For the benefit of mankind

The working class throughout the world blindly support capitalism. None of them can escape responsibility for the consequences. For the power wielded by the rulers of world capitalism is a reflection of the political ignorance of the working class everywhere. It is absurd to blame one man, when he is only the instrument of a policy supported by millions. As long as workers support this system, so will they be vulnerable to the racial theorists who, on nationalist grounds, gets support. Socialists do not have any bitter personal hatred for these few bloated individuals, who do not and cannot even control their own system. We have a far more ambitious and stimulating aim to work for: the world's resources for the people of the world.

Socialism is the only solution to the problem of poverty in the midst of increasing plenty. It is a form of society where all the natural resources, the means and instruments of wealth production and distribution, are owned and operated by and in the interest of society as a whole, where all forms, of exploitation of man by man disappears, where everybody able to work will give of his or her abilities, and where each and every person able to work or not will receive the highest standard of life society can produce. The vote, when backed by a majority of class-conscious workers, will enable them to capture the machinery of government and turn it from an instrument of oppression into an instrument of liberation. But first we must convince that majority. Political parties which win elections on non-socialist votes are committed irrevocably to the futile task of trying to administer the capitalist system. No matter what evasions and short cuts are sought, the inescapable truth remains that there will be no triumph for socialism until the necessary spadework has first been done of winning over the electors to socialism. While the worker’s immediate interest, under capitalism, can only be with his or her standard of living, there is a further and more far-reaching interest. That is to devote a little time to the study of past and present societies, and to ascertain whether there is not some alternative to the capitalism which provides him or her with poverty, insecurity, worry, unemployment, occasional wars, and a premature old age.

It is impossible to condemn too strongly the terrible brutality of the killing of millions of people. War is caused by the struggles between national capitalist Powers over markets and economic resources. This can only be cured by the abolition of capitalism. The next battlefield may be the last. And yet these conflicts do all have the same common cause, at root. The world-wide capitalist system itself is a daily battle, in which the economic conflict between rival national groups of owners can easily pass from economic to military warfare. And today, capitalism is becoming increasingly one universal battlefield as the distinction between "civilian" and "military" targets continues to be blurred. To remove the cause of this conflict in the world is to get rid of the capitalist system of class division between owners and non-owners. 

A great deal of abuse is heaped on the Socialist Party by our opponents. The basic argument is that you can't have socialism — a world money-free society of free access without the market and without prices — because such a society would have no way of allocating what will always be scarce resources. And even "superabundance" would not solve the problem since the possible lines of production are infinite and we cannot do all things at once. We could always be doing something else and only the market can tell us the correct economic thing we should be doing. Therefore, the practicalities of organisation make free access society impossible and what we should go for instead is a free market system operating throughout the world without states and with a single world currency. So, the argument goes on.

 The best way to answer it would be to set out a blueprint for socialism showing exactly how resources can be efficiently planned and allocated without the market as an economic calculator. But this we cannot do.

Firstly because it would be quite undemocratic for the small minority we are now to think we can lay down detailed plans for how the majority must organise their democratically established society in the future and secondly we have no way of knowing what the level of technology and expertise at the time of a socialist majority will allow in terms of planning and organisation.

What we can do, however, and what we are doing is to put forward informed suggestions as to how a socialist majority, if it inherited the present level of technology and expertise, might decide to co-operatively organise the world's resources on the basis of production for need. It's probably true that we don't have enough data to do this with any detailed accuracy. However, this is not because the data can never be available but because capitalism, working as it does through the market, does not give the impetus for the large social task of assembling that data to be undertaken. A growing conscious majority anxious for socialism will have the impetus to undertake that task and will certainly make detailed democratic plans ahead of taking political power about how socialist society will be organised.

The speculative work we are doing at present on the details of socialist organisation won't of course satisfy our critics demand for a blueprint. But then it's not meant to be a blueprint. It's meant to be a move towards demonstrating in a practical way that it's well within the skills, the techniques, the intelligence and the powers of organisation of collective humanity to run the planet in its own common interest. It is about establishing a society of common ownership, democratic control and production for use — a genuine socialist society. You owe it to yourselves to consider the case, not for the Labour Party, but for socialism.

