What the Future Holds

 

"The great appear great to us only because we are on our knees; LET US RISE."

The Socialist Party see that there is a way to the fraternity of all humanity, to the different people’s merging into one, to the end of battles and wars, which so far has stained the path of mankind. It is the reorganisation of our present conditions of production and to organise the association of workers to unload the heavy burden of labour by the wage slaves, and instead make the means of production the common property of the whole society, rather than the present and unfair randomly distribution of wealth with its unavoidable consequences, wealth for a few privileged and misery and poverty for the majority. Our revolution  can have no other goal and no other result than the realisation of socialism. The working class must above all else strive to get the entire political power of the state into its own hands. Political power, however, is for us socialists only a means. The end for which we must use this power is the fundamental transformation of the entire economic relations. All social wealth, the land with all its natural resources  and all factories and must be taken out of the hands of the exploiters and taken into common property of the people and place them under the control of society.

In  socialism the private employer will disappear and  no longer production aims towards the enrichment of one individual, but of delivering to the public at large the means of satisfying all its needs. Accordingly the factories, works and the agricultural enterprises must be reorganised according to a new way of looking at things. Production is to have the aim of securing for everyone a dignified life, plentiful food, a comfortable dwelling and providing all other means of existence. Just as the private ownership of one person by another had to be abolished years ago, so the socialist revolution of our time will have to abolish private ownership of property. All peoples began with  common ownership and with socialism we shall return to a far better form of it, up-rooting all the abominations of class society but cultivating anything worthy in the techniques and knowledge taken over from capitalism. Mankind can resume its upward climb once humanity is rescued from capitalist barbarism.

Socialism is a system of a free people, by the people for the people, solely in the interests of the people. Private ownership, by a class, of the land and instruments of production and distribution is opposed to this vital principle of justice, and is the fundamental basis of all oppression, political and social. Our goal in the Socialist Party is the conversion of the means of production and distribution into the common property of society, to be held and run by a various expressions of democratic control in the interests of the entire community. 

The Socialist Party, stands committed to abolish wage slavery by making common property of all the means of wealth production where all enjoy all the fruits of a liberty that knows no master, when chains of the mind and shackles of the body disappear. It is the political party of the working people and is opposed to all others which are parties of the rich and which work for the continuation of capitalist exploitation and wage-slavery. Our principles express genuine socialism, the system which guarantees the genuine emancipation of the working class. Our Party fights against the rich of the country and against those who are their servants, to overthrow capitalism and build socialism, end the exploitation of man by man and, build a society class-free society as the next stage in human social development. We demand that the land, the instruments of production (machines, factories, etc.), and all the products of labour become the common property of the whole people; and, that all production be organised cooperatively, and be carried on under the direction of the commonwealth; as also the cooperative distribution of the products in accordance with the service rendered, and with the just needs of the individuals. And to realise our demands, we strive by all proper means to gain control of the political power. The Socialist Party recognises the existence of an oppressed class of wage-workers as its fundamental truth, and the emancipation of this oppressed labouring class as its foremost object.

Socialist Standard No. 1401 May 2021

 

• Editorial

• Pathfinders

• League Intrigue

• Cooking the Books 1

• Gig Economy

• Material World

• The Green New Deal

• Educating our sons

• Human Nature: What Is It?

• Paris Commune 1871

• Would you Adam and Eve it?

• Cooking the Books 2

• Air Pressure

• Proper Gander

• Book Reviews

• 50 Years Ago

• Obituary

• Meetings

• Rear View

   MAY 2021 PDF

Remember May Day

 

As we commemorate May Day, a day when workers of the world celebrate their unity and solidarity, in a few days time, in the Scottish Parliamentary elections, there will be nationalists, some even describing themselves as socialists, calling on a vote to endorse dividing Scottish workers from their brothers and sisters in other parts of this island. Today is the workers’ festival, a pledge of fraternity and internationalism,  not a day that should be wasted by the workers in begging scraps from the bosses table. 

