Socialism - the Fire of Anger and the Flame of Hope

 

Our very existence depends upon finding and keeping employment. Yet, from infancy to old age we are surrounded with poverty and the miseries that are due to poverty. But poverty is not a disease imposed by nature ; it is not due to a shortage of wealth but to the way in which wealth is distributed. It is born out of particular social conditions and its existence to-day is due immediately to the way in which wealth is distributed. The way in which wealth is distributed depends upon the method of production, so that this is the fundamental cause of poverty.

To-day wealth is produced by means of privately owned means of production (land, machinery, and so on), consequently the wealth produced belongs to those who own the means of production. The workers work upon and operate the means of production but they do not own a fraction of the wealth produced. The economic evils that exist are caused solely by the fact that the means of production belong to private individuals and not to the whole people. The only solution of these evils is to change the basis of society; transfer the means of production from the hands of private individuals to the whole of society—change private ownership of these things into social ownership. That is socialism. If you will consider the matter carefully for a little while you will discover that much of the complication existing to-day is due to, and bound up with, the making of profit.

Let us assume for a few moments that the majority of society have considered that socialism is desirable and have elected delegates to Parliament to make the change. What would be the steps to be taken once these delegates had obtained control? We will emulate the prophets and indulge in a little idle surmise, on the assumption that general conditions will be as at present on the morrow of the revolution.

First of all three main lines of investigation would have to be followed. It would be necessary to—

1. Ascertain the needs of the population.

2. The means available to satisfy these needs.

3. The labour required to do the necessary work.

Let us take these three items in turn and examine them.

1. It would be necessary to divide the country up into areas according to the distribution of the population, and to find out the kind and amount of goods required for different areas. The skeleton of such an organisation already exists to-day in the form of Urban, Rural and County Councils. It would only be a question of compiling different kinds of statistics from those which are compiled to-day. The main things we require are food, clothing, and habitations.

2. The means available to satisfy the above needs would include land, raw material, machinery, and transportation facilities—roads, canals, railways, sea routes, air routes. Again a question of compiling statistics.

3. It would be necessary to find out the number of workers, the various kinds of skill, and the distribution of the workers over the country.

In the above three directions it would be a matter of compiling statistics. The vast amount of statistical work that is done at present and its nature show that the organisation for doing such work is already in existence and would be available.

Once having compiled and collected the statistics (a relatively simple matter) it would be necessary to distribute the work according to workers and resources, and spread the work approximately equally over all so that more work would not be demanded from one than from another.

By the time the majority of the people in this country had arrived at the idea that socialism was desirable, the people in other countries would be near, if they had not actually reached, the same view. So that a fundamental social change in Britain would rapidly develop a corresponding change abroad and ease the necessary international dealings. While each country must settle its own social problem, yet each cannot do so without involving the world in its operations. Hence the international character of socialism.

 

The point to be borne in mind is that financial operations are built up on the production and distribution of wealth, and that without such production and distribution there would be no financial operations. On the other hand production and distribution of wealth can exist, and has existed, without financial operations. When the workers of the world take control of the production and distribution of wealth on their own behalf there will be no room for the financier and the latter’s operations will no longer interfere with the production of the things necessary to life. Born out of profit-making he, and all his tricks and entanglements, will go out with the going out of the profit-making system.

Socialism and nothing less

 

The Socialist Party is the only party that puts socialism forward as the solution to present evils, for the workers will only be freed from those evils when their cause, capitalism, is abolished. The working class must grasp the fact that the capitalist system, itself a result of historical development, has evolved means of producing wealth which, if democratically controlled by the whole of the people, would give useful work to the able, leisure, comfort, and happiness to all mankind. 

The capitalist system has been constantly changing, but it is still the same capitalist system. The workers have had inflicted upon them innumerable reforms of different kinds, yet they are now, relatively to the power of production, worse off than ever before. And the reason is simplicity itself. Reforms are but attempts to remedy the ever-increasing evils wrought by capitalism, but even if successful, the system still goes on producing new evils or aggravating old ones, and it does so much faster than the reformers can hope to arouse a sufficient demand for the passing of reform acts to meet them.  Workers have been passive under capitalism because they have not yet learned to see that it is obsolete and therefore a social nuisance. The inevitable worsening of conditions under capitalism breeds discontent in place of passivity it is a criminal act to turn that discontent towards reforms of capitalism, when without much more trouble it might be turned towards socialism.

The capitalists desires as much profit as possible. To obtain this they must pay as little as possible for the worker’s commodity, “labour power.” It is always the capitalists’ desire to keep the price of labour power at a minimum, compatible with its efficiency. On the other hand, the worker desires to obtain as high a price as possible for his commodity, labour power. The result is an antagonism between the two, which is impossible in the present social system to prevent. The workers in the unions are so organised because they realise that by this method they can more effectively struggle for a better price for their labour power, which price they obtain in the form of wages. In spite of the frequent fence-sitting attitude of many union officials they are forced to act in this struggle, for otherwise the workers would eventually repudiate them.

