The Socialist Party's Resolution for 2021

The Socialist Party aim is socialism where all oppression and exploitation of men and women, where all class-differences  vanish.  

Our party strives with peaceful means for the interests of the working people. Our campaign is a campaign of education for socialism. We must show why every other party is wrong and cannot solve the problems of the working class. We must distinguish ourselves from those parties that claim to represent the interests of the working class as well as those parties that are openly against the idea of socialism. 

Our party is a party of revolution. All our work must lead towards revolution. The revolutionary principles to which we are committed put upon us responsibilities and duties which cannot be shifted or evaded if we are to live up to our conception of a socialist party.  We have to stand up for the true interests of the working class as a whole. Our party is a party of revolutionary struggle against capitalism and all its works. We are not left-wing progressives, but revolutionists. 

We were determined that a definite working class outlook should permeate every aspect of the class struggle. We openly admitted that all education is of necessity biased, especially that which deals with social, economic, and political problems. Ours is biased in favour of our fellow-workers. We make no pretensions to that hypocritical impartiality which more often than not conceals a fear to express a firm opinion and a strong view.

Capitalism, a system of class exploitation and production for profit.  Only those who have a program for ending the class war in the name of the working people, for constructing a new world order – only they can guarantee peace and prosperity.  Until the community as a whole has been weaned from the ideas that are crystallised into the institutional behaviour that supports the private ownership of the means of production and the incentive to private profit, not merely the working-class will continue to be where it now is but society at large will be in danger of dissolution. Socialism is possible but not inevitable. 

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, and to lead the struggle to improve the working and living conditions of the toiling masses, to strengthen the working-class organisation and political understanding of the need of ending capitalism and establishing socialism. We have no consciousness of impotence, no consciousness of smallness, for we belong to the single greatest political force in the world, the working class. We represent the future. We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We stand for the end of impoverishment and seek to win the earth from the fear of hunger. We seek a world in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease, when the evolution of human society to new and higher forms shall become possible to all mankind, when socialism and peace shall be enjoyed by all.

Capitalism produces misery. It is the capitalist system which produces the disasters. We hate its exploiters, its parasites

 Our tasks are of global significance. That is why we are counting on world collaboration. We began our work with modest means and forces but with an unshakable faith in the future. We are never more optimistic, never more certain, never more determined to achieve the goal of socialism than we are on this day as the year 2020 draws to an end.

Against all obstacles and in spite of all difficulties, we shall carry on our work into the new year.

Capitalism's Crazy Contradictions.

 On Nov.26, ABC aired The Wonderful World of Disney; A Magical Holiday Celebration. 

This was a look at highlights from past years of performances from the Disney Parks in California and Florida. The idea behind all the hoopla was to remind every viewer of the happiness the Disney Company has brought into people’s lives. 

The very same day the Disney Company let go 32,000 employees.

S.P.C. Members.

Solve This Problem Within Capitalism? Some Joke!

An article in the Toronto Star of Nov.21 focused on how criminal elements, (the illegal as opposed to the legal ones), have been able to profit from the effects of the pandemic. To quote, ''Crime tends to be a first mover, sussing out new opportunities when a crisis like COVID-19 arises.''

 The mob in Canada haven't been slow in this respect, whether it be drugs, loan sharking, fraud and human trafficking. Sexual exploitation, including webcam sex trafficking, has shot up during the pandemic, feeding off poverty, isolation and desperation. Though it’s harder to cross borders now, nevertheless most human trafficking in Canada is domestic. 

Lock-down measures have contributed to a surge in online child exploitation in Canada through webcams. 

The Star's ''experts'' leave us with this pearl of wisdom: ''Much more robust efforts need to be taken to prevent this criminal conduct which can cause long term trauma for the victims'' – meaning, we can solve this problem within capitalism - What a joke!

S.P.C. Members.

Socialism - The Solidarity Economy

 

Humanity appears to be incapable of living together in peace and harmony. Wars and criminal violence plague the planet. So some argue that human beings are inherently brutal, but there are others who say that we are conditioned into violence by the way we are raised, nurtured and the type of conditions and surroundings we are exposed to. People vary and we are all unique individuals – different yet the same – within each and every human being the potential for tremendous good exists (routinely demonstrated in times of need), as does the propensity towards great cruelty. The environment in which we all live,  the values and beliefs, these influence us and determine which behaviour traits dominate.