Our message to Scots, English, Welsh and all other workers is to recognise our mutual interest in fighting the employing class and seek control of the political machinery to establish socialism. Nationalism means merely that workers get new masters instead of the old ones. Capitalism does not change by switching management personnel. Political control may well re-locate but multinationals on Wall St, Shanghai stock-market or the City of London will still maintain their economic stranglehold on any nation.

The task confronting us is not to focus any attention upon  diversionary constitutional arrangements but to build up a real union, one of the working class, organised to put an end to the property system that divides and oppresses us. In today’s capitalism to free ourselves from capitalism we need the world commonwealth of humanity.

INTERNATIONALISM NOT NATIONALISM

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE UNION…IT’S CAPITALISM

 

Workers in Scotland suffer the same exploitative conditions imposed by capitalism as they do in other regions of Britain and they united through the trade unions to protect one another. Workers on any side of any border, wherever it is drawn, all face the same fundamental problem - capitalism. Referendums are designed to give apparently simple solutions to complex problems, they are the chosen way of despots and demagogues attempting to garner some semblance of popular support of their self-serving programmes. No referendum can solve problems for the working class in Scotland.

We constantly hear that we live in a globalised world, yet national sovereignty still resonates with many people. As socialists we reject the concept absolutely. The delineation of national boundaries within a system of world capitalism is just a reflection of the nationalist consciousness that currently prevails amongst the people of this planet. This is a false proposition. The problems of the Scottish people will not be solved by independence.

Do the working class have any interest in whether or not the United Kingdom remains intact? Or should they, as the Left urges them to, support an independent Scotland? We say no on both accounts as, wherever the boundaries are drawn, workers will still be subject to the vagaries of the global market system and will continue to experience problems such as unemployment and low wages. Workers will need to organise for a socialist society which will abolish borders rather than rearrange them. 

 Real political change has never come through leaders, and it never will. We have the potential to make real change rather than just tinker at the margins. So, let’s start to end capitalism. Otherwise it’s the same old same old. As we have always considered the right to vote as a benefit and a possible tool to end capitalism we will be going to the polling station, to cast a write-in vote for socialism by writing “WORLD SOCIALISM” across our ballot paper. If you agree with us, we urge you to do the same.

Imagining A New World

 

Let us face the facts. Capitalism is strong, and the capitalists are growing wealthier. Even if American capitalism is fated  to lose its place in the front rank, does that signify a collapse of capitalism? If China ousts America is the system itself any weaker? If European businesses become dependents on the investments of the Chinese billionaires is it any less necessary for the workers to overthrow capitalism? The transfer of the supremacy from Europe to America and now to China may well be a cause of strength to the capitalist system; it is certainly not any evidence of any systemic collapse. A particular country’s capitalists might suffer financial pain but capitalism itself is not undermined.

The confidence of the capitalists in the stability of capitalism rests on the docility of the working class. Capitalism continues because the workers unthinkingly accept it. Capitalism will  end when the workers organise to bring it to an end. To educate and organise the workers for that purpose is the only problem with which socialists should concern themselves. Economic independence for the worker depends upon their free access to the land, factories, workshops, machinery, etc., and all other means of production.

 The Socialist Party does not propose putting capital into the hands of the State, but that the producers should own the means of wealth production in common, and with the abolition of private or class ownership the State would die out. The State is not at the back of the capitalists. The State is the central committee of the capitalist class and carries on the executive affairs on their own behalf. All private property society needs a State to rule the subject class and to conduct and regulate the affairs of government in the interest of the ruling class.

