Capitalism must go

 

A profit-motivated economic system  represents a mortal threat to our health, to our lives, and to our planet. The capitalist class bases all their decisions on how to run industry and the economy solely upon whether or not they can make a profit. They, as a ruling class, override all else in their quest for profit, with no regard to environmental or human catastrophic consequences. There is no limit to the depths of poverty the capitalists will force upon the world’s working class in their drive to maintain their rate of profit and accumulate personal wealth. Modern society has the knowledge and the technology to make the world a heavenly paradise, but the very economic structure of capitalism itself will not allow it. The profit-driven engine of capitalism consumes everything in its path turning it into the profits that only they benefit from. The fundamental fact is, capitalism can’t be reformed. Sure we can win a few reforms here and there and we must continue  to fight for these reforms. But ultimately, the capitalist class must be overthrown and production for profit must be replaced by production for the needs and wants of the majority, and the health and safety of our planet. These fundamental changes are not unreachable fantasies; they are essential to our very survival. A world socialist revolution is the only way we can achieve the elimination of war and all weapons of death and destruction and an end to environmental catastrophes that result from the “profit-above-all-else” mentality that is the essential nature of capitalism. Only world socialism can ensure economic and social justice for all.

What we need to do is come together to use the power we have to actually do something about it. First, we have to realize who we are. We are workers. We are essential to the production of all commodities and the excavation of raw materials necessary to manufacture them. Our labour is responsible for every penny of wealth accumulated by the capitalists, the private owners of the very means of production our labour built and fuels. We are responsible for producing all the profits—including that which the capitalists use to pay our wages. The capitalists pay nothing at all. They have gotten a free ride. The capitalists own the factories, the farmland, the machines of industry, and the distribution of goods and supplies. They themselves produce nothing yet they take almost everything, leaving us the minimum they can get away with. They are the exploiters of workers and the commanders of capital, whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of working people the world over. The interests of capitalists and workers could not be further apart. The capitalist system puts the accumulation of vast sums of private profit and personal wealth above all else and is responsible for leading the world to the brink of ecological collapse. And make no mistake about it: while they may compete, bicker, even battle among themselves from time to time, capitalism’s collective interest lies in maintaining the class distinction between themselves and the masses of workers. They are compelled to do so to maintain their rule over us, over all the wealth we produce with our minds, hands, and backs, and over the land we walk on. The capitalist profit motive breed chaos and disregard for anything but profits. They plunder and pollute the land. They lie, cheat, swindle, sow division and distrust among people. They make the laws, hire the police, and enlist the armies to maintain their control over the means of production. By maintaining their stranglehold and enslavement of the workers, they protect their exclusive ownership rights to the plentiful wonders of the world, which they wantonly squander.

 

Divide and conquer is the technique they use to establish the inferiority of everyone else. The goal is to turn each worker against the other so none will join together to turn against the rich. Divide and conquer is the only way a tiny capitalist minority can maintain rule over the overwhelming majority of workers. They represent less than one percent of the world’s population yet they own and control over 90 percent of all the wealth, land, and property on the planet. Because we working people are the overwhelming majority of people on the planet. We are the ones who know how to make and do everything. We don’t need the capitalists or their rotten system that uses up and exploits everything—especially human beings—in the pursuit of private profit. In fact, the capitalist system itself is standing squarely in the way of human advancement. There can be no rational planning in the interests of what is best for the health and welfare of the planet. We  must look after ourselves from a collective-centered point of view, i.e., always looking out for our and our planet’s best interests. To do this, we must do away with the capitalist system and its chaotic profit motive. That’s all socialism really is: Working people taking over the means of production; democratically and collectively deciding what people need and want; using all our technological skill, know-how, and creativity to produce the best of everything; and eliminating all the waste involved in the production of shoddy goods that are designed to throw away to sell to the poor. With the fantastic global information technology networks we already have in place, we could calculate and allocate  what things and how much of them we need in no time, so that everyone would be provided with the best of everything. By eliminating the capitalist profit-driven mode of production and replacing it with a socialist mode of production, we could rationally plan and share the work, develop the best, safest, and most efficient production and distribution methods, and distribute everything free of charge to everyone. Without the profit motive tying the overwhelming majority of people to hours of drudgery.