 

If working people would only realise that there is no way out of this rut within the present system. If reformers would realise that the cause of war, unemployment, poverty, lies in the capitalist system, and that the only way to deal effectively with these problems is to abolish this system of the private ownership of the means of production and establish socialism; if instead of attacking the evil results of this system by means of shallow platitudes which, on coming up against reality, they find necessary to throw overboard; if, in short, they would attack the root instead of the branches, then, and then only, would they have some hope of realising a new and better world.

The workers, the producers of wealth, are poor because they are robbed; they are robbed because they may not use the machinery of wealth production except on terms dictated by the owners, the propertied class. The remedy for working class poverty and other social ills is the transfer of ownership of these means of production from the capital class to society. That, in a few words, is the case for socialism.

The work of rebuilding society on this new basis cannot be started until power is in the hands of a socialist working class, and that cannot be until many millions have been convinced of the need for change and are broadly agreed on the way to set to work to bring it about.

 

The workers, the producers of wealth, are poor because they are robbed; they are robbed because they may not use the machinery of wealth production except on terms dictated by the owners, the propertied class. The remedy for working class poverty and other social ills is the transfer of ownership of these means of production from the Capital Class to society. That, in a few words, is the case for Socialism. The work of rebuilding society on this new basis cannot be started until power is in the hands of a Socialist working class, and that cannot be until many millions have been convinced of the need for change and are broadly agreed on the way to set to work to bring it about.

Is it not better, our critics tell us, in view of the certainty that socialism cannot be introduced at once, to devote much, if not all, our energy to making the best of capitalism, and getting “something now”? By “something now” they mean higher wages, increased State protection against destitution through illness or unemployment, and other like proposals. It may then come as a surprise to them that we also believe in getting something now. We differ in that we are not willing to subordinate socialist propaganda to the demand for reforms of capitalism, and in that we strongly hold that the best way to get these things is by the revolutionary activity of an organisation of revolutionaries. In other words, the quickest and easiest method of getting reforms from the ruling class is to let them see that it will endanger their position to refuse.

While we recognise that socialism is the only permanent solution, we are not among those who consider that the capitalists are simply unable to afford better conditions for the workers. A comparison between the total income from property, and the petty cost of doles and relief, shows the falsity of that somewhat common notion. On the one hand the workers would, if they ceased to struggle, soon find that there is still room for a worsening of their conditions, and on the other hand were they free from the mental blindness which prevents them from striking a blow when and where it would be most damaging, they might, even within capitalism, raise their standard of living and diminish their insecurity. Unfortunately they do not yet see the brutal facts of the class struggle, and too often allow themselves to be paralysed in action by their belief in the supposed community of interest between them and their exploiters, by their response to every deceitful appeal in the name of patriotism, and by their lack of confidence in their own powers and intelligence. They will put up a straight fight against their employers, but they have not yet seen through the more subtle hostility of the newspapers, the politicians, and all the other defenders of the employing class who pose as neutrals because it makes their influence more deadly. The employers and their hired defenders know well enough that your gain is often their loss, and they therefore have good reason to persuade you not to seize the opportunities that offer of raising your wages or reducing your hours. But many who talk about the beauties of an “advanced programme of social reforms” seem not to have realised that if such things are to be of any worth to you necessitate at first the dipping into the profits of the other class. Various well-meaning persons may preach arbitration and conciliation, but you know well enough that sweet words do not, as a rule, charm employers into giving higher wages. They will not give up any part of what they hold except under pressure one kind of pressure is fear; the fear that refusal to spend part of their on reforms will encourage revolutionary agitation for the seizure of the whole. There is supposed to be another way of getting “something now.” It is to assist into office a non-revolutionary party like the Labour Party.

Our aim as socialists is the destruction of the capitalist system of society, and we are therefore unalterably hostile to all political parties which seek to gain control of parliament for any other purpose than the establishment of socialism.

No freedom under capitalism

 

The modern world economy is dominated by the capitalist mode of production. Under capitalism, money is used to make more money. Profit drives production, not social need. And capitalist production does not proceed in a straight line upwards. It is subject to recurrent crises of “booms and slumps.” Capitalist businesses do not cooperate to produce the things and services that society needs. On the contrary, they compete with each other to sustain and increase their profit. To do so, they make workers work longer or harder, but they also increasingly use new technology to boost the productivity of labour to get more value. Under capitalism, slumps will reoccur and inequality will remain. The end of poverty and prosperity for the majority can only come through replacing private production for profit with democratically planned production for social need.