Rent, interest and profit are three parts into which the surplus taken by the industrial capitalist is divided. These three forms result from private ownership and can only be abolished when the producers own the means of production. Rent, interest and profit are not the fundamental causes of poverty, but these three forms of stolen wealth are effects of capitalist ownership of the means of production. Modern methods of producing involve large-scale production and associated labour, the means of wealth cannot be owned individually by each worker. They are too vast and beyond the means of any producer. As they must be co-operatively worked, so they must be commonly owned. There is no other solution. Individual ownership by the few rich non-producers, with the resulting poverty of the many—or common ownership by the producers themselves for their own comfort and enjoyment. That is the position our critic has to face. We do not expect our masters to point out the cause of our poverty; their privileges as landlords, shareholders, and dummy directors are based upon our exploitation as producers. Obviously, then, it must be the workers’ task to convert those material means of providing comfort and security for others into the common property of all.

The Socialist Party holds that the people ought to own and control its own industries, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned, that the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all.

We propose, in brief, that all resources, all land and buildings, all manufacturing establishments, mines,  means of transportation and communication, should be, not private property, but the common property of all. We propose that production be made to serve the needs of those who work, rather than to serve the needs of a few parasites. We hold with science that production and distribution of goods can be planned to avoid anything resembling the crises in capitalist society, a planned economy on the basis of common ownership without any class divide. Experience has proved that planning under capitalism is impossible.

When we speak of a society organised on the basis of planned production and distribution what we have in mind is very simple. Do away with production for profit. Make a survey of all available resources, plant and personnel. Figure out how much of the products of each industry can be produced, say, in a year. Fix the annual consumption of the population at this rate. When you do so you are sure that nobody will go hungry or without a roof over his head. But this is not sufficient. Our purpose to increase production and to utilise the best services of scientists to improve our technology and methods of work to advance science for the purpose of improving life, not only to industry and agriculture but to all realms of life. The output of industry is sure to increase. Distribute the fruits of increased production among all the members of society. Improve their well-being. Increase production still more by further improving machinery and methods according to the latest data of science. Distribute the benefits of the increased production again among the population without exception, always heightening the technique of production to enrich the economic and cultural life of all the members of society and to ease their labour. Continue this process indefinitely. When you do so there will be no crises, no unemployment, no exploitation, no wars, no fear of the future. Everybody responsible for the welfare of all. 

You have nothing to lose, but everything to win. Join together under the red flag of socialism and go bravely and energetically forward, the future belong to you, on this you can be sure. This is the way and the means to the big goal. Let no one forget to walk it.

The Future Is Ours If We Dare to Take It

 Every human being who desires to put an end to this society of decay and destruction, of war and hunger, must find a place in the  revolutionary World Socialist Movement. We will produce no more for profit but for use but for happiness. The crack in the foundations of capitalism is the technical possibility of producing as much or more than is required by everyone yet capitalism fails to deliver. The hope of socialism will be buried under the ruins of civilisation. This is your choice – to abandon your hopes and aspirations, for your master’s continued profits, or to abolish the capitalist system to make realisable our hopes and dreams. To do the first is to give up life itself, to do the second is to make life worth living. The Socialist Party aspires for a world worth living in. A world where no one need know hunger. Where people use their brains and brawn to contribute as fully as possible to overcome social problems. Where peace is the rule not an exception. The Socialist Party offers to exchange  poverty for prosperity, ignorance for knowledge, hatred for kindness, division for unity and to effect this change with minimum inconvenience to individuals so all shall be essentially benefit within a short period from the introduction of socialism, a cooperative world community.  There is no better way for suffering humanity than to go forward together to establish the democratic common ownership of the means of producing life’s necessities. 

It is the capitalist system which produces misery and disaster. Capitalists  promise all things to all men, like the quack who will cure everything from toothache to cancer with a bottle of colored water. Production for profit required two things: someone with enough resources to buy means of production (machines and so on); and, secondly, people who had no means of production themselves, no resources by using which they could live. In other words, there had to be “capitalists,” who owned means of production, and workers whose only chance of getting a livelihood was to work the machines owned by the capitalists. The workers produced things, not directly for themselves or for the personal use of their new “lord,” the capitalist, but for the capitalist to sell for money  on the market. . Marx pointed out that the source of  profit  could not possibly come from the capitalists selling the products above their value – this would mean that all capitalists were all the time cheating each other, and where one made a “profit” of this kind the other necessarily made a loss, and the profits and losses would cancel each other out, leaving no general profit. It therefore followed that the value of an article on the market must already contain the profit: the profit must arise in the course of production, and not in the sale of the product.