 

Doesn’t it make sense?

Allow all people to develop to their fullest; to pursue all their interests; to hone their skills so each one will be able to contribute at his or her fullest capacity to the common good. From each according to skills and abilities, and to each according to individual needs and wants. The goal of socialism, or communism, is to eventually eliminate the need for money or any kind of exchange of one form of labour for another, or one thing for another. Instead, everyone just gets all they need and want, and contributes any talents they can develop to the fullest for the betterment of all

It is really that simple.

Under a rational, socialist, planned-economy, each machine that replaces labour, and each young worker joining the workforce, would not take someone’s job away but would simply reduce the total number of hours everyone would have to work, freeing up more time for each to, in turn, develop even more knowledge and skills. The thing we workers need to comprehend is that together, in unity and solidarity with each other toward such goals, we do have the power to change this dog-eat-dog world into just such a society.

Scottish Workers for Socialism

 Although Scots speak of Scotland as “our” country, and throughout its history millions have died or have been mutilated in defence of what they called “their” country, as a matter of fact Scotland does not belong to the whole of the Scottish people, but to a comparative few. How many Scots can point to a particular part of the map of Scotland and say “this is mine”? The great number own perhaps their home and a even less possessing of a garden, the greatest portion of Scotland being divided among a few great landlords.

The SNP speak of Scotland as a wealthy country. Does that mean that the Scottish people as a whole are well off? By no means. A few are immensely rich, most get a bare living, a large number are degradingly poor. The land and all the means of producing the nation’s wealth are owned by the landlords and capitalist class. The great mass of the people own nothing except their muscles and brains, that is, their power and ability to work. In capitalist Scotland , production is carried on not for the purpose of supplying the needs of the people but for the purpose of sale in order to realise a profit. Only those who have something to sell can get a living. Only those can obtain things who can afford to buy. This is the commercial system, and this is how it works out:- Scotland manufactures sufficient  goods, for example, to supply all the requirements of the people. But the workers cannot afford to buy all that they require of these commodities. To use the language of commerce, “the home market cannot absorb the home production”, and so the capitalist sends his goods where he can sell them. Two-thirds of the annual production goods are exported from Scotland every year while the workers who have produced these have to go without them. If things were produced for use, nobody would spend time in the manufacture of shoddy goods, jerry-built houses, or adulterated food. Commerce is the only purpose of Scottish industry.

The worker has nothing to sell but labour powerto an employer for so many hours a day for a certain price, that is, wages. Since one cannot separate labour power from one’s body it comes to this, that a worker actually sells oneself like a slave. We socialists, call the workers of capitalist countries, “Wage-slaves”. Wages are determined by what it costs to keep a family. How many working people do you know who can save out of their wages? They may be able to put something by in a good year, but bad years come and the savings are gone. It is a fact that in Scotland on the average a worker is not more than two weeks removed from penury.

The capitalist will only buy labour if he can make profit out of it. Just compare the value of the goods you turned out in a day when you were in the factory, and what you received for your work. The difference between the two is the employer’s profit. Profit is the result of the unpaid labour of the worker. In capitalist Scotland, the workers are continually robbed of the results of their labour.

The capitalist will compel the worker to work as hard and as long as he can, for as little money as possible. In spite of health and safety laws, inhuman sweating still flourishes. Whole industries in which absolutely bad working conditions exist. Even through the efforts of the best-organised trade unions wages never rise higher than the cost of living. And even this is not secure. In the endeavour to produce as cheaply as possible, the capitalist continually introduces labour-dispensing technology, which enables him to produce more goods in less time and reduces the standard of skill required. As a result unemployment is continually on the increase.

The immense quantity of goods produced in Scotland which cannot be sold because the workers do not earn enough compels the capitalists to seek markets abroad. They are compelled to seek for undeveloped countries in which to re-invest the profits they have wrung out of the workers at home. Furthermore, the enormous strides which industry has made during the last few decades has created a greater and greater demand for raw materials. For that reason the government which exists solely to serve the interests of the capitalists, strive to acquire wider and greater markets rich in resources. The capitalists of other countries are in the same position, and the rivalry between the capitalists for the possession of these territories leads to trade wars. A sovereign nation such as the SNP seeks will abide by the rules of capitalist competition.