It is central to the Socialist Party's position the belief that capitalism cannot be destroyed piecemeal and that reformist campaigns are futile and counter-productive. Many argue, nevertheless, that there are many worthy causes for the Socialist Party to advocate such as the NHS.

The National Health Service does not represent a step towards socialism: the 1944 White Paper proposing such a service was presented by Henry Willinck. a Conservative Minister of Health, because it was necessary to give credibility to the concept of "fighting for a better Britain '; a centrally administered service was more efficient; a fitter workforce was needed for post-war reconstruction; it was feared that workers' agitation would break out again after the war if concessions were not granted.

Although health care is centrally funded the supply of drugs, equipment, provisions and construction have remained in private hands and the state in its role as employer has been just as ruthless in holding down wages as any private business concern.

To suggest that privileges can be given up by abolishing private medicine, without removing the causes of privilege and the exploitation of one person by another, is to invite failure Like all institutions under capitalism health services facilitate business interests which explains their growth when labour is in short supply and needs to be conserved, and the cut-backs imposed when unemployment causes a surplus of labour. "Non-producers" such as the elderly, the young, disabled. mentally handicapped and long-term mentally ill are kept short of resources even in a time of prosperity and expansion because they no longer contribute to the profitability of capitalism which overrides social needs.

The incidence of ill-health and premature deaths are higher for the poor than the wealthy and health services, however sophisticated, can only treat the symptoms of poverty instead of tackling the causes. Therefore, to campaign for better health services while leaving the causes of ill- health intact is to collaborate in the continued, and often unnecessary, ill-health of the workers. The same objections apply the view, that a similar case could be made for the abolition of private education.

Indeed, once on the reformist road a case could be made for campaigning against destroying food; pollution; racism; sexism; nuclear weapons — all of which are doomed to failure or at best only limited success while we have a social system based on profit. Instead of enduring the frustration of trying to change a piece of capitalism we invite our fellow-workers to join with socialists in building a money-free society which puts people first.

For the Socialist Commonwealth, speed the day.

The Grand Swindle. Evictions Due To COVID-19.

There was, and still is a freeze on residential evictions in Ontario due to COVID-19, but, since we live under capitalism there has to be a catch. The above falls within the parameters of the Residential Tenancies Act, but for tenants who share a kitchen or a bathroom with their landlord, they have no such protection as they can be evicted under the Commercial Tenancies Act. Those who have. Lead actors in the Grand Swindle imply worker interests are the same as Capital’s . . . Not! Interest: Fire the parasites quickly as possible & organize the ‘means of life’ to serve the whole community! and are now in shelters have attempted to fight this legally, and were told to file a complaint with the Landlord and Tenant Board. Shaun Harvey, a paralegal with Riverview Legal Services in Kitchener, said he has been trying to call the governments attentions to the issue of tenants being exempt from the RTA for years and the pandemic has made the problem more visible. So if a tenant can't work because of the pandemic and therefore has no income yet comes within the parameters of the CTA, they can be kicked out onto the street. 

That's one thing about capitalism: IT’S ALL HEART!

S.P.C. Members.

Canadian Premiere Doug Ford tells Trump "Economically We're going To War"

Ontario Premiere Doug Ford, used to talk about Trump in flattering terms, like he was smooth, suave and sophisticated, but now that Trump is threatening tariffs against Canada Ford ain't so sure. On July 10 he urged the American President, (or what passes for one), to think again. To quote, ''We're the number one customer to 19 states, we're number 2 to nine others. We were instrumental in employing nine million Americans and then they want to start talking about tariffs against us? Folks let’s stick together, because economically we're going to war.'' 

If there is one it will be like all others; one in which the working class of both countries have no stake in.

S.P.C.Members.

Solidarity

Nurses from across Scotland have protested over pay at demonstrations in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness.

Hundreds of protesters attended the "NHS Workers say No!" event at Glasgow Green. It was one of dozens across the country over a UK government pay rise which campaigners say excludes "a massive number of healthcare workers".