Capitalist conditioning is far the most damaging, as it divides and creates a false and distorted view of others fostering competition and nationalism , creating barriers between us, fuelling rivalries, facilitating conflicts. It is a socially unjust society.  Everyone is seen as a commodity to be bought and sold. It’s time for humanity to reject all that divides us and to unite to build a socialist cooperative commonwealth.

§ Everyone is socially equal with no classes.

§ There is an abundance of goods which are freely circulated.

§ Political rule is not dictatorial.

§ All competition has ended.

§ There are no exchange nor markets.

§ People are working together, collectively and creatively.

§ The state has withered away.

Capitalists accuse working people of generally being stupid and selfish and it is only the few, risk-taking entrepreneur capitalists who show ingenuity. But capitalists pay no heed to the fact that workers will engage in all manner of leisure activities such as sport and practice their hobbies. Capitalists also ignore the fact that in cases when workers have control of what, how and when they produce – as in worker self-management or worker cooperative experiments – they have higher rates of motivation leading to more productivity than they do when employed by a capitalist.

If it were true that people had unlimited individual wants and needs and the market only exists to satisfy them all there would be no need for mass advertising to create artificial desires. Many actual wants are neglected if the profit on them is too low. Planned obsolescence makes sure that purchases don’t last  long. Products are manufactured to be throw-away and irreparable.

The wealth of capitalists does not trickle-down to the workers. Living standards appear to be better than in the past, higher levels of home-ownership, more consumer goods. But now it takes more than one bread-winner in the home to pay all the bills. Working hours are now longer, with overtime a necessity for many. The amount and burden of debt has increased to keep up with the cost of living. Capitalism has kept people in relative poverty. Capitalism works only for a small minority. The vast majority of people have not benefited from capitalism.

 Capitalists use competition for jobs to divide-and-conquer, pitting white against black, native-born against newcomers, using racism and immigration to suppress wages. Unemployment is a necessary part of the capitalist system. An unemployed army of workers is necessary to keep workers from working together and joining unions to raise wages and better their working conditions. Many workers are in poverty, not because they “choose” to stay home, watch TV and drink beer. The “choice” of workers is between working at various kinds of low wage job or starving.

Capitalism is a global system that is far more powerful than any individual nation-state. Capitalism constantly needs new markets and exploits weaker countries for cheap land, natural resources and labour. Nation-states are interdependent. Many of these colonised nations are in debt and beholden to the IMF and World Bank for loans. These banks do not want colonized countries to develop. They were given loans for the support of the tourist industry, growing of cash crops rather than for subsistence or taking care to develop industries that were most efficient in developing the natural resources of their own country.

Another Crazy Situation.

The Hudson's Bay Company, considered by many to be a Canadian institution, is in financial trouble, owing millions in unpaid rent. 

Like most retailers the Bay has been hit hard by the pandemic lockdown, but unlike most has adopted a policy of stiffing its landlords across the country. In the eight months since the shutdown it hasn't paid rent to eight landlords in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, all of whom have taken legal proceedings against them.

 In Quebec, their landlord, Cominar Real Estate, have filed three eviction notices. The Bay has leases valued at $20 million a month across 21 locations in North America.

 If the Bay declares bankruptcy it will make 2 thousands of workers unemployed. 

Another crazy situation thrown up by capitalism in which the working class are the losers.

S.P.C. Members.

Profits! The Death Blood Of Capitalism.

Wild weather is wreaking havoc on crops all over the world, which is sending prices soaring. 

On wheat farms in the U.S. and Russia it’s drought that is ruining harvests. The soybean fields of Brazil are bone dry. In Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, Torrential downpours are causing flooding in rice fields and the stand of oil palm trees. As prices rise from sugar to cooking oil, millions of working class families are getting deeper in debt. 

The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, a gauge of nine crop prices, has risen 28 per cent since April, its highest in four years. Wheat is at its most expensive since 2014. 

The wild weather is a result of global warming, itself a result of the mad scramble for profits, the very death blood of capitalism.

S.P.C. Members.