What does capitalism offer the worker? A life of drudgery and toil, barely a subsistence. Always the dread fear of the sack. A drab, dreary existence and when unable to work any longer, to be thrown on the scrap-heap. Nationalists say there will be a change and things will be different after independence. But with all the nationalist policies and plans, if capitalism remains in existence, the worker will still remain subject to the capitalist. There will still be riches and leisure for the few, toil, and poverty for the many. Mansions with landed estates for the wealthy, shoe-box housing estates for the workers.

Capitalist Scotland can offer its workers nothing but wage slavery. Instead of a separatism, the Socialist Party offers together a world wide co-operative commonwealth which we can build together.

 

No Support to Capitalist Parties!

Study because we will need all your intelligence.

Agitate because we will need all your enthusiasm.

Organise because we will need all your strength.  -  Antonio Gramsci, editor of L’Ordine Nuovo.

Let the workers in the factories and fields rejoice. We are in potentially the most revolutionary period in the history of mankind, an epoch in which the course of history may possibly be taking a decisive turn towards world socialism. The Socialist Party is a party of socialism. It stands for the overthrow of the capitalist exploiters. It fights for a new social system, for socialism, for the end to the exploitation of man by man. It stands for the triumph of socialism on a world scale.  To hell with the political parties of the rich. Working people must build their own independent political movement, independent of and against the parties of capitalism. Our Party represents the future, the liberation of mankind, and opposes all that seeks to hold back human progress. The relentless search for profits drives capitalists to the most reckless squandering of human and natural resources. The capitalist, to speed and intensify the work, turns workers into appendages of his machines. Socialism is an entirely different form of society. Socialism replaces production for profit with production for social use, for the satisfaction of human needs 

Based on the common ownership of the means of production and distribution, a new  economic system is to be built liberating the individual from all economic, political and social oppression, ending all exploitation by dissolving the hostile classes into a community of free and equal producers striving not for sectional interests, but for the common good. The socialist commonwealth would provide the basis for real freedom and for the full and harmonious development of the personality, giving full scope for the growth of the creative faculties of the mind. The interests of the exploited cannot be brought into harmony with the interests of the exploiters. These cannot progress together in the name of some fictional unity. That the work of the social revolution can only be accomplished by men and women with a clear understanding of capitalism. The work of the social revolution depends in the last analysis upon the growth of class-consciousness amongst the working class, that therefore the chief task of a Socialist political party is to educate and direct that class consciousness along correct lines.  It must be made possible for all who have accepted the central principles of common ownership to become members of the Socialist Party irrespective of their knowledge or lack of knowledge of the intricacies of Marxian philosophical writings and economics. The world socialist movement must be depended upon to clear the minds of the members rather than any process of weeding out. We want to see every bona fide socialist in the Socialist Party. To such, the doors of the party have ever been and will continue to remain open. Capitalism is completely incapable of solving the problems of the world peoples. There is the colossal wastage of armaments, the emissions of global warming gases and the insanity of national frontiers in the age of the internet of the World Wide Web.

The Socialist Party are revolutionary socialists who believe that capitalism — as a system centered on private accumulation and profit — is inherently a system of inequality and injustice. We want a social system where social wealth is not in the hands of a few billionaires, but is controlled by the people. We seek both economic and political democracy. Our enemy is capitalism. Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, corporate farms, and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. It is this system that we are fighting. Capitalism organizes globally. Blocs of capital compete intensely for growth and profits. Under capitalism you either destroy the competition, or are destroyed yourself. This drive sends the giant corporations around the world, seeking cheaper raw materials and corrupt local governments that will insure a "friendly investment climate." Capitalism continuously seeks cheaper labour costs. This is why we see so many plants closing down, out-sourcing  or moving off-shore. Capitalism is a system of violence. Poverty is built into its operation. The capitalist class needs to maintain its grip on the levers of power. The capitalist class has kept the working class of this country divided along racial lines. workers need to be educated to the fact that racism and white supremacy ultimately hurt every worker and that the unity of workers will benefit all.