NHS medical and dental workers, GPs and general dental practitioners in Scotland will receive a 2.8% pay rise, backdated to 1 April.

However, nurses and junior doctors were not included because they agreed a separate three-year deal in 2018.

NHS charge nurse Brenda Brown, said colleagues "can't exactly feed our families on a round of applause."

Only Socialism Will Do

When workers are unable to get employment, they are barely able to survive.  The state now makes sure that they do survive — just — which at least prevents the streets being blocked by destitute people. This is the pressure upon workers to practise thrift, to put something by for a rainy day, to organise their budget, to accept the rightness of their place on the lower rungs of the social ladder. Put in another way, this is the pressure on the subject class under capitalism to comply with that social system with its private property, its degradation and its insecurity. Most workers view the stigma of their class uncomplainingly, even cheerfully. Most of them regard their exploitation as natural, when in reality it is inhuman and distorting. Day to day, year to year capitalism goes from one crisis to another crisis. And it is the workers, the majority of people in this world, who suffer. As capitalism survives it will continue to cause hardship, anxiety and stress to the working class.

Modern states exist because of the conflict of interests in modern society. This conflict is due to the capitalist ownership of the economic resources of society. The international capitalist class is divided into competing groups endeavouring to secure control of the raw materials, trade routes and markets of the world. The most powerful of these groups use the machinery of the various states as weapons in the struggle. 

The solution of the conflict lies not with an ‘amorphous’ people but with a working class organised to emancipate itself, internationally. In the place of capitalism, with its economic chaos and political strife, it will establish a social order based upon the common ownership of the means of life and their democratic control in a class-free community.

Capitalism will always bring problems to the working class. Although the other parties claim to be able to do something about them, experience tells us that these problems are insoluble within capitalism. We live in a social system which is based on the class ownership of the means of wealth, production and distribution. One effect of this is that the wealth we turn out is made, not to satisfy human needs, but to serve the interests of the class who own the means of production.

The interests of that class are in the production of wealth to be sold so as to yield them profit with which their capital can be developed and expanded, and so buttress their privileged position in society. This process takes place through the exploitation of the other class — the working class, who do not own the means of production and who have to sell their labour power in order to live. The lot of this class is one of exploitation and poverty. 

Whatever the wealth they consume it is always restricted to what they can afford from their wage. And it is always inferior, sub-standard, made so that it comes within the purchasing power of a wage packet. This is what is meant by working class poverty. At no time under capitalism will the working class have the freedom to enjoy the best that society can produce, and have unrestricted access to it. Yet without that freedom, they must always be said to be living in poverty.

Housing, for example, is a continuing sore which the parties of capitalism cynically aggravate in their drive to pick up votes. Yet inadequate housing afflicts only those who can afford nothing better; it is not a problem experienced by the capitalist class. Medical and social services are also restricted when they are applied to the working class (not that the capitalist class need the attentions of social services; they have their own ready-made version). But the point is that the workers must always rely on the less-than-best, and very often the downright shoddy. Yet they are the class which produce all the world’s wealth; they make the very objects and services to which they are denied access. The outcome of all this is disillusionment and despair. At one election after another, the working class turn to various parties in blind faith that their promises mean something and that somehow capitalism can be made to work in their interests. When these hopes are shattered, there is often a deeper disillusionment, with democracy itself or with the principle of political action to change society. The only reason some governments seem to be more successful than others is that some have the luck to come into office when a depression is lifting. The unlucky ones come in at the start of a depression. 

Socialism, in contrast, is the idea of hope. Socialists do not offer themselves as leaders, putting forward a better version of the same old discredited policies. Our case is that the working class can get rid of their problems; to do this they have to abolish capitalism and replace it with a society based on the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. We go further, and say that the working class can and must do this for themselves; no leaders can drag them by the nose into the new society.

Until that is a reality, socialists have no interest in the drab machinations of capitalist politics, except to offer them unremitting hostility and to expose them for the sham they are.