Vaccine Nationalism

  Rich countries have been on a vaccine shopping spree for months. A continuously updated database compiled by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center shows bilateral deals worth billions of dollars by a handful of countries for emerging vaccines. The Canadian government alone has secured enough inoculations to vaccinate their citizens five or even six times over. Canada's Minister of International Development Karina Gould said her country needed to hedge its bets because most vaccines are still in development and thus only theoretical.

 Money can't buy vaccines that have already been sold.

Dr. Richard Mihingo, the coordinator of Immunization and Vaccine Development at the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa region, said he understood that countries needed to ensure that their own citizens get vaccinated. He called the bilateral deals a "sad reality."

"It is one thing to raise money, it is another to get access to the product. The funding is not enough if there is no supply. This complicates the situation," he said. "Until everybody is protected, nobody can be safe. We are living in an interconnected world and even if those countries can protect themselves, they will be living on an island. We need a world where we can interact. Not just socially, but economically," Mihingo said.

Several countries and regional blocks have preordered vaccines that could cover far more than their entire populations.  Wealthy nations have bought enough Covid-19 vaccine doses to immunize their populations three times over.  It is a harsh reminder that the race to end this deadly pandemic will separate the world's haves and the have-nots.

"It is disappointing that despite the intent to get equity across the globe, that vaccine nationalism rules supreme," said the University of Cape Town's Professor Gregory Hussey, who is on the ministerial committee to advise the South African government on access to a Covid-19 vaccine.

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention John Nkengasong said the inability for poorer countries to access vaccines would be "catastrophic."

"The moment that we have all talked about, of global solidarity and global cooperation, is now. The litmus test is actually now. It makes absolutely no moral sense to have excess doses of vaccines in certain countries and absolutely no doses of vaccines in other areas of the world." 

Hussey believes that the Covid-19 vaccine debate will revive these painful memories. "This is not a new phenomenon. It has played itself out many times in the past," he said.

African public health officials and scientists still remember the years-long tooth-and-nail fight to access life-saving drugs to combat HIV/Aids long after they were available in the West. More recently, despite similar talk of solidarity, the H1N1 flu vaccine arrived on the continent months after the peak of the epidemic in 2009. There are numerous other historical and contemporary examples of life-saving drugs made available to the wealthy but not to the poor.

As rich countries vaccinate their citizens, it is likely that vaccine passports will become necessary for travel, study and commerce. This has already been tested by the Australian airline Qantas. It would be just one way that developing countries could be locked out as the rest of the world opens up.

 "It reminds me of the old apartheid days where a black African needed a pass to get out of his ghetto and get into the city. The notion of no one left behind, it is a lot of balderdash at the end of the day," Hussey, the University of Cape Town's professor, said.

Despite promises of solidarity on Covid-19, rich countries are snapping up the supply of promising vaccines - CNN

No More Promises, Please

 

"It was truly a transformative, joyful moment. People were literally weeping with joy in the hallways, people from around the world embracing," said Rachel Cleetus, policy director for climate and energy at the US-based advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, who was in Paris at the time. "It was such a moment of recognition that countries can indeed rise above their narrow self-interest and work for the global common good." 

 However, Cleetus tells us, "Back in 2015 there was a lot of hope that this would be a real turning point, but we have certainly fallen short of sharply bending that global emissions curve. And meanwhile, we're watching climate impacts unfold around us in terrifying ways." 

Cleetus concludes, "Clearly, we have not lived up to the promise of Paris." 

Cleetus stressed that the international community still has a long way to go in supporting mitigation and adaptation efforts in those parts of the world struggling with the devastating effects of climate change.

"The reality is that these impacts are getting worse by the day, and the United States and other rich countries have refused to acknowledge the loss and damage that they are inflicting on the rest of the world," said Cleetus. "This remains one of the biggest pieces of injustice in the global negotiations that has not been appropriately dealt with yet."

The situation has only worsened in the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the setbacks of political inaction and the ongoing pandemic, Cleetus said, "What we need to see in the lead-up to COP26 in Glasgow next year is a coalition of major emitting nations, including the US, the EU, China and others, willing to put very ambitious commitments on the table in terms of emission reductions, and willing to implement the policies back home. It's just that simple."

