someone Has To Suffer. Guess Who?

On October 24 the newly Conservative government of Alberta announced their budget, which, predictably upset some. Finance minister, Travis Toewes, said they will slash operating expenses by 1.8 billion over the next four years. Education will be the hardest hit being cut by $600 million. Corporations will receive a tax break of $4.5 billion, in an effort to attract investment to the province. The cities of Edmonton and Calgary have been promised a total of $3 billion for their Valley Line and Green Line Low Rapid Transit systems, but wont see a cent of it till 2023. 

NDP Opposition leader, Rachel Notley, was quick to object,'' They're raising your taxes and cutting your benefits while giving away $4,5 billion to the big corporations.'' 

 All a government can do is attempt to run capitalism and no matter how they set about it someone has to suffer and as always its the working class.

Canadian Comrades.