What is the importance of the analysis made by Marx to show the source of profit? It is that it explains the class struggle of the capitalist period. In each factory or other enterprise the wages paid to the workers are not the equivalent of the full value they produce, but only equal to about half this value, or even less. The rest of the value produced by the worker during his working day (i.e. after he has produced the equivalent of his wages) is taken outright by his employer. The employer is therefore constantly trying to increase the amount taken from the worker. He can do this in several ways: for example, by reducing the worker’s wages; this means that the worker works a less proportion of the day for himself, and a greater proportion for the employer. The same result is achieved by “speeding up” or intensifying the labour – the worker produces his keep in a smaller proportion of the working day, and works a larger proportion for his employer. The same result, again, is achieved by lengthening the working day, which increases the proportion of the working day spent in working for the employer. On the other hand, the worker fights to improve his own position by demanding higher wages and shorter hours and by resisting “speeding up.”

Hence the continuous struggle between the capitalists and the workers, which can never end so long as the capitalist system of production lasts.

Socialism, as every worker should know, is the next step in social evolution. The ideal of socialism is deeply embedded in the minds and hearts of workers.

We represent the conception of socialism of the future. We  stand for the  end impoverishment and to win the earth from the fear of want and war. We seek a world in which the exploitation of man by man shall cease, when prosperity and peace shall be enjoyed by all. Socialism obliterates all differences of race, gender, colour, and nationality. It celebrates the brotherhood of all workers everywhere. It crosses all national boundaries, it transcends all language barriers, it ignores all religious differences. It makes sharp and clear, around the world, the impassable chasm between all workers and all exploiters. 

Socialists seek a new world, a class-free world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. That  is the  promise of socialism, the real fraternity of humanity. Socialism is a constant inspiration to downtrodden and exploited workers in every  country in the world to build a place of land of peace and plenty, the great cooperative commonwealth, no bosses, no landlords, no bankers, no rich, no profiteers, no capitalism. We represent the future. 

Scottish Ingenuity Sold to the American Military

 The li-fi system harnesses the light spectrum rather than radio frequencies to transmit data securely. Li-fi - short for "light fidelity" - is an emerging technology first developed in Edinburgh. The term was coined by Prof Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, who In 2011 demonstrated how an LED bulb equipped with signal processing technology could stream a high-definition video to a computer. While radio frequencies can be "detected and targeted", its technology cannot be detected outside of its defined "cone" of coverage.

Scottish high-tech firm pureLiFi has announced a multi-million dollar deal to supply the US military with an optical wireless communication system. The deal with the United States Army Europe and Africa is the world's first large-scale deployment of li-fi technology, according to the company. PureLifi said its Kitefin system would be deployed by the US military in "real tactical and strategic environments"

Andrew Foreman, chief technology officer with the US Army in Europe and Africa, said: "Including optical wireless in the commander's toolbox is imperative to the survival of communications, command and control systems and, more importantly, soldiers."

Chief executive Alistair Banham said: "If one of the most significant and advanced defence organisations in the world can rely on li-fi for the most critical of communications, li-fi can offer unprecedented benefits to the consumer. Li-fi, like so many technologies before it, is on a classic journey of adoption in defence to widespread acceptance in the consumer market and eventually li-fi in everyone's home. This first major deployment with the US Army Europe and Africa is just the beginning."

Light technology firm strikes deal with US Army - BBC News

Socialist Courier can only say how sad it is that a new technology must be sold to help make war and killing more efficient as a measure of it success.