 

The Socialist Party maintains that our society is divided into classes based on groups of people standing in the same relationship to the means of production. It holds that the interests of these classes are antagonistic and irreconcilable and that a constant struggle goes on between them over the division of the wealth that. society produces. The owning class is the ruling class because it controls the government. The government protects the capitalist class by protecting the source of its economic strength private property. It is the will of the capitalist class that the rights of private property be protected. It uses its control of government to write down its will and call it law. It uses its control of government to enforce its will, the law. The law is the voice of the ruling class.

While wealth is produced for private profit only that number of workers will be employed that is required to produce for the effective demands of the market, plus those attending to the personal wants and pleasures of the capitalist class. With improved means of production — and war accelerates the improvement of these means — fewer workers are required to turn out a given amount of wealth. As these improvements are brought into being far faster than either the growth of population or the waste of the master class can keep pace with them, it is evident that, apart from temporary fluctuations, unemployment is bound to increase. Even the temporary fluctuations tend to decrease as capitalist control becomes more highly organised in multinational corporations.

None of the political parties at present in Parliament desire the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life. Conservatives, Labourites, LibDems and nationalists openly repudiate any such intention, while the left-wing by its support of, and endeavours to crawl into the Labour Party, shows its readiness to support capitalism in practice, contradictory though this may be to Trotskyist theoretical claims.

Only by abolishing the cause of unemployment, wars and misery can the workers achieve health and happiness. The workers must give their attention lo the abolition of this cause — the private ownership of the means of life.

The master class rule to-day because the workers have voted them into Parliament —the great law-making and force-raising portion of the political machinery. With this power in their hands the masters can dictate terms of living to the workers, because with the forces mentioned above at their disposal they can not only keep the workers away from the means of production but also from any wealth already produced. The workers lives are thus under the control of the capitalist class. In other words, the workers are slaves.

And slaves they will remain until they acquire—first the knowledge that they are slaves; then the will to attain freedom; and build up the organisation necessary to capture political power.

The only organisation capable of reaching that object is a socialist organisation. Until that organisation is sufficiently strong to put forward its delegates as candidates, it must continue its educational work of making socialists.

Capitalism was, and is, the economic system; the capitalists were, and are, the dominant class; and the workers were, and are, exploited. If you ask what is to happen to workers in the meantime, our reply is simple. You are poor and your position is hopeless because you are wage-slaves So long as you remain wage-slaves you will have to suffer from the evils that go with wage-slavery, and it does not matter whether that be under a Conservative,  a Labour government or a SNP one in Holyrood. We however urge you to recognise that it is the capitalist system which is at fault, and it does not matter to you what is the label of the political party which administers that system. Until you have overthrown capitalism you are going continue to suffer as you suffer now. You will not find a solution in binding yourselves hand and foot to the State machine of any government. As for the notion that your efforts can be well spent asking for instalments of socialism, that is based on utter illusion. This country is rotten with social reforms, and they are being added to every year; and yet not only have these brought no progress towards socialism, but the real foundation of capitalism is stronger than ever it was. The sooner you turn aside from the long-exploded quack remedies offered to you and set yourselves to the task of promoting and campaigning for socialism and organising the workers for its accomplishment, the sooner your problems will be solved, and the less will be the cost to you in poverty and suffering.

Years and years of reforms have not prevented a worsening of the workers’ condition, neither can it be shown how reforms of the future can remove the cause of those conditions, they would not fundamentally alter the relation of capitalist and wage worker, and if masquerading as a form of “socialism,” could only be in such guise to delay the advent of socialism a system in which class domination would cease to be. Only the working class themselves, understanding socialism, and organised for its establishment, can end capitalism. It is their task, not their masters’.

There is a socialist organisation in this country — THE SOCIALIST PARTY — the only organisation that works for the emancipation of the workers. As a sufficient number of the working class is not yet desirous of establishing socialism to permit of any candidates being put forward at  elections, we call upon all those who wish for socialism to express their wish by going to the ballot-box and voting for socialism by writing it across the ballot paper. Among other things this will help to advertise the number who wish to see socialism established. Any use of the vote to support any of the candidates in any election would merely be a vote for capitalism.  Whichever side wins we will still remain slave to the master class, because the private ownership of the means of life — the cause of the workers’ enslavement — will still continue. When the workers understand their slave position they will organise to contest an election for the purpose of taking control of political power with the object of attaining their emancipation and establishing socialism.

STUDY SOCIALISM. BECOME SOCIALISTS. THEN ACHIEVE YOUR EMANCIPATION.

Lanarkshire Child Poverty

  End Child Poverty coalition estimated that a quarter of children across Lanarkshire are living below the poverty line.