We Must Change

For those working for a fundamental change in our social system, clarity is important. we need to be clear about what we’re trying to leave behind (capitalism) to have greater clarity about what it is that we’re moving towards socialism. We can understand those who seek a just and sustainable world and hope such a goal can be achieved by reforming capitalism. We, however, disagree that it is possible. Transferring control or ownership of the economy to the State or to co-operatives does not serve the needs of all the people. It is not the door to a better future beyond capitalism.

One characteristic alone does not make an economy capitalist. For example, markets pre-date capitalism by thousands of years. The same goes for commodity production—production for sale, rather than use.

Capitalism’s mode of production lies in its division between the class ownership by the capitalists of the means of production (land, buildings, technology, transportation, etc.) and the non-owning workers who sell their labour power to the capitalists to produce goods and services. Capitalists maximise profits in many ways by squeezing the workers. Capitalism’s drive to “accumulate.” The failures of capitalism—from blind growth to the increasing concentration of wealth and power around the world to the destruction of the environment—are becoming more and more evident. The climate crisis is perhaps the greatest challenge humanity is facing. it threatens civilisation’s existence. The present pandemic has left the market and many governments badly shaken. COVID-19 has shown us the fairy tales of mainstream economics, exposit it as serving the interests of the 1%. The outbreak of Covid-19 brought havoc for all sectors of economy and ushered unprecedented and unpredicted disasters.

We need a bold transformation of our politics and economics and that requires a far greater imagination. The “lesser evil” argument is a pervasive poison which inevitably leads to a vicious and continuous election cycle. We must once and for all reject the false notion of a lesser evil. The United States is essentially a one-party state, the business party, with two factions, Democrats and Republicans. Likewise in the United Kingdom political power is shared by the Tories and the Labour Party. The media is complicit in denying the depth of their unity.

Capitalism to-day must answer to the charge of acting as a brake upon the wheels of progress. The class which benefits from its continuance must prove that it is any longer of social service or produces what it receives. The Socialist Party is able to show that it does not do this and that it is this fact that is sapping the social organisation,

Socialist revolution is the most radical break with oppression and exploitation in history. Socialist society is the first society that no longer proceeds in chaos, but based upon the planned fulfilment of genuine human needs. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The ownership of the means of production will be held in common and private property will be eliminated. Private property offers a choice illustration. At one period there was a justification for the individual ownership of property. When each worker took the raw material and made his or her tools, and then with these tools manufactured cloth or shoes or tilled the ground, each thing that was produced was to a great extent the product of individual work. To-day this method no longer exists. All things are produced collectively, and still there survives the idea of the sacredness of private property. It is to-day the corner stone upon which rests the whole superstructure of capitalist society and class rule. Private property for the worker is but a farce, since the class that preaches most of the virtues of private property is the one that takes from the producing class all that it produces except a scanty subsistence.  

As pointed out by Marx and Engels the whole history of civilisation has been the history of the rise and fall of classes. The interests of each dominating class while it existed made for social progress. Each class fulfilled its function, became useless and disappeared from power. Further, a most significant fact, different ideals of right and wrong have at all times prevailed for the ruling and subservient classes. With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and mental labour will disappear. As classes will not exist, the state will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will wither away.  The subservient class has been lulled into acquiescence in its enslavement through the persistent inculcation of the “virtues” of self-sacrifice, humility, reverence, docility, frugality and patriotism. The abolition under socialism of these warring class interests would necessarily carry with it the abolition of these contradictory codes of values. In a socialist society all are equally able to exercise their self-interest. The reconciliation of the individual and society, ever discussed and never answered, because of their blindness to the fact of class antagonisms, will at last be solved by the abolition of these antagonisms in the co-operative commonwealth.