But what is even simpler to understand is that with an economic system where the priority of profits and capital accumulation are more important than people, despite lip-service legislation and cosmetic reforms, the basis on how society runs must be challenged and changed. 

In Glasgow, in 2021, at COP26, the local branches of the Socialist Party alongside members from other parts of the UK will be on the streets campaigning for a sustainable cooperative world commonwealth.

Socialism means Social Change

 

Everyone, the workers and their families, are thinking and worrying about what will happen in this period of uncertainty. Hand in hand with economic distress, capitalism also holds in prospect a political tyranny which it needs to secure itself from the angry indignation of a people determined not to be ground into poverty. Against the looming dark future of capitalism, the Socialist Party, offers the promise of socialism – a real solution to the social ills that beset mankind. We invite fellow-workers to join with us in the fight for a better world so we may live as human beings as we are entitled to live. Don’t waste your support on capitalist politician.

There is nothing automatic about socialism; there are no guarantees it will come. First and foremost it is necessary for working people to build a movement which dedicates itself to the socialist cause on a revolutionary and democratic basis. The very course of struggle opens new possibilities of victory. Every human being who desires to put an end to this society of poverty war and hunger, must find a place in the world socialist movement. That means simply this: revolution against the exploiting capitalist class. The future promise of socialism is a system to satisfy basic human needs.

The ideas, demands and movements of workers’ participation, workers’ control, self-management, direct workers’ rule, workers’ democracy, etc., have a long-standing tradition and are deeply rooted. These ideas imbue and permeate, in one way or another, the rise of world socialism. The Socialist Party will not be a party to deception. We tell the workers the truth and help organise the aim to end this horrible system and assist the introduction of a socialist system of society. We say reformism is not a moderate or a slow gradual way to socialism, but it isn’t. We are in in opposition to “condescending saviors.” The choice is quite simple. We in the Socialist Party are all agreed on the need for the Social Revolution, that is, the conquest of power by the working-class and the subsequent transformation of our capitalist into a socialist society. If we did not believe in it is possible, we would not be socialists. 

When all of society has been transformed, the social ills left over from capitalism have been eliminated, and the community of workers has been established, then socialism, a completely class-free society, will have been achieved, and humanity will enter a whole new epoch of evolution. There will no longer be the need for the state, since there will no longer be any class to suppress, and the state will be replaced with common administration by all of society. Socialism eliminates the anarchy of capitalism and its crises, by common ownership of the means of production and collective planning of the economy controlled by the working people, this removes the tremendous barriers to production that capitalist relations have erected. Unemployment will be ended, because socialism will be able to make full use of the labour of everyone in society, while at the same time developing and introducing new machinery and scientific methods to expand output. As technology replaces workers, workers will not be thrown into the streets, but transferred to other jobs–according to an overall plan–and the working day for all workers will be reduced. The nature of work itself will change completely, because the labor of the workers will no longer go to enrich capital to further enslave the working class, but to improve life today, while providing for the future, according to the conscious plan. Machines will no longer be weapons in the hands of the capitalists to grind down the working class, and workers will no longer be a mere extension of the machine, as they are under capitalism. Instead machines will become tools in the hands of the working class in its own struggle to revolutionise society. All this will unleash the stored-up knowledge of the working class, based on its direct experience in production, and inspire workers to make new breakthroughs in improving production. Work itself will become a joy and enrichment of the worker’s life, instead of a miserable means to sustain existence, as it is under capitalism. Socialism will mean all this, and much more. 

Changing Capitalism? Or is Capitalism Changing You?

 An event of a century ago may not be an up-to-the-minute sensational news flash, so please indulge me dear reader. 

Recently I read Jared Diamond’s, ''Upheaval'', which is about how the stooges of the capitalist class in several countries, dealing with the specific problems capitalism up-chucks on them in their respective neck of the woods. 

Diamond mentions how the Australian Labour Party, (which, incidentally touted itself the first working class party ever elected to power in 1905), dealt with immigration. They restricted it from very poor countries because they wanted to protect the high wages of Australian workers by preventing the immigration of cheap labour. 

Another example of a reformist party wanting to change capitalism and being changed by it.

S.P.C. Members.