16,604 children in North Lanarkshire, or 26.5 per cent of young people, live in poverty

In South Lanarkshire, the number of children living in poverty is 12,840, amounting to 23.1 per cent of youngsters

Free the People

 Capitalism is always an ugly, depressing, restrictive system whichever party tries to manage it. It must always condemn the majority to lives of exploitation and poverty. Poverty remains the main cause of a considerable amount of ill health. Millions of children die each year from malnutrition and infection in the Third World. Even in the more affluent countries workers have higher mortality rates than the rich as a result of working in stressful, polluted, alienating environments and living in poor housing conditions.

The primary purpose of the present system is profit. All other things are secondary. Profit is its lifeblood and when it shall cease to flow the system will be dead. Profit first; life, love, liberty — all these must come second. Under such a system workers are shackled by the chains of wage slavery. Working people have been dictated to by the courts, assaulted by the police, duped by the press, condemned by church-leaders, deceived by politicians, betrayed by turn-coats by renegades, preyed upon by careerists, infested by opportunists, deserted by cowards, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders. But still, we rise up. The power of the socialist movement lies in its capacity to power to shed light, to feed the brain of the working class, arouse them from their torpor, develop their faculties for thinking, teach them their economic class interests, effect their solidarity, and imbue them with the spirit of the impending social revolution.

 Today the world is in the hands of billionaires-owners of the largest corporations, the biggest banks; in short, owners or controllers of the huge monopolies. These capitalists, not only own or control the chief means whereby we work and live, but, in fact, control the whole governing machine. They pull the strings. And they use their power to make themselves richer and richer—at our expense. They hire workers to make a profit out of their labour; their capitalist production is for profit, not for use: and to get more profit they slash wages, carry through speed-up and worsen conditions. This mad race for profits ends in a crisis; and then they try to get out of the crisis—at our expense.

But it is not only poverty and insecurity and unemployment which threatens the majority of working people. For the great capitalist employer and financiers have one last use for us all and that is to recruit us for war. The cause of capitalist war is the attempt of each national capitalist group—British, EU, American, Chinese, etc.—to beat its competitors on the world market and to win bigger and bigger profits for its own millionaires. For capitalism has now reached the stage when war is probable. The multinationals and big banks are dominating at home, are dominating through their investments abroad, and that other countries have been divided up amongst them. Therefore the Great Powers are rivals of one another in the world market. This rivalry becomes fiercer and fiercer, firstly by tariffs, quotas, and other economic measures in a trade war but eventually transforming into actual military conflict either directly or by proxy.  The most fearsome, ghastly and deadly armaments are being piled up. Science and inventive genius are prostituted to discover and perfect the means of death and destruction of millions, in order to win new markets, territory, and spheres of profitable capitalist investment, to bring rent, interest and profit for a handful of employers, bankers and landlords.

British workers are not blind to the fact that the British capitalist class is just as ruthless and savage as any other capitalist class. British workers must face the fact that all capitalism has to offer them today is poverty and low that they nor their families have any hope or future under capitalism. There is no need for a single worker to be overworked or in dread of losing his job; no reason why an unemployed worker should lack the necessities of life. All over the world millions of workers are year by year coming to realise these facts and to see that nothing except the existence of capitalism prevents them from building up for themselves a decent and secure world. Everywhere the workers are becoming less and less willing to put up with an entirely unnecessary state of destitution. They are showing themselves more and more determined to insist upon their right to food, good health and shelter for themselves and their families. But to get this, capitalism must be overthrown. To get this is only possible by the building up of socialism, giving peace and prosperity, happiness and new life to the whole working population of the world.

We have today ample resources for producing all the things we need. Today we are both unemployed and unable to get the things we need. The two things go together. For we are unemployed because the capitalists want to have their profits and will not let us produce what we need. Deprivation and unemployment can only be ended by taking over and running the industries to give us all a decent standard of living. The workers will produce far better and more willingly under their own management than they do now. For the first time, the British workers will know that greater productivity will no longer be a threat to their livelihood but will make it possible to raise the whole standard of living and shorten the hours of labour.

The Lottery, A Very Minor Benefit For Very Few People.

 

Toronto city officials are considering a lottery system that will allow tenants struggling to pay rent to apply for affordable units as early as 2023, boy they just can’t wait. Toronto is aiming to increase its affordable housing supply by 40,000 units by 2030. it now has 8,000 units guaranteed. This is in a city with about half a million tenant households, nearly half of whom are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent. When Toronto Community Housing Corp. offered 75 affordable units in 2018, 2773 people applied. There was a bit of a stink when reporters for the Toronto Star revealed that the head of Toronto's real estate agency had offered below market rent apartments exclusively to his own employees. 

The best one can say is the lottery scheme is a very minor benefit for very few people, especially when one considers a bachelor will be $1,211 a month and a one bedroom, $1,431. 

But under capitalism very few people do well anyway.

S.P.C. Members.