The struggle for a livable planet is a life-and-death issue. Corporate greed has polluted our air, destroyed the ozone layer, poisoned our waters, and drenched our food with dangerous chemicals. Our survival necessitates social control of technology and production and the elimination of the blind consumerism that causes us to squander so many of the world's resources needlessly. As we work to develop a new vision of socialism, we will have to deepen our understanding of the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature. People will have to change how they live and how society is organised. The threat to the environment touches everyone. We believe in a socialism where fulfillment will be found in the relationships among people and not in the consumption of things. Only conscious socialist planning by all of society can make this happen.

Change the System

 Many people don’t feel like they can change the system. Many people are simply existing, surviving, going through each day without truly living. Dis-empowerment has made it easy for people in power to continue to exploit us. Competition and rivalry between workers, sectional interests, plus social  national and racial chauvinism have often diverted workers from a revolutionary role to one that is reactionary. Recent events around the world have shown once again that reforms will be rolled back by the capitalist class when they see a need to do so. If the capitalists are to continue to make their extravagant amounts of money austerity measures have be imposed upon the greater population. The reversal of reforms does not occur randomly because of the narcissistic nature of individual capitalists. This phenomenon largely occurs due to the nature of the capitalist system itself, its drive to continually increase profits. Reforms, in themselves, do not solve any basic problems. Our criticism was that  through advocacy of such measures it was misleading the working class into a belief that they could secure their emancipation from the oppression and exploitation to which they were subjected under the capitalist system, by achieving the enactment of such measures.

It is clear that the only way to stop this continual battle for a meagre existence for basic working and living conditions is to change the system. We need to change the system yet many people still continue to attempt to work within the capitalist system. If we focus on solely on reforms alone we condemn the working class to continual tread-mill struggles for their basic working conditions. The Socialist Party should be demanding merely one thing, and that is the abolition of the capitalist system, and as the first step toward that end, the transfer of political power from the capitalist class to the working class. Our goal is to change the present system under which the small class owns and uses, for the purpose of securing profits, the machinery of production and distribution, into a society in which the ownership of the machinery of production and distribution would be in the hands of all of society. The Socialist Party devotes its efforts above all to preparing the conditions necessary for building of the Cooperative Commonwealth.

 We live in a society racked with crises. This society can neither guarantee us a secure future nor even promise there will be a future. Either nuclear war casts a shadow over the lives of all of us or we face the existential threat of environmental destruction faces us. The vast majority of us work for the enrichment of the small minority of profiteers who own the bulk of the economy and through their wealth control the entire society. Under capitalism a small minority rule in fact if not in name, and profit is the be-all and end-all of economic life; human needs come second—if at all. We must change the system if we want to simply survive. 

The Socialist Party holds out the possibility of a new society of production for use, not for profit. Freed from the clutches of the capitalist class, production and distribution must be brought under common ownership and the economy planned by the people themselves. The profit system cannot make use of new technology and automation for the benefit of society but socialism will. The future socialist society will reduce work to a insignificant part of daily life and offer the individual the fullest possibilities to pursue his or her own abilities and interests. 

Protect our Peat-Bogs

 Peatlands are a carbon "sink", which means they soak up carbon dioxide helping combat human-driven climate change. When peatland is drained and dug up, it emits rather than soak up carbon.

About 10 years ago, the UK government drew up a voluntary agreement for retailers to phase out sales of peat. Leading garden retailers are still failing to stop the sale of peat in compost. The Wildlife Trusts said only one of 20 retailers contacted said it would eliminate peat from its shelves this year.

Dr Rebekka Artz is an expert in peatland ecosystems at the James Hutton Institute said that between two and three million cubic metres of peat - around 8,000 hectares - was extracted for horticulture in the UK each year. Even more was imported from the Baltic states or from the Republic of Ireland.

"Only 3% of our land area on the planet is covered in peatlands but they are the largest carbon store that we have. They have grown very slowly since the last Ice Age, and only accumulate about a millimetre every decade. It's a very slow-growing resource and it's very easy to lose it," she explained

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: "Our survey shows that most retailers' approach to the voluntary ban on peat sales has been woeful - even though the industry has been aware of the problem for decades. The time for voluntary agreements is over - the sale of peat must end now. Countless promises have been broken and targets missed, with the result that precious peatland habitats are still being unnecessarily destroyed in the name of gardening.

Garden centres 'failing to stop peat sales' - BBC News