There are no solutions within capitalism

There has never been a free people in any nation. Human society has always consisted of masters and slaves. Working people are not content to remain wage slaves of the capitalists. If the working class is to free itself from wage slavery it cannot be repeated too often that everything depends upon the working class itself. Political parties are reflect the interests of those who finance them. This is the infallible test of their character These parties are the political expressions of the divisions within the capitalist class. The donors who fund all these parties do so for only one the reason, that they represent their interests. Professional politicians of whatever party are very much alike in one respect, they serve their masters. The simple question is, can the workers, by education, organisation, and co-operation to take control of the productive forces and manage industry in the interest of the people and for the benefit of society where there would be no “bosses” but free men and women, employing themselves co-operatively under regulations of their own, taking to themselves all the products of their labour and shortening the work-day as technology increases their productive capacity. Such a change would be benefit all. The bosses would disappear; all would be useful workers and have fit houses to live in, plenty to eat and leisure time enough to enjoy life. That is the socialism, plain and simple, and what the Socialist Party is striving towards. This is not a mere fanciful Utopian theory. All the workers have to do is to recognize their strength and fit themselves social freedom, transforming society. The servile lackeys and prostituted puppets all insist that working men and women can never be anything else other than employees. It is the task of the Socialist Party to open the eyes of our fellow-workers and widen the horizon of their vision so that they may find their way to freedom. Our fellow-workers should be not waiting for some so-called “great leader” or “good man” to do it for them, but prepare to do all things for themselves. No more bosses. All they have to do is to unite, think together, act together, vote together, never ceasing to forget that they are one, and that the world is theirs for them to take possession of.

The history of the working class has been a history of unremitting struggle against exploitation and oppression by the capitalist class. Born in violence, the capitalist system can only end with the overthrow of the parasitic ruling class by the working class, the creators of all wealth in society. Under the rule of the capitalists, there can be no freedom for the workers – only freedom to be exploited as wage slaves. Humbly and meekly we have come every day to the factory or office begging for the privilege to toil and pile up profits for our heartless masters.

Work is a means not only for creating goods and products that support the existence of man and society, but also for the self-improvement of the individual and of mankind. There is no really human existence imaginable without work. But wage-slavery is the enemy of human dignity and self-development. Blessed be the day does away with wage slavery!

We appeal to you then, fellow-workers, to rally around the only banner that symbolises hope – the banner of socialism. Otherwise all hope ends with the grave. The Socialist Party is absolutely the only party of the exploited workers in the factories and mines, on the farms, at the offices, workers of both sexes and all nationalities and colours, in fact, the people and demanding that industries shall be taken over by workers who shall operate them for the benefit of the whole people. We demand the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand that that all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated minds, to have healthy bodies and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental and physical achievement. We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for their own needs. We demand the Earth for all the people. Let our slogan be the common ownership of the means of life.

Killing Sea Lions. Profits Legal and illegal.

Dozens of headless sea lions are washed up on the coast of British Columbia every year, about 80 of them, so far, in 2020. Fishermen say its because some people are taking advantage of the growing market for sea lion skulls, for which their is no legal supply as the Canadian government have banned hunting for sea lions. 

Furthermore a male sea lion with all its parts intact goes for about $4,000 in the underground market and a pelt would fetch $500. A set of whiskers which could be used in native ceremonies would go for $700 and oil from sea lion blubber, rich in omega-3 fatty acids is worth $100 a gallon to the pharmaceutical industry. One native Canadian said he has recently received 120 emails from taxidermy enthusiasts interested in buying sea lion skulls.

 Some seal and sea lion meat could be sold for human consumption or to the pet food industry. The fact is they are being killed for a profit and whether a profit is made legally or not it is still a fundamental of capitalism, which can only be abolished by abolishing the cause.

S.P.C. Members.

Capitalism Is The Oppressing Foe, Not Fellow Workers!

An article in the Toronto Star of July 11 focused on the abuse many Canadian's of Chinese decent had been subjected to since the COVID began. The Star said 8 per cent of their respondents had been physically attacked by strangers. Another poll conducted by the University of Alberta, said 29 per cent of their respondents had. One may add to this those who have been verbally attacked, which according to the latter poll was 43 per cent. 

All this because they happen to be of Chinese decent. It is disgusting that at a time where their should be some working class solidarity, workers turn on innocent members of their own class. Shades of Nazi Germany. 

Workers of the World “Wake-Up” – Capitalism is the oppressing foe, not fellow workers!

S.P.C. Members.